Chapter 358: In the City

After listening to the informant’s report, Liu Fuqing roughly understood that the small village was an enemy contact point. He immediately ordered a team of Korean informants to monitor the location 24/7.

The conversation with Lee Man-hee also yielded a lot of new information. Although Lee Man-hee didn’t know the specifics of what they discussed, she provided intelligence about Park Deok-hwan’s close association with Jo Myeong-gwi. The most important point was that she had once accidentally overheard a sister in the brothel say that Park Deok-hwan had come into good fortune: Master Kim was going to marry his illegitimate daughter to him.

On this point alone, Park Deok-hwan’s career as the number one collaborator was over. Liu Fuqing knew the matter was not that simple. Liu Fuqing was well-versed in the mysteries of power rent-seeking. It was not surprising that Park Deok-hwan, having gained power, would use it to benefit himself. But now it seemed that there were political issues beneath the economic ones.

Given his current status and ability, Master Kim would not invest so heavily in him. He opened the file cabinet and took out Park Deok-hwan’s file. It already contained a considerable amount of material on Park Deok-hwan’s “economic problems” reported by informers. He carefully calculated and concluded that the price Master Kim had paid him before was already considerable. There was absolutely no need to throw in a daughter as well.

Although an illegitimate daughter had a low status, she was still a member of the Kim family. Once they were united by marriage, it meant that the interests of the two families began to be tied together. This was a very strange thing. You had to know that in Lingao, the Senate had only had such a thing happen after more than two years and after defeating the siege of the entire Guangdong provincial army.

This local tyrant, Master Kim, was so proactive, it was really suspicious.

Liu Fuqing considered for a moment and expanded the scope of surveillance on Park Deok-hwan to everyone he had contacted in the brothel. Finally, he also included Park Deok-maeng on the surveillance list.

Then he took the information he had gathered and went to see Feng Zongze.

Feng Zongze glanced through it. When he saw Park Deok-hwan’s name appearing from time to time, his eyelids twitched violently. He couldn’t help but slam his fist on the table. “Park Deok-hwan! Damn him!”

It wasn’t that he didn’t know Park Deok-hwan had economic problems, but with the idea of letting people feel there was soup to drink when they worked for them, he had never inquired too much, thinking that he had shown him great kindness and he should know when to stop. He didn’t expect Park Deok-hwan to be so bold! To even be involved in a “counter-revolutionary riot.”

Thinking of the trust he had placed in Park Deok-hwan, Feng Zongze felt a sense of betrayal. His face darkened and he said nothing, contemplating whether to arrest Park Deok-hwan immediately. Liu Fuqing stood cautiously silent. After a long moment, Feng Zongze finally asked what the Political Security General Bureau planned to do next.

“We have arranged for surveillance personnel to monitor the following people,” he reported the specific surveillance measures one by one. “I will report to you immediately if there are any unusual situations.”

After Liu Fuqing left, Feng Zongze hurried to find Xue Ziliang and told him the situation. Xue Ziliang had received special training in counter-insurgency and counter-riot warfare. Based on the intelligence, he judged that the enemy was likely to take action in the near future.

“The enemy has already seized the initiative,” Xue Ziliang said. “We still don’t know what they are planning to do. However, from the rumors they are spreading, the enemy is likely to take some large-scale terrorist actions to further create an atmosphere…”

“You mean human bombs?” Feng Zongze’s mind immediately flashed with various 21st-century news images.

“No, they don’t have this capability, and they may not even have the concept,” Xue Ziliang shook his head. “The most likely are arson and poisoning.”

These two methods were relatively simple and could create a great social impact.

“I’ll issue an order to raise the alert level immediately,” Xue Ziliang said, taking his holster from the wall. “Raise it to orange.”

Orange was the warning state for an “imminent attack.” It had never been issued before except once in Lingao before the second anti-encirclement campaign.

After the warning was issued, Nangong Wudi immediately ordered additional sentries and patrols to be posted near important buildings such as wells and granaries. All naturalized citizens received orders to raise their alert level. According to the pre-prepared plan, once a red alert was issued, all naturalized citizens were to gather at designated locations with weapons or be on alert at their posts—the entire city was “outwardly relaxed, inwardly tense.”

The other two counties also received notices to raise their alert levels. Feng Zongze knew that with their strength, nothing would happen that would shake their foundation. But for that very reason, if a more serious loss occurred, he would lose all face.

Today was Sunday. Since the “Great Song” had arrived on the island, they had begun to implement a completely different calendar system from the Ming, and had also adopted a seven-day week system. Of course, neither the naturalized citizens nor the local labor service corps had Sundays off, but on this day, the working hours of less important departments and construction sites were generally ended two hours early. A market would also be organized in the city that day, selling various “Australian goods” shipped from Hong Kong, mainly daily necessities and cotton and silk fabrics. The mountain people and herdsmen would also bring out various local products from the mountains to sell.

Organizing markets and activating the market was a consistent practice of the Senate in local administration. It was not only to obtain local materials and increase the economic dependence of the local people, but also to gather various kinds of information.

This Sunday was as lively as usual. There were many more people on the streets than usual. The shops and eateries opened their doors early. The newly opened eateries were bustling with people. Several large pots were set up in the courtyards along the street, cooking coarse grain rice and soybean paste soup. Porcelain jars were filled with red kimchi—this new-flavored kimchi brought by the “Wo-Kun” had immediately conquered the local people, and many had begun to learn how to make “Great Song kimchi.” The demand for red pepper powder on the island immediately soared.

This eatery and several nearby grocery stores were all opened under Feng Zongze’s instructions by local Korean collaborators. Besides activating the economy, the purpose was to try to promote the circulation of coupons. To promote the circulation of coupons, there had to be a recycling channel, otherwise its credit could not be established.

Small vendors, carrying heavy large packages on their backs, brought coarse grains, vegetables, seafood, fruits, and various local products into the city from all directions. They set up their stalls and vied with each other to sell their goods. Jang Seong-seol, carrying a bamboo basket made in Guangdong, walked here and there, looking around like a housewife buying things, asking for prices along the stalls.

Jang Seong-seol was now a maid in Park Deok-hwan’s house, but in reality, she was a pawn placed by Jo Myeong-gwi’s group at Park Deok-hwan’s side. As for the matter of marrying Master Kim’s illegitimate daughter, it was completely fabricated. But before Park Deok-hwan lost his usefulness, they needed to place someone by his side who could monitor and control him at all times.

Since Jo Myeong-gwi had met with Kim Dae-hae in the mountains, news had soon come back, saying that Jo Myeong-gwi and the others were to take action in the city, first by poisoning the wells and then by committing arson. But they were not to kill anyone—unless it could be disguised as a “sudden death” or an accident, because they wanted to create the impression of “divine punishment.” For this reason, Kim Dae-hae was to send a few men into the city.

Following Jo Myeong-gwi’s instructions, Jang Seong-seol had come to the market specifically to see if Kim Dae-hae’s men had entered the city. She would ask for prices for a while, then pick and choose things for a while, but in reality, she was intently searching for people with special markings.

Jang Seong-seol was Jo Myeong-gwi’s slave. During the plague on the island, her whole family had collapsed in front of Jo Myeong-gwi’s shop. Jo Myeong-gwi had given them a few doses of medicine and saved the whole family. From then on, Jang Seong-seol had become Jo Myeong-gwi’s loyal servant. She did whatever her master told her to do, without any hesitation.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up. She saw three peddlers with carrying frames coming towards her. The one in front was very young, the one at the back was a scrawny old man, and the one in the middle was a middle-aged man. On the surface, they looked no different from the mountain people who had come from the mountains.

Jang Seong-seol quickly stepped aside and watched them find an empty spot, spread out a cloth on the ground, and start to sell their goods. They were selling dried mushrooms from the mountains. Jang Seong-seol quickly went up to ask for the price and pretended to pick and choose for a long time. She bought some and went back.

After selling their mushrooms, the three men had a hearty meal of brown rice with soybean paste soup at an eatery and then sat in a teahouse for a long time. As soon as it got dark, they slipped into Jo Myeong-gwi’s shop.

Kim O-sun, wearing the newly issued naturalized citizen uniform, with a satchel slung over her shoulder and a canvas military belt, walked majestically on the road. Her hair had been cut short, and she looked no different from a female naturalized citizen. The Kim father and daughter, because of their “high awareness” and “unwavering stance,” had been officially included in the establishment of naturalized citizen cadres and were no longer off-the-books “temporary workers” of the collaborators.

Kim O-sun was now a “Women’s Affairs Officer.” Originally, Feng Zongze had planned to send her and a group of “young activists” to Lingao to study, but the situation was rather tense at the moment, so the matter was temporarily put on hold. However, Kim O-sun had already learned a lot about Lingao from her interactions with other naturalized citizen cadres and was full of longing for this “holy land.”

She was leading a team of the labor service corps to the stables outside the city. Nick needed a large amount of labor. For this, a group of the labor service corps was conscripted every week to help with various rough tasks at the stables: cleaning the stables, chopping grass, cutting and drying hay, and so on. They also had to help level the land and dig ditches… in preparation for planting high-quality pasture grass.

After delivering the labor service corps to the stables, she went to a small house on the outskirts of the horse farm. A new dam had been built here to store the spring water flowing down from the mountains, and then the clean water was sent through channels to the stables for the horses to drink. For this, a sluice gate and a small house to guard the sluice gate had been set up.

Kim O-sun’s brother, Kim Yuk-sun, was in charge of guarding the sluice gate at the horse farm. When she approached, Kim Yuk-sun was wiping the iron wheel on the sluice gate.