Chapter 2441: Wu Nanhai Arrives

Wu Yijun perked up. He knew about this "Third Uncle"—the man had been Chen Lin's father's capable assistant. If he had come to Guangzhou and could be found, that would be a tremendous help.

"Finding and taking him in are not difficult. But no one in my household knows him—how are we to search?"

"Young Master said that although you don't know him, Chen Yin who works in your household does."

"Look at my memory!" Wu Yijun slapped his forehead. "Chen Yin is from your family clan! In that case, I'll find him. Are you waiting for news before returning, or leaving right away?"

"Young Master instructed me to return as soon as I delivered the letter. If the Master has news, there's no need to rush to send a message. Young Master will send someone over."

"He's certainly meticulous." Wu Yijun smiled. "In that case, rest at my place for two days. The day after tomorrow, take your travel money and head back."

Chen Qing thanked him and withdrew. Wu Yijun immediately summoned Chen Yin and asked if he knew Chen Ding.

"Yes, he's my clan uncle," Chen Yin said without hesitation.

"In that case, don't do any other work these next few days. Master Ding may have come to Guangzhou. Go around the city and investigate—try to find him and bring him back. If he's unwilling, tell him this is his nephew's wish."

"Yes, I understand," Chen Yin replied. "I'll go right now."

"Should you bring some people?"

"No need. They don't know Master Ding, and having more people means less secrecy."

Chen Yin had been running errands for Wu Yijun and understood the stakes. He didn't dare delay and went out to investigate that very day.

In the past, the most convenient way to find someone in Guangzhou was through connections with the Guandi Temple gang. With enough money spent, unless someone hid on a boat family's small vessel, they could dig you out from anywhere.

But now the Guandi Temple gang had been destroyed, and finding people wasn't so easy anymore. Fortunately, Chen Yin was looking for his own clan uncle. Chen Ding had also been a "public figure" in Nansha. Chen Yin was quite familiar with him, knew his temperament and personality, and roughly knew his social network in Guangzhou.

Though the Nansha Chen family couldn't be called illustrious, they had several relatives in Guangzhou. Chen Ding had spent several years studying in Guangzhou when young and had made friends he still kept in touch with. Chen Yin mentally ranked the families by their closeness to Chen Ding, listed three first, and went to inquire at each one in turn.

Unexpectedly, after visiting all three, he found nothing. Chen Yin then visited every family he could think of, but still didn't find him.

Chen Yin wasn't willing to give up. He also inquired at various inns and docks in Guangzhou, but received no news.

After several days of fruitless effort, Chen Yin was at a loss.

Apart from these few families, Third Uncle had no other friends or relatives in Guangzhou—where would he go?

Chen Yin thought again. According to what the Master had told him, Chen Ding had most likely come to Guangzhou to find a way to bring down Chen Xuan. If so, he should be looking for relatives and friends connected to the Australians, rather than just finding any acquaintance to settle down with—for that, he might as well have stayed in Sanliang Market.

Speaking of relatives with Australian connections, none of these families had any. But didn't the Wu family qualify? The Wu family's Old Madam—that is, Wu Yijun's mother—was Chen Lin's grandmother's biological sister. She was related to Chen Ding through marriage...

Logically, if he wanted to find a "pro-Australian" channel, their family would be most suitable. But he hadn't come. Could it be that Master Ding had never come to Guangzhou at all?

When Wu Yijun heard no one had been found, he was quite disappointed. But this matter couldn't be rushed. He simply instructed Chen Yin to continue searching every day. He himself was busy preparing for the patent auction, especially negotiating with the Dong family.

Honestly speaking, persuading the Dong family wasn't easy. To protect themselves, the Dong family had suffered great losses in real estate. The land they'd previously received as "donations"—due to the new tax system's implementation, both donors and recipients had, without prior agreement, adopted the approach of cutting ties. This was probably the most appropriate method at present.

After subtracting the donated land, the Dong family found they actually didn't own much farmland themselves. The land their family had previously occupied was mostly "garrison land"—theoretically belonging to the Great Ming in the past, now to the Great Song. By their count, they only had about a hundred mu of "ancestral cemetery land" near the suburbs that was actually their own property.

This meant the Dong family's income had greatly decreased while expenses remained the same. Even with ten thousand strings of cash, they'd eventually run out. So their desire to make money was strong, but they also feared losing their last bit of principal. Thus, Wu Yijun's investment negotiations proved extremely difficult. Fortunately, Dong Jizhong had been deeply influenced by "Australian learning" and possessed quite progressive perspectives. The two families were also old acquaintances who knew each other's situations, so they finally managed to reach an agreement.

"Chief, here's the list and background information for merchants attending tomorrow's auction."

"Leave it on the desk."

The Senator speaking turned from the window of the Great World's top floor, where he had been overlooking Guangzhou. It was none other than Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Minister Wu Nanhai.

Ever since the Mainland Campaign began, Elder Wu's presence had been gradually fading—not that he had faded from the Senate or was practicing "rule by inaction," but rather that everyone's attention was now occupied by the Mainland Campaign and the much-discussed Nanyang development.

Wu Nanhai's main work currently was "increasing yield while maintaining production." Honestly speaking, this work was becoming increasingly strenuous. Fundamentally, increasing production required fertilizers and pesticides. Given the Senate's industrial production capacity, only a few directly-managed farms could currently be supplied. Other places, including the private sector, could only work on expanding cultivated land area.

Following his orders, cultivated area had been expanded in Hainan, Leizhou, Jeju, and Taiwan under Senate rule. But these places, except for Jeju, all shared a common problem: inadequate water conservancy facilities. The Tainan Plain was affected by ocean tides. Many counties in Leizhou and Hainan had abundant rainfall but couldn't retain water—annual average precipitation was plentiful, but as soon as it stopped raining, drought struck. Major hydraulic works were needed to ensure increased production—this couldn't show results overnight.

His appearance in Guangzhou had nothing to do with agricultural production. He was here purely for this "Patent Licensing Conference." In fact, he was also one of the main Senators who had facilitated this patent licensing.

He had been working on this matter in Lingao for several years. A few days ago, the Senate Standing Committee finally passed the Principles and Methods for Use of Senate-Exclusive Intellectual Property proposal and the Principles and Methods for Civilian Use of Senate-Exclusive Intellectual Property.

The former confirmed that the property rights of all knowledge brought by Senators from the old timeline belonged jointly to all Senators. Any enterprise, individual, or organization, when using these property rights, must register and pay patent licensing fees. State enterprises under the Planning Agency theoretically also had to pay licensing fees when using them—this fee theoretically consisted of the Senator Fund's stock holdings in state enterprises and Senate-affiliated enterprises.

The latter allowed, based on the premise of technology already used by state enterprises, and after evaluation by relevant departments, conditional opening of technology to the private sector. That is, private institutions could obtain these patented technologies by paying patent fees or through patent equity investment.

With these two documents, orderly technology diffusion could gradually begin. In the past, the Senate had diffused quite a bit of technology, but due to intense internal debates about which technologies could or couldn't be diffused, and what models should be used for diffusion, there had always been controversy.

Though later everyone roughly reached consensus on mainly diffusing civilian, light industrial technology, and some related work had been done, overall it hadn't amounted to much. Of course, this was also related to there being few wealthy classes in Hainan. The few wealthy classes there were actually more interested in trade and simple handicrafts, having neither interest nor ability to invest in systematic industry that required large investment and slow returns. Moreover, Hainan itself was relatively poor in resources and manpower. This destined almost all manufacturing industry on Hainan Island to be invested and operated by the Senate. According to finance sector statistics, not a single above-scale manufacturing enterprise on the island was privately owned. Only among below-scale micro and small enterprises was there a relatively larger private component—almost all concentrated in food processing and primary product processing.

Now the Senate's feet had stepped onto prosperous Guangdong. Foshan was also the Senate's planned future industrial hub. Attracting private capital investment in industrial sectors and diffusing production technology had been placed back on the agenda.

As for how exactly technology should be diffused, Wu Nanhai's view was this: the Senate's most important asset was the Senators themselves and the era-transcending technologies they had brought. These technologies included not only various industrial technologies but also various management technologies and humanistic knowledge. Simply put—various intangible intellectual property rights that couldn't be seen or touched.

Since it was knowledge, popularizing and instilling intellectual property rights among ordinary naturalized citizens seemed very necessary. The entire society needed to develop the habit of respecting and revering knowledge. The atmosphere of revering knowledge already existed; now it just needed strengthening. Protecting intellectual property was protecting the Senators' most important advantage.

But industrialization's core was building industrial chains. Building industrial chains inevitably required technology diffusion. Given the Senate's current scale and capabilities, they had already made local natives deeply recognize the power of Senate knowledge. But in stark contrast to the great value demonstrated by these powers, the price natives paid when obtaining this technological knowledge was very low—often even free.

Of course, the various knowledge currently diffused by the Senate was mainly for cultivating "new people" who met Senator needs. This "cheapness" and "freeness" was not only reasonable but necessary. But when extending to the industrial sector, things needed to be carefully considered.

(End of Chapter)