Chapter 23: Buying the People's Hearts

  At the end of the year, Jianzhou Security Team took action against three other groups of bandits one after another. Each time, Xia Jun made meticulous plans, so that not a single bandit leader escaped.

  Two were captured alive and another was shot dead on the spot.

  These bandits generally did not hide their valuables in the stronghold, some buried their money, and others deposited it into a money house or bank.

  These bandit leaders were all rich and oily, if they were killed on the spot, nothing could be asked of them, unless something was found when their homes were searched.

  After several operations, Xia Jun has earned nearly 30,000 yuan in silver, and the financial situation is still okay. However, the Xiangxiang Autonomous Council recently passed two health bills, deciding to build toilets and septic tanks in each village, which cost Xia Jun 2,000 yuan.

  At the same time, the autonomous council also passed a road construction bill. Xia Jun spent 1,000 points to buy steel and cement, which were very cheap on the exchange platform.

  5 points can be exchanged for 1 ton of cement, and 10 points can be exchanged for 1 ton of steel.

  However, Xia Jun felt that this exchange was not worthwhile. First of all, things that can be obtained through production, why should they be exchanged? Without accumulating small steps, one cannot reach a thousand miles. This kind of trivial and non-technical thing is best to be self-sufficient. If not self-sufficient, the amount to be exchanged later will be even more.

  Xia Jun currently doesn't have the ability to be self-sufficient, so for now he temporarily exchanged a large pile of steel and cement, and first fixed the road before doing anything else.

  The laborers for road repair are provided by each village. Anyway, it's not the busy farming season now, so each village can provide people. Of course, there is no wage, but food and drink are guaranteed.

  In order to repair the road, Xia Jun opened up two small excavators in the engineering column and exchanged them for explosives. The exchange price of one small excavator was 500, which really made Xia Jun heartbroken.

  At the same time, Xia Jun hired some technical personnel and planned to repair the road section from Longcun to Xiaosong. This tens of kilometers of road sections would cost Xia Jun 3,000 points, and he also had to pay for food, which was estimated to be around a thousand silver coins.

  However, Xia Jun spent points and still had two small excavators left in his hands.

  After repairing the road from Longcun to Xiaosong, these two small excavators can be used to repair the roads in each village. At least they should be able to reach the point where a tractor can pass through.

  Each village's road was repaired by Xia Jun sending people to fix them, rather than each village sending their own people.

  Didn't we just capture 500 Qing soldiers? These are all free labor forces, which can be used to repair roads for each village for free, and also to buy people's hearts.

  The county magistrate was extremely frightened at this time. More than a thousand government soldiers had just arrived in Xiaosong when they were defeated by Xiang's Jianzhou Security Regiment, nearly annihilating the entire army.

  The county magistrate no longer troubles the "Xixiang Autonomous Council", but instead writes a private letter to Xia Jun, in which he advises him to release the people and not pursue the Xixiang autonomy matter.

  Xia Jun finished reading the letter and immediately released over a hundred people, all of whom were in poor physical condition and couldn't do much work while also having to pay for their own food.

  "When you go back, be sure to thank our commander for his great kindness. If our commander captures the county in the future, you must learn your lesson and immediately kneel down with your heads bowed. Do you understand? Now, do it once for me, or else don't think about leaving." Zhang Si said fiercely to a group of Qing army prisoners when releasing them.

  A group of Qing soldiers who heard that they were going to be released hastened to comply, kneeling down with their heads bowed, and once again rehearsed the surrender.

  Doing so is naturally meaningful, putting them back to spread the word, and by the time the security team arrives at the county town, all the officials and soldiers may have surrendered, which would be much more convenient.

  The other four hundred Qing soldiers were still detained by Xia Jun, and the county magistrate saw that Xia Jun had also made his point. Although the result was not very satisfactory, he did not dare to say anything more about it, and began to turn a blind eye to Xī Xiāng's affairs.

  The county governor also knew about the situation in Xixiang, but he didn't want to ask about this troublesome matter either. In a few months, he would be transferred to another position with a fat salary, and if something happened at this time, it would have a very bad impact on his official career. Let's just wait for him to leave and let the next county governor worry about it!

  The county magistrate is also anxious! I heard that he recently borrowed usury and was having someone work on it. He probably wants to leave this place of trouble too.

  Xia Jun has also got on the right track in terms of administration in Xixiang. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has registered the population of each village, and the Judicial Department tried a local tyrant last month, confiscated his property, and obtained more than 5,000 silver dollars. For this reason, the villagers all applauded with joy.

  The entire Xixiang has been incorporated into Xia Jun's territory, with over 600,000 points accumulated. The population of Xixiang is a total of 16,300 people.

  After several months of administration, the people of Xixiang obviously had a good impression of Xia Jun, with an average monthly income of 2 points per person for Xia Jun.

  ……

  After Xia Jun and Zhang Sigou's shameless 'union', the entire security team has formed a personal cult around Xia Jun, and You Zhengbin is also influenced by this trend and understands Xia Jun's meaning.

  Xia Jun is confident that he is right, and whether it's military or legal affairs, he must grasp them firmly in his own hands. Personal worship is necessary! Otherwise, how can one carry out one's will?

  To speed up the acquisition of points, Xia Jun established a propaganda department, with You Zhengbin as its minister, specializing in publicizing Xia Jun's own deeds and the people-loving achievements of the Security Team.

  At the same time, Xia Jun began to lead the soldiers in the team to frequently go down to the countryside to "support farmers", for example, giving them free vegetable seeds and tobacco seeds. Unfortunately, there was no fertilizer, otherwise they would have been given fertilizer directly.

  Xia Jun and Lin De Bao discussed it and decided to plant more tobacco next year, because Xia Jun wanted to set up a cigarette factory, he must have raw materials, in addition to purchasing from outside, it's best to grow some himself.

  At the same time, Xia Jun also led soldiers to help villagers clean up and do laundry. As the Spring Festival approached, Xia Jun also took soldiers to send grain, oil, bedding and other comfort items to widows and orphans in various villages.

  Xia Jun was on the one hand buying the hearts of the people and on the other teaching his soldiers what to do when they went out to suppress bandits.

  This show is a behavior that can change people's views in a short period of time, but the people themselves have not gained much benefit.

  Xia Jun knew that in order to win the hearts of the people for a long time, he had to come up with substantial measures. To this end, he put on a show on the one hand and made long-term plans on the other.

  After one episode of "showing off", the average value of public opinion rose from 1 to 5.

  At this time, Xia Jun's points had accumulated to over 2.5 million people. He calculated in his heart that at the current rate of gaining points from the people's hearts, he could gain more than 800,000 points per month. However, it would still take him nine months for his points to reach 10 million.

  There is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of public opinion, and Xia Jun let the propaganda department strengthen the "ideological education" propaganda work among villagers. It's said that doing but not saying is foolish, and although the common people will support after getting benefits, wouldn't it be even better to propagate?

  On the other hand, Xia Jun is also waiting for the Spring Festival to be over before sending out two regiments to suppress bandits.

  ——————

  The fourth update is here!

  Although it didn't make it to the front page, brothers are very powerful, after all, this is only the second week, let's keep it up this week and we'll rush to the front page next week.