Behind me is the earth

There are seven counties in Wuzhou Province. The west and north are mountainous, and the east is hilly and close to the sea. Although three counties are close to the sea and have a long coastline, only Dongyang County has a natural harbor.

In Guyi County and Qingzhou, the water is shallow and there are many rocks. Ships can easily run aground on rocks. The hydrogeological conditions are also not good, making it impossible to build large ports.

Among the seven counties, Yuntai County, Dongyang County, and Guyi County in the north do not produce much grain because they are mountainous and hilly.

The grain producing areas in Wuzhou Province are mostly concentrated in the four counties of Fengqi, Qingzhou, Fuzhou and Changguo.

Ren Pingsheng was half lying in the car, looking at the draft of the Wuzhou Provincial Chronicle that he had just compiled.

This took more than a year and was presided over by Liu Shu, the Secretary of Civil Affairs. It was recently compiled by the Political Research Office. It was based on the collection of previous provincial annals, county annals, and county annals, and was completed through interviews and surveys. Ren Pingsheng took a look at it. See it in order to have a more comprehensive understanding of Wuzhou’s economic, political, zoning, resources, humanities and other history.

Next, after the compilation of this brand-new Wuzhou Provincial Chronicle is completed, it will be printed and distributed to every official at the provincial level and above in the province.

It is also convenient for Wuzhou officials to have a framework for the development of the entire Wuzhou. When formulating various policies, they can have a reference and be targeted.

"Is this the modified Xuanyuan Sword?"

Xiaowan, who was sitting next to Ren Pingsheng, slowly pulled a sword out of its sheath. As the sword was unsheathed, a soft golden light suddenly appeared. She looked at the sword in her hand carefully.

The sun, moon, stars, mountains, grass and trees above appeared more profound with the golden light. When the long sword was all drawn out and held in the hand, the paintings engraved on the sword body were like a mirage, faintly reflected in the void. , full of sacred aura, actually seems to be different from the golden sword of the holy way in the record.

The statues in the square in front of Qingcheng Railway Station that Ren once specially arranged in his life to appear before people, and the sword in his hand have this shape.

Although Ren has never actually used this sword in his life, the image of this sword has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has a very important symbolic meaning.

"This is modified based on the manufacturing method of the Dragon Sword. However, I added a new alloy to it to make it sharper."

Ruan Tang stretched out his hand, and the Youlong Sword suddenly buzzed, broke away from Xiaowan's hand, and fell into her hand.

He took out a piece of steel wire and gently tapped it on the sword blade. The steel wire was easily broken into two pieces, and the cut was very smooth.

"It's so sharp that even wearing three layers of armor can't stop it at all!"

Xiaowan picked up the wire that had fallen into the car, looked at the break, and exclaimed.

Ruan Tang waved his hand, and the Xuanyuan Sword clicked into its sheath. He said very proudly: "Among all the armies, taking the head of an enemy general is like picking out an object from a bag."

Xiaowan hung the Xuanyuan Sword on the hook of the carriage.

"Which realm have you reached?"

Ren Pingsheng put down his book, leaned against the cushions, opened the curtains and looked outside.

The spring breeze was crisp, blowing into the car with a bit of cool air.

Outside are thousands of miles of fertile fields, and the green wheat seedlings have grown into ears. As the spring breeze blows, they rise and fall like green waves.

In the puddle, the cry of frogs came from the puddle.

The breath of spring is everywhere.

"Master, we have entered the territory of Yunyao County in Fengqi County."

Wang Shu took out a cantaloupe from the fragrant green sandalwood box in the carriage, cut it open on a small square table, and gave a piece to Ren Pingsheng.

The box was frozen by some ice cubes condensed by Xiaowan. The cantaloupe was cold, sweet and sandy. Ren Pingsheng brought it from the earth.

"I heard that Yunyao County is rich in crisp pears."

Ren Pingsheng said.

"It's a pity that now is not the time for the pear to bear fruit."

Ruan Tang said regretfully.

She was fiddling with a palm-sized pistol. However, the shape of this pistol is very different from ordinary firearms. The barrel is exaggeratedly thick, and there is a faint arc light inside.

Relying on her electromagnetic power, she gradually tried to make a pulse pistol, but this required providing a pulse induction field to generate high-energy, high-density electromagnetic pulses, but this required sufficient energy supply, which led to the Ruan Tang made. A gun can only be used by herself.

It's a bit useless, but the only advantage is that when using the pulse pistol, you can reduce mental consumption, and the attack is more concentrated, so it is more powerful.

There was a sound of horse hoofbeats, and Han Jun patted his horse and came to the side of Ren Pingsheng's carriage: "Your Majesty, ahead is Daxizhuang in Yunyao County, a large village with a population of thousands in Yunyao County."

"Well, let's go and have a look."

Ren Pingsheng said.

Daxizhuang is a large village, and there is a Xi family in it, who is the landlord of Daxizhuang. In the past, it occupied most of the land in Daxizhuang, and almost half of the people were tenants of the Xi family.

This time we measured the acres of land and checked out the hidden households, and found out that there were more than 2,000 acres of hidden farmland and more than 200 hidden households that had not been registered with the government.

Before Ren Pingsheng got out of the car, he saw a group fight going on outside!

And it was a fight involving hundreds of people.

A large number of men, wielding hoes and shovels, were swinging and beating on the production embankment.

That's really hard hitting, fight seriously!

Ren Pingsheng saw several people lying on the ground, with blood streaming from their heads, motionless and unaware of life or death.

"Is this a grab for water?"

In May, the wheat here is almost ripe. At this time, in order to increase the wheat yield, grouting water needs to be poured.

When fighting on the production embankment, it is likely that people from two villages, or even several villages, are fighting for water to irrigate the fields.

"Go get some people!"

Ren Pingsheng pointed to the side where the battle was taking place.

"yes!"

Han Jun said to the two guards: "Wu Hui, Zhang Mou, you two go and stop them."

"yes!"

The two guards clasped their fists in response, and then they stepped on the ground several times like two unloaded cannonballs. They had already crossed a distance of several hundred meters and fell into the fighting group. With the force of one against a hundred, After quickly subduing the village leaders on both sides, the situation was stabilized.

The reserve officials who were observing the affairs of various departments took the opportunity to step forward to inquire about the cause of the fight.

"Your Majesty, this is Daxi Village, Wujiazhai and Zhangjiabao. Three villages are collecting water."

"Because the water volume of the Mo River in Fengqi County is low this year, after the water was released from the gate, the upstream was blocked by Daxi Village, and the water could not flow downstream. People from Wujiazhai and Zhangjiabao villages united to come to Daxi Village Negotiation, then fighting.”

After Zhang Huaian from the Civil Affairs and Administration Research Department inquired about the reasons, he came up to report on behalf of the reserve officials.

He is a college student who is about to graduate from Yuntai University this year and won the first place in the national examination.

This year is the first year of the national examination, and because there is an extreme shortage of officials in various local government offices, the admission rate for official positions in the national examination is extremely high, and most of them have been admitted. However, most of these people were sent to various local yamen to observe politics and study. After half a year of internship, they would soon become regular employees.

Only less than a hundred people actually stayed in various departments in Wuzhou to observe and study politics.

"Why did they start fighting?"

Ren Pingsheng asked.

Zhang Huaian was stunned and said: "Because Daxizhuang blocked the water flow, the downstream villages were unable to irrigate their fields. This season is an important time for wheat grain filling. Once the time passes, wheat output will be affected and reduced."

"Blocking the water flow is the superficial cause of the fight. What is the deeper cause?"

Ren Pingsheng asked again.

Zhang Huaian suddenly realized that the prince was testing him, and his mind was suddenly activated, and he quickly began to think about the reasons.

After pondering for a moment, he said while thinking: "I think there are three reasons."

"First, in the government, because the water conservancy facilities are not perfect, each village can only rely on the water flow of the Mo River to water the land. The gate is too high and the government has not maintained it. Once the water flow of the Mo River is small and the water level drops, it will be difficult to divert water out and cannot satisfy the villagers' water needs. water needs.”

"Second, in villages, the methods of intercepting water sources in the villages are simple and crude, without considering how the people in downstream villages water the water."

"Third, the villagers had weak legal awareness and did not fully consider the consequences, resulting in hundreds of people fighting and causing the loss of more than a dozen lives."

Ren Pingsheng listened to Zhang Huaian's thinking and led everyone forward.

At the same time, his mental power swarmed out, covering an area of ​​10,000 meters in an instant, and several surrounding villages came into his awareness.

"The reason for this kind of armed struggle is actually that grassroots rights are in the hands of the gentry and landlords, and the tentacles of imperial power and law cannot reach in.

The people only listened to the words of the elders, gentry, and landlords in these villages, but did not know what the law was.

If we want to achieve a radical cure, the law must go to the villages, and the grassroots government must pay attention to the villages. "

Ren Pingsheng said.

"However, regardless of taxation, corvee service, conscription, etc., all require the support of these prestigious gentry and landlords in the village..."

Zhang Huaian asked thoughtfully: "Does the prince mean that we should move the government further down and enter these villages?"

"Of course not. Administrative capabilities are limited after all. If villages are also organized, the financial support population will increase by another order of magnitude."

Ren Pingsheng shook his head.

On earth, given the earth's productivity, villagers' self-governance is adopted at the village level. With the productivity here, it is absolutely impossible to support so many officials for financial support.

"If you want to grasp the power at the grassroots level, firstly, you need to strengthen the influence of the town-level government and build a unified ideology in the village-level units. Secondly, you need to set up special violence agencies to strictly enforce the law to these villages controlled by the gentry and landlords. among.”

Ren Pingsheng told the reason why he came down to investigate this time.

Under the power of his mind just now, Ren Pingsheng could clearly see that in the village, the number of acres did not match the number of acres surveyed by Yunyao County, and the number of people was also quite different from the registered population.

Either the magistrate of Yunyao County was colluding with the local gentry, or the local gentry teamed up with government officials to deceive the magistrate of Yunyao County.

No matter what, the police system must be established as soon as possible, and officials at the county and town levels must undergo a major change as soon as possible to completely get rid of the influence of the local gentry.

"Huai'an, when you observe government affairs in the Department of Civil Affairs, you will mostly see personnel appointments, personnel adjustments, etc. It is a job of thinking about people.

Regardless of the central government, governance is composed of people. When land, population, resources, finance and taxation, etc. form a series of numbers, it is often difficult to distinguish the true and false in these numbers after they are aggregated to the central government.

Sometimes when the Department of Civil Affairs is involved in the evaluation of local officials, they have to go to various places to see if they have been deceived.

The vast territory of Dajing requires the authority of the imperial court and the unified leadership of all regions to maintain its unity. On the other hand, the daily operations of the entire system must be dominated by local government offices.

The balance between the center and the land is very important. Once it gets out of control, it will cause division and destruction.

This requires a solid system to maintain it, and the introduction of each system and policy does not come out of thin air. After you become a full-time employee in the Political Research Office, you will need to conduct detailed research and comprehensive considerations whenever formulating policies. "

Ren Pingsheng instructed.

"Your Highness's teachings should be remembered by students."

Zhang Huaian said quickly.

The convoy did not delay too much in Daxi Village and hurried on, driving along the main road and arriving in Yutai County in the evening.

There is Huaxian Lake in Yutai County, which covers an area of ​​more than 8,000 hectares and spans Fengqi and Changguo counties. It is a land of fish and rice rich in products.

The reason why I rushed to Yutai County was because I received a tip that several villages in Yutai County were going to hold a sacrifice event today.

It is necessary to offer boys and girls to the Water Dragon King of Huaxian Lake in order to obtain good weather for a year.

After learning the news, the county government and the local town government had sent people to do the work several times, but the villagers were unmoved and pushed the sent officials out of the village.

When Ren Pingsheng arrived, the young magistrate was leading the local mayor, dozens of government officials, and the county lieutenant with hundreds of temporarily recruited militiamen behind him, carrying flintlock guns on the outskirts of Huaxian Lake. waiting.

"What's going on with this Water Dragon King?"

Ren Pingsheng called his secretary and asked.

"Reporting to the prince, it is found that this Water Dragon King is a water dragon in the Huaxian Lake. Since this year, many fishermen who have fallen into the water have been rescued, and the fish and shrimps have been driven to the places where the fishermen hang out, so that every time the fishermen set off their nets, It’s all very rewarding.”

The secretary said: "However, since the reputation of Water Dragon King has been gained, after investigation by the local government, the number of missing people on Huaxian Lake has increased this year. In just five months of this year, 247 people have been buried in the lake. This is the same period last year. More than 20 times.”

"It seems that most of these missing people are related to this Water Dragon King."

Ren Pingsheng speculated.

"A monster pretends to be a god and deceives people into offering sacrifices. How audacious!"

Xiaowan got out of the car, feeling the rich water vapor of Huaxian Lake, and felt intuitively comfortable.

Closing her eyes, the blue light spots around her cheered and swarmed towards her body. As she performed the "Yunlong Shiqi Tie" technique, they entered her meridians and deposited in her Dantian. A faint blue cloud formed in it.

These are water elements, or water auras, but they are not water vapor. Xiaowan can mobilize these water elements to induce the water vapor between heaven and earth to cast spells.

After storing enough spiritual energy in her dantian, Xiaowan can cast water spells more easily even if she follows Ren Pingsheng back to earth.

"Let's go take a look too."

Ren Pingsheng said hello.

Ruan Tang was wearing a black horse-faced skirt and a hat on her head. The hanging tulle covered her face, which could reduce a lot of trouble.

Xiaowan dressed up as a man, but the bulging bear made her appearance less successful.

The west bank of Huaxian Lake was very lively at this time, with probably three to four thousand people gathered. There were gongs and drums, dragon and lion dances, and people were singing and dancing. It looked particularly lively, and everyone's face was beaming with joy.

Only next to the boys and girls, the young parents had worried faces and tears.

"There are six pairs of children in total, how stupid they are!"

Zhang Huaian sighed.

There is also basic knowledge about the supernatural and mysterious side in universities. After systematic study, these graduated college students know that today's aliens, goblins, ghosts and the like are not like the majority of people who regard aliens and monsters as Let the gods look at it. (End of chapter)