On the tenth of November, a month had passed since Chen Lin and Commander Li Wenyuan of the Black Tortoise Camp had conquered all of Fujian.
The number of soldiers under their command had increased from twenty thousand to nearly fifty thousand. All of the official forces in Fujian had been wiped out. The Burmese officials who had come with the Zhennan Army had worked together with the land reform officials to gradually establish a more stable rule here.
However, just over a month ago, Fujian had not been like this. Chen Lin and Li Wenyuan, who had conquered all of Fujian, had been in a daze because of the rebellions of the major families. If they weren't quelling the rebellions, then they were quelling the rebellions. They were unable to do anything about Zheng Ying's request for help in the north and were exhausted from running for their lives.
Although they had smoothly disintegrated the Daming government's ruling power in Fujian, they soon discovered that the ones who were truly difficult to deal with weren't the small governments in the Daming government, but the real rulers of the area, the great aristocrats who were in charge of manpower, resources, and wealth.
They controlled almost all of the land, population, and wealth. The three great families that Chen Lin and Li Wenyuan had annihilated when they first arrived became the reason why they broke off with the Zhennan Army. From the moment Chen Lin and Li Wenyuan started their march, there were many aristocrats who brought their tenant families to rebel, saying that they were quelling the rebellions for the imperial court.
Although their fighting strength was far inferior to the Zhennan Army, they had the advantage in numbers. Often, in some of the small counties, their troops couldn't even defeat the aristocrats' regiments, and the cities they had conquered were taken back. The situation in Fujian was precarious, and the two of them were at their wits' end.
Chen Lin and Li Wenyuan were basically trapped in the middle of a people's war. However, the ones who started the war weren't the revolutionaries, but the ones being revolutionized.
This was somewhat ironic.
This situation lasted until the land reform team sent by Xiao Ruxun arrived.
The first batch of land reform teams consisted of two teams, totaling a hundred people. The two team leaders were called Chen Xiu and Wang Yong. Both of them were poor scholars. Chen Xiu was from the same hometown as Chen Lin. The two of them led the two teams under them, starting from Zhangzhou Prefecture. They set off a wave of land reform that stunned Chen Lin and Li Wenyuan.
They were under Xiao Ruxun's orders, so Chen Lin and Li Wenyuan had to transfer troops to assist them no matter what. Therefore, Li Wenyuan handed them 1,000 of his most elite troops, and they turned the Zhangzhou Prefecture upside down with the land reform team of 100 people and 1,000 elite troops.
Because of this, 7 influential clans in Zhangzhou Prefecture were destroyed and uprooted. Some of them tried to escape to the sea, but Chen Lin and Li Wenyuan did not let them off. Instead, Xiu led his men to set sail to set the sea to chase. They captured and brought them back to Zhangzhou to be beheaded.
The tenant farmers, poor farmers, refugees, and gangsters in Zhangzhou became restless. The armed forces of the rich and powerful families were easily disintegrated, and some of them even turned on them. In less than 10 days, the Zhangzhou Prefecture was completely under their control.
The farmers' association was established, and more than 99% of the farmers joined. They enthusiastically sent food and drinks to the Zhennan Army, and they even took the initiative to hand in the agricultural tax for this year. Chen Lin and Li Wenyuan were dumbfounded.
After the Zhangzhou Prefecture, the land reform was in full swing. Coincidentally, the second batch of 150 people from the land reform team arrived. Chen Xiu and Wang Yong, who had made contributions, became the team leaders. They arranged for their subordinates to go to various prefectures, such as Quanzhou Prefecture, Tingzhou Prefecture, Xing Hua Prefecture, Fu Zhou Prefecture, Yanping Prefecture, Shaowu Prefecture, Funing Prefecture …
The army was dumbfounded by the ferocity of the land reform. After Chen Lin and Li Wenyuan personally went to the countryside to observe the land reform, they were greatly shocked. After seeing the terrifying scene of people being paraded on the streets and being publicly criticized and beheaded, they agreed that this was a war.
This was a battlefield on a different level. Perhaps it could be said that this was the real battlefield that could solve the problems caused by the rich and powerful families.
They were just making small troubles, going to wherever there was a rebellion. The land reform team was different. The land reform team caused trouble wherever they went. Before the rich and powerful families could cause trouble, or even if they did not intend to cause trouble, they would be uprooted by the land reform team.
They were not even allowed to beg for mercy.
This was because Xiao Ruxun had ordered that the situation in Fujian was especially bad, and that they had to treat these rich and powerful families differently. If they could kill these rich and powerful families, they should not let them live.
After all, when the Japanese pirates were stirring up trouble, in order to attack the Jin merchants who held power in the central government, the large sea merchants in the Zhejiang and Fujian regions had "contributed" a lot.
These people were deeply rooted, and not a single one of them was easy to deal with. If they were not uprooted, they would stop whatever the government wanted to do in the future. What the Ming government was fighting with them was not just the right to rule, but the ownership of the land and resources, which was more important.
What Xiao Ruxun wanted was a big government, and these people only allowed a small government to exist above them. Therefore, the conflict between the two was irreconcilable, and they would not rest until one of them was dead.
Therefore, they could only be asked to die!
"Be ruthless! Don't be soft-hearted! If these people don't die, in the future, it will be you, me, and all of us who will die! This is a matter of life and death, not a game! Put away your conscience. In this place, there is no need for conscience! "
After Chen Xiu and Wang Yong gradually got into the swing of things, they criticized and reprimanded the suggestions that the land reform team occasionally revealed. They pointed to the essence of the problem and forced the people in the land reform team to unify their thoughts and battle lines. They commanded the mighty farmers to completely tear apart the rich and powerful families.
Chen Xiu and Wang Yong had more or less realized what they were doing. This was not as simple as tying the farmers to the war chariot and not letting them go. In fact, they were reforming.
Compared to them, Xie He, who had been in charge of the land reform earlier, realized more problems.
This was not as simple as Zhang Juzheng's administrative reform. It was a more terrifying reform that pointed to the core of the problem.
It was changing the Confucianism that had existed for thousands of years since the Qin and Han Dynasties.
However, this reform did not begin with a debate. Instead, under the cover of the war against the rebels, it directly entered the innermost core of the problem and began a revolutionary revolution from the root. The goal was not to convince people through reasoning, but to uproot them and destroy the soil that was suitable for the survival of the Confucian school.
They did not even have time to react or fight back.
This reform was different from the famous Wang Anshi's reform, Fan Zhongyan's reform, and the current dynasty's Zhang Juzheng's reform. This was not a reform led by civil officials, but the most thorough and uncompromising reform that started from the root of society. The intensity of this reform could not even be compared to Shang Yang's reform.
Shang Yang's reform was also very thorough. It created an extremely powerful Daqin government. Although Xiao Ruxun explained it to them using Shang Yang's reform, they also realized that Shang Yang's reform was much gentler than the land reform they were carrying out.
Shang Yang's reform did not kill people at the slightest disagreement. Shang Yang's reform did not kill people for land. Similarly, the enemies that Shang Yang faced were far less powerful and organized than the enemies that Xiao Ruxun faced.
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