Fenghou

Chapter 1388 County Love
In Mei County, Fengxiang Prefecture, when the first heavy snow fell on the Guanzhong Plain, tens of thousands of young and strong laborers were busy picking soil and digging ditches in the fields, installing water trucks, and widening the large ponds for water storage. They were taking advantage of the short agricultural slack in winter Time to build water conservancy.

Although the heavy snow fell one after another, it did not affect the enthusiasm of the farmers. Tens of thousands of people worked hard together, and the atmosphere was in full swing.

The official who leads the farmers to build water conservancy projects is Tian Kuang, the county worker. The county worker is an official position newly created last year. He is an assistant to the county magistrate.

The county magistrate is freed from tedious chores, the county magistrate only cares about what to do at what time, and the county workers are responsible for implementing specific things.

Chen Qing made a supplementary regulation a few months ago. The county worker is recommended by the county magistrate, and can be selected from his own aides or prefects. This regulation is inconspicuous, but it is of great significance. It means that the county workers are basically the county magistrate's confidantes, and the county magistrate can let the county workers do things freely and will not embarrass him.

Tian Kuang is the confidant of Li Zhe, the magistrate of Mei County. He was originally Li Zhe's aide. the first batch of beneficiaries.

With the support of the county magistrate, Tian Kuang mobilized tens of thousands of young and strong laborers in various townships and villages to use the slack to build water conservancy projects. At the same time, he repaired more than a dozen dangerous bridges and dozens of kilometers of official roads. He has to work extra hard. The Ministry of Officials evaluates officials every year mainly based on political performance and morality. If Tian Kuang can get high praise from the superiors for at least eight years during his two consecutive terms of office, then he is very hopeful that he will be promoted after his two terms of office. As the Sima of the state, he will even be transferred to various temple supervisors as functional officials.

County workers and county lieutenants are both functional officials, and they cannot be chief officials.

On the edge of the field, a group of laborers were resting and chatting. At this time, a bell rang in the distance, and someone shouted, "Go to work!"

Everyone got up one after another, and a young man got up and said with a smile: "Brothers, shall I go first?"

"Xiao Wu, are you going back to Jingzhao now?"

The young man smiled wryly and said, "I only have a one-month vacation, and I have to go back before noon the day after tomorrow, otherwise I will be considered absent from work and will be demoted."

"You should come back for a vacation during the Chinese New Year!"

"Last year I came back for the Chinese New Year. This year I am on duty for the New Year. I can only come back early for vacation."

There was urging in the distance again, and everyone carried their hoes and poles and left. Young got on his horse, waved goodbye to everyone, urged the horse to run up the official road, and ran along the official road in the direction of Jingzhao.

This young man is called Nian Xiaowu, and he is a soldier of King Yong. All soldiers of the Western Army have one month of family leave every year, and the soldiers are no exception.

Nian Xiaowu is from Mei County, Fengxiang Prefecture. He is going home this time to take annual leave, but he also has a mission to understand the people's situation for King Yong. This is not only his mission, but all the soldiers have this mission.

Two days later in the morning, Nian Xiaowu returned to the pro-barracks to report, and then went to Chao Qing to report back to his hometown.

Chao Qing and Wei Ji served as the assistants of Baihutang, responsible for classifying all documents and reviewing the compliance of documents. Chen Qing had three new recorders joining the army, that is, the top three in this year's imperial examination. Their duty is to condense the Class A document for Chen Qing, but the three new recruiters have insufficient experience in joining the army, and they need Chao Qing and Wei Ji to take turns instructing them every day, so the two also serve as the old chief of staff. job.

In the room, Chao Qing listened to Nian Xiaowu's narration while taking notes, at this moment, he suddenly stopped writing and said with a smile: "Forget it, you'd better go to see King Yong with me!"

"Why?" Nian Xiaowu was stunned.

"What you said happens to be what His Highness is most concerned about. You go and report it to me first, and I'll record it later."

Chao Qing brought Nian Xiaowu to Chen Qing's official room. Chen Qing happened to be talking to Jiang Yanxian, and it was over. Your Highness will be interested in what you say."

Chen Qing nodded and smiled, "Let him in!"

Nian Xiaowu walked into the official room, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See Your Highness!"

"When did Xiao Wu come back?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, I have just arrived at the humble post, so I went back to the barracks to report, and then I asked Mr. Chao to report back to my hometown."

Chao Qing said from the side: "Just now Nian Xiaowu talked about the county workers in Mei County, I guess His Highness will be interested."

Chen Qing was really interested, and asked with a smile: "What's the name of your Mei County worker, and what did you do?"

Nian Xiaowu bowed and said, "The county worker in Mei County is called Tian Kuang. He was originally an aide of the county magistrate Li Zhe. He has followed Li Zhe for many years. I heard that he was recommended by Li Zhe as a county worker three months ago. He has done a very good job. Yes, thirteen of the seventeen old bridges in the county have been repaired, and many roads that turn into mud when it rains have been re-paved and compacted. When I was at home, I happened to be building farmland and water conservancy. Tian Kuang organized more than 1 people every day Digging ditches and expanding ponds, the most interesting thing is that more than a dozen large ponds in Changlin County have been dug through and turned into a large lake covering an area of ​​thousands of acres. Now the water source is sufficient, and the people are very praised he."

Chen Qing pondered for a while and asked: "Has he encountered any obstacles? I mean, for example, something was done at the beginning, but then it stopped."

"It seems to have!"

Nian Xiaowu thought for a while and said, "I heard that he was planning to repair the dilapidated city wall. Several old city gates were torn down to replace them with new ones, but later the old city gates were reinstalled, and the matter of repairing the city wall was over. After all, let’s talk about it when we chat together.”

Chen Qing nodded, building the city wall is not necessarily hindered by others, it is very likely that there is insufficient financial resources, repairing roads, bridges, and building water conservancy are all related to the vital interests of the people, even if no money is given, the people I am also willing to work spontaneously and don’t spend much money, but the construction of the city wall is different, it has nothing to do with the interests of the people, no one is willing to do it for nothing, and the Yong Kingdom has canceled the labor system, so there is not enough financial resources to build the city wall. Usually, it is reported to the Ministry of Industry layer by layer, and then the Ministry of Industry arranges funds to repair several city walls every year. It takes many years to wait in line, and many counties have queued for decades without getting their turn.

"Other than that, what else?"

"Everything else is going well. The county magistrate is very supportive of him. He went to the farmland several times to dig soil and carry the burden together to show his support for Tian Kuang."

Chen Qing learned about some other situations, and then let him go back.

At this time, it was already noon, Zhou Kuan came over and asked Chen Qing to have dinner with him, and the two of them got into the carriage and drove to Qingfeng Teahouse.

(End of this chapter)