Chapter 179: The Security Regiment

In traditional Chinese labor levies, although there were nominal rules like “one man from every five families” or “one man from every three families,” with exemptions for only sons, in practice, wealthy households often shifted the burden to the poor. Not only was there no compensation for this labor, but the conscripts also had to provide their own food and clothing. Poor families often faced ruin due to the heavy burden of the levy and the loss of their main breadwinner.

The arrival of spring marked the beginning of the traditional busy farming season. Taking away labor, whether from large or small households, was a very serious matter.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Wu De believed that unpaid labor conscription was inappropriate and even risked exacerbating conflicts with the local people of Lingao. In comparison, hiring labor was more suitable.

Currently, their labor teams were also hired, but they were all volunteers. If they relied solely on volunteers, the transmigrator group’s labor force would never be able to meet the demand. Now, by using administrative means to have the villages provide labor, it was much more convenient. They could also accurately estimate how much labor they could mobilize when needed.

It was agreed with the villages that all villages would be divided into three classes: large, medium, and small, based on their population. First-class villages would provide ten men, medium-class five, and lower-class two. If a village was indeed short of able-bodied men, it could apply for an exemption—but this would only be confirmed after a field inspection. Which class a village belonged to was still based on self-reporting, but the size of a village was obvious to everyone, so playing tricks on this was clearly unwise.

In this way, excluding the particularly small villages, the approximately three hundred villages participating in the meeting could provide about one thousand able-bodied men. These men would be uniformly managed by the transmigrator group and would serve for a term of one year. After one year, they could return to their villages, and the village would send replacements. If they were unwilling to go back, they could also continue to serve.

The conscripted men would be paid, a point that Wu De emphasized. Each man would be treated the same as the current laborers in the transmigrators’ labor teams, with food rations and a salary at the end of the year.

The villages had originally thought that they would have to bear the cost of food and other supplies for the conscripted men. Now that they heard that the men did not need to be supported by the village and would even receive a salary, they were almost moved to tears of gratitude for the transmigrator group’s generosity. Although these Kun bandits were engaged in murder and arson, when it came to showing compassion for the people, the government was truly far behind. Their favorability rating rose again.

Next was the matter of establishing the Bairen Security Regiment. On this matter, there had been a long period of haggling between the county yamen and the Executive Committee. Although the county yamen had almost no control over what the transmigrator group wanted to do, the county magistrate was clearly not happy about the establishment of such an armed force right under his nose. However, the establishment of the Security Regiment was the first step for the transmigrator army to gradually absorb and integrate the county’s village braves, so the transmigrator group was unwilling to back down. In the end, they only promised to control the size of the Security Regiment to within one thousand men within three years. At the same time, they would accept the county yamen’s registrar as a nominal commander.

The source of troops for the Security Regiment would be, first, the able-bodied men sent from the villages. The transmigrators would select a number of men from the conscripts sent by the villages to serve as regiment soldiers. Second, the village braves from each village. According to the plan, each village would organize a village brave team based on its size and population. For villages without village braves, the transmigrators would help them equip and train them. The village braves from each village would be drawn in batches to the Bairen City public office to participate in the training of the Security Regiment and to jointly undertake the county’s public security duties. The term of service for this militia would be three months.

The main tasks of the Security Regiment were to suppress bandits and resist pirates. The Bairen Public Office would also establish a county-wide early warning and liaison system, restore and repair the beacon towers that had been set up in the harbors where pirates were likely to land to resist the Wokou pirates in the past. Once the pirates landed, the Security Regiment would be dispatched to intercept them.

This set of practices was actually of the same nature as the six-village joint defense organized by the Huang Family Village, except that the transmigrators had expanded it to the whole county. This would give the villages basic self-defense capabilities against small groups of bandits and pirates. The transmigrator regime wanted to improve the county’s public security situation as much as possible without excessively consuming its own core troops. The only way was to organize a militia system—the CCP had relied on this method to completely eliminate the rampant banditry in those areas back then. Of course, the Executive Committee was well aware that this kind of militia system could not deal with the encirclement and suppression of the government army. After all, the government army had the legitimacy of the imperial court. But it was feasible to use it to protect the homeland and fight against bandits.

This detailed explanation received the unanimous approval of the representatives of the various villages. Wu Ya also secretly admired the “Kun bandits” for their many methods, but he also cursed the representatives of the various villages in his heart. In the past, when the county wanted to implement a regional joint defense, the villages either cried poverty or shirked their responsibilities, and it was never successfully implemented. Now that the short-hairs had come, burned and looted a Gou Family Village, everyone immediately became obedient. They really didn’t know what was good for them.

The representatives then raised the issue of the treatment of the village braves during their service in the Security Regiment. After all, the village braves were also strong laborers, and sending a portion of them out would naturally affect their production. Wu De was prepared for this question. He said that any village brave who came for short-term service would receive 30 yuan in coupons per month. This money could buy 30 large jin of rice, which was a very good reward. If they were injured in battle, the transmigrators would be responsible for their medical treatment. If they were disabled, the transmigrator group would be responsible for their support. If they died in battle, the transmigrator group would also provide a pension. If they left behind orphans and widows with no one to care for them, the transmigrator group would support them all.

As soon as this condition was announced, it caused a sensation in the entire venue, and everyone started talking about it. In recent years, the village braves had fought with bandits, and deaths were common. The village would only give some money for burial and that was it. If it was a single person from another place, even this money was saved, and they were just buried in a thin coffin. The “Kun bandits’” promise was too good, so good that it made people suspicious.

Huang Bingkun said in a low voice, “This is just to trick the village braves into fighting to the death. Even the imperial court doesn’t have this kind of precedent. Are they bodhisattvas?”

“That’s right. If they fight like this, even the imperial court can’t afford it, let alone them!”

Although they were suspicious, the representatives at the meeting did not question it further—anyway, the transmigrators were the masters of Lingao now, and they could do and say whatever they wanted. Everyone could only listen with a grain of salt. Some people, especially those who had dealt with the transmigrator group before, believed that the transmigrators would keep their word. After all, they had not broken their promises since they came ashore.

The meeting had now reached noon. Although they had been listening to speeches all morning, because it concerned the vital interests of each village, every representative listened very carefully. Although there were occasional discussions, the order was well-maintained. Now that they were hungry, their attention naturally waned. At this time, Li Yuanyuan came on stage again and announced a break for the meeting and that lunch would be served.

Lunch was brought in on handcarts. The male and female students distributed it to the representatives. Each person received a plain polished wooden box. When opened, the food was much richer than anyone had imagined—there was rice, sliced cured meat, green vegetables, and the legendary scrambled eggs with tomatoes. It was very substantial. Then there was a bamboo tube with a stopper. Huang Bingkun opened it and smelled a light soup, probably made with some kind of fish and seaweed. He took a sip, and the taste was extremely fresh and sweet—the Kun bandits really ate well.

Huang Bingkun looked around while eating. He saw that the young boys and girls distributing the food seemed to be speaking Cantonese. He could speak Hainan Mandarin, and the two were not very different. He tentatively asked:

“Are you the family members of the Kun, no, the Australian masters?”

The young boys and girls all smiled without saying a word. Only a boy with a small white cloth with some patterns on his arm said, “We are students of the National School.”

“Students?” Huang Bingkun was puzzled. The “Kun bandits” also ran a school? What did they run a school for? To teach people to kill and set fires? They certainly wouldn’t teach the books of the sages, otherwise they wouldn’t be pirates.

But he couldn’t say this in front of this group of “little Kun bandits.” He asked again, “What is this place used for?”

“This place is a cinema,” the leading “little Kun bandit” said. “It’s a place where they show movies on normal days.”

“What are movies?”

The student was stunned for a moment, then smiled. “The representatives will naturally be treated to a viewing tonight. You will understand then.”

Huang Bingkun wanted to ask for more information, but this group of “little Kun bandits” was very tight-lipped and just smiled without answering.

They all look like children from good families. I don’t know what kind of hallucinogenic drug they’ve taken to call a thief their father! Huang Bingkun sighed secretly.

After lunch, Li Yuanyuan announced a half-hour break. Everyone could take a walk around the venue or relieve themselves, but they were not allowed to go beyond the lime line around the venue. Huang Bingkun took the opportunity to survey the surroundings of the venue, walking along the lime line, trying to see more of the scenery inside Bairen City. The most prominent thing he saw was a tall iron tower in the center of the city.

The base of this tower was hidden among several distinctive gray buildings. The tower itself was built of black steel and was about twenty men high. It became thinner as it went up, until it became a sharp point at the top. There was a shining tip on it.

The hometown of these “Kun bandits” must be good at iron smelting and blacksmithing, so all kinds of objects were made of iron. No wonder people said that the Kun bandits were constantly smuggling ironware from the mainland to the island by ship.

But Huang Bingkun couldn’t figure out what this tower made entirely of iron was for. In his opinion, it was a complete waste—so much iron could be used for anything. He wanted to get a closer look, but he was immediately blocked by people in gray clothes with belts around their waists. The other party held up a long, dark blue musket, and he had to retreat behind the line.

The color of this musket was similar to the handgun that was recovered from the scene where his third brother was killed. Unfortunately, his father could never fire it again after firing it once. He didn’t know how the bullets and powder were loaded. Huang Bingkun pondered, he had to find an opportunity to try out this kind of musket—weren’t they going to form a security regiment? He had made up his mind. He would personally lead the village braves to participate at that time to see how powerful the “Kun bandits” were in battle. If he had the chance, he would also get such a musket.