Chapter 40: Fort Yulin

It was not vegetable oil or peanut oil, nor was it the butter of the Europeans. Li Huamei carefully stored the paper spill and screwed the cap back on. It seemed that the key to making this mechanism move was this oil.

Looking around, she saw two windmill blades fixed on a rack, also covered in black grease. Upon closer inspection, both the large black object and the windmill blades were all made of fine iron. The Australians’ love and skill with iron were well-deserved. There were also many cabinets and shelves in the cabin. She opened them one by one and found them filled with strange iron tools, neatly arranged in small boxes. She recognized some of them; European carpenters used similar-looking things. But for most of them, she couldn’t tell what they were used for.

After more than ten minutes, the sound of footsteps and the changing of the guard began outside the door. She quickly stopped what she was doing and held her breath for a few seconds. When the sound had completely died down, she hastily packed her things and slipped out through the porthole.

The next day, after completing the construction of the base, the fleet set off again. The decks were piled high with baskets of coconuts, more than five thousand in total. Jiang Qiuyan had to forbid everyone from drinking coconut juice as a substitute for water to prevent anyone from suffering from an electrolyte imbalance.

The survey team’s next target was Wanning, specifically, Shangen Town. Shangen Town had a small pyrite mine. Although it was very small in scale, its unique advantage was that it was right by the sea. If they could determine its specific location and reserves, the transmigrators could launch a large-scale, expedition-style surprise mining operation and bring back a hundred tons at a time.

“This stuff can be used to make sulfuric acid and also as fertilizer. It’s very useful to us, especially the sulfuric acid,” Wang Luobin said. “It’s easy to produce sulfuric acid at the coal chemical complex, but unfortunately, coal will have to be imported for a long time. Mining pyrite can at least solve part of the problem.”

“We don’t need to build another Fort Wanning, do we?” Chen Haiyang thought of his fleet, which had already lost nearly a third of its personnel. If they had to leave more people behind to garrison, they really couldn’t afford it.

Wang Luobin said, “No, no. Shangen is very barren, and Wanning is not a development priority for now. This place was sparsely populated even in the 20th century. In this time, there will probably be even fewer people.”

As they were talking, Ruan Xiao Wu came running over, saluted, and reported, “Reporting! Chief Commander Chen, it’s time to send the telegram. The radio room requests your signature to send it!”

“Bring it here.” Chen Haiyang took the clipboard. Inside was today’s routine message, reporting the fleet’s current position, status, and next destination. Although it was a routine matter, it was their most effective safety guarantee while sailing at sea. According to the encryption regulations jointly formulated by the Executive Committee and Lingao Telecom, starting from March 1629, each major committee and department would use its own independent codebook. The messages would be encrypted before being sent and received by Lingao Telecom, and the decryption work would be handled by each department itself. This was to prevent the telegrams from becoming public knowledge, where one message sent out would be known by all places equipped with 15W and 5W radios within a dozen minutes. As for which messages were encrypted and which were not, each department would formulate its own regulations.

Today’s message, as usual, was stamped with the “Maritime Secret” seal. Chen Haiyang flipped through it and saw a few received messages. One was an open message from the Guangzhou station, full of boring chatter, probably the radio operator in Guangzhou chatting with the female radio operator in Lingao. Another was a “Maritime Secret” message from Fort Changhua, briefly reporting on their expedition into the Li territory.

“They’re quite capable, tricking them out of ten cattle and a girl,” Chen Haiyang said with a smile, handing the clipboard to Wang Luobin for his signature.

“It shows that everyone is good at handling mass relations. The more mass work we do, the broader our path becomes,” Wang Luobin signed his name. “Gaining a foothold in Changhua and establishing long-term friendly relations with the Li village will be beneficial for the future development of Shilu. I think we should send a telegram to the Executive Committee and give them a collective first-class merit award or something.”

“Hehe, Director Wang, Xiao Zishan won’t forget about this. He loves this kind of thing,” Chen Haiyang sighed. “When we get back to Lingao, a collective second-class merit award is the least we can expect. Maybe we’ll get another sleeve badge to sew on our sleeves.”

“Actually, a few ‘lifestyle secretaries’ would be more practical—” Director Wang, who had originally had no interest in those dark and thin little girls, had recently noticed that the girls who had been nourished by the water and soil of the Lingao Liberated Area were beginning to become fair and plump, and he couldn’t help but have some inappropriate thoughts.

“Lifestyle secretaries?” Chen Haiyang snorted. “The Executive Committee means well, but I’m afraid it will turn into a bad thing in the end, hurting everyone’s feelings and affecting unity.”

“Gathering wisdom from the masses, gathering wisdom from the masses,” as they were talking, Ruan Xiao Wu had already run off. Chen Haiyang watched his back and said with some emotion, “A child like this, after a few months of training, already looks the part. He’s willing to work hard and obeys orders. He’s uneducated, but he has a high aptitude. In another three or four years, when he’s an adult, he’ll be our backbone. It would be great to give these girls to them then.”

“Hehe, you’re quite thoughtful, even thinking about finding partners for your subordinates?”

“If you want your soldiers to go through life and death with you, the officer must be a true father and brother.”

In the newly completed Fort Yulin, a garrison team led by Old Di and Bai Guoshi, a total of fourteen people, was left behind. They would live under this blue sky and white clouds for about a month. During this period, Bai Guoshi would fully investigate the nearby natural resources and social customs. As for Old Di, his task was much simpler: to cut down trees here and, at the same time, learn to pick coconuts under Bai Guoshi’s guidance—using the tree-climbing method, which, according to him, was important for the stable and high yield of the coconut trees.

Old Di watched with melancholy as the sails gradually disappeared into the distance. He turned back to Bai Guoshi and the other few transmigrators and said, “Let’s talk about how we’re going to spend our vacation this month.”

“There are quite a few tasks for this vacation,” Bai Guoshi said, looking at the pile of supplies and tools left behind. There were machetes, carrying poles, axes, saws, and a large amount of rope and rattan baskets. Not many iron tools were left behind; after all, there was a blacksmith across the bay. They were also left with a batch of goods for trade with An You Le city, mainly white sugar and distilled liquor. They had a sixty-day supply of rations and fifty taels of silver for emergencies.

“Let’s go and test the radio first.”

Old Di immediately commanded the marines to pack up their things on the beach and move them into Fort Yulin one by one. Bai Guoshi and a few other transmigrators first set up the 5W transceiver left for them to use for communication. After calling for five minutes, the Lingao main station had already responded, and the call sign was clear. Then they called the survey fleet and quickly got a reply. Finally, a new signal suddenly cut in on the radio. Fort Changhua had heard their call and was responding. The exchange of radio waves greatly eased everyone’s original feelings of loneliness and fear.

Since they were here, they had to make the best of it. To stay here for a month, they first had to settle themselves and their subordinates down properly. So they made a small division of labor. Old Di served as the commander of Fort Yulin, mainly responsible for defense and construction work. Bai Guoshi was in charge of collecting supplies. He had received some emergency medical training and was considered the team’s medic. Wang Tao was responsible for dealing with An You Le city. All foreign negotiations and procurement of goods were his responsibility. He also had a boy adopted from the orphans transported from Guangzhou as his apprentice. At a time when everyone was eager to adopt little lolis, adopting a shota made his sexual orientation a topic of discussion for a while.

“It’s for no reason,” Wang Tao said frankly. “I just want him to learn storytelling from me. Otherwise, no one will know how to do it after I die. There must be a legacy, right?”

This boy had taken his surname, Wang, and was named Wang Degang. The name was naturally a parody, but it sounded grand and respectable.

Although Wang Degang was only in his early teens, under his master’s influence, he had learned many traditional storytelling and crosstalk routines and was a key member of the arts in the National School. Wang Tao also taught him public speaking and debate every day—this was his profession as a trainer. He was preparing to have his little apprentice run for the first student cadre of the National School next year. His next goal was to lobby the Executive Committee to establish a youth league organization, so that this apprentice could rise through the ranks of the league in the future.

Finally, there was Shen Yuefeng, a “sea turtle” who majored in history and minored in IT. Neither was of much use to the transmigrators. Fortunately, he was a military enthusiast and, thanks to the decadent American empire, had a lot of experience with shooting and hunting. He was recruited into the team during the expansion of the remote exploration team and received several weeks of natural history education. He was left here mainly to collect local animal samples and meat, and to provide food in case of a food shortage.

He carried an AR-15, with four magazines attached to his gear, plus an ACOG sight. He also had a pistol holster on his waist, which needless to say, contained a Glock, the most common self-provided pistol in the transmigrator army. He wore an original M35 helmet. Although he looked like a South American militiaman or an anti-government armed force, he was armed to the teeth. He looked much more secure than Old Di, who was carrying a Minié rifle.

Old Di was also a little helpless with the Minié rifle. According to the theories of Ma Qianzhu and others, officers had to use the same weapons as the soldiers to make the soldiers trust their own weapons. So the transmigrator officers of the army and navy all used Minié rifles and Derringer pistols, which made many people complain. This time, considering the safety of the garrison team, each transmigrator was finally issued an SKS rifle.

They immediately assigned housing. The marines were in groups of three, guarding the three bastions. The transmigrators collectively guarded the main bastion, the east bastion, and the main gate.

The interior of the houses was naturally unpainted, with only a simple cement plaster on the walls. Although they had sleeping bags, sleeping directly on the damp ground posed a risk of arthritis. So Wang Tao took a few people and found a fishing boat that was fishing nearby to cross the bay to An You Le city. He found a carpenter and ordered a few beds and some furniture.

“The beds don’t need to be big, not like a canopy bed. No, no, no carvings, but they have to be double-layered. Do you understand? Double-layered. Yes, people can sleep on top too. What if they fall off? You add a railing to the side of the bed. Yes, I’ll draw it for you—” After a lot of gesturing with the local carpenter, Wang Tao finally made the craftsman understand his meaning. He made the first bunk bed in Yazhou, although he stubbornly carved a lot of patterns on the headboard to show off his craftsmanship.

After buying the furniture, he found a granny selling homespun cloth in An You Le city and traded a pack of sewing needles and some small change for custom-made bed sheets. Everyone had brought their own thin quilts. He also bought straw mats and other daily necessities.

Wang Tao brought everything back in batches. In the evening, all the personnel gathered in the open space of Fort Yulin and lit a bonfire. They boiled water to make “Grassland No. 1” instant porridge. Wang Tao said:

“This place is quite harsh, but we have to make our own lives better. There’s a market town on the other side, and we’re by the sea. If we all put our heads together, we can live well.”

“You say it,” Old Di knew that Wang Tao, this trainer, had many tricks up his sleeve.

A marine raised his hand. Old Di looked and saw that it was a marine from a fishing family named Shi Jinxi.

“Let Chief Wang speak first.”

“No, let him speak first,” Wang Tao knew that once a person of high status said something, people of lower status would withdraw their own suggestions. This was not conducive to gathering suggestions.

“Then you speak.”

“Reporting to the chief, there are reefs in this bay. Every day, I can take a few brothers to forage at low tide and catch a lot of fish, shrimp, and shellfish. We can also gather seaweed—”

“I was originally going to say that too!” Wang Tao greatly approved. “Great idea!”

“Thank you, chief. But if we could get a small boat and a net, we could fish in the bay and catch even more.”

“Get a boat?” Old Di thought that probably wasn’t difficult. It wouldn’t cost much to buy one.

Shen Yuefeng said, “A boat would be very convenient for us. At least we wouldn’t have to walk around the bay all day. It would save a lot of trouble. Besides, when we cut down trees in the future, are we going to carry them on our shoulders? With a boat, we can just tow them across the bay.”

“Alright, let’s get a boat. Wang Tao, you handle it?”

“Okay, I’ll go to An You Le city on the other side tomorrow to see. Now, let me continue with my idea—”

In the end, it was decided that Wang Jinxi would lead two other marines from fishing families to forage at low tide every morning and evening. Bai Guoshi and Shen Yuefeng would take a few marines out for a survey first, on the one hand to select a location for picking coconuts and logging, and on the other hand to hunt some edible animals along the way. As for the warning from the health department, these few people obviously didn’t take it to heart. But with enough meat, everyone’s enthusiasm would be higher. Both picking coconuts and logging were heavy physical labor. Moreover, after checking the water source situation at Fort Yulin, Old Di was not very satisfied and wanted to improve it.

“The current water source is drawn from a nearby small river through a canal. Although it adds a small moat, it’s easy for the enemy to cut off this water source or poison it,” Old Di said.

“You want to dig a well? But we don’t have the equipment.”

“A well would probably produce brackish water. I want to build a covered channel and draw water from the river from another place. That way, the enemy won’t easily discover it.”