Chapter 12: Breakthrough

“Alright, but don’t expect much support. The Executive Committee is very stingy with funding and manpower for our Religious Affairs Office. The Catholic Church is pretty much running on the Jesuits’ money right now.”

“I don’t need many resources,” Zhang Yingchen said modestly. “Just allocate me the necessary manpower—a dozen orphans will do. As for funding, the current demand is limited. I can advance the costs myself for now.”

“Manpower is very difficult to arrange. All departments are competing for it,” He Ying said. “And you want orphans. Don’t you know that orphans are a scarce resource?”

“There must be some, right? My requirements are not high, ten will be enough. All boys—aged 11 to 16, preferably thirteen or fourteen. The kind with clear, delicate features. I will train them personally.”

“People are always thinking about raising lolis, your taste is really unconventional,” He Ying said.

“Not at all, not at all,” Zhang Yingchen coughed a few times. “I have my requirements too! I don’t want orphans tainted by the ways of the criminal underworld, nor do I want those who are too honest and inflexible. It would be best if they have been trained in places like acting troupes and know how to play musical instruments. And preferably, their hatred value should be high. The more they hate this era, the more they fit our requirements.”

“Submit a report after the hearing passes,” He Ying said. “It’s purely for queuing purposes. The possibility of getting people immediately is low.”

In the end, Zhang Yingchen’s proposal passed the hearing of the Standing Committee and was approved by the Executive Committee. As for the Daoist novices he wanted, there were none for now. Just as He Ying had said, orphans were a scarce resource, and the demand from all sides was high. This application would have to wait for several months.

Zhang Yingchen decided not to wait any longer. He decided to use the developing Sanya region as his first experimental ground for missionary work. There were a large number of laborers there who needed religious comfort. Moreover, starting missionary work directly in Lin’gao would easily lead to conflict with old Wu. Although old Wu was no crusader, it was still best to avoid directly infringing on others’ territory.

He decided to use his medical skills as much as possible to spread his teachings. To this end, he had He Ying second his personnel file to the Ministry of Health, preparing to go to Sanya to perform health services. To be cautious, he also had He Ying issue a letter of introduction from the Religious Affairs Office, stamped with the great seal of the Government Affairs Council. The elders in Sanya—Wang, Xi, Zhuo, Li—were not a devout bunch. If they mistook him for some kind of “evil cultist” and arrested him, it would be a huge embarrassment.

Besides this precious letter, the things Zhang Yingchen brought were very simple. He wanted to emulate those missionaries who had braved all difficulties and ventured into barren lands, carrying only the most essential daily necessities, and trying to live and preach in the simplest way. This was not only to maintain the simple and humble appearance necessary for a religious figure but also to lay the foundation for future missionary work in remote and barren areas.

Apart from the self-made Daoist robe on his back, he only carried a double-shouldered rattan backpack made by the Lin’gao clothing factory, containing a few sets of coarse cloth underwear issued to the laborers; a towel and an enamel cup, also for the native laborers; an iron lunch box; a tarpaulin raincoat; two spare pairs of leather-soled cloth shoes; and army-issue cloth leggings. His Swiss army knife was his only piece of modern equipment. In addition, he had a standard medical kit, which, apart from a few locally made antibiotics, mainly contained various Chinese patent medicines developed under Liu San’s direction.

Zhang Yingchen decided to use this equipment in Yulin to train himself. To this end, he even went to the long-range reconnaissance team and participated in a four-week wilderness survival training, learning various skills such as direction finding, route selection, and foraging. He also began to learn several local dialects, including the most common Hainanese dialect and the military dialect. As for the Li language, there was no place to learn it for the time being.

When He Ma returned, he brought back the fumigators, medicine, food, more nurses, and this doctor who had suddenly appeared.

In the command headquarters office, Wang Luobin and the others had already gone out. Only Zhuo Tianmin was on duty. He had suffered quite a bit in the riot and was temporarily staying at the command post.

Zhuo Tianmin looked at the man’s dispatch certificate, then at the strange man himself, his strange clothes, and his hair. He carried a rattan box on his back, a standard Ministry of Health medical kit slung over his shoulder, and a Type 29 jungle machete hanging from his belt. A straw hat was slung over his shoulder. Several bamboo tubes for clean water hung from his neck.

In this attire, he looked less like an elder and more like an ordinary native.

“You’re a doctor?”

This tall Daoist priest smiled and extended his hand. “I am Zhang Yingchen. I heard the Sanya Development Zone requested additional medical personnel, so I came here first. I will need your help in my work in the future.”

“Oh, your appearance—” Zhuo Tianmin sized him up.

“This is original-ecology equipment,” Zhang Yingchen said. “I plan to go deep into the inland areas to survey and collect medicinal herbs, and by the way, make contact with the local Li and Miao natives to see how receptive they are to the teachings.”

“I see,” Zhuo Tianmin nodded. “But this equipment is too simple.”

“It’s no matter,” Zhang Yingchen said with a gentle smile. “When the natives travel, they are like me, perhaps even far worse off. If they can do it, so can I.”

Zhuo Tianmin was not interested in his strange hobby, but he had doubts about his mission. This person claimed to be a doctor, but his letter of introduction and dispatch certificate were stamped with the seal of the Religious Affairs Office.

Wang Luobin was not interested in whether the medical personnel temporarily supported from Bairen City were Daoist priests or Catholic priests. When this self-proclaimed medical worker produced a chief physician certificate from the Bairen City medical system, he was immediately allowed to go to the clinic to assist with the work.

Zhuo Tianmin, however, was a little worried about this guy who looked more like a charlatan than a doctor.

In his view, the appearance of such a strange doctor in Sanya, which was already in a state of panic due to constant industrial accidents, was in itself an element of uncertainty. Zhuo Tianmin, who had personally experienced the riot led by Chief Li, had to express his doubts to Wang Luobin.

Wang Luobin was dismissive of this. In his view, this Zhang Yingchen was at least a properly trained professional. His medical skills were much better than the crash-course veterinarians and nurses among the transmigrators. And the appearance of a clergyman was a timely emotional stabilizer for the native workers.

“The Portuguese and the Spanish brought priests with them in the Americas and Southeast Asia,” he answered without looking up from the engineering report. “Religious brainwashing is an indispensable magic weapon for colonizers. To take a step back, Old Zhang is one of us, an elder. Are you worried he’ll carve a one-eyed stone man in the middle of the night, bury it on the construction site, and then organize these natives to start a revolution?”

The discussion about the new Daoist doctor ended inconclusively. Zhang Yingchen, who was busy treating patients and promising the dying that he could help them ascend to the heaven of the chosen disciples, had no idea that two of his colleagues in the Sanya development had had a less than pleasant debate about him.

However, he soon tasted his colleagues’ hostility towards his missionary activities. That day, he was on duty with Guo Fu. During a break, he preached some of his teachings to her. The next day, He Ma summoned him for a very serious talk.

“I know you came to Sanya with the experimental mission of proselytizing. This has been approved by the Central Government Affairs Council,” He Ma said. “But you must know that according to Executive Committee Document No. 1-61, employees such as nurses cannot be the target of missionary work.”

“Executive Committee Document No. 1-61 only states that proselytizing is not allowed in schools, government agencies, and the military. It doesn’t say that nurses cannot be proselytized to…”

“At this stage, hospitals and clinics are government agencies, and nurses are public officials. Proselytizing is not allowed.” He Ma did not like his nurses having religious inclinations—even though it was common for religious systems to run hospitals all over the world.

To Zhang Yingchen, this seemed like unreasonable interference. But he did not argue. To gain a foothold here, he needed the support of the local elders. Arguing about this would be futile and would only affect his position here.

So he turned his proselytizing efforts to the ordinary laborers. He believed the management would not interfere with such missionary activities. Besides, after the riot, the various bosses of the Sanya Military Committee would surely be eager to find some spiritual opium to soothe the masses.

After receiving He Ma’s report, Zhuo Tianmin felt uneasy. After talking with Wang Luobin, Xi Yazhou was ordered to “keep an eye on that Daoist.”

According to reports from various sources, Zhang Yingchen was not very interested in the traditional Daoist arts and the idea of ascending to immortality. His missionary theory, in Zhuo Tianmin’s view, was almost like a variant of Christianity.

Leaving aside his abstract explanation of the “Dao,” the highest object of belief in Daoism, this kūnzéi Daoist priest was always talking about “the Old Lord, pitying the hardships of the world, sent five hundred True Beings on an iron ship, descending to the South China Sea, appearing as holy kings to teach and transform the people, in anticipation of the arrival of the Land of Great Peace. Those who follow the teachings are the chosen people and will surely have a place in the Land of Great Peace. Even if they unfortunately die, they will ascend to the heaven of the chosen.”

This is just utter nonsense, Zhuo Tianmin thought. But he also admitted that under the current harsh conditions, it was a good thing for the native laborers to have some spiritual sustenance. People would be a little braver in the face of death if they knew they could go to a good place afterward.

Through the joint efforts of everyone, especially the dual effects of widespread distribution of compound anti-malarial tablets and a significant increase in nutrition, the tide of malaria, after reaching its peak, suddenly receded. The mortality rate dropped sharply. By the end of the second month, there were no new cases or deaths. The Sanya development had finally passed its first hurdle.

Although industrial accidents still occurred from time to time, the lifting of the fear of epidemics greatly calmed the people. Coupled with Zhang Yingchen’s tireless propaganda that those who died from disease and accidents had gone to the heaven of the chosen, the dual effects of material and spiritual support finally stabilized the previously panicked native laborers. As the environment was further transformed and a major sanitation campaign was launched, the living conditions for mosquitoes, leeches, and various parasites deteriorated, their density continuously decreased, the number of sick people dropped significantly, and the progress of the project greatly accelerated.

On April 20th, amidst the crackling of firecrackers, the railway finally reached the location of the Tiandu iron mine. Wang Luobin, Zhuo Tianmin, and others symbolically hammered in the last few spikes into the rails to the enthusiastic cheers of the road construction workers. The Yulin-Tiandu railway was officially opened. This was the first officially operational railway line of the transmigrators, not just the tracks used to transport raw materials in the industrial area of Lin’gao. This railway line, less than twenty kilometers long, was later called the “Blood Road” by some: hundreds of people had died in various industrial accidents and from infectious diseases. The famous independent scholar Du Bai wrote in his book The Bloody Giant Under the Veil of Modernization (this book has been banned):

“…According to statistics, in the initial stage of the ‘Giant Project,’ the construction of the railway, highway, and communication lines, which were the foundation of the entire development work. Because the climate and living conditions along the entire construction line were extremely harsh, coupled with the inhumane forced labor imposed by Zhuo Moumou, Wang Moumou, Pan Mou, and others, nearly a thousand laborers died from technical and safety accidents, overwork, disease, and malnutrition. It is precisely because of this that this section of the project was later called the ‘Road of Death’.”

However, for the elders in charge of the Sanya development, the completion of this line meant a decisive victory. The railway was like a huge blood vessel, finally able to continuously transport construction materials and labor to the front line. Wang Luobin wrote in his memoirs: “…If we had been worried about the prospects before, then the moment the railway was completed, I believed that the success of the Sanya development was only a matter of time.”

The Meteor II locomotive—the Meteor I had been completely destroyed due to the insufficient strength of some parts and was deemed not worth repairing, so it was sent back to Lin’gao to be dismantled and melted down—departed from the simple wooden platform of the Yulin Fort station amidst the sound of firecrackers. The Meteor II used a Mozi III steam engine with an output of five hundred horsepower. The huge boiler devoured high-quality Hon Gai anthracite coal, turning thousands of liters of water into scorching steam, pushing the pistons and levers. The black iron wheels slowly turned. The entire train, fully loaded with construction materials, picked up speed, finally heading towards the Tiandu station at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour.

The elders laid a foundation stone at the original site of the later Tiandu Town, announcing the official start of the Tiandu iron mine development. The labor teams, supported by bulldozers, explosives, and “Zidian-gai” wheelbarrows, and using steel tools, completely destroyed the vegetation and original landforms here: wetlands were buried under waste soil and gravel, and grass, shrubs, and trees were completely cleared. Large areas of shrubs were cleared directly by fire. The river valley, once full of subtropical vegetation, was now mostly barren land. The Tiandu River also dried up—it was temporarily dammed upstream. The riverbed would be dredged and deepened. Wang Luobin also planned to build a small reservoir nearby to provide domestic and industrial water for Tiandu Town and the mining area. If the water volume was large enough, they would consider adding a small hydroelectric power station as a supplementary energy source.