Chapter 71: Getting Rich

“This is astonishing.” Xi Yazhou watched the items being continuously carried out of the residence, his eyes wide with amazement. “How could he have so many things?”

“Fence.” Wu De answered his question succinctly. Although Hainan was located on a major artery of China’s maritime trade, it had never been known for it. Instead, it was a place frequently visited by pirates, who used it as a hunting ground, a supply base, and a place to hide their loot. This was because the area was remote, the people were poor, the population was sparse, and the government’s administrative capacity was weak. As a fence and handler of stolen goods for pirates, it was normal for the Gou family to have so many things. One only had to look at the armaments in his village, which far exceeded those of a typical militia, to understand. There were six small cannons on the stockade walls, more than twenty wall guns, and the number of fowling pieces and hand cannons was even greater than the number of militiamen and retainers. The warehouse contained five to six thousand catties of black powder, as well as a large number of arrows, swords, spears, and iron shot—it seemed he was also in the business of purchasing and storing weapons and equipment for pirates.

“A normal family, not counting super-corrupt officials like Heshen, who would store tens of thousands of pieces of porcelain at home?” Wu De pointed to the porcelain being carried out of the warehouse for cleaning. “These should all have been plundered from merchant ships.”

“No wonder this place is like Ali Baba’s cave, it has everything,” Xi Yazhou sighed. “Just these porcelains and hardwoods, how much would they be worth in RMB?”

“Even if we can’t exchange it for RMB, we’ve still struck it rich.” Wu De’s unpleasant mood had faded a lot by now. After this victory, the transmigrators could be considered to have firmly established their footing in Lingao. They had enough food and controlled the saltworks. Their combat effectiveness had also been proven. He had been clear from the beginning that without “eating the big households” like this, the transmigrators would not have a smooth start. Even if they had landed on the American continent in the wilderness, they would have had to start by slaughtering the Indians.

“That’s right. Now we can give more relief to Saltworks Village. The people are suffering, drying salt on half-empty stomachs. If they can’t eat their fill, their labor productivity won’t increase. However, Engineer Wang has designed a new brine concentration device, which should improve things a lot.”

“Engineer Wang is truly a jack-of-all-trades. Speaking of which, with so much cloth, my production team can also get a full change of clothes. I always felt there wasn’t enough cloth, so we used it sparingly. Now we can provide them with both underwear and outerwear, and even have two spare sets for changing.”

“Will those production team members of yours come back?”

“After we fought this battle, not only will they all come back, they might even bring a lot of people with them.” Wu De’s worries and unhappiness were swept away. He burst into hearty laughter, a laugh of pure joy. It seemed that having money really boosted one’s confidence.

“Let’s start a clothing factory. Not just for the production team, but for the new army we’ll build in the future, and we also need replacements for our own clothes.”

“You have women in your village. Can you mobilize them to do some sideline work?”

“That’s a good idea—” Just as Xi Yazhou finished speaking, he suddenly heard a commotion nearby. He saw Zhang Xingjiao dragging a stick, chasing and beating a wretched old man. The old man’s silk shirt was torn, and he was covered in mud, looking miserable. Several transmigrators were desperately trying to hold him back, but they couldn’t restrain this seemingly frail scholar.

Xi Yazhou was about to go and stop him, but Wu De shook his head, “Forget it. Zhang Xingjiao’s family was destroyed by the Gou family. This old man is probably not a good person either.”

“No wonder he insisted on coming today.” Xi Yazhou hadn’t originally planned to bring him, but as soon as he heard they were going to Gou Family Village, the man insisted on coming and couldn’t be stopped—it turned out he was here for revenge.

This old man was a retainer of the Gou family. It was his idea to seize the Zhang family’s ancestral graveyard for some “feng shui” reason. In any case, this “feng shui” was clearly very unfavorable to the Gou family, and to him as well. The old man had been hit with countless blows from the stick. If it weren’t for Zhang Xingjiao’s physical weakness, his head would have been split open long ago.

After a while, they finally managed to restrain Zhang Xingjiao. He was crying one moment and laughing the next, seeming a bit mad. He wandered around the Gou family’s residence. Wu De was worried that in his anger, he might set fire to the residence, which would be a major disaster, so he quickly ordered two men to follow him and bring him back.

Xi Yazhou went to look at the Gou family’s residence again and went with Wu De to inspect various places, especially the progress of the confiscation. This village was so rich in supplies that if the confiscation became chaotic, it would be a disaster.

Dai Xie, sent by the Planning Committee, was in charge of the entire confiscation operation. It’s not clear if this counted as a specialty for someone with a background in computational statistics. He carried his beloved crossbow on his back but didn’t even get a chance to shoot an arrow today. With a full staff on hand, he sat behind his laptop, constantly processing new data, surrounded by assistants who were all extremely busy.

After a preliminary inspection of the warehouses and the residence, Dai Xie divided the confiscation personnel into several teams. One team was dedicated to confiscating grain and cloth, another to silver and money, another to various valuables including jewelry, antiques, and ornaments, and another to various goods. After the items were taken out, they were immediately registered and packed into boxes. These boxes were made by the Bopu carpentry factory specifically for this “hunt,” designed to hold gold, silver, valuables, jewelry, and copper coins. When filled with silver, a box weighed about one hundred catties, making it easy to load, unload, and transport. This was indeed useful. Large quantities of jewelry and other valuables could easily be scattered. Centralized placement was both reliable and safe, and also convenient for inspection. Many of the copper coins in the warehouse were also loose, so boxing them directly was more convenient.

For bulky and heavy goods like porcelain and timber that couldn’t be transported immediately, they only recorded the numbers and names, did not move them out of the warehouse, and simply sealed them, waiting for transportation to be available later.

The cleanup work gradually moved to the valuables inside the residence. Compared to the huge quantity of goods, the amount of gold and silver was not that much. They only found over three thousand taels of silver of various purities and over a hundred taels of gold. There were over four thousand strings of copper coins from various reign periods. Somewhat surprisingly, they also seized over a thousand foreign silver coins of different types, mostly Spanish silver coins minted in Manila, as well as some small gold coins. Countless pieces of gold and silver jewelry were also seized.

Xi Yazhou knew very well that the common people’s awareness was not that high, so the villagers he brought were only responsible for moving items and were not allowed to take anything for themselves. People were sent to supervise them entering and leaving the residence. The place was large, and there were many things to confiscate. Just inventorying the porcelain in one warehouse was enough to keep people busy for a while. When things got busy, a lot of gold, silver, jewelry, and other valuables could fall into private hands. Grain would be scattered carelessly. Fragile and breakable items would also be smashed—sometimes people just wanted to vent their destructive desires, especially these villagers from Saltworks Village who were full of hatred for the Gou family. They found fault with everything and wanted to kick everything they saw. When they first entered the village, some people had tried to smash the houses of the villagers, even breaking several water vats outside the houses. If Xi Yazhou hadn’t had Tan Chengqing and his men stop them, many would have carried out a bloodbath in Gou Family Village on the spot.

“If this happens again, you will be beheaded immediately!” Xi Yazhou said to Tan Chengqing without any courtesy. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking. I’m telling you, it’s not allowed!”

“Everyone is pent up with frustration. The Gou family has harmed us for so many years—”

“You were harmed by the Gou family, not the people of Gou Family Village!” Xi Yazhou reprimanded. “They are also honest and decent people, oppressed and driven by the Gou family, and their lives are even harder than yours. You people are something else. When the Gou family was strong, you didn’t dare to fart. Now that the Gou family is finished, you want to act like heroes against the poor people!”

Tan Chengqing’s face turned bright red, and he quickly promised to keep the villagers in line. Only then did Xi Yazhou’s expression soften. “The village head and several elders have been rescued. You should take good care of the old men first—they have all suffered a lot.”

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, it was soon noon. The rubble and corpses had been mostly cleared away. Reports from various places also came in. The total casualties for the transmigrators were nineteen injured. Apart from the one who fell, the others were not serious. Of the more than two hundred men, women, and children gathered in the residence, nearly half were dead. Many women had committed suicide. No fewer than twenty or thirty people had tried to escape by jumping over the village wall, but the vast majority were cut down by the snipers along the way. Only three or four people escaped. In addition, of the more than two hundred militiamen and retainers, almost none were spared. Most were killed, and a small number were captured alive.

The two most crucial Gou brothers were not found. A servant confessed that after Gou Xunli was attacked on the road that day, he had a hurried discussion with the village master that night and left early the next morning. But no one knew where Gou Xunyi was. The bodies were identified one by one, and none of them were his. However, the whereabouts of most of his wives, concubines, and children were discovered. Some were killed or had committed suicide, while others were captured. In addition, many of the Gou family’s relatives and retainers were also captured. Wu De hadn’t decided how to deal with them yet. This would probably have to be decided by the Executive Committee.

Although the two main masters of the family were not captured, neither Wu De nor Xi Yazhou paid it much mind. They were vulnerable even when they were rich and powerful; now they were just dogs who had lost their homes.

Once order was stabilized, Wu De had Zhang Xingjiao come forward and call out several of the village’s leading figures. He had them go around beating gongs to notify every household to gather for a meeting in front of the Gou family’s residence. The meeting was, first, to pacify the people, and second, to check for any escaped fugitives or clues about hidden valuables.

To put it bluntly, this was preparation for a struggle session, a tried-and-true method from our Party’s history of mobilizing the masses for revolution. Because the transmigrators had Zhang Xingjiao, a native of the village, they knew the details of every family very well. He drew up a list: who were the Gou family’s lackeys, who was on bad terms with the Gou brothers, who was a blacksmith, who was a carpenter… and so on, all clearly listed. Of course, his personal grudges were also inevitably included. For example, someone who had once cursed him as a “sour scholar who deserved to starve to death” was now listed as a lackey of the Gou family.