Chapter 79: Journey to Guangzhou (I)

Xiao Zishan returned from Guangzhou.

The trip to Guangzhou was not to sell things and make money. On the contrary, they were a standard “Guangzhou procurement delegation.” Just like when the Chinese government would always send out a huge procurement list whenever the Americans were about to get angry in previous years, they also carried a long and varied procurement list. Each department had listed the things they urgently needed, and the largest item among them was pig iron.

Hainan has China’s best and largest rich iron ore, but whether it was Tiandu or Shilu, the transmigrators were temporarily unable to develop them. Moreover, Hainan had a rather fatal problem as a coal-iron complex—it had no coal.

The rise of an industrialized country is often critically linked to the establishment of a coal-iron complex. The reason why Britain was able to become the first country to industrialize has a lot to do with its rich iron ore and coal mines; the United States has the unique advantage of the Great Lakes, not only with supporting resources, but also with convenient and cheap water transportation; Russia has the Urals; Germany has the Ruhr. In the past, the Executive Committee only understood these from a literal perspective. It was not until they actually came to Lingao and tried to establish an industrial system that they realized that if the problem of steel could not be solved, industrialization would be empty talk. They had transported complete sets of equipment, various machine tools, various measuring tools, built power generation equipment, and produced cement, but they were stuck by the problem of steel. Without the cheapest coiled rebar, they could not even make a common reinforced concrete floor slab, a steel nail, or a hammer. There were tons of steel ingots piled up on the ship, but they were all special steels that they could not produce in a short time—no one was willing to use them.

After discussion among the leaders of several major groups of the Industrial Committee, it was decided that since the development of iron ore could not be done for a while, they would skip the blast furnace stage and start with steelmaking! Regardless of the quality, they would first produce the crude steel with the largest daily demand. The large amount of pig iron needed for steelmaking would first be purchased from Guangdong.

Pig iron can not only be used as a material for steelmaking, but it is also a good material in itself. Some relatively clumsy components can be made of pig iron. The procurement list issued by the metallurgical group was to purchase 50 tons of pig iron. It was said to be the very minimum. The several small converters they brought, even if only the smallest one-ton capacity one was put into operation, 50 tons of pig iron would not be enough for a month’s production.

This plan was completely feasible on paper. The output of pig iron in Guangdong during the Ming Dynasty was extremely considerable. According to the statistics of the Guangdong Provincial Administration Commission in the 13th year of the Jiajing reign (1534), the annual output was as high as 6,127,500 jin, which is equivalent to 3,100 tons. 3,100 tons of pig iron is only a few days’ output for a small modern steel plant, but the total steel output of Russia in 1670 was only more than 2,700 tons. The early steel industry of the transmigrators was based on the import of pig iron, which was still somewhat guaranteed.

[Note: The figures for steel production are currently highly debated. This is purely for the needs of the novel, so don’t take it too seriously.]

But for Xiao Zishan, things were not that simple. Although he knew nothing about steel, he knew about economic history. In the Guangdong province of the Ming Dynasty, there was probably no ironworks with 50 tons of pig iron ready for purchase. He would most likely have to search everywhere to get it. After finding it, how to transport it out? Xiao Zishan vaguely remembered that pig iron seemed to be prohibited from being exported. What would happen if the government found out that he was loading 50 tons of iron onto a ship? This was enough to give him a headache.

Headache or not, what needed to be done still had to be done. The mission of this procurement delegation, in addition to buying things, was to prepare for the establishment of a Guangzhou intelligence network and to infiltrate the wealthy merchants and even the government of Guangdong. Therefore, the personnel were well-equipped. In addition to him as the general person in charge, Xi Yazhou was originally to be sent as a military specialist. Later, because he was tied up with the mass movement in the salt farm village, Bei Wei was transferred from the salt farm village instead. Xiao Zishan thought this was good. With a scout as a bodyguard, he would feel at ease wherever he went. Bei Wei also brought the four best students from the reconnaissance team, using this trip to Guangzhou as a graduation examination for their training.

Accompanying the team were also several figures who were preparing to set up a forward station in Guangzhou. Yan Maoda used to be the manager of a jewelry company and was very familiar with this business. His suggestion to the Executive Committee was to use the existing real estate in Guangzhou to open a luxury goods firm as a cover—this kind of firm had several major advantages: first, it required a large amount of capital and frequent transactions. The frequent flow of huge amounts of cash and personnel would not easily arouse suspicion; second, it dealt with the families of high officials and nobles, making it easy to infiltrate the enemy’s interior; third, it could be heavily fortified in a grand manner.

Lu Rong had just returned from the Li area and joined the group. He was fluent in several southern dialects, liked to read ancient texts such as “Guwen Guanzhi” and “Wen Xuan” in his spare time, and could write a decent hand of calligraphy. He was strong, knew how to ride a horse, and also knew some martial arts, making him a suitable candidate for the secret front.

Another important figure was Guo Yi. The main reason he was entrusted with this important task was that the group’s concept of secret front work all came from movies and novels. He was the only one who had actually come into contact with practical work. With a transfer order, Guo Yi suddenly found that he was no longer a handyman in the security group, but the person in charge of the forward station, and was going to Guangzhou in the Ming Dynasty to engage in secret agent activities—this made him feel the impermanence of life. Less than three months ago, he was engaged in counter-espionage in Guangzhou in another time and space…

In addition to more than a dozen transmigrators, some natives were also needed to accompany them. The people from the Bairen Beach production team who had returned sporadically were either locals from Lingao or Fujianese slash-and-burn farmers. Not to mention going to Guangzhou, many had never even been to Qiongzhou Prefecture. Among the prisoners captured after breaking the Gou family estate, there were some from Guangdong, but they had not yet passed the political review and could not be used rashly. In the end, a breakthrough was found in the salt farm village.

Tan Guihuang, the deputy director of the village committee of the salt farm village, heard that the kūnzéi masters were looking for a few reliable people to go to Guangzhou with them, so he recommended Liu Gang, a salt merchant from Leizhou, to them.

Because of the salt trade, Liu Gang had a very good relationship with the salt farm village. When Tan Guihuang went across the sea to contact salt merchants to buy salt, he was the first to come, and he also brought the grain and cloth that the village urgently needed at that time. Tan Guihuang felt that this person was righteous and reliable. And although he had settled down in Leizhou, he was a native of Nanhai County, Guangzhou Prefecture, and often did business around Guangzhou, so he was familiar with the road conditions. It was most appropriate for him to accompany them. When Tan Guihuang told Liu Gang, he naturally agreed—he had to agree if he wanted to continue the salt trade in the salt farm village. He had also received news that this group of kūnzéi people was the backer of the salt farm village, and it was they who had dealt with the local tyrant Gou Da who controlled the salt farm. A salt merchant who was used to the ways of the world would not dare to offend such a force.

The means of transportation was a boat, which was not only the fastest and most convenient, but also because the team was carrying a lot of things. In addition to the necessary dry food, weapons, and silver, there were also radios, hand-cranked generators, solar panels, and other items needed to build the Guangzhou intelligence station. There were also various samples of goods that they were preparing to find opportunities to sell in Guangzhou—the unsold goods that the Gou family had failed to sell were now their turn to handle.

However, the ships owned by the transmigrators were too eye-catching. No matter which one they sailed, it would cause a sensation. For the time being, it was better to keep a low profile. So they asked Tan Guihuang to come forward and buy a Lingao junk from a local fisherman. This kind of boat was 22 meters long and had a displacement of up to 78 tons, making it a veritable large fishing boat. It was a piece of cake to run to Guangzhou for short-distance trade.

[Note: The Lingao junk is a famous large traditional fishing boat in Hainan, but its appearance is relatively recent.]

With a boat, they also needed sailors. Ordinary people could not handle this kind of large sailing boat. It was not easy to find such talents among the transmigrators. Although Wu De was from a fishing family, he grew up watching motorized fishing boats. In the end, Lin Chuanqing volunteered to be the captain. This fisherman-turned-smuggler, because of his work, knew how to do everything at sea. Several sailing enthusiasts from the North American team also became sailors.

After the North American group arrived in Lingao, they had not been assigned any positions. Qian Shuiting, because he was engaged in investigation and statistics, was assigned to the Planning Committee to deal with numbers. Qian Shuixie and Zhou Weisen were on duty in the military group every day, standing guard, and were bored to death. They were not like Lin Shenhe, who could still go to the machinery group to develop weapons after work. This time, when they were recruiting sailors to go to Guangzhou, they all signed up, just for fun. Several people also had their own little plans. They brought a lot of their privately stored weapons and also pulled in Lin Chuanqing, preparing to act as pirates at sea. Lin Chuanqing was not a good person either. The few of them hit it off and were ready to act as soon as they had the chance.

However, it was still a bit difficult to be a pirate. The Lingao junk was a hard-sailed boat, and the sailing skills of this group of 21st-century sailing enthusiasts were for soft-sailed boats. Although they had basically mastered the method of use after several trial voyages, it was hard to say how proficient they were. After discussing for a while, they went to Xiao Zishan and said that for the convenience of operation and for safety’s sake—after all, the coast of Guangdong was not peaceful—it was best to turn the boat into a motorized sailing boat. The few people from North America knew that this Commissioner Xiao was the most cautious and was even more concerned about his own safety, so this suggestion was immediately approved by him. The industrial group was authorized to modify this large hard-sailed boat and install two 12-kilowatt Changchai-powered single-cylinder diesel engines. The industrial department had brought many of these things. They had a simple structure, were easy to maintain, and had a wide range of uses. They could be used as power for almost anything except airplane engines.