I couldn't take it anymore; when I went home for Chinese New Year, the family genealogy book ha

Li Qiang had just finished shouting those words.

There was a deathly silence under the old locust tree.

The old man's sandalwood cane fell with a thud onto the bluestone slab.

Jiang Mancang didn't even hold the pipe properly; the scalding ash fell all over his thigh, burning him so badly he jumped up and down.

"Good heavens! Have these people lost their minds?!" Jiang Mancang shouted, slapping his thigh. "Why don't they stay in their own village and run to the county to cause trouble, wanting to become our Jiang Family Village's lackeys?"

Liu Cuifen, carrying a stainless steel basin filled with edamame, raised her voice eight octaves.

"Dream on! What's the status of our Jiangjia Village now? You can sweep up a handful of dirt and it'll be covered in gold dust! They're just jealous of our year-end bonuses and want to come here and freeload!" Liu Cuifen cursed loudly.

She threw the edamame shells in her hand onto the ground.

"I knew those ragged people loitering around the village entrance these past few days! Turns out they're here to scout the area! These beggars are setting their sights on us!" Liu Cuifen shouted.

The old man slapped his thigh hard.

"Go and call the security team! Block the village entrance! Anyone who dares to force their way in, beat them out with sticks! Why should the blessings left by our Jiang family ancestors be given to outsiders!" The old man's protective temper erupted on the spot.

Jiang Chen leaned against the stone table.

He used a tattered palm-leaf fan to pat his large floral-patterned shorts.

"Qiangzi, what did County Magistrate Zhang Weimin say?" Jiang Chen asked unhurriedly.

Li Qiang wiped the sweat from his face.

"County Chief Zhang is at his wit's end! The iron gate of the county government compound is warped from being squeezed by the crowds. He's tried calling you several times without success, so he's called me directly!" Li Qiang took out his phone and handed it to Jiang Chen. "County Chief Zhang is still online!"

Jiang Chen took the phone.

It was just close to my ear.

Zhang Weimin's hysterical shouts came through the receiver.

"Village Chief Jiang! You finally answered the phone! Come over here right now and take these people away! Not even a bird can fly out of this county government compound!"

Jiang Chen was amused.

"County Chief Zhang, this is your jurisdiction. If the people are causing trouble, you should call the police. What use is it to come to a village chief like me?" Jiang Chen retorted bluntly.

Zhang Weimin was so anxious on the other end of the line that he kept slamming his fist on the table.

"If calling the police would work, why would I need to call you? These people aren't vandalizing, looting, or burning anything. Hundreds of village representatives are kneeling neatly at the foot of the office building."

Zhang Weimin was panting heavily.

"The city's riot police have all come. And these old men and women just lay down under the wheels of the riot police vehicles! We can't hit them, we can't scold them!" Zhang Weimin was frantic. "They brought plenty of bedding and dry food, saying that if you don't take them in, they'll all starve to death on the front gate of the county government!"

"The leader, Village Chief Li from Qingshan Town, brought a thick stack of petitions written in blood by ten thousand people, all with red handprints! He insisted that I issue an official document to erase the administrative divisions of their dozen or so towns and merge them into your Jiangjia Village!" Zhang Weimin's voice was full of helplessness.

"I've never seen such a bizarre administrative request in all my years as a county head!"

Suddenly, a fierce struggle came through the receiver.

Immediately afterwards, a hoarse, deep old man's voice boomed out.

"Village Chief Jiang! I am Li Laowai from Qingshan Town! I kowtow to you on behalf of the 100,000 people from thirteen impoverished towns!"

The sound of heavy kowtows came from the other end of the phone.

"Village Chief Li, let's talk this out. Don't put on this show," Jiang Chen said calmly.

"Village Chief Jiang! We really can't survive! All the able-bodied men in our town have run away, and the remaining elderly people can't even farm the land. A few days ago, a huge snowstorm collapsed dozens of mud-brick houses!" Old Li wailed.

"We see you Jiangjia Village people eating meat every day, and getting Wuling Hongguang minivans as gifts at the end of the year. We don't covet those luxury cars and big apartments!"

"We only beg Village Chief Jiang to have mercy and take over our land. Even if it means we have to farm and clean toilets for the Jiang Group, as long as we get a hot meal, that's enough!" Old Li cried his heart out.

Jiang Chen was holding his phone.

He turned and glanced at the ruddy-faced elderly people of Jiangjia Village under the big locust tree.

Listen again to the desperate pleas for help from the other end of the phone.

"We can take them in," Jiang Chen announced loudly.

These four words were uttered.

A deafening roar of cheers erupted from the other end of the phone.

"But!" Jiang Chen raised his voice, forcefully suppressing the cheers.

"If you're going to beg, you should have the attitude of a beggar!" Jiang Chen yelled into his phone. "Do you really think Jiang Family Village is a charity? If you want to cross the threshold of Jiang Family Village, my rules are bigger than the sky!"

Jiang Chen tapped the stone table heavily with a palm-leaf fan.

"First! All the village bullies, lazybones, and thugs with criminal records in this town—not one of them—get out of this area!"

"Secondly! After the merger, all land will be cultivated uniformly, and all labor will be allocated uniformly! Anyone who dares to hoard a single grain of rice, or who takes advantage of their age to act arrogantly, will have their entire family expelled from Qinghe County!"

"Third! No bonuses, no large apartments! You get paid for the work you do, starting as a low-level farmhand!"

Jiang Chen put forward three ironclad rules in succession.

Li Laowai's voice trembled with excitement on the other end of the phone.

"Don't worry, Village Chief Jiang! Anyone who dares to slack off or try to cheat, I, Li Laowai, will be the first to break their legs! We'll go back right away and drive all those thugs away!"

Jiang Chen returned the phone to Li Qiang.

"County Chief Zhang, I've taken care of things. The rest of the administrative procedures are up to you in the county." Jiang Chen said this and hung up the phone.

That afternoon.

The city government convened an emergency meeting.

This is in response to the extremely rare public demand in Qinghe County.

Considering the Jiang family's current reputation as the "most philanthropic family in the country," coupled with the Jiang Group's formidable economic strength.

He simply wrote it down with a flourish.

An administrative division adjustment document bearing a bright red official seal was swiftly issued.

All thirteen impoverished towns surrounding Qinghe County have been abolished and merged into villages.

The original staffing was completely abolished, and all personnel were placed under the jurisdiction of Jiangjia Village.

Overnight.

The actual territory controlled by Jiangjia Village has been expanded by a full three times.

The entire Qinghe County, except for that small area in the county seat.

The rest of the vast land was turned into Jiangjia Village's private backyard.

It was evening.

Jiang Family Compound.

Jiang Chen sat shirtless under the grape trellis in the yard, enjoying the cool shade.

Jiang Huixin walked in hurriedly, carrying a thick stack of documents.

She was wearing a simple cotton dress, and her forehead was covered in sweat.

"Brother Chen." Jiang Huixin walked to the stone table and put down the documents. "The statistics on educational resources for the thirteen newly incorporated towns are out."

Jiang Huixin pushed up her thin-rimmed glasses, her tone very heavy.

"They were too poor. In those dozen or so towns combined, there were only three dilapidated houses that could barely be called schools. The desks and chairs inside were all propped up with bricks and rotten planks. There wasn't even a proper chalk box."

"Several thousand school-age children are mostly at home helping with farm work and simply can't afford to go to school," Jiang Huixin said, becoming increasingly distressed.

Jiang Chen picked up the chilled watermelon on the table and took a bite.

"What's the big deal?" Jiang Chen tossed the watermelon rind into the trash can. "Since those village chiefs have acknowledged me as their leader, I, Jiang Chen, will never mistreat my own people!"

Jiang Chen waved his hand.

"Sister Huixin, you are now the principal of Jiang's Hope Primary School. This matter is entirely entrusted to you!"

Jiang Huixin was taken aback. "Brother Chen, a school with thousands of children... the financial burden is enormous..."

"Just report the amount you need to the group's finance department and withdraw it! There's no limit!" Jiang Chen interrupted her domineeringly.

"Within three months! I want to build ten top-standard, intelligent, modern primary schools in the heart of those thirteen towns! All the multimedia equipment, synthetic playgrounds, and nutritious cafeterias—I'll equip them to the standards of key provincial high schools!"

Jiang Chen pointed to the documents on the table.

"No matter how poor these children were before, from today onwards, wherever the Jiang Zemin banner is in effect, I will ensure they enjoy the best educational resources in all of China!"

Jiang Huixin nodded excitedly.

Her eyes were completely red.

"Brother Chen! I thank you on behalf of those poor children! I'll go and plan the blueprints right away!" Jiang Huixin grabbed the documents and ran out quickly.

The next morning.

At the intersection of thirteen towns, there lies a vast expanse of wasteland spanning 100,000 mu.

Hundreds of heavy trucks lined up in a long line and roared into the wasteland.

The truck bed was covered with the Jiang Group's gold logo.

Jiang Youfu, the person in charge of Jiang's Agricultural Base, stood on the roof of a truck with a large pregnant belly and a megaphone in hand.

"Line up! One at a time!" Jiang Youfu shouted at the top of his lungs.

Tens of thousands of newly arrived villagers, dressed in tattered clothes, stood on the wasteland with their families.

The truck's rear door opened.

Bags of high-yield, drought-resistant wheat seeds that have undergone systematic improvement.

A fleet of brand-new, small, fully automatic solar-powered rotary tillers.

They were piled up like small mountains in front of the villagers.

"Village Chief Jiang has given the order! All these seeds and machines are to be distributed to you free of charge! Finish tilling the land today, and you must sow all the seeds tomorrow!" Jiang Youfu announced loudly.

Li Laowai stood at the front, leading a dozen or so old village chiefs.

Looking at those advanced agricultural machines that they never dared to dream of before.

Looking at those plump, magical seeds.

Tears welled up in Li Laowai's eyes.

He knelt down with a thud on the muddy wasteland.

He held the heavy bag of wheat seeds tightly in both hands.

"Fellow villagers! These aren't just seeds, they're life itself, given to us by Village Chief Jiang!" Old Li cried out.

"From now on, we're Jiangjia Village's dogs! Anyone who dares to say a bad word about Village Chief Jiang, we'll bite them to death!"

He knelt down.

Tens of thousands of villagers behind him knelt down in unison.

A huge, dark mass of people.

They kowtowed three times heavily in the direction of the large single-level apartment in Jiangjia Village.

Jiang Chen used his absolute strength and wealth to win the absolute loyalty of 100,000 people on this land.

time flies.

More than half a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

The landscape surrounding Qinghe County has undergone tremendous changes.

Ten thousand acres of wasteland have been planted with lush, high-quality crops.

Brand new Hope Primary Schools are springing up everywhere.

Those villagers who were once pale and thin are now all energetic and work with inexhaustible strength.

Jiangjia Village's prestige reached an unprecedented peak.

That noon.

Jiang Chen was wearing shorts and taking a nap under the grape trellis in the yard.

Ding Xiu, fully armed, strode in.

His special forces boots made a heavy thud as he stepped on the bluestone slabs.

"Brother Chen! Wake up!" Ding Xiu lowered his voice and hurriedly woke Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen removed the tattered palm-leaf fan from his face.

He yawned widely.

"What's all this commotion in the middle of the day? Is another town coming to us for help?" Jiang Chen asked irritably.

Ding Xiu shook his head repeatedly, his expression extremely serious, even revealing a hint of barely suppressed shock.

"It's not a town! It's the back mountain! The Longevity Town, which took a whole year to build, is now fully completed!" Ding Xiu reported loudly.

Jiang Chen sat up straight.

"If it's finished, it's finished. Just find someone to clean it up according to the plan." Jiang Chen waved his hand dismissively.

"It's not a cleaning problem!" Ding Xiu swallowed hard.

He pointed in the direction outside the village and spoke urgently.

"The convoy is here! A convoy of all-red flag bulletproof vehicles, with special license plates all featuring white backgrounds and red lettering!"

"The top official of the Municipal Public Security Bureau is personally leading the way! Dozens of special police riot control vehicles have completely blocked the highway at the entrance of our village!" Ding Xiu's forehead was covered in cold sweat.

"The first batch of thirty important figures to move into Changsheng Town have already arrived outside the village entrance archway!"

"Brother Chen, shall we go out and meet him?" Ding Xiu asked tentatively.