Chapter 72: Sweet Harbor Storm - The Solution

“Liao Dahua said he has already rented a courtyard in Xuwen county town. If things get really bad, we can escape into the county town,” Wen Tong proposed Liao Dahua’s suggestion.

“That’s the second option,” Chen Tianxiong said. “No matter how important the South China Sugar Factory is, we don’t necessarily have to sacrifice ourselves for it. I think Bei Wei and Liao Dahua should discuss and prepare an escape plan, just in case. How to go, who to take…”

There were several hundred people in the factory. Bei Wei had only brought two or three team members, and the escort agency could at most provide about ten people. It was obviously impossible to protect all the workers while they escaped. Fortunately, the other party was most likely only after their lives, and would not go so far as to kill all the ordinary workers.

“Send the Wen brothers and the women away. The women are useless here. I’ve spent a lot of effort training the Wen brothers. It would be a pity if they were killed,” Wen Tong said. In fact, the key was that these people had been living with the transmigrators day and night and had developed a certain affection for them. “And a few key personnel from the sugar factory and their families,” he shook his head. “But we have just won over the hearts of the people. If we do this, when South China recovers in the future, the people’s hearts will be scattered.”

This was self-evident. Once a riot broke out, there would inevitably be casualties among the factory workers, while their leaders and cronies would have long since fled to safety. No one would like this kind of thing.

Thinking of this, everyone couldn’t help but feel dejected. Xiao Gui said, “I think this is too selfish and a bit despicable.” He said that since they were now thinking of having the workers protect the sugar factory, to abandon them at that time and leave them to their fate would completely ruin South China’s reputation.

“I think,” Chen Tianxiong said, “the Wen brothers should not be sent away. They are an important channel for us to communicate with the locals. Also, the women should not be sent away, so as not to affect morale.”

This meant sacrificing the pawns to save the king. Everyone knew this clearly. The few female slaves were useless in the sugar factory. But at least it was an attitude—everyone in the sugar factory knew that the few female slaves were the masters’ concubines.

Xiao Gui had originally admired Chen Tianxiong for his calmness and methodical way of doing things, but now he was quite dismissive. “Even worse,” Xiao Gui said. “We should be thinking about how to defend the South China Sugar Factory now, not how to escape, and certainly not preparing excuses to deceive the workers after we escape!”

These words were spoken with righteousness, and everyone was speechless. Wen Tong’s face turned pale and then green. “Alright, I have a gun too. At worst, I’ll fight to the death and be the first to enter the Cuigang Cemetery.”

The Cuigang Cemetery had not yet had any transmigrators buried in it. To say that he wanted to be the first to be buried there was clearly said in a fit of pique.

Chen Tianxiong was still calm. “The sugar factory must be preserved as much as possible. But if it really comes to the point where the workers attack, even if we fight to the death, we may not be able to save it.”

Bei Wei asked, “What’s the third option?”

“The third is to gather information and get a clear picture of the overall situation. Although I don’t approve of blowing Third Master Zhu’s head off, we still have to prepare for this. If it really comes to it, it’s better for us to blow his head off before he blows ours.” At this, everyone smiled a little. “Besides Third Master Zhu, who are the other key figures? What are their attitudes? We have to find out everything, including their background. This way, whether we fight or pull, we will have a plan. Otherwise, we won’t even know where to find them if we want to kill them and set fires!”

“That makes sense,” Bei Wei agreed. “Let’s send all the Qiwei people out to investigate.”

“The Qiwei people are already out gathering information. Now that we have a clear target, I’ll just have to instruct Liao Dahua again!” Wen Tong said.

“With accurate intelligence, things will be much easier. If it really comes to it, we’ll have to trouble Old Bei to take care of it. This job is a bit ‘dirty’…”

The so-called “dirty” meant that this was different from a war between nations, where there was a just cause. This was purely a struggle for interests. To have a professional soldier like Bei Wei do the work of a gangster, Chen Tianxiong was afraid that he would feel uncomfortable.

“There’s no need for that,” Bei Wei said. “Since we’ve come to this time and space, we must consider the overall situation of the transmigrator group.”

“Good, that’s all I need to hear,” Chen Tianxiong said. “Actually, I have another idea, which is to pull the rug out from under them. But I’m not very confident.”

The so-called pulling the rug out from under them was to persuade the sugar mill workers who were preparing to cause trouble, whether by making them “understand the greater good” or by bribing them with a large sum of money. As long as they didn’t cause trouble, the matter would be more than half successful. But the current situation was unclear, which made Chen Tianxiong feel that it was difficult to start.

“Aren’t they out of work? At worst, we can just hire them all,” Mei Lin said, excited as if he had discovered a new continent. “Once they are paid, I don’t believe they will still cause trouble.”

“It would have been possible, but we are too late,” Wen Tong was a little dejected. “The sugar factory is not short of people now. What will they do after they are hired? We can’t just support them for nothing.”

“Even if they get paid for doing nothing, at least it serves the purpose of ‘maintaining stability’!” Mei Lin said. “Besides, with about two hundred workers, at twelve taels of silver per person per year, that’s only a little over two thousand taels.”

This idea was not bad. Although it had the suspicion of buying peace with money, it was still a more feasible method.

Chen Tianxiong nodded. “Now that you’ve said that, it’s given me an idea. Leave this matter to me. I’ll definitely appease all the workers.”

Everyone was stunned, not knowing what brilliant plan he had. But seeing his mysterious look, they thought he must be very confident.

“But this matter requires everyone’s cooperation, especially Wen Tong,” Chen Tianxiong said. “But I have an eighty or ninety percent confidence that it will succeed—at least it can cause some chaos within them and delay the trouble for a few days.”

With the plan decided, Wen Tong asked, “What about the matter of transporting the sugar? It’s important to transport the sugar to Guangzhou, but how do we solve the security problem?”

“Yes, we can either ask the Executive Committee to send ships to escort us, or we have to equip the ships of the Gao Guang Shipping Company with weapons and soldiers, but that would be troublesome.”

“It’s fine. I have an idea, but I need the Executive Committee’s help. It’s like this—”

With the plan decided, everyone went to do their own things. Chen Tianxiong had another secret meeting with Wen Tong. He then called for Liao Daxing, asked him many questions, and had him bring a list of the workers in the sugar factory who were originally from the sugar mills. He then used a pen to note down what they used to do: boiling sugar, stoking the fire, or just general laborers. He also had Wen Xiu bring the “confessions” written by the workers during the “anti-corruption” campaign and compared them one by one, busying himself for a long time.

Wen Tong found it strange and asked, “What’s the meaning of this?”

Chen Tianxiong said, “To put it bluntly, it’s nothing special. It’s just a trick to incite the masses to fight against each other.”

Mei Lin’s method of hiring all the unemployed workers, if used a month earlier, would indeed have been a good strategy of “pulling the rug out from under them.” But now it was too late. The unemployed workers had obviously been organized and had a leader. This leader was most likely controlled by the Haiyitang. To propose giving them jobs now might not be trusted by the unemployed workers. Even if the other party was willing to talk, the asking price would probably be ridiculously high.

“Think about it: the unemployed workers are now ready to strike. If we say we are willing to give them jobs now, what would you think if you were an unemployed worker?”

“Of course, I would think the other party is scared.”

“Exactly,” Chen Tianxiong nodded. “This will make them realize their own power—right now, these people haven’t thought that far.”

“This will actually promote their unity.”

“Hehe, that’s right,” Chen Tianxiong said with a smile. “So the first thing is to divide them. The sugar mill workers, although they are one group, are actually divided into several types of people.”

Wen Tong knew this. The sugar master had the highest technical requirements, so he was the leader of every sugar mill. Next was the stoker, who controlled the fire according to the sugar master’s instructions. Both of these people had technical expertise and the highest income. Especially during the harvest season, the income of a skilled master was considerable. The others were just laborers who sold their strength.

“Who should we pull and who should we fight?” Wen Tong asked.

“What do you think?” Chen Tianxiong suddenly played mysterious.

Wen Tong said, “Generally speaking, it’s always better to pull people with skills. Firstly, people with skills are useful. Secondly, they have a greater say in the group. But we don’t need their skills—”

Chen Tianxiong nodded repeatedly. “That’s right, Old Wen, your mind turns faster than mine. At first, I also wanted to start with the sugar masters, but then I realized it was inappropriate—” he first praised Wen Tong. “…The price to buy them over would be much higher than buying over ordinary workers.”

These people were “used to the good life” in terms of income. South China could not buy them over without a high price. If the price was too high, not only would it be a waste of money, but it would also cause dissatisfaction among the people in the sugar factory. Comparing the two, the loss outweighed the gain.

In contrast, ordinary workers only wanted to have food to eat, clothes to wear, and their families not to starve. Although they were numerous, the cost was not large, and their psychological expectations were small. They could be satisfied with proper arrangements, and even be grateful.

As long as they had a stable meal, no matter how many complaints they had, no one would be willing to become a rioter easily. Both Chen Tianxiong and Wen Tong understood this principle.

Some people wanted to be rioters, and some did not. This temporarily organized group of workers would inevitably have internal strife. With the help of other means, it would be easy to disintegrate them. Although Third Master Zhu was the mastermind behind the scenes, he was not a communist after all, and organizing a workers’ movement was not his specialty.

As for Chen Tianxiong looking for the list of workers in the sugar factory, Wen Tong also understood. They had no connections among the sugar mill workers and could only use the people already in the factory to build bridges. After all, they used to eat from the same pot.

“You’re looking for the confessions, probably because you want to use those who have a ‘handle’ on us to go, right? You’re not afraid of them turning against us, and you’re not afraid of them not doing their best.”

“That’s right,” Chen Tianxiong said. “But those who wrote confessions are basically sugar boilers and stokers. Very few of them are general laborers. They have no skills, so they don’t get a share of the spoils.”

“It’s good that they don’t have any! At least their character is still good.”

“That’s true. I’ve selected a few. I’ll meet them later to see how adaptable they are. They’ll go out to work tomorrow morning!”

Chen Tianxiong also planned to go out himself, but he didn’t say it first. One reason was that he didn’t want to worry everyone. The other was that he wanted to show off in front of everyone. Not to mention others, although Bei Wei was just a captain of the Special Reconnaissance Team, he was a core member under the Executive Committee. Leaving a deep impression on him would be of great benefit to his future development.

The next morning, Chen Tianxiong set out with Zhou Shizhai. He had already learned a bit of the Leizhou dialect in Lingao. Although it was not standard, he had no problem communicating with the locals. Plus, his skin was relatively dark, and after changing into local clothes, he looked very “Ming Dynasty.”

Originally, Liao Dahua wanted to send the best martial artist from the Qiwei Leizhou branch to accompany him, but Chen Tianxiong still chose Zhou Shizhai. He was obviously more reliable than the others, and having been in Lingao for a long time, he also understood the transmigrators’ way of doing things and did not need much explanation.

The purpose of this trip was to visit Lin Zhuang. The Qiwei people had easily found out that he was the leader of the unemployed sugar mill workers. They also knew that he had been to the Haiyitang several times.

“Lin Zhuang’s skills are average,” Zhou Shizhai said. “He’s mainly more ‘outgoing,’ good at talking, and has some connections with the three religions and nine schools of thought in Xuwen, so he’s considered a leader among the sugar mill workers. He was the one who was publicly elected to represent them in the lawsuit last time.”

“What’s his character like?” Chen Tianxiong asked.

“He’s a decent person,” the escort said. This person was certainly not a bad person. Because he was sociable, he had inevitably picked up some bad habits. He was involved in eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, and had not saved much money. So he was in his late thirties and still a bachelor.

Lin Zhuang was a bachelor and naturally had no home. He was currently living in the Zou Heshang Temple. The area around it was now full of unemployed sugar mill workers who had brought their families with them, preparing to go to South China to demand an explanation. To go and find him would be a bit risky.

“It doesn’t matter. If you don’t enter the tiger’s den, how can you get the tiger’s cubs?” Chen Tianxiong was very confident. Lin Zhuang had his weaknesses, so he would not be a person with a firm stand. It was very likely that he could be bought over. Even if it was not successful, just this matter today, if it got out, would be told with great embellishment and would be enough to tarnish what little prestige he had.

A snake can’t move without a head. By removing this backbone and complementing it with the strategy of “pitting the masses against the masses,” this temporarily gathered mob would immediately disperse. It would be much easier to clean up the mess then.

The two of them arrived in front of the Zou Heshang Temple. The temple was quite large—because Zou Heshang was the patriarch of the sugar industry, and the sugar industry in Leizhou was developed, the Zou Heshang Temple was also built particularly well. Originally, this was also the place where the Haiyitang held an annual opera to thank the gods.

But at this time, in front of and behind the temple, there were crowds of people with their families. They lived under the verandas. The sound of adults shouting and children crying made it as lively as a market. Some were dressed completely, while others were in rags, almost like refugees.