The North American Branch

After the successful conclusion of the “First Institutional Conference”, the time travel preparations finally entered a substantive phase. The technical groups each split up and developed subject-specific plans, contingencies and procurement lists, as well as taking in newcomers as they reported to the base.

All the new arrivals, after registration, also had to go through 30 full days of basic military training. The drills consisted of formations, trenchwork, assault course, wrestling, and basic wilderness training.^[1]

Afterwards, according to their backgrounds and interests, they were then allocated to the various professional groups by the General Affairs Team. While participating in the planning and preparation works, there were also several training opportunities oriented around practical experience. Zhan Wuya’s small machinery shop, newly setup after moving to the new base, had now basically become a vocational school. According to the suggestions of the various professional groups, a few people were also sent to several actual vocational training schools for short-study courses, paid for by the Crossing Company of course.

Former IT elites were now learning how to lay bricks and tiles; former office workers were learning how to operate sewing machines; even more people, who had not even stepped onto a workshop floor before, were now crowding around machine tools and workstations, clumsily learning the trade.

The time travellers who were technical professionals, apart from being busied by daily paperwork and meetings, also had to take on the responsibility of training everyone.

Wu Nanhai had the largest responsibility of all. He was in charge of forging agricultural experts out of people who had never even trod upon a field before. Although some travellers hailed from rural villages, there were still basically no people who had truly got their hands dirty with farm work. It was impressive if they could just tell the difference between barley and garlic chives.

One universal constant of the experience of living on the base was that, regardless of their work assignments, everyone had to take part in long-distance running exercises every morning. Just as Chief Wen directed: “If we can’t out-fight the natives, we at least need to out-run them.”

The Sports Group also hosted several military sports games^[2] every evening after dinner, which was a crucial way of improving the fitness and adaptability of everyone.

Ultimately, not everyone came to the base, and not everyone who came actually stayed. Some people hesitated and pulled out–after all, modern society had several aspects which people were reluctant to leave. It would take an enormous amount of courage to throw oneself into a strange place and time, and to fight for an unknown future. Some people viewed that time travel was a chance to emancipate themselves from the strictures of modern society, but now, under the strict oversight and regulation of the new institution they found themselves beholden to, were having second thoughts. After enduring for only a few days these people left.

The hopefuls that remained continued their work regardless, with a feverish energy that could only be produced by the never-seen-before opportunity to alter the course of history. This group of people, almost without sleep or rest, committed themselves entirely to drafting all sorts of plans. Every night, when Xiao Zishan walked through the hallways of the base, he could always hear the passionate debates and arguments in each of the office rooms, accompanied by the beat and snare of keyboards and mice. The General Affairs Team had to also distribute much tea and coffee every day—no cigarettes of course, that was a luxury good.

The enormous amount of logistical work presented a significant challenge to the time traveller’s organisational system. If this wasn’t a like-minded group gathered for the sole purposes of travelling to another time, the chaos in these early days would’ve been a catastrophic blow to their endeavours. As Xiao Zishan passed red packets one after another to the financial department, although he knew deep down that this money didn’t mean much to him anymore, still felt very sore at heart…When had he ever handled so much money before?

The Executive Committee had, initially, no idea how complex of a project they had gotten themselves into. It was now steadily becoming apparent. The materials that they needed to prepare were innumerable, much of which had usages that only the technical experts knew. Recreating the intertwined and complex modern industrial system from scratch meant that every day the acquisition list grew and grew. Xiao Zishan, who was in charge of the list, couldn’t help but exclaim in astonishment every time he saw the day’s additions.

Fortunately, the IT group built an entire suite of OA programs. These programs allowed the Executive Committee transparent access to the condition and progress of workers and also the material reserves already built up. They also allowed easy archiving and access to the various plans drafted by the technical groups. At last, Wen Desi no longer had a giant pile of papers on his desk.

All aspects of the preparation were underway successfully, all except for ‘sports equipment’, which was still lagging behind as at the start line.

‘Sports equipment’, just like the euphemistic ‘Sports Group’, was in actuality referring to weapons, especially firearms. Knives, although counted as restricted goods, could still be obtained through several avenues. For example, all sorts of bladed weapons could be bought online: Chief Wen himself spent thirty thousand in total. He bought a Ming Dynasty, Japanese-style, northern frontier folding infantry sword. It was made from modern steel, with a handle 80 cm long and a blade 120 cm long.^[3] Apart from this, he also bought six of those famous triangular bayonets, some Japanese army swords,^[4] and western M9 and D80 bayonets…he could almost get anything he wanted. The choice of bladed weapons to bring also aroused a few debates. However, on the topic of firearms themselves, everyone was an armchair expert, spewing mouthful after mouthful of data and numbers. However, most of them had never actually even held a gun in real life.^[5]

However, in this world there is always a way to make possible what seemed impossible.

That day, a mysterious guest was ushered into Chief Wen’s office.

The guest was a man nearing his forties, and was nothing special. He looked like an intellectual, and was dressed simply but crisply. When Xi Yazhou was called into the office, the guest was in the midst of saying something to Wen Desi, and the surrounding Executive Committee members were all very excited.

Could he be an arms dealer? Xi Yazhou’s vigilance kicked up a notch. Recently, the most often discussed topic of the Executive Committee was weaponry. Was it possible that they had found themselves such a character? That would have been very reckless of them to let them onto the base! The people of this trade brought no good omens. He couldn’t help but be a little enraged by Chief Wen’s cavalier attitude.

“Let me give everyone an introduction.” Wen Desi noticed Xi Yazhou’s change in expression. “This is Shi Niaoren, a doctor.”

“Nice to meet you Dr. Shi, I am Xi Yazhou.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Shi Niaoren shook Yazhou’s hand. “We are about to be comrades!” Shi Naoren laughed.

“Dr. Shi came back from the United States just for the sake of joining our operation.” Wen Desi explained, “He is the helmsman of the North American branch.”

“I really don’t dare call myself that.” Shi Niaoren waved his hand, “Altogether there are four of us in America that came to take part: Xiao Rei even sold his house to buy guns for everyone!”

“Buy guns!” This phrase really got Xi Yazhou’s attention. Before, he didn’t really place a strong emphasis on the whole gun business, because he didn’t have much hope. At most they could get a few five-burst hunting shotguns at a high price through the dark web. However, now that someone could directly buy some modern guns—this was a transformative opportunity to the time traveller’s military capabilities.

“That’s right, to buy guns.” Shi Niaoren was actually an epidemiologist. Because of his long-term presence on the internet he chanced across this current operation. After learning of the time travellers’ deficiency in weapons he specially returned to China to discuss the problem with the leadership.

“Spill it then, which guns are you buying?”

“Of course it’s the five-six semi,^[6] it’s cheap and there’s a lot of them.” Shi Niaoren introduced the situation. It turned out that SKS-style semi-automatic rifles, although their prices had risen quite a bit in the US, were still cheap compared to other similar-spec rifles. Ones from southern Yugoslavia were under 300 USD, while those from the northern parts were 400 USD.^[7] Also, there was plenty in stock in gun stores, so they could acquire as many as they wanted.

“Can you buy AKs? What about machine guns?” Wang Luobin spouted excitedly.

“We can get semi-auto AKs, no chance for the full auto.” Shi Xiaoren said a little regretfully.

“It can’t be so right? Aren’t some states a bit more lax? There are quite a few legal owners of fully automatic weapons in the US.”

“That’s right, you need a Class III licence to buy a full auto gun, which also needs to be renewed every year. The license isn’t actually a big problem—some states are fairly relaxed about it. The problem arises from the fact that full auto guns on the market must have been manufactured before 1987.^[8] This a restriction from the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act which was passed in 1986. As a result, full auto guns are now not only incredibly expensive but they are also generally old and in rather poor condition.

“This…” Everyone was a little disappointed. For them, only full auto weapons offered true insurance of safety.

“It doesn’t matter. Having semi auto weapons is already very strong.” Xi Yazhou evidently did not care too much about semi or full auto.

“For now, us in the US want to ask the Executive Committee for instructions as to what guns we should buy.” Shi Niaoren felt a little awkward. “In reality, I don’t play with guns, and Xiao Rui, although he’s more knowledgeable than me, still cannot be called an expert. Here we have actual servicemen and highly experienced hobbyists, who should be more familiar with our requirements.”

“Then we’ll have to settle for the five-six semi.” Wang Luobin said with some disappointment. “Many people here were trained with it, and it can be counted as a rather familiar weapon.”

“No, I don’t agree with this. The five-six is not a good choice.”

The person who said this was actually Xi Yazhou. He came from a military family, and was deeply familiar with the five-six semi.

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1. US SERE course ↩︎

2. Imagine like obstacle courses, shooting, etc. ↩︎

3. Not sure, a cursory search on the interwebs didn’t dig up anything specific to this. Japanese-style hints a katana, but the dimensions make no sense for a katana. The Chinese would have used sabres or swords. Also, I have never heard of such a large weapon being designed as folding. ↩︎

4. Blades that are designed like the ceremonial gunto. See wiki. ↩︎

5. For the better I think, I mean, just look at the US… ↩︎

6. 1956 semi-automatic rifle. A chinese ‘name’ for the SKS. ↩︎

7. Ambiguity is in the original; Yugoslavia dissolved in 1992 into its constituent republics. I believe the author is using ‘yugoslavia’ in reference to that area of the balkans and not the country. ↩︎

8. An additional requirement missed by the original: it also needs to be registered with the NFA. It is a federal crime to possess a full auto gun as a private individual otherwise. TLDR; full auto gun only allowed if it’s made before 1987 and registered with NFA. Such guns can be sold and bought normally. E.g. a lawful full auto AK markets for around 30k USD. ↩︎