Chapter 66: The Four Pests of Henan
Thanks for the generous rewards from book friends st201122 and Tiancangye ^_^
Originally, although Zhang Fei was stationed in Luoyang with his troops, that wasn't really his own territory. Although Zhang Fei's troops were a motley crew, their military pay was all allocated by the imperial court. If he privately expanded his troops, the treatment of the lower-ranking officers and soldiers would inevitably be reduced, and it would be strange if they didn't rebel. After all, prestige can't be eaten as rice...
Don't mention these old troops, even the Red Army that didn't pay salaries couldn't be maintained if it was too poor. And Henan was absolutely not a good place at least during the Republic of China period, with four wars and no natural barriers to defend, dense population and frequent disasters, making it extremely difficult to develop the economy.
"Now, looking back, perhaps the historical evaluation of that 'Tang Shuai' is not entirely fair. After all, he was also notorious for his poor reputation when he was stationed in Henan, and Henan had already been one of the most chaotic and poorest provinces in the country before he arrived. In a rich province like Jiangsu and Zhejiang, even if officials were corrupt, ordinary people could still afford it. However, in Henan where living conditions were extremely harsh, as long as the governance was slightly corrupt or even if officials were honest but incompetent, large numbers of people would starve to death. As a result, Tang Enbo's evil deeds were infinitely magnified..." Hu Weidong couldn't help but sigh, knowing that historically, Henan's economy had always been at the bottom nationwide even after liberation, which showed just how difficult it was to revive Henan's economy.
However, the difficulties faced by Hu Weidong were much smaller compared to those of Jiao Yulu and Zhang Qinli (Jiao Yulu's assistant and successor) in later generations. Firstly, the Flower Garden Mouth dam had not yet burst, and although Henan was plagued with disasters, its soil quality was still relatively good. Secondly, there were some valuable experiences gained from governing Henan in later times, such as "diverting the Yellow River to irrigate the silt". Thirdly, the Red 15th Army had captured a lot of funds and materials in previous battles, and although they did not blindly expand their territory, they temporarily stopped after occupying 19 counties in western Henan except for Luoyang and Mengjin. With more money and less land, it was naturally easier to get the economy going. Moreover, there was another very important point: Henan's situation had already deteriorated to an extreme degree, so as long as Hu Weidong made some achievements, the people would be grateful and supportive. With the support of the people, work would become easier and easier, and as the people benefited more and more, they would naturally become even more supportive, forming a virtuous cycle...
During the period of land revolution, every time the Red Army occupied a new territory, the first thing to do was land reform. However, the situation in Henan was different from other regions. The province had been chaotic for decades, and many large landlords had either died or fled, so the problem of land annexation was not severe. The four main issues that made the local people suffer were: harsh governance and corrupt officials, continuous wars and disasters, bandits and thieves rising up, and consecutive years of natural disasters.
The first problem was basically solved as soon as the Red Army arrived. Although there were also good and bad among the cadres of the Communist Party, at least in terms of integrity, the average level was absolutely much better than that of the Nationalist Party now. And in various policies (especially the conscription system), at least for the majority of the population - the peasants, it was much better than that of the government...
The second issue is that Henan was the main battlefield of warlord infighting, and all the people in the province suffered greatly. According to incomplete statistics, during the Central Plains War alone, more than 20 million people in Henan died due to the war disaster. However, the terrain of western Henan's Su district is very special, it is easy to defend but difficult to attack, with both military and economic value. This is why Luoyang has become the capital many times throughout history. Although compared to the danger of Yanshan, the mountains surrounding Luoyang can only be considered hills, building fortifications or even just earthworks at critical points are enough to make western Henan's Su district as solid as gold, and even if the main force of the little devils comes later, it will be difficult for them to take a step beyond Leichi. Those flat areas without natural defenses, Hu Weidong would not touch before his own strength is sufficient, of course, Luoyang surrounded by the Su district is an exception, why wouldn't you eat the meat in the bowl? It's just that the timing is not right yet...
The third question has been elaborated in the previous article, so I won't repeat it here...
The fourth issue is the most important one. At present, the Yellow River floodplain has not yet appeared, and the most common disasters in Henan are floods, droughts, and locust plagues caused by droughts. The reason why water and drought disasters occur frequently is that firstly, there are climate problems, such as the western part of Henan province has always had less rainfall, so it is often a drought disaster. Secondly, the agricultural water conservancy construction in Henan is almost zero, so some rainfall that is not even considered a disaster will cause crop reduction or even complete loss. As for the more harmful locust plague, on the one hand, it is because of frequent droughts, and on the other hand, it is because farmers lack pesticides and knowledge to prevent locust plagues, which is why they frequently occur.
As for the climate, Hu Weidong had no solution, but he knew a thing or two about agricultural water conservancy construction. In fact, this kind of thing has low technical requirements (because due to the impending war, water-saving irrigation cannot be done temporarily, and canal irrigation was mastered by Chinese people over 2,000 years ago). As long as the government can take the lead in organizing farmers, it's not difficult to do a good job. Organizing the masses is exactly what the Communist Party is good at and the Nationalist Party is not good at. Even the slightly more troublesome "Yellow River Irrigation" only requires more labor and time. As for the prevention of locusts and other pests and diseases, Hu Weidong on the one hand asked the original Gongxian munitions factory to produce a few highly efficient, low-toxicity, and low-residue pesticides in his impression, and on the other hand organized farmers to raise more domestic poultry. At the same time, he prohibited the killing of various beneficial birds, frogs, and other biological species to achieve biological control. These measures later achieved very good results...
In addition, Hu Weidong also organized teachers and students from the Biology Department of Zhejiang University to regularly go to the countryside to popularize basic agricultural technology knowledge to farmers. With the continuous production of phosphorus fertilizer and potassium fertilizer factories in the Su District, the 36-year-old Western Henan Su District welcomed a bumper harvest that had not been seen for decades. However, considering the impending war of resistance and the terrible Central Plains famine in 1942 (at least 3 million people died in Henan alone), Hu Weidong never stopped purchasing grain from outside.
Although agriculture recovered and developed rapidly, the population density in Henan was too high. By 1935, the per capita arable land was only about 2 mu (about 0.13 hectares), and even if intensive farming was adopted to pursue total output, agricultural labor was severely surplus. After all, even using cattle for plowing, a skilled laborer could cultivate 30 mu of single-crop land or 15 mu of multi-crop land without affecting yields.
To utilize this idle labor force, Hu Weidong recruited large numbers of young and strong farmers to work in industrial and mining enterprises or to build public works while promoting rural collectivization (note 1) and militia construction. Military constructions with lower confidentiality levels were also completed by these "farmer workers". While fully utilizing the idle labor force in rural areas, accelerating various constructions, and silently expanding the ranks of industrial workers, the impact was quite profound...
Note 1: To get rid of the small producer mentality of one household, this step is necessary. In the Republic of China period when water conservancy facilities were severely lacking and wars caused population age and gender structure imbalance, cooperatives had great benefits for disaster prevention, reduction and assistance to the elderly, women and children, as long as they did not go too far.
