Many people achieve things because of people, but many things also rely on people.
No matter how well designed a system or policy is in the temple, it still needs people below to implement it.
The people of Boling are lucky to have a good official who carries out the work carefully.
The people of Shiyi are also lucky because they have a chief official who dares to withstand pressure and seek truth from facts.
But not everyone is so happy.
At this time, in the front hall of Yecheng, Zhang Chong was reading and sorting out the documents sent by the governors of various counties and counties in Hebei Province.
In the system of the Taishan Army, the position of commander Shi of each army is very important, and he can directly report to Zhang Chong in terms of power and responsibilities.
Because of the pacification of Hebei and the effective governance of the local area, Zhang Chong transferred a large number of military officials and chief officials to the local areas to suppress the powerful and pacify the people.
During this process, the secret reporting rights of each chief historian were still retained to supervise the local area.
From these documents on the histories of various county chiefs, Zhang Chong had a general understanding of the current situation of land distribution.
In some counties, county magistrates have gone to extremes in order to fulfill the government's land policy.
The original policy stated that this time the land would be divided only for the powerful, not for the land-owning peasants.
And how to distinguish between powerful people and yeoman farmers?
It just depends on whether you have any slaves or tenants.
But now, these county officials have chosen a more radical way of dividing land, that is, dividing all the land. This is definitely contrary to the policy spirit of the political hall.
But the long history of the relevant counties also explained this situation.
They said that the reason why this situation occurred was due to contingency changes adapted to the specific situation.
Why do you say that?
It turns out that as soon as the regulations were released from the political hall and decentralized to various ministries, powerful families from all over Hebei knew the news.
These people have been running Hebei for several generations and have a dense network of people. No one knows who they will know and where they stand in the current Taishan Army.
And when these well-informed families knew about it, they immediately took advantage of the loopholes in the policy and tried to escape the land division.
Doesn’t your policy say that farmers do not divide their land? Then I can be a farmer too.
They took advantage of the window period when the policy was implemented at the local level, and continued to distribute the land within the clan to the names of each clan. Through the method of household division and self-reliance, the land was directly transferred to the hands of the clan below.
And these tribesmen do not accept servants, and are basically self-cultivating farmers.
So when these county heads began to receive land allocation orders and prepared to implement them, they encountered a very embarrassing situation.
That is to say, if you look around the whole county, you will see that homesteaders are springing up like bamboo shoots after a rain, and there is not a single strong one.
In this situation, what can these county magistrates do?
Of course, they can also report directly to the superiors, saying that the situation in the country is special and there are no powerful people to fight against.
But among those who can be sent to local governments to support the government, regardless of their ability, every one of them has followed the Taishan Army until now, and it is no problem to obey orders loyally.
Not to mention, as the "Several Issues on Land Distribution in Counties" compiled by Zhengshitang was distributed to them, they all studied the "On Land Distribution" attached to it.
This article, written by the chief disciple of Zhengshitang, was regarded by them as absolutely correct consciousness.
Since one of the main purposes of land distribution is to mobilize the Lishe and Guizhou leaders and determine the basic base of the Taishan Army through land distribution.
Then this field must be divided no matter what.
But they couldn't identify which of the homesteaders were the original powerful ones, so they simply expropriated all the land and divided it.
When Zhang Chong saw this, the anger in his heart disappeared.
If four or five years ago, when Zhang Chong first came here, he would have dealt with these county officials long ago if he had seen the following people acting both yin and yang.
But as he gained more experience in handling government affairs, Zhang Chong also understood it somewhat.
Do you think those county officials who resorted to extreme measures deliberately wanted to go against the political hall? No, the actual result is exactly that they understood the principles and essence of the policy, and then made changes based on the actual situation.
Although this contingency seems to have consequences that run counter to the provisions of the policy itself.
But this is the real situation of actual work. Any predetermined policy cannot be applied exactly without more and less. All executors must use their own experience and wisdom to judge the actual emotions and therefore make contingency changes.
And based on Zhang Chong's true intentions, at least so far, he has no objection to the drastic changes made by the officials below.
In Zhang Chong's view, the methods used in different periods are different.
At present, that is, in the early stages of the cause, in order to mobilize more broadly and fight for the poor in Guizhou, we must be drastic in our work style, and even use violence to mobilize.
Once the external situation stabilizes, it will need to be relaxed to a certain extent.
And this order cannot be reversed. Just like powerful people, they cannot unite peacefully. There must be struggle and unity, and struggle first and then unity.
This is a summary based on the actual situation.
This is how Zhang Chong views radical and moderate execution methods dialectically.
Moderate means unity, order, and construction, while radical means struggle, vitality, and destruction. The Taishan Army must use both methods, and both must be tough.
As the saying goes, neither destruction nor establishment, nor correction nor overcorrection, only through resolute struggle can the enthusiasm of the majority of Guizhou leaders be stimulated. Only then will they have the courage and confidence to follow the Taishan Army in fighting against the mighty.
This experience was realized by Zhang Chong personally when he was dormant in Mount Tai.
But when necessary, this excess needs to turn to moderation, and the struggle must turn to unity. This experience was practiced by Zhang Chong when he was running Laiwu.
After thinking about it, Zhang Chong did not intend to deal with these people, nor did he intend to praise them by name, otherwise it would cause other officers to misjudge the situation.
At this point, Zhang Chong had a deeper understanding of the motto he wrote: "The human heart is dangerous, the Taoist heart is small, the essence is only one, and the right to hold it is in the middle."
After all, Zhang Chong himself has never dealt with politics. He just rides a horse and sees the road. He still has a lot to learn.
But so far, he's doing well.
But soon, after Zhang Chong saw the next secret message, he had doubts about his previous idea.
This is the list that Jiao Yong, the magistrate of Zhangwu County in Bohai, forwarded to Li Wu, the prefect of Bohai. Li Wu could not decide, so he transferred this list to Yecheng.
Zhang Chong knew that Jiao Yong was a field official who grew up in the Heji area. His style was close to the people, he loved the people, and he worked personally. He was rated as exceptional and superior for two consecutive years.
That's why Zhang Wu was specially transferred to Bohai as the county magistrate.
Zhangwu is a large city on the Bohai Sea. It is an important salt-producing area and has very few cultivated fields. Therefore, the contradiction between man and land in the Zhangwu area is particularly large.
Jiao Yong mentioned such a situation in his report to the governor of Bohai. That is, the people below are more extreme than Jiao Yong.
Because there are so many people and so little land in the Zhangwu area, even if the land in the county is divided equally among everyone, these people still won't be able to support themselves.
It turns out that the reason why Zhang Wu was able to maintain so many households was that powerful men sold salt to the Zhongshan area and then exchanged it for food.
Now, the powerful people still control this salt trade route. So Jiao Yong decided to let these powerful people only hand over the land, but they can continue to do business.
But Jiao Yong obviously underestimated the anger of the Zao slaves.
After seeing the fall of their former masters, they began to massacre these powerful children and their families. But what about the land-dividing officials in various places? They did not stop them, and even supported them.
At first, Jiao Yong simply thought that this was a vendetta between individuals, but soon after he learned more about it, he knew that it was not the case at all.
The land allotment officials in Zhangwu County who are in charge of land allocation affairs are generally from the Heji area.
Perhaps because of the lessons learned in those years, these field-dividing officials generally would rather kill than let go. In the previous field-dividing, these field-dividing officials discovered that as long as they acted against powerful people, even if they killed them, they would not suffer any consequences.
Punishment. On the contrary, if there is even the slightest sympathy in dealing with powerful people, it may affect their future.
Under such feedback, the mentality of these grassroots field officials is as follows:
"You are a good official if you dare to kill powerful people!" "You are a good official if you are ruthless!"
As a result, the situation has become like this. There is no need to solve the problem flexibly. No matter what, just kill him.
And compared to analyzing specific problems in detail, killing is undoubtedly the easiest thing. As a result, these land-dividing officials have also become inert in their thinking.
Jiao Yong, the magistrate of Zhangwu County, said in his expression with concern:
"The use of weapons is to stop killings, but the wanton killings that are happening now will definitely break the hearts of our Taishan soldiers. The people of this country have a question, who kills people like crazy, are they bandits, or are they kings?"
What touched Zhang Chong was not this sentence, because those who kill will always be killed, and those strong men should have known about this day when they enslaved the Zao slaves.
What Zhang Chong was concerned about was that this large-scale massacre was from the bottom up and was not controlled by the Taishan Army.
Zhang Chong had told all the officials before that it was okay to kill, but the punishment must be legal.
A vendetta in the countryside will inevitably lead to endless killings, retribution, and blood feuds that last for generations. This is not conducive to the integration of the Taishan Army into the countryside.
Therefore, Zhang Chong marked his suggestion on the table next to Li Wu, the governor of Bohai County, and ordered him to act in accordance with the order.
An hour and a half has passed just by processing these two secret reports. The chef outside the verandah has already handed in the prepared meals.
A stack of sesame cakes and a plate of mutton are Zhang Chong's favorite foods.
In order to approve this batch of secret memorials as soon as possible, Zhang Chong continued reading while biting the cake.
But when he saw the memorial below, Zhang Chong stopped chewing the cake in his mouth.
At this time, he was furious.
Because if the above two issues are still the gap between policy theory and practice, a game between the top and the bottom, and are acceptable deviations, then the content of the report that Zhang Chong read below was completely intolerable to him.
This secret report was not sent by any specific official in Hebei, but by Zhang Chong for inspection.
He specially ordered Fan Chang, the imperial censor, to mobilize capable censors to form an inspection team together with the Feijun internal guards to inspect the implementation of land allocation in various places.
Fan Chang summarized the inspection team's report into a document and gave it to Zhang Chong.
This article mainly talks about one issue, which is the problem of corruption in the process of land allocation at the grassroots level.
The situation is this.
Because this time the land distribution is mainly aimed at the powerful and powerful families from all over Hebei. These people not only own land, but also have piles of all kinds of wealth.
It is natural that in the specific field division, the question of how to divide it arises.
Generally speaking, the methods adopted by local officials vary according to the situation, but generally they are the following.
One is to divide the land according to status. That is who originally cultivated the land, which household you are a tenant of, or Tuli, then the land will be divided to whom.
Another method is to divide the land equally according to the household registration. The land is unified and the land is divided uniformly. This is also the most commonly used distribution method.
After that, it is divided according to the specific situation. For example, if your family has a lot of labor, then you will be divided more. If you have less labor or the conditions are good, you will be divided less.
Then, the land is divided according to special personnel. For example, those whose families are members of the field protection team are divided first and their land is divided. The activists who emerged in the struggle for land allocation are also divided first and their land is divided.
But these are fields, so it is better to divide them. Some things, such as livestock and farm tools, can only be divided by lot.
Precisely because there are so many exceptions, there are opportunities for grassroots corruption.
Because the scope of this land distribution operation was too wide, the original land distribution officials were not enough, so in the process of defeating the powerful, many local people were inevitably recruited.
The specific method is as follows. Often when the old field officials arrive at the locality, they will first inspect the village and find one or two people who have suffered greatly and have deep hatred to make the decision to redress their grievances.
Once the local powerful landowners are defeated, the task of dividing the land will be given to this person. And this person will find a group of people he knows well to do this.
And who are they generally looking for? Either by blood, brothers and uncles within the same clan. Or by geographical connections, that is, neighbors and acquaintances. Or by karma, such as being a drummer.
You just said that in this situation, can you eat more and occupy more without lining your own pockets?
Isn’t the policy to give the field protection team first? Then let the family members serve as field protection soldiers in name. If you don’t want to do this, there is still a way.
The policy also says that the active forces that emerge from the struggle should be divided into good fields and multiple areas. So who is active should be those of them?
Isn't it better to divide the animals by drawing chips? That's simpler, just decide directly.
Therefore, through various means, the fertile fields and livestock on the original land gradually fell into the hands of these local field officials.
Did the superior Taishan military officials respond to this situation?
Yes, but the only way is to make them behave more selflessly.
But this makes these local village officials embarrassed, because how can they not want the best? I obviously took the lead in defeating the powerful, but in the end my share was not as good as the one who waited, damn, wanted?
Is this fair?
Of course, there are also some township officials who value the opportunity given by Taishan Army and are willing to let others divide it first.
So, I withdrew from the subsequent division of fields and materials.
But after several distributions, none of them were his share. And when the leaders of Guizhou saw that the township officials had nothing to share, they would not take the initiative to mention it at all.
At this time, even if these village officials don't murmur themselves, they will be murmured by their families when they go back.
What kind of official are you doing? You're not as good as the idle guy in the company.
As a result, more and more township and village officials voluntarily quit their positions and wanted to become the head of Guizhou.
But if this continues, no one will want to take this position anymore. No way, the Taishan Army above has acquiesced to the fact that the grassroots township officials will eat more and occupy more.
It seems that here, things have to return to an embarrassing situation.
That means there are two mouths in the official character. If you want the lower mouth to be fed, you must first feed the upper mouth.
But Zhang Chong didn't believe this evil.
He quickly thought about the matter clearly, and then called six disciples to discuss it.
Soon, a copy of "Instructions on Several Problems Occurring in the Process of Dividing Fields" drafted by Zhang Chong himself was sent to the front hall.
This document representing Zhang Chong's will will soon be sent to the desks of various county governors.
But this time, Zhang Chong not only wanted to divide the land, but also clean up the bad elements who had sneaked into the team.