Chapter 186: The Issue of Interests

“I don’t know—” Wan Lihui thought, could that fifteen or sixteen-year-old country girl have taken a fancy to me? What if Fu Bu’er proposes to marry his daughter to him? Should he agree or not? Speaking of which, the Executive Committee didn’t seem to have any regulations about whether one could marry a native woman. That Fu Yijin was quite good-looking, just a bit dark. But in this time and space, she would definitely be a virgin…

“What are you thinking about?” Fu Xi’s voice interrupted Wan Lihui’s divergent thoughts. “Sister Yijin just said you work very hard and have taught everyone a lot, that you’re not a swindler.”

“Is that so,” Wan Lihui was slightly disappointed, but this showed that his strategy was successful. The Fu family’s trust in him was now quite good.

So he made even more effort to win over the Fu family’s household servants and children. Knowing that they usually didn’t eat well, he would leave his leftover rice at every meal, wrap it in a lotus leaf, and give it to Fu Xi after she had cleared the dishes. During breaks in the fields, he would often share the rations he brought in his backpack with everyone. With his dedicated efforts to win them over, Wan Lihui’s prestige in the Fu family grew daily, and everything he did went smoothly.

But Fu Bu’er’s attitude towards him was still lukewarm. Although he didn’t object to his opinions at all, he wasn’t very confident that this effect, born of the transmigrator group’s intimidation, would last after he left.

Wan Lihui thought that the key was to cater to his interests. What did Fu Bu’er lack most now? Naturally, it was money. It wasn’t that the Fu family was in urgent need of money, but he seemed to have a rather obsessive hobby of possessing more of it. He knew that Fu Bu’er had tried to grow cash crops several times and was now also raising ducks, which showed his great desire for money. One evening while they were cooling off, Fu Bu’er had mustered the courage to ask him to help get Fu Fu’s military pay back.

“Chief, you don’t know: Fu Fu is my household servant. He ate and wore what I gave him since he was a child. I raised him until he was eighteen or nineteen, so I’m like his father. Now he’s a soldier, but he doesn’t bring a single penny of his monthly pay back! That’s one tael of silver a month! One tael of silver!”

Remembering the indignant expression on Fu Bu’er’s face when he mentioned the silver, Wan Lihui thought this was his weakness. The effect of planting rice would only be seen in the autumn. What could he help him do now to generate some income?

Have him supply vegetables and ducks to the transmigrator group? He was already doing that. The salesmen from Quanfu Restaurant would come to the village every week in their ox-carts to buy vegetables, live pigs, and poultry and eggs.

Wan Lihui thought about this troublesome problem all night but couldn’t come up with a solution. Neither planting nor breeding could generate quick profits. He had considered helping Fu Bu’er with sericulture, which he was relatively familiar with, but there were very few mulberry trees locally. If they had to wait until after planting mulberry trees to raise silkworms—that would probably take too long.

It seemed that to get rich quick, one still had to rely on industry and commerce. Wan Lihui came to the conclusion that countless people before him had reached.

About half a month passed like this. Seeing that the transplanting of Fu Bu’er’s second rice crop was basically finished and that the key points of field management had all been taught, he set off to return to the farm to rest for a few days.

Upon returning to the farm, Wan Lihui first wrote a report on the client’s economic, demographic, and ideological situation. He then attended a debriefing meeting on the rural guidance provided by the touring inspectors. After the meeting, he went directly to the General Staff Headquarters.

Originally, Wan Lihui wanted to find Ma Qianzhu, but he wasn’t there. After wandering around for a long time, he found someone and asked, “Who is in charge of political and ideological work?”

And so he came to the “Political Department.” Wei Aiwen was in his office talking to a few new recruits. Wan Lihui had to sit at the door for a while. Although the door was closed, he could hear the faint sound of a man crying inside. What was this guy doing? Was he torturing soldiers, or doing something else…

As his imagination ran wild, the door opened, and two young men wearing the insignia of education soldiers came out. Although their eyes were red, their faces had a look of relief.

Wan Lihui walked into the Political Department office. Before he could even stand still, he heard someone shouting:

“Which squad are you from? Why did you come in without signing the register and reporting? Is there no discipline!”

The speaker was a half-grown boy, wearing an army uniform, looking at him with a serious face, and gesturing firmly for him to leave.

“What?!” Wan Lihui’s nose was almost bent out of shape with anger. I’m composting at the farm, scooping up river mud in the countryside at the risk of encountering bandits, and transplanting rice in the fields, while you guys are living comfortably in the office, putting on the airs of a privileged class.

“Hey, hey, this is a chief—” Although Wei Aiwen didn’t know Wan Lihui, he knew this person was a transmigrator. Seeing his unfriendly expression, he quickly came over to smooth things over.

“Even a chief can’t. No one is allowed in the Political Department office without being summoned. Anyone seeking an audience must register…” This little boy was quite spunky, not giving Wan Lihui any face at all.

“This gentleman had an appointment with me. You can go out first,” Wei Aiwen quickly pushed the meticulous young cadet out the door, closed it, and then turned back to ask:

“You are?”

Wan Lihui saw that the person before him was only in his mid-twenties, wearing a well-ironed Year One army uniform, with a German-style officer’s belt and brightly polished leather boots. He immediately felt a strong dislike:

“This is a military restricted area. I’d better go out and register first.”

“Not at all!” Wei Aiwen said quickly. “I’m Wei Aiwen. And you are—”

“I’m Wan Lihui from the Agriculture Committee,” he said, sitting down in a chair. “I have something to discuss. I originally wanted to talk to the Chief, but since he’s not here, I’ll just talk to you—it’s related to political work, after all.”

“There should be a soldier in the army named Fu Fu…” he then explained the Fu family’s situation and mentioned Fu Bu’er’s desire for the military pay. He hoped the Political Department could mediate and have Fu Fu send a little of his pay home each month.

“It doesn’t have to be much, just a few hundred cash to show the gesture…”

“This is unreasonable,” Wei Aiwen said disapprovingly. “Fu Bu’er is his master, not his father—not even his adoptive father. It’s a master-slave relationship. Now that Fu Fu is our soldier, he is no longer his slave. His demand to take part of the military pay is completely untenable.”

“That’s true, but Fu Bu’er feels he’s at a great loss. He raised Fu Fu, and now that he’s a soldier with us, he’s lost a laborer and gets no benefit. I’m afraid that’s not quite right.”

“He should have been given 200 kilograms of rice as a settlement fee when he enlisted. This landlord is quite greedy!” Wei Aiwen expressed his contempt.

“He’s definitely greedy, but I think we should still satisfy him,” Wan Lihui said. “Winning his goodwill is very useful for the promotion of the Heaven and Earth Society.”

“No, no,” Wei Aiwen shook his head. “Whether a soldier sends his pay to his family is his personal freedom. We have no right to interfere.”

“That’s why I’m asking you to do political and ideological work. Aren’t you the Political Department…”

Wei Aiwen was very against this. Suddenly, he became suspicious: this Wan Lihui was so keen on fighting for the interests of this landlord, Fu Bu’er. Could he have received some bribe while he was in the countryside? But this landlord Fu was even trying to get his hands on the monthly military pay of one tael of silver; he probably couldn’t afford to offer any money. Then it must be—

The term “sexual bribery” suddenly jumped into his mind. That’s right, it must be. In ancient society, women had no status. He must have used his daughter as a gift to build connections… Wei Aiwen’s imagination immediately began to race: Wan Lihui feasting in the landlord’s hall, the landlord’s daughter coming out to offer wine, and then…

At this thought, his tone couldn’t help but harden: “Speaking for a slave owner is not the job of our Political Department.”

“You!” Wan Lihui almost jumped up, but then he thought that what Wei Aiwen said was also reasonable. He softened his tone and pleaded, “This matter is indeed not very reasonable, but it’s helpful for our work.”

“I don’t see how it’s useful—” Wei Aiwen replied stiffly.

“You don’t understand the issues here!”

“Isn’t it just a greedy landlord?”

“It’s not that simple!”

The voices of the two men involuntarily rose. The cadet outside the door quickly opened it and came in.

“Out! No need to come in!” Wei Aiwen was afraid the cadet would do something out of line in his agitation, and he would have to take the blame.

“Let’s be civil, no need to argue,” Wu De’s voice came from outside the door.

Wu De had come to the Army Department to coordinate the deployment of labor. The army was currently the most commonly used organized labor force by the labor allocation department under Wu De’s management.

“You’ve come at the right time. Come and judge this,” Wei Aiwen quickly pulled him in and explained the whole story.

Wan Lihui also explained the Fu family’s situation and his own thoughts.

Wu De smiled, “Little Wan, you’re quite enthusiastic. But this matter is indeed tricky.”

“What’s tricky about it? We shouldn’t even bother with it,” Wei Aiwen said angrily. “To gain the so-called ‘goodwill’ of a landlord, we’re forcing a soldier to send his pay to a slave owner? What does that make us! The landlord’s lackeys?”

“Alright, alright, let’s not blow things out of proportion,” Wu De gestured downwards with his hand. “This matter is not big, but it’s not small either. We might encounter similar things often in the future.”

The Ming Dynasty was not a slave society, but the system of servitude was widespread. The deeper they went into this society and the wider the range of people they came into contact with, the more they could not avoid this issue.

“In my opinion, we should just not recognize this system of servitude…”

“Not recognizing it is of course the simplest. But don’t forget that the immigrants are all indentured servants of the transmigrator group—we are the slave owners. Since we want to use this system of servitude for ourselves, we must treat everyone equally. We can’t allow ourselves to set fires while forbidding others to light lamps.”

“Alright,” Wei Aiwen softened his tone. “Tell me what you think we should do, but I don’t agree with this approach.”

“Since we are going to recognize the system of servitude, then Fu Bu’er’s request has its reasonableness—Fu Fu is his household slave. Having him serve as a soldier and taking his military pay as income is the same as having Fu Fu work for him for free and exploiting his labor.”

“That can’t be the same thing, can it? Being a soldier is high-risk. You could get disabled or killed. It’s not the same as farming and doing odd jobs.”

“This could probably be considered a high-risk, high-reward situation. It’s just that the reward is taken by his master, and he is reduced to the status of a beast of burden. Now that Fu Fu is unwilling to send his pay back, it shows that he has developed a sense of resistance and is no longer submissive.”

“How should we handle this?”

“If we ignore it, of course, Fu Bu’er can’t do anything—although he’s dissatisfied, it might not necessarily affect the promotion of the Heaven and Earth Society…”

Wan Lihui was about to object but was stopped by Wu De:

“Little Wan, your starting point is good, but this is a matter of adding flowers to a brocade, not sending charcoal in a snowstorm. If you can help Fu Bu’er get Fu Fu’s military pay, he will naturally trust you more, and it will be easier to do your work in the future. If you ignore him completely, he might not necessarily harbor resentment towards us and affect the promotion of the Heaven and Earth Society—he can still distinguish between major and minor interests.”

“The opposition in the village is very strong, and there are many rumors…”

“Even if you help him get Fu Fu’s military pay, you can’t eliminate the rumors, can you? You want to use this matter to gain Fu Bu’er’s trust—the idea is not bad, but you need to consider it more comprehensively,” Wu De lit a cigarette. “The Political Department can certainly persuade Fu Fu. But what will Fu Fu think? He will definitely feel that we are biased towards the rich—after all, he is the one shedding blood and sweat, not Fu Bu’er. Besides, their relationship is that of master and household slave. Fu Bu’er feels he has raised Fu Fu, but Fu Fu might be full of hatred for being abused and exploited since he was a child.”

“Ah, right—” Wan Lihui thought, he hadn’t considered that.

“As they say, where you sit is who you speak for. Now, landlords like Fu Bu’er, we want to win them over. And poor people like Fu Fu are our basic force.”

“You mean, not to offend either side…”

“Haha, I mean you don’t need to pay any attention to Fu Bu’er at all,” Wu De smiled. “I’ve already explained the reason—the benefits Fu Bu’er gets from us are far greater than that little bit of military pay. Just pretend you didn’t hear him. As for how to handle it in the future, we will come up with another plan.”

“I understand,” Wan Lihui nodded and left.

This incident also reminded Wu De that similar problems would likely become more and more common in the future. Since they had chosen to temporarily bear this historical burden, they had to find a reasonable solution.

“Little Wei, investigate this: how many soldiers in the army are currently of servant status, what are their situations, are they runaway slaves or sent by their masters—I think among the able-bodied men sent from the villages, there are probably many like Fu Fu.”

“We have the political screening forms. I’ll have the computer center compile the statistics right away.”—To save the lifespan of the computer components, the number of computers allocated to each department had been greatly reduced. Except for a few departments and a few individuals’ offices, each department had its own computer center to handle various affairs centrally.

The computer center quickly replied. According to the registration on the political screening forms, there were more than thirty soldiers registered as servants of some family in Lincheng. There were even more registered as runaway slaves, numbering three or four hundred.

“The information on the political screening forms may not fully reflect the situation. Some people may have concealed their history. It’s better to have the squad leaders investigate carefully—don’t make it too formal and scare people.”

After giving his instructions, he went to find Ma Qianzhu and discussed this issue with him, hoping to find a solution to similar problems.

“Ah De, speaking of which, we really need to think about this,” Ma Qianzhu said. “As we interact more and more with the natives of this time and space, we must have a formal document to regulate our behavior. Besides the issue of servitude you mentioned, there’s also adoption, taking apprentices, and some people have also come to the Executive Committee to ask what procedures are needed to marry a native wife.”

In fact, some people had also asked if they could buy a servant for themselves—the deeds of Chang Shide in Leizhou had spread throughout both banks of the Wenlan River, arousing the envy of the otaku. Since they couldn’t wait for the welfare distribution of women, buying one for themselves would be nice, right? Suddenly, buying a maidservant became a hot topic for everyone.

Wu De’s face turned slightly red. The status of Chu Yu in his family was still “unclear.” She continued to hold the title of “commune secretary.”

“Let’s just make a law—the ‘Law on Relations with Natives’? We can codify all kinds of relationships with the natives, their rights and obligations, and how to handle disputes, in the form of legal articles. We can have the Judicial Office do it.”

“Just let Ma Jia do it. Doesn’t he like to make legal clauses? The Law Club, tsk tsk.”

“There’s no existing book to copy for this law. We can draft a guiding document first.”

How to guide? Ma Qianzhu thought that the relationship with the natives was extremely complex, involving many aspects. It was not easy to sort it out in a short time. He had someone ask Ma Jia for his opinion—he spent most of his time at the farm’s cafe recently, where the jurists of the Law Club used it as their office.

After listening to their introduction of the situation, Ma Jia said, “It’s difficult to create a written law immediately. I think for now, we should adopt the form of case examples. Case examples are flexible to use and can be revised and supplemented at any time.”

They would make a list of all the negotiation incidents encountered so far when dealing with the natives, and then write down the specific handling methods and reference opinions at the time, and then add the guiding opinions of the Executive Committee. This way, they could just look up the case examples when needed. It would be much simpler and clearer than obscure legal articles.

“Take the current issue of servitude in the army,” Wu De explained today’s events to him. “This kind of thing is very typical: the master sends his servant to be a soldier and also wants to take his military pay. Which side should we be on? After investigation, there are more than thirty people in the army who are local servants. Landlords with the same idea as Fu Bu’er are probably not an exception.”