Chapter 418 Public Election
"Very good!" Su Ying smiled and pointed at the men who came forward.
"Just when we were worried about not having enough manpower, here comes the ready-made labor force! The Feng family, if you have the guts, take a step forward and send them all to the mines to dig!"
"Crash!" The men who were so aggressive just now all retreated in unison, fearing that they would fall behind if they were too slow.
No matter how stupid you are, you will know that going to the mine is a dead end. You will either die of exhaustion or be crushed to death by a collapse in the mine. It will not be a good death!
This female official Su is so cruel!
"You, a bunch of useless things!" The elders were angry and embarrassed, their faces flushed.
There are hundreds of households in Shanghe Village, and more than half of them are surnamed Feng. They often bully other weak villagers in Shanghe Village.
The fact that they are all poor people does not stop them from doing evil and bullying men and women.
They are only allowed to bully others, but not others to fight back.
Mo Sanniang's parents' home was dozens of miles away from here. The Feng family didn't inform the Mo family and threw Mo Sanniang to feed the wild beasts.
They don't treat people as human beings at all. The elders think of themselves as the local emperors. At least they have the final say in Shanghe Village.
"What? You want to go mining?" Su Ying stared at several elders.
"Very good! Although I am thinner and older, as Cao Mengde said, an old horse is still in the stable!
"Ambition is not limited by age! Take them all away!" Su Ying pointed at the elders and the heartless Feng Er's family.
The bailiffs stepped forward and took the man away.
"Let us go! Why are you arresting us? Look everyone, this is the court's dog official who takes advantage of his power to bully the people!" Several elders jumped up and down.
"Oh my God, look! The hens are crowing at dawn! There's going to be chaos all over the world!" screamed Old Lady Feng, with a very sharp tongue.
"Shut up!" Su Ying was displeased.
"Old bastard! Old hag! If you don't shut up, do you want to eat mud balls?" The yamen runners slapped the backs of these evil people with the backs of their knives.
Old Mrs. Feng was also hit and immediately fell silent, as quiet as a chicken.
He is just a village thug who bullies the good and fears the evil. It is not that the old man has become bad, but that the bad man has become old!
Seeing that Su Ying was serious, the yamen runners didn't show any mercy and felt very nervous.
During the morning discussion, the heads of the Ministry of Industry all mentioned a problem, which was that the demand for iron ore slag was increasing, but the output of the iron smelting plant could not keep up.
Because mining is slow and dangerous, most of the people who work in the mines are convicted of serious crimes. Those people are unlikely to work honestly and are always procrastinating.
I didn’t think before that the more iron ore produced, the more it should be handed over, and the less it produced, the less it should be handed over.
This is not possible now. Wuzhou uses the blast furnace method to smelt iron. Not only is the iron output high, but the processing time is also shortened, which means increased production and a large demand for raw materials.
Iron ore slag is now a treasure. In the past, the mountains of waste slag were all taken to cement plants, but they were still not enough.
There is a severe shortage of manpower to mine iron ore, and these old guys are so aggressive, they are just the right ones to be sent for reform!
By the way, let’s improve the atmosphere in Shanghe Village.
Get out of here with all the ancestral halls and one-man rule. Random beating and killing are absolutely not allowed. The damn imperial power will not extend to the countryside.
It is nothing more than an excuse for the bureaucrats to be lazy and to go along with the corrupt officials.
"Take him back and interrogate him thoroughly to see how many lives he has taken and how many bad things he has done! Send him to the mine to work!" Su Ying said to the head of the yamen runners.
"Yes, sir!" the squad leader bowed.
"Do we really want to take them to the mine?" Su Laosan felt amused.
"Hmm! I've heard for a long time that the atmosphere in Shanghe Village is not good. It's these so-called elders who are leading the charge. I can just take advantage of this opportunity to wipe them out.
Shanghe Village will re-elect the village head and neighborhood head to lead the villagers to prosperity and never allow any evil practices to occur!
Su Ying was not a nosy person, but she was angry that a baby girl was treated like this by her family and a mother was bullied like this.
"Who is the village chief of Shanghe Village?" Su Ying asked everyone present.
Everyone was silent, looking at a silent old man with a little boy standing next to him asking for directions.
"Are you the village chief?" Su Ying walked over.
"Yes! Shanghe Village Chief Feng Sixi meets Lord Su!" The old man trembled with fear.
Su Ying shook her head secretly. He was so timid and cowardly, probably because he was being sidelined. No wonder the Feng family in Shanghe Village was so arrogant.
Under normal circumstances, the village chief is a highly respected person in the village. In addition to assisting the county government in collecting taxes and grain, he is also responsible for mediating conflicts between neighbors.
He was not seen in Mo Sanniang's case. It seems that the village chief has no influence or prestige in this village.
"How many years have you been the village chief?" Su Ying asked.
"Your Excellency, ten years!" Feng Sixi's face was full of worry.
"Where are the village elders?" Su Ying asked again.
"Your Excellency, they have all been arrested. The one just taken away is the village elder." Feng Sixi replied.
"?" Su Ying was confused. No wonder Shanghe Village became the property of the Feng family. No wonder they were so rampant.
There are so many people and so much power. From the village chief to the village elders, they are all members of the Feng family. If they don’t serve the Feng family, how can they side with outsiders?
"Convene a village meeting immediately and hold a new election. Those people are unworthy of their positions and are not fit to be village elders!" Su Ying said decisively.
There was no need to notify every household. When the villagers heard that the elder of the Feng family had been arrested, they all came to watch the excitement.
So on the open dam, the village elders and village head were elected on the spot.
Su Ying took the lead in selecting people who were strong, smart, and slightly literate.
After selecting for a long time, there was no literate person in the village. Although the old village chief was cowardly and timid, he was the only educated person in the village.
When he was young, he worked as a waiter in a county restaurant. He studied with the accountant for a few days and learned some simple arithmetic and writing.
Otherwise, you can't become the village chief. You need to be able to read official documents, keep accounts, etc.
"Oh! You just continue to be the village chief!" Su Ying was helpless.
In such a remote and poor place, there is not even a county school, and we still expect village schools?
As the sky gradually darkened, Su Ying saw Huang Si Niang hurried back in the crowd. She squeezed next to a burly man in his early twenties and pretended to watch the fun.
His eyes met Su Ying's, with a questioning look.
Su Ying nodded slightly, and Huang Si Niang felt relieved.
"Now let's elect a village elder. Please nominate one!
Think carefully, these village elders have to speak for you and work for you, they must be virtuous and respectable, they can't be hooligans who come to bully you!" Su Ying said loudly.
Everyone selected several virtuous people, among whom was Liu Erniu, the strong man beside Huang Sanniang.
"Liu Erniu? No, no! What does a young man know!" An old man shook his head, saying that the village elders had little experience and could not control others.
"Why not? As long as you have moral integrity and are willing to work for everyone, you are qualified to be a village elder!" Su Ying supported.
Now he pretends to be unacceptable, he dares not say a word when facing a bully, and he finds fault with good people when meeting them.
"Yes! Erniu is kind-hearted, so why can't he be the village elder?" those who agreed said in unison.
So Liu Erniu became the village elder.
"Village Chief Feng, fellow village elders, I hope you will lead Shanghe Village well and that everyone can live in harmony.
We are all citizens of the Tang Dynasty, no one is superior to anyone else! Just because you have more people doesn't mean you have the right!" Su Ying warned before leaving.
"We will follow your instructions!" said Village Chief Feng and the village elders.
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