Chapter Seventeen: Western Township Autonomy

  At harvest time, each village was very busy. People brought in the grain, tenants first handed over their rent, and then waited for the government to collect taxes.

  But just then, Xia Jun had someone post an announcement of tax exemption.

  Taxes have always been collected by the village gentry gathering grain first, then handing it over to the township head, who in turn hands it over to the county government's clerks. The county magistrate takes a portion and then hands it over to the prefectural magistrate, who also takes a portion before submitting it...

  The corrupt bureaucratic system made the Qing court pay 400 million taels of silver for every 100 million taels it collected, and those 300 million taels were all swallowed up by those officials.

  As soon as the tax exemption notice was issued, various villages began to watch and see what the Jianzhou Security Team would do next. However, the local gentry in each village did not return the taxes they had collected.

  On September 18, the county sent two officials to take the taxes collected by the gentry to the county seat, but as soon as they arrived in Long Village, they were beaten away by Xia Jun's thugs.

  "Go back and tell your county magistrate that Xixiang has already become autonomous." Xia Jun said to them, the two officers were beaten with a stick, and they rolled and crawled away.

  Xia Jun then put up a sign in Longcun Village, which read "Western Township Autonomous Civil Affairs Department", and the more than ten cultural people from the Security Team also took office after more than a month of training.

  The re-education of these cultured people is not difficult, since the imperial examination was abolished, these Confucian scholars also lost their former pride, now they are only busy for a living.

  Xia Jun's requirement for them is to prohibit corruption and bribery, which he repeatedly emphasized, but whether they follow the rules or not is unknown, however Xia Jun will definitely conduct strict inspections from time to time.

  The Ministry of Civil Affairs is an important department for Xia Jun to buy people's hearts. Villagers in each village can find the Ministry of Civil Affairs when they have difficulties, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs must think of ways to help them solve their difficulties. The main thing is to provide assistance to poor households. For other needs, if a lot of work is involved or a certain amount of money is needed, it can be reported to Xia Jun himself.

  At the same time, Xia Jun also established the "Xixiang Judicial Department" and promulgated two laws: the "Xixiang Autonomous Criminal Law" and the "Xixiang Autonomous Civil Procedure Law".

  Autonomy, a policy implemented in the last few years of the Qing dynasty, was being promoted at that time. However, this autonomy was still a case of "hanging a sheep's head and selling dog meat", and did not solve the fundamental problems. Nevertheless, it laid some hidden pitfalls for the independence of various provinces during the Xinhai Revolution.

  Xia Jun was engaged in armed autonomy at this time, which was different from other places. He refused to pay taxes to the Qing court and was not afraid even if the Qing court sent troops to suppress him.

  After driving away the clerks from the two counties with random sticks, Xia Jun immediately dispatched an infantry platoon and a machine gun squad to set up sentry posts, a total of three sentry posts. One was at the intersection of Xixiang and Xiaosong, one was at the intersection of Xixiang and Dongfeng, and one was at the intersection of Xixiang and Jianyang. Each sentry post had one class, and each was equipped with a machine gun.

  In addition, there is another route from Xixiang to Chuan Shi. However, if the government sends troops to suppress, it is most likely that Jian'an and Jianyang counties will dispatch troops. The most likely route for Jian'an to reach Longcun is via Xiao Song and Dongfeng. It is generally impossible for troops to be dispatched from Chuan Shi.

  Xia Jun dispatched troops to guard the roads leading to Xixiang while starting to establish an administrative system. The army was forever a violent institution that could only be used for destruction, and production still relied on administration, which in turn could not be separated from the protection of this violent institution.

  Two departments were established and the sentry posts were also set up, only actual control was missing. For this reason, Xia Jun asked You Zhengbin to write a letter of invitation and send it to each village.

  Xixiang was much larger than Longcun Township in later generations. The Longcun Township of later generations only had half of the original Xixiang, and at that time, Xixiang had a total of 68 villages. All the gentry of these 68 villages were invited by Xia Jun, and they were formally handed invitation letters, which stated that they must attend, but...

  This "however" is the end, and there's no more text after that. However, what does it mean? I'm afraid whoever reads it will have some wild thoughts about it. And the date of the invitation was September 21st, which just so happens to be when the rice in Shiniu Mountain can be harvested.

  After receiving the invitation, the village elders and gentry indeed pondered for half a day. Seeing that the invitation said they were invited to discuss autonomy and bandit suppression, they set off one after another towards Long Village.

  Lin Debao also rushed to Longcun after handling the land rental issue, and the "Xixiang Agricultural Department" was also established.

  On September 20, the village elders arrived early. Xia Jun set up ten tables of banquet in Long Village that night to entertain these elders. When Xia Jun came out, Lin Debao immediately introduced him to everyone. These elders saw how young Xia Jun was and couldn't help but be stunned.

  Xia Jun is only 20 years old this year, naturally very young, but these rural gentry didn't dare to underestimate Xia Jun, being able to take down Lu's Village requires some ability.

  "Thank you all for coming to discuss our village's autonomy. From today on, all villages in Xixiang will be self-governing and no longer pay taxes to the imperial court. Our security team will be responsible for clearing out bandits from our village and protecting the safety of each village." Xia Jun said, holding up his wine cup.

  "Commander Xia, we don't pay taxes to the imperial court, so why should we pay them to you?" a local gentry asked on the spot.

  "Of course, from now on, every village will have to pay taxes to the security team, but our security team will not be like the government, which is extortionate and tyrannical. We will cancel all miscellaneous taxes and only collect land taxes. As for how much we will collect, under normal circumstances, it will definitely be less than what the government collects. However, this year, the entire county will be exempt from taxes." Xia Jun said bluntly, at this stage, Xia Jun still does not have a long-term economic income other than agriculture, and maintaining an army costs money, so agricultural taxes must be collected.

  "Director Xia, then how will this autonomy be autonomous?" Another local gentry asked at this time.

  "This is the autonomy of our hometown! It's about establishing an autonomous council in Long Village, with each village sending one representative to attend the council. The specific rules will be given to you for review later." What Xia Jun said was not actually letting these rural gentry govern themselves, but rather he himself would govern autonomously.

  This 'autonomous council' usually doesn't have much power, only managing sanitation, education, and infrastructure construction. The five aspects of judiciary, taxation, military affairs, finance, and supervision will be in the hands of Xia Jun.

  Of course, the autonomous council also has certain regulatory powers. As for anti-corruption, Xia Jun is more than happy to have this power. At the same time, Xia Jun will also allocate some financial resources to the council, but the specific amount will still be determined by Xia Jun.

  Under this system, Xia Jun directly intervened in the administration of each village, but each village also had a certain degree of autonomy, which made it convenient for Xia Jun to buy people's hearts.

  Because of the existence of the Min Xin system, Xia Jun naturally did not want each village to truly be autonomous. If they were really autonomous, how could he buy people's hearts?

  "Not paying taxes to the government, isn't this rebellion?" a local gentry suddenly said.

  "It can't be said that way, we are autonomous, what is autonomy, that is not subject to the official government, the imperial court has policies, and all provinces are currently in the stage of entering local autonomy, how can this be considered a rebellion?" Xia Jun's behavior was indeed similar to rebellion, but for now, it couldn't be said that way.

  Although Xia Jun was not afraid to clarify this matter, once it was clarified that it was a rebellion, it would scare the people present, and in order to control Xixiang, more effort would be needed.

  Knock them out first and then talk!

  "Rebellion is to overthrow the imperial court, we are just autonomous, at most it can only be considered as bandits occupying the mountain and dominating the kingdom. Have you all seen the imperial court clearing out bandits everywhere? As long as we have a certain strength, the government will naturally not come looking for trouble. If you don't believe that our Jianzhou Security Team has the strength to let Xixiang Autonomous Region be safe, tomorrow I'll let you witness the greatness of our Jianzhou Security Team..."

  A group of rural gentry were stunned by Xia Jun's words that night, the benefits of autonomy were understood by everyone, once they broke away from the official government, the taxes they had to bear would be much lighter.

  But can this security team really withstand the counterattack of the government?