The Heroic Age of the Late Qing Dynasty

Become our comrades and build our home together. So what are you doing in the city? To enjoy the good life there? Or is it because you can't stand the rural work?

Do you envy the prosperity in the city and want to go to the city to enjoy it? If everyone goes to the city, who will build the reservoirs in the countryside and who will clean the ditches?

Dig. Who will organize the masses to divide the land?

I know that everyone is working hard, but everyone's efforts are effective. Let's think about it carefully. Who does more work, us or the working people? Take the Zhangjiagou Reservoir for example. Where is it not the labor of the working people? Where is it not the support of the working people? Only we

How many nails can these people sitting here hammer with iron? Besides, do we have any experience in managing a city? We don’t have any experience, so

It is not the time for us to move to the city. As long as the Qing Dynasty does not come to disturb us, we will continue to develop in the countryside..."

As he discussed this, Zhang Yinghao suddenly realized that preparations for taking over the city were indeed necessary. So after the meeting, he instructed the intelligence department to record the various city management departments in the Qing court's cities and their specific duties, for use in training his comrades.

Zhang Yinghao currently implemented a rotation system. For example, due to time constraints, new recruits were only able to complete two months of training. This emergency training involved cramming a vast amount of military skills and knowledge into them. They were then assigned to companies, starting from the grassroots level. This was often followed by the saying that an officer who had never stood guard or set out on patrol was not a qualified officer.

Those who are eager to learn and have strong abilities quickly stand out. Especially during battles, those who dare to charge and are proficient in combat techniques are quickly promoted to deputy squad leaders and squad leaders. The former squad leaders and deputy squad leaders then go back to training classes and become squad leaders and deputy platoon leaders after training.

It's like this, rising step by step. The characteristic of today's personnel is high and rapid turnover. Soldiers with outstanding performance in the army go through training, but after that, they might not remain in the army, but take up jobs in local areas. So, in any era of great change, it's like a pig on a rocket: anyone with even a little ability will rise, and the greater their ability, the faster they'll rise. Why did a large number of high-ranking officials emerge from Pei County when Liu Bang launched the uprising there? Why did Zhu Yuanzhang, leaving Fengyang, also bring with him a large group of Huaixi cadets, ultimately achieve prosperity and wealth? It's not that these people were different from ordinary people, but rather that they followed the right people and rode the wave.

Of course, some people cannot graduate after a long period of training because they have huge misunderstandings.

If you do a good job, you'll be promoted after training. This is the process. If your academic performance is also good, the chances of promotion are very high. Zhang Yinghao used to focus on military work, but when he realized that the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty had become rotten and only the local militia and the militia still had some fighting spirit, he adjusted the focus of his work, allowing more people to use the sword.

Establish primary schools, develop basic education, build reservoirs, dig ditches, organize personnel to carry out water conservancy construction, and organize mass literacy.

The speed of expansion exceeded Zhang Yinghao's expectations. A large number of landless people joined the ranks of fighting against the landlords and dividing the land.

Although Zhang Yinghao had anticipated this situation, he did not want the situation to get out of control and a large number of uncontrolled armed forces and

Uncontrolled looting, smashing, and burning. So under normal circumstances, Zhang Leihao would not let local people directly join the ranks of beating the local tyrants, but uncontrolled things happened again and again.

Zhang Yinghao was now reading reports of people breaking out of control and rushing into landlords' homes to steal food and money. This was a squad led by Wang Daqiang. When he had just finished fighting in a village, people from a nearby village started to gather and attack the landlords. Perhaps the landlords in that village were extremely unpopular, or perhaps...

For other reasons, the villagers in the same village all wanted to overthrow this landlord.

When they heard that a team was attacking the neighboring village, the village chief immediately organized people to go into the house to prevent others from attacking.

The villagers actually organized themselves to raise rice for the first time, and poured it on the permanent workers on the ground. Unfortunately, a mob is a mob, and there is no

It couldn't be poured in. Some people died when they fell down, and the collection of the complaint did not increase the hatred of the villagers. So someone immediately suggested to ask Wang Da to

Force them to help.

In fact, many people already knew that Zhang Leihao would seize the land and give out grain instead of money. This would definitely put an end to many people's dreams of getting rich. So it was clear that if too many people were invited, there would be no share for them. The villagers said that the landlord's family was not good.

Wang Daqiang's inner struggle relaxed a little. He really sent out five soldiers.

The result was that the landlord was defeated, and then what happened? The five soldiers came back to report the situation to Wang Daqiang. The local villagers scattered and became chaotic after entering the landlord's house. Under the guidance of an inexplicable excitement, they began to wash

Robbery. Simply put, it means stealing food, money, and women. The five soldiers were also unable to control the situation, or had no experience in this area, so they immediately ran back to report to Wang Daqiang.

Zhang Yinghao's Quotation: The most valuable thing in the world is talent, and the most difficult thing is to cultivate talent.

Chapter 48

Wang Daqiang was furious when he heard this. This was outrageous! He immediately knew he had been scammed. He had been with Zhang Yinghao for a while and knew how he handled this kind of situation, so he immediately rushed over with his team. By then, many villagers had already brought their entire families out, and some had already moved their belongings three, four, or even six or seven times.

Seeing Wang Daqiang and his men rushing over with guns, some villagers were a little scared and stopped moving. Some people were still like crazy, taking whatever they could find. There was nothing they could do. They were so poor that they had gone crazy. Some people even started planning to set fire. When Wang Daqiang saw this, he could only stop the villagers who were about to set fire to prevent the fire from happening. Then he drove all the villagers out and regained control of the situation.

At the same time, Wang Daqiang immediately wrote a report back, asking for instructions on how to proceed. Wang Daqiang's original plan was to return all the items that had been removed. However, Wang Daqiang remained somewhat rational and did not act rashly, thereby avoiding conflict with the locals. Therefore, he wrote a report back, asking for instructions.

To be honest, Zhang Yinghao didn't care about the loss of money. No matter how the villagers fought, at least the meat was rotten in the pot. He was now beginning to worry that the landlord militia had begun to unite. Previously, the scope of their operations was small, and they were able to completely control the situation every time.

But now, like a scattered force, their forces have reached their limit. Dispersion of personnel inevitably leads to a dispersal of their own forces, and dispersal of forces will lead to a loss of control. The landlords and gentry will surely flee at the first opportunity, causing trouble for them. And if the landlord militia unites, their forces will be unable to concentrate, and they will suffer.

Furthermore, if the landlord militia started fighting the revolutionary army, Zhang Yinghao was worried that the wavering elements within the base would collude with those outside. Or perhaps the landlord militia would form a "returning home group" and return to the local area to massacre the people. Such things had happened countless times in his past life.

This kind of class-based slaughter based on profit is illogical. Unless one side is completely annihilated or subjected to thorough and brutal repression, a seesaw battle will inevitably develop. Just like during the Taiping Rebellion, the Tianping Army, the Hunan Army, and the Chu Army engaged in a large-scale seesaw battle, resulting in a population loss of over 100 million across the Jiangnan region, leading to the rise of self-cultivating farmers in these areas. Zhang Yinghao didn't want to experience the cruelty of a seesaw battle, but now he might have to start preparing.

Zhang Yinghao immediately gave Wang Daqiang instructions: Don't worry about the villagers, recruit soldiers locally and send them back for training. Maintain local order and wait for the relevant personnel to accept the landlord's wealth.

After finishing writing, Zhang Yinghao thought for a while and said: "Correspondent, take this report and print twenty copies immediately. I will need them later." Then Zhang Yinghao prepared to call a meeting of relevant personnel again.

Zhang Yinghao distributed Wang Daqiang's report to the comrades. After almost everyone had read it, Zhang Yinghao said, "Everyone, tell me, what solutions do you have?"

After reading it, the comrades discussed it a lot. There have indeed been many problems recently, so everyone spoke up. Bao Shilin then said, "I think if the public invites us to fight the landlords, we must go. If they don't fight today, they will fight tomorrow. If someone invites us to fight them, of course we have to go. After all, it's in line with public opinion. That's all I have to say."

Zhang Feng continued, "But we must be careful that the enemy may trick our comrades into attacking us, then ambush us and kill us halfway. I have finished my speech."

Luo Zelin continued, "As for the money the villagers took away, I think we'll just leave it alone. After all, we can't afford to clash with them. We must be more careful about this kind of thing in the future."

"How can this be done? If people from other places hear about this, it would be strange if the landlord's house is not emptied out."

"Yes, I think it should be taken back."

Zhang Yinghao just listened quietly. He knew that everyone was at this level now. He didn't want to be like a mourning crow and keep reporting. He had almost reported everything he could, and he couldn't protect them forever. So in the end, Zhang Yinghao said: "If those villagers are willing to rise up and overthrow

Landlords, we welcome you. What's the big deal about losing some money? This means that the villagers agree with our idea of ​​fighting against the landlords and dividing the land.

These people may be our own people. We came to the meeting today not to discuss this, but we are now out of control of the situation.

Our power has almost been stretched to its limit. If we expand further, we will be in big trouble."

Zhang Feng said, "Indeed, our team is now too scattered. The casualties from attacking the landlords have been increasing recently, and more and more problems have arisen."

"How do we solve this problem?"

"We need to expand the team again, but we can't withdraw all the core members. Otherwise, the army won't be able to bear it and its combat effectiveness will inevitably decline significantly."

"We can also increase training courses to allow more people to receive training. There is a big difference in the performance of trained people and those who have not."

Seeing the scene gradually quiet down and no one wanted to speak, Zhang Yinghao looked at his notes and said, "Since everyone agrees to suspend military operations and conduct internal training and study, then I agree, let's do it."

Many comrades heaved a sigh of relief when they heard this.

I feel like I can't stand it anymore. Especially Zhang Feng and his team, too many backbones have been withdrawn from the army, and new recruits cannot be trained in a day.

Due to the serious shortage of manpower, once the Qing Dynasty sent troops, they would not have the manpower to stop them.

However, Zhang Yinghao obviously hadn't finished speaking yet. After taking a sip of water, he continued: "Since we are building our internal structure again, let's build our grassroots government together this time. Let me first talk about my idea and let's discuss it. Each village we liberate will have a village head, a village secretary, and a large village will have a village secretary.

A village is a small team unit, and then dozens of villages form a village brigade, which is the village committee.

Several village committees form a town or a township, several townships form a county, and several counties form a city. With this level of control, our political power will extend its tentacles to every corner of China. What do you think, comrades?

"Chairman, how are the boundaries of the village committee and township determined?" "There's a tradition in China where the pronunciation varies every ten miles. We can define these boundaries based on various distinctions, such as differences in dialect, mountain and river barriers, and traditions left over from the Qing Dynasty."

"So how do we decide who will be the village or town chief?"

"We have stipulated that anyone over the age of 18, regardless of gender, has the right to vote and be elected. Villagers are most familiar with their own situation, so the village head and village secretary are elected by the entire village. Village committee members are also elected by all members of the village committee, and the town mayor is elected by the village committee."

"Chairman, what about organizations like the Women's Federation?"

"Although these are also elected, these organizations will not give up even a little bit. For example, the Women's Federation, Propaganda, Education, Health

We are determined to take over the sectors of life and agriculture. We will only give up the positions of village and town chiefs."

"Chairman, how are these village heads, village secretaries, village committees, and town heads treated?"

"Well, the village head and village secretary are directly elected by the villagers to serve them, and they don't leave their jobs at all. As for the village committee members, if the town's finances are sufficient, they can be given some subsidies, but they still don't leave their jobs and still have to farm. The town mayor can be considered our civil servant, and is treated like a section-level civil servant, but under our current circumstances, he still can't leave his job. Any other questions?"

Seeing that no one was about to ask questions, Zhang Jianmeng continued playing: "Okay, then we should immediately elect the village chief and use the villagers who are fair and capable. We can't convey everything to all the villagers on our own."

This requires these grassroots comrades to convey the message.

I repeat: from now on, each village will elect two heads—village secretaries. Larger villages can also elect one or two deputy heads to strengthen our control over grassroots leadership. After everyone returns to the clouds, we will prepare for the elections to elect village heads, village secretaries, and village committee members. The elections will be based on the will of the villagers. Adults can participate in the elections and be elected. However, organizations like the Women's Federation must be led by our Progressive Party. Wherever we liberate ourselves, we must build grassroots development there.

Furthermore, although our supply and marketing cooperatives, village banks, and credit cooperatives are only just beginning to be established, we must establish cooperatives, credit cooperatives, and supply and marketing cooperatives wherever we liberate our land. We must firmly control the rural economy, ensuring that food and goods are circulated and traded with supply and marketing cooperatives at market prices. This means strictly implementing our unified purchase and marketing policy, thereby providing a steady supply of food and other supplies for our construction.

Many of you here are already capable of standing on your own two feet (this is a lie, of course, but we must encourage you). However, when working at the local level, you must not act arbitrarily. Our leaders must implement this principle and hold meetings to discuss any difficult issues. We must implement the principle of centralism, with the minority obeying the majority, the lower levels obeying the higher levels, and the localities obeying the central government.

Of course, if you have different views or objections to a resolution, that's fine, and you can reserve your opinion. However, once a resolution is reached, it must be implemented. Anyone who abandons their responsibility, makes strange remarks, or claims they knew it wouldn't work, can go home. If you have objections, you can report them to your superiors and file a report. We are a political party that dares to criticize and self-criticize. We must be brave enough to correct mistakes in our implementation. Correcting mistakes is the greatest virtue. I'll give you a few examples to make this clear.

We all know that we banned foot binding from the beginning. If we found any girls with bound feet, we would subject their parents to labor education. When we implemented this policy, we encountered considerable resistance. During the labor education sessions, some corrupt scholars would come out and make irresponsible remarks. Even the local people didn't quite understand us, wondering how we could interfere in other people's affairs. Furthermore, these people held considerable influence in the local community, and many people actually listened to their nonsense. We couldn't arrest all of them, so our labor education approach was ultimately a failure.

Failure was no big deal, so we held a meeting to brainstorm ideas. One comrade suddenly had an idea and blurted out, "Whoever binds their child's feet, we will bind his too."

Is this a good idea? It was a very good one, so everyone agreed to it immediately. And the result? The local people also enjoyed watching those corrupt scholars bind their feet. They arrested them, bound their feet with cloth, and forced them to walk around a few times. Now they are all well behaved, and no one binds their children's feet anymore!

As we all know, when we started digging the ditches, due to our lack of experience, we started working in several locations simultaneously, thinking that this would speed things up. However, we didn't measure the level at all, and when the ditches were connected, the water wouldn't flow at all. We all know now that ditches must have a certain slope for water to flow. Someone pointed this out at the time, but many people didn't understand, so they dug anyway. When the water stopped draining, everyone realized the person's advice was right, and we fixed it.

But think about it, if the person who said this wasn't possible saw that no one was listening and quit, and anyone who wanted to dig could do it, then everyone would lose their morale, and there would be no truth that everyone knows today."

Zhang Yinghao's quote: "It's rare to be confused" means that you pretend to be confused after you understand everything, rather than pretending to be confused to fool others and deceive yourself when you don't understand.

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Chapter 49

Everyone smiled when they thought about the bad things they encountered when digging the ditch.

"Just like our military's training plans and methods, we didn't even have regular soldiers in the beginning. We have archived the original training plans and methods, and anyone interested can check them out in the reading room. When you see those training plans and methods now, you'll definitely burst out laughing, because you'll think the content is ridiculously childish. But when we identify problems, we correct them, and that's why we have the training plans and methods we have today.

If everyone didn't know how to train at the outset and didn't train, or if everyone insisted on discussing the best training plan and methods before training, we wouldn't have the team we have today. If we had stubbornly clung to the original training plan and methods, we wouldn't have the training plan and methods we have today. So are the current training plans and methods the best? I don't think so. We'll definitely need to make adjustments going forward. We'll have machine guns and cannons in the future, and changes in weaponry will necessitate changes in our training content.

Therefore, we have been constantly identifying and resolving problems, progressing through these repeated improvements. So, comrades, when working at the local level, don't be afraid of making mistakes. Of course, discuss and analyze everything before you do anything, and promptly correct any problems as you go. This way, we can definitely get things done well. Of course, don't do anything that violates the law or discipline; that won't give you a chance to correct it.

Finally, I want to emphasize that the people's election is to select village heads and village secretaries who are trusted by the people. It's not about us appointing them. As long as they haven't committed any crime, anyone can run. The entire village can hold a meeting to discuss the election, or anyone who wants to be village head can run for it in front of the public. But there's only one requirement: the villagers must elect them. If there are multiple candidates, the majority rule will apply. These village heads receive no salary or allowances; they serve the villagers voluntarily. This must be made clear...

After the meeting, everyone returned to their respective areas to begin promoting the election. Many comrades had been through elections in the military and knew what they were all about. Initially, Zhang Yinghao didn't understand what advantage he had over these comrades, aside from his own knowledge from the afterlife.

However, when it came to the beginning of organization building, Zhang Yinghao realized that these people had no experience in organization building at all, and many of them had no concept of this aspect at all, and they had no experience of group life. Zhang Yinghao then realized what his advantage was as a time traveler. That is, Zhang Yinghao grew up in groups from childhood to adulthood. As an excellent student, Zhang Yinghao would always hold a position. He was a member of the Youth League in the first grade of elementary school and a member of the Communist Youth League in the second grade of junior high school. So now, Zhang Yinghao understands the importance of these organizations the most.

Important.

In fact, it wasn't until the 1990s that China finally escaped the crisis of foreign invasion. Some say that the Korean War was the beginning of China's founding. In fact, the Korean War can only be considered the founding of China. Without this war, China would not have a voice in the international arena. Therefore, China has always paid great attention to the construction of such organizations since its founding. For Zhang Yinghao, elections are very familiar, but they are certainly a new thing now. Therefore, Zhang Yinghao is very targeted to his own

These comrades carried out a series of election practices.

Zhang Yinghao introduced the various positions in a modern class in the training class, such as monitor, deputy monitor, study committee member, life committee member, etc.

And now all the schools in his base area are holding district top class teacher elections. Zhang Yinghao intends to use these organizations to gather as many

That’s why Zhang Yinghao immediately thought of holding elections at the grassroots village level.

Of course, the elections being held now are unprecedented among the people. For thousands of years, there has never been such a large-scale public election.

When the village officials were born. But the Chinese are not completely unfamiliar with elections. The Chinese language is inherently easy to interpret literally. And the villagers

In our daily lives, we often come into contact with or hear about things related to elections, such as selecting boys and girls at temple fairs, or selecting someone to perform hard labor, etc.

At the same time, Zhang Yinghao also knew that elections were something he had to do. If he didn't, the regime he formed would lose its legitimacy, and his power would have no legitimate source. In China, legitimacy is still very important.

Consider the period after the Xinhai Revolution, when the Qing Dynasty still lay in ruins. Sun Zhongshan was elected president. Later, after Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor, he convened a meeting in Guangzhou and became president again. Why? Because elections represent public opinion. Elections create legitimacy, representing both those who participated and those who did not. In China, legitimacy is paramount; after all, without legitimacy, there is no legitimacy.

So when Zhang Yinghao began to worry about the landlords and gentry uniting or the revolutionary enthusiasm of the people in the uncontrolled areas rising and starting a spontaneous and disorderly revolution, the first thing Zhang Yinghao thought of was elections, which would not only improve his grassroots organizations but also legitimize his regime.

If his regime is illegitimate, then the silent majority will remain silent. If his regime becomes legitimate, these people will be forced to choose sides. Since they themselves elect the village head, village secretary, and village committee members through universal suffrage, they will have no choice but to side with him. For higher-level positions, Zhang Yinghao will not hold universal suffrage, but rather representative elections. Allowing rural villagers in this era to directly elect a county head or even a mayor is absurd. The conditions for universal suffrage at the top are completely lacking.

Although Zhang Yinghao felt that this smacked of political intrigue, it was something he had to go through and accomplish. He knew that elections would inevitably bring countless complications, especially considering this was the first election, so there would be countless complications. However, once the election began, there would be a result. These complications, no matter how numerous, were insignificant to the overall situation. Of course, this was the price that had to be paid.

Without this price, the people wouldn't be able to take charge, and wouldn't voluntarily join the revolutionary ranks. Without this price, there wouldn't be a cadre with experience in elections. Without this cadre, there would be more election complications in the new areas. With this cadre who have participated in elections, perhaps there would be fewer complications. Of course, election complications will continue to occur constantly even in the 21st century, and Zhang Yinghao feels he can still face them calmly.

After a period of preparation and publicity, some villages also began to plan to hold elections. However, when the elections started, Zhang Yinghao was still very worried after thinking about it. So he went to the army again to give instructions, and asked each village to send back one or two soldiers to participate in the local elections throughout the process and record what happened during the elections. Of course, soldiers cannot participate in the elections, but only provide guidance, supervision and record keeping. After all, these soldiers participated in elections when they were in the army and are familiar with the word "election". At the same time, Zhang Yinghao also provided them with some relevant training and some simple answers to questions and techniques for answering questions.

Liu Dagui was currently participating in the village elections in Liujiazhai. He was one of the first to join the revolutionary army after the liberation of Liujiazhai, and he was considered a veteran. This time, Zhang Yinghao instructed each village to send one or two soldiers back to supervise the elections, and Liu Dagui was sent back to Liujiazhai.

Liu Dagui knew that every village had a few influential figures, those with broad knowledge and considered capable by the villagers. He also discovered that some people he had previously considered impressive were now viewed differently after reading Chairman Zhang Yinghao's document.

In his view, these so-called "capable people" fall into two categories. One is the physically strong, capable worker who demonstrates genuine dedication and practicality, earning the respect of villagers as down-to-earth, hardworking, and influential. The other is those who seek out opportunities and exploit opportunities. Sometimes, they find work to earn money for villagers, addressing the hidden unemployment problem. While their hard work may not be visible, it seems they never lack money.

Liu Dagui no longer felt any interest in these two types of people. He knew the base was in need of personnel, and if his application was approved, he would likely receive further training and be transferred to a local position. He would then be considered a truly capable person in the eyes of the villagers.

As one of the earliest villages liberated, Liujiazhai boasts deep roots among the people. Many are eager to participate in the village chief election, but since this is their first such election, villagers are still apprehensive. As soon as the election for village chief is discussed and the responsibilities and obligations of the position are explained, many people already know who they will choose. After all, in a village, everyone sees each other every day. It's easy to tell who has what abilities and can perform the job well.

Of course, Liu Dagui found that most people are still like what Chairman Zhang Yinghao said, the silent majority. These silent people do not want to participate in the election, and they are not very interested in who will run for election. For them,

It is better to go to the mass meeting than to dig for half a day. They just come because of courtesy. They don't understand the significance of their vote.

sacredness.

When everyone saw Liu Dagui entering the venue, they greeted him one after another, but two people's expressions changed immediately after seeing Liu Dagui.

"Brother Gui, are you running for village chief too? If you do, I'll elect you!"

At this time, a friend who grew up with Liu Dagui asked Liu Dagui. Everyone immediately shut up when they heard it. They all wanted to hear whether Liu Dagui was going to participate in the election of village chief, and also wanted to hear Liu Dagui's opinion on the election venue and land.

the opinion of.

"Haha, I'm here to see if anyone has joined the election. That's the rule."

Hearing Liu Daze's straightforward words, the people in the village were already angry. Seeing this, Liu Dagui knew that many people in the village must have been in a state of entanglement.