Chapter 116: East Gate Market

Led by Chuyu, Wu De's team quickly found the secret vault—hidden behind wall paneling fitted so perfectly that even careful examination revealed nothing. Chuyu didn't know the opening mechanism, and the transmigrators didn't bother searching for it. Wang Ruixiang grabbed a fire axe and hacked until a gap opened in the paneling. What they found within exceeded all expectations: the manor's master himself.

Gou Xunyi had been hiding in this study vault all along. Behind the paneling lay a staircase descending to an underground chamber that contained five locked rosewood cabinets, water jars, and dried provisions—enough to last ten days or more. The tyrant of Lingao looked considerably better than Saddam Hussein at his capture, though he couldn't stop trembling. Such local despots—accustomed to ruling their domain, arrogant to everyone except county officials and gentry, practically petty emperors who killed without blinking—deflated instantly when captured alive by enemies. He tried to speak, to plead, but the words stuck in his throat.

Everyone had imagined this county-dominating, pirate-colluding tycoon as some heroic figure. Seeing him reduced to this, they felt only contempt.

Wu De ordered him dragged to the mass meeting and stayed behind with careful assistants to smash open the rosewood cabinet locks. Inside they found ledgers, contracts, receipts, and bundles of letters tied with string. Nobody found these particularly interesting, but anything hidden so carefully must hold importance—this wasn't the place for sorting, so everything would return to base for expert analysis.

The chamber also contained large chests. Three held Spanish silver dollars—blindingly white and totaling over ten thousand liang. Two smaller chests held gold jewelry, and one item caught Wu De's particular attention: a plastic compact mirror. Wasn't this exactly what Wen Desi had mass-sold to this era? How Landlord Gou had obtained it remained a mystery.

The Gou patriarch's fate had long been sealed. At the meeting planning the manor attack, the Gou family had been sentenced to death. Whether to exterminate the entire clan had sparked debate, and the "kill all" resolution passed narrowly, with many still uncomfortable. But now—with most of the elder's family either fled or dead—only this lone target remained. No one would lose sleep.

When Gou Xunyi was dragged onto the platform, the crowd below roared in fury: "Kill him! Kill him!" The atmosphere-building had worked. Passions ran high. Xi Yazhou signaled Gou Buli, who immediately grabbed dirt and trash and hurled it at the bound man. Following his example, countless bricks and stones rained down as the transmigrators moved aside. Trussed like a dumpling, the Gou patriarch couldn't dodge. Amid chaotic clamor, Gou Xunyi—terror of the county—was stoned bloody, killed on the spot. When Zhang Xingjiao lifted the bloody pulp of a head high, dancing on stage like an Indian performing a war dance, the crowd plunged into vengeful, bloodthirsty frenzy. Many who had nursed grudges or grievances against other Gou family members dragged them up from below and beat and kicked them to death while the transmigrators stood watching, many feeling extremely uncomfortable.

Clever observers had already guessed the Committee's intention behind this terror-by-mob: it served as the perfect pledge of allegiance from the former Gou Manor residents, now designated as Damei Village. Henceforth, they had no choice but to bind themselves tightly to the transmigrators' chariot.

While this cruel farce played out, Wu De had already left the scene to discuss transport and distribution of seized goods with inventory chief Dai Xie. The Damei Village Gou compound would be completely demolished—salvaged bricks, tiles, and timber repurposed as building materials. Based on its land-carrying capacity, the village would retain fifty farming households; everyone else, including the craftsmen, would relocate to Bairren Fortress as directly controlled population. The remaining villagers would have Village Committees and militias organized according to the salt-field model.

Dai Xie was overwhelmed. Beyond the items destined for Bairren Fortress, appropriate relief supplies had to remain for local villagers. Quantities of furniture, daily goods, and clothing would be distributed to the commoners. He discussed logistics with Xi Yazhou: some had suggested letting people take what they wanted, but that approach favored the bold and strong while the timid and weak, even if they managed to grab something, would have it seized—and might even be injured in the process. Distribution would therefore be organized by the Planning Committee.

With arrangements complete, Wu De led the main force and supplies out of Damei Village while Xi Yazhou stayed behind to help establish local government. Zhang Xingjiao recommended several close allies as leaders: Ma Bangping, a small trader with some literacy, and Jin Changman, a former Gou tenant of about forty—both men with standing in the village. Gou Buli also wanted a position in the new Village Committee, but Xi Yazhou knew he was unreliable and sent him straight to the migrant column.

Transporting Gou Manor goods and relocating people lasted nearly half a month. Meanwhile, the Engineering Team built a road from Bairren Fortress to the county seat. Even the observation post on the hill outside the city—formerly a discreet lookout—was now openly formalized. They constructed a three-story, all-brick blockhouse on the hilltop, and from its roof, high-powered binoculars could observe the magistrate hearing cases and administering beatings in the yamen. Combined with cordless phones, it provided near-live broadcasting of official activities.

Lingao County had effectively gone deaf and blind, ignoring the massive construction across the Wenlan River. County residents had grown accustomed to these rumbling steel monsters, and though no one dared approach the construction machinery, crowds always gathered at a safe distance whenever engines started. Some wealthy gentry even had sedan chairs carry them with wives, concubines, children, and servants to small hills, where they would erect awnings and set out rattan chairs—watching construction while sipping tea, as though observing a peep show.

For commoners, the changes went beyond mere spectacle. The number of farmers coming to the market outside Bairren Fortress multiplied as the transmigrators' enormous appetites attracted droves of nearby farmers. First came those bearing a chicken, a duck, some eggs, or a load of vegetables. Then women arrived with cloth they had woven. Eventually someone brought a pig.

The transmigrators proved fair to all, offering prices slightly above market rate and always paying in good pre-Tianqi-reign coins. Word spread rapidly, and more arrived daily. This was short-hair territory, after all, and short-hair ferocity was well known—neither bandits nor county officials dared cause trouble here. The area was peaceful, and this year's autumn harvest had been decent, lending the region some semblance of tranquility.

With growing numbers, people built stalls on the market ground, setting up stoves to sell simple vegetarian food and tea and offering overnight lodging. Sellers with money in hand wanted to buy things too, so peddlers selling cosmetics, household goods, and farm tools gathered. Then came fortune tellers and letter writers. Recently, Wu Nanhai on inspection had spotted a few painted women—even prostitutes had arrived. He felt unexpectedly emotional, nearly tearing up. Our market has finally made it!

In under a month, the once-empty plot outside the East Gate had magically sprouted a sea of bamboo shacks. By twenty-first-century standards, it couldn't compare to even a remote township market, but for the transmigrators' Commercial Department, it was already impressive.

At the edge of this bamboo-shack sprawl, near the East Gate moat, stood a two-story, all-brick building—conspicuously tall. This was the new Bairren Fortress East Gate Market Administration, which also served as the Commercial Department's office. The front featured a verandah for shelter from sun and rain, and the main entrance hall held a stone counter displaying three types of measuring instruments: mass standards consisting of one-kilogram, fifty-gram, and one-gram stone weights; a one-meter ruler; and a one-liter vessel for water measurement.

Promoting new standardized measures ranked among the Commercial Department's key tasks. Though Qin Shi Huang had begun unifying measurements, in practice, measurements throughout Chinese history had never truly been unified. Each industry, each region, though using the same names, applied different actual values—sometimes wildly divergent. This caused endless disputes and conflicts, and dynasties of officials and merchants had exploited these discrepancies for profit.

The Commercial Department decided to begin here, at the still-nascent East Gate Market, pushing modern standardized metric measurements. All transmigrator purchases and sales would use these new standards. For transactions between locals, lacking sufficient new equipment to supply the entire market, there were no mandatory requirements yet.

(End of Chapter)