Chen Xingwang and Qiao Zhenghua of the inspection team returned together after just three days at the Lower Logging Camp.
And their faces, too, were black and blue.
They returned right at noon. Seeing the state they were in, Xu Baoshan was so furious he smashed his bowl on the ground!
Xu Baoshan ran his inspection team on camaraderie more than anything. It was just like when he first met Zhao Jun and told him to call him Brother Xu.
This wasn’t an exception. Aside from his two apprentices, everyone on the team younger than him called him Brother Xu. Those who were older could just call him Baoshan.
His men had been beaten twice now. And this time, it was Chen Xingwang and Qiao Zhenghua—and they weren’t young men. Chen Xingwang, in particular, was already fifty-one!
But when Xu Baoshan asked what happened, Chen Xingwang said, "Baoshan, something’s not right about this."
Hearing this, Xu Baoshan suppressed his rage and asked, "Elder Chen, tell me what happened."
Chen Xingwang said, "The skidding crew that beat us is the same one that beat Delin and Liangzi. Their Leader’s surname is Zhao, and he’s Dou Baoguo’s maternal cousin."
The moment Chen Xingwang finished speaking, all the inspectors in the room erupted in an uproar. But Xu Baoshan remained firm. "I don’t care whose cousin he is, he has no right to lay a hand on you! On what grounds? What was the reason this time?"
"It was about uncounted logs again!" Chen Xingwang said. "Baoshan, you know we don’t scale the last haul of the night."
"Right!" Xu Baoshan nodded. "That’s normal, isn’t it? Who knows when they’ll get back? Who has the time to wait around for them?"
At the New Logging Camp, eighty skidding crews with eighty horse-drawn sleds hauled eight hundred to a thousand logs a day. With only two inspectors to do the scaling, the workload was already immense.
So, even though the inspectors lived at the Logging Camp, they still clocked out at five o’clock and returned to their shacks to rest.
When the inspectors clocked out, some of the skidding crews might not have returned yet, still hauling their logs on the road.
The inspectors couldn’t wait, and there was no way for them to. There was no modern communication back then; who knew if they had run into trouble on the road or when they would finally make it back.
In situations like this, the procedure was for the inspectors to leave on schedule. When the skidding crews returned with their timber, they would unload it at the Log Pile Yard and mark the end of the logs with chalk.
For example, since this Logging Camp had eighty skidding crews, numbered one to eighty, whichever crew brought a load back would just write their number on the timber.
Then, the next morning, when the inspectors came on duty, they would scale these logs and credit the haul to the corresponding number.
And this was the very reason all four inspectors from the team had been beaten.
That crew of skidders claimed they had brought a load of logs in the night before, but the inspectors never scaled them the next day.
But Ma Liang and the others insisted they had never even seen those logs, so there was nothing for them to scale.
And just like that, a conflict erupted.
Two inspectors against more than thirty skidders—it was a fight they were bound to lose. And sure enough, Chen Xingwang and Qiao Zhenghua lost their equipment in the scuffle.
Xu Baoshan sat in his chair, smoking silently. He was seething with frustration and suppressed anger, but he knew this was a difficult situation to handle.
There were no security cameras back then. No one knew if the logs the skidders mentioned had ever actually made it to the Logging Camp. It was a classic "he said, she said" situation.
Arguing further would lead nowhere.
Besides, this wasn’t an ordinary skidding crew; they had connections. The inspectors couldn’t overstep their bounds or retaliate, otherwise Dou Baoguo would undoubtedly make things difficult for them.
Xu Baoshan stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray. He looked up at Chen Xingwang and Qiao Zhenghua, then sighed and said, "Alright, go wash your faces and get something to eat."
Without waiting for anyone to react, he stood up and walked out of the room.
Zhao Jun snapped his lunchbox shut, mixing the rice and vegetables inside. He then stood and placed the container and his chopsticks on the windowsill.
Just then, Zhang Xuefeng, who had been sitting nearby, asked, "Zhao Jun, are you done eating?"
"I’ve got something to do. You guys eat first," Zhao Jun replied, then headed outside after Xu Baoshan.
Fuming, Xu Baoshan walked quickly. By the time Zhao Jun caught up, they were already outside the inspection team’s main courtyard.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Xu Baoshan turned. Seeing it was Zhao Jun, he asked, "Shouldn’t you be eating? What are you doing out here?"
"Uncle Xu." Zhao Jun jogged a couple of steps to walk beside him. "Are you heading back to the Forest Farm?"
"Yeah." If it had been anyone else, Xu Baoshan might not have said more. But he didn’t hide it from Zhao Jun. "I’m going to find Secretary Zhou and see what he thinks we should do."
Zhao Jun smiled at his words. "Uncle Xu, is it really that big a deal? Do we really need to bother Secretary Zhou over something like this?"
Xu Baoshan shook his head, his expression grim. "For years, all the farm directors at our Forest Farm have been promoted from our own ranks, from the old-timers. We all know each other, and it’s always been easy to sort things out. But this Dou Baoguo..."
He trailed off, just shaking his head.
"Heh!" Zhao Jun chuckled. "That’s my point. He’s just an outsider. You’re telling me we’re supposed to be scared of him?"
At this, Xu Baoshan stopped and shot Zhao Jun a look. "Are you even thinking before you speak? You saw him the other day. He plays everything by the book. What are you going to do about that?"
Seeing that Zhao Jun had no comeback, Xu Baoshan went on, "During the meeting the day before yesterday, Farm Director Dou brought up your brother-in-law. It wasn’t a direct attack, but it was meant to get under your skin. And if he really wants to come after us, he has the authority to do it."
Xu Baoshan wasn’t wrong. As the production farm director, Dou Baoguo was in charge of their inspections and scheduling. If the inspection team gave him any reason to act—if they crossed any line—he could fire them on the spot, and not even Zhou Chunming would be able to stop him.