Things are so coincidental, Zhou Hexuan didn't want to pay attention to the disadvantages of catching strong men, but someone took the initiative to provoke him.

The photo studio had just washed out the photos of the naked children in the Temple of Literature, and two people suddenly came to Li Zongwu's house.

"Mr. Zhou, I can be regarded as finding you!" The comer said anxiously.

Zhou Hexuan had never seen these two people, and asked, "Who are you?" ”

One of them said: "I am Li Fengyuan from Yibin Peach Bend, and I am responsible for helping Mr. Zhou take care of the farm. This is a local brother in the robe, named Niu Kaiyang. ”

Niu Kaiyang hugged his fists and said, "Hello Mr. Zhou! ”

Zhou Hexuan returned the salute with a fist and asked, "What is the matter with the two of you looking for me?" ”

Li Fengyuan said: "That's right. Eight days ago, a regimental district in Guizhou sent Zhuang Ding to Chengdu, and when he passed through Yibin, he arrested 13 tenants of our farm along the way, and also arrested several foreign merchants and local boatmen. ”

Niu Kaiyang added: "They were arrested in the middle of the night, and they didn't know until a tenant farmer escaped halfway to explain the situation. In terms of time, those strong men are estimated to have arrived in Meishan. ”

Li Fengyuan said again: "After I understood the situation, I hurriedly sent a telegram to the Zhou Mansion, and my wife called back that you came to Zigong." I had to take Second Brother Niu to Zigong, and after two days of inquiry, I learned that you were looking at a friend here in Dengguan. ”

Niu Kaiyang said angrily: "The Guizhou turtle son of dog X, dare to come to our Yibin to catch the strong man, and half of the people who were arrested are from the robe brothers!" ”

The two of you kept talking, Zhou Hexuan interrupted: "The regimental management area of Guizhou is not necessarily from Guizhou. ”

The "regimental management area" is a special recruitment agency set up by the Republic of China, and there are also "division management areas" and "military management areas" at a higher level, which are equivalent to the collection of military divisions, armed forces departments, and people's armed forces departments in New China.

During the great drought in Sichuan, Zhou Hexuan bought a lot of wasteland in eastern and southern Sichuan, and provided seeds and cattle to resettle the homeless victims. These wastelands gradually developed into scattered farms, and each region had a person in charge, and Zhou Hexuan regularly sent people to inspect the work.

Many victims spontaneously joined the Pao Ge organization to seek shelter and hold each other together, and they also contributed some money and food to the Pao Ge organization every year.

Due to the previous wars in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the number of Chinese soldiers was seriously depleted, so 1940 was the largest number of strong men caught during the entire Anti-Japanese War. The reason why the impact is not as bad as after 1942 is that there are still many strong men to arrest at this time, and the people in charge of conscription have not killed innocent people on a large scale.

But obviously, there were already signs at this time, and he didn't know whether he was alive or dead.

This practice rarely harms the locals, they all catch outsiders along the road, and as long as it does not provoke a popular uprising, it does not matter, and the government will not do anything to deal with it.

The officials all depend on their conscience, and some of them do not care about anything for the sake of meritorious service, and there is even a situation where the number of strong men arrested by the chief is not enough, and the township chief catches the chief on the spot.

There are also some officials who cheat, take Yibin County, which had an accident this time, as an example, the county magistrate is really a talent. He specially bribed the ruffians to be strong men, first took a part of the money from selling himself and deposited it with the township chief and the security chief, and gave one-tenth of the interest, and when the ruffians fled halfway, the principal and interest were paid in full. In this way, many people were saved from calamity, and the ruffians and officials made money, and all expenses were shared collectively among the people, and the majority of the people were happy.

Niu Kaiyang saw that Zhou Hexuan was silent, and suddenly became anxious: "Mr. Zhou, you have to make decisions for us!" ”

Ordinary landlords must not care when they encounter this kind of thing, even if the local county magistrate personally intervenes, it will not help. If it weren't for Zhou Hexuan's fame, Li Fengyuan and Niu Kaiyang would not have come to the door for help, and they could only consider themselves unlucky in this situation.

Nan Huaijin wanted to speak and stopped, but after all, he didn't speak.

Li Zongwu looked at Zhou Hexuan with a smile, as if he wanted to know how Zhou Hexuan would react.

Zhou Hexuan thought for a while and said, "I'll go to the county to make a call first." ”

Li Fengyuan and Niu Kaiyang were overjoyed, the feeling of hugging thick thighs is different!

Li Zongwu reminded: "Fushun County has not installed telephones, and if you want to make a call, you can only go to Zigong City. ”

Everyone took a boat all the way to Zigong, Zhou Hexuan went straight to the mayor's residence, ran to Cao Renyuan's office and said, "Dr. Cao, borrow a phone." ”

Cao Renyuan glanced at everyone, although he didn't know what was going on, he still said, "Mr. Zhou, just use it." ”

After transferring the line several times in a row, Zhou Hexuan actually called He Yingqin: "I'm Zhou Hexuan, looking for He Yingqin and Minister He." ”

"Hello Mr. Zhou, I am Minister He's secretary, what is the important matter for Minister He?" The other end of the phone replied.

Zhou Hexuan asked, "Is Minister He not here?" ”

The secretary said: "Minister He went out to inspect. ”

Zhou Hexuan didn't care whether it was true or not, and said: "Then don't bother Minister He, you can help me check, recently a group of people from the Guizhou Youth League District sent Zhuang Ding to Chengdu, which army is responsible for receiving the troops?" ”

"This ......" The secretary was a little embarrassed, but for the sake of Zhou Hexuan's face, he still said, "Mr. Zhou, please wait a moment." ”

Zhou Hexuan said: "I called you from the office of the mayor of Zigong, and I will reply to me immediately when I find out the news!" ”

"Okay, I'll do it right away." The secretary hurriedly hung up the phone.

Nan Huaijin, Qian Ji, Li Fengyuan and Niu Kaiyang all looked at Zhou Hexuan with adoring eyes, which is too awesome. Several tenant farmers under his name were arrested, and they actually called He Yingqin directly, and He Yingqin's secretary immediately helped with the errand.

Li Zongwu said with a smile: "Ge Laozi, it's still Zhou Shenxian." ”

Cao Renyuan asked, "What's going on?" ”

Nan Huaijin hurriedly explained the situation, and Cao Renyuan shook his head and said: "Alas, this kind of thing is endless, and I don't know when it will come to an end." ”

Zhou Hexuan asked, "Dr. Cao, you are also the mayor, how do you deal with errands?" ”

Cao Renyuan said: "Give the task to the township chief and the security chief, as long as the people below can guarantee the amount of conscription, I will not ask, because there is no way to ask." I can only command the township chief, and I am resigned to fate, whether the township chief listens to me or not, and how much he can listen to is their business. As for the chief and the chief at the bottom, the orders issued by me, the mayor, are no different from waste paper. ”

Nan Huaijin asked: "The township chief is not doing well, you can punish them." Kill chickens and make an example of monkeys, take off a few more official hats, and the rest will naturally be obedient. ”

Cao Renyuan smiled bitterly: "Little brother, you have never been a magistrate, and you don't know the stakes." It is true that I can take off the official hat of the village chief, but the remaining village chiefs will not obey them, but will arouse their disgust. They are obedient on the surface, but they must be contrary to the yang and the yin, and all good things are deliberately done for you to do bad things. Moreover, many of the township chiefs and town mayors below have a relationship with the gentry, and if you deal with one, it is tantamount to offending the local gentry, and it will be difficult to do things in the future, and maybe you won't even be able to collect the annual agricultural tax. ”

Zhou Hexuan concluded: "In other words, the current national government, the administrative power only extends to the city and county level, and it is completely unable to control the townships and rural areas. Even if I reported the truth about the arrest of the strong men to President Jiang, at most he would order the city and county magistrates to strictly discipline, and the city and county magistrates would have nothing to do with the grassroots bureaucrats below. It is impossible to change how it should be, or how it is. ”

Nan Huaijin said: "Then use the power of public opinion. ”

Zhou Hexuan was stunned, and said helplessly: "Public opinion is a double-edged sword, and if you don't use it well, it will cut yourself." Moreover, even if I asked Ta Kung Pao to report on this matter, there would be only one result, and that was that Ta Kung Pao was seized. ”

Nan Huaijin said angrily: "Is there no way at all?" ”

Zhou Hexuan was about to speak, when suddenly the phone rang, and He Yingqin's secretary replied: "This month, four troops from the Guizhou regiment sent recruits to Chengdu, and the ones responsible for receiving them were the 70th Regiment of the 24th Division of the 76th Army and the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division of the 16th Army......

Zhou Hexuan didn't wait for the other party to finish speaking, and then interrupted: "My people were arrested by the Guizhou Youth League Management District in Yibin, and nearly 20 people were arrested. Let me tell you, the central government is promoting scientific chicken raising, and those people are all workers at the demonstration site of Yibin Scientific Chicken Farm! You immediately let the receiving troops strictly investigate, send my people back intact, if there is a casualty, I will go to President Jiang to complain!" ”