"Frontier Time and Space" Luo Qun | The Reclamation Bureau of Yunnan and Mongolia under the frontier development vision

Original title: "Creation and Experiment of New Ideals, New Societies, and New Systems" from the Perspective of Frontier Development: Centered on the Reclamation bureau of Yunnan, Yunnan, Republic of China

Luo Qun

Professor and Dean of the School of History and Archives of Yunnan University, doctoral supervisor of Frontier Studies in China. He is engaged in the research of modern and contemporary Chinese history and southwest frontier history, and has published more than 60 academic papers in "Ethnic Studies", "Academic Monthly", "Chinese Frontier History And Geography Research", "China Economic History Research", "Ideological Front" and so on.

Abstract: Reclamation during the Republic of China period, as an important measure to develop frontiers, is related to national security and people's interests. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the reclamation of borderlands in Yunnan was highly valued by the central to local governments, reflecting the two-way interaction and game between the central and local governments. The establishment and development of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau can be described as the "creation and experimentation of new ideals, new societies, and new systems" in the process of frontier development in order to realize the transformation of frontiers into inland areas and "build agriculture from a new perspective", which has a strong color of institutional innovation.

Keywords: Republic of China period; Yunnan; frontier development; reclamation; Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau

During the Republic of China period, with the fundamental transformation of China from a dynastic state to a sovereign state, the frontier, as an organic part of the national territory and territory, had a clearly defined scope, and the state not only had to defend and consolidate the frontier, but also to develop the frontier and govern the frontier. In fact, after the establishment of the National Government in Nanjing, it tried to reshape the unified central political authority, strengthen control in the border areas, and develop the border economy to ensure the integrity of the country's territory and the social stability of the border areas. As Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China, China's frontier issues were even more closely related to national sovereignty, national reunification, and the prosperity of the Chinese nation, and more and more aroused widespread concern among the Chinese people: "The many events on the mainland's frontiers can be described as an inevitable evolution of the mainland's politics in the past hundred years." "But it is more and more obvious until '9/18'" "If the frontiers are lost, China can still have room for development?" The frontier and the interior are dependent on each other for their lives, and those who exist coexist and those who die die together. The development of the frontier has become a top priority for the establishment of a "national rejuvenation base" for the survival of the salvation plan.

As an important measure for the development of frontier areas, reclamation has the comprehensive role of developing wasteland, stabilizing the border, developing the economy, abundant resources, settling displaced people, and adjusting the population. "Reclamation is the opening up of abandoned land so that cultivation can be carried out. Its purpose is to increase production, enrich food and clothing, and develop industrial resources. Colonization is the transfer of the people of A to B, so that they live in Sri Lanka, eat in Slovakia, and solve all livelihood problems. Its purpose is to improve distribution methods, adjust population density, and give all sentient beings the opportunity to live and work in peace and contentment. ”

I. National security and people's interests - frontier reclamation and development under the guidance of national interests

With regard to the strategic position of the western frontier of the mainland, the National Government of Nanjing has realized that "the southwest, southwest, and northwest provinces are not only the birthplace of our ancestors, but also the barrier of national defense and the abyss of materials, but only with traffic obstructions, language barriers, and so-called frontiers, almost the same as Ouou." In addition, the importance of Yunnan as a frontier is also reflected in geopolitics and diplomacy, "as far as national defense is concerned, it is actually a chain between Kangzang and the Yangtze River, and the gateway to the southwest of the mainland!" In terms of the international situation, Yunnan is the key to the Far East and the Near East; the hub of transportation between Europe and Asia! "In the face of the coming all-out war of resistance, the vast frontier area can be regarded as a strategic depth, has important geopolitical significance, and will inevitably become the last lifeline of China, so the development of the frontier is on the agenda." The development of frontiers is "the brightest road for the Chinese nation in the future.", with the rectification of transportation, the development of reclamation, the adjustment of population, the expansion of education, the promotion of health, and the development of industry as the key points, and the development of frontier development and construction strategies centered on the southwest has been adopted, with the southwest first and then the northwest.

The frontier areas are vast and sparsely populated and rich in resources, but on the whole, "there is no sophisticated geological survey, and the reserves of minerals cannot be estimated" "The inland is overcrowded, and the border areas are empty and abnormal"; the frontier and the inland are "both beneficial, and both are harmful", "both must be mutually adjusted, so as to be used by the country", "If you can transfer the secrets, it is rare, and you can use each other, then you can use the whole country". Only through the gradual advancement of frontier development can we break the imbalance in regional economic development, "only then can we expect to improve and progress," promote the reconstruction of various political, economic, and even social relations within the country, and ultimately realize the political maintenance of territorial and sovereign integrity, consolidate national defense, resist foreign insults, and then promote the new development of international relations; economically, we can promote and realize the goal of modernization that we have diligently pursued, and complete the social transformation of traditional China. To this end, it is necessary to establish the principle of seeking the interests of the indigenous peoples in the border areas, to develop the original production undertakings, to establish the center of gravity of the frontier economy, and to enrich the labor force, open up transportation, and promote the development of the entire frontier national economy.

In 1931, the Fourth National Congress of the Kuomintang successively adopted the "Implementation Plan for the Provisions on the Livelihood of the People in accordance with the Provisions of the Covenant Law during the Training period" and the "Case for Determining the Guidelines for the Construction of the Border Areas and Carrying It Out in Practice", pointing out that reclamation and resettlement are important policies for developing the national economy of the border areas, and it is necessary to draw up plans to actively carry out them and provide financial and other necessary assistance; at the same time, the development of the frontier must pay special attention to the livelihood of the local people in the original frontier areas. Under the premise of taking the national interests as the leading position, reclamation is related to national security and people's interests, and has become the most important task in the development of frontier areas, so it is discussed by many people at the time: "Starting from reclamation, we will expand the development of all frontier economies and the implementation of social work, such as forestry, animal husbandry, industry and mining." It is necessary to cultivate a new vitality of the frontier society and achieve the purpose of taking the border area as the hinterland. "Reclamation is a top priority. I thought that this was a major course on the internal affairs of the country, and that the reclamation policy and the reclamation plan should be determined as soon as possible. "If a husband struggles for the survival of the nation, then man must fight; if he struggles for land use, he must fight for the land; if he struggles for the supply of soldiers and the people, he must fight from time to time; and when he carries out reclamation during the War of Resistance, he gathers people in the fields to store grain and increase production, and for the sake of destroying the enemy's resources, it can be said to be a slow map!"

The interests of frontier reclamation are quite numerous: First, it is necessary to adjust the surplus population in the interior and develop the national economy; second, to resettle refugees, turn consumers into producers, and to reduce the difficulties of peddling; third, to manage the wandering people to scatter courage, to turn the profiteers into profiteers, and to reduce the population, so as to avoid the plague of concentrating on the cities; the fourth is to eliminate the disturbance of thieves and reduce the danger of unemployment; the fifth is to remedy the shortage of grain; the sixth is to improve agricultural and livestock; the seventh is to cultivate forests to avoid floods and droughts; and the eighth is to prevent the covetousness of strong neighbors and preserve the land of the frontier. Therefore, peacetime was originally an important plan for developing frontiers and consolidating national defense. During the War of Resistance, not only could the positive aspects improve the people's livelihood and expand wartime production, but the negative aspects could also use this to relieve refugees from unemployment and stabilize the order in the rear. In addition, reclamation can also eliminate ethnic estrangement in border areas, and it is also a "good opportunity for financial resources, manpower and culture to return to the countryside for a once in a lifetime."

Before the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the northwest frontier was the focus of the Nanjing Nationalist Government and public opinion on the reclamation of immigrants, and after the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, with the influx of refugees, the southwest frontier became an important area for the government and the people to call for reclamation and development. Commentators believe that the southwest provinces are vast and vast, and the provinces of Sichuan, Kang, Yunnan, Qian, Hunan, Guizhou, and Guangdong are all vast, and the population density of the provinces in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the north of the Yellow River Basin is as small as nearly one-fifth, and it belongs to the subtropics, which is suitable for crop growth. The Government should set up special governing bodies to allocate wasteland to the southwestern frontier and order the refugees to reclaim it. In this way, mature fields can be reclaimed from abandoned and unproductive land, and cultivated land can be distributed by means of equal land rights, so that the vast number of peasant households have farmland and can support themselves.

Second, go it alone - the reclamation and development of Yunnan frontier under the balance of local interests

Although the National Government of Nanjing recognized the importance of the frontier, the center of its political vision was to reshape the unified central authority, so in the relationship between the development and governance of the central-border frontier, especially under the joint action of factional struggles within the Kuomintang and other external factors at that time, the relationship with the provinces of the southwest frontier was not only a one-way relationship between the central and local governments, but the reverse relationship between the local and the central government and the mutual checks and balances and compromises between the two sides often formed the unbalanced characteristics of the local division of the southwest provinces.

In January 1928, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Long Yun as chairman of the Yunnan Provincial Government, and for the Nationalist government in Nanjing, it was necessary to resolve factional disputes within the Kuomintang, and even less willing to see the existence of alien forces on the frontier. While using local power factions to serve their unified political authority, they have also been trying to restrict the development of local power factions and infiltrate into the frontiers from the political, military, and economic aspects, so as to achieve the purpose of weakening local power factions. As far as the local powerful faction in Yunnan is concerned, although it has won the victory in the factional struggle in the province, the confrontation force has not been completely eliminated, and in addition, it is limited by various conditions such as border geography, transportation, economy, and communications, and the political and economic ties with the central government are relatively single and weak. In order to consolidate its own rule, on the one hand, it is necessary to rely on the support of the central government of Nanjing and obey its rule; on the other hand, it has a defensive and even resistant mentality to the central authority, protect its local sphere of influence as much as possible, and often act on its own according to the actual situation of the province or its own cognition, and finally reach a balanced state in the process of game between the two sides.

After Long Yun took charge of Yunnan, he devoted himself to the development and governance of the frontiers of Yunnan, and proposed to build a "new Yunnan for the revolutionary construction of the Three People's Principles" in three phases: the first phase of "concentrating on surveying and determining chaos". The second phase is "Recuperation, Step by Step". The third phase of "Seeking Positive Development" "All household registration, armor protection, warehousing, clearance, smoking bans, police, education, health and other important policies, as well as water conservancy, afforestation, textile, mining and other production undertakings, according to their urgency, successively held." "I hope to develop the economy through production and development and prosper the frontier."

Frontier development requires a lot of manpower and material support, which is beyond the reach of Yunnan Province. After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yunnan became the rear area of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, with a large influx of various institutions, troops, and refugees, a sharp increase in demand for grain and materials, the National Government in Nanjing strengthened the development and construction of the frontiers of Yunnan, and the existing problems in capital, transportation, technology, and personnel were greatly improved. As the main content and carrier of frontier development, reclamation is led by the central government, and various reclamation policies and regulations have been promulgated from top to bottom, plans have been prepared, reclamation institutions have been formed, and reclamation areas have been set up, which has provided a strong impetus for the comprehensive development of frontier society. However, the implementation of various policies and institutional arrangements still need to be implemented by local governments.

In 1938, the Executive Yuan formulated the Opinion on the Development of Yunnan, emphasizing that "its significance lies in indirectly maintaining and strengthening the military movement of the War of Resistance, directly producing and transporting the military supplies of the War of Resistance and the permanent resources for the establishment of national defense, not in seeking local welfare." One of the three most urgent programs is "under the supervision and protection of the government, private capital is allowed to organize companies to handle the reclamation of barren areas and promote agricultural products, but it is the responsibility to control the profits obtained by the necessary facilities." In the summer of 1938, the Ministry of the Interior approved the "Yunnan Reclamation Plan", which "used reclamation as a way out for refugees, and was already one of the key governments in the rear of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression."

As an important measure to develop frontiers, the handling of reclamation and the development of agriculture are consistent with the goals from the central to the local level, but the reduction of local welfare and the entry of private capital to compete with local profits are not in line with the original intention of the Yunnan Provincial Government. At the same time, under the pressure of the War of Resistance, the Nationalist government was unable to provide a large amount of financial support, "petitioning the central government for appropriations, but every drop of the central government's money must be directly used for the war of resistance, so the issue of reclamation was invisibly shelved." Therefore, the Development and Construction of the Yunnan Frontier by the Nationalist Government is more limited to the "opinion" level. Since the central authority has been greatly reduced and has no intention of being weak, it is still mainly local governments present, and specific operations such as fund raising, wasteland investigation, land clearance, and reclamation area setting must be independently carried out by the Yunnan Provincial Government, and on the premise of complying with the central government's decrees, it is necessary to take into account the achievement and implementation of local interests.

In March 1929, the Yunnan Provincial Government established the First and Second Colonization Border Supervision Offices, and reclamation and immigration and the establishment of industries became one of the focuses of the Supervision Office's work on "colonization of borders". In 1938, the Yunnan Provincial Government formulated the "Measures for Clearing Wasteland in Yunnan Province", encouraging the reclamation of wasteland, expanding the area of cultivated land, increasing grain production, clearing wasteland, and establishing the Yunnan Provincial Reclamation Committee, which is specifically responsible for reclamation affairs. In the same year, it also formulated the "Yunnan Provincial Reclamation Plan", "Rules for the Relocation of Refugees in Extraordinary Periods", "Implementation Plan for Refugee Reclamation", etc., and planned to recruit reclamation people from three aspects, one is to recruit Han people from neighboring borders such as Sichuan and Guangxi. The second is to implement military tuns and raise more soldiers and soldiers to reclaim the border. The third is to relocate compatriots and overseas Chinese to the real side. In October 1943, the Civil Affairs Department of Yunnan Province set up the "Frontier Administrative Design Committee" to design and formulate a plan for the development of the frontier, specifically responsible for the development of the frontier, hoping that through the reclamation of the wasteland to use the meaning of production, cover the newly established agriculture", so that all parts of the province, including northeast Yunnan, northern Yunnan, western Yunnan, southern Yunnan, etc. have been developed accordingly, "not only focusing on the migration of the people and the increase of production, but also striving to create and experiment with new ideals, new societies, and new systems." ”

III. "The Creation and Experimentation of New Ideals, New Societies, and New Systems" - centered on the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau

The establishment and development of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau can be said to be the "creation and experimentation of new ideals, new societies, and new systems" in the process of frontier development in the Republic of China period to achieve the goal of "inlandization" of the frontier and "build agriculture from a new one", which has a strong color of institutional innovation. The reclamation area is located at the junction of the two counties in Kaiyuan and Mengzi in the south of Yunnan Province, and its land is slightly weaker at 103 degrees and 40 degrees east longitude and 23 degrees 30 degrees north latitude. The district boundary is connected to the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Line in the east, the Xin'an River in Mengzi County in the south, the Kaijie Highway in the west, and the Kaiyuan Dam in the north. The area of the reclamation area, because it has not been measured, there is no correct figure, and it is generally estimated that it is about 400,000 mu." Before the establishment of the Reclamation Bureau, "water conservancy has not been revived, water damage has not been eliminated, winter and spring are bitter and drought, summer and autumn are bitter, agricultural harvests are poor, and only miscellaneous grains can be planted."

(1) Creation of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau

Long Yun served as the commander of the 11th Regiment of the Tang Jiyao Guards From 1921 to 1922, and during his garrison in Mengzi, he "paid attention to the discovery of grass dams in Kaiyuan and Mengzi, and the discovery of the Jiayi Dam in Kaihua and Wenshan, each with tens of thousands of acres of fertile plains to cultivate." In 1928, after Longyun took over The Dian Dynasty, "while sorting out the finances and stabilizing social order, the authorities were afraid of the decline of agricultural products, but they were engaged in the revitalization of farmland water conservancy in various places; in order to increase production, the demonstration of reclamation plans, it was decided to reclaim the three dams of Kaimeng", for about three reasons:

1. Food raw materials, can not be self-sufficient

Yunnan Province has few mountains and land, frequent water and drought, and cannot be self-sufficient in terms of raw materials for food. Every year, cotton cloth is imported for tens of millions of dollars. From the fourteenth year of the Republic of China (1925) to the twenty-third year (1934), there was a panic in the five degrees (fourteenth, fifteenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twenty-three) of grain in the province, forming a large number of rice imports, and the drought in the province in the twenty-three years, the grain price was even higher. The authorities believe that the construction of water conservancy cannot be postponed. In the counties along the Dianchi Lake, efforts were made to promote various farmland water conservancy projects, and the results were quite good. In August 1935, he sent Yang Wenbo, the current director of the Reclamation Bureau, to Sanba to investigate the water conservancy and try to reclaim the land.

2. The provincial treasury is tight, and the goods are cultivated for profit

The finances of Yunnan Province were originally very tight. In the Qing Dynasty, it was a province that received the association, and the Republic of China was established, assisting the Central Extinction, but still able to provide for self-sufficiency. After that, to protect the country and the country, the military expenditure was huge, and it was necessary to mint inferior coins and indiscriminately issue paper money to support it. Opium cultivation has been banned since 1934, and the financial situation has been difficult. In addition to throttling, the authorities had to open a reasonable source of money to fund the investment. As a result, provincial-run and government-business enterprises have arisen one after another, the most important of which are the old tin smelting companies, mining companies, Dongchuan electric copper factories, Kunming textile factories, etc., and the Kaimeng Reclamation Area is one of its emerging undertakings. The various genera in the south, especially the old ones, depend on the import of grain. If the reclamation is successful, it will be transported and sold on the spot, and it will be able to monopolize the market in the south. Therefore, the authorities reclaimed the three dams in Mongolia and sought to increase agricultural production in order to make up for the smaller ones.

3. Complete the plan that was not implemented by the previous resolution

The three dams are abandoned and have been in place for many years. In the past, successive provincial authorities have proposed reclamation. Ordinary tourists who pass through the passage also advocate the construction of water conservancy and try to reclaim it. In the first year of the Qing Dynasty (1909), when Gong Xinzhan was appointed to the southern province, he asked Yu Xi to intercept a huge amount of money and engage in reclamation. In the end, the terrain of Kaiyuan is low, the huge water is discharged, the dams of Shadian and Qiandian downstream, and the fertile fields become zeguo. The people of Kaiyuan vigorously opposed it, but it was not realized. After the founding of the Republic of China, the authorities have repeatedly discussed the construction of the plan, but they have not been implemented so far. Therefore, the reclamation of the Three Dams in Mongolia is also a trial project that has not been done in the previous discussion.

In August 1935, the provincial government sent Yang Shimin to Kaimeng for a field investigation, and said: "Mengba Grass Dam in Mengzi County and Dazhuang Dam in Kaiyuan County, three places have good soil quality, a vast area, flat terrain, and are located next to the two railways in Yunnan Yue (old) Bi (Se zhai), convenient transportation, which can be a good agricultural area in the south of Yunnan Province, but the water conservancy is not prosperous, the land is barren, the land cultivated can only grow miscellaneous grains, the harvest is thin, it is urgent to revitalize water conservancy, eliminate water damage, divert water for irrigation, and the barren land can also become good land." Yang Shimin immediately drew up the development plan and submitted it, which was discussed at the 444th provincial council meeting of the provincial government and decided to be handled by the Economic Committee, and the Preparatory Department was established in December of the same year. In June 1936, the 475th meeting of the provincial government proposed the establishment of the Kaimeng District Reclamation Bureau, which was subordinate to the Economic Commission of Yunnan Province, and the full name was "Yunnan Provincial Economic Committee Kaimeng District Reclamation Bureau", with Yang Shimin as the director of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau. On August 15, 1936, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau was formally established in The New Village of Dazhuangba in Kaiyuan, the office was initially leased, and then purchased 120 acres of civil land next to Dazhuang Station to build a house, completed and moved in July 1937, and moved from Dazhuangba to Mengzicaoba in September 1941.

(2) The nature, organization and source of funds of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau - "Creation and Experiment of the New System"

1. Nature

In the "Outline of measures for the implementation of refugee reclamation" and the "Rules for the Relocation of Refugees in Extraordinary Periods" promulgated by the National Government of Nanjing in 1938, it was stipulated that the methods of reclamation in various provinces were divided into three types: state-run, provincial-run and private- Subsequently, in the National Government's opinions on the development of Yunnan, the nature of such reclamation units as the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau was discussed with institutional innovation significance, holding that "it is the nature of a commercial joint venture company, but according to its duties and business regulations, it seems to be an administrative organ that operates a business in the province and manages the administrative department of the reclamation district", that is, the reclamation bureau has both the nature of a company (enterprise) and an administrative organ. This setup reflects that while following the central policies and decrees, the local government of Yunnan has separately established or retained some institutions with local characteristics in the frontier, which has the characteristic of dualization, "strengthening the government's control over economic resources and further infiltrating the administration into the grass-roots society and local economy."

In fact, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau was established after two provincial government meetings, and the provincial government authorized the Yunnan Provincial Economic Commission to be responsible for handling, so it has the nature of an administrative organ in terms of the selection procedure; at the same time, because the Yunnan Provincial Economic Commission is a special organ responsible for handling economic undertakings, its nature is different from that of the general administrative organs, and it has both the rights and responsibilities of enterprise units and government departments. The Kermen Reclamation Bureau is similar in that it is able to formally transcend the government and use resources to serve the government and the local government.

2. Organizational structure

The Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau comprehensively manages the reclamation affairs of the whole region, and the organizational structure is "one director to handle the overall affairs; two deputy directors to assist in handling the affairs of the bureau." Nearly below the deputy director, another secretary was added. Under the director, there are four divisions of general affairs, public works, agricultural affairs and finance, and each class is divided into a section chief, a director, and several clerks, each responsible for specific work." In addition, the Reclamation Bureau has also set up a material purchase and inspection committee, and the Finance Department, the Construction Department and the Economic Commission each send a member to be responsible for the work of purchasing materials and inspecting the work in the reclamation area.

3. Source of funds

In order to encourage the reclamation and arrangement of refugees, the National Government emphasized that the source of funds for frontier reclamation was mainly through subsidies or loans. The Rules for the Reclamation of Refugees in Extraordinary Periods and the Regulations on the Reclamation of Refugees in Extraordinary Periods clearly stipulate that the funds for the reclamation of state-run enterprises shall be borne by the central government; in addition to the subsidies submitted by the provincial government to the Executive Yuan, the insufficient amount shall be raised by the provincial government itself or submitted to the competent official office for the issuance of public bonds; private reclamation may be settled by the central or provincial government for subsidies or loans at its discretion. However, in actual implementation, the central government was too busy with the War of Resistance to support the development of the frontier, and the Yunnan provincial government was not rich in finances. At the beginning of raising funds for the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau, the provincial government proposed two plans: one was coordinated by the province, and the other was a joint venture between the province and the county, and the government and business shares. Therefore, the Provincial Department of Finance, Kaiyuan County, Mengzi County, and the Kaimeng Farmland Water Conservancy Preparatory Office were instructed to discuss, and as a result, Kaiyuan County, because it benefited less after development, was in favor of the overall planning of the provincial government; if Mengzi could get good development, it was in favor of the provincial and county joint ventures and the convening of commercial shares to handle it. Yang Shimin, director of the Reclamation Bureau, proposed that the province should have full authority to coordinate development, unify powers, administrative management, production and operation, and all be decided by the province, implement the government's propositions, and avoid interference. The funds shall be a joint venture between the government and the people, with 2 Singapore dollars per share, 55% of the official shares, and 45% of the private shares; the private shares shall be first subscribed by the people of Kaiyuan and Mengzi counties, and the maximum number of shares subscribed by each person shall not exceed 100 shares; if the recognition is insufficient, the people of other counties are allowed to subscribe shares, and if they are insufficient, they will be supplemented by the official shares.

In this regard, businessmen and ordinary people held a wait-and-see attitude, private and joint ventures could not work, and finally the provincial government believed that "it is appropriate to be funded by the government." In May 1936, the 467th meeting of the provincial government decided: "The investment in this undertaking, as well as the supervision, guidance and supervision of all matters, shall be handled by the Economic Committee, and the development shall be carried out in a matter of one matter." "After that, all investments shall be borne by the Economic Commission, including personnel salaries, office expenses, water conservancy construction, farmland reclamation, construction of new villages, production and operation and other related expenses.

(3) The operation and management of the Reclamation Bureau: the construction and implementation of the "new ideal, new society" picture

1. Eliminate water hazards and build water conservancy

The main reason for the abandonment of the three dams is that water and drought are intertwined, and it is impossible to cultivate, "although there are water sources in the reclamation area, there is no water conservancy." The reason is that the uneven distribution of rainfall and the terrain are not conducive to cathartic irrigation.". "However, all around the reclamation area are mountainous, and the terrain in the area has become a northwest-sloping trend, and every rainy season, the rain is continuous, and the flash floods are bursting, rushing down. First, it flows into the two seas of Datun and Changqiao of Mengba, which cannot be accommodated by the two seas, but flows to the northwest according to the terrain, and enters the Zhuang Dam through the grass dam. There is no catharsis, stagnation, and months of time without retreating. At first, it flooded the surrounding farmland, and then the water level rose and rose, pouring into the southeast, the flood was within reach, and the two dams of Caozhuang became a ze country. In the spring and winter, the accumulation gradually fell from the various sinkholes, except for the coastal area, the rest of the large flat fields, all of which were red land. "Since the establishment of the Reclamation Bureau, the main work has been to build water conservancy. A list of water conservancy projects to be established is as follows.

Table 1 List of water conservancy projects established by the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau

2. Acquisition of land, resettlement and reclamation

According to statistics, the wasteland in Kaiyuan and Mengzi counties accounts for 94% and 96.9% of the county's area, respectively, while the average cultivated land area of each farmer is above the provincial average (3.3 mu), which is 5 mu and 3.3 mu respectively. A large amount of uncultivated land is mainly due to too much gravel and lack of people and livestock.

The 400,000 mu of land in Caoba, Mengba and Zhuangba, where the Reclamation Bureau is located, is vastly sparsely populated, and a quarter of the land is wasteland, which has the proverb of "three harvests in ten years". In addition, there is also a phenomenon of separation of land ownership and land use rights in the Kaimeng area, and there are 70% of tenant farmers in the countryside, and most of the landowners are not in the countryside but live in the city. The tenant farmers were unable to improve agriculture, and were unwilling to pay the rent, and the landlords were unwilling to pay taxes without rent, resulting in a long period of desolation of the land.

Although there are long-term barren lands in Kaimeng and Mongolia, they are not completely terra nullius. There are different standards between the government and the people in defining barren land, and the treatment of wasteland land rights is divided into three procedures in the Republic of China period, the first step is the inventory of the original ownership of the wasteland, the second step is the treatment of public and private wasteland, and the third step is the ownership of ownership after reclamation. Since 1929, Yunnan Province has cleared the cultivated land in the province, laying the foundation for the advancement of the reclamation cause.

Table 2 Comparison table of new and old mu and new taxes on land clearance in Kaimeng and Mongolia counties

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the reclamation cause, in 1936 the Yunnan Provincial Government decided to acquire the caoba land and hand it over to the reclamation bureau for management, "except for the land that is confiscated by the permanent wasteland and is not counted, the other landlords and licensed first shall be bought by the Finance Department according to the number of rented stones collected according to the market price, and the land price shall be paid by the Economic Committee and so on, which is recorded." Subsequently, in accordance with the provisions of the provincial government on "buying mature land, confiscating raw land and lawns", the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau set up a committee for the purchase of all land in Caoba, which was responsible for adjusting and registering the owners of Caoba land, and "whether bureaucrats, landlords or peasants, they will all be paid the land price according to the license they hold." The Reclamation Bureau has carried out three land acquisitions in Caoba, the first 50433.4 mu, the second 3394.6 mu, and the third 3522.2 mu, totaling 57350.3 mu of private land. The first and second purchases of land are based on the rent of grain and grain, that is, the landowner provides the information on how much rent he collects per mu of rent for the land leased to the peasants, declares it to the Land Acquisition Committee for the Acquisition of All The Land of Caoba, and after verification, uses it as the basis for the purchase of land price, the rented land price per quintal of grain is 224 yuan and the grain rent is 420 yuan; the third time, based on the land area, it is all purchased according to the quality of the land according to the land clearance license held, 500 yuan per mu of the first class, 400 yuan per second class, and 300 yuan of the third class.

For example, Zhou Bozhai of Mengzi had more than 30,000 mu of land in lei gong post in the west, and Ma Zhu'an also had several thousand mu of land in Pohei and False Yi, and the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau all bought it, and then reclaimed many swamps and lawns, so that the grass dam could provide more than 80,000 mu of arable land. The Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau carried out a unified plan for the reclamation of wasteland, dividing the fields into rectangles in 100 acres of land, each 3 acres, consistently in a straight direction, and a transportation channel was set up between each two ditches for horse-drawn carriages to drive, and the ditch lines and routes were straight, and economic forests were planted on each ditch. Newly reclaimed dryland is used for sugarcane, flue-cured tobacco and pilot cultivation of kapok, mostly rice fields, cultivated by workers under the guidance of agricultural technicians. By 1939, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau had a total of 50,000 mu of rice paddies and 30,000 mu of dryland in Caoba, except for a small part leased to local farmers, and most of the rest were recruited by the Reclamation Bureau.

There are two principles for the conditions for resettlement and the methods for reclaiming land: First, those who have achieved excellent results in the cultivation of agricultural workers in the Reclamation Bureau shall have priority in obtaining the right to bear the right to take over the land they have planted; second, all peasants who live in the reclamation areas, who have been approved by the Reclamation Bureau, will have priority in obtaining the right to accept the tenants. The area of wasteland claimed by each reclaimer shall not exceed 30 mu per household. The period of reclamation stipulates that those who have obtained a reclamation permit for one month and do not reclaim their right to reclaim the reclamation shall be revoked; those who have completed the monthly limit of reclamation and have not yet fully reclaimed the reclamation shall revoke their right to reclaim the uncultivated part. The planting of crops shall be planted after the completion of reclamation shall be accepted by the Reclamation Bureau, and the types of crops shall be carried out in accordance with the regulations of the Reclamation Bureau. As for the formalities for reclamation, it is stipulated that the reclaimer should first fill in a request form when receiving reclamation, which states: (1) the name, age, place of origin, and residence of the reclamation person; (2) family status; (3) the four sites where the acres of reclaimed wasteland are located; (4) the date of reclamation; (5) the guarantor; (6) the number of years of tenantship; (7) the annual rent is not bad; (8) the quarterly self-cultivation is not allowed to sublease; (9) the supervision and guidance of the reclamation bureau, and other nine items. The request is sent by the bureau to investigate the compliance, that is, a reclamation permit will be issued. If the reclaimer obtains the certificate, he can grant the reclamation according to the site.

Since 1938, the Reclamation Bureau has recruited more than 500 workers, purchased more than 200 cattle, purchased bulk agricultural tools, purchased fertilizer seeds, divided the newly reclaimed land into 4 districts and 20 groups, set up administrators and leaders in the district, and cultivated 6,200 mu of rice; in 1939, more than 4,000 mu of rice was cultivated; in 1940, the sericulture company was established to assist in the cultivation of mulberry land, and since 1942, it has completed more than 7,000 mu of mulberry land and more than 2,000 mu of rice fields; in 1943, it resumed self-operating sugarcane for more than 500 mu and more than 200 mu of grass cotton. In 1944, it cooperated with the company to cultivate 1400 mu of sugarcane, 1500 mu of rice, and 1000 mu of self-planted sorghum; in 1945, it was 1800 mu of self-operated rice, 300 mu of sweet potatoes, 6000 mu of American tobacco, and 200 mu of sugarcane.

3. Produce cotton grain and establish a testing ground

While building water conservancy projects, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau also actively carried out the construction of agricultural reclamation in reclamation areas. On May 18, 1937, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau cooperated with the Cotton Industry Department of Yunnan Province under the Construction Department to hold a cotton experiment, and proposed an interim charter for cooperative testing and submitted it to the Economic Commission and the Construction Department for approval. On May 28, the Commission approved the cooperation, and on the 29th, the Provincial Cotton Industry Office submitted the date of implementation of the test and other items for submission, and the Commission verified and verified it. The submission said: "The previous cotton sowing period cannot be postponed, except for the one side agreeing on the method with the bureau, first on April 17, Hu Caichang, a technician from the office, was sent to the bureau to handle the cotton crop test matters, that is, on the 23rd of the month, the long-term planting of the fu field with the bureau was completed." The cotton crop tests held in cooperation with the Bureau this year include nine items, including the comparative test of Chinese cotton varieties, the comparative test of Us cotton varieties, the observation of Chinese cotton varieties, the observation of US cotton varieties, the test of soil cotton bell line, the test of Sino-US cotton sowing period, and the test of the number of seedlings left in each hole of Sino-US cotton." Subsequently, the Reclamation Bureau set up four kapok farms in Nanlin, Longquan, Nanping and Mengzi, covering an area of 160 acres. The main purpose of the four farms established by the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau is to "test and promote improved crop varieties to the genera of the southern parts of the country".

Due to the very small cotton production in Yunnan Province, the four centers work for cotton planting experiments. Nanlin Test Site is located in Nanlin Township, the sixth district of Kaiyuan County, next to the Dazhuang Station of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, which is the most extensive of the four fields, and is a cotton test site of the South Center jointly organized with the Construction Department. Longquan Test Site is located in the west of Longquan Town, Kaiyuan County next to the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, with an area of 42 acres, sandy soil and convenient water sources. The Nanping Test Site is located at the boundary between Dongcao Dam and ZhuangBa in Nanping Township, the sixth district of Kaiyuan County, with an area of 37 acres and sandy soil. Mengzi Test Site is located next to the Bishi Railway Mengzi County, one mile outside the West City, southeast of Longjing, with an area of 42 acres, 5 minutes, 5 centimeters and 7 millimeters, and the water source is taken from Longjing, artificially picked and irrigated. In addition, the trial planting of rice in Dazhuang Dam and Caoba achieved good results, so it was decided to expand planting, "first only more than 200 mu were planted; in 1936, more than 600 mu were planted; by the summer of 1937, it increased to more than 3,000 mu; and in 1938 it increased to 4,000 mu."

4. Promote new-style agricultural production, operation and management

Before the establishment of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau, the reclamation area "has a side business of farming, herding sheep and raising pigs, cattle are used for cultivation, manure is used as fertilizer, pigs are sold for consumption, but every year is barren, harvest is insufficient, feed is lacking; pigs and cattle are fed on grass and have insufficient nutrition and abnormal thinness." After the establishment of the Reclamation Bureau, it vigorously promoted the new type of agricultural production and management, mainly adopting three modes of operation: the collective farm system, the cooperative system and the tenant system. By 1946, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau had purchased more than 100,000 mu of land and reclaimed nearly 80,000 mu. The reclaimed land is divided into three parts, one is more than 2,500 mu of self-cultivation, the other is more than 5,000 mu of the sericulture new village company, and the third part of the 50,000 mu of land, which the reclamation bureau cannot afford to operate, is rented by the people. It is rented out to local farmers, tenant migrants and reclamation units. For local farmers, "priority is given to renting seeds to solve the problem of local farmers with little land and no land." Avoid contradictions between new and old residents. Rent is treated equally". The government stipulates the rent rate of peasants, the original three dams of rent system, the dam farmland is divided into three classes, the first class is rice fields, tenant farmers rent rate of six tenths; the second class is dry land, the harvest is extremely unreliable, the tenant farmer rent rate of two or three tenths; the third class is the worst land, that is, the so-called ten years and three do not receive, although there is the name of tenant, but there is no rent. The Reclamation Bureau "pays three-tenths of the rent according to the land harvest to show compassion (six tenths of the ordinary rent of grain in the rural areas of Chaben Province, and the least is five-tenths of the land)", depending on the different situations of paddy fields (mature land, wasteland) and dry land, and pays different rents over the years.

In order to support the tenant farmers, the Kunming China Farmers Bank and the Fudian New Bank sent personnel to the Kaimeng area to investigate, and the Reclamation Bureau also set up a farmers' loan department, which held agricultural loans every spring ploughing, according to the number of cultivated land manpower of the tenants in the old and new villages, loaned funds, cattle, grain seeds, etc., with a slight interest, repaid after the autumn, counting about 2,000 yuan in 1939, about 20,000 yuan in 1940, 10,000 yuan in 1941, 6,000 yuan in 1942, 1.35 million yuan in 1943, and more than 2.7 million yuan in 1944. At the same time, the Reclamation Bureau not only produces crops, but also engages in the production of pastures, livestock experimental farms and industrial mining, focusing on the development and promotion of agricultural technology. For example, Fudian New Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Farmers Bank of China, and Bank of Communications invested in the establishment of a new village of sericulture, opened 60,000 mu of mulberry gardens in Kaiyuan Caoba, planted mulberry trees, built jam rooms, and operated sericulture and silk making. These new and diversified agricultural management methods have played an exemplary and promoting role in the initial development of agricultural modernization in Yunnan.

In addition, in view of the large number of agricultural workers and the difficulty of management, in order to improve the efficiency of agricultural and industrial work and the management efficiency of the Reclamation Bureau, the reclamation bureau also gives special training in agricultural affairs and management knowledge to agricultural workers and administrators, principal and deputy leaders in the reclamation area, and the training content mainly includes seven kinds of spiritual speeches, agricultural common sense, military common sense, engineering common sense, accounting common sense, discussion of specific practical issues, individual talks and inspections, etc., which are held by the senior staff of the bureau. The training method is held every ten years for two hours each time, and is completed every year. In this way, the ideological and professional skills training of agricultural workers and managers will be strengthened.

5. Establish new villages and develop new social undertakings in reclamation areas

For the "peasants in the area, laziness has become a habit, in addition to the plough trailer, the field work, most of the entrusted to women." Because of the years of desolation, life is difficult and simple, and I do not know how to improve. In order to facilitate the management of personnel, in 1939, the 18 villages in Caoba, both new and old, were classified as Caoba Township, with Yang Shimin concurrently serving as the township chief, entrusted by the Mengzi County Government to handle administrative affairs within its jurisdiction, and appointed and dismissed by the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau. There were originally 12 natural villages in Mengzi caoba, with 1,060 households and 7,600 people. In 1940, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau planned to build 20 new villages, with 32 houses in large villages and 16 buildings in small villages. Some of the bricks and tiles needed were fired for themselves, and the other part was purchased from Kaiyuan Xiaolongtan, and the wood was also purchased from Kaiyuan, and masons were also invited from Kunming and other places. It is planned to build the fifth and sixth villages in the middle of Caoba and the seventeenth and nineteenth villages in the east, all four of which are large villages. In addition, the first and second villages were built in the west of Caoba, and the twentieth village was built at the foot of the East Mountain, and these three villages were small villages. This brought the number of farming households to 3,000, and the total population increased to 20,000. In the end, 9 villages were built, recruiting 330 households and 1735 people, and were assigned to live in the new village. This move changes the structure of the township-level political power, which is conducive to giving play to the reclamation bureau in handling the reclamation cause without being obstructed by the local county and township governments.

In addition, the above-mentioned Yunnan Sericulture New Village Company, jointly invested by the Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of Communications and the Fudian New Bank, signed a lease contract with the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau for 30,000 mu for 20 years in Caoba, and "within the lease period, because Party B is a reclamation business, Party A shall not request a lease refund". Gucaoba built two villages, Sixteen Villages and Thirteen Villages. Due to the rise of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the construction of Caoba New Villages has gradually stalled, and only the above 9 of the 20 new villages originally planned for construction have been completed.

In addition to the opening of new villages, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau has also built some construction works in the reclamation area. In October 1936, the reclamation houses in Suijing Village were built for the accommodation of the agricultural reclamation personnel in the northwest of Caoba; in February 1937, the office building on Yang Street was built in the center of the Nanlin Experimental Field on the left side of Dazhuang Station, covering an area of 15 acres, which was the office of Dazhuangba; in the same month, the Xingou office building was built as the office accommodation for the employees of the Reclamation Bureau in Caoba, which was completed in August 1939; and in May 1939, the Nakamura warehouse and the rice milling machine building were built, of which 20 were two farmhouses, 5 rice milling machine rooms, and 1 diesel generator room. Two rooms, completed by the end of 1940.

The construction of reclamation new villages follows certain principles and models of "new ideals and new society": (1) the children of all people living in Caoba have the right to free education; (2) the construction of roads from the four borders within the hengba in order to facilitate transportation; (3) the promotion of consumption cooperation to promote the economic development of the people in the dam; (4) the handling of guarding the whole territory to eliminate the source of bandits; (5) the organization of public undertakings, such as childcare, old-age care, poverty alleviation, disaster relief and sports and recreation; (6) the establishment of health and medical institutions to enable all residents, Treatment is free of charge, and health services are carried out to improve the health of the population.

The smooth development of various social construction undertakings has brought about a new atmosphere in the rural areas of the reclamation areas: in the areas of transportation and communications, roads have been repaired, canal bridges and culverts have been built, telephones have been resettled, post offices or agencies have been set up; primary schools and half-day schools have been set up in education, libraries have been established, vocational schools and Yi language training classes have been held, and literacy education classes for the reclamation have been set up; hospitals and itinerant treatment teams, people's stadiums, and national technical halls have been set up in public services to conduct physical examinations and cleaning examinations for the reclamation people, and even carry out voluntary diagnosis and treatment; lecture halls and casinos have been set up to screen movies. The development of the above-mentioned social undertakings and work, with the main purpose of educating the people, improving their quality and enhancing the identity of the nation-state, is a new and meaningful attempt to "gradually cultivate the young people and children in the frontier with the language and culture inherent in the interior, and strive to unify the language and will" and "expound the national spirit and eliminate the estrangement caused by its regional and narrow national concepts."

6. Strengthen public security in reclamation areas

In the past, the security situation in Kaimeng Sanba was very poor, and the killing of people was not divided day and night. The main reason is that the farmland is abandoned, the peasants are unemployed, and they have become bandits. When the atmosphere of banditry is blazing, even the traffic between the villages in The Damnei is dangerous, and the peasants' livestock are often plundered. As a result, the smaller the population, the more barren the land. In 1934, the government sent a team to eliminate it, and the bandits were killed slightly. After the establishment of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau in 1936, in order to ensure the security of the reclamation area, it began to train the regiment and set up a self-defense organization, which belonged to the security team of the General Affairs Section of the Reclamation Bureau, with a total of 30 people, 1 team leader and 2 detachment leaders, who managed the training and security of the whole team of soldiers, and 1 special agent who managed the military materials of the whole team. Soldiers are recruited by the Reclamation Bureau, and most of them are veterans. Each person earns 12 yuan per month. The team has a total of 50 rifles and more than 10 pistols. Every morning and evening, the two exercises and one discipline class are presided over by the captain. In order to enrich the strength of self-defense, the township regiments were contacted, and the provincial government ordered all the militia regiments in the sixth district of Kaiyuan County and the eighth district of Mengzi County near the reclamation area to be under the command of the Reclamation Bureau and jointly organized and trained to maintain law and order in the reclamation area. Security in the district is gradually becoming less and less worrying. But if you travel alone, it is still possible that accidents can occur.

(4) The dilemma of "the creation and experimentation of new ideals, new societies, and new systems" - Yang Shimin and the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau

From 1927 to 1929, the Kunming area suffered a three-year drought and tight food supply. After Long Yun came to power in 1928, he decided to build water conservancy projects, and issued a notice in the Yunnan Daily to recruit people who could rule Dian, encouraging people in central Yunnan to actively offer suggestions and suggestions to the government. Subsequently, Yang Shimin suggested using a water pump to pump water from Dianchi Lake to irrigate the surrounding farmland, and after the successful trial, he achieved great results, and served as the director of the water conservancy engineering department, which provided the premise and foundation for his subsequent establishment of The Mongolian Reclamation. In 1935, Yang Shimin inspected the Kaimeng area, prepared for the Reclamation Bureau, fully devoted himself to the reclamation cause, inspected the Mengba, Datun Dam, Grass Dam and other places, explored the terrain, rivers, soil, and water conservancy foundations, personally designed the development plan, presided over the water conservancy project, and actively promoted the reclamation work in Mongolia.

When Yang Shimin was the director of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau, he worked diligently and dedicatedly, "The work of the Reclamation Bureau is tense all year round, and there are no weeks and no routine holidays. Yang Xu'er, who was supervising and guiding on the farm or next to the fortifications, and approved official documents, was done after returning to the bureau in the evening." His outstanding business ability, interpersonal and organizational skills have been commended by Longyun and the provincial government for many times. Long Yun inspected the reclamation area after the excavation of the Yongfeng Canal and changed the Yongfeng Canal to "Jiaming River" in recognition of Miao Yuntai's contribution to the reclamation cause of Kaimeng. After the inspection, Yang Shimin thought that the success of the water conservancy construction and reclamation of Kaimeng Farmland was due to the full support of Longyun and the provincial government, so after the successful excavation of the Heishui River, it was reported to the Yunnan Provincial Government for approval, and the main trunk canal was changed to "Longgong River", highlighting Longyun's meritorious deeds.

In addition, Yang Shimin also pays great attention to handling relations with local people, especially ethnic minorities. Historically, there are many ethnic groups in the southwest of The two counties of Kaiyuan and Mengzi, and they cannot be remembered. The establishment of tuguans in Mongolia began in the Yuan Dynasty, and in the fifteenth year of Ming Hongzhi (1502), he began to set up the tushi system; Kaiyuan also established the toast system, "remote to the extreme, close to the toe, Yi more Han and fewer, rebellious and often obedient, voice and religion blocked, simple and unheard of." By the time of the Republic of China, the Yi and Hui still accounted for more than one-third of the population in the territory, and it was even more necessary to deal with ethnic relations in the process of reclamation. Before the excavation of the HeichongShi Gorge, the people of Shadian were worried that the water would be discharged into the Shadian River after the excavation of the upper reaches, causing harm, so they vigorously opposed it. Since the villagers in Shadian are all Hui, Yang Shimin used his Hui identity to communicate with the villagers emotionally, carry out ideological mobilization and patient persuasion, and finally persuade the villagers to agree to dig a stone gorge to eliminate floods.

Just when the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau was committed to the construction of "new ideals, new society, and new system", and Yang Shimin devoted himself to the reclamation cause, the family encountered major changes in the loss of his father, son, and wife, so he submitted his resignation in September 1941, and the provincial government retained him based on his talents. Exploring the deep-seated reason for Yang Shimin's resignation, it should be that although he is in charge of reclamation work and has a capable and strong side, the provincial government needs to deal with the War of Resistance with main energy, and the support given to the reclamation bureau is weak and limited after all, coupled with the obstruction of local gentry, the county and township governments are also obstructing, and the progress of water conservancy construction and reclamation is not good, facing many difficulties and challenges. "As a practitioner, Yang Shi only seeks to be in line with the facts in the implementation of reclamation, and there are many diseases of overcorrection, such as since the establishment of the Reclamation Bureau, it has not done a number of preliminary reclamation work such as surveying and investigation. All agricultural and engineering design principles are also hand-written by Yang's. ”

The location of the Reclamation Bureau is the Three Dams area connected by Kaiyuan and Mongolia, and due to the administrative nature of the Reclamation Bureau, it is not controlled by the two county governments, and has greater autonomy and flexibility in operation and management. However, the business and work of the Reclamation Bureau belong to the reclamation of land, and specific matters such as land acquisition and the implementation of water conservancy projects need to be cooperated by the two county governments. At this time, the nature of the reclamation bureau as a company (enterprise) made it impossible for Yang Shimin to directly submit relevant requirements to the local government, and could only submit to the provincial economic committee first, and then transfer it to the provincial government to cooperate with the county governors of the two counties through administrative orders to carry out the reclamation work, and it was difficult for the reclamation bureau and the local governments and even the people of the two counties to form a joint force through consultation and carry out effective actions. For example, during the dredging of the Heishui River project, Yang Shimin consulted with the governor of Mengzi County to organize the dredging by the county and township, but the local people hoped that the reclamation bureau would pay for the hiring of workers, rather than free labor, and did not actively respond and participate after the negotiation failed. In this regard, Yang Shimin believed that "the people of the dam should correct such a move of only knowing how to sit and enjoy their rights and not fulfill their equivalent obligations", so they reported it to the provincial government, and the provincial government ordered the county magistrate to supervise and urge the repair, "Where there is a request for assistance and protection, the county government will try its best to assist and facilitate it at any time."

In addition, at the beginning of Yang Shimin's preparations for the Reclamation Bureau, "it must be noted that the government has set up the Kaimeng Reclamation bureau at the expense of manpower and financial resources, and is fully interested in revitalizing water conservancy for the people and avoiding flooding." Landlords and peasants believe that the construction of water conservancy is conducive to development and support this. The two counties of Kaimeng are sparsely populated, tenant farmers account for more than seven-tenths of the land, land ownership is concentrated in the hands of landlords, and most landlords are absent. The provincial government believes that these landlords "do not care about the use of the land every year, except for the rent of the valley, so that most of them are deserted, because of the name of the grass dam." Now that the bureau has set up a bureau to revitalize water conservancy and open up desolation, the government is still difficult to manage it after worrying about its politics, so as to make the reclamation of grass dams reasonable and smoothly advanced, so as to avoid all resistance disputes and facilitate management, and buy them all."

Through the Yunnan Provincial Government, the Reclamation Bureau used its administrative power to forcibly acquire the land of Kaimeng Sanba and converted the land into public ownership at a low price or even free of charge in the name of development and governance. "Land rights in the zone used to be private. Recently, the whole province was cleared, stipulating that private land should be regarded as wasteland and returned to public ownership without notifying the qingzhang, and only one grass dam should be confiscated, and the wasteland returned to the public should be confiscated, amounting to 40,000 mu. Therefore, after the qingzhang, the land of the three dams, except for those who have been cleared, is publicly owned land. Such confiscated land is estimated to be more than one and a half of the total area. This move touched the private ownership of land by landlords and peasants, and the land that was usually barren was "almost all landless land when no one asked to use it, and if it was planned to be used, all of them were the main land", which intensified the contradiction between the reclamation bureau and the local people. In this regard, Yang Shimin believes that it is through the acquisition of land, unified management and operation, which has greatly promoted the development of the reclamation cause, "if the grass dam land is not all acquired by the government", it will not be actively promoted within half a year and there will be some achievements.

The large-scale and cheap purchase of land in Sanba brought great shock to the locality, and was vigorously opposed by the landlords. The landlord Zhou Bozhai repeatedly entrusted people to the Reclamation Bureau to intercede and hope that the Zhou family's land would not be acquired without success, so he instigated the peasants to make trouble, did not cooperate with the land acquisition and land inventory, and instructed Du Anding, then the township chief, to assign police officers to intercept and intimidate the workers at various intersections with guns and not to participate in the work of the reclamation bureau. As a government official, the landlord Ma Jie opposed the acquisition and complained everywhere, resolutely not to collect the land price from the Reclamation Bureau, and strongly demanded the return of the land, but in the end neither received the money nor was returned to the land, resulting in an outstanding case. In addition, Mengzi gentleman Min Congzhai and others also jointly complained to the provincial government, reflecting that when the reclamation bureau bought land, it confiscated 20,000 mu of arable land as wasteland pricelessly, which was a "illegal and sick person", and disclosed it through the Yunnan Daily, which caused social concern. In order to avoid the expansion of the situation, Long Yun ordered Zhuang Yonghua, director of the Water Conservancy Bureau of the Construction Department, to organize an investigation and consultation meeting on behalf of the Reclamation Bureau, landlords, sharecroppers, and self-cultivators, and the result was that the Reclamation Bureau did not violate the regulations and refuted the landlord's complaint.

In 1938, Yang Shimin had a disagreement with Yang Zixiu, the governor of the seventh district of Mengzi County, calling him "soil inferiority" and listing five crimes: First, Yang Zixiu not only failed to do his best to assist in the reclamation cause, but secretly obstructed, and when things happened, he initially instigated the owners to jointly present them in vain on the grounds of losing their property rights and having no food and clothing. Second, when the Jiaming River project was repaired, the village villain Long Haiqing corrected the crowd to commit murder, killed a car cow, and fought with the migrant workers, Yang Zixiu not only shielded and did not punish, but also instigated Long Haiqing to fabricate words to report to the county, and then he and Long Haiqing were in cahoots with each other, and they bet on the head at the work site, so that the ignorant workers were exploited by him and fled one after another. Third, Li Shun, the head of the ploughman team of the Reclamation Bureau, went to Bisezhai for medical treatment due to illness, and when he was nervous and unconscious, the servants could not afford it, and they were sent to the Seventh District Office by the road police to take care of it, and Yang Zixiu made the assistants and district members of the institute and the district ding, etc., regardless of the blue and red, a full beating, and the whole body was injured. Fourth, the Gentleman Min Congzhai and others jointly submitted a report in vain, requesting assistance to be given a price per mu to show sympathy and publish a case in the newspaper. Yang Zixiu lured the people of various townships and instigated confessions. Fifth, Zhang Jianwen, the head of Caoba Lu, enthusiastically assisted in the reclamation work, appointed assistants, yang self-repaired his position as district chief, used vicious means to replace Zhang Jianwen from the post of chief of the district, and forced his disabled only son to act as a strong man. Yang Shimin reported the above situation to the Economic Committee and forwarded it to "the provincial capital, Rao Order mengzi County, to remove the district governor Yang Zixiu from his post, and to dismiss the Jin Province, strictly investigate and deal with it, punish one hundred people, and not obstruct it in the future."

As a local official, Yang Zixiu certainly had a localist and arbitrary side, but when there was a conflict with the Reclamation Bureau, Yang Shimin directly intervened through the provincial government, which caused great dissatisfaction in the two counties, and personally was also quite controversial. The Mengzi County government also accused that "the reclamation bureau cannot understand the government's willingness, does not sympathize with the people's suffering, and only knows that it will not hesitate to take advantage of its neighbors for profit, and the valley it obtains every year is only more than a thousand stones, and it detracts from the huge 9,000 stones in the Datun Undersea Valley.

In 1938, students from the School of Geoscience of the Central Political School went to Yunnan to investigate the reclamation cause and completed the "Investigation of the Reclamation Cause in Southern Yunnan", believing that "although Yang Shi is rich in agricultural experience, he does not have a specialty, and deputy director Xu Shi has a lot of research on agronomy." However, Yang's is quite capable, his personality is very strong, and he will not hesitate to modify the scientific design of agricultural work and fail at will." "Yang Shi is not a practitioner, and he only seeks to be in line with the facts and overcorrects, for example, since the establishment of the Reclamation Bureau, it has not done various preliminary reclamation work such as surveying and investigation. All agricultural and engineering design principles are also hand-written by Yang's. Therefore, the work of the staff of the Reclamation Bureau has a layer of such a pragmatic emphasis, ignoring the color of reasoning, paying no attention to the statistical report of the work of the reclamation area, and indifferent to the natural conditions in the reclamation area and the rural situation. In terms of the connection between experience and knowledge, this kind of work attitude of the Reclamation Bureau is particularly undesirable. ”

In this regard, Xia Guangnan, director of the design office of the Yunnan Provincial People's Enterprise Company, after conducting an investigation at the Reclamation Bureau, also held that Yang Shimin was "entrusted by Chairman Long Yun with full authority to employ people for administration, and acted arbitrarily and independently" "Unable to be open and honest, brainstorming, and self-imposed, only the will of individuals to do it" "The construction of seven new villages accounted for 36% of the total cost, and the number of audits was quite shocking, and it was very clumsy" "The director invited his relatives and friends to gather here, cut down forest weeds, carry rocks, build most high kilns, and exercise masonry and lime. Carry out the construction of each village, and as soon as it changes hands, you can obtain great profits", requiring "reorganizing the internal organization of the Reclamation Bureau, centralizing power, and accommodating the impartial opinions of the local people, so as to avoid internal and external estrangement" and "abolishing the old system of internal and external bureau chiefs and monopolizing power".

In 1943, due to limited funds, the Yunnan Provincial Government and the Economic Commission demanded that the Reclamation Bureau streamline its institutions, reduce its personnel, and reorganize it, and the Reclamation Bureau's funds should be self-collected and self-financed, which made the Reclamation Bureau face great difficulties. After Long Yun stepped down in 1945, the reclamation bureau lost its patron and was difficult to sustain, and Yang Shimin even made a request to dismiss employees and end reclamation. In 1946, after the reorganization of the Economic Committee and the Incorporation of the Yunnan Provincial People's Enterprise Company, and the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau was also reorganized into the Caoba Reclamation District Management Office, Yang Shimin resigned as director of the bureau and sold the land and assets of the Reclamation Bureau to the peasants through dictation to prevent the central government from nationalizing the land.

IV. The End of "The Creation and Experiment of New Ideals, New Societies, and New Systems":An Analysis of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau

During the Republic of China period, the Development of the Yunnan Frontier by the Nationalist Government in Nanjing was first and foremost based on political and military considerations. Politically, from the perspective of the state, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the salvation of the country were taken as a means of supporting the national War of Resistance and turning the frontier into an inland area, unifying the frontier nationalities so that there was no danger of separation. Militarily, we should consolidate the border and protect the land, so as not to let the strong neighbors encroach on China, but the infiltration and deepening of the national interests in the frontier areas. The second is the consideration of economic interests, the reclamation of the real border, the improvement of development, so that the frontier and the hinterland into modernization, reflecting the central and local governments in the regional economic and social resources in the process of competition and counter-competition, control and counter-control of the two-way interaction and game.

As a new institution and new thing in the process of such frontier development, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau reflects the hope from the central to the local level that through the "creation and experimentation of the new system" with reclamation as the carrier and center of gravity, it will construct a picture of a prosperous frontier and a "new ideal and a new society" for national rejuvenation. In addition to the mission of agricultural production, with the spare power of the reclamation area itself, it is still possible to do a certain amount of work that is beneficial to itself and to society. ”

The Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau has mainly adopted the direct management method of collective farming system. "One of the types that is close to the nature of the large-scale agricultural operation can also be regarded as the beginning of the large-scale agricultural operation." The implementation of the large-scale agricultural system requires two conditions: centralized human and financial resources and a sound production organization, and its advantages are that water conservancy projects, soil improvement, crop selection, and production costs are reduced; efficiency increases and production increases; as for the market situation, it can also be observed thoroughly, directly purchased and sold, all of which are appropriate, and the merchants are exempt from exploiting profits from it. Make use of the by-product power of agricultural leisure to handle agricultural industry, as a side business, to reap the profits of industry, and so on. At the same time, the Kaimeng Reclamation District still retains some of the previous ways in which small farmers recruit tenants to inherit seeds. In view of the situation that "the crops cultivated in the reclamation bureau's plan are mainly rice, and the paddy field farming requires meticulous labor, and it is not suitable for large-scale agricultural systems", "in order to quickly reclaim the three dams, it seems that the reclamation bureau should recruit tenants to undertake seeds on the day when the water conservancy is completed." In addition, the problem of the lack of labor in the reclamation area can also be solved by building a tenant to cultivate seeds, and tenants can also use the labor of the children in the family to help them, in addition to their own farming. "This kind of additional labor is more special for small-scale peasants to do business for those who cannot obtain it under the current management system, and to remove harm, cultivate, use waste, etc." The Reclamation Bureau implements unified guidance on cultivated land technology, coordinates the transportation and marketing of agricultural products, and in the existing environment of reclamation areas, the new and old systems of large production and small production are parallel, which can further promote the development of reclamation.

The reclamation bureau developed reclamation in Kaimeng Sanba and built new villages at the same time, which not only solved the problem of land not being able to do its best, increased grain production, increased tax revenue, ensured that the country's anti-war materials were sufficient, and also alleviated the problem of shelter and resettlement of refugees in wartime, and promoted the economic development and social stability of the frontier. In addition, the Reclamation Bureau has developed and improved water conservancy, transportation, agriculture and forestry construction, health and mining and metallurgy, education and culture in the border areas, etc., so as to promote the rejuvenation of the rural economy and turn the border areas into the interior. "The realization of this plan is of great relevance to the development of reclamation and the revitalization of the rural areas in the vicinity. The former can increase the population, promote the development of wasteland, and build a new rural society, which can be used as a model for the nearby territories. The latter can borrow peasants, free themselves from the shackles of usury, guide them, improve farming techniques, introduce new varieties, in order to obtain the most likely high degree of production and revive the rural economy of the land. ”

We should also note that in the course of the establishment and operation and management of the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau, the central and local administrative powers have always accompanied it, standing on the commanding heights of the interests of the nation-state and the government to think about the development issue, on the one hand, formulating policies and regulations, forming reclamation institutions, etc., to carry out resettlement and reclamation, develop the local economy, and benefit the people; on the other hand, in order to ensure the maximization of local interests, they often ignore the interests of the grass-roots people in the border areas, and make part of the private land publicly owned through administrative operations, so that the government and the reclamation bureau become big landlords. Disputes over land rights and boundaries are frequent, causing dissatisfaction among local people. However, the unique dual organizational structure of the Reclamation Bureau makes it sandwiched among the provincial and county-level institutions, lacking coordination and cooperation with the local governments of Kaiyuan and Mengzi, and the pace is inconsistent, and even the phenomenon of mutual restraint appears. Yang Shimin could only be tired of dealing with the ridicule, accusations, and criticisms from officials at the provincial and county levels, and his energy was greatly reduced, and it was difficult to exert practical results.

The development of the reclamation cause and the implementation of the development of the frontier during the Republic of China period were temporary emergency responses in the context of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, with obvious wartime characteristics and a comprehensive development plan for the national economy under the non-social normal, so the establishment of reclamation institutions was relatively hasty, lacked long-term planning, and there were many ills. In terms of the way the reclamation business is managed, the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau "seems to be in pursuit of the shortcomings of scientific law and lack of careful planning in advance." "For example, the reclamation cause is a long-standing undertaking, and it is necessary to conduct a thorough investigation and investigation in advance, so as to make a plan for the mode of operation, the criteria for determining the scale, and then draw up a plan and advance step by step, so that the risk of the cause is small and the success is easy, so the decision is made first, the survey of the topographic area of the reclamation area, the survey of the soil, the study of the social and economic development of the farm, the survey of the quantity of the types of property, and the investigation of the water conservancy are all necessary work, and the relationship between it and the reclamation is so close that it can determine its success or failure. In the two years since the establishment of the Kaimeng Reclamation District, the above-mentioned work has never been held. ”

Frontier reclamation is a long-term, comprehensive and complex production undertaking, covering the comprehensive construction of local politics, economy and culture, and the resettlement of refugees and migrants is not a once-and-for-all move at the national and local levels, and the follow-up operation, management, training, support and other links are more important. The Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau "began to carry out agricultural reclamation, but there were few plans in operation. For example, the number of markets, the number of agricultural products needed, the quantity of distribution and marketing are not investigated; how to rotate winter crops, how to operate; how to use the characteristics of local nature to cultivate the most advantageous special crops, etc., are not taken into account, but as far as the mind goes, the temporary decision is also an inferior point in operation. The main reason for this situation is nothing more than economic savings and distrust of its value. But the dangers of unplanned and unscientific management are so great that they can never see their immediate effects, but they will certainly have an impact on the cause in the future, and it is absolutely righteous, and the Ear of the Special Wu people cannot foresee at this time."

In addition, most of the reclamation areas of the reclamation bureau are located in kaiyuan, mongolian remote and desolate, uncivilized land, the population of reclamation is mainly foreign, the proportion of local farmers is low, and the reclamation people are not adapted to the climate, soil, farming system, and even customs and habits of the reclamation area, which aggravate the contradictions and conflicts with the local people, bandits are numerous, social order is chaotic, and the difficulty of the work of the reclamation bureau can be imagined. With the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, once the political and military threats from the outside were lifted, funds, equipment, technology, and personnel were successively relocated, and from the central to the local level, the motivation and motivation for developing the frontier were lost, and the Kaimeng Reclamation Bureau could only end hastily, and the "creation and experimentation of new ideals, new societies, and new systems" became castles in the air, gradually falling apart and not being destroyed.

[Note] The article was originally published in The Study of The History and Geography of China's Frontier Regions, No. 2, 2020.

Editor-in-charge: Wei Chao