Infrastructure masters in the red building

Gui Xiaxue is also mentally prepared for the old boss who used to treat him like a "Xiao Gui" to send him around.

So he held the silver ingot in his hand and said, "That's good, then I'll take you to the Finance Office to have a look later."

Satisfied, Master Li turned around, hurried over to Master Yuan who had just got off the sedan chair, held Yuan Hua's arm, and whispered, "Master Yuan, Xiao Gui will take it."

Yuan Hua nodded, and replied in a low voice: "But even so, this official is still the honor of a county, and you must not lose your dignity and be ridiculed by the opponent's ordinary people."

Master Li quickly responded and shrank beside Yuan County Magistrate.The county magistrate Yuan walked forward slowly, paying attention to the road under his feet while walking.

Yuan Hua still remembered what the road looked like the last time he came - the road was dug out between the rubble after the collapse of two stone mountains.At that time, he walked for a short distance, but felt that the road was not very wide, and gravel could be seen on the ground, and occasionally his feet could be hurt.

But this time, this road has been completely widened and turned into "two" roads, separated by a long flowerbed, with small trees planted in the flowerbed, which is not very tall at the moment, but it can be imagined In the future, these trees will surely grow into towering trees and provide shade for passers-by.

Since entering this road, people on the road have been reminded to "keep to the right" and not to run to the opposite road.Yuan Hua thought about it, but he couldn't figure out where this rule came from, but seeing that everyone was walking on the right side of the road, there were few people coming to meet him. The bearers and yamen servants have less chance to shout "the county lord is here, and idlers avoid it".

Looking at the road surface, it is also very well repaired, very smooth, the surface is as smooth as a mirror, and there is no gravel or soil.The road is slightly higher in the middle, lower on both sides, and the road surface is slightly inclined. It is said that after it rains, the rainwater will automatically flow away from the road surface and drain into the river along the ditches on both sides of the road. Therefore, even if it rains, the road will not be muddy and difficult to walk. situation.

County magistrate Yuan has never seen such a road before, and he regrets it now. He shouldn't have come here by car, he should have taken a car, a fast horse-drawn cart, and he should have arrived in less than an hour. It must feel good to be going out—and to be sprinting along such a road.

County magistrate Yuan walked forward slowly, greeted Gui Xiaxue, his former subordinate, and met several staff members of the "Outreach Office", nodded indifferently, and asked, "Is Mr. Jia in the village today?"

The people from the Outreach Office shook their heads: "Master Jia is not here recently, but I heard that he will be back soon."

When County Magistrate Yuan heard about it, he was both comforted and a little disappointed.

But if he's not here, he won't be here. He's been famous for this Taoyuan village for a long time, so it would be nice if he could come and enjoy it.

I only heard a few staff members of Gui Xiaxue's International Liaison Office say: "Let's go to the office area first, let's go to the Finance Office!"

So a group of people hurriedly went to several simple prefab houses in the middle of Taoyuan Village.Gui Xia went to the Finance Office with familiarity, took out the money in his hand, and said loudly: "Lao Jin, Lao Tu, come and collect the money!"

Master Li's face suddenly changed - this ingot is the silver ingot he secretly slipped to Gui Xiaxue just now.

There were two accountants sitting in the activity room. It was said that one took out the pen to weigh the silver, and the other took out the account book.After weighing the silver, the loudly reported: "Five taels, seven cents and eight cents!"

The other immediately converted: "Discount 780 renminbi circulation coupons, Xiao Gui, what should I say, do you want circulation coupons, or fold them into mutual funds."

Gui Xiaxue said with a hippie smile: "This is the silver tael brought to this county by Mr. Li who came from Wuyuan. It depends on what he wants."

The eyes of the accountants moved flatly, and turned to the person dressed by the master.Master Li was sweating immediately, and asked in a trembling voice: "What is a 'mutual fund'?"

Lao Jin explained: "Recently, more and more people come to visit our village from other counties. From time to time, there are people like your Excellency who wish to contribute some gold and silver to this village. But this village has financial discipline. As long as these gold and silver villages have official positions Those who are alive cannot be accepted, but it is often difficult to turn back the kindness of the other party. Therefore, Master Jia proposed to set up this 'mutual fund'."

"In the future, to build a bridge and dig a road in the village, in addition to paying money from the financial outlet, the mutual fund will also contribute. Everyone, donating money to this mutual fund is to donate money to Taoyuan Village, to Mr. Jia donates money!" Lao Jin's words are already very familiar.

The most rare thing is that he made it clear in the end that the money is for "Jia Sanye", which made Master Li make up his mind, and said with his fists clenched: "Donate!"

After making up his mind to finish, Master Li immediately asked again: "Should I write the merit book?"

Lao Jin nodded and said, "Write!"

At this time, Master Li had already received countless eye attacks from the county lords, and couldn't resist the pressure at this time, he quickly said: "Please write, from the county lords of Wuyuan County."

"Okay!" Lao Jin and Lao Tu, one kept the accounts and the other opened the safe, neither of them had the consciousness to stand up and salute the county lord.

Only Gui Xiaxue explained to Yuan and Li with a smile: "These two are also members of the public family in the village, as are the few here."

Yuan County Magistrate was finally surprised: "So many?"

Gui Xiaxue nodded: "Everyone has a public job, but it's not necessarily a full-time job, and a few of them have other jobs. Just like me, a student, who also has a teaching position at Xiaoxiang Academy."

County magistrate Yuan knew well that Jia Fang earlier asked all counties to visit Taoyuan Village to promote the "Taoyuan" experience, so that the counties could investigate on their own and see if there was any way to move to the counties as usual, which could improve the current situation of the counties.

This Taoyuan village has so many people in Gongmen, it can be copied to Wuyuan County.

So County Magistrate Yuan asked, "Everyone who has public office, do you have fame? If Taoyuan Village has produced so many scholars and recruits, then I really want to envy this county..."

The people around looked at each other, and then nodded together: "Master Xianzun, we all have them, but that's not called fame, nor does it mean that we have passed the exams of scholars and candidates... We all have a 'diploma in basic cultural knowledge', and we all have to take the exam. of."

County magistrate Yuan was surprised: "A diploma in basic cultural knowledge?"

As soon as he pushed Mr. Li, Mr. Li was so frightened that he quickly took out an empty notebook and a brush from his sleeve, borrowed some ink from Lao Jin, and then hurriedly wrote down the words "Diploma of basic cultural knowledge" and "Everyone must take the test". typeface.

The county magistrate Yuan became more and more surprised when he asked more questions: Taoyuan Village holds an exam every two months for this "diploma", and if you pass the exam, you can get a diploma. Get a diploma to work.

County Magistrate Yuan thought to himself: If this standard is followed, more than half of the people in his county government office will be wiped out. After all, most of the government servants in the county government office are illiterate.

In addition, he saw a woman with a bun in the outreach department, so he asked in a trembling voice: "If a woman has this diploma, can she also work in a public office?"

"Of course!" Gui Xiaxue laughed, "Diploma is the first standard. If a woman can pass the exam, why not let her work?"

County magistrate Yuan shook his beard and thought: What kind of style is this, what kind of style is this.

Next to him, Mr. Li still wanted to memorize it. County magistrate Yuan coughed loudly, and Mr. Li flicked his pen. He realized that it must be that the county lord did not want to "transplant" this item to Wuyuan County, so he told him not to memorize it.

The female staff in the External Relations Department seemed to be used to it, and they gave Gui Yaxue a wink: "Mr. Gui, the Finance Office is almost finished, please take Master Yuan to look elsewhere!"

Gui Xiaxue immediately brought Yuan Hua and Li Shiye out of the financial office, brought them to the Xianliang Temple on the mountain, and let them have an overview of the entire layout of the village:

"This is Taoyuan Village. The 1000 people here are the first residents to settle on this land. Adults can see that their house style is different from that of the Central Plains. This is actually a very good architectural method, which adapts to the local humid natural environment... "

"The villages with Central Plains-style houses over there are the villages built by immigrants from Yujiang. They are called Xinyu, Village [-], Village [-], and Village [-]..."

Yuan Hua: It's really convenient to name this village, just arrange them in order.

In other words, when this Yujiang immigrant came here, he still passed through Wuyuan County. The magistrate of Yuan County personally intervened in this matter, and ordered the yamen servants not to stop on the road, but to send them directly out of Wuyuan County to Taoyuan Village, lest they The bulging patient was "extraordinary", which affected the people of Wu Yuan.

But who would have thought that all the people from Yujiang have recovered from their illnesses, and they have built their own villages in such a short period of time.

To be honest, he also wants people!The larger the population, the more laborers in the fields, the more acres of land they can cultivate, the more corvees they will have to pay, and the more taxes they will pay.But now Wuyuan's large tracts of fertile land have already been owned, and they are all occupied by rich households and squires. If they want to collect more taxes, they will not be able to collect them. It depends on the faces of these wealthy households to build bridges and pave roads on weekdays...

County magistrate Yuan became more and more fascinated by his thoughts, and suddenly he felt a little smack. He remembered that on the first day Mr. Jia arrived in Wuyuan County, he avoided seeing those gentry—he seemed to understand a little bit that Mr. Jia wanted them to These local officials, what to see, what to learn, what to change.

County Magistrate Yuan followed Gui Xiaxue's instructions, and then looked at the paddy fields in Taoyuan Village.He jumped up suddenly: "Aren't you coaxing me! This...why is this throwing seedlings again?"

County magistrate Yuan is a scholar who does not work hard and does not distinguish between five grains. He has been admitted to Jinshi all the way, mixed up with a fellow Jinshi, and was sent out to be a county magistrate—no matter how hard he doesn’t recognize Jiaxuan, he knows that he is not a rice planter now. season.

Moreover, the rice fields in Taoyuan Village are also different. In some fields, the rice has been filled with grain, and the ears of rice are hanging down heavily, just waiting for a good harvest.But some have just planted rice seedlings, what are they doing?

"It's good to know," Gui Xia said triumphantly, "the three seasons of rice are being planted in the stockade. The ones that have just been thrown out are the last season of late rice, and the others that will be harvested soon are the second season of this year. A season of rice has been harvested some time ago."

"What did you say? Three Seasons Rice?" County Magistrate Yuan's eyes widened immediately, with an expression of disbelief.

He has been an official in the south for many years, so he naturally knows about two crops of rice, but this is not possible in all places. Generally, it has to be a place with warm regions and abundant water. Rice seeds can really achieve two harvests a year.

But this Taoyuan village actually grows three seasons of rice?

"Yes," Gui Xiaxue said casually, "this third season is a new experiment this year, and the rice seeds are also newly cultivated rice seeds. Those fields are all 'experimental fields'. After it was over, I vacated it for a season to make the land more fertile, and now I am trying to plant the third season."

He said proudly, "In Taoyuanzhai, farmers who plant land have to sign a responsibility certificate. The higher the output, the less tax they pay. It's not like ordinary people can plant the land."

County Magistrate Yuan: The higher the output, the less tax you pay... This is the first time he has heard of such a thing.

Seeing Master Li standing beside him standing still, County Magistrate Yuan hurriedly poked him with his elbow. Master Li was startled, so he picked up a pen and quickly wrote it down in his notebook.

Unexpectedly, Gui Xiaxue changed the subject again: "Look, my lord, the rice flower fish is being caught in the field over there! Wait a minute, my lord, I'll go over there to say hello and let two big fish be kept for lunch."

County Magistrate Yuan and Master Li looked at each other, thinking: at noon, a wealthy gentry from the village should be inviting them to dinner.

Unexpectedly, at noon, Gui Xiaxue took them all back to the office area, and asked the two to sit down at a long table and wait.

County Magistrate Yuan sat with Master Li for a while, and saw other people come in and start eating at the same long table.

The county magistrate and the master looked at each other, their eyes were a little straight - why the other party was so rude, even sharing the same table with the county lord, without even saying hello.

There was more than one person who was born, and soon a few more people came, sat down and said hello, each asked how the errands were going, and then they went to eat together.They all ate very quickly, and once they finished eating, they went out with their bowls and chopsticks in their arms, and the vacant seats would be immediately occupied by others.

County Magistrate Yuan and Master Li waited here for a while, and there were at least four or five groups of people who were eating beside them.The food in these people's bowls is so delicious that all the gluttons come out.County magistrate Yuan felt his stomach growling, screaming and gulping.

"That kid, Xiaogui, is he trying to starve to death?" Master Li complained nonstop from the sidelines.

At this moment, only Gui Yaxue said "Come on", the young man came in with a few staff members from the external relations department, each carrying dishes.Gui Xiaxue held a shallow iron pot in his hand, and put the whole pot on the table.

I saw that the iron pot was full of red soup. In the red soup, the white fish meat could be seen turning up and down, and there was an attractive sour aroma in the pot.

Several staff members who followed Gui Yaxue saw Yuan County Magistrate and Master Li, and they all expressed apology, and said: "The External Relations Department only has so much work funds, and according to the funding standards, we can only invite the two of you to use some local vegetables. .Please don't be disgusted..."

Yuan County Magistrate finally understood at this moment that there were no "squires" in Taoyuan Village, so there were no squires who invited them to dinner.But County Magistrate Yuan had already smelled enough of all kinds of aromas earlier, and was already so hungry that his chest was on his back. No matter what he was invited to eat at this moment, he would regard it as a delicacy.

At that moment, County Magistrate Yuan only said a few words of politeness before reaching for his chopsticks.

The female staff member of the Outreach Department immediately stopped him: "Master County, for your health, please wash your hands before meals... Otherwise, our Outreach Department will not be able to explain it to the inspection team."

County Magistrate Yuan: ...

But in any case, after washing his hands, he finally tasted quite a wonderful sour pot rice flower fish. The fish fillets were smooth and tender, almost boneless. The more you taste it, the more your mouth will become full of saliva, and the more you eat, the more you can't stop. In addition, the rice is also very good, the grains are crystal clear, and the rice is fragrant, making Yuan County Magistrate, who has always been a self-proclaimed "health expert", eat two in one go. Big bowl of rice.

Gui Xiaxue still yelled: "This rice is within the budget, so you can use it!"

After eating, County Magistrate Yuan was quite surprised to find that he hadn't accumulated any food.He didn't know that the red sour pot already had the effect of stimulating the appetite, and he walked so much in the morning and almost starved himself at noon, so it was not so easy to accumulate food.

After eating, the outside of the office cafeteria was already bustling with people's voices mixed with various accents.

When Yuan Hua worked in the south for a long time, he knew that this area is mostly "there is no three-mile level", and there is an accent every other mountain.With so many accents gathered together, it is obvious that there is something important, and people from all over the world have gathered here.

The female staff member of the Outreach Department immediately spoke up and explained to Yuan County Magistrate: "This is a fair held in Taoyuan Village. In the past, it was only held on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar new year. Now it is held every five days."

Gui Xiaxue was very proud: "Yes, Mr. Jia also said that our town may consider holding a fair every other day in the future. Anyway, the business of this fair is very good, and many people can't grab the booth."

When Yuan Hua thought of his county collection in Wuyuan County, he couldn't help showing embarrassment.The county fair is still held on the first and fifteenth day of the new year, but once the Taoyuan fair is held a few miles away, the county fair under his rule has become more and more deserted.

The female worker seemed to have seen through Yuan County Magistrate's meaning, and handed over two paper packages, saying: "This is a circulation coupon given to adults and masters according to the activity fund standard. You can gather freely to have a look. If you see a local object you like, you might as well buy it and support the small businesses in the area.”

Would you please support the small merchants in this area?

County Magistrate Yuan and Master Li looked at each other, and for a moment they both felt that they couldn't comment.

Gui Xiaxue laughed loudly and said: "My lord, master, just go and have a look, the external relations department managed to avoid violating financial discipline, and got these circulation coupons, I want to invite you two to take a good look at the collection in Taoyuan Village , to see if there is anything that can help the Wuyuan County Collection. My lord, just reluctantly go and have a look!"

Is that what it means? !

Thinking of the commercial tax that the county fair could receive, Yuan Hua was moved immediately. He stood up while leaning on the table, and motioned to Mr. Li not to leave the pen and paper behind. Other staff members of the outreach department walked out of the cafeteria.

Sure enough, I saw that the "Taoyuan Collection" was crowded with people and it was very lively.

Suddenly, a voice came from a distance: "Lord Jia is back!"

The news was spread from ten to ten and hundreds of times, and spread all over the lively Taoyuanji. People had smiles on their faces, and someone said beside Yuan Hua: "Master Jia is back, no wonder I heard magpies on the branches this morning. calling..."

So popular? ...For a while, Yuan Hua felt a little ashamed of himself.

But Gui Xiaxue, who was beside him, suddenly cupped his hands in this direction casually, and said, "Master Yuan, the student is excused, the student has something important to do, I want to find Master Jia—"

Immediately afterwards, Gui Xiaxue slipped into the crowd, and the figure disappeared immediately.