Chapter 18: The Proposal for a Trade Expedition

Liu Zheng discussed some more business matters, and once Bai Guoshi saw that things were wrapping up, he quickly excused himself along with the others. Liu Zheng tried to leave as well but was asked to stay behind—a new mission was to be assigned.

“Your next mission will happen to be at sea. The exploration team should organize the manpower and take this opportunity to experience life on the ocean,” Ma Qianzhu said.

The Planning Committee’s task for the exploration team was to survey Hainan’s iron ore, specifically the mines at Shilu and Tian Du. Both were rare, high-grade open-pit iron mines in China. The team’s mission was to pinpoint their locations, work with the survey team to create topographical maps, and assess the difficulty and value of mining them.

Wen Desi said, “The difficulty of mining Shilu is probably quite high, but we still need to see just how difficult it is. That way, we can estimate at what stage of our industrial development we should attempt it.”

At this point, Mo Xiao’an suggested, “Why don’t the various ministries and commissions organize a joint expedition?”

“A joint expedition?!” The navy representative, Li Haiping, immediately perked up.

“Yes. Just now, Committee Member Wu proposed a trade expedition. Since this iron ore survey will require ships, and the scale can’t be too small for safety reasons, I think we might as well organize a large-scale expedition.”

“I agree,” said Lu Rong, the Minister of Trade, his spirits lifting. The domestic trade situation had been less than satisfactory recently, and the transmigrators’ efforts to acquire industrial raw materials through the East Gate Market were not meeting expectations. Everyone had forgotten how terrible transportation was in this era.

What had started as a small plan for a coastal survey with personnel from the exploration team and ships and sailors from the navy eventually grew into a multi-departmental joint operation. In addition to the usual partners—the exploration team and the special reconnaissance team—it now included the Department of Maritime Forces, the survey team, the Foreign Affairs Department, and the Foreign Trade Company. The Industry and Energy Committee and the Agriculture Committee would provide technical support personnel. Several students would also be brought along as apprentices.

To address the needs of working with the Li and Miao peoples, Mu Min was temporarily seconded from the police headquarters to join the expedition.

Besides resource exploration, the expedition team would also be responsible for surveying the terrain, drawing maps, and investigating the local conditions. They were also to acquire useful resources for the transmigrators through trade, hunting, gathering, or other means.

“We’ll be like those European adventurers, you understand? Exploring new sea routes and trading along the way…”

“And pillaging and burning along the way,” Li Haiping added.

“That’s not acceptable! The Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention!” Ma Qianzhu said sternly. “Of course, any natives who dare to challenge the authority of the transmigrator nation are enemies.”

Everyone understood the saying: treat enemies as harshly as the cruel winter.

“The primary objective is to acquire coconuts and coconut products. Our oil supply is crucial to whether we can keep up with industrial development,” Zhan Wuya quickly put forward his request.

Wu Nanhai added, “I’d also like more oil for cooking.”

“Timber,” said Wu Kuangming. “I’ve already cut down nearly half of the mangrove forest in Bopu. The banks of the Wenlan River only have mixed forests, which aren’t very useful, and we can’t cut too much to preserve the soil and water.”

“Can’t we buy it?”

“We can’t. The timber trade in Lingao is difficult. The Li people are willing to sell to us, but the problem is we can’t transport it out. There are no river systems here suitable for floating logs out of the mountains.”

“Timber takes up a lot of space and is heavy—”

“It doesn’t have to take up space on the ships. We can tie the logs into rafts and tow them.”

“Will that work? This is the sea, not a river.”

“We won’t be going far out to sea. The coastal waters are calm; it should be fine. I’ve read that North African countries in the Middle Ages transported timber this way in the Mediterranean.”

“I also need something that might be difficult to get but is very useful,” Zhan Wuya added his own request.

“What is it?”

“Deerskin,” Zhan Wuya said. “To substitute for rubber as transmission belts.”

This was indeed a more pressing need. With the introduction of prime movers and various self-made machines, the demand for belts for mechanical transmission had greatly increased. The machine department was currently relying on its reserves, but the limited stock would clearly not last until the rubber trees matured—according to Wu Nanhai’s calculations, it would be at least 15 years before their raw rubber could be used on an industrial scale.

Of course, there were also various raw ores. If they could be collected by the sea, they would mine some and bring them back. Ji Wusheng specifically mentioned quartz sand—in Changjiang’s Haiwei Town, there were abundant reserves of high-quality quartz sand right by the sea, making it very convenient to mine and transport.

“We can also purchase some cotton cloth,” Mo Xiao’an said. To prepare for the wave of immigrants after the New Year, the demand for cotton cloth from the light industry department’s clothing factory had surged, and their inventory was nearly depleted.

“What will we use to trade for these things? Buy them with money?”

“We don’t need to pay for ore, but we’ll have to trade for coconuts, timber, and cotton cloth, right?”

“We have something,” Lu Rong said confidently. “Salt.”

“Come on, salt is nothing rare in Hainan. There are salt fields everywhere, and illicit salt is rampant.”

“The illicit salt we sell is cheaper, and we’re basically providing home delivery. They should be willing to accept it.”

“What if they don’t want it?”

“We have sewing needles, distilled liquor, coarse paper, rough porcelain, silk… We’ve prepared a lot of small items, and also some mirrors.”

“Who are you planning to sell the mirrors to? They’re so expensive.”

“As gifts for the local officials and gentry. We’re not like the Spanish, who said they were trading but were actually robbing people all the way.”

Zhan Wuya said with concern, “But for such a large-scale expedition, how many people and ships will we need? I’m worried it will disrupt the transport of goods between Guangdong and Macau.” The Industry and Energy Committee depended on maritime transport more than any other department, and he was worried about their plans. “Won’t this require at least two 70-ton ships?”

Wen Desi said with regret, “If we concentrate our resources, the shipyard’s schooner could be completed within 10 days.”

“A newly built ship, used immediately for such a long voyage, isn’t that dangerous?”

“It shouldn’t be a big problem,” Wen Desi said. “Since this voyage is a circumnavigation of the island, even if something goes wrong, we can make landfall in time. It’s a good opportunity for a sea trial.”

“A circumnavigation has issues with tides, shoals, and reefs. What’s the safety factor? We’ve invested a lot in building this ship.”

“No problem, we have a full set of nautical charts and sailing directions. The safety factor should be the highest.”

“Honestly, if we had enough fuel, we could just take out the landing craft.”

“That’s just nonsense,” Ma Qianzhu said. “Actually, the reserves on the Fengcheng are quite substantial, but there are many things that need diesel now: fishing boats, construction machinery, vehicles… and there’s no way to replenish it.”

In fact, he had another reason known only to the highest levels of the Executive Committee: the Fengcheng had to maintain enough fuel for a one-way trip to Taiwan—as an escape route in case the revolution suffered a major setback.

“I think the North American yacht would be great as an exploration vessel. It’s fast, well-equipped, and perfect for maritime exploration,” Liu Zheng had been eyeing the sailing yacht for a long time.

“You can forget about that. The Executive Committee made it clear at the time that the ship belongs to them.”

“Can’t we build a few replicas? The boat is small and durable. Without the engine and modern navigation equipment, the structure isn’t complicated, and the living facilities can be simplified.”

“That would be very difficult,” Wen Desi said. “A modern sailing yacht like that is the crystallization of modern industrial technology. With our current industrial level, we won’t be able to replicate it even in ten years.”

“By the way,” Li Haiping remembered something, “isn’t Li Huamei’s ‘Hangzhou’ at Bopu? That ship is over 100 tons!”

Wen Desi said, “The Hangzhou is a single-masted fast ship. It’s a good vessel, but I always feel there’s something suspicious about that woman—”

“Are you overthinking it?” Li Haiping said. “At the time, Xiao Meng invited her to serve us, but she refused—she’d rather make money from trade. If she were a spy, she would have agreed immediately.”

“Don’t underestimate the intelligence of the ancients,” Wu De said. “It does seem a bit off—as if this person was deliberately put in our path. If this were a TV drama, I could understand it.”

“What do you guys think we should do? Get rid of her and confiscate the ship.” Li Haiping was indeed a man of extreme realism. The speed of his change in attitude was enough to make one’s jaw drop.

“She is, after all, the first sea merchant to come to Bopu. Doing that would give us a bad reputation,” said Ma Jia from the Foreign Affairs Department. “To be safe, we should just do some business with her, give her a little taste of the benefits. Don’t let her get too deep into our internal affairs.”

“What a waste of her ship, such good transport capacity—”

The members of the Executive Committee were indeed hesitant. They didn’t trust this person, but for this joint expedition, one two-masted ship was clearly not enough, not to mention it hadn’t been tested in practice—Wen Desi said it was fine, but he was also a bit hesitant in his heart.

“Let’s discuss it again,” Wen Desi said, feeling a headache coming on.

…

The meeting lasted until seven or eight in the evening, and Liu Zheng’s stomach was rumbling with hunger. In the end, the requests that Bai Guoshi had overstepped to propose were approved by the Executive Committee, though, as he had expected, with some compromises. The personnel request was cut; they were only given six transmigrators—mostly rejects that other departments didn’t want. The committee’s reason was grandiose: there are no rejects, only undiscovered talents. As for how to discover that talent, that was Liu Zheng’s problem.

“Why do I have to train the rejects—” Liu Zheng grumbled. “If they were female rejects, I’d welcome it, but then it wouldn’t be my job to train them.”

However, after much persuasion, he managed to get one more person added to his team. He had many reasons, the main one being that several of the forestry specialists on his team also had to work part-time in the Agriculture Committee’s biology lab. So, Zhao Xue from the IT group was kept on for intelligence collection and processing—the IT group had too many people anyway. He was quite satisfied with Zhao Xue’s transfer. Although the girl wasn’t much of a fighter, having a reasonably good-looking young woman in the department had a healing effect, and it was a bonus for Bai Guoshi.

The equipment requests were not cut much: six more crossbows were added—all experimental products self-made by the machine department, of various sizes and styles. Along with the crossbows came two domestically produced scopes and a Russian-made infrared night vision scope. Two more walkie-talkies were also provided. In addition, the exploration team’s computer power rights were upgraded from “relative” to “absolute”—24-hour uninterrupted power supply.