Chapter 41: Wang Tao's Ideal

“What about the materials?”

“Bricks, tiles, and cement. The fleet left us a few bags of cement, and we have some bricks and tiles. We can make the wooden planks ourselves. Anyway, it won’t take much to build a covered channel. We can buy iron nails and lime from the market on the other side.”

“Alright, I’ll go to An You Le city tomorrow and sell some goods, so we don’t have to use the fifty taels of emergency reserve.”

The next day, Wang Tao took Wang Degang, Shi Jinxi, and others, changed their clothes, and went to An You Le city again. This time, he brought a simple four-color gift, as a housewarming visit. Hu Xun naturally entertained them in return, sending two stewing goats as a return gift. He took the opportunity to complain about the difficulties of maintaining local order, the lack of money in the county, the frequent tax collection, and the heavy pressure on the local people. Since Shopkeeper Wang was going to establish a village here, he would naturally have to deal with the county. He would need a land deed, and there would be various miscellaneous taxes and levies to share in the future. His words were extremely polite. Wang Tao naturally agreed to everything. The current guiding principle for cooperation with the native forces was to strive for the tolerance and support of the local powers.

Wang Tao took his people for a stroll in the market and sold some distilled liquor and white sugar—both were very popular—and got some scattered silver and copper coins. He bought a few bolts of indigo-dyed homespun cloth, wanting to find a tailor to make some local clothes—the marines’ Year One uniforms were too conspicuous. But there were no tailors in the market, so he had to ask Hu Xun for help again, asking his female servants to make them. He also bought some rice, pumpkins, and some vegetables at the market to improve their diet. Seeing iron pots and pottery jars for sale, he also bought a few. After everyone had packed up and was about to leave, they saw live chickens for sale in the market, at two fen of silver each. Wang Tao bought five or six, had the marines tie them up, and carried them back on a carrying pole.

After leaving the stockade, they found a lime kiln on the beach that specialized in burning lime from oyster shells and bought a few sacks of lime. Shi Jinxi bargained with the fishermen on the beach for a long time and bought a small sampan for one tael of silver. The boat was very small and could only hold seven or eight people at most, but it was enough for use in the bay. Back at Fort Yulin, Wang Tao instructed them to put the pots and pottery jars in the kitchen for use—from now on, they wouldn’t have to cook things in their mess kits. At least they could make some soup and cook rice.

“You bought so many chickens back. Are you preparing for a feast?” Old Di was a little surprised.

“For eggs. Raising chickens,” Wang Tao instructed them to put the chickens down. “It would be a waste not to raise chickens in such a large courtyard.”

“The ground will be covered in chicken droppings, won’t it? It’ll stink!”

“We can build a chicken coop.”

“What will we feed the chickens?”

“Leftovers. Coconut meat is also fine. During the day, we can let the chickens out of the fort to find their own food, and then drive them back at night and feed them some feed. It’s very economical,” Wang Tao said confidently.

“And they’re all-natural, free-range chickens. Alright, as you wish.” Old Di thought that Wang Tao might have suddenly wanted to become a farmer. He remembered something and took out a copy of a telegram from his pocket.

“What’s this?” Wang Tao took the telegram. It was an encrypted telegram. The sending call sign was the survey team’s Hangzhou, and the receiving call sign was the Lingao main station.

“Strange, this isn’t a maritime secret message.”

“That’s right. Shen Yuefeng received the message and couldn’t decipher it with the codebook. It’s definitely not a maritime secret.”

“That’s strange. Didn’t they say that the survey team would uniformly use maritime secret for their transmissions? Even our garrison forts use maritime secret for contact.”

“And it was sent from the Hangzhou, not the flagship Zhenhai.”

“It’s probably a telegram from the intelligence or internal affairs department. Only they have that authority.”

Wang Tao took his men to cut branches from the woods and transport gravel from the beach to build a chicken coop under the wall of the large courtyard of Fort Yulin, plus a chicken run. When the weather was bad, they would be kept in the run.

Some of the marines were from farming families and were not unfamiliar with these things. Seeing their chief so enthusiastic about agriculture, they also became interested. Someone suggested that they grow some vegetables themselves, so as not to waste the chicken and human manure.

“No way, you want human manure too?” Old Di was shocked. He remembered the intoxicating smell of the large manure pits by the roadside during his rural training back then.

“Of course, otherwise the latrine will be full, won’t it?”

“I was originally planning to dig a ditch and flush it directly into the sea with water.”

“Flushing it into the sea is such a waste. Let’s just dig a pit outside the fort and flush everything into it. We’ll put a lid on it, so it won’t stink too much.”

“I’m telling you in advance, don’t ask me to do it when it’s time to collect the fertilizer—”

The vegetable garden was set up outside the walls of Fort Yulin, in a sheltered corner. However, the soil layer on the coast was thin and full of gravel. It was impossible to grow anything directly. So Wang Tao had his men first build a flower bed of about 50 square meters with large stones and install drainage. Then he took the marines to the hillside to dig up mountain soil and transport it back with the wheelbarrows left by the Zhenhai, filling it in cart by cart.

The others were puzzled by the former trainer’s booming energy, as if he were planning to make this his home. Bai Guoshi couldn’t help but ask him if he was planning to stay at Fort Yulin for a long time. Wang Tao laughed heartily:

“Of course not. My goal is for the Executive Committee to give me a large territory in the future, and then I’ll lead my large family and a few hundred immigrant households to colonize and cultivate the land, and be a lord. I’m just practicing now, so I’ll have experience in the future.”

“Oh?” Bai Guoshi was interested. “Where do you want to colonize?”

“Australia, Tasmania, or New Zealand, all are fine,” Wang Tao said, a little tired from his work. He took out a pipe from his pocket. Wang Degang deftly filled it for his master and took a burning piece of wood from the nearby fire where water was boiling. He took it and lit his pipe, taking a few satisfying puffs.

“Smoking pipe tobacco is much better than those damn ‘Holy Ship’ brand cigarettes—” he exhaled a puff of blue smoke, “China, let that group of people from the Executive Committee slowly govern it.”

Wang Degang asked curiously, “Master, where is the place you’re talking about?”

“On the other side of the great sea,” Wang Tao pointed to the horizon. “There are large islands that are green all year round.”

“How about I be your neighbor in the future?” Bai Guoshi was suddenly drawn to such a life. The blue sky, white clouds, green pastures, and snow-capped mountains—this was probably the impression of New Zealand left on him from watching the “Lord of the Rings” behind-the-scenes footage.

“Sure, but will your girlfriend agree to you taking a bunch of concubines?” Wang Tao teased him with his pipe in his mouth.

“Zhao Xue—she’s not my girlfriend yet,” Bai Guoshi was a little embarrassed. “We’ll see then. Concubines are not allowed, but I can have servants, right?”

“You’re such an obedient, innocent man. But I don’t think you’d like this kind of life, Xiao Bai,” Wang Tao chuckled. “Who knows what the future holds? Maybe Lingao will become a world metropolis even greater than New York or Shanghai. It wouldn’t be bad to be an old cadre in the new world’s metropolis.”

The vegetable garden work lasted for two days. They also built a fence around this precious vegetable garden to prevent wild animals from breaking in. Then they threw themselves into the work of digging ditches. Bai Guoshi and Shen Yuefeng went out for surveys every day. Because Jiang Hanyou’s immigration plan was likely to be implemented, besides investigating resources, they were also looking for possible future colonization sites and land for reclamation.

Old Di himself led another group of people to dig the water channel. He had never done this kind of work before, but the Grand Library had compiled and printed a small booklet called “Simple Surveying and Construction” for the survey team to use. Following the instructions in the book, he made some surveying instruments like a level himself. The water channel was not wide, but it had to be covered with a layer of soil, so it was dug a little deeper. The water intake was set on the riverbank, which was mainly sand and gravel, so the water taken was relatively clean and not easily discovered. Except for the dry season, the water intake was below the waterline for most of the year.

The water channel passed through the city wall and was led into the courtyard. A reservoir had already been built here, but it was originally drawn from the moat, and the water quality was not as clear as the water drawn directly from the river. After the river water was introduced, it could be used after settling. The excess water was led to the latrine through another channel to flush the pits, and the sewage flowed directly into the manure pit outside Fort Yulin. The sandy soil would quickly absorb the excess water. For safety and hygiene, a wooden cover was added to the pit. Wang Tao also made a hole in the cover and inserted a bamboo pole with its center hollowed out.

“What’s this for?” the others were puzzled.

“To vent the methane gas inside.”

“Can’t it be used as fuel?”

“There’s too little. But if a cigarette butt falls in, it’s enough to send shit flying all over the walls.”

Finally, all the channels were covered with tile lids and then covered with soil. After a few more days, the traces would fade, and no channels would be visible.

While Wang Tao and the others were busy with basic construction, Bai Guoshi and Shen Yuefeng shot a red muntjac during one of their surveys. This small deer had tender and delicious meat. After it was brought back, almost nothing was left but a piece of skin and cleanly gnawed bones. Even the deer intestines were washed clean, salted, and hung under the eaves to dry.

There were many wild animals here, and they didn’t even need to go too deep into the mountains. Hunting mainly relied on Shen Yuefeng. He had hunting experience and was much more skilled in shooting than Bai Guoshi. To save ammunition and avoid making a lot of noise, hunting was done with a steel crossbow. Shen Yuefeng constantly brought back common game like pheasants and rabbits, which made the entire garrison team’s mouths water. For these people who were engaged in heavy physical labor every day, having an experienced hunter like Shen Yuefeng was a blessing.

Seeing that Shen Yuefeng could bring back game every few days, Wang Tao had other ideas. He proposed digging a well in Fort Yulin.

“What for?” Old Di was baffled by this suggestion.

Bai Guoshi objected, “The groundwater here is definitely salty. Besides bathing, it can’t even be used to water the vegetable garden.”

“Who said we’re going to use the water inside?” Wang Tao said. “This is a refrigerator! Do you understand, a refrigerator?”

The ancients had no refrigerators. Except for the northern regions where the rivers froze in winter and ice could be stored for summer use, in other places, the only way to store perishable food like pork and mutton was to use a well. No matter how high the temperature was, the temperature inside a well would generally remain in the teens of degrees Celsius, enough to preserve food for a few days.

So they began to dig a well. Digging a well was a technical job and prone to accidents. Although their “Simple Surveying and Construction” had instructions on how to dig a well, Wang Tao did not dare to act rashly. At this time, they were running low on bricks, stone, and lime. Wang Tao crossed the bay again to An You Le city to buy materials. Seeing that there were several wells in the city, he inquired and found that some local people dug wells as a sideline, so he hired them to do the work.

The groundwater level at Fort Yulin was very high, and they hit water at only five or six meters. Since the purpose was not to draw water, the diameter of the well was only 1 meter. The well wall was lined with bricks. The well-digging master praised the cement-sand-lime mortar they used, because its adhesive force was really good. He proposed that if they were willing to give him a few bags of cement, he would not charge for digging the well. But the garrison team had no surplus, so they had to politely decline, saying that maybe in the future.

Wang Tao said, “This shows that many of our things have a market. We don’t have to always focus on mirrors and white sugar. There’s a market for cement—”

“The demand for cement is pitifully low,” Shen Yuefeng said dismissively. “You’ve seen what the common people’s houses here are built with—mud plaster is good enough. It’s only for jobs like lining a well wall that cement mortar shows its superiority.”

Wang Tao thought about it and agreed. There really wasn’t anything here that was in particularly high demand. Although white sugar and distilled liquor sold well, the local consumer population was too small, and the market was saturated after selling a small amount.

“We should just honestly collect resources. Let the Foreign Affairs Department worry about doing business.”

After a few days of surveying, Bai Guoshi had identified a logging site. It was about 3 kilometers from Fort Yulin, but it was near the bay, and the timber only needed to be dragged two or three hundred meters to reach the sea. If they had to carry it on their shoulders, it would be impossible to transport the timber felled every day to Fort Yulin.

The work of most of the marines was to cut down trees here every day. The felled trees were immediately stripped of their branches, tied into rafts of 5-10 logs with rattan ropes, and dragged to the seaside. Groups of 4-5 rafts were then towed by the sampan to the beach in front of Fort Yulin and dragged ashore.

Although there was a sea transport link for the timber, the entire labor was still extremely arduous. Fortunately, Shen Yuefeng could provide a steady supply of meat. Although it was little, it was still meat. Shi Jinxi also continuously provided seafood. The few chickens also contributed some eggs every day. The food was not bad. To boost morale, Wang Tao would tell a story every night, no matter how tired he was. To raise the political consciousness of the soldiers and the masses, he no longer told stories like “Officialdom Struggles,” but instead told “The Complete Story of Yue Fei” every day. The purpose was naturally to prepare them for the future war with the Manchus. He also frequently added some barbs against the Song dynasty, connected it to the current situation, and greatly elaborated on it to highlight the glorious and correct image of the transmigrator group’s anti-Ming government and saving China. After finishing the story of Yue Fei, Wang Degang would also perform a solo crosstalk to lighten the atmosphere before everyone went to sleep. This implementation actually boosted morale quite well.