Dominate the Country

Officials have to pay for their own hospitality when they go to the countryside, unless it is an official research, in which case the letter will be stamped with a long seal representing special significance. Obviously, the letter presented by Chen Ding did not have this seal.

But the village chief did not look down on him for this. Look at the guards around Chen Ding, and they are still so powerful, the Nanyang Navy Headquarters.

If possible, the village chief is willing to take out all the good things in the village to offer to Chen Ding.

But Chen Ding's request is only four dishes and one soup.

This is the standard configuration when he eats at Sungkyunkwan Public School on weekdays. All the students and teachers there have four dishes and one soup, two hot and two cold, two meat and two vegetarian, and the soup is either seaweed and egg soup, or minced meat and kelp soup. Is it nutritious? It can increase multiple nutrients such as phosphorus, iron, calcium, iodine, vitamins, sugar, inorganic salts, etc., especially iodine. In this era, people can only supplement iodine through seafood.

The village chief honestly introduced the situation of the village to Chen Ding, such as the grain harvest, annual per capita income, rich and poor families, how many years it took for the entire village to develop from its initial construction to the present, and what difficulties it had experienced. The enrollment of school-age children, the increase in adult literacy, and the policies of the Singapore Municipal Government in recent years, and the situation of the prisoners in the village...

These things can't be explained in a day and a night, and the village chief is completely welded. The militia captain hurried to find the village accountant to get the account book.

The latter used to be a shop assistant before immigrating to Nanyang. He can use an abacus well, and he is also smart and well-behaved. Although the accountants of this immigrant village are not serious public officials, they only have ten stones of rice as subsidies every year, and they also have a share of benefits during festivals, but their status in the village is not low.

Especially in the past two years, all the Malay natives are scared and have been killed. They dare not come to rob, kill or harass again. The importance of the village militia captain has plummeted. Even the Singapore government intends to change the village militia captain to a normal security office. The position of the militia captain, who is a court official, is not as good as that of an accountant holding an abacus.

The latter is like a dog-headed military advisor, the "master" of the village. When the head of the village [village chief] is not there, the militia captain listens to him.

The village accountant looked at the letter in his hand, his face full of shock, "This is a noble man, we must treat him well."

"The village chief invited him to dinner at home, but he refused and stayed in the village commune. We also need to show him the files." This is not a person who can be fooled by good food and drink.

"If the noble wants to see the files, you can show them to him. Our accounts are all complete, how can I make a mistake?"

"Forget it, I don't know you yet. There are still a bunch of forms for the accounts before the New Year that haven't been filled out. Can I show them to the noble?"

"The noble is just one person, he is not a working group sent down from above, what does he know? ... You can show him the finished files and speak nicely, and it will be fine." The accountant looked down on the militia captain, "Isn't there anyone accompanying you from the city? Only a few policemen came as bodyguards. Will they check the accounts or something? What are you afraid of?"

"Instead of worrying about this, I think you might as well let someone notify the town as soon as possible."

"Go over and ring the bell, let the captains of each team come quickly. Take them to see the noble."

In this village, an accountant outside the system has become a militia captain within the system.

Chen Dinggang had just chatted with the village chief for a while when he saw the militia captain come back with a big stack of account books in his hand and put them on the table next to him.

"It's not complete yet, sir, which part do you want to see?" The village chief stood up and smiled, "Last year's account has not been brought in yet, we will get it for you later."

Don't underestimate the account books of a village. Every year's harvest and expenditure need a large stack of account books to record. Their village has been established for less than ten years, so it is not time to destroy the account books. The account books of immigrant villages like this have no value to be preserved. They can be destroyed and lost in ten years. Only a rough record of income and expenditure needs to be kept.

There is a special room in the reserve room of their village for the account books. Every year they have to make a large cabinet with wood to store the account books of the year. The court has very strict regulations on this, and they dare not violate them.

"No need." Chen Ding secretly smacked his lips. These account books alone now piled up on a table, and this was not enough. God, he had thought that he could find loopholes in a pile of account books and dreamed of catching a bunch of termites and rats?

These piles of account books that exceeded his imagination were really invincible. Chen Ding picked up a book from it and flipped through it. He felt that this kind of running account should be put in the toilet to wipe his butt. It was really too unskilled.

The village chief was still very responsible. How many households were there in the whole village, where were they from, the specific population, the labor force, the ratio of young and strong, the ratio of men and women, how many children of school age were there, how many people went to school, how many poor households were there, and why, all of these were described without hesitation. This level is already good, at least in Chen Ding's eyes, it is qualified.

The village chief was also able to answer questions about the village's paddy fields, orchards, per-acre yield, water conservancy, etc. in an organized manner and with data readily available. This quality really satisfied Chen Ding.

The two sides chatted until one o'clock. The meal was ready. It was a simple four-course meal with one soup. There was fish, chicken, shrimp, eggs and kelp soup. There was rice, flatbread and pancakes. All were prepared under the eyes of the guards. Chen Ding's diet and other issues must be guaranteed.

Flour in Singapore is a precious rarity. Rice noodles and rice here are not valuable, but the price of white flour is twice that of rice.

This is definitely treating Chen Ding as a distinguished guest.

"Sir! There is nothing, just a few dishes of home-cooked food! There is no meat except a chicken! Please don't give us the money. If you give us more money, it will be a slap in our face."

"That's right. Our lives are better now. If it was in the past, we couldn't even make this meal for the New Year! We can't forget the well diggers when we drink water. This is all a blessing from the court. We came to Singapore. This is the real good life. We can arrange these things!"

The village chief and the militia captain held Chen Ding's arm that was reaching for his pocket with four big hands. The village accountant brought a pile of sugarcane wine, with a smile on his face, and poured a bowl full for Chen Ding.

"Sir, please don't pay any more. It's not like our village can't afford this meal. If you pay any more money, it will be a slap in our face." The village accountant had a flattering expression on his face, but also a sincere heart.

"When we were in our hometown, we only had two meals a day except during the busy farming season, and we couldn't just eat dry rice. What about now? We have more than three meals a day, four or five. Life is really like heaven compared to the past. We ordinary people don't understand what's going on, but we really support the court."

"The court stipulates that officials are not allowed to entertain when they go to the countryside, and they have to pay for meals. We know that this is for the good of us ordinary people."

"But when can you come to us for the second time?"

"You are a big shot, and the seal on the letter is the Nanyang Navy Headquarters. You are not from our town or the city. It is a blessing for our village that you can come to our village today. It is a blessing for our village to entertain you with a simple meal. If I charge you again, it would be really shameless."

...

The people in the village were unwilling to accept money, and Chen Ding was really a little overwhelmed by the enthusiasm.

Two Singaporean policemen holding a dustpan of multi-grain pancakes outside smiled and said to the two internal guards in front of them: "This village chief is quite considerate and knows that it is for the distinguished guests."

There is also a small bamboo basket on the dustpan, which is full of green onions, a can of soybean paste, and then a plate of kelp shreds that have been adjusted.

The multi-grain pancake is a bit thick, but it tastes good after wrapping green onions, soybean paste, and kelp shreds.

The internal guards have been eating rice for a while. Today, they came to this village with more immigrants from Qilu and Central Plains, and the multi-grain pancake is just a change of taste. The pancake contains corn and sweet potato flour, and the taste is coarse, so you have to chew it a few more times before you can swallow it.

But Chen Ding was very happy to eat this meal, because the enthusiasm of the village chief and others made him feel warm in his heart. This enthusiasm may be a bit false, but even if it is false, this enthusiasm is based on the fact that the lives of immigrants have really improved.

After dinner, Chen Ding followed the village chief to visit a production team in their village. This production team had 22 households, a total of 97 people, and 620 mu of land under their name. At the same time, they also contracted 200 mu of land from villagers and 300 mu of mountain land from the village - orchards.

Chen Ding arrived at the production team, but unfortunately he did not meet the person in charge here, who went to the city, that is, the port area.

Almost all the harvests of the production team were sold to the Singapore Naval Base. The price was lower than the market price, but the military took as much as they could and could actively provide transportation as long as the village built a road.

When Chen Ding was accompanied by the village chief to walk around the fields, he saw an acquaintance in one of the fields. It was the village chief's wife. They had met not long ago.

The village chief's wife was standing in front of a sugarcane field sorting a large backpack. When she approached Chen Ding, she saw the contents of the backpack clearly. It was bean dregs cake.

This can be said to be the best fertilizer in the modern era.

Sugarcane is very nutritious. If the land used for sugarcane is not fertilized with more fertilizer than ordinary farmland, the land will be useless after a few seasons of sugarcane planting.

The bean dregs cake after soybean oil extraction is not only a must for the military and civilians to use large livestock, but also increasingly needed in Lingnan and Nanyang.

This thing used to be edible food, but now it is more used as fine material for feeding cattle and horses and fertilizer for the land.

The price of bean dregs cake is more expensive than the bird droppings simply taken on the island. If it is used to fertilize wheat fields and rice fields, it is obviously not cost-effective, but not many people care about it when it is used in sugarcane fields.

"Now that the price of grain is so cheap, growing sugarcane makes more money than growing rice." The village chief explained to Chen Ding.

Chen Ding noticed the weight of the backpack, a full backpack of bean dregs cake, this is not easy. "Why don't you raise a cow or a horse?" The conditions of the village chief's family should be good, Chen Ding was very surprised.

"I don't want to raise any." The village chief held a cigarette handed to him by Chen Ding in his mouth and puffed out smoke. "Now there are only me and my wife in my family. We just need to farm to make a living. Farming is easy here and the tax is light. Why raise an animal? Raising a calf is more difficult than raising a baby!"

"Only the last of my six children is still standing. When he arrived here, he was skinny, but at least he was alive. He is now serving in the port and has been promoted to a non-commissioned officer. It is uncertain what he will be like in the future. What's the point of us growing good crops?"

"It's better to enjoy life. We are old and half buried in the ground, so we won't struggle any more. We will live a good life now. A few more days is a few more days."

"Maybe one day the child will be transferred to another place, and he will not be able to come back even if we die."

The village chief was in a negative mood. He looked to be in his forties or fifties. Chen Ding thought that this negative mood was not good, so he tried to persuade him. The militia captain who followed him said, "I want to raise a big animal, but I don't have money. I can't afford a big cow. I dare not buy a calf."

"Is there no agricultural loan in Singapore?" The interest rate of agricultural loans is very low, and the repayment period is at least three years.

"I don't dare to borrow money to buy a cow." The accountant shook his head firmly. "What if the cow dies? If I can't pay back the loan, will I still have the land? My family depends on this land to make a living. Poor families have little financial resources, and the death of a cow is a disaster! I dare not take this risk. I'd better save money slowly to buy it."

"And now the calves are getting cheaper and cheaper."

The village accountant has his own account in his mind, and a hopeful smile is on his face as he speaks.

Chen Ding disagrees with his idea. The interest rate of agricultural loans in the court is only 2 cents, which is definitely a low interest rate. As an immigrant, you can enjoy certain discounts when applying for a loan. In the end, the banknotes are only a little bit higher at 1.5 cents. Why can't you borrow money to buy a cow?

But it is obvious that the hurdle in the village accountant's heart is not something he can overcome with almost any words.

Borrowing money is really a difficult thing for grassroots people in this era.

And he heard from the accountant several times that "the most feared thing is illness and death", which shows that the grassroots people represented by immigrants are very worried about the disease and epidemic problems in the process of raising cattle. Chen Ding thought about it carefully. His father was very concerned about the problem of human illness, but he seemed to pay far less attention to the illness of cattle and horses than to the illness of people.

Veterinarian, veterinarian.

This point is really a big shortcoming. This is not just the Nanyang represented by Singapore, but the whole continent.

Chen Ding took out a notebook and wrote this down solemnly. This is the second problem he found in rural Singapore. The first is that after the people here have solved the primary problem of food and clothing and repaid the initial loan debts, whether ordinary farmers or grassroots managers such as village heads, they all generally have a lazy mood.

This may be related to the fact that they have had enough hard times before, but it is also related to the environment here in Nanyang.

It is not cold all year round, there is no winter, and there is sufficient rain. At the beginning, it caught up with the good time for grain exports. As long as you work hard for a few years, you can save a little money. At least you don’t have to worry about food and drink.

But compared with the previous days, this kind of happiness came too quickly and easily. Happiness comes too easily, so naturally it is not cherished. Laziness has become a problem with a certain universal significance.

It is important to point out that the proportion of villagers in Singapore's immigrant villages who joined the production team is much lower than that in mainland rural areas. This number can reflect some situations.

Another superficial manifestation of this "laziness" is the efficiency of collective labor.

Chen Ding will find it difficult to forget the punished old man he met at the entrance of the village in a short time.