It is still singing and dancing, but in the bustling city of Yangzhou in the winter, the city is full of filth and stench. He staggers along with the flow of people and arrives before the festival. Looking at the familiar guard of the gate, he can't help but feel a little emotional. Wherever he came, wept loudly.
It's really not easy for him. In order to escape the sieve-like search and killing of those grass thieves, and the various grass-headed arms that spontaneously lifted up on the opponent, the level set by fire and robbery; he can be said to be racking his mind and danger. After being alive and dead several times, he was able to be confused all the way and finally escaped to the unoccupied Runzhou boundary.
However, the local officers and soldiers along the Yangtze River who are difficult to distinguish between the enemy and ourselves, he is also afraid to seek and seek help. Therefore, in the severe cold weather, he can only mix with those foul-smelling refugees, and walk and walk with everything collected along the way to wrap his body.
In order to escape the looting of the strongmen and bullies among the refugees, as well as the local bandits who popped up along the way to rob them, he could only pretend to be crazy and sell the filth left by bulls and horses, and smear his whole body from head to toe. Playing up and down several times in exchange for the opponent's disgust and disgust.
Then, when he was a student, he once thought of asking to see Zhou Bao, the Jiedu envoy of the Zhenhai (Western Zhejiang) stationed in the local navy. After all, this gong was Gao Linggong's early righteous brother and even an ally; as Linggong's messenger, he had also traveled to the mansion several times. However, before he stepped forward to have a chance to speak out, he was almost beaten to death on the spot by the impatient guards in front of the Jieya fence.
Finally, when Gao Yue woke up from the abandoned ditch, he had lost three front teeth and turned into a broken mouth, and his arm was also discounted. In the end, he could only have one of the two silver buckles remaining on his body, bribing the guards who guarded the floating bridge on the Jingkou River, and was able to stagger back to the boundary of Yangzhou in the north of the Yangtze River.
Gao Yue's uncontrollable crying finally attracted the attention of a bookkeeper who was in the festival. He stopped and shouted in surprise:
"Isn't this Takasaburo-kun... why have you changed into this look..."
"It's under, it's really hard to describe in a word..."
Hearing this greeting, Gao Yueyou couldn't help but feel sorrowful and wanted to cry again, but he replied with restrained tears. Then he looked carefully at the other party and couldn't help but take a look.
"Aren't you Cui (Zhiyuan) Jishi... How come you have become this outfit..."
"But I offended the king by talking too much, and I have been demoted as a servant to redeem it..."
Cui Zhiyuan, who has an authentic Luoyin, sighed helplessly.
Then there was this guarantee and identification, Gao Yue also got his wish and was taken back from the side door to the familiar back house of the festival. But at this time, he had lost half of his ears, several toes and the small half of his feet were frosted and festered, and there were many bruises and black frostbite on his whole body.
Therefore, when he was cleaned up again, ate and drank, and slept for a whole day and night, he was reawakened in the arms of the maid who warmed the bed, but he felt that his whole body was sore and painful. Body come. However, a word from the other party made him struggling immediately.
"Ling Gong wants to see you..."
However, under the light of the snow queen, he was led all the way, only to see that the Huainan Festival Hall, which was doing a great job in civil engineering, already had a lot of freaks; at least many of the familiar faces had disappeared;
But after all, he was still one of Gao Pian's nephews and nephews, so after waiting for more than a long time, he was finally used by Lu, who had had several acquaintances, and attracted Gao Linggong to stay in residence. Slim Ziyun Pavilion.
However, the next day there was news that Gao Linggong’s original illness, wind-arthritis, suddenly worsened due to sadness and exhaustion; but he had just escaped from the collapsed army, but he was offended by unknown reasons. The nephew Gao Yue, who fell out of favor, was driven out of Yangzhou City, and was banished to Chuzhou to become a state commander.
. . . . . . . .
In Jiangling City, despite the follow-up effects of the Zhao'an incident, Zhou Huaian is still listening to the regular administrative affairs report from the Cantonese government:
"The newly harvested rice and wheat in Lingxi are forty-one thousand and fifty-six shi, beans, potatoes, melons and vegetables are more than 2.91 million catties, mainly from Gui, Huan, Rong, Liu, Fu and He. Under the jurisdiction of the state..."
"Among them, 50,000 shi of old grain can be exchanged for old grain, and the winter human service is being launched for processing and concoction..."
"Chai's master book has once again put down the Shukun Turbulent Rebellion in Southern Guizhou, destroying 22 local and large towns, and obtained more than 6,000 men and women...".
"The chaos of the Chen thieves in the area outside Jianshan Mountain in Guiyang has been eliminated, but the progress of road construction and ore transfer in the mining area will inevitably be delayed..."
"Then cancel this part of the supply plan and joint production targets; transfer the manpower and production area to other projects..."
Immediately, Zhou Huaian opened his eyes and instructed:
"Then I will order that Guiyang Jian’s mine site in Shanbei should not be transported to Lingnei. The Xiangtan area is already preparing for the construction of new hydraulic workshops and production areas to make use of the rivers in the two regions of Xiangzhong and Jianghan to facilitate water transportation. , To gather all kinds of minerals at a relatively low price. Therefore, it is possible to transport the minerals from various places in advance and pile them up for later use..."
As far as Zhou Huaian’s knowledge is concerned, the later Hunan can be regarded as a major mining province in the south.
For example, large-scale shallow coal mines in Loudi, Shaoyang, and Chenzhou, Chenzhou and Hengyang, which are rich in tin, lead, zinc, and graphite; in addition, Hengyang, Huaihua, Yueyang, and Chenzhou all have corresponding gold and silver mines; while in Hengyang and Changde There are also natural production of bittern, gypsum and glauberite in the two places.
Although these minerals are mostly small and medium-sized in later generations, and most of them are of poor selectivity; but as long as a small part of them can be developed, it is also a considerable resource addition at the generally backward level in this era. It's done.
Today, under the rule of the Taiping Army, they have actually controlled the Pearl River Basin, the Red River Plain, the Central Hunan Plain and most of the Jianghan Plain, all of which were important grain producing areas in ancient times.
Although the development degree is generally not high in this era compared with the population-rich northern regions; but with these grain-producing regions as mutual buffers and adjustments, coupled with the addition of waterways and communications, even if it is severely encountered The disasters and chaos in China also have the ability to resist risks in a relative sense.
Coupled with the mountainous landforms of Lingxi (Guangxi) and the mineral resources of central and southern Hunan, it is fully capable of opening an original industrial production center as an upgrade and backup of production capacity; in fact, a correspondingly self-sufficient cross-regional economic cycle The system has taken shape under the management of the Taiping Army.
"This is the latest list of township officials under the name of the company. Including the alternates and the number of people who have been dispatched, the number on the list has reached approximately 4,615..."
After explaining the mining and smelting and production aspects of the factory, another young member of the army came forward.
"However, most of them are concentrated in Lingnan Road, with about 3,571 members; among them, the 13 Lingdong prefectures in the Pearl River Basin are the most numerous, and about 2,857 members have been appointed one after another. ..."
"Most of them reported that they were normal and functioning well. During the period, only 67 people abandoned their jobs and absconded, and another 89 people went missing due to accidents, died or were injured and retired..."
"The above examples are very few in the land of Lingdong, and are mainly concentrated in the newly opened Hunan, Lingxi and other places... Especially in Hunan..."
"It's true that there are 23 other people who have violated the rules to varying degrees or committed crimes of rape and crime. After the three teams that were inspected found out and reported them, they were deprived of their posts and asked for guilt..."
Zhou Huaian nodded slightly. These figures of escaped, casualties, and disappearances undoubtedly represent details that most people in the locality find difficult to pay attention to and the uncompromising cruelty and dark side of the struggle for the replacement of the old and new forces at the grassroots. .
However, among the thirteen states of Lingdong that have initially settled down, there will be crimes such as taking advantage and embezzlement, which is not unexpected by Zhou Huai'an; this is a problem that any new regime must face. . It depends on whether there is a sufficient internal supervision mechanism, as well as a long-lasting external new blood supplement channel of the survival of the fittest, and a virtuous competition cycle on the only capable ones.
According to the general content promulgated in the "Summary of the Taiping Field System"; the land currently controlled by the Taiping Army has been divided into water, drought, slope, grass, and sand after preliminary clearance and demarcation. The five major categories are about twelve-level fineness; the types, amounts, and proportions of land taxes levied for each fineness are also different.
At present, the Taiping Army has taken over the deserted and unused land, expropriated and confiscates those wealthy and powerful clan properties that are notoriously guilty or dared to resist the rebels, and basically grasped a small portion of them; it was able to gather refugees and poor households. One by one, many small and small districts have come to the village.
As for the remaining land and house properties in other places, the "three detachments" initially cleaned up and destroyed the upper strata of the local villages, such as powerful households, as well as the old remnants such as subordinates, rogues and Xianzi, allowing the remaining villagers to rebuild their autonomy. After the new order of self-determination, grassroots posts called "township officials" were appointed at the township, city and town levels to indirectly govern them and perform the functions of regular expropriation and dispatch.
Therefore, with the exception of those villages and camps that are directly under the control of Hu Cao's militarization; these large and small township officials can be said to be the guarantee of the Taiping regime at the most basic level, which is almost equivalent to the lower limit of the grassroots organization. Small head. And they lead a number of public security, household registration, tax and other personnel who want to do things, master the administrative functions of the first level in the township, and indirectly influence and control the lower-level villages.
Moreover, unlike the traditional practice and tradition that government subordinates can recruit non-staff personnel on their own, grass-roots clerks are uniformly trained through short-term intensive training, and then assigned to their subordinates through different department affiliations. Therefore, there are not so many remnants of old malpractices and bad habits. Instead, they form a situation of implicit mutual supervision and restriction in daily life.
In addition, there are also a supply and marketing (vendor) system that moves regularly, and an official promotion (simplified justice) system that circulates, as well as a system of random visits and practice training by the census team, which will be sufficient for a period of time in the future. Keep going.
Although it is impossible to say that the existence of selfishness and greed is completely banned, in this era when everything is rudimentary and simple, it is not a problem to create a relatively fair and transparent environmental atmosphere or ruling order; after all, it is still in the Taiping Army. During the rising period of the rise of the regime.
Anyone with a little bit of common sense will not take advantage of the small gains in front of them and ignore the long-term prospects and possibilities of the system. The township officials are also the best place for retired Taiping soldiers who are injured, sick and disabled. So in terms of results and composition, they are relatively simple and have a certain vitality.
Of course, the existence of these township officials is currently mainly arranged in the key and important areas where the Taiping Army has a strong control force or the established ruling order is relatively stable.
At present, in Lingxi and Hunan, there are many remote areas, mountains and fringe areas where the control power is relatively weak or the military power is inconvenient, although they are within the territory of the Taiping Army; there is no deliberate appointment of township officials to act as the past Consumables, while maintaining the original basic pattern for the time being, and "just listen to money and food as usual."
Of course, after the abolition of imperial imperial levies and local government apportionments, the overwhelming subordinates cleverly set up additional items, most of them exorbitant taxes and routine waste. The major tax items left by the Taiping Army regime are nothing more than the total land tax in the vast villages according to the "Taiping Farm System" based on the variety of the land (the vast rural area);
In cities, towns, and ports, the household (tax) money is levied on the basis of (adult) heads and households, etc.; as well as the exemption money (city tax) and passing money (city tax) generated during commodity transactions and transit in the market. Tariffs), there are only three major categories.
As for other Shanze tax, miscellaneous tax, inter-rack tax, young crop money, flat money, and even the additional levies on the monopoly of bamboo, salt, wine, tea, etc., are all abolished. Of course, the Taiping Army regime has its own confidence.
On the one hand, under a relatively simple administrative system, there are not so many redundant personnel inside and outside the system to support. On the other hand, the diversification and richness of other economic sources.
Therefore, in fact, except for the production of food and specific materials, which must be maintained at the basic safety level; the proportion of revenues occupied by other projects in the Taiping Army regime has actually been steadily declining; the reason is simple, Taiping From the very beginning, the military regime has a large amount of revenue and a relatively stable source of input beyond these traditional projects.
For example, the integrated production system of monopolistic factories and mines with Guangzhou and Chaoxun as the core; and the huge foreign sea trade benefits of Guangzhou and Jiaozhou since ancient times and the heavy bonuses brought by the re-export business of domestic products; plus In fact, it has mastered the supply and marketing system of most major livelihood projects and bulk demand between major cities and towns;
In fact, through these channels and economic lifeline, it is not too easy for the Taiping regime to absorb blood in secret. There is no need to do things like traditional and feudal bureaucrats and wealthy households, directly doing the incomparably ugly robbing, exploiting, or smashing bones.
After all, as a transcendor with thousands of years of experience and a forward-looking vision, he doesn’t know how to open source and increase production beyond farming, but to buckle the food and clothing that was pulled out of the vast ancient population. It was a shame. At the very least, future generations have a ready-made industrial system and the development prospects of overseas trade based on local conditions, which can be used as reference and use.
With the supplement and support of these additional sources of income generation, the Taiping Army can even use part of the proceeds to feed back and subsidize local production; it does not need to be like the past dynasties, which need to be costly and inefficient to maintain one There are relatively complex groups of bureaucrats, subordinates and white servants. And the resources collected up are double wasted in the long and long transfer cycle.
Therefore, as long as it is not driven by excessive military violence and exhaustion of the people’s efforts, and can perseverely implement the principles in the "Acre System", roughly without deviating too much from the resolute implementation, this will change the hesitating and uneasy public opinion and broaden the gains. The hearts and minds of the middle- and lower-class scholars and people will be a matter of time.
With such calculations and considerations, Zhou Huaian heard another report from the outside; he went to escort food and supplies to Raozhou to congratulate him and Cao Shixiong soon returned, and brought Zhou Huaian an unexpected visitor. (End of this chapter)