Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 81: The Tyrants Divide the Land

Hong Xiuquan was still conflicted after hearing this, but he finally nodded.

"Becoming a king... is also possible!"

"But, what title should be given to Li Yi?"

Everyone already has an idea about the matter of being crowned king.

Although the imperial edict to confer titles of kingship had not yet been issued, Hong Xiuquan had already informed everyone. Yang Xiuqing was conferred the title of Eastern King, Xiao Chaogui the Western King, Feng Yunshan the Southern King, Wei Changhui the Northern King, and Shi Da the Kaifeng King of Wings.

Among them, the four kings of the southeast, northwest, northeast and southwest are needless to say, they are the four pillars of the kingdom of heaven.

They all made great contributions to the establishment of the Church of God and the rise of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Although Shi Dakai's Winged King is just to make up the number, the implication of the wings of heaven is also quite good.

Now, with the addition of Li Yi, Hong Xiuquan really couldn’t think of what title to give him.

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiuqing spoke.

"Since the Heavenly Kingdom has made up its mind to promote Li Yi and let him share the pressure from the Qing Demons, then there is no need to be stingy in making him king. You might as well give him a better-sounding title."

"What does the Heavenly King think of Prince Zhong?"

The reason why Yang Xiuqing said this was actually to morally blackmail Li Yi.

Once Li Yi accepts the title of King Zhong, if he wants to betray the Heavenly Kingdom again in the future, the moral pressure and social opinion he will have to bear will certainly be huge.

If I give you the title of King Zhong but you become a traitor, this title will be the biggest irony to you.

……

Cenxi, outside Guiyi Town, Li’s army camp.

Hearing the wake-up whistle ringing in his ears, Feng Zicai yawned and crawled out of the bed, put on his clothes, folded the quilt, and went to the playground with the crowd to do morning exercises.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A penetrating copper whistle sounded, and Li's army quickly arranged their ranks. Feng Zicai found his position very quickly, then stood still with his chest held high.

"Everyone has it, run and walk!"

"One-two-one! One-two-one!"

"Drive out the Tartars, restore China, rebuild the country, and equalize land rights!"

With uniform slogans, the team started moving, and everyone swung their arms and stepped to the rhythm of the whistle, running around the playground.

A group of people ran ten laps around the playground, about five kilometers, to warm up, then dispersed on the spot and lined up in different organizations to have breakfast.

On the table, Li’s army’s meal today was still rich.

In other words, ever since seizing a large amount of grain and fodder in Xunzhou, the food of Li's army has always been very good.

Fragrant white rice porridge, greasy pancakes, still steaming sweet potatoes and corn, and stir-fried seasonal vegetables, etc.

In the eyes of rich people, this may not be much, but to ordinary people of this era, such food is already rich enough.

Everyone sat together with their bowls in hand, eating noisily.

After finishing breakfast and just washing and putting away the bowls, Feng Zicai and others received the order to go to war.

The officer stood in front of the queue and spoke loudly.

"We have received an order from our superiors that some local tyrants and evil gentry in Laoniugou, 20 miles east of Guiyi Town, have formed a militia and colluded with the Qing demons from Cenxi to attempt to confront our army."

"He is so stubborn and unrepentant, and his crimes are extremely heinous!"

"Our superiors have ordered us to march out immediately to defeat the enemy. There can be no mistakes!"

After the officer read out the order, he immediately waved his hand to order the army to march out. Feng Zicai and others packed up their bedding, took up their weapons, and marched towards the east in a heroic and high-spirited manner.

That afternoon, they arrived outside Laoniugou, preparing to launch an attack on the militia entrenched there.

But before they launched their attack, a scout came to report that traces of Qing army activities were found outside Laoniugou...

……

"Dad! The long-haired bandits have already reached the outside of the mountain."

A young man rushed into Master Niu Jinxi's study in a panic. It was none other than Master Niu's son Niu Bao.

Upon hearing this, Master Niu put down the brush in his hand and said with a frown.

"How can you behave in such a panic?"

"Don't worry, Dad, I have already asked for help from the county. The county will soon send troops to help me in Lao Niu Gou."

"As long as you and I can lead the militia until the county sends reinforcements, it will be a great achievement, and the court will surely reward us handsomely in the future."

"Want to share my land with poor people? Pah, I think this thief is crazy!"

The reason why Niu Jinxi chose to lead the militia to fight against Li Yi was certainly not because of how much he loved the Qing Dynasty.

It was because what Li Yi did in Guiyi Town greatly violated his interests.

In order to win the hearts of the people and establish the foundation of his regime in Guiyi Town, Li Yi, after conquering Guiyi Town, began to fight against the local tyrants and divide the land.

The local tyrants and evil gentry near Guiyi Town were publicly tried.

Many local tyrants and evil gentry who had opened private mines in the countryside, annexed land, and committed heinous crimes such as taking human lives were publicly tried and executed.

Then their land was confiscated and distributed to the farmers through the method of "renting instead of buying".

To put it bluntly, the land belongs to Li's army, but it is handed over to farmers for cultivation, and the farmers have to pay a certain amount of rent every year.

Once the rent has been paid for a certain number of years, the land will belong to the poor.

This amount is approximately 30% of the land rent, and must be paid for ten consecutive years.

Compared to this era when tenants rented land from landlords, they often received half, or even 60% or 70% of the rent.

Li Yi's move can definitely be considered conscientious!
In addition, those gentry landlords who had a good reputation and no bad record could not escape the fate of having their land divided.

But Li Yi left some wiggle room for this matter.

He did not go to the extreme and kill people and divide the land.

Instead, the maximum amount of land that each household can own is set at 200 mu.

The Li family army used the extra money to buy out the land from reputable landlords by writing IOUs, and then rented the land to the poor.

Then, using the same rent-to-buy model, a certain amount of rent is collected each year and then transferred to the landlord as the land purchase fee. To put it bluntly, except that the landlords are now the ones collecting the rent, everything else remains unchanged.

The reason why Li Yi did not divide the land directly but wanted to "rent instead of buy" was because

First, avoid situations where one is grateful for a little and then resents for a little.

The second reason is that he also needs money and food to rebel, and it is impossible to rely solely on captured goods to maintain the operation of the military system.

The long-term income from land sales is a huge supplement to Li’s army’s finances and it is impossible to give it up.

The third reason is that "renting instead of buying" is a conciliatory approach that can prevent those landlords from becoming desperate and fighting Li Yi.

How to say it, in the eyes of many landlords, Li Yi's bandits will not be able to be arrogant for ten years, and it is estimated that it will take no more than a few years for the Qing Dynasty to fight back.

By then, the field will still be theirs.

It's nothing more than pretending to be friendly with the bandits for a while and letting the poor guys rent their land at a low price for a few years. It's not a big deal.

There is no need to fight the bandits for the sake of a few percent of the rent, right? It's not worth it!

Naturally, they gave up their determination to fight Li Yi to the end.

Doing so would help Li Yi to win over forces that could be united, rather than pushing the entire landlord gentry class to the opposing side.

As for what to do ten years later?
How should I put it? Human beings are very adaptable. There is a ten-year transition period. As long as Li Yi does not collapse in the middle, it is enough time for these landlords and gentry to accept the fact that they are going to be "divided into lands".

In addition, Li Yi also planned to guide these landlords and gentry who received the land purchase fees to shift their attention from land to opening factories and doing business by forcing them to divide the land.

In this way, the funds of these landlords and gentry can be used to promote the overall industrial development of China.

Once they taste the sweetness of running a factory, they will naturally not value the land so much.

It basically means supporting the bourgeoisie to replace the landlord gentry class.

There is ten years to develop industry and commerce. After ten years, the landlord gentry class will not be completely replaced, but its strength will certainly be greatly reduced and it will not be able to make a big change.

It is very obvious that with the policy of fighting against local tyrants and dividing the land, as well as renting instead of buying land, Li Yi's troops began to really take root in Cenxi.

Although the people of Cenxi did not regard Li Yi's troops as imperial officials, they had gradually begun to stop being hostile to them.

Logically speaking, Li Yi's approach has taken into account the interests of multiple parties and can be considered the best of both worlds.

But Niu Jinxi didn't think so.

Because he happened to be one of those local tyrants and evil gentry who had a terrible reputation and needed to be taken out for a target practice.

Seeing that the public trial of land distribution was about to reach Laoniugou, Niu Jinxi, knowing that disaster was imminent, would naturally not sit idly by and wait for death.

He directly used his own clan power as the foundation to form a militia and prepare to fight against Li Yi.

Niu Bao heard this and nodded vigorously.

"Father is wise!"

"Our family's fields are all mine, of course I can't give them to those poor bastards!"

"The bandits want to take our land, so we want to kill them!"

Niu Jinxi nodded, then took his son and prepared to command the militia to fight.

Niu Jinxi climbed onto a high platform, looked around, looked at the densely packed militia below the platform, and spoke loudly.

"Fellow villagers, the enemy troops are coming!"

"I know there are a lot of rumors out there now, saying that the bandits are good people and are here to distribute land to you poor people."

"But I'm here to tell you that these are all fake and deceptive. There is no such thing as a free lunch."

"Those damn bandits are all bad people who are rotten to the core. They don't have such good intentions. They put their heads on their belts and rebelled just to give land to the poor. Who of you believes this?"

"Today, I am here to tell you that the bandits attacked Lao Niu Gou not to divide the land, but to seize it."

"The bandits will seize your land, take your wives, and even drag you and your children to the battlefield to fight the imperial soldiers and horses to protect them."

"Listen to me, fellow villagers. If you don't want to die and want to keep your land and wives, stand up and fight the invading soldiers to the death."

"Once you beat back the invading bandits, I will give you a huge reward, and I will exempt you from 10% of your land rent next year!"

After a round of confusing right and wrong, Niu Jinxi gritted his teeth and offered a reward.

But quite stingy!

They wanted people to fight for their lives, but they only exempted 10% of the land rent, and only for one year.

However, intimidated by Mr. Niu's reputation in the countryside, the militia believed his words and cheered in unison.

"Fight back the bandits and defend Laoniugou!"

"Fight back the bandits and defend Laoniugou!"

"..."

Amid the shouting, a burst of gunfire suddenly rang out outside Laoniugou.

Niu Jinxi's face changed, thinking that the enemy soldiers had started to attack.

But soon, a militia member ran in from outside, came to Niu Jinxi and started reporting.

"Master, master!"

"The bandits outside the mountain are fighting with the imperial army!"

Just when Niu Jinxi was confusing right and wrong to boost the morale of the militia, Li's army arrived outside Laoniugou and encountered the Qing army from Cenxi that came to reinforce Laoniugou.

A fierce battle broke out between the two sides!
Upon hearing this, Niu Jinxi clapped his hands and laughed.

"Good, good, the reinforcements from the government troops have finally arrived."

"I'll tell you, as long as the government troops launch an attack, everything will be fine."

"Order the militia to march out of the mountains immediately, to help the imperial army defeat the bandits from inside and outside!"

……

PS: I will update this chapter first, there should be another 2,000 words to come in the evening.

I had originally planned to update during the day, but I went to the traffic police team this morning to deal with an accident. It was the other party's fault, but they took most of the day to fix it. I went home in the afternoon and started typing, and I posted it as soon as I finished typing.

Forgive me!

(End of this chapter)