Because the Matsuura Division was trapped in a tight siege, Shunroku Hata was in a very bad mood, but Xu Rui was in a very good mood, because as he expected, the Japanese and puppet troops in Pucheng did not dare to provoke their independent regiment, even if the transport team was far away from the county seat. When Yang Village passed by less than twenty miles away, the Japanese and puppet troops were still huddled in the county town and did not dare to come out.
In the evening, the transportation team successfully returned to Meizhen and transported more than a hundred pieces of equipment from the cement factory back to the base. At this time, what appeared in front of Xu Rui was a brand-new Meizhen, a bustling place. Large construction sites, starting from outside Xiasha Bridge, are being leveled and houses are being built everywhere.
In the open space behind the Mei Family Ancestral Hall, several rows of bungalows have been built, with more than a dozen in each row.
Wang Husheng pointed at these rows of bungalows and said proudly: "How about it, Lao Xu, can we move fast enough? It has only been less than half a month since you left, and we have already built so many houses. But last time you The idea I came up with is really easy to use. With these hundreds of thousands of laborers, no matter what you do, you only need one word, hurry!"
Xu Rui smiled and said: "Yes, it seems that our independent group can move into the new barracks soon."
"New barracks?" Wang Husheng laughed and scolded, "You are beautiful, this is the office building of the county government."
"What are you talking about?" Xu Rui said in surprise, "There are only a dozen people in the county government, and it needs so many houses?"
Wang Husheng snorted and curled his lips and said: "When are you talking about the old almanac? Now the Meixian Anti-Japanese Democratic Government has more than 300 staff, and there are more than a dozen departments alone. Let me count with you. Count them, the Ministry of Armed Forces, the Ministry of Enemy Industry, the Ministry of Political Affairs, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Women, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Finance, the Logistics Department, the Administrative Section, how many did I just mention? "
"Twelve departments plus one section." Xu Rui said, "Okay, Lao Wang, it's time to replace a shotgun with a cannon."
Wang Husheng was a little nervous: "Old Xu, don't think that our stall is too big. Although the Meixian Anti-Japanese Democratic Government now has 13 departments and more than 300 people, in actual work, there is a serious shortage of manpower. Almost every comrade in every department is working day and night, and several comrades have collapsed at their posts from exhaustion.”
Although Wang Husheng had served as secretary of the **Southern Jiangsu Prefectural Committee before, he was only a nominal secretary. In fact, he had no actual jurisdiction over the southern Jiangsu region and had no contact with real administrative work. The independent group had just arrived in Meizhen. When we settled down, local administrative affairs were relatively simple, mainly rent and interest reductions and united front work.
But things are different now. Now we have to start building a base area, and the administrative work suddenly becomes onerous.
In less than half a month, the staff of the Meixian Anti-Japanese Democratic Government has increased from a dozen to more than 300 people. Judging from the current situation, the number of staff must be increased, otherwise comrades in various departments will die of exhaustion. County Magistrate Liu Jinbiao was so tired that he fainted at the construction site of the power plant yesterday.
Wang Husheng felt that it was necessary to assign a secretary to Liu Jinbiao, because Liu Jinbiao was mainly responsible for handling government administrative affairs. He was only a part-time secretary, and the focus of his work was still the political and ideological work of the Independent League.
Xu Rui waved his hand and said, "Old Wang, you are overthinking. How can I think there are too many people in the government?"
Xu Rui's attitude surprised Wang Husheng. In fact, he had wanted to tell Xu Rui when they first met on the Yangtze River. He was worried that Xu Rui would be resistant, so he wanted Xu Rui to see the construction progress of the base area, and then talk to Xu Rui. As for Xu Rui, I didn't expect that Xu Rui didn't have any resistance at all, but seemed to understand it very well.
Xu Rui continued: "The situation in our base area is much more complicated now. Government work is no longer the same as rent and interest reduction and united front work. A large number of new specific tasks have been added, especially the population in the base area has increased significantly. Now, how many people are there in our base area?"
Wang Husheng immediately replied: "According to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the base area, the base area originally had more than 40,000 households and a population of more than 110,000 people. After the large influx of refugees, the number of households has increased to more than 210,000 households, and the population has exceeded 600,000, and so far, there is still a continuous influx of refugees.”
Xu Rui nodded and said: "The population of the base area has exceeded 600,000. Three hundred government workers are missing. Let's add another 300 people. Six hundred people is at least 600."
What Xu Rui said is true. For example, in later generations, the ratio of government workers to citizens in Japan reached 1:28, while the ratio in the United States was even as high as 1:12. Six hundred people manage 600,000 people, which cannot be less.
Wang Husheng shook his head quickly and said: "Six hundred people are too many, and adding another hundred people will be enough."
While the two were talking, they walked into one of the bungalows in the first row. The sign on the door was Ministry of Industry.
As soon as he entered the door, Xu Rui saw an acquaintance, Wu Qian, a top student in the Chemistry Department of Yanjing University. However, at this time, Wu Qian was surrounded by a middle-aged man wearing glasses and two other young people, heads touching each other. He was studying a chemical equation and didn't notice that Wang Husheng and Xu Rui had walked in.
After talking for a long time, Wu Qian finally realized that there were two more people around him. When he looked back, he found that it was Xu Rui and Wang Husheng. Wu Qian quickly stood up and said, "Captain, Secretary Wang, when did you come?"
Wang Husheng smiled and said, "The team leader and I have been standing in your office for a long time."
Wu Qian scratched his head in embarrassment and said, "I'll get you some water."
"No, let's just come in and take a look. No need to bother." Xu Rui waved his hand, turned his eyes to the middle-aged man wearing glasses, smiled and said to Wu Qian, "Wu Qian, don't you want to introduce him to us?"
"Look at my memory." Wu Qian slapped his forehead and quickly introduced Xu Rui, "Captain, this is our Professor Zheng Erqiang from Yanjing University. He is an authoritative scholar in the field of chemistry."
After he finished, he said to Zheng Erqiang: "Professor Zheng, this is our leader."
Zheng Erqiang quickly reached out to shake hands with Xu Rui and said with emotion: "Captain Xu, I have listened to your broadcasts several times and I deeply feel that it is not easy for your soldiers to fight the Japanese invaders on the front line. As a teacher, I can serve the country and serve the country." The nation doesn't do much, but it can still be done by contributing what you have learned to the arsenal to be established in the base area."
Xu Rui said quickly: "Professor Zheng is too polite. Scholars like you are exactly what our base area urgently needs. On behalf of all the officers and soldiers of the Independent Regiment, I welcome Professor Zheng's arrival."
Zheng Erqiang smiled and said: "Captain Xu is too polite, so I will do my best."
After chatting for a while, Xu Rui and Wang Husheng said goodbye and left. After going out, Wang Husheng said to Xu Rui: "This Zheng Erqiang returned from studying in France. He is not as good at promoting himself as some people, so he is not well-known in the country. But his level in the field of chemistry is very high, and now he has led a research team and is working on it."
"***? TNT?" Xu Rui said happily after hearing this, "Old Wang, are they sure?"
Wang Husheng said: "Professor Zheng told me that I am very sure that there is something wrong with the raw material."
"Don't worry about the raw materials." Xu Rui waved his hand and said domineeringly, "As long as they can come up with a perfect product and perfect the production process, I will be responsible for the raw materials."
"Are you responsible?" Wang Husheng said, "What are you responsible for?"
"You don't have to worry about this." Xu Rui waved his hand and saw Mei Jiuling walking out of a bungalow.
Seeing Xu Rui, Mei Jiuling quickly stood up to attention, saluted, and then her face fell quickly and she said: "Captain, you are finally back. Please talk to the political commissar and let me go."
Xu Rui glanced at Wang Husheng and asked, "Old Wang, what's going on?"
Wang Husheng scratched his head and said awkwardly: "This is not because the Ministry of Construction has just been established and is short of people. There are more than 3,000 students in the Third Regiment of the Nine Columns, and few are studying architecture, and even fewer are studying bridges and tunnels. There is really no way. I transferred Mei Xiucai to the Ministry of Construction, assigned him dozens of students, and first put up the structure of the Ministry of Construction."
Mei Jiuling said with a grimace: "But political commissar, I don't want to dig holes, I want to lead troops."
"What's wrong with digging holes?" Wang Husheng immediately scolded with a straight face, "This is a political task and must be completed."
Mei Jiuling looked at Xu Rui for help. Xu Rui could only turn his eyes away and pretended not to see it. Mei Jiuling turned around and left with a grimace.
When Mei Jiuling walked away, Xu Ruicai said: "Old Wang, this is not the solution. Jiulingzhi is not in the construction of the project, and this guy is also a good material for leading troops in war. If this continues, won't it be a waste of time?"
"I don't know if this can continue like this." Wang Husheng said, "The key is that no one really takes the lead."
Xu Rui said: "If there is no one, then find someone. How can a living person be choked to death by urinating?" He then asked, "Isn't there any student in the Third Regiment of the Nine Columns who studies engineering?"
"There are only two of them, and they are freshmen." Wang Husheng said.
Xu Rui said: "What's the big deal? If these two students can't do it, don't they still have their senior brothers? If the senior brothers can't do it, don't they still have teachers? If it doesn't work, just make a request to the Minister of Military Affairs and ask the Minister of Military Affairs to negotiate with the Ministry of Education. Let them send Dean Mao from Tangshan Institute of Engineering and Technology to our base area to help us, eh."
At the end of the sentence, Xu Rui suddenly let out a sigh and felt that this was really a good idea.
The Dameishan base area is currently in the stage of rapid development. It is foreseeable that there will be a large number of engineering projects, and the quality of these engineering projects is particularly important because they must withstand the heavy bombing of the Japanese aviation force, so please It is very important for a high-level engineering and technical expert to come and help with the design.
Xu Rui even thought of another question. If Dean Mao is really invited here, can he be asked to take charge of the design and build Shangxiasha Bridge into a military fortress? (To be continued.)