Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 537 The Sannong Problem in Beihai Town
After the autumn harvest last year, due to the shortage of large combine harvesters, Beihai Town Machinery Factory began to imitate in batches the McCormick harvesters that appeared in another time and space, and its working efficiency was 4 to 5 times that of manual harvesting.

This thing is relatively simple to make, except that the wood is cast iron, and no precision machining is required. The only high-tech thing is the tooth knife for cutting.

The working principle of the whole machine is that the horses drive the wide wheels of the rear harvester forward, and the wheels are connected to the gears on the bridge chain rake to drive the four windmill leaf-shaped grain dividers to rotate, pushing the ears of wheat into the collection table, and the ears of wheat are in the collection platform. When entering the collection table, the cutter at the front end will cut off the wheat stalks, leaving only a few inches of wheat stubble on the ground.

The maintenance of the horse-drawn harvester is very simple. If the crop divider is broken, the farmers can repair it by themselves;As for the selling price, it was 100 Beihai silver dollars for a set, including two horses.

According to Zhao Liang's plan, the Beihai Town Machinery Factory will imitate the first-generation combine harvester in history this winter, and it will be the one that uses a fuel engine.

The use of large-scale new farm tools is inseparable from the fact that Beihai Town has broken the traditional small-scale peasant economic structure and imitated the organizational form of "collective communes" in another time and space history.The reason why the farmers under Beihai Town were able to accept new things quickly and were willing to buy industrial products was because each natural village adopted the agricultural cooperative method.

The reason why Zhao Xin and Chen Qingsong did this was not because of their foresight, but because of the real conditions of the refugees in the island country at the beginning.Because of the famine, each family lacked labor force, and it was difficult to manage [-] acres of land; moreover, Beihai Town had to recruit soldiers from these people, which further led to the shortage of labor force, so it could only adopt the cooperation and mutual assistance model.Ever since, unified management, unified management, rational use of land, construction of water conservancy and basic construction of farmland have become a natural thing.

The same is true for the early Henan immigrants. The agricultural production technology was backward and the labor force was insufficient, so they could only be forced into this system.However, when immigrants from Shandong and Zhili with relatively abundant family labor arrived in the later period, the principle of allocating land on a family-by-unit basis and dispersing each family for resettlement was adopted, which greatly reduced the ability of clan forces to interfere.

In other words, clan-based small-scale peasant economic land management is not allowed in Beihai Town; more seriously, as long as Beihai Town continues to engage in industrialization, all areas under its rule are not allowed.

We must know that as long as a country or regime enters into industrialization, with the establishment of various systems, it will bring a lot of institutional expenditures; this includes taxes, medical insurance, electricity, water, communications, logistics, etc. costs, as well as This is the "institutional cost".

Because China at the end of the eighteenth century was still an agricultural country in the final analysis, and 3% of the more than 90 million people were rural population, so the institutional costs of industrialization had to be passed on through the countryside, that is, to let the rural population buy and use industrialized goods. It cannot be digested by the urban population alone.

For example, tractors, whose biggest application is agricultural production, have almost no role in cities and towns.Another example is that if every village is connected to electricity, farmers must pay for electricity; if there is no electricity, farmers need to buy horse lanterns made in Beihai Town instead of continuing to use dim oil lamps.

There is a very striking example in the history of another time and space, which can illustrate the contradiction between industrialization and small-scale peasant economy. In 1949, in order to improve farming efficiency, a "double-wheeled double-shared plow" was produced - compared to the wooden plow commonly used by farmers at that time, it was commonly called "iron plow" by the common people, and its price was only 39 yuan .However, no matter how vigorously the government promotes and mobilizes, farmers just don't buy it, and it is not popularized until after the commune.

We must know that China’s small-scale peasant economy model since ancient times has led to the diversification of business including industry and commerce without currency transactions, and farmers do not have the habit of buying with currency; what farm tools they need, they can just find skilled craftsmen in the village to make one, and the price is to exchange for agricultural products.

For example, using the eggs laid by one's own hens to go to the cooperative to exchange matches, this is a barter transaction.Agricultural products and industrial products cannot be monetized in rural areas, so the economic operation mode can only be planned allocation and cannot be marketized.

For the Qing Dynasty’s rural areas in this era, the annexation of land by the gentry and gentry means that ordinary farmers do not have [-] acres of land to manage, and the gentry and gentry who own a large amount of land can hire bankrupts and proletarians in the countryside to save money at a lower price. The way to achieve low-cost operation, lack of motivation for the demand for new farm tools.

(Having said so much, do you understand why collectivization was carried out after the Agrarian Revolution?)

In fact, Zhao Xin kept introducing talents from another time and space, the reason is the same as the "Soviet aid to China" in the history of another time and space.The difference is that Zhao Xin has to spend money to hire people, so the scale is not so large, and the speed of industrial system construction is not so fast.

It has been seven years since Beihai Town was established. The most basic thing is to improve the literacy rate, reduce the proportion of illiterates, and increase skilled workers.With the arrival of 50 new immigrants, the proportion of illiterate and semi-illiterate people rose sharply, accounting for [-]% of Beihai Town's residents.

Faced with such a situation, in addition to expanding basic education and promoting literacy campaigns in natural villages, another solution is to join the Northern Navy and reduce the illiteracy rate through the compulsory learning system of the army.

And the further the North Navy goes south, the more prominent the problem will be, and the corresponding systemic costs will increase sharply.This kind of situation not only exists in Daiqing, but also in East Siberia; it's just that because the territory laid down by Beihai Town is too large, the population of so-called large towns is only a few thousand at most, and the signs are not obvious at present.

In short, as long as Zhao Xin and his companions continue to promote industrialization led by state capital, they will oppose the traditional small-scale peasant economy, and will inevitably become enemies of the landlord and gentry class. The opponent's idea of ​​​​dividing and then going fast.

However, Hong Liangji, the new Deputy Commissioner of the Administrative Office, still has only a half-knowledge of all the above-mentioned things.What he can understand is that his so-called "deputy commissioner" is probably equivalent to the fifth-rank Tongzhi in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he has to control everything except the army.

In the Manchu and Qing dynasties, if a person wanted to become an official, he usually started with a written post. You must know that the official brand Jinshi is actually awarded by a seven-rank county magistrate.Hong Liangji has become a senior official in charge of the Hunchun area from a simple person, and he has entered the ranks of senior officials in Beihai Town.

Throughout the nearly 300-year history of the Qing Dynasty, there are very few officials who can bluntly speak out about the current situation and accuse the emperor of his faults. There are only two people, one is Sun Jiagan, who is very familiar to later generations, and the other is Hong Liangji.However, Hong Liangji in history was stronger than Sun Jiagan, and he was known as "the strongest bone in the Qing Dynasty". The power of "Revelation" can be seen.

We must know that a person who can move the world because of his righteousness, and even made a decree for Hong Liangji to vindicate Hong Liangji before Jiaqing, and then rained rain to relieve the drought, and even included this matter in official history, is really rare in China's thousands of years of history.

It is this character that Zhao Xin likes.Just like letting Jiang Fan go to the army first, he deliberately let Hong Liangji hang out for a while, seeing that he was not in a hurry, and then sent him, Liu Taigong and others to the administrative school. Arranging to go to Hunchun is to hope that through this person's uprightness, the local Manchu affairs and border issues can be handled fairly and justly.

When the Battle of Hunchun entered the final stage, the Manchus in Hunchun could not be evacuated to Jilin due to the North Navy's attack from east to west, and Naqitai took away all soldiers, so most of the Manchu families stayed behind.

How to manage these people will determine whether Beihai Town will govern the rest of the Northeast smoothly in the future.You must know that Dasang Ula, Heilongjiang City, and even Qiqihar, Moergen, Jilin, and Shengjing under the Manchu Qing rule were all composed of bannermen as the main residents.Everyone is watching Beihai Town's every move. If the local officials stationed there are unfair, it will cause the Kurkazi and Feiyaka people in the surrounding villages to die and be sad, thus shaking Beihai Town's rule in the entire northeast region.

"Lord Hong, this is a summary of the household registration files of the Eight Banners Manchurians and Kulkaqi people in Hunchun."

In the office of the administrative office, a civil affairs clerk in charge of managing files put the sorted materials on the table.

Hong Liangji, who had just arrived any day, opened the file and looked at it carefully, and found that the summary of the file was sorted out in detail, including men and women, age group, affiliation, ethnicity, etc. This sorting method can only be done after training in an administrative school only people can do it.

"Yizhi, do you understand Manchu?"

"Understood, the next family has lived in Ninggu Tower for many years."

The speaker was a middle-aged man in his 30s, wearing the dark blue uniform of a civil affairs clerk.This person is Zhang Yubei who was sent by Na Qitai to negotiate with the Beihai Navy before, and his name is Yizhi.After the Beihai Navy occupied Ninggu Tower, Zhang Yubei, a descendant of Han exiled criminals with a reputation as a student supervisor, quickly took refuge in Beihai Town. After more than a year of study in the administrative school, he was sent to Hunchun as the civil affairs officer in charge of household registration and fields. clerk.

Zhang Yubei immediately introduced the number of local households to Hong Liangji, and focused on the situation of the Manchus.Generally speaking, the local Eight Banners Manchurians in Hunchun are mainly divided into five categories: Zhengbai, Xianghuang, Zhenghuang, Zhenghong, and Xianghong. The Jia family, the Sakdabi family, the Jueluo family, and the Hesheli family are the main ones; in addition, they also include the Hezhe people, the Kurkazi people, the Feiyaka people, and the Xinjiang Balikun Erut Mongolian people who became "Iche Manchuria". As for the Han people, there are [-] newly divided households, half of whom are naturalized people from the island country.

After the Northern Navy occupied Hunchun, these old and new Manchurians changed their Han surnames when registering their household registrations. For example, all Guarjias changed their surnames to "Guan", Sakdabi changed their surnames to "Zu", and Hesheli changed their surnames to "He". Niu Hulu changed his surname to "Lang"; the most troublesome one was the Jueluo family, who changed his surname to "Zhao".

Hong Liangji glanced at the ten lines, and when he saw the composition of the ethnic group, he was surprised: "There are Huihui in this place?"

Zhang Yubei said: "There are only three households, all merchants from Ningguta. Two families are named Li, and one family is named Ma."

"Businessmen? What business do they do?"

"Ginseng goods and leather goods, and occasionally get involved in the trade with Li Chao. My lord, we are short of cattle here. In the past, we traded with Li Chao's Huining, and exchanged horses or ginseng fur goods with them for cattle, salt, cloth."

"Do they have a license issued by Beihai Trading Company?"

"The people from the business company had talked to them before, but they thought our business tax was too high, so they didn't agree."

"This won't work! In the future, all merchants or merchants must have a license issued by the Beihai Trading Company. Private individuals are not allowed to intervene in the sale of grain! Moreover, machines are used everywhere now, whether it is plowing or harvesting, even for harvesting. Machines are also drawn by horses, so what do you want cattle for? Besides eating meat, the rest is selling leather for armor.”

Hong Liangji had learned in the administrative school that Beihai Town adopts an exclusive procurement of grain and never allows private individuals to get involved. The purpose is to reduce the scissors gap between industry and agriculture and ensure the price of agricultural products, so as to prevent immigrants from losing their right to farm due to the organizational form of collective communes. enthusiasm.

Zhang Yubei was taken aback. He didn't expect that Deputy Commissioner Hong would wear such a big hat. The three Hui businessmen were in trouble.

Hong Liangji thought for a while and said, "Yizhi, please send someone to notify the heads of the three Hui families, and tell them that I want them to come to the administrative office at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning."

"My lord is too serious. This is all in the next job."

While the two were talking, the guard outside the door came to report that Li Chao Huining Mansion had sent someone to ask for an interview.

Zhang Yubei said: "My lord, if I guess correctly, Huining's visit this time must be to discuss the mutual market."

"Oh? How do you say this?"

"Since Hunchun came under the rule of King Zhao, the mutual market between us and Huining has stopped. Previously, King Zhao and Mr. Shen from the Ministry of Trade meant that if Li Chao refused to return North Hamgyong Province, we would not open a mutual market for a day. What's more The imperial court, oh, no, the Manchu Qing still stationed thousands of troops in Huining, once the exchange market is opened, the spies who spy on the military situation will take the opportunity to enter."

Hong Liangji nodded and said: "So that's the case. However, Zhao Wang sent me here, and it is my duty to negotiate with Li Chao on border affairs." After that, he said to the guards: "Please come in, just Talk in the main room."

The office of the Hunchun Administrative Office is the official office that used to co-lead the yamen. There are three main rooms, two west wing rooms, one storage and defense warehouse, and one gate. They are all thatched houses without walls.After the Northern Navy occupied Hunchun, military control has been implemented. Mishilang just pulled down the thatched house, rebuilt the brick house, and added a wooden fence to surround it. over there.

The only thing that the Beihai Navy has done a lot of construction in the city is the original official school building.All three thatched cottages were demolished and converted into a primary school with fifteen woodcut rooms in three rows, and a playground was built.All school-age children in the city must go to school, regardless of gender. The teachers are three [-]- to [-]-year-old teachers sent from Beihai Town, mainly teaching literacy, Mandarin and mathematics.

At present, the Guanfang warehouse has been converted into a household registration archive, Zhang Yubei's family lives in the west wing, Hong Liangji himself lives in the east room of the main room, one of the other two rooms has been converted into a reception room, and the west room is the office room.

Hong Liangji's family is currently living in Beihai Town, and the living conditions there are considered to be the best in Beihai Town, so he doesn't pay much attention to the job alone.

Hong Liangji did not have any words of gratitude for Zhao Xin's extraordinary appointment. As a Confucian scholar-bureaucrat, what he can uphold is "the king treats me as a scholar of the country, and I will repay him as a scholar of the country."

(End of this chapter)