Chapter 19: The Great Road

Quaker Qiong emerged from the small room, his face flushed. It was much later that he told Li Luoyou what had happened inside: he had been semi-forcibly stripped of his trousers, then made to lie on an iron bed. Then, several women with their faces covered by white cloth masks, revealing only their eyes, came over and scrubbed him from front to back with brushes dipped in medicinal solution.

Then, his cleansed and disinfected parts were carefully inspected for several minutes and prodded with something cold like a pair of tongs. Quaker secretly cried out in alarm, but the burly men beside him made him afraid to resist.

He then heard someone discussing that he had too much body hair, making it difficult to see clearly, and then someone else discussed whether to shave him. Quaker was horrified. He wasn’t a woman. If people found out he had been shaved down there, it would become a lifelong joke.

He begged for mercy in both Mandarin and Cantonese, saying he was willing to give up everything if they would just not do this shameful thing to him. In the end, he didn’t know if his pleas had worked or if the other party deemed it unnecessary, but he was spared.

“…For several days after I returned from Lin’gao, I could still smell that medicinal solution on my body,” Quaker said helplessly. “This group of Australians are truly strange fellows!”

But at this moment, his face was a mask of stone, and he followed Li Luoyou out of the customs house without a word.

Outside the customs house was another square paved with stone blocks. As the group was looking around, a man in a blue gown and a small cap hurried over.

“Excuse me, is this Master You from Foshan?”

“It is indeed my master,” Saoye nodded.

“Greetings to Master You.” The man immediately prostrated himself on the ground and kowtowed. “I am from the household of Master Yang Shixiang of the Lin’gao Runshitang. I have been sent by my master to welcome you here.”

“Please lead the way, esteemed steward.”

The man quickly got up and led the way. At the edge of the square was a wide road, along which many signs were erected. They probably indicated place names. There were several places like the county town, Ma Niao, and Bairen. Under each sign, a group of people who looked like villagers, with carrying poles and baskets, were waiting. Among them were also “kunren” wearing the Australians’ signature short jackets.

The group found this interesting. Suddenly, a whistle blew from a row of houses at the head of the road, and a four-wheeled cart pulled by four oxen slowly appeared on the road. The ox-cart was long and box-shaped, very tall, with each wheel as high as a man’s shoulder. Two drivers sat at the front, and a sign with the word “Bairen” hung on the front of the cart.

“Attention passengers, attention passengers, the bus to Bairen is now arriving at the station. Please stand back behind the safety line and wait to board in an orderly fashion.”

A man in a blue cloth jacket came out and shouted through an iron megaphone, blowing his whistle from time to time.

The ox-cart slowly pulled up under the “Bairen” sign and stopped. A commotion went through the waiting crowd as they pushed and shoved towards the cart. The man with the iron megaphone kept shouting, “Don’t push, don’t push!”

But his shouts clearly had little effect. Everyone wanted to push to the front. What were they pushing to the front for? Was the ox-cart giving out money and rice?

At this moment, several men wearing straw hats and with short clubs hanging from their waists appeared in the square. They waved their clubs and shouted, and order was somewhat restored. The people began to gradually form a queue. It was clear that the people here were very afraid of the “police” with their straw hats and short clubs, who were probably the “officials” of Lin’gao.

The driver climbed down from the cart and lowered a folding iron step ladder. The people in the queue began to board the ox-cart one by one, sitting down along both sides of the carriage. Then, the driver set up a simple awning. Those with carrying poles and baskets used the iron rings and ropes installed on the outer wall of the carriage to secure their belongings outside. The ox-cart thus became a strange sight, covered in external baggage.

Li Luoyou and his party, of course, did not need to resort to public transportation. Runshitang had already prepared two sedan chairs and four or five wheelbarrows for them. The master rode in the sedan chair, while the servants tied the luggage to the wheelbarrows and followed on foot.

The weather in Lin’gao was hot. Although it was only the end of the second lunar month, it was already a bit dry and hot. The sedan chairs prepared by Runshitang were made of cool bamboo silk, both ventilated and good for sightseeing. Li Luoyou sat in the sedan chair. The road to the county town was as smooth as a whetstone, paved with some kind of black powder, extremely compact. The vehicles he saw along the way moved smoothly and quickly on it, which made Li Luoyou, who had suffered much from riding mule carts in the north, sigh in admiration—this road was so well-built, even the imperial avenue in the capital was probably not as flat.

A white line was painted down the middle of the road, and there was an arrow indicating the direction less than every li. Signs were erected everywhere along the road, some with words and some with symbols, which was almost too much for Li Luoyou to take in.

What he admired most were the clear signs at every fork in the road, telling you where the road led, not only the destination but also the names of places along the way and the distances. It was all very clear and easy to understand.

He had the servant from the Yang family who had come to meet him brought over.

“What do all these signs on the road mean?”

“They are all traffic signs,” the Yang family servant explained the meaning of the symbols and words on the signs one by one.

“Truly meticulous,” Li Luoyou commented. “Was this done by the Australians?”

“Yes, this road was also built in the Australian way. The manpower and resources spent were countless.”

Even someone like Li Luoyou, with no engineering experience, knew that the cost of the road would not be small. Although he didn’t know what the black material on the road surface was or how it was laid, there were drainage ditches with perforated covers on both sides of the roadbed; trees were planted along the road—the trees were only as thick as a teacup and were meticulously cared for, with each tree supported by a frame; there were pavilions, water troughs, and wells for pedestrians and livestock to rest along the way; and there was a watchtower every two li… all in all, the cost of this road was at least several times that of an ordinary road.

“With such large-scale construction, the people of Lin’gao must be living a hard life.”

“To answer your question, Master, not at all,” the servant said with a smile. “How many people are there in Lin’gao? Even if you put them all to work building the road, it wouldn’t be enough.” He pointed to a large pile of gravel and sand on the right side of the road. “Just the project on this river has several thousand workers, all brought here by the Australian masters themselves.”

“Where do the laborers come from?”

“They are brought from the mainland. Every few days, several shiploads of people are brought to Lin’gao,” the servant said.

“Brought from the mainland? They must be refugees.”

“Yes. When they arrive, they look more like ghosts than people. They have to stay in the large camp in Bopu for two months to recuperate before they can be put to work,” the servant said with a smile. “We all say, this doesn’t look like hiring labor, but more like doing a good deed. The Australian masters are really good to the poor.”

These words were very jarring. Li Luoyou snorted faintly. The servant knew he was unhappy and said no more, just followed beside the sedan chair.

Although the construction site in the river channel was not visible from the road, the continuous piles of stones, yellow sand, and excavated earth along the roadside indicated that the project was very large. Some ox-carts loaded with bricks, stones, wood, bundles of thin bamboo strips, and many sacks were neatly lined up on the side of the road, waiting to be unloaded. Some of the sacks were torn at the edges, spilling gray powder. There were also the same treadmill cranes he had seen at the port, standing one after another. Strangely, there was no one running inside them anymore. Instead, there was a black iron contraption, huffing and puffing, emitting white steam and thick black smoke. Iron wheels of various sizes were spinning rapidly, making a clanging sound. Several men, their bodies black with soot, were busy around this contraption, constantly shoveling coal into it.

From time to time, blue-clad workers wearing rattan hats and carrying tools passed by, pushing carts. Their bodies were covered in mud and dust, but they looked full of spirit, all of them strong and dark-skinned. They were even singing a song about “…having strength…” To Li Luoyou, who was used to soft and low singing, it sounded almost like howling, but it was indeed very majestic and inspiring.

The laborers were very disciplined. Someone was directing the work with small red and green flags, but there were no overseers with whips. Everyone seemed to know what they were supposed to do. The entire construction site looked orderly.

Li Luoyou looked at the construction site along the river and couldn’t help but be amazed. How much manpower and resources did Lin’gao have to invest to manage the river on such a scale? Not to mention building roads and houses… The Australians had really invested heavily in Lin’gao!

In that case, cooperation with the Australians could be discussed. Li Luoyou believed that no matter where the Australians came from, how good their goods were, or how capable they were, the most basic point was that they had to be able to protect themselves. If they couldn’t protect themselves, they would sooner or later be driven out or eliminated by either the government troops or the pirate lords, and cooperation with them would be of little benefit to him.

Only if they could guarantee that they could stay in Lin’gao would cooperation be possible. Just like his main partners, the Portuguese.

Now it seemed that the Australians’ investment in Lin’gao was huge. Since they had invested so much, they must also have the ability and determination to protect their property. With these two points, he, Li Luoyou, could discuss a deeper cooperation with the Australians.

Li Luoyou’s party soon arrived at the county town. Along the way, he had seen enough of the ugly houses built by the Australians. Ugly not because the houses were not sturdy or well-built, but because all the houses were built in standard geometric shapes, with almost no curves. All the houses were painted white and had no decorations. Many houses were identical in shape, proportion, and size. The biggest feature of the Australian buildings was that they were practical and sturdy, with many multi-story buildings, not only two stories, but also three, four, and even five or six stories. Li Luoyou didn’t quite understand why the Australians used such a land-saving method when there was so much wasteland in Lin’gao—along the main road, many places had no villages or towns, not even fields, just barren grasslands.

As the city walls of the county town came into view, he saw a round, fortress-like building not far from the city gate.

Around the fortress were large fields. Some had already been planted with green seedlings, some were full of golden rape flowers, some were batches of various vegetables, and some were planted with unknown green crops. They were growing very well, much neater and more prosperous than the fields along the road. Li Luoyou couldn’t help but nod in approval.

As the sedan chair was carried past, he took a closer look. The gate of the fortress was open, and several women were sitting there, some sewing clothes, some holding children and talking, a peaceful scene. But on the gate tower, there were able-bodied men with long pikes on guard.

“What is this place?”

“To answer your question, Master, this is the Xuetian Manor.”

“Xuetian Manor?”

“Yes, the long-term laborers who farm the school lands and their families live inside,” the servant said. “The surrounding area is all the school lands of Lin’gao.”

“These school lands are well-managed!”

“They are contracted and farmed by the Australians’ Tiandihui.”

“The Australians also know how to farm?!” Li Luoyou was even more surprised. The news from outside only said they were “skilled in craftsmanship” and “good at engineering,” and could make many exquisite gadgets. He never expected them to know how to farm! This was big news.

“That’s right,” the servant said, pointing. “This area of school lands used to be a place where not one harvest in ten was successful. It only became like this after the Tiandihui came to farm it. You don’t know, Master, but the amount of effort they put in just before planting is astounding.”

He then talked with great interest about how the Australians tilled and leveled the fields, how they dug ditches, how they used more than ten oxen to pull an iron frame to do farm work in the fields, and how they brought in cartloads of black charcoal and lime to spread on the fields… Li Luoyou listened carefully, feeling more and more that the Australians’ intentions were different from those of the Europeans. Europeans, no matter which country they were from, were most interested in trade when they came to the Great Ming, or they were simply robbers and plunderers. He had never heard of anyone being interested in farming. Of course, it was understandable that they were not interested—the Great Ming was neither their homeland nor a place they could colonize and cultivate.

The Australians were recruiting refugees here, building roads and cities, dredging rivers, and running farms… Although Li Luoyou hadn’t read much history, he knew that this kind of practice far exceeded the needs of sea merchants. The Portuguese had occupied Macau only to have a place to stay and rest their ships, but the Australians were building a “little Australia”! He suddenly thought: Could this be another Jianzhou Jurchen?

Thinking of this, he felt that cooperation with the Australians had to be handled with great caution.

With this complex state of mind, Li Luoyou’s sedan chair had already arrived at the city gate. There were four or five militiamen with long pikes on guard at the gate. It seemed the county town was still the territory of the Great Ming. But when he saw the monk-like short hair of the militiamen, he knew that this “Great Ming” was just a skin.

“Show your documents!”

Li Luoyou now knew that this card was called a “document.” Saoye handed over everyone’s documents, and with them, a red envelope with two qian of silver that had been prepared in advance.

“For the brothers to have a cup of tea.”

“No need,” the sentry said politely, handing the red envelope back. Saoye was stunned. This was two qian of silver! For four militiamen, it was a considerable extra income. Why did they still think it was too little?

The sentry took the documents and checked them one by one, and also checked the luggage on the carts. Finally, he waved his hand. “Enter the city.”