Beiyang reactionaries

"Except for some special areas, most provinces in my country currently have no private arable land. Even if there is some private arable land, many of them have been abandoned, and the recycling time stipulated by the government will soon be reached. But such private arable land is not much now."

Minister of Agriculture Hu Ziang reported.

Zhang Lan, a cabinet member in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, is 72 years old this year.After Duan Xun came to power in Beijing, there were regulations for cadres at the level of cabinet members, that is, they must retire at the age of 70.Only those who have entered the Standing Committee of the People's Party can continue to reach the age of 75.Zhang Lan retired in the second half of last year because of her age.Of course, there is a shortage of talents in China now. A cabinet member like Zhang Lan who has been in charge of China's agricultural development all year round must not just retire like this and do nothing.Therefore, although Zhang Lan has retired, he will still participate in the formulation of China's agricultural policy as an agricultural expert.

This is the case with many veteran cadres at present.

Not only Zhang Lan, but also Song Hanzhang, who retired together last year, is also in this situation.Although he is retired, he still holds some institutional positions in NGOs.Some veteran cadres and experts serve on the Monetary Committee and the Financial Committee, and serve as consultants to the Ministry of Commerce and the Bank of China.

After Zhang Lan retired, Hu Ziang, 45, served as the acting minister of the Ministry of Agriculture.

"No?"

"Yes."

Beard nodded.

He took out a statistical report, handed it to Duan Xun, and said, "Chairman, in the past 20 years, because of the policies of the Ministry of Agriculture, all the landowners and self-cultivators in our country have either gone bankrupt or are on the verge of bankruptcy. Especially in the past five or six years , the price of agricultural products has been kept very low by us, and the price of agricultural products has not increased in the past 20 years. However, the prices of other products have been increasing. Therefore, most landlords and self-cultivated farmers have chosen to give up self-cultivated land. In the past five or six years, most of the In order to avoid land tax, landlords and self-cultivated farmers either abandon their cultivated land, or register directly with local government agencies and dump their cultivated land to the government.”

Duan Xun looked at the Ministry of Agriculture report and nodded repeatedly.

Suppressing the price of agricultural products will do great harm to the countryside.There is a saying called "cheap grain hurts farmers", which is the truth.China currently collects land tax in two different modes.

For those farmers who lease the land from the government, that is, the farmers who get the land from the government.The land tax collected by the government is public grain, which means that the land tax collected is grain.Because what China is currently trying to solve is the food problem, so most of the arable land is planted with grain, which is required by the government.Some other agricultural products, including vegetables, are mainly grown by the Construction Corps.The government must first ensure the problem of eating, not the problem of eating well.Therefore, for ordinary farmers, what the government requires is to plant the prescribed staple food.Staple foods include rice, wheat, corn, and sweet potatoes.Therefore, for them, the government mainly uses food as land tax.

But it is different for landlords and self-cultivators.

The government takes money.

These landlords and self-cultivating farmers, because they need to pay land taxes with paper money, must first sell their grain and exchange it for money.But the current situation is that the government has kept the purchase price of agricultural products very low and has not increased for 20 years.The government prohibits private grain trading in order to further squeeze the countryside. It was okay when the 20s just started, because the prices of most products were also low at that time.

However, since the end of the 20s, China issued a large number of banknotes. Although the Second World War digested those banknotes, domestic prices still rose a lot.And economic development itself is accompanied by inflation.In other words, as long as the economy develops, annual inflation is necessary.Since the end of the 20s, the annual inflation has even reached 20% at its peak, which is even considered a hyperinflation.As a result, China's paper currency depreciated a lot.

Paper money has depreciated greatly, and prices have risen a lot, but the prices of agricultural products have not increased in 20 years.The result is that in the past five or six years, the land tax has been higher than the total price of the grain produced on the land.For farmers who lease government land, although prices have risen, food prices have not risen, which directly affects their quality of life.But because what they hand in is public grain, the impact on their lives will not be too great, at least there is no problem with food and clothing.

But yeoman farmers are different.

They want to pay land tax. In the past, it was enough to sell part of the grain, and they could keep some.However, with the depreciation of the currency, the land tax paid by paper currency has increased a lot.As a result, all the grain produced on the land was sold, and the land tax could not be paid.Even after completing the land tax, there is not enough food left over.That is to say, self-cultivating farmers can no longer afford to pay the land tax, and it has really reached the point where they cannot solve food and clothing.

Then there are the landlords.

Like self-cultivating farmers, they pay as much as they plant.They have more arable land than self-cultivating farmers, and lose more money in a year than self-cultivating farmers.The more the land, the more the compensation. As a result, most of the landlords have left the countryside in recent years, and the arable land is no longer needed, and they are directly dumped to the government.Put your money into the city.

you could put it that way.

The rapid development of China's economy and the rapid development of China's industry in the past 20 years, in addition to good opportunities, just caught up with the Great Depression.But it can be said that in rural China, Chinese farmers contribute the most.

The purchase price of grain has not risen at all in the past 20 years, but the selling price of grain has more than tripled.The Chinese government uses the scissors to provide tens of billions of yuan to the industry.It can be said that China's rural areas have not changed much in the past 20 years, and the living standards of farmers are only in a state of food and clothing.

"That is to say, in most of our provinces, there are very few privately owned cultivated land?"

"Yes. In recent years, many landlords and self-cultivators have given up their original land. Those big landlords have gone to big cities, and small and medium-sized landlords have gone to small cities. And self-cultivators have registered on the register and thrown their land to the government. Then want to lease the land from the government.”

The land policy of more than 20 years has really eliminated the owner farmers.

Twenty years ago, when the Ministry of Agriculture just made statistics on the national land, there were more than 20 million mu of private arable land, nearly 3 million mu.However, after more than 4 years of agricultural policies, landlords have fled the countryside one after another, and a large number of self-cultivating farmers have gone bankrupt.

During this process, for many self-cultivating farmers, it is a very unwilling thing to recall.But the government has used such a policy to eliminate private farmland.

Of course, this is all in a peaceful way.

The frontiers are not so peaceful.China's settlement of the cultivated land in Outer Mongolia, Hulunbeier, Tangnu Wulianghai, Xinjiang, and Tibet is like raising the butcher's knife.How many ethnic minority nobles in the frontier areas have been resolved by the government.Because the nobles there are real slave-holding nobles, with large tracts of land in their hands.

Duan Xun was merciless towards those people.Those nobles who did not support government policies, Duan Xun carried out humane destruction.In this way, China has solved the problem of private arable land.

"This is the case in most provinces. There are only some special regions in my country that are different. They have special histories and special policies. The first ones are Hong Kong and Macao. In many aspects, the policies are not exactly the same as those of other provinces. Although we have regained the legislative power and executive power in these areas, we have also retained many of the original laws and regulations. They are all to maintain the relationship with the Commonwealth of Nations and Portuguese-speaking countries. Close connection. So a large amount of private arable land is reserved in the local area.”

"Um,"

Hong Kong and Macau have become a special region.

This is for historical reasons.

Duan Xun hopes to use them to maintain ties with the Commonwealth of Nations and Portuguese-speaking countries, which belong to my country's current free trade area with a very high degree of openness.Since it is a free trade area with a high degree of openness, some policies are different from those of other provinces.

"Annan province is another place."

"I know the situation in Annan Province."

There is no need for Hu Ziang to tell you about Annan Province, because Duan Xun is more familiar with Hu Ziang.Although China controls Annan Province, it mainly controls the urban areas, and the vast rural areas are still under control.

The domestic agricultural policy cannot be implemented in Annan Province yet.

"Zi'ang (Huzi'ang), I'm looking for you this time to tell you about our country's upcoming land policy."

Hu Ziang and the others were Sichuan students sponsored by Duan Xun when he was the governor of Sichuan.

The relationship is very close.

Duan Xun said: "The time was not ripe before, but now the time is ripe. I plan to implement the state-owned system of land throughout the country, and no longer own private cultivated land, except for a few special areas of course. The country will conduct statistics on cultivated land and rural population again, and then Carry out a nationwide land distribution. This kind of land distribution is a lease model. This time the land distribution should be stable for at least 30 to 40 years. The specific plan is jointly carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Your Ministry of Agriculture is the main one, and you are in charge of it.”

"Chairman, I will go back immediately and organize people to make a plan."

"Okay. After formulating the plan, submit it to the Supreme Committee for review."

"Yes."

748

"The United States wants to open up the European battlefield?"

"Yes. The United States has conveyed this meaning to us."

In the second half of 1943, the anti-fascist alliance moved more and more, and its advantages on the battlefield also became greater and greater.

The Soviet Union began a major counterattack across the country.Of course, this is not so easy. The German army has suffered successive failures since the Battle of Stalingrad.Withdrew from Stalingrad, evacuated from the Caucasus, and retreated to the Dnieper River.The same is true of the size of German forces in the USSR.

So far, the size of the German army and the servant army in the Soviet Union has been less than 400 million people.Compared with the 800 million troops maintained at the peak, I don't know how much less.But even if there are less than 400 million troops left, the German army's combat effectiveness is still very strong.Every step the Soviet Union took, it had to pay a lot of casualties.It should be said that even now, every time the Soviet army wiped out [-] German troops, it would have to pay twice the casualties.Every victory of the Soviet Union was filled with human lives.

But even with heavy casualties, the Soviet Union advanced step by step.

regain lost ground.

The Soviet troops in Moscow and Leningrad have now started a major counterattack and recovered large tracts of land.Of course, compared to regaining these lands, the most beneficial thing for the Soviet Union is to win a large population.

There are 6000 to [-] million people in the Soviet-occupied areas. Taking back these areas can greatly alleviate the current shortage of people in the Soviet Union.

This is the case on the Soviet-German battlefield, and the other battlefields are not far behind.