If Yuan Jinpeng is a winner, he himself may not think so. But to say that he is a loser, there must be people who oppose it. He never expected that he would become a secretary as he wished, but he was arranged in the most remote Fengling Township. After taking office, he roughly touched the situation, and the result was worse than expected. He even had a feeling of being deceived, could he be working hard to take over such a mess? A place where the per capita net income of farmers is less than 1,000 yuan! A place that relies on cadre loans to advance agricultural taxes and township overall planning tasks! A place where the salaries of cadres and teachers have been in arrears for seven months in a row! Maybe it's right to go with the flow, you shouldn't have sharpened your head and sought to be a secretary, no matter how powerful Sun Wukong is, he can't turn over the palm of the Buddha. Liu Zhenji hinted that Zhou Qiushui was very reluctant to arrange him to be the secretary, and he reluctantly made adjustments because of the face of the president. As a result, it caused a chain reaction, Qiu Yong was reappointed as the mayor of Suhu Town, and Zhang Qiang was reappointed as the mayor of Xiangyang Town....... Originally, he could have been arranged to replace Qiu Yong as the secretary of the Hongqiao Township Party Committee, but Zhou Qiushui threw him to Fengling Township.

Even a thousand reluctant, ten thousand unwilling, will not help. The wood is already in the boat, and no one can change it. What Yuan Jinpeng can do is to be familiar with the hometown and village conditions as much as possible, and enter the work role. After breakfast that day, he drove to Hongshiling Village with Bao Village cadres, Bao Kaixuan, head of the township armed forces, and Xiao Liu, the driver. This is one of the most remote and impoverished villages in Fengling Township.

The mountains are the mountains, fresh and quiet, and the sound of the old jeep as it drives seems a bit harsh. Yuan Jinpeng sat in the passenger seat and said, "Kaixuan, your name is quite foreign, like the name of someone in the city." ”

"Secretary Yuan, speaking of this name, it really has a bit of origin, if it's not this name, maybe I'm still cultivating the earth at home." Bao Kaixuan said, moving his body forward a little.

Bao Kaixuan's original name was Bao Kaisheng, and when he was in his second year of junior high school, he changed his name to "Victory". When he was a freshman in high school, he felt that "victory" was too cheesy and straightforward, so he changed it to "triumphant". The year he graduated from high school, he signed up for conscription, and after passing the physical examination and political examination, his name appeared on the candidate list of the military recruitment office. At that time, being a soldier was more popular than going to college, almost one in a hundred. When Deputy Political Commissar Wang, the leader of the receiving corps, saw Bao Kaixuan's name, he immediately drew a red line underneath. A few days later, he met the young man with a particularly uplifting name. Bao Kaixuan told Deputy Political Commissar Sù Wang about the process of changing his name, and said that the change to "Kaixuan" was to congratulate the People's Liberation Army on its triumphant return in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam! I wish the People's Liberation Army that liberates Taiwan in the future will return triumphantly! Deputy Political Commissar Wang was very happy and immediately finalized the decision to Bao Kaixuan. After arriving in the army, Bao Kaixuan stood out, and with the concern of Deputy Political Commissar Wang, he was promoted, and finally became the company commander. In 1987, under the influence of the million-dollar disarmament, he transferred to China and served as the deputy director of the Ministry of People's Armed Forces of Makeng Township. A few years later, he was promoted to the Minister of People's Armed Forces of Fengling Township, and he did not move his nest for eight years.

Yuan Jinpeng didn't expect Bao Kaixuan's qualifications to be so old, and he added a little respect to his words: "Minister Bao, the name Kaixuan is good, boost your spirit!" You've been packing Red Rock Ridge for a few years, what do you think is the problem? ”

Bao Kaixuan said: "The problem is simple, but it is not easy to solve. Otherwise, seeing the problem is called the level, and solving the problem is called the ability. In the past, there were many wood, bamboo, and mountain goods here, and the common people were so rich. But in recent years, the mountains have become bare, resources are getting less and less, many people spend money indiscriminately, have no savings, once there is nothing on the mountain, quickly return to poverty, so poor that they can't afford to buy salt. Isn't there a joke circulating in our county? A villager was playing mahjong, and his wife came to look for her husband to go home and pick up a urine bucket, and the urine was overflowing. As a result, my husband took ten yuan and asked the onlookers to pick it, which is what happened in Hongshiling ten years ago. At that time, my salary was only about 50 yuan, but they were willing to spend 10 yuan to hire someone to pick a bucket of urine! Can you not be poor if you squander it like this? ”

Yuan Jinpeng said: "I have heard about this, but I can't imagine that it is the matter of Hongshiling. Are there many people in the village who go out to work? ”

"Can you survive without working? When the young people went out, the family relied on them to send some money back to buy some meat and oil. Bao Kaixuan said.

The driver, Xiao Liu, parked the car on the side of the road: "Secretary Yuan, the car can't go, you have to walk five or six miles." ”

Yuan Jinpeng got out of the car and saw a small road leading to the continuous mountains, and there were some houses in the shadow of the halfway up the mountain. Of the 11 village committees in Fengling Township, four have not built roads, and Hongshiling Village is the one with the highest altitude.

Stop-and-go, about 40 or 50 minutes. Turning over a mountain, the eyes suddenly opened up, and a small and delicate mountain village appeared in front of me. A small stream flows through the entrance of the village, and on both sides of the stream are a vigorous and old camphor plant. The path into the village is less than two meters wide and winds its way into the village.

Yuan Jinpeng sighed: "It's really a bit of a peach blossom paradise, and it's just right to recommend it to Zhang Yimou to make a movie." ”

A huge buffalo walked slowly, met Yuan Jinpeng, couldn't dodge, and slid into the creek with one foot.

Bao Kaixuan smiled: "Alas, this bull's eye is good!" When they saw me before, they were very stable. When I saw Secretary Yuan today, I was so scared that I fell into the river. ”

Yuan Jinpeng smiled: "Where to say, the dog's eyes look at people low, and the bull's eyes look at people's people, it looks at us as a lot of people, and it is afraid that it will not be able to squeeze in, so it takes the initiative to give way." The cattle in this place are also under your control. ”

Laughing and laughing, I entered the village. It is a small mountain village with only a few dozen households, and all kinds of old houses are built along the mountain. The small road in the village is paved with stones or pebbles, which is quite a bit of the flavor of the ancient village.

Bao Kaixuan led Yuan Jinpeng directly to Zhou Dongsheng's house. This is a brick and wood structure house covering an area of more than 100 square meters, with antique style and arches and cornices. Inside the house is the common local structure of "one hall and four rooms", with the hall separated from the rooms and the rooms from each other by wooden boards. The front hall is close to the cedar wall is a solid wood table more than two meters long, below is a table of eight immortals and four benches, a few bamboo benches and wooden chairs are placed on the left and right sides, and there are some miscellaneous things in the corner of the hall.

Hearing someone enter the door, Zhou Dongsheng came out of the room and went to the hall. Seeing that it was Bao Kaixuan, he stepped forward to shake hands and instructed his wife to pour tea. He and Yuan Jinpeng met in Liu Zhenji's office, but he seemed to have forgotten about it. Respectfully invited Yuan Jinpeng to the table of eight immortals, brewed homemade green tea, and placed peanuts and black dried bamboo shoots on the fruit bowl.

After chatting for a while, Yuan Jinpeng straightforwardly explained his intentions: to understand the situation and find candidates for the village party secretary. The village party secretary has been vacant for seven or eight months, and he can't always find a suitable candidate. Zhou Dongsheng smiled bitterly: "Secretary Yuan, let me take you to the village first." "Say, lead the way. When he went to the middle of the village, he stopped and said, "Secretary Yuan, let's see if there are any new houses in the village, there are several families with TV pots at the door, and a few young people are at home." Yuan Jinpeng nodded, there were almost no new houses in his field of vision, most of them were bungalows built before the eighties, there were only four or five "TV pots", and there were not many chickens and dogs in the village, which seemed deserted. The office building of the village committee was dilapidated, and the handwriting of the signs of the village branch and the village committee was mottled and peeled off, turning them into two blank boards. The room was dusty and covered with cobwebs.

Then, Zhou Dongsheng led them to climb to the mountain behind the village, standing on the top of the mountain, and the surrounding scenery was unobstructed. On the opposite side of the hills, the villagers' self-kept mountains are bare, while the mountains of the county forest farm are full of verdant and distinct. The rice fields scattered in the col are one in the east and one in the west, the large ones are about one acre, and the small ones are less than one cent the size of the land.

Back in the village, Zhou Dongsheng deliberately took them to a farmer's house: a dilapidated old-fashioned bungalow, an empty hall, and an obscene middle-aged man. In the filthy kitchen, Zhou Dongsheng pulled Yuan Jinpeng to look at a pot with an extraordinary origin. I saw that a small half of the pot was knocked off, but it was still on the pot table. A piece is knocked off near the right side of the bottom of the pan, and the right side of the pan is raised by a brick - otherwise oil and water will leak out when stir-frying. But even if it is high, it is very difficult to stir-fry. Now there are some leftovers in the pot, and the soup is dripping onto the pot and flowing from the pot to the ground, making the ground sloppy. Yuan Jinpeng opened his mouth wide in shock, and his eye sockets were hot. It turned out that in early June, in order to make up the "double more than half" payment, Wang Lide, the head of the township, personally led a team to each village to collect the township fund. Received the bachelor Tuesday usually, stuck in the shell. The township co-ordination and village retention funds of 51 yuan a year have not been paid for three consecutive years on Tuesday. In fact, it's not Tuesday Ping's trick-or-treating, it's really poor, and the family is surrounded by walls, and there is no way to pay it. In his forties, he is still a single, and he has eaten the last meal but not the next. In previous years, when the village cadres received his home, they knew the roots, turned a blind eye and passed away. This year, the situation is different, and there are too many people who are unwilling to pay. Someone in the village said, why do we pay every year, and he doesn't pay a penny on Tuesday, it's not a? The problem was finally reported to Wang Lide. This is a difficult problem, if you don't receive the money and don't take action, I'm afraid more people will follow suit, and the whole village will be watching. But on Tuesday, there is no valuable thing at home, how do you act? Picking grain, people don't even have a barn, where to pick? Pigs are driven, and people don't raise pigs at all. Wang Lide weighed again and again, and waved his hand: "Smash the pot!" ”。 How did he know that Tuesday Ping didn't even have the money to mend the pot and buy the pot, so he could only use it.

Originally, there were four village cadres in the Hongshiling Village Committee, the director of the village committee, the militia battalion commander, and the accountant in the other three natural villages, and only Zhou Bingrong, the secretary of the village branch, lived in Hongshiling Village. After the Lantern Festival, Zhou Bingrong quit his work, and the work of the village committee was almost paralyzed. Bao Kaixuan used to eat at Zhou Bingrong's house, but now he has to be cheeky to go to Zhou Dongsheng's house to eat.

Yuan Jinpeng came to the door for the first time, and Zhou Dongsheng asked his wife to kill an old hen and catch two fish in the cold pond. In Redstone Ridge, this is a sumptuous family feast. Just as he was about to eat, Zhou Bingrong came to the door and said that he had something to find Secretary Yuan, Zhou Dongsheng said that he would talk about it after eating, and pulled him to the Eight Immortals table together.

The wine is a mellow rice wine, and the dish is a farmhouse native dish that has been washed with lead, Yuan Jinpeng came to be interested, and soon drank three or four bowls of rice wine. This is a porcelain bowl with a large mouth and blue and white on the side, which the locals call "blue-rimmed bowl".

Yuan Jinpeng felt a little dizzy: "This wine is very pure to drink, and the stamina must be great, I am the fourth bowl, and I can't drink it again." ”

Zhou Bingrong said: "Secretary Yuan is young and promising, what is this rice wine." You can rest assured, our home-brewed wine does not hit the head, does not hurt the body, where is there any stamina. ”

"Secretary Yuan, the mountains and water here are high and cold, and the grain can only be grown for one season, and the yield is low. The yield of glutinous rice is lower, but the quality of the rice is good. The glutinous rice is good, the water is good, and my old woman's craftsmanship is also good, of course, it is a good wine, you can drink it with confidence. Zhou Dongsheng said.

Yuan Jinpeng said emotionally: "Since I came to Fengling Township, I haven't drunk so much wine, so I will have a good drink with the two seniors today." To be honest, I learned a lot today. I didn't expect that the common people were living so hard and difficult, and there were people who had no money to make up for the rotten pot. There is less wood and bamboo on the mountain, less mountain goods, and less acres of land, which is a headache for you and a difficult problem for our party committee and government. If agricultural taxes, township co-ordination, and village retention cannot be collected, not only will the county not only be unable to complete the task of handing over the taxes, but also the salaries of cadres and teachers will not be paid, and the village organizations at the two levels will probably be paralyzed. With that, he picked up the blue-rimmed bowl and took a big sip: "Drink, let's drink together!" ”

Zhou Dongsheng and Zhou Bingrong were silent. Yuan Jinpeng put down the bowl and continued: "The township cadres have not received their salaries for seven months, and the teachers have not received their salaries for four months. Of course, it is more difficult for village cadres, who work on the front line, and there are many contradictions and low income. But in any case, we can't allow the party branch to be paralyzed. I checked, Hongshiling has not developed party members for six years, and the average age of the 17 party members in the branch is 51 years old......"

"The responsibility is mine, I will do the review!" Zhou Bingrong snatched the talk, his face flushed. Then he took out a note from his jacket pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to Yuan Jinpeng: "Secretary Yuan, I originally wanted to send it to the township, but when I heard that you were here, I took it." I'm not here to beg for a drink. ”

Yuan Jinpeng took the note and was surprised that it was a "** application".

Zhou Bingrong said: "Secretary Yuan, my party age is older than yours, let me tell you a few words that dig into your heart." In the past few years, I have always pondered a question: what is wrong with the country and what is wrong with our party. I am the secretary of the village party committee, and my salary is more than 1,000 yuan a year. In order to complete the task of paying taxes and taxes, I went to the credit union to borrow tens of thousands of yuan. Of course, I also know that you have hundreds of thousands of loans as leaders. Why did you say that this is the case, the private loan has completed the task of solving the problem. Your state cadres are better, I am a farmer, I am the secretary of the branch this year, and I don't know what to do next year. The loan is in my private name, what will I pay back, and if I can't pay it back, will I go to jail? Last year, I was beaten up by the villagers. It was because I brought the township cadres to the door to collect the payment, and forced the people to hand over a few pieces of the ancestral heirloom to pay off the debt. After the Chinese New Year this year, my son was found fault by these people again. These people are actually forcing me to resign! I have been a member of the party for more than 30 years, and I have not received any benefits except for paying party dues every year. In the past few years, I have been the branch secretary, and I have encountered the most difficult time. Looking at the two signs of the village committee, I wondered, how long can this sign be hung? ……”

Zhou Dongsheng interrupted Zhou Bingrongde's words: "Bingrong, you are drunk. How can you think and say that? ”

Zhou Bingrong said: "Uncle Dongsheng, I'm not drunk. You see, those who believe in Catholicism in the village, every New Year's holiday, there are people who send food, drink, money and Spring Festival couplets, what about us? What else is there to be a party member besides paying party dues? Everyone has to talk about something real, and if they don't eat, drink, or wear, they can't live. ”

Zhou Bingrong's words deeply stung Yuan Jinpeng and Bao Kaixuan. However, you have to admit that Zhou Bingrong's words are not untrue, at least in the impoverished village of Hongshiling. We always take from the people, not give. In most villages, the party branches have only the slightest contact with ordinary peasant party members when they collect party dues. In the early years, when the wood and bamboo resources on the mountain were abundant, the government did not do a good job in planning, control, industrial transformation and sustainable development, and led farmers to quickly return to poverty when the wood and bamboo resources were exhausted.

On the way back, Yuan Jinpeng fell into deep thought. The economic situation of Xiangyang Township is obviously better than that of Fengling Township, but there is one thing that is very similar between the two places, that is, the grassroots party organizations are weak, sloppy, and lack cohesion and combat effectiveness. This magnificent rural reform has made unprecedented achievements in the past 20 years, but it has also set higher demands on the ability of rural grassroots organizations to govern. The transformation of the mode of production and the mode of material supply has directly weakened the control and influence of the grassroots organizations over individual farmers. It is no exaggeration to say that the majority of peasants do not have to take the initiative to seek out township and town cadres and village cadres throughout the year. However, when the village cadres came to the door, they could only demand the payment of agricultural taxes, township co-ordination, village retention or other apportionments, and even cut grain and drive pigs, and forcibly confiscate them. Under such circumstances, the relationship between the cadres and the masses is not one of water and milk, but of incompatibility. In the early 90s, when some localities launched a campaign to "educate on socialist ideology" in rural areas, they carried out an ingenious campaign to "evaluate five-star peasant households." Peasant households that have not been rated as "five-star" are subject to different restrictions in various aspects, the most severe of which is to join the army and go to university. After the campaign began, the "Diao Min" immediately became honest, but an atmosphere of terror enveloped the countryside, and people even suspected that this was a precursor to another political campaign, and people were panicked. As several farmers fought to the death, this coercive and colorful campaign was soon stopped by the superiors. At that time, Yuan Jinpeng was a student at Qingchuan Normal University and could not understand the purpose of the local government's "evaluation of five-star farmers" campaign. Now, he can understand that advocating for this campaign was a source of desperation. Of course, this does not mean that he agrees with similar practices, and clamping down is a stupid practice that goes against the tide and will eventually withdraw from the stage of history. The new rural form calls for new and vibrant work content and methods. It's just that he also feels very lost, and he doesn't know what to do to revitalize the countryside.

When I was about to arrive at Fengling Village, I saw a group of people kneeling in the fields by the roadside. Yuan Jinpeng told Xiao Liu to stop and went over with Bao Kaixuan to see what was going on. When one of them saw them, he hurriedly stood up and greeted them. Yuan Jinpeng felt that this person was a little familiar, and he couldn't remember where he had seen it for a while. Bao Kaixuan whispered that it was the "red nose" of the village director of Fengling Village, and he remembered.

Bao Kaixuan said: "Red nose, why are you kneeling in a row here, what happened?" ”

"Red Nose" smiled awkwardly: "It's okay, it's just playing." ”

The group of people who were kneeling just now stood up and shouted: "Minister Bao, you come to judge the reason, we said that kneeling down and swearing to the sky, people who have slept with two women are thundered in the sky." I didn't expect the red nose to dare to kneel down, this is clearly deceiving! He's got at least four women, we can name them. ”

"Red Nose" smiled slyly: "You just said that you have slept with two women, and I have slept with four or five women, not two, why don't you dare to swear?" ”

When everyone heard this, they laughed and scolded the "red nose" for being tricky and slippery, and scattered.

When I returned to the township government, it was already night. Seeing that there was a "Santana" sedan parked in the yard with a license plate that could not be read clearly, Yuan Jinpeng estimated that a leader was coming. At this time, I saw a person standing at the door of the canteen from a distance and scolding: Society**! This society is down to zero! He was about to step forward to ask what was going on, when clerk Zhang Mujin trotted over from the canteen and invited him to eat in the canteen box, saying that Director Liang of the County Civil Affairs Bureau and Director Hu of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau were here, and Township Chief Wang was drinking with him. When approaching the cafeteria, the person who had just scolded the street stopped talking and turned his back. He took a special look, it was Liang Jinsheng, the canteen administrator.

Liang Kexiong and Hu Linsheng came on this trip because of the declaration of Fengling Township as an ethnic township. They have been here several times before, but the approval procedures are cumbersome, so they have to supplement the materials again and again, otherwise they will not be able to pass the pass in the province. Hu Linsheng began to be reappointed as director of the newly established county ethnic and religious affairs bureau in March last year, and with real power, he can often receive tea oil, shiitake mushrooms, and fungus from the temple. However, Fengling Township was far away from the county seat, and Yuan Jinpeng did not forcibly persuade them to drink and let them go home early.

After sending Liang Kexiong and Hu Linsheng away, Yuan Jinpeng asked Wang Lide: "What's the matter with that old Liang, scolding the street and scolding the government at the door of the canteen?" ”

"Ignore this Liang leper! scolded the street without drinking a meal. Wang Lide waved his hand and went back to the room.

Bao Kaixuan followed Yuan Jinpeng into the office: "Secretary Yuan, Lao Liang's jokes are a basket." ”

Liang Jinsheng was born a leper since he was a child, and he developed the habit of wearing a hat, and he did not take off his hat on dog days. After graduating from high school, his brother, who was the secretary of the brigade, recommended him to study at a regional agricultural school. Once, a classmate suddenly took off his hat, and the leprosy of the white flower was very eye-catching. He immediately picked up a hoe at hand and chased down the classmate, which almost led to a bloody crime, and no one dared to touch his hat again. **At the time of his death, Panasonic Commune organized all cadres and employees to mourn. He was forced to take off his hat, and a few people next to him saw his helpless look, and then looked at the "true face of Lushan", and couldn't help but "flutter" and laugh. This is terrible, you still laugh when you die, and several people do reviews and are punished. Because of this leprosy, he couldn't get a wife for a long time, so he ran to the county health school when he had nothing to do, and when he met a girl, he raised a Roman brand watch. At that time, watches were a rarity and the average person could not afford them. Seeing that he had become an older youth, the party secretary of the Panasonic Commune came forward to introduce him to a woman from a mountain village, and he finally became a family. Later, he was finally promoted to the deputy mayor of Panasonic Town, and because he cooperated with the head of the water pipe station to embezzle a water conservancy fee, he was placed on party probation, dismissed, and transferred to Fengling Township. As a canteen manager, you naturally have more opportunities to eat and drink together. Slowly, the leader did not invite him to accompany the meal, and he cursed outside the cafeteria. In the past, when Kuang Pinghe and Wang Lide were present, he didn't dare to scold the street. Later, in front of Wang Lide, he also dared to scold. Some people say that Wang Lide slept with his wife, so he was naturally not afraid of Wang Lide. It is not clear whether this is true or not, but it is a fact that Liang Jinsheng and his wife have been separated for many years. In the past few years, he has eaten and drunk a lot, and the leper has produced more oil. Sleeping at night makes the pillow and quilt dirty. His wife was angry and separated from him.

Yuan Jinpeng listened to Liang Jinsheng's anecdotes with great interest, and said with a smile: "No matter what, Lao Liang can't scold the street without eating." A meal without a guest is social**? So how much do you eat and drink here? I'll talk to him tomorrow. If he finds it again, he will be asked to find another job, and the Fengling Township Government does not want him. ”

Bao Kaixuan said: "Secretary Yuan, you don't have to come forward. I found an opportunity to persuade Lao Liang not to give up on himself. Well...... I heard that the deputy leader is also about to be adjusted, I am almost forty years old, please ask Secretary Yuan for help. ”

The change of township and town leadership is usually a little earlier in place. How to arrange the deputy position, the party secretary does not have much power, but to go through the motions and respect you at the end. The secretaries of the township and township party committees are well aware of this, and even if they name and name who they want or don't want, they will communicate with the head of the county party committee's organization department individually. Yuan Jinpeng and Liu Zhenji have a special relationship, so they naturally knew about the deputy position allocation in Fengling Township earlier than others. He remembered that Bao Kaixuan was promoted to serve as deputy secretary of the party committee on the spot, and Zhang Mujin was promoted to deputy mayor.

After all, it has not yet been announced, and Yuan Jinpeng cannot leak secrets, so he said: "Minister Bao, you have worked in the post of Minister of Armed Forces for so many years and have done a lot of work, and the county party committee and township party committee will not treat cadres who do practical things badly." What's more, this time, the post of deputy secretary in charge of politics and law has been increased, and I believe that you have a great chance of being promoted. Of course, the contradictions between cadres and the masses are complex now, and this position has a heavy burden and great pressure. ”

Bao Kaixuan knew it after hearing this, said thank you to Secretary Yuan, and went back to his room with a smile.