Chapter 121 - New Life Clothing

Thinking of this, Minister Hong couldn’t help but feel some regret. The lieutenant colonel’s epaulets had just been put on—there were not many Elder officers with lieutenant colonel’s epaulets. Most Elder officers were majors. Besides him, there was only the Executive Secretary of the General Staff, Dongmen Chuiyu, and the Director of the Political Department of the General Staff, Wei Aiwen. It should be known that this Joint Logistics Department, in terms of status, was equivalent to the four general headquarters. He was sure to be among the first batch to be promoted to major general in the future.

If he didn’t serve in the army and transferred to a ministry or agency, the best he could do would be to be sent to the Planning Department, where he would face a pile of “operation charts” and reports every day, guiding a group of Guihua to make forms. It was busy and tiring, not to mention the lack of presence among the Elders.

He pondered for a long time, thinking about how to urge Thorpe to quickly set up the forward command in Hong Kong. He knew Thorpe was young, full of theories, had written a book, had many ideas, and always talked about the US military, a typical scholar. But what’s the use of just having theories? he thought with some resentment. At least he had brought a box of various pamphlets and notes from the old man’s logistics work, all of which were the core content of the PLA’s actual logistics operations. Many things, only after reading the notes, did he realize that theory and reality were not the same thing at all.

While Hong Huangnan was secretly annoyed, a steam whistle suddenly sounded over the harbor—not from a steamship, but from the Central Pier, announcing that a ship was about to enter the port.

Recently, ships had been arriving at Hong Kong Island almost every day. The frequent comings and goings of ships once aroused the alarm of the Guangdong authorities. A few days ago, the Nantou naval stockade had specially sent a platoon commander with some wine, pigs, and sheep to Hong Kong Island to pay a visit to Le Lin and reaffirm their “traditional friendship.” Le Lin also fully expressed to them that the frequent comings and goings of the ships had nothing to do with them.

Besides infrastructure materials, the ships also brought various supplies and personnel. The prelude to the Engine Operation had already begun.

He wondered what the ship had brought this time. Hong Huangnan had somewhat given up hope on the personnel for the forward command. He planned to personally return to Lin’gao tomorrow to settle the matter with the General Military Affairs Department.

He slowly walked to the office next to his bedroom, organized his thoughts, and began to write a logistics memorandum for the Engine Operation.

Although many logistics facilities were already under construction on Hong Kong Island, most were still the most basic things: dedicated docks and warehouses. These were needed, but not enough. He also wanted logistics factories. A military food factory was out of the question for now—the Planning Department couldn’t give him such a large infrastructure investment at the moment, but a water purification plant was necessary to supply safe and clean drinking water to the ships plying the waters in this area. Of course, when demand was low, the surplus capacity could be used to produce soft drinks like kvass and soda. Finally, there was a clothing factory. In the long run, supplying clothing from Lin’gao would be detrimental to the Fubo Army’s future operations on the mainland. It would not only require long-distance transportation but also a large amount of storage space. Setting up a clothing factory on Hong Kong Island would allow them to take advantage of Guangzhou’s port to purchase cloth and utilize the female labor resources of the Pearl River Delta.

If the water resources could be solved, another military food factory should be built on Hong Kong Island. Fresh fruits and vegetables were necessities on sailing ships…

As he was organizing his thoughts, there was a knock on the door, followed by a “Report!”

“Come in,” he called out without looking up.

Appearing at the door was his personal secretary—in uniform, with the rank of corporal in the Fubo Army.

To take care of the daily lives of the Elders in the army, based on a proposal by Xi Yazhou, the General Military Affairs Department and the General Office jointly issued a document. All personal secretaries of Elders serving in the army were enlisted into active duty, granted the rank of logistics corporal, and promoted according to the Fubo Army’s rank system, up to the rank of captain. The personal secretaries of Elder officers were not part of the army’s official establishment and were not granted actual positions in the army. Once an Elder officer terminated the subordinate relationship with his personal secretary, she could no longer serve in the army and had to be discharged from active duty and transferred to a local position—to avoid affecting the morale of the army. During her service, the personal secretary’s military pay, food allowance, clothing allowance, and military insurance were the same as those of personnel of the same rank, but this expenditure was not included in the military budget and was deducted from the Elder’s personal account. The personal secretary also had to be discharged when the Elder was discharged from active duty.

“Minister, Second Lieutenant Xie Peng of the Joint Logistics Headquarters is here,” the secretary reported, standing at attention.

This time, the ship brought not infrastructure materials but the staff and equipment for the forward command that Hong Huangnan had been eagerly awaiting—several large boxes were filled with various specialized logistics charts.

Besides the Guihua staff, a group of temporarily seconded Elders from the Planning Department and the finance department also came, all under his command for the time being. Xie Peng brought the written order from the General Military Affairs Department appointing him to form and command the logistics forward command for the Engine Operation.

Most of the seconded Elders had backgrounds in planning, accounting, and logistics, which was a good professional match. This made Hong Huangnan feel more at ease. The basic abilities of the Guihua were limited. They were fine with following orders, but when it came to highly professional matters, only the Elders could handle them.

The forward command occupied several large rooms in the fortress of the base and was officially set up. The Planning Department had already helped him with the basic supply of food, and the ships were also basically on track. He only needed to work out a specific food supply plan and a ship operation chart—the latter was mainly handled by the navy, so he could spend less effort on it.

After the problems of food and transportation, came clothing. From the first refugee they took in, the clothes of the refugees were all collected, disinfected, and used for making paper pulp. New clothing was supplied. This was done on the one hand for hygiene, and on the other hand, what the refugees wore could hardly be called clothes. With a few exceptions, most refugees wore only rags. If they were not supplied with basic clothing, the refugee camps would have to become nudist camps.

In the quarantine camps, the clothing issued to the refugees was initially the standard cotton work uniform modeled after the Type 87—the kind commonly known as “migrant worker clothes.” As the number of refugees increased, the production of work uniforms could not keep up with the supply. After Mo Xiao’an became the People’s Commissar of Light Industry, he improved the quarantine camp uniform—codenamed “New Life Clothing”—to increase the supply.

Although Mo Xiao’an was not a tailor and had not studied fashion design, he knew the basic supply principles for refugee clothing: simplification and practicality. Since the climate in Lin’gao was not cold enough to freeze people to death, the clothing material did not need to be very thick. The refugees in quarantine generally did not engage in heavy physical labor, so the fabric did not need to be strong and wear-resistant. Of course, dyeing and the like were also unnecessary.

The textiles in Lin’gao, besides the cotton, ramie, and linen woven by the Li people themselves, were mainly imported from outside the island, including Songjiang cloth and Indian cloth, with Indian cotton cloth being the bulk. Mo Xiao’an chose the thinnest and cheapest cotton yarn from among them.

The style of the New Life Clothing was greatly simplified—including things like buttons and pockets, which were all omitted. In the end, even the belt, a fastening item, was eliminated. The final style of the “New Life Clothing” became a pullover “sack shirt.” The neckline had a thin drawstring to adjust the size of the collar. The New Life Clothing was not divided into men’s, women’s, or seasonal styles. It was uniformly a long-sleeved pullover for the upper body and long pants for the lower body. The sizes were divided into large, medium, small, and children’s. The various clothes made in Lin’gao, except for military and police uniforms, generally did not come with hats, but the New Life Clothing was uniformly equipped with a sun-shading straw hat. The refugees’ hair was shaved during purification, so their bald scalps needed some protection.

The New Life Clothing series included standard underpants—commonly known as “Thirty Great Shorts,” because they were widely issued starting in 1630. They were also divided by size but not by gender. The Thirty Great Shorts were not only issued to the refugees in purification but also to the army and the Guihua. Some Elders in the military system also wore these Thirty Great Shorts.

The issuance of underpants was specially requested by Lei En, who was in charge of epidemic prevention in the health department. Not wearing underwear could easily lead to the spread of skin diseases and parasites. In addition, supplying underwear also reduced the number of outer garments supplied. In the quarantine camps, it was always the practice to issue two sets of underwear and one set of outerwear to each person.

Now, they were going to transport 200,000 people. According to the requirement of issuing two sets of basic clothing to each person, with each set requiring 3 meters of cloth, 200,000 people would need 1.2 million meters of cloth, which was equivalent to about 100,000 bolts of Songjiang cloth.

It was not difficult for the Council of Elders to increase the import quota of 100,000 bolts of cloth over a year, whether it was imported from India or from the mainland. Especially since they now had bases in Zhejiang and Shanghai, close to the production area of Songjiang cloth, the supply was sufficient and the price was low. Zhao Yigong could purchase enough cloth at a fairly cheap price.

However, the clothing they were going to supply this time was to be worn in more northern places. Kaohsiung was fine, with an average temperature of 25°C. Supplying clothing according to Lin’gao’s standards was not a problem. But the refugees from Shandong would be sent to Jeju Island for the winter. The lowest winter temperature there could reach 1-2°C. Issuing only two sets of unlined clothes would obviously freeze people to death. Even if they stayed in the camps, the refugees would not survive with only a single layer of clothing and no bedding—unless they were constantly roasted like barbecue. In addition, after arriving in Shandong and Jeju Island, not only the refugees would need warm clothes, but the army and administrative personnel sent to carry out the Engine Plan would also need them.

At present, the winter clothing of the Fubo Army was only made of relatively thick cotton cloth. Not to mention cotton-padded jackets and overcoats, they didn’t even have a single woolen sweater.