One day in January 1631, Ma Xianglin, secretary of the Party Committee of the Shizhu People's Commune of the Baath Party, arrived at Wuchang Wharf in the early morning after taking a boat for two days and two nights. [No pop-ups]

From 1625 to the present, Ma Xianglin has been to Wuchang almost every year. He had to come at least once every two or three months just to attend meetings.

However, the frequent visits to Wuchang, where the current Baath Party Central Committee is located, did not give Ma Xianglin any sense of boredom. Because no matter how many times he came to Wuchang, he could clearly feel that Wuchang City was undergoing drastic and rapid changes. It is absolutely appropriate to describe Wuchang City with each passing day.

After getting off the boat, Ma Xianglin took the small train from Wuchang Wharf to Wuchang City to Wuchang City.

The new city of Wuchang is five or six times larger than the city of Wuchang in the past Ming Dynasty. If you want to get from the dock to the office of the Central Committee of the Baath Party, it is a bit slow to make a four-wheeled carriage now. Fortunately, two years ago, the Wuchang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government of the Baxing Party established rail transit in the city. Even though the roaring steam locomotives bring no small amount of noise and air pollution to the city, it is not a big deal for the people of this era.

Although the annual steel output of the Baath No. 9 Iron and Steel Plant in Daye has exceeded 400,000 tons. But for the Baath Party, there is still only the question of not enough steel, and there is no question of steel surplus. The large-scale construction of railways in the Hubei base areas, the Ludong base areas, and the southern Liaoning base areas, will be able to completely absorb the production capacity of the 17 iron and steel plants directly under the Baath Party with an average annual output of 150,000 tons.

Therefore, even the office building of the highest party, government, and military organization of the Ba'ath Party is nothing more than a structure of bamboo reinforced concrete. Like the brick and concrete residential buildings, the office buildings of the Central Organ of the Baath Party are only three stories high. It is only because land resources are not so scarce that the office buildings of the Central Organs of the Baath Party are wider and longer than ordinary residential buildings, and cover a larger area.

When it comes to bamboo-reinforced concrete, this technology is not only used in house construction. At present, in the municipal construction of the Ba'ath Party, this kind of concrete is also widely used to lay cement floors.

Reinforced concrete can't afford to use, but bamboo reinforced concrete is always used. Except for Wang Shuhui, who was very dissatisfied with this kind of construction project, which was full of the smell of tofu scum project, most of the party members of the Baath Party who came from an agrarian society had no other ideas.

In their view, although the Baath Party has been able to use industrial means to produce steel on a million tons per year, all steel products are still very luxurious for them.

In Wang Shuhui's view, after seven or eight years of construction, Wuchang City, which is still very "poor and short", full of the fragrance of earth, is a great and spectacular modern city for Ma Xianglin. Take the office building of the Central Organ of the Baath Party as an example, although the three-story red brick and red tile ridged structure of the building is also very common in the Shizhu People's Commune, the scale of the office building of the central organ and the "huge" square in front of the office building are still very awe-inspiring.

In particular, the radio transmission tower of the central organ of the Baath Party, which has just been built. This kind of radio transmission tower, which is less than 30 meters high, and which used to spread all over the districts and counties of the old industrial cities in Northeast China when Wang Shuhui was young, is a real miracle in the eyes of Ma Xianglin, a native of a purely agricultural society.

The all-steel structure, covered with rivets and steel beams, the 20-meter-long hollow iron tower was indeed a great project in this era.

As in Zhijiang County, Wang Shuhui's office is still a small two-story building. The first floor of the small building is his office, and the second floor is his living room. It's just that unlike in the past, it is no longer so simple and convenient to meet Wang Shuhui. Even if he registered in advance like Ma Xianglin, he waited for two hours at the reception outside the building before it was his turn to meet Wang Shuhui.

Although Ma Xianglin is Wang Shuhui's disciple, like those students who no longer stay by Wang Shuhui's side for a long time, he and Wang Shuhui can only see each other for a long time. Ma Xianglin has a rather peculiar feeling, that is, whenever he sees Wang Shuhui, Wang Shuhui always seems to have become a little younger.

In fact, it is not that Wang Shuhui has become younger, but because of the influence of the time and space gate, Wang Shuhui's aging process seems to have stagnated. But Ma Xianglin and all other ordinary people are getting older, which makes Wang Shuhui seem younger.

However, if you don't get old in appearance, there will always be more changes in temperament. For example, Ma Xianglin obviously felt that his teacher's demeanor was becoming more and more calm, and his expression was becoming more and more tired. Wang Shuhui's every move seems to be becoming simpler and clearer, which adds more firm and calm elder bearing to Wang Shuhui.

After hugging Wang Shuhui excitedly and expressing his longing in simple language, Wang Shuhui directly told Ma Xianglin the purpose of coming to him this time.

The Ba'ath Party's plan to go north soon, requires people who are familiar with the environment and conditions in the northern region and even the northeastern region. Ma Xianglin and 1,000 soldiers who had participated in the war in the northeast and were familiar with the geography of the Jingshi area would be sent to participate in the Baath Party's northward movement. Among them, Ma Xianglin himself will join the First Army Corps of the Northern Reconstruction Army as a staff officer. The other 1,000 fighters will be assigned to various units after being trained as scouts.

After explaining the work to Ma Xianglin in a few words, it was time for lunch. According to the usual practice, when Wang Shuhui's disciples meet Wang Shuhui, they always have to be left by him for a light meal.

Of course, because the central organs have been fully canteenized, Wang Shuhui and his disciples are no longer family banquets. Wang Shuhui's guards helped Wang Shuhui and Ma Xianglin to the cafeteria to cook, and the two of them ate at a small round table in Wang Shuhui's office.

As it was ten years ago, eating with Wang Shuhui was not a comfortable process. The torture of the past is still the same, but it has become a status symbol in the eyes of some people. For some people who have more complicated thoughts in their minds, they are not Wang Shuhui's disciples, and they can't suffer such torture.

Talking about work in the middle of a meal is very unappetizing.

For example, now, Wang Shuhui ate up a large lunch box of mashed potatoes in two bites, ate six or seven multigrain steamed buns, and drank the stewed chicken bone soup with green vegetables on his neck, and began to ask Ma Xianglin, who was hurriedly stuffing food down for the teacher's questioning.

After taking chopsticks and ordering the big sea bowl, Wang Shuhui asked Ma Xianglin:

"The industrial and agricultural construction in the Shizhu area has also been going on for five or six years. What is the current income level and living standard of the masses of the people, tell me about it. ”

Casually wiping his mouth with a towel at hand, Ma Xianglin said to Wang Shuhui:

"Distribute according to work, reward attendance and punish laziness. More work gets more, less work gets less. In recent years, the agricultural construction of our stone pillars is basically a situation where there are more and more terraced fields, more and more fruit trees, and more and more mulberry trees. There is a dividend system here, and everyone wants to pay more dividends, get more things, and make more money. Therefore, the enthusiasm for production is quite high. ”

"With more raw materials, the more products the factory has, and the higher the wages and bonuses for workers. Anyway, the strength that everyone sells in their work now is not less than when they were soldiers, and it is even greater than the strength they sold at that time. After all, it's all directly related to the money in your pocket. ”

Nodding, Wang Shuhui continued to ask:

"Let's talk about the details. How is the crowd eating? How do you wear it? How was the stay? Is the medical treatment good? Is education good? I don't want to hear the data from you, so I'll let you tell me about the specifics. ”

Ma Xianglin, like all people with a poor foundation in mathematics education, is not sensitive to numbers. So when he heard that the teacher didn't ask him for specific data, Ma Xianglin breathed a sigh of relief.

He scratched his head and said to Wang Shuhui:

"I can eat enough, and there is enough food in the big canteen. In the past few years, the situation has been much better, and everyone has eaten a little more gently, and they no longer look like a starving ghost reincarnated. There's not much to say about what you're wearing. Everyone is the same work clothes, two sets a year. You can't tell the good from the bad. That is, those women, if they want to talk about beauty, they always have to spend money to buy some colorful fabrics to make some clothes in the county towns of Chungju and Fengjie. Everyone said that the salary was not enough for women to toss. ”

"Everybody's better off now. But there are also more ideas. I think the furniture at home is not grand enough. A few carpenters in the society set up a carpentry shop, and the business was doing well. There is also the fact that everyone is always arguing that the food in the canteen is not good enough, the oil is not big enough, and the meat is not enough, and there are always some young people who like to shout. Most of them are fine. ”

"By the way, the young students in their early twenties in the commune are now starting to pay attention to buying radios. The price of this radio is quite expensive. They have low job titles, low salaries, and can't afford to buy, and they say a lot of strange things. ”

After saying bad things about young people, Ma Xianglin said a little sneeringly:

"In the past, in order to eat, I gave my life to the dog court to fight, and I was able to make a living, but now these things are not satisfied. Hehe, I taught them a few times, but the younger generations are always like that, they like to fool around. ”

When Wang Shuhui heard this, his face became very bad. Ma Xianglin is not a person who can read faces, and he is still saying things like young people are not satisfied.

After listening for a while, Wang Shuhui sighed and said to Ma Xianglin:

"What is the core philosophy of our Ba'ath Party? It is to serve the people, and now the masses of the people have complaints about the quality of life, which means that our work of the Baath Party is not good enough. You guy doesn't think about how to help the people solve their problems, how can you say that the people don't know what to do? ”

Ma Xianglin didn't know that he shouldn't speak ill of the people, and Ma Xianglin didn't know that his teachers didn't like cadres to speak ill of the people. Ma Xianglin himself did not want to speak ill of the people. But the problem is that the masses want to pay more wages and buy more things, and this problem is not something that Ma Xianglin himself can solve.

Take, for example, the agricultural production of the commune. The annual grain production is indeed constantly increasing, and the planting area of the entire Shizhu area is also constantly expanding. However, although the grain produced in large quantities under the use of improved varieties of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has led to the continuous increase in dividends and bonuses among the members, the Baath Party's unified purchase and sale of grain has not been able to match the growth rate of everyone's income.

The same problem is true in industrial companies. Although the Ba'ath Party had a fixed proportion of taxes, so did the local taxes of the Commune, and the more the workers produced, the more they earned. However, the growth rate of this income is still not compatible with the growth rate of everyone's demand.

Ma Xianglin himself feels this way. There are more and more new things, and more and more good things. Just a thermos, a variety of thermoses, more functional thermoses, who doesn't want to buy one more. Everyone wants to have electric lights, but not everyone can afford electricity. Everyone wants good furniture, but wages are limited after all.

His wife Zhang Aihong still wants to buy a sewing machine. But Ma Xianglin and Zhang Aihong's combined salaries have to save for half a year to afford it. He couldn't pull his face and went to Zhongzhou's own wife to ask for money.

If you can't solve the problem yourself, then you can only complain. Although this kind of complaint is suspected of incompetence, in front of one's own teacher, this kind of complaint becomes a kind of venting. In front of others, Ma Xianglin would not say such things.

Of course, Wang Shuhui also knows the problems that Ma Xianglin knows. Although the masses of the people can be fed, it is absolutely impossible to abolish the policy of unified purchase and marketing of grain. You must know that in the future, the Baath Party will be responsible for the food of tens of millions of people in the north within a few years.

It is also impossible to raise everyone's wages on a large scale. Industrialization itself requires a lot of investment. Although the Baath Party can rely on Wang Shuhui's passage through the door to take advantage of technology and equipment, the process of investing in heavy industry is still borne by the Baath Party itself.

Regardless of the fact that the Baath Party made a lot of money from overseas trade and dumping of industrial products, in this time and space, this gold and silver have almost no meaning.

It is impossible for the Baath Party to exchange this gold and silver for advanced equipment and equipment from foreign countries, because the Baath Party itself is the most advanced industrial organization on this planet. So even if the gold and silver were distributed to the masses of the people under the Ba'ath Party, it would have no meaning other than to cause severe inflation. The only factor limiting the increase in the income of the masses under the Ba'ath Party is that the level of productivity of the Ba'ath Party itself is still underdeveloped.

In order to quickly complete the process of primitive accumulation, Wang Shuhui could not give the people too high a standard of living. You must know that the investment in education, medical care, industry, and infrastructure construction is all consuming a lot of the productive forces of the Baath Party.

If the living standards of the masses are too high, then these basic construction work will not be able to continue.

To take the simplest example, in the past five years alone, the population of Wuchang City has increased by four to five times. That's four to five times the extra population, all of which are newborns.

After life has changed for the better, the people's enthusiasm for childbirth in Wuchang has really improved. Let's not mention the issue of increasing enthusiasm for childbirth after life is better. Because of the establishment of the Ba'ath Party's mass health care system, the infant mortality rate, which has been greatly reduced, is also objectively increasing rapidly.

In order to provide medical care, early childhood education and other services for these infants and young children, the finances of the Baath Party's Wuchang city government have long been on the verge of collapse.

The person Wang Shuhui doesn't want to see now is Chen Feng of the Central Administrative Council of the Baath Party. When he met Wang Shuhui, he complained to Wang Shuhui about financial difficulties, which has become Chen Feng's repertoire. This guy is almost the same as Xianglin's sister-in-law.

So, in a sense, it is not necessarily a very urgent thing for the Baath Party to take over the whole of North China. At least for the government, it is not very reluctant to take over the mess of the Ming Dynasty.

The current Baath Party's population of less than 10 million is already a bit of a mess for the Baath Party. If we take over the whole of North China, which has a population of 50 or 60 million, it is a big question whether we can digest it