Chapter 479: A primary school built during the Republic of China
“I have no objection. Let’s donate a little bit personally. How about five thousand yuan each to express our personal feelings?”
“Okay, Party Secretary Zhang said we need at least 50,000 yuan to build the primary school? Let’s donate a total of 100,000 yuan! Make the school beautiful, with the best tables, chairs, benches, and teaching equipment!”< br>
“This alone is not enough, the teacher’s salary must also be improved.” Fang Minghua reminded: “Just like Xuewen, no matter how beautiful the school is, you can’t teach with peace of mind with that meager income!”
"You're right, let's use part of the funds from it. Who is willing to come to Murakami to teach and receive a monthly subsidy of 60 yuan! How about that?"
"This is okay!"
"There are also out-of-school children. There must be children who cannot afford to go to school. This must also be funded."
"Yes, yes, I will go find Zhang tomorrow morning. The party secretary said! "
Early the next morning, Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun got up and found Zhang Guisheng at the village committee and told him their idea of donating money to build the school and support the teachers and students of the school.
“Okay, okay.” Zhang Guisheng nodded excitedly.
"Red Army, Minghua, after the school is built, we will carve a merit monument next to the school entrance with your names written on it!"
"No, no" Fang Minghua quickly declined: "As long as the school conditions Well, the students’ academic performance has improved, and they will be able to get into college in the future. This is the best monument to us!”
Now that we have decided, we will start construction as soon as possible and strive to start school in the fall. The key to enabling students to move into the new school building is the availability of funds.
Of course Murakami didn’t have a phone, so the two drove to the township government with Zhang Guisheng. They mainly found a landline to call Song Tangtang in Xijing and asked her to immediately ask the financial staff to transfer 110,000 yuan to the designated account. , of which 10,000 yuan was personally contributed by Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun.
This matter will inevitably be known to the township leaders. Secretary Liu expressed his gratitude to the two people on behalf of the township party committee and government.
Of course, they don't have to worry about how to build the school building. The government will be responsible for it. Once the funds are in place, it will be none of their business.
Fang Minghua is going to drive around. They plan to drive to the Yongtai City site, which is not too far away from here.
Because the castle looks like a golden turtle, it is also known as Yongtai Turtle City. It is the most representative and relatively well-preserved Ming Dynasty military castle along the Silk Road. It is very similar to Zhenbei Fort in Yinchuan.
As a result, the car was still driving out of the village when it saw the dust on the road into the village. The leader was an Audi 100, followed by Santana, Lada, and 212 Jeeps. There were a lot of them.
It turned out that leaders at the city, county and township levels were here.
The leader was Mayor Wu, a middle-aged man in his early fifties. He held Fang Minghua's hand tightly and said, "Chairman Fang, when you and Mr. Zhao are here, why don't you tell us in advance? Others don't have to tell us, but Chairman Liu of our Municipal Writers Association, do you want to say something? The All-China Writers Association is one family.”
Mayor Wu was standing next to Chairman Liu of the Writers Association, and he immediately took over: “Mayor Wu is right, our Provincial Writers Association is the same.” Chairman Zhao came to your Xijing and was warmly welcomed by your Writers Association. You came quietly this time. If you let Chairman Hu know, you will laugh at our Provincial Writers Association. "
Chairman Zhao is Gan. Zhao Yanyi, chairman of the Provincial Writers Association, is a novelist and famous children's literature writer. He has devoted his life to the creation of children's literature. His representative works include the fairy tales "The Little Swallow and Its Three Neighbors" and "The Iron Horse".
Fang Minghua had no choice but to say that this was a private trip. As long as he wanted to visit the place where he jumped in line, he did not dare to alert the officials.
"It's good to be here. You guys have made such a big contribution to Bentou Village just by coming here." Mayor Wu took over the words and said with emotion: "On behalf of the municipal party committee and government, I thank you!"< br>
The arrival of so many leaders at once alarmed the local people. Many people stood in front of their homes to watch. They were amazed and said that they had never seen so many leaders come to the village in most of their lives.
Today is an eye-opener.
Zhang Guisheng, the village party secretary, was in a hurry. He and all the village cadres rushed to greet him, and everyone held a meeting in the simple conference room of the village committee.
Mayor Wu made a speech on behalf of the municipal party committee and decided to hold a grand donation ceremony three days later. The top secretary of the municipal party committee will attend and the city's TV stations will report on it.
To be honest, Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun didn’t want to be so high-profile.
Even though they donated 100,000 yuan to build a school, they also knew that some things were beyond their control.
After the brief meeting, the city and county leaders were about to return. Mayor Wu invited Fang Minghua and the others to live in the city, but they were declined.
This time the two of them came here to recall the prosperous days at the place where they once jumped in line. What’s the point of living in the city?
After the city and county leaders returned, Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun drove their cars, carrying dry food and water, and started their own tour, going around Yongtai Turtle City. Surrounding the majestic castle, there are star-studded villages, and further away are vast tracts of Gobi Desert, showing the desolation of the northwest.
Although Turtle City is old, there are still dozens of families inside. In addition to the intact city walls, there is also a primary school inside - Yongtai Primary School, and the sound of Lang Lang's reading can be heard from inside.
It is divided into a front yard and a backyard. The school gate is a blue brick arch with a brick carving on the top of the four words "Haizhao Dayi". The school building and auditorium are a mixed structure of brick, earth and wood, with Gothic doors and windows, and a combination of Chinese and Western styles. The architecture stands out among the surrounding adobe houses.
Standing at the gate of the school, Zhao Hongjun sighed: "I never expected that such a desolate and barren place would have such a high-end school."
"Of course. , "Mencius Tengwengong 1" has this passage: "If a person has good food, warm clothes, and a comfortable home without education, he is close to an animal." This means: When it comes to being a human being, if he has enough food, warm clothes, and comfortable living, he is like an animal. , live comfortably, but without education, they are like birds and beasts."
"Have you heard of Liu Wenhui, the warlord of Sichuan Province during the Republic of China? If the county government building was better than the school under his rule, then The county magistrate will be executed on the spot. It takes ten years to grow trees but a hundred years to cultivate people. Especially for children in these poor areas, studying can really change their destiny, and we must provide them with this opportunity."
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Fang Minghua talked eloquently.
"Oh. Look at what you said, it's so worth our donation of 100,000 yuan! I also feel that I am getting great."
The two were chatting. When the bell rang, the children rushed out of the classroom and started playing. The originally quiet castle suddenly became lively.
The last person who came out of the classroom was a middle-aged man in his thirties wearing a short-sleeved shirt. When he saw that Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun had unfamiliar faces, and they were not dressed like ordinary people, he thought He took the initiative to talk to the leader of which department in the county he was. After asking, he found out that he was an educated youth who had joined the queue in Bench Village and came back to have a look.
“In Bentou Village, there was a university professor named Lu who was decentralized back then. Do you know him?” The teacher’s surname was Li Chongren.
"How come we don't know each other? We all lived together back then. We went to work and he taught in primary school." Zhao Hongjun said.
“What a good teacher.” Speaking of Professor Lu, Li Chongren was full of praise: “He is a very good teacher. When I was in high school, I asked him to help me tutor math, physics and chemistry. If it weren’t for him, I would have lost my life. Failed to pass the normal school exam."
"Are you a college student?" Fang Minghua was a little surprised.
"No, no, I only went to Wuwei Normal School and was a high school junior college student. My foundation was too weak and I failed to live up to Professor Lu's expectations. He originally wanted me to get admitted to Northeastern University and become his real student." Li Chongren looked regretful.
“It’s not bad to be admitted to a high school. It’s one of the best.” Fang Minghua said.
"That's right. I went to the normal college and was assigned a job, so I was able to eat royal food. My hometown is here, so I took the initiative to come back to teach - our school building is good, right?"
"It's good. The schools built during the Republic of China can be managed. It’s basically intact now,” Fang Minghua said.
“This was built by my grandfather.” Li Chongren’s tone was full of pride.
"Master?"
Li Chongren talked about this period of history.
The site of Yongtai Primary School was originally the general headquarters. In the second year of the Republic of China, the general headquarters was abolished by his great-grandfather Li Shanche. After graduating from Lanzhou Military Academy and returning to his hometown, he called on the gentry to donate money for education, build school buildings, and served as the first principal.
"I have taken over my grandfather's class. Now children from the surrounding villages come here to go to school." Li Chongren smiled at the end, showing his white teeth.
At this moment, the school bell rang, and Fang Minghua and the others said goodbye to Teacher Li and left Yongtai City.
"It's not easy, it's not easy." Zhao Hongjun couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the desolate castle.
In the evening, Fang Minghua and his wife returned to Zhang Jianlin's house. Zhang Jianlin, who had been busy in the county during the day, also came back. When everyone was having dinner together, Zhang Jianlin said: "I heard from my wife that she came here today. A bunch of leaders, thank you for donating money to build the school?”
"Yes, we don't want to make a big fuss, but we have no choice." Zhao Hongjun explained.
“I also want to donate 1,000 yuan, I don’t know if that’s okay?” Zhang Jianlin suddenly said.
(End of this chapter)