On the outskirts of Chengdu, a resettlement center for young men.
What Zhou Hexuan saw was a group of strong men who were worse than beggars. Not to mention their shabby clothes and sallow faces, most of them looked like walking zombies. Some of them were even so weak that they couldn't even stand when a gust of wind blew them.
If you come here, you'll probably fall down.
Use such soldiers to fight?
Since He Yingqin's secretary personally spoke, the unit responsible for receiving the troops directly sent a regimental deputy. He smiled in a flattering tone: "Mr. Zhou, I am..."
"I don't care who you are!" Zhou Hexuan interrupted directly, "Where are my people?"
The deputy of the regiment immediately said: "Mr. Zhou, this has nothing to do with us. I have not officially accepted these young men. They are now managed by the young men resettlement center."
Zhou Hexuan asked sharply: "Where are the people from the regiment area?"
The regimental deputy said: "Over there, there are a few people playing cards."
Zhou Hexuan looked up and saw a group of people gambling. They were sitting on the ground and shouting. Next to them were hundreds of young men who had been rejected by the army. Some people were playing cards and shouted: "Boss, we have delivered the young men.
Hurry up and sign for the signature, otherwise you will waste everyone's time."
The regimental deputy scolded: "You bastards, you dare to arrest even Mr. Zhou's people, do you know how to write the word "death"?"
The other party was not afraid at all, and someone replied: "It's just a few farmers making a fuss out of a molehill."
Zhou Hexuan walked over and sneered: "You are from the Youth League Administration District of Guizhou, what qualifications do you have to recruit young men in Sichuan?"
The leader of the other party stood up: "People from Guizhou and Sichuan are all Chinese. President Chiang said that this war of resistance does not distinguish between north and south. I will truly carry out President Chiang's orders."
Zhou Hexuan was so angry that he laughed: "You talk in the same way, have you ever read a book?"
The other party said: "I went to elementary school for a few years."
Zhou Hexuan asked: "Where are my people?"
The other party lazily said to the strong man: "Everyone who joined the gang in Sichuan should come forward."
As soon as these words came out, more than two hundred people stood up and shouted: "I am from Sichuan, I am from Sichuan!"
The leader who sent the soldiers suddenly became anxious: "Fart, I've caught dozens of them in Sichuan, don't try to fish in troubled waters."
"I am really from Sichuan, and I can also speak Sichuan dialect. Just listen, son of a bitch, you are the first to go to Banban!"
"My enemy, I am also from Sichuan."
"We are all from Sichuan, sir, please save us!"
"..."
The young men immediately started to make a fuss.
Zhou Hexuan asked: "Why go to Sichuan to catch young men?"
The leader who sent the soldiers said: "Let's make up the numbers. Do you still need to ask?"
A strong man shouted: "Sir, there were more than 900 people when we left Guizhou, and when we arrived in Sichuan, there were only more than 300 left. These bastards didn't give us food, and sometimes we only had one meal in two days. It was cold.
Without any clothes to wear, my brother got sick from the cold and died!"
The leader who sent the soldiers retorted: "I only have so much money and food on hand, I can conjure it up for you!"
Needless to say, the recruitment fee must have been withheld by the local regiment area commander, and most of it was hacked, so that the people who sent the soldiers were unable to provide enough rations. What should we do if there are too many strong men who starve to death from illness? Then we have to arrest them along the way.
Catch as many as you want.
Zhou Hexuan did not argue with the other party, but said: "All the strong men in Yibin have come forward, and those from the Zhou family farm in other places have also come forward!"
This time only a dozen or so people stood up, and one of them cried: "Mr. Zhou, you have to make the decision for us. These turtles are not human beings. We walked from Yibin to Chengdu, and we died of illness and exhaustion in less than half a month."
Oh! My brother Yang next door had a high fever and he was still alive, so they left him on the roadside and ignored him!"
The leader who sent the soldiers said angrily: "What do I care about? What do you think I care about? I will pay him to see a doctor!"
"Well said, you are very reasonable," Zhou Hexuan sneered and suddenly shouted, "I'll arrest them all and let the commander of their regiment area come and pick them up in person!"
No one took action because they didn't know who should take action.
Zhou Hexuan pointed at the regimental deputy responsible for receiving the troops and said: "Why are you still standing there? What you are holding is a fire stick!"
The deputy said: "Mr. Zhou, I don't have the power to arrest people."
Zhou Hexuan said angrily: "Arrest him immediately! If anything happens, I will be responsible."
"That..." The regimental deputy still didn't dare to take action.
Zhou Hexuan sneered and said: "Do you want me to ask He Yingqin for instructions, or should I go directly to Chang Kaishen for comment?"
The regimental deputy swallowed and said, after these two great gods were carried out, he felt a huge pressure and ordered: "Take them all away and escort them to Chongqing for disposal at Shangfeng!"
"Let me see who dares to move. I haven't broken the law!" The leader of the soldiers was also angry. Five or six of his soldiers raised their rifles and arrested them with force.
Zhou Hexuan ignored them, and these scoundrels could not change the world. He said to Li Fengyuan and Niu Kaiyang beside him: "Take the people back to Yibin, and the other Sichuan men will also be sent back to their places of origin. I will pay for it, do you hear me?"
"I heard it." The two of them answered with their heads held high.
"Sir, please save us!"
"I kneel down for you!"
"gentlemen……"
The strong men from Guizhou all knelt down in large groups. Zhou Hexuan could only turn a blind eye and left quickly with a tangled heart. Zhou Hexuan did not dare to care about it and could not control it, because the strong men from Guizhou were part of the normal recruitment. If he blocked it, it would be like sabotaging the anti-Japanese recruitment.
Work and lawsuits were brought to Chiang Kai-shek without any hesitation.
Nan Huaijin followed Zhou Hexuan to the hotel in the city. He asked, "Mr. Zhou, is there really no way to improve this situation?"
"No." Zhou Hexuan shook his head helplessly.
If we want to put an end to or improve the tragedy of recruiting young men, we must establish an effective and feasible conscription system.
First of all, there must be complete household registration information. How many young people of working age are there in a place, how much labor is needed to support local agriculture, and which family is in what situation... all of these need to be known in advance, otherwise trouble will occur.
This was impossible in the Republic of China. Even if the household registration was compiled now, it would not be compiled until the end of the Anti-Japanese War because there was a lack of reliable grassroots bureaucrats. The household registration personnel must be able to write and do arithmetic. This is a big problem. The illiteracy rate is too high.
, there are not that many statisticians who have studied in school. Even if the statisticians are in place, they still have to conduct door-to-door surveys, guides and armed guards are needed, and strict precautions are taken to prevent civil servants from colluding with local snakes.
Secondly, even if household registration information is available, someone still has to conscientiously implement it. How to mobilize, how to recruit troops, how to transport troops, how to ensure the food, clothing, housing and transportation of soldiers... These all require a new civil service system, which cannot be created in a vacuum.
This system involves too many other things.
Even if all of the above are realized, it is still technically impossible to implement because the imperial power does not extend to the county!
From the Ming and Qing dynasties to the Republic of China, the government controlled at most the county level. Even taxation required local gentry, village elders, and petty officials to implement it. It was equivalent to contracting out the task of tax collection, how to collect it, how much to collect, and who to collect it from.
The local snakes have the final say. The county magistrate only needs to see the money and food collected.
The same was true for conscription during the Anti-Japanese War. Orders from the national government were sent to county magistrates and mayors, who were then contracted to township magistrates, town magistrates, security chiefs, and armor chiefs.
When taxes are collected, the local cowards have to take a bite out of it; when conscription is done, the local cowards also have to take a bite out of it.
If you want to bypass the local snakes and directly collect taxes and recruit troops, you will become an enemy of the entire local power. I don't know how many "civil uprisings" will occur by then.
If you want to make changes, there is only one feasible but impractical way to eliminate the landlord class!
Moreover, even if the landlord class is eliminated, the army must be rectified and those who send and receive troops must be rectified. The death of the vast majority of strong men is attributed to those guys who drink the blood of soldiers. They regard the constant sending and receiving of troops as a
The method of making money is to kill one group and then bring in the next group. Anyway, there is financial allocation for every strong man who dies.
Even if Zhou Hexuan were to be the head of state, he would not necessarily do better than Chiang Kai-shek in recruiting troops. So he did not want to give advice and was too lazy to report the situation, because even if Chiang Kai-shek gave him the greatest power, he would be responsible.
Zhou Hexuan was absolutely helpless to deal with this matter.
Again, the Nationalist government is rotten to the core.
However, although the problem cannot be completely solved, as a time traveler, Zhou Hexuan is still unwilling. At least, he must do something to make the bad situation slightly less bad.