Chapter 218: The Security Regiment
China's traditional labor levy system, though nominally governed by formulas like "one in five men drafted" or "one in three men drafted"—with exemptions for only sons—in practice devolved into something far grimmer. Wealthy households routinely shifted their burdens onto the poor. Labor service paid nothing and required workers to provide their own food and clothing. For impoverished families, the combined weight of this massive burden and the loss of their primary breadwinner often spelled complete ruin.
Spring was approaching—the traditional busy farming season. Conscripting labor now would devastate both wealthy and poor households alike.
From the outset, Wu De believed that unpaid conscription was not merely inappropriate—it risked inflaming tensions with Lingao's local populace. Hired labor was clearly the better approach.
Currently, their labor crews were already paid workers, though all were volunteers who had come of their own accord. If they relied solely on volunteers, the transmigrator collective's labor demands would never be met. Now, using administrative means to compel villages to provide workers was far more convenient. It also allowed accurate estimates of available manpower.
Thus they reached an agreement with the villages: all would be classified into large, medium, and small tiers based on population. First-tier villages would supply ten workers, middle-tier five, and lower-tier two. Villages with genuinely few able-bodied men could apply for exemption—though this required on-site inspection to confirm. Villages would self-report their tier, but village sizes were common knowledge among neighbors, making any attempt at deception unwise.
This meant that, excluding the smallest hamlets, the roughly three hundred villages represented at the conference could provide about one thousand able-bodied men. These workers would be managed uniformly by the transmigrator collective, with a service term of one year. After one year, they could return home and their village would send replacements. Those who wished to stay could continue serving.
Workers would receive compensation—Wu De emphasized this point particularly. Each worker would receive the same treatment as the transmigrators' current labor crews: food rations and wages at year's end.
The villages had assumed that supplying workers would also mean providing their food. When they heard that workers would not need village support and would actually receive wages, they were nearly moved to tears by the transmigrator collective's generosity. These baldies might engage in the business of murder and arson, but when it came to caring for common people, they were far more magnanimous than the government. Approval ratings rose again.
Next came the matter of establishing the Bairren Security Regiment.
On this issue, there had been extended negotiations between the yamen and the Executive Committee. Though the yamen had virtually no power to prevent whatever the transmigrator collective wished to do, having such an armed force established directly under their noses was obviously not what Magistrate Wu had hoped for. But forming the Security Regiment represented the transmigrators' first step toward gradually absorbing and integrating the county's militia—they refused to yield. In the end, they promised only to limit the Security Regiment to one thousand men within three years and to nominally accept the yamen's Sheriff as its titular commander.
The Security Regiment's soldiers would come from two sources. First, the conscript workers from villages—the transmigrators would select some of the men sent by villages to serve as regiment soldiers. Second, the village militias. Under the plan, each village would organize militia units based on its size and population. Villages without existing militia would receive help from the transmigrators to equip and train them. Village militia would rotate in batches to the Bairren City public office for Security Regiment training and would share in county-wide security duties. This militia rotation term was three months.
The Security Regiment's primary missions were bandit suppression and pirate defense. The Bairren public office would also establish a county-wide early warning communication system, restoring and repairing the beacon towers previously built to guard against Japanese pirates at bays where pirates could easily land. Once pirates set foot on shore, the Security Regiment would deploy to intercept them.
This approach was essentially the same as the six-village joint defense organized by Huang Family Village—only the transmigrators had expanded it county-wide. It would give each village basic self-defense capability against small bandit or pirate groups. The transmigrator regime wanted to maximize improvement of the county's security situation without excessively consuming their core forces. The only solution was to organize a militia system—in another era, the CCP had employed this very method to completely pacify areas plagued by bandits. Of course, the Executive Committee was well aware that this militia system could not withstand government army suppression—after all, government forces held the moral authority of the imperial court. But for defending homes and fighting bandits and pirates, it was entirely feasible.
This detailed explanation received unanimous approval from the village delegates. Wu Ya also secretly admired how many clever methods the baldies possessed. But he silently cursed the village representatives as well: whenever the county had tried to organize regional joint defense in the past, villages either pleaded poverty or invented excuses—it never came together. Now the short-hairs arrived, burned and looted one Gou Family Manor, and suddenly everyone was obedient. Truly shameless.
The delegates then raised the issue of militia treatment during Security Regiment service. After all, militia were able-bodied laborers too, and sending some away would naturally affect production. Wu De was prepared for this: militia serving short-term rotations would receive thirty yuan in circulation vouchers per month—enough to buy thirty big jin of rice. As compensation, this was quite generous. Those wounded in combat would receive treatment from the transmigrators; the disabled would be supported by the transmigrator collective; the fallen would receive compensation. If they left behind orphans and widows with no one to care for them, the transmigrator collective would provide for them as well.
When these terms were announced, the venue erupted. Everyone discussed animatedly. Over the years, village militia fighting bandits had suffered frequent deaths. Villages would give some burial money and consider the matter closed. For single outsiders without family, even that money was saved—they would simply be buried in a cheap thin coffin. The baldies' promises were simply too good—so good as to arouse suspicion.
Huang Bingkun muttered, "This is just to trick militia into fighting for them. Even the imperial court doesn't offer this. Are they bodhisattvas?"
"Exactly—fighting wars this way, even the court couldn't afford it, let alone them!"
Suspicion aside, the conference delegates did not press further questions—after all, the transmigrators were now Lingao's masters. Whatever they said or did was their prerogative, and everyone had to take them at their word. Some people, especially those who had dealt with the transmigrator collective before, believed the transmigrators would keep their promises. After all, they had not broken any since coming ashore.
By now the meeting had reached noon. Though the morning had been spent entirely listening to speeches, since it concerned each village's vital interests, every delegate had listened with full attention. There was occasional discussion, but order had been maintained. Now hunger was beginning to erode their concentration. At this point, Li Yuanyuan came up again to announce a meeting break—meals would be delivered.
Lunch arrived on handcarts. Male and female students distributed meals to the delegates. Each person received a polished wooden box. When opened, the food proved far richer than anyone had imagined—rice with sliced cured meat, greens, and the legendary scrambled eggs with tomatoes. Very substantial. Next came a bamboo tube with a stopper. Huang Bingkun opened it and caught the scent of a light soup, apparently made from some kind of fish and seaweed. He took a sip and found the flavor incredibly fresh and sweet. These baldies really did eat well.
As Huang Bingkun ate, he looked around. He noticed the young men and women distributing food seemed to speak Cantonese. He knew Hainan Mandarin, which was not too different, so he attempted to ask, "Are you the bal—I mean, the Australian lords' household staff?"
The young men and women only smiled without answering. One youth with a small white cloth band marked by some pattern on his arm said, "We are students of the National School."
"Students?" Huang Bingkun was puzzled. The baldies ran schools? What could they possibly teach? Murder and arson—they certainly would not be lecturing on the sages' books, or they would never have become sea pirates.
But he could not say this in front of these "little baldies." He asked instead, "What is this place used for?"
"This place?" the leading little baldy said. "This is a cinema. Normally it's a place to show shadow plays."
"What are shadow plays?"
The student paused, then smiled. "Tonight we'll treat all delegates to a viewing. You'll understand then."
Huang Bingkun wanted to extract more information, but these little baldies were tight-lipped, responding only with smiles and silence.
They looked like children from good families. Who knew what potion they had been fed to make them call bandits their fathers! Huang Bingkun sighed to himself.
After lunch, Li Yuanyuan announced a half-hour break. Everyone could walk around the venue or relieve themselves, but they must not cross the lime lines marking the venue's perimeter. Huang Bingkun took the opportunity to survey the surroundings. Walking a circuit along the lime lines, he tried to glimpse more of Bairren City's interior. The most prominent thing he saw was a tall iron tower rising from the city center.
The tower's base was hidden among several distinctive gray buildings. The structure itself was built from black steel, as high as twenty men standing on each other's shoulders. It narrowed as it rose, ending in a sharp point crowned by a gleaming tip.
These baldies' homeland must be skilled at smelting and forging iron—that is why all their objects are made of iron. No wonder people said the baldies were constantly smuggling iron implements from the mainland to the island.
But Huang Bingkun could not fathom what use this entirely iron tower served. To him, it seemed a complete waste—so much iron could be put to considerable use for anything else. He tried to approach for a better look, but was immediately blocked by a man in gray clothes with a belt at his waist. The man swung his long blue-black musket across, and Huang Bingkun understood clearly that he should retreat behind the line.
The color of this musket was similar to the pistol recovered from the scene where Third Brother had been killed. Unfortunately, after Father fired it once, it had never fired again—they did not know how to load the ammunition. Huang Bingkun pondered: he needed to find an opportunity to properly examine this kind of musket. Were they not forming the Security Regiment? He made up his mind—when the time came, he would personally lead militia to participate, to see exactly what made the baldies so formidable in battle. If an opportunity arose, he would also get hold of one of these muskets.
(End of Chapter)