Chapter 75: Land Acquisition

Of course, Guo Yi would not let him slide past the issue so easily—he was counting on the government to act as his demolition team. Although there weren’t many houses to tear down outside the city, land acquisition was also a complex task. Many large landlords and powerful clans would be very difficult to deal with if they tried to purchase the land themselves without the government’s intervention. Even though Guangzhou was more or less within the Senate’s grasp, the time for open and forceful dictatorship had not yet arrived.

“They’re just a bunch of country bumpkins. How much insight can they have?” Guo Yi said with a smile. “We are not stingy people who are unwilling to spend money. With the government’s help, what can’t be accomplished? We certainly won’t let everyone work hard for nothing.”

“This, this…” Li Xijue really didn’t dare to agree to too much. The Australians’ affairs could be big or small. They had now become a thorny issue that everyone in the officialdom avoided. He thought for a moment and decided to continue using the “delay” tactic. He said:

“This matter is of great importance. Allow me to go back and think it over carefully…”

Guo Yi gave a cold laugh and took a sip of his tea.

“Does such a small matter require so much thought?”

A chill ran down Li Xijue’s spine—not from any powerful aura emanating from Guo Yi, but from the memory of the “grand spectacle” a few months ago when the “Australian rebel” warships bombarded Humen, approached the White Goose Pool, and burned down the Wuyang Post House. He had witnessed firsthand how the government troops had collapsed at the first touch, and how the “Australian rebels” had swept through to the gates of Guangzhou city like a destructive force.

He was not highly trusted in the governor’s staff. If he handled the negotiations well, it would be fine, but if there was the slightest mistake, he would be a ready-made scapegoat. If he offended the “Australian rebels” and caused any trouble, the governor might very well use him to appease them.

Thinking of this, a sense of desolate helplessness enveloped his heart. He had no choice but to nod. “I wonder what brilliant ideas Master Guo has on this matter?”

“I have no brilliant ideas, but I have a plan,” Guo Yi’s expression softened again. “This matter will certainly not cause you any trouble, sir. Not only will it not be troublesome, but it will be beneficial for everyone…”

A temporary “Great World Project Group” was established on Huifu Street. The group was led by Hong Shuiyin, the Hong Kong business representative. He currently had nothing to do in Hong Kong—the Dutch ships wouldn’t arrive for at least a few months—so he was temporarily transferred here to take charge of the new project. Another key figure was the future “general manager” of the Great World: Zhang Yikun.

The Great World project was originally proposed by Zhang Yikun. He had run a small business in the old world and had good commercial and public relations skills, but there was little room for him to display his talents in Lingao, so he had been languishing in the Ministry of Commerce. Li Mei, the head of the ministry, already felt she didn’t have enough work to do, so he had even less. Being too idle, he was drafted by Hu Qingbai and had to teach part-time at Fangcao’di every day, covering everything from arithmetic and language to natural sciences.

The approval of the Guangzhou Great World project immediately boosted Zhang Yikun’s spirits. As the project’s originator and planner, and with his relevant professional background, he easily won the appointment as the head of operations for the Guangzhou Great World in the public recruitment held by the Organization Department.

At this moment, he was in a courtyard on Huifu Street, looking at the preliminary sketches of the future Great World—hand-drawn by Li Xiaolü just a few days ago. To ensure the construction schedule, Mei Wan had specifically instructed Mei Lin and Li Xiaolü to stay in Guangzhou to serve the Great World project. For their convenience, Li Xiaolü was provided with a set of professional drafting tools and even a special lamp for illumination—the power was supplied by a human-powered generator from the Guangzhou Station.

The design philosophy of the “Great World” was essentially an armed trading post combined with a shopping mall. Li Xiaolü had no idea what this strange hybrid should look like. Although she had been a draftswoman all her life in the old world, she had never drawn the structural plans for a star fort, let alone one with commercial functions. Hong Shuiyin and the others had to explain and draw at length before she finally understood their vision.

However, the preliminary sketches she produced this time were still far from their ideas. But at least the basic shape was there. On the paper was a “pentagonal building complex,” or, to put it more simply, something like the “Pentagon.”

“This is getting interesting!” Zhang Yikun nodded repeatedly. “But the internal structure…”

“We’ll revise it slowly. It would be best if you could give me a clear functional structural sketch. That way, I can design it specifically,” Li Xiaolü said, stretching. “Some ideas are impossible to design; they conflict with the building’s function and structure.”

“Of course, of course. We’ll mainly follow your professional opinion,” Zhang Yikun nodded repeatedly. He was very polite to the female designer, not only because she was professionally competent, but also because of the rumors that she had an ambiguous relationship with someone in the Executive Committee. Someone had witnessed a certain someone spending the night in her apartment.

“And then there’s the geological data,” Li Xiaolü said. “Next, I’ll be designing the building’s structure, so you need to get me the geological data for the construction site as soon as possible.”

“We’ll send people to survey it as soon as we confirm the location,” Zhang Yikun said, looking at the woman who always seemed a bit lazy. He thought that although she was fair-skinned and looked very refined, like a female intellectual, her figure and appearance were not particularly impressive, and she wasn’t very active, always looking慵懒. How could someone in the Executive Committee be interested in her?

There were several proposals for the location of the Great World, but the project group’s basic requirement was that it be outside Guangzhou city, backed by the Pearl River.

Being outside the city was primarily to be away from the government’s core area of control, allowing for greater freedom of action and making it easier for the government to turn a blind eye. Secondly, there was more open land, making land acquisition, demolition, and construction more convenient than urban renewal in Guangzhou. The Guangzhou Station had learned its lesson in this regard: when they were building the Huifu Street and other buildings, just transporting construction materials into the city every day was a major headache. The roads were narrow and winding, and all the materials had to be carried to the construction site by hand. Due to the inefficient transportation of materials, the entire construction period was delayed for many days.

However, the Great World could not be too far from the city—if it was too far, it would be difficult to attract enough customers, and it would also increase the cost of road construction. Therefore, an earlier proposal to build the Great World in Huangpu was rejected. The distance from Huangpu to Guangzhou city was such that unless the Guangzhou Station also built a light railway to transport customers, it would be impossible to attract a customer base.

“The distance from the city should not exceed 5 kilometers—on a good road, it would take an hour to walk. This would greatly reduce the frequency of citizens visiting our Great World.”

If a citizen took half an hour on average to leave the city from their home, and then had to walk another hour, the round trip would be three hours. Too much time spent on the road would discourage frequent visits. After discussion, they decided that a distance of 2 to 3 kilometers was appropriate.

Being backed by the Pearl River was mainly for easy access to water and for drainage. The Great World would have a large water demand, which could not be met by wells and small rivers. As for drainage, large rivers have always been natural drainage channels.

Building on the banks of the Pearl River was also convenient for transporting goods and maintaining a deterrent force. In times of need, a navy gunboat could be parked by the shore, making it easy to either support the defense of the trading post or cover a retreat.

After discussion, the final decision was to locate it about 2 kilometers east of the Great East Gate and then a little to the south, roughly in the area of the Dashatou second-hand market or the Xingzhiguang electronics market in the old world. This area was an alluvial plain along the Pearl River, mostly ownerless government land, with little land acquisition and demolition work required. The area was also open and could accommodate their ambitions.

“However, to build a giant structure like the Great World, the supply of building materials is a big problem. We can’t rely on Lingao to transport them…” Mei Lin said, looking at the design. Although it didn’t fully match Zhang Yikun’s vision, the scale was designed entirely according to their wishes. This “Pentagon” had sides that were a full 200 meters long. The entire perimeter of the Great World was nearly 1 kilometer.

A building complex with a perimeter of one kilometer was almost the size of a small city in this era. As a former project manager in construction, Mei Lin certainly knew the amount of work and materials required.

“Didn’t the Planning Institute agree to build building material factories and light industrial enterprises locally outside Guangzhou city?”

“That’s why I said the land acquisition area can’t be too small. We have to include the land for the supporting enterprises,” Mei Lin said. “We can purchase bricks, tiles, and stone locally, but we have to build our own timber processing plant—the efficiency of ancient board processing is too low.”

“It would be best if we built our own brick and tile factory. Traditional brick kilns can’t supply such a large quantity,” Hong Shuiyin said. When he was doing infrastructure work in Hong Kong, he initially purchased bricks and tiles from kilns in Kowloon and other places. But he soon found that the purchased bricks and tiles were not suitable—the size was too large, and the output was too low. The procurement staff soon found themselves running to places where the transportation costs were higher than the cost of the bricks and tiles themselves.

“But is it appropriate to set up these factories next to the Great World?” Zhang Yikun raised a question. Brick making and timber processing were highly polluting industries, and having them next to a commercial center would seriously affect the environment.

“We can find another place, and we don’t even have to invest ourselves. Let the local tycoons invest. We can contribute technology and equipment as our share,” Hong Shuiyin said. “With a guaranteed market, they would definitely be willing to invest, right?”

“We need a cement factory,” Mei Lin said. “It’s unrealistic to transport cement from Lingao, and we also need to burn lime. These all have to be solved locally.”

Building materials have low value and high transportation costs. Even for a relatively high-value material like cement, the sales radius in modern society would not exceed 500 kilometers.

Although the raw materials for cement were limited in Guangzhou, the production areas were not far, and transportation was convenient with the Pearl River, East River, and West River waterways.

“And a timber processing plant and a carpentry factory,” Hong Shuiyin said. “We can process wood nearby to supply the Great World project now, and in the future, it can also supply the shipyard in Hong Kong. And even further in the future, it can supply the New Guangzhou project.”

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Zhang Yikun said, “New Guangzhou is still a bit far off. I think the first step is to build a Guangzhou Industrial Park. The location should be far from the city. The first phase of the project will naturally be the building materials factories—to support the Great World and the Zi-brand businesses first. Later, we can add some light industrial enterprises. I remember the Ministry of Light Industry also mentioned making full use of Guangdong’s abundant agricultural products. Aren’t food processing factories and textile factories very suitable projects?”

In the short term, these enterprises would provide products for the Great World and the wholesale business. In the long term, the industrial production of these factories would have a devastating impact on the handicraft industry in the Guangdong region. This destructive productivity would ultimately have a huge impact on the entire economy and society of Guangdong, thereby promoting the disintegration of traditional society.

Hong Shuiyin said, “As for the location, I suggest we still choose a place not far from the Great World, so that they can support each other in case of armed conflict. And it must be built on the banks of the Pearl River, with a water transport terminal for convenient shipping of raw materials and finished products.”

As for the specific construction site, from a planning perspective, it should of course be built downstream and downwind of the Great World to prevent smoke and wastewater from affecting it. The distance between the two should be 3 to 4 kilometers, connected by a good road. In the long term, a light railway could be built to connect them.

Afterward, they had a detailed discussion on a series of details such as the water supply and drainage plan, and the lighting and cooling systems, forming an overall plan.

“Once we’ve sorted it out, should we immediately send someone back to Lingao for approval?” Zhang Yikun said excitedly.

“We have to send it to Guo Yi first,” Mei Lin reminded him. “He’s the head of the Guangzhou Station.”

“Oh, oh, right. I almost forgot,” Zhang Yikun shook his head. “That would be overstepping my authority. I haven’t been in a formal job for many years, always been self-employed. I’m not sensitive to these things anymore.”

The plan was quickly approved by Guo Yi. Then it was approved by the Planning Institute. Zhang Yikun personally went back to Lingao to “submit it for approval.” Normally, he would only need to hand the proposal to the courier who traveled regularly between Lingao and Guangzhou. But at Guo Yi’s suggestion, he still made a personal trip back to Lingao.

The Guangzhou Great World was an unplanned project. Although it had been approved by the Senate and the Executive Committee, in Guo Yi’s experience, if the person in charge of such a project did not personally follow up, its implementation would be intentionally or unintentionally delayed. The production departments had very tight schedules, and all the demanding units were watching them closely. For the Guangzhou Great World to start construction as soon as possible, Zhang Yikun had to personally “run the departments.”

Through Zhang Yikun’s efforts, the project was finally implemented step by step. Wu De agreed to his suggestion to first start a few factories to do the groundwork. From his perspective, this would reduce the pressure on Lingao’s existing material resources, and secondly, it would postpone the construction of the Great World itself.

From land acquisition and construction to formal production, it would take at least half a year to form a stable production capacity. Only then could the Guangzhou Great World officially enter the construction phase, and the pressure on material demand from it would be delayed until the second half of 1631.

The entire plan was to start with land acquisition and “three connections and one leveling” from March. Apart from the core Lingao construction team, all construction workers would be recruited locally. After the project was completed, these people could be transferred to work in the factories. The machinery and equipment required by the enterprises would also be arranged for unplanned production by the Planning Institute. The first batch of building materials would be purchased locally in Guangdong, and special building materials would be shipped from Lingao, with specific allocation handled by the Planning Institute. The Planning Institute would also hold a coordination meeting to select transmigrator technical personnel from the brick and tile factories, timber processing plants, and carpentry factories to go to Guangzhou for equipment installation and technical guidance. At the same time, some native workers would be selected to serve as the backbone of the new enterprises’ production force.

Cheng Dong also allocated the funds and foreign exchange quotas for the Great World project. Of course, these allocations were far from enough and could only be considered start-up capital.

The Guangzhou Great World project was reported to Li Fengjie through Li Xijue’s channel. Li Xijue reported Guo Yi’s plan in detail. When Li Fengjie heard the news, he was reading a book. He listened to the report without saying a word, not even raising an eyebrow. Li Xijue knew that these big shots all valued “having a city in one’s chest” and had cultivated the art of feigning indifference. So he just stood there respectfully and did not speak.

After flipping through three or four pages of the book, the governor finally spoke:

“What do you think of this matter?”

“Of course, it would be best not to allow it…” Although Li Xijue had been forced to accept this project by Guo Yi during the meeting, he felt that he could not be vague on this matter. He vaguely sensed that there was a deep conspiracy by the Australians behind the Guangzhou Great World project, and it was probably not as simple as building a large shop like “Ziminglou.” It might even be an attempt to build an “Australian Guangzhou” outside the city. He quickly added:

“This is the Australians ‘borrowing land to dry their water-damaged goods.’ The precedent is there. I implore Your Excellency to see it clearly.”

Li Fengjie stroked his beard and said nothing. Li Xijue knew what he was thinking. The entire Guangdong officialdom, from top to bottom, was afraid of the “Australian rebels.” Last year, they had raided the area around Guangzhou, occupied Humen, and bombarded Guangzhou, causing chaos in all the counties, killing many gentry, and plundering a large amount of property. This matter had already alarmed the court. Fortunately, the emperor was far away, and he was preoccupied with the matters of the roving bandits and the Eastern barbarians, so he had no time to inquire about the situation here. Even He Rubin’s disastrous defeat in Qiongzhou had not yet been specifically addressed by the court. According to letters from Li Fengjie’s advisors, former classmates, and friends in the capital, it was very likely that this matter would be swept under the rug. Although the government troops had suffered heavy losses and had “lost their army,” they had not “lost territory,” which, in the court’s view, was much better than the provinces plagued by roving bandits. However, someone had to be held responsible: He Zhen would probably be reduced to a “useless general.”

With the mess in Qiongzhou as a backdrop, the Australian attack on the area around Guangzhou was portrayed as a “sea pirate raid taking advantage of a victory.” After all, such things had happened before—a few hundred wokou had once rampaged through Southern Zhili, reaching the gates of Nanjing. The court did not feel that the sky was falling.

Li Fengjie did not care about He Rubin’s future. His main concern was how to maintain stability in Guangdong, especially around Guangzhou. Last time, they had to secretly “cede territory and pay reparations” to resolve the issue. If they offended the “Australian rebels” over this matter, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t come up with some new trick. He would then be unable to answer to the court.

But he would not say this to Li Xijue. After a long pause, he put on an indifferent expression:

“Why bother me with such a small matter? Let them go to Prefect Yu.”

Prefect Yu was the prefect of Guangzhou, Yu Baocun. Li Fengjie had made up his mind: whether it was land acquisition or building some “world,” it was a local matter in Guangzhou and should be handled by Yu Baocun.

So the matter fell into Yu Baocun’s lap. Of course, Li Xijue could not escape either. He not only had to go and brief Prefect Yu but also had to ensure he correctly understood the governor’s intentions: clearly, the governor was not prepared to confront the “Australian rebels” on this matter.

“The plots are here and here.” Lü Yizhong, who had been ordered to discuss the details with Yu Baocun, completely ignored the prefect’s surprise. He took out the map he had brought with him: a simplified map of Guangzhou and its suburbs, with all the terrain, features, and settlements outside the city clearly marked.

Yu Baocun had already been informed by Li Fengjie. He cursed the governor inwardly for passing the hot potato to him, but it was also his duty, and he had no reason to refuse. Besides, he was still counting on Governor Li not to sabotage him over the matter of Inspector Gao’s “departure.” He had already given the governor’s favorite concubine many valuable Australian goods for this.

He paid close attention to the places Lü Yizhong pointed to. Both were outside the Great East Gate and on the riverbank. Yu Baocun had never seen a modern map, but he had at least seen geographical maps. He studied it for a while; the two plots the Australians wanted were on opposite sides of the river and several li apart.

Yu Baocun was a local official by background. Although he couldn’t read the scale, he could roughly estimate the area of land the Australians wanted based on the surrounding terrain. He estimated it was about a thousand mu in total. Most of it was government land, so it wouldn’t be too much trouble to handle. Yu Baocun breathed a sigh of relief.

“Master Guo’s meaning is: he is willing to pay for these plots, but he asks for the prefect’s assistance in the matter,” Lü Yizhong said.

“Of course, of course,” Yu Baocun nodded repeatedly, cursing Lü Yizhong inwardly for being so shameless as to immediately switch his allegiance to the “Australian rebels.” But he couldn’t afford to offend this man in the past, and he certainly couldn’t afford to offend him now. He could only force a smile and agree repeatedly.

The few of them gathered to discuss how to handle this matter in a way that was both justifiable and satisfactory. The matter of the Australians buying land could not be made public, of course; it needed a pretext. After some thought, Yu Baocun suggested using the pretext of building a commercial port. The reason was that Guangdong had recently suffered from war, and in recent years, natural disasters had been frequent, leaving the people displaced. The court had also repeatedly launched major military campaigns, and its finances were tight. Now, the only way was to open up new sources of revenue and collect more commercial taxes to serve the court. Therefore, it was decided to designate a commercial port on the banks of the Pearl River and invite merchants to build and operate businesses there.

This reason was perfectly legitimate and not difficult to implement. Yu Baocun instructed the magistrates and advisors of Panyu and Nanhai counties to come and discuss the matter together. After some discussion, they decided to allocate as much government land as possible for sale to avoid disputes arising from land purchases. Everyone knew that the land was actually being bought by the Australians, so it was better to be careful.

With the strong assistance of local officials, the land acquisition work proceeded smoothly. Guo Yi knew that to get things done in the Ming Dynasty, even if you had foreign guns and cannons, things would progress very slowly without proper “lubrication.” He couldn’t just drag people out and shoot them, after all. Therefore, he hinted through Lü Yizhong to the main local officials that the Guangzhou Great World project would be open for public subscription. If they were interested, they could enjoy the right to purchase shares and receive “subscription certificates” in advance.