Newborn 1927

Both Yoshio Nakamura and Tingxuan Jiang were shocked, but their feelings differed. Yoshio Nakamura felt worried, while Tingxuan Jiang felt delighted. They did not return to Qinglong Village, but spent the night at Xu Family Inn, and returned directly to Yantai the next day.

After seeing the two off, Yang Jiefang returned to Qinglong Village. His first act was to report to Black Widow. Upon learning the details of their cooperation, Black Widow was overjoyed and exclaimed, "We should tell all the brothers!" Yang Jiefang continued, "There's one more thing I hope you can understand." Black Widow casually asked, "What is it?" Yang Jiefang replied, "You know Jiang Xiaojun; she's Jiang Tingxuan's sister, and we're engaged..." Black Widow's face immediately fell, but she quickly regained her composure, saying, "That's your personal matter; you don't need my permission." Yang Jiefang gave a wry smile and said, "As for Xiaolan, please explain to the chief!" Black Widow waved her hand, saying, "You and Xiaolan aren't engaged; there's no need to explain."

Yang Jiefang forced a smile and explained, "I fell in love with Xiaolan at first sight. Please believe me, I'm not the kind of person who's fickle, much less someone who starts something and then abandons it. My engagement to Xiaojun was a long-term decision, not just for myself." Black Widow sneered, "Now that you've got control of Qinglong Village, you naturally don't need us, mother and daughter. How can a bandit's daughter be as noble as an official's daughter? Little Boss, I didn't see that coming from you. You're really pragmatic." Yang Jiefang shook his head and said, "In my eyes, neither of them is more noble than the other; they're essentially the same. Of course, it's not about who has a higher status, but rather that this engagement is truly important." Black Widow said, "I've already seen that. If it weren't for this engagement, you wouldn't have been able to secure this opportunity for cooperation, right? I understand, no need to explain." Their conversation was destined to end unhappily.

Next, Yang Jiefang summoned all the leaders and officers of the village to the main hall for a meeting. He first informed everyone about the cooperation, which delighted them. Successful cooperation meant significant development for Qinglong Village. After everyone finished celebrating, Yang Jiefang continued, “Previously, when we recruited, we didn’t conduct rigorous selection; we accepted anyone who was willing. This resulted in uneven abilities among the team members, lowering the overall combat effectiveness. I want to conduct a comprehensive assessment and selection process. Those who pass will stay, and those who fail will be eliminated.” After this period of rigorous training, individual abilities had become apparent, and some individuals were indeed quite incompetent, causing considerable distress to the team leaders. Now that Yang Jiefang had proposed this, they were naturally happy to see it happen. Yang Jiefang then presented the assessment plan, which received unanimous approval. Finally, Yang Jiefang said, “Those who pass the assessment will have their monthly living allowance increased to five silver dollars. Those who don’t pass, as long as they wish to stay, we cannot force them to leave; we will arrange other work for them.”

After the meeting, the content was reported, and arrangements for the assessment were made. The assessment lasted three days, eliminating a number of people. Those who passed the assessment were reorganized. The three squadrons of the Dragon Detachment remained unchanged, indicating that they had been selective in recruiting personnel. The Tiger Detachment, Leopard Detachment, and Wolf Detachment saw significant reductions in personnel. Although they retained the strength of four squadrons, each platoon generally had only ten people, with very few reaching twelve.

The Liberation Army remained strong and well-equipped, maintaining seven infantry companies. In addition, there was a special operations company, a machine gun platoon, and an artillery platoon. During the assessment process, a group of skilled individuals were selected to join the special operations team, expanding it to three platoons. However, Hou Fei and Chen Shanpao were expelled. The other teams naturally disliked being poached, but considering the achievements of the special operations team, they had no choice but to accept it. Hou Fei's cavalry company, currently operating as bandits in Fushan County, did not participate in the assessment and advanced directly. Yang Jiefang also selected a group of young, quick-witted, and quick-learning individuals to form a separate team called the 'Training Team.' This included Wang Dali, Chen Ergou, Gao Meng and Gao Ming from the Gao family, and the eight men from Doushan Village, totaling twenty-four people, organized into two platoons, with his future brother-in-law Zhao Changgui serving as the company commander. Not everyone in the Training Team met the physical fitness requirements, but some were exceptionally retained by Yang Jiefang, such as Wang Xuncai from Doushan Village.

After reorganization, the number of men decreased to just over eight hundred. Those who were laid off were unwilling to leave and were reorganized by Yang Jiefang into two companies. One was a garrison company, stationed at Xujiadian to protect its security, commanded by Wu Laokou; the other was a guard company, responsible for the defense of the mountain stronghold, mainly guarding the gate and watching over prisoners of war, commanded by Niu Sanbian. The men of both companies continued to receive a monthly stipend of three silver dollars.

A new round of training began at Qinglongzhai, and Yang Jiefang was also contemplating the next action plan. Therefore, he paid special attention to the intelligence reports from each intelligence group. Baozi had gone to Shanghai and could not be contacted for the time being; Jianbing, Mantou, and Wotou had respectively infiltrated Haiyang County, Qixia County, and Laiyang County and reported their first intelligence. They had just entered the city, so naturally they wouldn't have any valuable intelligence to send out, but they all mentioned a term that caught Yang Jiefang's attention—the green seedling tax. Yang Jiefang was a little confused at first. He was confident in his knowledge, but he had never heard of a green seedling tax. After some investigation, he understood that it was a land tax levied by the government when wheat seedlings turned green. Originally, it was only levied on land where wheat was planted; in practice, however, it was levied regardless of whether a family planted wheat or not. He had never had a concept of the numerous exorbitant taxes he had read about in books before, but now he truly understood what it meant to have a tax on excrement before, but now there was no tax on farts.

This was a time of scarcity for ordinary people, a lean and impoverished period. Where would they find the money to pay taxes? Raising taxes at this time would undoubtedly drive them to their deaths. Sure enough, trouble ensued, with people from all over organizing to resist grain taxes and levies. Wotou specifically mentioned Yang'er Mountain, which Yang Jiefang was particularly concerned about. Tian Yisan and Xu Zishan organized the Jiaodong Anti-Grain Army, numbering over a thousand men, which once again drew the attention of the county seat. The Laiyang County garrison had been decimated before the New Year and had not yet recovered; they wanted to suppress bandits but lacked the capability. Therefore, they agreed to allow local gentry to form their own security forces.

Yang Jiefang decided to seize the opportunity and immediately summoned Zhao Changming and Zhao Changgen, giving them a thorough lecture. He then ordered them to lead a squadron back to Zhao Family Village. Their plan was to first establish a security regiment in Zhao Family Village to gain legal status, and then, under the guise of joint security, merge with other security regiments in the surrounding area to expand their territory.

Hou Fei and Ma Shangfei also sent back a letter. With information provided by Jiang Tingqi and Hou Fei's cooperation, Ma Shangfei, following his actions in Zhao Family Village, killed a notorious landlord. The local people applauded, but the Fushan County Administrative Office was naturally displeased and wanted to eradicate the bandits, but they couldn't find any trace of them. Under these circumstances, Jiang Tingqi successfully seized the position of mayor of Shuangshui Town and gained the right to form a security regiment. Yang Jiefang followed suit and immediately dispatched a company to serve as Hou Fei's security regiment. Ma Shangfei and his cavalry continued to operate in the shadows.

Two squadrons were dispatched in succession. Yang Jiefang didn't deliberately hide it, and the other four brigade commanders immediately found out, their minds quickly becoming active. They all approached Yang Jiefang, requesting to lead their teams out to develop the area. Yang Jiefang immediately summoned the leaders of squad leader rank and above to the mess hall and gave them another lesson, teaching them how to establish a base area in the countryside. In summary, it involved three steps. First, send a small detachment to a new location to settle down, understand the local situation, and establish roots; second, based on the local situation, find a negative example to punish to gain the support of the majority; third, promulgate a political program, establish basic political power, and further develop and expand. These three steps seemed simple, but the success rate was very high.

Those present were thrilled and filled with admiration for Yang Jiefang. They were all eager to try their hand at martial arts. Yang Jiefang, however, felt it inappropriate to venture too far, adhering to the principle of starting with the nearest and gradually expanding outwards. After careful consideration, he determined the development direction for each detachment. The Liberation Detachment, being the strongest, had two companies dispatched to Fushan County and Laiyang County, which naturally fell under its control. The Wolf Detachment would expand southwards, enlarging its territory within Haiyang County. The Tiger Detachment would expand northwards, enlarging its territory within Qixia County. Lin Baozi, a native of Muping County, wanted to expand there. Yang Jiefang had special arrangements for the Dragon Detachment. He spoke privately with Li Yichao and Wang Yang, informing them that the procurement list included four armed merchant ships—essentially gunboats—which required a reliable crew. Most of the Dragon Detachment members were from Rongcheng County, and Rongcheng natives loved the sea. The two quickly realized this was the beginning of building a naval force and were naturally overjoyed. Yang Jiefang's task for them was not to occupy more territory, but to recruit more sailors.

After arranging the routes of each team, Yang Jiefang began to calmly draft his future policy program. To establish a base area, military occupation alone was far from sufficient; political success was also essential. After careful consideration, Yang Jiefang ultimately decided to abandon the land policy of "fighting local tyrants and distributing land" and instead adopt a more moderate policy of "rent and interest reduction." Regarding rent and interest reduction, history books record it as a land policy implemented by the Communist Party in its base areas during the War of Resistance Against Japan. After traveling through time, Yang Jiefang learned from various channels that as early as Guangzhou, during the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the Communist Party had proposed this policy at the National Assembly, and it had received unanimous approval from Kuomintang representatives. It was fully implemented in the areas controlled by the Guangzhou government at the time, thus laying the mass foundation for the Northern Expedition. With the victory of the Northern Expedition, this policy should have been widely promoted. However, the successive betrayals of the revolution by Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei destined this policy to not be continued.

Yang Jiefang found the legal basis for his political program in this; although the policy was not continued, it remained legally valid. With this legal basis, he would not excessively provoke Chiang Kai-shek in the future, thus avoiding his endless encirclement and suppression. Yang Jiefang established base areas and accumulated strength mainly to prepare for the catastrophe ten years later, rather than wasting limited resources on civil war.

A few days later, Yang Jiefang finally put forward his political slogan and wrote his first policy program. The next step was implementation. To implement this policy, a group of suitable personnel was needed. Yang Jiefang currently lacked suitable political officers, and his first thought was his training corps. Thus, this policy program became the training corps' study material.

That afternoon, Yang Jiefang was teaching a class to the training team. The garrison company stationed at Xujiadian sent someone to report that Jiang Xiaojun and Chu Gu had returned, bringing a group of young men, and asked Yang Jiefang to come down the mountain to Xujiadian. Yang Jiefang was overjoyed, told the training team to study on their own, and rode down the mountain.

At the clothing factory in Xujiadian, Yang Jiefang met Jiang Xiaojun and her group. They were touring the factory, accompanied by Bai He. Officially, Jiang Xiaojun had recruited these people to work in the Xujiadian industrial park. They greeted Yang Jiefang upon seeing him. The group consisted of about thirty people, including several women. To Yang Jiefang's surprise, Jiang Tingxuan was also there.

Jiang Xiaojun first introduced Yang Jiefang, then introduced all the people she had recruited to him one by one; they were all intellectuals who had graduated from elementary school less than two years ago, and Yang Jiefang couldn't remember so many people at once. Among them, a couple caught Yang Jiefang's attention. The man was named Du Guoping, and the woman was named Liu Fang; they were an engaged couple. They used to work at the Yantai Post and Telecommunications Bureau, with Du Guoping as a telegraph machine repairman and Liu Fang as a telegraph operator. Because they urgently needed money, Jiang Xiaojun gave them one hundred silver dollars to quit their original jobs and come to Xujiadian.

Yang Jiefang first arranged for them to stay at Xujiadian. As for whether these people were suitable and how to use them, Yang Jiefang needed to observe them for a while. Jiang Xiaojun said she also wanted to stay there, so she led the group to tidy up her own accommodations.

Yang Jiefang pulled Jiang Tingxuan aside and asked him the purpose of his trip. Jiang Tingxuan went straight to the point, saying, "Mr. Nakamura signed a wheat futures trading agreement with HSBC for one million tons. Xiao Yang, this time it's all up to you. If the price goes up, we can make a fortune; but if it goes down, we'll lose money." Yang Jiefang replied, "I can't say much, but a ten-dollar increase is guaranteed." Based on previous years' prices, each ton of wheat usually cost around two hundred silver dollars. A ten-dollar increase wasn't actually that significant. Jiang Tingxuan was quite excited and said, "If that's the case, we can definitely make a fortune."

Yang Jiefang wasn't as agitated as Jiang Tingxuan. He countered, "Where is Nakamura Yoshio now? Has he returned to Japan?" Jiang Tingxuan replied, "Not yet. He went to Shanghai to see Ogasawara. However, your purchase order has already been sent to Japan by telegram, and they're already preparing the goods. Hmm, your prediction that day was really accurate! Commander-in-Chief Chiang really did take action against the Communists, and even framed them for the Ning case." He then took a newspaper from his briefcase. Yang Jiefang glanced at it briefly and put it down. The April 12th Incident had indeed occurred—expected, yet beyond his anger. But now was not the time for anger. Yang Jiefang forcibly suppressed his rage and pressed, "Was Nakamura Yoshio's trip to Shanghai simply to see Ogasawara?"