Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

The students were concerned about the impact of rural development on cities and the impact on China's development. However, for some students and activist farmers from rural areas, it was the first time they heard that rural areas were so important.

Even Yang Yonghui was lost in thought as he looked at the notes in his hand.

Previously, Wei Hongjun had discussed the landlord class's obstruction of government taxation and peasant income, as well as the issue of increasing government revenue and developing heavy industry. But now, Wei Hongjun was discussing rural issues from another perspective.

That is the issue of industrial development and rural development.

The angle is novel, but it makes sense.

"Teacher Wei, what do you think are the problems in rural areas? How can rural areas develop? Rural China has always been in this state. It's impossible to achieve major development in a short period of time."

The student who just proposed that cities are economic, political and talent centers raised the question again.

Wei Hongjun looked at the roster and said with a smile, "Your name is Zhang Chao."

This student was very quick-witted and fond of thinking. Wei Hongjun looked at his profile and found that he was 21 years old and a student at Peking University. This level of education was truly rare for a poor county like Sheng County in Shanxi.

He returned home at the end of June this year to work, but unexpectedly the July 7 Incident occurred, so he was unable to return to school. Coincidentally, Yang Yonghui was organizing a guerrilla force to fight the Japanese, so he also joined the Caoyangzhuang guerrilla force.

Wei Hongjun was pleasantly surprised to see a Peking University student in Sheng County. He was also flattered by the fact that he kept calling him "Teacher Wei." There were few college students in that era, let alone students from Peking University.

If this is cultivated well, it will definitely be of great use in the future.

"You raise a good question. But it's a huge question. Not only me, but even our party is looking for an answer.

Let me first talk about the situation in the countryside. Our Party divides the countryside into three categories: landlords, wealthy households, middle peasants, self-cultivating farmers, semi-self-cultivating farmers, poor peasants, and hired farmhands. I will start with the poor peasants and hired farmhands.

"In the countryside, a poor peasant family with five people needs several hundred kilograms of grain a year. This is just enough to fill their stomachs and avoid starvation. They also need a lot of wild vegetables and other supplements to avoid starvation. However, if these tenants want to keep a few hundred kilograms of grain for themselves, they have to cultivate ten acres of farmland from the landlord. This is only in a year with good weather and good harvests. Because tenants rent land, they have to pay about 60% of the harvest in rent and taxes. In some places, some greedy landlords even pay 70%, or even 80%.

If a disaster struck, a kind landlord might even allow them to avoid starvation and even allow them to incur debts. However, a ruthless landlord would either starve to death or incur a debt they could never repay, ultimately forcing them to sign a bond to sell themselves and lose their freedom. In most parts of our country, over a third of the poor peasants were this poor, and in some severely affected areas, over half were poor.

"Then there are the self-employed and semi-self-employed peasants. Self-employed peasants own a small amount of land, and their families work hard to make ends meet. Semi-self-employed peasants own very little land, and in addition to cultivating their own fields, they also need to rent land to make ends meet. Their situation is actually not much different from that of poor peasants. Their so-called "making ends meet" only applies in times of peace and prosperity, when the weather is good and the harvest is good. In the event of even the slightest bad year, they can only borrow high-interest loans from the village to survive. Unable to repay the loans, they have no choice but to sell their land, eventually becoming poor peasants, or even signing an indenture to sell themselves. Therefore, the lives of self-employed and semi-self-employed peasants are also precarious. If the weather is not favorable, they will go from self-employed and semi-self-employed peasants to poor peasants."

"The difference between middle peasants and self-cultivating farmers isn't that big. Middle peasants are also a type of self-cultivating farmers, but they can only be said to have a slightly better life among them. Rich peasants, on the other hand, not only farm the land themselves but also hire people to work for them. The difference between rich peasants and middle peasants, besides the size of their land, is whether they hire people to work for them. If a rich peasant doesn't work themselves but hires people to do the work or rents out his land to others for cultivation, then he is a landlord."

"You can see that. In terms of proportion, the majority of farmers in rural areas are self-cultivating farmers, semi-self-cultivating farmers, poor farmers, and hired farmers. In most rural areas, this group of people accounts for 60% to 70% or even 80% to 90%. After the founding of the Republic of China, the number of bankrupt farmers in rural areas increased sharply, mainly due to the bankruptcy of semi-self-cultivating farmers and self-cultivating farmers."

"The result is that the landlords take away most of the rural wealth, and the landlords have the smallest population. No matter how wealthy the landlords are, their population is limited. They also have limited food, clothing, and other necessities."

"Let me do a simple calculation. A village of 100 households has an annual income of 90 yuan. The landlord takes 10 yuan, and the rest goes to everyone else. So, at the end of the year, 90 yuan is enough for the other farmers to barely make ends meet, and many even go hungry. And if the landlord takes yuan, his family can't possibly spend it all.

They could live comfortably on 10 yuan a year, or even 20 yuan at most. They would save the remaining 10 or 90 yuan. But if the landlord took yuan and gave the remaining yuan to other farmers, each family would have less than a yuan, but for the farmers, it was a considerable sum. They could use it to eat, buy cloth, or even farm tools. So, all the money would be spent.

"Especially in impoverished rural areas, many farmers lack farm tools. If this money could be used to purchase farm tools, it would become their property. Over a few years, perhaps many farmers would even be able to buy oxen. Wouldn't that enrich the entire countryside? Only when farmers and rural areas prosper can our country truly prosper. If only landlords own rural wealth, the countryside will never prosper. Only when other farmers prosper together can the countryside truly prosper."

"This is why we want to reduce rent and interest. We want to prevent poor peasants from being crushed by land rent, and to prevent self-cultivating farmers from being oppressed by usury. We want to enable our self-cultivating farmers, semi-self-cultivating farmers, and poor peasants to accumulate wealth. This is our purpose in reducing rent and interest."

Some people understood what Wei Hongjun said.

But some were still in a state of confusion. Zhang Chao was indeed the most knowledgeable, educated, and intelligent student among the group. Not only did he understand Wei Hongjun's ideas, he also had many of his own ideas.

Zhang Chao was different from other students. He was a student at Peking University, where many underground Communist Party members were active and had great influence among students. He had personally participated in the December 1935th Movement of 129. Therefore, he was familiar with the ideas of the Red Army and the Eighth Route Army. However, he had not expected Wei Hongjun to analyze rent and interest reductions from such a profound and economic perspective.

And it can also justify itself.

Chapter 036 Rural Training Institute 3

“So how should we proceed with rent and interest reduction?”

Yang Yonghui asked Wei Hongjun.

Yang Yonghui was truly astonished. A grassroots political commander in the Red Army could be so brilliant, speaking eloquently from a political and economic perspective. What about the senior Red Army commanders? Yang Yonghui now felt a sense of regret. During the Great Revolution, Yang Yonghui had many opportunities to meet with prominent CCP leaders. There were also many CCP members in Shanxi at the time.

Many of them were very famous throughout the country at that time.

It was just that his background made him reject their ideas at the time, so he did not communicate with them much. Or it could be said that Yang Yonghui at the time belonged to the right wing of the Kuomintang who opposed the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.

But now Yang Yonghui really regrets it.

Wei Hongjun said: "Before I talk about how to carry out the work of rent and interest reduction, let me tell you a story. One time, our people went to a rural area and overthrew the largest local landlord, distributed his land to the local farmers, and even put him on public trial. The local people were very happy, and many of them later enthusiastically joined the army and supported our policies. They became the most steadfast bastion of our Red Army, and they did not change this until the fall of the Central Soviet Area. However, later this rural work team went to another village and used the same method to capture the largest local landlord. But the result was completely opposite. When they put this landlord on public trial, the local people not only did not support us, but also strongly excluded us and even hated us. Our work team didn't understand what was going on. Why did the experience that was successful in other villages not work in another village? Who can tell me?"

"Then I will speak first."

Yang Yonghui stood up. Wei Hongjun said, "Principal Yang, please speak."

"Different villages have different situations. Take our Sheng County, for example. The Zheng family of Xiaquan Town is the largest local landlord and the richest landlord in Sheng County. Their family does not have a good reputation in Xiaquan Town. They take advantage of every opportunity to lend money at high interest rates to local people and eventually swallow up their land. In Xiaquan Town, there are not just one or two families that have been destroyed by the Zheng family. Many small and medium-sized landlords have also been killed by them. The Zheng family is such a tyrannical landlord in the local area and has a lot of public resentment. If anyone were to deal with them, the local people would be very happy. But not all villages are like this.

For example, the Song family of Old Master Song in Songjiazhuang was the largest landlord in the village. However, 80% of the residents in Songjiazhuang were surnamed Song, many of whom were close relatives. Old Master Song was the most senior and respected in Songjiazhuang. Old Master Song's land rent was among the lowest in Sheng County, at around 30%. And unlike other landlords, they didn't engage in usury. Instead, they offered loans in Songjiazhuang at very low interest rates. In years of famine, they would forgive some debts and even lend grain to the local people. If anyone went to Songjiazhuang and confiscated Old Master Song's property, the people would object.

"Principal Yang is absolutely right."

Yang Yonghui is indeed not the kind of nerd who is ignorant of general affairs.

On the contrary, there is still a lot of experience.

Wei Hongjun gave him an example, and he understood what was happening. He put away his smile and said, "This isn't a story I made up. On the contrary, it's something that actually happened in our former Soviet areas. Many of us are easily drawn into past successes at work. Because of this success, we often treat it as a golden sword, believing that as long as we do this, we won't make mistakes in the future. But thinking this way is bound to lead to mistakes."

This is something that must be avoided at work.”

"It's like someone who's very successful at growing rice in paddy fields. He'll think all arable land can be used to grow rice, and then he'll go to dry land without water and insist on growing rice there. Don't laugh."

Wei Hongjun said seriously, "This isn't a funny thing, because it's a mistake many people make. Not just you, I myself, too. It's like how our Party's early leaders blindly believed in the Soviet Union's success, believing that as long as they captured the cities, the revolution would succeed. But bloody lessons taught us this was a mistake. That's why the CCP proposed 'surrounding the cities with the countryside' and abandoned the 'city-centered theory.' Sometimes, without realizing it, we all make these seemingly unlikely mistakes."

"Teacher Wei, how do you think we can avoid this kind of mistake?"

Zhang Chao's questions always made Wei Hongjun very satisfied.

Because it goes straight to the core.

Wei Hongjun wrote "Oppose Book Worship" on the blackboard, and next to it, "No Investigation, No Right to Speak." He then explained, "The Communist Party of China once wrote an article titled 'Oppose Book Worship.' As the name suggests, it opposes doing everything by rote. The first subheading of the article is 'No Investigation, No Right to Speak.' This is actually the guiding principle for our rural work. When we do rural work, we can't just read from books, nor can we rely solely on experience. Both theory and experience are very important in our work. But if we want to avoid mistakes and do a good job in rural work, the first step is investigation."

"Investigation is the most important step in all work. Without it, success is difficult to guarantee. Just as no two leaves are exactly alike, no two villages are exactly alike. To work in the countryside, our work teams must learn to investigate. We must first understand the people we are working with before we can proceed to the next step."

"Only after the investigation can we summarize and analyze the specific situation, so that we can come up with the best solution. As for how to investigate, analyze, summarize, and come up with the best solution, we will talk about it in the next class."

"Whoa Whoah"

The lecture is over.

However, many people still did not leave, and continued to discuss the content of the lecture with each other. Yang Yonghui came to Wei Hongjun, nodded to him, and said, "Political Commissar Wei, the lecture was very good."

"It was my first time facing so many intellectuals, and my heart was beating fast."

"Political Commissar Wei is being modest."

At this time, Zhang Chao walked over.

He said to Wei Hongjun, "Teacher Wei, workers and peasants are what your party values ​​most. What about the others?"

"Zhang Chao, how should I put this? For us, we represent workers and peasants. But those who do not represent other classes are not our comrades or our friends. Seriously speaking, many senior leaders of our party are not from the working class or the peasant class. But they still became senior leaders of our party. The purpose of our party is to unite all those who can be united. As long as a person is willing to fight for the interests of the poor people in the world, then he is our comrade. If he is willing to fight the devils with us, then he is our friend. Just like in the countryside, those traitorous landlords who surrendered to the Japanese are our targets for elimination, those local tyrants and evil gentry who are rampant in the countryside are the targets of our party's crackdown, and the majority of landlords are the ones our party wants to unite with. As for the enlightened landlords, we are our friends or comrades."

"So we don't reject anyone who is willing to join us in fighting for the well-being of the poor and for the prosperity of our country and nation. We won't reject anyone who wants to be our comrade or friend based on their background. The Chinese Communist Party made a very classic statement in its article 'Analysis of the Various Classes in Chinese Society.' We revolutionaries must know how to distinguish between enemies and friends. This is the most important issue in the revolution. So what we need to do in the revolution is to unite more friends."

Zhang Chao nodded.

Said: "Thank you, Teacher Wei."

"It should."

"Teacher Wei, can I read the articles you mentioned?"

"You want to read articles written by the Chinese Communist Party?"

"Yes."

"I don't have the complete article yet. This needs to be given to us by our division or even headquarters. However, I can write down the general content. You can take a look at this first."

"Thank you, Teacher Wei."

Chapter 037 Gearing up

1937 11 Month 10 Day.

Yang Yonghui came to Wei Hongjun with a grim expression.

Over the past ten days, Wei Hongjun has been giving lectures. He first explained the necessity of rent and interest reductions, then the methods for implementing them. Specifically, he explained how to conduct surveys, analyze and summarize the results, and finally, how to formulate a work plan.

We have started discussing policy issues in recent days.

That is to what extent rent and interest reductions in Sheng County are best.

Wei Hongjun is also studying.

The students here were all native Shengxian residents. They came from different towns and villages. They were more familiar with the rural conditions of Shengxian than Wei Hongjun. From their stories, Wei Hongjun learned more and more about Shengxian.

In addition to discussing rent and interest reductions, Wei Hongjun, as a grassroots Red Army cadre, also shared Chairman Mao's writings and the policies of the Red Army and the Eighth Route Army with these people. Among them were twenty-six students and eighteen peasant activists. If all of them were recruited into the organization, it would be a huge boon to the development of the Sheng County Party organization.

It can provide 44 qualified rural cadres and grassroots cadres to the local government of Sheng County.

In the war behind enemy lines, combat was crucial, as was base area construction. The two complemented each other: base area construction provided logistics and manpower for the army, while combat safeguarded base area construction.

Wei Hongjun is very satisfied with the results of his lectures.

These students began to learn how to address rural issues and became increasingly interested in the Communist Party of China and the Eighth Route Army. Wei Hongjun, relying on memory, wrote down some of Chairman Mao's important articles, which were circulated among these students and had a very positive effect.

Of course Wei Hongjun is busy, and others are also busy.

The guerrilla army in Zhangjiagou Village had been recruiting and training these days. The same was true for the independent unit in Caoyangzhuang. After Li Wanfu received four cadres from Wei Hongjun's army, he also began new training for the independent unit.

In fact, it means accepting the military discipline and political education of the Eighth Route Army.

Moreover, since the Japanese army was defeated by the guerrilla army on the battlefield, many forces that were originally on the sidelines have begun to support the anti-Japanese war.

As a result, the Caoyangzhuang guerrillas, now an independent guerrilla army team, obtained a lot of anti-Japanese funds and weapons and ammunition.

Li Shiping is actually the busiest.

Not only did they have to worry about recruiting soldiers, but they also had to restore and develop the Party organization. They also had to prepare for rent and interest reductions. Although Yang Yonghui had stepped in, he wasn't supernatural and couldn't handle everything. Wei Hongjun's division of labor was that Li Shiping would be responsible for rent and interest reductions in Sheng County's third district, encompassing the rural areas surrounding Zhangjiagou Village. Yang Yonghui would be responsible for rent and interest reductions in Sheng County's fourth and fifth districts.

There was a lot of excitement.

After retreating to the county town, the Japanese army had actually been asking for help. Unfortunately, the Japanese army had just finished the Battle of Xinkou and was concentrating its forces to start the Battle of Taiyuan. They were ready to drive the main force of the Nationalist army out of the east bank of the Yellow River in one fell swoop.

The same is true on other battlefields.

A large Japanese army swept through Shandong, concentrating its forces to attack Xuzhou. The Nationalist army concentrated a large number of troops in Xuzhou, preparing to fight the Battle of Xuzhou. Another large number of Japanese troops landed in Shanghai, where the Battle of Shanghai was in full swing. Even after the Battle of Shanghai, the Japanese army still had Nanjing, the capital of the Nationalist government, as its target. After these major battles, there was the even more unprecedented Battle of Wuhan.

Therefore, the Japanese army really can't spare many troops at present. In fact, due to the lack of troops on the front line, Japan is currently urgently expanding its troops.

Unlike the rapid advance on the front line, the Japanese army failed to capture many counties in the rear due to insufficient manpower. Some counties were captured but were retaken. There were too many such incidents, so even if the Japanese army paid attention to their own rear issues, Sheng County would not be theirs. At present, the Eighth Route Army has captured many counties in the eastern and southern Shanxi regions. Sheng County has not yet been captured by the Eighth Route Army, and the situation is much better than other places, so the Japanese army has no reinforcements to support them in the short term. Therefore, the Japanese army in Sheng County has been obedient until now.

"Principal Yang, what's wrong?"

"Taiyuan has fallen."

"That's nothing strange. After the failure of the Xinkou Campaign, the fall of Taiyuan was only a matter of time."

"But now there are not many large troops east of the Yellow River."