Newborn 1927

No matter how forthright Gao Huilan was, she was still a girl after all. After speaking, she blushed a little and lowered her head. Seeing Yang Jiefang standing there like a dummy, not saying a word for a long time, she stamped her foot, turned around, and left.

Yang Jiefang looked up at the sky, took a deep breath to calm himself, and thought: Focus on the present, and leave the rest to time. On the training ground, normal physical training was underway. Yang Jiefang didn't pay attention to that; he couldn't fully control these people yet, and too much or too strict control wouldn't be good. He needed to prepare for the afternoon's academic classes in advance, and he needed to finish reading all the newspapers he'd bought as soon as possible to understand the real events of this era. What he learned from history textbooks was still too superficial.

After lunch, the canteen was packed. Everyone knew Yang Jiefang was back and would be giving lectures again. Yang Jiefang's lectures were of a high standard, and everyone enjoyed listening. To put it jokingly, they were a good way to pass the time. Yang Jiefang asked Hou Fei, Wang Dali, and Chen Ergou to help him move the notebooks and pencils into the canteen. The pencils were already sharpened, with only a tiny bit of lead showing. Yang Jiefang began by saying, "Many brothers are struggling because they have neither paper nor pens, and can only scribble on the ground; some words they forget after turning away, and they have to run back to look them up. This time when I went to Yantai, I bought some notebooks and pencils to make it easier for everyone to learn to write. It's on me; they're free for everyone to use. Remember, notebooks are for writing, not for wiping your bottoms. Anyone who doesn't cherish them and doesn't study hard will have their notebooks and pencils taken away, and they shouldn't come back to learn from me anymore." This drew a burst of laughter from the crowd.

Yang Jiefang personally distributed the notebooks and pencils to everyone, explaining the precautions for writing. He demonstrated the correct pen grip, writing posture, and pressure. Once everyone had a notebook and pencil, Yang Jiefang said, "Is there anyone who hasn't received a notebook and pencil? If not, come to me for one. If you didn't come today, please tell others and come back to me later. I guarantee that as long as you're willing to learn, you'll get a notebook and pencil." After confirming everyone had one, Yang Jiefang continued, "Because the blackboard needs painting, it's not ready yet. We won't start new material today. Everyone, copy the lyrics of these three songs on the wall and 'Ode to Young China' into your notebooks first. Learn these words before moving on to new material." At this point, he realized he hadn't finished explaining the excerpt from "Ode to Young China" before moving on to "The Call to Arms."

Four wooden boards were hung in different locations, conveniently allowing everyone to copy the characters separately. After a brief period of chaos, everyone found their spots and began copying. This copying proved incredibly difficult; none of them knew how to write. Yang Jiefang had to patiently teach them one by one. After an afternoon of copying, if it weren't for Yang Jiefang's good temper and patient teaching, most of them probably wouldn't have been able to continue. Yang Jiefang knew he couldn't afford to be discouraged at this point, so he kept encouraging them; he even promised that if everyone could copy all the characters on the wall, he would give them an extra meal of mutton. This continued for the next few days; tempted by the mutton and encouraged by Yang Jiefang, the group barely managed to persevere. However, the results were disastrous. This also severely delayed Yang Jiefang's planned teaching schedule.

In the evenings, Yang Jiefang gave special lessons to Bao Ziqiang, Chu Shiwu, and others in the main room where he lived. He didn't hide it from others; Hou Fei and others would come to listen whenever they had time. After careful selection, Bao Ziqiang and Chu Shiwu finally chose twelve people to learn. The steamed bun that had replaced Bao Ziqiang at Xujiadian was chosen, and surprisingly, Li the carpenter's son, the little carpenter, also joined, which surprised Yang Jiefang. The living quarters were really small, and it was too crowded for so many people to live together. At night, they had to push several tables together in the main room to use as beds, and everyone was still quite satisfied. It just goes to show how easily people in this era were satisfied.

Yang Jiefang approached the Black Widow and requested permission to build more houses on the mountain. The Black Widow agreed and, aside from those participating in physical training, gathered everyone she could to participate in production and construction. She even recruited some nearby villagers to build factories and livestock farms in Xujiadian.

The ordered machines arrived in Yantai from Japan within a few days, and were then transported to Xujiadian by Qinglongzhai. The factory sent a technician to oversee the installation and debugging, and Jiang Tingxuan arranged for a Chinese translator to accompany them to Xujiadian. Because the machines had to be fixed to the ground, a thick layer of cement had to be poured to secure the bolts. The positions of these bolts also had to be precisely defined, which would take some time. The cement used was a fast-setting type, so the overall progress was relatively quick, and installation was expected to be completed before the Chinese New Year.

Old Wu was quite diligent. He ground some sweet potatoes using the stone mill from Qinglong Village, and under Yang Jiefang's guidance, he washed them to extract the starch, eventually making vermicelli and mastering the entire production process. He also meticulously recorded the efficiency of the stone mill, the amount of water needed to wash one load of sweet potatoes, and the final yield of vermicelli, thus verifying Yang Jiefang's claims. Because the water consumption was too high, it was finally decided to build several large water tanks in the factory using cement bricks. The water used to wash the sweet potatoes could be recycled multiple times after the starch settled, thus greatly saving water.

Compared to Wu Laokou's meticulous calculations, Niu Sanbian was a bit more assertive. Now that Qinglong Village was flush with cash, he let loose and became quite generous. In just a few days, he bought up almost all the pigs and chickens from the surrounding villages. Of course, there was some forced buying and selling, but thankfully, no outright robbery. If someone wanted to keep their pig for the New Year and didn't want to sell, they were offered more money; eventually, unable to resist the temptation, they gritted their teeth and sold, deciding they wouldn't eat meat for the New Year. Some villages had clever people who gathered everyone to discuss keeping two pigs for the New Year, selling the rest. The same went for chickens: each family kept two hens for laying eggs, and only one or two roosters for crowing; the rest were sold. When Yang Jiefang came to inspect the quality, he almost cursed out loud. In the end, he restrained himself and patiently began selecting the chickens.

In this era, white pigs hadn't been introduced yet; everyone was raising native black pigs. The advantages of these pigs were that they weren't picky eaters, ate almost anything, were strong and easy to raise, and had incredibly high reproductive rates. The disadvantages were their small size and low meat yield; a pig raised from the beginning to the end of the year would only grow to about 100 pounds. This was due not only to their genetic characteristics but also to their diet. Because they weren't picky eaters, rural people didn't feed them grains. The elderly and children in the family would be fed a basket of wild vegetables they gathered each day. The problem was that most rural people didn't know that many wild vegetables had medicinal properties. For example, mugwort, which grew plump and tender, was often used to feed pigs; the pigs would eat it and be full. Crucially, mugwort had a slimming effect; eating too much wouldn't make them gain weight, but rather cause them to lose weight. Yang Jiefang, after learning about this situation, was both amused and exasperated, and decided to write down the breeding techniques of later generations when he had time, and publish and disseminate them when the opportunity arose. He also stressed the need to introduce Southeast Asian white pigs as soon as possible.

Three or four hundred pigs were bought, all of them uncastrated. Because of the poor medical and sanitary conditions of the time, castration easily led to infection and death, so people generally didn't castrate them. This made it easier for Yang Jiefang to select breeding pigs, but the problem was that Niu Sanbian bought pigs almost always in pairs. Good heavens, did pig farming have to follow a one-male-one-female system? Yang Jiefang carefully selected ten boars and one hundred and forty sows. This ratio far exceeded the standard of one to twenty. Yang Jiefang hoped Niu Sanbian would buy more sows and stop buying boars. What to do with the pigs that were left over? Sending them back was impossible, and keeping them wasn't a long-term solution. So, Qinglong Village slaughtered pigs every day, eating meat at every meal, which made everyone extremely happy. Even the recruited villagers got to try it.

The chickens purchased were of various breeds and types, so many that even Yang Jiefang, a professional chicken farmer, couldn't fully identify them. However, he made full use of his knowledge, selecting over a thousand broiler breeders and over three thousand layer breeders from the thousands of chickens. The remaining chickens were kept for later use, to be served on the dinner table.

That afternoon, Yang Jiefang was finally able to begin his new lesson, preparing to use "The Call to Arms" to rouse the group. A henchman on duty rushed in, saying, "Someone has come to pay their respects. The chief has ordered the five commanders to gather in the Hall of Righteousness for a meeting." Bai Lang, Lin Baozi, and the others present immediately stood up, and Yang Jiefang frowned. Generally, important figures from other factions only came to pay their respects when major events occurred; the fact that the meeting was to be held in the Hall of Righteousness indicated the seriousness of the matter. Therefore, Yang Jiefang had no choice but to stop his lesson and rush to the Hall of Righteousness.

Inside the Hall of Gathering Righteousness, Black Widow sat at the head of the table, with Gao Huilan beside her. Several stewards from the mountain had also arrived, along with Yang Jiefang and a few other commanders; almost everyone was present. Black Widow waved the visiting card in her hand and said, "The three chiefs of Laiyang, Tian Yisan and Xu Zishan, have both sent people to pay their respects. Let's all meet them!" Without waiting for anyone's opinion, she loudly proclaimed, "Invite them in!" As soon as she finished speaking, two burly men entered through the main entrance, clearly having been waiting outside.

The two men who entered were people Yang Jiefang had met before; they were Tian Dan and Zheng Sandao, important figures under Tian Yisan and Xu Zishan, respectively. The two men stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Tian Dan (Zheng Sandao) greets the Chief and all the other leaders." The Black Widow said, "The invitation says that government troops are besieging you and we are needed to rescue you. Could you tell us the details?" Before she could finish speaking, Zheng Sandao couldn't contain himself and pointed at Yang Jiefang beside him, saying, "Isn't this all your doing, son-in-law? He robbed Zhao Family Village but framed us, which led to the government troops' siege. We couldn't hold them off, so we had to come to Master Tian for help, and in the end, Master Tian got dragged into this mess too." Everyone was shocked and looked at Yang Jiefang. Yang Jiefang immediately said, "You can eat whatever you want, but don't talk nonsense. I admit I did something in Zhao Family Village to get revenge, but where did you get the idea that I framed you?" Zheng Sandao shouted, "It was you who framed us, otherwise why would the government troops besiege us because of the Zhao Family Village incident?" Tian Dan also chimed in, "According to the information we received, that's indeed the case. The reason the government troops suddenly besieged Master Xu is because they robbed more than 20,000 silver dollars and more than 50,000 catties of grain from Zhao Family Village. After Master Xu escaped, the government troops couldn't find the money and grain, so they chased him to Yang'er Mountain, and now they've besieged our Yang'er Mountain as well. If you don't believe me, you can send someone down the mountain to inquire, and you'll be able to tell the truth."

There was no need to go down the mountain to inquire; Black Widow and Gao Huilan already believed it was Yang Jiefang who did it. He could frame Black Bear for the Yantai incident; it wasn't surprising he could frame Xu Zishan for the Zhao Family Village incident. But what about this son-in-law? They'd have to ask him properly later. Black Widow spoke up, "Let's put that aside for now and talk about the present! Tian Dan, what's the situation at Yang'er Mountain?" Tian Dan knew that dwelling on whether or not someone was being framed was pointless; relieving the siege of Yang'er Mountain was the key. So he said, "The government troops dispatched a detachment of over a hundred men. Xu, the leader, was caught off guard and only managed to escape with about thirty men. When the government troops reached Yang'er Mountain, we were already prepared. We were gathering manpower and resisting, temporarily holding them off at Da Kuangji. The government troops have already sent people to the city to request reinforcements. Once those reinforcements arrive, we definitely won't be able to stop them."

Before his time travel, Yang Jiefang's understanding of bandits from movies and TV dramas was this: a group of people carrying guns and knives, occupying a mountain; occasionally going down the mountain to rob a bunch of people, then returning to live a life of luxury. But after his time travel, he discovered that it wasn't like that at all. Qinglong Village, due to historical reasons, was considered a legitimate bandit group, with only about a hundred armed men in the main hall, who weren't usually armed. The rest, except for the leader, were farmers and laborers.

Most bandits of this era were like Xu Zishan and Tian Yisan. Their leaders, such as Xu Zishan and Tian Yisan, were actually local small landowners or wealthy households with modest assets. They maintained a group of men under their command, with capable individuals like Tian Dan and Zheng Sandao serving as core members. The ordinary henchmen were basically doing it part-time; they farmed at home and would gather to carry out a heist when needed, then divide the loot and return home to farm. Although Xu Zishan claimed to have over two hundred men, his true core force consisted of only about thirty. Tian Yisan, on the other hand, had over three hundred men in total, but he could only truly control about fifty. The rest were just there to make up the numbers; don't take them seriously. There were even complete strangers who dared to use their names to swindle and deceive. If these armed groups had connections in officialdom, they were legitimate militias; if they didn't, they weren't legitimate militias but bandits. Gao Huilan once said that Hei Xiazi had a real force of 800 men, which meant that he had 800 fully armed men under his command, so you can imagine how powerful he was.