"What's written on the billboard?"

"Li Laoqi, let you go to night school to read and write, you old man just refuses, every time he comes here to ask, what is written on the bulletin board, what is written, if you can read and write, can't you read it yourself, why bother asking someone?"

"Liao Xiaoling'er, you forgot that a few years ago, you were hungry or an old man, I gave you a vegetable pocket to let you survive, and now I have learned words with the gentleman in the school for a few days, and I dare to talk to the old man and me like this?"

In Genglou Village, eighteen miles northwest of Liangshan, Li Yangshi, an old man known as Li Laoqi, waved his whip at the young man surnamed Liao, and the young man surnamed Liao was not afraid of him, hehe laughed: "You remember the matter of a vegetable pocket, Li Laoqi, no wonder people say that you have a good memory." ”

"I can't even remember a vegetable pocket, you little guy must be ungrateful, it doesn't matter if you can't remember the old man, but don't even remember the commander's goodness. If it weren't for the commander, a kid like you, where would you still have food to eat, you would have starved on the side of the road......"

The old man began to chatter, he knew that he really couldn't fight this little guy, in the past five years, thanks to the blessing of the Huaxia Military Strategy Committee, these little guys have all entered the school - although there are only two teachers in each school, but after all, they are in school, literate, and learn arithmetic. Therefore, this little guy usually reads the newspaper a lot, knows what is going on outside, and compared with them, in a sentence that the little guy often says, the old man is "unable to keep up with the times".

"The bulletin board said that the income of the village this year is 1,960 copper yuan. The expenditure was 2,541 copper yuan, and the deficit in Genglou Village was 479 copper yuan, and the deficit rate was within 25 percent......

The old man listened carefully, then nodded, indicating that he understood the matter.

The situation in the village is not very good, because the village has built a new gravel road to the official road. For Genglou Village, this is a big deal, and in the past, it only relied on small roads. If you want to go back to the city, you have to go around for a long time, but now it's different, after the sand and gravel road is repaired, at least the old man Li Yangshi is stained, and his family's big livestock go back and forth between Anping Town and Yuncheng every month, but he has earned some belongings.

However, the old man was still a little disappointed in his heart, what was the use of earning these belongings. Myself...... This family can't fall into the hands of his own son.

He had two sons, and he had a strong temperament in his early years. It's so uneven. has been away from home for many years, there has been no news, the first ten years have been turbulent, and they have lived a good life in the past six or seven years, and these two sons have died a long time ago. The old man has been thinking about whether to succeed one of his nephews for the past two years, and after a hundred years, he can provide for his old age.

The bulletin board also said. Next year, we will be able to harden the road surface and build a concrete road like an official road. ”

"Blow it." The old man muttered.

"You old man. When did you see our village office blowing? When did the village bureau admit what the village office said? ”

Hear the mention of the village office. The old man was silent.

For the whole of Shandong, the village office used to be a new thing, but in the past two years, everyone has become accustomed to it. Li Laohan still had a strong resistance to the village office at the beginning - since ancient times, the affairs of the village have been arbitrarily decided by the squires and the elderly, but since the Huaxia Military Strategy Committee took control of Shandong, it has stationed a village office in each village, appointed an outsider as the director, and also appointed a retired Huaxia Army soldier as the director, in addition, two school gentlemen and a shopkeeper who opened a small shop. At first, no one listened to them, but then the armed militia went around the village, kidnapped all the ruffians who dared to come and make fun of them, and then "tried publicly" in the township, and everyone understood that although these five people were outsiders, they had the support of the government behind them!

Some of the squires only looked at them coldly, but first the two gentlemen of the school set up a primary school, and all the children who came to school here took care of a snack every day, so the half-grown little girls were all sent over. Then I looked at the shopkeeper who was called "manager" by the people in the village office, and more and more department stores came out, such as salt, lamps, glass mirrors, needlework and other gadgets, and the people in the village gradually felt that this village office was not bad.

They also collect taxes on behalf of the government, the so-called tax collection is very simple, much less than in the Ming Dynasty, this tax is not calculated according to the head, in their words, it is "spread into the mu", according to the number of fields in the family to collect taxes, the more fields, the more taxes. Some of the squires defended themselves that they were talented and could be exempted from paying money and food, but it would not work in front of the village office. Fortunately, the amount of field tax was limited, and they did not have to deal with the officials who came to urge them to collect it, so it was a little saved, so although the squires were dissatisfied, the peasant households who had a few acres of thin land at home joined this "village office".

The first advantage of joining the "village bureau" is that farmland water conservancy; in the past, the government only managed the main rivers, but now it is different, and when the winter season comes, the village bureau organizes the people to go to the township office at the next higher level to participate in water conservancy construction. In the past, during the Ming Dynasty, everyone also had to serve as a servant, and at the beginning, everyone thought that this was a new conscription, and they brought their own dry food tools. As a result, I later learned that such a farmland water conservancy not only manages rice and tools, but also has a work allowance! Although the allowance is not much, it is not as good as him Li Laohan used the slack season to drive the carriage as a foot force, but Li Laohan is also willing to go, first, the scene is lively, and secondly, the village bureau makes it clear that the people who participated in the farmland water conservancy "battle" will give priority to water supply during the spring drought next year, and those who do not participate should not think about it.

For this reason, in the second year of the battle of farmland and water conservancy, there was a conflict, and a certain squire was domineering on weekdays, digging a canal directly during the spring drought and putting water into his own field. The village office immediately summoned armed militia, and not only changed the canal, but also arrested the squire on charges of "intentionally embezzling and damaging public property" and imposed a heavy fine.

Originally, the squire was still angry and wanted to go to the county to complain, but after he came back, he lost his soul, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he said, "The sky has changed", and he sighed for a long time. I heard that there were squires in the countryside who tried to organize men to confront the village office, but the armed militia turned around. Slaughter the squire and the participants, and even sell the old and weak in the family overseas as mining slaves!

Therefore, although Li Laoqi was not used to seeing the village office in this way and that, and occasionally complained twice, when he was questioned in person, he just smiled and didn't say anything.

After turning around in front of the village office, he didn't see anything else, so Li Laoqi drove his carriage towards Anping Town. From Genglou Village to Anping Town. Thirty miles of road, if it was placed in the past when the road was not repaired, I am afraid that it would take a whole day, but now, it is a small half a day.

Anping Town is now the main road of water and land transportation, where the canal and the Yellow River meet, and a large number of seafood. From Qingdao port by train to Dezhou, and then by Dezhou transfer ship into the canal. Go to Anping Town and then turn to the Yellow River. Go deep into Kaifeng and Luoyang. Mr. Li has been here to do work in the past few years, so he is used to it.

"Lao Li, you came just in time, your big car, can you take a guest?"

His carriage had just parked outside the dock, and a dock steward beckoned to him. I never thought that I would be lucky today, so I came here and started a business.

"Yes. Yes, steadily. It's okay to catch ten guests. ”

"Ten guests don't need, there are eight guests here, the main thing is that there is a lot of luggage, they have their own horses, you help with the luggage."

Then, Li Laoqi watched the eight guests appear in front of him, and at a glance he recognized the identities of these eight people, all of them were soldiers, and they were soldiers of the Huaxia Army, not those soldiers of the Ming Dynasty.

Four of the eight people were wearing military uniforms, and the other four were wearing civilian clothes, but the military temperament on their bodies made Li Laoqi dare not look at it more.

"Distinguished guests, please, please, this is the carriage of the little old man, you see, the place is big, although it is not a special passenger for the new Xiang, but the little old man changed the rubber wheels, and ran straight and steady!"

"Moving things and moving things, you old man talks a lot."

Of the four men in military uniforms, the eldest-looking one was the most anxious, and he spoke not very politely, with a southern accent, just like the five people in a village office. But before he could speak, he was glared at by another young man in civilian clothes, and then grinned and laughed embarrassedly.

Li Laoqi looked at this person and seemed to be a little familiar, but the temperament brought by the Huaxia Army uniform made him unable to remember where he had seen this person. And he also noticed the epaulettes on the other party's shoulder, there is a star there, based on Li Laoqi's cognition of the Huaxia Army, there is a flower that is a great official, and there is a star...... It seems to be a bigger official in the legend.

Such a big official in the Ming Dynasty came out, but all of them were hugging each other, holding umbrellas, fanning people, serving tea, and holding snuff bottles, not to mention dozens of people. However, when the officers of the Huaxia Army came out, they were often followed by one or two. From this point of view, Li Laoqi felt that although the officials of the Ming Dynasty were pompous, they were not as bold as the officials of the Huaxia Army.

The other party's luggage was piled up on the dock, and there were eight horses, but seeing so many things, Mo said that eight horses had to take people, that is, they specially carried luggage, but I was afraid that it would be difficult, and they had to be on the cart.

"Where are you going?" After loading the things, Li Laoqi asked.

"Shou Zhang Ji."

"Shou Zhangji, ah......" Li Laoqi heard this place, and his heart tightened.

He was originally a Shouzhangji person, but his two sons caused trouble, saying that they had killed an official, and in order to avoid trouble, they had to move their family to Genglou Village. More than ten years have passed, and he has changed from a man in the prime of life to an old man, his back is hunched and shrunk, his face is wrinkled and gray-haired, but his son still has no news.

"Changshang, you said that we haven't come back for so many years, is it considered to be a return to our hometown now?" The old Chinese soldier said.

The man who was respected as "Changshang" was the man in civilian clothes, who looked like he was about thirty years old, and said with a smile: "Naturally, over the years, you have made a lot of contributions, among our generals, only you know your hometown, so I want to follow you back to your hometown to see." ”

"I don't know what happened to my family, it's been more than ten years...... I can't even speak my hometown. At this, the officer said in the local dialect.

As soon as he said this, Mr. Li's body trembled, and the carriage stopped.

"Old man, why don't you leave, I'm in a hurry to go home to see my father." The officer said.

"Lao Tzu? Dad? Li Laoqi threw the horsewhip in his hand and threw it on the face of Li Guan: "Li Qingshan, your turtle son will drive the car for me, Lao Tzu is your father!" ”