The midsummer sun was fiercely scorching the earth. Min Honggui, who had just returned to the mainland from Zhoushan County, was constantly wiping the oil sweat from his forehead. The ghost weather in Ningbo is so hot!

Min Honggui had just resigned from the position of acting county magistrate of Zhoushan County, but this does not mean that he lost power or something, but has another use. Well, it is actually Jiang Zhiqing, the captain of the Southern Development Team, who took a fancy to Min Honggui's ability to handle complex situations, because he promoted him to the newly occupied Xinchang County and became the county magistrate.

Min Honggui of Xinchang County has also heard of it. The city of Shaoxing Prefecture, which was under the Qing Dynasty. It had tens of thousands of people and had a declining economy. There was nothing to say. However, although the local products were average and the population was not very dense, the location of this county was very critical. It had a river valley path leading to Fenghua County, Ningbo Prefecture, and a mountain channel leading to Tiantai County, a prosperous Taoist land. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is connected in all directions.

Therefore, for the people of the East Coast, Xinchang County is actually a place that must be occupied quickly. In the past, due to the peace agreement reached with the Qing court and the local restrictions on the various vassals (in principle, they are not allowed to expand the land on a large scale), the people of the East Coast did not have the opportunity to take down this place. However, in recent years, as the conflict between the Qing Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty in the Liaodong region deepened, and a series of subsequent events triggered by Wu Sangui's conquest of the Ming Dynasty made Jiang Zhiqing, the captain of the Southern Development Team, determined to occupy Xinchang County and then use this as a bridgehead to wedge into the southern part of Shaoxing Prefecture of the Qing Dynasty.

It is not a joke to peek at its vast hinterland. Since Shaoxing Prefecture and Ningbo Prefecture border on land, there are a large number of Qing troops stationed in Shaoxing Prefecture, but most of them are deployed in the northern plains, such as Yuyao County, which has a corridor connected to Yin County, such as Guanhaiwei, which borders the coast. In addition, in some coastal and riverside areas, the Qing army has also deployed considerable forces, built many fortresses and facilities to curb ships on the east coast to prevent joint sea and land raids on the east coast. But overall, most of the Qing army was deployed in the northern areas, which are prone to attack by large eastern coast troops, and of course they are richer and denser.

Therefore, it is quite difficult for the East Coast people to gain a solid foothold in the northern part of Shaoxing Prefecture. The repeated tug-of-war in the Guanhaiwei area over the years are very telling. The Qing army will never allow the East Coast troops to break into the western half of the Ningshao Plain. Therefore, this time, Jiang Zhiqing planned to take a different approach, taking advantage of the favorable opportunity of the troops of the King of Lu in Jinhua Prefecture, and taking advantage of the Qing army's unpreparedness to break into the southern part of Shaoxing Prefecture, where its military strength is relatively weak, successfully seized Xinchang County, and transformed it into a front position as a base for entering and leaving Shaoxing Prefecture.

Jiang Zhiqing attached great importance to this place. Not only did he transfer the second division of the Zhejiang New Army, who was good at fighting, to the side, but he also transferred the civil affairs official Min Honggui, whom he valued, to take charge of local affairs there, so as to better serve the local garrison troops.

Min Honggui just received Jiang Zhiqing's lecture in the Yin County office today, and then he brought a group of officials selected from various counties, including deputy county magistrates, security team leaders and top leaders of various bureaus. Even some township leaders sent more than ten, and I don't know if they can take office smoothly (the people of Dongban have only controlled the county town and neighboring areas at present).

It is worth mentioning that a considerable proportion of these cadres collectively called "civil servants" are selected locally. The selection method is not new to Ming people, it is nothing more than exams! When it comes to the civil servant selection and examination system, we have to mention the current civil service system of the Southern Development Team, that is, the classification of public officials can be roughly divided into high-level civil servants, ordinary civil servants, soldiers (yes, you read that right, because it is a recruiting system, soldiers are also a special civil servant), police, teachers, etc.

Among them, the monthly salary of qualified teachers is more than 8 yuan, which belongs to the high-income class; the salary of ordinary police officers and patrol officers is much lower, usually only two or three yuan; and journalist Jiang Zhiqing has run a official media "Ningbo Weekly" in Ningbo, so the salary of newspaper staff is higher, which is about 12 yuan; the staff of Taiwanese banks is probably the highest, because their company has a strong profitability, so a formal employee's salary is around 15 yuan.

From these figures, it can be seen that the wages of civil servants under the Southern Development Team system are actually quite good. Although they cannot compare with the income of civil servants who are rank-level (referring to officials of grades) and those who are gangsters (minor officials of grades, yamen runners, etc.) who are not of course the income is significantly higher than that of ordinary people to ensure that elite talents can be recruited to recruit elite talents. The officials who followed Min Honggui to Xinchang County this time are naturally elites, because most of them belong to the aforementioned high-ranking civil servant sequence, and the salary is 20-50 yuan depending on the grade, which is definitely not small, and even the wages of some local officials cannot reach this level.

The improvement of the civil servant selection and appointment system, the reform of the military system, and the establishment of the fiscal and taxation system have gradually marked the beginning of the normalization of the Three Feudalists in the Far East. From now on, more and more prefectures and counties will end their military control status, and then handed over to the hasty local governments to manage, and everything will be on track.

At this time, the sun had passed the center. The group rode their horses and finally walked to the outskirts of Xikou Town. Then, under the greeting of Min Honggui, they went to a tea shed to have tea, eat and rest. Xikou Town is already very lively. Although it is located in the suburbs, on a third-class national highway leading to the distance, mules, horses and carts are still coming in a constant stream, and it is very busy.

Next to the tea shed is a barber shop. The business is very good, but most of the people who go to get haircuts are young, few middle-aged people, and no elderly people have seen them. The East Coast government has ruled Ningbo Prefecture for twenty years. Although the "hair cutting" campaign that was promoted throughout the country ended without success, the law still exists, but people are no longer forced to cut hair.

As the new generation gradually grew, many local natives in Ningbo, influenced by the East Coast people, also began to cut hair, which gave birth to the prosperity of barber shops. The income of barbers who trimmed their hair for men. The income of barbers who had beards soared to almost the same as that of senior civil servants. It was also a strange sight. Today, among the more than one million people in Ningbo, the elderly basically have no hair cuts, and they still maintain the hair tie and hair tie of Ming people. Middle-aged people are quite similar to them, but a small part of them have cut their hair, leaving the flat hair style of later Chinese people. As for young people, the proportion of hair tie has been further reduced. A large number of people often shave their hair and trim their beards. The appearance and aesthetics are gradually consistent with those of the East Coast people, and they are getting further and further away from the Qing people in Shaoxing Prefecture next door.

Min Honggui and his colleagues naturally have short hair now, which is also a common feature of Ningbo civil servants and military class. The people's hair shaving habits were naturally formed under the leadership of their group of people. This is much gentler than the Qing court that forced everyone to shave their hair, leaving only the tuft of hair in the center of their heads, and is easier to accept.

Of course, young people are willing to shave their hair. In addition to the above reasons for the upward and downward effects, the East Coast people have certainly been inseparable from the effective governance of Ningbo Prefecture for 20 years. With the continuous deepening of foreign trade, a large amount of silver flowed into Ningbo Prefecture (nine counties, plus ten counties in Xinde Xinchang). The local economy was stimulated and began to develop gradually. In addition, the dividends brought by the East Coast system have made Ningbo Prefecture achieve a considerable development in the past twenty years, and the people have become the biggest beneficiary. Since they have gained benefits, the various things promoted by the East Coast people will be a little attractive.

However, even so, those who are accustomed to shaving their hair, like to wear East Coast clothing, are willing to write simplified Chinese characters, and speak Mandarin are still concentrated in the two most prosperous and wealthy cities of Dinghaigang and Yin County. As for other counties and vast rural areas, the majority of conservative people still account for the majority. This shows the difficulty of changing customs and customs. With a large amount of money and a large number of cadres invested, the effect is still extremely limited after twenty years of hard work. This makes the East Coast people further recognize the difficulties of transforming China! Their power, even if all two million people in South America arrive, is estimated that no two generations will be assimilated by China's powerful traditional inertia, and finally everything will be restored to its original state.

"Xikou Town is an important transportation node, with a large population now, and industry and commerce are still good. Once upon a time, this was still the front line between our army and the Qing army, but now it has become a prosperous town. From this we can see that destiny is indeed on my east bank, and the Tatars can't do anything to me." Min Honggui picked up a plate of pastries brought by the shop and ate it while expressing emotion: "This time I went to Xinchang County, and I also need to repair military affairs outside and practice hard work inside, and strive to build there into a bridgehead to resist the Qing army.

The territory of our southern pioneer team has not been expanded for many years. Shaoxing Prefecture is a ready-made breakthrough point. Now that we have Xinchang, can't we enter Shengxian in the future? Since we have captured Shengxian, can't we go north to seize Shangyu and threaten the flank of the main Qing army that confronts our army? At that time, we can take action with the cooperation of the navy, and the Qing army will be quite passive in dealing with it. By that time, Xikou Town will probably become a material production base in the rear. It is really promising..."

In fact, as Min Honggui said, after vigorously building Xikou Town, it is indeed different from other places. The most prominent feature is that there are many handicrafts here. As Min Honggui and others have all the same as those of 360 rows. In the future, if there is something wrong in the future, military supplies will naturally be transported from the Dinghai Port area, but some other materials can be entrusted to local handicraftsmen in Xikou Town to produce them.

There is no doubt that handicraftsmen have always been relatively wealthy under the rule of the East Coast people. Therefore, for these handicraftsmen, the entertainment industry of merchants has gradually developed in Xikou Town in recent years, especially some things that are obviously learned from the local area, which are quite popular among local people.

For example, there is a circus from Heishui in Xikou Town. The group caught wild animals such as bears, leopards, and pythons from somewhere. Then they exhibited them all day and collected tickets, which were very popular among the locals. In fact, I recently heard that they were planning to spend money to buy some "rare birds and beasts" that Ningbo people had never seen before, and then came to exhibit to make profits. These people optimistically predict that in Xikou Town, where handicraftsmen gathered, Dinghai County, where business is extremely prosperous, and Yin County, where civil servants gathered, their circus should be able to make a lot of money, because there are no shortage of people with consumption capacity in these three places.

For example, someone used smooth wooden boards to splice a 60-meter slide (there are baffles on both sides to protect the safety of users), which was called "Sliding Mountain" by the operator. Not only many children like this entertainment project, but even many adults sometimes have a taste of it, which is surprising, and it can also show the openness of the atmosphere in developed industrial and commercial areas.

Min Honggui has read a lot of books on the East Coast over the years. He feels extremely sorry for China's backwardness. At the same time, he also understands that if he wants to make progress, he must reform the old traditions and culture, that is, he must start a "revolution" at the cultural level, otherwise there will be no way to talk about anything. If he wants to innovate culture, without causing severe social turmoil and confusion in thought, he can only influence it in this subtle way.

Ningbo Prefecture has undoubtedly been experiencing this subtle influence in the past twenty years. As a middle and upper-level cadre of Ningbo Prefecture, Min Honggui was lucky enough to attend a dance in Yin County. Most of the participants of the dance were cadres from the East Coast, many of them were even students from the Corps Fort. In addition, a small number of well-known local cadres such as Min Honggui, Lu Fang, and Hu Chi were invited. In that event called the "social dance", Min Honggui was really great.

He opened his eyes and quickly accepted this novel way of communication. Although many people in Ningbo denounced this dance as a symbol of "arrogance, extravagance, debauchery" and "depressed and debauchery", as an open-minded cadre, Lao Min didn't think anything was wrong, and he vaguely hoped that the new things brought by the people of the East Coast could cleanse the already gradually rigid ideas and culture on the land of China as soon as possible, so that people on this land could "open their eyes to see the world".
Chapter completed!