Chapter IX The First Step of the Land Reform Blueprint
The core of the camp system lies in the separation of land ownership, management rights and production rights. Sun Kewang's approach was to deprive the gentry and landlord class of their power to operate the land while retaining their ownership of the land, and reassigned the Guanzhuang of the Daxi Army to take charge of the land.
management," while the original tenant farmers continued to farm.
Under the village system, landlords could only receive a lower share ratio stipulated by the Daxi Army. The actual land management rights fell into the hands of the villagers, and the main income was divided between the Daxi Army and the tenant farmers.
The interests of the landlord class were harmed in the farming system, but they also retained a certain amount of fixed land interest income, but the rate of return on investing in land dropped significantly. If this system can be implemented for a long time, investing in land will become unprofitable.
As shown in the figure, the landlord class is bound to invest the fixed land interest income in their hands into industry and commerce for reproduction and promote the overall progress of total social production.
If the farming system can develop and mature, then the gentry landlords who only own land ownership and dividends but have no land management rights may develop into shareholders, and the villagers who are directly responsible for managing the land may become similar to professional managers.
form.
The land will be managed by professionals, production efficiency will be improved, and the gentry who are unprofitable from investing in land will turn their spare money to invest in other industrial and commercial industries with higher return on capital.
Although these ideas are very beautiful, historically Sun Kewang's genius in administrative management was difficult to maintain the camp system for a long time, and had to compromise step by step, from the camp system to the farm system, and then to the period when Li Dingguo was in power.
A complete ban on Qingtian.
The camp system eventually went bankrupt.
There is nothing that can be done about this. The Daxi Army can maintain the camp system that has been maintained for several years through military control, which is already very impressive. In the absence of a sufficient number of administrative cadres, the Danishi Army can only use soldiers to serve as villagers who manage the land.
It is also difficult to curb the process of Guanzhuang using power for personal gain and transforming into new landlords.
After all, there are still insufficient cadres!
Sun Kewang implemented the camp system, which involved arranging 2,500 troops and three times the number of family members in one county to suppress the gentry with such powerful military power. As a result, it went bankrupt after several years of operation.
And Li Laiheng's current total strength is only 5,000 men. How can he do it?
"Well, I'm just taking it one step at a time. The most serious problem facing Chuangjun right now is that there's really no one in the bag!"
Li Laiheng kept shaking his head. How many literate people were there in the Chuang Army? And among the former Biao Army, Fang Yiren was almost the only one who could truly be considered a literate person.
Therefore, Li Laiheng first implemented the sharecropping policy and hoped to gradually cultivate sufficient quantity and quality of administrative cadres during this transitional policy and transitional period.
Sun Kewang implemented the farming system, the farming system, and the land clearing and banning. He compromised step by step and finally gave up the reform of the land system completely.
Li Laiheng's idea was to go in the opposite direction. He would start by paying grain to tenants and acknowledging the current situation. Later, he would gradually plan to grant land by dictation and equalize land without paying taxes. When the control area was expanded to a larger area, farming could be implemented.
The use of soft knives made the gentry completely surrender.
Therefore, even if there are various shortcomings in the sharecropping of grain, as a transitional policy, it is still necessary to exist.
Li Laiheng's analysis really opened Bai Wang's eyes. Among the generals of the Chuang Army, Bai Wang was one of the few people who had more interest and experience in administrative management and had many ideas of his own. Later history
During this period, he stayed in Xiangyang, conducted a survey of the four prefectures of Jing and Xiang, and made considerable achievements.
Although Bai Wang himself had thought about some specific policy issues regarding land equalization and tax exemption in the past, and he had spent a lot of time discussing this with Niu Jinxing and others, they were far from the step-by-step clarity Li Laiheng had now.
Blueprint level.
Equalizing land without taxation was the political declaration that caused the Chuang army to stir up a storm in the Central Plains. This was the tablet of the god that allowed Shangluo's remnant soldiers to swell to the point of challenging the Ming Empire in just a few years.
It seems that it is no longer just a lie, but has become a real and concrete object.
Bai Wang seemed to be able to see, extending out from the cross streets of Suizhou City, the direction of each road, in the rice fields where the streams flowed, in the land where the waves of wheat floated, in the deepest and most vast areas.
What kind of power will burst out from the loess that will make people tremble.
Only Bai Jiuhe was not immediately moved by the great blueprint envisioned by Li Laiheng. He still hesitated about some specific issues and asked: "Dare I ask Jieshuai, what about the newly reclaimed wasteland? Jieshuai's opinion of the homesteaders and the newly reclaimed fields.
What standards should be followed to collect rent or tax on the abandoned farmland?"
Baijiuhe's question touches on the Achilles' heel of tenant farming. After all, this transitional policy is not a foolproof solution.
In the system of sharing grain from tenants, tenant farmers benefited the most, but for the owner-cultivators, the benefits were not much. And for the middle-class and above owner-cultivators who prepared their own farming tools and resources, their enthusiasm was even lower.
Li Laiheng nodded and said: "That's right. For farmers who own their own land and cultivate their own land, we will truly follow the policy of exempting them from taxes for three years and exempt them from all taxes and rents. In this way, we will indeed suffer some losses in harvesting grain, but
We can also make up for it in the hands of the gentry."
He continued: "As for the newly cultivated land, this aspect is the work of Lao Bai's field envoy. The field envoy is responsible for attracting refugees and hungry people, providing them with cattle, farm tools, and seeds, and reclaiming wasteland. The newly opened land
All the fields belong to the Chuangjun, but we will no longer collect from them the original land tax, but only the original land rent. As long as the pioneers pay rent for three years, the fields will be owned by the pioneers."
Baijiuhe nodded first and then shook his head, saying: "Small household heads who own their own fields are exempted from taxes and do not need to pay rent. Then everyone must find ways to claim that they are small household heads who own their own fields in order to escape."
Rent. In this case, we still have to send people to manage it. Otherwise, do we expect all tenant farmers to pay rent according to regulations? Jieshuai must also have dug food in the fields, so he probably understands the mentality of ordinary people."
"Um……"
What Baijiuhe said is very reasonable, and it can be said that it points directly to the biggest shortcoming of tenant farming.
Under this system, Li Laiheng turned Chuangjun himself into a super-large landowner who did not need to pay taxes. While safeguarding the interests of the farmers and reducing the burden on the tenants, he also changed the relationship between the original landlords and tenants, and between the government and the farmers.
All conflicts between them are transferred to themselves.
So in the final analysis, sharing grain with tenant farmers can only be a transitional method.
However, even with a more complete farmland system, when Sun Kewang used Guanzhuang to deprive the gentry of their land management rights, the original conflicts between landlords and tenants would be transferred to Guanzhuang and tenants.
There is no perfect system in the world, and Li Laiheng does not intend to pursue any ancestral family law that will last forever and remain unchanged forever.
The key is to survive the current army and the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the future!
"Yes, Leshan and I have considered what Mr. He said. But after all, the chips in our hands are limited and we cannot pursue perfection. As a camp envoy, Lao Bai must try to deal with the problem of land disputes between farmers and tenants. For
It is possible for tenants to falsely claim their land and report themselves as self-cultivated in order to evade rent, and someone should be sent to supervise it."
Li Laiheng flicked the riding whip in the air, and he sighed helplessly: "There are still too few talents in the bag!"