Volume 4: Glorious Years Chapter 157: To Get Rich, Build Roads First

Not many days later, Huang Juan, Yang Xueling, and Zhang Xinyu came to visit Yang Tian, driven over by Zhang Qiang in his Jianghuai truck.

Bouncing along the bumpy road, even Zhang Qiang's truck could barely take it. As soon as he arrived, he started complaining, urging Yang Tian to find a way to get transferred back, claiming the place was entirely unsuitable for him to develop.

Huang Juan, on the other hand, was worried that Yang Tian had lost weight, asking if there was nothing decent to eat here. Yang Tian simply smiled. Having accepted the position of village head here, how could he just leave on a whim? Besides, he was here to temper himself; the harsher the environment, the greater his opportunity to spread his wings and make a real difference.

As for food, he was hardly eating poorly. He was probably being served the finest fare the village had to offer. Chicken graced his table every single day. Countryside chicken was far more flavorful than urban poultry, a fact Huang Juan and the others readily admitted once they sat down for a meal. Zhang Qiang, in particular, practically devoured an entire chicken all by himself.

Village chickens and ducks were raised by the households themselves, unlike the farm-bred ones in the city that grew up on commercial feed, leaving their meat tasting like cotton with zero natural flavor.

In truth, Yang Tian was deeply moved by his life here. Country folk would usually only slaughter a chicken during major festivals and holidays, yet during the few days since his arrival, the villagers had been treating him to whole chickens. Even though he repeatedly insisted that was unnecessary—pointing out that raising a chicken in the countryside was no easy feat and eating like this every day was too wasteful—Old Ruan refused to listen. Especially after Yang Tian solved the village's water supply issue, the villagers were more than eager to catch the chickens they had raised for months just to feed him, seemingly afraid that the little village head from the city would not be accustomed to the local diet. Moreover, rural cooking was remarkably straightforward: an entire chicken was served in a single bowl. It was nothing like the city, where a single chicken was chopped into pieces—legs, wings, rib racks, and giblets—as if they were terrified of having too few dishes on the table.

Zhang Xinyu seemed fine, but Yang Xueling showed no interest in those dishes whatsoever. Instead, she had a particular fondness for another rural delicacy: salted duck eggs. The ones pickled by the villagers themselves tasted far more delicious than anything bought from the market.

Old Ruan seemed to have noticed this. Consequently, when Yang Xueling and the others prepared to return, he packed fifty salted duck eggs for her.

Yang Tian wanted to decline, but seeing the reluctance on Yang Xueling's face, he yielded. He knew this was the villagers' way of showing affection—a pure expression of rural warmth, devoid of any vulgar bribery. Since that was the case, he accepted the gesture graciously, resolving to do more practical work for the village in return.

To Yang Tian's puzzlement, he had originally intended to ask the head of the Women's Federation, Zhang Xiaoshan, to show Huang Juan and the others around the village. Yet, during the few days Huang Juan and the others stayed, Zhang Xiaoshan seemed to have vanished, not even returning to sleep at night until the very evening they left.

Yang Tian thought about inquiring into the reason, but ultimately decided against it. When it came to girls' private matters, a grown man was better off not asking too many questions. What if she was dealing with her period and needed to stay at the homes of a few close female friends in the village for a few days to sort herself out? If he asked, wouldn't things become terribly awkward?

The day after Huang Juan and their group left, Yang Tian headed to the town. The start of the new semester at Binhai University was only days away. Before leaving, he wanted to accomplish one major task that concerned the rise and fall of the village: paving the road.

To achieve prosperity, one must first build roads. However, road construction was an expensive undertaking. Furthermore, Yang Tian had decided to build a proper road for Stone Village, not just a gravel track. Leaving aside the fact that gravel paths were unpleasant to walk on and deadly on rainy days, they would become potholed and rutted within a few years, performing even worse than traditional dirt roads. He wanted to pave a simple asphalt road.

Compared to concrete roads, asphalt roads required a much shorter construction period and were highly favorable for vehicular traffic.

Even a simple asphalt road required a substantial sum of money. Yang Tian decided to ask the town government for a special allocation of several hundred thousand yuan. This would likely cause a headache for the town officials, but he was determined to secure the funds.

He chose to go today because it coincided with the town's semi-annual work meeting. Normally, Old Ruan would have been the one to attend, but Yang Tian insisted on going instead.

Old Ruan was quite pleased. The town's so-called work meetings basically consisted of sitting there blankly for an entire morning and then rushing back; Old Ruan was thoroughly sick of them.

Besides, for Old Ruan to travel to town, he would have to catch a bus, unlike Yang Tian who owned a motorcycle and could zip right over. With Yang Tian going in his place, Old Ruan was spared the travel expenses, and above all, he got to enjoy a rare moment of leisure.

The town's work meeting was held in the grand auditorium of the town government. It looked official enough, with two ushers dressed in red robes standing at the entrance—though rather than young maidens, they were plump, middle-aged women with thick-set frames.

At the front of the auditorium's stage hung a long red banner: "Be pragmatic, innovate, and build a new socialist countryside with greater, faster, better, and more economical results!"

Yang Tian walked in alongside the noisy crowd of village cadres, randomly picked an empty seat, and listened to the village cadres on his left and right chattering away.

"Ah, Secretary Li, long time no see! I heard your pig farm has been doing exceptionally well in business lately. You must be feasting on meat and wine every single day!" shouted a middle-aged man wearing a dress shirt and suit trousers, tucking a boss-style clutch bag under his arm. His shiny, dark face radiated puffs of white smoke as he removed a cigarette, revealing two rows of neat, yellow teeth.

"What are you talking about? It's Village Head Gu's fish pond that's making all the money! With the town's conservation project supporting it, your days are much easier than my pig farm's!" The person replying was an elderly man, also puffing on a cigarette. Given the town-wide meeting, the cigarettes they smoked were of a higher grade, mostly nine-yuan packs of Yingkesong, though a few smoked Dahongying or Nanjing cigarettes as well.

Soon, people arrived on the stage, led by Senior Official Wang, who walked with his head held high and a proud posture that reeked of bureaucratic authority.

First, Town Mayor Lao Pu delivered a report. Although Lao Pu was barely fifty years old, he spoke with a heavy official tone. His report droned on for over an hour, filled with clichés copied from goodness knows where, almost putting the village cadres in the audience to sleep.

It was only when Senior Official Wang took the floor that the people in the audience regained a sliver of energy.

"I know comrades are tired, so I won't say too much more. If any village still has issues, bring them up now. If there are none, we will wrap up for today!" Senior Official Wang announced with the commanding air of a senior cadre.

"Secretary Wang, the water containment levee in our Tailing Village was promised large water pumps by the town a long time ago to cope with floods, but nothing has materialized yet. This year, our village's late rice crop suffered a total failure. If the town doesn't deal with this soon, I reckon the villagers will rise up and cause trouble next year!" An elderly man wearing a straw hat stood up, speaking hurriedly in a heavy local dialect.

"Cause trouble? Do you intend to start a rebellion? As cadres, you should first handle the masses properly, and then figure out a way to deal with the water pumps yourselves. There are so many water containment levees in the town; how can every single one be equipped with large pumps?" Town Mayor Lao Pu lost his temper, scolding the elderly man into absolute silence.

"The town is currently looking into ways to resolve this. Right now, the town's finances are tight. Once the town has funds, the pumps will be provided!" Senior Official Wang stepped in to offer a compromise. With all the village cadres of the entire township sitting before him, it was better to utter a few pretty bureaucratic words to prevent anyone from escalating the matter to the county level.

The old man was out of options. Since the town constantly claimed poverty, he had no temper left and sighed heavily before sitting down. Yang Tian sneered inwardly. Was the town truly too poor to afford a few water pumps? The money intended for purchasing pumps had likely ended up lining the pockets of a few people sitting right up there.

The rest of the village officials wore expressions of disdain. Like Stone Village, Tailing Village was one of the backward villages in the township. Dreaming of getting water pumps from the town was sheer delusion.

"Secretary Wang, I am Zhu Kai, the village committee secretary of Red Flag Village. I was just assigned to the grassroots level this year. Red Flag Village is already an advanced village in the township, but regarding village development, I have a vision: to build a large-scale apple orchard. I've noticed that the apple trees in the village grow very well and the apples are exceptionally sweet, so I want to scale up production and strive to sell Red Flag Village's apples to the county and city markets. Not only will this accelerate the village's development, but it will also bring substantial revenue to the town's coffers! However, I hope the town can allocate eighty thousand yuan to Red Flag Village so I can get the preliminary engineering of the orchard underway. I have already submitted the detailed plan to Director Hu of the town office, and I hope it will receive the town committee's serious attention!" At that moment, a fresh-faced young man stood up and spoke in a ringing voice. It was clear that, much like Yang Tian, he was one of the newly recruited village cadres of the year.

The moment Red Flag Village was mentioned, everyone's eyes lit up. That was the township's flagship village—an agricultural experimental village and a major poultry-breeding hub that constituted the lion's share of the town's annual fiscal revenue.

Setting up an apple orchard was a remarkably promising idea. However, after Senior Official Wang and Mayor Lao Pu exchanged glances, neither of them gave a direct, definitive response. It wasn't that they were uninterested in an idea that could boost the town's finances; rather, they simply didn't trust this greenhorn village cadre. Eighty thousand yuan! If the apple orchard failed to take off, that money would go down the drain. Town officials rarely cared to take such risks.

"We'll discuss this at a town committee meeting later!" Mayor Lao Pu muttered using standard bureaucratic jargon. In truth, everyone knew that "discussing it at a meeting" was just a polite way of saying no. If this young village cadre had powerful connections or could genuinely dazzle the town leaders, eighty thousand yuan wouldn't be a huge deal, but from Lao Pu's tone, it was evident the young man was merely one of those naive youths harboring grand visions without any means to realize them.

The young village cadre looked thoroughly disheartened and sat down listlessly.

"Are there any other villages with matters to report? If not, we'll conclude for today!" Senior Official Wang yawned and said lazily.

"Secretary Wang, I would like to request an allocation of three hundred thousand yuan to pave the road for Stone Village!" Yang Tian stood up, speaking in a steady, unhurried tone.

"Stone Village?!" The surrounding area instantly erupted into a chorus of sneers. Stone Village, much like Tailing Village, was dirt poor, yet this naive, wet-behind-the-ears village cadre actually dared to ask the town for three hundred thousand yuan to pave a road. This wasn't just wishful thinking; it was absolute lunacy!

They hadn't even granted Red Flag Village's request for eighty thousand yuan just now, yet Stone Village dared to ask for three hundred thousand. Laughter rippled through the audience, turning from derisive chuckles into outright mockery. Meanwhile, the village head of Tailing Village and Zhu Kai from Red Flag Village cast sympathetic glances at Yang Tian. Trying to squeeze funds out of the town was like trying to scoop tofu with a hemp rope—utterly hopeless!

"Three hundred thousand? To pave a road? Are you out of your mind...?" Mayor Lao Pu flared up. Asking for three hundred thousand in one breath—this village head was certainly bold, and he had successfully provoked him!

"It must be paved, and these funds must be allocated! To achieve prosperity, one must first build roads!" Senior Official Wang abruptly interrupted Mayor Lao Pu, speaking cheerfully and uttering words that nearly knocked Mayor Lao Pu out of his seat. The village cadres in the audience were struck completely dumbfounded.

Ps: New week, requesting monthly passes and recommendation votes! Xiaomod is working hard and hopes to gain everyone's support!