Chapter 14: A Remarkable Talent of the World
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Seeing Miss Mi’s reaction, Lu Chuan knew that the grandeur of the county office had intimidated her.
When he first established the Lu County government, Lu Chuan had spent considerable time deciding what form it should take.
If it were built like the government offices in other counties, with only a single main hall while all the officials worked somewhere in the rear, it would inevitably prove inadequate.
After all, the Lu County he wanted to create was no ordinary county town. It was to be a place where agriculture, commerce, culture, and military affairs would all develop together.
If he wanted the economy to flourish, he had to resolve all kinds of problems as soon as they arose. Thus, Lu Chuan decided to build the county office according to his own vision.
The Lu County People’s Court, the Lu County Bureau of Investment Promotion, the Lu County Bureau of Industry and Commerce, the Lu County Bureau of Agricultural Administration, the Lu County Bureau of Public Security, and many other institutions had consequently come into being.
To ensure that the officials in these institutions could deal with the problems faced by the people of Lu County at the earliest possible moment, Lu Chuan had placed them all in prominent positions. Whoever encountered a problem could, in principle, find a solution at one of these offices.
If no suitable institution could be found, Lu Chuan had even established a Center for Complaints Concerning Difficult and Miscellaneous Matters. Any issue that the other offices could not resolve could be taken there. The officials at the center would compile the complaints and report them to Lu Chuan at regular intervals, leaving the final decision to him.
In Lu Chuan’s view, a county government with clearly defined responsibilities and direct contact with the common people was what a proper county government ought to be.
Those old-fashioned offices that towered above the people, possessed plenty of authority but little warmth, should have been abolished long ago.
In order to deceive—
No, that was not right!
In order to let Miss Mi understand what the Lu County government truly was, and how much potential Lu County possessed, Lu Chuan earnestly introduced the functions of its various departments to her. By the time he finished, Miss Mi’s expression had completely changed.
At that very moment, her opinion of Lu Chuan changed as well.
So he had not been lying to me. He really did establish all sorts of institutions within the county government, institutions capable of solving the problems faced by the people to the greatest possible extent.
No, it was not merely the people’s problems that could be resolved. Even the problems faced by merchants could receive a perfect solution here.
In this era, merchants occupied a very low position in society, lower even than that of farmers.
If the Mi family had not already become immensely wealthy, using its vast fortune and powerful connections to elevate its social standing, they would still have been nothing more than a merchant household everyone could bully.
In other county towns, ordinary merchants were not welcomed at all. Even when they suffered some injustice, the county government generally would not help them if they went there to seek redress.
There was nothing to be done about it. That was simply how the world worked.
The policy of honoring agriculture while suppressing commerce was bad enough, but many people also believed that merchants were nothing more than greedy, profit-seeking villains.
Yet in Lu County, such prejudice had vanished completely.
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Lu Chuan not only attached great importance to merchants; he had even established special institutions to help resolve their problems. How could that fail to change her opinion of him?
If every official held the same views as Lu Chuan, life would be so much easier for the Mi family.
Miss Mi was reminded of how the steward had tried to pay two thousand cash to buy the peddler’s method of making candied hawthorns, only to be refused.
At first, she had assumed that the peddler had been threatened by Lu Chuan, or had signed some sort of contract and therefore dared not reveal the method. But now it seemed that every word the peddler had spoken had come from the heart.
Even a candied-hawthorn peddler was so grateful to Lu Chuan. It was impossible to imagine how deeply the great merchants must appreciate him.
“Administrator Lu, why do you place so much importance on merchants?”
“Isn’t it only natural to value merchants?”
Lu Chuan answered with a question. “Young Master Jun, consider this: if I relied solely on farmers tilling the land, how could I have built a county town on this scale? Developing agriculture can solve the problem of food and clothing, but if we want to improve people’s lives and develop the town, we must ultimately rely on merchants.”
Agriculture could provide food and clothing, but development still depended on merchants.
When Miss Mi heard those words, a different light began to shine in her eyes.
It was the first time she had ever heard such an opinion, yet she felt it was absolutely correct.
Take Lu County itself, for example.
Although there was farmland around the county, the amount was limited. If the people of Lu County relied solely on farming, how much grain could they possibly harvest?
How could that grain alone support the construction of a county town on this scale?
To accomplish such a feat, Lu Chuan must have used the grain produced in Lu County as a foundation, then drawn out its commercial potential, built handicraft workshops, and perhaps even sold plots of land within the town to obtain the support of merchants and pursue further development.
It sounded simple when described, but putting it into practice would be extraordinarily difficult.
Miss Mi knew she could never have done it.
Even if her elder brother, Mi Zhu, had come here, he could not possibly have transformed a small village into a county town of this scale within five years, without outside assistance.
The fact that Lu Chuan had managed to accomplish this truly qualified him as a prodigy without equal in the world.
“Administrator Lu, your insight is truly profound. I am deeply impressed!”
Miss Mi bowed to Lu Chuan. This time, she was sincerely convinced.
With abilities like Lu Chuan’s, was there anything wrong with charging ten thousand cash for an audience notice?
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If he did not charge an audience fee, every Tom, Dick, and stray dog would come begging to see him. Wouldn’t that leave Lu Chuan worked to death?
With matters having developed this far, Lu Chuan no longer needed to explain anything. Miss Mi had already begun making excuses for him.
As for the offense she had committed while sharing a carriage with Lu Chuan, Miss Mi had long since cast it from her mind.
Her current identity was Young Master Jun of the Mi family—a man. How could Lu Chuan possibly harbor those kinds of thoughts toward another man?
“Young Master Jun, there is no need for such ceremony. This county office is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Lu County’s development. There is another place in Lu County that you absolutely must see.”
“What place?”
Miss Mi immediately became interested.
“The Lu Family Bank!”
Lu Chuan had already seen the shock in Miss Mi’s heart, but he felt that it was not yet enough.
For someone born into a merchant family, could there be any place more astonishing than the Lu Family Bank?
“The Lu Family… Bank?”
It was the first time Miss Mi had ever heard the term “bank.”
“Administrator Lu, what exactly is a bank?”
“The bank is the financial center of Lu County. It controls the lifeblood of the county’s economy and provides powerful support for my development of Lu County…”
“Wait! Administrator Lu, what do you mean by ‘financial’? Why do the things you’re saying sound so strange?”
Lu Chuan was speechless. He had unconsciously used terminology from the world before his transmigration to explain the purpose of the bank, so it was only natural that Miss Mi could not understand him.
“Forget it. I can’t explain it clearly in a moment. Once you see it for yourself, you’ll understand. For now, just remember this: the importance of the bank to Lu County is no less than that of the county government.”
The bank was no less important than the county government?
A look of astonishment appeared in Miss Mi’s eyes once again.
She truly could not imagine what place in a county town could be more important than the county government.