Li Weiren knew that his talent and ability were just an ordinary level, and he was too far from the far-reaching vision that Wei Ze possessed. The war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was just an ordinary war in Li Weiren's view, and Wei Ze could see too many things from it that Li Weiren could not see, which was what Li Weiren admired most about Wei Ze. However, Li Weiren did not plan to learn from Wei Ze, he chose the range he thought he could afford.

"Governor, you are my teacher. I'm too stupid to understand that much as a student, but I absolutely obey your orders. I'll do whatever you tell me to do. Li Weiren thought so in his heart, and said it directly.

Hearing Li Weiren's statement, Wei Ze laughed, "It seems that you want to make a contribution to the Ottoman Empire." I'm really looking forward to your help. ”

Li Weiren did not defend himself, the object of his defense was Wei Ze's words, and any defense was meaningless. So many cattle people bowed their heads obediently in front of Wei Ze, and Li Weiren didn't feel that he had any reason to have more value than those people who had to let Wei Ze discuss it. He said the truth, "Dudu, without your advice, my life would be like this." But now I really want to make a difference, and I want to follow the path you showed me and see how far I can go along that path. ”

"I'm not going to send you now." Weese replied.

"Can I expect that, then?" Li Weiren said.

"You can look forward to it." Weeser laughed. The Ottomans were very uncooperative in the matter of Kuwait, and Weezer could accept that the Ottomans did not support the Chinese entrenchment in the Basra area. However, Weeser could not accept that the Ottoman Empire was playing tricks with China on the land of Kuwait. China needs a long-term foothold in Kuwait, even if it doesn't get the country, it has to get the full right to exploit oil.

But Wei Ze was also a little hesitant about this matter. The oil of this year is not the oil of the 21st century, and the price can be speculated to a sky-high price, and the oil of this year is actually a very cheap resource. In general, the price of five to ten barrels of oil is about enough to buy one oil barrel. Not long after the development of China's electric welding technology, the technology of petroleum fractionation was finally guaranteed. Safety explosives made of diatomaceous earth adsorbed nitrate glycerin have begun to withdraw from the ranks of artillery. Trinitrate toluene has officially taken its place.

A large number of phenyl compounds can be obtained after the fractionation of oil in Southeast Asia, and China's utilization of Southeast Asian oil has been greatly improved. The impact of Middle Eastern oil on China is only in the separation of diesel. And that's a lot of money for China. But Wei Ze has such a pimple in his heart. He just wants to take Kuwait and extract oil here without money. Knowing that this idea is really childish, Wei Ze just can't overcome this thought.

Li Weiren didn't know Wei Ze's heart knot, he had already expressed his position, and he received a positive response from Wei Ze. Li Weiren said goodbye with interest.

Li Weiren left, and Shen Xin came. After seeing Wei Ze, Shen Xin immediately said, "Dudu, I obey the order to go to North America." ”

Weeser was pleased with the young men, and their obedience was far superior to that of the old fellows. Wei Ze smiled: "You definitely can't leave now, going to North America is not simply for you to sit in the town, first get the propaganda up." And I asked you to do the survey, how did you do? ”

"The grain is cheap and hurts the peasants!" Shen Xin said in a somewhat exaggerated tone.

The prices of agricultural products in the Republic of China fell again and again with the full expansion. This is something that cannot be helped, and the demand for rations will naturally plummet. If you eat pickled radish and blanched greens in water, there is no pressure to eat two catties of rice. Let's take half a catty of meat first, then you can only eat half a catty of rice or half a catty of steamed buns. Even if you don't have half a catty of meat, you can't eat two catties of rice if you fry vegetables with two taels of oil. This is a very helpless situation. The people have been hungry for too long, and the cheap food of the Republic of China has really eliminated the hunger of the broad masses of the people.

But the basic needs of human beings are a ladder state, and after eliminating the sense of threat, they need to be fed, and the first reaction after eating is to have money to buy consumer goods. The country's low food prices have greatly reduced the consumption capacity of rural areas.

Wei Ze smiled: "I heard that there is a saying in various places recently, the countryside is bitter!" ”

Shen Xin didn't know how to answer for a while, whether it was bitter or not was something that came out of comparison. If it is compared with the year when Shen Xin defected to Wei Ze, this era is already an era that I could never dream of. It's too difficult to starve an individual to death now, and how lazy or unlucky you have to be to starve to death. But only 30 years ago, not even 30 years, more than a decade ago, it was not uncommon for people to starve to death in China outside the sphere of influence of the Liberation Army.

But this did not satisfy the people, at this time the people felt, "I have no money, I can't afford to buy what I want to buy, this day is too hard!" ”

Shen Xin is from a military and political background, and he doesn't think it's a smart way to compare the era of starving people with the present. It was precisely because of the poor livelihood of the people at that time that there was a foundation for the Liberation Army to seize the world like a withering and decaying army. If not having food is regarded as a normal situation, is the Min Dynasty ready to repeat the old drama of the Manchu Dynasty?

Shen Xin said: "Governor, when I was doing research, the attitude of the agricultural department was that the people were not cooperative, and they felt that it was too hard for them to learn to improve the soil and adopt new farming methods. In the past, it was the engineers who were able to do this, but now the situation is different. The engineering corps simply does not have the energy to carry out so many projects, and the local water conservancy construction has been strengthened enough, but it is not enough. Instead, the young comrades in the industrial sector made a suggestion that the agricultural tax should be abolished throughout the country. The abolition of the agricultural tax is equivalent to a disguised increase of 30 percent in peasant incomes across the country. In this way, the real income and purchasing power of the peasants will be greatly increased. Not to mention anything else, some large items, farmers are really consuming. ”

It took a great deal of courage to propose the abolition of agricultural taxes in this era, even to such an extent that the old dynasties were overthrown and the old system was smashed. But after all, agricultural taxes have a history of thousands of years, and they also account for about 20% of the total tax revenue of the current Republic of China. The abolition of the agricultural tax was destined to trigger a full-blown political earthquake. Shen Xin also had to think and discuss it repeatedly, and mustered up great courage before he dared to say this to Wei Ze. Moreover, the abolition of agricultural tax is not without prerequisites, there is no agricultural tax in the northeast, but the northeast has taken the lead in completing the unified purchase and marketing of staple grains. And the farmer must complete the farming contract, and if it can't be done, then there has to be an explanation.

Shen Xin listened to Wei Ze's answer with trepidation, "The abolition of agricultural taxes is not a problem, and the purpose of collecting agricultural taxes in kind is to have national grain reserves and avoid large-scale famine." If we want to abolish the agricultural tax, we must do a good job of propaganda work, and the state cannot abolish it unconditionally. ”

"Nadu Dudu's idea is ......" Shen Xin suppressed his excitement and hurriedly asked clearly.

"The abolition of agricultural taxes must be combined with compulsory education! Whoever dares not to let the child go to school, and who dares not to let the girl go to school, this agricultural tax must be collected! Weeser took out the conditions he had in mind.

Shen Xin was almost amused by this, reading is a good thing in traditional Chinese thinking, how can it become necessary to use agricultural taxes as a punitive measure? However, Shen Xin is Shen Xin after all, and when he encounters something that seems funny, he will not immediately laugh instinctively, but think about it with his brain. And then he understood.

Raising children for compulsory education is a very expensive job, and there are not as many children as there used to be. Because the mortality rate of children was too high, it was not uncommon for more than seventy or eighty children to be born, and half of them died before they got married. Now just being able to eat enough can quickly reduce the mortality rate. There are five or six babies in the house, and no one can stand it. Shen Xin's family gave birth to three, which is not too many. After returning home, the three babies made Shen Xin feel as big as a fight.

Li Mingen of the Political Department was about to collapse after giving birth to six babies. Family planning tools in the department are free, and the best-selling family planning tool brand in China around the world is called Durex. Li Mingen has a large demand in this regard, so he is very diligent. So he got the nickname "Teacher Du" behind his back.

Weeser was able to convince the public because he not only pointed out the problem, but also came up with a considerable degree of solution to the problem. There are parent classes in the city, which talk about how to be parents. No matter how much the parents' cognitive level is raised, it has become a consensus in a city that it has accumulated over the years to give birth, raise, and educate.

But in rural areas, getting all children to get an adequate education is a big challenge in itself. One of the big slogans of the Fourth Five-Year Plan is to eradicate illiteracy. "New China has an obligation to eradicate illiteracy!" The problem is that if this great idea is to be realized, good intentions alone will not work at all.

After thinking about this joint, Shen Xin's joy at learning that the agricultural tax might be abolished immediately diminished a lot. In contrast to this joy, the total eradication of illiteracy is a terrifying task.

"I had a discussion with Levi's and the civil affairs and education departments about compulsory education, and they thought that the state really couldn't enforce it," Wei said. I also didn't mention the abolition of the agricultural tax. This is also what I came up with with a pat on my head, and once it is to be implemented, there must be something wrong in it. ”

Shen Xin agrees with this statement, even if it is a great good thing, if you want to implement it, you will encounter countless difficulties. It's like one of the key points of universal medical care is to get women to go to the hospital to give birth. The army originally thought that the army would be popular, and there was also a wonderful delusion, thinking that the soldiers in the army would take the initiative to do so after receiving education.

Reality has taught everyone a lesson, and it is easy to implement these in the city. But it is not good in the countryside, and in Guangxi and Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, it is impossible for women to give birth to children and men to get close. When encountering the problem of giving birth to a baby, it is easy to have two lives in one corpse. In the end, it was Wei Ze who proposed a solution to the problem, and the rural soldiers from Yunnan-Guizhou and other places went to the maternity hospital to stand guard and receive hospital training in the hospital. Listening to the mother's screams, I saw the healthy baby born in the hospital again. Coupled with the education courses on the dangers of giving birth to all kinds of babies, these people can understand that having a child is not a simple problem. Women are at great risk.

Shen Xin wanted to know where Wei Ze thought the risks were, so he asked Wei Ze: "Dudu, where do you think the risks are now?" ”

"The risk is the propaganda department. As far as I know, some people want to promote this as a political achievement, as if it was a great credit to the government to make compulsory education compulsory for the people. I think it's too useless to do that. This is a hard thing that needs to be discussed seriously in order for the people to accept. The biggest beneficiary of this is actually the state and the government. The next beneficiaries are the children who are educated, and the parents are the ones who provide for them. I don't think it's appropriate for the biggest beneficiary to speak to the giver with the benefactor's face. Weeser gave an answer.

Shen Xin was a little confused for a while, "Dudu, we are giving these children a way out." So that they can live a better life in the future, the country actually bears a huge pay. ”

"That's right, but the people don't care." Wei Ze coldly pointed out his opinion, "Those who want their children to go to school, let alone abolish the agricultural tax, you just add some more taxes, as long as they can afford it, they will insist on letting their children go to school." But we're dealing with people who don't really want to do it, so I'm totally against that kind of propaganda. ”

Shen Xin was a little confused, "What's wrong?" ”

Weeser explained: "I am kind to you, that is, I am right, and you are right. I helped you, I'm hello, hello everyone. The punitive compulsory compulsory education law means that the state is correct and compulsory education is correct. It is a mistake not to allow children to go to compulsory education. Whoever makes a mistake, we punish whomever we punish. At this time, he appeared with the face of a benefactor, and those who were unhappy said, 'I don't ask for you'. Regardless of whether compulsory education is a good thing or not, at least this propaganda has completely failed. ”

Poof, Shen Xinle burst out. He could fully understand the impulse of the civil servants to promote compulsory education as their great achievement. Compulsory education is indeed a great thing, if you don't consider the hard work of the parents of those five, six, seven or eight babies, this is even a beautiful thing. But in the eyes of a cold guy like Weeser, this attitude is indeed a big mistake. Wei Ze seemed to be very unhappy, and the civil officials were only afraid that the degree of unhappiness was still above Wei Ze. After all, Wei Ze only has to give orders, and the specific execution, even the things that offend people, have to be done by civil officials.

Shen Xin supported Wei Ze, so he could only keep his mouth shut about this matter. Just as forcing parents to let their children go out for education will make some parents very unhappy, forcing the civil service to do these jobs will also make civil officials very unhappy. At this time, everyone can only do it, if Shen Xin talks about how good he is doing this, what is the difference between him and civil officials?

Since Shen Xin was asked to engage in propaganda, Wei Ze told Shen Xin another important task, "Propaganda work makes full use of the radio that is beginning to be popularized. That hard work for five years can earn 100,000 yuan. I think it's good, but try not to think that you just have to tell the truth. If you don't tell the whole truth, especially the fact that these 100,000 yuan may not be able to fall into your pocket in the first five years. In general, righteousness and profit should not be opposed. If it is good for the country, everyone can also benefit, and this kind of publicity is the most appropriate. ”

"What are we going to say about the possibility of war with the United States?" Shen Xin asked this big question.

Wei Ze sneered, "I like to make wishful thinking. If the United States can take the initiative to attack us, and in the next few years we will do well in North America, and we will be able to spread education throughout the country. In that case, we have a large number of young people with a modern nation-state mentality, a local food base and a local population in North America, and a certain amount of industrial strength in North America. At that time, the war with the United States had begun in the sparsely populated Midwest of the United States. Our naval superiority can also be fully exploited. In that case, the pressure of war would be much less. And it can be supported all over the world. So let's start with the basics, and that's what I want you to do in North America. ”

"Do you mean to get your own things done first?" Shen Xin summed it up.

"Let's hope the Yankees can be so stupid. Of course, I'll also find a way to contribute to the stupidity of the Yankees. However, striking iron still needs its own hardness, we first prepare what should be prepared, and it will take almost ten years. Wei Ze did not directly agree, but continued to speak on the basis of the points put forward by Shen Xin.

"Governor, are we going to war with other countries in other directions? If there were such a war, we would have to fight two wars at the same time. "Shen Xin's strategic considerations are not bad.

"Our enemies are now three, Russia, Great Britain, and the United States. Britain and the United States can be put first, and recently Russia is fighting the Ottoman Empire. Let's see how far Russia can fight, and whether Russia can make a strategic breakthrough in the end. If Russia can't do it, then our war with Russia is unlikely. There is nothing to be afraid of a Russia that the Ottoman Empire cannot contain. If Russia can really change the situation, we have to think about it. However, if the Russians could change their situation in the Mediterranean, it was very likely that the British would intervene, and it would be a very complicated situation at that time. Wei Ze slowly spoke his opinion, some things could not be said to Li Weiren, but he could be said to Shen Xin.

"But none of this affects our construction work in North America, you first do a good job of publicity, and then you can lead the team to develop North America. This is a very good thing to boost morale, because the government only propagandizes itself, but without senior cadres personally leading the team, the people will also be suspicious. So, you're working hard. ”

Shen Xin smiled: "I'm not afraid of hard work, I'm afraid that my comrades won't agree." However, since the governor has already explained the key to propaganda, I will definitely work hard. ”

As a person who has worked in the four northern provinces, Shen Xin has an indescribable feeling about the work of civil affairs. That's the frustration of the past, and I also hope that I can have a chance to fight a turnaround. Among the old guys, Shen Xin's age is very young. If the retirement system can be continued, Shen Xin has a great chance to take another step. Therefore, Shen Xin was very satisfied with Wei Ze's appointment.

Wei Ze's recent attention is probably on the Russian-Turkish war, and Shen Xin has room to give full play.