Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 479 Primary School Built during the Republic of China Period
"I have no objection. Let's donate a little bit, each of us can donate 5,000 yuan to show our personal intentions. How about that?"

"Okay, Secretary Zhang said that it would cost at least 50,000 yuan to build a primary school? Let's donate a total of 100,000 yuan! Let's make the school beautiful, with the best school buildings, desks, chairs, benches, and teaching equipment! See if there are any teachers willing to come?"

"It's not enough to just do this. We also need to improve the teachers' salaries." Fang Minghua reminded: "Just like with Xue Wen, even if the school is beautiful, the meager income is not enough to teach with peace of mind!"

"You're right. Let's take out some of the funds and give 60 yuan a month to anyone who wants to teach in Murakami! How about that?"

"This is acceptable!"

"There are also children who are out of school. There are definitely children who cannot afford to go to school. These must also be funded."

"Yes, yes, yes. Let's go talk to Secretary Zhang tomorrow morning!"

Early the next morning, Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun got up and found Zhang Guisheng at the village committee. They told him about their idea of ​​donating money to build a school and support the teachers and students.

"Okay, okay." Zhang Guisheng nodded excitedly.

"Hongjun, Minghua, after the school is built, we will carve a monument of merit next to the school gate and write your names on it!"

"No, no," Fang Minghua declined hastily: "As long as the school conditions are good, the students' academic performance improves, and a few of them can be admitted to college in the future, this will be the best merit for us!"

Now that the decision has been made, we should start construction as soon as possible so that students can move into the new school building when the semester starts in the fall. The key issue is still the availability of funds.

Of course, Murakami didn't have a phone, so the two of them drove to the township government with Zhang Guisheng, mainly to find a landline to call Song Tangtang in Xijing and ask her to immediately ask the financial staff to transfer 11 yuan to a designated account, of which yuan was personal investment from Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun.

The township leaders inevitably knew about this matter, and Secretary Liu thanked the two again on behalf of the township party committee and government.

Naturally, they don't have to worry about how the school building is built. The government will be responsible for it, and once the funds are in place, it is nothing of their business.

Fang Minghua was going to drive around the area. They planned to drive to the Yongtai city site which was not too far from here.

Because the castle is shaped like a golden tortoise, it is also known as Yongtai Turtle Castle. It is the most representative and relatively well-preserved military castle of the Ming Dynasty along the Silk Road, and is very similar to the Zhenbei Fort in Yinchuan.

As a result, when the car drove out of the village, we saw a lot of dust on the road leading into the village. Leading the way was an Audi 100, followed by Santana, Lada, and 212 jeeps. It was a huge group of cars.

It turned out that leaders from the city, county and township levels were all there.

The leader was Mayor Wu, a middle-aged man in his early fifties. He held Fang Minghua's hand tightly and said, "Chairman Fang, why didn't you tell us in advance that you and General Manager Zhao were coming here? Others may not tell us, but Chairman Liu of our city's writers' association, you should tell us, right? Writers' associations all over the world are one family."

Next to Mayor Wu was Chairman Liu of the Writers Association, who immediately took over the conversation: "Mayor Wu is right. Chairman Zhao of our Provincial Writers Association came to your Xijing and was warmly welcomed by your Writers Association. Your coming this time was so quiet. If your Chairman Hu knew, he would laugh at our Provincial Writers Association."

The Chairman Zhao that Chairman Liu mentioned is Zhao Yanyi, Chairman of the Gansu Writers Association, a novelist and famous children's literature writer. He has devoted his life to writing children's literature. His representative works include the fairy tales "The Little Swallow and Its Three Neighbors" and "The Iron Horse".

Fang Minghua had no choice but to say that this was a private trip and he just wanted to visit the place where he had been sent to work in the countryside, so he did not dare to alert the authorities.

"It's great that you came. You have made such a great contribution to Bandeng Village just by coming here." Mayor Wu took over the conversation and said with emotion: "On behalf of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, I thank you!"

The sudden arrival of so many leaders alarmed the local people. Many people stood at their doorsteps to watch, marveling at the sight and saying that they had never seen so many leaders come to the village in their entire lives.

Today was an eye-opener.

The village party secretary Zhang Guisheng was a little flustered. He led all the village cadres to rush to welcome them, and they held a meeting in the simple meeting room of the village committee.

Mayor Wu made a speech on behalf of the municipal party committee and decided to hold a grand donation ceremony three days later, which would be attended by the top secretary of the municipal party committee and reported by the city’s television stations.

To be honest, Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun didn't want to be so high-profile.

They just donated 100,000 yuan to build a school, but they also knew that some things were beyond their control.

After the brief meeting, the city and county leaders were about to return. Mayor Wu invited Fang Minghua and others to live in the city, but was politely declined.

This time the two of them came to the place where they once worked in the countryside to reminisce the prosperous days. What’s the point of living in the city?
After the city and county leaders returned, Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun drove their car, carrying dry food and water, and began their own tour, going around Yongtai Turtle City. Surrounding the majestic castle, there are scattered villages, and in the distance are large stretches of Gobi Desert, showing the desolation of the Northwest.

Although the Turtle City is very old, there are still dozens of households in it. In addition to the intact city walls, there is even a primary school inside - Yongtai Primary School, where the sound of students reading can be heard.

It is divided into a front yard and a back yard. The school has a blue brick arch-shaped school gate with the four brick-carved characters "Haichao Tuori" on the top. The school building and the auditorium are a mixed structure of brick, earth and wood, with Gothic doors and windows, and a combination of Chinese and Western styles. It is particularly eye-catching among the surrounding adobe houses.

Standing at the school gate, Zhao Hongjun said with emotion: "I never thought that there would be such a high-end school in such a desolate and barren place."

"Of course. In Mencius, there is a passage that says, 'If a man has enough food, warm clothes, and a comfortable house, but does not receive education, he is close to animals.' This means that if a man has enough food, warm clothes, and a comfortable house, but does not receive education, he is close to animals."

"Have you heard of Liu Wenhui, the warlord of Sichuan Province during the Republic of China? Under his rule, if the county government building was better than the school, the county magistrate would be executed on the spot. It takes ten years to grow a tree and a hundred years to cultivate a person. Especially for children in these poor areas, studying can really change their destiny, and we must provide them with this opportunity."

Fang Minghua talked eloquently.

"Oh, look at what you said. It's worthwhile for us to donate this 100,000 yuan! I also feel that I am becoming more and more great."

As the two were chatting, they heard the bell for the end of get out of class ringing. The children rushed out of the classroom and started playing. The castle, which was originally quiet, suddenly became lively.

The last person to come out of the classroom was a middle-aged man in his thirties wearing a Dacron short-sleeved shirt. Seeing that Fang Minghua and Zhao Hongjun looked unfamiliar and their clothes were not like those of ordinary people, he thought they were leaders of some department in the county, so he came over to talk to them. After asking, he found out that they were educated youth who had worked in Bandeng Village and came back to visit.

"In Bandeng Village, there was a university professor named Lu who was sent down to the countryside. Do you know him?" The teacher's surname was Li and his name was Li Chongren.

"How could I not know him? We lived together back then. We went to work while he taught in elementary school." Zhao Hongjun said.

"What a great teacher." Li Chongren praised Professor Lu highly: "He teaches very well. When I was in high school, I asked him to help me with math, physics and chemistry. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been able to pass the normal school entrance exam."

"Are you a college student?" Fang Minghua was a little surprised.

“No, no, I only went to Wuwei Normal School, which is a technical secondary school. My foundation was too weak and I failed to live up to Professor Lu’s expectations. He originally hoped that I would be admitted to Northeastern University and become his real student.” Li Chongren looked regretful.

"It's not bad to be able to get into a technical high school. That's one in a hundred." Fang Minghua said.

"I guess so. After I was assigned a job at the normal school, I was able to get a job. My hometown is here, so I took the initiative to come back to teach. Isn't our school building nice?"

"That's right. The school built during the Republic of China period is still basically intact today," said Fang Minghua.

"This was built by my great-grandfather." Li Chongren's tone was full of pride.

"Master?"

Li Chongren started talking about this history.

The site of Yongtai Primary School was originally the General's Mansion, which was abolished in the second year of the Republic of China. After graduating from Lanzhou Military Academy and returning home, his great grandfather Li Shanche called on local gentry to donate money to support education, built school buildings, and served as the first principal.

"I have taken over my great-grandfather's job. Now children from the surrounding villages come here to study." Li Chongren finally smiled, revealing his snow-white teeth.

Just at this moment, the bell for class rang, and Fang Minghua and the others said goodbye to Teacher Li and left Yongtai City.

"It's not easy, not easy." Zhao Hongjun couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the desolate castle.

In the evening, Fang Minghua and his partner returned to Zhang Jianlin's home. Zhang Jianlin, who had been busy all day in the county town, also returned. When everyone was having dinner together, Zhang Jianlin said, "I heard from my wife that a large group of leaders came today to thank you for donating money to build the school?"

"Yes, we don't want to make a big fuss, but there is no other way," Zhao Hongjun explained.

"I also want to donate 1000 yuan. Is that possible?" Zhang Jianlin suddenly said.

(End of this chapter)