Chapter 362: Drive out the landlord
Although Ning Qi's explanations are as easy to understand as possible, most of these naturalized citizen students come from poor peasant families and generally have a poor cultural foundation. It is probably impossible to expect them to fully understand the spirit. Thank God if you understand four or five sentences. Of course, he did not expect that his one or two lectures could correct these people's deep-rooted ideas about land. Even if revolutionaries set up agricultural movement workshops hundreds of years later, they still experienced many twists and turns. Only then can the land reform policy be gradually implemented. Fundamentally changing people's understanding of land ownership will not be achieved overnight.
To make these students understand why private ownership of land restricts the development of productivity, I am afraid Ningqi will not be able to achieve good results even if he talks, but he wants to make them realize that they can live a good life even if they are not dependent on land in the future. Going down is not difficult.
Most of these people are from areas outside Sanya. Here they have witnessed with their own eyes how the Haihan Executive Committee turned a barren land into a prosperous commercial port. They themselves are also the beneficiaries of this social system and have always accepted it. Instilled with the ubiquitous Haihan consciousness, they firmly believe in the omnipotence of the Executive Committee. Even if they cannot fully understand the theories mentioned by Ning Qi, they at least understand the area governed by the Executive Committee. We didn’t get to where we are today by farming. Today, there are tens of thousands of residents in Sanya, but only half of the population is engaged in agriculture, and the proportion of the agricultural population continues to decline.
Such a ratio is simply impossible to exist in other parts of the Ming Dynasty. The existing productivity is destined to require a high proportion of agricultural population to support the food consumption required by society. If Ning Qi promotes this set of policies in other places to encourage people to leave the land, The theory may be directly regarded as a lunatic. Only when Sanya has achieved results in this way and can use examples to show others can it achieve a certain publicity effect. This rhetoric may not be effective on stubborn landowners and gentry, but as an argument for internal propaganda and brainwashing, it will definitely have an excellent influence.
The students may not understand the huge changes that the transformation of land from private ownership to public ownership will bring to the social system, and they may not completely give up their desire to purchase land on their own one day. However, out of their near-complete trust in the executive committee, they will still choose to implement it. Carry out orders issued by the Executive Committee. In their view, no matter what the prospects of implementing this policy are, since it is the decision of the Executive Committee, it must be implemented to the letter - this is also one of the basic rules that a qualified Haihan naturalized citizen must abide by. .
Although the Executive Committee tried to expel and annex some of the more stubborn landowners and gentry in the area through non-violent means, in the actual operation process, the emergence of contradictions and conflicts was still unavoidable.
On September 10, two naturalized workers sent by the Ministry of Agriculture to measure land in Fenghuang Town were caught and beaten by local landlord Huang Yuancai. On the 12th, a naturalized migrant technician was driven away by local people when he was instructing migrant workers to dig and build a canal, because these people believed that the canal would divert water and affect the irrigation of their fields. As a result, conflicts broke out during the contact. Several people on both sides were injured, but fortunately no lives were lost. On the 13th, thirteen landowners in Fenghuang Town united to block the roads around the town, prohibiting the passage of naturalized residents coming from Sanya.
These attempts to commit suicide were reported to the Ministry of Agriculture one by one. After receiving the news, Gao Huan, who was in charge of the collective farm project, quickly reported the official documents to the Executive Committee. It then took the executive committee just over an hour to approve the response plan.
A joint law enforcement team was formed by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Military Commission, the Ministry of Justice, and the Daming Yacheng government to conduct an inventory of the Fenghuang Town area. The main targets of this operation were several recent cases of malicious wounding and the omission of land registration. and tax evasion cases.
Nowadays, it is extremely convenient for the Executive Committee to get official documents stamped with the seal of the magistrate from the Yacheng government. Once a telegram is sent to the Yazhao Office, Zhang Guang will transcribe the contents of the official document without even having to go out in person. , and asked the Hai brothers to send it to the state government office. It would take at most half an hour to complete the formalities, stamp it and send it out. The executive committee's approach to handling this kind of matter is simple and crude. Since you don't have to drink fine wine for toasting, and you don't respect Haihan's rules, then it should be handled in the name of Ming Dynasty officials. If these troublemakers dare to resist, they will be committing riot. .
The military also cooperated in the previous stage of land acquisition. Chen Yixin, the current military director of Wanshan Port, came to the forefront because of his outstanding performance at that time. The military is quite familiar with such low-intensity military tasks. Taking into account the actual local situation, the military mobilized two infantry companies from Shengli Port and one from the militia group currently stationed in Yacheng. company, and finally selected a company from the new recruit battalion being trained as a reserve team to cooperate with the operation. A total of nearly 500 armed forces were dispatched, which can be described as a huge momentum.
Of course, the reason for such a large-scale formation was not because of how powerful the local landlords in Fenghuang Town were. The main reason was to use military operations to frighten Xiaoxiao and dispel some people's luck.
On September 15, the joint law enforcement team set out from Shengli Port and Yacheng respectively, and headed for Fenghuang Town, about fifteen miles northwest of Sanya New City, by boat. Although it is said to be joint law enforcement, the main force is definitely the Haihan Militia. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Civil Affairs only sent representatives to watch in a symbolic manner, while the Yacheng government made it easier and directly appointed the permanent resident in Shengli. Wei Ping from Hong Kong served as the official representative - because the Executive Committee was in a hurry and the shipping was too slow, the appointment order was even transmitted back to the base camp by the Cliff Office through the radio.
The Executive Committee dispatched a battalion of troops for this minor incident. Although there was no need to fight, a senior officer who could control the situation was still needed. It happened that Wang Tom was leading the navy to familiarize himself with the two newly launched warships during this period, so he naturally took over the task of transporting the operational troops back and forth and served as the field commander of the operation.
The fleet met up with the troops coming from Yacheng on the coast near Phoenix Town, and then headed inland. Fenghuang Town is not too far from the seaside, only two or three miles away, and it didn't take long to march. Fenghuang Town occupies a small area, and most of the residents have moved away in the past two or three months. Therefore, there are only a dozen or so households in the town, and most of them are stubborn households who are unwilling to transfer their land and move out. . However, unlike the poor households that were cleared in the two river basins last time, the households here in Fenghuang Town are better off. They almost have tens to hundreds of acres of land under their names, and they will fight for resistance. Haihan's land policy formed an alliance.
Now that the swords and soldiers have been used, Wang Tom will no longer have any plans to be polite before attacking. As soon as he arrived at the ground, he ordered the four companies to split up and surrounded Fenghuang Town from the southeast, northwest and four directions, blocking the roads in and out. . Everyone who comes out of the town will be detained first.
Such a large battle naturally attracted the attention of the residents of the town. Seeing the Haihan militiamen with guns and ammunition began to set up barricades and pull up iron fences on the road outside the town, the people in the town suddenly became chaotic. These people originally thought that joining forces could create some moderate trouble for the Haihan people and make them give up their plan to annex the land. However, they did not expect that the other party would be so bad-tempered and would directly send troops without giving the young and old men a chance to continue causing trouble. Come to clean up.
How capable is the Haihan militia? Even if they haven't seen it with their own eyes, they've heard a lot about it. The Annan clean coal and Annan rice sold on the market in Yacheng today, as well as the Annan hard labor in the mountains and plains of Sanya, are said to have been snatched back by the Haihan militia in the Annan Kingdom. Even if the landlords and wealthy people are aggressive, they do not have enough ability to fight against the Haihan militia armed to the teeth.
In order to complete the armed demonstration without bloodshed, Wang Tom also specially applied to the Executive Committee to bring over a loudspeaker from Victory Port. After the troops set up checkpoints outside the town, some people climbed up the tree and put the loudspeakers high on the branches of the trees.
Wang Tom picked up the microphone and began to persuade people to surrender: "People in the town, listen, people in the town, listen, this is a joint law enforcement team composed of Yacheng government and Haihan Executive Committee. You are now surrounded! Everyone Put down your weapons and surrender immediately! Any resistance will be treated as rebellion! We will only arrest the culprits. As long as the followers have not done any serious crimes, they will not be punished! Now I give you half an hour to leave the town and surrender. Anyone who remains in the town after half an hour will be treated as a bandit!" A few minutes later, some people began to walk out of the town and surrendered to the militiamen guarding the perimeter. Although they had the courage to resist the ordinary clerks sent by the Haihan people, they would not be so stupid as long as their brains were not burnt out to confront this army with live ammunition. Half an hour later, the militiamen divided into four groups and entered Fenghuang Town. They found that the town was indeed empty, and they all chose to surrender.
"They are all people who are greedy for life and afraid of death!" Wang Tom complained disdainfully as he looked at the prisoners who were being inspected one by one by the militiamen.
When the naturalized civil servants were attacked here a few days ago, the people in this town said that they would beat Haihan's people whenever they came here, but now it seems that there is no such thing. The exceptions are just a bunch of cowards. Nothing happened during this process, which made Wang Tom feel a little boring.
According to the situation known in advance, all those who participated in the previous conflicts among these people will be escorted to Yacheng to be tried by the magistrate. According to the agreement between the two parties, these unscrupulous people will be sentenced to heavy fines for various crimes - the so-called heavy fines, that is, punishments severe enough to make them bankrupt. These people either sold their land to pay fines and left this land of right and wrong, or they were arrested and thrown into Yacheng prison, and then transferred to Sanya for hard labor. As for the very few lucky people who were not liquidated in this disaster, I am afraid it will be difficult for them to have enough courage to hold on to their land and continue to stay in Phoenix Town. It is better to sell the land and leave here now than to be like other people. That way in the end you will gain nothing and still be charged.
As for whether these forcibly evicted people will hate Haihan, or even embark on a path of complete opposition to Haihan, the executive committee is not worried at all. If the Time Travel Group wants to expand outward, the interests of a large number of people will inevitably be harmed and they will become opponents of the Haihan system. However, in the process, a considerable number of vested interests will also be supported, and they will try their best to Maintain this new social system.
Nowadays, almost all the areas under the jurisdiction of Yazhou are controlled by Haihan. Those who want to confront Haihan are basically unlikely to succeed in the southern part of Qiongzhou Island. It is not easy to provoke officials from Qiongzhou City in the north to cause trouble, because in Haihan In addition to the Han people, there is also a shell of the Yazhou government, and now the entire Qiongzhou Island knows that the Yacheng government has become rich and powerful with the support of the Haihan people, and its overall strength has even surpassed that of Qiongzhou City. No one is willing to easily Offend Yacheng.
As for making trouble in the mainland, it is even more unlikely to happen. Haihan is now a righteous businessman named and praised by the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. He organizes militia groups to quell the bandits, provides relief to victims in various parts of the province, and also guides bankrupt people to farm overseas for cultivation, one after another. It is a righteous act worthy of being mentioned in a memorial. Of course, the most important thing is that Haihan's various donations to the government far exceeded that of ordinary businessmen. In just the first month after Wang Zunde took office, the Cliff Office donated seven sums of money totaling just over ten thousand taels to the Governor's Mansion in the name of disaster relief and poverty alleviation, building bridges and paving roads, and condolences to the garrison troops.
The Guangdong Office in Guangzhou has built Haihan's reputation extremely well. It has been carrying out various forms of public relations activities almost non-stop, and the public reviews are mostly positive. If a group of bankrupt landowners from Qiongzhou Island go to Guangzhou to cause trouble, claiming that the Haihan people are harming the countryside, not only will they not get sympathy, they will probably be accused of spreading rumors to cause trouble and slander good people.
As long as the Haihan Executive Committee does not show its banner to establish political power, it will be difficult for the Ming Dynasty officials to find a reason to take action against Haihan - could it be that the Haihan people do too much business and pay too many taxes? At least in the eyes of the current governors of Guangdong and Guangxi, these descendants of Han people are better at handling things than the Portuguese living in Haojingao.
Speaking of the Portuguese, after several days of repeated discussions, the Macau Council finally sent an envoy to Wanshan Port to inform the local garrison that they had agreed to Haihan's request to hire military instructors in Macau. Of course, for the sake of fair trade, the Council also required Haihan to open the ports in Sanya to Portuguese merchant ships.
When the news reached the base camp, Enrique, the special envoy who rushed to Port Victory from Macau for the second time, had only arrived in Hong Kong for two days. This resolution of the Macau Council has undoubtedly greatly reduced the difficulty of discussing in-depth cooperation between the two parties. The Executive Committee readily agreed to allow Portuguese merchant ships to enter and exit Sanya New Port starting from October, and to establish long-term commercial stations and warehouses there, and to freely move in and out of Sanya New Port. Trade with various merchants arriving at the port.
This decision was a blessing in disguise for the Portuguese who had just lost Hoi An, and the various conditions of Sanya New Port were significantly better than those of Hoi An Port. Even an old sea dog like Enrique, who had been to ports around the world, could not It's hard to find fault. Of course, the most important thing is that the port under the rule of the Haihan people has implemented a very preferential free port system. There is no pressure from tariffs. All kinds of goods that could only be purchased in the mainland can actually be purchased in Sanya. Some goods are due to differences in origin and tariffs. The reason is that it is even cheaper than the Portuguese purchase price in Guangzhou.
Of course, there are gains and losses. The Portuguese chose to accept the preferential conditions offered by the Haihan people, which was equivalent to giving up their interests in South Vietnam. After receiving a promise from the Executive Committee that the safety of life and property of all Portuguese people in South Vietnam would be reasonably taken care of, Enrique asked his servant to board a ship heading south from the Ming Dynasty Maritime Merchant to go to South Vietnam to send a message to the local Portuguese organization—— Portugal gave up its continued support for the South Vietnamese regime and instead maintained a neutral attitude, stopped all forms of military assistance, and only maintained the most basic trade status with the South Vietnamese court.
As for the South Vietnam issue, the Executive Committee also gave the good-faced Portuguese a step down as appropriate: after North Vietnam unified Annan, the commercial port acquired by Hai Han in the area south of Hue Province must be given to Portuguese merchants and ships. that power.
Enrique believed that this agreement could allow Portugal to recover the losses caused by the destruction of Hoi An City in the future, but he did not know that the Executive Committee had also laid landmines in this agreement. In the current planning for the east coast of the Indochina Peninsula, the Executive Committee has only planned two large commercial ports, namely Da Nang and Quy Nhon. However, further south of these two ports, the military has already moved Cam Ranh Port included in the military expansion plan. According to this agreement, the Port of Cam Ranh, which is used for military purposes, will not allow the Portuguese to intervene in the future, and Cam Ranh is located further south and can easily cut off Portuguese merchant ships from the shipping routes between Manchuria and Indochina. In other words, if the executive committee wants to strangle Portugal in the future, it can basically do it at any time.
Enrique had no idea about the hidden malice of the Haihan Executive Committee. Although he had been to various ports on the east coast of Indochina, he simply could not imagine that Haihan would set an uninhabited place as the future maritime military base. This is of course also related to the fact that Enrique’s contact with the Haihan people was too late. If he could have established a relationship with the Haihan people about a year earlier, he would have realized that this group of people’s talent in land reclamation is simply unparalleled, including Portugal’s Among the old European colonial countries in China, their colonial methods and vision still seemed too immature in front of the Haihan people.
(End of chapter)