Chapter 48: The Labor System (Part 2)

Wu De convened a mass meeting. Fu Youdi and his cronies were subjected to a fierce public criticism. All of their transgressions were laid bare for denunciation, down to the most trivial details like picking their feet before meals and snoring at night. Wu De encouraged widespread participation, aiming to foster a sense of ownership among the laborers. This “organized rebellion” not only satisfied their desire for liberation but also showcased his own wisdom.

Fu Youdi was stripped of all his duties and sentenced to “labor reform under the supervision of the masses.” However, when the crowd became physically aggressive, with some even calling for his execution as a public example, Wu De intervened. After all, Fu Youdi had served the transmigrators diligently. His end couldn’t be too miserable, or it would deter others from pledging their allegiance in the future.

Next, the misdeeds of the other two team leaders were exposed, including skimming food rations and slacking off. The two men, feeling the pressure, voluntarily knelt before Wu De and pleaded for forgiveness.

“Your offenses are significant,” Wu De declared, adopting the persona of a just official, “but your work performance has been evident to all. Therefore, these matters will not be pursued.”

“Thank you, my lord, for your magnanimity,” they said, overcome with gratitude.

“Continue to work hard,” Wu De instructed. He then reorganized the entire captive labor team, renaming it the “Production Team.” Lin Xing was appointed team leader, Wang Tian as deputy, and Zhang Xingjiao as clerk. The team was divided into four production squads, with leaders chosen by election. Wu De also stipulated that all management personnel must learn to speak Mandarin. As a result, the two previously criticized team leaders were able to return to their posts, albeit with a newfound sense of restraint. The others were inspired to learn the language of the “chiefs.”

The new labor system was based on work points. Each person would earn one work point for completing the basic daily workload. Management personnel and skilled workers would have a basic workload equivalent to 1.2 work points. Overtime would be rewarded with proportionally increased points, and particularly arduous, dangerous, or difficult tasks would also earn a higher rate.

Standing before a rough blackboard, with the simultaneous translation of Lin Xing and Xiong Buyou, Wu De finally managed to explain the concept of work points.

“What are these work points for?” he began. “For now, they can be exchanged for extra food. They’re like money. If you want more fish, you use work points to buy it. The same goes for more rice.” He paused. “In the future, you’ll be able to use these work points to buy more things, like farm tools and other equipment. As long as you have enough work points, we’ll sell them to you…”

At this, a man timidly raised his hand. It was Ma Peng. “Can I buy food and take it to my mother?” he asked, perhaps afraid that Wu De would suspect him of trying to escape. “I can bring my mother here to eat…”

The crowd erupted in laughter. “Has he gone mad? What use would the masters have for your old mother?”

“Of course, you can,” Wu De said, seizing the opportunity to announce his new policy. “This is money you’ve earned. How you use it is your own business. In the future, we will introduce more things that can be bought with work points.”

A murmur went through the crowd. They were clearly intrigued by the idea of getting paid for their work. Someone then asked, “So the food we eat every day now, will we have to pay for it with work points?”

“No,” Wu De explained. “As I said, it’s for extra food.” The standard rations of two meals a day, one solid and one liquid, would remain.

“Master Wu said before that those who work well can become ‘employees.’ Do ‘employees’ also earn work points?”

“They do,” Wu De said, explaining the difference. An employee’s work-point income would be higher. For the same work, a laborer would earn one work point, while an employee would earn 1.2. Explaining the decimal point proved to be a challenge, much to Xiong Buyou’s frustration. In the end, he resorted to a visual aid, using one fruit to represent 1.0 and two slices from another, cut into ten, to represent 0.2.

Employees would also receive three free meals a day (two solid, one liquid), be provided with housing, and could even be considered for private plots of land in the future. These were enticing prospects, but the fear of being labeled a “traitor” kept most from entertaining any real hope.

Wu De understood their reservations and didn’t push the matter. Overly enthusiastic propaganda would only backfire. Chinese peasants were a pragmatic and suspicious lot. Without tangible benefits, they wouldn’t easily board his “pirate ship.”

As expected, everyone was skeptical of the work-point system. Some even thought it was a scam. Paying captives to work? Where in the world could you find such a deal? But from that day on, Zhang Xingjiao was responsible for assigning work and recording points. After a week—they had already learned that the “chiefs” measured time in seven-day cycles—everyone received a number of work-point coupons, ranging from seven to ten points each. The coupons came in denominations of one, one-tenth, two-tenths, and five-tenths of a point.

Given that the work-point coupons were essentially a form of currency, their issuance had been evaluated by the economic professionals of the Planning Committee. They had concluded that there were no issues. The coupons were internal circulation vouchers backed by grain, exchangeable only for food in the transmigrators’ two canteens. The scope of their issuance and use was very limited. As long as the transmigrators had enough grain, maintaining their credit was not a problem.

The value of the coupons themselves was negligible. One work point could be exchanged for a bowl of rice (100 grams), a bowl of porridge for half a point (50 grams), and a salted fish for two points. The work points earned each day could only improve their diet to a limited extent, and the impact on the transmigrators’ food reserves was minimal. Besides, as Wu Nanhai had said, “If after six months, we still don’t have the agricultural capacity to feed the laborers, we might as well commit collective suicide.”

As a first attempt at issuing currency, the Planning Committee proceeded with caution. A financial working group was established to create a series of regulations for the issuance, printing, circulation, and storage of the coupons. They were printed in the printing room using lithography on cardstock they had brought with them. The one-point notes were about the size of a one-jiao RMB banknote, while the fractional denominations were the size of the old one-fen note. The patterns were printed in black ink, with only the denomination part in different colors for distinction. The front featured a majestic image of the Executive Committee building, and the back showed the silhouette of the Fengcheng ship against a backdrop of coconut trees. Each coupon had a unique Arabic numeral serial number.

Xi Yazhou had volunteered to inscribe “Transmigration Central Bank” on the new banknotes, but the head of the financial group, Cheng Dong, argued that they were just crude tokens, similar to canteen meal tickets. With no bank yet established, it was better to avoid misusing the name and prevent future complications.

In the end, the paper slips that reached Wu De’s hands simply read “Work Point Coupon,” with the issuing unit listed as the “Bairen Production Team.” The printing was simple, and the paper quality was poor, giving them the unfortunate resemblance of ghost money sold at cemeteries. In terms of technical sophistication, however, they were impossible for anyone in the Ming Dynasty to replicate.

A beautiful ink seal in clerical script was stamped on each coupon, which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be his own name seal. Wu De didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. What was the meaning of this?

Cheng Dong explained that it made the coupons look more formal and dignified. It was, in effect, using Wu De as a credit guarantee—after all, the laborers didn’t know any of the Executive Committee members. “If there’s nothing on it, wouldn’t it just be a piece of colored paper, like the military scrip of the great Japanese Empire?”

After the coupons were printed, they were handed over to the financial group. Every week, Wu De would personally collect them based on the point records. Since creating a payroll was a detailed task that Wu De, with no accounting experience, couldn’t handle, he only needed to provide the weekly point records. The financial group’s personnel, experienced in HR and payroll, would then compile the payroll and issue the corresponding amount of coupons.

For the laborers of the production team, this was a novelty. They were used to copper coins and silver, and had heard of gold. In times of need, they would trade their own vegetables, poultry, and coarse cloth for salt and other goods. But buying things with paper slips was something they had never heard of.

The Ming Dynasty had once issued paper currency, but it had long since collapsed due to the mismanagement of emperors and officials with no understanding of finance. In this remote corner of the world, copper coins and silver had been the standard for years. While exchange vouchers similar to later silver notes existed, they were inaccessible to the common people.

After receiving the coupons, everyone exchanged skeptical glances. No one believed these slips of paper could actually be exchanged for food. What if Chief Wu in the canteen refused to accept them? It was common for one government office to contradict another. Although Chief Wu was a kind-faced and amiable person, trying to buy something with a piece of colored paper might anger him. When the gods fight, it’s the common people who suffer.

Finally, at everyone’s urging, and with the assurance that if anything went wrong, Lin Xing would fetch Wu De to save him, Ma Peng hesitantly handed over a five-tenths point note to buy a bowl of porridge. To his surprise, the person serving the food took it without a word and gave him a bowl.

The crowd watched as Ma Peng slurped down his porridge. They looked at the server, who showed no sign of coming to punish him. After a moment of stunned silence, a mad scramble ensued. Everyone rushed forward, fumbling for their work-point coupons to buy rice and salted fish. Hu Yicheng, from the food service department, was caught completely off guard. The extra food he had brought was sold out in an instant. No one had anticipated such a buying frenzy. Those who missed out stared at him with longing eyes. The air was filled with the loud sounds of chewing, and their greedy gazes seemed ready to devour him as well. He quickly made a phone call to Wu Nanhai.