Chapter 511

After taking in three or four unfamiliar subordinates recommended by the General-in-Chief—called Commander here—a twelve-man infantry squad, cobbled together from stout fellows of both north and south, came into being just like that.

As Squad Leader, Wu Meng, Wu Sanye, felt tremendous pressure for a time.

He had guessed the reason behind it, and knew that his group's prior performance had caught the eye of the Commander—that was a good thing. But Wu Sanye had his worries too: he feared these few were second-generation rich kids here to pad their resumes; if by some chance he failed to look after them properly and one of them kicked the bucket, then he'd be in real trouble.

Yet before two days had passed, Sanye set his mind at ease.

These few who'd been stuffed into his squad, faced with an old hand like Sanye's warm greetings and probing words, had no defenses at all and were quickly pumped for details—most of them had been Auxiliary Soldiers at the military port. When the Pioneer Army was being formed this time, those unwilling to stay laborers and willing to risk their lives for a future had signed up, and now they'd been assigned down.

Once he discovered these few were no imperial relatives, the man relaxed. But there was one among them named He Biandan whom Sanye ultimately regarded with a bit more respect.

First, after his probing, Sanye found out that He Biandan had originally been rescued outside a bandit lair by scouts the unit had sent out, and afterward had followed the Commander around, eating and drinking with him for a stretch. Probably some bond had formed during that time, which was why the lad had been recommended by name—there was likely a story there, and it warranted attention.

Second, He Biandan was tall and brawny; his fighting skills were a wild, unorthodox mess, but he was young and dared to fight to the death. With a bit of training, he'd be a fine asset. So after getting to know these new subordinates, Sanye was fairly satisfied with He Biandan alone.

After that, it was still an intense phase of training and integration.

Every morning, all the Firearm Soldiers were gathered together, and regular-army instructors trained them in a series of advanced military skills ahead of this era: aiming, loading, volley fire, firearm maintenance, formations, and so on.

Afternoons were for squad-level combined drills. During this time, Wei Yuan, as General Instructor, would randomly draw squads and teams in any combination to train their ability to fight as units of varying sizes.

Just drilling on the Scout Field was certainly not enough. Later, Wei Yuan would also take people out in rotation for field exercises, training their adaptability in unfamiliar environments and teaching them fieldcraft. The subjects here were numerous: communication and signaling, first aid, orienteering, finding food, and other basic skills were all included in the training scope.

Time hurried by, and in the blink of an eye it was already October of 1630—over a month since Supreme Xiong Zhijun had come to Guangdong to take up his post.

In this month-plus, aside from intensively receiving Liangguang officials and prominent figures from all walks of life, Xiong Wencan had also made brief rounds of the surrounding areas, thoroughly doing the homework expected of a big shot after assuming office.

Now that time had been spent, the moment for governance had arrived, and so some innocuous official documents were first issued from the Zhaoqing Governor's Office.

These formulaic bureaucratic documents were unavoidable in any officialdom. So after they were issued, they caused no ripples, just slowly passed down level by level according to procedure, and finally reached the Great Ming's lowest administrative unit: the County Yamen.

In the ninth year of the Sui Kaihuang era (589 AD), Guangzhou's commanderies were abolished and replaced with prefectures; from that time on, Zengcheng County belonged to Guangzhou. Thereafter, through the Tang, Southern Han, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and over 1,300 years, Guangzhou's name changed many times, but Zengcheng always remained a subordinate county of Guangzhou.

In ancient times, Zengcheng, a relatively remote lower-tier county with plenty of hills and uplands, was an out-and-out rural backwater, Guangzhou's poor relation—no one paid it any mind.

Naturally, anyone working in such a place would not be some 985-presented scholar with lofty ideals and powerful backing. In those days, sending cadres down to the countryside for poverty relief wasn't in vogue, so the Zengcheng County Magistrate was usually a low-ranked presented scholar, or simply a provincial graduate filling the post.

The current Zengcheng County Magistrate, Gu Tai, happened to be an official who'd entered service as a provincial graduate.

Generally speaking, for someone like Master Gu—mediocre and serving as an official via provincial graduate status—the path in officialdom was basically at its end. There was a glass ceiling above; it was impossible to allow him to go to a larger administrative unit as its top leader. If he wanted to remain an official, he'd just be shuffled back and forth among remote, lower-tier counties forever.

Fortunately, though Master Gu was mediocre, he was generous and kind, had a modest family fortune, and didn't much care about getting ahead or not. So although he was a nobody in Guangzhou officialdom, behind closed doors in Zengcheng County he was the Bai Li Marquis, and his days were fairly comfortable.

Then something came up.

It is said that one afternoon, Master Gu was in the rear residence, sipping tea and chatting idly with his wife and concubines, when from afar he spotted his Adviser Ma standing at the entrance to the rear garden, holding a document and pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back, or so it seemed.

According to the tacit understanding between Master Gu and his Adviser, this meant there was business to report.

That Master Gu, a mediocre man, had always been able to keep his official post steady and secure—at least half the credit for that had to go to the Shaoxing man, Adviser Ma, whom he'd hired at a high salary.

So upon seeing the signal, Master Gu promptly excused himself and went with Adviser Ma into the study, where he then saw the document Adviser Ma was holding specifically in his hand.

The content of this document was very simple: it was a reply to the County Magistrate Gu's bandit-suppression report from the first half of the year.

In the Late Ming, social turmoil was intensifying, and in the daily reports from various prefectures and counties to their superiors, the proportion of content concerning famine victims, disaster relief, and bandit suppression was increasing year by year.

Yet these reports were like the Patriotic Health Campaigns of later generations—something that came around every so often, and from top to bottom no one took them seriously.

Master Gu's superior departments, whether the Prefectural Yamen, the Fuzhou Governor's Office, or the Zongdu Yamen far away in Zhaoqing, would not issue any effective directives regarding the countless local disturbances—solving any problem required money, and without money... so such documents had now mostly degenerated into mere bureaucratic formalities.

Because the old Supreme Commander Wang had been gravely ill and unable to handle affairs, and the subsequent series of events like Supreme Xiong Zhijun taking office had caused delays, to be honest, Master Gu had long since forgotten this summary report from the first half of the year entirely.

So after he carefully read the document's contents once, Master Gu was a bit puzzled. Blinking, he turned his head to look at the gray-bearded Adviser Ma beside him: Wasn't this just the most ordinary reply from the Prefectural Yamen? What was there that required his, the Laoye's, solemn attention?

Adviser Ma saw his employer's expression and knew at once that his patron was being careless again. So he extended a hand with one long-nailed finger and tapped a spot on the document.

At that, Master Gu began to see the outline. Unlike other such documents in the past, this spot contained one ambiguous sentence: "You may seek assistance from nearby naval and army forces, requesting the temporary transfer of 'stalwart braves' to maintain local order; no negligence is permitted."

After blinking and thinking it over some more, Master Gu more or less guessed that this document, saturated with the dense language of official buck-passing, was subtly pointing out the three key elements of a story: time, place, and characters.

The problem now was, he didn't know what meaning lay behind that sentence.

Fortunately, Adviser Ma's skill was profound... if it weren't profound, he wouldn't have spotted the trick hidden in this document. So he said softly, "My patron, are you aware that on the fish shoals of Huangpu, a great ship has been moored these past days?"

Master Gu finally understood at that: "A great ship? Naval and army troops?"

Then, not two days later, Zengcheng County Magistrate Gu Tai hurried to Huangpu Military Port and requested an audience with Garrison Commander Wang Bo.