Chapter 47: The Labor System (Part 1)

Having raised rabbits and poultry before, Ye Yuming was tasked by Nanhai with managing the small animals. With only a few rabbits, they decided against building a dedicated hutch, settling for a three-story rabbit house in the courtyard. Soon after, however, he noticed the rabbits were listless and had lost their appetites. Were they sick? He consulted the agricultural materials in the library and found a relevant passage: “Domestic rabbits have poor disease resistance. In humid and unclean environments, they are susceptible to illness, leading to significant losses, especially among young rabbits. Therefore, a management principle of ‘dry and clean’ must be followed. Cages and their environment should be kept dry and clean, and proper sanitation and epidemic prevention measures must be implemented. Additionally, rabbits are more resistant to cold than to heat. When temperatures exceed 30°C, adult rabbits will reduce their food intake or stop eating altogether. Does are prone to miscarriage, reduced milk production, or neglecting their kits, which can also lead to disease outbreaks. Therefore, during hot seasons, heatstroke prevention and cooling are crucial.”

Humid? Hot? Rabbits? Then why on earth did we bring rabbits to Hainan Island? And a pair of Angora rabbits, no less! He had no choice but to find a cooler, more ventilated spot. The rabbit house was supposed to be shaded by a fruit tree, but the tree was still just a seedling. He moved the cage into an empty room and periodically sprinkled water on the floor to cool the air. The rabbits’ feed wasn’t Wu Nanhai’s responsibility. Fortunately, Ye Yuming had experience gathering grass for them. Once the vegetables were harvested, scraps from the kitchen could supplement their diet. And when Nanhai’s sweet potatoes were ready, he could collect a large quantity of vines. These listless creatures, once they recovered, would reproduce at an astonishing rate.

The first few days were spent clearing the land. The engineering team’s bulldozer removed stones, tree roots, and weeds, then brought in a large amount of excess soil from other projects, deepening the topsoil. The land was still raw, suitable only for growing sweet potatoes for now. As for the hybrid rice, it was best to wait until spring to plant it, just to be safe. He needed to see how low the winter temperatures would drop. Wu Nanhai also planned to plant some winter wheat and barley. Barley preferred a cool climate, could tolerate some cold, and matured quickly, making it a perfect crop to plant between main harvests.

Farming was grueling work: leveling the land, digging ditches, plowing, applying fertilizer. Even with machinery, a great deal of manual labor was required. Surprisingly, many people had applied to join the agricultural group, mistaking it for a romantic, pastoral life. It wasn’t long before some began to complain of exhaustion or claim their skills were a poor fit, and they transferred to other groups. Wu Nanhai himself found the physical labor overwhelming. He decided it was better for him to stick to a technical and advisory role. They needed to find farmers to do the heavy lifting as soon as possible. The farmers assigned by Wu De, however, were tireless.

After more than a month of breaking them in, Wu De’s labor team was operating with remarkable efficiency. He had appointed five men with pre-existing conflicts as team leaders, deliberately stoking their rivalry. This personal animosity proved more effective than any threat. Each team leader pushed his subordinates relentlessly, terrified of falling behind his competitors.

Wu De also introduced material incentives. The first team to complete its daily quota received extra food. He implemented a “last-place elimination” system: every seven days, the team with the lowest completed quota would have four of its members reassigned to the top four teams. If an entire team was transferred, the leader would be demoted to a common laborer, stripped of all privileges.

This was Wu De’s way of testing the team leaders’ management skills. The system intensified the competition. A leader who failed to win the respect of his men and manage them effectively, relying instead on brute force and starvation, could only succeed for so long. The oppressed laborers, in turn, discovered a way to counter their leaders—by slacking off for four consecutive seven-day periods, they could bring down the mightiest of tyrants. The two sides had to find a balance to cooperate effectively.

Fu Youdi was clearly unsuited for this kind of competition. As one of the first captive team leaders, he had quickly become a petty tyrant, avoiding work and seeking only his own gain. When the four men originally under his command were promoted to team leaders themselves, he was consumed by jealousy. To maintain his “senior team leader” status in Wu De’s eyes, he intensified his oppression, even creating a small group of thugs by withholding food from the others, establishing his own tyrannical little kingdom. Beatings became a daily occurrence in his camp. He was increasingly despised by his own team, but he remained completely oblivious.

Wang Tian was more honest. While he took a larger share for himself, he didn’t oppress his subordinates and led by example, working alongside them. Everyone considered him a good man, but this led to some inevitable slacking. At first, Wang Tian was too lenient to discipline them. But as his team’s quota began to decline, he grew anxious and resorted to violence. Once the quota improved, the cycle would repeat.

The other two leaders fell somewhere between Fu Youdi and Wang Tian. In stark contrast, Lin Xing’s performance earned Wu De’s admiration. He divided his men into small, cooperative groups, assigning them tasks based on the day’s needs. He ate, lived, and worked alongside his men, never infringing on their share of the rewards. He would even share his own bonus food with his subordinates. But he was not lenient with laziness. His system of clear rewards and punishments earned him the respect and obedience of his entire team. Even the former landlords and rich peasants in his group were impressed, with some privately asking him to be their long-term labor foreman in the future.

“There are truly heroes among the masses,” Wu De mused. How did an illiterate tenant farmer like Lin Xing, with no access to the vast information of the modern world, acquire such skills? Were some people simply born with leadership qualities?

Wu De gradually improved the laborers’ food rations. They now received one dry meal and one thin meal each day. The rice was mixed with local grains, but for the laborers, it was a significant improvement. Some team leaders continued to withhold food, and Wu De deliberately turned a blind eye. This only increased the ordinary laborers’ resentment towards their leaders and made them feel that the “pirates” were more conscientious.

After another two weeks, Fu Youdi’s team was on the verge of collapse. Having finished last for two consecutive weeks and losing eight men, an exasperated Fu Youdi announced that the entire team would go without food for a day as punishment. The laborers, who had long suffered under his rule, finally snapped. They swarmed him, beating him mercilessly. Even his few lackeys were not spared.

The other teams were stunned by the sudden turn of events. Wu De had a contingency plan for such a riot. He had instructed the sentries at the camp not to intervene, but to secure the perimeter and prevent any escapes. He had planned to wait for things to calm down before stepping in, but he hadn’t expected Lin Xing to spontaneously lead his men in to quell the disturbance.

When Fu Youdi’s subordinates saw Wu De, they all knelt at his feet, vying to accuse their former leader of his various crimes. Some of the accusations he was aware of, but others were completely unexpected, a stark reminder that no one is omniscient. Fu Youdi had been secretly hoarding the steel tools issued to the captives. The laborers had long discovered that the “Chiefs’” tools were far superior to their own simple iron implements—they were lighter, more durable, and rarely needed sharpening. Fu Youdi, knowing the scarcity of iron products in Lingao, had planned to sell them for a handsome price. He had noticed that while the tools were registered upon issue, the daily grind made it impossible to check them in and out each day. So, he had been secretly stashing one away every few days. Exposed by the masses, the bruised and swollen Fu Youdi had no choice but to lead Wu De to his hiding spot by the river and hand over the dozen or so shovels, spades, and steel drills he had concealed.

The transmigrators present were speechless. Were they really so much smarter than these “natives”? At that moment, seeing a captive manage to steal and hide goods right under their noses, no one would have dared to make such a claim.

It was hard to believe that Fu Youdi, the timid and inarticulate man from two months ago, had come to this. The captives’ angry accusations only solidified Wu De’s conviction: human nature in the 17th century was no different from that of the 21st.

The Fu Youdi incident, however, exposed many flaws in his management system. None of the laborers had come forward to report Fu Youdi’s transgressions. They were angry but afraid to speak out, and their resentment had festered until it erupted in a typically Chinese fashion. It seemed his captive management policy had its shortcomings.

“I focused too much on internal conflict,” Wu De thought, knocking his forehead in frustration. He had wanted to keep them disunited, to prevent them from organizing any resistance. He hadn’t anticipated that the prison bosses he had created would also use their power to control their own subordinates. Even the informants he had planted had been too afraid to provide any incriminating evidence. Fortunately, Fu Youdi was just a petty thief. If he had been more ambitious and used the hidden tools to stage a riot, there would have been casualties. The system of mutual restraint had failed completely.

In the end, he realized his entire approach was flawed. He had been relying on old, outdated methods. While he had succeeded in managing and brainwashing the captives, the purpose of these practices was merely to keep them docile and obedient. It did nothing to inspire their initiative. What they needed were local allies. The future of their Transmigration was to be built on these cornerstones, and they would never win their loyalty through surveillance, control, and exploitation.