The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Yunxiu Building.

Chang Kaishen was quite troubled and said, "This Zhou Mingcheng, why is he here again? Just say that I'm not feeling well, and I'm already on bed rest. Let him come back another day if he has something to do."

"Yes, Chief!" The aide-de-camp bowed and exited.

After a while, a voice from the inner guard suddenly came from outside: "Mr. Zhou, you can't go in, or I will be impolite!"

"Shoot if you have the guts!" Zhou Hexuan said.

"Mr. Zhou, don't make things difficult for the brothers." Neiwei begged.

Zhou Hexuan shouted: "People starve to death in Henan every day, so many people will suffer retribution if they die, and you will have a share of this retribution! Get out of the way!"

"Mr. Zhou... Oh, don't take my gun!"

"boom!"

Lao Jiang was startled by the sound of a gunshot, and hurriedly asked his attendants to investigate.

The attendant came back and said, "It was Mr. Zhou who fired the shot. No one was injured. He has already been captured by the inner guards. Chief, what should we do?"

Chang Kaishen said with a headache, "Let him in."

Zhou Hexuan strode in and slapped a stack of materials on the desk: "These are the news sent by the reporter of "Ta Kung Pao" from Henan. If Mr. Jiang does not see me today, then tomorrow I will let "Ta Kung Pao" report it."

"What's the situation?" Chang Kaishen asked.

Zhou Hexuan said: "Let's talk about Xuchang first. Xuchang's disaster situation is not the worst, but Xuchang has the most people starved to death. Xuchang county magistrate Wang Hengwu raised the land tax last year for his political achievements, and it ranks first among all counties in Henan. His catchphrase this year is: Better to starve to death ten ordinary people than to starve to death a soldier!"

Chang Kaishen said: "It's just a propaganda slogan, and it's also for the sake of the war of resistance."

Zhou Hexuan sneered and said, "He's not just shouting slogans, do you know how this county magistrate collects grain? Whenever rich households have more than 40 or 50 mu of land, he will send 6 people and 3 animals to pull carts." Sit down, and the food for the personnel and animals must be provided by the household.”

"Good job!" Chang Kaishen clapped his hands and praised, "Most of the wealthy gentry and landlords are moths. They link up with Baojia chiefs to avoid conscription and grain. Grain requisitions are traded at market prices, and they are not taken for nothing. It is of great benefit to the country and the people to let the landlords and wealthy gentry sell the surplus grain as military rations."

"But do you know how those who collect grain do?" Zhou Hexuan said angrily, "They live in rich households, eat white flour and eggs every day, and their animals have to buy grain, and they often extort money. Those in Xuchang County The rich 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 have no food to eat, so I have to pay the grain. I sell all the things that can be sold at home to buy grain and turn it in. Farmers buy grain at the market price, but they can only charge the official price when they sell it to the grain requisition officer. Now all the peasants’ homes in Xuchang are empty. No plowing tools, no cattle and horses, and no grain left for planting, how will the grain collection task for next year be completed with this kind of means of collecting grain by exhausting the pond?"

Chang Kaishen nodded and said, "It's really too much."

Zhou Hexuan also said: "Right now, the price of grain in the black market in Xuchang County has skyrocketed, and the citizens can no longer afford food. By the way, Yang Quesu, the director of the Xuchang Branch of your Three Youth League, his youngest son is already sick due to malnutrition. Sick and dead!"

Chang Kaishen was dumbfounded, unable to believe it.

The Three Youth League is composed of key members of the Blue Shirts Club and the CC Department, and Chang Kaishen personally serves as the leader of the group, and he has high hopes for it. Now the son of the director general of the Xuchang branch of the Three Youth League is about to starve to death. This is simply a big joke.

"The people are already affected by the disaster, but the local officials continue to extort money like this, which is tantamount to making the situation worse," Zhou Hexuan said. "According to incomplete statistics, more than 20,000 people have died of starvation in Xuchang County. If this continues, at least five people will starve to death by the end of the year." Ten thousand, by next spring, more than 100,000 people will starve to death, and there may even be 200,000 people starved to death!"

Chang Kaishen remained silent.

Zhou Hexuan added: "I know that the central government has already started disaster relief, and I also know that grain collection is a plan for the War of Resistance. But Chairman Li Peiji in Henan Province is too powerful. He forced down the price of grain and strictly enforced it. This is normal. It is very rare, and I would like to praise him as a good official, avoiding the possibility of grain merchants and wealthy households taking advantage of the fire. But now, the provincial government forcibly suppressed grain prices, and private grain was confiscated. All of the grain has been emptied, and only the big landlords 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 sell it to other provinces. And the grain merchants in other provinces because The price of grain in Henan is too low, and they don’t want to bring it over for sale. As a result, there is no food in the whole Henan market. Not to mention the poor, even the rich can’t buy food with money! Such disaster relief, even if the central government allocates 100 Hundreds of millions of disaster relief funds will not help, 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 great famine in Henan in 1942 was entirely a man-made disaster, which was different from the severe drought in Sichuan in 1936. Sichuan suffered from disasters and failed harvests for many years in a row, while Henan experienced good weather for several consecutive years. Even if it was hit by a disaster in 1941, it was able to complete the grain requisition task in full.

But it is precisely because of the disaster in 1941 that the food was returned, which emptied the people's previous grain reserves, and the intensified grain collection in 1942 led to the starvation after the disaster.

The most speechless thing is the provincial chairman Li Peiji, who is too capable to handle affairs, and the situation is so bad that he can forcefully suppress the food prices in Henan province. As a result, grain from other provinces was unwilling to be shipped to Henan for sale, and grain from Henan was secretly transported to other provinces.

Chang Kaishen finished reading the disaster information sent by Zhou Hexuan, and his face was extremely gloomy. The current situation is actually much more serious than he imagined.

But the problem is that the rations have to continue to be collected, and the military rations can no longer hold up.

Chang Kaishen called the attendant's secretary: "Immediately send a telegram ordering the Henan Provincial Government to reduce this year's grain collection task by 20%. Also, remove Wang Hengwu, the magistrate of Xuchang County, for investigation. It is not enough to not kill this person." Civilian outrage."

Killing people, of course, is for the anger of the people, anyway, the food that should be levied has already been levied.

This guy has gone crazy for his political achievements. He can force the small landlords who own tens of acres of land in Xuchang to starve to death on average.

Historically, Wang Hengwu was quickly promoted to Commissioner of Nanyang because of his outstanding achievements in grain collection. However, due to the great grievances in Xuchang, Lao Jiang had to dismiss him and sent him to the Luoyang military court for trial. He escaped trial because of the fall of Luoyang. Until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, this person was buried alive by the angry Xuchang people, and he was charged with treason, which is really a retribution.

That's all Zhou Hexuan could do, prompting Lao Jiang to reduce the grain requisition task in Henan by 20% in 1942, and perhaps save some deaths because of this.

Disaster relief cannot be saved. Donating money and food may save one life, but the government can force ten people to death by collecting food.

Not to levy is not enough, for the sake of the war of resistance, at least many government officials think so.