Chapter 378 - The Nanbao Highway

Wu De returned to the Executive Committee meeting room with a grimace. "Twenty days now before the first deliveries arrive. Wu Nanhai will certainly have objections."

"Objections won't help." Ma Qianzhu studied the map spread before him. "From Nanbao to Bairren—by this era's standards, it's quite far. Nanbao itself is hilly with terrible roads." He traced route possibilities with his finger. "We should advance next year's planned simple highway to Nanbao. Emergency requisitions can force villages to deliver short-term, but for sustained resource utilization, we absolutely need proper transport infrastructure."

The Nanbao region held the concentration of Lingao's mineral wealth: lignite, limonite, peat, kaolin, limestone—plus the Li territories' agricultural and forestry resources and tungsten ore. All possessed significant practical value for the collective's industry and agriculture. But long-neglected transportation, combined with a Ming garrison town near Nanbao, had kept connections with the collective weak. To date, only the Reconnaissance Team, the Bandit Suppression Detachment, and trade caravans bound for Li territories had ventured there. A highway would vastly improve local resource utilization and strengthen ties with Lingao's Li communities. Currently, the poor roads meant trade caravans visited Nan Cave only every two or three months—Li territory resources remained underexploited, and infiltration of the area was insufficient.

"I support the highway," Wu De said. "Otherwise, these emergency requisitions becoming routine would constitute extreme exploitation. I'm in frequent contact with local elders—I've come to understand that common people fear nothing more than endless labor conscription. In rural areas, able-bodied men are the most precious resource. A family without men is a family whose sky has collapsed. With a highway, travel becomes convenient; vehicles can transport materials with far greater efficiency."

By modern standards, Nanbao wasn't far at all. From Bairren City, following the Wenlan River upstream along what would become the S306 highway, passing through Lingao county town, continuing south into hilly terrain—soon you'd reach modern Nanbao Township. Under thirty-one kilometers total. A twenty to thirty minute drive in the future, but in this time-space, the journey consumed two or three days. Over wilderness dirt paths, with villages delivering coal by carrying pole and wheelbarrow—the labor consumed was staggering.

Ma Qianzhu rang the bell on his desk. A boy of fifteen or sixteen appeared at the office door. He wore a black native-cloth mandarin collar student uniform, a wooden entry-pass badge pinned to his chest.

"You called, Chief?" The boy was respectful, his Mandarin slightly halting but clear.

"Summon the Transportation People's Commissar and the Construction Company Manager to my office."

"Right away, Chief!" The boy gave a solemn nod, turned crisply, and departed.

Office etiquette training was progressing well. Ma Qianzhu privately admired the hierarchical formalities depicted in Soviet films—the serious, formal atmosphere radiating meticulousness and order.

The boy was named Hou Wenyong, an orphan collected along with his sister by the Guangzhou station. Both had decent educational foundations; his sister had joined the Health Department for nursing training. Hou Wenyong had quickly passed the Grade B diploma examination at Citizens' School. When the General Office needed reliable administrative trainees for various departments, he passed Political Security Bureau vetting and was admitted to the Military-Political Academy—attending school three days weekly and working at the Planning Committee the other three.

Transportation People's Commissar Shan Daoqian was at the Bo-pu rail dispatch center when the summons arrived, absorbed in designing railway interlocking schemes. Bo-pu's rail network had grown quite dense; crude flag signaling alone had become too inefficient.

Being suddenly summoned to the Planning Committee office surprised him. Transportation matters had been light lately—mainly maintaining and upgrading existing roads.

When both summoned officials had arrived, Ma Qianzhu presented his concept for the Bairren-Nanbao simple highway.

"Too hasty." Mei Wan found the proposal abrupt. "The rainy season has just begun. Continuous rain makes road-building extremely difficult. Why not wait for dry season?"

"The highway's purpose is transporting Nanbao's mineral resources," Ma Qianzhu said firmly. "Currently, Nanbao contains resources we desperately need that simply cannot be moved."

"If the Executive Committee approves, Transportation has no objection." Shan Daoqian's specialty was railways, but he could manage highways well enough. He studied the map carefully. "The outbound cargo is primarily minerals?"

"Correct."

"Approximately how many vehicles per day?"

"Uncertain." Ma Qianzhu admitted. Nanbao's mineral development potential was enormous, but current extraction capacity remained unclear.

"For bulk cargo transport, our most reliable vehicles are ox carts." Shan Daoqian ran mental calculations. "I'll need to order new heavy-load wagons from Li Chiqi. And our ox numbers are insufficient."

"For oxen, contact the External Trade Committee—they now manage Changhua Fortress. Have them purchase another batch from the Li. Changhua Fortress itself still has some cattle."

"Understood."

"Road surface requirements aren't high for this type of highway," Mei Wan observed. "But Nanbao is hilly terrain—the road may have severe elevation changes. Heavy-load wagons may struggle."

"Nanbao is hills, not mountains," Ma Qianzhu said. "No need for tunneling and rock-blasting on a massive scale. At most some detours—try to keep the road surface as level as possible."

"Let me check how the twentieth-century S306 highway from Lingao county town to Nanbao Township was routed." Mei Wan flipped through his work notebook. "I'll organize a survey team upon returning." A thought occurred to him: "There's a Patrol Inspector station near Nanbao, specifically monitoring traffic in and out of Li territories..."

"No problem—that inspector is exceedingly sensible." Ma Qianzhu waved off the concern. "After the peace agreement with the county, this inspector received his share of benefits. He's never troubled our Li territory trade caravans. Road construction shouldn't bother him either."

"There's also the garrison town documented in mission 221629050705."

"The garrison town's location is relatively remote; the highway can bypass it. Though it needn't detour by much—handle it as we've handled the county town." As Chief of Staff, Ma Qianzhu knew the place's military status and sneered inwardly at this so-called fortress's combat capability. "They'll simply cower behind their walls. I suggest assigning this road-building mission to the Army. If the garrison's Ming troops prove uncooperative, we'll simply 'reorganize' that garrison town."

The Bairren-Nanbao simple highway was thus decided. Wu Nanhai and the Agricultural Committee had no idea their farmland development had butterfly-effected into a cascade of subsequent events.

The Agricultural Committee was currently concentrating on the Meitai Yang water infrastructure construction while intensifying late-stage management of February's first rice crop. They aimed for spectacular yields in the test fields—building momentum for subsequent Heaven and Earth Society agricultural promotion.

By modern Lingao's accumulated temperature records, rice could be planted in January by the Gregorian calendar. But Wu Nanhai, exercising caution, had followed local farmers' customs and delayed sowing to February—wisely so, as January had brought extreme lows of three to five degrees Celsius.

Rice seedlings required temperatures above ten degrees. Though lacking comprehensive year-round Lingao temperature data, Wu Nanhai had concluded that 1629 Lingao could likely only manage two rice crops. The first crop's insufficient heat accumulation would delay harvest to May or June; the shorter second crop could harvest around October. This aligned with information gathered from farm workers. Clearly, this time-space's Lingao had sound reasons for not growing three crops.

February's first rice sowing covered five hundred mu: two hundred mu of last year's improved, well-fertilized high-yield test fields; another three hundred mu of so-called "rain-dependent fields." On these three hundred mu, beyond the hybrid rice seeds, Wu Nanhai had experimentally planted several dwarf lodging-resistant varieties to observe what results they could achieve without modern agricultural inputs.

After sowing—without herbicides, chemical fertilizers, or pesticides—they employed entirely traditional methods. Wu Nanhai and Fa Shilu spent every day in the paddies, constantly exchanging farming insights with Wang Tian and their workers, devising various homespun solutions to emerging problems.

Growing crops without modern agricultural inputs proved initially quite painful for Agricultural Committee members accustomed to modern farming. None had truly foreseen how remarkable the petrochemical agriculture that environmental critics loved to disparage actually was.

Where fifty kilograms of chemical fertilizer per mu once guaranteed high yields, now each mu required half a ton of base fertilizer plus multiple follow-up applications. Growing two hundred mu of high-yield fields had nearly exhausted Wu Nanhai's accumulated fertilizer from most of a year's preparation—leaving the other three hundred mu severely underfertilized.

Then came the weeds, rice rust, blast disease, pest infestations... every conceivable rice-growing problem confronted them. Issues easily solved with modern technology became heavy labor here. Until the Chemistry Department manufactured calcium chlorate, weeding was done entirely by hand under Wang Tian's direction. For pesticides, they scoured the Great Library for traditional formulations, established a workshop for compounding, and tried one remedy after another until problems were eventually overcome.

Now the grain-filling period was ending. On Wan Lihui's suggestion, the paddies began draining for field-drying. Drying reduced lodging, decreased pest damage, hardened the ground surface, and facilitated harvesting—all highly beneficial for yields. But timing required skill—judging the right moment was precisely the core task of farming cadres. The Wan family had grown rice for generations; Wan Lihui possessed considerable experience.

(End of Chapter)