Chapter 87: Mr. Zhao, who pays attention to hygiene
In the end, it was only after Xiong Dianshi revealed his identity that the jumbled ships on the river reluctantly made way for them.
Mr. Zhao's boat finally crossed the Lou River and went around the West Water Gate and Liuhui Gate before entering the county town.
The county town is also prosperous and has a brand new look.
"Wow, is this still Kunshan County?" Qiaoqiao couldn't help but scream.
"There have indeed been huge changes." Ma Xianglan nodded with a smile. This was all thanks to the young master and the master, and of course she also made a small contribution.
"One is in the north of the city. The old shabby Xin'an Community was demolished and a brand new school was built." Xiong Xiasheng listed them all: "Yufeng Academy, Jiangnan Vocational and Technical College, Kunshan Agricultural College, Yufeng Middle School, Yufeng Primary School..."
Ma Xianglan looked at the newly built Yufeng Middle School and Yufeng Primary School in the distance and couldn't help but reveal a look of pride, because these were the designs of her.
"The second is that my parents upgraded last year's 'National Epidemic Prevention Action' this year and promoted the 'Love Hometown, Pay Attention to Hygiene' campaign, which also gave the entire county a new look..." Xiong Dianshi sighed, "Now Kunshan County has doubled its population, but it is much cleaner and tidier than before. My parents really worry about the county."
Zhao Hao laughed when he heard this and said, "Old Bear, why do I feel like you have something else in your words?"
"No, absolutely not." Xiong Xiasheng waved his hands quickly and said with a wry smile, "There was a flood this year, and the epidemic broke out in various counties to varying degrees. Only our county was safe and sound. So even if everyone didn't understand it before, now everyone is praising the old parents for loving the people like their own children and taking precautions before disasters occur."
"Speak human language." Zhao Hao rolled his eyes.
"Uh, yes..." Xiong Xiasheng shrank his neck and had to tell the story in a serious manner.
It turned out that last year, taking advantage of the victory in flood control and the opportunity of people's hearts being united, the county promoted the "National Epidemic Prevention Action" in all townships and villages. Through a series of measures such as "two controls and five changes", namely controlling water, controlling feces, changing wells, changing toilets, changing animal pens, changing stoves, and changing the environment, it not only prevented the spread of post-disaster plague, but also greatly curbed the spread of schistosomiasis.
Half a year after the implementation of the national epidemic prevention, the number of new schistosomiasis cases reported in the county was more than 90% less than in previous years. This greatly encouraged the left-behind old Zhao, who felt lonely and cold after the eldest princess and Zhao Hao left and could not find anything to do, and he immediately launched an upgraded version of the "Love Hometown, Pay Attention to Hygiene" campaign.
In addition to the previous "two controls and five reforms", he also ordered the "elimination of six pests" - declaring war on rats, mosquitoes, flies, bedbugs, lice and fleas. The first three pests are aimed at public health, and the last three pests are aimed at personal hygiene.
The officials and yamen runners of the whole county had just escaped from their peasant life and had a few days of leisure time drinking tea and chatting, but now they were being driven around by Master Zhao and started a vigorous patriotic health campaign... Oh no, a love for hometown and hygiene campaign.
Moreover, Zhao Shouzheng had already mastered the trick of quantitative management. He divided the entire county into several contracted areas and let the more than 200 people in the county government each take charge of an area and take full charge of the "two managements, five reforms and six evils elimination" work in the area under their jurisdiction. Even County Magistrate He and Dianshi Xiong did not escape...
Mr. Zhao personally led the team to inspect and evaluate every now and then. The bottom of the list would have their year-end bonuses withheld and given to the top of the list. This was the first time that Kunkai Company distributed dividends, and everyone in the county government was looking forward to the bonuses to celebrate the New Year. Naturally, Zhao Shouzheng had them in his hands.
The third master of the county, Bai Zhubu, thought that he could get away with it because he had a job in Kunkaisi. But he was specially appointed by Zhao Erye to repair the public toilets because he was in Kunkaisi. People urinating and defecating anywhere has always been a big problem. It is not only unhygienic, but also wasteful!
But let alone the countryside, there are no public toilets even in the county town. Streets, alleys, rivers, trees, and bushes behind doors have become places where people take it for granted to go to the bathroom. Not only are precious feces and urine wasted, but the city is also filled with odors, mosquitoes, and flies, making it extremely dirty. When it is dry, pedestrians can still walk in the middle of the road, but when it rains, the entire road is blocked.
The most outrageous thing is that there is a herbal medicine shop called Renhetang on Xitang Street. Because its storefront is close to the inside and the ground is slightly wider, hundreds of people will go to the bathroom every day after closing. The owner of the herbal medicine shop believes that this is the feng shui of the shop and is unwilling to prohibit it, but of course he cannot prohibit it.
The reason why so many people are trying to make a fortune by collecting manure but still cannot block the way for the herbal medicine shop is mainly because some dung collectors regard it as a gold mine. They come to pick it up every day carrying dung buckets and tools. Sometimes, night battles are caused because someone crosses the line.
Mr. Zhao realized that building toilets alone would not be enough to change people's habit of urinating and defecating anywhere, so he set up a "Toilet Movement Committee" and appointed Bai Shouli as the "Director of the Toilet Committee", requiring him to build 300 public toilets in the county and major towns within a year!
It also stipulates that anyone caught urinating or defecating in public will be fined fifty coins and put in shackles and displayed to the public for one day!
The situation of Kunshan people urinating and defecating anywhere was immediately reversed. No one urinated and defecated anywhere anymore. In addition to being afraid of being fined and shackled, they also found that every time they went to the toilet, the workers in charge of the toilet would give them toilet tickets, one for a small toilet and two for a large toilet.
If you accumulate 100 toilet tickets, you can go to any grain store in the county and exchange them for a pound of rice... In Kunshan, a pound of rice costs 10 coins, so 10 toilet tickets are equivalent to 1 coin. Although it doesn't seem like much, with the efforts of the whole family, you can exchange it for a lot of food in a month.
But this wave is not a loss at all, because all the feces belong to Kunkaisi, and no one can steal them. They collect the feces and urine separately, and send the small urine to the saltpeter yard outside the city to make saltpeter, and the large feces are sent to various farms for composting... It is much more cost-effective than collecting feces from the dung tyrants before.
Of course, those dung tyrants who used to control the dung roads and did not allow others to touch them were naturally very unhappy when their business was taken away. However, anyone who dared to get angry was ruthlessly suppressed by the county, beaten with a board and sent to labor camps. After a one-stop service, they would never appear in the county again.
Finally, Master Zhao relied on the strong execution ability of his subordinates and a multi-pronged approach, and finally became the first official in the Ming Dynasty to solve the problem of people urinating and defecating anywhere... Unfortunately, this thing cannot be written in the year-end summary. Firstly, it sounds smelly, and secondly, the officials of the Ministry of Personnel will not believe it.
~~
It sounds like a mystery. How could anyone have solved the problem of urinating and defecating in public?
But the omnipresent stench was definitely gone, the streets were clean, and the garbage and filth that could be seen everywhere were gone...
Zhao Hao even saw that the horse-drawn and ox-drawn carts on the road all had a dung bag on the back.
"My parents stipulated that if animals defecate anywhere, the owner will be punished. And it costs money..." Xiong Dianshi said with a wry smile, "My parents also called us to a meeting to study and solve the problem that the dung bags were too expensive and of poor quality. In the end, Chairman Liu found out about it and asked someone to send a batch of strong and cheap cloth to make high-quality and low-priced horse dung bags for the people, and finally solved the problem of animal dung."
After saying this, he laughed at himself and said, "At that time, there were indeed some annoying words in the government office, especially people from neighboring counties who kept saying weird things... like 'other counties have six-room clerks, Kunshan County has six-harm clerks', they are the magistrate who exterminates families, and my parents are the 'magistrate who exterminates mosquitoes', they are the historians, and I am the 'shit clerk'; they are the 'bookkeeper' and Lao Bai is the 'toilet clerk', etc. It would be strange if everyone felt good after hearing that."
"It's quite mean, why doesn't anyone say anything about the Second Master?" Zhao Hao laughed so hard that his stomach hurt. He didn't expect to miss so much excitement this year.
"Why didn't anyone say anything..." Xiong Dianshi said with a strange expression, "It's just that it insults the name of the county magistrate, so let's not mention it."
"Is it... Wenwei County Magistrate?" Zhao Hao was always smart when it came to matters like this.
The magistrate of He County was named He Wenwei.
"I didn't say that." Xiong Dianshi finally couldn't help laughing and said, "Look at how our government has been organized."
"Then do you blame my father?" Zhao Hao asked a nonsense question. Does Lao Xiong dare to say yes?
"At first I did not understand it, but as the county gradually became clean and the people became respectable, and one good thing led to a hundred good things, the county's people's morals improved greatly, and everyone was very happy." Xiong Dianshi said with emotion:
"Especially later, all the counties were hit by the epidemic, and the worst-hit counties had thousands of deaths. Only our Kunshan County was safe and sound, without any loss of labor. Moreover, the crops were harvested in abundance, ranking first in the prefecture. Now everyone finally understood the painstaking efforts of our old parents."
"After the autumn harvest, the prefect Cai personally came to the county to inspect and praised the county magistrate's measures to prevent disasters before they happen. He also ordered all counties to learn from us and also implement the 'two controls, five reforms and six evils elimination'. Who dares to laugh at us now?" Xiong Dianshi said this and couldn't help but said proudly: "In the words of the county magistrate, 'If I get stinky, thousands of families will be kept clean'. What does it mean to love the people like one's own children? This is what it means to love the people like one's own children!"
The two were chatting happily when they suddenly heard an excited shout:
"son!"
Zhao Hao was shocked when he heard this. He looked up and saw that the boat had arrived at Zhouxi Bridge Pier.
At the dock, Master Zhao and the eldest princess were waving at him vigorously, the former even jumping up and down with excitement.
"Dad!" Zhao Hao also waved his hand quickly and was about to call "Mom" again, but stopped abruptly.
Looking at my godmother and biological father standing there side by side, they are indeed a good match, but are you married?
I wondered what was going on. Was it obvious? Were they already a couple? Aren't they afraid that people would say it was immoral? Aren't they afraid that Mingyue and Xiaojue would be embarrassed if they saw them?
Oh yes, Li Chengen was left in Beijing by the emperor to serve as the prince's guard in the Eastern Palace...
Can you be so arrogant when your son is not around?
Is that reasonable? Is that reasonable?
Zhao Hao looked at the young county lady worriedly, afraid that she would be embarrassed.
Unexpectedly, Li Mingyue waved at the two of them cheerfully, apparently she was used to it...
It seemed like he was making a fuss out of nothing.
p.s. I’m going to sleep. I’ll write tomorrow.