A doctor who travels through two eras

The group arrived at Wang Xidong's house, which frightened Wang Xidong's four children so much that they all ran inside.

"Minister Lin, this is my home. This room is the main room and kitchen, the room on the right is where I live, and the room on the left is where the children live. Also, there is a chicken coop in the yard."

Everyone could see that it seemed the Wang family didn't have a place that could be used as a clinic.

At this moment, Village Chief Huang spoke up:

"Minister Lin, could we do this? Our village strongly supports the village clinic. How about we fund the construction of another building next to this site to serve as a clinic?"

Lin Sanqi nodded:

“This is one way, but firstly, building a house takes time, and secondly, the people are of one mind, and not every village in the country has the financial and human resources to build a new health clinic.”

Everyone was stumped. They didn't want the existing houses, but they couldn't easily build new ones. What should they do?
Lin Sanqi glanced at the threshing ground at the foot of the mountain and had an idea:
“Village Chief Huang, look at those warehouses over there. Could you spare one of them to use as a clinic? It's convenient because the entrance is right next to the threshing ground in the center of the village, so it's easy for people to come and go.”

In those days, the countryside operated under a collective system, and the harvested grain was stored in a centralized manner, so every village had several public warehouses.

Upon hearing this, Village Chief Huang was immediately overjoyed:
"Yes, there are empty rooms in the warehouse, let's go take a look."

Lin Sanqi entered a mud house and didn't smell any dampness, so he guessed it was used to store grain and the moisture-proofing work was done well.

“I think this small warehouse is quite nice. It should be about 100 square meters, right? We can put a table here as a doctor’s desk. We can put some cabinets over here to store medicine, and we can put a few beds over here to use as a temporary observation ward.”

Wang Xidong said somewhat embarrassedly:

"This house is even better than my home; it's spacious enough."

Village Chief Huang asked excitedly, "Minister Lin, what do you think?"

Lin Sanqi made the decision: "Okay, let's choose this place. We don't need to build anything new, we can just move some furniture in."

"It's not far from Comrade Wang Xidong's house; he can come down just by calling out. Besides, our barefoot doctor training includes learning how to give injections and infusions, and this place is big enough to serve as a temporary inpatient ward."

Comrade Wang Xidong, don't be afraid, or think that you, as a doctor, can't handle all the work.

Let me tell you, the busier you are, the better. Because outpatient appointments cost money, hospital stays cost money for observation, there's the difference in drug prices, plus a 10 yuan subsidy. Believe me, your monthly income will far exceed that of doctors in the city.

When it came to making money, Wang Xidong grinned, revealing a row of large gray teeth.

"It's good to be busy; it means the villagers trust me."

At this moment, Village Chief Huang asked timidly:
"Minister Lin, when will this training course begin? I heard that even the county hospital is short of medicines, so what will happen to the medicines in our village clinic?"

Lin Sanqi said casually:
"Since we've entrusted you with setting up the village clinic, the medicine supply will naturally be guaranteed. The main antipyretics, antidiarrheals, and anti-inflammatory drugs will be transported from Bao'an County."

In addition, barefoot doctors also need to learn to identify Chinese herbal medicines. In their spare time, they can go up the mountain to collect herbs and then treat patients. We will teach the barefoot doctors this knowledge of Chinese herbal medicines.

Lin Sanqi's barefoot doctor's manual was printed entirely in modern times, with very fine paper and printing, and all the Chinese herbal medicines were photographed clearly.

When barefoot doctors go up the mountain to find medicine, they can make no mistakes as long as they use the manual to match the photos.

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone felt relieved.

Just as everyone was chatting and laughing, two people suddenly ran in from outside the village, shouting, "Where is Minister Lin?"

Lin Sanqi was a little puzzled. He didn't have any relatives in Guangxi, so why was someone looking for him?

Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be just two young cadres from the county.

"Minister Lin, a fight has broken out in Yiwang Village next door. County Chief Jin wants you to go and collect samples immediately."

Last night, all the villages in Du'an County held elections for barefoot doctors. Some villages, like Dizhu Village, had peaceful elections and were successful, but Lin Sanqi was also prepared that some villages would definitely fight tooth and nail.

Especially in villages with two or three large families, everyone wants to nominate someone to be the barefoot doctor, which inevitably leads to fights.

This is just like electing a village head decades later. No one is willing to submit to anyone else, and no one accepts the result. According to rural customs, it all comes down to who has the stronger fist.

Lin Sanqi needs both smooth-sailing elections and elections with "battles for power"—these are all valuable lessons.

Is Yiwang Village far away?

"Not far, not far, only 15 li away." Lin Sanqi suddenly rolled his eyes. Walking 8 kilometers of mountain road and you call that not far?

Wang Jingang was about to prepare a makeshift sedan chair to carry his boss to safety when Lin Sanqi stopped him.

Good heavens, is this the landlord resurrected?
He would dare to sit there in Hong Kong because he's the boss and Wang Jin and the others are employees, but he wouldn't dare in mainland China, otherwise he'd easily be criticized.
"Alright, alright, it's only 8 kilometers, let's walk there, let's set off right away."

At this time, in Yiwang Village, the two groups of villagers had been separated by county officials, but the cursing continued and they threw mud at each other from time to time.

County Magistrate Jin's glasses had been broken in one leg, and he was cursing in a sorry state.

"If you keep hitting me, I'll call the militia! Send them all to labor reform! You sons of bitches, you've gone too far!"

This is only possible in ethnic minority counties, where officials can only offer words of comfort and reassurance. In ordinary counties, they would have been dragged out and subjected to torture long ago.

When Lin Sanqi arrived, he was panting like a mountain climber, while the bodyguards next to him acted as if nothing had happened.

After resting for a while and eating a Snickers bar, Lin Sanqi recovered and asked the approaching County Magistrate Jin:
"Old Jin, what's going on? How did they suddenly start fighting?"

County Chief Jin said helplessly:
"Minister Lin, Yiwang Village is a troublesome village. There are 310 households in the village, with a population of about 1000. Most of the villagers come from two major families, one surnamed Wan and the other surnamed Bu."

The Wan and Bu families in this village fought every year. The smallest things would ignite a conflict like a powder keg, and people used to die every year. Now that we live in a new society, the deaths have stopped, but injuries still happen every year.

The county knew this troublesome village was difficult to manage, so I personally came to preside over the barefoot doctor election. As a result, neither the Wanbu nor the other clan would submit to the other, and they refused to accept the election results; they even fought tooth and nail.

Lin Sanqi thought to himself, this village is actually quite typical.

This is just like his hometown, Shilou Village and Pingle Village, where there is a long-standing feud, but they live closely together and can never be separated.

But we can't stop working just because there are two surnames or two villages.

There are many such villages across the country. Rural people have a very direct way of solving problems: fighting. That's why every family wants to have a son.

Without a son, you're guaranteed to lose a fight.

However, resolving the conflict between two surnames in the same village is a very thorny issue, and it cannot be solved simply by county officials shouting a few words or offering a few words of advice.

Unless it's that guy from the Golden Mountain in the capital who comes, he won't listen to anyone else.

Therefore, resolving the conflict between the two factions in the village is extremely difficult, especially when economic interests are involved.

Now, both the Wan and Bu families want to secure the barefoot doctor position, creating a situation that's a fight to the death.

Lin Sanqi had already thought it through on the way: competition for quotas in rural areas is an unavoidable phenomenon in villages all over the country.

However, if this issue cannot be resolved smoothly, or if a solution that works nationwide cannot be found, then the barefoot doctor program will be difficult to promote nationwide.

This is the time to test Lin Sanqi's wisdom.

As Lin Sanqi pondered this, he walked toward the center of the village.

At the threshing ground in Yiwang Village, the two sides were still facing off, and the scene was a mess.

Wan Laicheng saw someone approaching from outside the village. Judging from the person's demeanor and attire, he clearly recognized them as a cadre. He then instructed his clansmen:
"County Chief Jin has called for reinforcements. It should be an official even higher than the county chief. Everyone must argue our case later. We clearly won the barefoot doctor election. Why is the Bu family refusing to acknowledge it? We are in the right no matter what."

The Wan family accounts for 50% of the village's total population, while the Bu family only accounts for 40%. Therefore, if it were a true one-person-one-vote election, the Bu family would definitely be at a disadvantage.

Because the Bu family knew they were bound to lose in the election, they decided to go all out and resort to sophistry, refusing to acknowledge the election results.

Bu Liang, the head of the Bu family, was also instructing his clansmen at this time:

"The big leader is coming. We must all stay united. No one's words will make a difference. Being a barefoot doctor is not just about the face of the Bu family, but also about a chance to get a government job. We absolutely cannot miss it."

Barefoot doctors were actually a combination of farmers and doctors.

But for farmers, this seems no different from getting a government job and becoming a government employee; otherwise, why would the government pay them a salary every month?

This shows that regardless of the era, taking the civil service exam is always the first choice for ordinary people. (End of Chapter)