Chapter 26: The Symposium

Fan Shier saw the hidden meaning in the Chief’s words and his smiling face, and knew this was not good. Seeing the four guards standing at the courtyard gate, he imagined that with a single “Seize him!” from the Chief, he would be carrying his belongings off to dig sand. A mixture of hot and cold sweat streamed down his face. He stammered for a long time without saying a word, his body trembling like a leaf.

It was the village accountant who had a quick mind. He quickly said, “Village Chief Fan is having a bout of malaria and can’t speak clearly. Let me speak.”

Yun Suji asked, “And you are…?”

“I am the village accountant, Han Daoguo,” the accountant said, standing up and bowing.

“Oh, the accountant.” Yun Suji knew that in grassroots organizations, the accountant, though not an official, was a key figure. A cadre relied on him to do good work, and also relied on him to make trouble. He understood the basic situation of the village much more deeply than an ordinary cadre. Judging by this accountant’s demeanor, he was probably from a shopkeeper background. He spoke the new dialect with a southern accent. “Alright, you may speak,” Yun Suji said.

“Yes, Chief!” Han Daoguo bowed, cleared his throat, and began. “Our village is a model village in the county. This is all thanks to the good leadership of the Senate, the county, and the township…” He glanced at Yun Suji’s expression and quickly got to the point. “As for problems, there are quite a few. The biggest complaint from everyone right now is the excessive labor duty.”

“How excessive?”

Han Daoguo took a small notebook from his pocket, licked his finger, and flipped through a few pages. “Reporting to the Chief: last month alone, our village contributed a total of 1,566 man-days of labor. Last month was the busy farming season, so the labor assignments were fewer. On a normal month, it would be over 2,000 man-days!”

Yun Suji did a quick calculation in his head. The village had 192 full-time laborers. This meant that last month, each full-time laborer had contributed more than 8 days of labor on average. If a normal month exceeded 2,000 man-days, that would be over 10 days per laborer. In other words, even during the busy farming season, the village’s labor force had to contribute 2 days of labor per week. In normal times, this would reach nearly 3 days a week.

Yun Suji had studied political and economic history, which discussed the exploitation of serfs by landlords through labor service. Typically, 3 days a week was a threshold; exceeding that was basically a state of “the people have no means of livelihood.” Furthermore, based on his earlier conversations with the villagers, he knew that the labor assignments were unfair. Some people evaded their duties, so their labor would inevitably fall on the other villagers, making their burden far greater than this number. It was only natural for the peasants to have grievances.

He nodded slightly. “That is a bit much!”

Seeing no objection from him, Han Daoguo grew bolder. “As for this month, it’s considered the slack season—though as you’ve seen, Chief, there’s not much slack—the county sent a notice to mobilize half of our village’s labor force to a construction site for a whole month.”

“Excluding the slack and busy seasons, how much labor duty is there on average each month?”

“Around two thousand.”

Yun Suji took out a pen and noted the data in his own notebook. He then asked, “What about the content of the service?”

“It’s everything. Water conservancy and road construction are the main ones,” Han Daoguo said. “Planting trees, unloading cargo, transporting wood, digging sand, quarrying earth… any kind of physical labor, they assign it.”

“Where do these assignments come from, and what kind of procedures are required?”

Fan Shier had calmed down a bit by now and quickly chimed in. “The county assigns them, the township assigns them, and the mine does too. The procedure is just a notice.”

Yun Suji knew that “the mine” referred to the Jiazi Coal Mine, a state-owned enterprise directly under the Planning and Development Institute. This mine not only supplied low-quality lignite to Lingao but also transported large quantities of mining by-products like coal gangue to Qiongshan for processing into building materials. The cargo throughput was enormous.

“What about the corresponding departments? Which department issues the orders?”

“At the county level, it’s the County Human Resources Section. At the township level, the township government just issues a slip with an official seal, and that’s it,” Fan Shier said. “The mine office just issues a slip. As soon as the notice arrives, we have to arrange for people. We can’t refuse.”

Yun Suji thought this was too arbitrary. A typical abuse of civilian labor.

“Do they provide meals for the labor duty?”

“They provide meals, but it wears out our clothes,” Fan Shier said. “One trip to the construction site ruins a set of clothes. Now, for county labor, the county provides a small subsidy, which helps make up for it.”

“Have there been any accidents during labor duty?”

Fan Shier hesitated for a moment. “There have been…”

“How many casualties? Any disabled?”

“One died, and three were disabled,” Fan Shier said quickly. “The county provided compensation for all of them. They are getting by.”

“Can the disabled still work?” Yun Suji asked. “What arrangements has the village made for them?”

This put Fan Shier in a difficult position. He stammered, “Arrangements… there are always… arrangements…”

Han Daoguo quickly interjected, “For these few households, the village has arranged for others to cultivate their land. During holidays and festivals, the village also provides some grain and cloth. They are all getting by. We will never let them suffer from cold or hunger.”

Yun Suji felt that such arrangements were acceptable, but Fan Shier’s evasiveness made him suspicious of Han Daoguo’s claims. He decided to visit these families later.

At this point, a group leader stood up boldly and said with a trembling voice, “Chief…”

Seeing it was an old man, Yun Suji said, “Old sir, please sit down and speak. Sit down.”

“Thank you, Chief,” the group leader said. “We accept the labor duty. If we hurry, we can still get the farm work done. But now there are all sorts of other things…”

“What other things?”

The old man glanced at Fan Shier. “First is the night school. People are sent from the county to ‘eliminate illiteracy.’ Classes are at night. Learning to read is a good thing, but we work all day and have to go to work again the next day. We all want to go to bed early. But they force everyone to go—from when the lamps are lit until the first watch. It’s fine for the children, but can’t they spare an old man like me…?”

“Oh, what else?”

“There are too many study classes of all kinds,” the old man said. “My boy spends seven or eight days a month in the county for meetings and study. He can’t get the farm work done at home, and his wife has fallen ill from exhaustion. It would be better for him to do labor duty—at least they provide meals for labor duty. For meetings and study, he has to bring his own pancakes!”

“What does your son do?”

“He is the village’s liaison for the Heaven and Earth Society.”

Yun Suji nodded and turned to Fan Shier. “Are there many people in the village who often go to meetings and training?”

“There weren’t many before, but recently the county has been organizing training for the village children. Most are fourteen or fifteen. They go in batches, for half a month or a month at a time.”

Children of fourteen or fifteen, regardless of gender, were considered half a laborer in the countryside. Being away for half a month or a month at a time was indeed a loss for the family’s labor.

Yun Suji asked the old man to sit down. Then, others mentioned many other forms of disguised labor duty: making military shoes and washing old military uniforms was one; collecting castor beans was another; preparing food for troops and laborers, which involved women making pancakes, was yet another. And then there was the annual militia training, and so on.

“We are busy from the moment we open our eyes until we go to sleep, and there’s still a pile of labor duty waiting for us,” the group leaders complained. “The people are not happy, but the county and township press us hard. We have no choice but to do it!”

Seeing the Chief talking with the group leaders, Fan Shier said, “I need to relieve myself,” and walked out of the courtyard. He didn’t go to urinate. He called over Liu Yuanhu, who was “maintaining order” outside. “Yuanhu! Go quickly to the homes of those who had accidents and prepare them! Get them some good clothes to wear, fill up their grain bins, and tell them not to talk nonsense! The Chief might go to see them later!”

Liu Yuanhu agreed, then added, “The other families are easy to handle, but what about the Cao family? That old hag has always been against us. She’ll never agree to speak in our favor.”

Fan Shier said, “Find a place to lock her up. When the time comes, just say she went out to visit relatives. She has no one else in her family anyway.”

As Liu Yuanhu was about to leave, Fan Shier called him back. “Remind the neighbors, don’t let them talk nonsense! And the families who are renting land from those few households, you have to go and instruct them too: they can’t say they’re renting. They have to say they’re cultivating it on their behalf, and that they only take a thirty percent share of the harvest as a fee for their hard work! The rest all goes to the original owner. Understand? Don’t get it wrong!”

“I know!” Liu Yuanhu agreed and hurried off.

After instructing Liu Yuanhu, Fan Shier returned to the courtyard and saw Yun Suji smiling. “So you’re a landowner? I was just looking to talk to a few landowners. Getting rich through hard work is a good example to set.”

When Fan Shier saw that the Chief was talking to Bai Puting, he felt mostly relieved. Old Bai was not only “sensible” but also very cautious and wouldn’t speak recklessly.

“Supreme Daoist Treasure Heavenly Venerable!” Bai Puting was a follower of the new Daoism and was deeply devoted to the religion that had saved him from the brink of death and brought him to this “blessed land.” He always began his formal speech with this phrase. “The world is peaceful here in Hainan, and it’s easier to make a living and build a fortune. This is all thanks to the blessings of the Senate.”

“How many people are in your family? How much land do you farm?”

“Reporting to the Chief, I have a wife, two sons, and two daughters. We farm over two hundred mu of land. Eighty mu were given by the Senate, and the rest was cleared by the Heaven and Earth Society. I also cleared a few mu myself.”

“You have a prosperous family,” Yun Suji nodded. “How old are your children?”

“My eldest son is twenty, my younger son is seventeen. My eldest daughter is thirteen, and I have a younger daughter who was born here in Hainan, only two years old…” Bai Puting sighed. “I originally had another younger son, but he and my old mother died on the road while we were fleeing.”

Yun Suji nodded. No wonder he could get rich: the three males in his family were all strong laborers. The daughter could also count as half a laborer. His wife could still have children, so she probably wasn’t too old. And they didn’t have the burden of caring for the elderly.

“Are your sons married?”

“I’ve arranged a match for one. We just harvested the grain, so we’re tight on cash and can’t afford the full bride price yet. We’ve just made a deposit. After we sell the grain and local products, she’ll come over after the first month of the new year.”