Chapter 42: Navy Curry and News Censorship

After many days of labor, several hundred cubic meters of timber had been accumulated in Fort Yulin. These logs were stacked in the large courtyard of the fort. Bai Guoshi knew that the best way to store timber was in water. Wood submerged in fresh water is cut off from the air and can last for a long time without rotting. But this required a sufficient body of water, which was not available near Fort Yulin.

The dry storage method was simple and easy to implement. The rainy season in Yulin had not yet arrived, and the wood dried quite quickly. However, if they were to transport the timber by towing it with a ship in the future, the dry wood would quickly absorb water at sea and sink, causing great trouble for towing.

Therefore, he could only use the wet storage method, which had some impact on the quality of the wood but was the most convenient. The felled trees were piled into stacks, each stack about 25 cubic meters, covered with branches and leaves. People were also sent to water them regularly to maintain a certain humidity.

However, this method of preservation could not last for more than three months at most, otherwise the quality of the wood would be damaged. According to Wang Luobin, they would send a ship back in 30 days at most, so storing it for a month should not be a big problem.

There were many leftovers from the logging. Bai Guoshi arranged for people to collect all these branches, dry them on the beach, and use them as firewood for Fort Yulin. He also selected some of the thicker branches to make charcoal. Charcoal has a more stable and higher heat output than dry wood, making it more convenient to use.

Next, the entire Fort Yulin was put to work picking coconuts. The coconuts near the shore had basically been picked by the fleet. They began to go deeper into the inland areas to pick, and could still bring back several hundred a day. In the evening, everyone would split open coconuts and drink the coconut water. The excess coconut water was poured into pottery jars and stored in the cold well. The coconut meat was dried to make copra.

Wang Tao saw the coconut meat drying on palm leaves on the beach, drank coconut water, and wandered around. He suddenly thought of the Indians—coconut meat is often used as an ingredient in curry in India. So he made a lamb curry with coconut meat, the mutton given by Mr. Hu, pumpkins, and the seasonings left by the fleet. The hot, fragrant, and spicy curry sauce was poured over freshly cooked rice. Although it was the first time the marines had tasted the spiciness of chili, they found it very novel, and everyone ate happily. That day happened to be a Friday, so Wang Tao became the inventor of curry rice and established the tradition of the navy eating curry rice every Friday.

The activities at Fort Yulin attracted the attention of Hu Xun. He used the excuse of delivering the finished clothes to personally cross the bay to visit this group of new residents. Wang Tao made curry rice again, which made Mr. Hu’s mouth red. Coupled with a cup of cool and refreshing coconut juice, Mr. Hu exclaimed that it was addictive. He immediately asked for the recipe for the curry rice and asked where the unique spiciness came from. Wang Tao knew that chili peppers were introduced to China during the Wanli era, but this place obviously did not know about this crop yet. So he told him that it was “fan jiao” (foreign pepper), which came from outside the country. Hu Xun proposed to get some seeds to plant, but Fort Yulin only had chili powder and chili sauce, no seeds, so they only gave him a bag of chili powder.

Hu Xun asked them if they were harvesting a large number of coconuts and logging for overseas trade. He was very familiar with overseas trade and said that he had never seen foreign ships transport dried coconuts. Wang Tao quickly asked if there were merchants from Qiongshan County who came to buy dried coconuts.

“I’ve heard that there were merchants from the prefecture who came to Yazhou to buy dried coconuts, but they don’t come often. Wenchang is only a two-day sea journey from Qiongshan, and the coconuts there are a hundred times more than here, and the road is closer. Why would they come here to buy dried coconuts? Besides, this place is several days’ journey from Yazhou city, so it’s even more out of reach.”

Wang Tao thought to himself that the dried coconut merchants of Qiongshan were not as tightly controlled as he had imagined. This guy Lin Quan’an was either lazy and making up excuses, or he had never come to such a desolate place. But on second thought, he was a merchant who always traded in cities, so his methods were naturally different from those of an pioneering team like theirs.

“To be honest,” Wang Tao said, “my brother opened an oil pressing workshop in Lingao, specializing in pressing oil from this dried coconut. It’s sold to overseas Australia and can make a lot of money. Unfortunately, Lingao doesn’t produce coconuts, so I’m looking for them everywhere.”

This was said specifically for Hu Xun to hear, to make him feel that this was an opportunity for cooperation. Unexpectedly, Mr. Hu didn’t care about this matter at all. He just laughed a few times and said that people from the county would come to the countryside in a few days, and they could help them with the matter of establishing a village. It was just that they would have to entertain them a little. Wang Tao understood and gave Mr. Hu some white sugar and two bottles of “Guoshi Wushuang” wine, saying that he would be rewarded separately after the matter was settled.

After seeing off Hu Xun, Wang Tao was slightly disappointed. He had originally thought that Mr. Hu would take the initiative to participate in the cause of collecting coconuts and logging—after all, Fort Yulin was short of manpower. With the addition of a local snake like Hu Xun, they would not only have an extra layer of protection locally, but also have more manpower. But in the end, there was no reaction at all.

He didn’t expect that a powerful family in such a remote place like Mr. Hu would have such limited vision. He was used to living a life of “plucking feathers from a passing goose” and waiting for tribute. Why would he be willing to do such a laborious and painstaking industry? As long as Fort Yulin gave him some benefits for logging and picking coconuts, that was enough. As for whether there could be greater profits, it was not within his consideration.

Bai Guoshi said, “It’s a pity about the population in An You Le city and his village. Otherwise, it would be no problem for us to pick all the coconuts.”

Old Di said, “He’s just occupying the latrine without shitting. In the future, we’ll just wipe him out. The population inside will be merged into Fort Yulin.”

“After a few more months, when our large group of immigrants arrives, Mr. Hu will definitely not be able to sit still. At that time, we will have to have a showdown. Either he submits to our leadership, or he prepares to be cut off from the people,” Wang Tao sighed. “Such a good opportunity to join the revolution and he doesn’t take it—originally, he could at least have been a democratic personage, and his descendants would have no problem getting into the local political consultative conference. Now, he might end up as a landlord, rich peasant, counter-revolutionary, or bad element.”

Lamentations aside, the work of collecting resources continued. During their free time, because of boredom, Fort Yulin often exchanged telegrams with the Lingao main station and Fort Changhua to exchange information about their lives and personal feelings. Ding Ding, after seeing their telegrams at the Lingao telecom receiving station, was greatly inspired. He used the material from the telegrams, with his brilliant writing skills, and added some embellishments to write a prose piece called “Night Talk at Yulin Harbor,” under the pseudonym “Southern Sky Sentry,” and published it in the “Lingao Times.” Unexpectedly, it was very popular among the transmigrators. So Wang Tao was appointed as a special correspondent and was required to write a dispatch every few days, which would be polished by him and published in series. Wang Tao did not disappoint. Upon receiving the telegram, he immediately wrote another piece. Ding Ding worked non-stop, revising and polishing it overnight. After typesetting it, he handed the manuscript to Zhou Dongtian to cut the wax paper early in the morning, ready for printing.

Unexpectedly, before the newspaper was printed, Ding Ding received a call from Zhou Dongtian.

“The newspaper can’t be printed,” Zhou Dongtian said helplessly. “We received a notice from the relevant department of the higher authorities: the ‘Yulin Harbor Notes’ series of prose has a leak problem and must be revised before the Times can be printed. In addition, the issue that was published a few days ago is being recalled from all places.” He added, “They also said that in the future, any articles of this kind published in the Times must be submitted for inspection before printing—”

“Whose brain-dead rule is this!” Ding Ding almost jumped up. After D-Day, he and Pan Pan had been a two-person operation, with no funding, no salary, and basically no official status. They had finally managed to get the “Times” an official establishment, and now suddenly there was a familiar “notice from the relevant department of the higher authorities”!

“Damn it, I haven’t even written about the corruption of the Executive Committee yet! And they’re already giving me the official runaround!” Ding Ding immediately went to the Executive Committee compound.

After entering the compound, he hesitated again. Any transmigrator who had ever dealt with government offices knew that this vague “relevant department of the higher authorities” was the most difficult to find. It existed when issuing notices, but once you wanted to find it, no one would admit to being that “relevant department.”

After thinking about it, he decided to go to the printing room to find Zhou Dongtian and get some inside information. Although he was in charge of printing, he had also been working part-time in the internal affairs department. Since the reason was the so-called “leak” problem, it was very likely that the relevant department was either the internal affairs department or the intelligence department.

Zhou Dongtian indeed knew something. He said that the call was from Ran Yao. Ding Ding certainly knew Ran Yao. He used to work in the security group and was transferred to the Internal Affairs Committee after the institutional adjustment.

So he rushed out of the compound again and went to the Internal Affairs Committee compound, which was rarely visited. However, he was stopped by the two sentries at the gate. Because he had neither registered for an appointment in advance nor had a pass to enter the compound, the sentries firmly refused to let him in. After a fit of rage and pulling rank, he still failed—”No entry without registration and a pass. This is an order.” The sentry’s Mandarin was not even fluent, but he had memorized this sentence perfectly.

Ding Ding was driven away from the gate like a defeated rooster. He was just about to go back to the newspaper office to look up Ran Yao’s mobile phone number in the directory to argue with him again when he saw a fat man with a potbelly walking out of the courtyard with a steady gait. Seeing this scene, he slowly walked over and asked, “What’s the matter, comrade?”

“You still call me comrade! It’s only been a few days since D-Day!” Ding Ding shouted angrily, his words not matching his thoughts. “I want to see Ran Yao! Ran Yao, come out! You’re persecuting freedom of speech!” This kind of commotion would have caused a crowd in the core area of Bairen City, but the Internal Affairs Committee was located in a remote place, so no one would notice even if he shouted his lungs out.

“Don’t shout. Ran Yao went to Bopu to preside over a meeting. You’re Ding Ding, right? Let’s talk,” the fat man was still amiable.

“Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m just a clerk in the committee, a small fry,” the fat man said with a smile.

This was Ding Ding’s first time in the Internal Affairs Committee compound. As soon as he walked into this compound with its green brick walls, which were covered with thorny plants, he felt a chill run up from his feet and couldn’t help but shiver. In the courtyard, a two-story small building with a main body and two wings was built of green bricks. Many trees had been transplanted into the courtyard, shading it from the sun.

The fat man led Ding Ding into a simple room not far from the entrance. It was furnished with some furniture and stationery, probably a reception room. Someone brought him a cup of tea bag tea. Ding Ding sneered:

“Are you inviting me for tea?”

“You can also have plain water,” the fat man said gently. “We don’t have coffee here.”

Ding Ding then recounted the matter of the restriction on publication in a torrent of words, questioning the meaning of such so-called “secrecy” and why the general transmigrators could not be informed of the latest situation of the transmigrator group. Did they still have any awareness of respecting the right to know of the general transmigrators?

“This. Of course, we respect it. The Internal Affairs Committee is just an ordinary organization,” the fat man said with a lukewarm smile, not directly answering his question. “How many copies of the ‘Lingao Times’ are printed every day now?”

“Three hundred copies,” Ding Ding said sullenly. He had originally wanted to print thousands of copies, but there was a shortage of ink, paper, and printing equipment.

“According to the figures reported by the Times to the Planning Committee, about more than half of these newspapers go to the transmigrators, including to departments, enterprises, and reading rooms in the dormitories. The rest are sent to the county yamen or sold at retail in East Gate Market, right?”

“Right. If I were allocated more resources, the circulation could be even higher—”

“The more the Times is distributed, the louder our voice will be, and the greater our influence on the native masses will be. This is the established policy of the Executive Committee,” the fat man said slowly. “But think about it: when the newspapers fall into the hands of the natives, a lot of information will be inadvertently spread out—”

“Just for this? Then in the future, when Director Wen, Director Ma, and other transmigrators appear in the newspaper, should they use a pseudonym and have their faces pixelated? The newspaper shouldn’t publish anything at all. Just write that today is peaceful and uneventful, or just publish some of Du Wen’s long-winded articles!”

“Don’t be anxious,” the fat man was still gentle. “I’ve read the series of reports on Yulin Harbor. They’re very good. Everyone’s evaluation is also very high. The reason why the Internal Affairs Committee doesn’t agree to publish them this way is still out of concern for the safety of our comrades in the overseas stations—the reports contain time, place, people, equipment, everything. If the newspaper leaks out and is seen by Liu Xiang or other people who are hostile to us—a small fort with only a dozen people, wouldn’t it be wiped out in an instant?”

Ding Ding was shocked. Thinking about it, he had indeed been negligent. But he was unwilling to admit defeat and said stubbornly, “This place, Yulin, is not called Yulin now! How can the Ming people deduce where it is?”

“Dadonghai is still called Dadonghai, right?” the fat man said. “And An You Le city, these are all names from this time. How could the Ming people not know? It’s even written that An You Le city is right opposite Fort Yulin. How much clearer can it be?”

Ding Ding was speechless. He clearly felt that he was right, but he was crushed by this big hat from the other side and could not refute it. The interests of the transmigrators were paramount. He couldn’t say that the personal safety of these people was less important than everyone’s right to know, could he?