Chapter 1759 - Pan Jiexin
Emerging from the Provincial Surveillance Commission Yamen, the sun was already slanting westward. The three young friends walked down the street, each carrying a different mood in his heart.
Zeng Juan's face was pale. He had never experienced anything like the "one-thousand-meter" run. From the moment he'd entered the community school, decorum had been everything—running about and roughhousing were strictly forbidden, subject to the teacher's reprimand. He had no concept of how long five minutes was, only that time had never passed so slowly. By the time he finished, he had barely stopped before his stomach heaved and he vomited up his entire breakfast. Even now, he hadn't recovered.
After all that suffering, he'd still exceeded the time limit. Zeng Juan was bitterly disappointed. He had assumed that when he came to "throw in with the Australians," even if he was a year or two underage, as a community-school student who could already compose essays—well, he hadn't dared hope the Australians would "rush out to greet him with sandals on the wrong feet," but surely passing an exam for what was essentially a petty constable's post would be child's play.
The result was utterly unexpected. The Australians had made it quite clear: You don't qualify.
The blow to his pride was severe. Before he'd come, his inner struggle had been "Should I throw in with the Australians or not?"—not "Can I pass the exam?" And now they had answered: You're not good enough.
His self-esteem was badly wounded, and his plan to use Australian influence to deal with his brother-in-law had come to nothing as well.
Zhang Yu, on the other hand, felt no dejection. He hadn't been enthusiastic about joining up in the first place—business at the shop was booming, and his parents wanted him to help out more at home. He had come along today purely out of loyalty to his friends. Being rejected actually came as a relief.
Li Ziyu was elated. His uncle used to insist he "practice the bow and horse"—and he'd thought it a pointless chore. Who'd have guessed it would pay off! Working for the Australians—whether this counted as "following the dragon" or not—at least the eight dou of grain per month would keep his family fed. All his life he'd been a "rice weevil," a "bone-gnawing devil" in his family's eyes. Who'd have thought he could actually earn money and support them now! The thought made him both happy and sad.
Li Ziyu and Zhang Yu chatted animatedly. It was only after they'd walked a long way that they noticed Zeng Juan hadn't said a word. Li Ziyu consoled him: "A-Juan! Don't be glum. You heard what that policeman said—there'll be more recruitment exams. If you don't pass this one, try the next. The Australians put such stock in running; we'll just have to train hard! With some effort, we'll get there!"
Zhang Yu knew the real reason for his low spirits. "A-Juan, you may not have passed, but Ziyu did. Now there's someone on the inside. If anything comes up, just ask him to help out."
Li Ziyu caught on at once. He thumped his chest. "A-Juan! We're brothers. Your business is my business! Don't worry—your nephew and nieces are my concern too. I won't let them be mistreated!"
Zeng Juan hesitated. "But—"
Li Ziyu said, "Listen to me. Is this even a big deal? Back in the day, even if someone died, as long as the Quick-Classers wanted to smooth it over, nothing couldn't be settled—let alone your little matter. Give that good-for-nothing brother-in-law of yours a taste of trouble, and he'll learn his place soon enough."
Zhang Yu added, "Actually, it's better for Ziyu to step in than if you'd passed and done it yourself. If something goes wrong, you've got room to maneuver. Otherwise, your brother-in-law could accuse you of 'abusing your authority for personal vendettas'—and that would be hard to shake."
Zeng Juan's heart warmed. "Ziyu! A-Yu, thank you both for your concern." His eyes stung, and tears threatened to spill again.
"We're all brothers—what's there to thank? Just practice your running," Li Ziyu said. "When there's a new exam, try again. With an official position to lean on, everything's easier!"
Liu Xiang had originally been cautiously skeptical about whether the police recruitment would fill its quota. After all, they still wore the labels of "overseas bald pirates" and "rebels." Guangzhou Prefecture wasn't the starving, ruined Central Plains; how many "good citizens" would actually "throw in with the Australians"? He genuinely wasn't sure.
But the turnout exceeded all expectations. On the first day alone, five or six hundred people registered. Though two-thirds were eliminated at the medical and fitness screening stages, the full quota of one thousand patrol officers was filled within a week.
"Raise the recruitment banner, and men will come to eat the army's grain," Liu Xiang murmured. "No wonder the Ming fell! No wonder the Qing was beaten senseless by the British!"
Liu Xiang had once read a book mentioning that in the sixteenth century, the Spanish in the Philippines had several times drawn up plans to conquer the Ming. These plans called for only a few thousand troops counting mercenaries and native auxiliaries. At the time, he'd thought the Spaniards' imaginations were absurd. Now he realized those daydreams might not have been so far-fetched—after all, the Spaniards had been planning to recruit a "Green Standard Army" of their own.
But he had no time for such reflections. The police had been recruited; now they had to be trained. And with a thousand new "civil servants" suddenly on the rolls, monthly wages had to be found—all of it money!
"Chief, Director Mu and Director Lin are here," Guo Xi'er announced.
"Show them in at once."
Mu Min had come to discuss the configuration and deployment of the police apparatus. She produced a rolled-up large-scale map of Guangzhou.
"Director Lin and I discussed this arrangement together." She spread the map on the conference table; it was marked with many symbols in red and blue pencil.
"These are the rough locations I've marked for sub-bureaus, police stations, and security checkpoints," Mu Min explained. "This is a preliminary plan, based mainly on Director Lin's briefings and the data from the household census. It's far from perfect and can be adjusted as we go."
According to Mu Min's proposal, the police apparatus in Guangzhou would for the time being have only the Municipal Bureau, without the originally planned Nanhai and Panyu sub-bureaus. The Municipal Bureau would directly oversee the police stations. The police system's jurisdiction would be limited to the urban districts and adjacent suburbs.
"We lack middle-tier police officials capable of handling precinct-level work, and we don't have enough qualified administrative and technical personnel to staff multiple layers. So we're taking the simplest approach: concentrating resources at the Municipal Bureau and having it handle all specialized police functions." Mu Min elaborated. "The stations will handle only household registration and grassroots governance."
A total of forty stations would be established, distributed throughout the city and surrounding suburbs.
"In setting up the stations, our guiding principle is to keep them relatively dense. Our roads and communications are primitive—messages can only be conveyed by runners or visual and auditory signals; we have no vehicles, so responding to calls means going on foot. Therefore, each station's jurisdiction can't be too large. When an incident occurs, we need to be able to respond quickly."
Each station would have assimilated police officers from Hainan serving as station chief and core personnel. Depending on location, jurisdiction size, and population, each station would be staffed with ten to thirty officers, supplemented by a number of retained local runners familiar with the neighborhood. Thus, actual staffing at each station would range from twenty to fifty.
"...By headcount, every station is overstaffed compared to old-timeline standards," Mu Min said. "Some of these would normally be five-person stations by those metrics, but we're facing a very complex public-security environment, and personnel quality is low. We have no choice but to over-staff. If we really ran a five-person station, I'd be terrified of something going wrong."
"Do we have enough people as it is?"
"Director Lin and I ran the calculations. We do—barely. The veteran assimilated police officers are a bit stretched, though." Mu Min sighed and tilted her head. "It does feel like we're pulling at a coat that's too short."
Lin Baiguang said, "Right now the night-watch and gate crews are still operating as before. I suggest we leave them alone for the time being. Once we've dealt with the Guandi Temple gang, we can reorganize them. At least for now they're still serving a purpose."
Just then, Guo Xi'er came in again to announce the arrival of a "Director Pan."
Liu Xiang's spirits lifted. At last—Officer Pan is here!
This "Officer Pan" was Pan Jiexin, Director of the Criminal Investigation Division of the National Police. His sudden appearance in Guangzhou wasn't to handle some major criminal case—it was for a simpler but crucial project: police training.
When Liu Xiang's plan to recruit and train a thousand police officers was proposed, the National Police had pledged full support. Ran Yao then dispatched Pan Jiexin—who also held the concurrent post of Director of Education for the National Police in Lingao.
Until now, police training in Lingao had been rudimentary. Although the Executive Committee was keen on the security apparatus, resources allocated to the police were scant—especially in personnel. Fangcaodi had produced very few students for them; over five years, the Police Professional Class of the Fangcaodi National School had graduated fewer than a hundred specialized trainees—and these now formed the "Professional Cohort" of the National Police.
The bulk of the police force came from short-term training courses: discharged Fubo Army veterans and recruits from the assimilated population, who after roughly sixty days of training were assigned to various police departments.
In the old timeline, sixty days wasn't considered short for training even auxiliary police—but in the old timeline, even auxiliary recruits were at least high-school graduates. What they faced now was a cohort of semi-illiterates. The difficulty was obvious.
For years, the Senator police officials had been fighting on two fronts: managing their regular duties while also teaching at the police training academy. After five hard years, they had finally managed to erect a skeletal framework for the central and Hainan police organizations.
But now they faced Guangdong province. Guangzhou alone required more personnel than Mu Min had brought; and those personnel would also have to fill the police apparatus for the entire province.
The door opened, and Pan Jiexin strode in. He looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, but was actually past thirty. Without ceremony, he greeted everyone and found himself a chair.
"Here, have some tea," Liu Xiang said. "Was the journey smooth?"
"Smooth enough." Pan Jiexin's answer was crisp. "Let's get down to business so I can go back and finalize preparations."
(End of Chapter)