Chapter 121 - The Quarantine Camp

Xiao Zishan also promised that he and the staff of the General Office would come to teach when they had time. At the same time, he had another matter that was both urgent and not too urgent.

“What do you think we should do about the children’s primary school?” Xiao Zishan asked.

The so-called children’s primary school referred to the education of the underage children brought by the transmigrators. At present, there were not many underage children of the transmigrators themselves, only three or four, basically all under ten years old. They had not received any school education for more than half a year and played freely in the wide world every day. Moreover, the parents of each child were very busy and had almost no time to manage their studies and life.

Although the matter was small and the scope was not large, it was after all the responsibility of the General Office. Xiao Zishan felt that this matter was very tricky: the children were young, which meant they had to have special personnel to take care of and educate them. Their number was too small to set up a separate educational institution for them like a Yuhong School. After all, most of the transmigrators didn’t even have wives, and the first wave of childbirth had not yet arrived. To set up such a school, it would take at least eight or ten years.

He explained these considerations to Hu Qingbai and Bai Yu: “How can we make everyone satisfied?”

“In the long run, institutions like Yuhong School will definitely be established. At least the nursery school level will have to be established within two or three years,” Hu Qingbai said. “For now, let’s temporarily set up a special class in the education park.” Hu Qingbai thought for a moment. “A general class. I’ll teach it myself. However, it’s best to assign a female teacher to me. The children are generally young, and female teachers are more approachable.”

“Fang Yijing, she used to work in a kindergarten.”

“That’s the best,” Hu Qingbai said of his idea. “We’ll have half a day of class every day, using a multi-grade teaching method. I’ll also select a few gentle and well-spoken native children to study with them.”

“This plan is good,” Xiao Zishan said. “I originally wanted to do it this way, but I felt that there were too few children in the class.”

“The native children are not bad either. Many of them are smart and lively.”

“Let me see these children first,” Xiao Zishan thought for a moment. “It’s best to have the Ministry of Health give them a thorough physical examination in advance. They must be completely healthy. By the way, their appearance should also be relatively good.”

“Alright, no problem,” Hu Qingbai secretly smiled. This director was really meticulous.

After seeing off the “imperial envoy,” Hu Qingbai said to Bai Yu, “You go and find Wu De, inform him about the recruitment for the simple normal school, and ask him to help and cooperate—after all, the natives are all under his management. He knows best who is suitable and who is not.”

Bai Yu nodded, “This is also as it should be.”

Bai Yu found Wu De and explained the request to him. Wu De nodded, “The simple normal school is a good idea, but I’m afraid it will be difficult to find so many girls of the right age.”

Wu De introduced the current situation of refugee reception. As of May 1629, they had received more than 6,000 refugees through the Guangzhou Station channel. Among them, more than 4,000 had been transported to Lin’gao and settled in the Bairen Commune. Five hundred people were settled in Leizhou, and more than 1,000 were still detained in Guangzhou.

Wu De said, “We have transported a lot of people, but the age of the people we have received is uneven. You want three hundred and fifty girls between the ages of fifteen and twenty at once. Where am I going to find them for you?”

“I thought there were a lot of women…” Bai Yu muttered. “Didn’t the ancients treat girls as a money-losing proposition?”

“But they are also very keen on snatching women and buying women. These refugees have been wandering all the way to Guangzhou. The possibility of young girls being sold or snatched on the way is too great.”

“How many can you give?”

“One hundred and twenty at most, and we still have to give forty to the Ministry of Health,” Wu De said after checking the computer.

“The Ministry of Health wants so many?!”

“In my opinion, we’ve given the Ministry of Health too few. We don’t even have enough people to mix disinfectant for the camp now,” Wu De sent Bai Yu away.

“Hmph, you all come to me for girls. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking!” Wu De said in a low voice. He then called out, “Chu Yu!”

“Coming!” Chu Yu had already changed her attire. Her hair was cut short, and her clothes were changed to modern ones. In addition, after “receiving the first rain and dew,” her figure and face had filled out, and she looked very different from the little girl she used to be.

“Call Dugu Qiuhun and inform him that we’re going to the quarantine camp together.”

Wu De, the People’s Commissioner for Civil Affairs, was at the top of the Executive Committee’s power structure for no other reason than that his work was the most arduous and the most important. No matter how advanced the technology, industry, and how much money there was, there had to be people to do the work. And Wu De controlled all the human resources of the transmigrator group.

Dugu Qiuhun appeared in his office wearing an old-style iron-gray shirt of the Type 99 police uniform, with East German People’s Army summer service breeches and high-top boots—the replica SS M32 uniform he had brought with him was impossible to wear in Lin’gao, so he had to settle for second best. After all, this outfit still looked “iron-blooded” enough.

“Let’s go, let’s go to the quarantine camp.”

This was a daily routine. No matter how busy his work was, Wu De would go to the quarantine camp with the heads of the powerful departments and the health department for inspection. There were always a thousand people gathered in the camp, and it was no joke if a mass incident or an epidemic broke out.

When the car arrived at Bopu, He Ma from the Ministry of Health had also arrived. The three of them came to the heavily guarded quarantine camp. A company of infantry that had received riot control training was stationed here. In addition to rifles and grenades, they were also equipped with rattan armor, rattan shields, wooden sticks, and tear gas.

At present, apart from a few group fights over food and bathing, there had been no major disturbances. In order to prevent regional conflicts, host-guest conflicts, and clan conflicts from being brought into Lin’gao during the immigration process, Wu De had clearly stated several key points in the guidelines for receiving refugees sent to Guangzhou: only orphans, single men and women, and small single-family households were to be received. Those who migrated and wandered as a clan or a large family were not to be accepted—before the transmigrator group had cultivated enough reliable administrative cadres and a powerful machine of violence, the Executive Committee did not want to waste too much energy on resolving civil disputes. After all, the local clan problem in Lin’gao was already serious enough. If they were to introduce another large and powerful clan from outside, it would be simply asking for trouble.

Once a refugee was taken in, they had to sign a contract to become an indentured servant, losing their personal freedom. Since they were already servants in status, they were the property of their masters. In law, they had already severed their ties with their original families. After being “purified” and settled in the quarantine camp, he would become a slave with no past and no personal freedom. There was not even anything to remember, and he was left to be transformed by the transmigrator group into the human resources they needed.

Wu De was surrounded by a group of people as he walked into the quarantine camp. For some reason, every time he walked into this camp, he thought of the movie “Escape from Sobibor” that he had seen in the past. Although this association was extremely inappropriate, the long barracks, the surrounding barbed wire fences, the high watchtowers, the sentries with loaded guns, and the fearful expressions on the faces of the refugees when they saw his group walk by were all very similar.

The refugees had been well-drilled by the army in the camp. Whether it was the “attention!” when they entered, the “dismissed!” when they left, or the neat quilts and clean straw mats in the barracks—even in the women’s camp, it was no less impressive, reflecting the army’s super strength in this area.

When Dugu Qiuhun walked by, his black high-top boots and breeches made many people show expressions of fear—he was almost a symbol of terror in the quarantine camp. Many refugees could not forget the way he looked every time he came to the camp to judge the perpetrators who violated discipline: a young man who looked like a white-faced scholar, with a peaceful smile on his lips, a small gesture would cause some unlucky person to be dragged to the torture rack at the main gate and be beaten until their skin was torn and their flesh was exposed.

Wu De’s approach to the refugees was a combination of “grace and power.” They were well-fed, clothed, and treated for their illnesses, and their families could be reunited. But the “power” had to be sufficient to make the immigrants truly realize who the masters were here. Simply showing kindness would only make people indulgent. A strict disciplinary system was implemented here—those who followed the rules would not suffer, while those who did not would be severely punished. Those who repeatedly offended would be sent to hard labor.

This policy was very effective. According to the feedback from the various economic departments that accepted immigrant workers, the performance of the immigrants was excellent: they were obedient, worked hard, and had a strong sense of organization and discipline.

This also made the specific implementer—Dugu Qiuhun—quite isolated within the transmigrator group. Although most of the people in the transmigrator group were pragmatists, there were also many who held “universal” ideas. In addition, Dugu Qiuhun’s usual ostentatious attire made him unpopular with others. Some people even questioned on the BBS whether Dugu Qiuhun’s actions in the quarantine camp were fascist.

Dugu Qiuhun was in such an awkward and delicate situation, fulfilling his responsibilities. In order to prevent him from being further roasted on the fire pit, Wu De removed him from his concurrent post as the commander of the quarantine camp and replaced him with Yang He.

Yang He was a person with an extremely firm stance—an otaku with no expertise other than online games. He was just right for the job of commander of this quarantine camp. He had been the president or a senior cadre of several small guilds in several online games and had some experience in managing groups. More importantly, he carried out all of Wu De’s instructions without question. In this way, Dugu Qiuhun’s purges within the camp continued unimpeded.