Hong Kong Zongli Monks

Chapter 326 Buying the Big Courtyard

One month later

On the edge of Bincheng City, Zhixing bought a large courtyard, which was said to have been built by high-ranking officials of the Qing court after they returned to their hometowns.

It covers an area of ​​more than an acre, and consists of nine small two-story lofts. The open space in the middle is large enough, not too luxurious.

There is a two-and-a-half-meter fence around it, topped with shards of glass.

The layout is patchwork, and there must have been a Fengshui master who had seen it before it was built.

I want to take in some orphans and lonely people, and select some to be apprentices.

Of course, I will also look at the face to see if it is worth it.

Thirteen orphans have been taken in now, including males and females, the older one is ten years old, and the younger one is six or seven years old. They have been screened, otherwise there will be more.

There is also Mr. Teacher and two women to take care of them. These people are all invited.

A good courtyard can be turned into an orphanage.

Zhixing doesn't have time to manage it himself. He goes around to trap people or practice, so he hires someone to manage it.

These children all moved in together half a month ago, and the people they invited were also from nearby families, and they had to go back at night.

In later generations, these boys have to be coaxed to eat, but now they can all be independent.

Lan Tianxiang: Male, ten years old, he is the oldest

Chen Jiafu: Male, ten years old
Huang Yingqing: female, nine years old
Chen Min: Female, eight years old

Chen Qing: Male, eight years old

Huang Rong: Male, eight years old

Li Futao: Male, seven years old
Li Zhao: Female, seven years old

Liao Fu: Male, seven years old

Zhou Yongshou: male, six years old
Zhou Zhen: Female, six years old

Li Jie: Female, six years old

Huang Yuanqing: male, six years old
Originally they were called by nicknames, Da Gou, Er Gou, Da Ya, and so on, but Zhixing re-named them.

Spend a lot of gold and oceans to buy this courtyard, which attracted the attention of the whole city.

Gang gangsters, policemen, and officials all wanted to fight Qiufeng after knowing that Chi Heng had no background.

Too much to die inexplicably, but not too much, let him inexplicably fall on the way and be seriously injured.

Especially soldiers and bandits, on the main road, they fired several shots and broke their own legs, or took out a knife on the street and stabbed their own thighs a few times.

The more it spread, the more evil it became, and those gangsters, policemen, officials and bandits dared not let anyone come over.

Now most people walk a few steps faster when they pass the gate of the courtyard.

Zhixing set up a defensive array and a lost array, and then he can use the jade card to get in and out, but this is only a temporary solution, not a permanent cure.

Prepare to kill whoever disturbs you next time. I am most annoyed by these boring things.

There was no class that day, so Zhixing gathered them in the open space around the attic and trained them to line up.

After queuing up, teach them to practice elementary body exercises and elementary boxing techniques.

They are a few years younger than those boys in Sha Tin, but it is much more difficult to teach them.

After a month of continuous work, I got up at five o'clock every morning before I could type out Ju Ben's movements coherently.

The teacher, surnamed Zhou, is in his 40s, and his education is not high, which is enough to enlighten those little guys.

Prepare to teach for a period of time and let them go to elementary school to teach.

"County Peng, why are you here?"

After a month of calm, I didn't expect that the first person to come to the door was the county magistrate.

He is definitely not playing the autumn wind. He has been a county magistrate for ten years in this era.

In the Beiyang era, the warlords were divided and were not bound by the central government. County magistrates became rewards for subordinates, or gifts for relatives and friends. Adjutants became county magistrates everywhere.

After the establishment of the National Government, it enacted legislation several times in an effort to put the appointment of county magistrates on the right track.

One of the most important ways is to select county magistrates through examinations.But it is not easy to pass the county magistrate exam.

First of all, the number of examinations for county magistrates is very small. Except for a few provinces and regions that have held one or two times, most provinces and regions have not conducted county magistrate examinations.

Secondly, the competition for the exam is very fierce, and if you pass the exam, you may not be able to get an actual appointment.

The county magistrates who pass the examination often have difficult careers, so most of the county magistrates are elected through sponsorship.

According to the regulations of the National Government, when recommending a county magistrate, the director of the Civil Affairs Department nominates two to three people, and then goes through the procedures to appoint them.

It means that the Director of Civil Affairs has the power to recommend the county magistrate.

These people hold great power, which naturally breeds corruption. Cronyism is common, and buying and selling officials is also common.

It is not easy to become a county magistrate, but it is even more difficult to make a county magistrate stable.

During this period, the county magistrate changed very frequently.

The appointment of county magistrates is in the hands of the provincial chairman and the head of the civil affairs department.

Therefore, every high-ranking official comes to power, there will inevitably be a change of blood of the county chief. This situation is described as "replacing the chief, three feet of recommendation letters, leading dozens of people, and driving away half of them."

After the county magistrate takes office, it is necessary to visit the powerful local gentry to establish "emotional connections" and seek their support for governance, otherwise there will be serious consequences.

These local gentry often control the clerks, grain messengers, and political police in the county.

Furthermore, the national government is committed to "county autonomy" and requires the county magistrate to be active.

In the officially designated "Instructions for County Heads", the basic responsibilities falling on the county head include 31 major items of civil affairs, 28 major items of finance, and 48 major items of construction, etc., a total of 172 major items.

Within each major item, there are many smaller items, for example, the 31 major items of civil affairs can be subdivided into 160 smaller items.

These constitute the "daily homework" of the county magistrate.

In addition, county magistrates have to undertake many special tasks.

In addition to the many names, the workload is also a headache.

There are too many jobs to do, too many leaders to serve, and the manpower available to the county magistrate is quite limited.

The allocation of responsibilities is so disproportionate to the allocation of manpower that there is no other way for the operation of the county government except to perfunctory.

On the other hand, if there is a problem in any aspect of the numerous responsibilities, the county magistrate is likely to be held accountable by his superiors.

During the period of the national government, the county magistrate was punished a lot.

In those provinces controlled by warlords, if you want to be a stable county magistrate, the first thing you need to do is to raise money and recruit soldiers.

Otherwise, at the least, he will be dismissed from office, and at the worst, his life will be lost.

Since the county magistrate is so difficult to do, why not simply dismiss him and leave?
But leaving is not an easy thing.

During the period of the Republic of China, the county magistrate implemented the "contract system".

That is to say, when a county magistrate takes office or leaves office, not only the full team of section chiefs, secretaries, dispatchers, and guards have to come and go with him.

Even the portrait of the prime minister and the flag of the party and the country needed to take office must be prepared; the financial revenue and expenditure must be fully accounted for when dismissed.

In this way, once the county magistrate is replaced and handed over, the county's land taxes, accumulated grain, city walls, government offices, Confucian temples, public property, etc. must be checked once.

However, it usually takes several months to check the accumulated grains in the whole county.

If the process is followed carefully, the cumbersome handover procedures will generally take several months or even years, and all expenses incurred during this period must be borne by the county magistrate himself.

In this way, the handover has become a huge additional expense that the county magistrate has to bear.

It's not just the handover fee that is forcing the county magistrate to become corrupt, but the above-mentioned system designs related to the county magistrate during the Republic of China are all reversed to eliminate honest and public-spirited people.

All in all, except for corruption, the county magistrate can hardly do serious things.

But if being a county magistrate is all about corruption, then naturally there is no need to do serious things, and various institutional problems are not a problem.

(End of this chapter)