Chapter 180: The Banquet

Most of the representatives were not like Huang Bingkun, who harbored ulterior motives. Instead, they thought in a standard, traditional Chinese way: endure for now. Since the Kun bandits were powerful—even Master Wu from the county yamen was sitting on the stage—it was acceptable for them, the common people, to go along with them.

The afternoon session was relatively simple. After a round of tea, Wu De requested that each village elect a “liaison officer.” These liaison officers would meet at the Bairen Public Office on the first day of each month to receive instructions from the transmigrator group.

“Liaison officer? You might as well just have the villages form maintenance committees,” someone had said when the system was being formulated, feeling uncomfortable with the term “liaison officer.”

“The term ‘liaison officer’ is very neutral, there’s nothing wrong with it,” Ma Qianzhu didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. “We don’t need maintenance committees. In the future, we’ll just have the villages form village committees.”

The liaison officer system was nominally to receive instructions from the Bairen Public Office, but in reality, it was a way for the transmigrator group to remotely control the villages. It was also stipulated that when personnel from the public office went to the villages, the liaison officer would be responsible for their reception and support.

“All support will be paid for by the public office personnel with coupons at the market price,” Wu De explained. “The coupons can be used to offset the grain quota assigned to each village.”

For items whose value was difficult to determine at the moment, the public office personnel would issue a receipt in duplicate, stating the content of the support, and both parties would sign and make their mark. The liaison officer would bring the receipts to the public office every month to have the price verified and the account settled, offsetting the grain levy.

This system was both simple and clear, and it did not harm the interests of the people. The representatives all expressed their approval. However, many secretly doubted whether such a system could be implemented—it was a common situation that the common people of China were all too familiar with for those in power to say one thing and do another, to go back on their word.

The political consultative conference was about to end. Now that all the major policies had been announced, the rest were just some details. The details could not be explained clearly in such a large meeting of several hundred people, so the meeting was divided into groups, and the transmigrators explained them.

The participants were divided into groups according to their respective districts and diagrams, and each group was assigned a transmigrator to preside over it. A group had at most thirty or forty representatives. If they didn’t understand something, they could ask immediately, making communication more efficient.

First, a set of simple weighing and measuring instruments was delivered to each village, including a set of 500-gram weights of various sizes, named the “large jin,” and a one-meter-long wooden ruler, named the “large chi.” Both of these were related to the future collection of materials, so they were the first standards that the transmigrator regime wanted to unify.

Wen Desi had originally wanted to promote the Gregorian calendar, but the calendar had always been the prerogative of the imperial court. To issue a calendar without authorization was tantamount to rebellion. In the end, it was decided not to issue it. They would do it after they had completely broken with the imperial court.

Finally, a sample booklet of the coupons was issued to each village, and the method of use and exchange was explained in writing. This booklet also had the public office’s credentials printed on it. In the future, when transmigrators went to the countryside, they could request support from the villages as long as they had the credentials.

It was almost time for dinner. The elders and clan leaders of the various villages were not without their old foxes. Taking the opportunity of face-to-face communication, they all demanded that the village braves sent to participate in the Security Regiment must be led by their own sons and nephews. How could this be? This unreasonable request was immediately rejected by the Executive Committee.

At this time, some landlords along the Wenlan River also raised the issue of land—it turned out that some of the land currently occupied by the transmigrators along the river, although it was wasteland, had owners. However, in the past, the landlords were afraid of the transmigrators’ military power and no one dared to mention this matter. Now, seeing that they were friendly and reasonable, someone cried that a certain piece of land belonged to his family, and that the whole family depended on this land for food. Now that it was occupied by the chiefs, the whole family was starving.

Ma Qianzhu, who was present, frowned. He thought to himself, the government army hasn’t even arrived yet, and you landlords are already trying to settle old scores! You’re actually asking us for land. When they occupied the land, they were very careful not to disturb or harm the people, so they did not occupy any land that showed signs of cultivation or use. They only chose desolate land overgrown with weeds—Lingao was not short of wasteland, even on both banks of the Wenlan River. Looking at the few crying representatives, they were all fair and fat, not looking like they were starving at all. He was about to lose his temper, but was stopped by Wen Desi.

“No, no. We have just arrived here. This is the time to win the trust of the people. We can’t be too tough.”

This right-wing element really has a soft spot for the exploiting class, Ma Qianzhu thought with great dissatisfaction. But right now was the time to build good relations with the local people, and the landlord class was also a target of the united front. It was not appropriate to break face, but they could not be too soft either, lest they take a mile when given an inch.

After discussing with Wu De, it was announced that if the transmigrators had occupied land with an owner, the landlords could come to handle the transfer procedures with their land deeds, and the public office would purchase it at the market price. Because there was a lot of wasteland in Lingao, uncultivated land was worthless, and the acquisition would not cost much money.

Unexpectedly, as soon as this decision was announced, Wu Ya also appeared and solemnly pointed out that many of the lands occupied by the transmigrators, although they were wasteland, were official land. The transmigrators had occupied them but had not yet handled the land deed procedures. He suggested that the public office go to the county yamen to get the land deeds—now that the transmigrators had the entity of Bairen Village, they could handle various documents.

Damn it, even the government wants to get a piece of the action. They are really sparing no effort to generate income, Wu De thought. With the knife in their hands, the other party would not dare to ask for an exorbitant price. If they gave the officials some more money, this state-owned asset would naturally be obtained cheaply. They had seen this kind of trick many times before, but they didn’t expect to experience it firsthand in this time and space. He readily agreed, saying that he would pay a visit another day. Wu Ya was in a good mood, feeling that this group of Kun bandits was becoming more and more sensible.

This matter also reminded the transmigrators of the necessity of further investigating the land situation in the entire county. The development plan included the construction of a road network and the development of industrial and mining areas, all of which involved the collection of land data.

The first Lingao Political Consultative Conference finally came to a successful conclusion. Wen Desi delivered the closing speech. He then announced a banquet for all the representatives in the evening, with entertainment programs.

The evening banquet was held in the merchant’s guild hall in East Gate Market. The main hall of the merchant’s guild was just right for the occasion. The originally rough-finished hall was decorated for this meeting. The interior decoration was carefully arranged by Dongmen Chuiyu and Dugu. In order to let the natives of this time and space see the level of material civilization that transcended the era and to generate a sense of worship, the Fengcheng once again played the role of a provider of modern items. Disregarding the strong opposition from the navy, Dugu Qiuhun led people to dismantle the glass chandeliers, decorative paintings, and wall tapestries from the banquet hall of the Fengcheng… all of which became the interior decoration of the merchant’s guild banquet hall.

According to Dongmen Chuiyu’s idea, he also planned to pave the entire floor with natural stone such as marble, but the machinery for cutting stone was currently in short supply, and no one knew how to do it. So in the end, they still maintained the traditional square brick paving—decorated with the red carpet from the corridor of the Fengcheng.

Xiao Zishan, as the director of the General Office, was in charge of these matters. Preparing a banquet for more than three hundred representatives would be convenient in modern times, where everything was ready-made. Here, everything had to be done by themselves. He immediately cleared out more than a thousand pieces of porcelain tableware from the spoils of war from Gou Family Village. Chopsticks were easy to make; the woodworking factory could process them right away. But the ingredients were more difficult. Although there was no shortage of vegetables now, meat, eggs, poultry, and oil were all relatively tight. Lin Quanfu had to go out urgently to buy some chickens, ducks, and live pigs. The dishes had to be mainly fish and shrimp. The Maritime Force Department used the cold storage on the ship to make ice cubes and sent many fresh fish and shrimp. Fortunately, the canteen was not short of seasonings and spices at the moment, so they could make a wide variety of dishes.

To show off their style, they even specially made a huge block of salt ice in the cold storage of the Fengcheng and sent it to the merchant’s guild. Now this block of ice had been carved into a lion by the best local craftsman—he only knew how to carve this.

This ice lion stood on a table in the center of the banquet hall, shining brightly under the chandelier and emitting wisps of white steam. Around the ice sculpture were various tropical fruits and fresh flowers picked by the long-range exploration team from the Li area and the Gaoshanling mountainous area, decorated colorfully. Both the plates and the vases were all made of glass from the glass factory.

The representatives had never seen such things before, and they were all dumbfounded—the short-hairs were truly extravagant! And their extravagance far exceeded their imagination! But what surprised them the most was not the ice sculpture or the glassware, but the glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling, continuously emitting a soft and bright light.

The representatives had long heard from rumors that the short-hairs’ camp shone with bright lights every night, a light that outshone even the stars and the moon. At this moment, almost everyone was staring at the chandelier, as if in a trance.

“Everyone, please take your seats, take your seats,” Wu De called out, which brought everyone back to their senses, and they all sat down.

Because the tables used were the local eight-immortal tables, there were eight people per table. The dishes were not many, and the standard was six dishes and one soup—which was quite simple by the standards of a Ming Dynasty banquet. However, because the dishes were fresh, everyone was very satisfied, especially the white wine that was served, which was exceptionally mellow and much better than the local moonshine. At the beginning, the representatives were a little reserved, but later, Wu De and the others took turns toasting, and after a few drinks, the atmosphere immediately became lively.

“I didn’t expect these Kun—short-hairs to be so good at making wine!” a gentleman couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Yes, I just don’t understand,” another representative said. “Looking at their food, clothing, and daily necessities, even the wealthy households in Guangzhou can’t compare. Why don’t they stay in their hometown and come to our poor and remote place?”

“Their houses are all built very small, and they love to build tall buildings. It’s probably because of the lack of land and the large population.”

“I think they are short of women,” a country gentleman who had had a few too many drinks said, winking and smiling lewdly. “Look at those real Kun, they are basically all men, and the women are even giving orders. If they weren’t short of women, would they let the women walk all over them?”

The crowd burst into laughter and agreed.