Chapter 131: Gelsemium

The “Zhaopu Village Incident Report,” upon reaching the Senate, triggered a round of questioning directed at the People’s Committee for Civil Affairs. Liu Muzhou found himself blushing and paling under the interrogation, almost unable to speak.

He struggled to maintain his composure as he answered Shan Liang’s questions.

“According to the report, a key factor in the work team’s annihilation was the failure to send a timely warning. If they had been able to send an alarm in time, they could have been saved, correct?”

“Yes, in theory… that is correct.”

Shan Liang continued, “According to the map, Zhaopu Village is only about ten li from Danzhou city. So, in reality, it’s also certainly the case. In other words, if the work team had been equipped with appropriate communication devices, they could have sent a timely warning.”

“That’s right.”

“Then why weren’t they equipped with them?”

“Our radio equipment is a Tier 1 controlled item. Small, deployed detachments are not equipped to have them,” Liu Muzhou said. “However, we did provide the Danzhou work team itself with a considerable quantity.” He then reported the models and quantities of radios and walkie-talkies issued to the Danzhou work team.

“Do you think that was enough?”

“That amount of equipment is not enough to supply more than ten work teams and various scattered camps simultaneously.”

“…So, you knew the communication equipment allocated to the Danzhou work team was insufficient, yet you still let them go?”

Liu Muzhou protested, “I object to your suggestive questioning! The amount of equipment we can use is not something the People’s Committee for Civil Affairs can decide on its own!”

“Alright. I withdraw the question,” Shan Liang said. “Then, was it possible for your department to adopt some alternative methods? For example, primitive but reliable means like signal rockets or carrier pigeons?”

“These all involve local factors and technical conditions. For example, using carrier pigeons requires establishing a dovecote locally and training the pigeons to have a ‘homing sense’ for Danzhou. Otherwise, giving the work team pigeons is useless—they would only fly back to Lingao. Training pigeons to adapt to a new home is not a matter of a day or two. Nick can attest to this.”

…

Liu Muzhou finally managed to escape the intense grilling of the hearing. He cursed Liu Yixiao inwardly for botching the job and dragging him down with him.

“You’re lucky to be hiding in Danzhou, making me take the heat for you,” he muttered under his breath.

At that moment, Mei Lin requested to speak.

“Permission to speak granted!”

Mei Lin walked to the podium.

“Fellow Transmigrators! The Zhaopu Village incident, while seemingly accidental, was in fact, I would say, inevitable. This is a profound lesson…”

“Please get to the point!” Ma Jia, who had grown weary from presiding over the long meeting, said impatiently.

“I believe the primary cause of this vicious incident was the complacency and negligence of the Danzhou work team’s leadership. In the period between the capture of the county seat and the dispatch of the work teams, they did not conduct a detailed investigation of the situation under their jurisdiction, nor did they promptly establish a local intelligence network. If they had understood the bandits’ scope of activity, numbers, and combat capabilities beforehand, they could have configured the work teams accordingly, or at least ensured that those thirty-odd people had sufficient vigilance and flexibility to handle a crisis. They could have also been better prepared in terms of equipment.

“Secondly, the lack of communication equipment. In the absence of a sufficient number of radios, the work team failed to consider equipping themselves with simple emergency communication methods. They actually relied on human messengers. This is an enormous mistake, simply intolerable! We don’t have that many work teams right now. Even if we can’t give them radios from this time-space, we should have been able to provide them with some lower-tech options like carrier pigeons, smoke signals, or flare guns. Logically, we should be using crystal radios directly—last time we discussed radio equipment, someone always said ‘this is no good, that’s no good.’ I say, it’s best to use what we have first and then gradually upgrade…”

“Please stick to the topic in your speech.”

“So, on the surface, the annihilation of this work team was caused by the cunning and cruelty of the bandits. But in reality, it was our own fault, especially the primary responsibility of several leaders. They should make a profound self-criticism! And the Senate should pass a resolution to impose corresponding punishments as a warning to others! One more thing: in a sense, the annihilation of this small detachment is not a bad thing. It is a loss we must bear in the process of conquering the world. The price of just over thirty lives has exposed the flaws in our command structure and sobered our understanding. It is well worth it—provided we learn our lesson! I have finished my speech.”

Next, the head of the Cheka, Yi Fan, gave a long speech about “guarding against adventurism in local work,” arguing that the Danzhou work team, led by Liu Yixiao, had adopted an “adventurist” approach by deploying teams to multiple points and trying to make them bloom everywhere at once.

“Gentlemen, in the past, in Lingao, we did things step by step. First, we controlled the area around the county seat, then we suppressed the bandits, won over the gentry, and only then did we begin the major bandit suppression campaign. Now, the Danzhou work team has adopted a net-casting, one-step approach without being fully prepared. It’s no surprise that such a vicious incident occurred.”

Yi Fan continued:

“There are many other lessons from this incident. We are not doing enough in terms of details. I propose that we revise the “Work Manual” for the work teams. The standard procedures need to be reformulated based on this experience. In particular, food safety needs to be addressed by restricting edible vegetables and fruits—we should distribute botanical manuals so that even the native personnel can distinguish between poisonous and edible plants. At the same time, the villages we enter need to be scored and assessed for their security level. The more dangerous ones should be prioritized for higher-level communication tools, such as carrier pigeons, signal flares, or even walkie-talkies. And overall, we still need to consider breaking up the original village structure, consolidating villages and settlements, and gradually mobilizing the local populace.”

“This incident shows that relying solely on work teams and neglecting armed struggle is not enough,” Wei Aiwen followed up eloquently. “We have underestimated the nature of pacification warfare. Given that our sphere of control will only grow larger in the future, it is imperative that we establish a specialized research institution to study this.”

…

The Senate finally concluded: the death of thirty-five people, and at the hands of bandits no less, was an unprecedented and慘敗 (cǎnbài - disastrous defeat)! It was unanimously agreed that the matter must be handled seriously and investigated to the end!

Subsequently, Qian Shuiting and others initiated a proposal to establish a Zhaopu Village Incident Investigation Committee. The committee would send a special envoy to Danzhou to conduct a comprehensive and thorough investigation of the entire incident. While gathering experience and summarizing lessons learned, they would also investigate whether the Danzhou Work Team and the garrison were guilty of dereliction of duty or violations, and whether they bore direct responsibility for the incident.

The Senate Standing Committee passed this resolution and elected the committee members.

The committee chairman, Qian Shuiting, believed that since the report mentioned signs of poisoning among the work team, a professional should be sent. In the end, the agricultural committee’s botany expert, Fa Shilu, was appointed as the special investigator, with Ji Xin from the Arbitration Tribunal as his deputy. Lan Yangyang was appointed as the forensic examiner, despite his repeated claims that he was just a gastroenterologist.

The investigation team was issued an independent investigation certificate by the Arbitration Tribunal. With this certificate, the Danzhou authorities had to fully cooperate with his work without any obstruction or evasion. The investigation team had the right to inspect and seize any evidence and to speak with anyone alone. The report he compiled would also be confidential, submitted only to the committee for review and discussion.

The investigation team first took a navy supply ship to Danzhou. After a brief welcome from Liu Yixiao at the pier, they transferred to an ox-cart to travel to Danzhou city.

“All the evidence and the bodies for autopsy are in Danzhou city,” Liu Yixiao said. “There’s no cold storage here, so the bodies can only be kept in the basement. They’re decomposing quickly. If you hadn’t come soon, they would have had to be cremated.”

“No problem, as long as I can see the contents of the stomach,” Lan Yangyang said, studying his notebook—notes he had taken after a few days of cramming on “Forensic Medicine.”

Upon arriving in Danzhou, the investigation team immediately got to work. Lan Yangyang performed the autopsies and extracted the stomach contents.

He handed a glass jar filled with a gray, viscous substance to Fa Shilu and took off his mask with a sigh of relief.

“Alright! My work is done. It’s your turn now.”

Fa Shilu frowned—he smelled a disgusting stench of decay. He took out his portable microscope, put on a mask, and began to work.

The autopsy and examination of the stomach’s residual food confirmed that the work team had indeed been poisoned by a plant. After studying the residue, Fa Shilu gave a definitive answer:

“It’s Gelsemium,” he said curtly. “Commonly known as ‘heartbreak grass.’ This stuff is extremely toxic. Three or four leaves are enough to kill a person! It’s almost more potent than arsenic—and it was boiled in water, which makes it act faster. Without treatment, death is certain within eight hours.” He used tweezers to pick out some gray matter. “They even added bitter melon to mask the strange taste and many green leafy vegetables to hide the leaves. These bandits are quite clever!”

“We must have these people drawn and quartered!” Liu Yixiao said through gritted teeth.

“Vegetables have to be sourced locally. If the enemy pulls a trick like this, it’s really hard to guard against,” Yu Zhiqian said. “I need to quickly notify all the deployed teams to temporarily stop having the locals buy vegetables for them. They must go to the fields to pick them themselves. Also, foraging for wild vegetables and fruits is forbidden.”

Liu Yixiao asked, “Is there any simple remedy? We could have the medics learn it, so they can save themselves if they eat something poisonous in the future.”

“Traditional Chinese medicine says that giving the poisoned person a decoction of licorice, mung beans, and honeysuckle can neutralize the poison. However, I believe that gastric lavage is necessary first for such a decoction to be effective,” Lan Yangyang said. “At the very least, they need to induce vomiting. With this kind of poisonous plant, inducing vomiting immediately can buy a lot of time for rescue.”

“Those three things are not hard to come by. We’ll prepare a supply for every work team from now on!” Liu Yixiao became very proactive. “We just don’t have an emetic—I hope the Ministry of Health can solve that.”