Chapter 94: Dongmen Market Police Station (Part 1)

The sky was clear and cloudless. Winter was approaching in Lingao, and the weather, which had been somewhat hot and dry, had cooled down a lot. The autumn harvest was nearing its end, and the common people, who had been busy all autumn, were beginning to have some leisure time.

The population of Bairen Beach had increased. The simple road, which was usually empty, now attracted many people to walk on it because of its convenience.

The commercial activities of Dongmen Market greatly enhanced the connection between the transmigrators and the local people. Besides salt, the rice milled by the rice mill was both clean and beautiful. Moreover, the rice mill was honest with everyone, young and old; the amount of rice, bran, and husks produced was clearly stated, with no embezzlement or leakage, which was countless times better than the workshops in the villages. The best part was that the payment methods were flexible and diverse. Silver and money were of course acceptable, but unhusked rice, rice, rice bran, and even straw could be used to offset the processing fees. This attracted many grain households from the vicinity to come and have their rice milled. Outside processing jobs accounted for 60% of the rice mill’s workload. Every day, they could receive more than ten shi of rice and a lot of husks just from processing fees. Because the processing here was convenient, the roads were good, and no one collected taxes, Dongmen Market vaguely had the feel of the county’s grain processing and wholesale market. During his routine inspections, Dongmen Chuiyu discovered that there were also grain households from neighboring counties coming here to buy, sell, and process grain. It seemed that profit was something that could truly make people risk their lives.

Some of the land along Dongmen Street had already been bought, and several shops were under construction. Most of these shops were opened by the large households of the county. Besides the business opportunities in Dongmen Market, they also used this to get close to the “short hairs.” If anything happened, the shopkeepers could directly negotiate with the “short hairs.” Bricks, tiles, and timber were all readily available. Old bricks, tiles, wooden beams, and pillars were continuously transported from the demolition site of Gou Family Village in Damei Village. Apart from a portion for the transmigrators’ own use, most were sold cheaply to the shopkeepers who had bought land to build houses.

Lin Quan’an, the first small peddler to do business with the “short hairs,” had already become the largest local wholesaler of subsidiary foodstuffs. After the reconnaissance mission at Gou Family Village, he received a reward of twenty taels of silver. After a large number of people migrated to Bairen City, the scale of his subsidiary food supply doubled again. He built a shop in Dongmen Market, hired an accountant, and employed four or five assistants. Every day, he pushed a cart to the countryside to purchase live pigs, chickens, ducks, poultry, eggs, and vegetables. Lin Quan’an was already planning to go back to Fujian in a few days to bring his wife over, or to build a house for his wife in his hometown and take a concubine to keep in Lingao… Such a beautiful prospect for his life made him feel ecstatic.

What made him a little unhappy was that the food the “short hairs” gave to their long-term laborers was too good, which pained him. It wasn’t that he felt sorry for the “short hairs’” money—in theory, the better the long-term laborers ate, the more money he could make—but that it set a bad example: several of his assistants had already quit and gone to work for the “short hairs.” Although Lin Quan’an had made a lot of money, his capitalist nature still made him insist on not improving his employees’ treatment—anyway, there would always be someone willing to do the work.

But recently, the situation had changed. The busy farming season was nearing its end, and Lingao did not grow wheat. After harvesting the rice, most farmers would come out to do odd jobs. In the past, such short-term laborers during the slack farming season didn’t need wages at all; just providing meals every day was enough. But recently, the “short hairs” had been recruiting a large number of workers in Dongmen Market. These short-term laborers from the slack season were all recruited by them. Many of the mainland farmers who had crossed the sea to Lingao to make a living had become the “short hairs’” long-term laborers. The result was that the labor market was unprecedentedly tight, and under the benchmark effect of the “short hairs,” the price of the entire labor market had risen a lot.

After the wages increased, the activity of the market also rose a lot. Even merchants from neighboring counties were attracted here to buy and sell goods. Besides the merchants, as long as the locals were not worried about their three meals a day, they would bring their wives and children to Bairen Beach to see the peep show. They couldn’t go into the city, so it was nice to walk around the moat and barbed wire fence and watch from a distance: the short clothes with round buttons, the strange rattan helmets, the long fowling pieces with short swords attached, the houses built on the beach, and the huge pipes installed below… Those with more interest would follow the simple road to Bopu Port to see the legendary giant iron ship.

The common people’s fear of the “short hairs” had lessened. Dongmen Chuiyu discovered that the commercial awareness of the Chinese common people was truly superb. Not only were there all kinds of vendors in Dongmen Market, but there were also people setting up stalls to sell tea on the highway. There were tea stalls under the three blockhouses along the way. Now, the soldiers of the military group stationed in the blockhouses often faced harassment from the vendors. Besides people trying to sell them vegetables, chickens, and ducks, they also had to drive away women who were flaunting their charms at them—it wasn’t that their revolutionary will was so firm, but that they really felt they couldn’t enjoy it.

The ensuing public security problems also began to emerge. Lively places always attract all sorts of characters from the jianghu. Besides the overt and covert prostitutes, gambling stalls for fan-tan also appeared, followed by pickpockets and thieves, and then beggars. All kinds of jianghu tricks were gradually appearing here.

The most serious problem, of course, was theft. Every day, a few unlucky people had their money and goods stolen. In the end, even Li Mei’s welfare cooperative store had some things stolen. The “Dongmen Market Comprehensive Management and Law Enforcement Team” managed by Dugu Qiuhun, although busy catching thieves every day, were not professionals after all. The common people of the Great Ming all looked more or less the same to them, and they couldn’t speak the language, so it was basically a fruitless effort. It was rare to catch someone. When they did, the person would kneel on the ground and babble in a dialect they couldn’t understand. Some would cry and shout all the way, and roll on the floor once they got to the office. In the end, they had to let them go. Then, there was a fight that broke out over a gambling dispute.

Not long after, the first bloody case occurred, which alerted the transmigrators: a scene that the transmigrators were very familiar with in the past occurred in the market: a street brawl.

A 17th-century gang fight was no different from a 21st-century one, except that it looked more dangerous. There were no watermelon knives, but there were fire-hardened bamboo spears, sharpened wooden sticks, and of course, no shortage of things like bricks. For a time, the bustling market was in chaos, with chickens and dogs flying, and a cacophony of crying and shouting. Soon, a fire broke out in a row of bamboo stalls not far from Dongmen Street. By the time Dugu Qiuhun’s law enforcement team had put on their full gear and the military group personnel who had heard the news arrived, the crowd had already dispersed, leaving behind seven corpses and a scene of devastation—more than a dozen stalls had been burned down.

Dugu Qiuhun’s mouth was twisted with anger. The other Executive Committee members who rushed over were also shocked by this scene. Since its opening, Dongmen Market had always been a source of positive news: the number of vendors was constantly increasing, more and more people were coming to buy and sell things, and some were willing to buy land to open shops… In general, this was the best example of harmonious coexistence between the transmigrators and the natives.

Now this specimen had turned into this. Although the losses were not great, a fatal brawl in the market would damage the market’s and their reputation no matter what. And the most embarrassing thing was that after investigating for a long time, Dugu Qiuhun hadn’t even figured out the cause and effect, let alone the culprit. He had no choice but to go to the Executive Committee and request the formation of a police force.

“Relying on our law enforcement team is not a solution!” Dugu Qiuhun finally realized the crux of the problem. “We can’t communicate with the locals, so we can’t understand the situation on the ground at all.”

“Can the security group send some people over to maintain order?” Xiao Zishan was not very keen on the idea of training local police. He felt that he couldn’t trust these locals yet.

“The security group can’t spare anyone for us.” Dugu Qiuhun was very clear. He had been to the security group several times. The seven or eight people there were already overwhelmed with interrogating prisoners, identifying personnel, and organizing files. Where would they find the time to help him maintain public order? Besides, even if they went, the language barrier would still be a problem.

“We are indeed too busy. The security group is now like an internal security group,” Ran Yao said helplessly. “I think it’s perfectly fine to train the police. We now control a larger population and need such a law enforcement agency to maintain social order.”

The transmigrators’ first police agency, the “Dongmen Market Police Station,” was thus established. Dugu Qiuhun concurrently served as the station chief, and Mu Min was appointed as the station’s political instructor, which, as the name suggests, meant guiding the work of the police station. After all, she had experience in public security, and the main problem in Dongmen Market was public security.

The police station was under the leadership of the security group, and its funding was paid by the management department of its location. In other words, the Dongmen Market Industrial and Commercial Office was responsible for it.

“This, where do I get the money?” Dugu Qiuhun complained to Xiao Zishan, who was in charge of civil affairs. “The police station’s building is our industrial and commercial office’s office building. Dongmen Market doesn’t collect taxes now, so there’s no way to cover the expenses.”

“Then collect some public security fees. The current police stations also collect them from industrial and commercial households.”

“How can that be? Isn’t that arbitrary charging? Besides, this is a critical moment for attracting investment—”

“Hmph, stop crying poor,” Xiao Zishan snorted. “What about the money your industrial and commercial office made from selling land? You didn’t give away the land for those shops for free, did you?”

Dugu Qiuhun was at a loss for words for a moment. The small treasury of the industrial and commercial office did indeed have over a hundred taels of silver from leasing land. The Executive Committee had not yet issued a land ownership policy, so this type of land transaction was done under the name of leasing land, and the price was relatively low. In theory, this money should have been handed over, but because the policy was unclear, the finance department could not book it, so it had been kept in the Dongmen Market Industrial and Commercial Office.

“But this is misappropriation of public funds. Besides, there’s no policy on land, so it’s not easy to get reimbursement for the money spent.”

After considering for a moment, Cheng Dong said, “How about this: your industrial and commercial office first fills out a payment slip, clearly stating the source of income. I’ll treat it as an unconventional income. Then I’ll return the full amount to you as the operating funds for Dongmen Market, so you don’t have to carry the silver back and forth.”

“Okay, that’s good. Let’s do it that way then.” Seeing that the problem was solved, Dugu Qiuhun left happily.

“You really have a way,” Xiao Zishan said.

Cheng Dong shook his head repeatedly. “Our financial system also needs to be reformed.”