After Zhen Yu left, Xie Bi and Li Heng stayed in the hall.

There will be no outsiders, and the two will naturally have to say something about their own people.

I saw Xie Bi say to Li Heng interestingly:

"What do you think of this policy of purging local officials?"

Worried that Li Heng would be unhappy, Xie Bi added:

"It's just you and me here, you can say whatever you want, and we will imprint each other's thoughts."

With this sentence, Li Heng began to say this:

"The king and many of the subordinates of the political hall seem to have some distrust of the officials who have developed in Hebei."

Xie Bi didn't speak, but asked Li Heng to continue:

"I can understand the distrust of these local officials, after all, these people are not as loyal as the old soldiers, and they are not as reliable as the position of the leader, so it is indeed difficult to trust. But the subordinate still has to say something unpleasant. ”

Seeing that Xie Bi didn't stop it, Li Hengzhuang said worriedly:

"Even if they can't be trusted, is there any difference between them and the old army who have returned to their families and those who were born in Qian? For example, the old army of the reinstated household, according to the experience of the subordinate in the Heji area, is also Weifu's own use, similar to the head. In the final analysis, all of this is the greed of the people's hearts, even if we crack down on a group now, the ones that come up will still sprout in a solid state, how can the social officials who hold the power not seek a profit for themselves? Rather than that, why not use these officials first? At least these people have the power at the grassroots level and can do things first. ”

Xie Bi's face became serious, because what Li Heng said at this time was undoubtedly very dangerous.

He pointed directly at the demobilized veterans of the Taishan Army.

That is, Xie Bi is a rational person in the army, so even if he was uncomfortable, he did not directly reprimand Li Heng.

Of course, Xie Bi also agrees with some of Li Heng's views in his own heart.

That is, the demobilized veterans in many areas do have a tendency to be localized. Xie Bi himself had many of his old subordinates retreat below due to injuries.

Generally speaking, such military officials will be transferred to local counties, and military officers will be transferred to rural communities.

Those old officials would often go to Xie Bi's side to get in touch with each other in the name of giving some local specialties.

And Xie Bi also learned a lot about the situation in many places from these people.

In short, the old brothers are living a good life that was unattainable in the past.

Either this family has another mansion, or the family has a new wife.

Xie Bi is also happy for his subordinates, these people have been fighting and killing with him all the way, and now they are injured and sick, and they can see that they can finally live a good life, Xie Bi feels that it should be.

But it wasn't until Li Heng mentioned this matter now that Xie Bi suddenly realized that something was wrong.

Yue Pin's previous subordinates showed off, Xie Bi Yue Pin was wrong, and these people were about to become the land of the past?

The brothers fought to the death to make the ground?

Xie Bi suddenly felt a little uncomfortable, but he didn't plan to talk about this topic again, so he changed the topic just after Li Heng asked:

"Well, it's still the same sentence, my Taishan Army is talking about justice, the division of fields must be fair, and the cleanup must be fair. Since those social officials abused their power for personal gain in the division of land, they should be punished, and this is the iron law of policy. Moreover, it is precisely by cleaning up the silverfish among these officials that the division of fields can be continued. ”

Finally, Xie Bi looked at Li Heng meaningfully and said leisurely:

"I have been with the king for a long time, and I have often heard the king love to say, 'If you are good, you have to practice with fire.'" Whether a person is reliable or not is not based on what he says, nor does he look at what he does in good times, but whether he can stabilize in the face of profit and can rely on him in adversity. Whether it is the township officials below or our county officials, it is the same. Our attitude towards the field, our behavior in the field, and our performance in the field are all the basis for measuring our conduct, ability, and position. ”

Finally, Xie Bi said to Li Heng without mention:

"I have heard people say that the chief subordinate Du Gong has said more than once in the government hall: 'If the bad ones are cleaned up and replaced, and the good ones will be boldly promoted.' So Qingyuan, do you know what it means? ”

So, Li Heng was silent, and finally bowed to Xie Bi:

"Xie Fujun mentions it, and the lower officials understand."

"Do you really understand?"

"Understood!"

……

With the repeated orders of the political affairs hall and the direct link between the results and the political performance, the Taishan Army began to clean up the local officials.

Not only Hebei New Area, but also Heji Old Area and Taishan Old Area have also launched this action.

All those who have a bad reputation, who are oppressed and corrupted, even if they come from some old soldiers, have also been overturned in this operation.

And compared with dealing with the previous Haoqiang, it will be easier to deal with these lawless township officials.

The former also has tribes and clans to rely on, while the latter has all the power in the township community from the Taishan army. Therefore, once the above began to review and investigate, these people had no room for resistance at all.

Throughout the month of May, a total of 2,320 social officials in Hebei's counties and counties were punished, accounting for one-tenth of all grassroots social officials. Of these, 36 were executed, but 820 were ordered to surrender and occupy them. The rest were all expelled from the team after being fought and became the leaders again.

Nearly one-tenth of the commune officials were purged, inevitably suffering from their backlash and discontent.

In the later stage of the gradual spread of the action, a large number of grassroots township officials voluntarily resigned from their posts in the township offices.

Some of them are afraid of retaliation, and some of them have done unseemly things in the past.

The former are the most aggrieved, and they always complain that those county officials shout and kill them as soon as their mouths move. You county officials just have to wait for the results, but they are the ones who do the work.

How can they preside over the division of the fields and make peace with each other. If a piece of land is given to others, there will be other people who are dissatisfied, and even after it is distributed to this household, this family will be dissatisfied and feel that they should have better.

And in order to move forward, these officials inevitably used some means. But their hearts can pat their chests and say, it's good.

These people were uneasy and fled directly overnight.

Such incidents greatly affected the control of the Taishan Army over the counties and counties of Hebei, and some latent Han troops colluded with Haoqiang to constantly provoke and set off turmoil.

However, the political affairs hall in Yecheng had foreseen this situation for a long time, and quickly dealt with this kind of problem in a targeted manner.

Since this cleanup is to clean up the silverfish in the team, it is natural that those who can be unharmed will naturally stand the test, and these people will be of great use.

So, a batch of township societies was poured, and soon another batch came up. And because of its reliable position, the original township society was promoted to a more important position.

In this way, it seems to be a toss, but the rule of the Taishan Army at the grassroots level has been consolidated.

In this way, the sun shone on the Hutuo River, and the Qiantou leaders, who had been poor for thousands of years, had their own land for the first time.

At the same time, they also have hope for life for the first time.

……

In fact, when various parts of Hebei were dividing the fields and cleaning up the grassroots members, Zhang Chong of Yecheng was discussing with his subordinates how to use the slack time to start building water conservancy.

Zhang Chong knows better than anyone that he only distributes the stock, so no matter how it is divided, no matter who divides it, it is only temporary.

Even based on the current land in Hebei, even if it is evenly distributed, it will not allow the Qiantou to live a good life.

Why?

Haoqiang and Qiantou have different thresholds for land to absorb population.

For a strong man, if three hundred people can finish farming, he will not raise three hundred and one people. Because there are more than 300 people, one more person is one more burden.

But for Qianshou, it's different. It's all a family, and as long as there is still a bite to eat, they will continue to raise it.

It's like 20 acres of land can feed one person comfortably, but the same 20 acres of land can make three people starve to death.

At this time, Haoqiang will choose the former, but Qianshou will choose the latter. Because the former pursues pleasure, the latter only asks to live.

This different psychological expectation makes the Haoqiang obviously have a lot of land, but they only support a small number of people.

From this point, Zhang Chong has a realistic reason to eradicate the heroes.

But after beating Haoqiang, he encountered a new dilemma.

That is, the leaders of the Qian, who have completed the division of land, although they own the land, may still not be able to support themselves, because the total amount of land is too small.

Judging from the current number of acres of land in the counties and the Taishan military officials themselves, the number of acres of land in Youzhou and Hebei should be about 13 million mu, but what about the number of household registrations in the two prefectures? There are about 1.1 million households, with a population of more than 6 million people.

In other words, the average number of households is only 12 acres. This amount of land, even if it is completely divided, is not enough for the family.

The Taishan Army has been operating in the north for many years and knows the agricultural situation in the north very well.

Based on the medium field in the north, the production capacity per mu is one stone. But the stone obtained is millet, and the rice yield of millet is 60%. And millet is ripe once a year, that is to say, one acre of medium field in the north is only six buckets of rice a year.

Changing the above data, even if the Hebei people get a share of the land, they only beat 72 buckets of rice that year.

Even if this rice is not handed over to the Taishan army, it is not enough to eat, let alone keep it for the next year's growing grain.

Looking at it now, even if it is only calculated according to the per capita ration of 400 catties, a household has to eat a ration of 20 stone a year, plus other miscellaneous things, it needs to be at least doubled.

From 12 stone per household to 50 stone per household, this data has more than quadrupled.

This huge food gap makes it difficult for Zhang Chong to imagine what kind of life the former Qiantou people lived.

Another unexpected thing is that there will be nearly 6 million people in the two states. And with the increase in the number of emancipated hidden people, this number will become larger.

Coupled with the inflow of displaced people from the Central Plains, Qingzhou, and Bingzhou, the contradiction between people and land will become greater and greater in the future.

Therefore, Zhang Chong's top priority is to solve this food shortage problem.

Zhang Chong remembered that the cultivated land area of Hebei in the new era could be 90 million mu. In other words, the upper limit of cultivated land in Hebei is now 90 million mu.

Now about 17 million mu has been developed, and if Zhang Chong remembers correctly, the cultivated area of Hebei Road in the Song Dynasty could reach 27 million mu.

Zhang Chong believed that with the help of his vigorous development of iron farming tools and the continuous acquisition of cattle resources from the grasslands, the Taishan army would be able to reclaim so much land.

But this number is far from enough.

In the end, the yield of millet is too low, and it is only easy to feed that it is widely grown. If you want to feed the leaders, you have to eat wheat.

Wheat can be harvested twice a year in the north, so that the yield per mu can be doubled, and the grain gap will be basically completed by cultivating the fields.

But wheat is not so easy to grow, it needs water.

Therefore, in order to complete the above-mentioned food shortage, it is necessary to build water conservancy in the two states of Hebei, and this is also the responsibility of the Taishan Army.

In the past, the Han dynasty also repaired waterways in Hebei, but more often to control large rivers. Later, even if the water conservancy was repaired, it was mostly repaired in the Gyeonggi area, which was in line with their policy of strengthening the cadres and weakening the branches.

Therefore, in the past, the water conservancy in Hebei was built by local families, just like the Boling Cui family. However, due to the problem of the sphere of influence, this kind of water conservancy is often built very short, and there is also a lack of overall planning, which often leads to waste.

Now, Zhang Chong has to take on this responsibility, and he wants to build water conservancy on a large scale in Hebei Province and reclaim fertile land.

Moreover, this kind of large-scale social engineering can be used to train the dispatch ability of the Taishan Army.

So, soon after Zhang Chong and his subordinates discussed, they first discussed the "Taiwu Second Year Reclamation Order".

The order said:

"Taiping was initially set to be secluded, and the wilderness was reclaimed. All counties and counties have unowned wasteland, and all landless households are relocated. All officials gave cattle seeds, and they started to work in six years. ”

After that, Zhang Chong discussed the distribution of Hebei's water network with Du Man, Zhuge Jue and the main officials of the Ministry of Industry.

But this process is destined to take time, the original Han Dynasty has not updated the map of Hebei for nearly a hundred years, and now that the times are moving, these maps have long been unable to guide the current water conservancy development.

Therefore, the officials of the Ministry of Industry have to go all over Hebei to check the distribution of water flow in various places, so that they can do follow-up projects.

Zhang Chong agreed with the Ministry of Industry's opinion, but said that this would not affect the Taishan Army to repair the water conservancy facilities that had been abandoned first. And the time can be set at the time of this year's farming.

But Zhuge Jue was a little opposed, he said that this kind of large-scale manpower mobilization is often easy to be used by careerists, so it is not suitable for large-scale manpower dispatch. Moreover, the country's money and food are not abundant, so it cannot support such large-scale repairs.

Subsequently, Zhuge Jue suggested that Wei County, Hanoi, Zhao and other developed agricultural areas could be repaired first. These areas have developed agriculture, dense water networks, and water conservancy projects built by previous dynasties, so they are relatively labor-saving. Moreover, the Taishan army has deep roots in these places and is being used to facilitate scheduling.

For Zhuge Jue's old success, Zhang Chong was greatly appreciated.

So, things began to be implemented according to Zhuge Jue's ideas.

Soon Hebei will become a large construction site, breaking the silence of the past, but showing infinite vitality.

(End of chapter)