Suhe tried the case of fighting between Wangjiahe Village and Lijiamiao Village.
More than 300 people were sentenced to various lengths of labor reform, and the villagers were shocked.
"This punishment is too harsh. I won't be able to fight with weapons in the future."
"When it rains, we have to fight for water, and when there is a severe drought, we have to fight for water. There is no time when we are not fighting for water in farming, so we use such cruel methods to manage the fighting.
I want to see if the thieves in yellow can find a way to fairly distribute the water source. If this problem is not solved well, the fight will not stop no matter how ruthless it is. "
While the villagers were discussing, a soldier in yellow walked by beating a gong and posted a notice on the wall.
The villagers immediately gathered around and urged: "Where is Li Tongsheng? You are the only one who can read here, hurry up and read it to everyone."
Li Zhisheng looked at the content on the notice. He wrote it in two languages.
One is normal characters, and the other is characters with some missing strokes. He can recognize most of the characters.
He looked at the notice and read it to everyone:
"The commander-in-chief recruits the heads and deputy heads of each township. The head of the township is paid one stone of grain per month, and the deputy head is paid half a stone of grain per month.
The township chief and deputy township chief are officials of the commanding office and can be directly promoted to county magistrate and other positions in the future.
The registration requirements for township heads are as long as they can read and do simple arithmetic. "
Li Zhisheng pointed to the notice and said: "Here are the villages planned by the Commander's Office.
Our Yimenbao is a township. Several surrounding villages are under the jurisdiction of this township. "
"Hey! Recruiting a township chief has nothing to do with me."
“It also requires literacy, which is too high.”
The villagers thought the request was high, but Li Zhisheng was moved.
He walked home and saw his uncle coming back from the commander's mansion.
His uncle was a private school teacher in Wang Jinshi's family.
The county magistrate Chen Chengren, who used to be in charge of taxation in the county government office, took office, and his master who offended him was fired.
The thieves in yellow broke into Yimen Fort and their whole family was arrested.
Li Zhisheng thought his family was doomed, but he didn't expect to be released after two days in detention. His uncle was sentenced to six years of forced labor.
It's not like other reform-through-labor prisoners do heavy work, because they are literate and good at arithmetic, and they do chores in the governor's house.
"Uncle, the commander-in-chief is currently recruiting for a township chief. Do you think you can take this position?"
Li Zhisheng helped his uncle into the house and asked his uncle for his advice.
"Go, why don't you go?"
The uncle gave an affirmative answer and patiently analyzed it for him:
"I asked you to take the imperial examination because I want you to become an official.
I am also afraid that you will be bullied by other subordinate officials just like we bullied those scholar-officials. I have taught you all the skills in my life.
Zhisheng, I didn’t expect that you were not qualified to take the imperial examination. Scholars have been taking the exam for more than ten years and have not yet passed the exam.
Now that your uncle and I have become thieves, the Ming government troops came to kill the three tribes, but we can still survive.
To be a thief is to be more thorough. The world is in chaos now, and no one knows what will happen in the future.
Maybe this is still a long-term career path.
The official system designed by Commander Su integrates officials and local staff. Now that you are a township head, you don't have to worry about not being promoted in the future. "
Li Zhisheng listened to his uncle's advice and immediately went to the Commander's Mansion to register.
…
Su He took some time to inspect the countryside around Yimen Fort.
He found that the countryside here was very different from Sujia Village.
The villages here are close to water sources, generally produce more food every year, and the villagers are generally wealthier.
At the same time, this place has also been greatly damaged by feudal ethics. There are three stubborn and bad habits in rural areas that must be solved.
Today is the day when the township mayor and inspection director take office.
All township heads were personally inspected by Su He, and the inspection director was recommended by Su Yan and reviewed by him personally.
Su He summoned the incoming township officials at the commander's office to explain the tasks they needed to complete.
…
In the courtyard of the Tongling Mansion, the township chief and the inspection director lined up in two rows.
Su He sent a task list to all township heads.
"You have two tasks when you take office. Whoever handles these two tasks well will be the magistrate of the county government."
Su He first let go of a big carrot. After he conquered the county government, he would definitely use the officials he trained.
In his observation, in terms of ability to do things, subordinates are many times better than officials.
Officials are good at writing eight-legged essays and some nonsense poems.
Officials who can really do things are rare.
When the township chiefs heard Su He's promise, their eyes lit up and they listened carefully to Su He's words.
“The first task is to promote rural autonomy under the rule.
Selecting qualified village chief candidates will make the village more stable and effectively promote the work of borrowing grain and field loans.
The second task is to combat bad habits in rural areas.
There are three major bad habits in rural areas now, and all of them must be successfully rectified.
I will send you the specific task requirements.
The capable ones go up, the mediocre ones go down. It depends on your own ability.
The inspection department fully cooperates with the township chief. Some villagers object and resist the correction of bad habits, and must be dealt with seriously. "
Li Zhisheng followed his colleagues out of the commander's office.
None of them communicated with each other. They all held their breath and wanted to do their best to be promoted to county magistrate.
He was the eldest man in the county, and only those who passed the examination could become officials.
Now that they have this opportunity, they must fight hard.
Li Zhisheng was appointed as the mayor of Guanyintang Township, and he will take office immediately by carriage.
Traveling with him were Deputy Township Mayor Jin Yinhua and Director of Guanyintang Inspection Station Du Lin.
Honeysuckle is a young man in his twenties. He looks very smart, but now he looks very nervous.
Du Lin is a young man in his twenties, a veteran, and missing a left arm.
He looks very angry and is very difficult to get close to.
Li Zhisheng simply said hello, and he and Honeysuckle got into the carriage together.
He first said hello: "I am Li Zhisheng, the mayor of the township. I remember honeysuckle is the name of the medicinal material. Is your surname Jin? This surname is rare."
Honeysuckle responded shyly: "I am a pharmacy clerk. I was adopted by the pharmacy shopkeeper since I was a child. Our names are all names of medicinal materials.
We followed the shopkeeper here to buy medicinal materials, but offended Mr. Wang, who put us in a water prison.
We were saved by the governor's office, and the shopkeeper taught us to be grateful, so I signed up for the election of the township chief.
I had no work experience, but because I was literate and good at numeracy, I was appointed as the deputy township head.
I hope the township head will teach me more. "
Li Zhisheng listened to Honeysuckle talking about his life experience and felt that this person was not a big threat to him. A good relationship would be beneficial to his daily work.
"Let's first look at the task given by Commander Su. We must try our best to complete it. This will benefit both of us."
After Li Zhisheng finished speaking, he opened Su Hefa's task list and checked it with Honeysuckle.
The first task is very simple. It mainly involves choosing activists as village chiefs to coordinate some conflicts between villages.
The commander-in-chief has issued policies, and they are responsible for implementing the policies. Right now, priority is given to the implementation of grain borrowing and land loans.
The second task is to clean up the bad habits in the countryside. There are three main kinds of bad habits and the methods for dealing with them are prescribed.
The first type of bad habit is infant drowning. In rural areas, there are generally many babies. When there is a famine, the babies are drowned if they cannot feed them.
The Tongcheng government allocated funds to establish welfare homes, specifically recruiting villagers to take care of abandoned infants and young children.
Villagers who cannot afford to raise their children can send their infants and young children to welfare homes.
Once a drowned infant is discovered, the child's father is sentenced to five years in a labor camp. If there is no father, the grandfather, the woman's parents and other elders will be held accountable.
The second bad habit is the prohibition of remarriage. Feudal ethics restrict the freedom of widowed women to remarry, and only allow the erection of chastity memorials.
Anyone who prevents a woman from remarrying will be fined five taels of silver for the first time, three months in labor camp for the second time, and five years for the third time.
The third bad habit is foot binding. Girls have their feet bound since they are about ten years old. They force their feet to be broken, preventing their normal growth and causing them to grow into three-inch golden lotuses.
This bad custom is rare in rural areas. Women working in rural areas do not bind their feet. The loss of one labor force will have a great impact.
Only rich peasants let their daughters have their feet bound, because the gentry only wanted women with bound feet.
If you want to curry favor with a gentleman, you must bind his daughter's feet.
It was found out that the daughter's feet were bound and she was immediately warned and asked to let them go.
The second warning was a three-month sentence in hard labor.
The third warning was a five-year sentence in hard labor.
Li Zhisheng saw that both tasks were very challenging, but he was confident that he would be the first to complete them and compete for the position of county magistrate.
