In southeastern Fujian, as Ning Ji and Little Rascal Dog embarked on a new journey, the southwestern land where he had started was brimming with the vitality of spring.

This spring referred not only to the annual change of seasons but also to the preliminary success of last year's hundred-village pilot program. The wheel of land reform was speeding towards a broader area of the Chengdu Plain. This strange yet shocking phenomenon was roaring across the plain's vast expanse with the relentless march of time.

In village after village, land reform was being steadily implemented as planned. Some were bewildered and doubtful, some disbelieving and resistant. Onlookers were initially indifferent, then shocked, and subsequently felt a sense of loss amidst disbelief. Others cheered and wrote poems to welcome the arrival of a new era.

This new era was not just a simple concept or a resounding slogan. In Chengdu's March spring, countless ideas were being refined and disseminated by the "New Culturalists," and the fierce confrontation was more turbulent than ever before.

People realized that the fruits of cultural deduction, conducted in the style of "armchair strategizing" by Ning Yi and the core members of the Huaxia Army over the past decade, whether it was equality, the Four Classes of People, or other strange and bizarre humanistic assumptions, had been sharpened into a blade and loaded with bullets at the moment when "land reform" was officially implemented. People, in conjunction with this huge change in reality, were able to deduce various grand future prospects, and the young "New Culturalists" were constantly enriching the specific theoretical system in a surge of emotions.

Any monotonous concept, any so-called grand vision, was in fact powerless in the face of a systematic Confucian theory and thousands of years of practical examples. People could clearly see what the various reasons were that these monotonous theories could not be realized. Therefore, in the great discussions of the past few years, various Huaxia Army theorists were gradually subdued by learned Confucian scholars from elsewhere. But at this moment, the theoretical framework prepared for more than a decade, involving different directions, began to combine with the pace of practice. The system began to confront the system, and utopian theories and visions began to be shaped by reality.

Thus, a strange giant began to stretch its body from the old land, pushing away the soil and mountains, and a faint rumble swept across the plains.

In the eyes of various Confucian scholars and observers, Ning Yi, the king-slayer who had been amiable for several years, was finally showing his arrogant imagination and the powerful force that overwhelmed the entire era.

If his regicide at the Golden Hall more than a decade ago, his subsequent wild words about exterminating Confucianism, and even the feat of defeating the Jurchen Western Route Army on the Chengdu Plain, were still within the realm of people's understanding, then the implementation of this "land reform" was truly a crazy act that exceeded the boundaries of imagination for all Confucian leaders. Historically, people would do such things, but almost without exception, they would turn into a carnival of destruction without creation. No rational person would easily do it, and no matter how it was done, it would lead to a collapse in the short term.

But this time, it didn't.

The Huaxia Army, with unprecedented organization, pushed this reform to every village on the list. It abandoned the cooperation of local gentry, reshaping the appearance of every village along the way like a razor. It not only pushed away the old resistance but also began to absorb new people and conduct training and education in the Four Classes of People ideology in the process of this transformation. And such practice began to inject real life into the "fantasies" of the past decade in the centers of public opinion.

Small-scale confrontations and skirmishes were breaking out frequently. In Chengdu, countless people began to offer advice to the Huaxia Army's congress and even to Ning Yi himself. Even a group of old Confucian scholars "kowtowed at the palace gates" in the government square, bitterly describing the various advantages and disadvantages that would follow – they could no longer care about their previous "irreconcilable hatred" with the Huaxia Army.

But Ning Yi remained unmoved, and the figure manifested by his will and power, at this moment, was enveloping the entire southwestern sky, driving the stakes of power into the ground.

The new theoretical framework would not destroy the old framework, and even in the current situation, when the practice had just begun, it could not be said to have gained the upper hand. And relying on the army's violence to implement land reform step by step and absorb new people, it would not be possible to truly destroy the vast roots of the gentry culture in a few years. But at least at this moment, the idea and structure of the Four Classes of People had been injected with a soul. Flesh and skin had been wrapped around the skeleton. Its heart began to beat, the blood began to circulate, and at its feet, the real roots with vitality had begun to take root in the ground, truly beginning to compete for nutrients with the vast power of the gentry.

Huge changes would affect every existing form in society. In Chengdu, the confrontation between old and new Confucian scholars was only a cultural ripple. In the settlements of migrant workers, people who had lost their hometowns and signed indentures began to inquire about settling in the Southwest or joining the Huaxia Army, with the possibility of fighting for land. This expectation and enthusiasm had set off a wave of excitement. Correspondingly, the various gentry who opened factories or invested around Chengdu began to worry about the changes on the one hand, and on the other hand, they were actively seeking various opportunities in such changes.

Just like Lin Qiu, the "Director Lin" who is now in a high position in the Ministry of Commerce, has recently experienced a wave of corruption attacks.

Lin Jingmei and others have recently been trying to make proposals under the guidance of Li Shishi to cooperate with land reform and absorb migrant workers as the backbone. After the two-day wedding celebration during the Spring Festival, her husband, Peng Yueyun, had long been assigned by Ning Yi to carry out tasks in an unknown location and had not been seen for more than two months.

In the imperial residence near Mohe Pond, Ning Yi was so busy that he didn't even have time to write articles scolding people in the newspaper.

The landlords who had their interests infringed upon and shouted grievances, and the old Confucian scholars who kowtowed in fear could not see him now. He also had no time to pay attention to these individual voices of all kinds. Countless data were being gathered to the central government every day. Ning Yi was mostly expressionless, creating an image of sitting firmly on the fishing platform, but the number of times he was absent-minded increased, and sometimes he would lose his temper.

Although he did not have personal contact with the old Confucian scholars from the outside world and did not listen to grievances, Ning Yi still read the newspapers every day. For a period of time, he especially liked to read the various prospects for reform by the "New Culturalists." Seeing the various viewpoints discussed for more than a decade being constantly enriched and thrown out, gradually these types of newspapers would be piled on top. After reading them for a few days, he was furious, replaced the head of the secretariat, and then took out the various newspaper articles that sang the decline of land reform and flipped through them for a few days.

The progress of land reform has been expanded by him directly controlled one hundred villages to a larger place. Nearly 10,000 basic members as the backbone, 1,000 working groups, are going to complete the innovation of tens of thousands of villages in the Southwest in the next two years. There is not much possibility of military support problems, but these 1,000 working groups have gradually begun to leave his sight. Although overcorrection is inevitable, and various deviations and problems will inevitably occur, the problems that occur in each working group may become the roots of necrosis in the future.

After more than ten years of accumulation, a framework has been barely built from a cultural point of view, and a cycle has been established from the grassroots level. Landing is gratifying, but in the next few years, once major problems occur in the real world, the entire framework of reform may still turn into a sandcastle on the beach. Although it is said that the seeds of thought have been sown, before it matures from a realistic level, every twist and turn will still be at the cost of the demise of millions of people or even an era.

At this moment, his heart will actually feel fear and uneasiness. Of course, on the surface, such emotions are no longer suitable for showing to anyone.

Occasionally, information from the outside world will come, the Western Expedition in Jin; the various small actions of Dai Mengwei and Zou Xu; the advancement and changes of the Fairness Party; the turbulence of the small court in the Southeast; or the actions of the Jurchens. In the past, he would regard these as entertainment, but recently he just glanced at them and threw them to the departments below to let them do things step by step.

Only occasionally when thinking distractedly, there are more and more feelings about "Why bother?"

In this March Chengdu Plain, in addition to the gradual expansion of the pace of land reform, the more realistic spring plowing is also underway between sunny or rainy days. The peaceful land, the lives of people far away from war are roughly stable, and in the more southwestern Wenpu County, Tang Minjie, who has been assigned here for more than half a year, has experienced the most peaceful and fulfilling days of his life.

Like a dream.

After more than half a year of work, he is now considered an old man in the 223 Agricultural Research Institute. The daily work is still simple: collecting feces outside Wenpu County in the early morning, doing some literacy enlightenment for some children or a few backward night soil women, then returning to the research institute near Xiaoye Village to compost, and then try to return to Wenpu County's dung station before night.

During this period, perhaps because Peng Yueyun came to talk to him a few times, or because of the influence of his opening a literacy class at the dung station, which was a big or small thing, the director of the research institute, Chen Chirang, talked to him a few times, trying to transfer him to a cleaner position, and also thought about doing some publicity for his literacy class, but Tang Minjie tried his best to politely refuse.

After living for a period of time, through a friend introduced by Peng Yueyun, it is also possible to buy some newspapers from Chengdu in Wenpu County. Tang Minjie puts most of his few – but almost useless – salary expenses on this. Through newspapers, he can clearly see the dramatic changes in the outside world, and after reading the newspaper every day, the next morning, he will read and explain various news from the outside world to the children in the literacy class.

"If you understand the world, you will become more useful people in the future."

And because of these behaviors, occasionally some people will privately spread: The little brother who collects dung at the dung station may be a big shot from the outside.

Of course, even if someone comes to curry favor, Tang Minjie, outside of teaching, does not show any characteristics of a "big shot" in the exchange. Although he will wash up a little when reading books and newspapers to the children, most of the time he is slightly bent over with a tired body, occasionally reaching out to pick at his bare feet walking in the mud and dung. Due to long-term dung collection, his body also faintly exudes a stench, and ordinary people rarely spend a long time with him or talk to him.

He Qing, the night soil woman who initially suggested that he teach, did show some goodwill towards him for a period of time, and also obliquely

opened her mouth, proposing to wash and mend his clothes for him, and once sent him a pair of cloth shoes and a few insoles she had made by hand, but after Tang Minjie clearly expressed his refusal, the relationship between the two parties returned to a certain distance. He Qing did not understand where Tang Minjie's resistance came from, but it was originally extremely difficult to understand people so deeply, and the other party was not a particularly good condition, so she would not really show up shamelessly.

Spring plowing in the Southwest began in February, and every household was very busy. The outside world's land reform was the most frequently mentioned topic among the people during this period. Some landlords were full of apprehension, and some bad conflicts and blood cases even occurred in mid-February, causing a stir, but they were still far away from Tang Minjie and others.

At the end of February, a small working group split off from the initial one hundred villages and came to a small village east of Wenpu County, and it is said that they had begun the steps of land reform. Many night soil women secretly went to watch, and came back to tell Tang Minjie that a certain landlord's daughter-in-law had hanged herself, and it was difficult to save her, and in fact, this family's reputation was usually not bad, and so on...

Various bits and pieces of information, mixed with various news from the newspapers every day, Tang Minjie felt surging in his heart in peace. The waves of the era were warming his broken heart. He occasionally thought of those Han slaves far away in the north, and the sound of their wailing echoed in his mind. He also thought of Chen Wenjun. He would think, "Madam Chen, can you know, everything that is happening here, can you feel, the warmth here..." Responding to him, but also only the whistling and biting north wind in his mind.

At the beginning of March, the land reform process in the villages near Wenpu seemed to be a bit intense. Soldiers of the Huaxia Army had been to Wenpu County once or twice. This kind of thing was of course not surprising. The landlords in the world were not all bad people. Even in many places, small landlords with bad reputations could not survive. These things belonged to structural injustice. When it develops to a deeper level, it can only be broken to form a new cycle. The Huaxia Army did not rudely fight to the end in this land reform, but arranged some redemption and negotiation procedures. But for some people who feel that land accumulation is not easy, of course there will be situations where they refuse to accept it no matter what. But if they can't agree at a fixed time, they are also very likely to be crushed to death.

Tang Minjie did not have too many feelings about these things.

In this way, on the evening of March 13, on the way back to Wenpu County in a dung cart, he felt a different atmosphere. From afar, there seemed to be a commotion. The law enforcement team coming out of the county was conducting a search of the surrounding area. Even the men with armbands on the roadside were vigilantly observing the pedestrians leaving Wenpu County on the road, and conducting simple inquiries on some people.

When passing by, he heard the conversation.

"What happened..."

"...Qiu Yuwai from Erqing Village, injured someone with a knife, I heard that he killed someone from the working group..."

"Killed someone?" Hearing these people's words, Tang Minjie frowned and asked curiously for the first time. Afterwards, he did not get a definite answer. What can be determined is that a dispute broke out in Erqing Village again, and there was a bloody case of someone being injured.

At this time, the sun was setting in the west. Tang Minjie drove the dung cart back to the dung station, untied the mule, and did a simple cleaning. As the sky gradually darkened, a team searched over with torches again. Someone knocked on the door. The leader was a soldier of the Huaxia Army that Tang Minjie knew at a glance had been on the battlefield. There was also a local security officer next to him. After inquiring and confirming his identity, he asked if there was any special movement in the evening. Perhaps because both parties belonged to the Huaxia Army institutions, when the entourage went in to search roughly, they also saluted Tang Minjie and asked him if he had been on the front line.

Tang Minjie bent over and shook his head, saying no.

The group searched for a while and left.

At this time, the sky was almost completely dark. Tang Minjie closed the door, then took a knife, moved a chair, and sat on the high platform next to the dung cart for easy dumping. All his actions after closing the door were silent. Sitting there, he looked at the stars and the moon in the sky, like a ghost. After about a moment, there was movement in the dung bucket. A figure quietly pushed open the lid of the dung bucket. Just as it was poking its head out, it saw the figure sitting on the chair nearby, and the knife he was hanging on the ground.

"Come out."

A tired voice rang out.

"Tell me why you shouldn't die."

This was a small episode that happened after Tang Minjie returned to the Southwest for half a year...

Soon after, it will cause some commotion.

Like an insignificant small ripple in a great era...

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