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 fighting 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 missing strokes. He can recognize most of the characters.
He looked at the notice and read it to everyone:
"The commanding office recruits township chiefs and deputy township chiefs from each township. The township chief is paid one stone of grain per month, and the deputy township chief 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 conditions for registration as a township head are as long as you can read and do simple arithmetic, you can register."
Li Zhisheng pointed to the notice and said: "Here are the villages planned by the Tongchengfu.
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 too high, but Li Zhisheng was moved.
He walked home and saw his father returning from the governor's mansion.
His father 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 just two days in detention. His father was sentenced to six years of forced labor.
They are not doing heavy work like other reform-through-labor prisoners, because they are literate and good at arithmetic, and they do miscellaneous tasks in the governor's house.
"Dad, the commander-in-chief is currently recruiting for a township chief. Do you think you can take this position?"
Li Zhisheng helped his father into the house and asked his father for his advice.
"Go, why don't you go?"
Dad Li gave a definite 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 my life skills.
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 father and I have become thieves, and the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers came to kill us, our family 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, so when you become a township head now, you don’t have to worry about not being promoted in the future.”
Li Zhisheng listened to his father's advice and immediately went to the commander's office to register.
…
Su He took some time to inspect the countryside around Yimenbao.
He found that the countryside here was very different from Sujia Village.
The villages here are close to water sources, generally produce more grain 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 are personally inspected by Su He, and the inspection director is recommended by Su Yan, who personally reviews them.
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 had 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.
Select qualified village chief candidates to make the village more stable and effectively promote grain borrowing and land lending.
The second task is to correct rural bad habits.
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.
Those who are capable will be promoted and those who are mediocre will be demoted. It all depends on your own ability.
The inspection department is fully cooperating with the township chief. Some villagers object and resist the correction of bad habits, and they 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 senior official in the county, and only those who passed the examination could become officials.
Now that they have this opportunity, they must try their best.
Li Zhisheng was appointed as the mayor of Guanyintang Township, and he will take office immediately by carriage.
Accompanying 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, and he arrested us and 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 to participate in the election of the township head.
I had no work experience, but because I was literate and good at arithmetic, I was appointed deputy township head.
I hope the township head will teach me more."
Li Zhisheng listened to Honeysuckle telling him 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 bad habit is infant drowning. It is common in rural areas to have many babies. When there is a famine, the babies will be drowned if they cannot feed them.
The Government allocated funds to establish welfare homes to recruit 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 will be 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' imprisonment 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 impact of one less labor force is too great.
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 my daughter’s feet were bound and she immediately warned her to let go.
The second warning was a three-month sentence in hard labor.
The third warning was a five-year sentence of forced 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.
