Chapter 186: The Leizhou Experience

With the help of temporarily conscripted civilian laborers, five hundred prisoners of war from the Battle of Chengmai urgently constructed a pier at the Jiazi Coal Mine’s dedicated wharf in Haikou Port, designed for unloading heavy equipment. The logistical and maintenance gear of the First Mobile Marine Corps’ advance battalion was then offloaded from the ships.

The First Mobile Corps’ base was established outside Qiongshan County City. Due to the vast amount of equipment and the need for large quantities of coal, the entire encampment was set up in a field-fortification style. All living supplies were unloaded from the ships, and even the coal used for the equipment was high-quality Hongji steam coal specially transported from Lingao.

The first batch of agricultural technicians trained by the Heaven and Earth Society, carrying wooden stakes and ropes for marking plots, followed the surveyors’ commands on the land where the floodwaters had receded. They marked out the first farm to be directly managed by the Agriculture Committee.

Similar work was also being carried out on the farmland contracted by the Heaven and Earth Society. After the plots were measured and marked, agricultural machinery officially entered the fields to begin clearing the land and carrying out basic agricultural construction. The receding flood had left behind a layer of river sand and debris, and simply clearing the fields required a great deal of time and labor. The tractors of the First Mobile Corps, belching black smoke and hissing white steam, moved slowly across the damp fields, their metal bodies clanging. Whenever this happened, a large crowd of dumbfounded local people—from wealthy gentry in silk robes to destitute, barely-clothed refugees—would gather on the ridges to watch.

In Qiongshan County City, Chang Shide requisitioned a portion of the buildings that originally belonged to the Qiongzhou Armory. At the entrance, he hung a plaque for the “Qiongshan Branch of the Heaven and Earth Society”—which, of course, also served as the unofficial headquarters of the Qiongshan County Agriculture Bureau.

Subsequently, under his direct command, the Heaven and Earth Society launched a full-scale propaganda offensive in Qiongshan.

Unlike the previous recruitment drive, the main purpose of this offensive was to entice the local populace, whether they were farmers or landlords, to join the Heaven and Earth Society’s “Agricultural Cooperative” system.

The Agricultural Cooperative system was not the same as the cooperatives established in the 1950s of the old world. Chang Shide believed that given the current level of agriculture, implementing a high-level mutual aid and cooperation model would be quite difficult. The loose nature of farmers was also ill-suited for a cooperative system that lacked strong binding forces. Therefore, the agricultural cooperative he established in Leizhou was similar to the Japanese model: farmers joined voluntarily. Participating farmers had to accept the cooperative’s technical guidance, and the cooperative would uniformly provide seeds, compound fertilizers, and pest control. When necessary, the cooperative would also offer agricultural machinery services, including mechanized harvesting, water pumping for irrigation, and farmland drainage. The agricultural products would be sold collectively by the cooperative.

All these services and agricultural materials came at a cost, but payment could be deferred until after the harvest, with a certain amount of interest, of course. The cooperative also provided small loans through Delong, allowing farmers to use their land or future harvests as collateral.

Since farmers had almost no cash on hand, they inevitably had to resort to various small loans for production. This was why usury had always thrived in the countryside. Now, this lending was provided by the Agricultural Cooperative. The first objective was to control and exploit the farmers through credit. The second was to combat rural usury, clean up the rural economic environment, and prepare for Delong’s large-scale entry into the countryside.

The Heaven and Earth Society’s cooperative did not accept landless peasants—pure tenant farmers or hired hands were not within its scope. The cooperative’s targets were self-cultivating farmers and small to medium-sized landlords.

Furthermore, landowners managed their own land, and the cooperative did not interfere—it only provided “guidance” and “assistance.” Chang Shide believed that at this stage, this was the most ideal way to deal with small, self-cultivating farmers.

Under this system, although the farmers gained significant benefits, their ability to withstand disasters did not fundamentally change. They remained in a very fragile position. On the surface, they had escaped the troubles of greedy and predatory rural loan sharks, but in reality, they had fallen into the more complex and pervasive loan network of the Agricultural Cooperative. Any slight mismanagement could lead them into a predicament where they couldn’t repay their loans. According to Chang Shide’s experience in Leizhou, under this system, self-cultivating farmers would polarize more quickly: one group, composed of those who were quick-witted, skilled in agriculture, had more land, and were good at management, would use the support provided by the Heaven and Earth Society to excel in agricultural production and gradually rise. The other group would gradually fall into difficulty with the endless “loans” and eventually lose their land. Of course, once they were forced to mortgage their land to the Heaven and Earth Society, the Society would benevolently arrange for the entire family to become agricultural workers or industrial workers on a direct-managed farm.

Although the Spartacus Group, in its publication “Red Flag,” had published a series of critiques on the so-called “Leizhou Experience” and the “Agricultural Cooperative System” in “Four Critiques on the Leizhou Experience,” which clearly stated that the “Leizhou Experience” was a poisonous weed that fostered new landlords and promoted “new kulakism,” this experience was fully in line with the Senate’s agricultural policy. Thus, it was strongly encouraged by the Executive Committee and became an important model for promotion.

Under Chang Shide’s arrangements, the propaganda department erected large billboards outside the three gates of Qiongshan County City, using pictures and text to promote the message “The Agricultural Cooperative is Good” to the people of Qiongshan.

Because the farmers were generally illiterate, the billboards were mostly filled with drawings, charts, and printed photographs. In front of the billboards were large display stands with sand tables, various new farm tools, fertilizer samples, seeds, and crop specimens.

Ji Denggao led a lion dance and drum troupe, performing every hour to attract an audience. Next to the billboards, large plates of perilla-wrapped rice balls, each the size of a ping-pong ball, were being prepared. Anyone who came to listen to the propaganda would receive one rice ball. This method attracted a large number of people from the surrounding countryside. Many families sent their children out early in the morning, saying, “Hurry to the county gate and get a rice ball!”

The temptation of the rice balls ensured that a large crowd gathered in front of the billboards every day, eating their food while watching the spectacle. Ji Denggao was already experienced with such scenes. Before the presentation began, everyone who wanted a rice ball received a bamboo slip. After listening, they would hand the slip to a staff member, who would give them a rice ball and stamp their arm with blue ink. This indigo-based ink would stay on the skin for several days, effectively preventing people from going to all three gates to get multiple rice balls.

To prevent other abuses, soldiers from the First Infantry Battalion were stationed on the perimeter to maintain security, arrest anyone organizing groups to fraudulently claim rice balls, or those who tried to rob others of their food.

Chang Shide knew that almost everyone who came to see the billboards was there for the rice balls, but he didn’t care. The few rice balls didn’t cost much rice. He just wanted to create a buzz and spread the news of the Heaven and Earth Society’s cooperative to the countryside as quickly as possible. In an era where communication was basically done by shouting, nothing was faster than word of mouth. Moreover, he had some confidence in the propaganda methods controlled by the Propaganda Department.

On the billboards were large posters and photographs showcasing the “new look” after implementing the agricultural cooperative. The posters, of course, were painted to look like a paradise on earth—”all artist’s renderings,” as the saying goes. There were also numerous photographs, all selected from the “new rural model” of several directly managed communes, showing neat houses, straight roads, herds of pigs and sheep, and “scenes of a happy life,” which invariably included new-style stoves, gas lamps, and the farmers’ meals.

Besides the pictures promoting “Join the Heaven and Earth Society, Start a New Life,” there were also many diagrams of agricultural technology, such as rice-fish and rice-duck farming, rice-mulberry intercropping, biogas pits, and sparse planting of rice… On the display stands were also meticulously crafted model sand tables made by the masters among the Elders: there was a panoramic “New Countryside,” a “Courtyard Economy 3D Model Display,” an “Australian-style Integrated Farm Structure Diagram,” and a “Farm Tool and Machinery Usage Model.”

…

The visitors had never seen such realistic pictures, let alone such exquisite and detailed models. They were all mesmerized. When they saw the new farm tools and crops on display, many showed great interest. The thick ears of corn, the robust stalks of rice, the plump grains…

Besides those who were already aware of the “Australian farming methods,” many others who had initially come just for a rice ball were moved after being “baptized” by the billboards. They began to inquire with the staff about the specific practices of the Heaven and Earth Society. The staff members answered every question, giving ten answers for every one asked, each of them promoting the benefits of joining the Heaven and Earth Society with the zeal of a multi-level marketer:

“Your fields are flooded, you have no harvest, and you can’t pay your taxes? No problem! The Heaven and Earth Society has loans to help you pay your taxes first. You can pay it back after next year’s harvest. The interest is very reasonable—one percent a year, much cheaper than borrowing in the village.”

“Your crops have failed completely? We, the Heaven and Earth Society, provide replanting services. For anyone who joins, we provide seedlings. What’s that, you have no money? No problem, put it on credit. Pay it back after the harvest!”

“Your fields were washed out by the flood? No problem! We have the big iron ox to help you prepare the land. The price is negotiable, just put it on credit for now.”

“For the next seven days, it’s our Heaven and Earth Society’s special offer week! Anyone who signs up this week gets a five percent discount on all service fees, plus one free plowing service!”

“The price is expensive? Not at all! How about this, if you refer a few more households to join our Heaven and Earth Society, I’ll give you a five percent discount on your service fee for each one who signs up. There’s no upper limit. For every person you bring in, I’ll reduce your fee. If you bring in twenty people, your whole year will be free!”

Under the staff’s silver-tongued persuasion, many self-cultivating farmers and small landlords who were struggling after the disaster were moved. Starting from the third day of the propaganda campaign, the sign-up rate began to rise.