After Su He commended the meritorious soldiers, he returned to his study to copy books.
He is copying some books at Su Jinshi's home into simplified Chinese books.
For example, "The Art of War", "Thirty-Six Strategies", "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", etc.
Su Que knocked on the door, and with Su He's permission, he walked in and reported: "Commander Su, Su Yan has something to ask you."
"Let him come in and tell the kitchen to make a pot of tea and bring it over."
Su He put down his copying work and waited for Su Yan to come in.
Now that the war is over, the troops are resting and recuperating.
In order to deal with the possible threat from Fengxiang Mansion, Su He had to wait until the next batch of cannons left the factory.
Only when the artillery has the strength to block the Weihe River defense line will he officially attack the county seat.
Su He interrogated the gentry and learned about the current situation in Shaanxi.
He did not think that the governor of Shaanxi would give up the "two kings" and send a large army to encircle and suppress them.
But there must be a response plan, just in case the governor of Shaanxi thinks that the thieves in yellow are more harmful, and he will encircle and suppress them with heavy troops.
Su Yan walked in wearing a blue outfit with red stripes.
This is Su He's uniform uniform for inspections.
The main task of inspections is to maintain law and order and face ordinary people.
Their clothing should be eye-catching and instantly recognizable.
With current dye technology, blue is the easiest to print and dye, and it is not easy to fade.
Su Que was carrying tea and walked in behind Su Yan.
"Looking at how busy you are, let's have a sip of tea first before we talk."
Su He motioned Su Yan to sit down and have a sip of tea before discussing things.
Su Yan picked up the tea cup and drank the tea in two sips:
"The teas all have the same taste. I can't tell the difference when I drink them. Those gentry are very particular about how they drink tea."
"I can't drink it either, as long as it quenches my thirst. How about the inspection work?"
Su He saw that Su Yan was in good condition and not as depressed as when she was just discharged from the army.
"I came here to talk to you about this matter. The inspection work is too troublesome.
The villagers are too poor to take the blame. How can there be so many thieves to catch?
The gentry and scoundrels who had been domineering before were wiped out by the army again.
The villagers come to us with every trivial matter, causing my men to complain incessantly."
Su Yan complained a few words, and then said formally: "Commander Su, I came to you this time because something big has happened.
It hasn't rained at all now, and the wheat seedlings were eaten by locusts in the summer, so there's no food left.
There is a little water source in the river, which mainly meets the needs of humans and animals.
Wangjiahe Village and Lijiamiao are separated by a small river. The villagers fought for the water in the river and had another armed fight.
In the past, the gentry from the two villages came forward to mediate, but now we have arrested all the gentry, and there is no one to mediate in the fight and no one is killed."
After hearing this, Su He understood what had happened.
Rural fighting has been taking place since ancient times, which is why rural areas are keen on giving birth to boys.
Now that there is a severe drought and water shortage, the fight for water sources has escalated.
In the past, the land and rivers were owned by the gentry. If two villages had a dispute, the gentry could resolve the dispute by exchanging benefits.
Now they have eliminated the ruling gentry in the countryside, but there are no new rulers to fill the vacancies, resulting in a power vacuum at the grassroots level in the countryside.
"Su Yan, the inspection team immediately took action and arrested everyone involved in the armed fight.
For ordinary people who participate, I will sentence them to several months of labor reform.
Those who take the lead or take action to cause death shall be sentenced to more than ten years of hard labor imprisonment.”
Su He thought for a moment and then issued the order.
In troubled times, heavy codes should be used. In the early stages of establishing a base area, their authority must be established.
This is a very typical case that can let all villagers know that the people who rule them have changed.
Su Yan asked in surprise: "Commander Su, more than 300 people have been arrested."
Su He said in a strong tone: "That's right, there is no law in my place without blame.
Even if 10,000 people break the law, 10,000 people will still be punished.
You are short of manpower for inspection, so you can increase the manpower accordingly.
There happened to be more than fifty wounded soldiers ready to be discharged, and I asked them all to join the inspection."
"Okay, Commander Su, I understand what to do."
Su Yan received the exact order, and he immediately began to execute it.
Su He was in his study, thinking carefully about the organizational structure of the village and filling the power vacuum.
He must break the feudal era's practice of not sending imperial power to the countryside and directly extend power to the countryside.
He synthesized the knowledge in his memory and designed a simple rural governance system.
There are large villages and small villages. For example, Yimenbao and Guanyintang are very large villages and towns.
A large village is established as a township, and in the administrative unit of the township, a township chief and an inspection director are established.
The township chief manages the administrative affairs of a township.
The inspection director manages the public security of the villages under the jurisdiction of the township.
Inspection inspections directly copy the functions of the public security in memory.
Inspection offices are established in townships and inspection bureaus are established in counties.
The township head is responsible for managing the countryside. He is the lowest-level official and receives a monthly salary.
A small county government was formed in the township, with officials responsible for managing finances, recruiting troops, and collecting taxes.
The village mainly relies on villagers' self-governance, and the township head nominates candidates for village chief.
Villagers vote to elect a reliable village chief to manage the village.
Candidates for village chief must be their supporters.
For example, veterans or military family members, activists who supported the Suhe Rebellion.
The township head has the power to remove the village head and allow villagers to re-elect the village head, and inspections have the power to arrest village heads who violate the law.
Su He is not afraid that the village chief will act like a gentry in the village because of his expansion of power.
The village chief is not a retired official, he is a half-worker and half-peasant. He does not receive salary but is given certain allowances.
Su He carefully calculated and eliminated the number of retired soldiers.
With current productivity, one township can only support five or six retired officials.
There are not that many officials, so management can only be done in the townships, and the villages rely on self-governance.
If you want to manage the village directly, you cannot recruit enough officials.
Under this rural management system, villages are autonomous under the guidance of the township chief, directly extending administrative power to the countryside.
Su He didn't know whether this system could run smoothly. He could only find problems at work and slowly improve them.
The new system designed in Suhe not only broke the rule of not sending power to the countryside, but also directly broke the separation between officials and local staff in the feudal era.
In the Ming Dynasty, those who wanted to become an official could only pass the imperial examination.
Officials are all scholars. Except for a few scholars who are naturally suitable for officialdom, most of them rely on their masters and subordinates to do their work.
Subordinate officials have the ability to do things, but at most they can only be minor officials like Dian Shi.
Even if you have great abilities, you will always be a subordinate in this life.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Yan Yingyuan, the official historian of Jiangyin, was trapped in the isolated city for eighty-one days, and killed three kings and eighteen generals of Jiannu.
He is more capable than many governors of the Ming Dynasty, but he can only serve as a historian.
Su He decided on the rural system, recruited several captured subordinates, and asked them to make suggestions.
They were squeezed out of the county government and took refuge with Wang Jinshi, responsible for teaching the sons of the Yimenpu gentry.
These are subordinate officials who usually have little power and no murderous crimes.
Now sentenced to forced labor, his main job is to help Su He copy announcements and write new land deeds.
Based on their daily work experience, these subordinate staff put forward several areas for improvement.
The township chief has too much power and one or two deputy township chiefs should be added to decentralize the power.
The township chief can nominate a candidate for village chief, but cannot directly remove him.
This power should be given to the county magistrate, and the power to arrest the township chief should also require the county inspection bureau to issue an official document.
Suhe adopted the experience of subordinate officials to improve the rural management system.
