The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 601 Moore's Investigation Report on Rural Issues in Shandong

At 3:30 pm on the 5th day of the 9th month in the 7th year of the Tianli calendar, the Hall of Worship in the Temple of Confucius in Qufu was illuminated by two rows of white lanterns. Ma Baocai, the president of the Shandong Provincial Farmers' Association, who was Luo Yaoguo's favorite student, was wearing the red robe of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and sat behind a table made of huanghuali wood. His eyes swept over the more than 100 strong men standing on both sides - these people were the presidents of the Farmers' Associations of various counties (sanzhou) in Shandong Province, all of whom were promoted one by one by Ma Baocai from the construction site of the Yellow River channel project in the past year or so.

In order to break through the "feudal fortress" of Shandong, Luo Yaoguo, Zuo Zongtang, Ma Baocai and others put in a lot of effort.

Shandong Province is definitely a particularly stubborn and difficult feudal fortress among the provinces ruled by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It is even more difficult to deal with than Hunan, the home of the Hunan Army. Hunan is not only the home of the Hunan Army, but also an important source of soldiers for the Taiping Army. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of strong men have been sent to the Taiping Army and the Qing demons, and then many more have been sent out. After several rounds of population outflow, the contradiction between people and land in Hunan Province has eased slightly, and the troublemakers in the local area have also found a place to go.

Shandong not only has a large population, but also has not exported much in the past two years. Only the Yellow River flood area has lost one or two million people, and the rest of the place remains the same. In addition, Shandong is the place where the famous religion is most prosperous - Confucius is from Shandong! Zeng Guofan was also the person in charge of Shandong for a time, so a large number of famous religion backbones were developed. When the Taiping Army came in, Shandong's famous religion had established a five-level system of province, prefecture, county, and town (village), with each level managing the next, and the organization was already quite strict.

Moreover, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom first came in, the Yellow River was still flooding everywhere!
No one will be able to survive unless the Yellow River is tamed.

And controlling the Yellow River was an opportunity for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to establish a peasant association system in Shandong.

Therefore, Luo Yaoguo sent his most talented student to Shandong, first to serve as the river manager and to oversee the management of the Yellow River - the course of the Yellow River flowing into the sea from Shandong had to be fixed.

Ma Baocai was also decisive. After taking office, he recruited hundreds of thousands of laborers from various counties in Shandong. After working hard for nearly two years, he finally controlled the Yellow River.

During these two years, he also built up the Farmers' Association teams in the eight prefectures and ninety-six counties of Shandong Province - hundreds of thousands of river control workers were recruited from more than one hundred prefectures and counties in Shandong Province. The Farmers' Association cadres selected through two years of investigation, selection and training were of course quite capable.

In addition, in order to ensure that these farmers' association cadres could really control the situation, Ma Baocai also selected 100,000 elite men from the river management workers to participate in military training. In the end, some of them were eliminated, and the remaining ones formed 80,000 Shandong militia.

With thousands of cadres from more than one hundred farmers' associations and 80,000 militiamen, the time had finally come for the land distribution in Shandong to begin.

However, Ma Baocai is no longer as clumsy in doing things as he was when he first followed Luo Yaoguo to do big things. He also knows that a policy that does not provide a "way out" is not a good policy. He also knows that he needs to divide and win over the enemies, keep a few vases, set up a few role models, make more friends and fewer enemies.

"Vice President Kong," Ma Baocai said to a middle-aged man with gray hair and a bun on his head, "You are a native of Qufu, a descendant of Confucius, and the third master of the Yanshenggong Mansion. Tell me, how should the land in Qufu be divided?"

This Vice President Kong was named Kong Fanxu. He was the third brother of Duke Yansheng Kong Fanhao who fled to Xi'an. He was also the chief priest of a famous religion in Yanzhou Prefecture, Shandong. Because he was extremely afraid of death, he surrendered and worshiped God as soon as the Taiping Army arrived!
However, Luo Yaoguo felt that it would be better for him to continue to respect Confucius - the objects of united front work must not become his own people!
So he always respected Confucius during the day and worshipped God at night.

When Ma Baocai was about to distribute land equally in Shandong, he was invited to be the vice president of the Provincial Farmers' Association. With the third in command of the largest landlord family in Shandong Province coming together to "lead" the land distribution, how could this land distribution work be messed up?
"Of course it's divided equally!" Kong Fanxu, wearing a patched long gown and looking like a simple and frugal Confucius, waved his arms and said, "All the land must be divided equally, all the debts must be abolished, and our Shandong folks must have enough food to eat!"

Ma Baocai nodded in agreement: "Vice President Kong, I'm afraid that the famous religious gentry in Shandong Province will resist the division of land!"

Kong Fanxu said firmly: "Whoever resists is not worthy of respecting Confucius and is not a believer of the orthodox religion. The land distribution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is actually the well-field system! The well-field system is to divide the land into nine parts, one part for the public and eight parts for the private. Now the agricultural tax of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom plus various miscellaneous taxes is almost one part for the public and eight parts for the private. This is the well-field system!"

"What about the cancelled debts?" Ma Baocai asked again.

"It must be abolished!" Kong Fanxu said firmly, "How can a person who reads the sages' books forgive a debt of nine out of thirteen? Whoever opposes it will have read the Confucian classics in vain."

Ma Baocai nodded and said, "When I was distributing land in Hunan, I killed too many people. My teacher criticized me and told me to win people over with virtue. So when I was distributing land in Shandong, I was ready to win people over with virtue."

Kong Fanxu said: "Your Excellency is kind and virtuous."

Ma Baocai waved his hands and said, "It's my teacher, Wu Wang Rende!" His tone suddenly became heavy, "But if someone refuses to accept my toast, I still know how to kill him!" He suddenly glanced at Kong Fanxu, "Master Kong San, the famous teacher of Shandong should draft a "Petition for the Division of Land" and submit it!"

"Okay, I'll do it right away!"

In the cellar of the library in the west wing of the Confucius Mansion, twenty boxes of revolvers glowed blue under the oil lamp. "Marshal Di has already given orders to Wang Dajiu in the Yimeng Mountains. His five thousand elite soldiers will reach Sishui in five days." Li Xuyi, a lieutenant general of the Hunan Army, dressed as a coolie, sat cross-legged next to a box of revolvers with the lid opened.

The "Grand Priest Wang" he mentioned was the Hunan Army general Wang Xin. This proud student of Luo Zenan was appointed by Zeng Guofan as the Grand Priest of Shandong Dafang before the remnant of the Qing Dynasty fled westward. However, as the Grand Priest of Shandong, he could not take office in the city of Yanzhou, and could only hide in the mountains to deal with the Taiping Army - because Shandong did not distribute land, the power of the gentry and landlords was still there, and the Farmers' Association and the Datong Association were unable to control the grassroots, so Wang Xin was able to gather a team in the mountains to fight against the Taiping Army.

The Taiping Army attacked him several times but to no avail.

However, as the Yellow River control project comes to an end and the land distribution in Shandong is about to begin, Wang Xin’s end is not far away, so now he is ready to give it a try!
The second master of Qufu Yanshenggong Mansion, Kong Fanxun, scraped a revolver with his jade ring: "When will Marshal Di lead his troops to the east? I'm afraid that relying on only the 5,000 men of Wang Dajiu, they will be in trouble."

The second master of the Kong family is different from his younger brother Kong Fanxu. As the chief priest of the famous religion in Shandong Province, he is a loyal disciple of the famous religion. In the past two years, he has been "openly serving the Taiping Empire and secretly loyal to the Qing Dynasty."

"Wang Pushan only has 5,000 men, but how many men can the gentry of Shandong Province mobilize?" Li Xuyi looked at the second master of the Kong family, "The Queen Mother has issued an order to appoint Wang Pushan as the general of Shandong. All the soldiers in Shandong Province will obey his orders! Mr. Kong, the post of governor of Shandong is still vacant, and it is reserved for you!"

Kong Fanxun suddenly snapped off his jade ring: "Three days later, the Farmers' Association will divide up several thousand acres of land in Yaocun Town. I have arranged fifty assassins to pretend to be tenants and cause trouble, so as to attract all the long-haired soldiers in the city." He dipped his hands in cold tea and sketched the appearance of Qufu City on the sandalwood table. "At the same time, my people will raise troops in the city and open the city gates."

On the official road of Yaocun Town, northwest of Qufu, after a suona sounded, Wei Changhui and Zuo Zongtang's guards stood at attention and stopped beside a dilapidated temple outside the town.

Moore lifted the curtain of the carriage and saw a beggar curled up under a dead willow tree. The man's braids were wrapped with straw ropes, his ribs were vaguely visible through his torn jacket, and there was nothing in the pottery bowl at his feet. It looked like he didn't have many days left to live.

"Beggars who have starved to death can be seen everywhere in Shandong." Friedrich's pen paused on the notebook, his eyes drawn to the scene at the foot of the wall in the distance.

Three men in patched silk shirts were squatting at the foot of a wall not far away, drinking porridge. Judging from their attire, they did not look like tenants, but they were also thin and pale-faced, much worse than the workers of the Kaiping Mining Bureau.

Bai Siwen looked in the direction of Friedrich's finger: "Are these small and medium-sized landlords? These days, landlords don't have any surplus food!"

"The landlord is also poor?" Moore asked with interest, "Swenson, what about you..."

Bai Siwen rolled his eyes at him: "How can I be the same as them?" He lowered his voice and said in English, "I am a noble. A noble with annuities and farms! Those landlords have only 20 to 30 acres of land. If they were in Europe, they wouldn't even be considered rich peasants! They just barely survive." He pointed at one of the landlords who looked particularly thin, "That man is probably a heavy smoker. Hehe. Sooner or later, all his wealth will turn into mist!"

"Isn't there a smoking ban in Shandong?" Friedrich asked.

Bai Siwen sneered: "How can it be banned? If Shandong didn't distribute land, the power of the farmers' association wouldn't be that strong, and it wouldn't be able to manage so many things. Otherwise, there wouldn't be starving people everywhere!"

Moore nodded: "So the farmers' association's land distribution is still progressive."

"Progress?" Bai Siwen smiled coldly, "The effect is limited. Shandong has so little land, no matter how we divide it, it will never be enough! The only benefit of dividing the land is that it will gather all the mobs in the countryside into the hands of the farmers' association, so that the farmers' association can suppress the situation." He pointed at the three landlords again, "Look, what's the difference between them and the Japanese samurai?"

"They... don't have knives!" said Moore.

Friedrich wrote in his notebook: "The biggest difference between Chinese landlords and Japanese samurai is that they have no force to suppress the peasants. They are landlords sitting on the mouth of a volcano and will inevitably be destroyed!"

Moore glanced at Friedrich's notebook and said calmly: "We are here to see their destruction. When the landlords lay down their arms, they will inevitably be destroyed by the peasants, and when the capitalists lay down their arms, they will inevitably be destroyed by the workers!"

(End of this chapter)