Chapter 39: Coconuts

“That’s a problem,” Wang Luobin said, rubbing his chin. Li Haiping’s volunteering in Changhua and the cheerful news from the garrison personnel in their radio messages had made him overlook this for a while.

Chen Haiyang also said, “It’s really hard to say what will happen to ordinary transmigrators if they are stationed long-term in these remote fortresses. Professional soldiers rely on faith—” He didn’t finish his sentence. Professional soldiers were to protect their homes and country. What were these otaku fighting for?

To have three wives and four concubines, they guarded the vast maritime territory of the transmigrator regime!

To raise lolis, they fought on the industrial front!

We must liberate all the lolis in the world!

Raise high the great banner of lolis!

This chaotic scene gave Wang Luobin a strong sense of discomfort. He quickly shook his head. It seemed that the ideas of national righteousness and democratic freedom could not be discarded. The transmigrator group’s constant promotion of self-interest was not a solution. At critical moments, they would lack a just cause. To make people shed blood and sacrifice, this was still very important.

“This is indeed a difficult matter,” Wang Luobin sat down. Places like Fort Yulin and Fort Changhua were different from the Guangzhou station. That was a big city, after all, where they could gather intelligence and do business every day, and life was very fulfilling. Moreover, the intelligence station had a group of native personnel with them at the core, which meant that every transmigrator was like a master. Although their lifestyle was 17th-century style, it was much better than the life of the masses in Lingao.

To leave a few people isolated with a group of native subordinates to be stationed long-term on a desolate coast, eating “Grassland” series dry rations, drinking water treated with purification tablets, and even defecating in the pristine wilderness—even the most hardcore backpacker couldn’t endure this for more than a few days.

“In your professional experience, how long do you think a person can last in such an environment? How often do we need to rotate personnel?”

“How many modern living facilities can be provided?”

“It should be said that there is nothing except for a radio,” Wang Luobin said. “If they are bored, they can probably use a hand-cranked generator to light a light bulb and use the Africa-poverty-relief-edition laptop. Of course, food, medicine, and books can be fully guaranteed.”

“About a month. If the local security is not good, and there are pirate attacks every few days, and they often have to defend their homes, I’m afraid they won’t even last half a month.”

Jiang Qiuyan said, “There’s another thing I think everyone may not have thought of. We now have a few enemies. Without exception, they all have powerful maritime forces. If they find out that we have set up trading posts in these places, it would be easy for them to take down Fort Yulin or Fort Changhua. Whether the transmigrators are killed or captured, it would be a huge blow to the entire group.”

“What do you mean?”

“Only leave natives to guard here, and it’s best not to have too much of a military presence,” Jiang Qiuyan said. “Just a village, a warehouse.”

Chen Haiyang frowned. “Only send the marine team to guard?”

Jiang Qiuyan smiled. “Even the marines are not needed. Just immigrate seven or eight families here.” He pointed to the surrounding area. “There are mountains and water here. Although we can’t grow rice, it should be possible to reclaim a few mu of sloping land to grow some vegetables and sweet potatoes for basic self-sufficiency. We can supply them with grain on a regular basis. For the government procedures, let Lin Quan’an handle it. Money can always pave the way. Then give the villagers some weapons, organize a militia team, and they should be able to deal with scattered pirates and bandits. The villagers’ task would be to collect the resources we designate every day, and then our ships will come to transport them regularly. We can also give them some rewards based on the quantity they hand in—”

Chen Haiyang slapped him on the shoulder. “I didn’t expect you, a doctor, to be a civil affairs talent too!”

“But such an immigrant village lacks military protection. If a large group of pirates comes to attack, they will definitely be wiped out,” Wang Tao expressed his concern.

“So what? It’s just the death of seven or eight native families. There are refugees all over the Central Plains now. The number of people we can take in is just a matter of how many we are willing to accept. If one village is destroyed, we can just move another one over. At worst, we’ll immigrate twenty households instead of the original seven or eight.”

“You’re really ruthless.”

“Ruthless my ass. Let’s not pretend to be gentlemen. We’re so good to the natives, what’s the point of all this damn humanistic care if not to have them risk their lives for us?” he exhaled. “For those who are about to starve to death on the streets, being sent to this place of blue seas and silver sands, with a roof over their heads and a place to stand, not freezing to death, and being able to eat a few full meals in peace, it’s worth it even if they are killed by pirates.”

“But you have to know that once the people’s hearts are shaken, the immigrants can’t be relied upon,” Wang Tao said. “If pirates rarely come, we don’t have to worry about it. But what if they come often? If there are battles and casualties every few days, the transmigrators can’t stand it, and neither can the immigrants. If they move to other places, who will we find?”

“I don’t think the common people of this era are so fragile. As long as they consider this their home, they will shed blood and sacrifice for it.”

Wang Luobin said, “This sounds quite reasonable, but I’m not very familiar with civil affairs. I’ll see what Wu De and Old Wen say when we get back. For now, let’s build this fortress first.”

The construction of Fort Yulin was a bit more troublesome, but with the complete set of tools they brought, it was quickly completed. During this time, all the personnel on the fleet, as long as they were not building houses, were mobilized to pick coconuts. There were extremely many wild coconut groves here, and coconuts could be picked everywhere. Many ripe coconuts had even fallen under the trees, untouched.

“A treasure land, truly a treasure land!” Bai Guoshi was extremely excited. Coconuts, a large number of coconuts, were just left on the ground, untouched. And the people of Lingao were racking their brains every day to get these useful fruits. You dried coconut merchants of Qiongshan County, you are truly a group of wasteful profiteers, he cursed inwardly.

Before he could finish venting his emotions, someone was already using a knife to peel a coconut and poke a hole to drink the coconut water. Under the caress of the southern country’s sea breeze, with the sandy beach on one side, the azure, completely unpolluted seawater, and this sweet coconut juice, many people were already feeling light-headed.

“Why is there so little water in this coconut?” Wang Tao had chopped several in a row but hadn’t gotten much coconut juice.

“Nonsense, the ones that fall on the ground are all ripe. If you want to drink coconut juice, you have to pick the young ones from the top.”

“There are a lot of coconuts, but how do we pick them?” Wang Tao looked up at the tall coconut trees and was intimidated. “Don’t tell me I have to climb up. I’m afraid of heights—”

“How about we take the throwing line from the ship and throw it up to climb?”

“I think it’s better to use a ladder—”

Bai Guoshi had a better idea. He told everyone to go and cut long bamboo poles and then tie a hooked knife to the top.

He demonstrated the technique of harvesting coconuts with a bamboo pole and then solemnly said, “Attention, you must wear a safety helmet or—”

Before he could finish, there was a dull thud, followed by a (miserable scream). Everyone looked and saw that someone had been hit on the head by a coconut and had been “gloriously sacrificed” on the spot.

Without anyone saying a word, the crowd scattered, scrambling back to the ship to get their rattan safety helmets. The “martyr” was carried back to the ship. The diagnosis was a slight concussion and a large bump. Fortunately, the falling fruit was still small, and the person was wearing a straw hat, which provided some cushioning and didn’t crack his skull.

The group was still a bit clumsy with the bamboo pole and hooked knife, but with many hands, the work was light. Plus, there was an endless supply of coconut juice to drink—Wang Luobin had found a sailor who was good at opening coconuts and had him on the side, specializing in opening them to provide cool drinks at any time. After a busy afternoon, they had collected no less than three thousand coconuts, all piled up by the temporary pier.

In the evening, everyone finished their work. Most of them camped on the shore, while only a few remained on the ship. Because they had worked hard all day, almost everyone, except for the night watch who had been ordered to rest during the day, fell into a sweet dream. Under the brilliant starry sky, the sea was a vast expanse of blue waves. The campfires of the sentries on the shore and the duty lights on the ship twinkled at each other, looking very peaceful. Someone, unable to bear the loneliness, began to sing “Night at the Naval Port” in a terrible, off-key voice.

“The night at the naval port is quiet—”

“Shut up, you country bumpkin!” With the angry rebuke of someone who had been woken up, the voice of the 21st-century singer fell silent, leaving only the sound of snoring rising and falling with the waves.

A dark figure quietly appeared by the stern of the Hangzhou. He quietly scanned the sentries on the deck—there should be another one at the top of the mast, but he couldn’t see him from here. He waited quietly for a while, then silently climbed down the anchor rope into the sea, his movements agile, barely making a splash or a sound.

A moment later, the dark figure emerged from the waves at the stern of the Zhenhai and quietly approached the stern. He checked the line of sight of the sentries on the shore and on the ship, confirmed that he was in a blind spot, and untied something from his waist and threw it up.

A slight thud was heard on the ship’s hull. The dark figure quickly shrank into the shadow of the ship and waited quietly for a moment. After confirming that no one had noticed the sound, he emerged again, grabbed something, and with a light leap, quickly climbed up.

The dark figure clung to the side of the ship, seemingly fiddling with something. It took him a lot of time, but he finally succeeded. A gap appeared in the ship’s wall, and the dark figure quickly slipped in.

Inside the hull, it was pitch black. The cold moonlight shining in through the porthole illuminated the interior a little. This wet, dark figure was wearing a very tight-fitting fish-skin water suit. From the prominent chest and the obvious waist-to-hip ratio, it was clear at a glance that this sneaky dark figure was a woman—the only woman in this fleet, Li Chun, who was posing as Li Huamei.

She composed herself and quickly closed the porthole. These Australians had an unusual eye for detail. It was not impossible that one of them would notice that the porthole was open—she knew that according to their ridiculously complicated rules and regulations, this porthole had to be closed at all times except when the strange large windmill blades were lowered.

Li Huamei had been observing for a long time during the entire voyage. She had already figured out one thing: the reason the ship could move on its own without sails or oars was that the short-hairs would lower a pair of iron windmill blades into the sea when needed. Then the ship would begin to vibrate regularly, and it could move on its own. What these windmill blades were, and what strange mechanism they were connected to, was what Li Huamei was eager to know—if possible, she also wanted to obtain this secret. To be able to sail without relying on the wind, the profit contained in this was something she, as a captain, fully understood.

The Australians’ cannons, navigational instruments, and these windmill blades—with these three things, wouldn’t she and her mistress be the overlords of the four seas? Not to mention anything else, with the windmill blades, they could freely choose their angle of attack for bombardment. Who else on this vast sea would be their opponent! This group of strange people, with such good things, were content to stay in a remote little place like Lingao, building houses and repairing roads! Li Huamei once again found it incredible.

In the past few days of sailing, although they had exchanged a lot of things with each other, she had never been allowed to enter this secret cabin just below the quarterdeck. At all times, the door to the cabin was locked, and there was even a guard room at the entrance. The short-hairs guarded this important place very strictly. Even at night, there were people on guard 24 hours a day. She hadn’t even dared to make more than one attempt to get close.

Tonight was a good opportunity. Most of the people had gone ashore, and there were very few people left on each ship. Li Huamei had used the excuse of wanting to check on her own ship and would stay on the Hangzhou for the night to further reduce the short-hairs’ vigilance. Only then did she sneak in in the middle of the night.

She composed herself and took out a bamboo tube from the waterproof leather pouch at her waist. She pulled out the plug, and the dark cabin was instantly illuminated. A tinder was lit, and she quickly took out a small, pointed oil lamp from the leather pouch and lit it. Although the cabin was shadowy, the contents could be generally seen.

Spanning the entire deck were two massive iron objects, each the size of a small box, square, but with some uneven corners and edges. Looking closer, they were covered with various small iron parts of different shapes, and each had an iron wheel with a leather belt wrapped around it. They emitted a strong, strange smell. Li Huamei gently touched it with her finger and found it covered in black grease. She quickly wiped her finger on the cabin wall. These two black iron lumps were firmly fixed to their bases, and a lot of black oil had dripped down from them, making the cabin deck look very dirty.

These two iron things should be the mechanism that made the ship move on its own. But she was slightly disappointed because she couldn’t see how this iron mechanism propelled the ship forward. Looking closer, she found that the two iron connecting pipes were actually not black. The part that looked like a lid was red, but it had been blackened by soot. Looking even closer, she could vaguely see two characters: “Chang Chai.”

Chang Chai? She pondered the meaning of these two words for a long time. Often use firewood? But she had never seen the short-hairs pile firewood on the ship.

There was a round lid on the red top cover. Li Huamei tried to pull it, but it didn’t budge. She tried to twist it, and it loosened. She unscrewed it and looked inside. It was dark and seemed to be filled with some kind of water, but the smell was pungent. She took out a paper spill, dipped it in, and took it out. It felt like some kind of oil.

[Note: The fire-starting tool Li Huamei used was an ancient fire-starting tool, commonly known as a “huo zhe zi.” It was actually a slow-burning fuse in a tubular container.]