Chapter 205 - Pandora's Box
As for what use the chess piece Gou Er might serve, Li Siya had not decided yet. But idle pieces had their uses. She was not investing much in Gou Er, and she would not mind if she lost him.
What came next would depend on "Li Huamei." She was confident the Australians would be led around by the nose by her foster sister.
Meng De and the others' exchange with Li Huamei resulted in her agreeing to visit Linggao to see what collaboration opportunities might exist. The transmigrators found this outcome acceptable enough. As for recruiting her in the future, they figured that once their strength grew, it would cease to be a problem. As for the other thoughts harbored by certain would-be romancers—those varied too much to enumerate.
Wen Desi had also concluded his meeting with Geranzani. Well aware of the Jesuits' burning desire for a breakthrough in Chinese missionary work, he had thoroughly whetted the Superior's appetite. The two sides reached a preliminary agreement: the transmigrators would allow the Jesuits to send one priest back to Linggao with them; during his stay in Linggao, the priest could move freely within the transmigrators' controlled area but was not permitted to proselytize; Macau Jesuit ships could enter the transmigrator-controlled port of Bopu at any time to deliver mail and personal items for the priest's use; if necessary, the Jesuits could recall the priest at any time, and the transmigrators would not obstruct this.
In return for these conditions, the transmigrators obtained far greater benefits: the Jesuits agreed to act as protectors of the transmigrators' interests in Macau; they guaranteed that once a more comprehensive agreement was reached, they would provide sufficient conveniences for the transmigrators' commercial activities in Macau—including permission to open a trading house there. An additional bonus was the Superior's reaction after tasting the sweet rice wine with rhubarb that Wen Desi had enthusiastically presented: not only did he lavishly praise the flavor, but he was also quite taken with the porcelain bottle.
On the spot, the Superior purchased the entire stock of rhubarb wine. The agreed price was a quarter of a silver peso per bottle, far exceeding Zhang Xin's prior estimate. The combined power of rhubarb and the porcelain bottle surprised Zhang Xin—he had not quite believed it when Fashilu told him about Europeans' obsession with rhubarb.
Zhang Xin and Wen Desi also explored the area near Macau's docks. Macau had no large-scale shipyard, only ship repair capabilities, with few European shipwrights. Wen Desi was rather disappointed—he had originally hoped to recruit some craftsmen who knew European shipbuilding techniques here. However, now that they had the Jesuit connection, hiring craftsmen even from Europe should not be a problem.
The delegation also purchased many urgently needed industrial metal materials in Macau: copper ingots, pig iron, and lead. Zhang Xin also bought large quantities of jute, which the merchant said was the finest Indian stock.
"What is this for?" Wang Ruixiang asked, having followed them around all day. Seeing them spend money on what looked like a pile of grass, he was puzzled.
"For making rope."
"Rope?"
"Yes, ship cables." Zhang Xin explained that jute was the best material for making ship cables—lightweight yet strong, it was an important shipbuilding resource.
The Indian merchant who sold them the jute seemed quite pleased with the transaction. He went into the back room and brought out an ornate silver hookah, lit it, and invited Zhang Xin to try it. Zhang Xin sniffed, then had Mendoza exchange a few more words with the merchant. The merchant retrieved a box from the back. Opening it revealed dark brown flat cakes inside, looking smooth and soft, emitting a very distinctive smell. Zhang Xin's eyes lit up. He sniffed, pressed with his finger, touched it briefly to the tip of his tongue, and immediately spat out his saliva.
"Ask him how much he wants," he told Mendoza through Zhou Weisen. But Miss Mendoza kept shaking her head, chattering at Zhou Weisen. Zhang Xin grew impatient:
"Hurry up and ask—what are you mumbling about?"
Zhou Weisen spoke to Mendoza several more times before they finally reached a deal: one silver peso per box.
"Ask him: Is bulk purchase available here?"
Zhou Weisen hesitated, then asked Zhang Xin: "Listen, Old Zhang, do you know what this stuff is?"
"Obviously—why would I buy it if I didn't?"
"Don't tell me you want to follow the British example and do the opium trade, poisoning the Chinese people—"
"Dr. Zhou, don't you know that opium is an important pharmaceutical ingredient?"
"Of course I know that," Zhou Weisen said. "The problem is you're the commercial agent for Guangzhou. The moment you buy opium, I start thinking about the destruction of opium at Humen."
"Hehe, I wouldn't do anything that would make my sons be born without assholes," Zhang Xin said. "Ye Yuming went to pick up that tiresome missionary, so I'm handling the Agriculture Department's affairs."
"What the hell—you're going to grow opium on the farms? Let me give you a word of advice: once Pandora's box is opened, there's no end to the trouble. If you need it for medicine, buying Indian opium should be more than enough."
"Depending on imports is always dangerous, especially at this stage." Zhang Xin got his answer from the Indian: demand for opium was not large. Only two or three hundred chests came from India to Macau each year. If the transmigrators' needs were not substantial, he could specially transport some for them.
In this era, opium had not yet become the sought-after, enormously profitable commodity it would become in later times. Whether as a recreational substance or medicine, demand was still quite small.
Once the Tongji's cargo hold was completely full, the ship set sail for the return voyage. In addition to the cargo, there was now a black-haired, brown-eyed foreigner aboard—his Chinese name was Lu Ruohua. He was a Frenchman from the south, in his early thirties, who had only recently arrived in Macau from France. They chose him because no one among the transmigrators knew Italian, but quite a few knew French, making communication easier.
Like all Jesuit missionaries who came to evangelize in East Asia at that time, Lu Ruohua had studied a specialized skill before beginning his mission: astronomy, medicine, engineering, or art. The Jesuits' brilliance in the missionary field was recognizing early on that for Eastern nations with centuries or even millennia of civilization, a Bible alone would be far from sufficient to win them over.
Lu Ruohua had chosen to study medicine. He had learned from reading the biography of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, that people in sickness and pain were most susceptible to the Lord's calling.
After boarding the ship, he had not remained quiet for even an hour. He immediately set about finding people to teach him Mandarin. With everyone having nothing better to do, they amused themselves at the foreigner's expense. Everywhere you could hear his stiff-tongued attempts: "Nee hao," "Chi fan le may," "Dway bu chee, nee shuh guh hao ren." It drove Wen Desi to distraction.
Miss Mendoza, meanwhile, acted as if she had found the light of her life. She set Zhou Weisen aside and showered "Father" with solicitous attention, bringing him food and water. This left Zhou Weisen quite disgruntled. But having spent years abroad, he knew that Catholics tended to have strong religious feelings. A priest suddenly appearing in Miss Mendoza's spiritual desert—her overwhelming excitement was only natural.
"Director Wen, I think Catholicism is bound to spread to Hainan this time," Wang Ruixiang said quietly to Wen Desi when he found an opportunity. "A nation cannot have two masters. Once these foreign religions are brought in, another center of authority will form in the people's minds. Won't the religious leader's word become more powerful than the government's? Don't forget the lessons from that other timeline—monotheistic religions are all problematic."
Wen Desi remained impassive. "What do you propose?"
"On this vast sea—" Wang Ruixiang made a chopping gesture.
"That will not solve the problem." Wen Desi shook his head. "You are underestimating the power of faith. Coming with us, he has already prepared to die. Kill one Lu Ruohua, and ten more will come. And then they will not be taking our ships—they will come in secret."
Wang Ruixiang seemed to understand his meaning and nodded, but could not resist adding: "Religion—its destructive power is too great."
Wen Desi gazed at the undulating sea. After a long while, he sighed: "I hope that in our lifetimes, we will have the power to change the course of this world."
Just then, Meng De came to report: the ship had reached the vicinity of Hong Kong.
"Lock Lu Ruohua in the cargo hold. He is not allowed on deck." Wen Desi gave the order. This immediately drew strong objection from Miss Mendoza, who happened to be nearby. Trading on her service to the transmigrators, she came to protest the rough treatment of a clergyman.
But Wen Desi was unmoved. He simply had Zhou Weisen drag his woman away. The place he was going next was somewhere foreigners absolutely must not know about.
Under Meng De's guidance and with twenty-first-century nautical charts, they came on their return journey to another small island in the Wanshan Archipelago outside the Pearl River estuary. Viewed from the ship, the island was lush and green, dotted with fishing villages of various sizes. Cross-referencing with the charts and measuring latitude and longitude, they confirmed this was the future Hong Kong Island. The shores of Victoria Harbour were utterly desolate—never mind markets, there were hardly any signs of human habitation at all.
The ship lowered a boat, landing on the pretext of replenishing fresh water. Their actual purpose was to conduct a basic survey of Hong Kong Island, including its terrain, topography, and freshwater resources. They also needed to take actual depth measurements along the various bays of Victoria Harbour to see where would be suitable for establishing a future cargo transshipment base.
Hong Kong Island was nearly eighty-one square kilometers in area—large, with fresh water as well as timber. Victoria Harbour was also one of the world's three great deep-water ports. As a base, whether for military or commercial purposes, it had tremendous value and far more development potential than tiny Macau. When the Portuguese had first reached China's coast, they had recognized this as a prime location. But they had been too aggressive, going so far as to occupy Tuen Mun in the New Territories, attempting to directly control access to the Pearl River estuary—and were driven out by Ming forces. Wen Desi knew very well that not far from here, at Tuen Mun, there was a Ming military camp. For the transmigrators to occupy Hong Kong right under the authorities' noses without a fight was utterly impossible.
(End of Chapter)