The district security office's regular meeting.
The Deputy District Chief of Jinyuan was present in person to oversee the proceedings.
"Squad Commander Li Xuanji has demonstrated outstanding performance and is hereby promoted to Street Security Station Chief, henceforth responsible for the management of the Taoyuan Street Security Station."
No one raised any objections.
And even if they had, there was nothing to be done about it.
Every place bearing the name Taoyuan was something special — it was where the dream had begun. Among the several streets in Longbei District that had been developing well, Taoyuan Street was doing best of all.
Li Chenggian had leveraged Jinyuan's connections and backing to climb steadily from ordinary security officer to squad leader, and then to squad commander.
At this same work meeting, Comrade Li Dabao — a man equally well-connected — had finally, by virtue of his daughter's influence, shuffled one step further forward. He was promoted from a Grade 5 street station chief to a Grade 6 deputy chief of the district security office.
The vacancy he left behind went directly to Li Xuanji, who had only been at Grade 3.
By any measure, the speed of his promotion could only be called meteoric.
If he kept it up, it would not be long before he overtook Li Dabao, who had always advanced in small, unhurried steps.
With his new rank, Li Xuanji's daily wage rose to 4.8 yuan. Still short of his wife's earnings, to be sure, but at least he would probably no longer face the risk of a beating after too many lean years.
Quite a few people had heard the rumors — that the husband of the Taoyuan Hotel's general manager occasionally suffered domestic violence at home.
It just goes to show: nobody's perfect.
A person who stands out in one area, or even several, will have weaknesses somewhere else.
…
Li Xuanji had barely been promoted to station chief before he was dispatched outside the city on assignment.
It wasn't far — just a few li beyond the city walls — and nearly the entire security office had turned out. For the annual Taoyuan harvest rush had come around again.
When these days arrived, anyone in the city who wasn't in a critically important post was permitted to take leave. Residents poured into the fields almost entirely in family units — grandparents, parents, and children all together — to dig up the sweet potatoes. Working one day during these few days was worth several days' income at any other time of year. For those who really threw themselves into it, a single day could equal seven or eight.
"Papa, Papa, look how big the sweet potato I dug up is!"
"Big indeed, very big — keep at it!"
"Mother, if you're tired, rest awhile. I've brought water and food."
"Your mother's fine. I may be getting on in years, but the moment I see all this food spread across the ground, I feel happy all over — full of energy. Go on and get busy, don't mind me."
"Third Boy, if I catch you gnawing on raw sweet potatoes again, I'll tan your hide! Are you lacking for food or drink at home?"
"Master, Master, digging sweet potatoes is such fun — let's keep playing a bit longer!"
"All right, a bit longer. Let me tell you, your old master also came from a hard life once…"
It wasn't only ordinary folk — even many of the wealthy visitors who had come to the city to enjoy an easy life had tagged along to join in the fun.
Anywhere else, a man of means would never stoop to such work.
But in Longcheng, and in all the places under Longcheng's banner, the lines of class and rank had been growing blurry. Indeed, many locals, faced with wealthier outsiders, occasionally felt the greater sense of pride.
What should have been a harvest rush had become a city-wide holiday outing. Nobody seemed to have come here to work — they'd come to enjoy themselves. Laughter and cheerful voices rang out everywhere.
One could only say that life had gotten good enough for Longcheng's common people that they no longer had to spend their days staring anxiously at the yellow earth.
More than half the security station had been pulled from their regular duties to maintain order and weigh the harvest.
The freshly appointed Station Chief Li led his men in the bustle.
True to the old saying — when you rise, don't forget those who knew you when — Li Xuanji had immediately brought Little Liu along after his reassignment. He gave him a squad leader's post for now, with further promotion to come. After all, the young man had shallow seniority and thin connections — and well, Li Xuanji himself was now his most solid connection.
Not everyone, after all, had once been emperor. Not everyone could be addressed as "elder cousin" by the Deputy District Chief of Jinyuan.
Most people still had to advance one solid step at a time.
"Chief, watching everyone hard at work, I feel like stripping off my jacket and going to dig sweet potatoes myself. I think I could dig ten yuan's worth in a single day."
"You and your wishful thinking — first you want more people urinating in the streets, then you want to sneak more glances at pretty women, and now you want to go dig sweet potatoes."
"Why can't you think about something sensible for once? Look at all those pimples on your face — that's all the frustration bottled up inside."
"You're in your twenties, your job's decent enough — can't you find yourself a proper woman to settle down with?"
Little Liu didn't blush in the slightest. He laid it on thick: "Brother — my dear brother — isn't it just that I want to learn from your example and find an exceptionally beautiful wife? After all, you've got to look at her for the rest of your life…"
"You've got some nerve dreaming that big. Fine, keep dreaming — I wish you every success."
Li Xuanji stopped bantering with Little Liu and raised his eyes to survey the scene — this picture of bustling prosperity spread out before him.
He thought to himself: if only things had looked like this back then, how wonderful that would have been.
…
That year, speaking in broad terms, had been unremarkable — no serious disasters anywhere, but no great bumper crop either.
Well — except wherever Zhao Baihui was involved.
The formidable sweet potato had a formidable will to survive. Plant it anywhere, and it was as good as an extraordinary harvest.
There was simply no comparison. In terms of yield, the thing stood apart from ordinary crops the way a scholar stands apart from the unlettered — a vast and natural gulf between them.
Thanks to Zhao Baihui spending money hand over fist, wildly buying up land with silver and hiring people to break new ground, and counting the thirty thousand mu registered under Lin Xuejin in Qingjiang Prefecture, total sweet potato acreage had come to nearly eighty thousand mu.
Total output: approaching three hundred million jin.
Enough grain to feed seven or eight hundred thousand people to satiety.
Combined with other people's production, perhaps enough to keep an entire prefecture's population fed at every meal.
And yet, even if the harvest were ten times greater, there would still be people who could not eat their fill. All he could do was see to it that those connected to him lived as well as possible.
The bumper sweet potato crop drove down the price of grain across the surrounding area. Coarse grain, which had averaged nearly five mao, was knocked down to three mao.
The common people earned roughly the same money, but could now buy far more food with it. Rice and wheat flour prices also fell somewhat; meat and eggs became a little cheaper too. People would live better this year than the year before.
When the few days of the autumn harvest were over, everyone returned to their ordinary routines.
Li Xuanji went back to the city as well.
At lunchtime, he was about to grab a quick bite somewhere when Little Liu came running over, beaming.
"Chief, the quick-service place downstairs has cut its prices! Come on, come on — I'm going to eat a meal with meat in it today!"
"Hmph, look at your grand ambitions! Hurry up — what if they run out before we get there?"