Chapter 43: The White Sugar of Leizhou

Looking at the completely defeated Ding Ding, the fat man stood up and said kindly, “Comrade, good principles can only work in the right environment. Don’t just apply them mechanically. This is an advisory suggestion from the internal affairs department on this type of report. Take it back, look at it, revise the article, and if it can’t be published in the daily, it can be published in the evening edition. If you have any further opinions, we can discuss them in detail.”

Seeing Ding Ding leave with the document, the fat man stood up, still with that gentle smile, and returned to his office.

The official name of his office was the “Policy Research Office of the Internal Affairs Committee.” This name did not represent any specific meaning, but was only to satisfy his request to not do specific work and only engage in political science research. He was equivalent to a consultant for the Internal Affairs Committee.

The office was clean and tidy. On a “Holy Ship” brand white wooden desk were piled self-made file racks and file baskets. There was also a large bookshelf, piled with many books. The only modern products were a laptop computer and a few CD cases.

Behind the desk was a gorgeous and exquisite screen that was extremely out of place with the environment. Behind it was a simple small white wooden bed with a mosquito net, as well as a clothes rack for hanging clothes and a small cabinet. It was the typical setup of a bachelor living in an office.

From the layout of the office, it could be seen that this person’s position in the various departments of the Executive Committee was not high. There was not a single hand-cranked telephone on the desk, which was a symbol of power and a standard feature for the heads of various departments.

He plopped down on the worn-out wicker chair and took a letter from the “Incoming” wicker basket. It was folded and sealed with a red “Secret” stamp on the seam. He opened it, and inside was a decoded telegram from Guangzhou.

The content of the telegram was an investigation into Li Huamei’s background in Macau. He read it very carefully.

Li Huamei Background Investigation Report

Confidential

Center:

After receiving the instructions, I immediately began to investigate the origin and background of Li Huamei.

In Guangzhou, it was almost impossible to find any information about her and her ship, the Hangzhou. In comparison, there was more information about Li Siya. However, the information about Li Siya was basically based on rumors, and we have not been able to make any substantial breakthroughs beyond what we already knew.

Therefore, I decided to send Zhang Xin to Macau to conduct a direct investigation. In the trade between the Guangzhou station and Macau, he has played a very important role and has established a relatively deep personal relationship with Huang Shunlong. Huang Shunlong has long dealt with various maritime forces in Macau and has a relatively good understanding of the various forces. Before we have established our own intelligence network in Macau, I believe that using the channel of Huang Shunlong is feasible.

Zhang Xin went to Macau under the pretext of trading alcohol. I authorized him to carry out the following activities: to reveal to Huang Shunlong that he had recently encountered a female pirate at sea and to describe the ship and its flag to him. Based on his on-the-spot reaction, Zhang Xin judged that Huang Shunlong knew something about this matter. Huang was initially unwilling to talk much about it, but under Zhang Xin’s further inducement, he revealed the following information to us:

He had seen ships similar to the Hangzhou moored in the port many times. But he could not say whose ship it was. The only thing he knew was that the captain was a woman, of which he was very certain. We showed him a computer-generated drawing based on Li Huamei’s photo for identification, but he again said that he had not seen her in person and could not recognize her. However, Zhang Xin believes that he saw Li Huamei.

Zhang Xin noticed that during the conversation, Huang Shunlong was very reluctant to mention any ships and captains moored in the local area. He claimed to know nothing about such inquiries. We speculate that this is directly related to his business with pirates, and he is afraid of inadvertently revealing their secrets during the conversation. However, his claim that he is not familiar with Li Huamei should be credible. Therefore, we infer that Li Huamei is not a pirate, or at least her area of pirate activity is not near the coast of China. From this point of view, Li Huamei’s claim that she is engaged in the Goa trade has a certain degree of credibility.

The next day, Zhang Xin directly investigated the sailors and related personnel on the docks. From these people, he confirmed the cycle of the Hangzhou’s appearance in Macau. It arrives in Macau every June, and then sails and returns irregularly, its destinations being various regions in Southeast Asia. Each voyage lasts about a month. The Hangzhou leaves for good in December. This cycle is consistent with the Goa trade cycle in Macau. At the same time, they confirmed through picture identification that Li Huamei is the captain of the Hangzhou. The port personnel knew little about this person, and even did not know where she stayed after arriving in port.

Regarding the headquarters’ specific request to investigate whether there is a connection between Li Huamei and Li Siya, we have found almost no intelligence sources on this matter. Due to language and network limitations, Zhang Xin’s investigation can only be conducted within the Chinese community. However, most of the local Chinese have never heard of this person, and even know very little about the fact that a female captain comes here regularly. Some people confuse her with Li Siya. By the way: the local Chinese have a “curiosity” about Li Siya, and there are many rumors, but they know very little about her real life. The rumors mainly focus on her killing and arson. Based on the information we have gathered, we infer that besides robbing at sea, she has also participated in several attacks on Yuegang.

We believe that we cannot rule out the possibility of a relationship, cooperation, or other deeper connection between the two Lis. After all, they both have a strong Portuguese background. If Li Siya’s connection is through blood, then the large number of Portuguese elements that Li Huamei, a pure-blooded Chinese, displays seems a bit strange. She could not have obtained all this out of thin air.

This is all the information we have gathered on Li Huamei’s background so far. In accordance with the instructions, we will continue to collect intelligence on her. As soon as there is new information, I will immediately report the details to the headquarters.

Guangzhou Station, Zi Yan

The fat man stamped the telegram with “Read” and picked up another letter.

This was a telegram sent from the Hangzhou, using the “Internal Secret” code. The message was only a few lines long, but the information was very important: Li Huamei had climbed into the engine room of the Zhenhai in the middle of the night and stayed there for at least ten minutes.

“You are truly an original woman,” the fat man muttered to himself. After a moment’s thought, he took out a file and put both telegrams inside. He wrote a summary of the added documents and a number on it, then put it in the “Outgoing” file basket.

Xuwen County, Leizhou.

A two-person sedan chair was traveling on a dusty road, surrounded by a dozen or so servants in green clothes, plus five or six mounted guards. They were all armed with either staffs or sharp knives at their waists, on high alert. The small groups of bandits along the road would have to retreat three feet upon seeing them.

Wen Tong sat in the sedan chair with his eyes closed, getting used to the rocking and swaying. The first time he sat in one, he almost threw up. On television, it looked like a luxury for the rich to ride in a sedan chair. He had found it interesting at first, but after a while, he couldn’t stand it—the seat in the sedan chair was not a sofa, but a straight, hard backrest, which made his back ache after a long time.

Since the sugarcane harvest began at the end of last year, Wen Tong had been sent to Leizhou as the sugar industry commissioner of the Lingao Grain and Oil Company. His only task was to investigate and supervise the local white sugar production, find the most suitable white sugar manufacturing process for the local area, and build Leizhou into a major export base for the transmigrators’ white sugar.

Xuwen County in the Ming Dynasty, located in today’s Zhanjiang City, is still one of China’s largest sugar industry production bases, standing on three legs with Guangxi and Yunnan. Wen Tong, who came from a sugar industry family, was naturally no stranger to it. When the Ministry of Agriculture was discussing whether to plant sugarcane in Lingao, he had been strongly opposed. The reason was that although sugarcane could be grown in Lingao, it was not the most ideal place. Sugarcane is an economic crop that consumes a lot of water and fertility, and promoting it would seriously affect the local grain production. Xuwen, across the strait, was a traditional sugarcane producing area in China. It would be a waste of resources to do redundant construction in Lingao without utilizing it.

For this reason, starting from the winter of 1628, the Guangzhou station began to make arrangements for land routes and networks in Leizhou, and at the same time, began a large-scale acquisition of sugarcane fields and sugar mills. By the beginning of this pressing season, the Lingao Grain and Oil Corporation had already controlled nine sugarcane plantations in Haikang and Xuwen counties, with 2,600 mu of sugarcane fields and five sugar mills.

The ambition of the Lingao Grain and Oil Company was not limited to these 2,600 mu of sugarcane land. The instructions Wen Tong received were: to acquire as much local sugarcane or raw sugar as possible, and use the advanced sugar manufacturing technology mastered by the transmigrators to mass-produce low-priced white sugar and quickly occupy the market.

“Advanced sugar manufacturing technology, that’s a bit of a pipe dream,” Wen Tong smiled wryly to himself when he heard this instruction. He had no specialized equipment for a sugar factory, so how could he talk about any advanced technology? The only advantage the transmigrators had over ordinary sugarcane farmers at the moment was that they could manufacture some specialized processing machinery, which would lead to higher labor productivity, higher comprehensive utilization of sugar by-products, and lower overall costs.

Wen Tong’s first step after landing was to quickly visit the main sugarcane producing areas in the two counties to observe the situation of sugarcane planting, harvesting, and processing. He generally knew what the old-style sugar pressing equipment and technology were like, but these were all relics of the Qing dynasty. He had never seen what the Ming dynasty equipment looked like.

To ensure Wen Tong’s safety, the Executive Committee had sent the police station consultant Zhou Shizhai with an apprentice to protect him. He and the people from Qiwei were from the same security bureau, so communication was easy. In addition, there was another transmigrator, Chang Shide, who had nothing to do with sugar or sugarcane, but was tall and strong, a military enthusiast, and had been trained for several months and was good with weapons, and could even wield a broadsword. He was sent not for his martial prowess, but mainly to allow the two transmigrators to talk to each other. It was different from being with the natives, with whom there was no common language.

With the help of Qiwei’s large-scale network in Leizhou, Wen Tong’s sugarcane tour was both convenient and safe. After landing at Denglongjiao, the shopkeeper of the Qiwei Leizhou Haikang branch was already waiting with a sedan chair and guards.