There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 187 urging the emperor to ascend the throne
With the implementation of the scorched earth policy, the good days for the White Lotus sect in Sichuan were almost over.

However, the Qing army also paid a heavy price in order to suppress the White Lotus Rebellion in Sichuan.

The policy of "fortifying the walls and clearing the fields" was aimed at fortifying the strongholds of landlords and powerful families, and clearing away the Qing Dynasty's control over the countryside.

If the local militia and village militia could still hold things together, the scorched earth policy made it completely uncontrollable.

The Manchu Qing dynasty used the Manchu city and the Eight Banners nobles to suppress the political system of Han Chinese officials and large landowners, and thus began its gradual collapse.

The fact that annual revenue decreased rather than increased, despite the continuous population growth of the Qing government before and after the White Lotus Rebellion, is sufficient proof that the Qing government's foundation for ruling the local areas had been severely damaged.

Jingzhou, the general's residence.

Yang Fang and Bai Nan joined forces and captured Anlu Prefecture. Jingmen, Jingzhou, Anlu, Hanyang, and Wuchang are now connected.

Nie Yu did not stay in Hanyang for long. After arranging the selection of the prefectural officials and leaving the troops behind, he led his troops back to Jingzhou.

"Report! Chief Liu, Chief Wang, Chief Lin, Chief Gu, and Chief Lü are all requesting an audience!"

"Let them in!"

Upon hearing this, the secretary on duty outside the study immediately bowed and went down to report.

Before long, Liu Jun, Wang Ruoyu, Lin Wenchang, Gu Jing, and Lü Zhihong, the five most powerful officials (equivalent to ministers) in the Han army, came to the study together.

Upon entering the study, I saw Nie Yu processing official documents while eating.

There was no other way; we had been fighting outside for several months, and the official documents had piled up so much that we couldn't keep up with the demand.

Although telegrams can be used to send messages, they are telegrams, which are used for military purposes and are easily received by other radio stations.

Many official documents are confidential and cannot be shown to others casually. Even if they could be seen, for the documents to be effective, they required the signature and approval of the Grand General, equivalent to the Emperor's imperial edict, meaning the Grand General had to personally sign the original document.

"What's the matter?" Nie Yu asked.

Liu Jun presented a translated telegram with his hands clasped in front of him: "This is a military report sent back by spies from Sichuan."

Nie Yu took the book and laughed after reading it: "The Qing army has suffered a great defeat! The White Lotus sect in Sichuan has been revived. Now that the White Lotus sects in Sichuan and Hubei have joined forces, it seems that the Qing army in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu will be tied up for a long time."

After hearing this, Liu Jun and his four companions exchanged glances and said in unison, "Congratulations, General!"

Indeed, there is cause for celebration. The troops from Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu have been bogged down in the White Lotus Rebellion in Sichuan and Hubei, which is a rare piece of good news for the Han army occupying Hubei and Hunan.

In this way, even if the puppet Qing wanted to continue to mobilize troops to attack their Han army, they would face the embarrassing situation of having no troops to mobilize.

Sichuan and Shaanxi-Gansu cannot be mobilized, Yunnan and Guizhou are tied up by Zhong Miao, and Henan, as the heart of the Central Plains, is severely lacking in troops. Troops can be mobilized, but if they lose the battle, all will be lost.

The Guangdong and Guangxi provinces still have troops, but the Han Chinese army is not doing "human things"!

The Yao and Han militias in Hunan were all swept up by the Han army and had nowhere to run. They either fought against the Han army or went south to fight against Guangdong and Guangxi.

For example, General Chen Hong of Guiyang used the remaining territory of Guiyang to exchange for some grain and weapons from the Han army, and then went south to Guangdong to seize territory.

The Yao people's militia in Yongzhou and Baoqing, after agreeing with the Han army to not invade each other, went south to attack Guangxi.

Ji Qing, the puppet Qing dynasty's Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, was originally ordered to cooperate with Le Bao, the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou, in suppressing the Zhong Miao rebels in Yunnan and Guizhou. However, no sooner had he left than the rebels in Hunan took advantage of the vulnerability of Guangdong and Guangxi and launched a large-scale southward offensive.

Now, Ji Qing has hurriedly returned to Guangdong and Guangxi to quell the rebellion, and it is estimated that the two sides will be locked in a tug-of-war for at least one or two years.

Without the help of the Qing army from Guangdong and Guangxi to contain him, Le Bao's forces were insufficient, and his original strategic plan to encircle Zhong Miao from all sides was thus declared a failure.

The Zhongmiao rebels had a rare respite and took the initiative to contact the Miao tribes in western Hunan to the east. They also contacted the Han army through the Miao tribes in western Hunan, wanting to agree to help each other.

The second telegram sent by Wang Ruoyu contained the translation of the message that Zhong Miao's messenger had arrived in Chenzhou and that the Miao tribe in western Hunan had agreed to Zhong Miao's messenger's request.

Prefect Liu Hongchang of Chenzhou consulted the General's Office on how to respond.

After a moment's thought, Nie Yu said, "Have Prefect Liu send a message back to the messenger, saying that the Han army agrees to their alliance request, but the Han army is currently unable to open up the Hunan-Guizhou passage and cannot provide them with much assistance for the time being. However, the Han army can sell them scarce supplies such as salt at a low price, and can also provide them with cheap weapons and armor."

What Nie Yu said was indeed true. The Han army was not currently well-equipped, and maintaining these tens of thousands of soldiers was already putting a huge strain on the finances.

The Han army was not like the Qing army, which was all show and no substance. They were trained rigorously every day, provided with meat and food, paid their soldiers full wages and land, and received full compensation for those who died in battle. All of this cost a lot of money. Based on the current cost of maintaining the Han army, the Qing army could support at least hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Fortunately, the Han army was a newly established force, so internal corruption was rare. If anyone was caught, they were simply sent to work in the mines. The integrity of the army was of paramount importance. The Censorate even had a special branch office for supervising military finances to monitor for corruption within the army, which is why the finances were barely holding on.

Even so, the officials of the Ministry of Finance still lost a lot of hair.

Lin Wenchang, the official in charge of the Department of Revenue, always looked exhausted and under immense pressure; he was already showing wrinkles at such a young age.

Nie Yu glanced at Lin Wenchang and added, "Director Lin, let the Department of Industry and Commerce and your Department of Finance handle this matter together! I'll issue an order to Director Yao later that the money earned this time can be added to the Department of Finance's external treasury, and the General's Mansion will not take a single penny."

"Yes."

Upon hearing this, Lin Wenchang regained some energy. Even a small amount of financial revenue that could generate income for the Department of Finance was still a contribution.

"Anything else? There must be more than just this one thing, right?" Nie Yu continued to ask.

Lu Zhihong then said, "Reporting to the General, the prefects, magistrates, and county magistrates of Hanyang, Wuchang, Jingmen, and Anlu have all been appointed and can be dispatched by boat at any time to take charge of the civil affairs of these places."

Nie Yu nodded: "That's good."

Lu Zhihong continued, "But while it's easy to select prefects and magistrates, and they can be mobilized, there's a shortage of town heads and land-allocating officials. The territory we've acquired this time is too large. All of this newly occupied land needs to be divided into towns and villages, and town heads, land-allocating officials, and village heads need to be appointed. We need far too many officials. The number of candidates for the Ministry of Personnel and the number of scholars are already stretched thin."

Nie Yu was also speechless upon hearing this. The problem of not having enough officials had arisen because the territory had expanded too quickly.

This had actually happened several times before. Back then, they could transfer surplus officials from other prefectures to these new territories to serve as officials and help the people distribute land.

But the expansion has been too rapid. Hubei's territory has increased several times over in an instant, creating a huge shortage of officials. It is reasonable that the Ministry of Personnel cannot fill the gaps in time.

Nie Yu asked, "Is there any solution? Or even just a temporary fix?"

Lü Zhihong replied, “First, establish peasant associations, then divide them into townships. The power of township heads actually overlaps a lot with that of peasant associations, and even the land distribution officials overlap with those of peasant associations. Therefore, it is entirely possible to establish peasant associations first, allowing peasants to arrange land distribution themselves, while the government is responsible for guidance and timely mediation of disputes among peasants over land distribution. This will not only alleviate the shortage of officials, but also allow the people to recognize the benefits of peasant associations, and make peasant associations a success.”

After listening, Nie Yu thought about it carefully for a while, and then said, "It won't work if we don't set up land distribution officials and town heads at all. How about this? First, we'll transfer some land distribution officials from other places where land has already been distributed, and let them serve as land distribution officials and town heads in these new places. At the same time, let them lead the local villages to form peasant associations, and direct and assist the peasant associations in participating in land distribution."

“Assisting the peasant association in distributing land can be considered their political achievement and recorded in the performance evaluation of the Ministry of Personnel. This can serve as a transition until there are enough officials, and these town heads and land distribution officials can be promoted based on their performance.”

"The places responsible for seconding officials can also have their performance evaluations appropriately increased."

This arrangement is essentially a supplement to Lü Zhihong's approach. Lü Zhihong suggested relying entirely on the farmers' association, while Nie Yu insisted on establishing a town mayor, but fewer land distribution officials were needed, and the farmers' association could handle land distribution work on a part-time basis.

The town mayor and the land allocation official were responsible for command and assistance. Both command and assistance were considered political achievements, and the best performers could be promoted after the work was completed. This was a way to encourage the new town mayor and land allocation official to work hard.

Moreover, even places where officials were temporarily transferred were not overlooked. Those officials who were temporarily transferred could manage during the off-season, but during the busy farming season, they might be working like dogs.

A higher performance evaluation is a way of compensating them for working overtime during the busy farming season.

Upon hearing this, Lü Zhihong cupped his hands and replied, "Your subject obeys."

Speaking of the farmers' association, Nie Yu was also wondering how long this thing he had created in advance could last.
The farmers' associations of today have become somewhat communist, and they are involved in the management of local villages, even getting involved in the distribution of land.

It's really hard to say what the future holds.

As Nie Yu had anticipated, the peasant association was initially intended as a transitional measure to help the people peacefully distribute their land and prevent the connection between the people and the General's Mansion from being severed.

If things continue as they are, once all the land in the world has been distributed and there is no land left to distribute, and we enter the Age of Colonial Exploration, the farmers' associations will gradually lose their function and meaning.

Haha, who can say for sure?

Gu Jing suddenly stepped forward and said, "General, there is one more thing you have not yet said."

Nie Yu raised an eyebrow: "What is it?"

Gu Jing said, "General, our Han army has now occupied all of Hunan to the south and captured Wuchang, the capital of Hubei, to the north, possessing the rich Jianghan Plain of Jingzhou. The Qing army that came south from Xiangyang was also defeated by our Han army, and the Governor-General of Huguang was defeated and killed in battle."

"It's time for you to ascend to the throne and become king!"

(End of this chapter)