Chapter 42: Training

“When you’re on a business trip, it means you’re going deep into enemy territory. Whether it’s the Great Ming, the Later Jin, or European colonists, they are all natives of the 17th century. Don’t apply 20th-century moral standards and behavioral norms to their actions. Here, on behalf of the Foreign Intelligence Bureau and the Colonial and Trade Directorate, I am announcing a ‘notice’ about the risks you may encounter while performing your duties. It’s better for everyone to be aware…”

This notice was something Jiang Shan insisted on. Yu E’shui opposed it, but in the end, it was carried out according to Jiang Shan’s wishes. Jiang Shan’s intention was simple: lay out all the ugly truths beforehand.

His intention was to fully describe the difficulties and dangers of intelligence work, to fully inspire everyone’s heroism, and also to prevent complaints in the future.

“Alright, alright, you’re nagging like an old woman,” a burly man in the back row said impatiently. “I signed up, so I’m not afraid of death. Don’t talk so much nonsense…”

“It’s better for everyone to know. To be mentally prepared for the situations you will face in the future,” Wang Ding thought of this person’s file. His name was Huang Hua, from Heilongjiang, and he originally worked in the machinery factory under the General Manufacturing Directorate. When he filled out the form, his ambition was to be the station chief in the Later Jin territory. His resume stated that he had done business, had a certain business acumen, understood mechanical technology, was familiar with the geography and customs beyond the pass, and knew some self-defense skills. He could speak fluent Korean and some Shanxi dialect, making him a suitable candidate for work in the Later Jin.

“This is not a question of being afraid of death or not. Sometimes, it might be worse than death,” Wang Ding said and began to read the notice.

The gist of the notice was: you are participating in a dangerous job. First, you will travel on terrible roads and endure the hardships of the journey. Whether you travel by land or water, you may encounter bandits. Unless you have the aura of a king and can talk the bandits into surrendering, you will end up as a corpse on the street.

The village braves, yamen runners, and soldiers are no better than bandits. The people in some places will not hesitate to rob and kill a passerby, even if the passerby only has a few pieces of dry food and a ragged piece of clothing.

In terms of hygiene, cities are not necessarily better than the countryside, and may even be worse. Generally, epidemics always spread in densely populated areas. The water and food that the locals can adapt to may be unbearable for the modern person’s stomach. Besides bacterial infections, there is also the risk of parasites in food and water.

Poor sanitation may make you sick. Even without hygiene problems, you may still get sick. If you are injured while on a mission, besides the small amount of medicine you carry and the local Chinese medicine practitioners, you have no health services. A dog bite or a stab from a rusty knife could kill you—even if you are urgently sent back to Lingao, the long journey means you might die on the way.

You may have to face the harassment of parasites like fleas, bedbugs, and ticks—these things are abundant in this era, not just among the poor. These parasites will not only make you uncomfortable and covered in bumps, but will also bring various strange diseases, some of which may not be effectively treated even in the modern era.

Finally, if you are arrested on the mainland, the Foreign Intelligence Bureau cannot launch a rescue immediately. If you are unlucky, and there is no radio nearby or no one to notify in time, the headquarters may only know you have been captured after the stipulated contact period has passed. By the time rescuers are sent, several months may have passed. Your arrest may not be because of a mistake in your work or your identity being exposed. The Spanish might arrest you just for being Chinese, and the Later Jin might do so just for you being Han. As for the Great Ming, perhaps just because you are doing business and have some money, you are targeted by some Eastern Depot agent or county yamen runner who wants to make some extra money. Even pretending to be poor is not necessarily safe. You might be arrested and tortured just because a murder occurred locally and the government needs to find an outsider without connections to be a scapegoat.

The various levels of government, dictatorship organs, and even private groups of the Great Ming, the Later Jin, or the European colonists will torture you. Some for a confession, others just to extort money from you. The prisons of this era not only have no basic human rights, but may not even have the right to survive. You may be killed by the jailers in various ways. And this is an era where pederasty is common, so a clean-looking modern person is very likely to fall victim to some猥亵 (wěixiè - indecent) uncle…

“…Even if you are rescued, you may have physical and psychological disabilities and shadows from the torture and… various other abuses…”

This deliberately terrifying prospect caused a stir among the people—it sounded less like the 17th century and more like a living hell.

“If anyone feels they are not suitable for this job, you can still withdraw now,” Wang Ding said. “The transfer procedures at the Organization Department have not yet been completed. We will return your application materials and will not leave any records.”

The scene became very quiet. Of course, no one on the spot said they were afraid. First, it was a matter of face. Second, the examples of Guangzhou and Leizhou were there, and it didn’t seem like there were such terrifying situations. At least the dispatched personnel there were all alive and well, and even thriving.

“Hmph, this is just a disclaimer,” Huang Hua commented, then said loudly, “Alright, I get it. If something happens in the future, it has nothing to do with you. It’s all our own doing! I’ll sign a life-and-death waiver for the general bureau.”

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According to their agreement with the Ministry of Colonial Trade, the dispatched council members belonged to both sides, with no distinction. As for the training, it was all handled by the Foreign Intelligence Bureau. The specific courses were decided after discussion by various departments.

Li Yan had originally wanted Hu Qingbai to allocate classrooms and dormitories at Fangcao Di for the training of intelligence personnel. But Jiang Shan believed that this place was too bustling with people coming and going, and too “modern,” lacking a sense of immersion in the life of the Great Ming. In the end, only the Intelligence Training Center, Section A, was established at Fangcao Di. Section A specialized in training native intelligence personnel, including dispatched personnel, clerical staff, and intelligence analysts.

The Intelligence Training Center, Section B, which specialized in training council members as dispatched personnel, was set up in the former residence of Gou Er in Lingao County—this place had been vacant. Not only was the building area large enough, but there was also enough open space in the backyard and around it to expand with new buildings. And Lingao County was, after all, a well-preserved specimen of Ming society.

Xiong Buyou, the director of the county office, went to find the registrar, Sun Ruiwu, and immediately had this ownerless house “sold” on the cheap. In fact, it was a sham transaction with a real deed, and the county officials got some benefits.

The construction company did some minor renovations, mainly adding living and training facilities, and the intelligence bureau’s training center was established. For the sake of secrecy, there was no sign here, no gate guard, only two reliable natives to guard the main gate. Personnel and materials came and went at night.

The training plan was formulated by Jiang Shan. As for the curriculum, it was mainly based on the suggestions of Wu Mu from the Political Security General Bureau, Chen Tianxiong from the Leizhou Station, and Yu E’shui.

Since most of the people were going to be active in the Great Ming, the training courses were mainly to make them “like a person of the Great Ming.” In contrast, those who were willing to be active in European territories had an easier time—they didn’t need to impersonate Ming subjects.

How to be like a person of the Great Ming was a whole subject in itself. Historical materials alone were not enough. Fortunately, they had the long-term accumulation of the Guangzhou and Leizhou stations. They had mastered authentic firsthand information on various aspects of life details, customs, and social conditions.

The first hurdle was appearance, which was the easiest to handle. From the beginning of this training class, everyone stopped cutting their hair and started growing it out—those who were interested in using the identity of a monk as a cover were exempt. Depending on the face shape and the cover identity each person wanted to choose, some people had to grow beards.

To create a sense of immersion, besides wearing training uniforms during certain training sessions, everyone wore Ming Dynasty clothing and lived and attended classes in that style. There were no modern items in the dormitories. The dormitories they lived in were all kept in the style of the Ming Dynasty. They slept on hard board beds, with bedsheets made of local homespun cloth, and the pillows were the hard, rectangular pillows used by the ancients. The windows were covered with paper, and at night they used either candles or oil lamps.

The daily meals were “authentic Great Ming Guangdong flavor” or “authentic Great Ming Fujian flavor” cooked by natives. These two flavors were completely different from the familiar Cantonese and Fujian cuisines. They also had to eat “bitter meals” twice a week, mainly sweet potatoes, black flour, and other various coarse grains—not the small packages of “coarse grains” sold in supermarkets that were more expensive than rice, but the real coarse grains that farmers used to survive. The corn buns were coarse and would crumble with a bite, and it took a long time to chew and swallow them. The sweet potato congee had skins, and it was mostly sweet potato and skin, with few grains of rice…

This dietary arrangement was to allow the council members to adapt to the food of this era in advance, to prevent the council members, who were used to refined rice and white flour, from being unable to eat or having diarrhea when they went to the mainland. Fortunately, after D-Day, everyone had been eating brown rice for a long time and was somewhat used to real coarse grains, so their stomachs did not have too violent a reaction.

Next came the issue of accent and identity. After discussion, everyone agreed that it was best to impersonate people from Guangdong. This was mainly because the difference between ancient and modern Cantonese was relatively small, and many people in the transmigrator group could already speak the Cantonese of this era. In addition, with the existence of the Guangzhou Station, it was easy to get household registration and create an identity. If necessary, they could even create a cover “family” for the dispatched personnel.

The language learning focused on the official language. Being able to speak the official language of the Great Ming would allow them to get by in many situations. Of course, communication with the local common people was still a bit difficult, but this could be learned slowly at the dispatched location.

As for writing, everyone had to practice brush calligraphy. It didn’t have to be good, but at least they had to be able to write letters and keep accounts with a brush. As for simplified characters, Yu E’shui didn’t think it was a big problem—this kind of vulgar character was also widely used in social life. As for classical Chinese, it was even more unnecessary. As long as they could speak the official language of the Great Ming, they could manage by writing in spoken language—the level of most merchants was about that.

After passing the hurdles of appearance and language, they could roughly blend into Ming society. Of course, there was still a lot to learn. Especially the living habits and the proper mental outlook of a person of the Great Ming: something that a modern person would find frightening or infuriating, a native might not think much of. Something that a native would find fearsome or frightening, a modern person might be indifferent to.

“Be sure not to let your sympathy overflow, and don’t randomly stand up for justice,” Yu E’shui emphasized. “Don’t think that ancient society was simple and honest. Many of the scams and routines in modern society have been passed down since ancient times. At best, you lose money. At worst, you will attract endless trouble! As for standing up for justice on the street, that’s even more out of the question. Don’t think that because you’re from the 21st century, you’re a superman. Even if you can protect yourself, once you offend someone locally, you won’t be able to establish yourself, and all your business operations there will be for naught.”

Yu E’shui took a sip of water. “I advise everyone to forget all the clichés from watching wuxia novels. Things like heroes saving beauties, drawing swords to help, heroic gambling… these are all irrelevant to our work, and very harmful to our work! Sometimes even fatal!

“Unless approved by headquarters, with a complete action plan and necessary external support, do not attempt to organize underground societies locally—the Great Ming also has its own underworld, often with deep roots, and even the government can’t do anything about them. The methods they use are no worse than those of their descendants. You won’t find it any easier to be a godfather in a Ming county town than in a county town in the old world.

…

Even in matters of men and women, they were reminded to be strictly careful.

“You will be gone for a few years, so of course, we can’t ask you to be celibate. Once you can settle down locally, headquarters will arrange for reliable life secretaries to accompany you. Don’t casually visit brothels; you will get all kinds of venereal diseases—the late Ming was a period when syphilis was introduced and broke out on a large scale. Don’t mess with married women. The Great Ming law stipulates that it is not a crime for a husband to kill an adulterous couple. Headquarters painstakingly trained you to go to the Great Ming, not to be Ximen Qing and have your head chopped off by Wu Song. And don’t mess with unmarried girls…”

“Can’t we go to high-class brothels?” someone questioned. “Last time in your lecture, you said that high-class brothels in the Ming Dynasty were a kind of social place. If we disguise ourselves as big merchants, we will definitely have to go to such places. And gambling, sometimes it might be unavoidable for work.”

“Of course, that’s a different matter,” Yu E’shui said. “But high-class brothels are places where money is spent like water, and there’s a whole set of rules. People who don’t know the rules will just waste their money and be laughed at—I don’t know them very well either. Lin Biguang has a subordinate who is very familiar with this. In the future, we can ask him to come and talk about the ways of eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, so you won’t be cheated.”

“That’s great.”

Someone continued to ask about women, “Can we buy women locally?”

“You can,” Yu E’shui nodded. “Relatively speaking, buying women is the safest. But buying women has to go through formal procedures and channels…”

The so-called formal procedures and channels meant buying from the local human market and human traffickers as much as possible. Although the price was a bit more expensive, you wouldn’t encounter the “white pigeon” scam.

“Or, if you see a girl from a small local family that you like, you can ask a human trafficker to act as a go-between. If the price is right, it can be negotiated.”

“What if a local family takes a liking to me and wants to marry their daughter to me?” someone asked.

Yu E’shui spread his hands. “This involves policy issues. I can’t answer that.”

Li Yan, sitting on the side, smiled and said, “As long as you haven’t brought a wife or girlfriend, headquarters does not object to you marrying or taking a concubine locally, as long as you can guarantee their reliability. However, if you marry a wife, the status of this ‘wife’ must also be guaranteed by the transmigrator group. In other words, you cannot marry another wife if you move to another place or return to Lingao. Does everyone understand?”

“Understood!” a chorus of excited answers came from the crowd.

“Remember, the deeper you go into the mainland, the harder it will be for headquarters to support you,” Li Yan emphasized in class. “In Guangdong and Guangxi, there is the protection of Gao Ju, the Qiwei Escort Agency, and our Special Reconnaissance Team. If necessary, the navy can even bombard Guangzhou. But where you are going, there is nothing. It may take several months for headquarters to receive your message. You have to rely on yourselves. Although mistakes in life details are not as fatal as in modern intelligence operations, they will attract attention if they accumulate.”

Afterward, someone came to teach them various common etiquette and manners. They needed to know when to bow with clasped hands, when to kowtow, how to address others according to their relationship… These courses were generally taught by the most reliable native personnel. Zhang Xingjiao was one of them. As a scholar, although he lived in a small county in the south, he was still very clear about various etiquette and manners.

The biggest help in this area actually came from Wang Ci. This county school instructor was tricked into coming by Xiong Buyou under the pretext of “we have always admired the etiquette of the Great Ming and hope to learn a thing or two.” Wang Ci had always been suppressed by the superiority of the Australians in all aspects and was very dejected, especially since he was now completely relying on “handouts” to maintain the county school and the Jasmine Pavilion. This internal and external suffering was much stronger than that of the drunken and dreaming county yamen officials.

Now, suddenly hearing that a group of Australians was “inclined towards civilization,” and seeing that they had even changed their clothing and hairstyles to the Ming style, he was so excited that tears almost flowed down his face. His spirits were greatly lifted, and he taught the knowledge of etiquette and manners with great enthusiasm. He even resolutely refused any remuneration and worked for the training class for several years for free.

Then, they brought in the clerks and yamen runners from the study class who were working hard to “learn” and “reform their thinking.” They taught the operating model of the local government of the Ming Dynasty, the way of doing things, various unspoken rules and customs, how to interact with the various people in the county yamen as a merchant, landlord, wandering monk or Daoist, what activities required establishing relationships with which people in the county, how to bribe and share the spoils, and how to avoid disaster and escape if something went wrong…