Kaixian County, county town.
A brand new factory had just been completed, its tiled roof still bright, its wooden beams smelling of fresh sap. Red paper banners fluttered at the entrance, snapping in the wind like they were impatient for business to begin.
Flat Rabbit stood at the main gate with both hands clasped behind his back, chin tilted up, the very picture of self-satisfaction. If smugness could be taxed, Kaixian would have funded three more factories by noon.
The sign above the gate read: Kaixian Tujia Ethnic Folk Arts General Factory, abbreviated as Kaiyi Factory.
Its three main products were clearly listed on a wooden board:
Xilankapu, the traditional Tujia woven brocade.
Handcrafted scented silk fans.
Finely woven bamboo sleeping mats.
The arrangement was unusual enough to alarm the Kaixian county magistrate.
His sedan chair came to a stop before the gate. The curtains parted. The magistrate stepped out, eyes scanning the bustling workers carrying looms and bamboo bundles inside.
He approached Flat Rabbit and asked, "Lord Rabbit, what exactly is the meaning of all this?"
Flat Rabbit spread his hands grandly. "As Your Excellency can see, I have opened a factory."
The magistrate sighed. "These Tujia crafts are made in their mountain villages. If you want them, you could simply purchase them there. Why go to the trouble of building a factory in town? Once a factory is established, wages must be paid regardless of sales. If the goods fail to sell, you will bleed silver every month."
Flat Rabbit chuckled, eyes gleaming. "Your Excellency, that is precisely where you are mistaken. The factory's true purpose is not the goods. It is the people."
"The people?" The magistrate frowned. "What people?"
"The Tujia," Flat Rabbit said. "I intend to draw them down from the mountains."
The magistrate blinked. "Why would you do that?"
Flat Rabbit's expression sharpened. "And you call yourself an official managing domestic affairs. Do you not know why the many ethnic groups of Sichuan are so difficult to govern peacefully?"
The magistrate's brows lifted slowly. Then his eyes widened.
"Of course."
For generations, tension simmered between the mountain minorities and the Han settlers. The mountain tribes formed their own strongholds under hereditary chieftains. Sichuan was dotted with semi-autonomous domains, each valley a small kingdom. Governance from the county seat barely reached beyond the plains.
"If they descend and live in town," the magistrate murmured, "they will trade, intermarry, and mix with the Han. The mountains will no longer be fragmented bastions."
Flat Rabbit nodded. "Exactly. When people share markets and schools, they stop sharpening knives."
"The idea is sound," the magistrate admitted. "But what if they cannot survive in town? They will simply return to the mountains."
"Which is why," Flat Rabbit said, turning with a sweep of his sleeve toward the factory complex behind him, "we offer employment."
He grinned. "Now let us see how many Tujia people Lord Rabbit can persuade to come down."
Though he often boasted about his exploits in the jianghu, Flat Rabbit was no fool when it came to administration. He had served under Dao Xuan Tianzun for years and understood the Gao Family Village model intimately. He had managed operations in Xi'an and supervised the labor reform camp at Tianzhu Mountain. Systems, recruitment, wages, logistics. He knew the machinery of order.
Recruitment notices were drafted immediately and dispatched to villages across the surrounding Bashan Mountains.
"The Kaixian Tujia Ethnic Folk Arts General Factory is hiring.
Recruiting 300 female workers for Xilankapu weaving.
100 workers for bamboo mats.
200 workers for scented silk fans.
Skilled laborers earn two taels of silver per month."
In Gao Family Village, skilled workers once universally earned three taels. Later, in Jiangnan, wages rose to four taels due to higher living costs. Sichuan, however, had long been poor. Two taels here was generous beyond expectation.
When word spread that two taels were being offered, the mountain villages erupted.
Two taels meant two thousand copper coins.
The roads from the mountains filled with people descending in waves. Men, women, elders, children. By the next morning, the queue stretched from the factory gate to the entrance of the county town.
Flat Rabbit set up a long table at the gate and personally oversaw recruitment.
His eyes landed on a small girl, barely ten years old.
"You there," he called. "What are you doing in line at your age?"
The girl shrank but did not retreat. "Sir, I may be small, but I can weave Xilankapu."
Flat Rabbit shook his head firmly. "Absolutely not. I do not employ child labor. If I dare, Dao Xuan Tianzun will descend in person and knock my skull flat. Anyone under eighteen, step out of the line. Immediately."
Faces fell. Children shuffled out reluctantly.
A few sixteen or seventeen year olds, tall for their age, tried to hide deeper in the crowd.
Flat Rabbit snorted. "I will verify birth records. Anyone caught lying about their age will be arrested and given a sound spanking."
The older girls turned pale. Spanking was humiliation enough to ruin marriage prospects. They fled the line at once.
Flat Rabbit scanned the queue again. "So the boys remain?"
He raised his voice. "Any boy who lies about his age will be castrated and sent to the palace as a eunuch."
The effect was immediate. Several boys scrambled out of line so quickly they nearly tripped over each other.
Flat Rabbit burst into laughter. "Trying to deceive Lord Rabbit? When I was roaming the jianghu slaying demons, you were still drinking milk."
The children lingered nearby, disappointment heavy in their eyes. Two taels a month was a fortune.
Flat Rabbit waved at them. "Do not sulk. In a few days, I will open a school here in Kaixian. Free tuition. Free meals. Teachers will be hired. You will study properly. Once you turn eighteen, come work. By then, Lord Rabbit will have opened even more factories. You will have choices."
The Tujia villagers erupted in cheers.
Nearby Han commoners exchanged glances, envy flickering.
"Lord Rabbit," one ventured carefully, "does this free schooling apply only to Tujia children?"
Flat Rabbit laughed. "Ah, so now you are interested. Let me guess. It is not education you care about, but the free meals."
The Han commoners coughed awkwardly.
"No matter," Flat Rabbit said generously. "Children are the flowers of our nation's future. Those who wish to learn may learn. Those who only wish to eat may eat. If you take a meal from Lord Rabbit, I will find a way to stuff some knowledge into your heads along with it."
Laughter rippled through the crowd.
Behind the humor lay a deliberate design.
Factories to draw the mountain people down.
Schools to bind the next generation together.
Work to replace isolation.
Education to replace suspicion.
Flat Rabbit clasped his hands behind his back again, surveying the throng with satisfaction.
Policy, after all, did not always require swords.
Sometimes it required looms, bamboo mats, and a very loud rabbit.