The Wuzhou incident finally came to an end after a vigorous discussion. On the one hand, this was a secret active activity from all sides. On the other hand, because the Southern Movement jumped out at this juncture very suitably, the attention of the Senate was quickly attracted to it again.
Although Xie Erren was criticized verbally and written, he became notorious. However, the ending was quite unsatisfactory. I was just assigned to go back to the propaganda outlet and be responsible for the "material review" work in the Truth Office, which was regarded as a sinecure and stepped aside.
Although the organizations and political security departments that were once targeted were "criticized", they were not actually substantially damaged. After some intense negotiations, all parties agreed to a series of political security personnel changes and suggestions for increasing local branches put forward by Majia. The Senate immediately passed a series of emergency budgets, adding additional personnel to the Political Security Bureau and the General Security Bureau. Budget. The General Security Bureau, which originally had almost only one brand, has finally settled down. Although the additional budget was expected, it still made the finance department frown.
However, the consequences of the Wuzhou incident were far-reaching. Although Xie Erren's failure was insignificant in the overall situation, it confirmed a long-standing opinion within the Senate: the Senate did not have enough resources to carry out the mainland strategy.
In the face of this living "tragedy", the public opinion of the Senate changed from "expanding the results of the war" to "hardening the internal strength". Now that the Yao Rebellion is in full swing in Guangdong and the plague in Guangzhou has not yet ended, they have to face Guangxi, which has a more complex environment. If we have to attack from all sides again, if the Senate can still support it militarily, the pressure on civil affairs, materials, and finances has become so great that it is on the verge of collapse. Cheng Dong repeatedly pointed out in his reports to the cabinet that due to the excessive printing of silver dollar certificates, it was actually impossible to exchange silver dollars within the special cities of Hainan and Guangzhou.
To a certain extent, the current severance of trade with the Ming Dynasty and the restriction of commercial activities by the plague in Guangzhou actually saved the new currency and prevented the problem of insufficient silver dollar currency from being exposed.
After repeated consultations, the Senate held an informal plenary meeting in November 1635. Discussed the next step of the mainland strategy.
Although due to the restrictions of many elders being transferred and traveling, less than half of the elders could attend. However, before the meeting, the general office sent the main topics to each elder via telegram, allowing them to express their views on their respective issues.
Probably because the hearing had gone too far and all parties had generally acceptable results, it was rare that there was no fierce debate at this conference. All parties discussed the situation and finally reached a new mainland strategy plan.
It is said that there is not much difference between the new plan and the old plan, but it is once again clear that the end point of the mainland offensive operation is to "take all the two provinces and Guangdong". After completing this strategic goal, there will be no new all-out offensive on the mainland.
Not only that, the Senate also clearly stated at the meeting that in the next "three to five years", large-scale military operations at the brigade level will be significantly reduced. The scale and frequency of military operations will be significantly reduced. The size of the Fubo army and navy no longer expanded. Focus on enriching the security warfare force, which is dominated by the National Army.
Overall, the new strategy has shifted from “expanding territory” to “in-depth governance.”
The classification and policy policies of the core area, appeasement area and public security area in the original plan remain unchanged, but the scope of the core area is expanded to include Guangzhou Special City, Foshan Experimental Zone, Wuzhou City, Nanning City and Guilin City as the five main core areas.
Except for Foshan, all other cities were directly transformed from the "prefectures" of the original Ming Dynasty. Except for Fuguo County, most of them had the problem of too large jurisdiction areas. Most of the governance in the core area is only concentrated within Fuguo County, that is, Fucheng, and will be promoted to other counties under its jurisdiction depending on the situation. In other words, although Guangzhou Special City is the core area, only three counties, Nanhai, Panyu and Sanshui, have actually implemented "in-depth governance". Other core governance areas are similar.
In addition to these five core areas, important regional transportation hubs, commercial centers and newly built industrial and mining centers in Guangdong and Guangxi will also be targeted for "in-depth governance". These areas should adhere to the overall principle of "preferably less but not more", and "the maximum area under their jurisdiction shall not exceed one county."
Regarding the appointment of cadres, the proportion of naturalized civilian cadres will be reduced step by step in accordance with the central district, appeasement district and public security district. The intensity of institutional and social reforms has also been gradually reduced. The scope of use of the identification of "retained personnel" has been expanded. The original local Ming Dynasty local officials who surrendered can be transferred to other places as long as their official reputation is acceptable. For some areas where governance is difficult and the situation is complex, if the original officials have outstanding governance performance, they can be retained in their original posts after inspection.
The work of clearing acres of land and promoting the new tax system will be limited to the core areas, and the appeasement and security areas will collect taxes according to the past Ming Dynasty tax quotas.
Compared with the original social transformation, the new plan has been much lowered in tone. It is basically determined that it will only be implemented in the core area.
The wording of the appeasement zone and the security zone is "improvement", and it only clearly states that "CHANGJI", "beggars" and "yahang" will be comprehensively reformed and rectified. The tone of the wording for clans that were very exclusive in the past has also been greatly reduced. It is clearly mentioned that in appeasement areas and security areas, "clan interference in judicial and administrative matters is prohibited, and the influence of clans is gradually eliminated." The originally mentioned key words are deleted. The sentence "focus on attacking and gradually eliminate clan power".
This approach without exception aroused controversy within the Senate, but the controversy was not too intense. Because their understanding of the power and role of their clan was limited in the past, it was too easy to deal with the local clans in Hainan Island, which inevitably led to the thought of contempt. But the reality in Guangdong in the past few months has taught them a profound lesson. Clan power not only has a very broad social base and performs many social service tasks that the government cannot take care of. More importantly, in many Han and Yao areas and areas with disordered public security, clans are also important social stabilizers.
Destroying a clan will not only consume a lot of resources, but the greater danger is that the Senate now does not have enough resources to fill the vacancy left after the clan is eliminated.
The ideal finally gave way to reality. If you want to gain a foothold in Guangdong and Guangxi. They have to tolerate the clan. Therefore, except for continuing to implement the old policy in key areas, all other places have switched to the new policy.
Fortunately, apart from the impact on the elders, this adjustment has little impact on the naturalized cadres. Firstly, most of them could not understand why the Senate was so anti-clan, and secondly, the situation in Guangdong and Guangxi gave them no time to carry out such work.
Regarding the question raised by the elders about whether such comprehensive contraction will connive to local evil forces, the new response is to establish a dedicated special search team with capable personnel selected from the armed forces, the General Reconnaissance Bureau, political security, intelligence and civil affairs departments. Work under the command of the elders. The core personnel of each team is about one hundred people. If necessary, local garrison troops and police can be mobilized to cooperate.
Six such special search teams will be set up, each responsible for relevant areas.
The special search team will independently carry out investigation work in appeasement districts and public security districts, and carry out precise strikes against various evil forces that have great resentment among local people and seriously harm the local area. On the one hand, it effectively demonstrates the authority of the Senate and supports the administrative work of the local government; on the other hand, it wins the hearts and minds of the people; and on the other hand, it is natural to obtain spoils of war.
In terms of military operations, it was decided to carry out the third batch of mobilization of the National Army and train new National Army squadrons in Hong Kong. At current losses, squadrons from the first two waves are expected to be depleted by law and order operations in recent months. Those squadrons with good performance and strong combat effectiveness will be renovated and refitted. Squadrons with excessive losses and poor performance will be disbanded on the spot and other squadrons will be replenished. Finally, the standard configuration of one squadron in each county and one brigade in each prefecture was reached. In addition, mobile squadrons are deployed at key traffic points.
The newly formed squadrons are no longer equipped with standard spears and all use Nanyang rifles. The mobile squadrons switch to minie rifles and shotguns to increase their firepower. All mobile squadrons participate in mountain warfare training. At the same time, a large number of recruits were recruited from the Yao people and Hu people in Guangdong to enrich the team.
In terms of construction, two major projects and supporting facilities have been prioritized, one is Foshan Iron and Steel, and the other is Danzhou Chemical Industry. At the same time, the "Guangdong Agricultural Reform Plan" was launched. To fully tap into Guangdong’s agricultural production potential.
The urban reconstruction of Guangzhou was also approved. It was originally proposed that the Senate and political institutions should be moved northward to Guangzhou. However, due to the limited living facilities for the elders and the fear of being marginalized by some elders who stayed in Lingao and worked in Lingao, they faced opposition, so a compromise was finally reached. The new Guangzhou Base Camp was established as the general agency for mainland construction, administration, and strategy. It was also decided that the Central Reserve Bank, the State Administration of Taxation, the General Administration of Customs, and the Monopoly Bureau would all move to Guangzhou, and other departments would set up offices in Guangzhou.
It is obvious that the tone of this plan is much lower than the previous one. Various planning arrangements have also become pragmatic. The heads of various departments, who had been somewhat anxious, quietly breathed a sigh of relief. The only one with a frown was the Finance and Taxation Department.
The proposal put forward by the Southern Movement faction to go south to obtain resources was finally partially approved. Although the new draft did not receive direct resource support from the Senate as envisioned by the Southern Progressive Party, in accordance with the principle of not giving resources to the policy, the Senate approved the Southeast Asia Company to be renamed the Nanyang Company and become a mixed-ownership enterprise with a first-level national policy. The Nanyang Company had greater operational autonomy and could freely raise shares, and could also organize trade, mining and colonization activities on its own throughout Southeast Asia.
All the property owned by the original Southeast Asia Company will be used as capital injection into the new company. According to the equity distribution, 51% of the state-owned shares, 5% of the Senate, 15% of the individual shares of the elders, and the remaining 39% of the shares will be used for the newly established "Southeast Asia Development Co., Ltd." Company", its shares will be sold in the form of public offering in the name of the company.
