Chapter 147: Night Talk

For a moment, Lin Xing didn’t understand what Chief Wu De meant. Thin? Wasn’t that natural? Only landlords and high officials were fat; the common people had always been thin. It was not strange for children to be a bit thin.

But Wu De was thinking of something else. He felt a sense of urgency from the children he had just seen. Their physical condition was truly worrying. As the person in charge of labor affairs, he knew the physical condition of the laborers better than anyone. Most of the newly recruited laborers, though strong and hardworking, were essentially burning through their life force. Their bodies were simply not equipped for such heavy labor. That was why he always tried to provide the best possible food, largely to help these chronically malnourished laborers build up their strength.

Now, the adults were getting stronger, but the children were following the old path of malnutrition. If this continued, wouldn’t the national physique never improve?

He also thought about the poor quality of the recently recruited soldiers. If they were to fight the famously brutish “boar-skins” (Manchus) in the future, he was genuinely worried about their physical condition.

Wu De felt that the current food rationing system could be completely abolished after the New Year and replaced with a monetary distribution system. However, this would depend on the monetary policy the finance department intended to adopt. Cheng Dong had been conducting investigations recently and would be implementing a comprehensive monetary reform system after the New Year. At that time, the labor and civil administration systems would also be improved.

He returned to his room in the commune—his quarters were a suite in the Bairen Commune compound, with an office in the outer room and a bedroom in the inner one. The walls were painted snow-white, and a poster of “The People’s Navy Defends the Motherland’s Seas” was on the wall. The Type 037 anti-submarine corvette on it was a ship model he had served on, which gave him a sense of familiarity.

When will I be able to return to serve in the Navy? Being a commune secretary is really not easy.

In the room, Chu Yu hadn’t gone to sleep; she was still sitting there waiting for him. Seeing him return, she quickly came over to fetch water for him to wash up and to make tea. Seeing his fatigue, she quickly knelt down to take off his shoes and wash his feet. This was one of the good things about women in this feudal society. Wu De had been a little unaccustomed to such service in the past, but now he had grown used to it.

After changing him into a pair of straw slippers, Chu Yu asked softly, “Would my lord like some late-night snack?”

“No need, it’s too much trouble.” Wu De knew that the late-night snack from the cafeteria was just some porridge and salted fish. He had no interest in it. He’d rather find an opportunity to go hunting with a few people. He had heard from the commune members that wild boars and deer could be hunted in the Gaoshan Ridge. He wasn’t interested in wild boars, but venison was good, and there would be no shortage of pheasants and rabbits there. The few guys from North America seemed to be hunting enthusiasts; he would invite them.

Thinking of hunting made him think of guns. He hadn’t cleaned his two guns in a long time. He didn’t want to sleep yet, so he might as well clean them now. There was a conference table in the office. He turned on the electric light and, under the light, disassembled his Type 54 pistol and Type 56 semi-automatic rifle on the table, placing the parts in a paper tray. Then he took out the small oil can for the Type 56 and a small ball of cotton gauze from his satchel and began to maintain his weapons.

On a winter night in Hainan, the temperature was a pleasant 18 degrees Celsius. A gentle sea breeze blew, very refreshing. It hadn’t rained in Lingao for months, and the air humidity was much lower.

When he came ashore, both guns had been soaked in seawater. Hainan was humid. The Type 56 was about 80% new and had been kept sealed in its gun bag except for when he took it out during the first anti-encirclement campaign, so it was in good condition. The Type 54 was an old gun that had been with him for over a decade, and it was now showing faint signs of rust.

As a certain revolutionary mentor once said: “Cherish your weapons as you cherish your own eyes.” This was no exaggeration. If a weapon was not kept in good condition at all times, you would pay for it with your blood when you used it. Wu De remembered a former brother-in-arms who had died because his pistol had rusted and failed to fire while trying to arrest a fugitive.

He removed the bullets from the two Type 54 magazines, used the small screwdriver on his Swiss army knife to press the catch on the bottom of the magazine, letting the magazine spring “sunbathe” a little. Otherwise, if the spring rusted, the magazine would be useless. As for the bullets, the 51-type pistol rounds had steel casings; if they rusted, they were also scrap. And right now, bullets were more expensive than diamonds.

Chu Yu sat beside him, watching him clean the weapons in a daze, silent, but her eyes were twinkling with interest.

“You like them too?”

“Your servant wouldn’t dare—”

“How many times have I told you, don’t say ‘your servant.’ We don’t do that here—” Wu De said, examining a bullet.

“Yes, but… Chu Yu thinks these things are very exquisite, like jewelry made by a skilled craftsman.”

Comparing gun parts to jewelry was certainly novel. Wu De found it interesting.

“This is a lethal weapon. One shot, and a person’s life is gone.”

Chu Yu showed no fear. “If it can’t kill, how can it be called a lethal weapon?”

“Well said,” Wu De said with a laugh, a hint of wariness in his heart. Why is this girl so interested in guns? I’ll have to be more careful about storing my weapons in the future.

“My lord, can you teach Chu Yu how to shoot?”

Wu De was so startled he almost dropped the bullet.

“You’re a girl, what do you want to learn this for?”

“It’s so impressive, just like those female chiefs. And when you’re sleeping, I can protect you by your side. When you’re out, I can watch for you where you can’t see. If anyone tries anything funny, I’ll shoot them.”

Wu De burst out laughing. “You want to be my bodyguard?”

“A maid, a bodyguard, anything is fine.”

Wu De thought, This girl is really determined to latch onto me. To say he had no thoughts about a young girl would be deceiving himself. He was, after all, a man in his prime with normal physiological needs.

Their eyes met, caught in a moment of ambiguous, wavering struggle. Suddenly, a voice came from the courtyard:

“Is Ah De in? Is Ah De in?”

Chu Yu shot a resentful glance outside and went to meet the visitor. A moment later, she returned and reported, “It’s someone from the Army to see my lord. Will you see him?”

“Of course.” We’re not yet at a point where we can put on airs with our own brothers, Wu De thought. But he was a bit puzzled. Besides the few army leaders, he wasn’t familiar with the Army. Why would they come looking for him?

He continued to clean his bullets. A voice came from outside: “Ah De is cleaning his weapons.”

He looked up and saw a young man in his twenties enter from outside.

“Yes, according to regulations, weapons must be maintained regularly,” Wu De said, continuing his work, his replies perfunctory.

“My name is Wei Aiwen,” the visitor said. “Need a hand?”

“You’re the company commander of the first company of the training battalion, right?”

“That’s right, that’s right.”

“Alright, have a seat,” Wu De said.

Wei Aiwen sat down beside him. From the way he sat, he had definitely been in the military.

Wei Aiwen took the Type 56, skillfully took out the accessories from the buttstock, attached the cleaning rod to the barrel brush, dipped it in oil from the oil can, and began to clean the barrel.

“Alright, maintenance complete.” With a clatter, a reassembled Type 56 appeared in Aiwen’s hands. The 20 bullets were also wiped clean and stacked to one side.

“This Type 56 of yours is a new gun, isn’t it? Although it’s not fresh out of the cosmoline, it looks like it’s never been used. By the way, has this gun been zeroed?” he asked, raising the gun and aiming at something in the distance outside the window.

“It’s been zeroed. It’s been a long time since I fired it,” he replied.

“But the short one in your hand seems to be used often.”

“You’ve got a sharp eye, brother. How can you tell? Tell me,” Wu De’s interest was piqued.

“That’s easy. The bluing on your Type 54 pistol is almost worn off, and the rear sight is also polished bright. There’s so much electrical tape wrapped around the grip. It wouldn’t be like this if you didn’t use it often.”

“Good eye!” Wu De praised, pressing the last bullet into the magazine, reassembling it, and putting the gun back into the nylon holster under his arm.

“That holster of yours isn’t standard issue.”

“Yeah, bought it online for 100 yuan. It was originally for a ‘Big Black Star’ airsoft gun, but it’s better than that leather holster. Besides, when have they ever issued holsters for left-handed people?”

“Hahaha…”

With their beloved weapons as a topic of conversation, the two men chatted back and forth, and the atmosphere warmed up.

“You didn’t come all the way here on New Year’s Eve just to help me clean my guns, did you?” Wu De asked bluntly.

“Hehe,” Wei Aiwen chuckled sheepishly. “I’m here to go through the back door.”

Wu De was puzzled. “Go through the back door?”

Only then did Wei Aiwen reveal the truth. It turned out the Army was envious of the Navy’s comfortable lifestyle and also wanted to build their own “corruption base.” Ever since Xi Yazhou was banished from Wu Nanhai’s farm for “suspectedly” stealing two ducks while recuperating there, the Army had become persona non grata at the demonstration farm. So now they were actively trying to build their own Army club. The site and materials had already been found, and the design and construction had been discussed with Mei Wan. The only thing they lacked was manpower. He hoped Wu De could assign some laborers to them. Of course, this help would be private—the Executive Committee would not currently allocate manpower for such a non-essential project.

“Speaking of labor, how could you in the Army be short of men?” Wu De was highly skeptical. The Army currently had over four hundred men, all trained soldiers, far more organized and coordinated than his laborers.

“It’s all that fatty Xi’s fault!” Wei Aiwen said through gritted teeth. It seemed Xi Yazhou’s crimes were not limited to just stealing ducks.

It turned out that during the expedition to Baitu, Xi Yazhou, in order to avoid marching on foot, had traded his troops’ labor for the use of the farm’s horse from Wu Nanhai. He himself got to show off, riding majestically on “Ah-Lan-Chi.” Now, the entire training battalion, except for those on duty and training, had been sent to the farm to dig ditches for Wu Nanhai. This left the Army with no available labor.

Damn, they don’t care about serious business, but they’re all over things related to eating, drinking, and having fun. Wu De cursed this trend inwardly. But on second thought, it was understandable. It was a human weakness. And with the Navy living so comfortably, it was normal for the Army to feel unbalanced and want to catch up.

“Why didn’t Xi Yazhou come himself?” Wu De asked. He was much closer to Xi Yazhou than to Wei Aiwen.

“Him? Who knows which girl he’s ‘exchanging feelings’ with now! That playboy!” It was clear Wei Aiwen was also quite dissatisfied with his battalion commander. “With so many people in the Army, I think it’s just me and Zhang Bolin, the two idiots, who are actually working hard!” he said indignantly.

You’re not wrong, you two really do have a bit too much energy. Wu De thought to himself, but he couldn’t say it out loud. He considered it and decided it was better to grant this request. Balancing the relationship between the Army and Navy was better than exacerbating it.

“Alright, I’ll give you a hundred men. But let me be clear, they are all laborers, no skilled workers.”

“That’s no problem,” Wei Aiwen said, his face beaming now that he had agreed. “We’ve already talked to Mei Wan. He’ll be responsible for the skilled workers.”

“When do you need them?”

“Starting from the third day of the New Year, for a week. We can only work during the holiday—”

“Okay. The third day of the New Year it is. But you’ll be responsible for their meals during the construction.” Needless to say, when the Army helped Wu Nanhai, their meals were definitely provided by Wu Nanhai. But the food rations allocated to the Army by the Planning Committee would not be reduced. The saved rations were probably the source of the Army’s “corruption” funds. Wu De thought he should remind the Planning Committee about this loophole.

“Deal, deal,” Wei Aiwen said excitedly. “Ah De, you’re a true friend! A real product of the military.”

“You were a soldier too?”

“I was in the Armed Police.” Speaking of his military service, Wei Aiwen had served two years in the Armed Police and was a sharpshooter.

Wei Aiwen lamented, “So you were in the Navy? I didn’t think you seemed like it. Look at the Navy guys here, they’re so pretentious!”

“You can’t say that. The Navy has always been a place that values etiquette and rules.” Wu De had originally wanted to talk to He Ming about the Army-Navy conflict. Now that one of the Army’s young turks was here, he seized the opportunity to have a good talk.

For the next few minutes, Wu De used the psychological tactics he had learned in the judicial department to talk to Wei Aiwen about the differences between the Army and Navy, their respective strengths, and their interdependence. He particularly pointed out that in an environment like Hainan, joint Army-Navy operations were the most common and effective method of combat.

Wei Aiwen was clearly distracted. Wu De realized his lecture wasn’t having much of an effect and was rather disappointed. As he was speaking, someone suddenly called Wei Aiwen on the phone, saying that the company had just finished distributing things to the soldiers and asking if he agreed to let the soldiers stay up for the New Year’s vigil or if he wanted them to go to bed immediately.

“Tell everyone to get some sleep early. We won’t stop those who want to stay up for the vigil. Make sure the security is tight,” Wei Aiwen replied nonchalantly. “I would have said we should have a party, but now the platoon leaders have all gone to watch the movie. Who’s going to organize it?”

Wu De looked at Wei Aiwen and asked, “You haven’t been to see your own company?”

“I was going to, but because Battalion Commander Xi slipped away during the day and Director-General Ma wasn’t here, there were a lot of things to do on New Year’s Eve. I’m the commander of the baseline company, so I was handling all the battalion’s affairs and couldn’t get away. I was planning to go tomorrow morning. Right now, only You Laohu and Dongmen Chuiyu are in the three companies.”

Wu De was silent for a moment, then said, “I hear your company is the best at political work?”