At noon, after a brief meal in the canteen of the Shijiawan Town Government, Yue Haohan and his entourage, under the guidance of Deputy Mayor Li Guoxing, got into a car and drove towards Zhangjiawa Village, the poorest village in Shijiawan Town.

After driving about seven or eight kilometers out of the town, the car turned onto a dirt road and continued to drive ahead, with a large number of rice fields on both sides of the road, and from time to time farmers could be seen spraying pesticides in the rice fields while the temperature was high at noon.

The car continued to drive slowly for a distance, and through the window, Yue Haohan saw under a thick plane tree in front of him, and there were several old farmers sitting there smoking dry tobacco in the shade, chatting, Yue Haohan signaled the car to pull over.

Li Guoxing, who was walking in front, was sitting in the car, and from the rearview mirror, he saw that Yue Haohan's car behind him stopped with a right turn signal, and slowly stopped on the side of the road to the right.

Yue Haohan pushed the car door, jumped out of the car, and walked to several old farmers in the shade of the trees. A few old farmers who were chatting for a few days saw Yue Haohan coming over, and there was an old farmer in his sixties who knocked the cigarette ash in the cigarette pouch pot, stood up and greeted Yue Haohan, and asked, "Young man, you are the secretary of the leader, do you want to ask for directions?" ”

Yue Haohan replied with a smile: "Uncle, I don't ask for directions, I want to ask about something else." At this time, Li Guoxing got out of the car in front of him and also walked over, several old farmers seemed to know Li Guoxing, and the old farmer who was talking to Yue Haohan greeted Li Guoxing loudly and asked: "Mayor Li, did you come to collect taxes again when you ran down on this hot day?" ”

Li Guoxing replied: "Wang Laogeng, I am not here to collect taxes and fees today, today I am accompanying several leaders in the county to understand the situation. How many of you are spraying the rice fields? ”

The old farmer named Wang Laogen replied: "If you don't fight, you can't do it, the rice planthopper has been very serious recently." Mayor Li, why hasn't the leader of the county party committee gotten off yet? Is the county magistrate here or the secretary coming? ”

Li Guoxing walked up to Yue Haohan and introduced Wang Laogen, saying: "This is Director Yue of the county party committee office, who came to our village today to understand the situation. ”

Listening to Li Guoxing's introduction, Wang Laogen and several other old farmers all set their eyes on Yue Haohan, looked up and down, looked at it a few times, and Wang Laojian asked: "Mayor Li, is this Director Yue an official who is bigger than you?" ”

Wang Laogen's question made Yue Haohan and his party laugh, Li Guoxing laughed and replied: "Director Yue's official is of course older than me, he is the leader of the county party committee." ”

Wang Lao said: "Good girl! It's really not simple, you became a big leader at such a young age, Director Yue, is your father a bigger official? At least a mayor. ”

Yue Haohan smiled and replied, "Uncle Wang, my father is just an ordinary middle school teacher. ”

Wang Lao even said: "I don't believe it, your father is a teacher, how can you become a big official at such a young age?" ”

In the eyes of ordinary people, the mayor and township mayor in the township are considered to be big officials, and Li Guoxing said just now that Yue Haohan is bigger than his official, and in the simple peasant consciousness of Wang Laogen, it must be the reason why he can become a leader at such a young age and become a big official in their minds.

Li Guoxing was afraid that Wang Laogen would ask nonsense again, which would make Yue Haohan unhappy, so he immediately changed the topic and asked Wang Laogen, saying, "Wang Laogeng, have you paid all your taxes and fees this year?" ”

Wang Lao even replied: "I have already paid the agricultural tax, and the retention fee has not been paid!" Farming to save grain and raise children on errands has been a matter of course since ancient times, and I don't owe a penny in agricultural taxes every year. However, I have a big opinion on the retention money, which rises every year, we can't bear it, and the money is collected, and the village cadres have spent it, and we can't say it! ”

Li Guoxing turned his head to look at Yue Haohan, and asked Wang Laogen a little embarrassedly, "Wang Laogen, how do you know that the retention money collected is spent by the village cadres?" If you don't understand the situation, you can't talk nonsense, but when the retention money is collected, the village will build roads, dig wells, repair tap water, and repair weirs and ponds, all of which are for the people in the village. ”

Wang Lao even said: "Mayor Li, I didn't say nonsense at all, I have collected so many retention funds for so many years, and I have not seen the village repair roads, wells, or tap water, let alone repair the weir pond, last month's heavy rain, our village weir pond was washed out, why didn't I see the village take the money out to repair it?" Tell me, didn't the village cadres spend this money Hu Qiu, they will run by themselves? ”

Li Guoxing felt that Wang Laogen was a little slippery the more he spoke, and turned his head to look at Yue Haohan next to him, Yue Haohan was still smiling, listening to Wang Laogen's words very carefully, Li Guoxing wanted to speak again and divert the topic, but unexpectedly, Yue Haohan opened his mouth and asked Wang Laogen, and said, "Uncle Wang, according to your thoughts, how can you prevent the collected retention money from not being spent?" ”

Wang Lao even pressed two pinches of dry tobacco in the cigarette pouch pot, lit it and smacked it twice, and said: "Leader Yue, it's actually very simple, but what I said doesn't count, no one listens." ”

Yue Haohan said: "Uncle Wang, tell me your method, let me listen, maybe we will listen to your opinion, and in the future, we will manage this retention according to your method." ”

Wang Lao said: "If you follow my method, the masses will definitely welcome it, and the cadres will definitely have opinions." My method is to let the masses elect representatives that everyone trusts, and every time the village wants to use money, first let the deputies discuss whether the money should be spent, and then post on the wall of the village department how much money it will cost and what it will do, so that everyone can know how much money was spent in the end, and the deputies will sign on it, and then reimburse, see if the village cadres still dare to spend it? ”

Halfway through what Wang Laogen said, Yue Haohan understood in his heart that Wang Laogen's method was actually one of the experiences of Qingshuiwan Township in reducing the burden summed up by Zhang Jianjian, that is, to set up a democratic financial management group in the village, and that the income and expenditure of the village committee must be carried out under the supervision of the villagers' financial management group, and the members of the villagers' financial management group are elected by the masses from among the people who have high prestige and are honest and outspoken.

Yue Haohan thought about it, smiled, looked at Wang Laogeng, and asked: "Uncle Wang, if your village elects you as a representative, do you dare to guarantee that you will not wear a pair of pants with the village cadres and spend all this money?" ”

Wang Lao took a puff of dry tobacco and said: "Look at what you Director Yue said, as long as the masses trust us and let us supervise, we promise that the village cadres will not dare to spend a penny, and who we ordinary people want to trust is not something that can be bought with money." ”

Leaving Wang Laogen and a few old farmers, the two cars continued to drive along the dirt road towards Zhangjiawa Village, sitting in the car, Yue Haohan had a lot of thoughts in his heart, the people were simple, they never questioned whether their hard-earned money should be handed over, they just squandered their hard-earned money and had opinions.

It seems that the crux of the peasants' excessive burden lies in the management of the three mentions and five unifications; Originally, there are big theoretical loopholes in the calculation basis of the three mentions and five unifications, especially the average income of people in the previous year, which is simply an indeterminable nonsense data, where is the average income of people real? Isn't it made up by a few people who make annual reports according to the intentions of the leaders, sitting in the office and making up nonsense? Moreover, the income gap between rural households and rural households is getting wider and wider, and the amount to be paid on the basis of per capita net income will result in the heavier the absolute burden on the lower and poorer the households.

As the car bumped on the dirt road, Yue Haohan asked Guo Chenyang, who was sitting next to him, and said, "Director Guo, I have a question I want to test you, can you see how this question should be calculated?" ”

Guo Chenyang asked, "Director Yue, what's the problem?" ”

Yue Haohan replied: "This is a simple math problem, and Xiao Xiang can also calculate it. If Director Guo's income is 500 yuan, and Xiaoxiang and I both earn 200 yuan, what is the average income of the three of us? ”

Hearing Yue Haohan's question, Lao Wang, the driver of the car, hurriedly replied: "Director Yue, such a simple question, the children in the kindergarten will count, isn't the average income of the three of you 300 yuan!" ”

Yue Haohan said: "Lao Wang, you are right, the per capita income of the three of us is 300 yuan, let me ask another question, if the three of us take out five percent of the money per capita to refuel, how much should each person take?" ”

Xiang Yifei, who was sitting in the passenger seat, replied: "Everyone should take out 15 yuan." ”

Yue Haohan said: "That's right, now I'll ask again, if Director Guo's income is 870 yuan, and my income with Xiaoxiang is 15 yuan, then what is the average income of the three of us?" If we still take 5% of the average income to refuel, how much money is left on each of the three of us in the end? What is the absolute burden for the three of us? ”

Guo Chenyang moved his body, leaned back against the back seat of the car, and replied, "Director Yue, I understand, your simple math problem has explained everything clearly. Let's not talk about the authenticity of the data of per capita net income, but just say that according to the per capita net income of 5 percent to measure the three mentions and five unifications, according to this method, the result will be that the poorer the person, the heavier his absolute burden, the richer the person, the lighter his absolute burden, really unfair! ”

Yue Haohan said: "Yes, take the simple math problem we calculated just now, if Director Guo's income is 500 yuan, and my income with Xiaoxiang is 200 yuan, if the burden is calculated at 5 percent, Director Guo's absolute burden is 3%, and my absolute burden with Xiaoxiang is 7.5%; If other conditions remain unchanged, Director Guo's income is 870 yuan, the difference will be even greater, and Director Guo's absolute burden will only be 1.7 percent, while the absolute burden of my fellow Xiaoxiang will be as high as 100 percent. ”

Guo Chenyang took Yue Haohan's words and said: "Director Yue, we didn't deeply analyze this seemingly simple problem before, and the consequence of this burden task is that the poorer the rural people, the heavier the absolute burden, the more difficult it is to get out of poverty. ”

Yue Haohan sighed: "The sorrow of the system! So reform is necessary. The purpose of our investigation this time is to go deeper, come up with something real, form written materials, and report this issue to the county party committee and county government after we go back. ”

While Yue Haohan was chatting, the car had already driven into a village, and Li Guoxing's car in front of him stopped in the shade of a tree on the edge of a family's rice field, and the driver, Lao Wang, also slowly stopped the car against Li Guoxing's car.

Yue Haohan pushed the car door and got out of the car, Li Guoxing had already arrived, pointed to a red brick and wooden house on the edge of the rice field, and said: "This is the house of Zhang Huaiming, secretary of the Zhangjiawa Village Branch. ”

Li Guoxing took the lead, and the group walked through the rice field, and just walked to the gate of Zhang Huaiming's courtyard, a shirtless man hurriedly walked out of the courtyard with a sickle in his hand.

Seeing Li Guoxing, the man on the light list stood stunned for a moment, then cracked his mouth and said with a smile: "Mayor Li, rare guest, rare guest!" On this hot day, what are you running here for, collecting? Our village's agricultural and special taxes have all been paid off, and didn't the five co-ordinated towns say that they will be completed by the end of September? ”

Li Guoxing said: "You Zhang Huaiming, you won't allow me to go to your village without urging the money?" Come, let me introduce to you, this is Director Yue of the county party committee office. ”

Li Guoxing introduced Yue Haohan and his entourage to Zhang Huaiming one by one, Zhang Huaiming let everyone into the hall, instructed his woman to pour tea for everyone, and then said to his son who was lying on the square table and doing his homework: "Dog, don't do your homework first, take the sickle into the watermelon field, pick two big watermelons for me, hurry up!" ”

Goudan looked like he was about fourteen or fifteen years old, probably in middle school, and when he heard Zhang Huaiming's instructions, Goudan picked up his homework, picked up the sickle and walked towards the door.

As soon as Goudan arrived in the yard, Zhang Huaiming called him again and ordered: "Goudan, by the way, you can inform the village chief Li Rongfu and the chief accountant Zhang Huailiang that when they come to our house, you will say that the leaders of the county party committee are here." ”

After instructing the dog, Zhang Huaiming put the square table in the middle of the hall, turned on a floor electric fan and shook his head and blew, Zhang Huaiming's woman poured a cup of tea for everyone and put it on the square table, and everyone sat around the square table.

Yue Haohan was indeed a little thirsty, picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and there was a strong oily smell in the tea, which made Yue Haohan almost vomit, thinking to himself: "It seems that the boiling water of Zhang Huaiming's house is boiled in the oil pot of stir-frying." ”

Yue Haohan couldn't drink it, put the teacup he was holding on the table again, looked at Zhang Huaiming, and asked, "Secretary Zhang." How many people are there in your village? Is most of the surname Zhang? ”

Zhang Huaiming replied: "There are more than 1,800 people in our village, which is a relatively small population village in Shijiawan Town, and the main surnames in our village are the Zhang family and the Li family, and the surname Zhang is more than the surname Li. ”

"What about the collective economic income of your village? How much accumulation? Yue Haohan asked.

Zhang Huaiming was afraid of his thighs and replied: "Director Yue, don't mention the village collective economy, there are only a few rotten adobe tile houses in our village, which are still left over from the fifties, except for a few broken houses, the rest is that the credit cooperatives in the town still owe tens of thousands of yuan in loans that have not been repaid, and the interest alone will increase by more than 10,000 yuan every year." ”

Guo Chenyang interjected and asked, "What are you doing with so much money in the village?" ”

Zhang Huaiming looked at Li Guoxing and replied: "If you ask Mayor Li, it will be clear that the annual agricultural and special taxes, three mentions and five unifications cannot complete the task, our village is poor, some farmers really can't afford to pay, and the town is pressing, the village has no choice but to go to the credit union for a loan to complete the task, so that after accumulating year by year, it will owe tens of thousands of yuan in principal and interest to the credit cooperative." ”