Chapter 29: Fort Changhua

Wang Luobin held a commanders’ meeting in the aftcastle of the Zhenhai. All the main cadres were present, including Li Haiping from the Hangzhou, who had returned for the meeting.

“This is our first important exploration point,” Wang Luobin said. “The Shilu iron mine is upstream of the Changhua River.”

“Our exploration team is ready and can set out at any time,” Cui Yunhong said with high spirits.

“Not so fast,” Wang Luobin spread out the map. “Shilu is a considerable distance from the mouth of the Changhua River, about 50 kilometers in a straight line, mostly through hilly and mountainous terrain. The round trip will take at least two days. Add at least two more days for exploration on site, so the fleet will have to stay here for more than five days.”

“That’s too optimistic,” Mu Min frowned. “There are very few Han people in Changhua County. Once you leave the county town, you’re in the Li territory. The exploration team has to go deep into the Li territory and deal with them along the way. It won’t be that fast.”

“We should have brought a few Li people from Lingao—” Wang Luobin was a bit annoyed. Thanks to Mu Min’s work in the Li territory, the relationship between the transmigrators and the Li villages in Lingao was quite good, and their trade was booming. Mu Min was even planning to recruit students for an ethnic class from the Li territory once the National School system was mature.

“It’s useless. The Li people here are completely different from those in Lingao,” Mu Min had checked the information on the Li people of Hainan Island. The Li people in Changhua were mostly Meifu Li, while the “Bubei Li” in Lingao belonged to the Gai Li. Not only were their languages completely different, but their cultures also had many differences.

“Are the Meifu Li easy to deal with?”

“Yes and no. The reputation of the Han people is very bad here,” Mu Min said with a bitter smile. Since being transferred to the Li and Miao Affairs Office of the Foreign Affairs Department, she had had a lot of contact with the Li people. “In their eyes, the Han officials want money, and the merchants cheat them. But they still welcome the merchants, after all, the salt and miscellaneous goods they bring are necessities of life.”

“We can disguise ourselves as merchants and enter the Li territory.”

“It would be best to find a local Li guide in Changhua County.”

“Let’s go to Changhua County town tomorrow and have a look.”

Since the exploration team’s round trip would take a long time, Wang Luobin decided that the fleet would not stay here. Instead, they would establish a camp at Sanjia Port and station a small team to support the exploration team. If the results of the exploration were encouraging, this camp could be expanded into a permanent fortress.

After building the camp, the fleet would set sail for Yazhou to explore Yulin Harbor and the Tian Du iron mine. Wang Luobin decided to build a camp in Yulin Harbor as well, depending on the situation, and then continue north, circumnavigating Hainan Island before returning to Lingao.

Once the sea route was established, if they officially decided to mine certain deposits, they would have to set up regular shipping routes.

“If I remember correctly, the Tian Du iron mine is relatively easy to mine. The Executive Committee will likely start there. But Changhua has a high-quality quartz sand mine, which is also very important to us.”

“Yulin Harbor is a high-quality naval port,” Li Haiping said.

Wang Luobin said, “We’ll talk about that later. Once we have iron, everything will be easier.”

“I have a question,” Cui Yunhong raised his hand. “You’re all talking about the Li territory and the Li people, but what about the government’s reaction? We’re building a camp here in a grand manner. Won’t they interfere? On D-Day, Lingao had more than five hundred fully armed brothers. How many people can we leave in this camp?”

“Don’t worry,” Wang Luobin took out the mission materials given to him by the Intelligence Committee. “This Changhua County has a total of only 672 households, with a total population of 2,600 people—men, women, old, and young, able-bodied or not, all included. There are at most 500 people in Changhua County town. If you want, we can take it down right now and make you the county magistrate, no problem.”

“What if pirates come?”

“You’re too timid, aren’t you?” Li Haiping was dissatisfied. “Fine, I’ll stay here and hold the fort for you. I’ll have a Type 56 in my left hand and a Glock in my right. Let’s see which blind pirate dares to come. I’ll catch them and line them up for you to… ‘chrysanthemum-ize’.” Everyone laughed.

Cui Yunhong disliked this kind of joke, but he knew Li Haiping meant well, so he held his tongue.

Wang Luobin smiled. “According to the intelligence, there’s no reason to believe that pirates will come to Changhua. What is there to loot in a place like this?”

After some more discussion, they decided that the fleet would rest here for two days, concentrate their efforts on building the camp, and at the same time, mine a batch of quartz sand to take with them.

The two ships adjusted their positions to get as close to the shore as possible. Wang Luobin, Li Haiping, Mu Min, Cui Yunhong, and more than 30 soldiers went ashore in small boats and went to a village to make inquiries. The villagers were suspicious of their strange appearance but did not flee. Xiong Buyou tried to communicate with them in several dialects and learned that Wuni Port had become heavily silted up due to a flood of the Changhua River in the early years and could no longer accommodate seagoing vessels. Therefore, Sanjia Port had become the main port for merchants and people in the county. However, it was far from the county town and separated by the river, which was very inconvenient. The people near the county town complained endlessly. As for the ruins, they were indeed a former Ming army barracks, but they had been abandoned for a long time.

The survey team explored the surrounding terrain and decided to build the camp on the site of the abandoned Ming barracks at Sanjia Port. According to the survey team’s on-site exploration, there was a freshwater well here, the foundation was ready-made, and there were still many usable stones on the site.

Wang Luobin ordered, “Take out all the ballast stones from the bottom hold and use them as building materials. Replace them with quartz sand for ballast.” Such good quartz sand, it would be a crime not to take it back. It was just ballast anyway, so it wouldn’t take up cargo space.

So everyone was mobilized. They took out their hoes and baskets and began to dig on the beach. The villagers watched with curiosity. These people were doing nothing but digging up the sand that was everywhere. Was it some kind of treasure? Some young men came to inquire, and Xiong Buyou immediately began to recruit workers, offering white sugar, salt, and sewing needles on the spot. Soon, all the able-bodied men in the village had come out. Before long, the white sandy beach was dug up all over, and the ballast of the two ships was filled with bags of quartz sand.

The camp was a matter of great importance, so the marines did all the work themselves. Before setting out, they had anticipated that they might need to build some permanent or semi-permanent structures on site, so they had brought some cement, iron, wood structural components, and hardware on the ship, as well as a full set of tools. With Huang Zhaizi, the half-baked carpenter, as the construction foreman, they used block and tackle for lifting. By evening, more than half of the Changhua camp had been completed. Huang Zhaizi first repaired a few houses that were in better condition, patching up the outer walls and adding roofs with tents. The original perimeter wall of the camp was one zhang high, but it had collapsed severely and had been dismantled by the nearby villagers. It was difficult to fully restore it. They only repaired the wall to chest height and added a new fence on top.

The area of the camp was greatly reduced. After all, only a small number of people could be left to guard it, and a large area would be difficult to control. The final camp consisted of only three houses and a well, surrounded by a chest-high wall. The original Ming army camp had an outer moat, but it had silted up so much that it was almost invisible, so it was not restored.

Wang Luobin named this place Fort Changhua. Since Li Haiping had volunteered, he was appointed as the first commander of Fort Changhua. The garrison consisted of two marine squads. The fleet left enough food for forty days, as well as a lot of ammunition and grenades. Besides Li Haiping, the transmigrators left behind included the exploration team going to Shilu and several people from the Foreign Affairs Department and the Intelligence Committee.

Because the future development prospects of this place were unknown, the conditions at the nascent Fort Changhua were very harsh. The only thing that could be called modern was a 15W radio and a matching hand-cranked generator. With a few people isolated in a foreign land, the radio was their lifeline.

“This place is not far from Lingao,” Wang Luobin instructed before leaving. “You must call the main station every day and maintain contact. If there are any problems, a speedboat will be dispatched from Bopu and will definitely arrive for rescue within 24 hours.”

“No problem,” Li Haiping said with confidence, but he was secretly complaining. He wasn’t afraid of any danger, but being left on this coast with a few people, living a primitive life with nothing, not even an electric light at night, was a terrible feeling.

“We can be back in Lingao in twenty days at most. We will definitely send a ship back on the thirtieth day. You must pay attention to safety and ensure the actions of the exploration personnel. Try not to have conflicts with the locals,” Wang Luobin instructed.

“Understood. Don’t worry.”

The next day, the work of building houses and mining continued. Led by people from the Foreign Affairs Department like Mu Min and Xiong Buyou, the group all changed into local clothes, carried a few baskets filled with daily necessities, and set off. The special reconnaissance team sent a few people to follow behind for protection.

Changhua County could be said to have been completely undisturbed by their arrival. Compared to the beacon fires and village militias on D-Day in Lingao, this place was practically undefended—there were almost no pedestrians on the road. The group advanced along the road. The Changhua River was dry in sections at this time, and the riverbed was exposed with sandy ground that could be traversed. This was a typical tropical savanna climate, one of the hottest places in all of Hainan. It was only March, but the temperature was already around thirty degrees Celsius. The group was drenched in sweat after walking only a short distance.

“It’s so dry and hot, just like Africa,” Mu Min was afraid of getting a tan and wore a blue floral tube skirt commonly worn by Gai Li women. She wrapped her head tightly with a handkerchief and wore a straw hat. Being fully clothed, she was naturally the hottest.

The coastal sandy area here extended far inland, with sand dunes everywhere. There were also river forks formed by seawater intrusion. Large trees were almost nowhere to be seen, but various shrubs were lush with tender leaves. Goats could often be seen searching for tender grass among the rocks and sand dunes.

“Changhua suckling goat, delicious—” Xiong Buyou was thinking about food again.

“Mutton?”