Chapter 729

Well, it was called playing chess—but really, he was there to ask for Jiang Ning’s thoughts on Wucheng’s next steps for economic development.

“Right now, Shuibu Town and Yaoba Town have already taken off. But Yaoba was already one of the top three economically developed towns in Wucheng, and Shuibu sits on a transportation hub—it’s not hard for them to develop. The question is: What about the other towns?”

They say you rely on the mountains when you live by the mountains, and the water when you live by the water.—to develop tourism or a local economy.

Even the Linhe Brigade wouldn’t be where it was currently without Jiang Ning and Jiang Guotai—one providing strategy, the other sheer execution power—and the funding from three major sand factories. Without all that, Linhe wouldn’t have made it this far in ten or even twenty years.

This kind of model wasn’t replicable in other towns.” Her study was also on the first floor, warm and springlike inside. “Take Xu Village, for example. The locals are aggressive and rough. Back in the summer, I heard they were selling homemade coarse tea called ‘Wugong Tea’ to scam tourists. When tourists realized and wanted refunds, they got threatened with fists instead. With customs like that, do you think tourists will ever go back?”

Xu Village had been asking Jiang Guotai to help them get rich, but they never thought ahead. If they offended him, and he stopped accepting their tea, their entire harvest would rot on the mountains. If their behavior didn’t change, in time, there wouldn’t be a single tourist left—and without cheating, they wouldn’t sell a single jin of tea.

Jiang Ning dipped her finger in water and wrote two characters on the tea table, “Education and Reform.”

“A village like Xu—with customs that are aggressive and unruly—if they’re not strictly managed and controlled, it’s not just the Linhe Brigade that’ll be affected.”

Especially in the internet age—sometimes one piece of bad news could destroy an entire city’s reputation, making tourists afraid to ever return.

Jiang Guoding didn’t really understand how his economic development question had turned into a conversation about aggressive village culture, but he still nodded and said, “I’ll bring this up with the local police station too. It really needs to be clamped down on.”

“Xu Village is just a reflection.”

Shijian Township was located above the Linhe Brigade.

As mentioned before, Linhe had mountains behind and water in front. Shijian sat further up in the mountains, making it extremely remote and hard to access. That made the locals very closed off and feudal-minded. Male superiority was rampant, gambling was widespread, and many underground gambling dens that had been shut down in the city ended up hiding deep in the mountains of Shijian.

Mother Jiang was also from Shijian Township. Even though the two places were only five or six li apart, the local atmosphere was worlds apart. Despite having scenic spots like the mountain stream and Wugong Mountain, it still hadn’t developed at all—not even after more than a decade. One big reason? The terrible local customs.

Jiang Ning explained in detail to Jiang Guoding, “Uncle Guotai leased the mountain stream and Wugong Mountain. Even doing business, Jiang Village and Little Jiang Village treat people fairly and greet customers with smiles. But the villagers near the rafting area in Shijian?”

Jiang Ning didn’t raise her voice. “If this continues, do you know what will happen? Even if people up top work hard to build up Wucheng and attract tourists, this kind of ‘chasing away customers’ behavior will drive them off.”

“Shijian Township is nestled within the forested mountains. Most of the local furniture we use is bought from Wanjia Village, but in fact, nearly all the actual furniture storefronts are gathered in Shijian Township’s market. That whole stretch of forest is a natural raw materials plant.”

This point didn’t even need Jiang Ning to explain—those who lived in the mountains and made their living crafting furniture and bamboo goods already understood it well.

Jiang Guoding instantly caught on. Having once served as the township head of Shijian, he knew the place like the back of his hand. Aside from having a wealth of timber and furniture stores, Shijian Township also produced almost all the bamboo products sold in the surrounding ten-mile area. The only issue was, just like how Yaoba Town’s aquaculture used to be, the bamboo trade was fragmented—each weaver made and sold their own goods. All small-scale, never forming an actual industry.”

Hewei Town had another, much more well-known name in the area: Hewei Farm. Back in the 1960s, Hewei Farm was a notorious labor reform camp—all the local convicts were sent there to work and undergo reform through labor.

It was called a farm because it was one of the rare flat, expansive agricultural zones in all of Wucheng—a vast plain, no hills, no gullies, just farmland stretching as far as the eye could see. Perfectly suited for mechanized farming.

And this terrain wasn’t just ideal for rice—it was also perfect for growing grapes.

From that point on, Jiang Ning didn’t even need to explain much—she had already opened an entirely new world in Jiang Guoding’s mind.

Born and raised there, and having served as both township and town leader more than once, no one understood Wucheng better than Jiang Guoding.

It’s just that in the past, no one had ever told him that these ordinary, easily overlooked things—so commonplace to locals—could actually become key drivers of local economic prosperity.

Besides developing local industries, there was also attracting investment.

And the biggest prerequisite to attracting investment was clean, upright local governance.

More than a decade ago in her previous life, there had been outside investors who came here to build factories. But for every one that was built, one collapsed. For every one that tried, one fled.

Why? Because the local government bled them dry, layer by layer.

These businesspeople came here to build factories, lured by favorable local policies and the promise of boosting the local economy. But the local officials treated them like fat sheep ready for slaughter—anyone who came, got fleeced. One after another, again and again.

There were even cases where someone leased farmland in Hewei Town to grow crops. They took out million-yuan loans to farm the land, only to have it all stolen by locals before harvest even began. The stuff they stole wasn’t worth much; they couldn’t get rich off it either. But just like that, they turned someone’s entire year of sweat and hard work to ash.

When the locals acted like bandits, and local governance was neither strict nor clean—talking about developing the economy was pure nonsense.

Unless every local official was another Jiang Guotai—a local powerhouse with the authority to suppress the residents into not daring to touch or steal anything.

That’s why Jiang Ning kept insisting: the first priority was to correct and educate the populace, to standardize business practices and agreements. Otherwise, no matter how powerful Jiang Guotai was, at most he could only keep Shuibu Town and Linhe Brigade in order. But beyond Shuibu Town—what about the rest of Wucheng?

This wasn’t something Jiang Guoding could solve on his own. It would take unity and cooperation from top to bottom to pull it off.

After hearing all this, Jiang Guoding rubbed his forehead with both hands. Developing Wucheng’s economy—there was no way he could do it alone.

Father Jiang had been standing outside the study door listening for a while.