PEASANT PAYS

Evening Star, Issue 20959, 25 November 1931, Page 3

PEASANT PAYS

CHINA'S LONG WARS EIGHTY YEARS OF STRIFE On they march—3,ooo,ooo soldiers under arms across a vast continent. On they march—during the spring and sumthese untrained, undrilled, rillebearing, hungry troops. Across the loess plains of North China, along tho Yellow lliver, on both sides of the mighty Yangtso Kiang, from north to south, from south to north, they march seeking food for themselves and revenues for their generals. _ Sometimes they fight for a principle, liko Nationalism or Communism, but usually they light because they need food and work. Warfare may or may not bring a salary; it always brings food while tho fighting lasts. And what will a man not do to eat? writes George Sokolsky, in the New York ‘ Times.’ It is better to bo a soldier while one is still young than to hunger in Shensi, Hopei, or in Honan. Famine or conditions approaching famine always leave a surplus population in such places; and what should a surplus population do but fight, so that it may cease to be a “surplus”? it is advantageous to own a rifle, so that if the crops are poor one may still eat. Of course, one might become a bandit, but is it not more genteel to be a soldier? Besides, that is for the general to decide; for when he is paid by the Government ho is a commander of a national army, but when lie is not paid by tho Government lie may ho either a rebel or a bandit. It matters little which one is so long as one is in territory where there is revenue: local taxes to bo taken, tho salt tax to he sequestered, opium fines to be administered. Three million men under arms because there are 3,000,000 rifles in the country. If there wore 5,000,000 rifles there would ho 5.000,000 men under arms.

Politicians and statesmen try to maintain peace and order, try to institute a modem system of taxes; philosophers and educators seek to develop a national language and literature; bankers and industrialists hope to build mills and factories and talk of national economic councils —but on they march, these millions of soldiers. They pour out of Turkestan into tho Chihli Plain; they tear down tho mountains of Kwangsi into the rich Canton delta; they converge from all sides to taste of the luxury and riches of the Shang-hai-Nanking hinterland. EIGHTY YEARS OLD. But where, tho casual visitor from the more peaceful West may ask, is the war? What happens to the 400,000,000 Chinese during these wars, which have lasted intermittently for some eighty years ? Cities like Kai-feng or Cheng-chow or Tsi-nan aro quite accustomed to wars, for some of tho most important battles .during the last ten years have been fought in those parts of China. And the battles have grown more vicious since 1927, when the Manchurian troops were defeated by the Ironsides m Honan. No longer is it a matter of mere strategy, the generals on either side calculating their chances of success and retreating accordingly. Today they light in these wars, fight to hold territory. To the rebel or the bandit general territory means revenue; to the Government it means both revenue and the unification of the country. ■ The rebels have rifles, some heavy field-pieces, some munition, and lots of human beings. The Government troops are exactly the same kind of men as the rebel and tho bandit troops. In fact, the troops are interchangeable; sometimes they work for tho Government, sometimes for another boss. But the generals are often different. Some of the Northern generals still live in the days at the end of the Han Dynasty, when a military man was a free-booting hero, when ho fought hand to hand with his opponent, rescued his native city from pihage, kow-towed to his mother before battle, and reported the results to the manes of his ancestors. In a word, these generals aro still feudal lords over soldiers that are- still, feudal soldiers, and they fear neither aeroplanes nor poison gas, because as long as there is life there must be a fight. They know that they will go under before modern mechanised warfare, but they hope that they may retire to Dairen or Tientsin or Shanghai or Japan to enjoy their old age in gargantuan feasts on boars’ maws and ginseng tea in the company of Chinese singing and Japanese dancing girls. RUMOURS BEGIN. And the peasant plants his wheat and his cabbage, and in some places rice, and in others poppy crops. Ho builds a little mud wall about his village, and ho joins a secret society, so that lie may have protection against these soldiers. Ho hears that a war is beginning somewhere in his neighbourhood. Ho asks tho headman of his village if General Sbih Vu-slian is again rebelling against the Government. “ This will cost money,” ho says. “ They will cat our crops; they will collect taxes in advance.”

But ho continues to sow his crops; his wife continues to water and manure the vegetables; his sou and daughter help him; his daughter-in-law is cooking the daily meals; the children play on tho village threshing ground; the goat feeds on the grass over the tombs of their ancestors.

Not far off two armies aro fighting. Some say they are fifty miles away, others that they are a hundred miles away. Let them fight if they like it, but let them stay away from our village. Fighting is natural among men; besides, heaven has withdrawn its sanction from the rulers, for otherwise would there not be peace? Who can quarrel with heaven? But may these soldiers not come near our village. But soon ono hears that they are coming. In fact, the elders of several villages in the district (county) have been consulting about this trouble. One hot-head suggests that they join together to drive off the troops, but most of the ciders think that it would ho hotter to pay them off it they do not want too much and if they oflor to stay away from the village and not molest the womenfolk. WHAT KIND? It is most important to know whether the soldiers who arc coming their way are Government troops or rebels; if they have boon defeated or aro victorious. If they arc Government troops thev aro apt to be reasonable,_ tor the Government must maintain its dignity. They will only want advance taxes; well, those can be paid if they will givo receipts. If they aro rebels, they may demand anything; well, that is, like all other human relations, subject to adjustment. If the troops are victorious, they are likely to be lenient; if thev'arc defeated, they aro capable of hideous and unbelievable outrages. These arc matters lor investigation and thought. A vouug man is sent to spy out d the soldiers aro really coming. Ho will travel to the next largo city, perhaps to the provincial capital, for news. Ho will write a letter, which a student will read to the village.

The soldiers are coming! All women stay indoors. The elders of the villages appoint a committee to inquire of the general whether he can change his route to avoid thqir district. If not, could his soldiers refrain from trampling their crops? Could they pass through without stopping. An aeroplane flies ’overhead. The peasants used to be frightened by the aeroplane, but now they know that it does little more than make a hole in the ground when it throws shells from heaven. Sometimes a house is hit. Well, all that is required to build a house is straw and mud, and both are plentiful. Hut if the shell should destroy the graves of the ancestors or the village temple where the family tablets show an ancestry dating back 2,000 years or so—how can one face such calamities? THE SOLDIERS COME. The committee of elders returns. The troops are rebel troops, _ defeated. There has been heavy fighting along the Lunghai Railway, but not much damage has been done because the Government troops have been saving munitions. The rebels will occupy this district, and demand money and food according to a list < provided by the commissariat. To-night the elders will meet in the district city to decide what can be done, just as each summer for ten years elders have met in similar emergencies to consider what they could do. The troops come. They are barracked in the open space opposite the Confucian temple in the district city. For ten years troops have come and gone from this place. Pedlars follow the soldiers to sell them something for a copper or two. Jugglers perform in the open square. Story-tellers fill the tea houses. But the peasants stay at home to bo ready for emergencies. The village scholar invites the genera! and has officers to dinner at the one restaurant in the district city. A feast is served. _ The general is_ made welcome, but his chief of staff is told how grateful the villagers would be if the army moved to the next district. Large bowls of noodles dripping in pork soup, seasoned with soya bean oil, are given to the soldiers to cboor them after their defeat, in the hope that fhey will not molest the peasant families. Three days later the troops are on the march to the next district. The peasants are poorer. Money, wheat, chickens, pigs, eggs—the soldiers have had a quota from each family. The scholar’s son has been made a local magistrate. The peasant manures his crop. He looks heavenward, and hopes that the rain will be just enough—not so much that there will bo a great river flood, not so little that there will be a drought. If only there could be peace and no soldiers the peasant could equalise between droughts and flood, and lie could repair his dykes and even make a profit on his crops.