A very restrained meal, and the refreshments after the meal were also quite exquisite, and when the next person removed Yiqiē and brought the clear tea, a conversation officially began. Accompanying Zhu Jiande to talk were Lu Shouye, Lu Shoudao, and Lu Zhan, Lu Wan's cousin who went to the train station to pick up people - he took the civil service examination the year before last and had been an official for more than half a year, but felt that he was not being an official at all, but doing hard labor, and he came back because he couldn't stand the suffering.

Lu Shoudao first politely talked about the army's supreme exploits in recovering Taiwan, praised Zhu Jiande, and finally talked about the issue that the Lu government was really concerned about, that is, the matter of land reform. He said: "The virtuous nephew doesn't know, the Lu Mansion was just a small family in the early Qing Dynasty, and later the poetry and books were handed down, and someone in the family was admitted to the Jinshi, and this industry flourished." I think the landlords in the world can have more than 1,000 acres of land, most of them are non-official and expensive, it is said that the person with the most acres of land in the country is Li Hefei's family, and its cultivated land has more than 50,000 acres, which is the highest in the country.

But these acres of land are all legal property either in the present dynasty or in the old dynasty. Now the new dynasty is about to accept it with an order, which is really ...... It's really a robbery of people's wealth. The Lu Mansion provides disaster relief, road repair, running schools, asking for rain, and providing for relief every year, so don't you spend thousands or even tens of thousands of taels of silver every year? We all know that the rent has not been reduced from fifty percent to two, but now it is good, and the land will be collected after an official document, which is simply ...... no royal law. Throughout the ages, only the tyrannical Qin with rampant cool officials has such a ......"

As soon as Lu Shoudao's violent words came out, Lu Shouye immediately coughed. Although he also thinks that the dynasty is so cool and unsympathetic. There is no righteousness, and the tax collectors are very cunning. Shouting that 'only death and paying taxes are inevitable in the life of a man'. Just a little bit in arrears. Then not only do they have to go to the door to collect it, but what late fees do they have to levie, what is it? This is simply a group of robbers who kill without blinking, and murder must pay for their lives. In the former Qing Dynasty, it was the gentry who were given preferential treatment; Now it was the other way around, it was the gentry who were mistreated, and the people, the mud-legged people, were treated favorably. What's going on? Shandong is the hometown of Confucius, how can the gentry not be treated preferentially? In this world, do you really want the turbid ones to go up and the clear ones to go down?

Lu Shouye had complained a lot about the bad things of the new dynasty before. I didn't see the good of the new dynasty at all, but he didn't dare to show it in front of outsiders, and after interrupting his cousin, he said: "Virtuous nephew, a few days ago, someone in Beijing said that this land reform edict was about to come down. After the official office is handed down, I am afraid that they are going to come to the door, and Bang'er is not there, can the virtuous nephew help the Lu Mansion on his behalf, it is best to be exempted from the fields, if not, then he can't let outsiders bully him. Ahem......"

Lu Shouye looked sick. After saying this, he coughed again, and Lu Shoudao and the others looked at Zhu Jiande after he finished speaking, waiting for him to answer.

After Zhu Jiande listened to his request, his back suddenly felt a little numb. He felt that it was a mistake to come to the Lu Mansion, and he also understood the foresight of the political commissar of the headquarters, and did not let Lu Wan go home to visit his relatives to avoid this matter. But I didn't expect that I would top the cylinder. He was a little embarrassed and said, "Uncles, it stands to reason that Lu Wan's matter is my Zhu Jiande's matter." But as a soldier, you have to obey the laws and regulations of the military. The army and the government are two systems that complement each other. Even if there is an intersection, it is only a matter of troop stationing, provisions, and the like. This land reform is a government official, and the foolish nephew really has no right to interfere with it. ”

After Zhu Jiande said such a long series of words, Lu Shoudao just sighed in his heart, originally he disagreed with Zhu Jiande for a medical treatment in a hurry, thinking that he had no soldiers in his hands, and he was passing by here, so it would not help this matter at all, but a dead horse is regarded as a live horse doctor, and it is always a little beneficial to have an adult to help talk about it, especially when those officials in the previous dynasty are useless, there is still a strong co-ordinator, but I don't want people to do it.

"Virtuous nephew ......" Seeing Zhu Jiande's reluctance, the disappointed Lu Shouye stood up tremblingly, and was about to kneel down in front of Zhu Jiande, "Virtuous nephew, my Lu Mansion has always eaten fasting and recited Buddha, accumulated virtue and done good, and today the government has taken over the land, what should I do after a hundred and ten mouthfuls of this Lu Mansion?" After me, how will I see my ancestors in the future......"

Lu Shouye cried and said, he fell down before he knelt down, Lu Zhan and Zhu Jiande hurriedly helped him up, but they didn't want him to be weak and sad, so he actually fainted. He only woke him up when Zhu Jiande pinched him, but even when he woke up, his spirit was sluggish, and Lu Shoudao had to send him to the inner room to serve him kindly.

"Hey!" Seeing his younger brother like this, Lu Shoudao couldn't help but sigh: "My brother is still too obsessed, this business is his life, and his ancestors have passed it down for several generations, so he thinks that he can't break it in his hands." ”

Lu Shoudao said this, Zhu Jiande really didn't know how to evaluate it, he only felt that there were really a lot of birds dying for food, and people dying for money, but he didn't want Lu Shoudao's words to shock him, so he changed his attitude next to his sleeves.

"Twenty years ago, when my brother was young, he also had the idea of serving the country, and he repeatedly failed in the examination, and sold 2,000 stone land in the first year of the first day of the year, and got 20,000 taels of silver, plus some silver taels accumulated over the years, all of which were used to pay the imperial court for military expenses. After a few afternoons, he made some changes, and the Zhaoxin shares issued insisted on being approved by the rich gentry, and his younger brother planned to strengthen the country and rich the country, and he sold his property to scrape together 100,000 taels of silver and bought 100,000 shares. Although it was rewarded by the imperial court at that time, I really don't know where this money was squandered by those corrupt officials, and then it was a change of dynasty, and the 100,000 taels were gone. After these two times, my brother and I were disheartened, and our family business was half lost, and we couldn't afford to toss anymore. ”

Lu Shoudao said what happened to the Lu family in the past 20 years, and he was secretly sad, and Zhu Jiande heard that the Lu family took the initiative to sell land to charge military expenses during the first afternoon, and he immediately felt good, and his heart surged with enthusiasm, and he immediately said: "Uncle, no matter the new dynasty or the old dynasty, the Lu family is so dedicated to serving the country, Jiande can't stand idly by." I'd better go to the government office and ask, although I can't stop the government's land reform, but I can always help see what kind of compensation law this land reform is. ”

I thought that Zhu Jiande had no intention of helping, but now I heard that he agreed to go to the official office to help ask, Lu Shoudao suddenly grabbed his hand and said, "Virtuous nephew." Is this true? ”

"Uncle, you can always ask. If there are regulations in the official office, every qiē must be in accordance with the regulations. There's no way around it. Zhu Jiande said, but he regretted it a little when he spoke, he had never dealt with the government at all, and he didn't know what to do.

He didn't know the bottom of his heart, but Lu Shoudao was overjoyed, he immediately took a deep look and said gratefully: "It's really hard work." If he had been here, according to his letter, he would have simply ignored the matter. ”

Lu Shoudao shook at Zhu Jiande. Next to him, his son Lu Zhanye also made a fuss at Zhu Jiande, and he couldn't help him. He promised to help the Lu Mansion come out, but the original itinerary could only be pushed back, and he had to wait until the holy decree in Beijing came down before he could go to the Jinan official office to inquire about the matter, which made him unable to return to his hometown until Layue, who could have arrived home at the end of the month. But fortunately, after he sent a telegram to inform his family the next day, at noon on the fourth day, he heard firecrackers going off everywhere, and he also beat gongs and drums and horns. He was at a loss and said, "It's down!" It's down! ”

"Brother Lu, what's down?" Zhu Jiande put down Clausewitz's war theory and asked differently.

"O decree of the repossession! Listen, those mud-legged people are crazy with joy. Lu Zhan's face turned pale. The imperial court issued an edict in the name of the emperor to confiscate the land, only to make him have no heart to resist.

"Ah..." Zhu Jiande also lost his voice, he was a little happy. There is the surprise, too. He thought that when the Tingwei Mansion accused the government of resuming the land unconstitutionally, the decree could not have ordered the repossession of the land so much. I don't want the decree to come today.

"Brother Jade Rank, how should this be?" Lu Zhan looked at him distractedly. He just said this here, Lu Shouye and Lu Shoudao also came, and they had just heard the news outside: the holy decree of recovering the land had arrived.

"Let's go to the governor's yamen and have a look." Zhu Jiande said: "The newspaper said that various localities will set up special land reform yamen, and how to collect this land can be asked." ”

"Okay, just ask." Lu Shouye, who was still sick, said, and then he lowered his voice a little more: "Even if they want to do one or two, it's not impossible, I'll go and prepare." ”

Lu Shouye was busy and dizzy, but the rules of the Qianqing Dynasty were like this, the holy decree was one thing, and the implementation was another, the key was to see if he could find the right person and stuff the right money. He planned to do so, but Zhu Jiande, who was strictly educated, said: "It's better to ask my uncle to help find a horse and find someone to take my little nephew to the governor's land reform yamen." ”

"Good! Good! I'm going to prepare the horses, I'm going to prepare the horses!" The sick Lu Shouye suddenly became excited at this time, and ran to the backyard to prepare the horses in person.

Half an hour later, Zhu Jiande, dressed in the uniform of a marine officer of the Fuxing Army, rode on a Mongolian horse and followed Lu Zhan, who was sitting in a sedan chair, to the governor's yamen. The military uniform of the Marine Corps is very powerful, even if a person like Zhu Jiande is not good-looking, he looks heroic and abnormal, and the shining medals and colorful medals hanging on his left chest make everyone on the side of the road avoid it while looking at this dress intently.

Jinan City is not big, the palanquin man worked hard to get down the tea kung fu to the governor's yamen, there are a lot of people around the emperor list here, the short-clothed gang outside is laughing and happy, and the old men in the long shirt are crying wolf one by one. Zhu Jiande ignored these people, asked where the land reform yamen was, and rode there, but he didn't want to be a lot of long-shirted men over there, and there were still a few people crying on the ground in front of the bulletin board, but others didn't have the heart to watch, they were all around to read the proclamation.

It was only after Zhu Jiande got off the horse that he saw the specific land reform policy of Shandong Province on the notice on the outer wall of the land reform yamen, which was different from the legendary 50 mu as the dividing line, and the expropriation standards of various prefectures in Shandong were different. First of all, the cultivated land that has been cultivated by tenants for all the years since the founding of the country, regardless of the size of the plot, is within the scope of expropriation; Then there is the land of their own cultivators, which is levied at the standard of 30 mu or 75 stone in the middle of Lubei and Lu, and 45 mu or 75 stone in southwest and southern Lu.

Although the standards are two, they are not contradictory, and the farmers in the Jiaodong area do not grow grain, but grow American tobacco, so it is very inappropriate to measure the amount of grain per mu on the cultivated land for planting cash crops.

If the expropriation standards are formulated, there will be corresponding supplements, and these expropriated lands are divided into four types: clan land, temple land, public land, and private land. The Lu family is all private, so Zhu Jiande and Lu Zhan only look at the proclamation that they handle privately.

There are two compensation factors for private land expropriation. First, according to the area: within 60 acres or 90 acres, or 150 stones, if the compensation regulations are not violated. That can be compensated in full according to the land price; If the amount exceeds less than 180 mu, or exceeds 150 stone but less than 300 stone, only 70% and 5 will be compensated; More than 180 acres but less than 300 acres, or more than 300 stones but less than 500 stones. then only 50% of the compensation...... Looking at the number of acres in the back, the more and more columns, the compensation is getting less and less. Zhu Jiande's expression became more and more strict, and Lu Zhan's face became more and more pale--according to the cultivated land area of the Lu Mansion, this compensation is probably less than 20%.

When Lu Zhan's legs were weak and he couldn't stand it anymore, Zhu Jiande was looking at another supplementary coefficient: that is, the re-compensation after the discount compensation. Paragraph 32 of the Compensation Rules mentions that if the cultivated land is indeed the funds accumulated by the landlord for business and himself, and it is purchased in a non-disaster year, the compensation standard may be increased as appropriate, but sufficient evidence must be provided and submitted to the arbitration decision of the county land reform yamen.

In the past few days, Zhu Jiande has comprehensively looked through the bottom list of the old land deed of the Lu family and learned about the original purchase. He knew that a large part of it was bought with the money he had accumulated from rent, and that he did not know whether it had been bought in a year of calamity.

"Let's go in and ask." Looking at Lu Zhan, who was at a loss, Zhu Jiande made a decision.

"Ahh Lu Zhan couldn't understand why he had to go in and inquire now, he said, "But we don't have any money to prepare for the dots." ”

"Trust me, that thing doesn't work." Zhu Jiande said quietly. "Let's go, we always have to ask."

The bulletin board turned around to a small quadrangle, and there was still a large group of gentry in long shirts at the door, which was different from the bulletin board. There was a squad of soldiers on guard, and there were piles of sandbags and barricades made of wood barbed wire at the entrance of the courtyard, and even a Maxim machine gun. The soldiers were heavily armed and heavily armed. Seeing this posture, it is no wonder that those gentry are surrounded from afar, and they dare not step forward at all.

As soon as Zhu Jiande saw this posture, he knew that this was used to get off the horse. This gun, this cannon, the people are most afraid of this. The gentry and landlords were also very alarmed when they saw this. Others were afraid, but Zhu Jiande felt extremely familiar. He said to Lu Zhan next to him: "Go in." ”

"Huh!? Go in? "Lu Zhan was so frightened that he couldn't walk at this time, he looked at the barbed wire fence and felt weak, and he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get out after entering." Jade... Brother Yujie, this... This, I'm in a hurry, I'm ......"

Lu Zhan was frightened enough, and Zhu Jiande frowned and said, "Then you can give me those documents." ”

"Good...... Good. Lu Zhan was so relieved that he was so busy that he asked his subordinates to give Zhu Jiande the documents in the box, and then with the support of his subordinates, he fled and hid to the side.

Lu Zhan is like this, Zhu Jiande has nothing to say, he staggered others, and when he entered with a clerical box, the squad leader who was patrolling was taken aback when he saw his dress, and immediately shouted: "Salute!" ”

"Take a break." Zhu Jiande felt that he was eating inside and out, and his face was flushed, but the matter had come to this point, he could only go in and ask what was going on. He said in a harmonious voice to the sergeant in front of him, "There are some things I don't understand, I just want to ask." ”

"Yes, sir!" The sergeant replied in a loud voice according to military regulations: "Please come with me, sir." With that, he took Zhu Jiande into the courtyard gate through the barricade.

"May I ask if the chief is surnamed Lu?" The receptionist Zhu Jiande is a young man in a green official robe, with a Shandong accent, and the sign on his left chest has the words "receptionist" and "Sha Jingqiu".

"No, my surname is Zhu, and this is my military ID." Zhu Jiande took out his military ID card to prove his identity, and when he saw that the other party was a little puzzled, he explained: "I am a colleague of Colonel Lu Wan, and this time I am entrusted by his father, Mr. Lu Shouye, to learn about the issue of additional compensation for cultivated land. ”

"Okay, please wait." The receptionist looked at the military ID, quickly wrote down a name, and then turned around and entered, perhaps because Zhu Jiande dared to come in alone, and the receptionist invited him in after a while.

The place of consultation was a cold room, as soon as Zhu Jiande came in, he saw a woman in a cyan official robe, the woman was very young, her age was estimated to be less than twenty years old, just thinking about how this woman became a seven-rank official at such a young age, and how she should talk to her, the woman's cold voice asked, "Please sit down." I'm the Arbitrator, Number 952, please ask your questions! ”

With a cold voice, an indifferent expression, and some mechanical language, if it weren't for the fact that the other party was a woman and wearing an official robe, Zhu Jiande would simply think that the other party was a veteran of the battlefield. When he saw the other party talking, he immediately took out the documents in the box and only asked: "I see that the 32nd paragraph of the compensation rules mentions that if the cultivated land is indeed the funds accumulated by the landlord for business and himself, and it is purchased in a non-disaster year, then the compensation standard can be increased as appropriate." ”

Zhu Jiande said this, took out the documents in the box and said: "The Lu family has more than 800 acres of cultivated land that they have accumulated by themselves......

"If you talk about the two households of Lu Shoudao and Lu Shouye, then they do not apply to paragraph 32 of the compensation rules," the female official said coldly, without the slightest emotion, she opened a huge record book: "The Lu family originated after Lu Youwei Zhongjinshi in the forty-fourth year of Kangxi, Kangxi bought 500 stone of land in 52 years, and 1,000 stone of land in 56 years. In view of the fact that the Lu family has no other livelihood, and based on Lu Youwei's official income, if Lu Youwei is not corrupt, then the Lu family has no money to buy land.

Although the Lu family relied on their own accumulated funds to sell land, if there was no bribery income from Lu Youwei in the Kangxi year, it would be impossible for the Lu family to buy land with the funds they had accumulated. In addition, the purchase dates on the land deeds of the previous dynasties were the 54th year of Qianlong, the 13th year of Jiaqing, the 3rd year of Tongzhi, and the first to 4th year of Guangxu. The 54th year of Qianlong was recorded as a drought, the 13th year of Jiaqing was a locust plague, the third year of Tongzhi was an uprising of the Twisted Army, and the battlefield was in Shandong, and the first year of Guangxu was the Ding Wuqi famine, and under the four years of the great famine, more than 10 million people starved to death in the five northern provinces, and the people were not able to make a living, and the land price was extremely cheap.

Even if the Lu family really relied on the silver taels they had accumulated to purchase land, according to paragraph 33 of the compensation rules, the acres of land purchased in the disaster year were all discounted and no additional supplements were allowed, and the more than 800 mu of land could only be compensated at 20% of the land price. ”

According to the date on the old title deed and the local government chronicles, biographies, notes and other documents, the time and situation of the land purchase can be fully understood by the government; At the same time, a big landlord like the Lu family, genealogy, clansmen, fellow villagers, etc., will remember the old things of their origins very clearly, after all, the nouveau riche is always enviable, and this is still the glorious deeds of the Lu family that are proud of outsiders.

Surveys and statistics have found that, except for those compradors after the opening of treaty ports, more than ninety percent of the landlords in inland provinces or before the opening of ports for trade were eunuchs, and the poor officials before the Yongzheng Dynasty of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and even the officials after the introduction of incorruptible silver, were not enough for the bureaucrats to have so much arable land.

Therefore, there are only three kinds of landlords who really get full compensation: one is the small landlords who rely on diligence and thrift, these people are thrifty and work day and night, just thinking about becoming a big landlord one day, and the history of their fortune is very well understood by the people of the same village and clan, and the land deed is also very clear that they are all buying a few acres or more than a dozen acres of cultivated land, and there are no dozens or hundreds of acres of land to buy like this. As long as they purchased the land not in a disaster year, the compensation will be in full;

The second is the inland merchant gang. These people are mainly concentrated in a few specific places, Jin merchants, micro merchants, Shaanxi merchants, Lu merchants, Jiangxi merchants, these merchants have traces, and the so-called Shinong industry and commerce, household registration, armor, fish scale books, etc. will have a record of their occupation. Most of these people bought their land on business income, and they were fully compensated as long as they bought it during a disaster year. Moreover, these people were merchants, and when the money came to them, they did not have to worry about the problem of silver cellars;

The third is the large and small compradors after the trade period. Anyway, the money is not obtained by bribery, it can only be defined as legal, and since it is legal, then as long as it is not purchased at a low price in a disaster year, then it can also be fully compensated. Like the merchants in the hinterland, they did not have the problem of silver cellars.

The land reform plan formulated by Fan An was changed by Cen Chi, who was familiar with the national conditions, and suddenly changed completely. The cultivated land occupied by small landlords is only 40 percent of the cultivated land occupied by the landlords, and many of them are separated from the big landlords of the official eunuchs, and less than 50 percent of them really rely on their own diligence and thrift to accumulate family business. (To be continued......)

PS: Note: The proportion of small landlords refers to the survey of Taizu Xunwu.