Chapter 178: The Large Households

The Taoist temple on Jinniuling was already packed with disaster victims willing to go to Lingao. Daoquanzi had gone to great lengths to apply for this temple. During the final stages of the Qiongbei security war, the New Taoism and the Lingao Church had engaged in a fierce competition for local religious facilities. In the office of He Ying, who served as the religious affairs officer, Dai E and Dean Wu had engaged in a fierce struggle. As the county with the most temples and Taoist temples, Qiongshan naturally became the focus of their competition.

After some bargaining, Daozhang Dai lived up to expectations and secured most of the religious facilities for the New Taoism. Although the Taoist temple on Jinniuling was in disrepair, its scale was magnificent in the entire Qiongzhou. Based on the principle of “occupying the land first and then building,” Daozhang Zhang’s principle for occupying such religious facilities was “the more, the better.”

“…Our central task is, first, to grab people, and second, to grab land,” Zhang Yingchen instructed in his letter to Dai E. “The Taoist temple is the center of propagation. Without a fighting fortress, you cannot arouse the enthusiasm for battle.”

Now, a young Taoist boy from the New Taoist’s student training class had been stationed in the temple. He wore the standard Taoist robe designed by Daozhang Dao himself: a Tang-style right-lapel narrow-sleeved collared Hu-style robe, with a red Qian trigram armband sewn on the right arm. He was attending to matters at the entrance. The sudden arrival of many refugees caught him off guard—the temple was actually empty. Due to a shortage of funds, only a few houses had been repaired as dormitories and offices, and a few dilapidated halls had been simply reinforced.

Now, these barely supported dilapidated houses were crowded with refugees preparing to go to Lingao to work. The staff sent by the county was maintaining order. Of course, the main role was played by the troops of the First Infantry Battalion stationed in Qiongshan. The company clerk was registering the roster one by one, so that Lingao could prepare enough camps, food, and clothing. According to the plan, most of these refugees would be used in various infrastructure construction sites and agricultural production fields in Lingao.

Due to the influence of that successful pyramid scheme performance, almost all the proletarian tenant farmers waiting for relief in the county town were willing to go to Lingao to seek a living. Many people also brought their old and young, preparing to move their entire families. But the situation at the porridge distribution site spread to the ears of the large households with extra speed, and the reaction of the large households was much faster than Yang Yun, who was in charge of this matter, had expected. Before the statistics were even completed, the large households came with the contracts signed by the tenant farmers and the I.O.U.s signed by the tenant farmers and poor peasants when they borrowed money and owed rent to stop people. In this timeline, there was no concept of “going out to work to pay off debts,” and these debtors, apart from their own strength, had nothing of value to offer as collateral.

Therefore, it was impossible for these creditors to let these laborers leave the county easily. Going out was tantamount to evading debt. In the past, they could have sent a notice to have the Lingao county government detain the person and continue to sell their labor to pay off the debt and complete the contract. But now, they no longer had such prestige.

What it meant to lose their tenant farmers was of course very clear to the large households. First, this year’s rent would be completely gone. Although there was a typhoon and a flood, the tenant farmers could still plant a season of grain, and even if the rent was not collected in full, they could still get some after a 30% or 20% discount. If the tenant farmers ran away, there would be nothing, and even the accumulated back rent would be written off. Moreover, many of the refugees had previously borrowed a lot of high-interest loans to get through the famine and for spring plowing. Now that they were going to Lingao, this money would definitely not be repaid.

In their desperation, the large households sent their stewards and retainers, and some even went in person, to the porridge distribution site to stop people.

Liu Xiang had thought of this when Yang Yun introduced the action plan. While the pots were still being set up and the fires were being lit in the porridge kitchen, he had already sent someone to call the public security commissioner of the Qiongshan County Office—the Qiongshan County Police Department had not been formally established yet—to bring the naturalized citizen police to the Jinniuling Taoist temple to maintain order. He also sent someone to fetch the Elders in charge of the Delong Qiongshan Branch and the Qiongshan County Court to deal with the problem.

But he didn’t expect the large households to act so quickly and the backlash to be so fierce. The entire Taoist temple was filled with quarrels, kneeling and crying, scolding, and people choking on rice balls… The naturalized citizen police and soldiers tried their best to maintain order, and the scene was suddenly in chaos.

Liu Xiang had to go up to the platform himself. In the heat of the moment, there was no electric megaphone, so he had to use a tin one. He used the “deep and powerful high notes” he had practiced with karaoke in the old timeline to shake the scene.

“What’s all this noise! Do you think this is a marketplace!”

Although others sang out of tune, and Liu Xiang was never in tune when he sang, his voice was indeed loud and powerful. Coupled with his belly, which, although it had shrunk a lot, could still block the view and act as a resonance box, this sudden roar silenced the scene.

The natives didn’t know what a marketplace was, but they could see that this Australian was angry. They were all stunned and didn’t dare to argue anymore.

The naturalized citizen police took this good opportunity to immediately stand up straight and show their presence, separating a few people who were pulling at each other.

“Refugees, go to the right and register first. Everyone else, wait at the entrance of the temple!” Liu Xiang waved his hand, drawing a line in the air. “This is a refugee camp. Unauthorized personnel are not allowed to enter!”

“Your Excellency… that is… Chief,” a steward-like person said boldly. “You can’t let them go. They still owe our master a lot of debt!” This steward patted an oil-paper-wrapped package in his hand and cried out, which caused a chorus of agreement from the stewards of several other large households.

“Master, if you take them away, my whole family will have no choice but to hang themselves,” a small landlord cried, his robe covered in mud. “Last year’s rent hasn’t even been paid in full…”

“These cunning people, Your Excellency, please see, this is the pledge written by our master’s tenants last year, the year before last, and the year before that. They haven’t paid a single grain of rice to this day,” another steward waved a stack of account books indignantly. “And now they’re trying to run away! Truly cunning people!”

“Chief, this is the debt borrowed by Wang Sanshi’s family. They said they would use their daughter to pay off the debt if they couldn’t pay it back! Now he wants to run away! What is this? If he wants to go, he can, but he has to leave the person behind to pay off the debt first!”

“Paying debts is a matter of course!”

While Liu Xiang was in a daze, the crowd suddenly parted, and an old man with a white beard came in. He looked like a landlord and a scholar. He said tremblingly, “Master… Chief… Since ancient times, taxes have come from grain, and grain has come from rent. The grain households of the world are the foundation of the court. Your Excellency must not act with feminine benevolence and destroy your own foundation…” He became excited. “I have read history extensively. Even the ancestors of the Great Song Dynasty never had such a precedent for disaster relief. I implore Your Excellency to see clearly.”

He thought that since the Australians claimed to be descendants of the Great Song, presenting the established laws of the Great Song would be a great weapon.

“They are just registering their willingness to go, not being taken away now! As for the debts and back rent you mentioned, the county has already come up with a plan, and the cadres who will handle it are on their way here. You all wait at the entrance first, don’t stir up trouble here! Get out, all of you!” Liu Xiang said with a dissatisfied expression.

Seeing that this Australian county magistrate was really angry, this group of people did not dare to be presumptuous. They also thought that since these mud-legged people were in the Taoist temple, and they were guarding the entrance, they wouldn’t be able to slip away under their noses. So they chaotically retreated to a place by the main gate where they could shelter from the rain. A few who were slow-footed had to huddle under the eaves.

Seeing that order was gradually being restored, the two Elders in charge of the court and bank affairs also arrived. They were actually on a business trip in Qiongshan County and had not been formally appointed. In fact, all the Elder cadres in Qiongshan County, except for Liu Xiang, were on business trips. Their task was to set up teams and provide training and guidance. When the naturalized citizen cadres were generally competent, they would move to another place.

One was Chen Ce from the planning department of Delong Bank. He came to Qiongshan to set up a local branch of Delong. Because Qiongshan was the capital of the entire prefecture, Delong planned to build a Qiongzhou branch here, and then set up sub-branches or offices in each county. The Qiongzhou branch was also located in the Provincial Administration Commission, with only three offices and a warehouse.

The Elder sent by the legal community was Ji Xin. In addition to serving as the president of the court, he also had the task of building a local national primary school.

Liu Xiang held a small meeting in a dilapidated room in the Taoist temple. He first explained the situation and then came up with a plan for this problem.

“The situation is clear. If we directly take these tenant farmers to Lingao, they won’t dare to say anything, but the impact will not be good,” Liu Xiang summarized. “The large households haven’t realized the real danger yet. They are just instinctively protecting their debts to ensure they are paid.”

“I agree with the plan just mentioned. If the amount does not exceed my authority, I can approve a sum of funds,” Chen Ce reiterated the condition of “not exceeding his authority.” “But I doubt whether they are willing to accept our circulation coupons. At present, the credit of the circulation coupons in Qiongshan is not enough, and many people are skeptical. As for directly paying off the debts with silver or grain, I’m afraid the reserves are not enough.”

“Then I’m ready to accept this large number of lawsuits. After being bored by the rain for a few days, I finally have something to do,” Ji Xin said lightly. “I can take some measures to have these debts canceled or reduced in amount—this is not difficult at all.”

The large households and gentry bullied the tenant farmers, most of whom were illiterate and could not understand the terminology. The contracts, I.O.U.s, and pledges they signed were all “tyrannical clauses.” Ji Xin had long wanted to take this opportunity to crack down on this unhealthy trend—the spirit of the contract must be based on relative openness.

“Is there a problem? Won’t the large households think that we are using our power to seize things by force? I’m afraid it will be difficult to convince people,” Chen Ce was a little worried. He was instinctively more sensitive to this aspect.