Chapter 948 - Local Economy

The Planning Commission was desperate for Jiazi Mine's coal. Beyond the blast furnace's need for a stable coke supply, the industrial system also had enormous demand for the chemical byproducts generated during coking. Expanding the coking coal supply was essential even just for tar extraction alone.

Tang Menglong was full of grievances. He had long since tired of that practically isolated Jiazi Coal Mine, but every attempt to transfer out had failed. Aside from the few months he spent back in Lingao before and after Jiang Wenli gave birth, he had been stuck at the mine the entire time.

"I've practically turned into a coal gangue stone at Jiazi Mine," he complained. "I can barely remember what my son looks like anymore."

Seeing that Tang Menglong apparently intended to wait for a return telegram from Lingao, Liu Xiang had no choice but to keep him company with idle chatter.

"Chief! Please sign for this!" The visitor was from the Confidential Office.

Liu Xiang opened the wax-sealed kraft paper envelope—it contained the latest "Two Journals and One Paper": The Morning Star, Weekly Developments, and the Lingao Times Internal Edition.

Tang Menglong hadn't seen the Two Journals and One Paper in quite some time. Ever since shipping on the Nandu River had stopped, he'd gone several days without seeing the "mouthpiece."

Liu Xiang took out Weekly Developments, the compilation of internal BBS posts, and handed the rest to Tang Menglong.

"Well! Little Liu, looking at the byline now I realize—this front-page headline is yours!" Tang Menglong tapped the article, exclaiming in surprise. "This is quite the fiery piece!"

"I'm flattered, flattered! My firepower is nothing special. Look at this piece—'The Wenlan River Might as Well Be Called the Colorful River'—written by those environmentalists. And this one—I won't even mention the title—by Queen Du. Now that's what I call combat capability!" Liu Xiang slapped his own pages as he spoke.

"It's different, it's different!" Tang Menglong knew perfectly well that while those other pieces, including Queen Du's, were fiery enough, they were recurring forum topics—menstrual items that appeared every few months. But Little Liu's article was something else entirely. Though it appeared to simply analyze the merits of star-topology versus ring-topology logistics networks, making it seem like pure theoretical discussion, it actually struck at the heart of the matter. A classic case of "strumming the zither while singing."

"Little Liu, how exactly are you planning to lay this out?" Tang Menglong asked.

"When I sent this, I simultaneously submitted an application to the Planning Commission. I want to get some of the coconut oil and woodworking industries transferred here. After all, these are all locally produced raw materials. Rather than shipping raw materials to Lingao for processing, I think it makes more sense to process them right here in Qiongshan and then ship the finished products. This would also strengthen economic ties between the two regions."

Tang Menglong pondered the phrases "locally produced raw materials" and "economic ties" for a moment, then asked: "Say, Little Liu—is there any industry that could strengthen ties between our mine and Qiongshan?"

"What, not enough yellow tickets?" Liu Xiang teased.

"As if!"

"Heh heh heh, just joking."

"Seriously though—we have plenty of production targets, and the workers are putting in the effort. But the coal can't be shipped out, so it just piles up. Especially these past few months, morale has been pretty low."

Tang Menglong had wanted to arrange some benefits for the workers, but the strict compensation system left him powerless. Though black gold lay beneath their feet, aside from Lingao's industrial Leviathan, there simply was no second buyer who needed such production capacity.

"I do have an idea. But some things require approval from above," Liu Xiang thought briefly before saying. "Look—whether or not my application gets approved, we have to do disaster relief here regardless. Disaster relief means rebuilding damaged houses, repairing destroyed fields and irrigation systems, rushing to harvest and replant. Your Changchang coal is famous for two things: lots of gangue, and high humic content. If policy allows, you could absolutely produce hollow bricks and peat fertilizer yourselves. These are all essential for the county's disaster recovery. And even after this wave of demand passes—future construction projects, do you think they won't need bricks and fertilizer?"

"Hmm, your thinking is quite broad!" Tang Menglong nodded repeatedly. "This approach really could solve some major problems! The gangue alone solves major problems."

The coal gangue from Jiazi Coal Mine's washing plant had already become something of a local nuisance. Massive quantities piled along the banks of the Nandu River not only polluted the water supply, but the mountainous heaps of gangue also occupied vast amounts of land. And this typhoon's torrential rains had caused the riverside gangue mountains to collapse into the river.

"But just my efforts alone won't be enough..." Liu Xiang said. "Jiazi Coal Mine is after all a centrally administered enterprise..."

Tang Menglong gave a knowing chuckle: "Got it. I'll be the one to submit the application. Supporting local economic development should be a priority for the Planning Commission, shouldn't it?"

Qiongshan's active lobbying efforts had achieved some response. Mo Xiao'an and Wu Kuangming, in particular, both showed strong interest in establishing new industrial enterprises in Qiongshan. The Forestry Department especially—obtaining raw materials in Lingao was becoming increasingly difficult. In Qiongshan, they could utilize the Nandu River's natural waterway to float timber down from the mountainous regions of Ding'an and other upstream counties for nearby use. Moreover, Qiongshan's Haikou harbor was currently underutilized and could serve as an import port for timber.

As for Mo Xiao'an, establishing light industrial processing enterprises in Qiongshan had its own advantages. Qiongshan and Wenchang to its east were traditionally Hainan's major agricultural counties—extensive plains and relatively developed water systems gave them great advantages for agricultural development. The largest segment of Mo Xiao'an's light industry system was agricultural and sideline product processing, which naturally benefited from proximity to production areas. Wenchang was also Hainan's primary coconut-producing region, and Qiongshan was the collection and export hub for dried coconut across the island. Establishing a dried coconut processing enterprise here could monopolize the island's entire dried coconut trade.

As for the Agricultural Committee, Wu Nanhai had long coveted Qiongshan's land. The vast alluvial plains along both banks of the Nandu River were practically natural large-scale farms. Whether planting rice or promoting sugarcane cultivation, the potential was enormous. Wu Nanhai had particularly high expectations for sugarcane cultivation—as an important cash crop, sugarcane revenue was currently the transmigrator collective's primary source of income.

However, Wu Nanhai felt uneasy about Qiongshan's land situation. In his experience, such prime land had likely already been developed. Whether the owners were large landlords or yeoman farmers, for modern agronomists devoted to large-scale agriculture, they represented obstacles. Wu Nanhai had previously advocated for a rich-peasant economy. Though after running the demonstration farms in Lingao, he had also developed a strong interest in intensive state-owned farms—of course, he knew this presented difficulties. State-owned farms depended on direct guidance and management from Elders, and their operation inevitably led to bureaucratic bloat, consuming too many administrative personnel.

Wu Nanhai's ideal agricultural model remained European-style from the old timeline: small and medium-sized intensive family farms using the family as the basic unit and employing no more than ten workers.

Just as various parties were conducting intensive behind-the-scenes lobbying, the situation in Qiongshan had quietly begun to change. Under Yang Yun and others' arrangements, disaster refugees from Qiongshan began flowing outward in large numbers for labor recruitment. Within a week, nearly four thousand refugees in Qiongshan had accepted recruitment and were preparing to leave the area.

The massive exodus of refugees did not initially alarm the local gentry and large landowners, who assumed the Australians were merely implementing work-for-relief programs. Aside from some refugees who owed debts—and their landlords feared the debts would vanish along with the debtors—most large landowners actually felt a sense of relief at the refugee outflow. This not only freed them from relief obligations but also reduced the "disturbances" they most feared to a minimum.

However, as the truth about refugee employment began to emerge—that tenants and farm laborers were going off to become "employees" for the Australians—the landowners began to panic. The generous treatment the Australians provided their subordinates, along with their reputation for "beguiling hearts and minds," had reached Qiongshan. Clearly, once these commoners started eating Australian rice, they were unlikely to ever return to tenant farming or wage labor. This presented a terrifying problem:

Who would work the land? Regardless of how much wealth one possessed or how much land one owned, without people, nothing could be harvested from the land.

In the past, the landowners hadn't worried much about this. Though Hainan Island was sparsely populated and chronically short of labor, Qiongshan as the premier county benefited from the capital effect. Haikou harbor was also Hainan's gateway to the outside world, and agricultural conditions here were the best. Most migrants crossing the sea settled locally, with a steady stream of impoverished Fujian immigrants continuously replenishing the local agricultural population.

Now, the influx of migrants from the mainland had completely dried up. The Australians had an enormous appetite for immigrants—not only did they organize and transport mainland migrants in large numbers themselves, but after they took control of the Qiongzhou Strait and the harbors, every Fujian or Guangdong immigrant who landed locally was immediately detained and transferred to Lingao upon arrival. Now, with these root-cutting tactics, it was obvious that before long there would be insufficient people to work the land.

This blow was nearly fatal for the landowners. Suddenly there was a great uproar. They gathered together like mourners at a funeral to discuss countermeasures. Some went to find Hai Shuzu, wanting him to intercede and request that the Australians immediately halt recruitment and repatriate some of the workers.

Hai Shuzu originally hadn't paid this much attention. The Hai family had never owned much land, and since joining the Tiandihui, they had stopped recruiting tenant farmers altogether, using only wage laborers instead—and those laborers were recruited and managed by the Tiandihui. He was responsible neither for recruitment nor supervision, and didn't even know how much wages were paid. The Tiandihui's agreement with the Hai family was all-inclusive—essentially the Tiandihui was the Hai family's tenant. As long as they gave the Hai family a proportional share at year's end, all was well.

(End of Chapter)