Chapter Fourteen: Brazen Occupation

  The fifteenth day of the sixth month on the lunar calendar is when Xi Xiang holds its monthly market fair, and the location of the market fair is Long Village.

  The villagers of each natural village carried the goods they had prepared early in the morning to the market in Long Village. These goods included eggs, kitchen utensils and furniture made of bamboo, cloth shoes, grass shoes, as well as some mountain fruits and mushrooms.

  The morning market is undoubtedly very lively, with villagers from various villages bringing their own goods and exchanging them for necessities through bartering or purchasing with silver coins.

  This kind of fair is an important link in the natural economy of rural China, but at this time, the natural economy of rural China has been impacted by capitalist economy, and there are not only local rural goods on the market, but also many foreign goods.

  For example, cloth and matches are basically imported goods. From this phenomenon, it can be seen that China's national industry is very weak at this time.

  Just as people were haggling over prices, a group of uninvited guests suddenly arrived at Long Village.

  It was just a group of people without queues, wearing 'flower green' clothes, holding guns, with one person in front holding a black flag, and people in the middle and on both sides holding two banners.

  One banner on either side reads "Exterminate bandits", the other reads "Protect security and pacify the people", while the middle banner reads "Jianzhou Security Team".

  Behind them, there was a group of people tied up with ropes like sugar gourds. The leader was Lu Haoshen, the old master of Lu's village. Behind him were human heads, each hung from a wooden stick carried by two men who moved forward in unison.

  This group of people is Xia Jun's Jianzhou Security Team. Xia Jun led the team and openly entered Long Village.

  The village head of Longcun was panicked for a while and immediately gathered some militia.

  The village chief soon sent someone to negotiate, and Xia Jun pushed Zhang Si Gou forward. Zhang Si Gou was now his only slightly cultured and relatively clever subordinate.

  Zhang Si Dog went forward and backward, and the village head Ma immediately recognized him. Isn't this a local bandit? After a conversation, the village head saw that it was a group of militia fighting against bandits, so he agreed to let them enter the village.

  The village head is not concerned about whether this group of people has a queue or is reactionary, and he does not care about these issues at all. What he cares about is whether this group of people comes to the countryside to rob.

  However, after seeing Lu Haoshen and Lu Haohu's heads, the village head hastily put on a flattering expression to welcome them.

  The Lu clan in Xixiang is notorious, and this group of bandits has become increasingly bold and arrogant since the Qing dynasty's control over the local area has weakened.

  The village head saw that the Lu family clan had been cleaned up by this 'Jianzhou Security Team', and he didn't have the confidence to resist these strong men. At the same time, if those people handed over Lu Haoshen and the others to the government, it would be a great achievement!

  After the negotiation was completed, Xia Jun led his men into the countryside with a swagger.

  Xia Jun suddenly ordered to take control of the village head, and the village head didn't know what was going on. He was taken to Xia Jun's side, Zhang Si Gou is a native of Longcun Village, and he knows the situation in Longcun Township like the back of his hand. According to Zhang Si Gou's confession, the village head is named Li Wan Cai, and the villagers call him Li Wang Ba.

  "From now on, Xixiang will be under the jurisdiction of our Jianzhou Security Team." As soon as Xia Jun opened his mouth, Li Xiangzhang was scared half to death. He stuttered and said: "Xia Tuanzhang, this...this...isn't good, is it?"

  "There's nothing to be afraid of, on the surface you're still the village head, don't worry." Xia Jun smiled and said to him, "Our state security team is specialized in fighting bandits, we don't rob civilians, you can rest assured."

  "Yes, yes, Captain Xia is right." Li Wancai said, his eyes constantly glancing outside. But what he saw took his breath away.

  He only saw that he had gathered more than 100 militia, who were now on good terms with Zhang Sigou. Those militiamen were mostly young and strong men from the countryside, and they seemed to have a very good relationship with Zhang Sigou. When those militiamen saw Zhang Sigou, they were all very happy.

  "Our team leader said that those who are willing to join the security team will be given six silver dollars per month, and all meals will be provided by the team. Every meal will have meat, two sets of military uniforms will be issued, and a steel gun will also be issued..." Zhang Si Dog introduced the treatment of the security team to them in an endless stream, and those militiamen listened with envy.

  The militiamen's enthusiasm almost drowned out Zhang Sigou, who raised his hand and shouted: "Wait, wait, soon our captain will start selecting people, you still have important things to attend to, Fourth Dog Brother."

  "Fourth Brother Dog, you have to help our captain out! We grew up wearing the same pants!"

  "Four Dog Brother..."

  Zhang Si Gou squeezed out of the crowd and ran back to Xia Jun's side, saluting him. "Reporting to Captain, mission accomplished."

  "Alright, let's go to the market," Xia Jun said. The group of people escorted Li Xiangzhang to the market. As they got closer to the market, there were more and more people. Soon, villagers from all villages saw the security team and were all stirred up.

  But seeing they didn't do anything, they just went on to watch from a distance.

  Soon, the security team started to publicize with drums and gongs. As soon as the villagers in each village heard that the bandits from Lujia Village had been wiped out, they all applauded with joy.

  The reputation of Jianzhou Security Team was established in this publicity.

  After walking around the countryside, Zhang Si Dog went on stage to announce the recruitment of Jianzhou Security Team and announced the treatment. He also declared that if scholars came to work for the security team, their treatment would not be less than ten silver coins per month, which caused a burst of surprise below.

  This treatment is really surprisingly high.

  Xia Jun didn't believe in the propaganda effect at all. Today, people from various villages came to the countryside to rush to the market. As soon as the treatment of the security team was announced, he believed that it wouldn't take long for the news to spread throughout Xixiang.

  That day, Xia Jun's Jianzhou Security Team officially occupied Long Village, and the village head was controlled by Xia Jun. At this time, he was being held in a house for ideological education work!

  The headquarters of the Security Regiment was also moved from Shiniu Mountain to Longcun.

  However, the security team did not disturb the people and had not intervened in administrative matters for the time being. The villagers did not have any resistance to the security team, but instead felt that a group of non-looting security teams in the countryside could make them safer.

  On the same day, Xia Jun set up a recruitment office in Long Village and began to recruit soldiers. To join the security team, they had to cut off their braids, which scared away some people. However, many people still came to sign up for the high pay, including five scholars from the countryside, including the village scribe.

  These document officials are nominally government employees, but the government does not pay them a salary. These people make a living by collecting fees in their daily lives, but they can only barely make ends meet.

  For these literate scholars, Xia Jun took them all in. In his opinion, although they were not very capable, at least they could be used to keep accounts.

  In the following days, more and more young men came to apply, all of whom were from various natural villages, and Xia Jun personally selected them one by one.

  The standard is still the same, no smoking, no underage, no oily and greasy guys, no one with poor physical quality.

  The physical requirements are not too high, and the Chinese people of this era generally live in poverty, with nutrition not keeping up. The security team can improve their nutrition, which is not a big problem.

  In just one week, Xia Jun's Jianzhou Security Team expanded to 200 people, requiring a monthly expenditure of 1,200 silver coins for military salaries. At the same time, food expenses were also around 600 silver coins per month, plus miscellaneous expenses, totaling around 2,000 silver coins per month. On average, each soldier consumed about 10 silver coins worth of financial resources per month.

  At the same time, Xia Jun also recruited 15 scholars in this week. The cultural level of these scholars is different, some are only at the level of Tongsheng, while others are at the level of Xiūcai.

  The highest level is that of a scholar, among whom there was one named You Zhengbin, whose knowledge was the deepest and who was only twenty-three years old this year. Originally, he was a promising candidate for the imperial examination to become a jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination), but since the Qing dynasty abolished the imperial examination system, he also completely lost his chance of becoming a jinshi through the imperial examinations.

  When the Xinhai Revolution broke out, various provinces declared independence, which was also related to the abolition of the imperial examination system by the Qing government and its inability to legitimize it. After all, Confucianism was the main force maintaining social stability, but Confucianism did not have a legitimate status, which also led to the departure of Confucian scholars.

  Adding these literati's monthly salary of 150 taels, Xia Jun had to spend around 2,300 taels per month, which is 27,600 taels per year.

  After taking down Lujia Village, Xia Jun extracted 30,000 taels of silver from Lu Haoshen's mouth, which is equivalent to nearly 45,000 yuan. Adding the previous 20,000 yuan, Xia Jun now has 65,000 yuan in his hands, and he also has more than 5,000 kilograms of grain, making him financially comfortable.

  If willing, Xia Jun can expand the security team's forces to 500 people, but at that expansion speed, Xia Jun cannot guarantee what kind of monsters will appear. The most critical issue is still brainwashing... ideological education, and with so many people, Xia Jun simply cannot train them all.