Chapter 325 Accelerated North

"The emperor's edict said."

"Mr. Dong, no, there are no eight big characters."

The old scholar with glasses stood at the gate of the political axe of Kaizhou County. As soon as he read these words, there was a shout behind him. The old scholar hurriedly pushed the glasses and found that there were really no these eight big words. He couldn't help but be happy. He smiled and said, "Ha ha, the old man forgot, the old man forgot. This is the list of the new political axe. I'm used to reading the imperial list.

"Haha."

After the old scholar finished speaking, it immediately attracted a burst of laughter around him, and he immediately asked anxiously, "Mr. Dong, don't buy Guanzi, read it quickly."

"That's good, that's good." The old scholar nodded quickly, got a little closer, and said.

"Land law."

"In today's Xinhua, land annexation is serious. Rich households have farmland, poor farmers have no land. In the long run, it is not conducive to national production. In order to alleviate this situation, a new land law is hereby promulgated."

After a few words, the old scholar finished reading it, and the surroundings exploded. People who did not care in the past also gathered around one after another. You know, this is Kaizhou (now Puyang). Although there are many wasteland reclaimed, it is densely populated and there are no specialties. Even the court did not care. It was not until a few years ago that the first telephone line was laid.

But the more so, the more concentrated the land is. 80% of the land in the county is owned by the landlord Fang's family, with nearly 100,000 mu. The Fang family used the land to run rampant in the countryside, and repeatedly made excuses that the Yellow River flooded and did not give food to the tenants, so that many people had to leave the countryside in the end.

So as soon as I heard that the new law was aimed at these rich households, it immediately attracted countless people.

The old scholar did not seem to know that the back was already full of people. He slowly continued to read: "One, all those who are rich in the fields must pay the tenants on time every month according to the local standard of living, and must not delay for more than a month. The salary can also be replaced by food or other equivalent items, but they cannot be taken by useless items by the people. On behalf of this, anyone who violates this article will be fined or hard labor.

"Second, for all rich households, for those who have more than 1,000 mu, the surplus land shall be paid according to the register of each county, and the land tenure tax shall be paid on an annual basis. Those who are 1,000 mu shall pay one-tenth, those who are 2,000 mu shall pay two-tenths, and those who are 3,000 mu shall pay three-tenths, and so on. If it is less than a thousand mu, all agricultural and miscellaneous taxes will be exempted, and other miscellaneous taxes will be levied in any form.

"Third, anyone who has more than 1,000 mu can choose to sell excess land. Local political axes can also be used for railways, mining factories and other shares to replace and repurchase. The repurchased land will be sold to people who do not have their own fields, and they are not allowed to accumulate in their hands and hoard them without authorization."

"Fourth,"

The old scholar said word by word, and did not notice that there was already silence behind him. Many people's eyes widened, as if they couldn't believe the list in front of them. What's more, they even wished to squeeze in front of them immediately and look carefully. Only the two local tyrantsmen, the more they listened, the more uncomfortable they were, and soon pushed away. Everyone hurried back--

In the conference room of the Prime Minister's Office in Yanjing, almost all the cabinet members rushed here. Chen Ping, the chief of staff who was busy with the war in Jiangsu and Anhui, also took time to rush here. Everyone looked at the telephone in the middle of the conference room and looked serious.

Sitting next to Li Enfu and looking in front of him, Li Mo also frowned at the new land law that had just been promulgated.

In fact, many people are very surprised why he insists on implementing the new land law. Although the north is not yet included in Shaanxi and Gansu, the population is less than 200 million, and the transition can be completed through internal consumption.

Especially in the three northeastern provinces, the land and resources are abundant. If you move two or three thousand people to the past, you can directly arrange all the rich labor forces in the Guanzhong area. In addition, Hokkaido can also get one or two million in the past, and it is not enough for Luzon to be stuffed into five million, so there is no need to be so nervous at all.

But Li Mo has deep considerations. Indeed, according to some places he now grasps, not to mention 200 million, even if he summarizes the south, there is no big problem at all. Once he takes the Siberia in his mind and connects it with the three northeastern provinces, I'm afraid he will directly transfer 100 million people. It's nothing!

But is the land policy really just a serious problem of superficial land annexation?

No!

Not to mention Li Mo, even Li Enfu and Yanfu know that the land issue involves deeper reform and the new policy axe foothold problem!

Although they are all descendants of Yan and Huang, Li Mo started from overseas after all. Many people in the Central Plains regard him and Xinhua as unorthodox. Those places south of the Yangtze River now use this slogan to advocate orthodoxy, saying that he is a barbarian in the sea and have been destroyed by foreign demons.

This is not an era of information development, nor is it a year of initial opening up in the Republic of China, but a late Qing Dynasty in the era of feudal slavery under the policy of hundreds of years of isolation in the Qing Dynasty, so such comments are still very popular!

If a country wants to achieve long-term stability, in addition to strong force, it also needs a large number of supporters who support the New Deal Axe, which is the origin of the king's strict governance of the country.

The former, Master Li did it, and the latter was exactly what he didn't have. His way to obtain power was to overthrow it from the outside. In addition, considering that he would not harm the country, he did not carry out any deeper national movements. Except for the three northeastern provinces, few people supported it.

Some people say that as long as you run more factories and engage in industry, it will be solved by turning farmers into workers? But this is the late Qing Dynasty. This country has no industrial foundation. No matter how rich Master Li is, it is impossible to spread factories all over the land of China in just a few years. And even if you do it, all factories will become private or state-owned factories in the future, which will limit the ability of industrial innovation.

Therefore, if you want to run an industry and a factory, you still have to stimulate the private money just like dealing with the Jin merchant ticket number. However, these days, they are all the masters of the ground. Rich people would rather bury their money in their secret rooms than invest in risky industries to open factories.

Coupled with the unique loess plot of the Chinese people, not to mention the first era of farming, even in later generations, Master Li often thinks that when he retires and returns to his hometown, he will get a pot of tea and three mu of land.

Wealth is always in the hands of a few people, and every era is the same. Now in the situation he is facing, all the wealth is in the hands of those landlords and gentry who rely on land annexation.

But he also knows that he can't offend all landlords and gentry and confiscate other people's land like future generations, which will only make the country more divided. What's more, he said before that landlords and gentry are the first people in this country to contact the outside world, and their children are even more The first group of reformers with the idea of westernization.

When these problems were put in front of Li Mo one by one, he knew that land reform must be implemented. The advantage is that by cracking down on those stubborn and conservative landlords, the land can be recovered through replacement, repurchase and other methods, and handed over to ordinary people without land, so that those who get the land will support it. New political axe, support him as the new emperor!

With their support, all kinds of new policies in the future can be implemented smoothly, which is also the reason why the Guangxu Emperor's Weixin could not succeed, because although although he was the emperor, there were also Tan Si and others rushing, but those who should have implemented the New Deal resisted all of them. In addition, he did not have military power. It was an imperial list of new laws. It is estimated that they have not even seen the people in many places, let alone that they came to support the emperor, so the revitalization can only maintain the dream!

Li Mo didn't want his new law to be resisted by Yang Fengyin. The power of the gentry and landlords is very strong. They not only mastered the land, but also gathered a large number of people around them. In addition, these days, they are mostly Bai Ding and only rely on words to convey information, so they have the right to speak in the local area. It is the local emperor. If you want to successfully implement the new policy and accelerate the pace of nationalization, you must smash the big pot cover over the heads of ordinary people!

But you can't offend all the landlords and suddenly put them all down on the opposite side of the political axe. Therefore, after Li Mo, after the political axe officials arrived in the counties and provinces one after another, he immediately asked them to inquire about a large number of household registration and land sales information, and found that the small landlords with 200 to 1,000 mu of land accounted for 80%, and the rest was that. Some large landowners with more than 1,000 mu of land, and the weaker the economy, the more concentrated the land is. On the Guanzhong land along the Yellow River, there are not a few people with more than 10,000 mu of family capital, and there are even hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of super landlords!

According to this discovery, he immediately thought of the profiteering tax levied by many countries in later generations, so he discussed with Li Enfu and others to implement the new land law according to the standard of 1,000 mu of land.

To put it bluntly, you don't have more than 1,000 mu of land, so you just need to pay the monthly salary of the tenants who depend on you according to the local living standards. Maybe you will pay a little more than now, but because at the same time, you are exempt from all kinds of agricultural miscellaneous taxes that need to be paid, it increases your income.

And if your land exceeds the standard, then the extra part must pay a very strict land tenure tax. For every additional 1,000 mu, it must be one-tenth more. According to this calculation, if you have 3,000 mu of land, you can still bear it, and you still have income. If it is 5,000 mu, then after you pay the work There is only a small profit left. If it reaches 10,000 mu, then congratulations, your annual income from farming is only enough to pay taxes, and even your own food has become a problem.

The biggest advantage of doing this is that it can directly separate those small landlords from the big landlords, and adopt the method of pulling a gang and fighting a faction, so as not to break with all the landlords and gentry.

And the only way left for those big landlords is to sell land, or exchange shares of railways, industry and mining with government affairs. In addition, these shares are allowed to be sold immediately, so they all get a lot of cash, but the gold standard and the issuance of paper money mean that they can no longer be like before. If it is moldy hidden in the cellar, it can only be deposited in banks or invested, which is equivalent to collecting the money back, forcing the state to build and invest in industry, which can greatly stimulate the development of industry and commerce.

When the land begins to flow back to the hands of the political axe, then the political axe will have enough land to sell at a low price, or distribute it to farmers without land, so that the farmers will support the new policy, and Master Li's position is stable!

In addition to the above reasons, there is a bigger reason why Li Mo only said to a few key members of the cabinet, that is, the land issue can also be an excuse and a means of the New Deal!

You know, conservative thinking these days is not an empty word, and you can't fire all the original officials at once. You must also keep them to slowly eliminate them. If you want them to do their best, if you want to make conservatives understand that the new policy axe is a must be done, you must stand up!

In all dynasties, there was this kind of prestige at the beginning of the founding of the country. Otherwise, there would have been no such things as the seventh day of Yangzhou and the three massacres of Jiading, let alone so many founding fathers who fell before the prosperity of the country.

In Master Li's eyes, isn't the huge movement under the banner of culture in the previous life a power?

But he can't use this extreme way, and he doesn't like the tyrant-like practice of later generations of MacArthur in the local reform, so the best way is to use the guys who come out of the land reform to take advantage of power, and at the same time deter those lucky guys and tell everyone with blood.

The dynasty has been changed!

This is the best era, because this is the era of the transition from feudalism to capital, and the usual period of bloodshed when the regime changes. Although cold blood is cruel, it is a necessary means. If Emperor Guangxu had the power at the beginning, he would directly raise a machete to chop off thousands of heads and speak with blood, not to mention the new constitutional policy, even The immediate republic is not empty talk!

So Tan Sitong, who is already a justice, was the first to agree with Li Wei, because he had seen through the reason when he changed the law at the beginning. The justice was almost sent to the guillow and had long hated the old feudal law. He didn't want to have a confrontation with the new law for the second time!

And Li Mo knows better than anyone that he must speed up, because of his emergence and rise, the world situation has undergone earth-shaking changes. The competition of European powers for colonies has become white-hot, and the war is not empty talk at all.

Moreover, in a period of time, the Chinese ship will be built. Once this kind of warship is exposed to the public, I'm afraid that the whole world will become more and more restless because of its appearance, so he must attract as many supporters as possible in the shortest time.

It is necessary to settle down first. This is the experience summarized by the ancestors for thousands of years, so Master Li cares so much about every move in the north. Not to mention the whole country, at least in the shortest time, the north should be built into an iron plate first!

Because he doesn't want to, and he will never say anything about the idiotic words of keeping a man and collecting the benefits of the fisherman. How can he get the respect of others if he doesn't devote himself to this Torrent era! He knows better than anyone else that there is no empty talk about the rise of peace in the world, especially in this era, how can he stand on the top of the world without experiencing the baptism of blood and fire!

"Dingling bell."

A crisp sound of phone calls broke the silence in the conference room, and everyone's hearts suddenly hung to their throats. After taking a breath, Li Enfu grabbed the telephone that had just been laid and connected the emperor, the Prime Minister's office and various departments.

At the other end of the phone, there was a series of urgent reports. After a long time, Li Enfu slowly put down the phone under everyone's attention: "Your Majesty, you guessed it. Someone came out!"

After saying this sentence, not only did not make everyone nervous, but also relieved.

Li Mo also smiled. Someone came out, which was better than a cold confrontation, so he immediately turned to Yan Fu, the Minister of National Defense and the Interior: "Mr. Yan, how are the preparations of the police and the internal affairs forces?"

"Your Majesty, don't worry, we have trained nearly 3,000 police officers. At present, they have been on standby in Tianjin. In addition, the original government officials in various places are almost allocated to five provinces, and the training of the first internal affairs force is also over. There are 10,000 people, divided into ten battalions, equipped with old-fashioned Mauser, right. It's enough to pay these people!"

After listening to this, Li Mo's heart settled down a lot. The police are the non-military force he has been building. For the time being, Yan Fu, the Minister of the Interior, will take charge of him. In the future, he will hand it over to them when the political axe is empty. The internal affairs force is newly built, which is specially used to suppress bandits in China and defend the second-line armed forces of important departments. It is subordinate to the army. Fang.

The family background of this team is based on veterans. In addition, some of the Beiyang New Army soldiers who were unwilling to leave their hometown and had to take off their military uniforms have been screened out. Recently, some of them have been selected because of the surrender of a large number of Qing army. A total of 20,000 people were trained and adapted in the northeast and received three Months of education and brainwashing, this time will be the first batch.

In order to distinguish the difference between the internal affairs force and the main force, and to reduce the threat, this force is not equipped with any heavy firepower. Like the police, it is only equipped with revolvers and captured old-fashioned single-shot Mauser rifles.

Ten battalions, although there are not many, the main forces are still stationed in the provinces at this moment. Since someone has come out, let's do it! Li Mo took a deep breath and looked at Li Enfu.

Although he is the emperor and the land law is also advocated by him, it is internal affairs, so we have to wait for Li Enfu to order.

Fortunately, Master Li is at least in the age of a family, and there is a political axe that never drags back. In addition, his grandma has seized the military power, so many of his ideals can be accelerated, and the country in front of him is still a blank paper, which can be left to be sprinkled by him. Even if he finds a problem, There is also a chance to correct it.

However, this is also the last time he participated in internal affairs. When the land reform was solved and the land law was used to support the people on his side, he would throw down the blue ocean wholeheartedly. There was too much time to look away from somewhere! --

In the courtyard of Fang's family in Kaizhou County, this big family, who started from the land, is now facing a crisis. Master Fang's face is even more pale. He looks at the man sitting at the lower head, and his eyes are shining fiercely.

"Li Ersheng, don't be shameless. Do you think you can scare our Fang family if you change your skin? Political axe? No matter how big the political axe is, it must be reasonable! Our family's Tian can deal with it as much as she wants. It's not your turn to talk about it as a small county government official. Get out of here!" Several sons of the Fang family blushed and jumped out, and also brought a few big men with guns, all pointing at Li Ersheng sitting below.

Li Ersheng was originally a servant of Kaizhou County. Although the county magistrate here became the county magistrate and changed to a new young man, most of the old people in the county government office still stayed. Now, in the name of the county magistrate, he came to invite the Fang family to discuss the land replacement, but he did not expect to get this treatment, and he couldn't help but be angry. He shouted, "Old man Fang, don't be shameless. The county magistrate asked you to look at you at that time. Don't forget that it's Xinhua now, not the Qing Dynasty!"

"So what? Can the new policy axe rob people's land? I don't believe it. There is no reason in the world!" Although Master Fang is called Master, he is actually only in his forties. When he is officially rich and powerful, he is naturally unwilling to leave such a big foundation.

"Well, I won't argue with you either." Li Ersheng got up and glanced at the man with guns around him. He suddenly sneered and said, "Master Fang, I don't care whether you buy land or not, but there is a saying that I want to remind you to keep guns in private according to the new law."

"That's a death penalty!"

"You!" As soon as Li Ersheng said this, Master Fang's vest suddenly cooled down. Who was he? The local emperor of Kaizhou! I don't know the thoughts of these affmen. Bandits are rampant these days. The big family doesn't have a few guns to defend themselves. As long as you don't take them out and show off, the affmen won't care at all. At this time, it's obviously rude to take this out to suppress people.

"Fewell!" After Li Ersheng finished speaking, he knew that he could not stay for a long time. Before the other party could react, he rushed out of the courtyard.

Seeing Li Ersheng leave, Master Fang finally burst out his breath, but when he saw those guns, he frowned again. If the other party really used this as an excuse, I'm afraid.

"Sir, it's not good!"

Before he finished thinking about it, the housekeeper rolled in and crawled in and cried, "Master, it's not good. There are soldiers outside. They are all carrying foreign guns and rushing in by name!"

"What!"

Master Fang panicked at this time. He originally thought that the Kaizhou was located in a remote area, and most of the land was from Fang's family. As long as he didn't let go, there was nothing he could do about it. No matter how powerful the political axe was, he could not deal with his local snake. At most, he was perfunctory like the new government not long ago, but he didn't expect people. The family didn't make sense to themselves at all, so they sent the army directly!

"Who is Fang Jiazhuo?"

"I, I'm Fang Jiazhuo."

Trembling, dozens of soldiers of the internal affairs force had already rushed into the compound. Although these soldiers were not regular soldiers, they did well after a few months of strict training. After rushing in, the first thing was to put down a few guns of the guard. The leading squad leader slowly took out an official document and said, "Fang Jia Zhuo, who is rich and unkind, is rampant in the countryside. He also hides guns and attempts to rebel and destroy the new policy axe. Therefore, the police department specially approved the arrest. The rest of the Fang family stayed at home and was not allowed to go out. Except for 3,000 mu left, the rest of the land under his name was confiscated!"

"What!"

After listening to all the official documents, Master Fang was so scared that he sat on the ground. His arrogant sons who had just now shrank into a ball. Under the black muzzle, he didn't even dare to fart.

"Take it away!"

The monitor didn't seem to see Master Fang, who was paralyzed to the end. He waved his hand, and immediately two soldiers took him out like dragging a dead dog. Suddenly, there was a dry howling in the mansion.

When Master Fang was taken out of the compound and went outside, the onlookers suddenly exploded. They couldn't believe that the Fang family here for several generations would really be arrested by the county magistrate.

Three days later, a bigger news made Kaizhou boil. The new county magistrate released a list. From now on, all the original tenants of the Fang family can invest in the purchase of Fang family's land, with a maximum of no more than 100 mu. If the funds are not enough, they can apply for a loan from the ticket number and the bank. At the same time, the county government axe will also take out a Ten thousand acres of land are given to the most difficult families in the county for free.

As soon as the news came out, the whole county was boiling. Countless people flocked to the county government to ask about the authenticity, and even more intelligently began to raise money everywhere, or several people worked together to buy the land they had been looking forward to for for several lifetimes.

But the cheering people in this isolated small county did not know that at the same moment of the fall of the Fang family, the original Zhili in Hebei, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui, which had just been taken down, had a similar situation in the whole north of the Yangtze River. Nearly a thousand of the most powerful landowners in Tuntian were all killed at night. The ministry was arrested, and some people tried to resist with tenants who did not know the truth, and were directly shot on the spot. In just a month, thousands of heads fell to the ground, making everyone understand one thing.

It's really a change of dynasty!

Those small landlords who did not receive the wave, but got benefits immediately began to pay the tenants honestly. Most of the big landlords left three or five thousand mu of land, and the others immediately sold them to others. Some also chose to exchange railway equity and factory and mining shares from various places to the political axe, because They all know that if there is no more excess land, I'm afraid that there will be a situation of chicken flying eggs and being confiscated immediately.

More and more farmers who had no land began to get benefits. While they began to get land from the political axe, they also became supporters of the new emperor and the political axe.

At the same time, Xinhua Zheng Axe officially launched paper money, and issued an announcement that silver can be exchanged for banknotes with local banknotes, but only for three months. If it is not exchanged within three months, all losses will be borne by individuals.

This news once again exposed the whole land of the north. In order to prevent accidents, Li Mo even ordered the suspension of all military operations. At the same time, he personally sat in the Ministry of Finance to monitor the situation of silver exchange in various places, and the continuous flow of silver began to lose quietly through the huge Jin merchant ticket number under the momentum of exchange. In the southern provinces, under the operation of these ticket numbers, there was even a sky-high price of one tael of gold for twenty taels of silver in the south. Such an attractive price immediately made many people throw gold for silver, and the gold flowed back to the Ministry of Finance through the ticket numbers, printing more blue coins to the market.

Of course, it is impossible for all silver to turn into gold, so there are more kinds of materials that are constantly shipped to the north. Jin merchants have played excellent business skills and helped Master Li launch a wave of repurchase of mines, directly acquiring several foreign control. A large mine.

And the huge inflow of silver made the southern provinces suddenly complain bitterly. Not to mention the soaring prices, even the cheap rice almost doubled, but they have no gold reserves and can't issue banknotes. Britain, France, Germany and other countries do not want to see banknotes in circulation in the south. In their opinion, they would rather have silver than You can ask for these mob banknotes in the south!

And the Ministry of Intelligence has also begun to strengthen infiltration. In the south, which was originally under internal and external troubles, there have been a large number of comments advocating that Li Hongzhang and others are betraying the country, self-respecting and not thinking about the country.

Li Mo didn't pay much attention to the chaos in the south. It's not that he doesn't want to take the south immediately, but that he has to wait. As for the chaos, it's not a big deal. When the news of the prosperity of the north is transmitted to the south, I'm afraid that the southeast mutual insurance agreement will become white paper.

With a wave of almost cold-blooded land operations, the feudal iron curtain shrouded in the north for thousands of years finally began to be torn up little by little, and the forced opening of paper money also made Li Mo relieved. At the same time, the political axe formulated a ten-year and 30 million immigration plan and began to be implemented. According to the plan, at present, in the Hanzhong Yellow River Basin, those are extremely poor. People who are suitable for people to live in will move to the northeast, and the political axe will pay settlement fees and land to those who are willing to leave, and be exempted from tax for three years.

And this wave of land wind and financial wind is the least related to Shanxi. The main reason is that Shanxi is already sparse in land, otherwise the Jin merchants would not have become the first people who did not rely on land and created such a large family business. In addition, they had been prepared until Master Li to promote paper money.

However, Shanxi is not idle. In Shanxi and Henan, Master Li, together with several wealthy generals such as Long Guozhang, set up several forestry companies in the name of private, which are specially used for afforestation in the Yellow River Basin in the Hanzhong. In addition, the administrative legislation stipulates that all those who cut down and destroy the forests of the two places indiscriminately, All will be subject to labor and huge fines.

He did this not for the sake of environmental protection, but because an Yellow River was too flooded. According to the documents left by the Ministry of Household of the Qing Dynasty, the state's annual allocation of disaster relief alone is more than a huge expense, so one day earlier to carry out water and soil conservation can fundamentally solve this problem one day earlier. If you can Directly implement it, then after a hundred years, I'm afraid the Yellow River will no longer be so annoying.

The railway, coupled with the dredging of the Yellow River, water, roads and other infrastructure, has suddenly turned the whole northern land into a car without brakes, but full of fuel, all of which are caught in the upsurge of development. This time, in addition to the newly shipped 500,000 Nanyang hard labor, Li Enfu only got it. I don't want it for 100,000 days. Instead, I recruited nearly one million local craftsmen. In addition, a large number of farmers who had no land got the land, so that at least in a few years, there will be no big problem of drifters.

In a few years, led by political axe investment, new factories will appear in an endless stream. At that time, a large number of farmers will slowly turn into workers, and land will no longer be a problem plaguing the country.

Just as all this began, Master Li finally received a good news in the midst of several months of complexity. Under the joint attack of the two divisions, the Huai Army, which had been able to fight again in the Qing Dynasty, finally surrendered collectively after two months of persistence, because it was to implement the new land law and paper money. Make way, or it will end earlier.

On May 3, 1899, Master Li finally breathed a sigh of relief to the map, and his eyes bit the last two targets in the north, Shaanxi, Gansu and Mongolia!

And behind them, the huge Xinjiang province, Tibet and the more dangerous Tsarist Russia! ......

(to be continued)