This time, Yan Liqiang talked with Shi Changfeng for a long time and Yan Liqiang explained his ideas to Shi Changfeng thoroughly. After the two finished their meal and conversation in the back garden, Shi Changfeng left and it was already late at night.
The selection of the county magistrate of Jia'an County was the most important and boldest attempt made by Yan Liqiang after he came back from the Imperial Capital. The change in the Imperial Capital and the fall of the imperial court made Yan Liqiang completely determined to say goodbye to all the corrupt systems of the past of the Han Empire. He just wanted to see if he could create a world where the people were no longer leeks and no longer at the mercy of others with his own strength. Even if he failed, it didn't matter. Yan Liqiang wanted to fight once and work hard once. At worst, he would return to the original state. It was no big deal. Anyway, no matter how bad things happened, how bad could it get
Shi Changfeng left with Yan Liqiang's instructions and important tasks. Shi Changfeng was the Secretary of the Rites Office. After this conversation, Yan Liqiang gave Shi Changfeng a task, which was to set up a new department under the Rites Office - the Nomination and Supervision Office. The function of this new department is to supervise and arrange the openness and fairness of the selection and nomination of local celebrities in the four counties of Qiyun County.
In the future, the system of village elders will become the basic political system of local governance in the four counties of Qiyun County. The village elders will be elected by the people, with one hundred people in each county. The village elders will then vote to select the county magistrate. The village elders will have the responsibility to supervise the actions of the county magistrate, and they can also fully participate in the trial process of cases in the county. In modern terms, these village elders are both representatives of public opinion similar to members of parliament and local jurors. Such an arrangement ensures the right of ordinary people to participate in grassroots governance from an institutional perspective. Any ordinary citizen can have his or her own representative of the interests in the power system and political ecology of a county.
Under such an arrangement, the selection and recommendation of local celebrities is naturally a top priority, so it must be supervised and implemented by a special agency.
The selection of the county magistrate of Jia'an County is just the beginning. Afterwards, after Wang Dou has firmly established himself as the county magistrate of Jia'an County, the grassroots officials such as the headmen and village chiefs of each township, town, and village under the entire Jia'an County and the other three counties will all be directly elected by the local people, while the county magistrate will be indirectly elected by the people through local elders.
Yan Liqiang didn't know whether this arrangement was good or not, and what the effect would be. Precisely because he didn't know, he chose four counties as pilot counties this time, and only arranged for four years.
This arrangement is the result of Yan Liqiang's careful consideration from the perspective of a modern person after experiencing two lifetimes. Yan Liqiang racked his brains but could not think of a better design arrangement than this.
In his previous life, Yan Liqiang experienced the era of information explosion. In that era, there were two most widely circulated sayings about wise leaders, which were the most inspiring and misleading. The first one was the theory of wise leaders being omnipotent. People who hold this view take the United States as an example and believe that all the achievements of the United States were made by wise leaders. It seems that all the problems in the world can be solved by copying the American approach. But what people who hold this view will not tell you is that even in the United States, nearly half of Americans will never vote, because those people know that the so-called voting and elections are just a game between the left and right hands of capital interest groups. The competition among politicians for the presidency is essentially a competition for the role of spokesperson for the capital group. This is also the way the capital group selects their "stewards" through elections. The half of Americans who never vote see through this trick and don't think that the ballots in their hands can change anything, so they are too lazy to waste their time on it.
However, the same so-called wise rulers have created a large number of chaotic, poor, corrupt and backward countries in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and other places. In those countries, the so-called votes are not as valuable as a loaf of bread. Therefore, wise rulers and votes are by no means omnipotent, and there is no inevitable causal relationship between wise rulers and the happy life of their people and the prosperity and stability of the country.
In contrast to this omnipotence theory, there is the theory that a wise leader cannot rule. People who hold the latter view have set many prerequisites and conditions for an ordinary vote, using reasons such as the people's insufficient education, low knowledge, underdeveloped society, and varying qualities of the people as examples. Their purpose is to make you believe that once ordinary people share the country's political power, it will be a disaster and the end of the earth. If you want to enjoy a wise leader, society must develop for another 500 years.
Those who hold this view will not tell you that there was a period of time in history when the telegraph was still considered the most advanced means of communication by many people. In the mountainous area in the north of an ancient country like China, some illiterate farmers who had been dealing with fields for generations were able to enjoy the fruits of their wise leadership without any hindrance. They did not know what a ballot was, nor had they seen one, but they were able to easily elect candidates that satisfied them in their own way. The young and old men of a village held a meeting in the threshing ground, each holding a bean in their hand, and by throwing the beans, they were able to elect cadres that satisfied them.
In Yan Liqiang's eyes, wise leaders and votes are absolutely the great achievements of human civilization and social development after thousands of years of bloodshed and barbarism. There is no doubt about this. Those who deny this achievement are absolutely bad and have ulterior motives. But at the same time, in the era in which he lived, many interest groups and forces, for their own interests and purposes, unilaterally exaggerated the positive effects of so-called wise leaders and votes on social progress, fabricated and whitewashed various arguments about the omnipotence of wise leaders, and deliberately ignored or even covered up the problems brought about by wise leaders and the voting system. Those who believe in this argument are absolutely stupid!
Yan Liqiang is neither bad nor stupid, so he chose a middle path. This path is designed to be divided into two parts. Below the county level, the system of local elites is implemented to thoroughly stimulate the vitality of the grassroots, curb the rent-seeking impulse of grassroots officials, and cut off the ecological chain of unrestrained land annexation and interest expansion of the wealthy and powerful families at the grassroots level. He strives to create a social living environment for the grassroots people that is as fair as possible and has the rule of law that allows everyone to have a voice. Above the county level, under the current circumstances, it is still necessary to follow the elite route and let capable people do capable things.
…
After Shi Changfeng left, Yan Liqiang, who had been busy in the Inspectorate's Office all day, finally relaxed.
As soon as Shi Changfeng left, Yan Liqiang also left the Supervisory Office. He asked Hu Haihe to drive the carriage and took the two beautiful guards, Lian Wushuang and Shi Bingbing, to the Zhong family's mansion in Pingxi City.
On the way, Yan Liqiang's heart was burning with excitement when he thought of Zhong Ruolan and Lu Beixin together. The relationship between him and Lu Beixin has not yet broken through the last line. Lu Beixin has always said that she would wait until the wedding day, but it seems that tonight is a good opportunity.
Unconsciously, a smile appeared on the corner of Yan Liqiang's mouth...
"Hmph, you men are all lustful!" Lian Wushuang, who was following Yan Liqiang, saw the smile on Yan Liqiang's face and couldn't help but said to Yan Liqiang sarcastically.
Shi Bingbing didn't say anything, but looked at Yan Liqiang with sparkling eyes, her eyes full of curiosity. Lingshan Sect asked her to be Yan Liqiang's bodyguard, of course, it was not a sudden decision on the boat today, but it had been planned for a long time, Shi Bingbing knew about it beforehand, and she was willing to accept this task, in addition to the interests of the sect, there was another reason, that is, Shi Bingbing, like other women, was too curious about Yan Liqiang, who was already famous at a young age.
Yan Liqiang only smiled at Lian Wushuang's words, and said nothing. Instead, he looked at Shi Bingbing and teased her seriously, "Master, the last time I saw you in Imperial Capital, I was in a hurry and forgot to tell you something..."
Shi Bingbing couldn't help but ask curiously, "I wonder what the supervisor forgot to say to me?"
"Your name is great. Most of the stunning beauties I know are named Bingbing!"
Hearing Yan Liqiang's indirect compliment on her beauty, Shi Bingbing was naturally happy, and a blush appeared on her face. "Is it true that Sir Superintendent is so good at talking when he sees a woman?"
"No, for example, I never compliment some people on their beauty!" Yan Liqiang said, and glanced at Lian Wushuang, who glared at him angrily, wanting to get angry, but forced himself to hold it back, just pretending to be disdainful. Yan Liqiang pretended not to see it, still smiling at Shi Bingbing, "But your name is indeed extraordinary. To be honest, when I first heard your name, I felt that your name was extraordinary and seemed to have a deep meaning. I immediately thought of a poem!"
“Haha, I only heard that the Governor has a good cultivation level, but I didn’t expect that the Governor can also compose poetry. It’s really a curious news. If the Governor’s masterpiece can be published in the Han Empire Times, maybe more people will read it…” Lian Wushuang certainly did not miss the opportunity to strike Yan Liqiang, and immediately took the opportunity to avenge the arrow that had just been shot at him.
"I wonder what poem the Inspector has thought of?" Shi Bingbing continued to ask curiously.
"To understand the analogy of life and death, compare it to ice and water. When water freezes, it becomes ice; when ice melts, it becomes water again. When you die, you will be reborn; when you are born, you will die again. Ice and water do not hurt each other; life and death are both beautiful."
When they heard Yan Liqiang recite this poem, Lian Wushuang and Shi Bingbing were both shocked. In this poem, not only did the word "Bingbing" appear in the previous and next sentences, which was the same as Shi Bingbing's name, but what was even more surprising was that this poem revealed an extraordinary view of life and death.
"Ice and water do not hurt each other, life and death are still beautiful!" Shi Bingbing's eyes flashed with a strange light, and she murmured the last sentence of the poem. She was completely stunned. Unconsciously, Shi Bingbing closed her eyes, and then a strange breath appeared on her body, and there was faint spiritual energy from heaven and earth gathering on her body, making Shi Bingbing's whole body look like it was on fire, and her face was flushed.
When Yan Liqiang was surprised, suddenly, with a bang, the aura of Shi Bingbing burst out. Yan Liqiang was caught off guard and was hit by the aura that burst out from Shi Bingbing. The door of the four-wheeled carriage was broken and he jumped out of the carriage. The same thing happened to Lian Wushuang in the carriage...
The rhinoceros horse pulling the carriage neighed loudly, and the four-wheeled carriage suddenly stopped on the street. Hearing the noise in the carriage, Hu Haihe thought that Yan Liqiang was assassinated. He drew back his long knife and jumped off the carriage like a monkey, rushing to Yan Liqiang's side, "Sir..."
"Don't be nervous, it's okay, it's okay!" Seeing that a patrolling detective heard the noise and ran towards here, Yan Liqiang whispered a few words in Hu Haihe's ear, asking Hu Haihe to negotiate with the detective who ran over, and told other people who heard the noise not to come over to watch. Yan Liqiang had already seen that Shi Bingbing's current situation seemed very unusual, as if, as if she was... breaking through...
The door of the four-wheeled carriage had already been broken open, and Shi Bingbing was still sitting in the carriage with her eyes closed, as if in a trance. However, the light on her body was getting brighter and brighter. On the dark street, the entire carriage seemed to be on fire. The rhinoceros horse pulling the carriage was now intimidated by her aura and stood in the street, motionless...
(End of this chapter)