Chapter 208: The Study Class (II)

Those who wanted to continue to keep their ships could continue to command their fleets. They could join the newly formed joint-venture licensed company of the Foreign Trade Committee—the Southeast Asia Company, which specialized in overseas trade. The leaders would use their ships as shares. Each one-hundred-ton ship would be counted as one share, and those over one hundred tons would be calculated accordingly. Ships under one hundred tons would not be accepted.

In addition to carrying out overseas trade activities, the ships participating in the Southeast Asia Company also had to complete the transportation, combat, and patrol tasks assigned by the Navy Department—the Southeast Asia Company was under the dual leadership of the Foreign Trade Committee and the Navy Department. However, at the level, the management of the company could participate in the enlarged meetings of the Executive Committee.

After this policy was introduced, everyone felt it was acceptable. Although after supplementing personnel and unifying logistics, their personal control over the fleet had been greatly reduced, being able to maintain control of the fleet still made many people feel more comfortable psychologically.

Most people chose to join the Southeast Asia Company. Since they were going to sail on the high seas, small ships were useless, so they simply handed them all over and could get some silver in exchange. Shi Shisi was different from the others. He resolutely demanded to hand over all his ships to the organization, and did not want a single penny. He only asked to be a small official like a “qianzong” in the Navy Department. Wei Aiwen found it strange—how could this pirate leader suddenly have such a high level of consciousness? Could it be that he really thought that we could fight all the way to Beijing and make him a founding minister?

Lin Dan also handed over his ship without hesitation. He also did not want silver, but had a request: the transmigrator group must do its best to help him find the whereabouts of his family.

“You will be given as much silver as you deserve. This is a matter of credibility,” Wei Aiwen said. “As for finding your family, we will definitely do our best—aren’t we a family now?”

Fatty Hu handed over all five of his ships without a second thought. He requested not to go to sea again—he wanted to run a farm.

“Before I became a pirate, I was a good farmer. If it weren’t for the plague of Yang Liu and Yang Qi who burned down my old man’s farm, I wouldn’t have done this business.”

“If you didn’t do this business, you might have been ruined long ago,” Lin Dan said. “You country bumpkin, you’re just a piece of fat meat.”

After a period of registration and allocation, five of the eleven big and small leaders who came with ships were willing to hand over all their ships. Among them, Hu Wumei—that is, Fatty Hu, whose elders gave him this female name because it was difficult to have children—said that he was not willing to continue to eat this bowl of rice on the sea and wanted to take the silver to buy some land and settle down.

“You don’t need to buy land and houses. We will provide you with a house. How about this, you can be a farm manager for us.” Wu De, who was at the side, nodded. “There is a school farm outside the county town. There are hundreds of mu of land there that are short of a manager. You can live there with your wife, children, and relatives. You can also take a few of your personal soldiers with you.”

“Okay, managing a farm is my old profession.” Hu Wumei was quite satisfied with this arrangement. “I still want to buy some land, is that okay?”

Wu De nodded and said, “Of course you can, but we have a policy for buying land. You have to wait a little—anyway, silver is always silver in your hands, you won’t lose out!”

“Good, good.” Hu Wumei was very satisfied with this arrangement.

Shi Shisi, Lin Dan, Li Guangfa, and others were willing to directly join the “navy” of the Australian group.

The other six people joined the Southeast Asia Company. They also handed over some small ships and only kept the large ones. On average, each person still had three to five large ships.

Yan Ming brought people from the Delong Grain Store to handle the ship redemption on the spot. The measurement units of ancient Chinese ships were relatively complex. Some were based on the materials used, some were based on size, and some were based on carrying capacity. The price calculated by Yan Ming was based on the shipbuilding prices of ships of various sizes in Guangdong and Fujian collected by the Guangzhou station as a basic reference point, and then the ships were evaluated for their material, condition, and accessories. In general, the price was favorable. In fact, these ships had been drifting at sea for two or three years without being repaired, and their condition was generally poor.

The price was all paid in silver, and it was paid to the leaders in full. This was also a way to gain their trust. Yan Ming estimated that according to the current consumption situation in Lingao, these people would soon get tired of the not-so-easy-to-use silver.

After the procedures were completed, each leader designated a few trusted subordinates to handle the handover of the ships. After the seals were broken by the personnel of the Planning Committee, the cannons, ammunition, grain, materials, and personal luggage on each ship were all moved down. All personal items were disinfected and then returned to their respective owners. As for items such as cannons, grain, and weapons, they were all registered and put into public storage by the Planning Committee. Regardless of whether these ships were redeemed or not, the shipyard had to carry out comprehensive repairs and modifications on them in order to perform tasks in the autumn.

After the arrangements were made, a two-month leave was announced for everyone to settle their families and handle their private affairs. Subsequently, the doctors of the Ministry of Health also conducted a physical examination for the leaders and their families—several people were admitted to the venereal disease prevention and treatment center on the spot. The rest of the people, after going through the “purification” procedure, received the keys to their respective residences.

This batch of residences specially for the pirate leaders was located in the high-end residential area of Bopu Commune. This was the first pilot high-end residential area to be built. There were twelve terraced houses in each row, and a total of three rows were built. Except for Hu Wumei and Lin Dan who went to the farm, the other nine households all moved in. Because Lin Dan was alone, he felt that it was boring to live in such a large house alone, so he requested to live in the navy barracks. Chen Haiyang allocated him an officer’s dormitory in the Bopu naval camp.

The interior decoration, furniture, and furnishings, including daily necessities, were all complete. Wu De instructed that the four major standards of “neat, clean, comfortable, and decent” should be embodied. Flowers and trees were also planted in the front and back yards, which made the pirate families who were used to living in the narrow environment at sea feel very comfortable and cozy. And the faucet that could automatically produce water with a single pull of the lever caused a sensation.

The transmigrator group also arranged a gatekeeper for each household, basically an old man, to watch the door, clean, and also receive visitors. Wearing a brand-new blue robe and sitting at the door, he looked very imposing. In fact, they were all part-time informants who received allowances from the Political Security General Administration.

When each family moved, Ding Ding, the head of the propaganda department, as usual, called the band to play music and set off firecrackers to create a festive atmosphere. Then, in the names of Wei Aiwen, Chen Haiyang, Wu De, and Lin Baiguang, congratulatory gifts for the housewarming were sent respectively. Finally, a congratulatory gift was sent in the name of the Executive Committee.

For a time, the leaders could not figure out the system of the Australians. Some thought that this “Executive Committee” was probably the name of the Australian emperor, and some who were slightly literate knew that it was the name of an institution like the “cabinet.” In any case, it was a rare favor. So as soon as the gifts arrived, everyone knelt down and kowtowed to thank them. They also respectfully placed the gifts in the center of the main hall. This made Wei Aiwen, who had come to congratulate them, not know whether to laugh or cry.

The gifts sent were all very simple, with no gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, or calligraphy and paintings. They were all daily necessities: firewood, rice, oil, salt, cloth, and silk. Although they were not valuable, it was a very thoughtful gesture for the newcomers who did not even know where to buy things.

Finally, the cafeteria sent a housewarming banquet. Wei Aiwen, Chen Haiyang, and others personally accompanied them, and the atmosphere was very warm. Everyone was very grateful for the various preferential treatments given after landing.

Then there were “study sessions” every three to five days. The content of the study was nothing more than watching movies and attending classes, plus the “visits” that the Communist Party had repeatedly used to “reform ideology” in those years. The only regret was that the transmigrator group did not have so many industrial and mining enterprises for them to see, and the scale of these enterprises was mostly a bit shabby. However, the semi-modern production capacity displayed by the limited number of factories was enough to give the people of the Middle Ages a sufficient shock.

Wei Aiwen assigned a student from the political department’s training class to each leader, nominally as a translator, so that they could understand the content of the lectures, but in essence, it was a one-on-one infiltration-style propaganda.

They also visited the drills of the army and navy, artillery target practice, and infantry formation drills. But these things, except for the powerful force of the artillery fire, did not impress them as much as the factories. It was purely for the excitement—most of the leaders knew very little about military affairs. Even their naval combat tactics were mediocre, basically just following the flag to charge, using cannons at a distance, firing rockets at close range, and finally boarding and fighting hand-to-hand.

In addition to visits and watching movies, lectures were also held. Although most of them were illiterate, at this stage, they were not taught to read—these people were used to being unrestrained, and they did not understand the importance of knowledge enough. It was impossible for them to sit in class like students. Therefore, the lectures were in the form of symposiums, mainly for ideological indoctrination. In addition to Wei Aiwen himself, Lin Baiguang, Wu De, Chen Haiyang, and others also took turns to come. The symposiums were generally held in the pavilion of the farm, with tea, snacks, and fruits, eating, drinking, and chatting. In such chats, the views of the transmigrator group were slowly instilled, and from time to time, they had to answer questions and clear up doubts. From the scientific popularization of why iron ships can float on water to whether the “Australians” are going to rebel and conquer the world—for the question of whether to rebel, Wei Aiwen always smiled mysteriously and did not answer.

This equal and trusting way of talking gave the leaders a great deal of goodwill—they were almost all from poor backgrounds and were used to the tyranny of the government. Although there was some “democratic” atmosphere in the pirate group, under the family-style management system, as collateral relatives with different surnames, they could only hide their complaints about the various injustices within the group in their hearts. Now that everyone was talking openly and freely, they felt a sense of relief. Many people could not help but vent their dissatisfaction with Zhu Cailao. Wei Aiwen listened and nodded, thinking that at this moment in the quarantine camp, the sailors were probably also venting their dissatisfaction with them.