Returning wealthy individuals develop their hometowns and become rich in the 1980s

"Here we go!"

Seeing Chen Dong waiting for eggs with a group of nephews, Chen Zaixing laughed, picked up a wooden bucket, and shouted, "Line up and come one by one to get yours!"

Eggs boiled with quicklime are sweet and delicious. Chen Dong was given one by Chen Zaixing. He peeled it and ate it in small bites. He didn't know if it was because the free-range eggs were naturally sweet or because the quicklime had added some "ingredients", but it tasted really different.

Chen Zaixing leaned closer to Chen Dong and whispered, "Dongzi, I heard from my sister that you're planning to take your second brother and sister to Hong Kong in the next few days, and then fly back to America?"

"Hmm," Chen Dong nodded with a smile as he ate his egg. Chen Zaixing rubbed his hands and asked shyly, "Dongzi, can you take me with you? The farthest place I've ever been in my life is our county town."

"I've heard that Hong Kong is full of skyscrapers and incredibly prosperous. Take me there, Dongzi, to broaden my horizons!"

Chen Zaiguang glared at Chen Zaixing, "What are you going there for? Your second brother and Lianxiang are going to get medical treatment, but you're going so you can show off when you go back home."

"Oh, big brother, I wasn't showing off. I just went over to take a look," Chen Zaixing explained. "Besides, if second brother goes over, I can go with him and help take care of him."

"Tell me, isn't that right, Dongzi? Hehe!"

Chen Dong smiled and said, "Fifth Brother, you can go if you want, but you need Uncle's permission. If Uncle agrees, I'll submit your application to the county. But you have to hurry, otherwise, once the county gets Second Brother and Sister Lianxiang's passports, I won't wait for you!"

"Don't worry about Dongzi, he's just too idle. I'll take him to a construction site to earn work points later. After a few days of hard work, he won't even have the energy to come home and complain. He still wants to go abroad," Chen Zaiguang said irritably.

"Don't worry, Dongzi, I will definitely persuade my father and get back to you right away." Chen Zaixing didn't care about his older brother Chen Zaiguang's words and ran back to the ancestral house after taking three steps and looking back every three steps.

In Zhaoyang County, ever since the surveyors from the Zhaoyang County Land and Resources Bureau completed the terrain survey in Hongping Village and assessed that construction could begin, the Zhaoyang County Land and Resources Bureau issued a document to Mengyu Commune to carry out land acquisition planning.

People from Mengyu Commune arrived at Hongping Village on bicycles with documents. When they handed the land requisition documents from the Land Bureau to Hua Zhenhong, the village's Party Secretary, Hua Zhenhong immediately said after reading the compensation details, "We at Hongping Village do not accept this compensation amount!"

"That's too little!"

The man from Mengyu Commune said unhappily, "Secretary Hua, this compensation is from our county's Land and Resources Bureau. You have no choice but to accept it!"

"That won't do. After the county land bureau came to survey the land that day, I convened a village meeting to discuss it. The villagers unanimously decided that if the compensation offered by Guangdong Company is too low and cannot compensate for the harvest of the terraced fields in Hongping Village that have been requisitioned, then the land cannot be requisitioned!"

Hua Zhenhong sat on the bench, smoking, without even looking up, clearly indicating his refusal to sign. The man from Mengyu Commune laughed in anger after hearing this, "Your village collective made a unanimous decision, and you think you can get the county land bureau to change the land expropriation compensation? Secretary Hua, don't you think that's a bit too presumptuous?"

"I don't care whether it's entrusted to us or not, the land belongs to our Hongping Village collective. If Guangdong Company wants to build a road through our area, they have to compensate us for the land acquisition to our satisfaction," Hua Zhenhong said, knocking the ash from his cigarette, to the man from the commune. "Xiao Ma, don't argue with me. As the village secretary, I have to listen to what the village collective decides!"

Hua Zhenhong kept mentioning Guangdong Company without ever mentioning the County Land and Resources Bureau. Xiao Ma from Mengyu Commune finally understood that the villagers of Hongping Village were planning to take advantage of the road construction project to extort money from them.

"Alright, Secretary Hua, I will take your words back to the commune and give them to Secretary Cao exactly as they are. As for this document, I'll leave it with you for now. You can think about it some more. I'll be going now." After saying that, Xiao Ma walked out of Hongping Village and rode his bicycle down the mountain.

As soon as Xiao Ma left, Lu Zhaotai, the production team leader of Hongping Village, came out of the next room and asked Hua Zhenhong, "Secretary, how much compensation did the county give?"

Hua Zhenhong turned and went into the room, and Lü Zhaotai followed him in. After the two sat down, Hua Zhenhong said, "The subsidy is 700 yuan per mu. The document plans to requisition 18 mu of our village, which is 12,600 yuan."

"So little? Didn't they say that the overseas Chinese took out 100 million? They only gave us a little over 10,000. Secretary, you didn't just sign it, did you?" Lu Zhaotai asked hurriedly.

Hua Zhenhong tossed a coconut tree cigarette to Lü Zhaotai, "Do I look like an idiot to you?"

"Doesn't look like it!"

"If you need to use our village's land, you'd better come up with a price that satisfies us. Otherwise, don't even think about passing through our area. You'll go door-to-door and talk to the villagers later. The minimum subsidy is three thousand yuan per mu. Even if people from the county come, stick to this price. If anyone slips up, the whole village will have to go to their house for a feast!"

"Secretary, please rest assured. Everyone in Hongping Village has the surname Lü; we're all relatives from the same clan. We wouldn't betray our own people. Secretary, you're doing this for their own good, and they understand that perfectly well!"

"Good, just don't forget to give me my share later!"

"That's for sure!"

The reason Hua Zhenhong dared to let Hongping Village make such a fuss was because he had a firm grip on the fact that the highway project was built by foreign capital, not by the state. Even if the county was really dissatisfied, they couldn't use the county's finances, and they wouldn't really do anything to Hongping Village.

These days, only the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The honest, simple-minded only get a subsidy of 700 yuan per mu, and that's how much they actually earn.

These terraced fields were all created through the hard work of the villagers. Losing even one acre means losing the harvest. Hongping Village is a mountain village, and the harvest is usually meager. If they don't take advantage of this opportunity to make a good profit, they won't find such a big fat sheep again!

As for whether he was afraid the overseas Chinese would refuse to repair it, Hua Zhenhong was not afraid at all. What did it matter to him whether it was repaired or not? He could repair it or not, but since you wanted to pass through my Hongping Village, you had to meet my requirements.

Otherwise, when the time comes, the whole village will turn up and lie in front of your truck. Go ahead and run over the entire village, young and old!

If you've delayed the construction period, then you should have agreed to our conditions earlier so we could have started construction. You've already put up a hundred million; our demands are just a drop in the ocean compared to that hundred million.

Be generous in both your personal life and business dealings!

As for why I don't follow suit and be generous, that's for your benefit. We'll just say we're not generous.

In short, pay up and we'll let you build the road; don't pay, and don't even think about passing through Hongping Village!