Chapter 235 - The New Year's Reception

“Your telegram.” A cadre from the General Office’s confidential communications room placed a locked folder on Wu De’s desk. This was the method for circulating “confidential” and above telegrams and documents among the Executive Committee members, People’s Commissars, and ministers. They had a special key.

Wu De opened the folder and took out the telegram. The telegram was stamped “Top Secret,” and the sender was He Fanghui from Sanya. Among the three Elders currently stationed in Sanya, he was in charge of civil affairs.

In the telegram, he reported the arrival of the first batch of Southeast Asian slaves. A total of 254 people had landed, all in good physical condition, all young and able-bodied men, with no children or elderly.

“So the Englishman really did deliver the slaves on time,” Wu De thought. The use of Southeast Asian slaves was the established policy of the Council of Elders, with considerations for both labor and future strategic layout. Even if John Quark had failed, the Executive Committee had a backup plan to have other foreign merchants play this role.

He stamped his personal seal on the distribution list at the bottom of the telegram, relocked the folder, and handed it back to the confidential clerk to be taken away. He opened a folder on his desk marked “Labor Force.” The folder contained a categorized statistical summary of the “disposable labor force” for each week, broken down by age, gender, region, industry… and so on. Overall, adding 254 laborers to the Sanya region, which had already received 4,761 people and currently had 3,850, was not a huge number. However, the slaves would greatly reduce the mortality rate of the naturalized laborers who had received basic training—the most dangerous and arduous work would now be entirely undertaken by the slaves. After tasting the sweetness of this deal, John Quark would continue to bring in a steady stream of slaves, fully meeting the local demand and consumption of labor.

Of course, the demand for labor was endless. With the retreat of He Rubin, the entire Hainan Island would be under their control. The Planning and Development Commission estimated that the population under the control of the Council of Elders would expand to 400,000-600,000 people. But to fully mobilize them, a series of tasks needed to be done: suppressing bandits, consolidating villages and households, and conducting a census. The most optimistic estimate was that they would not be able to fully and effectively utilize the population of Qiongzhou until the beginning of 1632. In comparison, immigrants with indentured servant status and purchased slaves were more convenient.

In addition to slaves, the Executive Committee was also looking for ways to expand its population sources. The refugees from Guangdong and Fujian had been mostly gathered. The Executive Committee once again sought help from the Grand Library—preparing to find new opportunities from the incessant natural and man-made disasters of the late Ming Dynasty.

“The idea is good,” Wu De thought, “but the prerequisite is that they have enough transport capacity, and there’s also Liu Xiang, who is currently hiding somewhere… Many technical details need to be resolved.”

As he was thinking, his private secretary, Chu Yu, came in and delivered a red invitation.

“Whose invitation?” Wu De asked strangely. Only an Elder’s personal joyous event could have an invitation delivered to his desk. The invitation for Xun Suji’s marriage to Liu Meilan, the grandniece of Liu Youren, the head of the Liu Family Village, had already been delivered yesterday. Wu De had been troubled for a while about whether to give a red envelope. In the end, he decided to buy a gift instead.

Chu Yu said, “It’s from Commissar Wu.”

“Commissar Wu?” Wu De was stunned for a moment before realizing she was talking about Wu Nanhai. Wu Nanhai was getting married? He immediately thought of the women at the farm.

“It’s Chu Qing…” Chu Yu’s voice was a little wistful. They had the same background, and seeing her former sister become an Elder’s wife made her feel a little sour.

“Oh, oh, it’s her,” Wu De nodded and said noncommittally.

The 1631 New Year’s reception, organized by Fang Fei and Zheng Shangjie, was held as scheduled. Except for the essential on-duty personnel, most of the Elders attended the New Year’s reception held at the Lin’gao Cape Park. In addition to the Elders, “cooperators” from the local area of Lin’gao were also invited, mostly members of the county consultative bureau and directors of the East Gate Market Commercial Association: Lin Quan’an, Liu Youren, Zhang Youfu, Li Sunqian… Even a small landlord like Fu Bu’er, who was not quite qualified, was invited because he was a “model” of the Heaven and Earth Society.

The remnants of the Ming government in Lin’gao: County Magistrate Wu Ya, Registrar Sun Ruiwu, Inspector Fu Bowen, County School Instructor Wang Ci, including the completely puppet Lin’gao County Magistrate Wu Mingjin, all received invitations. Of course, Wang Zhaomin, who had contributed the most to the Elders, was also on the invitation list.

In addition to this group of local representatives, whom Du Wen called “monsters and demons,” there were also representatives of the naturalized citizens: outstanding individuals selected from among soldiers, cadres, workers, commune members, and students. Liu Muzhou was planning to hold a “model worker selection” or something similar after the New Year. Of course, once there were model workers, the “March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter” would probably not be exempt—otherwise, Du Wen would not let him off.

The invited natives all considered it a great honor. The fact that the transmigrator group had defeated the government army and their power had expanded to the entire Qiongzhou had given the people, regardless of their social status, a premonition that “the times are changing.” Both the upper and lower classes of society had a large number of people eager to get on the Australians’ boat in this time of great change, to win a fortune for themselves and their families. Therefore, almost all the invited guests accepted the invitation. Even Wu Mingjin, who had always maintained a stance of “no surrender, no leaving” and proclaimed himself a practitioner of non-violent non-cooperation, came in a sedan chair with a beaming smile.

The reception began at 17:00 on December 31st. Mu Min personally came to the venue to arrange the security work. Because there were many native personnel present, although they were all “activists” or were considered “reliable” in the security assessment, Mu Min knew that this was not absolutely safe—security work had to be foolproof.

At that time, more than 400 Elders and about 100 elite figures of the transmigrators’ “new order” would gather in the Lin’gao Cape Park. If any accident with casualties occurred, it would bring huge losses to the entire cause.

As the person directly responsible for the security of the Elders and the green zone, Mu Min coordinated the security work for the New Year’s reception with various departments at the Internal Affairs and Security Conference. A security plan was formulated. The first cordon was set up 50 meters outside the Lin’gao Cape Park, and the 2nd company of Li Yiyang’s Lin’gao Garrison Battalion was responsible for it. The police team composed of the Bopu police station and the police training class from Fangcaodi was responsible for maintaining order and checking identities around the two entrances and exits of the park.

Inside the park, the Bopu detachment of the Special Reconnaissance Team was responsible for security and controlling all the high points. Finally, the personnel of the Political Security Bureau formed the inner cordon. On the sea, the navy’s special service boats formed three cordons, prohibiting all ships and personnel from entering within 1 nautical mile of the park’s coastline.

In addition to security, the reception also had to consider fire prevention and accident prevention—there were gas lamps, barbecue grills… Mu Min specially surveyed the terrain and held several meetings to discuss the layout of the venue, the placement of the buffet tables, the location of the barbecue grills, the evacuation routes… and even how much extra lighting was needed.

Now everything was ready, just waiting for the guests to arrive. The Lin’gao Cape Park was decorated with lanterns and colored streamers, and the gas lamps were brightly lit. The Feiyun, docked at the pier, was hung with colored lights. The loudspeakers continuously played “Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon” and “Spring Festival Overture,” creating a lively and joyful atmosphere.

Guests arrived in twos and threes, some on foot, some in sedan chairs, and some on bicycles, all coming to the square in front of the Lin’gao Cape Park. This was already a secondary security zone, and no one without an invitation could enter. Liu Youren arrived at the square in a sedan chair, beaming with joy. Chief Xun had finally explicitly agreed to the marriage with Liu Meilan. This matter, which had been hanging for almost a year, was now settled, and the relationship between the Liu family and the Elders was no longer the same. He stroked his beard and looked happily at the large gate made of bamboo. This “park” was originally only accessible to the Elders and was shrouded in a layer of mystery. Being able to go in and see it in person at this “reception” was exciting enough.

The sound of whistles echoed in the square. Several policemen ran around blowing their whistles, directing the sedan chairs to enter the “sedan chair parking area” in an orderly manner. The sedan chair bearers were led by a special person to a temporary rest shed on the side. Liu Youren knew the Australians’ rules: only the invited guests themselves could enter the venue, and no servants were allowed. He sent his servants to rest and went to the main gate with his invitation.

Just as he had taken a few steps, he saw a middle-aged scholar emerge from a two-man sedan chair. Looking closely, it was none other than Wu Mingjin. He had been idle for a long time, well-fed and well-cared for, and had put on some weight. He wore a cloud-patterned scarf and a lake-blue robe, looking like a scholar from a middle-class family.

Liu Youren immediately went up and bowed in greeting. Wu Mingjin’s position as the Ming county magistrate was already an empty title, so he didn’t need to be too polite.

Wu Mingjin was very polite. He had long heard that the barbarians wanted to take his grandniece as a concubine. He held this country bumpkin landlord in contempt in his heart, but he showed no sign of it on his face. This kind of “new noble” of the barbarians could not be offended.

“Is the old master also here to attend the reception?”

“Indeed,” Wu Mingjin nodded. “It’s the end of the year, and I have nothing to do, so I’m just here for some amusement.”

The so-called end of the year was calculated according to the “Great Song calendar,” which was the Gregorian calendar. According to the “Great Ming calendar,” which was also used concurrently, the New Year was still two months away. But under the influence of the Elders, the use of the Gregorian calendar had become a trend in Lin’gao, gradually changing everyone’s habits.

As they were talking, a scholar in a blue robe came puffing and panting. Seeing Wu Mingjin, he immediately performed a court bow, causing the passersby to look at them sideways.

“Master! Why are you here too?” The person who came was the county school instructor, Wang Ci. He had come on foot, his head covered in sweat. His blue robe was still neat, but it exuded the smell of old, sweaty clothes.