Newborn 1927

Almost everyone present had heard of the ten rules, but knowing them was one thing, truly understanding them was quite another. Yang Jiefang explained them in exceptional detail this time, thoroughly explaining the reasons behind each rule; naturally, he also outlined the punishments for violating them. He spoke fluently and eloquently, and soon a stick of incense had burned down more than halfway before he reached the fourth rule. Finally, someone couldn't hold back any longer and stood up, saying, "It's not that I'm afraid of dying, it's that these rules are too strict, I'm afraid I can't keep them." Immediately, Liu Heizi from the Wolf Team cursed, "You coward! Your legs tremble at the mere mention of war! If you're afraid of dying, just say so, what excuse are you making?" It turned out the first person to stand up was one of his own men, naturally making him feel humiliated.

Yang Jiefang quickly said, "Keep quiet, don't talk nonsense! And don't interfere with other people's choices! After all, anyone can sacrifice themselves on the battlefield; you can't die in someone else's place. Brother, whatever your reason for choosing this path, I respect your choice. Don't feel embarrassed, come up and take this silver dollar and go home! Anyone else who wants to leave, come up and collect your money too." The man was still a little uneasy, and he walked hesitantly onto the platform. Hou Fei picked up a silver dollar, stuffed it into his hand, and said, "Go home and honestly farm the land. If you get bullied, just accept your bad luck, because you deserve to be bullied..." Yang Jiefang immediately shouted, "Hou Fei, don't talk nonsense! Everyone has the right to choose their own way of life. Don't judge others by your standards!" The man put the silver dollar in his pocket, lowered his head, and walked to the side. No one stopped him; everyone watched his profile until he disappeared from sight.

Yang Jiefang glanced back and saw that the incense stick was about to burn out, so he said loudly, "I haven't finished speaking yet. This incense is burning too fast. Let's light another one and restart the timer." Hou Fei agreed and lit another incense stick. Perhaps inspired by the example set before them, soon more people stepped forward, then a second, a third... a whole bunch of them came out. Bai Lang, Lin Baozi, and Peng Dahu on the platform immediately looked grim, because everyone who came out was from their three teams. Not a single person from Jiefang's team or Long's team stepped forward to withdraw. Yang Jiefang calmly watched these people walk onto the platform one by one, receive a silver dollar, and leave. As the saying goes, great waves sift out the sand; in the initial stage, it's better to have fewer but better ones, hoping that only the best will remain.

Yang Jiefang continued explaining the ten rules of discipline, and people kept coming up to the stage to receive silver dollars and leave. By the time Yang Jiefang finished explaining the ten rules, the second incense stick had almost burned out. Yang Jiefang loudly reminded everyone, "Those who want to leave, hurry up and come up to the stage! The incense is about to burn out." Then he and the crowd watched quietly until the incense burned out completely. Then, Yang Jiefang shouted, "The incense has burned out, and you are still standing here, which means you sincerely want to stay. I hereby announce that you have officially joined Qinglong Village. From now on, you are my brothers, brothers who will share weal and woe!" Hou Fei shouted loudly from the stage, "Yes!" The crowd shouted along, "Yes!" Yang Jiefang continued, "Don't be too happy yet! Next, you will undergo three months of rigorous training, and after the training, you will be assessed. Anyone who fails the assessment and does not have special skills will not be allowed to stay in the combat team. You will not be expelled from Qinglong Village, but you will be transferred to the production team to engage in productive labor." With so many more people in the village, there is a severe shortage of manpower for production and construction. When the group heard that they could stay in Qinglong Village, they were able to accept it.

Yang Jiefang turned around and said, "Brother Peng, Brother Lin, Brother Bai, quite a few people have left your three teams. Let's reorganize! Make teams according to the number of people; don't just make a show of it." The three were a little dejected, but agreed and went down from the platform to their respective teams to recount the numbers and reorganize. The result was roughly the same for everyone; the original seven companies had dwindled to a mere four, less than five. Yang Jiefang had them reorganize into four companies plus an independent reinforced squad. The Dragon Team remained with three companies, and the Jiefang Team still had nine companies. In total, there were over nine hundred people, enough to be considered a small regiment. Next, he had the company commanders lead their men in training, while Yang Jiefang summoned the upper echelons of Qinglong Village to the Juyi Hall for a meeting.

Those who received the silver dollars and were supposed to leave ultimately did not. Kong Zongru waited at the gate of the mountain stronghold. When they were first stopped, they were terrified, flustered, staring at each other dumbfounded. But when more than two hundred people had gathered at the gate, they finally mustered their courage and began to ask, "Why are you stopping us? Are you trying to go back on your word?" Seeing that enough people had arrived, Kong Zongru spoke, "Brothers, don't be nervous! I mean you no harm. I'm waiting here to ask you if you'd like to stay and work here. Listen carefully, I'm not asking you to join the Green Dragon Stronghold; I'm simply hiring you to work here. Food and lodging are provided, and you'll receive at least one silver dollar a month; skilled workers will be paid according to their skills. If you don't want to work, you can leave at any time."

These men all came from impoverished backgrounds. They left home hoping to find a way to earn a living, but upon hearing of war and the possibility of death, they hesitated. War requires courage, and not everyone possesses that courage. If it was just hard labor that could earn them money, they were naturally willing. So, they all chose to stay; in those times, they didn't have many choices. Kong Zongru assigned these men to Xujiadian. The vermicelli workshop, the livestock farm, and the clothing factory Kong Zongru was setting up were all there, requiring a large workforce for production and construction. Yang Jiefang's plan was to develop Xujiadian into a production base, and Qinglongzhai into a military training base. Once these men were trained, they would be assigned to various locations to establish basic political power in the countryside and create a base area.

After arranging those people, Kong Zongru attended the meeting in the Hall of Righteousness. This meeting was chaired by Yang Jiefang, the junior leader, who sat on either side of Black Widow, alongside Gao Huilan. Yang Jiefang spoke first: "Brothers, after this initial selection, our Qinglong Village combat team now has over nine hundred men, divided into five detachments. From now on, we won't call them commanders anymore, but detachment leaders. Our next task is to train these men into brave and skilled warriors. With over nine hundred men, well-trained, and with sufficient firearms and ammunition, we have a great future!"

Yang Jiefang spoke excitedly, but the crowd's reaction was lukewarm. The Dragon Team had the fewest members, so they had nothing to be happy about. The Tiger Team, Leopard Team, and Wolf Team had all been scared away by Yang Jiefang, losing almost half their members, so they weren't happy either. Yang Jiefang, observing this, was about to offer some words of comfort when Master Kong asked, "Chief, how many guns and how much ammunition do we have in our stronghold?" Black Widow, of course, knew the purpose of his question and replied calmly, "We don't have many truly effective guns; two people can't even share one. We do have some ammunition, but if divided equally, each person won't get many rounds, so it's hardly sufficient." Master Kong sneered, "If two people can't even share one gun, then why is everyone in the Liberation Army armed?" Black Widow glared at Master Kong and said, "Master Kong, you still consider yourself the strategist of Qinglong Stronghold, how could you ask such a naive question? Don't you know what the situation was like recently? The Liberation Army is almost entirely composed of reliable old brothers. If we don't rely on them to protect the stronghold, who else can we rely on? Master Kong, are you blinded by selfishness or are you senile?" This was the first time Black Widow had publicly refuted Master Kong, making him lose face, his old face turning bright red.

Kong Zongru immediately interjected, "Chief, you've misunderstood. My father is just worried about guns and ammunition. Although our stronghold still has some money, a shortage of several hundred guns is really difficult to solve!" Yang Jiefang chimed in, "I already have connections regarding guns. Leave it to me. Within three months, I guarantee everyone in our Qinglong Stronghold combat team will have a gun." Kong Zongru immediately retorted, "You said it yourself! What if you just make empty promises and fail to get guns after three months?" Is he going to take charge already? His attitude and vision are too poor! Gao Huilan said, "If you can't get them, so be it. What else do you want? Kong Zongru, do you think you can get guns? If you can't, why do you expect others to do it?"

Yang Jiefang chuckled twice and said, "I'm 80% confident I can get the guns, but I need everyone's cooperation." Everyone was delighted and asked, "How do you want us to cooperate?" Yang Jiefang said, "I need to build a highly skilled special operations team. It doesn't need to be large, at most a company. But these people must all be top-notch. My own team can't find that many. So, I need to select from the other four teams. That's where everyone's cooperation comes in." Everyone immediately understood that he was trying to poach talent. Yang Jiefang had proposed building a special operations team before the new year, but no one had accepted it then. Kong Zongru quipped, "Everyone says I'm a calculating fool, but your calculations are even more shrewd than mine!"

Yang Jiefang glanced at the other four team leaders, who were clearly unwilling, and said, “Brothers, there has never been absolute fairness in this world. The capable do more work, and the wise worry more; this is the norm in society. Absolute fairness is unfair to the capable and wise. Everyone in our Liberation Army team is now armed, and you think this is unfair. But every gun in my team was obtained by me and my brothers through hard work. You might as well ask yourselves, how many guns have you gotten for the stronghold? Now I want to get more guns, but you don’t want to contribute your time and effort; you just want to reap the benefits. Where in the world is there such a good thing?”

Bai Lang immediately said, "Brother Yang, no, Little Boss, I was being narrow-minded. I'll listen to you. My men are free to choose whatever you want. I won't say a word." After he finished speaking, Lin Baozi and Peng Dahu also expressed their support. Finally, Li Yichao expressed his willingness to cooperate with Yang Jiefang in forming a special forces team. Since everyone agreed, Yang Jiefang pressed his advantage, continuing, "I still have the same idea: Yan Donglai and Sun Zhiyong will be in charge of this matter. No one can stop them once they've chosen someone. If they themselves are unwilling, then they should leave Qinglong Village! Qinglong Village doesn't need people who don't obey orders."

The matter was settled, and Yang Jiefang continued, "The brothers on the mountain are mostly from poor backgrounds and are illiterate, which is not conducive to our future development. As the saying goes, learning makes people progress, and knowledge changes destiny. We should teach them to read and write so they can learn and improve. Only when all the brothers improve can our Qinglong Village have a future. However, with the current surge in numbers, it's not feasible for them all to study together at the same time; we must teach them separately. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?" Everyone lowered their heads in deep thought.

Li Yichao muttered to himself, "Learning makes one progress, knowledge changes destiny." Then he stood up and said loudly, "There are over a hundred people in our Dragon Team, so I won't trouble them. I'll teach them myself. Although I haven't read much, teaching them a few characters shouldn't be a problem. I just need to borrow the textbook to copy it!" Yang Jiefang was a little surprised. This Li Yichao seemed to have read quite a bit, but he was usually rather low-key and aloof. He wondered how he had become the captain of the Dragon Team. Yang Jiefang replied, "If you can teach, of course, no problem. I have a few copies of 'Call to Arms' here; I'll lend you one as a textbook!" Li Yichao didn't refuse and said, "Thanks." Then he sat down.

Kong Zongru chimed in, "I've been educated since I was a child, so teaching a few illiterate people to read shouldn't be a problem. How about I teach a few too? Tiger, Leopard, how about I teach your teams?" Peng Dahu and Lin Baozi were quite surprised, but they were too embarrassed to refuse outright. Lin Baozi said, "If you don't mind that the brothers aren't very bright, I'd be happy. But, our two teams together have over three hundred people, can you really teach them all?" Before he finished speaking, Kong Zongru said, "Peng Dahu, you've asked me for advice before. But I was too busy then. Now you're free, with plenty of time. I'll teach your team! My son will teach Lin Baozi's team; I should be able to manage." Peng Dahu agreed verbally, but inwardly he was surprised. Before, when he wanted to learn something, he was always indifferent. Why was he suddenly so eager to teach? Was he really that bored?

Everyone naturally realized something was amiss, and Gao Huilan quickly said, "I've been studying since I was little, and I'm no worse than that girl surnamed Jiang. I can teach a team too." Before she finished speaking, Bai Lang interjected, "Then teach our Wolf Team! Xiao Lan, I promise I'll learn well from you!" Gao Huilan rolled her eyes; how could this guy have no sense at all? Master Kong agreed, "I think it's a good idea, let's arrange it that way!" Gao Huilan genuinely regretted her words, but it was too late to back down now. Since the Liberation Team already had someone to teach them, everyone else didn't need to worry about it.