Double-Cut During the War of Resistance: My Wife Came from 1937

The location of the division headquarters.

Ma Hongwei and Xia Weiwei arrived at an empty house.

This place is densely packed with piles of wild Chinese medicinal herbs.

For example, Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, Forsythia suspensa, Bupleurum chinense, and Pueraria lobata from the Taihang Mountains.

Chief of Staff Ni explained to the two men, "These are all wild medicinal herbs. For example, those Codonopsis pilosula plants are all wild Codonopsis pilosula plants that are over eight years old."

Ma Hongwei took a look and confirmed that it was indeed wild.

You can tell at a glance whether this Codonopsis pilosula is wild or not.

This wild Codonopsis pilosula is called "Lion's Head". The bumps on the top of the root system are particularly large, with a strong sense of unevenness. They are much thicker than the body of the ginseng, with many layers and are rough and prickly to the touch.

The shape of the ginseng body is also curved and twisted, with uneven thickness, looking very messy, somewhat like dried-up rotten wood.

The skin has dense, deep horizontal lines, and looks dark and grayish-black. It becomes very stiff after drying.

In contrast, the bumps on cultivated Codonopsis pilosula are small and compact, about the same thickness as the ginseng body.

The ginseng body is relatively straight with few bends and branches, making it look more regular in appearance. It has no horizontal rings, only shallow vertical lines, and the skin looks very white. It has a high sugar content and a soft and glutinous texture.

Wild Codonopsis pilosula grows extremely slowly due to the harsh environment and lack of farmyard manure; it takes at least five years before it can be harvested.

In contrast, cultivated Codonopsis pilosula only needs two or three years to mature.

During the Republic of China era, due to the lack of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the process took longer.

"Wild Codonopsis pilosula is hard to find. We collected it from many villages nearby, but we only managed to get 6000 jin (3,000 catties). These were all dug up and dried by the villagers themselves."

Deputy Division Commander Xu said, "I'm afraid we'll have to wait until our base continues to expand before we can get more wild Codonopsis pilosula."

"6000 jin is quite a lot!"

Ma Hongwei said with a smile, "These can sell for at least 600 million yuan, which is equivalent to about 300 million jin of rice."

"6000 jin of wild ginseng can be exchanged for 300 million jin of rice?"

Upon hearing this, Deputy Division Commander Xu was immediately taken aback.

此前他们用600斤党参，才能换到11500-14400斤的小米，或者1900-2500斤粗盐，再或者240-450匹的土布。

至于兑换枪械和子弹的话，600斤党参也只够兑换6-11支老式栓动步枪，或者4800-9000发子弹的。

Comparing the two quantities, he felt incredibly cheated.

"Why!"

Deputy Division Commander Xu sighed and said, "If I had known these were so valuable, I would have kept them all!"

"It's not too late to start keeping them now!"

Ma Hongwei said with a smile.

These days, the Taihang Mountains haven't been developed much, and there are still many wild medicinal herbs.

According to his understanding, the Taihang Mountain base alone can harvest 8 to 12 jin of wild Codonopsis pilosula in a year.

In the Jin-Cha-Ji base area and other places, more than 5 catties of wild Codonopsis pilosula can be harvested.

Of course, this refers to Codonopsis pilosula that is 5 years or older.

If it's been eight years or more, the number will be much smaller.

"Sir, I think you could also arrange for some people to cultivate some Codonopsis pilosula!"

Ma Hongwei slowly said, "Although cultivated Codonopsis pilosula is not as valuable as wild Codonopsis pilosula, if it is grown under forest semi-wild conditions for 3-4 years, a pound of dried Codonopsis pilosula can sell for 80-150 yuan, which is equivalent to 40-75 pounds of rice."

The money earned from growing cash crops can far exceed that from growing agricultural crops.

In any case, with storage space increasing, the amount of goods that can be transported will also increase.

Then, Deputy Division Commander Xu led the two men to the granary.

Pointing to the piles of grain everywhere, he said, "This is the national grain we collected from 100 villages, a total of 300000 catties of millet."

Ma Hongwei asked, "With so much grain harvested, will the people still have enough to eat?"

"We, the Eighth Route Army, have already collected too little."

Deputy Division Commander Xu began his narration slowly.

At that time, in the Taihang Mountains, the terraced fields on the slopes only produced 120-180 catties of millet per mu, while the yield in the river valley village was more than 200 catties per mu.

In the base areas of the Eighth Route Army, an average annual income of 1.4 shi of millet (equivalent to less than 252 jin) was exempt from taxation. The higher the income, the higher the tax rate, with a maximum tax rate of 15%.

Generally speaking, a village with 300 mu of arable land needs to pay 4500 jin of millet per year, not exceeding 5900 jin.

In years of famine, or when Japanese soldiers raided villages, taxes would be reduced by half, or even waived altogether.

In the Kuomintang-controlled areas, the entire village was required to hand over 8000-11000 catties of millet.

In addition to official taxes, there are additional levies, which, when combined, require a village to hand over 26000-31000 catties of millet.

Towards the end of the War of Resistance, the requisitioning was changed to borrowing, and the practice of handing over goods became rampant. Every year, 30000 to 40000 catties of millet had to be handed over, which was equivalent to 70% of the harvest.

Moreover, the landlords who controlled the baojia and militia systems would pass on the taxes they were supposed to pay to ordinary middle peasants, poor peasants, and tenant farmers.

As for those who dared not help the landlords pay taxes, they would be directly charged with treason.

Because of the vast difference between the two sides, ordinary people at the grassroots level were generally more willing to support the Eighth Route Army than the Kuomintang and the Japanese.

Moreover, the Eighth Route Army not only reduced their grain collection but also distributed land belonging to the notorious landlords to them.

As for those who think landlords were good people, they can look at capitalists in later generations.

It cannot be denied that there are indeed good people among them, but the proportion of good people is quite small.

Of all the entrepreneurs and capitalists in later generations, how many have become like Pang Donglai?

CATL has been number one in the world for several consecutive years, with an annual net profit of 722 billion yuan, which is equivalent to a daily profit of nearly 2 million yuan.

However, the total cash dividend for the year was 361 billion yuan, half of which was distributed to shareholders.

The founder alone received 81 billion yuan in dividends in one year.

However, the employees only received a raise of 150 yuan.

The increased labor costs amounted to only 2.376 million yuan, which is equivalent to just over a day's profit.

The employees have to work 12-hour shifts, with only 2 days off per month. Meal and rest time has also been reduced from 40 minutes to 30 minutes. It's a sweatshop.

There are even many that are not as good as CATL.

It is said that "hard work leads to wealth" and "only by enduring hardship can one rise above others," but can those bosses endure as much hardship as their employees?

Similarly, the landlord class was the same.

They not only impose their own taxes on ordinary farmers, but also continuously bleed the lives of the poor.

They also use various methods to forcibly sell or seize other people's land.

During famine years, they would lend money at exorbitant interest rates, lending farmers one bushel of rice, which they would then have to repay in the fall with three bushels, with interest compounded monthly.

If farmers can't repay their debts, they have no choice but to sell their children and use their own land to pay off the debts.

After all, peasants had no way to fight against landlords who controlled local militias and baojia (local security) organizations.

If the famine is severe, they will directly exchange food for land.

Farmers can survive if they change jobs, but they will starve if they don't.

They would also take advantage of farmers' illiteracy, setting up word traps in contracts and altering documents to "legally" seize land.