Chapter 74: Dongmen Market

Led by Chu Yu, Wu De and his men quickly found the secret cabinet. It was embedded behind the wainscoting, with such tight seams that no flaws could be seen even upon close inspection. Chu Yu didn’t know where the opening mechanism was, and the transmigrators couldn’t be bothered to look for it. Wang Ruixiang found a fire axe and, with a flurry of chopping and hacking, quickly cut a hole in the paneling.

Unexpectedly, upon opening the cabinet, they discovered the master of the Gou family—Gou Xunyi. He was hiding in this secret chamber in the study. Behind the paneling was a staircase leading down to a secret underground room. Inside were five locked mahogany cabinets. There were also several vats of fresh water and a large amount of dry rations, enough to last for ten days to half a month. Gou Xunyi’s appearance when captured was much better than Saddam Hussein’s. Although he was trembling all over, he was not yet disheveled.

Gou Xunyi tried his best to remain calm, but he was trembling so much he couldn’t stand steady. A local tyrant and evil gentry like him, who usually lorded it over his own territory, was practically a local emperor, killing and burning without batting an eye, except for showing some courtesy to the county officials and gentry. At this moment, being captured alive, he knew his enemies had come for him, and he immediately lost his nerve. He wanted to say a few words of pleading and begging, but they were stuck in his throat.

The men had originally imagined what a heroic figure this local tyrant, who held sway in the county and colluded with pirates, must be. Seeing him in this state, they immediately felt contempt. Wu De ordered him to be dragged to the mass meeting. He brought a few meticulous men with him and, one by one, smashed the locks on the mahogany cabinets. Inside were indeed various account books, contracts, receipts, and many bundles of letters tied with thin string. They were not interested in these things, but they knew that since he had hidden them here so carefully, they must be important. This was not the place to sort through them, so they decided to take them back and have experts handle them. In the secret room were several large chests. Three of them contained Spanish silver dollars, shining brightly, totaling over ten thousand taels. There were also two small chests containing valuable items like gold and jewelry. One item in particular caught Wu De’s attention: a small plastic powder case mirror—wasn’t this one of the items that Chief Wen had sold in large quantities to this time and space? As for where Gou the Elder got this one, it was unknown.

Gou the Elder’s fate had long been decided. At the meeting to decide on the attack on Gou Family Village, the fate of the Gou family was “death sentence.” There had been a debate about whether to kill the entire family. In the end, although the resolution to kill them all was narrowly passed, many people still had misgivings and felt repulsed. Now it was better; the Gou family was either dead or had fled, leaving only a lone commander. This saved some people from having a guilty conscience. As for killing Gou the Elder, no one would feel sad about that.

Gou Xunyi was pushed onto the stage. The crowd below roared in anger, “Kill him! Kill him!” It was clear that the atmosphere the transmigrators had built up earlier had worked. For a moment, the crowd was in a frenzy. Xi Yazhou gave Gou Buli a look, and he immediately understood, picking up clods of earth and rubbish and throwing them at Gou Xunyi. The power of example is infinite. Immediately, countless bricks and stones rained down. The transmigrators had long since moved away. How could Gou the Elder, tied up like a rice dumpling, possibly dodge? And so, amidst a clamorous uproar, the once-tyrannical Gou Xunyi was beaten to a bloody pulp and died on the spot. When his bloody, mangled head was held high by Zhang Xingjiao, who danced wildly on the stage like an Indian, the crowd fell into a frenzy of revenge and bloodlust. Many members of the Gou family who had incurred public anger or personal grudges were dragged down from the stage and beaten to death with fists and feet. The transmigrators stood around, and many felt extremely uncomfortable.

The smarter ones had already vaguely guessed the meaning behind the Executive Committee’s incitement of the masses to create terror: this was the best “pledge of allegiance” for the villagers of the former Gou Family Village, now Damei Village. From now on, they had no choice but to be firmly tied to the transmigrators’ war chariot.

While this cruel farce was playing out, Wu De had already left the scene. He needed to discuss the transportation and distribution of the confiscated goods with Dai Xie, who was in charge of the confiscation.

The Gou family’s residence in Damei Village would be completely demolished, and the dismantled bricks, tiles, and timber would be used as building materials. As for Damei Village, fifty households would be left to cultivate the land, based on its carrying capacity. All other households and various artisans would be relocated to Bairen City, to be directly controlled as a population group. The remaining common people would establish grassroots organizations such as a village committee and militia, following the model of Saltworks Village.

Dai Xie was swamped with work here. Besides the things to be transported back to Bairen City, he also had to set aside some for the relief of the local villagers. As for the large quantities of furniture, daily necessities, and clothes, they were all taken out and distributed to the common people. He discussed with Xi Yazhou: someone had suggested letting the people take what they wanted themselves, but the result of this would be that only the bold and the strong would benefit. The timid and the weak, even if they managed to grab something, would often have it snatched away by others, and might even be injured or killed by the strong. Therefore, this distribution would be uniformly arranged by the Planning Committee.

After arranging everything, Wu De led the main force and supplies to withdraw from Damei Village first. Xi Yazhou remained there to help establish a local grassroots government. Zhang Xingjiao recommended a few people close to him for leadership positions: one was Ma Bangping, a small peddler who was slightly literate; another was a former tenant of the Gou family named Jin Changman, in his forties. Both had some prestige in the village. Gou Buli also wanted to get an official position in the newly established village committee, but Xi Yazhou knew he was unreliable and sent him directly to join the ranks of the migrants.

The work of transporting the Gou Family Village’s property and relocating its people lasted for nearly half a month. During this period, the engineering team organized manpower and machinery to repair the road from Bairen City to the county town. Even the observation post originally set up on a hill outside the city was made public—a three-story, all-brick blockhouse was brazenly built on the hill. Standing on top of the blockhouse, one could use high-powered binoculars to see the details of the magistrate in the county yamen trying cases and spanking offenders. Combined with a PHS phone, it was almost like a live broadcast.

Lingao County was now completely playing deaf and dumb, letting them carry on with their large-scale construction on the other side of the Wenlan River. The county residents were no longer surprised by these roaring steel monsters. Although no one dared to get close to the construction machinery, every time it started up, many people would watch from a distance. Some wealthy gentry even had sedan chairs carry them, along with their wives, concubines, children, and many servants, to a small hill far away, where they would set up a canopy, place a few rattan chairs, and watch the construction while drinking tea, as if watching a peep show.

For the common people, the changes didn’t stop there. More and more farmers were coming to the market outside Bairen City. The transmigrators’ extremely voracious appetites attracted a large number of nearby farmers. At first, it was just a chicken, a duck, a few catties of eggs, or a load of vegetables. Later, it was a few bolts of cloth woven by the women themselves, and then a whole pig… The transmigrators were honest with everyone, young and old, and the prices they offered were slightly higher than the market rate. Moreover, they paid entirely in good pre-Tianqi era coins, which made everyone flock to them, and more and more people came.

This was right next to the “short hairs’” turf, and everyone knew how formidable they were. Not to mention bandits and strongmen, even the county officials didn’t dare to come over casually. With no one causing trouble, the area was peaceful. In addition, this year’s autumn harvest was decent, so there was a slight semblance of peace and prosperity. As more people came, some set up stalls in the market, with stoves, selling vegetarian food and tea, and also offering lodging for the night. The sellers, with money in their hands, also needed to buy things to take back, so peddlers selling cosmetics, household goods, and farm tools also gathered. Then came fortune-tellers and letter-writers. In the last few days, Wu Nanhai, during his inspection, discovered a few women wearing makeup—prostitutes had also arrived. Wu Nanhai was overcome with emotion and almost shed tears—our market has finally taken off!

In less than a month, the empty field outside the East Gate had magically sprouted a large area of bamboo sheds. Although in terms of scale and popularity, it couldn’t compare to a market in a remote town in the 21st century, for the transmigrators’ commercial department, this was already a very good achievement.

At the edge of this large area of simple sheds, near the moat outside the East Gate, stood a two-story, all-red-brick building that stood out like a crane among chickens. This was the newly built Bairen City Dongmen Market Management Office, and also the office of the Executive Committee’s commercial department. In front of the small building was a veranda that provided shade and shelter from the rain. In the main hall at the entrance was a stone platform on which three different types of measuring instruments were displayed. A set of mass measuring instruments: one kilogram, fifty grams, and one gram stone weights each; a one-meter long ruler; and a one-liter water jug.

Promoting the new system of weights and measures was an important task for the commercial department. Although the unification of weights and measures had been practiced since the time of Qin Shi Huang, in reality, weights and measures were never truly unified in ancient society. Each industry and each region, although using the same names for weights and measures, had different actual standards, some with very large differences. This not only caused many disputes and conflicts, but also allowed corrupt officials and dishonest merchants throughout history to profit from it. The commercial department decided to start with the still-fledgling Dongmen Market and implement the standard system of weights and measures of modern society. All purchases and sales by the transmigrators in Dongmen Market were measured and priced according to this new system. As for transactions between the natives, they did not yet have enough new measuring instruments to supply the market, so no strict regulations were made for the time being.