After last year's autumn harvest, due to the shortage of large-scale combine harvesters, the Beihai Town Machinery Factory began to mass-produce the McCormick harvesters that appeared in another time and space. Its working efficiency is 4 to 5 times that of manual harvesting.
This thing is relatively simple to make. Except for the wood, it is made of cast iron. It does not require precision machining. The only high-tech part is the tooth knife for cutting. The working principle of the entire machine is that the horses drive the wide wheels of the harvester forward. The wheels are connected to the gears on the bridge chain rake to drive the four windmill blade-shaped crop dividers to rotate, pushing the wheat ears into the collecting platform. When entering the collection table, the cutter with the front end close to the ground will cut off the wheat straw, leaving only an inch-long wheat stubble on the ground.
The maintenance of horse-drawn harvesters is very simple. If the harvester is broken, farmers can repair it themselves; if the cutters of the divider are broken, they can apply to the agricultural machinery station again and get a replacement set. As for the selling price, it is a set of 200 Beihai silver dollars, including two horses.
According to Zhao Liang's plan, Beihai Town Machinery Factory will start replicating the first-generation combine harvester in history this winter, and it will be the one using a fuel engine.
The large-scale use of new agricultural tools is actually closely related to Beihai Town's breaking of the traditional small-scale peasant economic structure and imitating the organizational form of the "collective commune" from another time and space in history. The reason why farmers under Beihai Town can quickly accept new things and are willing to buy industrial products is because each natural village adopts agricultural cooperative methods.
The reason why Zhao Xin and Chen Qingsong did this was not because they were farsighted, but because it was determined by the actual conditions of the refugees in the island country at the beginning. Because the famine caused each family to lack labor, it was difficult to manage fifty acres of land; Beihai Town also had to recruit soldiers from these people, which further led to a shortage of labor, so it could only adopt a cooperative and mutual aid model. As a result, unified management, unified management, rational utilization of land, construction of water conservancy and farmland infrastructure have become natural.
The same was true for the early immigrants from Henan. The agricultural production technology was backward and the labor force was insufficient, which forced them to be included in this system. When immigrants from Shandong and Zhili arrived in the later period, when their families had relatively abundant labor, they adopted the principle of allocating land on a family basis and dispersing and resettling each family, which greatly reduced the interference ability of clan forces.
In other words, the clan-based small-scale peasant economic land management method is not allowed in Beihai Town; more seriously, as long as Beihai Town continues to industrialize, it will not be allowed in all areas under its rule.
We must know that as long as a country or regime enters industrialization, with the establishment of various systems, it will bring a large amount of institutional expenditures; these include taxes, medical security, electricity bills, water bills, communications, logistics, etc., as well as It is the "system cost".
Because China at the end of the 18th century was still an agricultural country after all, with 90% of the more than 300 million people living in rural areas. Therefore, the institutional costs generated by industrialization must be passed on through the countryside, that is, the rural population must purchase and use industrialized goods. Towns alone cannot absorb them at all.
Take tractors, for example. Their biggest application is agricultural production, and they have almost no role in cities and towns. For another example, if every village has electricity, farmers must pay the electricity bill; if there is no electricity, farmers must buy horse lanterns made in Beihai Town instead of continuing to use dim oil lamps.
There is a very striking example in the history of another time and space, which can illustrate the opposition and contradiction between industrialization and small peasant economy. In 1949, in order to improve farming efficiency, a "double-wheeled and double-shared plow" was produced. Compared with the wooden plow commonly used by farmers at that time, it was commonly known as the "iron plow" by the people, and its price was only 39 yuan. . However, no matter how vigorously the government promoted and mobilized, farmers just refused to buy it, and it was not until communeization that it was popularized.
We must know that China's small-scale peasant economic model since ancient times has resulted in various operations including industry and commerce that do not use currency transactions. Farmers do not have the habit of buying with currency. If you need any agricultural tools, you can just find a skilled craftsman in the village to make one, and the cost is to exchange agricultural products.
For example, using eggs laid by your own hens to exchange for matches at the cooperative is a barter transaction. Agricultural products and industrial products cannot be monetized in rural areas, resulting in economic operation that can only be based on planned allocation and cannot be market-oriented.
For the rural areas under the Qing Dynasty in this era, the land annexation by the official and gentry class has resulted in ordinary farmers having no fifty acres of land to operate. The official and gentry class who own a large amount of land can work more cheaply by hiring rural bankrupts and proletarians. To achieve low-cost operations in this way, there is a lack of motivation for demand for new agricultural tools.
(Having said so much, do you understand why collectivization was implemented after the Agrarian Revolution?)
In fact, Zhao Xin kept introducing talents from another time and space. The reason was the same as the "Soviet Aid to China" in the history of another time and space, but the scale was not as large, so the speed of industrial system construction was not as fast.
It has been seven years since Beihai Town was established. The most basic thing is to increase the literacy rate, reduce the proportion of illiterates, and increase skilled workers. With the arrival of 500,000 new immigrants, the proportion of illiterate and semi-illiterate people has skyrocketed, accounting for 45% of Beihai Town's resident population.
Faced with this situation, in addition to expanding basic education and promoting literacy campaigns in natural villages, another solution is to join the North Korean Navy and reduce the illiteracy rate through compulsory learning in the army.
The further south the North Korean navy attacks, the more prominent this problem will be, and the corresponding institutional costs will surge. This kind of problem exists not only in Daiqing, but also in Eastern Siberia; it's just that because the territory occupied by Beihai Town is too large, the population of so-called large towns is only a few thousand at most, and the current signs have not yet emerged.
In short, as long as Zhao Xin and his companions continue to pursue industrialization led by state capital, they will be in opposition to the traditional small-scale peasant economy and will inevitably become enemies of the landlord and gentry class. It is absolutely impossible for the two parties to reconcile and they will definitely embrace the future. The idea of quickly eliminating the opponent.
However, Hong Liangji, the newly appointed deputy commissioner of the administrative office, only has a partial understanding of all the above mentioned. What he can understand is that his so-called "deputy commissioner" is probably equivalent to the fifth-grade intellectual in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. He has to take care of everything except the military.
In the Manchu and Qing Dynasty, if anyone wanted to become an official, they would start as a county magistrate at most. You must know that the real Jinshi was actually a seventh-grade county magistrate. Hong Liangji became a senior official in charge of the Hunchun area from a humble beginning, and he could be regarded as entering the ranks of high-ranking officials in Beihai Town.
Throughout the nearly three hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, there were very few officials who could openly speak out about current problems and accuse the emperor of his mistakes. There were only two of them. One was Sun Jiagan, who was very familiar to later generations, and the other was Hong Liangji. However, Hong Liangji in history was more powerful than Sun Jiagan, known as "the strongest figure in the Qing Dynasty"; he was able to make Jiaqing, known as "Renzong", so angry that he almost beheaded him. The power of "Qi" is evident.
It is rare in China’s thousands of years of history for a person whose own righteousness can move the world to such an extent that he vindicates Hong Liangji’s edict during the Jiaqing period, and rains down rain on the back to relieve the drought, and even includes this matter in the official history.
It is this character that Zhao Xin likes. Just like letting Jiang Fan go to serve as a soldier first, he deliberately left Hong Liangji idle for a while. Seeing that he was not impatient, he sent him, Liu Taigong and others to the administrative school. After some government affairs training I arranged to go to Hunchun in the hope that through this person's uprightness, local Manchu affairs and border issues could be handled fairly and justly.
When the Battle of Hunchun entered the final stage, the Manchus in Hunchun City were unable to evacuate to Jilin due to the east-west pincer attack by the Northern Navy, and the Manchus in Hunchun City were all soldiers, so most of the Manchu families stayed behind.
How to manage these people will determine whether Beihai Town's future governance of other regions in the Northeast will go smoothly. We must know that Dashiwula, Heilongjiang City, and even Qiqihar, Morgan, Jilin, and Shengjing under the Manchu Qing rule were all composed of bannermen as the main residents. Everyone is watching every move of Beihai Town. If the local officials stationed there are unfair, it will lead to the death of the Kurkaqi and Feyaka people in the surrounding villages, thus shaking the rule of Beihai Town in the entire Northeast region.
"Master Hong, this is a summary of the household registration files of the Eight Banner Manchus and Kurkhaqis in Hunchun."
In the official office of the administrative office, a civil affairs clerk responsible for managing files placed the compiled information on the desk.
Hong Liangji, who had just arrived at any day, opened the file and looked at it carefully. He found that the file summary was organized in great detail. It was classified into categories such as men and women, age groups, affiliations, nationalities, etc. This kind of organization method can only be done after training in the administrative school. Only people can do it.
"Yizhi, do you understand Manchu?"
"Understood, the next family has lived in Ningguta for many years."
The speaker was a middle-aged man in his thirties, wearing the dark blue uniform of a civil affairs clerk. This person is Zhang Yubei, nicknamed Yizhi, who was previously sent by Na Qitai to negotiate with the Bei Navy. After the Beihai Navy occupied Ninggu Pagoda, Zhang Yubei, a descendant of Han exiles and a student supervisor, quickly defected to Beihai Town. After more than a year of studying in the administrative school, he was sent to Hunchun as the person in charge of household registration and land. Civil Affairs Clerk.
Zhang Yubei immediately introduced the number of local households to Hong Liangji, and focused on the situation of the Manchus. Generally speaking, the Eight Banners Manchuria in Hunchun mainly fall into five categories: Zhengbai, Bianhuang, Zhenghuang, Zhenghong, and Xianghong. The surnames are Anchulaguarjia, Neyinguarjia, and Suvaguar. The main ones are the Jiashi, Sakdabi, Jueluo, and Hesheri clans; in addition, they also include the Hezhe people, the Kurkhaqi people, the Feyaka people, and the Xinjiang Barkol Erut Mongolians who became the "Iche Manchuria" People, etc.; as for the Han people, there are eighty newly allocated households, half of which are naturalized people from the island country.
After the Northern Navy occupied Hunchun, these old and new Manchus all changed their Chinese surnames when registering their household registrations. For example, all the Guarjias changed their surnames to "Guan", Sakdabi changed their surnames to "Zu", and Hesheli changed their surnames to "He". , Niu Hulu changed his surname to "Lang"; the most troublesome was Jueluo, who changed his surname to "Zhao".
Hong Liangji glanced at ten lines, and when he saw the composition of the ethnic group, he was surprised and said: "There are actually Huihui in this place?"
Zhang Yubei said: "There are only three families, and they are all businessmen from Ning Guta. Two families are named Li, and one family is named Ma."
"Businessmen? What business do they do?"
"Ginseng goods, leather goods, and occasionally involved in trade with the Li Dynasty. Sir, we are short of cattle here. In the past, we traded with Huining of the Li Dynasty, trading horses or ginseng goods with them for cattle, salt, and cloth. .”
"Do they have a license from Beihai Trading Company?"
"People from the trading company had talked to them before, but they thought the business tax we set was too high and didn't agree."
"This won't work! In the future, all merchants or merchants must have a license issued by the Beihai Trading Company. Private individuals cannot intervene in the grain trade! Moreover, now everywhere, machines are used for both plowing and harvesting. Even for harvesting, The machines are all drawn by horses, so what do we need the scalpers for? Apart from eating meat, the remaining use is to sell their skins for armor."
Hong Liangji had learned in administrative school that Beihai Town adopts an exclusive purchase of grain and never allows private individuals to get involved. The purpose is to narrow the scissor gap between industry and agriculture, ensure the price of agricultural products, and prevent immigrants from losing their interest in farming due to the organizational form of collective communes. enthusiasm.
Zhang Yubei was shocked. He didn't expect that Deputy Commissioner Hong would be slapped with such a big label. Those three merchants were in trouble.
Hong Liangji thought for a moment and then said: "Yizhi, could you please send someone to notify the returning heads of these three households? I want them to come to the Yamen at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning."
"Your Majesty, you are serious. This is all within the scope of my duties."
While the two were talking, the guard outside the door came to report that Li Chao had sent someone to Huining Mansion to ask for an audience.
Zhang Yubei said: "Sir, if I guess correctly, Huining's visit this time must be to discuss mutual trade matters."
"Oh? How do you say this?"
"Since Hunchun was returned to the rule of King Zhao, our mutual trade with Huining has stopped. Previously, King Zhao and Mr. Shen of the Ministry of Trade meant that if Lee Chao did not agree to return North Hamgyong Province, we would not open mutual trade. What's more, The imperial court, oh, no, the Manchu Qing Dynasty still has thousands of troops stationed in Huining. Once the mutual trade is opened, this spy to spy on the military situation will take the opportunity to come in."
Hong Liangji nodded and said: "I see. But King Zhao sent me here, and negotiating with Li Chao on border affairs is also within my official duties." After that, he said to the guards: "Invite them in, just Let’s talk in the main room.”
The office of the Hunchun Administrative Office is the former official office of the Xie Ling Yamen. It has three main rooms, two rooms in the west wing, a storage room for customs and defense, and a door. They are all thatched houses and have no walls. After the Northern Navy occupied Hunchun, they have been implementing military control. Mishilang only demolished the thatched houses, rebuilt brick houses, and added wooden fence walls. He himself set up his headquarters in the martial arts hall inside the south gate of the city and also lived there. over there.
The only major construction project carried out by the Beihai Navy in the city was the original official school building. All three thatched houses were demolished and converted into a primary school with fifteen wood-carved houses in three rows, and a playground was also built. All school-age children in the city, regardless of gender, are required to attend school. The teachers are three young teachers aged 16 or 17 sent from Beihai Town, who mainly teach literacy, Mandarin and mathematics.
Now the customs and defense warehouse has been changed into a household registration archives warehouse. Zhang Yubei's family lives in the west wing, and Hong Liangji himself lives in the east room of the main room. One of the other two rooms has been converted into a reception room, and the west room is the official room.
Hong Liangji's family currently lives in Beihai Town, where the living conditions are considered to be the best in Beihai Town. As he takes office alone, he is not so particular.
Regarding Zhao Xin's unusual appointment, Hong Liangji had no words of gratitude. All he could do was, "You treat me as a countryman, and I will repay you as a countryman."
