The male supporting character was actually myself.

"Being beaten and fined are minor matters; the real problem is that Li Zhenxing's family will never be able to hold their heads up in Lijiazhuang again!"

"Pah! They deserved it themselves, what a mess they made! They offended everyone, how stupid..."

…………

An old, worn-out bench was brought out, and Li Changgeng specially selected twelve strong young men to carry out the execution.

This is the first time I've enforced village rules since taking office. As the saying goes, "kill the chicken to scare the monkey," I must establish the village chief's authority today, otherwise no one will respect me in the future.

Li Changgeng gritted his teeth, his face stern, and waved his hand to signal, "Start the fight!"

"Alright!" The strong young men, their arms taut with the well-defined muscles of years of farm work, shouted with confidence as they held the village rules board in their hands.

Li Ergun and the others were so frightened that their legs went weak and they couldn't stand up straight.

"Village chief, village chief, we were wrong, please forgive us!" Li Menshuan was dragged and pressed onto a bench, crying and howling, "It was all that brat Li Ergun who instructed us, please have mercy on me!"

I will never do it again.

"Ah! Mother... Ah! Stop hitting me, it hurts so much..."

"Fuck you!" Li Ergun, enraged, gritted his teeth and endured two more blows. "You come when I tell you to? Are you an idiot?! I told you to jump into a well and you didn't... Ouch! Be gentle... Ouch! Sir, sir, please put in a good word for me, I'll go to the police station and go to jail, please stop hitting me..."

"Slap! Slap! Slap!" The burly young man enforcing the village law didn't care what they were crying and shouting, and he hit them hard with all his might.

The square where the meeting was being held was suddenly filled only with the sounds of caning and the wailing and pleading of those being executed.

"If you knew this would happen, why did you do it in the first place? When you were running around doing nothing and disregarding the village chief, you probably forgot about the village rules and regulations of Li Family Village long ago, didn't you?"

The old man, whom Li Ergun called "Grandpa," was already in his seventies. He stroked his sparse goatee and shook his head, sighing, "You only learn from your mistakes. You chose this path, so you'd better take the consequences. If you get beaten to death, it's your own fault!"

Only then did all the commune members, who had been noisily chatting and boasting, quiet down and watch the beating.

Even older children, unable to find a good spot, would climb trees and rooftops, creating a rare spectacle of bustling activity that served as a warning to others.

Each person was beaten with forty strokes of the cane, howling in pain. The strong young men took turns striking, and the beating was quick. Finally, their families dragged the half-dead people back home and put away the instruments of torture, thus completing one step of the process.

Many people were still not satisfied, whispering and laughing among themselves, some grimacing with fear, and many more simply enjoying the spectacle.

"Next, I'm going to talk about something important, something that concerns whether all the members of our Lijiazhuang commune can have enough to eat and wear and become prosperous!"

Jiang Chen stood up, tapped the table, and said loudly. Then he took a bag of flour from under the table and put it on the table.

The previously noisy and whispering meeting room instantly fell completely silent.

Everyone stared longingly at the bag of flour, their mouths watering.

That's white flour!

In recent years, apart from the family that married their daughter off to someone in town, almost no one in the entire Lijiazhuang village has ever eaten this.

Even the family where a virgin becomes a stepmother only buys flour to make dumplings with cabbage filling during the Lunar New Year. They can't afford to eat them every day, as it would cost a lot of money!

"This afternoon, the village chief and his men found a suitable place to dig a fishpond." Jiang Chen was satisfied with the expectant looks on everyone's faces.

Motivation is the driving force for productivity, and at this time, the greatest motivation for the villagers is food.

The supplies I have stockpiled in my own space are enough to support a base in the apocalypse, let alone a small village with a total population of only about four thousand.

However, the development of Lijiazhuang depends on the self-awareness of its residents. The right way is to develop the village and help them develop the good habit of self-reliance.

Therefore, Jiang Chen cleared his throat and patiently explained, "I will lead the people to dig the fishpond, and I will buy the fish fry! Now I need to select a person in charge to manage the fishpond. As long as you work hard, you can receive a bag of flour as wages every month!"

"Wages?" The old village chief was a little confused when he heard this. "Then... the capital and wages are all yours, so how do you calculate the fishpond? Does it belong to the village collective or to you personally?"

"Of course it belongs to the village collective."

Jiang Chen smiled and gestured with his hands to suppress the buzzing chatter, then said loudly, "Over the years, I, an outsider, have been taken care of by everyone in Lijiazhuang. Now that I've opened a factory in town and made a little money, it's only natural that I want to repay everyone."

I'll cover the expenses for the fishpond. Once the fish are big and fat by the end of the year, everyone can share the meat!

In addition to providing standardized training in fish farming techniques, hiring a dedicated fishpond manager is crucial for ensuring the proper management and oversight of the fishponds.

If theft or embezzlement harms the interests of all members, leaving everyone without fish or meat at the end of the year, I, Jiang Chen, will not hesitate to turn my back on them!

“That’s easy!” Li Changgeng replied with a smile, “We’ll all supervise each other on weekdays, and when we get paid at the end of each month, Brother Jiang, you can come and inspect the work in person.”

If fish are found to be missing, a month's wages will be deducted.

If there are missing fish for two consecutive months, then immediately dismiss him and replace him with someone else who is more capable!

"That's a good idea, but it'll be hard to count the fish fry, right?"

"Who still counts them one by one? Just glance at them when feeding them."

"Yes, just look at the density. There are countless ones, even if there are only one or two..."

……

Chapter Thirty: The World Has Changed

The crowd whispered among themselves, their eyes glued to the bag of flour, some even eager to volunteer themselves.

If you are selected to manage the fishpond, you will not only learn real skills, but you can also get flour directly!

Who wouldn't want to have a free lunch?

"You've made a fortune and you want to give back to the village?" A few old bachelors who were so poor they couldn't even afford to get married grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Well, that's not enough of a show of sincerity!"

Since it's a way of giving back, they should fund the distribution of food and clothing to the entire village.

Oh, by the way, everyone who can afford to own a factory in town is rich. If they renovated every house in our village and gave each of us a wife, that would be truly great people!

"Exactly! If you want to play the good guy, then give us food, build us new houses, and provide us with wives. Only then will everyone have a good opinion of you!"

"We still need to give each household several hundred yuan!"

"Don't forget your roots just because you're rich. If you don't give everyone money and food so we can eat and drink our fill, then we'll all dig up your ancestral graves!"

“That’s right! Your household registration is still in Lijiazhuang. Don’t think that just because you’ve moved to the town, you’ve really climbed the social ladder…”

…………

The group of poor, old bachelors got more and more excited as they talked, and their loud voices soon became abrupt and jarring noises in the square.

The other villagers remained silent, quickly making their own decisions.

Poor bachelors are like people who only have one person to feed and no one to worry about; they have nothing to lose. Their clamor is simply a way to make a quick buck if they can, and if they can't, they won't lose anything.

But other people have elderly parents and young children to support!

Jiang Chen is a capable and courageous person. He made money and wanted to do good deeds to help the villagers. He doesn't owe anyone anything.

Li Ergun and his gang of swindlers have already caused a ruckus, and if they pull this stunt again and drive Jiang Chen away, they won't get any benefits!

"Get lost! You're too lazy to wash your clothes and bedding for years. Look at your stained necks, and you still have the nerve to yell at us. If you don't want to work here, get out now. We want to live a good life with Jiang Chen!"

"Exactly! Jiang Chen, ignore them and continue explaining in detail how to set up the fishpond?"

"I used to raise loaches caught from the river at home. Do you think I have experience? Can I take care of the fishpond?"

"There are always some rotten people in the village; one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. Don't you even have a brain? Why are you still single?"

……

With someone taking the lead, the crowd rose up and suppressed the discordant jeers.

Is he trying to provoke Jiang Chen?

He's completely unyielding and doesn't care about any of those tactics. If he gets upset, he immediately turns hostile and won't even give us the wheat seeds!

As for digging up someone's ancestral graves?

It might scare those cowards, but what about Jiang Chen?

He dares to turn around and dig up the other party's ancestral grave, and while he's at it, he'll also break the legs, arms, and ribs of the whole family!

Luckily, Li Ergun and his gang only offended the newly appointed village chief, so they followed the village rules properly. What if they had offended Jiang Chen instead?

That living devil is going to hold a big meeting at night?

Haha, it has to be done on the spot!

Breaking arms and legs is the least of your worries; just look at Li Zhenxing.

He broke into Song Qingshan's house in the middle of the night to cause trouble, and was beaten black and blue as soon as he entered; he lost his position as village chief for one sentence and was even thrown into the police station and imprisoned, where he won't be out for three to five years.

Even after he gets out, he won't have an easy time as a corrupt official!

The poor and lazy old bachelors, seeing that they couldn't get any benefit from it, weren't bothered at all. They continued to sit on the earthen slope, muttering to themselves, completely indifferent to the disapproving looks from others.

Jiang Chen was satisfied with the reactions of most people.

Taking advantage of others and being lazy are common problems in the "iron rice bowl" system. After all, without a sufficient reward mechanism, it doesn't matter whether you work or how much you do, so why not just relax and coast along?

But as long as someone wants to change the status quo, their poverty alleviation and reform efforts can continue!

After punishing those who deserved punishment, a follow-up reward mechanism was needed to ensure villagers knew which path to choose. Therefore, he established a very generous salary and benefits system.

As long as everyone is willing to work and doesn't cause trouble, I guarantee that every household will soon be able to eat and drink their fill!

"What does 'job application' even mean? Most of us are practically blind; we can't understand what it says, so we're just getting anxious!"

"Damn it, this is totally blocking us who can't read."

"Where's Teacher Li? Teacher, please come quickly and help Niannian!"

Upon seeing Jiang Chen take out a large sheet of paper with dense writing and stick it on the village committee's gate, someone immediately shouted anxiously.

You only realize how important something is when you need it. Many people are so anxious that they regret not studying hard enough to learn to read and write, fearing they will fall behind and miss out on good jobs, so they rush to get ahead.

"No need to rush, everyone. As long as you want to work hard, there will be suitable positions!" Li Changgeng slapped the table and shouted loudly.

Given the effectiveness of his previous assertiveness, the villagers obediently stepped back and quieted down to listen to him speak.

Li Changgeng was so happy!

Although he had been the village chief for about half a month and had led his brothers to dig a well for the village with their bare hands, the villagers still didn't look at him like they would a village chief.

With Brother Jiang in charge, he's made an example of someone to scare others, so his words as the village chief finally carry weight.

"Brother Jiang has given us the specific rules today. It's okay if you don't understand them. Anyone who wants to work with us should register with the accountant. We will discuss with the team leaders based on the registrations and select suitable candidates to assign work."

Raising fish, chickens, pigs, and rabbits, clearing land, planting fruit trees, farming, and so on all require manpower. Regardless of age or gender, everyone can be properly arranged, so there's no need to rush.

And those little kids, under twelve years old who can't do much work, also have their own tasks.