Chapter 405 - Nanbao Layout

For the indigenous people in Nanbao, circulation vouchers held little attraction.

Everyone in Lingao now—and even in neighboring Danzhou, Chengmai, and Qiongshan—knew that these circulation vouchers were creditworthy. But for the common folk here, how could paper slips be as tangible as silver or copper coins? In a place where commodity circulation was virtually non-existent, paper money simply didn't work.

Originally, Ye Yuming intended to pay local workers' wages in silver, but Cheng Dong and Yan Ming resolutely opposed this. Their reasoning was that such differential treatment would seriously shake the confidence of the mining employees in the circulation vouchers.

To ensure the vouchers could be accepted by the locals, they had to make them "useful" and fully demonstrate their purchasing power.

As construction progressed, Dongmen Chuiyu and Li Mei, two key cadres from the Foreign Commerce Committee, arrived in Nanbao. Their mission was to replicate the successful experience of East Gate Market. Of course, there weren't many consumers among the Nanbao locals—their target was mainly the miners.

Dongmen Chuiyu first built a stone road outside the residential area. After building the drainage ditches, he started constructing commercial buildings. These brick-and-concrete structures were nothing new to Mei Lin and his construction team. Nanbao had plenty of stones, saving even the need for bricks. In less than a week, the first building was completed. It was a long, two-story structure, divided into separate rooms inside. Because it used external load-bearing walls and a truss structure, the internal partition walls were all made of so-called lightweight materials to save clay bricks. These buildings had poor sound insulation, but the space was easy to divide and suitable for multiple purposes.

Before the whitewash on the walls was even dry, the sign for the Nanbao Branch of the Women's Cooperative was hung up. It occupied five storefronts on the ground floor. Oxcarts delivered shelves, counters, well-trained female clerks, and a large quantity of goods. The cooperative sold miscellaneous daily items and snacks—cloth, silk, needles and thread, towels, wine, vinegar, betel nuts, salt, and brown sugar. Li Mei originally wanted to import small items like rouge and powder from Guangzhou and Macau, but the Financial Committee refused to issue her a silver usage permit, so this proposal was dropped. She had to rely on Mo Xiao'an's Light Industry Department to produce them instead. Additionally, Li Mei negotiated with the Heaven and Earth Society intending to act as an agent for their agricultural supplies store, selling seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and farm tools. To get Ye Yuming to agree, her condition was to waive all agency fees and sell at zero profit.

"Then what money do you earn?" Ye Yuming, who was walking with her on the Nanbao town construction site, was puzzled.

"Agricultural supplies will bring me customers. The cooperative doesn't intend to make money on agricultural supplies—it's just to 'bring in business.'"

When more farmers came to buy agricultural supplies, they would conveniently purchase other goods, and the profit would come from that. Just like large supermarkets selling eggs at a loss—the goal was foot traffic.

"You really know how to do business—"

"Not at all; I still need the support of all you leaders." Li Mei smiled brightly. "When your business trip ends, I'll treat the Heaven and Earth Society people to a meal to reward them! You young comrades have worked hard going down to the countryside for technical guidance. It's not easy—not easy."

The purpose of opening this grocery store was to withdraw circulation vouchers from circulation and make the locals feel that the vouchers were useful and easy to use. Therefore, the cooperative did not accept copper coins or silver.

The Planning Commission also required the cooperative to be responsible for purchasing local products in the area, including local cloth, kapok, rattan, chickens, ducks, and livestock. The Planning Commission didn't actually lack these things—the main purpose of purchasing local products was to expand the use of circulation vouchers. Another purpose was to expand trade with the Li district—Nanbao town was right on the edge of the Li district. With Nanbao town as a stronghold, the connection between the transmigrator group and the Li district would be greatly strengthened. For this reason, Mu Min specifically sent Fang Jinghan here to serve as the local Li Affairs Clerk.

Li Mei also creatively launched a "Domestic Service Agency" in the cooperative—she recruited many local women who wanted to earn pocket money to clean and wash clothes for single miners. This service soon caused scandals between the long-deprived miners and the love-struck young women—this matter was easy to handle: the Mining Office would pay the betrothal gift on behalf of the miner, helping him marry the girl and bring her home, which became a happy story. The betrothal money would be deducted from wages in installments.

But subsequent romantic affairs between miners and married local women made the villagers furious—no one liked wearing a "green hat."

At first, they dared to be angry but not speak out. Later, the village elders saw that if this continued, "morals would be corrupted," so they united to complain to the Mining Office, which finally curbed this trend. Ye Yuming stipulated that from then on, laundry could only be transferred through the Women's Cooperative. Wages were paid by the cooperative, and the two parties were not allowed to meet. As for cleaning, it had to be done after the miners went to work.

Next to the cooperative was an office of the Delong Grain Bank. This was established considering that a large number of circulation vouchers would circulate locally. To ensure credit and guarantee that voucher holders could exchange them for grain at any time according to Delong's promise, Delong transported two thousand kilograms of unpolished rice to the locality as a redemption reserve. Storing large amounts of grain would not cause backlog or waste—miners had to eat anyway.

Delong's other task was to collect the "Reasonable Burden" locally. In this way, villages in the Nanbao area only needed to transport public grain to Nanbao town to complete tax payment, avoiding the toil of traveling long distances to Hundred Ren City. It was a measure for the convenience of the people.

Dongmen Chuiyu opened a Miner Service Center here, mainly providing three meals a day for miners—most miners had no wives and no one to cook for them at home. The second floor was the Service Center's cafeteria. Besides selling simple meals, it also sold alcohol and cigarettes. Cigarettes were already on the Planning Commission's monopoly list and were currently only sold in one hundred percent "state-owned enterprises," so Li Mei's cooperative didn't carry them.

The Miner Service Center was actually the general logistics steward of the mine. All logistical needs of the mine were handled by the Service Center, including managing prostitutes. Miners were mostly bachelors with good physical strength and strong sexual desires. If they weren't given an outlet to vent, they would inevitably steal chickens and dogs in the surrounding villages, causing many disputes. Dongmen Chuiyu simply implemented the same "Yellow Ticket" system locally as in East Gate Market—he didn't even need to mobilize prostitutes from East Gate Market to come to Nanbao. Rumor had already spread that the flesh trade in Lingao was easy business: as long as you obtained a Yellow Ticket, you could do business peacefully without being exploited. Many prostitutes from other places had already come to East Gate Market, some even from the mainland. If they all did business in East Gate Market, it would be unsightly, so he simply diverted some to Nanbao.

Because the rules stated that prostitutes applying for a Yellow Ticket must undergo physical examination and those with venereal diseases must be treated, the Hundred Ren General Hospital had to set up a dedicated venereal disease treatment center in a remote location. This made everyone in the Ministry of Health complain endlessly—without qualified antibiotics, treating venereal diseases was extremely difficult. The pharmaceutical factory had now manufactured some sample antibiotic drugs for clinical trials, but their efficacy remained quite suspect. For this reason, people from the Guangzhou Station had kidnapped quite a few doctors specializing in syphilis and skin diseases from around Guangzhou to conduct integrated Chinese and Western medicine treatment.

"Although having prostitutes can alleviate this problem, it cannot solve it. In the long run, it is even harmful." Wu De instructed Ye Yuming, "Not to mention the spread of venereal diseases—the Ministry of Health's regular inspections and treatments are not a panacea."

"So we still need to find them wives as soon as possible, right?"

"That's right. One approach is to encourage prostitutes to leave the trade and marry. The second is to organize social events with nearby villages. Provide some good food and drink, host a market, and maybe show a few movies. When there's mutual affection, the rice will be cooked, won't it?"

"Will the miners be willing to marry prostitutes?"

"When prostitutes were reformed back in the day, many married workers. This approach should be feasible," Wu De said. "Of course, we can also offer some material encouragement, like sending some silk and cloth."

"Wait—this era places a lot of emphasis on chastity..." Ye Yuming still felt this was unreliable.

"The emphasis on chastity depends on social class." Wu De said, "The miners in this timeline are the destitute class, facing life-threatening danger at any time. Being able to settle down and marry a wife, having a woman to take care of their life—they're already satisfied. How can they care about so many other things! Even if they wanted to, they couldn't afford the three matchmakers and six betrothal gifts, the dowry, and the banquet."

"Poor people have no right to marry virgins!"

"Hehe, Little Ye—to use an inappropriate analogy: if you had millions in assets in the other timeline, you could naturally be picky when looking for a girlfriend, examining appearance, figure, and even education—no junior college, at least an undergraduate, master's degree even better. But if you were just an ordinary clerk, you wouldn't be so particular—would you?"

"That sounds really disheartening—" Ye Yuming muttered. "If we hold social events, the young men in nearby villages will have opinions. The miners will monopolize all the girls."

"It won't be as easy as you say. There won't be many such examples for the time being—right now in Lingao, the working class hasn't yet become an enviable class. At least for parents of girls, having a miner as a son-in-law isn't very attractive."

The rural clinic jointly run by the Ministry of Health and Runshitang also moved into this building, occupying two shops downstairs and three rooms upstairs. Amidst traditional drums and firecrackers, the Nanbao Branch of Runshitang cum Clinic opened. Liu San sent two pharmacy clerks to work here, dispensing herbal slices and patent medicines for common illnesses. Once a week, medical personnel from the Ministry of Health would come for rounds. Although this clinic was simple and primitive, it provided the Nanbao area with healthcare services for the first time.

Miner entertainment was also considered: the Miner Service Center built a rugby field. This sport, which had the lowest equipment requirements, was now a sports project promoted everywhere by the transmigrator group. The rugby field was used for playing ball normally, and when the mobile movie projection team came, movies were shown here. Xi Yazhou was very enthusiastic about this plan. Of course, he didn't forget that Nanbao was a key facility needing protection. He conducted military training specifically for the miners, equipping them with standardized spears and sabers manufactured by the machinery plant. Coupled with rattan safety helmets, this miner militia was not only sufficient for self-defense but could also suppress riots if necessary.

Finally, He Ying also arrived here. He mysteriously inspected a certain foundation, and then fenced it off—this was the future church.

The smooth mining of the Nanbao mining area alleviated the mineral supply for the transmigrator group. Lignite, peat, gypsum, kaolin, and limonite were continuously transported out of Nanbao on four-wheeled heavy-duty wagons pulled by oxen. Even the gangue and various waste rocks that couldn't be used temporarily could be used for construction and road building.

Mining kaolin meant being able to make porcelain. In the past, some porcelain with special shapes needed by the transmigrator group for industry and daily use had always been fired by export porcelain kilns along the Fujian coast. Although they could generally meet demand, transportation was very troublesome.

One major harvest of Huang Tianyu following Liu San to Foshan was recruiting many ceramic artisans. Although many artisans were old and weak, their experience in making and firing porcelain was very rich. With this group of people, Xiao Bailang's ceramic kiln production efficiency advanced by leaps and bounds. Many formerly difficult-to-make oddly shaped and super-large pieces could now be fired. But these were still just glazed pottery. Without kaolin, they couldn't make porcelain glazes.

Kaolin mined from Nanbao was crushed, washed, and transported to the ceramic factory. Xiao Bailang handed the drawings of a flush toilet to his subordinate old kiln workers.

Several people studied the drawings for a long time without speaking. Finally, the oldest kiln worker, named Li Jinquan, spoke:

"Chief, we haven't made this thing before. We can make large pieces, but there are some holes and cavities inside. I'm afraid it can't be done in one go."

"How long will it take to make?"

Several kiln workers put their heads together and discussed for a while, saying it would take two or three weeks.

"Fine, you guys start making it." Xiao Bailang had no interest in making flush toilets and was too lazy to ask questions himself, simply pushing it to the indigenous workers. When it came to experience in firing large porcelain pieces, the transmigrators definitely weren't as rich as the indigenous kiln workers of this timeline.

It was Mo Xiao'an who was full of interest in this thing, coming to see the progress almost every day and occasionally offering ideas. But he was a pure layman; aside from cheering the kiln workers on, he was of no use.

However, the things fired after several days of effort were not right at all. Obviously, Xiao Bailang's concept that a flush toilet was just a more complex large porcelain piece was inaccurate. In the end, they had to seek advice from the Great Library and find information.

Upon checking, they found that the craftsmanship of sanitary ware was actually quite complex, especially the surface glazing, which had extremely high technical content. The transmigrators naturally didn't need such high-end surface glazes; as long as it could stay clean and be easy to scrub, it was fine.

Take the manufacturing process of the simplest sanitary ware. Most sanitary ware uses injection molding technology. For the transmigrator group, the most technically difficult part was the preparation of special molds. The quality of the sanitary ware molding depended mainly on the manufacturing level of the mold.

Xiao Bailang ran to the machinery plant several times and manufactured special molds for sanitary ware in the factory. After the molds were transported back to the ceramic factory, gypsum was made into a slurry and poured into the fixed molds, using its gelling property to slowly solidify and shape inside the mold. After evaporating some water, the plaster mold for the product was made.

The raw material was made into mud slurry, then injected into the plaster mold. Using the water absorption of the plaster mold, the water in the mud slurry close to the mold wall was absorbed to form a certain mud layer. Then the remaining slurry was poured out of the mold. The mud layer attached to the mold wall separated from the mold due to dehydration shrinkage, forming a green body, which became a semi-finished product.

The green body slowly dehydrated and dried under certain conditions. In modern factories, there was temperature-controlled drying equipment. In Lingao, they could only use natural drying methods, letting air and wind take away moisture in special sunshades.

After the green body dried, it was time for the critical glazing process. Factories generally used spraying for glaze slurry. Lacking this condition here, Xiao Bailang adopted the dip-lifting method. The green body was mounted on a special rack and repeatedly dipped in the glaze slurry until a layer of glaze firmly adhered to the surface. Not only the exterior of the sanitary ware, but the interior was also glazed. Glazing the inside wasn't for looks, but to facilitate sewage discharge and prevent filth from adhering and congealing.

After glazing, it was fired in the kiln. Soon, the first finished product was fired, but due to temperature control issues, the shape was somewhat deformed. After several improvements, they finally fired a product that was considered acceptable. Li Jinquan was very puzzled when he learned that the thing they had spent so much effort firing was a toilet bowl—he really couldn't figure out why a toilet bowl had to be so complex and made of white porcelain. When Mo Xiao'an came to see the finished product, he mustered up the courage to ask.

"Because it can make money, and it's clean and hygienic."

Li Jinquan understood the meaning of clean and hygienic, but he couldn't grasp the concept of making money—how much money could a toilet bowl sell for, no matter how well made?

"What are the most luxurious toilet bowls like in Guangzhou?"

This question made the kiln workers look at each other. They lived poor lives and mostly relieved themselves directly on the street or in the wild. Having a chamber pot at home was already considered decent.

Li Jinquan was the oldest and had seen more of the world. He recalled that about ten years ago, he had seen one in the sedan chair of a sea merchant who came to the kiln to look at porcelain. It was red lacquered and gilded, with white copper hoops polished to a shine.

"That's just it. The pursuit of life enjoyment by the wealthy is always endless. Since they can make red lacquered and gilded toilets, we can make them with white porcelain—in Australia, good porcelain toilets are worth a lot of money!" Speaking of this, Mo Xiao'an recalled his sense of powerlessness in a famous foreign brand sanitary ware specialty store—a toilet bowl sold for twenty thousand, which was his annual salary at the time.

"We understand now. It's just—" A younger kiln worker raised a question. "Since it's a toilet bowl, why is the bottom not sealed but has strange curved pipes? In that case, wouldn't the filth flow out? How is it used?"

(Chapter End)