"The first thing we need to do is to start conscription in Hebei. Every village must have at least two men between the ages of 18 and 22. Let's make our conditions clear. Whoever is a soldier's family, during the three years of military service, their immediate family members don't have to pay taxes. "After arriving in Beijing, Wei Ze didn't live in the Forbidden City but went to the Summer Palace instead. After setting up the headquarters in the Old Summer Palace, Vézé immediately started assigning tasks.
"And then?" asked Ruan Xihao as the people of the Northern Command took notes in their notebooks.
"Let's stop talking about the land reform for now. Next, we need to build the railway and destroy the Manchu Qing," answered Vézé.
The people of the Northern Command looked at each other. They did not expect Vézé to put aside the land reform issue so easily. Ruan Xihao had been with Vézé for a long time. He asked, "Commander-in-chief, isn't this too hasty? Our tax system has not even been set up yet. We can't even exempt them from taxes. "
Vézé nodded. "Yes, that's true. Then tell them that whoever joins the army will be given a subsidy of three Yingyang dollars. "
Hearing this incongruous reply, Ruan Xihao hurriedly said, "Commander-in-chief, this is not Latin. What's the point of giving them money?"
"There is no one here to cooperate with us. That's not a problem. Once we get these young people here, we will have people to cooperate with us. "Vézé smiled.
"Why would they listen to us immediately?" Ruan Xihao immediately retorted.
"Of course not in a day or two. You can try again in a month or two. Through ideological work, we must make these new recruits one of our own. Let me ask everyone a question. Do you think the children of landlords will join the army? "Vézé explained his thoughts.
"Of course the children of landlords won't join the army!" This was the common opinion of the Northern Command. Everyone had been fighting for a long time, but they were not the armed forces of the landlords like the Xiang Army. The landlords would always try their best to avoid anything to do with the war.
Since there was a high degree of consensus, Vézé continued to explain, "As the saying goes in the North, a real man doesn't become a soldier, and good iron doesn't become a nail. In other words, only those who are not doing well in the local areas, or those who are too poor to survive, will join us as soldiers. What kind of attitude would these people have towards the traditional forces? Has anyone thought about it? "
Ever since the Liberation Army began operating in Anhui, it had actually directly transplanted a rather advanced formal government system, from taxes to military service. This was what Ruan Xihao and the others had been exposed to. Therefore, when they arrived in Hebei, they started to do the same. The problem was that the lives of the people in the Yangtze River Valley were really hard. When the rebellious army came, everyone was willing to follow.
There was a joke in the notebook of a certain Manchu Qing scholar. It was said that during the Tongzhi era, an imperial messenger looked at the resume of a certain military official and criticized, "This person gets promoted every year, he must have used some kind of method!" His colleague said to him, "That person made great contributions in suppressing the Cantonese Bandits' rebellion." The imperial messenger said, "Cantonese Bandits' rebellion? I think I've heard of it, but it has nothing to do with this! "
The truth of this joke was actually quite questionable, but it was also a fact that the North was very little affected by the Taiping Rebellion. The Nian Army once entered Hebei, but very quickly moved to Henan and Shandong. When the Liberation Army slaughtered their way into Hebei, the Manchu Qing had no power to resist. Therefore, other than the various spontaneous peasant uprisings throughout the Manchu Qing era, Hebei did not feel much about the change of dynasty.
However, the comrades in the Northern Command had after all risen to power through the rebellion. As soon as they thought about the meaning behind Vézé's words, everyone somewhat understood. Those who were at the bottom of society and had to rely on soldiers to make a living were all victims of the old era, or at least the oppressed. It did not seem like a big deal to have two people from each village join the army. However, if they could really gather these people from all the villages in Hebei, then it would be a powerful force.
"Then what should we tell them?" Ruan Xihao asked.
Vézé replied, "We will definitely talk about our discipline first, but before we give them a comprehensive political education, we should first listen to what they have to say. Also, don't send these troops to the front line for the time being. We need manpower to repair the railway, so we can let them do the work. If we can get to know these soldiers better, we can actually discuss with them and see if they can help us recruit more people from their villages to participate in the labor force. The North is different from the South. As long as the South has land, they can barely survive under normal circumstances. But the North is different. Even if the North has land, they may not be able to survive. Moreover, the North actually has less than half a year to do, so the number of laborers that we can recruit is far more than what we can imagine. "
Listening to Vézé's explanation, Ruan Xihao could not help but ask, "Commander-in-chief, have you been to the North before?"
Vézé thought to himself, I've lived in the North for more than 20 years. If I hadn't transmigrated, how could I have come to Guangxi? However, Vézé could think this way, but he definitely could not say it out loud. He smiled and said, "Travel thousands of miles, read thousands of books. This book is not necessarily a book on paper. Every place will be different from the others. Even if you don't understand why it is different, at least think about it. Let me ask everyone one thing. When you moved from the South to the North, did you notice the difference in the roofs? "
Hearing this, everyone could not help but nod. The houses in every region of China were different, especially the roofs. The reinforced concrete forests that appeared in China were a different matter. The roofs would change according to the different climate.
"Of course, this is not our main task right now. The land reform is a work that touches on the fundamental level of society, so we can't rush it. On the other hand, there is no need to keep the Manchu Qing. We should eliminate them as soon as possible. Also, after eliminating the Manchu Qing, I am preparing to officially determine the era name. Everyone, hurry up. "Vézé quickly changed the topic. Recently, some cultured people had been raising the issue of the era name. They felt that using the Western calendar was too embarrassing for China. Since everyone had brought it up, Vézé also felt that it made sense. Just in time for the Five-Year Plan, Vézé prepared to set 1869 as the first year of the Min dynasty.
Since it was the first year of the Min dynasty, they had to at least get rid of the Manchu Qing. Otherwise, it would be a bit lacking in confidence. Moreover, the small Manchurian imperial court outside the Great Wall was still around. Tsarist Russia would not sit idly by and do nothing. Another thing was that while the Sino-British negotiations were going on, Ceng Guofan's Xiang Army had already entered Pyongyang. At this time, the capital of Korea was Seoul, and Pyongyang was still an important city in the north of Korea. In addition, the situation in Japan had also changed. The Tobaku army began to launch a counterattack and fought fiercely with the Tobaku army in Kyoto. After losing the support of China, the Tobaku army was at a disadvantage and had to retreat from Kyoto. Now that the Tobaku army supported the Emperor of Japan, the situation in Japan had changed dramatically. At this time, if they could not quickly control the northern territory of China, it would be difficult for China to effectively negotiate with Japan. In fact, Vézé did not care about the establishment of the Republic of Prawn at all.
The situation in Korea was not so optimistic at this time. In January, the Yamato Incident occurred in Pyongyang. The armed merchant ship Yamato Yamato forced into Pyongyang's Taedong River and opened fire. In the end, it was sunk by Pyongyang's soldiers and civilians. At this time, the foreign devils had already extended their hands to Korea, and Vézé could not be so leisurely and put domestic affairs first.
Of course, the change in history was also very interesting. At that time, Vézé wanted to get involved in the sale of Alaska, but to Vézé's surprise, the matter was actually ruined by him. At the time, the United Kingdom said that they did not like it, and that Russia was selling Alaska because they were worried that the United Kingdom would take Alaska. Russia was worried, and so was the United States. There were people in the United States who were originally dissatisfied with spending one million gold standard dollars to buy Alaska, a place where birds did not lay eggs. With China's involvement, the opposition actually gained the upper hand in the end. This matter was settled.
At this time, there was no Russian fleet in the Western Pacific Ocean at all. If Russia really got involved in China's affairs, once the war started, China could naturally enter Alaska and become a stakeholder of Alaska. At that time, even if a country went to war with China, China could have a very convincing domestic reason. "That is the meat that we, China, bite off. No one can take it out of China's mouth!"
On the way to Beijing, Vézé had already calculated his wishful thinking. Now was the time to realize his wishful thinking step by step. Vézé stayed in Yuanmingyuan Park for two nights. On the third day, Ruan Xihao told Vézé a piece of news. On the day Vézé arrived in Beijing, the security department caught a spy in the vicinity of Beijing. After a few days of interrogation, the identity of the spy was confirmed. They were people sent by Ceng Guofan. They tried to contact the people that Ceng Guofan left in the liberated areas of the Min dynasty.
When reporting the news to Vézé, Ruan Xihao was very uneasy. He knew the importance of confidentiality. After returning to the Northern Military Region, he put in a lot of effort in this area. Finally, he established a certain degree of vigilance in the military. But he didn't expect that not long after they started doing this, they would discover Manchu Qing's spy network, which proved that Manchu Qing had prepared in this aspect. Before they noticed, how many spies had sneaked into the liberated areas?
Vézé wasn't so nervous. Manchu Qing's intelligence work was worse than sh * t. The possibility of them creating a spy network was zero. There should be some scattered personnel. For example, Ruan Xihao reported that he had copied a name list from Ceng Guofan's spy. But a spy network with its own complete intelligence and communication capabilities wasn't easy. Just the transmission of information was a huge problem.
"It's not your fault. The Northern Military Region found the enemy's spy, which means that everyone worked hard." Vézé laughed.
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