Chapter 183: The Rural Tour

Similar fortified villages like Liu Family Village were not uncommon in Lincheng and were also very common throughout China at that time. These fortified villages had a high degree of independence. They would deal with the government, pay their taxes and grain levies without missing a single bit, but it was also very difficult for the government to manage their internal affairs. When the transmigrator group held its political consultative conference, Liu Family Village also sent a representative and elected a liaison; they paid their grain and sent their conscripts, appearing very obedient. When the comprehensive anti-bandit campaign began in the countryside, Liu Family Village politely refused to allow the work team to be stationed there, but they were very cooperative with the anti-bandit work, whether it was conscripting local militia for missions or supplying provisions, they did so promptly. The work team and the army responsible for the anti-bandit work had no complaints.

But this kind of obedience did not satisfy the transmigrator group—their ideal form of society was one where the government had absolute control over the grassroots. Although these fortified villages would not violate any of the ruler’s demands, they were also subjects with no loyalty, closing their doors to form a self-contained world. Whether it was bandits, government troops, or them, they would deal with them all, playing a positive role in maintaining local stability. The disadvantage was that once the situation changed, they would turn their backs faster than flipping a book. It was difficult for a ruler to consider them a stable rear base.

“If we don’t deal with the fortified villages in the countryside, we’ll be just another Warring States daimyo,” Wen Desi pointed out at a civil affairs work conference. “These fortress masters are outwardly obedient to us, but in secret, they might be colluding with bandits, pirates, and the government. At the first sign of trouble, they will immediately turn against us!”

Now that this Liu Youren had personally come to study, Wu De made a decisive decision. He consulted with Wu Nanhai and decided to send the most capable person to Liu Family Village to provide agricultural technical guidance and do social work, using this as a breakthrough point to gradually win over these semi-independent rural fortified villages to ally with the transmigrator group.

“We have also opened an agricultural supply store for everyone. If you are interested, you can go to the first floor to have a look and see if there is anything you need,” Wu Nanhai said mysteriously. “We’ve just received a new batch of farm tools…”

The participants in the training immediately emptied out of the classroom—iron farm tools were a scarce resource in Lincheng, and these were Australian farm tools. Australian goods were known for being exquisite and easy to use. Getting one was not only useful but also gave one great face among the local gentry.

The Heaven and Earth Society’s agricultural supply store was located on the first floor of the Heaven and Earth Society building, facing the main street, and was neatly arranged. Inside, various agricultural supplies were displayed, all newly produced by the machine factory and the woodworking factory for the agricultural promotion campaign. For now, there were no “super weapons” or novelties here. What was displayed were things everyone recognized. But the advantages in quality, appearance, and design of products made with modern industrial capabilities still made the natives linger.

“It’s just a hoe, but how can an Australian hoe look so elegant,” Fu Bu’er lamented.

“So elegant, I’m afraid it’s not durable?” someone doubted.

“Not durable? Australian goods are famous for being good and tough.”

“Exactly. Look at the steel quality, it’s much better than Blacksmith Li’s hoes in the city—his hoes are so brittle! They chip in no time.”

“I’ll take this one, and this one, and this one—”

“I don’t care, I’ll take one of each, no, three of each,” this was a wealthy person.

There were also those with little money, who could only stand back and watch with envy, but their pockets were empty. They thought that such good things would not be cheap—even Blacksmith Li’s crudely made iron tools were not cheap, let alone these.

“The total number of this batch of farm tools is only fifty. Each household is limited to purchasing four, one of each kind,” Ye Yuming said.

A sigh of regret came from the crowd.

“Four is four. How much silver?”

“No silver needed,” Ye Yuming said. “This store only accepts Lincheng grain circulation coupons.”

Now the crowd was dumbfounded. They all knew about the circulation coupons; they were a kind of paper money issued by the Australians. No one used them except in Dongmen Market and some surrounding areas—using a piece of paper as money was unsettling.

“Can’t we use silver?”

“No, only circulation coupons,” Ye Yuming said with a smile.

There was some muttering below. Someone then proposed to exchange silver for circulation coupons.

“You can’t exchange silver for circulation coupons, but you can with grain,” Ye Yuming said. “You can go to Delong Grain Company to do it. One jin of brown rice can be exchanged for one yuan.”

Immediately, some people instructed their long-term laborers and servants to hurry back and get grain to exchange for circulation coupons at Dongmen Market. Not everyone had silver, but small and medium-sized landlords and rich peasants had plenty of grain. The price of iron farm tools was not cheap; the agricultural supply store set the price from 50 to 100 yuan.

For those who couldn’t produce rice to exchange for circulation coupons at the moment—like Lu Da and the others, and a few who, although they had some land, were short on cash due to various circumstances—Yan Ming, the manager of the grain company who had been waiting on the side, immediately came out to promote Delong’s small-scale agricultural support loan business. To fully consider the farmers’ ability and acceptance, the loan designed by Yan Ming was unsecured, with monthly interest calculated at 2%, and the principal and interest to be repaid in one lump sum after the autumn harvest.

This interest rate was roughly on par with the current rural lending market in Lincheng, at the low to medium level. Yan Ming believed that this interest rate would not put too much repayment pressure on the farmers participating in the planting plan.

Delong lent out circulation coupons and collected circulation coupons in return. If the borrower did not have circulation coupons on hand, they would have to first go to Delong to exchange grain for circulation coupons before repaying the loan. This extra step was actually a way for the financial department to force the expansion of the circulation of coupons through lending. Even if it was only in the hands of the natives for a few minutes, it gave them a concept and confidence in using the circulation coupons.

Yan Ming spoke enthusiastically and tirelessly for about five or six minutes, but the people below did not react. Obviously, this sudden good thing made everyone a little at a loss. No one dared to be the first to try—this was not like borrowing from neighbors. Was the Kun bandits’ money so easy to borrow? Everyone had such thoughts.

In the end, the temptation of the iron farm tools was too great. With Yan Ming’s repeated assurances and Zhang Youfu’s guarantee that there was absolutely no trickery involved, plus the hard-earned reputation of the transmigrator group in Lincheng, the remaining people finally took out loans. Yan Ming was exhausted and sweating profusely.

“Little Ye, your Heaven and Earth Society is not easy,” Yan Ming said with deep feeling.

“It’s actually much better. After all, we have some foundation. In the past year, we haven’t lost the trust of the people.”

“If you ask me, it’s better to put more effort into large-scale collective farms,” Yan Ming said, looking at the pile of loan documents he had just collected with thumbprints. “Why so complicated? Just force these farmers and landlords into bankruptcy and then hire them as laborers on the farm.”

“You’re ruthless! But we’re still at a disadvantage because we have too few people. The Agriculture Committee’s Heaven and Earth Society plan is to foster a group of private collective farms to undertake agricultural production, so we don’t have to do everything ourselves—we just need to control the superstructure.”

“So that’s how it is!” Yan Ming nodded. “I’m starting to understand the Executive Committee’s thinking.”

After Fu Bu’er returned from the training class, he was as excited as could be. In the class, he not only learned many new farming methods but also visited the farm, which few natives could enter—it was an eye-opener.

But his wife once again caused him trouble. The farm tools he bought with several hundred jin of rice were scolded by his wife for over an hour. In a fit of anger, Fu Bu’er gave his wife a good beating and simply ignored her. He took care of organizing the farm tools, washing and feeding the plow oxen with concentrate feed, preparing to go all out as soon as the agricultural technician arrived.

He waited anxiously every day, and finally, the high-yield seeds and the agricultural technician he had been dreaming of arrived. When a young Kun man appeared at the village entrance, carrying a large bag on his back, the entire Meiyang Village was in an uproar—the Kun bandits had never come to Meiyang Village before! The young girls were all called back home. Fu Bu’er’s elder, the richest man in the village, Fu Yousan, was so scared that he pretended to be sick and hid.

This young Kun bandit didn’t know he had caused such a commotion. He cursed as he pulled his feet, covered in yellow mud, out of the field path. A pair of PLA-style shoes had been caked with mud into two large mud balls. He wore a standard “Australian suit”: a green short-sleeved jacket, and on his head, a colonial-style rattan-core, bamboo-skin, copper-basin sun hat with a flap hanging down the back. It was Wan Lihui.

Wan Lihui’s beautiful dream of being the Governor-General of Japan had not come true—not only could he not be the Governor-General, but he couldn’t even play with guns freely. He was issued a pistol for self-defense, but only with six rounds of ammunition. The farm did have SKS-D semi-automatic rifles, but besides being able to fire five rounds during the monthly military training, he couldn’t touch them.

Wan Lihui and his brother, Wan Lihuang, whom he had tricked into coming, became animal keepers at the farm, tending to the animals every day. They also had to compost the an endless stream of rotten fruit transported from various places to prepare feed for the earthworms. Every day, one or two boatloads of jackfruit were transported from Leizhou. This fruit was almost everywhere in Xuwen. In ancient times, the level of circulation was very poor, and a large amount of fruit could not be transported out, so it was left to rot in the fields. The Leizhou Sugar Company sent people to buy it at a low price and ship it to Lincheng by the boatload.

This rotting, foul-smelling stuff was transported to the farm in baskets, and it was the two brothers’ job to receive and process it. Dealing with this stuff every day, although they had masks, still made Wan Lihui feel a sweet, cloying stench in his nose wherever he went, and he even lost his appetite.

Hearing that the Heaven and Earth Society was going to assign him to be a touring agricultural technician in the countryside, Wan Lihui was so moved he almost cried—he could finally stop composting and raising earthworms!

“Brother, I’m leaving the breeding farm to you,” Wan Lihui said solemnly to his brother, who was wearing a mask and exuded a strong odor. “This is a major event concerning the new agriculture. You must do a good job and bring honor to our Wan family. In the future, the position of Secretary-General of the Japanese Governor-General’s office will be yours!”

After saying these grandiose words, Wan Lihui quickly slipped away.

The Heaven and Earth Society’s agricultural technicians’ rural tour adopted a circuit system. Each technician was responsible for five or six villages, staying in one village for a few days at a time, and then rotating. This continued throughout the entire production stage without interruption to promptly discover and solve problems.

Wan Lihui received his travel gear. This set of equipment was configured according to the suggestions of the remote exploration department. To address the problem of unclean drinking water, Wan Lihui’s luggage contained homemade water purification tablets from the pharmaceutical factory and bags of bleaching powder. The Ministry of Health had given the touring agricultural technicians simple medical and health training and equipped them with a medicine box containing some basic drugs—including several well-received traditional Chinese patent medicines recently produced by Runshitang.

“You agricultural technicians are not only transmitters of modern agricultural technology and sowers of modern science, but also propagandists of our great transmigrator cause! You must have this awareness every minute and every second you are outside the green zone!”

Ma Qianzhu made this speech at the farewell banquet for the touring agricultural technicians. It made the several agricultural technicians feel quite uneasy—this was too much responsibility, wasn’t it?

The villages the touring technicians were going to were mostly in the blue zone, within a forty-kilometer radius of Bairen City. After continuous suppression and the organization of patrol teams for regular security patrols, this area had become quite safe. The Internal Affairs Committee believed that it would not be a safety issue for the agricultural technicians to go to the countryside alone. There was no need to specifically dispatch soldiers for escort. And so, Wan Lihui came to Meiyang Village alone. The patrol team took him to a place five kilometers from the village, pointed him in the right direction, and let him go into the village by himself.

This mere five-kilometer journey took him a full two and a half hours. The field paths during the rainy season were not only full of mud and water but also extremely sticky. It took a great deal of effort to pull one’s foot out with each step. Wan Lihui had always prided himself on being the son of a true farmer, but the conditions of the 17th-century Lincheng countryside still deeply shocked him. This inconspicuous little field path alone showed how huge the gap of several hundred years was.

Wan Lihui looked desperately at his feet stuck in the yellow mud. The boots on his feet were in constant danger of coming off—losing a pair of combat boots was an irreparable and serious loss! Wan Lihui pulled his feet out with all his might and simply took off his shoes and socks. He tied the shoes together with the laces and hung them around his neck.

Walking barefoot on the muddy road was indeed much more comfortable. Wan Lihui had never walked barefoot before. In the modern world, even in the countryside, the ground was not free of debris like broken glass and rusty iron pieces.

Wan Lihui entered Meiyang Village in this state.

Fu Bu’er’s Meiyang Village was one of the many small villages scattered along the Wenlan River, situated on a small earthen slope. The village was not large, and it was surrounded by thorny shrubs as a barrier against bandits. A small river also encircled it. There was a simple drawbridge over the river. Because security had greatly improved recently, the able-bodied men who used to stand guard at the bridge had been withdrawn. Only women were washing clothes and rice at the river landing.

Now, the women were gone too. Only Fu Bu’er and his household servants were standing at the bridge to welcome this “chief.” Besides being a client of the Heaven and Earth Society, Fu Bu’er was also the village’s “liaison.” It was his duty to receive the transmigrators when they came to Meiyang Village. Many curious children and women stood at a distance, watching and discussing his attire and appearance, ignoring their families’ admonitions.

Wan Lihui heard the occasional laughter and chatter from the group of women, and his face couldn’t help but turn red. This made the women’s discussions even more lively.

Wan Lihui exchanged a few pleasantries with Fu Bu’er and followed him home. Most of the houses in the village were made of bamboo wattle walls and thatched roofs—the dwellings of the poor. It was clear that there were a few wealthy households here. The layout of the village was very random. Because there were only about thirty households in total, the population was small, so it didn’t feel crowded. Dirty water and garbage were everywhere. Pigs and chickens roamed freely in the mud, occasionally rummaging through the garbage for food.

“This environment!” Wan Lihui said to himself, recalling all the vaccinations he had received and the medicines he had brought.

“This is it,” Fu Bu’er led him to the gate of a courtyard. Fu Bu’er’s family was one of the better-off families in the village. Inside was a large courtyard. In the center were three brick-and-tile main rooms, with side rooms on both sides, all for living. There was also a side courtyard for raising livestock, storing farm tools, and housing the long-term laborers.

Fu Bu’er had cleaned out a side room for Wan Lihui to stay and rest. Wan Lihui saw that the overall environment was quite clean and decided to stay there.

Just as he opened his large backpack, he heard a woman in the main room shouting rapidly in the Lincheng dialect, high and low. Then came a pig-slaughtering-like scream and wail. Wan Lihui was at a loss.

“The master is beating his wife,” the speaker was Fu Bu’er’s household servant girl, named Fu Xi, a half-grown girl of thirteen or fourteen. She was dressed in shabby but neat clothes, with two black braids. She came in with a teapot. Seeing Wan Lihui, she first made a curtsy.

“You speak Mandarin?” Wan Lihui was surprised. Fu Xi’s Mandarin was not very standard, but at least they could communicate. It was much better than his own Lincheng dialect, which even the locals might not understand.

“A little. I’m studying at Fangcaodi.”

“Studying? You’re a student at the National School, right?”

“Yes, the master sent me to study,” Fu Xi said as she helped him unpack his luggage. “The master said you were coming, and it wouldn’t do if there was no one in the house who understood Mandarin, so he called me back.”

“Oh, will you go back to school after I leave?”

“Of course. The National School is much more interesting than here. The food is good, and it’s not dirty,” the girl pursed her lips. “Our family is one of the better ones in the village. The master has become much cleaner since he came back from being a prisoner last year.”

“Your master is quite open-minded, willing to send a girl to school,” Wan Lihui said.

“He’s just reluctant to lose the labor of Fu Qing and Fu Xiang. So he sent me to learn to read, do arithmetic, and keep accounts. He also wants me to learn to spin yarn and so on.”

Fu Bu’er had a total of four household servants. Besides these three, there was another named Fu Fu, who was older. He was sent by Fu Bu’er when the transmigrator group was conscripting able-bodied men in the spring.

“I hear he’s a soldier in the security regiment,” Fu Xi said. “Once you become a soldier, your heart wanders. The master was originally counting on his military pay, but he didn’t get a single penny. He was so angry he cursed his mother.” At this, she giggled, probably finding it quite amusing.