Chapter Three Hundred and Sixty-Six: A Record of Atrocities

The history group spent four or five days collecting materials and quickly compiled the first volume of “A Record of the Usurping Ming’s Atrocities.” The historical materials of the Ming Dynasty are as vast as the sea. Of course, it was impossible for the history group to check them one by one, so they excerpted and organized some historical events that everyone was familiar with. It was just that they had some difficulty with how to “add fuel to the fire.” It is normal for historians to have different views, but it is not so easy to forge historical materials.

So everyone adopted the method of using unofficial histories as much as possible. Unofficial histories have more details that are not recorded in official histories, and there are also more plots that the masses love to see.

After the first volume was published internally, only sixty copies were printed. The Great Library gave forty copies to the General Political Security Bureau, ten copies to the Great Library for collection, the history data group kept two copies for itself, and the rest were sent to the Executive Committee for review.

This book immediately attracted everyone’s attention. At present, the Transmigrator Group has not yet completely broken with the Ming Dynasty, but that day is not far away. Once the break occurs, the disguise will be completely abandoned, and the Transmigrator Group must find enough “rationality” for its actions. It should be known that not everyone will be deceived by the ambition of rebelling to become a king or marquis and gain wealth. What they have to fight against is the Ming Dynasty, which has existed for nearly three hundred years—the banner of orthodoxy is very important in the hearts of the Chinese people.

This book happened to meet the needs of this new situation. Many people called to request additional printing of this book, preparing to use it to gradually brainwash the native cadres under their command. The Executive Committee had to announce that the distribution of this book could not be expanded for the time being, and no additional printing was allowed until after full demonstration.

After reading this book, Ding Ding felt great pressure. The idea was actually very simple and not difficult to implement—it was nothing more than compiling black materials, but how could he not have thought of it? Now Wu Mu has taken the lead! The internal consensus of the Transmigrator Group was that Wu Mu of the General Political Security Bureau was very good at producing propaganda and black materials.

So Ding Ding couldn’t wait to submit a report to the Executive Committee, requesting that the Propaganda and Culture Department take the lead in organizing a team to compile it. Not only should they continue to compile “A Record of the Usurping Ming’s Atrocities,” but they should also compile “A Record of the Zheng Family’s Atrocities” and “A Record of the Eastern Captives’ Atrocities” to prepare public opinion for future wars with these two forces.

This later became a custom. Whenever the Transmigrator Group was about to go to war with someone, it would throw out a copy of “A Record of XX’s Atrocities”—anyway, in this time and space, no place had as much information as the Great Library of the Transmigrator Group.

But the originality of this idea still belonged to Wu Mu. Ding Ding personally went to the General Political Security Bureau and asked Wu Mu to hand over the specific compilation work of “A Record of the Usurping Ming’s Atrocities” to the Propaganda and Culture Department for overall management. In theory, this request was not necessary. Wu Mu had only made a suggestion, but Ding Ding decided to be cautious—you can’t be too cautious when dealing with the secret police.

Ding Ding returned the favor and helped Wu Mu compile the experience of this political study using the puppet show into a booklet and distribute it to various departments—of course, this also showed the importance of his puppet troupe, which was a “win-win” situation. Thus, Wu Mu suddenly became famous throughout the group from an unknown clerk-like figure.

Wei Aiwen was very dissatisfied with this phenomenon and sent a memorandum to the Executive Committee and Ma Jia, reiterating that “political and ideological work is the work of the Political Department, and other departments should not interfere without authorization, so as to avoid inconsistencies in propaganda and ideology in political and ideological work.”

Ma Jia forwarded the memorandum to Zhao Manxiongski’s office.

“Wei Aiwen has an opinion,” Ma Jia said with a smile.

Zhao Manxiongski glanced at the letterhead of the memorandum and smiled slightly, “He even forgot the words ‘General Staff’.”

Ma Jia hadn’t noticed just now. A closer look at the letterhead revealed that it said “General Political Department.” This was not only forgetting “General Staff,” but also changing the letterhead of his own department without authorization. The official full name of his department was clearly “General Staff Political Department.”

“He also called to complain,” Ma Jia said. “Of course, I fully support you.”

“It’s okay,” Zhao Manxiong said. “Wu Mu’s work is only for the staff of the General Political Security Bureau—they have a certain particularity.”

The implication was that the General Political Security Bureau would not interfere in other departments in this area.

“I will explain it to him.”

“I will archive this memorandum and will not return it to you.”

“Of course,” Ma Jia didn’t know why he specifically mentioned this. “The copy was originally intended for the General Political Security Bureau.”

“In addition, I hope you will sign this commendation order.” Zhao Manxiongski took out an official document. Ma Jia looked at it. It was a general commendation order for Wu Mu. He signed it without a second thought.

“Only a general commendation? His current reputation is enough to apply for the Chairman’s Commendation Order.”

“His work is still not enough. Besides, being too famous is meaningless to him and our department.”

Zhao Manxiong then summoned Wu Mu. Wu Mu, the director of the office of the General Political Security Bureau, was currently stationed at the Fangcaodi Education Park, directly in charge of the student team’s work.

Zhao Manxiong first expressed his appreciation for Wu Mu’s work, then gave him the general commendation order, and apologized that such a commendation was only a piece of paper for now, with no specific reward, and that they would have to wait until conditions were better in the future.

Then he gave instructions on the work report submitted by Wu Mu:

“There is one problem that I hope you will pay more attention to,” Zhao Manxiong said. “In terms of political study, never let the students experience the problem of the system.”

“This, I don’t understand—” Wu Mu didn’t know what this meant.

“The Ming Dynasty has a system problem, but will the future transmigrator Empire not have a system problem?” Zhao Manxiongski snorted. “We just need to tell the students: ‘The Ming is bad, the Transmigrator Group is good’.”

“Yes, I understand!” Wu Mu said. “In the future, it will be ‘The Tartars are bad, the Transmigrator Group is good’.”

“Absolutely correct,” Zhao Manxiong nodded. At the end of the conversation, Zhao Manxiong reminded him, “People who do secret work are best not to be famous.”

These words brought the recently successful, smug, and light-headed Wu Mu back to the real world, and his happiness was reduced by more than half.

“I will definitely pay attention in the future.”

After Wu Mu left, Zhao Manxiong opened a locally made reinforced concrete safe in his office and took out a file from it—it had a label “Wei Aiwen” on it. He put the memorandum brought by Ma Jia into it.

Wu Mu returned to his temporary office in Fangcaodi and saw the latest student’s thoughts on his desk. He looked at it. It was from the girls’ team. Wu Mu was not interested in the others and directly took out Yang Cao’s.

Yang Cao’s handwriting was relatively beautiful among the student team—obviously not the result of the literacy education in Lingao. He remembered that Yang Cao had said in her self-confession that she had learned a little culture in the theater troupe.

The full text was in vernacular, and it was quite smooth. There were many typos and unreadable sentences, but the general meaning could still be understood.

Wu Mu was a little disappointed. This thought was just a restatement of the material in her own file. From beginning to end, it had a cold taste. There were no tear stains on the paper, nor were there any chaotic strokes caused by emotional excitement. This woman was really calm—but the calmer she was, the more suspicious she was. Wu Mu couldn’t imagine how a woman with such a tragic experience could remain calm in the “accusation” atmosphere he had worked so hard to create.

Wu Mu thought for a moment and asked He Chun to call her over.

“This is your thought.”

“Yes, chief.”

“Don’t you have any thoughts after watching this play?”

“I have written them all in my thought,” Yang Cao said.

Wu Mu couldn’t think of anything else to ask. He was speechless for a moment, only feeling that this woman’s heart was as hard as iron and unfathomable. He thought that this person must not be allowed to stay in the student team.

“Chief, don’t you just want to see your servant cry her eyes out and tell you all the tragic things about her life?” Yang Cao had a strange smile on her face. “Will you be at ease with your servant then?”

Wu Mu was greatly surprised. These words hit the nail on the head. In the past, he had always had a sense of intellectual superiority over the native students, especially when conducting political studies. He almost felt like he was playing with them in the palm of his hand.

But Yang Cao suddenly shattered his sense of self-superiority, which made him very embarrassed. He subconsciously denied it:

“We know about your past.”

“Actually, it’s nothing if the chief wants to know.” Yang Cao began to undress. Wu Mu was greatly surprised, “Hey, hey, what are you doing?”

“Hasn’t the chief seen a woman’s body before?” The woman had a mocking smile on her lips.

Wu Mu was even more embarrassed: as expected of an actress, so shameless!

Yang Cao did not take everything off at once. She took off her top, leaving only her underwear.

“This is my past,” Yang Cao pointed to her bare shoulders, arms, and half-exposed chest, which were all covered with old scars. Although the color had faded, they could still be seen if you looked closely.

“Chief, these were all left by the troupe leader, and also by the clients—” Yang Cao said in a tone that seemed to have nothing to do with her. “When I’m not performing, I have to receive clients for the troupe leader to make money.” She pointed to the dozen or so old burn scars on her half-exposed chest. “This is the result of a client spending ten taels of silver.”

Wu Mu had never seen such a shocking scene—he was, after all, a young man in his early twenties and was completely stunned.

“Actually, there are other places. If the chief wants to see, your servant will take everything off—”

“No need!” Wu Mu quickly waved his hand. “Put on your clothes!”

Yang Cao put on her clothes, “Are you at ease now? Your servant was rescued from the eighteenth level of hell by the chiefs. Your servant will never forget the chiefs’ kindness for all eternity.”