Chapter 1657 - The Little Three Gorges
Suo Pu's delight was impossible to contain entirely, though he kept it hidden beneath a composed exterior. Guangdong had never achieved grain self-sufficiency—a problem he had hoped to solve by procuring rice from Guangxi, though without any certainty of how much could actually be shipped. Now it appeared that Guangxi could not only export grain, but in considerable quantities. As for salt, it was already a cornerstone of the Council of Elders' economy. Once Guangdong fell under their control, all its salt fields would become Council property. Supply would never be an issue.
He gave an involuntary nod and uttered a single word: "Good." His excitement was unmistakable.
Chen Hongyi noticed the faint smile tugging at his guest's lips and sensed the evident pleasure radiating from him, though he remained entirely mystified as to which particular remark had so pleased the man. He simply smiled along, content to bask in reflected approval.
Suo Pu then posed many more questions about shipping. His manner was amiable, the conversation flowing with natural ease. Chen Hongyi spoke freely of everything within his knowledge. They talked deep into the night, until the watchman's drum atop the tower struck the third watch. Only then did Suo Pu realize how late the hour had grown, and he had Lin Ming escort Manager Chen off the boat.
As Chen Hongyi was departing, he could not resist asking Lin Ming: "Who is that lord?"
Lin Ming offered no direct answer. He only said: "Old Chen, you've won the grand prize." Then he smiled cryptically and spoke no more.
Chen Hongyi shivered. He went home and lay awake for half the night, the word "Crown Prince" flashing unbidden through his restless mind.
The following morning, the boat continued its journey upstream, entering the territory of Zhaoqing Prefecture. Here the river surface remained relatively broad. Though they rowed against the current with oars and sculls, catching favorable winds when they arose, they managed to make steady progress. After several days, however, mountains began to rise on both banks. The current grew swift and navigation increasingly treacherous. From time to time, they were forced to resort to hauling the boat by rope along the shore.
On this particular day, the boat entered Antelope Gorge—the so-called "Little Three Gorges of the West River." This was the crucial passage between Zhaoqing and Sanshui, the point where travelers left the broad Pearl River Delta behind and entered the mountainous interior of western Guangdong.
At the gorge's entrance stood mountain temples on both the northern and southern banks, facing each other across the water. Monks would call to one another over the river, their voices echoing hauntingly through the narrow passage—a scene of peculiar charm.
When night fell, fishing boats would moor in the river forks for rest. There was a refined pleasure to be found in the river wind, the flickering fishing lanterns, and the midnight temple bells. For this reason, literary figures traveling to and from Zhaoqing had long considered this stretch a destination not to be missed.
The strategic significance of this location was equally pronounced—it formed a natural chokepoint for anyone seeking entry into the Pearl River Delta. During the Qing dynasty, a customs station would be established here. The Guangxi warlords would build artillery batteries along these banks to command the river.
If the Ming forces of Guangdong or Guangxi wished to prevent the Fubo Army from advancing westward into Guangxi, the Little Three Gorges of Zhaoqing would inevitably form their chosen defensive line. But what means could they actually employ? Red Barbarian cannons placed on both banks could indeed blockade the river—but they could never withstand the Fubo Army's bombardment and marine landing assaults. As for sinking boats to obstruct the waterway, the water here ran far too deep for such tactics.
Among the Little Three Gorges, Antelope Gorge possessed the highest mountains and deepest waters. It was formed by Antelope Mountain and Lanke Mountain pressing in upon the West River from either side. Lanke Mountain's main peak, Lanke Summit, rose to an elevation of 904 meters, ridge upon ridge ascending in strange, jagged formations. Antelope Mountain's main peak, Dragon Gate Summit, reached 615 meters, its steep slopes plunging directly to the riverbank. The undulating green mountain ranges wound their way down into the gorge—renowned as the most precipitous, extraordinary, majestic, and beautiful among the Three Banyan Gorge and Dading Gorge.
The moment their boat entered the gorge, the river surface narrowed dramatically—from nearly a thousand meters to barely over three hundred. The current ran fierce, the passage extremely perilous. Suo Pu watched the boat crawl along at a snail's pace. He observed the trackers climbing the mountainsides to haul the tow ropes, their backs bent nearly parallel to the ground as they inched forward step by step, clutching at trees and feeling their way along plank paths carved into the sheer cliffs. He could not suppress a growing anxiety: this stretch of Antelope Gorge was less than ten kilometers by water, yet traveling upstream would consume three full days.
Because they traveled as an "official boat," over a dozen civilian vessels had joined them for the upstream voyage. Due to their heavy cargo, these civilian boats moved even more slowly. Suo Pu estimated they would need at least four or five days to complete the passage.
"Who would have imagined that such a vital transportation route would have virtually no proper roads?" Kang Mingsi observed, watching the trackers struggle along the towpath with their bodies bent nearly horizontal. "What exactly do the local authorities and people do for a living?"
"You judge them unfairly," Suo Pu replied, watching the trackers on the rocky shoals straining forward as they chanted their labor songs. "The plank roads through the West River's Three Gorges only began in the Ming dynasty. Originally, there were no paths at all. It was only through several Ming-era projects—carving paths and building bridges—that something barely passable was created. Before that, the trackers could only haul ropes along cliff faces halfway up the mountains..."
Kang Mingsi was astounded. Hauling ropes on terrain like this? Simply climbing up without falling would have been an achievement in itself...
"This was a project led by Chen Yilong of Gaoyao, completed only late in the Wanli era," Lin Ming hastened to add. "It's called the 'Gorge Mountain Dry Road.' The construction was extraordinarily difficult. Ordinarily, only trackers make use of it."
Kang Mingsi gazed at the crude paths and bridges appearing intermittently among the sheer cliffs. His understanding of "the low level of productivity in ancient societies" suddenly became far more visceral.
"The water here runs very deep," Suo Pu said. "A three-thousand-ton steamship could reach Zhaoqing without any difficulty. The problem is that all the shoals downstream would need to be dredged first."
"The engineering scale would be enormous," Kang Mingsi replied. Though not an engineer himself, as a combat logistics staff officer he possessed considerable ability to assess workloads. "The army couldn't handle it alone. The Executive Committee would have to organize the manpower and resources..."
"Of course. That's why we need to make better use of local shipping resources—they know these waterways intimately," Suo Pu said. "The only problem is how painfully slow the upstream travel is..."
"If only we had diesel engines," Kang Mingsi mused. "We could convert the local boats to motor-sail vessels. Those small steam engines we have now are simply too slow, and they require their own coal supply..."
Suo Pu nodded. The power issue was indeed hampering their grand "shallow-water fleet" construction plans. Even the steam-powered sanfa boats, whose manufacturing and operation they had fully mastered, were really only practical for short trips. On longer voyages, coal and boiler water became formidable headaches—especially for extended travel through Guangdong's vast network of inland waterways.
The inland fleet plans proposed by the Industrial Sector looked beautiful on paper. But in reality, he suspected that apart from the shallow-water tugboats and gunboats, the other schemes might prove unviable. Power remained the Achilles' heel.
With nothing to do but wait patiently through the slow upstream progress, they found themselves in a region utterly different from the rich, densely populated Pearl River Delta. Here there were only towering mountains, endless peaks and ridges, and dense forests pressing in from all sides. At night, when they could no longer travel upstream, they had to moor and wait. From time to time, they could hear gibbons hooting and tigers roaring on both banks. One night, they heard an extremely harrowing scream for help—a sound absolutely chilling to the bone.
River pirates infested these waters in great numbers. Small bands of raiders lurked in little boats among the riverbanks and forks. They occasionally passed boats that had been plundered along the way. Suo Pu ordered heightened vigilance.
Though they flew the Qiwei banner as an "official boat," unfamiliar pirates still eyed them from time to time. Fortunately, these brigands were too weak and isolated, and seeing their tight security without knowing the true strength aboard, they dared not attack rashly.
Both banks were mountainous, and upstream boats had to be hauled slowly by trackers—small wonder this was a hunting ground for pirates. On the Yangtze, the most pirate-infested stretch was similarly the Three Gorges waterway from Yichang to Chongqing.
It seemed the situation in Guangdong would prove rather troublesome. The social conditions they would face here were a hundred times more complex than those on Hainan Island. Take these endless mountains lining both banks of the Little Three Gorges—even in the twenty-first century, they could serve as "wilderness camping" destinations. In the seventeenth century, with development even more limited, there were apparently still South China tigers roaming these slopes...
At last they traveled without major incident. The salt boat labored upstream, finally entering Dading Gorge. Here the gorge opened up, the river widened, and the current slowed. They were now approaching Zhaoqing Prefecture City, where water patrol boats were active and the waterway considerably more peaceful. The boat dropped anchor at the Zhaoqing Prefecture dock to purchase fresh vegetables.
"We'll rest in Zhaoqing for a few days," Suo Pu ordered. The grueling passage through Antelope Gorge had exhausted both boatmen and escorts alike. Ahead lay Three Banyan Gorge—though not as precipitous as Antelope Gorge, it stretched fifty-five kilometers long. Both the complex hydrology and the volatile social environment would demand ample energy to navigate safely. Moreover, they needed time to gather intelligence on the Ming forces in Zhaoqing.
Zhaoqing served as the seat of the Ming Governor-General of Liang-Guang. The current occupant of that office was none other than the famous pacifier Xiong Wencai. However, because the Council of Elders' Navy had raided Xiamen and killed Zheng Zhilong, effectively destroying the Zheng network, and had subsequently forced Liu Xiang's group to retreat to the Chaoshan region where they eventually surrendered under internal and external pressure, Xiong Wencai's achievement of "pacifying Zheng Zhilong and tranquilizing the coastal region" was far less illustrious than it had been in history. Of course, this did not prevent him from claiming credit for the destruction of Liu Xiang's group—which caused a minor dispute with Fujian Governor Zou Weilian. In the end, credit in the official reports was divided sixty-forty.
Given Xiong Wencai's usual style, the Executive Committee was surprised that he had not sent an envoy to "pacify" them. Originally, everyone had expected this as inevitable. There had even been quite heated discussions in the Council of Elders about whether to "accept pacification" and, if so, what terms to demand. But no pacification envoy ever materialized—greatly exceeding the expectations of both the Executive Committee and the Transmigrators.
The External Intelligence Bureau's informant in the Governor-General's Yamen was too low-ranking to access Xiong Wencai's inner circle and could shed no light on his decision-making process. However, judging from his governance over the past three years, his primary focus seemed to be "cleaning up the mess" left by the Guangdong military.
The Chengmai Campaign and the subsequent Pearl River Estuary Campaign had nearly annihilated all of Guangdong's Ming field forces. Apart from the hopelessly corrupt garrison troops, the main fighting force—the battalion soldiers—had been virtually wiped out. Guangdong was left with only the Southern Guangdong Vice-Commander and the Anti-Yao Task Force's troops still intact. Xiong Wencai had been recruiting refugees, conscripting new soldiers, and rebuilding the naval forces that had been devastated in the Pearl River estuary... In short, all his efforts had been consistent with a Governor-General's proper duties.
The External Intelligence Bureau speculated that Xiong Wencai would not discuss pacification with the Council of Elders until he had reorganized Guangdong's defenses. After all, even pacification required leverage.
What a pity, Governor Xiong, Suo Pu thought to himself as he sat in the forward cabin, gazing out at the dark river. This particular achievement will not be yours.
He knew that Zhaoqing had few troops. The only forces that could properly be called an "army" were the Governor-General's Central Army Battalion and a small naval patrol on the West River. For the well-equipped Marines and river gunboats, this represented no obstacle whatsoever.
Note: In fact, the Governor-General of Liang-Guang was stationed in Guangzhou at this time. Throughout the Ming dynasty, the Governor-General had been based in Zhaoqing except for a few years in the early-to-mid Chongzhen reign when he was in Guangzhou. For the purposes of the plot, he is depicted here as still being in Zhaoqing.
(End of Chapter)