Chapter 286: The Prefectural City

The boatman was eager to leave this place. He quickly ordered his men to turn the rudder and hoist the sails, heading for the open sea. Just then, waves churned on the sea surface, and two Type 8154 fishing vessels were entering the port. These two fishing vessels had recently undergone a major refit and were undergoing sea trials. The refit had removed the fishery production equipment and some of the more advanced navigation and electronic equipment for this time, and had added weapons, a dedicated ammunition depot, expanded fuel tanks and crew quarters, and installed armor in key areas to match its “cruiser” status.

Tang Yunwen watched as this steel warship passed by five hundred meters from the side of his boat, majestic and rumbling. It paid no attention to the wind direction or the tide, and it moved like the wind without sails or oars, as if the sea were a smooth road. His face turned pale, and he sat down on the fishing net as if he had lost all his strength.

“My lord!” Zhang Wen hurried over to help him up.

“I’m fine!” Tang Yunwen waved his hand. “Let’s go back quickly!”

Tang Yunwen sat for a while, collected himself, and then stood up and went down to the cabin to sit, feeling a cold sweat on his forehead. The 8154 fishing vessel had stimulated him even more than the large iron ship. The iron ship was nothing more than “big,” and besides, he didn’t believe that this behemoth could move on its own. But he had seen this fishing vessel with his own eyes. As a naval commander, he was very clear about how powerful a ship like this would be in a naval battle.

“This ship is amazing,” Zhang Wen also clicked his tongue.

“This is an iron fast boat,” the boatman said. “It was also brought by the Australians.”

“So they have more than one large iron ship?” Zhang Wen said nervously. More iron ships?

“Of course there are more,” the boatman said proudly. “Besides the iron fast boats, I’ve seen a kind of large ship with very low sides and a very flat deck. It used to be full of large iron boxes, but now there’s only a large shadoof on it…” the boatman gestured. “Some people have also seen a kind of square-headed ship that the Australians have. It doesn’t need to enter the port and can go up and down the beach on its own. The bow can also be opened, and when it opens, there’s a gangplank…”

“Absurd!” Zhang Wen couldn’t help but comment. “If the bow can be opened, wouldn’t it sink in the sea?”

The boatman laughed. “Sir! This is just a rumor among the people. I haven’t seen it myself, so I don’t know if it’s true.”

Tang Yunwen was not interested in this ship with an opening bow. He was most concerned about this “iron fast boat.” He asked, “How many iron fast boats does this group of Australians have?”

“I don’t know about that,” the boatman said. The Australians’ ships were all moored at a special wharf on the other side of Bopu Port. Ordinary ships were not allowed to approach, and small boats patrolled the water at all times, not allowing anyone to cross the line.

“Some people who wanted to watch the excitement insisted on getting close and were all arrested—none of those who were arrested were ever released,” the boatman’s smile disappeared. “I heard they were made to do hard labor for the Australians.”

Perhaps thinking of his own act of transporting military officers to investigate Bopu this time, if the Australians found out, he would probably suffer the same fate. The boatman stood up, patted his buttocks, and repeatedly urged the boatmen to row quickly.

“My lord, this iron fast boat is tricky…”

Tang Yunwen nodded. He thought that to force the Australians to leave Lin’gao, it would be a certain defeat to rely on military force. The only way was to follow the method used against the red-haired people in Penghu back then, to bring a large army to the border and force a peaceful settlement with strength. The Australians had come from afar, and after all, they had few ships and men. Although they had recruited a large number of local rogues to supplement their strength, their scale was still limited. If his side showed its strength with a ten or twenty-fold advantage, he was not worried that the other side would not know when to retreat.

In the late Wanli reign, the red-haired people came to Penghu with three large ships, and the government forces sent fifty warships to force them out. When they occupied Penghu for the second time in the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, the red-haired people had only a dozen or so large and small warships, and their land combat force was only eight hundred men. Yu Zigao led more than ten thousand men to confront them for eight months before forcing them to retreat. The current strength and scale of the Australians were far superior to those of the red-haired people at that time.

In his estimation, to expel the Australians occupying Bopu, he would have to mobilize a force no less than the one used to expel the red-haired people from Penghu twice during the Wanli and Tianqi reigns. The force used would have to be at least ten thousand men and fifty warships to surround the Australians in Bopu and force them to retreat. There was no other way.

Lin Baiguang, dressed as a small merchant, was walking on the main street in front of the county yamen of Qiongshan County. He was going to visit someone, and this person was closely related to his plan here.

The Transmigration Group’s rule in Lin’gao was deepening, and the plan to open branch mines at important resource points on the entire island was also being implemented. The next step was to infiltrate and control all the prefectures and counties on the island.

The other prefectures and counties on the island were of no political or military importance. The Executive Committee believed that the key was Qiongshan County. Qiongshan County was the capital of Qiongzhou Prefecture, the gateway to Hainan Island, and the political and economic center of the entire island. It was the core of the Ming’s rule and the station of the only mobile force with combat capability on the island.

If the Ming army were to launch a military suppression of Lin’gao, this would be the necessary place for the army to assemble after crossing the sea. If the Transmigration Group were to launch a war to unify the entire island, it would also have to defeat the garrison of the Baisha Naval Base, capture the Haikou Thousand-Household Garrison city, and occupy Qiongshan County town. The other prefectures and counties on the island could basically be taken by issuing a proclamation. Therefore, the Intelligence Committee had focused its current intelligence and infiltration work here. Lin Baiguang’s mission was to use the existing relationships to establish an intelligence network in Qiongzhou Prefecture, with a focus on infiltrating the local government and garrison, and grasping the situation and movements of the garrison.

Qiongshan County town was much larger than Lin’gao because it was the attached prefectural city. The county town was located at the foot of Daying Mountain and Bao’er Mountain, built against the mountains and by the water. The terrain was higher than the surrounding area. The Meishe River flowed past its south and east gates, forming a natural moat, which was similar to the way Lin’gao was built.

Since this was the location of the prefectural city, and most of the personnel and materials from the mainland were distributed here, the commerce was quite prosperous. The streets outside the east, west, and south gates were lined with many shops and houses, which were very lively. There were also handicraft workshops that were rarely seen in Hainan. Many simple primary industrial products could only be manufactured here in the entire Hainan Island. Therefore, the population and houses were also much denser here, and the streets were bustling with people, looking a bit like the ancient county towns in novels and movies.

But once inside the county town, there were not many commercial and residential figures to be seen, just like in Lin’gao. The two sides of the main street were all kinds of yamen: the Qiongzhou Prefectural Yamen, the Hainan Sub-prefectural Dao, the Branch of the Provincial Administration Commission, the Military Equipment Bureau, the Qiongzhou Prefectural School, the Qiongshan County School… There were almost no residential houses to be seen, let alone commercial institutions. Only a market in the eastern suburb was quite lively. Lin Baiguang inquired and found that this place was also called “East Gate Market.”

Lin Baiguang was very puzzled by this strange situation. Why was this magnificent prefectural city so small in scale, with so little area left after being filled with all kinds of yamen? It was deserted, with almost no space left for residential and commercial areas. Instead, the area outside the city was bustling with people, forming a settlement. He did not know that the cities in ancient Hainan had a big difference from the cities on the mainland: in the mainland, there were people first and then cities, that is, cities appeared after the population concentrated to a certain density; in Hainan, there were cities first and then people. The purpose of building cities was for military stationing and administrative needs. In other words, whether it was the Qiongzhou Prefectural City or the Lin’gao County Town, its essence was a military castle. The purpose of building the city was more for defense against the attacks of the natives and bandits, and to show the ruling power of the court.

Gradually, such cities became a guarantee of safety, and the common people gathered around the cities, forming settlements. Because the cities themselves were not planned for residents, their area was generally very small, and it was difficult to accommodate the continuously increasing number of houses. Therefore, even the ancestral homes of the famous figures of Qiongshan County, Qiu Jun and Hai Rui, were outside the west gate.

The Transmigration Group already had a foothold in Shenying Port outside Qiongshan County town. It was an inn opened by Qiwei, which not only had guest rooms, but also a large-scale warehouse and a ticket agency for the Gao Guang Shipping Company. It served the merchants who purchased local products on the island. They could temporarily store the various local products they purchased in Hainan here, and then handle the freight forwarding procedures through the Gao Guang Shipping Company. Because the procedures were convenient and the transportation was reliable, one-third of the goods exported from Qiongshan were now carried by the ships of the Gao Guang Shipping Company.

Lin Baiguang found it inconvenient to stay in the inn, which was too far from the city. So he and his men, disguised as merchants, stayed in a small temple outside the city—this kind of temple was not large in scale, but the accommodation and food were very clean and exquisite. It was not only convenient to live in, but also very quiet, a “high-end hotel” of the time.

He was generous with his money. As soon as he arrived, he threw out ten taels of silver to rent a small courtyard. After settling down, he set up the portable 2W radio and established radio contact with the Lin’gao main station. Every day, he would go out and “visit” guests according to a list.

To say “visit” was not entirely accurate. Some were real visits, where he would send a formal request to the door; others were just to gather information from the periphery, without actually seeking a meeting.

These people were from all walks of life. The list that Lin Baiguang held was actually the relationship network of Gou Da and Gou Er in Qiongshan County, which had been deciphered and sorted out from their documents. He was preparing to take over this system.

Lin Baiguang selected about twenty people from the list of those who had cooperated with the Gou family—it was not necessary to take over the entire relationship network. According to the plan of the Transmigration Group, they would occupy the entire Hainan Island by the end of the first five-year plan, and by then they would be the rulers of Qiongshan County.

The people he selected included minor clerks in the government, junior military officers in the local garrison, shopkeepers who ran shops, and traveling merchants who went back and forth between the mainland and Qiongshan. They were all people who could provide great assistance to the Transmigration Group in terms of intelligence and trade in the next few years.