Volume 3: Taking a Post in Hongchuan Chapter 132: Journey to the Boundary Ridge

Chapter 132: Journey to the Boundary Ridge

While Liu Huinian was hospitalized, deputy mayor Zhu Youren was temporarily in charge of the office.

Zhu Youren was originally the deputy mayor who was promoted from the position of office director, so it was natural that he would be familiar with the job now that he returned to his old job.

During this period, the town's personnel changes have been relatively large, and the number of "outsiders" has also further increased. In addition to Lu Yan, a migrant, and Wang Dagong, the two drivers picked up by the county committee, there will soon be three helpers sent by the political research office of the county committee.

The cadres of Sidaogou Town who have perfected the development plan, plus the survey team coming from the Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. With so many people together, accommodation and dining have become a big problem.

The accommodation problem is easy to solve. The houses in the town government compound are all newly renovated within a few years. The office itself is a bit wealthy. If we adjust and squeeze them together, we can use a lot of houses as dormitories.

The problem of eating has always been a problem. With so many people suddenly added, it would be unrealistic to eat in the canteen of the Education Committee or the Health Center. If these people have to eat in restaurants on the street every day, then it will be

The expenses for multiple people are also quite large.

According to Lu Yan's idea, a canteen should be built in the town. Firstly, it can solve the food problem of government personnel. Secondly, the canteen can be built to appropriately subsidize the food expenses, which can also be regarded as giving some disguised benefits to everyone.

With the 10,000 yuan fund allocated by the county party committee, building a canteen is not a problem, and all the cadres of the town government are very enthusiastic.

Things were decided and acted upon immediately. Zhu Youren was arranged to clean up the dormitories and build a new canteen. On the other hand, Lu Yan, accompanied by Bai Shufeng and Li Changsheng, began to conduct research in various villages.

There are a total of 17 natural villages in Sidaogou Town, with a population of more than 20,000. What is interesting is that the names of these 17 natural villages are all related to "gou" and "ridge". Shanggou, Zhonggou, Xiagou,

Zonggou, Wugou, Jieling, Wenling, Beiling and Shaling are all inseparable from the mountains. This also shows how harsh the geographical conditions of Sidaogou Town are.

The investigation started from the farthest village Jieling, which is currently the only natural village in Sidaogou Town that has no access to water, electricity or water. The distance from Sidaogou Town Government to Jieling is about 20 kilometers.

A trip would take a whole morning.

The main reason why it takes so long is because Jieling Village is right on the top of Daqing Mountain, and the way up there is a long climb, so walking is of course very troublesome.

Cars are of no use in a place like this. Lu Yan and his party put the car at the bottom of the mountain in Wugou Village and rode up the mountain on three donkeys owned by the Wugou Village Party Secretary's family.

The boundary is not big, with less than a hundred households, but among these one hundred households, the situation of each household seems to be quite bad.

The first intuition is that you can see it from the houses of Jieling villagers.

Nowadays, the conditions in rural areas are much better than before, and farmers are more particular about building houses. Take Sidaogou Town, a poor place, where large tile-roofed houses with a courtyard style are often built on the streets of the town.

But when I first arrived in Jieling Village, when I looked around I saw all the colorful adobe houses, and most of the houses didn’t even have a parkway on their exterior walls.

Chief Wu of Jieling Village received Lu Yan and Bai Shufeng at the entrance of the village. In fact, it was a reception, but there was no substantive content. They just went to the canteen at the entrance of the village and bought three bottles of Coca-Cola. Lu Yan and Bai Shufeng, as well as the town government office

The three of them, Xiao Li, each had a bottle, and Village Chief Wu himself was not willing to drink a bottle.

Taking this opportunity, Lu Yan also learned about the price level of the canteen. There are more than 90 households in the entire Jieling Village who only buy daily necessities from this canteen, so the items inside are surprisingly expensive. A bottle of Coke costs eight yuan.

, in this village where the per capita annual income is less than 2,000 yuan, it can indeed be regarded as a luxury product.

Moreover, the variety of goods in the canteen is very small, just some daily oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, and they are often out of stock. If you want to purchase in large quantities, you have to make an appointment with the shop owner several months in advance.

, please give more when purchasing.

The more than 90 families live in a fairly concentrated area, and they basically live on two small platforms on the top of the mountain.

Village Chief Wu introduced that Jieling Village was originally a forest land with only one or two households at the beginning. In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the Hongchuan generation was very violent in banditry. This Jieling Village turned out to be a bandit.

The top of the mountain.

In fact, Jieling is said to be the hilltop of bandits, that is the official name. Originally, the people living in Jieling were some Orion families, and the folk customs themselves were relatively strong. In those years, the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes were too heavy, and the landowners and bullies exploited them fiercely.

They couldn't live any longer, so they organized themselves to resist the oppression, and were called bandits.

In that era, it was precisely because the road in Jieling was too difficult to walk and easy to defend but difficult to attack that the "bandits" in Jieling continued to exist. And after so many years, it is precisely because the road is too difficult to walk.

, Jieling has never been able to develop.

At its peak, there were more than 200 households in Jieling. In recent years, due to the poor natural conditions, many people have moved to the foot of the mountain and other places. The remaining 90 or so households simply have no way or means to move out.

For so many years, Jieling people have mainly been hunting, and there is almost no arable land in the village. In fact, even if there is arable land, they can't grow anything. Except for June, July and August every year, they have to light a stove, which is completely unsuitable for crops.

grow.

In recent years, the country has strengthened the protection of wild animals, and hunting in Jieling Village has also been greatly restricted.

Therefore, the biggest problem for Jieling people every year is to find food rations and fuel for life.

The problem of rations basically depends on relief grains. The most important job of the village committee in a year is to organize the distribution of relief grains. As for the fuel for making fires, as the saying goes, those who depend on the mountains depend on the water. People in Jieling cannot afford coal, so they have to

Just use local materials and cut down trees on the mountain to make fuel.

Lu Yan and his party listened to Village Chief Wu's introduction to the situation while walking. Bai Shufeng naturally knew the situation in Jieling Village very well. Lu Yan listened to Village Chief Wu's introduction, but he was still surprised by the backwardness of this place. From time to time, he

Asking for something.

"What about the children in the village going to school?"

"They were all sent to my home." Village Chief Wu paused and continued: "My wife was an educated youth at that time. After marrying me, she stayed in Jieling Village and is now the only substitute teacher in the village."

Bai Shufeng then added that there used to be a village primary school in Jieling Village. Later, many people in the village moved outside. There were not many children of school age, so the village primary school was cancelled. Village Chief Wu's wife was responsible for taking care of them.

If the children study, the town will give them some subsidies every year.

Lu Yan couldn't help but frowned as he listened to the introduction. The degree of backwardness in Jieling Village was beyond his imagination, and these children did not receive formal education, which would only lead to the continuation of poverty and backwardness.

But the natural conditions of this village are there, and Lu Yan has decided in his heart that he must strive upward during his term of office and move the entire Jieling Village down the mountain. For no other reason than the education of the next generation, he also
Chapter completed!