Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-One: The Work Network

“Grip it tightly! If it’s so soft, it will slip out of your hand when you fire!” Salina reprimanded.

After everyone had gripped it tightly, Salina began to teach them the correct way to hold a gun. Grip the gun, lower your hands, with the muzzle pointing down at a 40-degree angle, then quickly raise the gun and point it at the target.

“The action of raising the gun must be decisive! The pointing of the muzzle must be accurate,” Salina said. If you find that the muzzle is not pointing at the target after raising it, it means that your grip and wrist angle are not ideal.

“Everyone, practice this action repeatedly until you can raise the gun and point it at the target without needing to adjust your position.”

For a whole day, the girls’ squad repeatedly practiced the grip-and-raise action. To facilitate training, Salina broke down the action and corrected it one by one until they could aim at the target as soon as they raised the gun.

After everyone could basically do it, they began to practice drawing the gun from the holster: drawing with one hand, then bringing both hands together and pointing at the target.

After practicing thousands of times, the shooter can establish the correct grip posture. Only with the correct grip posture can one aim accurately and the weapon in hand can be effective. This was repeatedly emphasized by the two former ATF agents.

While Wu Mu was busy training cadres, Zhao Manxiong began to establish a “work network” covering the entire Lingao.

Secret work was the main tactic of the Political Security Bureau in its struggle against the opposition, and the development of various secret work mainly relied on the work network in the occupied areas. According to the section “Organization Method of the Work Network” in his self-made “Memorandum,” “The work network is the eyes and ears of the Security Bureau.”

The most valuable property Ran Yao left him was the “ten-person group” in the army. This system could effectively control the army, and the “ten-person group” was essentially a work network.

Now, the army system has been completely infiltrated by the work network, and the work of this system has been very effective. Zhao Manxiong decided to promote this system to the entire Lingao, and in the future, to all areas under the control of the Transmigrator Group.

In his vision, the task of building, supervising, and managing the work network would be undertaken by special commissioners. One of the main tasks of the special commissioners was to build a wide work network. In the countryside and cities, the special commissioners would select a number of politically firm basic masses who had been tested by struggle to form a secret work network of three-person groups or single-line contacts, engaged in the tasks of understanding the enemy’s situation, social conditions, and monitoring the dynamics of various unstable factors in the local area.

The staff of the work network were actually “informants,” and Zhao Manxiongski was not shy about this. The Transmigrator Group lacked the necessary technical investigation means and did not have enough trained personnel. The grassroots organizations had not yet been established, so he could only rely on the most primitive means: part-time informants to monitor the entire social system. Informants had their own normal work and social identity, and could not show off their special duties. They would contact the special commissioners at regular intervals through secret liaison.

The specific tasks that Zhao Manxiong formulated for the work network were to pay attention to politically suspicious matters and chaos in the cities and villages, in the army and navy, and in various mass organizations; to monitor and pay attention to politically suspicious elements; to monitor the relationship between internal and external merchants and commerce, the capital, business status, and profitability of merchants, the performance of visiting and staying merchants, and whether there was manipulation of finance and prices; in the countryside, to monitor those who might be dissatisfied with the Transmigrator Group, especially those whose interests were harmed by the administration of the Transmigrator Group; and finally, to investigate and prevent all hostile elements and organizations from infiltrating the group’s controlled areas from the outside to carry out activities, or from infiltrating government agencies, the army, and state-owned industrial and agricultural enterprises and secretly developing their organizations.

The reason why Zhao Manxiong was in a hurry to train cadres was largely due to the need to expand the work network—with the current human resources, it was very difficult even to control the several communes.

A meeting of the main cadres was held in the Security Bureau. A new map of Lingao was hung in the conference room—this was the latest one drawn by the exploration team.

At the meeting, it was decided that the Security Bureau would first build a work network in several important locations. A special commissioner would be dispatched to each location. The special commissioners would be temporarily served by transmigrator members, and each special commissioner would be equipped with 2-3 native cadres as assistants.

The informants in the work network would be developed from ordinary native employees. The number of personnel to be developed would be set according to the size, importance, and population of the stationed area. In principle, each department and each enterprise should have at least 2 informants who do not know each other, so as to facilitate cross-confirmation of intelligence materials.

Wu Fo had followed Ran Yao to establish the “ten-person group” system in the army. He felt that informants should be equipped according to the number of people. Roughly every ten natives should have one informant.

“This is not acceptable. The ratio is too high. Even the KGB and the Gestapo have not reached such an exaggerated level,” Zhao Manxiong shook his head. “This is not the German Democratic Republic.”

“At least one person should be placed in each squad,” Wu Fo insisted. “According to the current plan, only 2-3 informants will be placed in an enterprise. For an enterprise like the shipyard, there are hundreds of workers and the factory area is also very large. It’s simply not enough.”

“The shipyard is a large enterprise and a key target, so of course more people should be placed there. This is not absolute. I just ask for strict control of the number of people, preferring quality over quantity,” Zhao Manxiong said. “Everyone should have a sense of budget.”

Only then did everyone remember that there was a “financial budget” problem in this world.

“Everyone has read the ‘Notice on Improving the Financial Management of Various Departments’ issued by the Ministry of Finance recently, right?” Zhao Manxiong said. “We don’t have a financial budget for the time being, but it goes without saying that there will be a financial budget problem next. Even part-time informants have to be paid allowances. If the team expands too much, it will be difficult if the allocated budget is insufficient.”

“This financial budget system is really troublesome…” You Guotuan said.

“Since it’s a system, it must be followed,” Zhao Manxiong briefly interrupted his complaint and said, “Let’s discuss how to allocate manpower first.”

The main human resources were deployed to Bopu—this was the gateway to and from Lingao. The vast majority of personnel and material flows passed through this place. There were many people coming and going, and the composition was complex. Moreover, Bopu was also an important industrial base and naval base of the Transmigrator Group, so it was the focus of the internal control and defense of the General Political Security Bureau.

The General Political Security Bureau already had an important stronghold in the Bopu area—the quarantine camp’s review office, which was currently under the direct management of the quarantine camp’s director, Yang He. This office had no full-time personnel: the interrogations were directly presided over by Zhou Dongtian, and the monitoring of immigrants was carried out by a team of informants known as the “permanent residents of the quarantine camp”—of course, they were not permanent. People’s complexions would gradually improve in a relatively stable and prosperous living environment. New immigrants who were slightly attentive would soon discover that this group of “compatriots” had an unusually good complexion. So after about three or four batches, they would be formally settled. Only those who were naturally thin and had a dark complexion could continue their work.

Zhao Manxiong paid great attention to this institution. This institution in the quarantine camp was established by Ran Yao himself and performed quite well in the review, rating, and filing of immigrants. He asked about the current specific situation of this office.

Zhou Botao reported: it is now managed by Yang He, the review is still in charge of Zhou Dongtian, and the replacement and undercover work of the informant team in the camp are still operating normally.

“We should arrange a special commissioner to preside over the quarantine camp’s review office and take over the team,” Zhou Botao suggested. He had long noticed this department, but he could not interfere during Ran Yao’s time. This office was semi-independent.

“I don’t know if he is willing to hand it over,” Wu Fo hesitated a little. Everyone knew that Yang He was the former People’s Commissar for Civil Affairs and was promoted by the current director of the Planning Committee, Wu De. Yang He himself had limited social experience and was not very cunning, so he would not obstruct. But if Wu De instructed him to delay, things would become complicated.

Zhao Manxiong sneered, “You underestimate the Executive Committee too much. No elder has ever dared to defy the normal organizational procedures.”

This office was originally established under the establishment of the General Political Security Bureau. Yang He was only in an “assisting” capacity. If he occupied the office and refused to hand over the materials, it would be insubordination. After the Dugu Qiuhun incident, probably no one would be so reckless as to openly oppose the organizational principles for someone’s sake.

Zhao Manxiong asked, “Is there still a roster of the former quarantine camp informants who have been settled?”

“No—” Wu Mu said, “I didn’t find the list in the files.”

“The list is in the quarantine camp’s review office,” Wu Fo said. “These informants are temporary, and their allowances are paid by the Civil Affairs Committee…”

“This is a ready-made human resource for us to build a work network,” Zhao Manxiong instructed. “Send the list over after taking over the office.” He then added, “Also, I didn’t see their informant materials in the archives. They must also be transferred to the General Bureau.”

“Okay, I’ll do it right after the meeting,” Zhou Botao volunteered.

The people on this list should have been settled throughout Lingao: scattered in schools, government agencies, enterprises, farms, and residential areas. This was the best and most ready source of informants for the work network. It was better to develop informants in their existing positions than to send people to infiltrate.

There were hundreds of people in this batch. If they were fully controlled, even if some unqualified personnel were eliminated, the scale of the work network formed by the remaining people would be very considerable. Moreover, their experience as “undercover agents” could ensure that they would be conscientious and tight-lipped in their future work.

Another matter for Zhao Manxiong was to establish a coordination mechanism with other agencies in Bopu, including customs, the port affairs office, and the Bopu police station. To carry out work smoothly in Bopu, the cooperation of these three departments was essential.