Chapter 133: Results and Prospects

First Guangzhou Trade Fleet — Procurement List and Expenditures:

Local pilot and official liaison fees: 10 taels

"Reporting water" (customs registration): 100 taels; Bribes to tax officials: 20 taels

Cash transferred to Guangzhou Forward Station: 5,000 taels

Investment transferred to Qiwei Escort Bureau (from Gao Ju's receivables): 3,000 taels

Full-team self-guided tour of Guangzhou: 100 taels

Purchase of lolis, shotas, and their parents: 500 taels (including fees)

Total persons acquired: 176. (Note: 98 already transported back)

Various vegetable and spice seeds, 20 jin each, cumulative: 10 taels

Brazilian tobacco, one 100-lb roll from trading house: 30 Spanish dollars

Cumulative freight charges: 3 taels

"—And that concludes my financial report." Xiao Zishan finished presenting to the assembly, their expressions uniformly stern. He couldn't resist adding: "I guarantee not a single cent was embezzled!"

"Whether your finances are problematic or not—we'll know after the Financial Department completes their audit. Spare us the guarantees." Ma Qianzhu placed no stock in self-proclaimed oaths. If nobody was currently embezzling, it was only because embezzlement was currently unnecessary.

"Now let's discuss each department's progress, requests, and outstanding issues." Ma Qianzhu retrieved his notebook.

Status Report: November 10, 1628 — D+71 — Transmigrator Operations:

Communications: The wireless network centered on Bairren Fortress was essentially complete, providing coverage within a 35–40 km radius. A long-range radio station had been established in Guangzhou, and a 15W station was now operational at Salt Field Village.

Upcoming priorities: Complete wired telephone installation along the Bopu Port–Bairren Fortress, Damei Village–Bairren Fortress, and Salt Field Village–Bairren Fortress lines. Establish a telephone exchange at Bairren Fortress.

Current bottlenecks: Insufficient wire and insulation materials.

The Industrial and Communications departments had jointly concluded that telephone wire could be manufactured in-house—provided they had access to raw materials such as iron or copper wire. Glass could serve as insulation.

Energy: Total generation capacity had reached 630 kW—hydroelectric contributed 200 kW, while thermal power supplied 420 kW through camel-type boiler generators at both Bopu and Bairren, each rated at 213 kW. Miscellaneous sources accounted for the remaining 10 kW. The Bopu–Bairren power distribution network was complete, and wind power had been installed at Salt Field Village.

Upcoming priorities: Bairren Waterfall Hydroelectric Phase Two—installation of an additional 200 kW unit.

Current bottlenecks: Construction materials and labor shortages.

Construction: The department now operated one 16-chamber rotary kiln, one lime kiln, two combined brick-tile machines, and one crude electric grinder. Maximum annual brick and tile capacity stood at 30 million pieces. Additionally, they could produce 1 ton per day of pozzolanic cement. A vertical cement kiln was 85% complete—once operational, it would yield 55 tons of Portland cement daily.

Current bottlenecks: Coal and iron ore shortages impeded cement production. Without adequate cement and steel, concrete construction remained out of reach.

Transportation: The simple road connecting Bopu, Bairren, and Lingao county seat was complete.

Upcoming priorities: Construct the Bairren Bridge; open a simple road from Salt Field Village to Bairren; dredge the Wenlan River between Bopu and Bairren for navigation.

The current vehicle inventory included: 12 four-wheel-drive farm trucks, 2 Beijing-212 jeeps, 4 750cc sidecar motorcycles, 10 125cc motorcycles, and 200 bicycles. The Industrial Department had also reconditioned 17 captured handcarts and manufactured 10 two-wheeled horse carts. Two boats offloaded from the Fengcheng were available for Wenlan River transport—but with limited river depth of just 1 meter at low water, suitable shallow-draft vessels remained unavailable, keeping water transport minimal.

Heavy construction machinery was showing severe wear, particularly in the hydraulics. These components could not be repaired at current industrial levels. At present work intensity, wear parts would be exhausted within 18 months. Cars and motorcycles remained in good condition, but the fuel supply outlook was concerning. Diesel reserves were plentiful; gasoline, being volatile, was nearly depleted—alternative energy was urgently needed. Lubricants were well-stocked. The Agricultural Department was developing alternatives, with castor oil as their target. Four-wheeled cart manufacturing had stalled due to the lack of metal for steering mechanisms and suspension leaf springs.

Manufacturing: Machine shop infrastructure and equipment installation were complete—built upon Zhan Wuya's existing facility plus additional equipment brought by the transmigrators. However, the shop remained severely underutilized, waiting on materials.

Wood, bamboo, and rattan processing, on the other hand, was thriving. Safety helmets had entered batch production. Bopu's timber processing and woodworking operations had reached stable scale: one drying kiln and one dry-distillation kiln now produced planks of various sizes, furniture, and wooden components—along with wood tar, tannin, and charcoal. Despite the lack of jute, local flax and hemp had successfully yielded sturdy rope.

Chemical Industry: Lingao's main saltworks, Ma'ao Saltworks, was now under transmigrator control. Using traditional methods, they produced 1 ton of salt per day. The near-term goal was to improve and expand operations to 5 tons of crude salt and 1 ton of food salt daily.

One 800-ton synthetic ammonia/combined soda process system and one coal coking chemical system were being installed. These were large, complex multi-component systems with extensive piping—installation was extremely complicated, and progress remained slow. Fortunately, the transmigrators could not yet supply coal at scale anyway. The Chemical Department had planned a crude electrolytic salt plant at Bopu, which would produce salt, caustic soda, and bleaching powder. They had formally requested an expansion of Bopu's generator capacity.

With synthetic ammonia not yet operational, the Chemical Group could only work with existing materials—successfully producing ammonium-sawdust explosives from stored ammonium nitrate. Currently, they were concentrating on granulating the gunpowder captured from Gou Manor. They were also conducting trial production of nitrocellulose and mercury fulminate, using the finished nitric acid they had brought along. Given the dangers involved, they had requested a separate, safer location for an explosives factory.

Mining and Metallurgy: The department controlled one construction quarry. Abundantly available minerals included clay, limestone, quartz sand, and lignite.

Four small converters and supporting forging, rolling, and cold-drawing equipment were installed. With sufficient pig iron supply, they could produce 10–15 tons of crude steel daily. Currently, only one 1-ton converter operated intermittently—raw materials consisted of captured iron cannons, weapons, and iron shot, along with damaged steel tools. Fuel was charcoal, which consumed rapidly, limiting production to urgently needed hardware and tools. Blast furnace construction would require massive quantities of iron ore, coke, and limestone, and once lit, could not be easily halted. Given the unstable raw material supply, construction had been postponed.

Civilian Industries: One crude paper mill was now operational, processing rags, waste cotton, and straw into rough paper for daily use. The plan was to recruit paper masters from the mainland to improve quality. Once acid-alkali products entered batch production, a modern paper mill would be built—not just meeting the transmigrators' office and daily paper needs, but enabling mass export to the mainland and overseas markets.

Either operational or soon-to-be operational: textile mill, garment factory, food factory, ceramics factory.

Temporarily non-operational due to material shortages: glass factory, sugar refinery, cigarette factory. Solutions to these material issues were being actively pursued.

...

"Overall, our industrialization is being blocked by three key problems: electricity, coal, and iron." Ma Qianzhu summarized. Building industrial systems—even targeting nineteenth-century levels—remained an extraordinarily difficult undertaking.

Regarding pig iron: if procurement channels through Guangdong opened up, a stable long-term supply was achievable. As for coal, the Committee had decided to dispatch personnel to Vietnam as quickly as possible. Ma Qianzhu suggested using barges for a one-time purchase of 1,000 tons. Given coal's importance as the primary chemical feedstock, consuming some diesel for this purpose was justified.

"With sufficient coal and steel, the Industrial Department can replicate steam engines. With adequate prime movers, our industrial capacity immediately rises a level." Ma Qianzhu explained. Steam engines were not efficient—but they were simple and easy to manufacture, well-suited to the transmigrators' current situation. Beyond driving generators, they could directly power machinery. The Committee also planned to use them for future ship propulsion.

Beyond steam engines, the Industrial Department needed to mass-produce hardware and tools. Demand during this construction boom was enormous—and supply could not keep pace.

Next, Wu De delivered his report as labor department head: "Labor remains tight. As of midnight tonight, directly controlled human resources are as follows:

Transmigrators: 478

Bairren Production Team One: 141

Bairren Production Team Two: 605 (former Gou Manor personnel)

Prisoners: 153 (Gou family servants, guards, and relatives)

Slaves: 176 (purchased in Guangzhou; 98 transported back)

Indirectly controlled human resources:

Salt Field Village: 200 households, approximately 800 people

Damei Village: 50 households, approximately 250 people

As for population structure: native labor included many prime-aged adults, but gender ratios were severely skewed. This was especially pronounced in the production teams—Team One had a male-to-female ratio of 9:1; Team Two stood at 5:1. The villages showed similar patterns, with only Salt Field Village having normal ratios; Damei Village suffered the same imbalance.

The reason was straightforward: Lingao had large floating populations. It served as a major destination for migrants—single men who came for land reclamation and short-term labor. Most hailed from Guangdong and Fujian, though investigation revealed some had traveled from as far as Jiangxi, Huguang, and even Beizhili and Shandong.

Such a population structure offered short-term benefits—male prime adults formed the backbone of any construction effort. But in the long term, places lacking women meant men would not settle and establish families. Future immigration efforts would need to prioritize gender balance.

(End of Chapter)