Chapter 124: The Target

“Going down to the villages.” Hu Lanyan nodded. He had heard a great deal about the effectiveness of the “kūnzéi bandits’” village work from bandits who had fled from other gangs.

They knew that the “kūnzéi bandits” placed great importance on “going down to the villages.” Back in Lingao, they had heard of “work teams”—small groups protected by soldiers that ventured deep into the wilderness and remote countryside. Some would gather intelligence in the villages and stay to train the local militia. Others would climb mountains and cross ridges, drawing maps and collecting various rocks and leaves. These seemingly insignificant teams were like spiders, casting their webs in all directions, eventually ensnaring the whole of Lingao, killing all who resisted and forcing everyone else to submit.

“The Australians are from overseas. How did they manage to gain a foothold in Lingao?” Gou Xunli said, brushing the taro peel from his hands. “The most important thing is ‘going down to the villages.’ If you stay in the county seat, no matter how many men you have, you’ll never know what’s happening in the countryside. Once they go down to the villages and establish themselves, plenty of people will leak information to them.”

Hu Lanyan said, “You’re right, brother. But what should we do?”

“What should we do?” Gou Xunli said fiercely. “We’ll kill every team that comes. We’ll make sure their work teams that go down to the villages never return!”

“The bandits’ firearms are powerful. If we go to kill them, it’s a suicide mission,” Hu Lanyan said, shocked. He had never faced the “kūnzéi bandits” directly, but he had heard many stories from others. As is often the case, the rumors were more terrifying than the reality.

“I’ll come up with a plan,” Gou Xunli said after a moment’s thought. “Call Xin Nari in.”

Xin Nari had narrowly escaped with his life from the ambush at Daolu Village. He had wandered through the forests and mountains for a long time before finding refuge with Hu Lanyan’s gang.

He was terrified of the Australians. Whenever they were mentioned, he would embellish his stories, speaking of their mysterious movements and the deadliness of their firearms.

When he heard that Gou Xunli wanted to specifically target the work teams, he was startled. The remnants of Dang Namen’s gang had had the same idea. Their plan to coordinate from within and without had been well-devised, yet they had been inexplicably ambushed and wiped out. Even his sister had been captured by the “kūnzéi bandits.”

“Second Master!” Xin Nari said cautiously. “The work teams may be small, but they have thirty or forty men, and each one has an Australian musket. If we fight them head-on, we’re no match for them.”

Gou Xunli said fiercely, “Who said anything about fighting head-on? We’ll use dirty tricks!”

Xin Nari thought to himself that they had played plenty of dirty tricks back then, but they still couldn’t outsmart the Australians. In the end, they had lost the rest of their men and his sister.

But Xin Nari didn’t dare show weakness now, lest he get on the bad side of the ruthless Gou Er. As a long-time bandit in Lingao, he knew a thing or two about the methods of this man who had struck fear into both the underworld and the authorities. He was very wary of him. And now, Gou Er was the second-in-command of the gang, far more powerful than a small fry like himself.

“We rely entirely on Second Master’s brilliant plan…”

“Enough with the empty words,” Gou Er said, displeased. “You’ve dealt with their work teams before. Come, tell me the details.”

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“It’s a bit unnerving to be out here in the countryside, where we don’t know anyone,” Wang Wu said, looking out at the pitch-black night with concern. As he spoke, he unconsciously touched his holster, which held a Lingao-made revolver.

Liu Dazhu was weaving himself a pair of straw sandals. He laughed nonchalantly. “People with a bit of money are always afraid of dying. We have guns, and with our team members and soldiers, we have over thirty men. What half-wit bandit would have the guts to come and throw his life away?”

Wang Wu felt a little embarrassed. “That’s true,” he mumbled. He wanted to argue, but he felt the other man had a point. They were only about ten li from the garrison in Danzhou city. A typical bandit gang had only a few dozen men; a hundred was considered a large group. With guns, grenades, and a sturdy house for cover, any bandit who came to raid them would be courting death.

“You’re one of those petty property owners with wavering revolutionary will that Director Du talks about!” Liu Dazhu said, expertly spouting the teachings of Du Wen that he had half-digested. “The struggle against the enemy is fraught with all kinds of dangers. If you’re afraid of every little thing, how can you get any work done?”

“Yes, you’re right,” Wang Wu said, unable to match Liu Dazhu’s rhetoric, and lamely agreed.

Wang Wu and Liu Dazhu were both from Daolu Village. After the pacification of the Thirteen Villages area, it became a pilot zone for “extending political power to the countryside.” Many people were recruited into various groups and training classes. One of these was the village cadre training class, which trained grassroots rural cadres and work team members.

When selecting future village cadres, Du Wen favored poor peasants, believing they were close to the proletariat and had a revolutionary consciousness. Liu Dazhu, the poorest peasant in Daolu Village, joined the training class. His motivation was simple: the class provided three free meals a day, a luxury his family could never afford.

Although poor, Liu Dazhu was clever and had no family business to manage. He quickly poured a great deal of enthusiasm and time into this endeavor that kept him well-fed. He became a good student, earned a C-level diploma, and spent almost all his time in the cadre class, devouring the various educational pamphlets published by the Ministry of Education. He soon became a student with “high political consciousness” and was highly regarded by Du Wen.

As for Wang Wu, a rich peasant, he had a family and property and had no intention of becoming a “village cadre.” However, the Australians’ bandit suppression campaign had taught him the concept of “protecting property with the barrel of a gun.” When the Thirteen Villages core militia company was formed, he signed up. Wang Wu was very enthusiastic about defending the “new life.” With plenty of labor at home, he devoted a lot of time to the militia’s organization and training and became a militia squad leader.

“Summer Awakening” required a large number of work team cadres. Not only were all willing Transmigrators drafted, but many native cadres and students were also pulled from Fangcaodi and the various communes to fill the ranks. Wang Wu and Liu Dazhu were assigned to the Danzhou work team under these circumstances.

After Liu Yixiao had established a preliminary foothold in Danzhou and set up the liaison system, he divided his work team members into several small teams. Each team consisted of seven or eight native cadres and students, with an infantry platoon for protection. Following the principle of starting with the nearest areas and moving outward, they expanded village by village, with the ultimate goal of establishing village-level political power throughout Danzhou.

The work team led by the two men was sent to Zhaopu Village, a settlement more than ten li from Danzhou city.

It was a small village with about thirty households. Although not far from the city, the terrain was quite rugged, and the journey on foot took half a day through barren mountains and wilderness. The surrounding environment was very desolate.

The villagers farmed the land at the foot of the mountains to survive, and they had also carved out some terraced fields. Due to the lack of water sources, farming was entirely dependent on the weather. The people lived a hard life—of course, this was the norm in the countryside of this era and was not unusual.

Because of its poverty, the village didn’t even have anyone who could be considered a rich peasant. It was a truly dirt-poor village. It was chosen as one of the first targets for extending political power not only because of its proximity but also because of its poverty.

Poverty breeds a desire for change. Such a village held no attraction for young people, and its poverty meant that even a small material incentive could satisfy the people, making it easier for the work team to cultivate the first batch of usable personnel. A portion of the grain and cloth from the Danzhou warehouses was allocated to Liu Yixiao to be used as funds for the current activities.

After the Zhaopu Village work team arrived, they began their work according to the procedures outlined in the “Work Manual.” The division of labor was that Liu Dazhu was in charge of “village administration,” and Wang Wu was in charge of the “militia.” Liu Dazhu’s niece, Liu Bin, a graduate of the women’s training class, was responsible for youth and women’s work.

The work team investigated the situation in the village, distributed some grain and supplies to help the poorest families, and held a meeting with the heads of each household. When the villagers talked about their local situation, the main theme was “poverty.”

The village only produced enough grain to barely feed itself. The area was also difficult to access, making basic necessities like salt, cloth, and iron tools expensive when brought in from the outside, which further impoverished the people.

Banditry was not a serious problem here, probably because the village was too poor and remote for even bandits to bother with. Wang Wu was particularly interested in whether any locals had become bandits. After asking around through various channels, he found no such people.

Liu Dazhu took some guards to inspect the area around the village. He was no stranger to farming, but this place had little land and many mountains, completely different from Daolu Village.

“We still need to bring in the Heaven and Earth Society,” he muttered to himself. He decided to add this to his report.

At night, they held a meeting and wrote their reports under the light of a kerosene lamp.

“There is a surplus of young and able-bodied laborers here. They can be absorbed to form the first batch of soldiers for the Danzhou Garrison Company.”

“I’ve roughly gauged their interest. Many are willing to go. We can probably send at least twenty soldiers, which is almost one from each household.”

“Won’t that leave us with no one for the local militia?”

“In a village this small, it’s certain to be an all-hands-on-deck situation. The remaining men will be enough to form a militia platoon.”

“How is the ‘Blue and Green Plan’ going?”

The “Blue and Green Plan” was a special program by the Transmigration group to take in orphans from the occupied areas. It was an important item in the performance evaluation of the work teams. To make his team’s numbers look good, Liu Dazhu had been working hard these past few days to persuade the poorest families with many children to hand over their underage children to the work team to be raised in Lingao. This practice was not against the rules; in fact, it was encouraged. The Ministry of Education welcomed more children falling into their hands to be molded into a new generation of “new people.”