Chapter 460 Cultural Penetration
Ten miles east of Changhua County and less than one mile away from the Changhua River, there is a six-meter-high pergola in the wilderness. This pergola is made of round logs as thick as a bowl. The floor is nearly four meters high from the ground, and you need to use an escalator to get up. At this time, Qiao Zhiya was sitting on a wicker chair in the pergola, holding a telescope in his hand to observe the situation on the surrounding construction site. The terrain here is very flat, and from the pergola, which is not too high, you can clearly see the situation for several miles around.
Qiao Zhiya put down the telescope, stretched out his hand, and the attendant behind him handed the water glass into his hand. There is fresh coconut juice in the cup, but the coconut is not produced locally, but shipped from the Sanya base. There were no coconut trees in this place originally. After Haihanlai developed Changhua, he began to plant coconut trees on a large scale along the nearby coastline. However, it was not possible to bear fruit in a short time.
Qiao Zhiya majored in chemical engineering when he was in college before time travel, and majored in engineering during his time in the army, so he actually didn't have much interest in civil administration work. When he has free time, he would rather stay on the construction site as a supervisor. Although he is not as professional as Liu Shanxia, he has served as an engineering soldier after all, and he knows something about civil engineering. He is much better than those naturalized migrant foremen who can't even understand drawings. As for specific civil affairs affairs, he prefers to leave them to the people of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to take care of them, rather than grabbing all the power in his own hands.
According to the current project progress, half of the road construction project is expected to be completed by the end of the year, which is basically in line with the construction speed expected by the Ministry of Construction. Of course, it is not that there is no room for further improvement. There are thousands of slave laborers in the hard labor camp that can be exploited. The only problem is that if the personnel attrition rate is too high, it may not be easy to explain to the executive committee.
Although the labor force in the hard labor camp is easy to come by and is often used as consumables on the construction site, after all, it is also one of the assets of the Cross Group. The normal loss rate is about 5%-8% per month. If this number is exceeded, Qiao Zhiya, the interim project director, has to write a written report to explain the reasons to the executive committee. Rather than squeezing the existing labor force, Qiao Zhiya prefers to find ways to continue to increase the number of local labor forces to speed up the progress of the project. As for where the unplanned cheap labor will come from, Qiao Zhiya already has preliminary plans.
A militiaman came to Qiao Zhiya, leaned over and whispered a few words in his ear. Qiao Zhiya nodded and said: "Let him come up."
After a while, a dark-skinned Li boy came to the pergola. Qiao Zhiya pointed to the empty wicker chair next to him and said, "Sit down and say. Come here, give Master Huang a glass of coconut juice!"
The person who came was none other than Huang Que, the representative of the Li people in Shizidong. This young man was appointed as the representative by Huang Sanmu, the owner of Shizidong a few months ago. He followed the Haihan people out of Shilu Mountain and went to Sanya to visit the "Haihan" that the Haihan people boasted about. Chinese life”. Although he only lived in Sanya for about twenty days, this young man's outlook on life has undergone earth-shaking changes during this period. Although he has lived in Changhua County for a period of time, he generally knows what the living environment of the Han people is like. But the difference between the area under the rule of the Haihan people and Changhua County is too great.
In that place, everyone had a house to live in, clothes to wear, food to eat, and education to study. Han, Li, Miao, Annan, and even blond and blue-eyed Westerners could actually live harmoniously in the same place. There is no disgusting Ming government there. Everyone works hard under the management of the Haihan Executive Committee, and their income is far better than that of ordinary people Huangque knows. There are many naturalized citizens in the local area with an annual income of more than 100 yuan, and it is completely delusional for ordinary people under the Ming Dynasty to want to earn 100 yuan a year, let alone Shizi Cave, which is located in the mountains. Compared with the hard life in the mountains, the Sanya area under Haihan's rule was like a fairyland on earth for Huangque. If he hadn't missed his relatives and friends in the village, he would have been a little happy living in Sanya.
After going to Sanya, Huang Que realized how big the world outside Shilu really was. When he returned to Shizidong in Shilu with all his knowledge and thoughts, he had become the most loyal to Haihan's values. advocate. If the Li people want to live a good life and win respect as equals to the Han people, they must first get out of the mountains. This is one of the concepts that Huang Que was repeatedly instilled during his time in Sanya.
Compared with the Ming government's always defensive attitude towards the Li people, the Haihan people were undoubtedly much friendlier. They took the initiative to propose various ways to Shi Zidong to help the Li people get out of this mountain and usher in a new life.
The most important way is to build a new settlement for the Li people on the coastal plain. To this end, the Ministry of Construction specially mobilized a group of workers to build a boat-shaped house in a mountainous area east of Changhua Port and north of Changhua County. , and also sent commissioners from the Ministry of Agriculture to guide the Li people in planting some tea, sisal, oil palm and other economic crops in this area to maintain their future livelihoods.
Of course, planting crops is a long-term plan, and there will be no benefits in the short term. During this period, we cannot just sit back and watch the Li people sit back and eat. Therefore, Qiao Zhiya proposed another supplementary plan to Shi Zidong, which is to let the Li people come to the construction site. On the workmanship. In addition to food and accommodation, they are also paid monthly wages. Although the wages are not much, just the same as junior laborers, it is definitely better than the meager income they could get from hunting and selling mountain products in the past.
Once this plan is implemented, it can be promoted to other Lidong Miao villages around Shilu in the future, and as many of these simple mountain people as possible can be absorbed into Haihan's social system. Qiao Zhiya did not go to discuss with Huang Sanmu in person, but handed over this responsibility to Huang Que, who often came to the construction site recently. Huang Que immediately patted her chest and assured Qiao Zhiya that she would get things done.
Before this, the Military Commission came here specifically to conduct a recruitment event for the local Li and Miao villages. At that time, Qiao Zhiya also asked Huang Que to help promote it. Later, during the half-month recruitment, the Military Commission recruited more than 300 qualified soldiers from the Shilu area, which was considered a big gain. After all, the total population of the Li and Miao ethnic groups in this area is only two to three thousand people. A voluntary recruitment activity took away almost one-third of the young and strong population, which is already a quite ideal result. .
In this process, Huang Que, who was responsible for publicity and momentum in the mountainous area, played an important role. After the recruitment event, Qiao Zhiya also specially presented the "Special Contribution Award" medal and prize to Huang Que on behalf of the Military Commission - a Kabbah 1217 produced in Yangjiang. saber. Although it is just a replica, in this era, it is already considered a rare sharp blade. Only naturalized civilian officers who have achieved military merit have the opportunity to receive such a reward. Naturally, Huang Que couldn't put it down. He always hung this treasure around his waist and would show it off when he remembered it.
Huang Que took off the sun hat on his head, wiped the sweat from his forehead, sat down in the wicker chair, then took the coconut juice from the attendant, drank half the cup, and then sighed: " Brother Qiao, you are so comfortable here, you don’t have to bask in the sun, and you have ready-made juice to drink. You can tell me what to do and someone will run errands for you. I’m so envious of you!” Qiao Zhiya shook his head and said, “What is there to envy? They saw me enjoying the happiness but did not see me taking the blame. Previously, a group of hard laborers on the construction site escaped into Changhua City. I led a team into the city and captured them. During the arrest, I killed a few who resisted. Guy, I wrote a full five-page action report to the Executive Committee after I came back. If the matter is not explained clearly, or if the resolution is not satisfactory, I, a little sesame officer, will probably be stripped of his power by the Executive Committee. How big you are, how big your responsibility is, do you understand?”
Huang Que had an expression that seemed to understand. He only saw all kinds of scenery in Haihan during his stay in Sanya. Prosperity and order were the deepest impressions of Sanya in his mind. However, he did not understand Haihan's bureaucracy and rules and regulations. I don’t know much about it, and I don’t know how it differs from the official system of the Ming Dynasty. As for killing a few escaped slave laborers, Huang Que believed that this was purely within Qiao Zhiya's authority. Of course, if he had witnessed what happened at the scene, his attitude towards Qiao Zhiya would probably be as respectful as that of Mr. Xiao in the county town.
"You will understand gradually in the future." Qiao Zhiya also knew that Huang Que was not deeply involved in the world and might not be able to understand the meaning of what he said. Then he changed the subject and said, "I asked you to go back to the cave to recruit workers. How did things go? ?”
When talking about the things he was doing, Huang Que became interested: "After I went back and talked about it, everyone was not interested at all. After all, we have no other strengths except hunting, and farming is not as good as those Han people outside the mountains. Everyone. I was worried that even if I came to the construction site, I still wouldn't be able to do anything. But then the cave owner stood up and said that since he wanted to be on an equal footing with the Han people, he had to learn what he didn't know. If he didn't even want to learn, then why would he go out to work? ”
Qiao Zhiya nodded slightly and said: "The Lord of Huangdong is indeed a visionary person. When he sent you to the county town to study and learn literacy, he hoped that you could bring back more of the skills of the Han people and help the villagers live a better life."
Huang Que said with a look of shame on his face: "But I didn't understand this before, and I didn't study very seriously. I only knew a few hundred words, and I didn't even study the Four Books and Five Classics."
"That's okay, as long as you have the basics of literacy." Qiao Zhiya encouraged: "Our Haihan school will be opened in Changhua soon. I will write a recommendation material for you then, so you can go in and study hard. ability.”
Although Haihan's school mainly recruits naturalized citizens, the school has the right to recommend children who have not yet obtained naturalized citizenship to enroll. Of course, this measure is not suitable for everyone. It is mainly aimed at those children with good talents and smart minds to avoid missing out on good talents due to household registration issues. Of course, family background is also an important consideration. For example, Li nobles like Huang Que, who have been designated as the next generation's successors at a young age, will naturally be more likely to receive special care.
Fu Li, the leader of Fushandong Shaodong who entered the naturalization system before Huangque, is now the Li people affairs commissioner of the Police Department of the Ministry of Justice. He can be considered a moderate cadre. In Qiao Zhiya's view, Huang Que's overall condition is no worse than that of Fu Li. If he is allowed to drift with the crowd, he will probably become an ordinary person in the future. However, if he can enter the Haihan social system and receive training, he should also be able to become a role model among Li people's naturalized people.
Sure enough, when Huang Que heard this, his eyes immediately lit up and said: "Brother Qiao, are you serious?"
"Of course I am serious. How could Brother Qiao lie to you?" Qiao Zhiya replied with a smile: "You have been in Sanya for so long, Fu Li must have told you a lot of things, right?"
Huang Que nodded heavily, his thoughts could change in just a few days, and Fu Li, who was escorted throughout the whole trip in Sanya, also played an important role. They are both of pure Li descent, similar in age, and have very similar social status in the cave. They are both young and strong representatives who have high hopes from the older generation, and they have the same curiosity about the outside world, so the two of them Soon they became friends who talked about everything, and Huang Que also received a lot of information about Haihan from Fu Li.
Fu Li used his own personal experience as an example to give Huang Que some very practical suggestions on how to get along with the Haihan people and how to enable the Li people to smoothly integrate into the social system created by the Haihan people. If someone else told Huang Que, he might not believe it, but Fu Li's identity was clearly stated there. Li people often took the initiative to say hello to Fu Li outside. Huang Que had no reason to doubt Fu Li's identity. statement. The living standards of the Li people in Sanya have in turn confirmed what Fu Li said. Haihan has indeed given the Li people the opportunity to go out of the mountains and integrate into the world, and has given the Li people great benefits in all aspects. Fair treatment, whether it is employment, admission, salary, all kinds of treatment are the same as those of Han people, there is no difference.
One suggestion that Fu Li emphasized to Huang Que many times was to enroll in Haihan's school. Fu Li and his friend Yu Xiaobao attended Shengli Port Primary School together. Although the time was not too long, they also learned a lot of useful things. After that, Fu Li continued to study the courses of Haihan Educational Institution while working. Over the years, I actually have a bit of a cultural foundation. However, in Fu Li's view, literacy, writing and arithmetic are all secondary. The biggest gain after receiving primary education in Haihan is to know what he can do, what he should do, and how to contribute to the society. Strive for better living conditions for yourself.
Fu Li may not even realize that his thoughts are constantly moving closer to the mainstream Haihan values, and this awareness is unknowingly spreading and affecting the people around him, such as just now Huang Que, who had just left the mountains, was full of longing for Haihan culture because of his descriptions.
(End of chapter)