Why was Kunshan County's annual work conference so relaxed and enjoyable, and why was the time peaceful and quiet?

That's because someone is carrying the burden for them.

To the west of Banshan Bridge, on Xitang Street, the most prosperous street in the county, stands a new three-story building. This is the office building of Kunshan Development Company.

From the outside, it has pink walls, black tiles and horse-head walls, which is very similar to the common Jiangnan pavilions, but in fact, that is just the appearance.

This is the world's first three-story brick-concrete structure, using a completely different construction method from the past. Before installing doors and windows, not a single piece of wood was used!

When the building was being built, the people of Kunshan watched every day. The workers dug the foundation, laid the foundation with stone and concrete, and then built the frame of the house with bamboo reinforced concrete. After the structure was solid, the walls were built with blue bricks, and the floor was covered with prefabricated panels of customized size, and the outer shell of the one-story building was built.

Then the workers used scaffolding to build it up layer by layer. It was as simple as a child building a toy, except that it looked square and ugly.

But once the masons painted the three-story building with whitewash, hung up the tiles, and drew the lines, and the carpenters installed beautiful windows and a grand facade, it suddenly looked as beautiful as the high-rise buildings that took ten times as long to build.

No, this one seems to be better looking, because it has wider doors and windows, and the windows are inlaid with expensive glass. When the sun rises, the glass windows reflect thousands of golden lights, and it becomes the most beautiful boy on the whole street.

~~

In fact, Zhao Hao was not satisfied with this building which was only for show. In his opinion, a building without water supply and drainage and without flush toilets was simply anti-human.

At this time, he was sitting in the large conference room on the third floor and didn't dare to drink too much water, otherwise he would have to go downstairs to the toilet in the yard.

This was just a show of skill by Gu Dadong, who loves high-rise buildings, regardless of the actual situation. If Zhao Hao hadn't stopped him, this old man who built the tallest tower in the county would have planned to build a seven-story building.

"There's no elevator, isn't it crazy to live on the seventh floor?" Mr. Zhao thought absentmindedly.

Across the conference table, Gu Dadong, who was unaware that he was being disliked, was facing a map of Kunshan that was half the size of a wall, and was explaining this year's grand plan to Mr. Zhao, President Jiang, and the company's directors who were present at the meeting with saliva flying.

"In accordance with the instructions of the young master, after repeated research and discussion, we have divided the 600,000 mu of land in the county into 100 farms of similar size." Gu Dadong pointed to the scientific digital numbers on the map and said, "Each number from 1 to 100 represents a farm. Each farm will have a farm manager, leading five technicians, who are dedicated to planning and guiding all related matters such as production, water conservancy, pest control, etc. on the 6,000 mu of land on the farm."

Zhao Hao came back to his senses and interrupted, "How many workers are needed for six thousand acres of land?"

"It's hard to say, because ordinary people farm with their whole family." Dai Gao, general manager of Kunkai Company, quickly replied: "A family of five can probably take care of ten acres of land. If there are more, it will be impossible to cultivate it carefully."

A family of five was also the most common family size in the Ming Dynasty, including one or two elderly people and one or two couples. Minors were not included in the household registration.

Zhao Hao stroked his chin and thought for a moment, subconsciously wanting to pick up the teacup on the table and take a sip. But when he got to his lips, he seemed to remember something and put it down.

"That's about 600 households. On average, one person is responsible for 100 households and 1,000 acres. This job is really not easy." He couldn't help but tease Dai Gao, "I see that you are very generous in giving quotas to the Construction and Water Conservancy Department, but why are you so stingy with the Farm Management Department?"

"Haha, don't blame me, sir. There's nothing we can do about it. According to your requirements, technicians must be literate, understand agricultural techniques, be diligent and studious and willing to endure hardships. The entire county cannot gather 600 people who meet the requirements, and now half of the vacancies have not been filled." Dai Gao said with a wry smile.

"Is that so?" Zhao Hao nodded. He had been a little sensitive recently. The reason was that the employee rank system that Mr. Zhao had grandly introduced was, as expected, not very popular among the management of various companies.

They were scolded by Zhao Hao at the time, and no one dared to say anything, but after returning, they found ways to take advantage of the loopholes.

For example, all the rough and manual work was done by temporary workers hired from dental shops, so as to reduce the number of regular workers as much as possible.

For example, when Kunkaisi went to Chongming and Shanghai to work, he asked the county to recruit civilians to work for free...

What's worse, in order to save one year's seniority money, they actually terminated the contracts with all employees and then signed new contracts, so that all of them could be counted as level one.

Fortunately, the Inspection and Supervision Committee has dispatched agencies in each company, and long before the establishment of the Inspection and Supervision Committee, Mr. Zhao had consciously planted spies in each company... or "secret inspectors". With the combination of open and covert, he could keep track of any movement in the subordinate companies.

But Zhao Hao did not lift the lid. Because his grandfather told him that in addition to using both kindness and force to control subordinates, another very important point is not to stand against the majority. Even if you do think differently from the majority, you must hide your attitude.

Otherwise, what awaits you is collective lip service and the inevitable loss of prestige.

Furthermore, Zhao Hao had expected that the implementation would be compromised. After all, from ancient times to the present, there has been no policy that can be implemented to the grassroots level without compromise. So he deliberately left some room for maneuver. Now, the little tricks of these guys are still within his tolerance range...

Just treat these little actions as handles for future use.

~~

After Mr. Zhao stopped his habitual distraction, he said to Dai Gao, "You can hold on here for now. I promise to assign you a full complement of agricultural technicians within half a year at the latest."

"Okay, sir!" Dai Gao said happily when he heard that.

"But distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. The most important thing right now is to start work quickly and rush for spring planting." Zhao Hao leaned back in his chair and asked, "According to you, it will take 60,000 hired farmers to take care of these 600,000 acres of land. Does Kunshan have so many people?"

According to the county's household registration, Kunshan has only 81,043 households and 132,828 people. This number is ridiculously false. If it were true, every family in Kunshan County would have to be a DINK, and there would have to be many bachelors.

The reason for this is that in the past, the imperial court levied taxes based on the number of people in a household. The more people registered in a household, the more taxes one had to pay. This led to large-scale population concealment. Many people did not register their household registration until they were old, and some even reported themselves as "extinct" and their entire family became living dead.

Many officials have served as the head of government for many years, but they don't know how many people they have. Are there any who know? Yes.

Those are the clerks, who have been making a living in the local government offices for generations. They all have a book of accounts in private, which clearly records the land and population of the county. This is what they use to make a living, so they naturally won't show it to others.

But all the headmen of the villages and liaons in the county were bribed by Kunkaisi last year, and they had already reported the total number of households in their respective liaons and liaons.

The final statistics showed that there were 63,145 households and 308,721 people in the county. The number of households was nearly 20,000 less than the official figure, but the population was more than doubled.

Unfortunately, even so, there is still not enough labor.

ps. It’s over tonight, go to bed quickly.