Chapter 105: The Work of Disintegration

To further prevent these three lines from colluding, in addition to their different official statuses, the Government Council also noted in the “Guiding Opinions on the Construction of Grassroots Political Power” that the members of the County Consultative Bureau in each village should generally be selected from the local gentry or landlords. If there were no such figures, they should be filled by craftsmen or small merchants in the village, because their interests were different from those of ordinary peasants.

The original intention of this system was to curb the various “chaotic phenomena” that might arise in village-level political power as much as possible. Veterans with a certain amount of social experience all knew that most of the sudden social incidents that required “stability maintenance” were caused by small matters at the grassroots level. A little injustice, a so-called “official” with no formal status, using the small power in his hands to do evil, eating and taking more than his share… bit by bit, it accumulated the strong dissatisfaction of the grassroots masses and eventually evolved into riots.

In addition to the construction of village-level political power, the Government Council also had an ambitious plan to comprehensively adjust the layout of the villages themselves. Specifically, it was to divide households and merge villages.

The idea of dividing households was to reduce the population of each household, while merging villages was to concentrate smaller villages into larger ones to facilitate administrative management and control.

If the villages were too small, it would inevitably lead to a naturalization tendency of the village economy, and the manpower could not be effectively controlled and managed. This was what the Planning Commission did not want to see. Although the veterans of the Executive Committee had different political leanings, they all showed great interest in controlling and using manpower to the greatest extent possible.

The immigrants they had moved from the mainland had already been settled according to this idea, in standard villages built according to a unified template. Every few villages were governed by a commune built according to a standard template. Household registration, archives, mass organizations, everyone was effectively controlled. Hundreds of full-time or part-time cadres controlled the entire system from top to bottom, and at the top was the Civil Affairs People’s Committee.

With this tight control system and the telegraph and telephone system, it took less than half an hour for an order to be issued from Bairen City and for the gears of the grassroots political power at the most remote end to start turning. In this anti-encirclement campaign, this system showed high efficiency in mobilizing manpower and material resources, which also strengthened the determination of the Senate and the Government Council to “fully implement the new system.”

Next, it was the turn of the indigenous people of Lin Gao. At the meeting of the Senate, the proposal of the Civil Affairs People’s Committee on “comprehensively promoting the new social system” was passed. Subsequently, Ma Qianzhu signed the 390th order of the Central Government Council, authorizing the Civil Affairs People’s Committee to carry out the construction of a new system in the indigenous villages of Lin Gao.

Tang Tang followed Xiong Buyou to the county office compound. A meeting was about to be held here to discuss the specific matters of extending political power to the countryside. The future work team leaders were gathered in groups of three or five in various corners of the courtyard, chatting. The first batch of ten work teams had already been established. Each work team was composed of fifteen to twenty people, all equipped with weapons. The team leaders were veterans who were interested in grassroots civil affairs work. According to the instructions of Du Wen, the director of the Social Investigation Department, each work team had to have at least two veterans to “supervise each other.” The team also had to be equipped with full-time armed members and medics.

All work teams working outside the range of the PHS communication had to carry at least one high-power walkie-talkie that could reach the nearby camp to ensure that they could get rescue in case of riots or other dangers, and also to facilitate timely communication with the headquarters.

In order to facilitate communication and finally squeeze out some of the remaining value of the old ruling institution of the county yamen, Liu Muzhou and Du Wen discussed and decided to set up the headquarters of the extension of political power to the countryside in Lin Gao County.

Setting it up in the county town would allow them to use the signboard of the county yamen at any time. When encountering some stubborn elements and needing to do something that would damage their “great, glorious, and correct” image, they would use the name of the county yamen to handle it. Anyway, the great seal was now in the hands of Wang Zhaomin, which was almost the same as being in the hands of the veterans. The yamen runners and junior clerks of the three shifts and six offices, who had not been struggled to death or sent to labor reform, were all in the study class, working while being on call at any time—they were all eager to serve the transmigrator group.

In addition, Du Wen and Liu Muzhou were also prepared to use the various archives in the county yamen’s archives. An archive organization team from the Grand Library was stationed in a courtyard behind the county office, cleaning, transcribing, and copying archive documents every day.

Mo Shui, who was in charge of cleaning up this batch of archives, was very happy to lead the original clerks and interns to clean up the archive materials. From the archives, he discovered many interesting and useful things, and of course, he also got a lot of dirt on many people.

“The person who controls the archives controls everyone’s tail,” he said proudly, giving Liu Muzhou a small booklet he had carefully collected, which listed many illegal acts and ancestral family secrets and even scandals of the large households and gentry in the county. These were all things found in the archives of the archives. For example, the ancestor of a certain person had once seized someone else’s land, and the elder of a certain person had once molested a woman and been sued. In particular, some “property disputes” exposed many secrets of the large households. These materials had been molding and rotting in the archives, and suddenly all the dregs of the years were exposed to the sun.

“If any of the gentry or large households don’t cooperate, you can use the materials to ruin their reputation!” Mo Shui said. “The materials haven’t been completely cleaned up yet, but I’ve already figured out the ‘archive finding’ in the archives. With this, I can find whatever I want.”

Liu Muzhou instructed that a few more of the clerks from the various offices who had been retained be summoned to serve as consultants.

“Meeting, meeting,” someone shouted on the steps. The veterans who were chatting and boasting all walked into the room.

There was only a small conference room here, filled with chairs and long benches. A gas lamp lit up the room brightly. Everyone found a seat at will.

The meeting was presided over by Du Wen. On the issue of how to establish grassroots political power, she had already had a whole night’s conversation with Ma Qianzhu a few days ago. In Du Wen’s words, she had “straightened out her thinking and grasped the spirit.”

“Comrades!” Du Wen cleared her throat. “Now we will convey the spirit of the Civil Affairs Committee and the Government Council on the matter of establishing organizations at the grassroots level. It also contains my personal views and experiences for everyone’s reference!”

Du Wen emphasized at the meeting that the situation in the indigenous villages of Lin Gao was very complex, and many of the villages were entangled in clan disputes. And the key figures who controlled the local clans had already shown their intention to surrender. At this time, if they did not pay attention to the methods of work and blindly relied on force, it would not only cause a strong backlash from them but also cause other large households to secretly unite and obstruct them.

How to make the most of the existing resources, reduce the resistance and opposition of the large households, and carry out the work as quickly as possible was a major problem facing the work teams.

The following instructions from Du Wen were recorded in Tang Tang’s notebook:

“…The implementation of the new grassroots system is like boiling a frog in slow water. It cannot be rushed… We must discover and solve problems in practice… The phenomenon of strong clans and large households in the countryside must be eliminated. As a grassroots level, they have no future… We must especially crack down on the phenomenon of ‘running rampant’ at the grassroots level just because a family has many able-bodied men. This is more reactionary than trying to influence the grassroots political power through economic means… We must carry out a relentless struggle against those who resist our new system. The struggle must be led by the grassroots masses and cannot be monopolized by the work team. We must use enlightenment and guidance to point out the direction of the struggle…”

As for how to implement it specifically, there were many details and policy coordination. The most important thing was to use fiscal and tax means. As summer approached, the summer tax collection was about to begin, and the new tax system reform would soon be launched in Lin Gao. And the new tax system reform would directly affect the implementation and execution of many policies.

The meeting of the work teams lasted all night and only ended the next day. Tang Tang was the deputy leader of the county town work team. With Xiong Buyou in front, her work was not heavy. But after a whole night of tossing and turning, she just wanted to go to sleep first.

“You have to hurry up and handle the matter of the Li Xiaopeng family,” Xiong Buyou told her. “His family is the biggest wealthy household in the county town. Their attitude will determine the support or opposition of many people.”

“But haven’t they already agreed to let a son go to school? And they’ve also agreed to be a member of the County Consultative Bureau.” In Tang Tang’s view, the matter of the Li family was already settled.

“The Li family has indeed promised, but it’s not enough,” Xiong Buyou said. “The one they sent to study at Fangcaodi is just a young son of their family. According to the materials given to us by the Political Security General Bureau, this son is born of a concubine and has no status in the family. He is a type of person who can be sacrificed.”

“Can they just sacrifice their own family members?”

Tang Tang had read many palace intrigue novels, but she had never encountered such a thing in real life.

Xiong Buyou nodded. “Of course they can. The larger the family, the more indifferent they are to the well-being of their family members. What’s more, such a son from a concubine is really nothing.”

“That’s too much!” Tang Tang clenched her fists and cried out, thinking of the timid boy who had come to the hall to see her and her companions. “So pitiful!”

“Whether he is pitiful or not is not our business. Your task is to maintain contact with the Li family and at the same time try to persuade them to voluntarily hand over the ‘dung sections’ in their hands and encourage them to take another path of industry and commerce.”

The dung sections were actually the ownership of the public toilets and cesspits in the county town. In ancient society, human excrement was the largest source of fertilizer for farmers. Once the holder held the contract for the dung sections, he could sit back and reap huge profits. It was an industry with a bad reputation but great practical benefits. But for the transmigrator group, the comprehensive transformation of Lin Gao County was about to begin, and the first thing to do was to dig sewers and establish a modern water supply and drainage system. The “dung sections” that were privately monopolized had to be quickly taken over by the state.

Tang Tang nodded. “I think the key is whether there is enough of a benefit exchange. As long as there is, they will definitely be willing.”

“Hehe, you’re worthy of being a student of international trade. You’ve explained it so thoroughly,” Xiong Buyou praised her first. “But it’s not easy to find a suitable benefit exchange—we don’t have the ability to piss gold and shit silver. We can only guide them. And investing in industry and commerce has a return on investment process, which is far from being as effortless as the industries of dung sections and land rent, where you can just sit back and collect.”

Tang Tang said, “Actually, I have an idea: it’s certainly effortless for a wealthy person to sit back and collect dung section rent and land rent, but the income is ultimately relatively small. I think we can tempt them to spend a lot of money. Once their expenses are large, even if we don’t guide them, they will beg us to guide them.”

Xiong Buyou was genuinely praising her now. “Well said. What do you plan to do?”

“Of course, it’s to attract them to high consumption…”

“What if they are not willing?” Xiong Buyou asked.

“Then we’ll stimulate them,” Tang Tang said. “I read in the background materials that the Li family used to be the richest in the local area, right?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s it then. Since they were once the richest, they must have some vanity, right? We’ll support a few nouveau riche to compete with them in wealth and make them consume their wealth—”

“Hmm, go on.”

“Dong Weiwei said that the late Ming was an era of materialism, and the etiquette was not very strict. It is said that there were even beauty pageants in Jiangnan. We can also hold a beauty pageant and let the Li family make a fuss,” Tang Tang said, as if she had remembered something. “We can hold a fashion show, and promote new styles of clothes, jewelry, and cosmetics. There’s no reason to only promote the ‘new lifestyle’ in Guangzhou.”

“It’s not very feasible,” Xiong Buyou said. “If I remember correctly, that beauty pageant was for prostitutes. It could only be held in a prosperous place like Jiangnan. I’ve heard that Qiongzhou only has brothels in Qiongshan.”

“Hey, who said only prostitutes can be in beauty pageants?” Tang Tang said a little anxiously. “We can have a super girl contest! Or we can have a talented girl contest! Lin Gao now has a population of over a hundred thousand. When I was in college, there were only ten thousand students, and there were all kinds of contests for the class beauty, department beauty, college beauty, and school beauty.”

“The social conditions and economic foundation are different. They can’t be compared,” Xiong Buyou said. “Hainan Island is still quite backward on the economic map of the entire Ming Dynasty. Economic backwardness will inevitably lead to a more closed social atmosphere. So this is not feasible. At least not for ten years.”

“Don’t be so dogmatic,” Tang Tang said, seeing her “brilliant idea” being ruthlessly shot down. In a flash, she came up with another idea. “Then we can have a Lin Gao version of the Ziminlou. There’s no reason to only promote the ‘new lifestyle’ in Guangzhou and not in our own old nest.”

“That’s worth considering,” Xiong Buyou thought. This was still feasible. After the maid revolution, the proposal to build a Lin Gao version of the “Ziminlou” had also received the support of many veterans.

This Ziminlou could not only serve the veterans but also serve as a window to promote the “Australian lifestyle.” After all, social needs were diverse. The needs of the rich also had to be met, and they had to be met in abundance to get the money out of their hands and circulating, rather than being hoarded.

Xiong Buyou said, “This plan is not bad. You should make a proposal. It might be approved soon. I strongly support your proposal.”

Tang Tang said in distress, “I can’t write this kind of official document. I have to write about the significance, the feasibility analysis, and the implementation details. It’s more annoying than writing a thesis… so troublesome.”

The two talked for a while longer. Xiong Buyou reminded her that Li Xiaopeng was not clean and was a problematic native. She had to be vigilant at all times when dealing with him.

“He’s very close to Huang Bingkun—and this Huang Bingkun is on the blacklist.”

The Political Security General Bureau had never relaxed its surveillance of the Huangjia Village. Zhao Manxiong had always been very clear about the activities of Huang Shoutong and his son. But he had to admit that the Huang family’s activities were very strategic, and it was difficult to find any major fault with them. As a result, there had never been a good excuse to deal with them completely.

Xiong Buyou told her about many of their secret plots. “Li Xiaopeng is generally a dandy. He doesn’t really understand the gravity of matters. But this Huang Bingkun is a bit too active. You should also pay more attention to Li Xiaopeng’s contact with him.”

“This Young Master Huang is so bad. Why don’t we deal with him? We can’t tolerate potential dangerous elements!”

“It’s not that easy. Killing and arresting can’t solve all the problems,” Xiong Buyou said. “The Huang family has a very good reputation among the natives of Lin Gao, from the gentry and large households down to the common people and small households. If we can win them over instead of directly eliminating them, it will be much more beneficial to us. It’s like the Li family—do we really care about the few dung section contracts in their family? It’s just that we are now in a stage where we need to make more friends.”

“Establish a broad united front.”

“Correct,” Xiong Buyou nodded. “Anyway, they can’t stir up much trouble. We just need to keep a close eye on them. And these large households are very quick to see which way the wind is blowing. After we defeated the government army at Chengmai, the attitude of the large households has completely changed.”

“I know. I’ll keep a close eye on them.”

“Good. I’ll leave the matter of the Li family to you. Get them sorted out as soon as possible!”

Tang Tang accepted the task, very happy. Now she was a person in charge of her own area. She first went back to her dormitory to sleep. When she woke up, it was noon. She thought for a moment and decided to start with the fourth young master of the Li family and his mother.

Since this mother and son had a low status in the Li family and were not valued, an outsider could gain a certain amount of goodwill with just a small gesture of kindness. What’s more, it was the friendship of a powerful external force like the Australians!

This way, she would have a nail in the Li family. She could get inside information about the Li family from them. When the fourth young master arrived at Fangcaodi and was indoctrinated with modern science and ideology, and she put in a little more effort, this child would be won over.

Feudal families were easily disintegrated from within by rebels, and the rebels themselves had to have strong social support and recognition. Although Tang Tang was only a university graduate, she was very familiar with many left-wing social transformation theories. She was determined to not only work on the Li family but also to disintegrate this feudal family from within in the long run.

“What’s so great about Du Wen? She just extended political power to the countryside. I’m going to disintegrate a feudal family!” Tang Tang said with confidence, staring for a moment at Ma Qianzhu’s signature in her notebook. “You just wait and see!”