Chapter 508: Opportunities and Competition

After the meeting, everyone had their own thoughts; on the surface, it seemed as though no one wanted to go to such a remote place to suffer, but after returning, they all hunched over their desks, secretly writing memorials to apply for a transfer.

Only all the Ministers and Vice Ministers had no such thoughts; if Baifeng had not mentioned that the City Mayor of Lema City needed to first serve and gain experience in that town, they might have truly gone to that empty town for the sake of Huaxia, especially people like Xiong, whose feelings for Huaxia were very deep, not to mention their relationship with Baifeng—no matter how bitter it was, they were willing to share the burden for Baifeng.

But once this policy of Baifeng's was out, even if they were not as sharp-witted as those young subordinates, they all understood what would happen now: there would be no shortage of people for the leadership team in the town, and the competition might even be quite intense, so there was no need for them to get involved.

Chi, however, asked Xiong rather naively if he was going to the town, and if so, to take him along; he also wanted to share the pressure for Baifeng, and he didn't care if it was bitter or not, he just felt his own ability was lacking and was afraid he wouldn't do a good job when the time came.

Xiong knew he couldn't explain too much to Chi; if he said too much, Chi would only be more confused, so he said very straightforwardly: "Let's not go; give the young people below a chance to train. They need to suffer a bit to be as capable as you."

Chi scratched his head, said "okay," and then went back to train the green recruits in the military camp.

This year, Baifeng ordered the conscription of two thousand soldiers; although this was still far from the scale Baifeng envisioned, in order to ensure this year's harvest, Baifeng could only take it one step at a time—conscripting a portion this year and continuing next year.

Shaoyin, this young master of the Ministry of War, naturally joined the army as well, but Xiong did not give him any special treatment, putting him directly with the new recruits to train; although the veterans had a good attitude toward Shaoyin, even carrying a bit of flattery, Chi didn't care about that—he treated all new recruits equally, and he liked to train them personally.

Because Chi was a stubborn person, he was meticulous during training; as long as it was a task he stipulated, it had to be completed no matter what, which was different from other instructors—at least the others were slightly more reasonable and could cut some slack.

But that was only the treatment for daily training after the New Recruit Company's training ended; the training of the new recruits was taken over by Chi entirely, because Chi did not have the ability to handle other work in the Ministry of War, and he didn't want to do nothing and just hold a post to eat for free, so when there was work like this that suited him, he was very proactive.

The middle and high-level officials of all departments had already received this news, and even the common people knew about this matter, but the common people had no enthusiasm for it at all; they would not abandon the family property they had worked so hard to save to start over in a godforsaken place.

The tenant farmers, because they had no experience at all, were very anxious; they wanted a chance to get ahead, but they didn't know if this opportunity was good or bad, and some people would tell the tenant farmers how bitter and tiring it was to build a new city, and that it would be better to just work here, which caused a portion of the tenant farmers' enthusiasm for this matter to drop sharply.

The people managing the tenant farmers noticed this situation, because at the beginning, many people came to ask them, but they didn't have any definite news because their status was relatively low and they couldn't get first-hand information; however, in these last few days, almost no one came, so they immediately guessed that this was not a good thing and might have some adverse impact on the town construction, so they hurriedly reported it.

The people in the Ministry of Revenue also discovered their negligence in this matter; during this time, they had only cared about themselves and had forgotten the most important group of people—whether these people were willing, and their emotions, determined the difficulty of their work in the new town.

So they wrote the relevant documents overnight, and the next day, together with the people from the Management Department, they went to the tenant farmers' residential area to promote the policy before the tenant farmers went to work in the morning.

They did not ignore the difficulties in the early stages of town construction, nor did they downplay or exaggerate them, explaining everything very objectively, which made many people lose heart; but they also spoke very well about the support for Huaxia's town construction and the future prospects of the small town, and they brought up the issues the tenant farmers cared about most: land and housing.

As long as the tenant farmers went, they would be given housing and land; a bachelor would be given a room, and if a whole family went, they would be arranged housing according to the number of people, and the same went for land; most of the land there could not be farmed, so pastures would be demarcated, and after the land could be transformed into farmland in the future, it would also be divided for free.

The main work was to establish the Saltpeter Factory; most people would become Workers, and not only would they have land, but they would also have a salary, namely grain and some supplies; with housing, land, and a stable income, they could automatically shed their status as tenant farmers.

For those who were still working hard every day, saving grain to buy a house and land, this was undoubtedly a huge piece of good news; moreover, the people from the Ministry of Revenue clearly stated that the town would also have city walls and all the infrastructure, just a bit smaller, and as long as they worked hard, their lives would not be worse than in Huaxia City.

New City was also promoting this to the tenant farmers; as for the change in positions, the officials of Lema City did not have much of a reaction, as they had long thought that such a day would come, but it was not entirely a bad thing, because if they were not transferred, their positions would automatically be promoted by one level, which could still be considered a good thing, not to mention that even if their work was not outstanding, they had no faults, so when the time came, they would only be transferred laterally, not demoted.

Plus, they could also sign up to compete for positions in the town construction, so they were equally enthusiastic.

Within the stipulated time, Baifeng received hundreds of job applications, but the new town did not need so many officials at all, and Baifeng also wanted to send some young people who had just graduated to get some training.

Huaxia had two provinces, one Prime Minister, and nine departments; currently, the position of Prime Minister was temporarily held by Wu, but he was not suitable for this position—he was more suitable for working in the Ministry of Revenue; this position was reserved by Baifeng for Yu, and now Baifeng was also considering whether to send Yu to the new city to be this Town Mayor, and after the term ended, return to serve as Prime Minister; after all, the positions of Prime Minister and City Mayor were of the same rank, or even, the Prime Minister was slightly higher.

Wu was about to reach retirement age, because he seemed to be lacking the strength to do what he wanted now; after all, he was really old, especially in this era—it was only because Huaxia's life was good, otherwise Wu would have died long ago.

It is estimated that by the time Yu returns, Wu will have retired smoothly, letting Yu take over and truly become a Prime Minister; the Ministry of Revenue also had Chou and Liangji, and Baifeng was definitely going to send Liangji to the new town, as he was the Town Mayor Baifeng had already designated.