Chapter 90: Phoenix Mountain Manor

The discussion on transportation for the Jiangnan inspection team quickly turned to road construction planning. But building roads was also unrealistic. Even if Jiangnan were to come under their control immediately, with all officials following their orders, the Senate’s current strength would be insufficient.

“Building highways in a place like Jiangnan would be a nightmare for us,” Lü Zhongxing said. “The amount of earthwork is too large, and there are countless rivers and ponds along the way that need bridges.”

“Labor is one thing, but the amount of construction materials is simply astronomical,” Mei Lin sighed. “The gap in our productivity levels is just too big.”

Although Lingao’s industrial capacity was beginning to show its immense power and was a myth in this era, when placed in the context of a large country like China, Lingao’s production capacity was insignificant. The Lingao industrial system, which the transmigrators were so proud of as the “overture to industrialization,” was not comparable in production scale to China in 1949, let alone the heyday of the Self-Strengthening Movement in the late Qing Dynasty.

Xu Ke said, “We don’t have to focus on inland rivers and land. We can also travel by sea from Shanghai to Hangzhou. Don’t forget that Hangzhou is right on the Qiantang River. Sea vessels can sail from Wusong and then enter the Qiantang River from Hangzhou Bay. As long as the hydrographic conditions are clearly surveyed, it’s no problem for ships of several hundred tons to navigate the Qiantang River. After all, sea transport is our strength.”

Zhou Dongtian said, “Sea transport is too conspicuous. For a sea vessel to go directly to the provincial capital would probably cause a stir—it might even shake the whole province. It would be more appropriate for a sea vessel to go to Zhapu. After all, it’s already a seaport.”

The group had a lively discussion on transportation issues along the way, and with a topic to talk about, time passed quickly. A few days later, the inspection team arrived in Hangzhou and disembarked at Gongchen Bridge—the end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and a very famous spot. However, at this time, Gongchen Bridge was still under construction.

Sun Wangcai had already received the coded message scroll from the Shanghai sub-branch and calculated that the ship should arrive around April 20th. Therefore, from April 10th, he sent people to the Gongchen Bridge pier every day to look out. Seeing a ship with the Qiwei flag and lantern arriving at the pier, he immediately reported it to the Zhao residence. Sun Wangcai immediately ordered Cai Shi to take servants and sedan chairs to the riverside to welcome them, and transported the group and their personal luggage to Zhao Yigong’s residence.

The population of the Zhao residence had expanded considerably these days. To be cautious, Sun Wangcai, the manager of the Hangzhou intelligence station, had tightened security, dividing the residence into inner and outer sections. All newly indentured servants were not allowed to enter the inner residence. Only personnel brought from Lingao who had been vetted by the General Security Bureau were allowed to enter.

The increase in population made the Zhao residence feel cramped. Even with the abandoned garden, which had not yet been built on, it seemed insufficient. By this time, Cai Shi had already purchased a large enough piece of land on Phoenix Hill. Zhao Yigong was anxious to start building his manor there. He had already adjusted his strategy based on the telegram from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau.

According to the notice from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau, Zhao Yigong decided to temporarily present himself as a gentleman-scholar with a keen interest in agriculture. In the late Ming, business-oriented landlords were already common. Many landlords no longer rented out their land to tenants for rent but hired long-term and short-term laborers, personally managing the sowing, cultivation, irrigation, and other agricultural matters, and directly managing the land and agricultural products.

In his new plan, he decided to build a farm villa on Phoenix Hill and move the entire Wang Siniang family there to be in charge of sericulture. He would first plant a large number of mulberry trees in the manor and engage in small-scale silkworm raising and silk reeling to lay the foundation for future large-scale industrialization of silk reeling. For this purpose, he had already sent a telegram to Wu Nanhai, requesting the dispatch of sericulture specialists from the Tiandihui, along with silkworm eggs, to serve in Nanjing.

In the future, the Phoenix Mountain Manor would undertake a series of tasks such as personnel purification and transfer, serving as the headquarters and core of the Hangzhou station. Zhao Yigong planned to move most of the core personnel, supplies, and equipment to the Phoenix Mountain Manor after its construction was complete. The Zhao residence in Qinghefang would serve as the “face” of the Hangzhou station.

The “face” was the planned cultural bookstore. The plan was to use the abandoned garden of the Zhao residence to build a comprehensive building integrating a teahouse, bookstore, garden, and printing house. Besides selling tea and books, Zhao Yigong also planned to sell and promote some “cultural products” with Australian characteristics in this cultural bookstore. The initial ideas included Western and Chinese ship models, various board games, including chess and cards. Zhao Yigong also wanted to introduce billiards: he still remembered the “billiards craze” of the 80s and 90s. The technology to manufacture billiards equipment could be met in this era. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Pearl River Delta was famous for producing ivory handicrafts, and many of the billiard balls used in Europe were made in places like Guangzhou. However, he was not sure what the scholars would think of it, and the manufacturing of billiards equipment was not something that could be done overnight. He decided not to introduce it for the time being and to first report the project to the Planning Institute and the Ministry of Light Industry for their records.

Since the Planning Institute had equipped him with printing equipment, it seemed a waste not to publish a newspaper or magazine. In the Ming Dynasty, apart from the Lingao Times in Lingao, there were no real newspapers. He could very well expand in this area and create some newspapers and magazines. After all, there was no “Publishing Law” in the Ming Dynasty, and publishing did not require an issue number or a book number, let alone copyright. The role of newspapers as a mouthpiece was very obvious. Zhao Yigong was prepared to use the vacuum in traditional society’s news media to seize the high ground of propaganda. As for magazines, he planned to use the lithographic printing equipment to create a Ming Dynasty version of the Dianshizhai Pictorial.

Of course, all these things required a material basis. Zhao Yigong had been eagerly waiting for the inspection team to bring him supplies and professional technical personnel for a long time. Now that they had finally arrived, he was overjoyed. He immediately held a banquet at the residence to “welcome them and wash away the dust of their journey.”

At the welcome banquet, they divided the recent work in Jiangnan. Zhou Dongtian would be accompanied by Sun Wangcai and others to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the book carving and publishing industry in Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing. Mei Lin and Zhao Yigong would be responsible for the construction of the Phoenix Mountain Manor and the bookstore. Xu Ke and Lü Zhongxing would be accompanied by Qiwei personnel to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the road and traffic conditions in the northern Zhejiang region of Jiangnan. The terrain and landscape of Jiangnan had changed greatly in the past hundred years of the old world, especially the rivers and ponds, which were much more numerous in this era than in the old world. If they needed to conduct military operations in the Jiangnan region in the future, they had to be prepared in advance.

The next day, Zhao Yigong and the inspection team went to Phoenix Hill. This was the future “lair” of the Hangzhou station, and it was likely to be one of the central hubs for all activities in Jiangnan. Everyone wanted to express their views on it.

Phoenix Hill was outside Fengshan Gate. In the Ming Dynasty, this city gate was a rather deserted place, because outside the gate were Phoenix Hill and the Qiantang River. There was neither good farmland nor a transportation hub outside, so ordinary people rarely came here.

The terrain of Phoenix Hill was gentle, mostly gentle slopes. Anyone with a little knowledge of botany could see that this was a typical secondary forest landscape. The slopes had been developed, and the original vegetation had long been destroyed. Among the thorns and bushes, one could still see low, broken walls and ruins from time to time. In some places, there were still the stone plinths and stone pillars that used to support the great halls. If one looked carefully, one could see many traces of Buddhist temples.

“This is the site of the five temples and one pagoda,” Zhao Yigong said, tired from walking. He sat down on a huge stone plinth and fanned himself. “It is said that the five temples originally used many architectural components from the Southern Song palace—some were even Southern Song palaces themselves. It’s a pity I don’t know anything about archaeology, otherwise I could have done a good excavation and investigation here.”

The five temples and one pagoda had already fallen into ruin by the end of the Yuan Dynasty. When Zhang Shicheng built the city of Hangzhou, he dismantled the remaining buildings and used their materials. For more than 270 years of the Ming Dynasty, people had continuously dismantled various building materials from here, leaving only broken bricks and tiles and some large components that were not easy to move scattered among the thorns.

“How big is the land you bought?” Mei Lin climbed onto a stone plinth and looked out, estimating the scale and area of the entire manor.

“I told Old Sun that the bigger the land, the better. Most of the land in the Phoenix Hill area is ownerless government land, so it’s not worth much. It’s just that there are some private graves in some places. It’s more troublesome to deal with them. If we can buy them, we’ll buy them. If not, we’ll avoid them for now,” Zhao Yigong said, pointing. “From the riverbank at the foot of the mountain all the way to here, this piece of land must be bought—I’m going to build a pier.”

“There’s a problem with building a manor here. The water supply is not easy to solve,” Mei Lin said, observing the place he indicated. “To get water from the river, we have to solve the problem of lifting it—drainage is very convenient, though.”

“There are springs on the mountain.”

“We need to build a water collection project,” Mei Lin said, looking at the terrain. “Actually, lifting water is not difficult. We can just build a Lanzhou waterwheel. It will also be a scenic spot in the future.”

Zhao Yigong nodded. “That’s a good idea, because I’m also planning to farm at the Phoenix Mountain Manor.” He pointed to the landscape. “We’ll plant fruit trees and tea on the slopes, and mulberry trees by the water. We’ll dig fish ponds and engage in sericulture and fish farming. Then we’ll set up a tea workshop and a fruit processing factory.”

“You’re planning to play a farming game in Hangzhou,” Mei Lin said with a smile.

“We have to be self-sufficient. This place is thousands of miles from Lingao. We can’t rely on the Planning Institute to ship everything here,” Zhao Yigong said after a moment’s thought. “Help me design it well. Don’t make it look like a star fort. Just make it look like a local wealthy landlord’s fortified village. This is the provincial capital, after all. We can’t be too conspicuous.”

Mei Lin said, “First, you have to give me the clear boundaries of the manor. While Xu Ke is still here, have him quickly survey and draw a topographical map. I’m not good at this. It’s easy to build a house, but for layout and planning, a detailed map is essential. As for the manor buildings, I’ll first draw a sketch according to your requirements. I’ll start construction after you approve it.”

“Good,” Zhao Yigong nodded. “I have one more presumptuous request.”

“Go ahead. You’re the client here. Everything is for the client’s consideration.”

“Build me an ancestral hall in the manor,” Zhao Yigong said. “Make it as grand as possible.”