With the joint efforts of the soldiers and civilians in the base area, all the wheat was harvested in just two days. Taking advantage of the good sun, it was quickly dried and put into warehouses;
After the wheat was harvested, the masses were immediately mobilized to replant sweet potato seedlings. Although the season was a little late, sweet potatoes are not very strict on the farming time. If they are planted in early June, as long as they are taken care of well, they can be harvested before winter and the yield will be high. It won't be much affected.
This was a major event in the base area. If there was a shortage of sweet potato seedlings, special personnel were sent to other places to purchase them at high prices, and then distributed to the fellow villagers in the base area for free. It only took less than a week to complete the replanting of all the land.
Sweet potato is a crop that has very low soil quality requirements. Almost all land is suitable for planting. The yield is very high, making it very suitable for large-scale planting.
The sweet potato crop is native to South America. It was brought to Europe by the Spaniards during the Great Navigation, and then gradually spread to Southeast Asia. During the Wanli Period, Fujian businessmen Chen and his son brought it back to China from Luzon at that time and gradually spread it;
Large-scale planting started around the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. The high yield of sweet potatoes solved the problem of satiety for the poor. In addition, the politics in the early Qing Dynasty were still relatively clear. There was a big explosion in China's population. From tens of millions in the late Ming Dynasty, it quickly increased to With the number of people increasing to hundreds of millions, it can be said that the so-called prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong was the prosperous age of sweet potatoes!
The high yield of sweet potatoes prevents most of the poor from starving to death. Although it is a coarse grain with a mediocre taste, landlords and squires generally will not eat it, but it is no problem for the poor to fill their stomachs. In China, as long as a large number of people do not starve to death , it can be called a prosperous age.
So, sweet potatoes are a big contributor!
Now the wheat in the base area has been harmed by the Japanese, and the total grain output has been reduced by more than half compared to 1938;
After paying 50% of the land rent, ordinary people can only survive until winter. After winter, they can only rely on replanting sweet potatoes!
Although sweet potatoes don't taste as good as wheat, they can fill the stomach, which is the greatest benefit. People in China are very satisfied as long as they can eat enough.
The situation in Liuzhen is much better than Chuxiong thought before. Due to last year's bumper harvest, many fellow villagers have stored some food in their homes to prevent famine years and save their lives. This is also a good tradition of the Chinese people. In good years, Save food for the hungry years!
The biggest advantage of Liu Town is that there are no excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes. The people do not have to worry about the food they have hidden during the good years being collected by the government under various names. They are all hidden in the tunnels and the Japanese have not found them;
Therefore, after the summer harvest, there was no food shortage problem in the entire Liu Town, and prices were relatively stable. It was just a little difficult, and this difficulty was nothing to the Chinese people.
If you can have a full stomach, nothing else matters. Before you know it, Liu Zhen's vitality gradually recovered.
At this time, good news came from Liu Town. The Eighth Route Army was going to rebuild Liu Town, recruit a large number of workers, and give them wages or food. Although the standards were much lower than in previous years, it still detonated the entire base area!
Fellow villagers came to Liuzhen to work one after another to earn much-needed food or money.
After the sweet potatoes are planted, there is basically no need for a lot of labor to take care of them, and a lot of labor is left free;
At this time, suddenly there was a lot of work to do in Liuzhen. It was better to rebuild Liuzhen for the Eighth Route Army. Not to mention giving money, even if no money was given, a large number of fellow villagers would come to help.
Regarding the rebuilding of Liu Town, differences arose between the newly established democratic government of Liu Town base area and Chuxiong. The local government headed by the county magistrate was prepared to recruit free labor according to the standards common outside and only provide two meals a day. food.
However, Chu Xiong’s opinion is that not only should three meals a day be provided, but also a certain amount of remuneration should be paid, and people’s power should not be overused.
"Captain Chu, our democratic governments everywhere follow this standard. Besides, the county government doesn't have any money."
County Magistrate Feng Yutang is also an old revolutionary with rich local work. He does not want to have conflicts with the army as soon as he comes. The army and the local people are one family.
"County Magistrate Feng, I didn't think this through carefully. This year's taxes haven't been collected yet, and the government doesn't have a penny;
After the meeting, the high political commissar will allocate 20,000 silver dollars and 100,000 catties of grain to you first. These will be used for the reconstruction of Liu Town first. After the taxes are collected this year, the local government will have to operate independently.
Except for front-end support, migrant workers must be paid at other times. In difficult times, the standards can be relatively low, but they must be paid!
When people have money and food in their hands, they will go to the market to buy goods, and the market will be active, thus promoting the prosperity of business;
When business is prosperous, the government can receive considerable business taxes to maintain the normal operation of the government. This is a virtuous circle. Money is only money when it is used! "
Chu Xiong's words opened a skylight for Feng Yutang. Although he still didn't understand why this was the case, he vaguely felt that it made sense. It is true that only when business is active can sufficient taxes be collected. With enough taxes, the government can money to keep things going.
In addition, Chu Xiong promised to allocate 20,000 silver dollars and 100,000 catties of grain in advance. Why would he argue with Commander Chu when he has money and grain? He is also a staunch revolutionary. His ideal is that the people have money to spend and food to eat!
Once he had money and food, he would not object to paying wages to his fellow villagers.
After the biggest problem was solved, the reconstruction work of Liuzhen was officially launched. With this reconstruction of Liuzhen, the tunnel project of Liuzhen was further widened to form an underground defense system covering the entire block of Liuzhen. The main tunnel was dug all the way to Shenxianling, and Shenxian Ridge forms a whole.
At the same time, it is also widened on both sides and plans to dig down to the bottom of the mountains on both sides. This is a huge project and is planned to take three months to complete.
The main building material of street houses is adobe bricks, which are low-cost and not afraid of Japanese bombing. If individual merchants need to use blue bricks, they can provide the materials themselves;
Since I had signed a contract with the merchant before, once the shop I rented or purchased was blown up by the Japanese, the base area would be responsible for building it free of charge according to the standards of adobe houses. It would need to be changed to better materials, and the merchant would provide the materials themselves.
Chu Xiong originally thought that most merchants would choose to use adobe houses, so that they would not need to pay a penny at all, but he still underestimated the courage of Shanxi merchants.
The Eighth Route Army paid to recruit workers to rebuild their shops for free, but they were still willing to pay for some materials. The blue brick houses were much more elegant than the adobe houses, so a large number of merchants finally chose to provide the materials themselves and let the Eighth Route Army organize the manpower. Build them unified houses.
"In front of the branch, I went to work in Liuzhen. The Eighth Route Army pays me 2 cents a day, and I also take care of the food! I'll leave the house to you."
"Da Shuan, you have to be honest when working for the Eighth Route Army. Commander Chu has paid us wages, so you can't fool us!"
"Zhiqian, don't worry. Even if the Eighth Route Army doesn't pay wages for rebuilding Liu Town, we will help. When we were supporting Qian, who thought about money?"
"Hmm, then please pay attention to safety when working. I'll wait for you to come back..."
