A question once echoed through the mountain winds of the old street: "Can an outsider's daughter-in-law really take the helm? Does Longshan have no one left?" At the end of 2024, when Longshan Community in Xuyi County, Huai'an City elected its new Party branch secretary, no one expected the role to fall to Liu Dan, the daughter-in-law from another town. Longshan, nestled in the mountains, has been historically shaped by four major family clans, which had produced all 15 previous secretaries. The story traces back to 2019. That year, Xuyi County and its towns launched a "Green Collar" recruitment drive to build a reserve of grassroots cadres for villages and communities. The old secretary visited Liu Dan's in-laws, confidently assuring them, "Having Dan work at the community center is worry-free. It's just steps from home, no heavy lifting, and she can balance childcare and earning money." Convinced by her mother-in-law's persuasion, Liu Dan signed up, passed the exam, and became a community grid worker. However, diving into the work revealed the old secretary's words were more of a polite formality. With residents scattered across the mountain hollows and paperwork piled waist-high, Liu Dan's life became a cycle of trekking hills for household visits by day and soothing her child before burning the midnight oil to organize files. She later joked with her mother-in-law, "My ears were too soft back then, sweet-talked into 'climbing this mountain'."
Initially, the barriers were as thick as earthen walls. Farmers, seeing a stranger at their gate, would only crack the door open, offering minimal replies, their hearts firmly closed. In Longshan's Wawu group, an elderly former secretary, his arm heavily casted after a farming accident, heard about the new "Green Collar" girl facing cold shoulders and closed doors. Without a word, he wheeled out his rusty old tricycle and, gripping the handlebars with one hand, insisted on accompanying Liu Dan on her rounds. The bumpy mountain paths jostled his injured, swollen arm painfully. Moved and heartached, Liu Dan repeatedly urged him to rest. Wiping sweat from his brow, the old man declared in a firm, rough voice, "When the Red Army crossed the snowy mountains, they didn't stop even with frostbitten limbs. What's this little injury? Winning hearts relies on walking the walk and talking door-to-door." His words struck a chord. From that day, rain or shine, Liu Dan kept running to the fields, village groups, and mountain hollows. The more she walked, the closer she grew to the farmers. A path that once took ten minutes now took at least half an hour. Laborers hoeing fields or elders sunning by walls would wave warmly from afar, calling, "Secretary Dan, come take a break."
In 2021, the organization assigned Liu Dan as the accounts clerk. Previously only familiar with computer spreadsheets and knowing little about crops or medicinal herbs, she was nervous about this new financial responsibility. Her solution? Move her feet and open her mouth. In her spare time, she immersed herself in peanut fields and herb slopes, eagerly seeking advice from experienced farmers. "Accountant Liu, you're a desk-bound official managing the books. Why dig around in the mud? Planning to farm yourself?" farmers joked, putting down their hoes. Liu Dan, holding a handful of damp mountain soil, replied plainly, "If I don't understand the 'temper' of the crops in the field, I fear I can't calculate subsidies and aid fairly." Longshan Community is 31 li of winding, pothole-ridden mountain road from the town government, with only two bus trips daily. For many elderly, illiterate villagers, handling medical insurance or pension verification in town was a major hurdle. Seeing their struggle, Liu Dan established a convenience service rule: "Leave your ID cards with me. Every Monday I go to town and can take any materials along." In over a year, she handled more than 300 such errands for residents, each one hitting the mark. When villager Lao Xu fell seriously ill and was lost navigating medical insurance procedures, Liu Dan made repeated trips to civil affairs and insurance windows, verifying and completing medical records and certificates, finally securing major illness filing that slashed his medical costs by more than half. The day a reporter visited, Lao Xu had postponed a hospital check-up, repeatedly saying, "The mountain roads are tough, but getting things done is tougher. If Secretary Dan hadn't been willing to run back and forth, I'd really be stuck."
Last year, a land reclamation project required filling an abandoned dry pond. Uncle Hua from Wawu group stood guard at the pond bank with his hoe, his voice booming, "This pond was dug out by our elders shovel by pickaxe for drought relief. You can't just flatten it! That makes no sense!" While some advocated pushing ahead forcefully, Liu Dan refused. She patiently persuaded, "Uncle, I've noted all your concerns about irrigation, and I won't gloss over them. We won't fill the whole pond; we'll reserve a section as a reservoir and add two retaining dams. You can oversee the entire construction. If anything isn't to your liking, you can challenge me anytime." With these concrete guarantees laid out, Uncle Hua gradually relented. Through this challenge, Liu Dan devised a "courtyard meeting" approach, moving discussions from cramped community offices to the very yards and field ridges where issues arose. Wherever there was a dispute or problem to solve, the "discussion table" was set up. This spring, over twenty acres of old bamboo groves along the road in Xiaying group caused annual accidents as snow-laden branches blocked the path. Liu Dan gathered party members and residents by the grove for a meeting. After a lively, open discussion, they unanimously agreed to clear the old bamboo and plant low-growing saplings, resolving the anticipated conflict without a hitch.
As hearts warmed bit by bit, Liu Dan turned her focus to Longshan's long-hidden "treasure": the local small white-sand peanuts. Plump and fragrant, they attract buyers from Beijing and the Pearl River Delta year after year. Yet, these outside merchants only purchased raw peanuts, and with no local processing, most profits flowed outward, leaving farmers with little after a year's hard work. "We can't beg for food while sitting on a gold bowl," Liu Dan declared. She worked tirelessly to apply for projects like standardized drying rooms and cold storage facilities, pushing through approvals and surveys step by step. Once built, the facilities were contracted out under strict rules forbidding price gouging for drying or purchasing during droughts or floods, firmly protecting farmers' incomes. This initiative alone is projected to increase collective village income by 370,000 yuan annually. Looking ahead, Liu Dan has new plans: processing local peanuts into oil and snacks to create a peanut distribution hub, revitalizing 2,000 tons of wild mugwort and motherwort herbs, and leveraging nearby Tieshan Temple and the "Little Sichuan-Tibet Line" scenic route to develop agricultural experiences and mountain homestays. The slogan "Visit Tieshan Temple, traverse the 'Little Sichuan-Tibet Line', rest in Longshan" aims to turn passing tourists into tangible income for the villagers. The daughter-in-law who once joked about being "talked into climbing the mountain" has now become the community's steadfast pillar. Her "Long March" has no snowy mountains or grasslands, but it traverses every household and mountain ridge, woven from the fabric of villagers' daily lives and ordinary concerns.
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