Chapter 25: Chatting

His words captured everyone’s attention. Yun Suji paused, then drew out his words in a long drawl:

“Offend the secretary, you can’t survive. Offend the captain, you get the hard labor. Offend the accountant, he’ll get you with his pen. Offend the storekeeper, he’ll cheat you with the scales. Offend the man who scoops the manure, and he’ll mark down two scoops for every three he gives you!”

As soon as he finished, the crowd burst into laughter. These farmers didn’t know what a “secretary” or “captain” was, but they understood the sentiment perfectly. Yun Suji knew it well: there’s nothing new under the sun.

This brought them all closer. Yun Suji began to ask about their production and whether they had enough grain to eat. The people all started talking at once, eager to share:

“We have enough to eat! Farming here is ten times better than in our old home!” one said. “Things grow in the fields all year round. Even the poorest families can fill their bellies with pumpkins.”

“We truly owe it to the Chiefs for bringing us to this paradise! We have land to farm, enough to eat, and it’s not cold in the winter.”

“It’s just that we’re not very good at planting paddy fields. The agricultural technicians from the Heaven and Earth Society come too rarely, and they never come to the fields of us small farmers! They only go to the fields of the big landowners!”

…

“There’s too much labor duty! Growing rice is already more tiring than dry-land farming, and after a year of hard work, they don’t even let us rest in the winter!”

Yun Suji had heard the villagers mention the burden of labor duty more than once and had seen much of it with his own eyes. He asked, “You all say there’s too much labor duty. What kind of work is it?”

“All sorts,” said Old Yang. “Building dams, digging canals, preparing land, paving roads… you name it. When the materials for the brick and tile factory arrive at the dock, they even call on us to unload them! When they need sand for building houses, they tell us to go dig it. When the log rafts come down the Nandu River, we have to transport them.”

“Building reservoirs and canals is a good thing, isn’t it?” Yun Suji was puzzled. “Turning the land into irrigated fields, what’s wrong with that? It’s bitter first, sweet later.”

“You’re right, Chief, but the reservoirs and canals the county has built these past few years have nothing to do with our village. The water doesn’t flow to our fields. We suffer the bitterness while others enjoy the sweetness! Our village’s irrigated land was created by our own labor and materials, by digging a canal ourselves.”

“It was one thing back in the refugee camp; we couldn’t just eat the Chief’s grain for free. But now that we all have our own property, how can we farm with so much labor duty?”

“The labor assignments aren’t fair either. Last time, when we had to transport grain for the army, the big and small landowners with carts and animals didn’t have to go. They made us push it with our small carts!”

“Some households have many laborers, so they only send one. Other households have only one laborer, and they still assign you!”

“Even when it’s not labor duty, there are still plenty of assignments. Last month, we were assigned to make military shoes. And get this, they assigned it per person, two pairs each, regardless of whether you had women in the house! I’m a bachelor, who am I supposed to get to make them?” a young man complained.

…

Yun Suji smoked his cigarette, listening to the cacophony of complaints. Rural affairs were truly more complex than he had imagined. He was, of course, aware of the various misdeeds of village cadres at the grassroots level; there was no shortage of wrongdoing. The villagers’ most common complaint—unfair labor assignments—was enough to prove that the village cadres had economic problems, not to mention the crude and violent behavior he had witnessed himself. According to the Law Society’s theories, this was all illegal.

However, the village administration he had seen along the way—the roads, houses, sanitation, and the canal—were all organized by the village and built by the villagers. Reforms like the ban on foot-binding had also been carried out decisively. In this respect, it deserved to be called a model village. Not to mention the 17th century, even in the rural China of the 21st century, Village Chief Fan would be considered a capable and responsible grassroots cadre.

He felt the biggest problem was the “labor duty” the villagers reported. It seemed that making villagers perform free labor had become the norm, and they were called upon for everything. While it was reasonable to work on irrigation projects in the winter, making villagers do things like unload cargo and dig sand on ordinary days showed a disregard for the value of their labor. Moreover, the arbitrary use of their labor also affected agricultural production.

He pondered this and asked, “How many large landowners do you have here?”

Old Yang replied, “Not many, just four or five families.”

When the refugees were settled, all those placed in the standard villages along the Nandu River were given thirty standard mu of barren land per laborer. The Heaven and Earth Society’s mechanized farming teams helped clear the land. Some refugee families with more laborers naturally received more land.

Although the Senate did not intend to cultivate a class of small, self-sufficient farmers with very low risk tolerance, the material resources available to the Lingao regime at the time were insufficient to turn all the refugees into agricultural workers on collective farms. Thus, they had to adopt this method of distributing land to the refugees for self-sufficiency.

Now, it seemed this method was quite successful. From the statistical data and what he had seen on his journey, most of the refugees in the standard villages were able to support themselves and serve the cause of the Senate. The surplus agricultural products they provided, not to mention the annual amount of labor they contributed, were a great source of wealth.

But Yun Suji was well aware of the economic fragility of small, self-sufficient farmers. Their current good life was based on several factors: the Senate’s relatively light exploitation of agriculture; the lack of sharp conflict between population and land in Hainan; and fewer droughts and floods than on the mainland. Coupled with the promotion of a series of agricultural technologies by the Heaven and Earth Society, this was how they achieved their current state of modest prosperity.

In the long run, individual small farmers could not survive for long. Yun Suji was eager to know the real situation of the “landowners” who were beginning to emerge among the immigrants. He knew that new, large-scale farmers—whom the villagers called landowners—were appearing in every village. How these landowners had made their fortunes and what their specific production and management situations were like, there was still no clear investigation report on that.

He was about to ask about the landowners when he saw Village Chief Fan running over along the field path.

The village accountant had already gathered the leaders of each group to meet the Chief at the village office, but they couldn’t find him anywhere. They went to Old Kong’s house, and his wife said he had gone to the fields with Old Kong, which is why the chief had rushed over.

Although he knew Chief Yun was in Old Kong’s field, he had looked from afar and saw no one idle.

He searched from the east end to the west, and then back again, before finally finding them. The moment he arrived, everyone fell silent.

He said to Yun Suji, “Chief, let’s go back to the village office.”

Yun Suji replied, “Alright, you go back first. I still want to talk with them.”

Village Chief Fan said, “What can you talk about with these people? Let’s just go back to the office! The leaders of each group are all here, waiting for your instructions, Chief.”

Seeing his disdain for the people, Yun Suji wanted to challenge him again. He said in a half-soft, half-hard tone, “Talking with them is my job. You go first, I’ll be there in a moment.”

Seeing his tone was off again, Village Chief Fan didn’t dare insist. But he wanted to hear what they were talking about, so he was reluctant to leave and just stood outside the circle. When the others saw he wasn’t leaving, no one spoke. They became like the eighteen arhat statues in a temple, all struck dumb.

Seeing that his presence prevented them from speaking, Yun Suji guessed they were intimidated by him. Wanting to send him away, he asked, “Who are you waiting for?”

He mumbled, “Not waiting for anyone,” and slipped away.

Yun Suji had wanted to knock him down a peg, but then thought that doing so would undermine the work at the grassroots level. So he said no more. When he asked about the landowners, everyone said they were “capable people.” Either they had a lot of labor in their families and the head of the household was a good manager, or they had made a fortune by trading local products. With their surplus money, they hired the Heaven and Earth Society’s mechanized teams to clear new wasteland and expanded their own land. The largest household already had four hundred standard mu.

“With so much land, who farms it all?”

“They have animals and buy machines. One set of machines is worth several people. If they’re still short-staffed, they hire laborers,” Old Yang said. “There are always families who don’t do so well.”

“Then who does the labor duty?” Yun Suji was surprised. “If a hired laborer is assigned to labor duty, wouldn’t the employer lose out? The crops can’t wait.”

“Once you become a hired laborer, you don’t have to do labor duty anymore.” Old Yang smiled meaningfully. The people around him all laughed, and a few young men joked, “Next year, I’ll go be a hired laborer too, so I don’t have to do labor duty.”

The villagers’ words made Yun Suji even more convinced that the new landlords in Borang Village had a relationship of interest with the village chief.

Yun Suji returned to the village office with his guards and saw Village Chief Fan and about ten “group leaders” waiting in the courtyard. According to the Senate’s “Standard Village Organization Method,” every ten households in the village were organized into a group, with a “group leader,” similar to the head of a baojia unit.

When Village Chief Fan saw the Chief arrive, he quickly led the group leaders to bow in greeting. Yun Suji waved his hand and said, “Don’t be so formal. I’ve come to the countryside this time to see the situation and to hear everyone’s opinions.” He told Village Chief Fan to bring some long benches so they could all sit in the courtyard. They all said, “We wouldn’t dare.” Only after much persuasion did they sit down on the benches. Yun Suji also pulled up a bench and sat down.

Seeing that they were still a bit stiff, he smiled and said, “Everyone, relax. I’m not here as a great lord on a secret inspection, nor am I here to ‘guide’ your work. I’m here to listen to your thoughts and opinions. Say whatever is on your mind. Don’t hold back.”

Although he said this, the group leaders still hesitated, not daring to speak. Those who did speak only offered platitudes like, “Life in Hainan is good, all thanks to the Senate,” and “We will never forget the great kindness of the Senate.” Yun Suji saw that several of them were looking at Fan Shier, as if waiting for him to take the lead. So he said, “Old Fan, you speak first!”

Fan Shier had a guilty conscience. He didn’t know what Kong Xiaode had said to Chief Yun, or what the villagers in the field had told him. He was secretly suspicious when he suddenly heard Yun Suji call his name. He jumped in fright and quickly stood up. “I, I didn’t do anything!” As soon as the words were out, he realized he had spoken out of turn, and his face turned bright red.

Yun Suji was secretly amused. He said with a serious face, “You know what you’ve done! First, tell me what problems there are with the village’s work right now.”