Chapter 175: Central and Local (Part 1)

Under this propaganda and agitation, Liu Xiang knew that a large number of tenant farmers and hired hands would definitely flock to Lingao. He thought gloomily of a scene from a TV series he had once seen, where foreigners tricked Chinese laborers in places like Guangdong into becoming “piglets” (indentured laborers). Didn’t they also paint San Francisco as a land paved with gold back then?

“It’s the same thing, just a different tune,” he muttered. He silently watched the lively scene for a while, feeling that there was nothing more to see. He then left the porridge distribution site and returned to the county office compound.

The large conference room in the compound—originally the main hall of the Provincial Administration Commission’s yamen—was now temporarily serving as the temporary office for the disaster relief work team. Naturalized citizen staff who had come with the team were constantly going in and out. Stacks of reports and registers were constantly being sent out and brought back. The courtyard was filled with the heavy clatter of Chinese typewriters and Mandarin spoken with strange accents.

Judging from today’s situation, at least two or three thousand refugees would be taken away. He roughly calculated that he had a general idea of the composition of the refugees. Landless tenant farmers and their families accounted for more than half. Now that the Executive Committee was using such deceptive methods, the temptation for the refugees, who had little knowledge and empty stomachs, was self-evident.

Just now, Yang Yun had conveyed the Executive Committee’s opinion to him. The Executive Committee wanted to absorb grain and population from Qiongshan. Liu Xiang was not opposed to this—the Senate needed these two things the most. There was no reason not to enjoy the spoils of war after occupying the territory. But the current method was a bit too hasty, and Liu Xiang had a strong opinion on this. In his view, this was a typical Great Leap Forward-style thinking. He had been the “county magistrate” in Qiongshan for several months and knew a lot about the local situation. He knew that the Executive Committee’s thinking was sometimes based on wishful thinking.

In general, Qiongshan was not an overpopulated area. Although it was the most densely populated county in Hainan, in the context of the mainland, a population of around one hundred thousand was at most a medium-sized county. The population was far from saturated. In the long run, Qiongshan was also a place that needed population replenishment for major development.

On his desk, the new Fujian tea that Guo Ling’er had brewed in the morning had already lost its heat, but it was just to his liking. He took a big gulp and flipped through the various confidential documents that the confidential section had just delivered. One of them was a red “urgent” official document issued by the Central Government Council.

The official document had just been delivered in the morning. According to the rules, urgent official documents were delivered day and night. Between Qiongshan and Lingao, after nearly a year of construction, only a preliminary postal route and a wired telegraph system had been established. Communication between the two places was generally done by sending telegrams via wired telegraph, while the transmission of large official documents was done through the postal system. Since the entire island of Hainan had fallen into the hands of the Senate, the dilapidated post station system of the Ming Dynasty had also been taken over by the postal service. The post stations were repaired, and the starving post station runners became employees of the post office. Using this old bottle for new wine, the General Post Office of the Central Government Council opened a round-the-island postal route system. However, so far, only the postal route in northern Qiongzhou was delivered by road. Due to the huge amount of work required to repair the post roads in the southern Qiongzhou area, there was currently only a sea postal route.

Liu Xiang knew that this document was no small matter and quickly opened it to read.

The document was an instruction on the disaster relief work in Qiongshan. It was not much different from what Yang Yun had said yesterday. The difference was that today’s document also included a “Compilation of Experiences in Combating Typhoon Disasters and Post-Disaster Rectification in Lingao County.” [Ma Qianzhu][y005] had even deliberately written a hint like “strengthen learning” on the back cover of the compilation. Combined with the actions of the Elders from the propaganda department who had come yesterday, as a former project manager who was good at analyzing customer needs, Liu Xiang quickly understood the actual meaning of this hint.

“If we really do it this way, it will look too ugly,” Liu Xiang looked at the official document in his hand and couldn’t help but shake his head.

“When we first came, we didn’t act like revolutionaries, but like a construction party. Now that we’ve taken on a big mess, we’re turning around and becoming a revolutionary party,” Liu Xiang’s political inclination was more towards the left, but he was a pragmatist. Of course, if Du Wen were in front of him, he would definitely be criticized as an “opportunist,” or with more malicious labels such as right-wing capitulationism. He had heard a lot about Director Du’s set of theories from Liu Yuefei.

This Liu Yuefei, with a very feminine name, was a peculiar character. Although he strongly disagreed with Du Wen’s political views, when it came to her as a person, he was full of emotion—even love and admiration. A few times when Liu Xiang chatted with him, he even got goosebumps.

Liu Yuefei was a member of the Social Work Department, with the title of researcher. Since the great victory in Chengmai last summer, Researcher Liu had been sent out from Lingao by the Social Work Department as a researcher, first to Chengmai, and then to Qiongshan, becoming a “wanderer.” He conducted social research work in Chengmai and Qiongshan counties, preparing a large amount of data for the “political power to the countryside” initiative. Because he spent almost every day in the countryside doing research work, it was extremely dangerous. He was attacked by bandits and local gentry once in Chengmai and four times in Qiongshan. Although he was safe each time, he had suffered a lot.

Liu Xiang sometimes wondered what made his clansman persist in working on the front line like this. He didn’t even have a life secretary; he was simply a model among the Elders. Once, out of good intentions, he suggested that Liu Muzhou formally appoint Liu Yuefei as the deputy director of the Qiongshan County Office. However, before Liu Muzhou could express his opinion, Liu Yuefei resolutely refused:

“I still want to return to Lingao to take up a post.”

But no one knew when he would return to Lingao. Liu Xiang vaguely heard that Liu Yuefei had been “exiled.” He found this a bit hard to believe—the political power of the Elders was very great, and even the Executive Committee would not dare to play such blatant tricks. He felt that there must be some other factor.

Unfortunately, Liu Yuefei was not here today—he had gone to the countryside to inspect the disaster relief work again. Otherwise, he could have had a good discussion with him.

He began to carefully study the several documents and telegrams that had been sent to him. Correctly understanding the spirit of the central government was the main job of a local official.

The central government’s line was very clear: to provide more favorable treatment to the proletariat, attract them to work in the core areas, and train them to become industrial workers; to purchase the land of middle peasants, rich peasants, and small landlords who were willing to sell their land at a better price, so that they would become the proletariat and serve as a reserve force for the industrial workers.

From the current actions, it was not clear what the attitude towards the large landlords, local gentry, and clan forces who had a certain ability to resist disasters was. None of the official documents mentioned the handling of this class, but considering Ma’s political inclination and other related circumstances, it was very likely that some unseemly means would be adopted.

“Although the Nine Elders talk about unifying China, dominating East Asia, and ruling the world, their vision is still not broad enough,” Liu Xiang leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and his right hand fingers kept tapping on the huanghuali wood computer desk.

“They pull everything to Lingao and do this to the peripheral administrative regions. If this continues, how can the local areas develop!”

The capital always absorbed all the essence of a country. Liu Xiang felt that Lingao was also beginning to show such signs, especially when the Senate’s rule was limited to a mere island, this tendency was particularly obvious. The continuous transportation of spoils of war and prisoners from all over the country to Lingao, and all construction being centered around Lingao…

After being appointed to an external post, Liu Xiang was more inclined to develop the local areas rather than endlessly supplying blood to Lingao. He believed that the various opinions and contradictions that the Elders had towards the Executive Committee were just because the ruling area was too small and there were too many carrots and too few holes. When the ruling area expanded, the Elders would be sent out one after another, and the specific work would be undertaken by the naturalized citizen cadres, and this contradiction would disappear. What he had to do was to take the lead in cultivating a large number of capable and handy naturalized citizen cadres, govern a place well, build a good foundation, and establish a good network of contacts, so as to pave the way for becoming a major local official in the future.

He called in his orderly and had this sturdy young man pedal the power-generating bicycle. This task used to be done by Guo Ling’er, but after the news of Tang Menglong’s son’s birth spread, he had assigned most of this task to the orderly, and Guo Ling’er only pedaled for half an hour after her afternoon nap as exercise. This time, Liu Xiang was preparing to write a few articles, and his habit of writing papers made him spend a lot of time writing each article, because he had to check a lot of data and information to make his articles more convincing.

He first checked the land transfer situation after typhoons over the years. This information was a comprehensive and as realistic as possible data obtained from Qiongshan County’s own records, the intelligence group’s intelligence, and the interrogation of the former county yamen clerks. Through the software he wrote himself, he analyzed the situation over the years and found that under the multiple exploitation of landlords and old officials, the peasants’ attachment to land still did not decrease. Many peasants would rather eat wild vegetables and chaff than give up their land. This was especially obvious among the poor and middle peasants. It seemed that the less land they had, the more attached they were. And the rich peasants with more land might sell a small part of their land in exchange for capital to get through the famine—although they would have to pay more under various pressures.

After a comprehensive simulation, he got a speculative ratio. He then input the list of people who were willing to sell their land to the Australians in exchange for labor qualifications, which had been rushed out last night under the influence of the propaganda department, into his simulation analysis tool. Then he used various weighted indices, speculative probabilities, and other values for calculation. Finally, he simulated and circled the “land that might be sold to the Australians” on the map of Qiongshan County.