Chapter 27: Bairen City

In the days that followed, Fu Youdi’s transformation from honest farmer to petty tyrant was swift and complete. In his simple peasant mind, it was only natural to take a cut of whatever passed through his hands.

At first, it was just a matter of taking the best portions of food for himself. Then, he was given the task of assigning work. Wu De only specified the daily workload, not how it was to be accomplished. Fu Youdi assigned all the work to the other four men, while he himself merely pretended to work. At first, there was some resistance, some slacking off. Fu Youdi, lacking the courage to confront them directly, used his power over the food distribution to punish them, giving only the watery surface of the soup to those who shirked their duties. Wang Tian, a fellow local, became his favored subordinate, working less and eating more. The other three became the victims of his tyranny. One evening, their resentment boiled over. Lin Xing, the boldest of the group, led a small rebellion, knocking Fu Youdi to the ground. Wu De, observing the conflict, did not intervene in the dispute itself. Instead, he had each man involved in the fight given fifty lashes with a rattan cane. Lin Xing, as the instigator, received one hundred.

As the men’s buttocks burned, so too did their hatred for one another. Fu Youdi, his authority now backed by Wu De’s implicit support, became more brazen in his exploitation. The conflict deepened. The five men were now divided into three factions: Fu Youdi and Wang Tian; Lin Xing, the lone resistor; and the two who remained on the sidelines, courted by both sides. Wu De, with a masterful touch, fanned the flames of their discord, sometimes criticizing their work, sometimes lowering their food rations for some minor infraction. When one man’s mistake meant everyone went hungry, the mutual accusations only served to deepen the rifts between them.

Lin Xing, the cleverest and most courageous of the group, finally found the courage to complain directly to Wu De about Fu Youdi’s abuses. Wu De, seizing the opportunity, publicly reprimanded the fattened Fu Youdi, putting him in his place. He also showed a subtle favoritism towards Lin Xing. The other captives, grateful for Wu De’s “insight,” and knowing it was Lin Xing who had brought their plight to his attention, began to actively learn Mandarin.

“Ah De, you’re a real piece of work,” Xiong Buyou said, amazed at the sudden diligence of his students. “Did you slip them a love potion?”

Wu De just chuckled. It was all going according to plan. Human nature, he knew, was the same in the 17th century as it was in the 21st.

Wu De’s “new task” was just a small part of his daily work, a minor episode that would later be seen as a pivotal moment in the history of the transmigrators, but which at the time went largely unnoticed. All attention was focused on the road construction.

The project, driven by mechanized construction, progressed rapidly. By D+6, the seventh day of the ninth lunar month of the first year of the Chongzhen reign—or October 3, 1628, by the Gregorian calendar—the 12-kilometer highway from Bopu to Bairen Tan was complete, only one day behind schedule. The fortifications along the road were maintained, destined to become small fortresses, the cornerstones of their road security.

Bairen Tan itself was to become the first city of the transmigrators in this new world. The construction team had already given it a simple, fitting name: “Bairen City.”

“It has a certain wuxia feel to it,” Mei Wan said, standing on the cliffs of Bairen Tan, his spirits high. This was the site of the Bairen Tan hydropower station’s spillway in the 21st century. The Wenlan River made a sharp turn here, its waters cascading down a series of nine rocky tiers, the sound like thunder. This was the “Bairen Tan sound,” which could be heard for more than twenty li around.

“Lord of Bairen City!” Yan Quezhi shouted, striking a pose with his survey pole. A few others joined in, mimicking martial arts moves.

“Is the plan ready?”

“It is,” Li Xiaolü said, unrolling a 1:1000 planning map. The design of this new city, this “base that inherits the flame of civilization of the 21st century,” had been a matter of intense debate. Li Xiaolü had synthesized the various proposals into a plan based on the “new socialist countryside” model of the late 1970s, a design that integrated administration, education, small-scale industry, and agriculture.

Bairen City would be developed along both banks of the Wenlan River, with the main urban area and the hydropower area on the east bank, and the heavy industrial area on the west.

The hydropower area would house the power station and a water treatment plant, with plans for a small inland river wharf and warehouse.

The main city, situated on a plot of land with a low groundwater level and good soil bearing capacity, would be about 100 meters from the hydropower area. A natural 4% slope would provide effective rainwater drainage. A water supply station at the southernmost end of the city would use a simple water tower to supply the entire city by gravity.

The main urban area was divided into functional zones: an administrative area along the north-south main road; a cultural, educational, and health area to the east, with schools, clinics, a library, and a stadium; a residential area in the northeast, with ample space reserved for future family housing; a storage area for all the materials and equipment brought from the 21st century, including armaments, which would be enclosed by a separate wall; an agricultural area, with processing plants, granaries, a veterinary station, greenhouses, livestock pens, and a biogas digester; and an industrial area for machinery and parts manufacturing.

The heavy industrial area, with its polluting steel and chemical plants, was located on the west bank, downwind from the main city. An open commercial and trade area would be established outside the east gate for exchange with the local natives.

The grand plan for Bairen City was unanimously approved. Almost immediately, a fierce competition began for the most prestigious locations on the future “Chang’an Avenue.” The debate over which ministry building would be closest to the Executive Committee building nearly came to blows, until Wen Desi patiently explained that there were no ministry buildings in the current plan, nor was there an Executive Committee building. There was only a foundation marker for a single administrative agency. For the foreseeable future, they would all be working together in the same office.

With construction set to begin, they could no longer rely on the auxiliary engines on the ship for power. They had several options: diesel generators, wind turbines, or a solar power station. But each had its drawbacks. The inland wind was not strong enough for the 300-watt wind turbines to be of much use, and solar power was limited. To conserve precious diesel, the generators were reserved for emergencies.

A tractor hauled a strange-looking contraption from the beach base: a black cast-iron behemoth with a chimney, a flywheel, exposed pipes, and a bewildering array of valves and pressure gauges. It looked like something out of a steampunk novel.

“A portable steam engine,” Ma Qianzhu explained. It was a simple, reliable, and versatile machine, capable of running on any fuel, from wood to low-quality coal. It could be used for everything from drainage and irrigation to powering a generator or industrial machinery. It was heavy, but that was not a problem. The key was that it would save their diesel.

The Executive Committee had purchased six portable steam engines. Two were Czech-made, fixed units, capable of generating over 200 kWh of electricity per hour. The other four were 100-horsepower mobile units, which could be towed by tractors or even horses.