Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

Xiahou Wen is the top leader of the party, government and military in Longguan.

So every day was a busy one. Xiahou Wen knew the Japanese wouldn't give him too much time. The Mongolian garrison was currently receiving reinforcements from Japan, and once reorganized, they would once again sweep the base.

If the base is not well built, it will be difficult to recover once it is swept by the Japanese army.

Therefore, Xiahou Wen was very anxious.

"Captain."

"Brother Kangshui, how are you doing recently?"

"That's great. I feel so relieved to have dealt with all those traitors one by one.

Kang Shui's face was full of pride.

He never thought that one day he would be able to kill those traitors so happily.

"Brother Kangshui, I came to you today because I wanted to talk to you about the future of the special forces team."

"Captain, just tell me what's going on."

Although he joined the army and became the captain of the special forces team, Kang Shui still couldn't change his lazy habits.

But Xiahou Wen still treated Kangshui with a normal attitude.

This is why Kang Shui was so convinced of Xia Houwen. He himself was once a scholar, and he understood their perspectives very well. Ever since he became a bandit, none of the scholars he met were willing to pay attention to him anymore. Only Xia Houwen, the commander of the Eighth Route Army, showed no disdain for him at all. For Kang Shui, this was a kind of recognition.

So Xia Houwen said directly that he wanted to discuss the future of the special forces team, but Kang Shui was not worried. Because Kang Shui believed that with Xia Houwen's broad mind, the arrangements for the special forces team would definitely not be bad for him.

"Brother Kangshui, do you know what the biggest problem of the special forces is?"

"know."

"Tell me something."

"They have no discipline and are a mess. When we fight, we tell them to charge, and they rush forward like a swarm. When we tell them to retreat, they flee in a hurry. They don't behave like an army at all."

Xiahou Wen laughed out loud.

China is so big and has such a large population, there must be many hidden talents among the people.

Xiahou Wen felt this deeply.

People like Zhou Yuanming and Kang Shui both have their own strengths. Given a chance, they can demonstrate exceptional abilities. Although Kang Shui lacks formal military training, he is incredibly intelligent.

Just by looking at the training of the first company of the first battalion of the new third regiment, he knew what was wrong with his special forces team.

"Yes. The special forces need to be reorganized and receive formal training.

The same goes for you. You need to learn how to deploy troops and how to lead them in battle. The special forces team you lead now is almost as large as a battalion. You will be leading more and more troops in the future, so you can't just do it the same way as before."

"Captain, I'm willing to learn. Tell me, how should I learn? How should the troops be trained?"

Kangshui is not a born bandit.

Kang Shui came from a wealthy family and had received a formal education. Although he was forced into banditry, he still wanted to bring honor to his family. Now that he had finally joined the army to fight the Japanese, he naturally wanted to make a difference.

"Brother Kangshui, I want you to take the special forces team here for training."

"This is where?"

Kang Shui looked at the map.

It wasn't clear what place Xiahou Wen was referring to. Xiahou Wen said, "This is Beilingzhuang, Sheng County. It's the headquarters of the 8th Column of the Eighth Route Army. All the troops of the 8th Column go to Beilingzhuang for training when needed. The soldiers of the Special Forces are all good. Most of them have the same shooting skills as veterans and are all sharpshooters. But their biggest problem now is that they are more like lone rangers than a whole army. So they must be trained and become a unit. In addition to you, the other commanders of the Special Forces must also learn how to fight. I can guarantee that as long as the Special Forces can undergo training, they will inevitably become a strong army in the future. And you, brother Kangshui. This is the headquarters of the 8th Column, with the leaders of the 8th Column of the Eighth Route Army. You go there to receive some training and become a qualified Eighth Route Army cadre."

"I?"

Kang Shui was a little embarrassed.

Looking at Xiahou Wen, he said, "Captain, I'll be frank. This is just my character. Captain Xiahou, you're like a brother to me, and you don't mind my behavior. But I also know that many people don't like me. This is your Eighth Column headquarters, and the leaders of the Eighth Column are all here. Seeing me like this, they might get angry and fire me."

Xia Houwen laughed and said, "Don't worry. The leaders of our Eighth Column are not so incompetent."

"Is it really okay?"

Kang Shui felt unsure.

Xia Houwen nodded and said, "Brother Kangshui, do you believe me?"

"Of course. Brother Xiahou, I've met many people over the years, but I've never met anyone as convincing as you. I don't know about your Eighth Route Army policies or discipline, but I do know that since you're such a good person and you're from the Eighth Route Army, then the Eighth Route Army must be great. I'm willing to follow the Eighth Route Army."

"Then just trust me. I won't harm you or the secret service."

"All right.

Kangshui was actually still reluctant to go to Beilingzhuang.

But Kang Shui really believed in Xia Houwen. Since Xia Houwen said so, Kang Shui was willing to go and see what kind of leadership Xia Houwen was like. Xia Houwen felt relieved when he saw Kang Shui agreed.

Although the special forces team is quite powerful, they still fight like bandits after all.

When the going gets tough, they'll rush in like a swarm. Once things get tough, the last thing you can count on is these troops. Xiahou Wen had high hopes for both Kangshui and the Special Forces, so he sent them for training.

Xiahou Wen hopes to train a strong army.

Of course, Xia Houwen was also very worried about Kangshui's behavior. So he wrote a letter to Wei Hongjun, explaining Kangshui's situation in detail. He hoped Wei Hongjun would not just look at the surface, and said that Kangshui still had many advantages.

After Kang Shui agreed to Xia Houwen's request, he quickly led his 448-member special forces south to Huailai. From Huailai, they entered Chunhua Fort and finally Beilingzhuang. Because there were bases established by the Eighth Column along the way, the process was smooth.

When Kang Shui arrived at Beilingzhuang, there were many troops training there.

Classes were held at the Cha'nan Cadre School, training grassroots cadres. This included military and political cadres, as well as local cadres. Although the Cha'nan Cadre School, established by the Eighth Column, was not as impressive as the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University or the Shanxi-Chahar-Yihe Military Region Cadre School, it was nonetheless a crucial institution for the Eighth Column, as it provided training for grassroots cadres.

Then, all the troops of the Eighth Column were training in Beiling Village, including the various county battalions and even some district squads who would come here for a period of training to improve their combat effectiveness.

Wang Qiuyun, Wei Hongjun, Xiao Yongshi and others personally led the troops in training. Kangshui's special forces also participated in the training.

Chapter 167: Sense of Belonging to the Troops

"That was in 1921. Due to drought, our family was short of food. Landlord Zhou in our town was willing to lend us food, and we all thought he was a living Buddha. We lent him one dan of grain. The next year, the harvest was bad again, but we still managed to repay him one dan of grain. However, because there was interest, we had to pay it back the third year, and continued to repay. In 1922, the harvest was much better. We repaid Landlord Zhou two more dan of grain, and in total, we had repaid Landlord Zhou four dan of grain. But in 1932, when we settled the accounts, we still owed Landlord Zhou more than thirty dan of grain."

Wei Hongjun began to implement a new military reorganization movement in the 8th Column.

One of the most important ones is the grievance movement.

The well-fed internet keyboard warriors of decades later will never understand the situation of usury in rural areas during the Republic of China. Many people use the phrase "contract" and the phrase "why are you borrowing" to avoid the serious usury problem in rural areas during the Republic of China.

The problem of usury in rural areas during the Republican era was not an isolated issue. It was parasitic on the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy of the era and was an unavoidable one. In rural China, with its small-scale peasant economy, even the most self-employed farmers, not to mention the poor peasants, would face food insecurity in the shortest possible time. Because the majority of land was in the hands of landlords, the large number of self-employed farmers and poor peasants had a very low resilience to risk. Even the slightest disturbance could leave families without food.

In this situation, it’s not a question of whether you want to borrow high-interest loans.

But you have to borrow usury to survive. It is this world that forces you to borrow usury.

In order to survive, he borrowed some food from the landlord.

This so-called borrowed food is the foundation of usury. This is usury that can destroy your family. Once you borrow, you will never be able to repay it. This usury, compounded by interest, can swell to unimaginable levels within a few years.

This is still considered blatant usury.

Some landlords even lend money at high interest rates and bully you farmers because you are illiterate.

After they trick you into signing, it becomes a debt that your family will never be able to pay off in your lifetime.

Many peasants have lost their homes and families due to usury. Landlords using usury to annex peasant land is the most common method used in rural land annexation. Especially in the current Republic of China, rural conditions are worse than during the Qing Dynasty.

During the Qing Dynasty, at least there was still an imperial court, and some landlords had scholars in their families, so for the sake of their scholars' fame and reputation, they would be a little more restrained. However, after the establishment of the Republic of China, the entire original state system was destroyed.

Warlords were fighting each other, bandits were everywhere, and those rural landlords gradually stopped caring about reputation and other things. They were all nakedly expanding their own land. Because they also needed to bribe the warlords.

This became a vicious cycle in the countryside. The more the landlords exploited the peasants, the more intense their resistance became. And the more intense the resistance became, the more it had to be suppressed. To suppress this resistance, rural landlords began openly maintaining guards. Where did the money for these guards come from? It was still from exploiting the peasants.

This structural contradiction in rural areas during the Republic of China was completely unsolvable.

The grievance campaign was essentially about making everyone empathize and gradually understand the current land issues in rural areas. It also made them aware of the legitimacy of the rent and interest reduction campaign currently being promoted by the Eighth Route Army.

It also made these soldiers feel a sense of belonging to the Eighth Route Army and support the Eighth Route Army's rent and interest reduction campaign.

The effect is still very good.

After all, most of the Eighth Column's members were from peasant backgrounds. Whether they were members of the Lianzhuang Association or the bandits, they were all from the same poor backgrounds as the peasants. They knew a lot about the countryside.

Grievance campaigns are never a panacea.

But it was a very important part of legitimacy for the Eighth Route Army's rent and interest reduction work.

The young soldier continued, "Landlord Zhou came with his men and demanded payment from our family. But we couldn't produce more than 30 dan of grain in a year. What's more, we borrowed money at high interest rates. If we don't pay it back this year, we'll have to pay it back by 100 dan next year, which will make it even more difficult for us to pay it back. That's when we realized we couldn't pay back the money we borrowed. It wasn't just our family; several villages were like this. Since we couldn't pay back the money we borrowed, Landlord Zhou took our land. He also said our land wasn't enough to pay off the debt, and he took my brother and sister away to work for his family. My father disagreed, saying we had more than ten acres of land, so it couldn't be enough to pay off the debt. But Landlord Zhou insisted that our land was bad. My father got angry and pushed him, and he beat my father to death and burned down our house. My mother and I hanged ourselves that night. My brother took my sister and me and went up the mountain to become bandits."

Many soldiers shed tears after listening to his story.

Because many people feel the same way.

Many bandits who were "forced to join the Liangshan bandits" were in a similar situation. However, many of them gradually became truly murderous bandits after becoming bandits. Currently, there are many reorganized bandit forces in the Eighth Column.

They didn't have much sense of belonging at the beginning.

The fantasy of how patriotic those soldiers and bandits were, and how they proactively fought the Japanese and puppet troops, is all fictionalized by later generations. Even people like Ma Hongyuan and Kang Shui, who had a bad relationship with the Japanese and puppet troops, did not have such strong patriotism and were eager to fight against the Japanese.

Everyone needs education.

Without education, bandits are just bandits and cannot become revolutionary fighters.

The grievance movement is very good.

Let these soldiers who came from bandit backgrounds begin to recall how they became bandits.

Another soldier spoke up, "We also borrowed a load of grain from the landlord. Because of the severe drought at the time, the landlord paid ten silver dollars in exchange. A year later, with interest added, we had to pay ten silver dollars each spring and autumn. In total, we had to pay the landlord six loads of grain in just one year."

There are various forms of usury.

Some lenders borrowed grain directly, while others paid for it. However, in years of disaster, when grain was scarce, grain prices would be extremely high. Landlords would deliberately lend grain, but the payment wasn't in grain, but in money.

But when there is enough food, the price will drop. Then the landlord will demand repayment of the same price of food plus interest, which will no longer be the amount of food that was originally borrowed.

Just as the soldier said, he only borrowed one load of grain, but had to return six loads of grain a year later.

Anyway, they are all very smart.

Why is land merger in rural areas so serious?

One of the biggest reasons for this was the existence of usury. Large landowners used this high-interest lending to annex the land of self-cultivating farmers. Even small and wealthy landowners who borrowed money from large landowners ended up paying their land back to them.

There were many bankrupt farmers during the Republic of China period.

When the complaints began, the emotions of the entire army were aroused.

Everyone suffers, yet no one understands why. Many of the peasant uprisings in Chinese history were launched by farmers struggling to make ends meet. They joined the uprisings for food, or simply to survive. Initially, their motivation was simple: survival. This included the leaders of the peasant uprisings. Later, some of them began to think about changing the situation. However, they didn't understand the root of the problem, and instead quickly fell into corruption and degeneration. Ultimately, these peasant uprisings failed.

This is because the farmers of the Joseon Dynasty did not have a complete theory and they did not know how to act.