Illumine Lingao (English Translation)

đź’¬ Discord
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Chapter 12: The War Plan (Part 3)

The preparatory work for these cadres began in the second half of 1634. When the Liangguang campaign plan was first hinted at within the Senate, the Cadre Department began to address the issue of transferring cadres to the north. It was necessary to quickly and systematically train a large number of cadres capable of managing military, political, economic, cultural, and educational affairs, and to raise the theoretical level of existing cadres. When a certain area was liberated, these pre-assigned cadres would enter the area with the army, allowing the occupation and takeover work to proceed in a timely and orderly manner.

The actual business of the Cadre Department was carried out under the guidance of Ming Lang. To this end, various institutions were first strengthened, deputy positions were established, and dual sets of cadres at all levels were equipped. Secondly, a transfer plan was made to ensure that replacements could be made as cadres were transferred, and cadres were promoted through the ranks based on their current positions, especially those with practical work experience who had been in a certain position for a long time. This included “village heads and militia captains with more than two years of experience, cadres in government agencies and enterprises with more than one year of experience, and employees, workers, and soldiers in enterprises with more than two years of experience.” Through a system of layered responsibility in the allocation process, the dispatch of cadres to the north was effectively guaranteed, and the size and number of the cadre team were expanded and increased.

The transfer adopted a proportional, fully equipped, and holistic allocation method to ensure that work could begin immediately upon arrival in the new area. The reserve of county-level cadres was not large, but fortunately, the demand was also limited. The focus was on the staff of county-level agencies. Ming Lang’s plan was to fully equip the core area, with a total of 1 provincial-level set and 15 county-level sets of personnel.

A special administrative cadre school was established to reserve personnel for the construction of the new area. It had six brigades: administration, finance, industry and commerce, civil-military affairs, agriculture, and directly subordinate units. The students were 300 graduates from Fangcaodi, 500 recruits from society, and 400 veterans from the Fubo Army. The training was conducted through a combination of classroom theoretical study and practical on-the-job training as administrative interns.

After the personnel for the northern campaign were approved and confirmed by various departments and localities, they were immediately concentrated for training at each level to resolve their ideological and practical problems, making their mission to go north with the army clearer and further strengthening their confidence and determination to work in the new area. To meet the needs of a large-scale transfer of cadres, a rural cadre training class was held at Fangcaodi to train newly promoted village and township-level cadres who had worked for more than a year, in order to improve their ideological level, policy level, and work ability.

All cadres going north were to be assembled at Ma’niao Fort in Lin’gao by the end of December 1634. They would then undergo a one-month intensive training and study at Ma’niao Fort, with enhanced training in marching, map reading, weapon use, and counter-insurgency command, to cope with the complex environment of the new area.

To ensure the order and discipline of the cadres going south, all personnel were managed and organized militarily, and organizational structures were established in administration, life, management, education, supply, and health. The cadres going north were uniformly organized into the “Qiongya Detachment.”

As the political configuration for the Liangguang campaign, Wen Desi was appointed as the Director of the Guangdong Special Administrative Region and the Civil Administrator of the Military Control Commission, with the additional title of Grand Song Pacification Commissioner for Liangguang, responsible for all military and political actions in the Liangguang region.

The Sanya Special Administrative Region was formally abolished and changed to the Sanya Special Municipality. The Hainan Special Administrative Region was formally established, with its capital in Lin’gao. Qian Shuiting was appointed as the Director of the Hainan Special Administrative Region and the Mayor of Lin’gao Special Municipality. The original director of the Lin’gao County Office, Xiong Buyou, was transferred to Guangdong for appointment at his own request.

In terms of local political structure, a three-tiered system of special administrative region, county, and township (town) was formally implemented. In addition, special municipalities were established at transportation hubs or important economic towns. Special municipalities were administratively higher than counties but no longer had subordinate counties.

For the needs of the military struggle in the Liangguang campaign, the Army and Navy proposed the “1634 First Emergency Reorganization Plan.” The plan was to expand the scale of the Army and Navy to meet the needs of military preparedness by January 1635.

The focus of this reorganization was to expand the infantry establishment, strengthen the logistics and engineering troops, and replace some weapons—the light infantry companies of each infantry battalion would use Hall’s breech-loading rifles to replace the front-loading Minie rifles. Some companies in the field artillery would use 12-pounder mountain howitzers to replace some 12-pounder M1857 cannons, to ensure that infantry companies could quickly carry artillery for maneuver in watery and muddy terrain.

To ensure that the combat effectiveness of the newly formed units would not decline due to the infusion of too many new recruits, new units were formed by splitting existing ones. Two companies were transferred from each of the 7 active infantry battalions, totaling 14 companies, to serve as the backbone of the 8th, 9th, and 10th infantry battalions. The 24 company vacancies in each battalion were filled by new recruits.

In this reorganization, the source of new recruits would for the first time adopt a formal conscription system, recruiting personnel to fill the vacancies from among the 18-22 year old naturalized citizen youth in Hainan, Taiwan, and Jeju Island. This included the Korean naturalized citizens on Jeju Island; as long as they could speak simple Chinese, they were within the scope of this conscription. These Korean new recruits would no longer be organized into the White Horse Team, but would be directly integrated into the regular army.

In terms of specific organization, new recruits were dispersed among the various companies as much as possible to ensure that each company was dominated by veterans.

After this round of reorganization, the number of army infantry battalions would increase to 10 (not including garrison battalions), basically meeting the needs of attack and defense in all strategic directions.

The original designation of the Public Security Army was abolished, and the foreign and ethnic companies formerly under the Public Security Army were all merged into the National Army.

Due to the army’s deployment of forces in multiple directions before the reorganization, especially the dispatch of mixed units in the form of detachments, which caused the infantry companies of some battalions to be scattered in various areas, causing inconvenience in training, personnel, and supply, this was all rectified and re-equipped in this reorganization.

The designations of the various past expeditionary forces and detachments were canceled. Only 3 permanent mixed detachments for specific areas were retained: the Shandong Detachment (headquartered on Jeju Island), the Taiwan Detachment (headquartered in Kaohsiung), and the Vietnam Detachment (headquartered in Hong Gai).

After the adjustment, the permanent garrisons of the 10 army infantry battalions are as follows:

The army forces participating in the Liangguang campaign are organized into the South China Army. The South China Army headquarters is located on Hong Kong Island. The forward command will first be established in Hong Kong and will move to Guangzhou as the campaign progresses. The specific organization of the South China Army is as follows:

The remaining artillery, engineer, and auxiliary units are under the direct command of the army and will be attached to the various brigades as the situation requires.

The Garrison Commander of the Guangdong Special Administrative Region and the Commander-in-Chief of the Guangdong Special Administrative Region National Army is Bei Wei. He commands all National Army units and the special reconnaissance detachments dispatched to Guangdong by the General Reconnaissance Bureau. The reason this old reconnaissance soldier was appointed to this position was to provide a “sharp knife” for the next step of social transformation. Compared to the self-contained field army, the administrative agencies could directly command and mobilize the National Army, resulting in a faster response time.

Although Xue Ziliang had experience in counter-insurgency warfare in Iraq and was a top expert in his field, he was not well-suited for counter-insurgency in 17th-century South China. His work achievements in recent years had mainly been in organization building and professional training. The actual combat organization and command were mostly handled by Bei Wei.

The meeting pointed out that occupying Guangdong, and even the entire territory of Guangxi, was not a military problem. The difficulty lay in “digesting it well” after the occupation, “getting in and establishing a firm foothold,” and especially not letting the “local tyrants and evil gentry usurp the political power,” but to “ensure the establishment of a new social order.” Therefore, the task before all the “northbound senator cadres” was “heavy,” and the complexity of the environment in the new area was “unprecedented.” The support that the Senate could give to the new area’s political power was “to the best of its ability,” but it was necessary to give more play to “subjective initiative” and “act freely”…

Xiao Zishan knew that the reason so much energy was being poured into the Liangguang campaign was, first, to divert the senators’ attention. Five years after the landing, the Senate was already showing signs of stagnation. Lin’gao had become a “little paradise,” living conditions were improving day by day, and the “revolutionary zeal” to change the world had been mostly worn away. The senators were either content to live their own little lives or engaged in internal struggles for power and profit. They were gradually beginning to pay attention to “enjoyment” and “style.” The College of Arms was actually a reflection of this trend.

Furthermore, the senators were getting older. The largest group in the Senate was those who were in their twenties and thirties on D-Day. Now they were either approaching thirty or already in their early thirties. The sharpness of youth was fading, and the smoothness of middle age was growing. If this internal friction continued, the Senate might become corrupt and degenerate before it even broke out of Hainan. Therefore, it was necessary to constantly operate the state machine. As the saying goes, running water does not rot, and a door hinge is never worm-eaten. Only by constantly moving would this most powerful machine of this time and space not rust, enhancing harmony between the upper and lower levels and restoring operational vitality.

Secondly, there was also the need to transfer the industrial base. Hainan Island was not a suitable place to establish large-scale industry. Although it was rich in resources and had geographical advantages, the lack of sufficient water resources had become a major bottleneck for industrial expansion. Almost no county in Hainan was particularly rich in water resources, and there were no large rivers within its borders. The Ma’niao Iron and Steel Company in Lin’gao suffered from a shortage of water and could not maintain full production during the dry season. And the explosive industrial and agricultural growth in Lin’gao and the subsequent large population had further strained the already inadequate water resources.

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