In the second hall of Kunshan County Government Office.

Mr. Zhao sighed for a while about the difficulty of being an official, and then put forward new requirements.

"Although the implementation of the new policy seems easy, we should not take it lightly. We must do a good job of checking for omissions and filling gaps. It would be unacceptable if we make mistakes again."

"Yes." County Magistrate He and the others responded respectfully, feeling very happy. Other counties would be in a state of panic when implementing new policies this year, but they didn't have to suffer this, so they were so lucky.

"Then we will follow the original plan and shift the focus of Kunshan County's work this year from construction to production." Mr. Zhao then started talking again, scanning the entire audience and saying, "This year I have only one request, and that is that no Kunshan citizen should go out to beg for food!"

If this had been said in the past, all the officials would have laughed their bellies off. "Beggar Kunshan" has been called that for many years, is it just a name? When the flood came, the common people carried their children and bedding on a shoulder pole, took their hu strings and bamboo boards, and went out to beg for food.

In Suzhou, Taicang, Songjiang, Wuxi, Jiaxing, wherever there is a well, you can see beggars speaking with a Kunshan accent. It has become a common sight in the south of the Yangtze River.

In the past, if anyone dared to say that Kunshan people should stop begging, everyone would think that he was crazy. He didn't want food and would starve to death.

But who could have imagined that just half a year later, the scene of Beggar Kunshan would become a thing of the past.

Not only was a 300-mile long dike built, making Kunshan free from floods forever, but the people in the county no longer had to worry about their livelihoods.

"Master, you can rest assured about this. The labor force in Kunshan County is very tight this year, and no one will go out to beg for food." He Wenwei said with a look of relief: "Take off the hat of 'Beggar Kunshan', Master, you have done a great deed."

"oh……"

Seeing the master's puzzled expression, Bai Shouli hurriedly explained, "At the invitation of Chongming and Shanghai, Kunkai Company participated in the seawall construction of the two counties. In view of the fact that there are already a large number of skilled workers in the county, Kunkai Company recruited more than 20,000 workers in the county. In addition, Suzhou and Taicang also wanted to invite Kunkai Company to participate in the construction, but the board of directors did not agree considering the actual situation in the county."

"Yes, the companies under the Jiangnan Group started recruiting people in this county before the New Year. More than a dozen companies have recruited about 20,000 people in total, which means 40,000 strong laborers are going out at once... How many laborers are there in this county?" He Wenwei also added the information he knew, and then raised his concerns:

“There aren’t enough people to farm now.”

"Don't worry, Second Master. There are plenty of people in Jiangnan. It's not difficult to recruit them to farm the land." Bai Shouli said confidently.

"Hmm." Master Zhao patted his forehead and remembered. Zhao Hao had talked to him about this during the Chinese New Year. But he had been working day and night for the past few days, and his mind was blank, so he had completely forgotten about it.

Zhao Hao said that the biggest change brought about by the Single Whip System was that ordinary people could finally break free from the constraints of the land and freely choose their occupations.

As long as they make money, they can pay taxes, and of course they will move to the industrial and commercial sectors with higher pay.

But the Single Whip Law needed a patch, that is, the government must have a way to keep grain prices stable. Otherwise, it is likely that when farmers pay taxes, "low rice prices hurt farmers" and when there is a shortage of food, "high rice prices hurt the people."

After the Single Whip Law, farmers needed to sell grain to pay taxes, so unscrupulous merchants and evil gentry took the opportunity to lower the price of grain and exchange it for the people's grain with very little silver.

They can then use extremely high prices to exploit the citizens who do not farm. They make money from both sides, but in the end, the people suffer.

If we do not take any precautions, this phenomenon will definitely occur, and eventually the one-whip law that benefits the country and the people will become an evil law.

So how to keep grain prices stable? The answer is to rebuild the Changping Warehouse.

The Changping Granary system has a long history. In order to regulate grain prices, store grain for famine relief, and supply food to officials and the people, governments of all dynasties would set up similar government-run granaries in various counties.

When the market price of grain is low, the Changping Warehouse will appropriately raise the price and purchase a large amount of grain. When the market price of grain is high, the price will be appropriately lowered for sale to prevent "cheap rice hurting farmers" and "expensive rice hurting people".

On the basis of Changping Warehouse, this dynasty set up a more complicated reserve warehouse system... Yes, the one that Xu family burned last year was the Kunshan reserve warehouse. But because the operation was too complicated, the effect was not as good as the simple Changping Warehouse. Therefore, it was basically non-existent during the Chenghua period.

Zhao Hao had already mentioned this suggestion to Hai Rui, and Hai Gong also agreed with it. He said that he would order all prefectures to pay attention to the construction of Changping Warehouse and list it as a key assessment project.

Of course, Mr. Zhao, who was worried about his old father, had asked Wu Chengen to do this job for him. The reserve warehouse that was "overfired" had been rebuilt last autumn. He also borrowed money from Wuji Money House, the predecessor of Jiangnan Bank, to purchase 50,000 shi of autumn grain as reserve grain for Kunshan Changping Warehouse.

Together with the tax grain harvested last autumn, it will be enough to ensure that the county's grain prices will not fluctuate greatly during this year's spring famine, and it will also be able to make a small profit to repay the interest and part of the debt.

~~

Therefore, Mr. Zhao no longer needs to worry about this important event of the year in each county...

Mr. Zhao thought, why not build bridges and roads? As a result, Kunkaisi has already formulated a plan to complete the planning of the road network and the renovation of roads and bridges in the entire county within one year.

Well, let's focus on education. Jiang Jiaoyu, who also holds a position in the Jiangnan Education Group, told him that this year Kunshan County will open five primary schools, one middle school, and one vocational school. These schools will be jointly run with the county, and naturally they can all be counted as the county's achievements.

Teacher Jiang also told Mr. Zhao that all the children who were studying there would not be charged tuition, and the school would provide breakfast and lunch... He said to Zhao Shouzheng with tears in his eyes that the county's cultural and educational development was just around the corner! As long as the current plan was followed, Beggar Kunshan would definitely become a veritable hometown of top scholars in the future!

The implication is that we should just cooperate and not cause trouble for others...

The imperial court's assessment of teachers was very simple, which was to see how many people in the county passed the imperial examinations and how many passed the imperial examinations.

He begged and pleaded with everyone before Yufeng Academy agreed to accept students from the county school, but he dared not offend them.

Mr. Zhao smacked his lips and said depressedly, "Then we can only do charity. Did they do this too?"

"That's not the case." Bai Shouli said hurriedly: "Kunkaisi is a business after all, so we still have to rely on the master in this regard."

In fact, in the clan society of the Ming Dynasty, the lives of ordinary people in the whole county were better, and there were no abandoned elderly, weak, sick, disabled and children.

But Bai Zhubu is not a fool, so how could he dampen the enthusiasm of the master?

"Yes." Zhao Shouzheng's expression brightened and he said, "That's right. The people of this county have suffered for too long and are already exhausted. Our policy of governing by doing nothing and giving the people a rest is the right remedy."

"It's really great!" County Magistrate He and others gave thumbs up, thinking that no wonder he could become the top scorer in the imperial examination, his theoretical level is really high.

Finally, Mr. Zhao announced that doing a good job of protecting the entire county would be the focus of this year's work.

The Kunshan County Government’s opening work arrangement meeting for the new year ended successfully.

p.s. I seem to have caught a cold from using the air conditioner last night. My throat is inflamed and my eyes are tearing. I felt very uncomfortable all day and only updated twice. I hope I will feel better tomorrow.