Chapter 488: Zhongzhong
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 enough 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 counties and counties in Hebei.
In the system of the Taishan Army, the position of commander Shi of each army is very important, and he can directly consult 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.
In these documents about the history 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 implement the land policy of the Political Council.
The original policy stated that this time the land was 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 the land, that is, dividing all the land. This is definitely contrary to the policy spirit of Zhengshitang.
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, the 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 also be a farmer.
They took advantage of the window period when the policy was implemented in local areas, 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 tribes 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, if you look across the 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 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 Farm 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 heads of Lishe and Guizhou through land distribution and determine the basic base of the Taishan Army.
Then this field must be divided no matter what.
But they couldn't identify which homesteaders were the original powerful ones, so they simply expropriated all the land and divided it.
Seeing this, Zhang Chong's original anger disappeared.
It would have been four or five years ago when Zhang Chong came here. If he saw that the people below were acting righteously and secretly, he would have dealt with these county officials long ago.
But as he gained more experience in handling government affairs, Zhang Chong also understood.
Are you saying that those county officials who resorted to extreme measures deliberately wanted to go against the Political Affairs Hall? No, the actual result is that they understand the principles and essence of the policy and then make changes based on the actual situation.
Although this contingency seems to be contrary to the provisions of the policy itself in terms of results.
But that’s the reality of work. Any predetermined policy cannot be applied exactly without more and less. All executors must use their own experience and wisdom to judge actual emotions and 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 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 with powerful people, there cannot be peaceful unity. 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; radical means struggle, vitality, and destruction. Both of these methods must be used by the Taishan Army, both of which must be tough.
As the saying goes, there is no establishment without destruction, there is no overcorrection without correction. 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 to fight 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 put into practice 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 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 sent by Zhangwu County Magistrate Jiao Yong to Bohai Prefect Li Wu. Li Wu couldn't decide, so he transferred this article to Yecheng.
Zhang Chong knew that Jiao Yong was a field official who grew up in the Heji area. His style is close to the people, he loves the people, and he works personally. He has been rated as exceptional and above average 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 a salt-producing land with very few cultivated fields. Therefore, the contradiction between man and land in Zhangwu area is particularly large.
Jiao Yong mentioned such a situation in the above table he gave to the Bohai prefect. 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 accounts was that powerful people sold salt to the Zhongshan area and then exchanged it for food.
But now, powerful people still control this salt trade route. So Jiao Yong decided to let these powerful people only hand over their land, but they could continue to do business. But Jiao Yong obviously underestimated the anger of the Zao slaves.
After they saw that their former masters had fallen, they began to massacre these powerful children and their families. And what about the field officials in various places? He didn't stop it, he even supported it.
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 divided from the Heji area.
Perhaps because of the lessons learned back then, these land-dividing officials generally preferred to kill rather than let go. In the previous division of fields, these officials who divided the fields discovered that as long as they acted against powerful people, even if they killed them, they would not be punished in any way. On the contrary, if there is even the slightest sympathy towards 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 became like this. There is no need to solve the problem softly. 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 also developed inertia in thinking.
Jiao Yong, the magistrate of Zhangwu County, said with concern in his expression:
"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 Sri Lanka have a question, who kills people like crazy, are they bandits or Wang Shi?"
What touched Zhang Chong was not this sentence, because those who kill will always be killed, and those powerful men should have known about this day when they enslaved the Zao slaves.
What Zhang Chong cares about is that this large-scale massacre turned out to be from the bottom up and was not controlled by the Taishan Army.
Zhang Chong had told all the officials before that killing was okay, but the punishment must be clear and canonical.
A vendetta in the countryside will inevitably lead to endless killings, retaliation, 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.
Just processing these two secret notes, an hour and a half has passed. The chef outside the verandah has already handed in the prepared meal.
A stack of flax cakes and a plate of mutton. They are all Zhang Chong’s favorite food.
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 a gap between policy theory and practice, a game between the top and the bottom, they are both acceptable deviations. The content of the report that Zhang Chong read next made him completely intolerable.
This secret memorial 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 allocation is mainly aimed at the powerful and powerful families in Hebei. These people not only have land, but also have piles of wealth of all kinds.
That's natural. In the specific field division, the question of how to divide it arises.
Generally speaking, the methods used by chief officials in various places vary according to the situation, but they are generally the following.
One is based on status. That means who cultivated the land originally, and which family you are a tenant or slave of, then the land will be distributed to whom.
There is also an equal division based on household registration. Unify the land, unite the land. This is also the most commonly used allocation method.
Then it will be divided according to the specific situation. For example, if your family has a lot of labor, then you can share more. If the labor is less or the conditions are good, the points will be less.
Then it is divided according to special personnel. For example, if there is a family member who joins the field protection team, the land will be divided first and then the good land will be divided. And the activists who emerged in the struggle to divide the land divided the land first, and also divided the good land.
But these are fields, so it’s better to divide them up. Some things such as livestock and farm tools can only be drawn for points.
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 it's geographical connections, that is, neighbors and acquaintances. Or it’s just karma, for example, they all work as drummers.
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 first points to the field guard team? Then let the family members serve as field guards in name. If you don’t want to do this, there is still a way.
The policy also says that the enthusiasm that emerges from the struggle will be divided into good fields and many. So who is active? Isn’t it the people like them talking about it?
Isn't there also a lottery to divide the animals? 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 township officials embarrassed, because how can they not want good things? Obviously I was the first to defeat the powerful, but in the end my score was not as good as the one who waited, depended, and 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, he withdrew from the subsequent division of land and materials.
But several times in a row, he didn't get any share. And when the leaders of Guizhou saw that these 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 complain about it themselves, they will be complained about by their families when they go back.
What kind of official are you doing? You are not as good as the idle guy in the company.
As a result, more and more township 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 is the two mouths of 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 found 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.
(End of chapter)