Chapter 99: The Aftermath

In the end, the two sides settled the terms without any ceremony. At 3 p.m., Chengmai County quietly opened its gates and surrendered. Captain Zhou, with a dozen of his personal guards, had been lowered from the city walls beforehand and was sent away by boat arranged by the Fubo Army. The remaining five hundred soldiers, seeing that their commander had left and having received their silver, had no intention of resisting and said they would follow the county’s arrangements.

The five hundred soldiers marched out of the city and surrendered their arms. A special prisoner management officer then announced the four major policies for prisoners: prisoners must obey all commands; the sick and wounded would be treated; no one was allowed to hide weapons; and personal legal property would be protected.

They were then searched one by one. To the surprise of the government soldiers, the silver, dry rations, and personal belongings they carried were only inspected and then returned to them. Only things like small knives were confiscated.

With the government soldiers cleared out of the city, the Fubo Army immediately entered Chengmai County. As agreed beforehand, Song Zonghui handled all matters—Liu Jingxuan refused to appear in person. Wei Aiwen didn’t mind. According to the suggestions in the civil affairs manual, the local gentry were much more useful than officials like the county magistrate. They were more familiar with the local situation and had more influence, making them objects to be won over and utilized.

Because the personnel for the Chengmai office had not yet been selected, all civil affairs were temporarily handled by Wei Aiwen. He arranged for soldiers to first take over the defense of the city gates and key points in the city and ordered all the local militia to assemble and hand over their weapons. Only then did he take inventory of the armor and equipment abandoned by the government army in the city. Among them were even many scaling ladders and a hundred or so strange leather-like balls, which, when opened, were found to be filled with black powder. No one knew what they were. It was only later, after interrogating the prisoners, that they learned these were “River-Mixing Dragons”—water mines.

“The Ming dynasty’s firearms are truly creative!” Wei Aiwen exclaimed after seeing them. He ordered that a few of the best-preserved firearms, weapons, and siege equipment be listed separately and preserved—these were to be sent to the newly established ordnance bureau.

After the inventory was completed, Song Zonghui, as agreed, disbanded the militia that had been summoned from the various villages. However, Wei Aiwen did not confiscate their weapons. These weapons posed little threat to the Fubo Army, but confiscating them would leave the villages vulnerable to bandits. Therefore, the civil affairs manual suggested that before government cadres could be sent to the countryside, the landlord militias of the villages could be allowed to remain to maintain basic social order.

The soldiers and laborers worked until dusk, finally clearing all the supplies left behind by the government soldiers in the city and apprehending several government soldiers who had changed into civilian clothes and tried to hide in the city. They were not treated politely. They were immediately stripped naked, tied together in a string, and marched out. Song Zonghui was secretly alarmed. Did these Australians use public nudity as a form of punishment? He couldn’t help but feel a chill.

After everything was done, the Fubo Army, as promised, withdrew from the county town. This brought a sigh of relief to the entire city. Although no rebels rode through the city on horseback or beheaded undisciplined soldiers in the streets, all the rebel troops who had entered the city had been impeccably behaved. Not only had they not entered private homes to rob or rape, but they had even swept the streets after clearing the abandoned armor and supplies of the government soldiers. For a time, the gentry and common people’s perception of these “rebels” completely changed.

That night, a small, secret banquet was held at Song Zonghui’s house. At the banquet, Song Zonghui and the local dignitaries, including the county magistrate’s private secretary, toasted with Wei Aiwen. The atmosphere was very lively.

Song Zonghui then presented a gift list on behalf of all the gentry and people of the county, including five hundred shi of white rice, five hundred taels of silver, three hundred bolts of cotton cloth, thirty bolts of various silks and brocades, and twenty jars each of local rice wine and distilled liquor. There were also thirty pigs and fifty sheep, “to reward your esteemed army.”

As Song Zonghui presented the gift list with these words, the few gentry present sighed and complained about their hardships: how the government soldiers had been demanding after entering the city, and how they had spread rumors about the government soldiers looting the county treasury and extorting the gentry, painting the government soldiers as utterly evil and claiming that Chengmai County and they themselves had been looted and were now destitute, on the verge of suicide.

Wei Aiwen politely expressed his thanks. These things were certainly nice, but they were not enough to satisfy the Planning Commission, let alone the huge appetite of the Executive Committee. Although the spoils of the Battle of Chengmai were considerable, and they had captured ten thousand free laborers, the consumption was also staggering. Since Chengmai was now a juicy piece of meat in their mouths, it had to be properly handled to extract more, no, to contribute more manpower and resources to the new order of all under heaven. So he did not haggle over the numbers. As long as they established their rule in Chengmai, the gains in grain alone would far exceed this.

He proposed the establishment of a “Pacification Bureau” in Chengmai. For a moment, everyone was speechless. It was true that after a military disaster or major upheaval, it was always the government that would step in and appoint some powerful and reputable local gentry to form a pacification bureau or something similar to handle the aftermath. This usually involved burying the dead, providing relief to the poor, resettling refugees, promoting agriculture and commerce, and pacifying the region. The title was not grand, but the power was extensive, and the matters handled were numerous, much more efficient and effective than the government yamen.

When this “Chief Wei” suddenly proposed to establish a pacification bureau, everyone felt that his intentions were not good, but they had no grounds to object, nor did they dare to.

The Pacification Bureau, as proposed by Wei Aiwen, would still be headed by County Magistrate Liu Jingxuan, with three or four respected local gentry appointed to handle the specific affairs as deputies and committee members. As for the Australians, they would also have a position in it.

“We are not from Chengmai, so we will just be the ‘annual director’,” Wei Aiwen said magnanimously.

A look of distress appeared on the faces of the men. Who didn’t know that this so-called “annual director” of the Australians would be the one with the real power? And once the Pacification Bureau was established, it would be like creating a “second yamen” in the county. The so-called pacification was all-encompassing, and they could interfere in almost everything. Before long, they would take over and seize the power of the county government.

Wei Aiwen did not allow them to lament their hardships. He waved his hand and said, “It’s settled then.”

The gentry and the county magistrate had no choice but to agree. It was a matter of being the fish on the chopping block. Besides, such semi-official, semi-private yamen were not uncommon at the time and were not considered a breach of etiquette. It was then decided that, according to custom, Magistrate Liu would be the head of the Chengmai Pacification Bureau. Song Zonghui was appointed as his deputy, and four or five other wealthy and powerful local gentry who were known for their public-spiritedness were selected as committee members. As for the so-called “director,” that was of course reserved for the Australians. In less than 24 hours, the term “rebels” had been replaced by “Australians.” People like Song Zonghui immediately started fawning over Wei Aiwen, calling him “Chief” this and “Chief” that.

Wei Aiwen arranged everything properly and immediately sent a telegram to the Executive Committee, requesting them to quickly select personnel to form a working group to go to Chengmai and take control of the county government.

The news that He Ming had led the entire army to defeat the twenty-two thousand men led by the Guangdong Provincial Commander and his five Adjutant-Generals and one Adjutant at the foot of Chengmai County reached Lin Gao at noon that day. The Executive Committee and the Senate had been waiting for this news. Although there had never been any doubt about the outcome from the beginning, and the battles over the past few days had been very smooth, everyone was still very nervous.

Shortly after 10 a.m. on July 11th, the drums were beaten at all the city gates of Lin Gao simultaneously. Then, the county town, Bairen City, Bopu, Nanbao, Gaoshanling, and Ma Niao, as well as the ships anchored in the harbor, all fired a three-gun salute. The sound shook the entire city. Immediately, all the military and civilian population knew that the government army had been completely annihilated at Chengmai on the morning of the 11th, with over ten thousand captured, and that the commander-in-chief, He Rubin, and the supervising censor, Zhao Ruyi, had escaped alone.

Li Yunxing was the first to know the news of the great victory. He had received He Ming’s verbal report over the radio. But this was only a verbal notification. They had to wait for the official telegram to arrive before they could announce it. At 10 a.m., the official telegram from the field army announcing the great victory at Chengmai finally arrived.

To the Senate and the Executive Committee: Our field army has, at 09:00 on July 11th, completely routed the invading Ming army under the command of He Rubin. The enemy has been mostly annihilated.

Field Army Command, He, Dongmen, Wei

“Quick, forward the full text of the telegram!” Li Yunxing excitedly opened his office door and handed the telegram to Shao Zong.

Shao Zong glanced at it and immediately went to the telegraph office himself. A few minutes later, the telegram was transmitted to all departments and outposts with radio stations.

Dingding had already sent a clerk to wait at the telegraph office. After copying the telegram from Shao Zong, he immediately ran back to the newspaper office.

After sending the telegram, Shao Zong immediately went to the telegraph duty room. “Quick, send a mass text message!”

A few minutes later, all the veterans received the news of the great victory at Chengmai. As soon as the text message was sent, he heard sporadic gunshots and cheers from outside.

“Damn, that’s a waste of bullets!”

By noon, as the first extras, still smelling of ink, were being distributed, a messenger who had ridden all the way from Chengmai also arrived in Lin Gao. A special plenary session of the Senate was then convened, and the messenger reported the entire battle process to the Senate. Everyone was very happy to hear that the enemy had been completely annihilated, but some were not reconciled to the fact that He Rubin and other main generals and officials had escaped. According to some, they should have been brought to Lin Gao and publicly executed to show the might of “those who invade will be punished.”

“Since we didn’t catch He Rubin and Zhao Ruyi, let’s just hang that old dog Lu Yizhong in public!” After the forced withdrawal of the Guangzhou station, Guo Yi, Pei Lixiu, and others had attended seven or eight hearings in the Senate, like they were being interrogated. Everyone already hated Lu Yizhong to the bone and wanted him dead.

“Hanging is too light! He should be drawn and quartered!”

“The law! Everyone must respect the law!” Ma Jia immediately came out to object. “We should organize a public trial to conduct a large-scale trial of war crimes, so that the masses can fully realize the seriousness of the law, and not engage in bloody and inhumane punishments!”

“Hmph, I think we should follow the example of how the English dealt with the Scots and execute him by drawing and quartering! Then his head and limbs should be cut off and hung on the gates of all the cities in Lin Gao as a warning!” He Ma’s opening words were extraordinary. “I’ll do the live dissection myself.”

“Too bloody, too bloody!” The person who said this was actually Dugu Qiuhun, which surprised everyone. Since being “removed from all his posts,” Dugu Qiuhun had become obscure. But in the past, Dugu was known for his cruel remarks about the natives. For him to say “too bloody” now was really out of everyone’s expectation.

“I think we should use a pump to inflate their anuses! Until their intestines burst!” His creativity was truly extraordinary.

He Ma disagreed. “That’s just superfluous. It’s better to follow the English method of dealing with Scottish separatists!”

Someone said, “It seems they also cut off the genitals and hung them on the bridge or something…”

There was also a retro-style suggestion: a few history experts working in the Grand Library demanded that a jingguan be built outside Lin Gao County to display the glorious military achievements of the Ao-Song regime.

“That’s disgusting!” Du Wen strongly objected. “It’s one thing if you want to hang a few heads, but this inhumane and cruel feudal dross must not be revived!”

…

The Senate was in an uproar. After a heated discussion on how to torture the living and the dead, the focus of the discussion turned to the arrangements after the great victory. It was now a matter of time before they occupied the whole of Hainan with the momentum of their great victory. But on the specific direction of construction and administration, the veterans also had many different opinions. The victory celebration meeting was not yet over, but arguments had already broken out in the Senate.

Ma Qianzhu had no mood to participate in such empty arguments. Before the meeting was over, he returned to the Central Government Office and instructed Hou Wenyong to invite Wu De and other executive committee members, as well as the deputy ministers of the departments that had not yet elected an executive committee member, to a meeting.

“After you’ve notified them, go to the various departments of the Government Council and inform them: all the heads of the departments are to attend the enlarged meeting. No one is to be absent!” Ma Qianzhu instructed.

Half an hour later, the executive committee members, deputy ministers, and heads of various departments arrived one after another. They were not as happy and cheerful as the ordinary veterans, who were thinking about how to kill people, issue medals, and even hold a triumphal procession and build a triumphal arch. The executive committee members and deputy ministers had a deeper understanding of the entire administrative structure and knew that the regime had many problems and shortcomings. Although the situation was excellent, many internal problems had to be resolved as soon as possible.

“We have won a great victory this time,” Wen Desi, who was presiding over the meeting, said. “Little Cheng has always said that we can’t afford to fight a war. Now the war is over, and tomorrow we will transition from a state of war to a state of peace. Let’s all talk about how to handle the next step of administration.”

The first issue was the handling of the prisoners. The more than ten thousand prisoners had not yet been classified. According to Dongmen Chuiyu’s preliminary report, about seventy or eighty of them had been confirmed as officers. There should be some officers who were wearing the uniforms of common soldiers and trying to hide. This group had not yet been identified.

The general policy had been formulated long ago: officers could be ransomed by their families. Those who could not be ransomed would be sent to Lin Gao for labor reform.

As for the soldiers, most veterans believed that the soldiers of this era had very bad habits. Most of them were lazy and accustomed to killing, looting, and raping. They had no faith and were purely motivated by food and pay. They could not be absorbed into the army.

“Even Qi Jiguang knew to select simple and honest rural people when recruiting new soldiers, and not to choose city ruffians. These old soldiers are especially unusable.”

But some people, citing the example of the People’s Liberation Army’s transformation of “liberated soldiers,” believed that the ordinary soldiers of this old military system could still be transformed into qualified army soldiers.

Moreover, once the campaign to suppress the whole of Hainan began, a large number of troops would have to be stationed in various places. The original establishment of six battalions was obviously not enough. Absorbing and transforming three or four thousand men from the prisoners could effectively solve the problem of insufficient troops.

But this proposal was not approved by the majority. To immediately absorb these people into the army without long-term transformation was considered a very risky matter.

Wu De said, “That’s right. They have no concept of nation or ethnicity. They fight for whoever gives them food and pay, whether it’s the Ming, Li Zicheng, or the Manchu. With the generous treatment of our army, it goes without saying that they would be more than willing. Such people are very dangerous. To put it bluntly, even the Nationalist soldiers were better than them—at least they knew that being a puppet soldier was a disgraceful thing. But during the Ming-Qing transition, did the soldiers who defected to the Manchus think so?”

“There should have been some. There were still many who later rebelled in the Green Standard Army.”

“But they were still a very small part compared to the majority,” Wu De said. “Now we are not transforming a few people, or a few dozen people, but several thousand people. To transform the thinking of so many people in a short period of time is still beyond our current capabilities.”

Si Kaide said, “I think we can use them as immigrants sent to Southeast Asia by the Colonial and Trade Department. Give them some supplies and weapons, and send them to Southeast Asia to establish settlements and develop local resources. We can stipulate that they hand over a certain amount of supplies each year, and we will provide them with provisions. Let them turn Southeast Asia into a land of blood and fire.”

“That’s not good either. These soldiers are usually controlled by the strict laws and punishments of the army. If you send them to Southeast Asia, wouldn’t that be like letting a horse go without a bridle?” Wu De continued to object.

“They can do whatever they want in Southeast Asia. Kill, burn, rob women. If they succeed, they succeed. If they are wiped out by the locals, it doesn’t matter…”

“If they are wiped out by the locals, how can we establish settlements?” Wu De said. “Besides, if they just run wild, how will they honestly open up land, cultivate it, and gather resources? They’ll just rob. In the end, the best result we can get is a group of Han bandit groups in Southeast Asia. Can that be called colonization? And these government soldiers are not under anyone’s control. I’m afraid they’ll start killing each other as soon as they arrive. If we send other people to manage the settlements, we might end up fighting them first. For colonial reclamation, the first thing is unity. These unruly people are difficult to use.”