Hong Kong Zongli Monks

Chapter 299 The Hard Times

The three villages have sufficient water, rice is grown twice a year, and sweet potatoes and cassava are grown on the dry land on the mountain. Most of the people in the south live like this.

Although the mountains are not good and life is difficult, it is a blessing to live safely in this society.

In the ten years before the all-out Anti-Japanese War, serious problems arose in rural governance.

Heavy taxes and long-term excessive deprivation of the countryside.

The infrastructure for disaster prevention, disaster control, and disaster relief has been seriously neglected and is extremely weak. The ability of agriculture to withstand natural disasters has been greatly reduced, and famines have plagued rural areas year after year.

Confucius believed: "It is necessary to persuade the people when the time comes." Mencius put it more clearly: the levy of cloth, the levy of millet, the levy of hard labor.

A gentleman uses one and slows down the other

Under normal circumstances, the ruler's collection of taxes must be controlled within a certain amount

However, since this era, external powers have imposed pressure, internal politics have deteriorated, and various burdens have accumulated, causing farmers to pay increasingly heavy taxes.

The Beiyang government was much more important than the late Qing Dynasty. To some extent, after the collapse of the late Qing government, the Beiyang government withdrew from the stage of history after more than ten years of rule.

These are not unrelated to the heavy burden on farmers and the loss of popular support.
The burden on farmers is getting heavier day by day, which can be said to be a general summary of the onerous land tax and taxes in various provinces during this period.

Although the Ministry of Interior of the National Government tried to correct the situation of arbitrary attachment of land tax, it had no practical effect. Various disguised attachments and arbitrary apportionment are still prevalent.

The land tax is heavy, and the landlord will inevitably pass the burden on to the tenant farmers. Therefore, it is the poor peasants who suffer the most, and the result must be "heavily taxed and sick people"
Many maladministrations were also exposed in the land tax collection, such as the uneven burden and the darkness of the collection system.
These injustices and darkness have further increased the burden on poor farmers.
Historically, harsh governance has often been closely associated with famine
Under normal circumstances, disaster prevention and relief are the "important affairs" of the ruling class.

This is because once a major natural disaster turns into a major famine, it will directly cause huge damage to productivity and social economy, and cause a major crisis in people's livelihood.

Disasters are often accidental. If there are consecutive years of famines, long-term famines, or widespread famines, there must be directional errors in government decisions and policies.

The northern region was originally a farming area with early civilization development. It has the vast and fertile North China Plain and the vast northwest plateau. It is an important agricultural product production area.

After the establishment of the Nanjing National Government, in addition to war, excessive taxes and levies deprived farmers of their ability to further produce and survive.

Moreover, due to the long-term disrepair of water conservancy and the lack of adequate improvements in food crop varieties, the inability to withstand the invasion of agriculture by successive natural disasters has resulted in the extreme deterioration of the northern rural economy.

Due to exorbitant taxes and successive years of famine, the overall decline of the rural economy was accompanied by the loss of the ability of the poor to survive and produce

Forced by natural disasters, farmers had to borrow money at heavy profits in exchange for rice, struggling on the verge of death.

Since the Kuomintang came to power, it has not made any contribution to the land issue. On the contrary, land tax surcharges are heavy, and the cleaning fee is also one of the surtaxes.
Exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are a life-threatening talisman for Chinese farmers, which makes their lives even more desperate.
The "man-made disasters" of harsh government and the "natural disasters" of nature are intertwined and forced, and the vast number of poor people have fallen into a desperate situation with no hope of survival and waiting to die.

Only by taking risks, choosing the road of exile and turmoil, and finally embarking on the road of revolution under the guidance of correct policies
Although Zhixing has only been in this era for a few years and has been in seclusion for more than three years, he is well aware of the hardships of farmers.

From later generations, the lower-class farmers were forced to the end of their rope. They had nothing to eat but had to pay taxes. It was really sad to see the comparison.

The times are like this, and you can't change anything by yourself.

The three villages I live in have today's peace, working from dawn to dusk, and not starving to death. It's really good, thanks to the fact that the officials in this small town are not greedy people.

Zhixing can't control the outside world so much. In this marginal mountain village, I am really busy with children every day, and I am very busy.

Seeing too much depression in this era, maybe these little guys can see hope.

I have always watched the world as a bystander, and I can't integrate into it. Maybe I know I can't change it, so I want to escape.

I don’t like to see too many miserable people, but I can see them everywhere. The helpless situation is very annoying, so now I focus on teaching and doing something.

Class started at 07:30 in the morning. They all lived nearby and no one thought it was early, so the boys hurried in one after another.

In this era, there were no mixed classrooms for men and women, and in rural areas, no women studied.

Perhaps only rich landlords and officials would allow their daughters to concentrate on studying!
Watching a group of eleven or twelve-year-olds studying seriously, I see them every day at school, but I feel new feelings every time.

Their family situations are all similar. Maybe this place is too remote, but it has become a paradise. The young men have not been captured by warlords, and each family is still intact.

There are mixed marriages in the three villages, and they all have some relatives, which is also a factor of peace.

Too much fighting will make them lose their blood.

Zhixing was thinking a lot while reading.

"System, exchange the elementary body training techniques and elementary boxing techniques!"

Troubled times are coming, and I have had the idea of ​​teaching martial arts for a long time. Although studying can save the country, considering their current situation, I am afraid they will not have the opportunity to further their studies.

I was not very familiar with the work before, and I didn't want to be distracted for a while, so I postponed it until now.

Four hundred merits were deducted, and two sets of elementary exercises appeared in my mind. With a strong mind, I could understand them thoroughly in a while.

After finishing a class, arrange for them to go to the open space outside and line up in rows and columns.

When they first took office, Chi Heng took the opportunity of giving lectures to train them and queue them up.

"As the saying goes, martial arts can open up borders and expand territory, and literature can stabilize and rejuvenate a country. You have started studying literature a few years ago. Starting today, you will practice martial arts for an hour every day!"

These half-children were overjoyed, and there was a commotion in the serious scene.

Although it doesn't have the impact of flying to the moon like martial arts, but practicing martial arts is a natural interest for men, and there is a love engraved in their bones.

After a while, Zhixing performed a basic boxing technique, with heavy punches and full power.

The elementary boxing technique worth two hundred merits has been found a long time ago, and it has not been exchanged before. It is a very exquisite elementary boxing technique.

There are so many exercises on the system, and this is the best one for beginners.

"Did you see the boxing technique I just performed? I will teach you in the future, but before that you must practice your strength. Now I will teach you the strength and energy technique!"

Then practice the physical exercises one by one. Each posture drives the body to absorb the flowing energy in the air.

Slowly teach and explain the precautions while teaching.

The basic body training technique is actually very simple, the important thing is to persevere.

In an hour, they can roughly remember it, just practice more.

(End of this chapter)