Chapter 200 The establishment of the General Office
After hearing what He Xi said, Schneider had a thoughtful expression on his face: "You mean, when these orphans grow up, some of them may have extreme thoughts?"
"That's right. They will believe that the meaning of their existence is to maintain the existing system and regime, and for this belief, they will take any necessary actions, even if these actions may be legally defined as illegal acts." He Xi nodded and said: "Actually, this kind of thing is very common in later generations. Many people who think they are patriots will stubbornly make some actions that others think are ridiculous, especially when such people have military status. The level of risk will be greatly increased."
"For example, the Japanese military during World War II?" Schneider somewhat understood what He Xi meant. During World War II, the Japanese military did many ridiculous things in the name of patriotism that shocked the world. Even the prime minister was killed by radical soldiers in the name of "patriotism."
He Xi nodded and said: "These people's concepts of right and wrong are based on their own beliefs. Having no family means that there is no personal reason to fight for. For them, strengthening the country's strength may be more important than thousands of people." Tens of millions of lives are more important. For example, if his parents had not died so early, maybe he would have become a painter when he grew up, instead of being a mentally ill or mentally ill dictator who started a war and killed tens of millions of people. When people with defective characters take over power, it is an absolute disaster for society.”
"What you said makes sense, but having said that, the situation we are in also requires that we must have a certain mass base as soon as possible." Schneider already understood what He Xi meant, but he believed that the other party's views were also biased. : "It is not easy to change the ideological concepts of adults. They grew up under the system of the Ming Dynasty. Although this feudal social system has many shortcomings, subconsciously they will still maintain and comply with the old system. The system is different. Children, especially orphans, are different. They grow up under the care of the Executive Committee and receive our values education. In the future, they will be the naturalized people who are closest to our ideas. I’m afraid I won’t find a better choice for quite some time.”
"Then we don't let the problem exist." He Xi did not intend to give up the debate and continued: "Now that we realize where the problem lies, we should find ways to make up for these loopholes."
"Building a family for orphans?" Schneider smiled and said: "There are a large group of children who are going to be fathers... I don't think this is a good solution, and there may be many problems in its execution. But no matter what, I will report your ideas to the Executive Committee later. We will try to complete the set tasks first, and leave these troubles to Ning Qi.”
"It shouldn't be difficult to collect orphans. We can contact Fulifeng and ask them to come forward to set up a charity organization. We will provide the funds." The objections came back, but He Xi immediately came up with a feasible plan. : "As for how to proceed, it's very simple."
"In the name of charity... this is good. I think the executive committee will be happy to adopt this plan." Schneider quickly recorded this item.
"In addition to collecting people and sending them back to Victory Port, I think we also need some manpower ourselves." He Xi pursed her lips in the direction of the door and said: "These people are sent by the Li family. Their credibility is not high. We It’s not very convenient. In my opinion, I’d better try to replace it as soon as possible.”
"When confirming the residence, we should also resolve this matter." Schneider also agreed with this. After all, these people are doing things with the money of "Fruifeng". If there is any trouble in the Guangdong Office, it is estimated that it will happen in a matter of minutes. They will report it to Li Jifeng. Keeping these people around is definitely not a long-term solution. Anyway, there will be orphans to be collected in the future, and Schneider plans to pick a few smart ones to stay.
For the next week, the two of them went out on a tour every day, familiarizing themselves with the environment of Guangzhou while also choosing a suitable location to buy property. As for the establishment of a charity organization, after communicating with Li Jifeng, I also received a positive reply from the other party. Setting up a charity to adopt helpless orphans is a good thing for "Fu Ruifeng" to earn fame, not to mention that the expenses are paid by the Haihan people, who have already spent 500 taels of silver as funding in advance. Li Jifeng There really is no reason to refuse. Li Jifeng asked He Qiang to find a suitable place outside Guangzhou and prepare the organization according to Schneider's requirements.
A few days later, Schneider and He Xi finally found a suitable house near Dongshan Lake to the east outside Guangzhou City. It covered an area of about five acres. It would definitely be a mansion-level courtyard in future generations. The owner of the house is from the north, and the entire building structure is designed according to the northern courtyard form, with four courtyards running from north to south and a standard deep house courtyard. The owner of the family was planning to sell the house because he wanted to move back to the north. The first courtyard is a front yard composed of a street gate on the south side, a hanging flower gate on the north side, a verandah and an inverted sitting room. There are eight inverted rooms, which can be used as kitchen, firewood room, concierge and residence for servants. Entering the second courtyard through the hanging flower door, there are five main rooms on the north side, one wing room on each side, and three east and west wing rooms. This courtyard is mainly a place where the owner receives guests, holds banquets and stays overnight. The bright room in the middle of the main house is the hall, through which you can enter the third courtyard. The layout of the houses in this courtyard is similar to that of the second courtyard, and it is the place where the owner lives. The last courtyard is the back room, which is functionally a place for women or maids to live. However, this courtyard has a back door, and Schneider thinks it would be good to use it as a warehouse for goods to enter and exit.
The entire yard, including the houses, is made of masonry as its main structure. The base of the fence wall is made of strips of stone, which is one foot high. Even if the General Office of the People's Republic of China sets up radio antennas and photoelectric equipment inside, they will never be visible from the outside. Moreover, the five feet outside the wall also belong to the land of this house, which is relatively open in terms of vision, easy to enter and exit, and is conducive to external defense.
This house was built less than five years ago, so it can be considered a new house by the standards of this era. The entire courtyard has complete living facilities, plus all Lingnan mahogany furniture, and it has basically reached the level of "move-in". The only shortcoming is that most of the servants in this courtyard are the servants of the original owner, so they will also If you leave together, you need to hire someone else. However, this is not bad news at all for the General Office of the People's Republic of China. On the contrary, it will save time in sending these people away.
This courtyard is located only two miles away from the nearest gate on the east wall of Guangzhou City, making it very convenient to enter and exit Guangzhou City. The straight-line distance from the Pearl River bank is less than one mile, which can be regarded as a standard river view room. If you have to find fault, the only one is the nearby Dongshan Lake. Now it is just a barren swamp, covered with reeds as tall as a person, and there is no park landscape to enjoy in the future.
Schneider and He Xi have visited more than a dozen places these days, and there is no place that they can find as many faults as this one. After seeing the inside and outside environment of the house, the two people immediately made the decision to buy it.
However, it is true that you get what you pay for, and the price of this house is not low. The owner directly shouted out the price of 3,000 taels. The two struggled for two days, and finally the counteroffer reached two thousand five hundred taels and they could no longer fight. After reporting to the Executive Committee, three thousand taels of funds were finally approved for the Guangzhou Liaison Office to purchase the property. At the same time, this money also included the cost of renovating the courtyard, purchasing daily necessities, hiring servants, etc.
After buying this house, the two people immediately moved out of the Li family's yard, hired a cook, and selected a few older and more obedient children from the orphans that the shantang had taken in to move into this house. In the new house.
However, it was not until this time that the two discovered that because they were in such a hurry when they set off, they had forgotten to make and bring the door plate of the Guangdong Office in advance. Now the listing ceremony could only be postponed and they would go back to find a carpentry workshop in the city to make one.
Because the Guangdong Office has not officially launched any social activities in the local area, the check-in time was relatively deserted. Only Li Jifeng sent a congratulatory gift to show his appreciation. However, Schneider and He Xi don't care too much about this kind of thing. In their opinion, the Guangdong Office in Guangdong Province has only officially started now, and in the next few years this place will definitely be bustling with people, and the current desertedness is only a temporary phenomenon.
According to the establishment of the General Office of the People's Republic of China, Schneider serves as director and is responsible for commercial and diplomatic affairs, while He Xi serves as deputy and is responsible for intelligence, security and military affairs. Others are still part of the temporary establishment. Although these orphans do not know what temporary establishment is, their names are already on the internal documents of the General Office of the People's Republic of China, and in the future, as long as they do not leave this system, they will The time of joining the work recorded in the files is "September 1, 1627".
Of course, this place is not finished after moving in. In fact, the yard still needs some small-scale modifications. For example, the back room used as a warehouse at the rear must be better waterproofed, and the narrow back door also needs to be modified to facilitate the entry and exit of goods. The wing room used as a confidential room in the third courtyard needs to store documents, gold and silver, radio stations, weapons and other valuables inside, and it must also be reinforced. He Xi planned to have the base camp make special iron doors and windows and ship them to Guangzhou for installation next time.
(End of chapter)