Chapter 36: An Unexpected End to a Romance

“A whistling arrow!”

Everyone was startled—an ambush!

The survey team had a contingency plan for ambushes on the road. All personnel with guns immediately drew them, while those without pulled out their machetes and quickly formed a circle. The apprentice Wang, who was leading the way, was so scared he hid behind them.

“Quick, hold the cattle! Don’t let them get spooked!” Xiong Buyou shouted, pulling a Derringer pistol from his pocket and loading a percussion cap.

At a bend in the riverbank ahead, about twenty young men appeared. Judging by their clothes, they were all Meifu Li. They were all armed with hooked knives, and some even had crossbows. They looked ready for a fight and blocked the road ahead.

“There are people blocking the road ahead!” Huang Zhaizi shouted. “All hands on alert!” He then blew his whistle.

“It’s the Li people!”

“No way,” Mu Min also rushed over from the back. “Our Li people never engage in robbing travelers on the road.”

“Hmph, I’m afraid they’re not after money or goods, but this treasure,” Huang Zhaizi glanced at Bida behind them. The woman, who had looked lifeless before, now seemed agitated.

“Don’t panic!” Mu Min shouted, calming down the team members who were drawing their guns. “They’re not setting an ambush. We can still negotiate.”

“I think they’re most likely here for Bida,” Cui Yunhong said in a low voice. “What should we do?”

Mu Min wondered if this was Bida’s boyfriend, the Zhen Huan that Li Benqing had mentioned. This man was truly loyal and righteous. This thought stirred up her womanly sentimentality again. Thinking of her own unromantic husband, she felt a pang of bitterness.

“If it’s really that Zhen Huan, we should just give Bida back to him,” she said.

“How can we do that? We promised to take her away—”

As they were discussing, a few people came over from the opposite side. One of them was handsome and wore clothes that were clearly better than the others. He wore a pheasant feather on his head and looked quite imposing. He stopped about 50 paces from the team and began to shout.

Xiong Buyou understood this time. He was speaking Hainanese, and although it had an accent, it was generally understandable.

“Damn, it really is that Zhen Huan!” Xiong Buyou said. “He wants us to hand over Bida.”

“What should we do?” Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Cui Yunhong and Mu Min. The former was the captain, and the latter was in charge of Li and Miao affairs.

“Hmph, a few broken knives and they dare to block the road. Let me show them what’s what,” Huang Zhaizi muttered, cocking the hammer of his Remington shotgun.

“No, don’t open fire,” Cui Yunhong quickly stopped him.

“There are only about twenty of them. A volley of shots will take care of them.”

“We’re in an unfamiliar place. Although we’d surely win a fight, if we anger them and they start harassing and ambushing us all the way, even with guns, we might not be able to get back to Fort Changhua peacefully.”

“Hmm, that’s true,” Huang Zhaizi thought and agreed.

Xiong Buyou said, “Besides, these people are all from Zhendui Village. If we kill a few of them, how can we cooperate in the future?”

Mu Min said, “Let her go. Bida is of no use to us anyway. We only took her with us to save her life. Since Zhen Huan is so loyal and righteous, why should we insist on keeping her?”

Seeing that no one objected, Xiong Buyou walked out of the group, unarmed, and shouted in Hainanese, “As long as you move aside, we will release her after we pass.”

Zhen Huan nodded and said, “You hand over a hostage first. After you pass, we’ll exchange hostages. Only then will I trust you!”

Hearing this, Xiong Buyou was so angry his lungs were about to explode. Since D-Day, the transmigrator group had only ever imposed unequal treaties on others; they had never been threatened. Seeing that he was only about 30 meters away, a murderous intent arose in his heart, and he gripped the Derringer pistol in his pocket. At this distance, he could kill Zhen Huan with a single shot. Even if the other side shot arrows, they might not hit him at a distance of seventy or eighty meters. Then, with a volley of shotgun fire from his comrades, they could simply wipe them all out.

Mu Min knew what Xiong Buyou was thinking and quickly shouted in Mandarin, “Don’t act rashly! A fight will be hard to clean up.” She turned to Cui Yunhong and said, “I’ll be the hostage. Let him clear the way.”

Before Cui Yunhong could say anything, Bida, who had been squatting on the ground, suddenly stood up and shouted something in the Li language. She then spoke quickly and urgently to the guide Wang. The guide Wang said to Mu Min, “She says she’s willing to go and talk to Zhen Huan and ask him to let us pass.”

Mu Min nodded, thinking this would be an easier way to persuade them. She said, “Tell her that after they clear the way and we pass, we will naturally let her go.”

After listening to the guide Wang, a strange expression appeared on Bida’s face. She shook her head and said something else.

“She says she is willing to go with the Bahe.”

Mu Min was surprised and for a moment thought the guide had translated incorrectly. But seeing her determined expression, she knew she was not talking nonsense. So she untied her ropes and let her walk out.

Seeing that they had released her, the other side’s faces lit up with joy, and the crowd behind them cheered, waving their bows, crossbows, knives, and spears.

Cui Yunhong saw Bida walk up to Zhen Huan. Zhen Huan tried to take her hand, but she pushed him away. The man seemed a little surprised, and the two of them began to whisper to each other. Zhen Huan grew more and more impatient, waving his arms and occasionally shouting and trying to push her, but Bida stood still, her head bowed, speaking in a low voice and occasionally shaking her head. Her attitude was very firm.

This silent drama played out between the two groups for a full ten minutes. Even the cattle had started to graze. Zhen Huan’s face showed extreme impatience. Finally, he turned abruptly and walked back. A few minutes later, the Li people on the riverbank were all gone, leaving only Bida standing there in a daze. Suddenly, she squatted down and began to cry loudly. The survey team was stunned.

“What was that all about?” Xiong Buyou muttered to himself.

Mu Min sighed. “Let’s keep going.”

Half a month after setting out, the survey team returned to Changhua County town. After bidding farewell to the apprentice Wang outside the city, the group returned to Fort Changhua. Li Haiping had been engaged in basic construction at the fort for over half a month, and the fort had begun to take shape. Cannons were even mounted on the battery—to avoid provoking the local authorities, the cannons were hidden in the houses and would be brought out when needed.

Seeing the survey team return fully loaded, Li Haiping was both happy and worried. The fort couldn’t accommodate ten cattle—and he didn’t know what breed they were, but they were all incredibly large water buffalo, looking almost like half-elephants. He immediately had the marines build a simple cattle pen outside the fort and assigned a few marines who had experience raising cattle to be in charge of grazing. As for the traded goods and gifts, no one was very interested. They were simply piled up in the warehouse, waiting for the ship to arrive and pick them up.

With nothing to do, the group idled away their time in the fort. Every day, besides going to the river fork of the Changhua River to bathe, they would drink tea and chat under the kapok trees outside the fort. During this time, they also undertook a basic construction project: a bamboo fence was erected at one end of the river fork for Mu Min and Bida to bathe. The encounter at Zhendui Village became the most talked-about topic—at first, it was just speculation about the truth. But gradually, for entertainment, it evolved. This village version of a palace revenge story became incredibly complex with each passing day of gossip. Slowly, people began to volunteer to be extras in it.

The heroine of the incident, Bida, however, remained silent. Although she actively helped with various chores in the fort—cooking, washing clothes, sweeping, and even feeding the cattle—no one in Fort Changhua understood the Meifu Li language, so Mu Min could never communicate with her.

As for what use Zhendui Village would be to the transmigrators in the next few years, no one could say. Soapberries were a good resource, but not urgently needed by the transmigrator group. Fort Changhua, however, found it very useful. Everyone now used it for bathing and washing clothes every day, finding the scent fresh and pleasant, and it cleaned well.

Changhua County town now became their only source of entertainment. The city was so small that after they had visited it several times, almost everyone in the city recognized them, although they found their hairstyles strange. They also became familiar with the yamen runners guarding the city gate. It turned out that the county didn’t even have a county magistrate, only a county assistant in charge. As for the local Qianhu, he simply lived on a farm outside the city. The few government offices were all deserted and dilapidated. No wonder they had passed by them several times without realizing that those small tiled houses were the yamen.

The shopkeeper Qian at the Guangzhou warehouse had become their de facto agent in Changhua County town. Through Shopkeeper Qian’s connections, the transmigrators in Fort Changhua could directly buy fresh vegetables, chickens, ducks, and grain from the Qianhu’s farm outside the city. The Qianhu and his men apparently saw nothing wrong with doing business with this group of people of unknown origin, especially when the goods they offered were white sugar and distilled liquor, which were in severe shortage locally. Xiong Buyou also bought dozens of goats from the farm, partly for their own consumption and partly to be sent back to Lingao with the cattle.

The 15W radio received telegrams from the fleet and the Lingao main station every day. Sometimes, they would also receive telegrams from the Guangzhou station, with all parties reporting that they were safe. According to the telegrams, the survey fleet had already arrived at Yulin Harbor and was surveying another important target of this survey: the Tian Du iron mine.

Yulin Harbor was the best port in Hainan. Not only that, but it was less than twelve kilometers from the high-grade Tian Du iron mine. In terms of ease of mining, it was far superior to Shilu.

If sailing directly from Lingao to Yazhou, the coastal route would only take four days. It only took the survey fleet two days to get there from Changhua. Because they stopped frequently to go ashore for surveys, each stop taking half a day to a day, they also made a special survey of the Yinggehai Salt Field in Le’an, Yazhou. In later times, the Yinggehai Salt Field was the largest salt field in Hainan and also the largest sea salt field in southern China. The seawater concentration here reached 3.5 degrees Baumé, one of the saltiest sea areas in the world, second only to the Red Sea, and was known as the “Bitter Sea.” At this time, it was still a coastal salt marsh area, deserted and uninhabited. Ming Qiu, who was quite knowledgeable about the history of Hainan’s development, told everyone that the Yinggehai Salt Field began preparations in 1955, and in 1958, the arrival of more than 5,600 professional soldiers marked the beginning of its great development.

The huge amount of sea salt was undoubtedly the best raw material base for the chemical industry. Everyone, starting with Wang Luobin, looked greedily at this barren tidal flat. Hainan Island was truly a treasure island.

The fleet conducted a field survey at Yinggehai and then continued on its way. On the sixth day after departing from Changhua, the lookout on the Zhenhai noticed that the ship was sailing in a huge bay. The white sandy beaches, swaying coconut trees, and azure blue waters all indicated that they were approaching Sanya.

“This is Sanya Bay,” Chen Haiyang checked the latitude and longitude measurements of the naval cadets. “We’re not far from Yulin.”

Sanya Bay at this time looked even more beautiful and more pristine than in later times. There were some scattered villages at the foot of the mountains, and salt fields like checkerboards along the coast.

After a few more hours of sailing, the lookout at the top of the mast finally saw the iconic 213-meter-high small hill on Luhuitou Cape.

Reaching Luhuitou Cape meant they had reached Yulin Harbor. In later times, the Luhuitou naval port was an important base for the South Sea Fleet. Standing on the deck, Ming Qiu was filled with emotion as he saw the familiar scenery before him, remembering the days and nights of preparing for battle here in 1974. He couldn’t help but mutter the Vietnamese phrases he had crammed back then:

“Dừng lại! (Halt!), Nộp súng không giết! (Surrender your arms and you will not be killed!), Chúng tôi đối đãi tử tế với tù binh! (We treat prisoners of war leniently!).”

“Old Ming,” Meng De walked over curiously. “What are you saying?”

“Vietnamese.” The temperature here was very high, and the deck temperature had long exceeded thirty degrees Celsius. Many people were shirtless or wearing a T-shirt. Ming Qiu was still wearing a neat Type 87 navy summer uniform. Standing on the deck, he made many of the otaku who had self-proclaimed themselves as future admirals of the transmigrator nation feel ashamed.

“In the spring of 1974,” Ming Qiu said, pointing to Luhuitou in the distance, “our unit was stationed there, participating in pre-war mobilization to prepare to fight for the Yongle Islands in the Paracels. At that time, the Americans were bogged down in Vietnam and began to withdraw. The white-eyed wolf of North Vietnam was taking the opportunity to move south, and South Vietnam was about to fall. To avoid unnecessary trouble after the war, the leadership issued an order to retake the Paracels. I was still a soldier back then—”

“You also participated in the retaking of the Paracels?” Meng De was filled with reverence.

“Actually, no,” Ming Qiu shook his head. “I was on standby here in Sanya the whole time. In the autumn of ‘74, our detachment was transferred to Lingshui to participate in an anti-landing exercise. They even made a movie about it.”

Just as Meng De was about to ask him for more stories from those years, Chen Haiyang had already given the order to lower the sails and prepare to enter Yulin Harbor. He had to hurry back to his post.

Yulin Harbor was far superior to the adjacent Sanya Bay. Sanya Bay was too open, and storms were fierce. Therefore, ships going to Southeast Asia often anchored here for temporary shelter and protection from the wind. As the fleet sailed past Luhuitou Cape, they saw several ships scattered in the bay. Some had tall masts, clearly merchant ships trading with Southeast Asia.

[Note: “Bahe” is a term of respect for a learned person in the Li language.]