To be honest, developing this area in Lingbei is indeed quite troublesome.
The locals make a living by farming, but the area of arable land is limited, and some of it is blocked from sunlight by the mountains.
However, after the handover, Zhao Minggeng and Xu Dongsheng, along with the registrar, rode their horses and toured the entire county.
In the Lingbei region, where there is little sunshine and sparse vegetation, various fungi thrive.
The father-in-law and son-in-law both agreed that this area was suitable for growing a large variety of mushrooms.
After being picked and dried, they can be sold to inland areas or made into mushroom sauce.
For outsiders, selling it is a big problem.
But for the Zhao family, selling was the least of all the problems.
Since the area is mostly mountainous, let's build terraced fields.
As for what to plant, although this place is remote, the climate is quite suitable for growing tea.
In particular, once the terraced fields are built, this area will soon become a thriving tea plantation spanning thousands of acres.
As for the other land, don't keep thinking about planting rice all the time. Let's plant some potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn first.
Zhao Qingyan can provide seeds to various places.
Naturally, this would allow her to provide more high-quality grain seeds for her husband's territory.
As for rice, it will still be planted, but definitely not immediately. What the people need first and foremost is to have enough to eat.
Paddy fields cannot simply be used to grow rice; they must also be used for rice-fish farming and supplemented with ratooning rice. Otherwise, wouldn't that be a waste of resources?
Having a horse is convenient.
The registrar followed the former magistrate to various villages and towns to handle matters, always traveling by donkey cart, simply because the county government could not afford to buy horses.
After a few days of brief contact, Xu Dongsheng finally understood why Wang Yuanfeng was living such a poor life.
He simply doesn't know how to handle problems and is too much of a saint.
Being overly kind is not advisable.
When ordinary people pretend to be poor and play the victim, he assumes they are suffering terribly and then gives them money.
He was already dirt poor, surviving on his meager monthly salary.
He was given tens of coins here and hundreds of coins there, but by the time it reached his own hands, there was hardly anything left.
Therefore, even a county magistrate like himself didn't live a much better life than ordinary people.
Xu Dongsheng and Zhao Minggeng didn't know how to describe Wang Yuanfeng; he was just a complete idiot.
A small favor is appreciated, but a large one breeds resentment; this has fostered laziness and aversion to work among the common people.
As it turned out, things really did go as the father-in-law and son-in-law had predicted.
We had just arrived at Lianhua Village when we heard that the county magistrate had come.
Then the common people flocked to Xu Dongsheng and his son-in-law.
They knelt down and kowtowed, calling him "Your Honor" repeatedly, and then began their performance.
No wonder it's called Lotus Village; everyone in this village is a pure white lotus, and their crying skills are superb.
"My lord, our family is suffering so much!"
My grandson hasn't had rice porridge for quite some time, and he's lost a lot of weight.
"Please, sir, grant this old woman a few dozen copper coins so she can buy some rice and make rice porridge for her grandson."
The weeping and pleading Granny Li was excellent in singing, reciting, acting, and fighting.
Old Mrs. Chen pushed Old Mrs. Li aside with a thud.
"My lord, my lord, please, give this old woman a hundred or so coins."
My husband is bedridden and can't get out of bed anymore.
We have no money to buy medicine, please, adults.
Xu Dongsheng and Zhao Minggeng watched coldly from the sidelines.
As the father-in-law, Zhao Minggeng wouldn't speak casually; he simply glanced at Xu Dongsheng.
Xu Dongsheng nodded at Granny Li.
“You asked me to give you a few dozen coins to buy rice and cook porridge for your grandson. Now, let me ask you, how old is your grandson?”
How many people are in your family? How many children? How old are they?
Why did you only remember that your grandson needed rice gruel to survive when I arrived?
Why not borrow money from other villagers?
What is the reason for this?
And you, since your husband is already terminally ill...
Why not seek treatment sooner?
As far as I know, there are doctors in your village. Why don't you ask one to treat your husband sooner?
But then they waited for me, the newly appointed county magistrate, to arrive and beg for mercy.
"If I hadn't come today, were you just waiting for your husband to die in bed?"
Xu Dongsheng's question successfully stopped others from complaining about being poor.
It only caused dissatisfaction among the people.
"Hmph, I am the newly arrived magistrate, and I should understand the hardships of us common people better than Magistrate Wang. We were really overthinking it."
If it were Magistrate Wang, we wouldn't have needed to kneel and beg for so long; he would have given us the money long ago.
"That's why they say 'a young man with no experience is unreliable.'"
Instead of answering Xu Dongsheng's question, Granny Li expressed her dissatisfaction.
Granny Chen continued,
"That's right, I was thinking that when the time came, Magistrate Wang would come to deliver the money."
And just like that, the county magistrate was changed.
I said to this new magistrate, "You can't keep the money that's owed to us."
Granny Chen spoke in a very loud voice.
This was because they were afraid Xu Dongsheng wouldn't hear them.
Xu Dongsheng turned around and came back.
"What do you mean by 'money owed to you'? Does anyone owe you money?"
Do you really think that Magistrate Wang is kind-hearted and therefore take his kindness for granted?
Does he owe you anything?
Do you really think that just because I helped you, you've become Magistrate Wang's children?
Otherwise, why should you ask others for money?
Give it back to me. I'd like to ask you, do I owe you anything?
Because of your insatiable greed, Magistrate Wang can't even afford a decent set of official robes.
Hehe, judging from your expressions, are you trying to say that he gave it to you, not that you wanted it?
Look at your expressions!
And look at your ugly behavior of demanding money from me just now, do you dare to say that this wasn't what you wanted?
Whether it's Magistrate Wang or this official, they are all just local officials.
It's fine to teach you more survival skills, but I have absolutely no obligation to support you free of charge.
Put away your greedy and insatiable thoughts.
If you dare to cause trouble, I can lead the people of the whole county to make money, or I can simply abandon your Lotus Village.
If you're not satisfied, you can appeal.
Before suing an official, you must first be flogged one hundred times. If you can withstand it, I will not stop you. Go ahead and do it.”
Wang Yuanfeng was like a pushover; he always maintained a "nice guy" image while he was an official.
Help anyone who comes begging, whether you have the ability or not.
So, in six years, they ruined the lives of all the people in the county.
How could Xu Dongsheng possibly tolerate their bad habits?
He came to govern the region, not to do good deeds.
He still needs his wife to support him, so why should he support these lazy good-for-nothings?
Therefore, once the official's authority was displayed, it intimidated the common people.
Just kidding. If he, the emperor's own nephew, could be morally blackmailed by these commoners, then he wouldn't need to be in officialdom.
It would be more reliable to just go home and let his wife support him.
At least the wife is the one who suffers; anyone who dares to provoke her will be knocked down with one punch.
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