The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 1024

   Yunxiu Building.

  Chang Kaishen was quite annoyed and said, “Why is this Zhou Mingcheng here again? He just said that I’m not feeling well, and I’m already in bed rest, so let him come back another day if he has something to do.”

   “Yes, the main seat!” The aide-de-camp bowed and exited.

   After a while, the inner guard’s voice suddenly came from outside: “Mr. Zhou, you can’t go in, or I’ll be rude!”

   “Shoot if you feel like it!” Zhou Hexuan said.

   “Mr. Zhou, don’t embarrass the brothers.” The inner guard begged.

   Zhou Hexuan shouted: “Every day people starve to death in Henan, and so many people die are to be retributed, and you have a share of these retributions! Get out of the way!”

   “Mr. Zhou… ah, don’t take my gun!”

“boom!”

   A gunshot rang out, and Lao Jiang was startled, and hurriedly asked his attendants to take a look.

The    attendant came back and said, “It was Mr. Zhou who fired the gun. No one was injured. He has been caught by the inner guards. Chief, what should I do?”

   Chang Kaishen said with a headache: “Let him come in.”

   Zhou Hexuan strode in and slapped a stack of documents on his desk: “These are all messages sent back from Henan by a reporter from Ta Kung Pao. If Mr. Jiang doesn’t see me today, I’ll let Ta Kung Pao report it tomorrow.”

   “What’s the situation?” Chang Kaishen asked.

Zhou Hexuan said: “Let’s talk about Xuchang first. The disaster in Xuchang is not the worst, but the number of people starved to death in Xuchang is the most. For his political achievements, Wang Hengwu, the county magistrate of Xuchang, raised the amount of land tax last year, and it ranks first among the counties in Henan. His slogan for this year’s grain collection was: “I would rather starve ten people to death than starve a soldier to death!”

  Chang Kaishen said: “It’s just propaganda slogans, and this is also for the sake of the War of Resistance.”

Zhou Hexuan sneered: “He is not just shouting slogans, do you know how the magistrate Wang collects grain? As long as the wealthy households have more than 40 to 50 acres of land, he will send 6 people and 3 animals to pull carts. Sitting down, the food for the people and animals needs to be supplied by the household.”

“Good job!” Chang Kaishen clapped his hands and praised, “Most of the rich and gentry landlords are moths. They connect with Baojia long to avoid conscription and food. Grain requisitions are traded at market prices, and they are not free. Let the landlords and rich gentry sell the surplus grain as military rations, which is of great benefit to the country and the people.”

“But do you know how those people who collect grain do it?” Zhou Hexuan said angrily, “They live in rich households, eat white flour eggs every day, and their livestock must also be fed, and they often extort money. Those in Xuchang County The wealthy households with dozens of acres of land were actually starved to death by the county magistrate Wang! Also, they did this not only to the rich households, but also to ordinary farmers. I had no choice but to pay the grain. I sold everything that could be sold at home to buy grain and turned it over. The farmers bought the grain at the market price, but they could only sell it to the grain collector at the official price. Now all the farmers in Xuchang have empty homes. Now, there is no farming tools, no cattle and horses, and there is no grain left to plant. This kind of grain expropriation method of exhausting water and fishing, how will the task of grain expropriation be accomplished next year?”

  Chang Kaishen nodded and said, “It’s really too much.”

Zhou Hexuan added: “Now the price of food in the black market in Xuchang County has skyrocketed, and the citizens can no longer afford food. By the way, Yang Queyu, the director of your Three Youth League Xuchang Branch, his youngest son has fallen ill due to malnutrition. dead!”

  Chang Kaishen was dumbfounded and couldn’t believe it.

  The Three Youth League is composed of the Blue Shirt Club and the backbone members of the CC department. Chang Kaishen personally serves as the head of the group, and he has high expectations. Now the son of the director of the Xuchang branch of the Three Youth League is also dying of starvation. This is a big joke.

“People are already suffering from the disaster, and the local officials are so reckless with their levies, which is tantamount to making things worse,” Zhou Hexuan said. “According to incomplete statistics, more than 20,000 people have starved to death in Xuchang County. If the situation continues, at least five people will starve to death by the end of the year. 10,000, by the spring of next year, more than 100,000 people will starve to death, maybe even 200,000 people!”

  Chang Kaishen was silent.

Zhou Hexuan added: “I know that the central government has already started to provide disaster relief, and I also know that the grain requisition is to prepare for the war of resistance. But the chairman of Henan Province, Li Peiji, was too powerful. He forcibly lowered the grain price and strictly enforced it. This is in normal years and months. It is very rare. I would like to praise him for being a good official, avoiding the possibility of the rich grain merchants taking advantage of the fire. But now it is impossible. The provincial government has forcibly suppressed grain prices, and private grain has been confiscated. All of the grains in the country have been hollowed out, and only the big landowners and grain merchants still have grain available. These big landlords and grain merchants are afraid of being targeted by the government, so they dare not sell their grain, and even secretly ship and sell them to other provinces. The price of food in Henan is too low, and they are reluctant to ship and sell food, resulting in no food in the entire Henan market. Not to mention the poor, even those with money can’t buy food with money now! Such disaster relief, even if the central government allocates 100 yuan Hundreds of millions of disaster relief funds are of no use, unless the grain is shipped directly to Henan.”

   “You leave the information, let me think about it.” Chang Kaishen waved.

   “Farewell!” Zhou Hexuan left angrily.

   The Henan Great Famine in 1942 was completely a man-made disaster, which was different from the Sichuan Great Drought in 1936. Sichuan suffered from continuous disasters and failed harvests for many years, while Henan experienced good weather for several years.

   But it was because of the disaster in 1941 that they paid back the grain, which emptied the people’s previous grain storage, and in 1942 the intensified grain expropriation led to the starvation after the disaster.

   The most speechless thing is that the provincial chairman Li Peiji is too capable of handling affairs, and the situation is so bad that he can forcibly suppress the food prices in Henan Province. As a result, grain from other provinces is reluctant to be transported to Henan for sale, and grain from Henan is also secretly transported to other provinces.

  Chang Kaishen read the disaster information sent by Zhou Hexuan, his face was extremely gloomy, and the situation was much more serious than he imagined.

   But the problem is that the rations have to continue to be levied, and the military rations can no longer be supported.

Chang Kaishen called the attendant secretary: “Send a telegram immediately, ordering the Henan provincial government to reduce the grain collection task this year by 20%. Also, the county magistrate Wang Hengwu of Xuchang County was dismissed and investigated. It is not enough to kill this person. Civilian outrage.”

  Murder, of course, is for the anger of the common people. Anyway, the food that should be collected has already been collected.

   This guy has gone crazy because of his political achievements. He can force the small landlords who own dozens of acres of land in Xuchang to starve to death on average 60-70% of the population.

  In history, Wang Hengwu was quickly promoted to the commissioner of Nanyang because of his outstanding performance in collecting grain. However, due to his great resentment in Xuchang, Lao Jiang had to remove him from office and escorted him to the Luoyang Military Court for trial, and escaped the trial because Luoyang fell. Until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, this man was buried alive by the angry people of Xuchang, and he was also charged with treason, which was really unpleasant.

   Zhou Hexuan was able to do these things, prompting Lao Jiang to reduce the grain expropriation task in Henan by 20% in 1942, perhaps because of this, fewer people died.

   Disaster relief can’t be saved. Donating food may save one person, but government requisitioning food can kill ten people.

   If you don’t recruit, you can’t do it. For the sake of the War of Resistance, at least many government officials think so.