Chapter 904: A Forgotten Little Place

This place, to put it bluntly, has almost become a forgotten small county. Google search reading

For the people living in the county, more young and strong people will choose to go out to work, which has led to almost no young and strong people staying in the village. The youngest person who went out to work was 18 years old, and the oldest was over 50 years old. Frankly speaking, the fundamental problems of this county are education and environment.

First of all, it is education. The old man just said that in the most difficult time, a county could not even afford to hire a primary school teacher. The salary of a primary school teacher is about 150 yuan, and teachers from famous schools can earn 200 to 300 yuan a month.

Their school was built by the county magistrate, almost out of his own pocket. The county magistrate himself does not have much income. Because of this matter, he is often criticized by his family, but he has a clear conscience. The main reason for not being able to hire teachers is that no teachers are willing to come to this place to teach. Most teachers are to support their families, but if there is no salary, isn’t that a joke?

So the county magistrate had to take time out of his own schedule to teach some children to read and write, but it was not a good idea to do so over the years. Just then, a new person came to the county town, a college student, and the county magistrate asked him to teach the children to read and write.

However, it can only be said that the effect was very limited, because in the entire county town, with thousands of households, there were less than 40 children coming to school here, barely enough to make up a class.

The reason why the children in this class can sit here to attend classes is that the county magistrate went to each household. Their county town originally had a lot of people, starting with more than 100,000 people, but with the passage of time, the number of people has become smaller and smaller. Although it is still a county town, it is not as rich as a village in Jiangnan City.

The old county magistrate's lifelong dream is to let all children go to school. Only knowledge can change destiny, but things did not go as he wished. The family of the temporary teacher's assistant found a connection and transferred him back to the city from the county town.

The old county magistrate himself had no time to teach. Such a big school could not even hire a teacher. Later, the children had not been to class for half a year. When the old county magistrate was about to give up, the young man came.

A young man had just been assigned to the county from the city. After learning about this situation, he bought a batch of brand new textbooks and said that he could temporarily be the teacher of the students. The old county magistrate was of course very pleased, so he agreed directly.

This teaching lasted for more than three years. The children's cultural level has improved significantly, and the number of students has gradually increased. However, it was at this time that the old county magistrate became ill due to overwork and passed away in his office.

After the young man learned about this news, he was silent for a while. On the day when the old county magistrate was cremated, a notice came from above. The old county magistrate wrote a report to the above the day before he left, saying that it was recommended that the young man take the position of county magistrate. The reason was simple. Pingling County now needs a young man who is energetic and has work experience, compassion, and ambition. Young people have almost all these advantages.

The higher-ups naturally agreed, because almost no one wanted to take the position of county chief, and most people would rather go to a village with better conditions to be the village chief.

The young man took office alone. The team of this county town had only a dozen people in total. After accepting the mess left by the old county chief, the young man began to make changes.

First, he applied to the higher-ups for road construction tirelessly. If you want to be rich, you must build roads first. This principle is not young anymore, of course, and of course young people know it. When it is frequent, it is almost two or three days to write an application, and the longest interval is four or five days. The higher-ups naturally wavered for a while, and then told the young man that they would find a way, which can be regarded as half of the agreement.

When this news came out, people in the county town saw some hope, at least it was not completely hopeless, didn’t the higher-ups waver?

At this moment, how did the people in the entire county make money? The mountain products that are becoming more and more difficult to find are all mushrooms, wild rabbits, pheasants, etc., and then the vegetables and potatoes grown by themselves.

These things are not a long-term solution, because there will always be a shortage of mountain products. If the harvest of vegetables is not good, you can't go to the town to exchange money for rice.

Without an economic source, it is normal to be hungry and cold.

As the saying goes, good birds choose trees to live in. Now this county can only go out to work. First of all, working does not require any cultural level, as long as you can communicate with people normally. Secondly, working can also help the family share some housework. Therefore, almost all the children in the county have given up studying. Those who are not old enough help their families grow vegetables and go into the mountains to get mountain products. Those who are old enough, 18 or 19, all go out to work.

The young county magistrate does not want to see this situation, but he has no ability to change it.

Where do they have the money to invite so many teachers? And the school has been almost empty for a long time.

From this point of view, the old county magistrate's worries are right.

And recently there has been a problem with the water source. I heard that no water can be drawn, and the same is true in the well. The young county magistrate is even busier.

When Suo Longqi and his men arrived, they happened to arrive at such a moment.

For Suo Longqi, the most urgent issue now is the water source problem. He might have to call Li Yi to ask about it.

The donkey cart was shaking and finally arrived at Pingling County in the afternoon. All the houses that came into view were at least 20 to 30 years old. The most were two-story buildings, and there were also bungalows with small courtyards. The supply and marketing cooperatives and sewing shops on the roadside had rusty signs hanging on them, which looked shaky. Looking at this place, the first impression it gave people seemed to be inseparable from the word poverty.

And quite a few two-story buildings were actually abandoned, and no one lived in them.

Tang Lan also woke up at this time. Seeing the surrounding scene, she subconsciously asked: "Are we here?"

Suo Longqi nodded and said: "We just arrived. It seems that life here is really hard..."

The old man slowly stopped the donkey cart on the side of the road and said to Suo Longqi: "Young man, I have other things to do. I will take you all here!"

Suo Longqi smiled and nodded and said: "It's my duty. Thank you for your trouble! Uncle!"

The old man smiled and waved his hand. In the end, he did not accept Suo Longqi's money and slowly left with the donkey.