Chapter 981 - La'ao Viewing Box Number 225
In the end, Lu Wenyuan decided to start with basic construction. He built a dock on the southwestern side of the island, leveling the embankment and constructing a pier that extended all the way to waters over 2.5 meters deep. This ensured that the Navy and Dabo Shipping Company's medium and large vessels could load and unload directly without requiring lighter barges. The dock itself was protected by a three-story bastion. Around the bastion stood a small fortified residential area where Lu Wenyuan had settled thirty households—mainly the original fishermen from the island.
These people were his "navy"—protecting the dock, patrolling Longkou Bay, and of course also fishing to supplement their diet.
As for Lu Wenyuan's own headquarters, it was located in the hills of Qimu Island. At the hilltop, he first built a watchtower for monitoring the entire island and nearby waters, which would also serve as a lighthouse to guide fleets into the harbor.
Fresh water on the island was scarce, with all sources located in the hills. The estate site was chosen above one of these springs. Not only did they directly control the water source, but they also constructed collection pools and channels around it, concentrating mountain water for storage. Excess water flowed through channels down the mountain for temporary use in agricultural irrigation.
The estate itself wasn't large—Qimu Island had limited space to maneuver, and water was scarce. In the long term, this wasn't a suitable base. On the planning schedule, it was merely a transit base built to support the Dengzhou operation. But the fortified estate itself was constructed very solidly. Large quantities of relief rations, clothing, bedding, and sanitary supplies would be stockpiled inside.
Within the estate were collection pools, large warehouses, a command post, and residential areas. Standard barracks sufficient for one company were also included. Besides a brick-and-stone wall with battlemented parapets for protection, there were also six small two-story corner bastions for defense. According to plan, each corner bastion would mount a cannon.
Outside the hills, the land was roughly leveled. Areas above the high tide line were planted with sweet sorghum. When Kong Youde's affair erupted, these could be used to build tents and mat sheds—an instant refugee camp. As a test and to solve housing for the workers building the base, Lu Wenyuan first erected ten crude wooden-frame "longhouses" with rush-mat roofs and walls. Each building could accommodate 100 people.
There were also various supporting structures like kitchens and latrines. After running things for a while, he deemed them basically adequate for needs.
However, these mat sheds had poor insulation and weren't sturdy. Summer was barely manageable, but come winter, without sufficient winter clothing and heating equipment for the refugees, they would be purely symbolic.
Better facilities meant the issue of shipping materials from Hong Kong. Lu Wenyuan knew that most transport capacity was currently devoted to shipping materials to the newly established Taiwan base. Getting a special shipment of materials to this small forward base on Qimu Island was probably impossible.
Almost all building materials for the Qimu Island base were sourced locally, and craftsmen were also hired locally. Thanks to Jesuit connections with the Shandong Catholic Church, along with the patronage of Sun Yuanhua and various church members at different levels, Lu Wenyuan at least wasn't completely in the dark when handling affairs locally. He had managed to build Phase One of the Qimu Island base with almost no use of naturalized personnel.
The poverty of the Eastern Three Prefectures and the cheapness of prices all left a deep impression on Lu Wenyuan. This place was nowhere near comparable to Jiangnan or Guangdong. There was cleared land everywhere, but most crops grew poorly. Every village near Qimu Island was without exception extremely impoverished. When Lu Wenyuan hired workers locally, costs went as low as laborers working for free—just requesting three meals a day.
Because labor was extraordinarily cheap, Lu Wenyuan recruited workers in large numbers—men, women, old, young, everyone was wanted. Those with strength did heavy work; those without did light work. Using this abundant cheap labor, Phase One of the Qimu Island base progressed rapidly. By early August, the project was already sixty percent complete.
The workers also simultaneously cleared fields, built irrigation channels and collection pools, and constructed a windmill tower—the windmill would need to be shipped from Lingao. On the newly cleared land, they planted the first crop of sweet sorghum. On the coastal tidal flats, they sowed sea aster seeds.
To protect construction on the island and prevent infiltration by questionable individuals, Lu Wenyuan didn't dig trenches on the causeway but did construct a willow wicker fence—inconspicuous at first, but once it took root and was filled with sand and gravel, it would become quite sturdy. This method was used on the Loess Plateau to intercept flash floods and improve soil erosion, creating large amounts of farmland in gullies.
Overall, construction on the island was flourishing. Despite this, Lu Wenyuan still hoped reinforcements would arrive soon—especially for the Northbound Detachment to hurry up and land at Jeju Island, which would at least allow some materials to be delivered to him en route. Never mind anything else—just the pile of three-eyed handgonnes and cannons made him uneasy. As for the sallow, malnourished militiamen, he also found them quite unreliable.
The only reliable ones were his few naturalized subordinates, especially Huang Ande, whose daily drilling of the militia at least gave him some peace of mind.
That Wang Qisuo whom Zhao Yingong had transferred to him had now fully recovered. He was currently vice-commander of the militia squad. He clearly had some boxing and kicking skills and could also draw a bow and shoot arrows—as befitting his dual identity as salt smuggler and military household.
Through both open and covert investigation and conversations, Lu Wenyuan had roughly learned Wang Qisuo's basic background: a local military household who made a living smuggling salt, with no family left. This situation was very common among naturalized personnel—nothing remarkable. Lu Wenyuan paid it no particular mind.
"La'ao viewing box, la'ao viewing box, new shows now playing... Guan Yunchang slays Hua Xiong with warm wine, Spider Spirit versus Spider-Man, Teacher Cang fights the evil magistrate's son, Adventures of the Five Path Knights..."
Accompanied by crisp gong sounds, a vendor's shouts came from the street. Children in the alley scrambled to run to the street corner, pulling handfuls of copper coins from their clothes to scatter into the vendor's hands while shouting: "Let me see first! Let me see first!"
This was an ordinary morning in Guangzhou. Every day, 176 such vendors walked the streets and alleys of Guangzhou, setting up over 300 "Australian viewing machines" in the markets, bringing visual entertainment from another timeline to the children and adults of this era.
Dressed in Ming clothing, Si Kaide sat in a carriage watching this scene, a slight smile at the corner of his lips.
The "la'ao viewing box" was similar to the "foreign peepshow" of late Qing and early Republican China in the previous timeline. In a wooden box, a spring-driven ratchet mechanism spun a film reel, continuously displaying images on the film. Viewers had to pull a cord themselves to wind the spring—everyone knew this was Australian goods, hence "la'ao" [pull-Australian] viewing box. Light came from sunlight collected through a lens; at night, an oil lamp provided illumination, though the effect was much worse.
This device was requested by the Colonial Trade Department and the Propaganda Department, designed by the Machinery Factory. The structure was improved compared to traditional "peepshow boxes"—reduced weight and size, enhanced effect.
This entertainment greatly increased the burden on Lin Hanlong's optical factory—the main component of the "Australian Views" was lenses. Though performance requirements were low, each lens still had to be ground out individually. Lin Hanlong had to work with other Elders at the Machinery Factory to develop a device capable of batch-grinding simple optical lenses.
The Colonial Trade Department hadn't developed this device to entertain the Ming populace, nor to increase revenue—though the vendors who obtained "franchise rights" from Zicheng Trading all said the business wasn't bad. But the few hundred taels in annual "franchise fees" and "viewing box" rental income was a drop in the bucket within Lingao's overall economy.
The important point was propaganda, especially spreading the "Australian lifestyle"—building momentum for the soon-to-open commercial center and attracting Ming commoners to emigrate to Hainan Island.
Guangzhou was the convergence point for all of Guangdong's wealth and population. As long as they established the concept here that Lingao was "a beacon of light" and "a land of paradise," they could attract not only the poor struggling to make a living who hoped for a new life, but also some wealthy people.
Before the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign, the Planning Commission had raised the problem of economic output and scale being too small at an expanded meeting on national economic work. What constrained everything was population.
Industry required large amounts of population—especially at the current rather low level of the Senate's industrial system, they had no choice but to rely on human-wave tactics to expand production capacity. Collecting manpower thus became the top priority.
The willingness to invest almost all of the Senate's strength into Operation Engine was ultimately for the purpose of obtaining large amounts of population.
The "la'ao viewing box" propaganda activities, while having minimal effect on the overall labor collection plan, could still produce significant influence in the long run.
"Come see! The latest Australian viewing box—Australian workers moving into new housing, the great iron works smelting molten iron, farms with thousand-jin-per-mu rice yields..."
The vendor switched to a new set of films: blatant pieces promoting the "new life." Because the content was novel, they also attracted many viewers. After all, the Australians were now "thunderously famous" in Guangdong, and many people wanted to learn more about them.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem, ahem..." Guo Yi, also sitting in the carriage, still wasn't used to cigars. He put down the cigar in his hand.
"I say, Director Guo, cigars aren't cigarettes—don't inhale into your lungs. The smoke is too strong." Si Kaide slowly exhaled a puff of smoke. "You're now Guangzhou's representative figure of Australian style, Guangzhou's fashion gentleman. You need to pay attention to details."
"What fashion gentleman? This is all your idea. I'm being forced to smoke this stuff—I used to abstain from tobacco and alcohol."
"Bullshit. You worked in a powerful department and abstained from tobacco and alcohol? How would your leaders ever use you?" Si Kaide ignored Guo Yi's complaints. "Your pose needs to be more elegant. That's how the rich folk will spend their money!"
This had always been Guo Yi's sore spot—back in the day, he had worked hard, but by D-Day he still hadn't made it to deputy section-level clerk. Of course, the reason definitely wasn't abstaining from tobacco and alcohol.
(End of Chapter)