Chapter 13: Winning Over the People (Part 2)

  Drinking heavily, eating meat in large quantities, distributing gold lavishly and sharing women wantonly - this is often the behavior of a regime after it comes to power, leading to the rapid corruption of the entire group.

  However, in the Revival Army built by Jiang and Yu, there was no such thing. Before the uprising, they had already made it clear that if you wanted to get promoted or rich, don't join the Revival Army.

  After occupying Northern Jiangsu and Anhui, Jiang Jieshi did not carry out any large-scale rewards. However, Jiang Jieshi ensured the stable income of soldiers, at least making them worry-free about food and clothing.

  Nepotism is also prohibited, and soldiers are not allowed to bring their relatives into the military. The threshold for entering the army has been blocked by Jiang Yu, and personnel are uniformly recruited. However, Jiang Yu has actually given them nepotistic relationships, and their relatives have all been arranged to work in factories, of course, just as ordinary workers, but with incomes that are much higher than those of ordinary workers.

  For administrative personnel, Jiang Yu demands even more strictly.

  The property of administrative personnel shall be made public, and their spouses and children are not allowed to engage in business or hold public office. A petition office was also established, as well as a media supervision system.

  The punishment for corrupt personnel is also very severe, with a sentence of one year for embezzling ten yuan, and the death penalty for embezzlement exceeding one thousand yuan. At the same time, family members will also be implicated, and they will not enjoy any social welfare benefits, nor will they be employed by any government department.

  For Anhui and northern Jiangsu residents, this period was undoubtedly a shocking change.

  In less than half a month, Anhui and northern Jiangsu changed their flags, followed by the cutting of queues, and the common people cut off the queue at the back of their heads.

  The newly established local county government worked quickly, with one new policy after another leaving people scrambling to keep up.

  The abolition of the poll tax has brought joy to the common people. The new government's accommodation for vagrants and orphans has also won praise from the public.

  Then the 'Two Huai Administrative Office' began to distribute salt for free and cancelled the salt tax, which made the people of the two provinces boil over, and they flocked to the civil affairs bureau to register their household registration, land deeds and house deeds.

  At the same time, in terms of the military, Fuxing Army did not commit any atrocities when attacking county towns and later maintained good local order. When encountering difficulties faced by ordinary people, they would also lend a helping hand. The local government was also unlike the Qing government, where minor officials were all polite to ordinary people.

  This makes the ordinary people in Anhui and Northern Jiangsu feel that good times are coming.

  While implementing these policies, the Administrative Office of Huaiyang and Huaibei also established many propaganda teams. These propaganda teams continuously explained to the people the various benevolent policies of the "Administrative Office of Huaiyang and Huaibei", establishing itself as a "government serving the people" and "people's sons and daughters soldiers protecting the people".

  The propaganda team not only propagandized in the city, but also established a propaganda team in the towns and villages. The propaganda personnel were specially trained and had to return regularly for further study and learning of new propaganda content.

  Under these measures, the people of Anhui and northern Jiangsu quickly pledged their allegiance. Where can you find such a good government?

  In less than a month, the people of Anhui and northern Jiangsu came to know only the "Administrative Office of the Two Huai Rivers" and Chairman Chiang, but not the Governor-General of the Two Huai Rivers.

  At the same time, the grain prices in Anhui and Northern Jiangsu were also extremely stable due to the intervention of the Huadong Group. Moreover, with the investment from the Two Huai Administrative Office and the Huadong Group, many construction sites emerged everywhere, ensuring that ordinary people who couldn't afford a full meal wouldn't have to worry about starving to death; they could guarantee food and clothing by working, although it would be more tiring.

  Jiang Yu's policy of 'local encirclement of the central' has achieved great success, with the people's hearts returning to it, and under the guarantee of military, economic and industrial advantages, it has stood unshakeable.

  For those temporary uprisings in Anhui and northern Jiangsu, the revolutionary parties who wanted to pick peaches and their controlled new army, Jiangsu and Hubei gave them some silver, and the new army also sent some guns and ammunition as a gift, "courteously sending them out of the border", nominally on the grounds of "supporting the Wuchang Revolution", meaning let them go to Wuchang to continue the revolution, Anhui and northern Jiangsu don't need you anymore.

  Facing the tyranny of the 'Revival Army', the revolutionary party of the Alliance is very indignant. We have also made a revolution, even if we haven't contributed much, at least you should give us some soup to drink, right? The fruits of victory should be shared with them, shouldn't they?

  However, this idea is obviously a bit wishful thinking. Since Jiang Yu wants to take the route of 'local surrounding central', it does not allow local forces to be mixed with miscellaneous powers.

  After being enraged for half a day, the revolutionary party of the Alliance Society arrived at a deep sense of helplessness. The combat strength of the Restoration Army was too strong, and those new troops in their hands were not prepared when the Restoration Army rose up, and they were beaten together with the Qing army as if they were one. Fortunately, they reacted quickly and defected to join the uprising; otherwise, they would have been annihilated that day. Looking back on the battle situation at the time, many of the new troops of the revolutionary party were still trembling with fear, and even if they had ten times more courage, they did not dare to provoke the Restoration Army.

  Huadong Group also began to expand comprehensively into Anhui and Subei, the telegraph office and postal bureau were established one after another, Huadong Group's newspapers also entered Anhui and Subei areas, started to establish distribution system in the whole Anhui and Subei, and set up local newspaper offices, grasped the power of public opinion, at the same time established news censorship system, did not give those who plotted evil opportunities to stir up trouble.

  At the same time, Huadong Group's power company, water supply company, department store and broadcasting company also began to expand into major cities in northern Jiangsu and Anhui.

  Cement and steel plants have begun full production, preparing for large-scale construction of highways, railways, water conservancy, and housing.

  The 'Two Huai Administrative Office' established by Jiang Yu was very successful in winning over the hearts of the people in Anhui and Northern Jiangsu, gaining the support of the grassroots masses, and has already had the ability to further reform.

  To liberate the common people from agricultural production, Jiang Yu decided to take a knife to the landlords. On December 23rd, Jiang Yu proposed an "Agricultural Tax Reform Bill" at the Administrative Yuan.

  The bill stipulates that landowners who do not engage in business operations themselves but lease their land to others for operation will be subject to higher taxes.

  The larger the land area, the higher the agricultural tax. However, if it is operated by a long-term worker instead of renting to a tenant farmer, the agricultural tax will be reduced, and the lowest agricultural tax is for family farms with 200 acres or less.

  For landowners with more than 300 mu of land, the Administrative Office of Huai will confiscate the land and only reserve 300 mu for the landowner.

  This policy has caused a stir as soon as it was introduced.

  Within the past two months, local governments have conducted a comprehensive survey and registration of arable land in their respective areas as required by the General Administration.

  Whose land exceeded three hundred mu, at a glance.

  The interests of the big landlords in Anhui and northern Jiangsu were clearly the most affected by this policy, and they were the only ones to be affected. Therefore, they would not willingly see their land being confiscated.

  Some big landlords began to stir up the common people, but with little effect. The old hundred surnames in Anhui and Subei chose to stand on the side of the Administrative Office of Lianghuai. What does land reform have to do with them? They only knew that the Administrative Office of Lianghuai had issued a decree that self-cultivated peasants with less than 10 mu of land could be exempt from agricultural taxes.

  So those big landlords had no choice but to use money to incite the local ruffians, and in some areas, there were even cases of local ruffians besieging the county government.

  However, it was soon brutally suppressed by the mobilized armed police forces. During the suppression in Anqing, the armed police shot and killed 13 hooligans.

  However, the news somehow leaked out and soon Shanghai's Minli Newspaper launched a fierce attack on the Anhui Administrative Office, portraying the suppression of vagrants by armed police as the 'Anqing Tragedy'.

  The compulsory expropriation of land by the Administrative Commissioner of the Two Huai regions also caused great indignation among large landowners in other provinces.

  Jiang Yu's move offended all the big landlords in China, who criticized him for being ungrateful.