Chapter 993 - Miao Village

Kong Lingyang's suspicion proved correct. The arrival of Mu Min—who concurrently served as Director of the Li-Miao Affairs Office—and Fang Jinghan was precisely to recruit National Army soldiers from the local Li and Miao population.

The Li and Miao population of Hainan Island had long represented untapped manpower for the Senate, a constant frustration for the labor-starved Planning Bureau.

However, the Li and Miao people possessed extremely low productivity levels and were accustomed to primitive commune-style living and production patterns. Historically, they also harbored strong conflicts with local Han people. Converting them into an industrial and agricultural workforce would prove exceedingly difficult.

To effectively control and utilize the Li and Miao people, the Religious Affairs Office pursued a "dual-religion approach"—Catholicism and Neo-Daoism penetrated deep into the mountains from south and north respectively, proselytizing extensively. Through religious outreach and health service penetration, they sought to grasp the spiritual dimension of the local populace, thereby gaining control over the entire society.

Simultaneously, by expanding trade and abandoning traditional exploitative high-profit methods in Li-Miao commerce, they employed lower margins and more goods to stimulate local commodity economy development. Medical outreach and small-scale agricultural technology promotion supplemented these efforts, using material means to promote social evolution.

Though the idea of recruiting Li and Miao people to form mountain infantry had been proposed before, the Military General Administration believed there was no urgent need. The Li and Miao people's physique and fitness were generally poor, with many suffering from malaria that required prolonged treatment and recovery. Organizing them as combat troops would prove costly.

Operation Engine required landing on Taiwan Island. The General Staff and Foreign Intelligence Bureau had compiled materials from the Haitian and the Grand Library, concluding that security forces composed of Li and Miao soldiers would be suitable for Taiwan operations. Particularly in future actions against Taiwan's Plains Tribes and Gaoshan indigenous peoples, Li and Miao soldiers' jungle and mountain mobility could prove invaluable.

For this purpose, after discussions between the Military Training Directorate and the Li-Miao Affairs Office, a joint work group was dispatched to Li and Miao settlement areas in Lingao, Sanya, and Changhua—locations where both sides had established more contact and a foundation of mutual trust—to conduct recruitment.

Wei Aiwen took a comfortable sip of oolong tea and asked: "Old Kong, are there many Li and Miao people here?"

"Plenty," Kong Lingyang replied, knowing from this question that his suspicions were confirmed. "To be frank, Changhua's economy is essentially the Li-Miao economy."

This was true. If the Senate calculated GDP data for counties under its rule, seventy percent of Changhua's GDP derived from trade activities with the Li and Miao.

"Are there many Miao villages? Approximately how many Miao people?"

"Very few. Based on our current intelligence, there are fewer than ten Miao villages, each ranging from twenty or thirty to a hundred households. Total population is around five or six thousand. No detailed data." Though Kong Lingyang had only recently assumed the post, Li Haiping during his tenure had conducted continuous surveys, accumulating substantial first-hand materials.

Generally speaking, Li villages were numerous while Miao villages were scarce. Moreover, Miao villages tended to be smaller than Li villages—and more impoverished and backward. Because the Miao people were latecomers to Hainan Island, descendants of the "Wolf Army," "enforcers," and "crossbow poison archers" conscripted from Guangxi along with Ming troops to suppress Li uprisings. After the campaigns concluded, these Miao troops were disbanded on the spot and dispersed to settle in various locations. Because they arrived late, the better land and mountains had already been claimed by Han and Li people, so Miao villages were typically situated in mountainous areas with poorer natural environments. Beyond barely cultivating some land, they survived by hunting and gathering mountain products, and also worked as tenants on land and forests belonging to Han and Li landlords.

Fang Jinghan interjected: "How are relations between the Miao and Li? And with local Han people and us?"

"The Miao people don't have major conflicts with anyone—though minor frictions are inevitable. The Miao are very poor; they possess no land—not even mountain land. Most survive by fishing and hunting, rarely contacting outsiders." Kong Lingyang hadn't personally visited a Miao village, but from his "Li-Miao Affairs Liaison"—Worker Wang, who had led the survey team to Qiandui Village and the Shilu River back then—he had obtained substantial intelligence about the Li and Miao people.

Wei Aiwen listened intently. He was particularly interested in Miao villages. Hainan's Miao population was the smallest with the worst economic conditions, and they also had historical conflicts with the Li people. Thus he believed they would prove more reliable to employ. Since the Hainan Miao had come as auxiliary troops, they possessed a tradition of fighting. Absorbing them as security forces seemed an ideal choice.

"Are there any Miao villages we're relatively familiar with?"

"Yes, Li Haiping originally maintained good relations with several Miao villages..."

"Can we visit one?"

"Certainly." Kong Lingyang nodded readily. "The cooperative has a local employee specifically responsible for Li-Miao trade named Wang Daliang. Half Han, half Li. Originally a local shop worker. He speaks both Li and Miao languages and is intimately familiar with various villages."

Wei Aiwen nodded. "Arrange for us to visit a Miao village tomorrow." Then he asked again: "Old Kong, we came this time to recruit some Li and Miao able-bodied youth as soldiers. Do you think the local Li and Miao people would be willing to enlist?"

"We can definitely recruit some," Kong Lingyang said. "Whether Li or Miao, they all live hard lives. Though the labor intensity of swidden farming isn't excessive, days of eating one's fill are few."

Kong Lingyang then discussed the current state of negotiations with Changhua's Li and Miao villages. Currently, most Li and Miao villages in Changhua maintained trade relations with the Cooperative's Changhua Branch. Relations couldn't be called hostile, at minimum. Recruiting some able-bodied men shouldn't present problems.

The following day, led by the local trader from the Cooperative, the visiting delegation set off for a Miao village.

The village's location proved extremely remote. Though on the map the straight-line distance from Changhua Fort was less than thirty kilometers, the terrain was rugged, with tall grass and dense forests. The entire party could only follow the guide step by step, threading along a barely discernible trail. They arrived at the Miao village only early the next morning.

Before entering the village, they were startled by a disturbing sight in a grove outside. On the branches of large trees, numerous objects resembling rolled reed mats had been placed horizontally. Some were already half-rotted, scattered on the ground. The group was curious, but Fang Jinghan knew this was nothing one wanted to examine closely.

"This is the Miao village cemetery," he explained. "For the Miao people here, when someone dies, they're placed like this on tree trunks in the forest..."

Hearing this, Mu Min hurriedly put some distance between herself and the trees. Wei Aiwen, though accustomed to seeing corpses on battlefields, couldn't help feeling chills crawl down his spine.

"How come we've never heard of this custom?" Mu Min found it strange. She had toured the Southwest and visited quite a few Miao villages without encountering such practices.

"This is undoubtedly a local custom," Fang Jinghan explained. "As for whether mainland Miao villages share such customs, I haven't researched. But you went as a tourist; they surely wouldn't advertise such practices as a selling point."

They soon reached the village gate. Wang Daliang came and went here frequently and knew the paths well. The able-bodied men guarding the gate immediately allowed them entry.

The Miao village's conditions were far inferior to the Li people's Qiandui Village they had visited before—visibly impoverished. Only forty-odd households lived here. The village lacked proper walls, relying on thorny plants as a natural hedge. The houses were extremely crude: bamboo-frame structures with bamboo-strip walls plastered with yellow mud on the outside, roofs covered with rice straw. Throughout the village, free-range pigs, chickens, and ducks wandered about.

According to Wang Daliang, the Miao people here could barely afford to purchase anything, trading only hunted game and gathered mountain products for the Cooperative's salt and iron implements.

A hunting economy was inherently unstable, so they also practiced swidden rice cultivation—yields were low, barely sustaining the village's basic livelihood. Kong Lingyang was promoting simple cash crop cultivation in Changhua's Li and Miao villages, but transportation here was simply too inconvenient, so this village was temporarily excluded.

"With the Miao people living in such difficult mountains, others naturally find it hard to enter—but wouldn't it be equally hard for them to leave?" Mu Min observed.

Wang Daliang explained that this was nothing to the Miao people. They were extraordinarily skilled at traversing mountains and ridges—not only climbing swiftly but never tiring. When Miao villagers went to market, they completed round trips of a hundred li in a single day.

"Excellent material for mountain infantry," Wei Aiwen declared, a greedy glint appearing in his eyes. Using them merely as security troops seemed almost wasteful.

Mu Min surveyed the village with keen interest, sighing that living standards here were truly harsh. Ordinary people's three meals consisted of thin congee or mixed grain porridge. Apart from eating meat after a successful hunt, meat was virtually absent from daily life—not even vegetables. No vegetable plots could be spotted around the village, so rice was eaten only with salt. The blessing of southwestern peoples—chili peppers—had only recently begun being cultivated in Lingao in this dimension.

Kong Lingyang's reason for having Wang Daliang bring them to this particular village was naturally that poverty would make recruitment easier.

Mu Min suddenly remarked: "I feel the Miao people here are quite different from Miao people on the mainland."

"Some experts believe that the Miao of Hainan Island are actually Yao and Dong people from Guangxi, possibly mixed with some Miao," Fang Jinghan said.

With Wang Daliang's introduction, they soon met with the village elder. By the fire pit, Mu Min presented gifts to the elder. In the subsequent conversation, Wei Aiwen deployed his silver tongue, extolling how promising serving Australia-Song and the Senate was, how "all three meals are white rice, meat at every meal." Those recruited would also receive settling grain. He spoke so convincingly that even the elder himself seemed somewhat tempted, sighing repeatedly that he was too old.

Though the elder had no direct experience of the Fubo Army's treatment, the Cooperative had conducted trade here for two years, always honest and trustworthy, earning an excellent local reputation. So the elder didn't doubt the truthfulness of these claims.

The visiting delegation quickly achieved their objective: the elder agreed to permit local recruitment. With his full cooperation, Wei Aiwen recruited more than a dozen people from this single village alone.

(End of Chapter)