After Zhen Yu left, Xie Bi and Li Heng stayed in the hall.
Now that there are no outsiders, the two of them will naturally have to say something about themselves.
Xie Bi said to Li Heng interestingly:
"What do you think of this policy to clean up local social officials?"
Worried that Li Heng would not be able to open his heart, Xie Bi added:
"It's just you and me here, just say whatever you want, and we'll imprint on each other's thoughts."
With these words, Li Heng began to say:
"The king and many of his disciples in the political affairs hall seem to have some distrust of the social officials who have developed in Hebei."
Xie Bi did not speak, but asked Li Heng to continue:
"I can understand the distrust of these local officials. After all, these people are neither as loyal as the Fuhu veterans nor as reliable as the head of Guizhou. It is indeed difficult to trust. But I have something to say.
I can’t vomit quickly.”
Seeing that Xie Bi did not stop him, Li Hengzhuang said worriedly:
"Even if they are not trustworthy, are they any different from the Fuhu Laojun and those who came from the head of Guizhou? For example, the Fuhu Laojun, according to my experience in the Heji area, is a powerful person who uses his wealth for his own use and looks like a local."
In the end, all this is due to the greed of the people. Even if we crack down on a group of people now, the ones that come up will still sprout. How can the social officials who hold the power not to seek a benefit for themselves? So instead of doing this, why not
What about using these social officials first? At least these people have 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 directed his words to the demobilized veterans of the Taishan Army.
In other words, Xie Bi was a rational person in the army, so he did not directly reprimand Li Heng even though he felt uncomfortable.
Of course, Xie Bi himself also recognized part of Li Heng's views.
That is to say, demobilized veterans in many areas do tend to become localized. Xie Bi himself had many old subordinates who retreated to the lower levels due to injuries.
Generally speaking, such military officials will be transferred to local counties and counties, while the soldiers will be transferred to townships and communes.
Those old officials would often come to Xie Bi's place to keep in touch with each other in the name of sending some local specialties.
Xie Bi also learned about the situation in many places from these people.
In short, the old brothers have indeed lived a good life that was out of reach in the past.
Either this family has built a big house again, or that family has a new wife.
Xie Bi was also happy for his subordinates. These people followed him all the way and were injured and sick. Xie Bi felt that it was right to see them live a good life in the end.
But until Li Heng mentioned this matter, Xie Bi suddenly realized that something was wrong.
Xie Biyue felt that something was wrong with the showoff of his subordinates before, and these people were almost becoming the same people as they were in the past?
Are the brothers fighting life and death just to make a living?
Xie Bi suddenly felt a little uncomfortable, but he didn't intend to talk about this topic again. He changed the topic according to what Li Heng just asked:
"Well, it's still the same sentence. What our Taishan Army talks about is fairness. The land allocation must be fair and the clearing must be fair. Since those social officials use their power for personal gain in the land allocation, they must be punished. This is the iron law of policy. And it is exactly
Only by clearing out the silverfish among these social officials can we continue to implement the land distribution."
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 say something like: 'Good gold must be tempered by fire.' Whether a person is reliable or not depends not on what he says, nor on what he does in good times.
Rather, it depends on whether we can stand firm in the face of advantages and rely on adversity. Whether it is the township officials below or us county officials, they are all the same. Our attitude towards the distribution of land and our behavior during the distribution of land are all the same.
Our performance in Fentian is the basis for measuring our character, ability, and stance."
Finally, Xie Bi said to Li Heng with some pointers:
"I've heard people say that the chief disciple Du Gong said more than once in the political hall: 'The bad ones will be eliminated and replaced, and the good ones will be boldly promoted.' So Qingyuan, do you know what that means?"
So, Li Heng fell silent, and finally bowed to Xie Bi:
"Thank you Mr. Fu for your suggestion, I will understand."
"Do you really understand?"
"clear!"
…
Following repeated orders from the Political Hall and the direct linkage of results to political performance, a campaign to clean up local social officials began in the Taishan Army.
Not only Hebei New District, but also Heji Old District and Taishan Old District have also launched this action.
Anyone with a bad reputation, bullying and corruption, even if they came from some veteran background, were overthrown in this operation.
And compared with dealing with the previous powerful people, it is easier to deal with these lawless rural officials.
The former also relied on tribes and clans, while the latter had all power in the townships and communities from the Taishan Army. Therefore, once the superiors began to review and investigate them, these people had absolutely no room for resistance.
Throughout May, a total of 2,320 social officials in counties and counties in Hebei were punished, accounting for one-tenth of all grassroots social officials. Thirty-six of them were executed, but were ordered to surrender.
Eight hundred and twenty people were invaded. The rest were expelled from the team after being fought and became Guizhou leaders again.
Nearly one-tenth of the rural commune officials were eliminated, inevitably suffering their backlash and dissatisfaction.
In the later stages of the action's gradual spread, a large number of grassroots township officials voluntarily resigned from their posts in township offices.
Some of them are afraid of retaliation, and some have done shameful things in the past.
The former are the most aggrieved. They always complain that the county officials will shout and kill them at the slightest move. You county officials only need to wait for the results, but they are the ones doing the work.
How can they be harmonious and harmonious when they preside over the division of land? If a piece of land is given to others, the other people will be dissatisfied. Even after the land is distributed to one household, the other family is also dissatisfied and feels that they should have something better.
In order to move forward, these social officials inevitably used some means. But their true intentions can be said to be good.
These people felt uneasy and fled overnight.
This kind of incident greatly affected the Taishan Army's control over the counties and counties in Hebei. Some lurking Han troops broke out and colluded with powerful powerful men to constantly provoke and stir up unrest.
However, Yecheng's political affairs hall had long foreseen this situation and quickly dealt with such problems in a targeted manner.
Since this cleanup is to eliminate silverfish in the team, it is natural that those who can survive the test will be able to withstand the test, and these people will be put to great use.
As a result, a group of rural cooperatives fell, and soon another group came up. Because of their reliable stance, the original rural cooperatives were promoted to a more important position.
In this way, what seemed like a toss-up actually consolidated the Taishan Army's rule at the grassroots level.
In this way, the sun shines on the Hutuo River, and the people of Guizhou, who have been poor for thousands of years, have their own land for the first time.
At the same time, they also had hope for life for the first time.
…
In fact, while all parts of Hebei were dividing farmland and cleaning up grassroots members, Zhang Chong from Yecheng was discussing with his subordinates how to use this slack period to start building water conservancy projects.
Zhang Chong knows better than anyone that if we only allocate the stock, no matter how we divide it or who will divide it, it will only be temporary.
Even based on the current farmland in various parts of Hebei, even if it is distributed equally, it will not allow the leaders of Guizhou to live a good life.
why?
The powerful and powerful people have different thresholds for land to absorb population.
For a strong man, if 300 people can farm the land, he will not support 301 people. Because if there are more than 300 people, one more person means one more burden.
But for Qianshou, it's different. They are all one family, and as long as there is still something to eat, they will continue to support them.
It's like twenty acres of land can feed one person comfortably, but the same twenty acres of land can feed three people without starving to death.
At this time, the powerful will choose the former, but the head of Guizhou will choose the latter. Because the former pursues pleasure, while the latter only wants to live.
This different psychological expectation makes the powerful people obviously have a lot of land, but they can only support a small number of people.
From this point on, Zhang Chong had practical reasons to eradicate the powerful men.
But after defeating the powerful, he encountered a new dilemma.
That is, the leaders of Guizhou who have finished allocating their land may not be able to support themselves even though they own the land because the total amount of land is too small.
Judging from the current records of each county and the number of acres of land cleared by Taishan military officials, the number of acres of land in You and Hebei states should be around 13 million acres. And what about the number of registered households in the two states? About 110
There are 100,000 households and a population of more than 6 million people.
In other words, the average household size is no more than twelve acres. Even if this amount of land is completely divided, it will not be enough for one family.
Taishan Army has been operating in the north for many years and knows the agricultural situation in the north very well.
Taking the medium-sized fields in the north as an example, the yield per acre is one stone. But the one stone obtained is millet, and the rice yield rate of millet is 60%. Millet is harvested once a year, which means that one acre of medium-sized fields in the north can produce one stone.
Only six buckets of rice are produced per year.
If we change the data above, even if each household in Hebei is allocated land, they can only produce 72 buckets of rice that year.
Even if a grain of this rice is not handed over to the Taishan Army, it will not be enough to eat, let alone be used as grain for the coming year.
Looking at it now, even if we only calculate based on the per capita ration of 400 kilograms, one household will need to eat 20 kilograms of rations a year. Plus other miscellaneous things, it will need to be doubled at least.
From twelve dan per household to fifty dan per household, this figure has more than quadrupled.
This huge food gap made it difficult for Zhang Chong to imagine what kind of life the former Guizhou leaders lived.
Another unexpected thing is that there are nearly 6 million people in Youji and Hebei states. And with the increase in the hidden population that has been defeated and liberated, this number will become larger.
Coupled with the influx of refugees from the Central Plains, Qingzhou, and Bingzhou areas, the contradiction between man and land will become more and more serious in the future.
Therefore, Zhang Chong’s top priority is to solve this food gap problem.
Zhang Chong previously remembered that the cultivated land area in Hebei in the new era can be 90 million acres. In other words, the current upper limit of cultivated land in Hebei is 90 million acres.
Now about 17 million acres have been developed, and if Zhang Chong remembers correctly, the cultivated land area on Hebei Road during the Song Dynasty could reach 27 million acres.
Zhang Chong believed that with the help of his vigorous development of iron farm tools and continuous acquisition of cattle resources from the grassland, the Taishan Army could also reclaim so much land.
But this number is far from enough.
After all, the yield of millet is too low. It is only widely grown because it is easy to feed. To make Guizhou people full, they have to eat wheat.
Wheat can be harvested twice a year in the north. In this way, the direct output per mu can be doubled. With the addition of acres of cultivated land, the food gap can basically be completed.
But growing wheat is not that easy. It requires water.
Therefore, in order to complete the above-mentioned food gap, water conservancy projects must be built 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 most of them were to manage large rivers. Later, even if water conservancy was repaired, it was mostly built in the Gyeonggi area, which was in line with their policy of strengthening the trunk and weak branches.
Therefore, in the past, Hebei's water conservancy projects were built by powerful local families, just like the Bolingcui family. However, due to the problem of sphere of influence, this kind of water conservancy projects were often built in a short period of time and lacked overall planning, which often led to waste.
Now, Zhang Chong has to take on this responsibility. He wants to build large-scale water conservancy projects and cultivate fertile farmland in Hebei.
Moreover, this large-scale social engineering can be used to exercise the Taishan Army's dispatching capabilities.
Therefore, after Zhang Chong quickly discussed with other disciples, they first discussed the "Order of Reclamation in the Second Year of Taiwu".
The order says:
"At the beginning of Taiping, Youji was settled in Hebei, and wasteland was reclaimed to build villages. Unowned wastelands in all counties and counties were divided and relocated to landless households. Officials gave cattle tools and seeds to plant, and they started to study in the sixth year."
Afterwards, Zhang Chong discussed the distribution of Hebei's water network with Duman, Zhuge Gui and the main officials of the Ministry of Industry.
But this process is bound to take time. It turns out that the Han Dynasty's maps of the Hebei region have not been updated for nearly a hundred years. Now that times have changed, these maps have long been unable to guide current water conservancy development.
Therefore, officials from the Ministry of Industry have to travel all over Hebei to check the distribution of water flow in various places so that they can carry out subsequent projects.
Zhang Chong agreed with the Ministry of Industry's opinion, but said that this would not affect the Taishan Army's repair of previously abandoned water conservancy facilities first. And the time could be set during the slack season this year.
However, Zhuge Gui had some objections. He said that this kind of large-scale manpower mobilization is often easily exploited by careerists, so large-scale manpower dispatch is not suitable. Moreover, the country's money and food are not that abundant now, so it is also supported.
A renovation of this scale cannot be tolerated.
Zhuge Gui then suggested that repairs should be concentrated on agriculturally developed areas such as Wei County, Hanoi, and Zhao State. These areas have developed agriculture, dense water networks, and water conservancy projects built by previous dynasties, so it is relatively labor-saving. Moreover, the Taishan Army is in these areas.
The local foundation is also deep, which is being used to facilitate scheduling.
Zhang Chong greatly appreciated Zhuge Gui's maturity and prudent attitude.
As a result, things began to be implemented according to Zhuge Gui's ideas.
Soon Hebei will become a large construction site, breaking the tranquility of the past, but showing infinite vitality.