Chapter 670 - Gou Er and Hu Lanyan
Control over population was especially critical: without local collaborators, effective governance simply couldn't be established. Unless foreign invaders could bring sufficient settlers of their own, they had no choice but to rely on local people willing to submit—to build government institutions, military forces, and police.
Liu Yixiao threw himself into the work with tireless energy. He spent every day meeting and conversing with people, particularly the household servants and private secretaries of gentry and wealthy families who ventured into the city to test the waters. Given the transmigrators' reputation from Lingao and Chengmai, no one now dared directly confront the new regime, and even passive resistance of the "simply ignore them" variety had evaporated. The wealthy families wanted only to know one thing: what price would they have to pay to maintain the status quo?
The price was substantial but not unbearable. Besides, according to merchants who had traveled from Lingao, life there had become quite comfortable. Markets thrived, public order was secure, and bandits were either executed or forced to build roads—no one dared cause trouble.
The wealthy families calculated that if such was the case, matters like labor conscription and grain requisition could be managed well enough. As for "land surveying"—though some grumbled privately, everyone felt this was merely the new dynasty's law, something to endure for now. In time it would naturally slacken. The old-timers said that when the Hongwu Emperor had first ascended the throne, corrupt officials were mowed down like leeks. But once the Emperor passed, officials grew just as corrupt again. As long as they could preserve their lives and property now, they could formulate long-term plans later.
In this atmosphere, every last gentry family, wealthy household, and village in Danzhou dutifully sent representatives to the "First Danzhou Political Consultative Conference" held at Chaotian Temple.
At this conference, the Danzhou Post-Disaster Management Bureau was formally established. Liu Yixiao appointed himself Director-General; Yin Chengshi was made Executive Secretary. Over a dozen of Danzhou's most prestigious degree-holding gentry were designated as committee members. All villages were required to dispatch liaison officers to regular county meetings to receive orders.
Liu Yixiao's work expanded with remarkable speed. He needed no experimentation, no lengthy discussions. He had Lingao's complete set of experiences to draw upon, intelligence materials from the Political Security Bureau's network, and tremendous assistance from the native cadres he had brought—as people of this timeline, they understood it far better than any transmigrator could.
Hu Lanyan stretched his arms with a groan. The rain outside was finally tapering off. He pried open the eyelid that had drooped since childhood, when eye disease had ulcerated it. Beyond the shelter, the fire—doused by the rain—sent up wisps of smoke. A wave of damp chill made him shiver.
"Damn it." Hu Lanyan cursed under his breath, scratching himself all over. Around him, more than a dozen of his trusted men lay sprawled in the dirt, snoring like dead pigs.
He hauled himself upright. This was deep in the mountains. Except for the occasional Li hunter passing through, no one came here. His relations with the Li people weren't bad—Hu Lanyan made it a point never to rob or kill Li in his territory. The Li could be vicious when seeking vengeance, and maintaining peaceful relations helped him survive unmolested in this area.
This was a spur of Baoshe Ridge, some twenty kilometers northeast of the prefectural city. Twenty kilometers in modern times meant less than half an hour by car, but in this timeline, it was already an extremely remote corner of the county—high mountains, dense forests, Li activity, very few Han settlers. Those who did live here clustered in fortified villages.
This was Hu Lanyan's new main camp. When Lingao had first launched its bandit suppression campaign, the bandit chief had been unconcerned. But as gang after gang fell and more scattered bandits fled to him with tales of horror, Hu Lanyan recognized he couldn't stay. He consulted with Gou Xunli: if Lingao was no longer safe, they should establish a new base in Danzhou.
After Gou Xunli had joined Luo Maoshan, he became Hu Lanyan's advisor. He was Hu Lanyan's sworn brother, possessed a head full of schemes, and could read and write—an absolute treasure among bandits. He quickly rose to second-in-command.
Gou Xunli dreamed day and night of that mixed-blood "wanton woman" finally sending someone with instructions, so he could strike back fiercely at the "bald bandits" for revenge. But months passed with no word from Macao. He didn't dare venture into the county seat or East Gate Market—he was too well-known, and many in the county would recognize him. So he simply bided his time in the bandit lair, waiting for the day he could join the "Returned Homeland Corps."
News that the bald bandits were launching bandit suppression had already secretly alarmed Gou Xunli. More than anyone, he understood their power. When Hu Lanyan proposed relocating, there was no objection—as long as they kept their lives, there was always a chance to rise again. But he understood bandit rules: though it looked like endless wilderness, every inch was someone's territory. The arrival of outside bandits would inevitably mean turf war.
Outside bandits usually lost such wars unless they were exceptionally strong—as the saying went, "even a mighty dragon can't suppress the local snake." Hu Lanyan, however, wasn't worried. He was from Danzhou himself, and more than half his men were Danzhou natives—specifically, fellow villagers from neighboring communities. Now their gang had swelled to over two hundred with the absorption of scattered bandits. With local kinship and clan support backing him, seizing this territory posed no problem.
So he led his men, their provisions, and their valuables away from the old stockade and set off for Danzhou. Along the way, they routed a bandit gang that tried to ambush them for plunder, killed its chief, absorbed his surviving men, and picked up many more scattered bandits besides. By the time they reached Danzhou, they numbered over three hundred—a formidable force.
With such numbers and local kinship ties behind him, Hu Lanyan quickly crushed and eliminated the bandits entrenched on Baoshe Ridge, making himself the undisputed local lord.
Although Hu Lanyan's force was strong, more men meant greater expenses. He sent some of the locals who had no desire to continue as active bandits home to become "home-based bandits"—meaning they would be called up for raids and share the spoils when there was action, but otherwise farmed their fields peacefully. He himself remained in the mountains with over a hundred core bandits, occasionally finding opportunities to descend and pull a job.
But a few days ago, scouts had returned with troubling news: a force of bald bandits had occupied Danzhou city. This worried Hu Lanyan greatly. The Australians were particularly enthusiastic about bandit suppression. If they conducted the same campaign in Danzhou, he would have to flee all the way to Changhua—a place of nothing but sand where the people were dirt poor. Going there meant he couldn't even feed his men.
Hu Lanyan yawned expansively, picked up a bamboo dipper, scooped water from a rain-filled vat outside the shelter, rinsed his mouth, and splashed some on his face. Then he kicked the "sentry" sleeping soundly at the shelter entrance.
"You—stop playing dead. Go fetch Advisor Gou!"
Gou Xunli lived in another shelter nearby. He had one all to himself—not merely a special privilege but a practical necessity. His shelter was piled high with the gang's various account books and rosters.
Gou Xunli was resting with eyes closed. He had once commanded followers of his own, but after things went badly in Guangzhou and money gradually ran out, those people had all drifted away. Now he was well and truly alone. Though he kept encouraging himself, the flame of hope had grown dim since the imperial army's crushing defeat at Chengmai.
Gou Xunli's only remaining hope now was that his son remained safe—he had heard nothing of him for a long time. He had sent men to Qiongshan to make inquiries, but they reported that Gou Chengxuan had departed long ago.
"Brother, tell me—what should we do?" Hu Lanyan took a cooked taro from a subordinate, shook some salt from a bamboo tube, and began eating heartily.
"For now, we can only endure." Gou Xunli smiled bitterly and peeled a taro for himself. Eating their fill in the mountains wasn't a problem—grain and salt extorted from wealthy families and farmers were plentiful. They even had cloth, silver, and other valuables. But good food was hard to come by—they had to hunt for fresh meat.
"But if they come to suppress us..."
"The bald bandits haven't established themselves yet. They won't come suppressing bandits so soon." Gou Xunli spoke with what confidence he could muster. "We needn't worry. Their usual pattern is to first bestow some benefits on the local people—build roads, construct markets, train militia. Only when all of that is firmly in place will they come for the bandits. That takes at least half a year, perhaps a full year."
"Half a year, a year—fine. Even without operations, we can get by without doing business. But what then?"
Gou Xunli didn't know what came then either. A sense of despair, of having no way out, settled heavily over him. The bald bandits probably intended to sweep the entire island clean.
He sighed deeply. "The imperial army was just too useless..."
When the imperial forces had massed at Qiongshan preparing to punish the bald bandits, he and Hu Lanyan had been genuinely excited for a time. Gou Xunli had suggested that once the imperial army reached Lingao's borders, they could raise five or six hundred men in Danzhou and go offer their services. Not only would they easily obtain pardons, but a rank like bazong was certainly attainable. And they could plunder handsomely along the way.
They had never expected the imperial army to be defeated so quickly and so completely. Even now, both still sighed whenever the subject arose.
Gou Xunli pondered in silence for a long while. Finally he spoke with sudden fierceness: "We can hide for a while, but not forever. In my view, we must hit them hard—let them know what we're made of!"
Hu Lanyan stared at him in astonishment. "Brother! Have you gone mad? You know better than anyone how fearsome these bald bandits are. It would be great luck if they don't come looking for us—why would we go poke the tiger's whiskers ourselves?"
Besides, according to scout reports, the bald bandits in Danzhou numbered nearly a thousand. All the bandit gangs in Danzhou territory combined didn't add up to a thousand.
"Big brother," Gou Xunli said, his voice dropping low, "the bald bandits have powerful firearms and refined tactics—we're no match for them in a frontal fight. But their thousand men can't stay together all day. Eventually, they'll have to send small parties 'to the villages.'"