Chapter 932 931 [Rot]

On the outskirts of Chengdu, a resettlement center for young men.

What Zhou Hexuan saw was a group of strong men who were worse than beggars. Not to mention they were in rags and had sallow faces and skinny muscles. Most of them had dull eyes and looked like zombies. In fact, he was so weak that he couldn't even stand upright. If a gust of wind blew over him, he would probably fall down.

Use such soldiers to fight?

Since He Yingqin's secretary personally spoke, the unit responsible for receiving the troops directly sent a regimental deputy. He smiled in a flattering tone: "Mr. Zhou, I am..."

"I don't care who you are!" Zhou Hexuan interrupted directly, "Where are my people?"

The deputy of the regiment immediately said: "Mr. Zhou, this has nothing to do with us. I have not officially accepted these young men. They are now managed by the young men resettlement center."

Zhou Hexuan asked sharply: "Where are the people in the regiment area?"

The regimental deputy said: "Over there, there are a few people playing cards."

Zhou Hexuan looked up and saw a group of people gambling. They were sitting on the ground shouting and shouting. Next to them were hundreds of young men who had been rejected by the army. Some people were playing cards and shouted: "Boss, we have delivered the young men. Hurry up and sign for them. No need to waste everyone's time."

The regimental deputy scolded: "You bastards, you dare to arrest even Mr. Zhou's people, do you know how to write the word "death"?"

The other party was not afraid at all, and someone replied: "It's just a few farmers making a fuss out of a molehill."

Zhou Hexuan walked over and sneered: "You are from the Youth League Administration Area of ​​Guizhou, what qualifications do you have to recruit young men in Sichuan?"

The leader of the other party stood up: "People from Guizhou and Sichuan are all Chinese. President Chiang said that there is no distinction between north and south in this war of resistance. I am executing President Chiang's order."

Zhou Hexuan was so angry that he laughed: "You talk the same thing, have you ever read a book?"

The other person said: "I went to elementary school for a few years."

Zhou Hexuan asked: "Where are my people?"

The other party lazily said to the strong man: "Everyone who joined the gang in Sichuan should come forward."

As soon as these words came out, more than two hundred people stood up and shouted: "I am from Sichuan, I am from Sichuan!"

The leader who sent the soldiers suddenly became anxious: "Fart, I've caught dozens of them in Sichuan. Don't try to fish in troubled waters."

"I'm really from Sichuan, and I can also speak Sichuan dialect. Just listen, son of a bitch, you will be Banban first!"

"My opponent, I am also from Sichuan."

"We are all from Sichuan, sir, please save us!"

"..."

The young men immediately started making trouble.

Zhou Hexuan asked: "Why go to Sichuan to catch young men?"

The leader who sent the soldiers said: "Let's make up the numbers. Do you still need to ask?"

A strong man shouted: "Sir, there were more than 900 people when we left Guizhou, and when we arrived in Sichuan, there were only more than 300 left. These bastards didn't give us food, and sometimes we only had one meal in two days. It was cold. Without any clothes to wear, my brother got sick from the cold and died!"

The leader who sent the soldiers retorted: "I only have so much money and food on hand, I can conjure it up for you!"

Needless to say, the recruitment fee must have been withheld by the local regiment area commander, and most of it was swindled, resulting in the soldiers being unable to provide sufficient rations. What should we do if the young men starve to death due to illness? Then we have to catch as many as we can along the way.

Zhou Hexuan did not argue with the other party, but said: "All the strong men in Yibin will stand up, and those from Zhou Family Farm in other places will also stand up!"

This time only a dozen people came forward, and one of them cried: "Mr. Zhou, you have to make the decision for us. These turtles are not human beings. We walked from Yibin to Chengdu, and we died of illness and exhaustion in less than half a month." Oh! My brother Yang next door had a high fever and he was not dead yet, so they left him on the roadside and ignored him!"

The leader who sent the soldiers said angrily: "What do I care about? What do you think I should do about it? I'll pay him to see a doctor!"

"Well said, you make a lot of sense," Zhou Hexuan sneered and suddenly shouted, "Catch them all and let the commander of their regiment area come and pick them up in person!"

No one took action because they didn’t know who to take action.

Zhou Hexuan pointed at the regimental deputy responsible for receiving the troops and said, "Why are you still standing there? What you are holding is a fire stick!"

The deputy said: "Mr. Zhou, I don't have the power to arrest people."

Zhou Hexuan said angrily: "Arrest him immediately! I will be responsible for anything that happens."

"That..." The regimental deputy still didn't dare to take action.

Zhou Hexuan sneered and said: "Do you want me to ask He Yingqin for instructions, or should I go directly to Chang Kaishen for comment?"

The regimental deputy swallowed and the two great gods were carried out. He felt a huge pressure and ordered: "Take them all away and escort them to Chongqing to be dealt with by Shangfeng!"

"Let me see who dares to move. I haven't broken the law!" The leader of the soldiers was also angry. Five or six of his soldiers raised their rifles and arrested them with force.

Zhou Hexuan ignored him, and these scoundrels couldn't change the world. He said to Li Fengyuan and Niu Kaiyang who were beside him: "Take the people back to Yibin, and the other strong men from Sichuan will also be sent back to their places of origin. I will pay for it, do you hear me?"

"I heard it." The two of them answered with their heads held high.

"Sir, please save us!"

"I kneel down for you!"

"gentlemen……"

The strong men from Guizhou all knelt down in large numbers. Zhou Hexuan could only turn a blind eye and left quickly with great inner tangles. Zhou Hexuan did not dare to intervene, and could not intervene, because the strong men from Guizhou were subject to normal recruitment. If he blocked it, it would be sabotaging the anti-Japanese recruitment work, and it would be unreasonable to bring the lawsuit to Chiang Kai-shek.

Nan Huaijin followed Zhou Hexuan to the hotel in the city. He asked, "Mr. Zhou, is there really no way to improve this situation?"

"No." Zhou Hexuan shook his head helplessly.

If we want to put an end to or improve the tragedy of recruiting young men, we must establish an effective and feasible conscription system.

First, you must have complete household registration information. How many working-age young people there are in a place, how much labor force is needed to support local agriculture, and which specific companies are in what condition... all of these need to be known in advance, otherwise trouble will occur.

This was impossible in the Republic of China. Even if the household registration was compiled now, it would not be compiled until the end of the Anti-Japanese War because there was a lack of reliable grassroots bureaucrats. Household compilers must be able to write and do arithmetic. This is a big problem. The illiteracy rate is too high and it is difficult to find so many statisticians who have studied. Even if the statisticians are in place, they still have to go door-to-door to investigate, and they have to provide guides and armed escorts, and they have to be careful to prevent collusion between public servants and local snakes.

Secondly, even if household registration information is available, someone still has to implement it carefully. How to mobilize, how to recruit troops, how to transport troops, how to ensure the soldiers' food, clothing, housing and transportation... These all require a new civil service system, which cannot be created in a vacuum, and the establishment of this system involves too many other things.

Even if all of the above are realized, it is still technically impossible to implement - because the imperial power does not extend to the county!

From the Ming and Qing dynasties to the Republic of China, the government controlled at most the county level, and even taxation required local gentry, village elders, and petty officials to implement it. It is like contracting out the tax collection task. How to collect it, how much to collect, and who to collect it from are all decided by local snakes. The county magistrate only needs to see the money and food collected.

The same was true for conscription during the Anti-Japanese War. Government orders were sent to county magistrates and mayors, who were then contracted to township magistrates, town magistrates, security chiefs, and armor chiefs.

When taxes are collected, the local gangsters have to take a bite out of it; when conscription is done, the local gangsters also have to take a bite out of it.

If you want to bypass local snakes and directly collect taxes and recruit troops, you will become an enemy of the entire local power. I don't know how many "civil uprisings" will occur by then.

If you want to make changes, there is only one feasible but impractical way - to eliminate the landlord class!

Moreover, even if the landlord class is eliminated, the army must be rectified and those who send and receive troops must be rectified. The death of the vast majority of young men is attributed to those guys who drink the blood of soldiers. They regard the continuous sending and receiving of troops as a means of making money, killing one group and then the next. Anyway, there is financial allocation for each dead strong man.

Even if Zhou Hexuan were to be the head of state, he would not necessarily do better than Chiang Kai-shek in terms of conscription. So he didn't want to give advice, and he didn't bother to report the situation, because even if Chiang Kai-shek gave him the greatest power and asked him to be responsible for handling the matter, Zhou Hexuan would be absolutely helpless.

Again, the National Government is rotten to the core.

However, although the problem cannot be completely solved, as a time traveler, Zhou Hexuan is still unwilling. At least, he had to do something to make a bad situation slightly less bad.