Chapter 274: Sweet Port Turbulence – Intervention

"Good. I'll have them build a dedicated compound for you inside the sugar factory."

"No," Bei Wei declined. "Too conspicuous. We won't be staying long."

"Very well. Qiwei maintains inns in both Haikang and Xuwen counties—you can rest and resupply there. Any South China Sugar Factory property is also at your disposal, though accommodations are basic. I can dispatch someone to inform them immediately."

"No need. We'll stay at ordinary inns along the way and avoid any visible connection to South China."

"Do we have assignments?" Chang Shide asked eagerly.

"None," Bei Wei replied flatly.

"The factory has no specific assignments for you," Chen Tianxiong elaborated. "Your role is to support our operations as needed. I'll handle the particulars. In my daily life, I remain the factory's technician."

The absence of intelligence duties pleased Wen Tong; he had no appetite for such work. A mountain of sugar factory business still demanded his attention.

"Project Tripitaka is a long-term operation," Chen Tianxiong continued. "We'll be in the preparatory phase for several years. What's our relationship with the local government?"

"Cordial, but not close," Wen Tong replied, describing their recent dealings with the yamen—matters related to factory reforms and maintaining order. "Overall, we haven't had much interaction."

"I suspect that's about to change." Chen Tianxiong smiled. "Right now, even the blind can see you've struck gold. Trouble will find you soon enough."

"I've been worrying about that," Wen Tong admitted. "Although the Qiwei Escort Agency has laid some groundwork for us, their own roots here are shallow. Certain problems are probably beyond their reach."

"If it comes to that, we'll pay for peace," Chang Shide suggested. "Give the officials 'dry shares'—a protective umbrella. Besides, in two years Leizhou will be ours anyway."

"Try to bring local officials into the fold. Form a common interest group." This was the Executive Committee's standing instruction to all transmigrators operating in Ming-controlled territory.

"That works," Wen Tong nodded. "We'll need to report the specifics to the Committee. Speaking of which, it's terribly inconvenient here without even a radio. Even the salt-field village—a backwater if ever there was one—has a five-watt set."

"The Committee will probably allocate one to you soon. Mass production of radios is on the verge of a breakthrough. The glass factory has been experimenting with pulling glass tubes every day, and Dr. Zhong has already started work on it."

"Making radios?" Wen Tong sounded skeptical. "That's rather high-tech, isn't it?"

"He's got plenty of high-tech ambitions: clocks, batteries, hydrogen airships. The airship seems impractical, but let him dream."

"I've debated him about that airship before—completely impractical," Chang Shide said dismissively. "Dr. Zhong reads too many books. He's gotten a bit theoretical."

"If he can manufacture things, tell him to give us a vacuum pan first—and a centrifuge." Sugar was never far from Wen Tong's mind.

"That shouldn't be difficult for him either. Oh, by the way, he heard we were coming and asked me to pass along a message: Xuwen is extraordinarily rich in diatomaceous earth—even more than Lingao. It can be used for filtering to produce white sugar."

"Really?" Wen Tong perked up. "I'll have people search for it properly. The current yellow clay method is terribly inefficient. At this rate, the labor cost per ton of white sugar is simply too high."

Raw brown sugar fetched a far lower price than refined white. Processing it before sale would yield considerably greater profits. Wen Tong had been racking his brains for a white sugar process that was within their capabilities yet more efficient. Meanwhile, raw brown sugar was piling up in the warehouse. Before the steel rollers, the average yield per mu of cane field had been just over three shi of raw brown sugar. Now, with the improved extraction rate, each mu yielded more than five shi. The sugarcane fields under South China Factory's name alone could produce 13,000 shi of raw brown sugar. Adding the processing fees earned from toll milling, raw brown sugar was accumulating like a small mountain—over 20,000 shi in total. Meanwhile, the white sugar workshop, running two shifts around the clock, managed only five or six shi a day.

Just as they were discussing this, Wen Xiu suddenly appeared with a report: a pigeon had arrived from Guangzhou bearing a secret letter.

Chang Shide dismissed him, then retrieved a codebook from inside the room and began decoding. Everyone watched intently. After several minutes, Chang Shide announced happily: "Zhang Xin's letter says to ship out the stored sugar as quickly as possible. They'll take raw brown sugar too. The market is excellent: the Guangzhou price is 3.8 taels—and it looks like it will climb higher. He says if we can purchase more, buy as much as possible. Ship it to Guangzhou and it turns into silver!"

"Wonderful." Wen Tong's spirits soared. "Liao Dahua told me the purchase price on Hai'an Street is only 2.5 taels!"

"Then let's buy at 3!" Chang Shide exclaimed. Everyone burst into laughter. The prospect of windfall profits was intoxicating.

"If he hadn't written, I was about to ask what to do with all this sugar," Wen Tong said, smiling. "Several trading houses here have approached us wanting to buy. I hesitated and didn't agree. Good thing—otherwise we'd have taken a huge loss!"

"In that case, we should buy from them!"

"Forget that idea. They know the Guangzhou market at least as well as we do. Hmph." Wen Tong evidently held a low opinion of these trading houses.

"Who cares? This will all be our territory soon anyway," Chang Shide said. He opened the door and called for Wen Xiu. "Go invite Manager Liao."

Over the past month, they had been trying to find a local manager familiar with sugar trading to handle the factory's external dealings. They'd specifically asked Liao Dahua to accompany them to Hai'an Street and the county seat to scout for managers willing to switch employers. They'd come up empty. No one wanted to jump ship, and most were puzzled: why would a sugar mill need a trading house manager?

As a result, Liao Dahua became their only local agent. For convenience, he had simply moved into the South China Factory compound. Fortunately, it lay only two or three li from the county seat—if something came up at the escort branch, he could return quickly.

Liao Dahua came to the study. Bei Wei, not wishing to attract attention, had withdrawn to the side room. Wen Tong explained their plan to engage in large-scale sugar purchasing and asked him to assemble a team—even without a proper trading house manager, they intended to handle this themselves.

Liao Dahua shook his head repeatedly. "Sir, this is inadvisable."

"What's inadvisable about it?"

"Sir, you may not realize," Liao Dahua explained. "The sugar from Leizhou has always been purchased by the trading houses on Hai'an Street..."

"They buy theirs, we buy ours. Nothing to do with each other." Wen Tong was puzzled.

But Chang Shide understood immediately. "A monopoly, right?"

"Exactly." Liao Dahua confirmed. Twenty-one sugar trading houses on Hai'an Street formed a trade guild called "Haiyi Hall." Any sugar produced in Leizhou destined for export had to pass through their hands. Each year's purchase price was publicly discussed by the guild before trading commenced. Outsiders who hadn't joined Haiyi Hall couldn't enter the sugar purchasing business.

"I see." Wen Tong nodded. These monopoly organizations were everywhere.

"Strange. Why can't we enter? Says who?" Chang Shide remained unconvinced.

"Well..." Liao Dahua hadn't really considered the question before. The Hai'an Street trading houses had monopolized Leizhou's sugar exports for decades—everyone accepted it as the natural order of things. "The shopkeepers may not know, but the cane farmers lack large ships, making it inconvenient to transport their own product. They've traditionally entrusted the trading houses to ship their raw sugar to other regions for sale on their behalf. After selling, the houses would settle accounts with the farmers. Originally, the houses took two percent as commission, settling at ninety-eight percent. Over time, due to the risk of loss at sea from storms and pirates, and occasional instances of houses absconding with payments, it gradually evolved into the current cash purchase system. The houses make more profit, but the farmers are willing enough—after all, the houses bear the greater risk."

"I see. That's not so different from what we're proposing," Wen Tong said. "We can assume those risks too. Tomorrow we start preparing. In a few days, we open for purchasing!"

Liao Dahua's lips moved as though he wished to say more. Chang Shide laughed. "It's just a little business. What's the concern? Look—we'll give Qiwei Escort two percent of whatever we purchase."

Two percent was no small figure. This arrangement would significantly benefit the escort agency, and Liao Dahua could personally take a nice cut. Contemplating the vast wealth of these Australian merchants, his courage swelled. "Since the shopkeepers have decided, this humble one will make the arrangements. I know something of the sugar trading business. I'll prepare immediately!" With that, he took his leave.

Chen Tianxiong spoke up. "Isn't this rather risky? Have you considered what happens if the other side retaliates?"

"It's fine," Wen Tong assured him. "I've been to Hai'an Street and met several managers. They're all legitimate businessmen. In fact, the entire street is essentially managed by them. Good order, everything running smoothly."

Chen Tianxiong shook his head. "Old Wen, I'm not trying to meddle—this is your domain—but you should understand: interest groups will stop at nothing to protect their livelihoods. Not selling sugar to the trading houses and shipping it out ourselves already steps on their toes. Now we're also purchasing—the conflict of interest is practically existential."

"Is it really that extreme?" Wen Tong sounded skeptical.

"You've been around the block. Do you really believe the seventeenth century was populated by simple folk, with nobody picking up lost items on the road or locking their doors at night? Every ugly aspect of society—which one hasn't existed since ancient times? Merchants pursue profit. I don't need to quote Marx on capitalists, do I?"

"Tell me what you think we should do." Wen Tong had to admit the points had merit. The notion that people of earlier eras were simpler was something his time in this world had taught him wasn't necessarily true. People then were the same as people now—some good, some bad, and mostly ordinary folk keeping their heads down, neither particularly virtuous nor particularly wicked.

Bei Wei rarely interjected, but now he spoke. "Chen Tianxiong's concerns are worth considering. What if the other side retaliates?"

"Before we've fully established ourselves, it's best not to touch that particular slice of cake," Chen Tianxiong advised.

"I don't think we need to be this nervous." After long consideration, Chang Shide said, "The trading houses on Hai'an Street are ordinary merchants. How much trouble can they really cause? At worst, they have better connections with the county and prefectural yamens. We have contacts in Guangzhou now, and we're on speaking terms with the Leizhou prefectural yamen and the Haikang and Xuwen county yamens. What can they do to us?"

After further discussion, Chen Tianxiong saw their minds were made up. As he wasn't part of the South China Factory's decision-making circle, pressing the point further would seem like overstepping—not conducive to future cooperation. So he stopped pushing his view and merely reminded them to prepare contingencies. Bei Wei had no interest in any of this and hadn't contributed. Bored, he gazed at the ever-growing mound of bagasse piling up outside the courtyard wall. Suddenly he asked:

"What about the byproducts from sugar-making?"

"There are many applications, but we need equipment to utilize them. I'd actually like to report this to the Executive Committee as well—we'll need some fermentation equipment and bacterial cultures." Wen Tong explained the recovery and utilization of sugarcane byproducts: strictly speaking, nothing in sugar production was waste—even the wastewater could yield useful products.

Diluting molasses and inoculating it with different bacterial cultures could produce alcohol, glycerol, acetone, butanol, citric acid, and yeast. Bagasse could be used for papermaking and producing furfural. The filter mud from sedimentation and filtration could yield sugarcane wax, with the remainder usable as fertilizer. Even the cane leaves stripped from the sugarcane could serve as animal feed. The cane tops and cane butts—low in sugar content and trimmed before pressing—could still be brewed into spirits or converted to alcohol.

"This is relatively elementary recovery and utilization," Wen Tong continued. "Bagasse can also be processed to recover aconitic acid. How much we can exploit depends on what bacterial cultures and chemicals we have available, and of course the right equipment."

"Of the byproducts South China Factory can use on-site, probably just alcohol from molasses and paper from bagasse?" Chang Shide suggested.

"Papermaking isn't realistic." Wen Tong had been investigating the boiler's fuel requirements. "Using all the bagasse just for fuel is about right."

"What a waste..."

"The alternative is buying coal to fire the boiler. Honestly, I'd prefer coal. The moisture content of bagasse is too high. If labor weren't so cheap here, the manpower spent every day turning and drying the stuff would be enough to bankrupt us." Wen Tong sighed. "Industrialization is wonderful, but the consumption is equally voracious. I'm even wondering now if we'll have enough bagasse to last through the crushing season."

Buying coal was certainly feasible. The route to Hongji in Vietnam wasn't far. And Gaozhou wasn't far from Leizhou either—there was a fairly large coal-mining district within Guangdong Province, the present-day Maoming mining area. Though this area had only scattered operations during the Ming Dynasty, it could serve as a supplementary fuel source. At least the route was much shorter than shipping coal from Guangzhou.

"Then let's establish a coal depot." Chang Shide's mind worked quickly. "Few households here burn coal—mostly wood. Besides our own consumption, we could potentially do some business with the coal we import."

"Sure, it won't cost much. Leave it to Qiwei to arrange."

(End of Chapter)