Chapter 831: Covetous Eyes

To avoid crowding the shipyard's limited slipways—and more importantly, to spare the scarce shipbuilding workforce—the new fishing boats employed by the fishery cooperative were not replicas of any old-time-space design. Instead, they were retrofitted two-masted vessels retired from the Navy. In fact, the Navy's direct fishing fleet also used old-style ships. But both the cooperative and the Navy's fleet were equipped with new types of fishing nets: drift nets, trawl nets, and gill nets.

Some of these nets had been brought from the old time-space; others were replicated by the Light Industry Department's textile factory. But during the replication process, the materials never met required standards. Whether flax, jute, or hemp—all suffered from insufficient strength and poor corrosion resistance when fashioned into fishing net ropes.

The seemingly simple modern fishing nets, absent the support of nylon products, were not only reduced in size but proved remarkably short-lived. Though the Light Industry Department employed coal tar to preserve the nets according to available materials and used improved rope-twisting technology and equipment, the replicated nets still required fishermen to "fish for three days and dry nets for two." Everyone discovered this old saying actually had a basis in fact; if they fished every day, nets made from purely natural materials would rapidly be destroyed.

Modern large fishing nets and gear also demanded substantial supporting equipment—simple examples being winches for hauling nets. Though winches could be operated by human power, the layout of old-style ships couldn't accommodate these devices.

Though the fishery cooperative obtained new nets, overall performance was compromised. Even so, after employing the new nets and catching methods, the fishermen's effective range expanded dramatically compared to their previous limitation of catching fish only in shallow surface waters. Under the Navy fishing fleet's guidance, cooperative fishermen trying the new methods and gear for the first time immediately achieved an unprecedented bumper harvest—catches that in the past could only be obtained during peak "fishing seasons."

Having tasted such success, enticing the fishery cooperative fishermen to fish in broader waters proved straightforward. Traditional fishermen, constrained by limited navigation capabilities, small boats, and a lack of equipment and means to preserve catches, had rarely ventured beyond nearshore waters.

To increase catches, fishing grounds had to expand. Fishing exclusively around Hainan Island would always yield limited output. At the suggestion of Lin Chuanqing, head of the Navy's fishing fleet, the fishery cooperative organized fishing flotillas. They prepared for organized deep-sea fishing expeditions. The initial targets were the Gulf of Tonkin waters and the Dongsha and Xisha archipelagos.

The Tiandihui dispatched Dugu Qiuhun to Hongji to establish a fishery station there. This would serve as a port for fishery cooperative fishermen to rest, repair boats, shelter from storms, and process catches while fishing the Gulf of Tonkin. Of course, in the long term, the most suitable location was Haiyang—the Haiphong Port of the old time-space.

Beyond increasing catches through establishing a fishery station in Hongji, the Navy hoped to use Hongji as a base from which to gradually penetrate and integrate the local Gulf of Tonkin fishermen. The approach combined purchasing local fishermen's catches, selling supplies, providing boat repair services, extending small loans, and applying both hard and soft pressure through mandatory fishing taxes. The Gulf of Tonkin originally hosted numerous Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen. In old-time-space history, the fishermen of the Gulf of Tonkin—regardless of nationality—had always been a principal source of pirates in the South China region. Local pirates had once even achieved a measure of glory during Vietnam's Tay Son dynasty, becoming the regime's maritime force.

Not long after Dugu Qiuhun arrived in Hongji, the first fishing fleet from the fishery cooperative reached the station. This experimental small fleet comprised fourteen boats: the largest approximately a hundred tons, the smallest merely thirty-odd tons. But they were well-equipped and tightly organized. Besides dedicated fishing boats, several vessels specifically carried salt and barrels for processing catches. Light craft served as scout boats, conducting experimental fishing in various locations to determine where catches were richest.

The fishing fleet was escorted by two Type I Bermuda sloop patrol boats from the Navy, ensuring no one could disturb the cooperative fishermen.

The cooperative's experimental fishing operation in Yalong Bay proved a resounding success. In less than four days, their holds were full and they headed back. This triumph prompted the Agricultural Department and Tiandihui, who had originally intended only to observe the Gulf of Tonkin fishing trial's results, to spring into immediate action—deciding forthwith to increase investment in Hongji and establish a catch processing factory there.

Hongji's development expanded like an unstoppable snowball. Very soon, more than a dozen large and medium-sized vessels were regularly plying the Lingao-Hongji route. They shipped out coal and brought in various materials needed for Hongji's construction. After receiving one hundred laborers, Beikai telegraphed the Planning Institute requesting they cease sending pure manual workers—farmers from the Beiqi area were arriving in a constant stream, many bringing families. The Dachang Rice Shop in Haiyang was continuously dispatching workers recruited locally. The labor supply was quite abundant. Beikai even discovered that among laborers sent from Haiyang, besides local Beiqi farmers, there were numerous Ming citizens from Guangxi—this area was actually not far from Guangxi, and many border people crossed over to earn a living.

Beikai's request specified: naturalized citizen laborers transported from Lingao should at minimum possess a Class C diploma. Additionally, send some naturalized citizens or Senators capable of serving as instructors for the laborers. According to the plan, naturalized citizen laborers, after selection and training, would gradually assume administrative, management, and security duties in Hongji. Furthermore, he proposed a program for cultivating local laborers: gradually select reliable and capable Beiqi laborers for training—if necessary, send them back to Lingao. Leveraging their familiarity with local conditions, they could serve as "guides" for any future large-scale assault on Vietnam. This plan also encompassed local children: Beikai requested authorization to select some children from Beiqi laborer families who had come to Hongji and send them to Lingao for training.

The Agricultural Department swiftly established a small fish processing factory in Hongji, employing local women as labor. Part of the fresh catch from the fishing fleet was processed directly on-site to supply protein to the Cooperative cafeteria. Drawing on Lingao labor cafeteria experience, whole fish was not served here either. All catches underwent cutting and deep processing, yielding fish balls, fish patties, and fish fillets. The remaining fish bones and offal were processed into fish sauce and fishmeal.

The Long-Range Exploration Team Office also established a point in Hongji, with Bai Guoshi in charge. His task was to replace the not-so-professional Beikai and conduct a comprehensive exploration of coal mining resources throughout the Guang'an area. To let him work with peace of mind, Liu Zheng simply sent Zhao Xue—the girlfriend Bai Guoshi had worked hard to win over—along with him. Men and women working together makes work less tiring. Liu Zheng's instructions to them were to focus first on exploring shallow surface coal mines near the coast.

Amidst this feverish development, You Long and You Hai were wandering the mine's outskirts. They had been working in Hongji for several days now. Their income, besides being sufficient to eat their fill, also afforded them an occasional drink. Life was tolerably good.

These two were, in truth, spies sent by Shen Hu. Hongji Station's rapid development had been temporarily overlooked by Northern Court officials preoccupied with their southward campaign. But the large gathering of population, the vessels constantly coming and going, and the spectacle of fishing boats returning fully loaded with abundant catches each time had stimulated the interest of various local devils and demons. Hongji Station had become a piece of fat meat. Bandits on shore, pirates at sea, and local strongmen—all harbored covetous desires for this town that had risen so suddenly over a few short months. While Beikai enthusiastically built, secret alliances were quietly forming among the various forces in the Hongji-Haiyang area.

The two spies currently resided in the quarantine camp and could only work at the road construction site each day. After work, they could approach the outer ditch of Hongji Fort to observe the walls and watchtowers. Among the several potential targets, the miners' village and quarantine camp contained nothing valuable. The shops along the road between the fort and miners' village certainly looked promising, but probably didn't house too many valuable goods. The two judged that the most valuable items should be inside the fort itself.

But observing the heavily guarded appearance of this fort, it would probably not be easily captured. You Long and You Hai belonged to Shen Hu's mountain stronghold—a local bandit gang. This gang comprised scattered soldiers from the Northern Court, runaway farmers from manors, and hardened bandits from Ming Guangxi, forming a mixed band of four or five hundred men.

With the Shen Hu gang alone, they wouldn't dare move against Hongji at all. Hongji had cannons, a fort, and several hundred militiamen who drilled regularly. The Shen Hu gang, besides being able to eat their fill, couldn't even obtain a decent set of clothes. They all dressed in rags, looking virtually like beggars.

But this time, several other small forces in the area were participating jointly. In particular, they had secured the assistance of the half-fishing, half-pirate pirates from Jiangping. These pirates envied the fishing gear and boats the newcomers employed.

At a joint conference of all parties, the forces participating in the two-pronged land and sea attack on Hongji ultimately totaled two thousand men and forty boats, evenly split between land and sea. Shen Hu roughly understood that Hongji housed about a thousand miners, most of them local commoners. They wouldn't necessarily risk their lives for the people inside the fort. When the fighting began, they would surely surrender or scatter. The only real resistance would come from the two or three hundred people inside the fort. According to a few bandits who had come from the Ming side, this group hailed from Lingao—the so-called "Australians."

These Ming-derived bandits were none other than Gou Xunli and Hu Lanyan. After the large-scale security cleanup campaign in Danzhou City, their bandit gang could barely maintain a foothold in Danzhou. Villages had either established joint guarantee systems or been consolidated. The gang's operational space shrank relentlessly. The villages where they had once hidden, rested, and replenished supplies had all closed their gates. Unless they concealed themselves in the deep mountains and never emerged, the moment they appeared near a populated settlement, it wouldn't be long before large groups of Australians launched a cleanup operation in the area.

(End of Chapter)