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"Sell newspapers! Sell newspapers! 'Anqing News', one copper coin per copy. Notices from the new government, recruitment for workers, recruitment for officials, examinations, and recruitment for soldiers! If you want to know the details, sell 'Anqing News'! "The crisp voice of the newsboy resounded throughout the city.
The Anqing region was very popular with readers, so there were many shops that printed books and also many shops that sold books. Vézé made full use of this advantage and founded the first official newspaper of the General Staff Headquarters, 'Anqing News'.
It was called an official newspaper because 'Anqing News' was published by the General Staff Headquarters, the highest authority in Anqing. All the writing, editing, and auditing were all handled by the General Staff Headquarters. In order to expand the influence of the army in Anqing and Tong City, Vézé personally led the team and started this newspaper.
In the first issue, Vézé wrote three articles himself.
The first was' Taiping Rises, Manchu Qing Dies! '
The second was' Recent Grain Revenue Tax and the Policy to Combat Usury '.
The third was' Announcement on the Upcoming Scientific Examinations'.
The newspaper was about the size of a modern newspaper, but due to the lack of fillable content, the newspaper only had eight pages. Vézé started with 'The Shaving Order' and 'The Massacre of Manchu Qing'. Since it was a serial, he could write and stop. There was no pressure to urge him to write.
Manchu Qing never publicized policies for the people. This hierarchical regime did not need to explain anything to the people, they only needed to exploit them. Wei Ze, on the other hand, did the opposite and implemented the strategy of publicizing the policy.
In cooperation with the 'Anqing News', Vézé set up a new department in the General Staff Headquarters, the Political Department. Because the Political Department would be responsible for ideological issues in the future, it could not be easily handed over to others, so Vézé took the position of the Political Department Head. The chief editor of 'Anqing News', Wu Qilu, who was a scholar, temporarily became the Deputy Head of the Political Department.
In just a few days, the sales of 'Anqing News' reached the level of one thousand copies a day. Since it was an official newspaper, there was no need to worry about not having a place to publish it. Vézé did not expect the newspaper to make money, so he temporarily limited the print run of Anqing News to one thousand copies.
At the same time, Vézé proposed a new concept in the General Staff: the budget.
"We plan to expand the army to 30,000 by August. Therefore, by August, it was extremely important to gather enough food to feed these 30,000 people. Apart from the 30,000 soldiers, we also need to support the craftsmen of the newly opened military factories and other non-combatants. The minimum amount of food taxes will be set at 50,000 people for a year. "
Vézé spoke with fervor and assurance during the meeting, but the generals who listened to Vézé felt like they were shrouded in fog. Along the way, the Taiping army had been plundering wherever they went. Even if they didn't do anything to the poor commoners, they would never let off the Manchu Qing officials and the rich. It was really difficult for these brothers who could take whatever they wanted to, to suddenly build up a plan and the concept of building a base with expectations.
Zhang Yingchen was confused and asked, "Prime Minister, can't we just let the local authorities hand over the food on time? Since the local working groups are almost ready, we can just send them out. Why do we need to come up with a budget first? "
Wei Changrong liked to bicker with Zhang Yingchen. He laughed and said, "How do you know how many acres of land there are and how much food should be handed over?"
Zhang Yingchen was unhappy. He questioned, "If we ask them to hand over the food, would they dare to not hand it over?"
Wei Changrong laughed and said, "Yingchen, Prime Minister had said just now. In the past, we were just like the refugees, getting food and money from the rich families. We can treat it as if we were passing by and were hungry. When we saw other people's chickens, we would kill them and eat their meat. But now, we are local households, and the tax collection is like raising chickens! If the chickens on our land don't lay eggs, will it work if you go up there and beat them? You might as well just beat the chickens to death. "
When Vézé heard this, he smiled bitterly in his heart. It was not easy for the Taiping army, who were originally like roving bandits, to establish the understanding that they were local households. He had to use the analogy of raising chickens as an analogy. This realm was too far away from serving the people.
As a city resident of Yongan City, Zhang Yingchen did not really understand this. After being lectured by Wei Changrong, he was not very convinced. However, Wei Changrong did not speak on his own. He completely used Vézé's words. In addition, after listening to Wei Changrong's words, Zhang Yingchen also somewhat understood Vézé's tax policy, so he did not say anything else.
However, Ruan Xihao, who was born in Wujia Town, frowned and said, "Prime Minister, if we do this, will the local rich families in Anhui continue to bully their tenant farmers?"
Hearing such an insightful point of view, Vézé was happy in his heart. Ruan Xihao was born in one of the six guest villages that were bullied by the local Tu family in Wujia Town. It was obvious that Ruan Xihao did not sit on the side of the landlord.
However, Vézé did not dare to fully believe this. He asked, "What do you think we should do, Brother Ruan?"
Ruan Xihao replied, "If I say, we should take all the land of the landlord and distribute it equally to the common people. At that time, all the food collected will go to the Holy Treasury. If the common people want to eat food, they can get it from the Holy Treasury. Isn't this better? "
Vézé did not spread the religion of God in his troops, let alone the land system of the Celestial Dynasty. However, Ruan Xihao could think of a system very similar to the land system of the Celestial Dynasty from what he had heard and the Holy Treasury system operated in Vézé's troops. Vézé suddenly understood why the Taiping Rebellion could get so much support from the common people in the early days of preaching. Under the small peasant system, the "equal distribution of land" was common.
As a young industrialist in the new China, Vézé certainly supported the land reform. However, as a young industrialist, Vézé was very clear that it was not the time to carry out the land reform. Not to mention the external environment, just within Vézé's troops, whether it was the soldiers or the generals, none of them were aware of their hierarchical nature.
At the beginning of every new dynasty in China, there was basically a period of equal distribution of land. With the popularization of farmers, the new dynasties in China would have their first hundred years of prosperity. However, the land would eventually be centralized. Along with the centralization of land, there would always be a major political turmoil. Those farsighted bureaucrats and emperors would try to distribute the land equally again when the land was centralized. All these attempts failed without exception. When the efforts to distribute the land equally failed again, the dynasty would irreversibly embark on the road of destruction. Of course, there would be some setbacks, but the setbacks were like tinkerers trying to fix the problem. The dynasty would run along this road of destruction until the day of its destruction came.
Of course, Vézé had seen an era where this cycle was truly broken. The new industrialized China solved the problem of rural land. Although there were still some problems, at least the land was treated as a means of production. The simple landlords of the agricultural era had been uprooted, and there was no possibility of them being restored.
Therefore, Vézé smiled at Ruan Xihao. Even though Ruan Xihao's views were still unable to jump out of the circle of the old era, Vézé still didn't want to directly reject Ruan Xihao's views.
He originally wanted to spend two to three years in Anqing to completely establish himself, and then start the policy of reducing rent and interest. Since there was a fellow like Ruan Xihao in the army, Vézé proposed a policy related to reducing rent and interest.
Vézé said, "We need people to join the army, and I don't want those people who only want to fish in troubled waters. Therefore, we might as well propose a policy. Every village and every township has a certain quota for recruitment. Those who pass our physical inspection and pass will receive the benefit of reducing the interest on borrowing money. This is to give preferential treatment to the families of soldiers! "
This was a simplified version of reducing rent and interest. Vézé didn't confiscate private land and allowed the landlords to rent out their land. However, if the person who joined the army could become a soldier and his family was a tenant farmer, then in principle, the rent would be reduced by twenty-five percent, and the maximum rent could not exceed thirty-five percent.
At the same time, the Anqing Taiping army recognized the loan relationship that existed before Vézé occupied the area. However, the annual interest on the family of a soldier could not exceed one and a half percent. If the debtor paid more than double the original interest, then the interest would stop. If the debtor paid more than double the original interest, then the interest would stop, and the original loan relationship would be considered to have been terminated.
At the same time, Vézé sent out a portion of his brothers who had received policy education to the various villages under his control. They would make sure that there were no landlords passing on their taxes to the tenant farmers. Of course, this was on the premise that some of the tenant farmers had joined the army and received the army's approval.
Although Vézé's utilitarian action was only to recruit as many good people as possible into the army, it was still considered taking care of his brothers. Ruan Xihao didn't mention any further social revolution.
Vézé turned the discussion back to the original topic. "We must establish a budget system. If we want the people to pay less, then we have to do two things at the same time. First, we have to pay taxes. No one can't not pay taxes. Also, we can't let the landlords and gentry increase the taxes. Also, after we make a budget, we can put the rice into the pot and know how much tax we have to collect from the local areas every year. We can only stop the people who are our subordinates from doing as much as possible. "
After saying this, regardless of whether they understood or not, the generals all fell into deep thought. The Minister of Logistics, Lin Asheng, said, "Prime Minister, the local officials are in charge of paying taxes. Are we going to send our own people to be the officials?"
"Minister Lin, do you have any objections?" Vézé asked. After the army went through intensive education, there were more and more soldiers who were literate and knew basic arithmetic. The logistics department was a department that needed mathematical knowledge. Lin Asheng had selected many outstanding soldiers to work in the logistics department.
Lin Asheng replied, "Prime Minister, we don't have that many people available right now."
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