After the spiritual energy was restored: Goddess girlfriends came knocking.

The appointment letter was delivered to Qinghe Village at the end of the month.

He was neither a compiler in the Hanlin Academy nor an observer in the Six Ministries, as expected.

He was the magistrate of Shigou County, Lubian Commandery, Yunzhou.

When the news spread, everyone in Yujing City who were waiting to see Lin Chu rise to prominence was stunned.

The top scholar was appointed as a county magistrate; such a thing hadn't happened in the Great Zhou Dynasty for many years.

But after a moment of stunned silence, those with discerning eyes could tell what was going on.

What kind of place is Shigou County? It is the most remote county in Yunzhou and one of the poorest places in Lubian County. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces a ravine on the other, and it is notorious for its poverty.

Throwing a top scholar into that kind of place isn't just a demotion, it's a trial by fire.

Once perfected, they will become the pillars of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

It's impossible... Zhou Tingfu's student, and a top scholar at that, how could he not succeed?

On the day the carriage left Qinghe Village, Mr. Chen stood at the gate of his courtyard, leaning on his bamboo cane.

Lin Chu stopped in front of him, straightened her clothes, and bowed deeply.

Mr. Chen reached out and patted him on the shoulder three times, then waved his hand.

The willows by the stream have turned completely green.

Xiao Xiao stood under the willow tree; it was time for her to return to the Dragon Court for seclusion.

"Here you go." She took a talisman out of her sleeve and stuffed it into Lin Chu's hand.

The talisman was folded into a small triangle, with crooked lines drawn on it. The strokes even had a circle at the bend, as if the artist had lost focus halfway through drawing it.

"This is a communication talisman I drew." Xiao Xiao turned her face away and said in a soft voice, "If you go back to the village, come to the stream and call me. I'm not in seclusion; I can hear you. Call me and I'll come out."

Lin Chu looked down at the crooked talisman in her hand and smiled.

"Don't lose it," Xiaoxiao added, her voice softer than before. "Once it's lost, it's gone forever."

"it is good."

"You're not allowed to give it to anyone else either."

"it is good."

Xiao Xiao bit her lip, suddenly took a step forward, bumped her head into Lin Chu's arms, then quickly retreated and ran away.

She ran a few steps and then stopped, turning her back to him and shouting, "Brother Lin Chu, take care!" Without waiting for his reply, she plunged into the water.

Lin Chu stood still, carefully put the talisman into her bosom, and placed it next to the conch shell.

……

A month later.

Lin Chu arrived in Shigou County.

This place is even more dilapidated than Lin Chu had imagined.

The county town has only one main street, with a bumpy bluestone pavement and sparse shops on both sides, with crooked or broken signs.

The county government office was in an even worse state; half of the paint on the main gate had peeled off, the rooms in the backyard were leaking and drafty, and the pots in the kitchen were rusted.

On his first day in office, Lin Chu summoned the seven remaining people in the county government office together: the county magistrate, an elderly registrar, two yamen runners, an accountant, an old woman who cooked, and a young boy who guarded the gate.

How many households are there in our county?

The registrar flipped through the register for a while and said, "Your Excellency, it's about three thousand households."

"How much tax revenue was collected?"

The clerk stammered, "Last year we collected... less than 40%."

Why?

"The fields are barren, the roads are in bad condition, and caravans are unwilling to come. In addition, there was a drought a few years ago, and many families simply cannot afford to pay their taxes."

Lin Chu nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

The next morning, he changed into coarse clothes and left the county government office with the boy.

Over the next month, he visited all seventeen villages in Shigou County.

In every village he visited, he would squat on the edge of the field and chat with the old farmers, sit by the well and listen to the women gossip, and crawl into the earthen kiln to watch how the kiln masters worked.

"Sir, why are you asking about everything?" The boy's name was Yu Qian. When Lin Chu first heard his name, she was stunned for a while.

"How would you know if you don't ask?"

"What do you know?"

"Do you know how the people here make a living?"

After visiting all seventeen villages, Lin Chu had a clear understanding of the situation.

Shigou County may be poor, but it's not without resources.

There are bamboos on the mountain, fruit trees on the slopes, fish in the river, and although the soil is not very fertile, it is just enough to grow a few drought-resistant crops.

The problem is that goods can't be transported out. The roads are too bad, so caravans from outside don't want to come, and people inside don't dare to plant too much—if they plant too much, it won't be able to be transported out and will rot in the fields. It's better to plant less to save effort.

Lin Chu returned to the county government office, spread out the paper, and began to write.

The next day at dawn, there was a thick stack of papers on the table.

The plans for road construction, fruit tree planting, bamboo weaving, and water diversion were all clearly written out, from how to raise money to how to deploy workers, from what to do in the first year to what to do in the third year, and even how many people and how much time each project would require were calculated.

After reading it, the registrar was stunned for a long time: "Sir, where did you learn these methods from?"

"You'll know once you walk around more."

Building roads is the first thing to do.

Lin Chu allocated all the remaining money in the county government's account and wrote a letter to the Yunzhou Prefecture, obtaining a special fund from the prefect.

As Zhou Tingfu's student and the newly appointed top scholar, Lin Chu was naturally granted permission by the prefect of Yunzhou.

As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, build roads first.

To save money, he mobilized able-bodied men from various villages to work as a form of work-for-relief—those who came to repair the roads were provided with meals and their taxes were offset.

And so, the road was completed in six months.

Then came planting fruit trees.

Lin Chu invited two old farmers from a neighboring county to teach him, and also had someone buy fruit seedlings from a town outside the county seat, distributing them to each household.

He said if the crops survive, 90% of the money from the sale will be yours, and the county government will only take one cent.

The following spring, the hillsides of Shigou County turned green.

The idea of ​​weaving bamboo ware came from Yu Qian. That day, he squatted by the roadside and muttered, "We have so much bamboo here, why is no one weaving baskets to sell?" Lin Chu heard this and the next day sent someone to the next county to find an old bamboo craftsman to teach the craft.

By the spring of the third year, bamboo ware from Shigou County had already gained a reputation at several large markets in Lubian County.

Following this, they dug canals to divert water, raised fish, and set up a permanent market outside the county town.

Three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Shigou County has completely changed.

The main street has been repaved with bluestone slabs, and there are more than twenty new shops on both sides with brand-new signs. On market days, the street is so crowded that it's hard to move.

The main gate of the county government office was repainted, but Lin Chu did not have it replaced with a new one—he said that as long as the old one was not broken, it was fine, and the money should be spent wisely.

Shigou County transformed from an impoverished county into one of the wealthiest counties in Lubian Prefecture.

Over the past three years, Lin Chu's prestige has been very influential throughout the entire Lubian County.

Countless people went from initial skepticism to admiration, and finally to reverence.

Some say he was a "top scholar county magistrate," that he gave up the comforts of the capital to come to a poor mountain village, that he sat on the edge of the field instead of in the government office, and that he ate from the same bowl as the old farmers.

There were also nursery rhymes, whose creators are unknown, that spread from the villages and alleys of Shigou County to several neighboring counties:

Shigou County, once a desolate place.

The top scholar went to the countryside.

He doesn't ride a horse, nor does he sit in the dining hall.

Carrying a hoe, I travel to all corners of the world.

The road was built, and the river was connected.

Fruit trees cover the hillsides, and fish fill the ponds.

Three years have passed and things have changed.

Every household has surplus grain.

……

At the end of the year, the transfer order arrived.

It wasn't a promotion order, it was a direct transfer to the position of Prefect of Yunzhou.

Meanwhile, Magistrate Liu... no, he should be called Prefect Liu now, was sitting in the back hall of the Lubian Prefectural Government Office, reading the letter in his hand twice.

Tiao Lin was initially appointed as the prefect of Yunzhou Prefecture, overseeing Yunzhou Prefecture and its thirteen subordinate counties.

"well!"

Prefect Liu slammed his hand on the table twice, startling the clerk who brought in the tea.

Prefect Liu ignored him completely, stood up and paced around the room several times, muttering to himself, "I knew it," "I wasn't wrong about him," "This kid is even faster than I thought."

On the day Lin Chu left office, he got up before dawn.

He summoned the county magistrate and laid out the account books, household registers, and land registers one by one on the table. He then took out a copy of his own book, "A Brief Account of Shigou County," and placed it on top.

"This is a record I made over the past three years. It contains everything about what Shigou County can and cannot do, and how it should be done. When the next magistrate arrives, it can be handed over to him."

Lin Chu didn't want to disturb too many people, so he only planned to bring Yu Qian. Over the past three years, the boy had learned a lot from him, and Lin Chu admired him very much.

He was stunned when he pushed open the gate of the county government office.

The street was full of people.

The line stretched from the county government office all the way to the city gate, a dense, dark mass.

Some people were carrying eggs, some were holding chickens, and some were carrying a basket of freshly picked fruit.

An old farmer, hunched over, squeezed to the front, holding a small bag of rice in his hands.

He was tongue-tied and couldn't say anything polite, so he just stuffed the bag of rice into Lin Chu's hands, repeatedly saying, "Sir, this is homegrown, please take it, please take it."

An older woman standing nearby chimed in, "Lord Lin! What will we do without you?!"

Before she could finish speaking, she burst into tears.

Lin Chu stood at the entrance of the county government office, looking at these people.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but it felt like something was blocking his throat.

He had no choice but to take a step back, straighten his clothes, fold his hands in front of him, and bow deeply to the people on the street.

Yu Qian stood beside the carriage, vigorously wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

The carriage finally drove out of the city gate.

Lin Chu lifted the carriage curtain and looked back. Those people were still standing on the street, and no one left for a long time.