Chapter 106 - Standardized Ships

Zhang Guangtian said nothing upon hearing this. The Fan family burning and smashing Buddhist and Daoist statues was, after all, destroying their own property. Previously, several scholarly families who had converted to Christianity had also burned Buddhist statues, and there was nothing to be done about it. The Chan sect itself had once been known for “reviling the Buddha and cursing the patriarchs,” and there was the famous story of Chan Master Danxia burning a Buddha statue for warmth. Although Zhang Guangtian held a military post, he had read many Chan koans in his spare time and was not as shocked by such “blasphemous” acts as Monk Guangdi was. It was just that recently, most of those who fanatically followed this Western religion were from the educated class. If these people were to succeed, it would inevitably lead to another persecution of Buddhism like the Three Wu Disasters, and its harm might be even greater.

As he was pondering this, Monk Guangdi, who was accustomed to pleasing people, could see that this lay “senior brother” was in a bad mood and did not dare to chatter on. He accompanied him for another half a li before bidding farewell and returning to Jingci Temple.

Zhang Guangtian returned home. He was a hereditary centurion of the local garrison, but he was very unfamiliar with matters of warfare. In his daily life, he was just an ordinary, devout Buddhist scholar.

The Zhang family was not very wealthy and lived the life of a middle-class family that “passed down farming and scholarship through the generations”—of course, he did not farm himself but lived on the rent collected from the fields belonging to the garrison.

Not long after returning home, while still troubled by this matter, a servant at the gate announced that a Mr. Huang from Fujian had come to see him.

“Huang Zhen really went to Zhang Guangtian’s house,” Zhao Tong said in a low voice to Zhang Yingchen, who was checking his pulse, pretending to be a patient.

Zhang Yingchen nodded slightly, indicating that he had heard.

“Huang Zhen stayed at the Zhang family’s house for more than an hour before coming out,” Zhao Tong continued his report. “After returning to the inn, he was in a good mood and didn’t even drink porridge for dinner.”

Zhang Yingchen nodded again. The seed he had planted in Huang Zhen’s heart had sprouted so quickly that he himself was surprised.

Since he had gone to see Zhang Guangtian, the rest was predictable. Zhang Guangtian would certainly introduce him to the monk Yuanwu at Tiantong Temple in Ningbo. Even if Yuanwu did not write the First Discourse Refuting Heaven as history dictated, he would take similar measures. The spring waters of West Lake were about to be stirred.

“Does he intend to go to Ningbo?”

“Not yet,” Zhao Tong said. “However, if he does, we will definitely know. Huang Zhen took a sedan chair from the inn when he came to Hangzhou last time. He will most likely come to us to buy a ticket to go to Ningbo this time.”

“Hmm, keep a close eye on him. Pay attention to his activities. Notify me as soon as he goes to Ningbo,” Zhang Yingchen said with a slight movement of his lips. He then wrote a prescription, took out a packet of pills for him, and said in a louder voice:

“Take one dose first, and come back in three days.”

The next day, a telegram was sent from the Hangzhou station to the Foreign Intelligence Bureau in Lin’gao.

Center:

I have introduced Huang Zhen to Zhang Guangtian. Zhang will most likely introduce him to the monk Yuanwu at Tiantong Temple. It seems the good show is about to begin. To be present at such a grand occasion, what joy! Please ask the Great Library to find a copy of the Posthumous Letters on the Debate of Learning published by Giulio Aleni and others in Fujian. It is essential that it includes the preface signed by Yang Tingyun with his baptismal name, Migezi.

Daoquanzi

“Hmph, I’ll prepare all the ammunition. I’m not worried that you won’t fight,” Zhang Yingchen thought to himself after sending the telegram.

But he still had an unresolved matter: the persistent gentleman who wanted to “concoct a great medicine” with him. After their last conversation, although Zhang Yingchen repeatedly said that he was not very familiar with “sexual cultivation” and taught him some physical strengthening exercises, the other party, for some reason, seemed to be even more convinced that he had “other skills.” He became even more respectful, sending “donations” from time to time and inviting him to “sit and discuss the Dao” again. He still hadn’t figured out a good way to get rid of this old reprobate.

“It’s a pity that Ji Tui Si can’t produce Viagra!” Zhang Yingchen muttered to himself. If he had this drug, in a prosperous and bustling place like Jiangnan, it would sell for fifty taels of silver, and many people would be scrambling to buy it.

While Daoist Zhang was busy sowing discord, the Hangzhou station had already begun a series of preparations. Zhao Yigong found himself simultaneously managing a dozen projects: the construction of Phoenix Mountain Villa, the villa’s agriculture, silk reeling, the literary bookstore in Qinghefang, the printing house, the Qiewei Inn’s layout in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the preliminary preparations for the Nanjing branch of Delong, the education of orphans, negotiations with the Hangzhou church… Although some of these projects were entrusted to the Elders of the inspection team, every Elder was now working sixteen hours a day. Mei Lin complained repeatedly, saying that he had originally thought coming to Jiangnan would be a pleasant assignment, but it turned out to be even busier than in Lin’gao. Not only did he commute between Phoenix Mountain Villa and Qinghefang every day to supervise construction and renovation, but he also had to help with various affairs and act as a teacher for the orphans in the evening when he wasn’t working.

Xu Ke and Lu Zhongxing were even more miserable than Mei Lin. At least Mei Lin had good meals and a warm bed every day. They, on the other hand, spent most of their time on the road, eating dry rations and sleeping in boat cabins. Escorted by guards, they conducted road and river surveys along the refugee transport routes to create accurate road and traffic maps. Each map had to be annotated with the traffic capacity of the roads and rivers. They conducted on-site surveys of potential resting spots for refugees along the way and estimated the capacity of each location. All of this had to be included in the contingency plan.

In their busy schedule, they also had to take turns visiting the several branches of Qiewei in the Jiangnan region. Even the Guihua personnel and local employees were swamped with work. The burden on Qiewei was particularly heavy. The construction of the five branches was urgent: expanding joint ventures, buying boats, recruiting staff… Mao Sansheng and the others were working around the clock. To prevent mistakes from being made in the rush, the Elders adopted this inspection system to promptly discover and solve problems.

As the prelude to the Dengzhou rebellion was about to begin, Zhao Yigong anxiously awaited the arrival of the population work group. These Elders and Guihua personnel were prepared for the Dengzhou rebellion and the great drought in northern Zhejiang in 1632. Before they were formally involved in the Dengzhou rebellion, they could all be used as personnel for the Hangzhou station. For this reason, he had repeatedly telegraphed the Executive Committee, urging them to dispatch the population work group as soon as possible.

While the Hangzhou station was busy setting up its operations to welcome the great wave of refugees next year, the Executive Committee was endlessly debating the details of refugee reception and transportation. The Planning Department was racking its brains to formulate contingency plans.

The biggest bottleneck was the current lack of transport capacity. The shipyard was now producing at full speed, but it was building warships. Of course, hybrid-powered warships could also transport people, but this time they were transporting hungry, cold, and disease-ridden refugees. Using warships was clearly inappropriate. Specialized transport ships had to be used.

The Navy’s ships could provide some transport capacity. As for Dabo Shipping, its own cargo transport tasks were already heavy, and it would be very difficult to divert additional transport tonnage to transport people. Moreover, transporting people was not like transporting goods; the voyages were long, and the round trips were frequent. In terms of ship utilization, it was not efficient.

Therefore, the immediate priority for the Planning Department was to build ships to expand transport capacity. Wu De knew that it was unrealistic to rely on the Lin’gao shipyard for this. The shipyard was already fully occupied with the construction of the 854-class, 901-class, and 621 projects. It was completely impossible to arrange for the construction of specialized transport ships.

At this time, Shi Jiantao, who was in charge of setting up the shipyard in Hong Kong, volunteered to build the transport ships. For this reason, he specially returned to Lin’gao to request an audience with Wu De.

“Can the Hong Kong shipyard do it?” Wu De was very skeptical. In the Planning Department’s priority list for allocating materials and personnel, the Hong Kong shipyard was in a very unimportant position. The Hong Kong shipyard was initially established mainly for ship repair and maintenance. It only had one dry dock for small ships and several slipways. It was basically at the level of a beach shipyard, with little large equipment and insufficient trained labor. After arriving in Hong Kong, Shi Jiantao had to work hard to recruit local shipwrights from Guangdong.

Shi Jiantao’s proposal to “launch dumplings” (mass-produce) standardized transport ships in Hong Kong had been put forward for a long time. The Planning Department, considering the need to expand ship production capacity, had approved his expansion plan. A simple gantry crane had just been installed recently.

A timber processing plant invested in by the Planning Department in Hong Kong had also recently entered trial production. This factory was not prepared for the shipyard but to process the forestry resources of Guangdong and Fujian nearby, avoiding the transportation of large quantities of logs and saving freight tonnage. The timber processing plant was also a favorable condition for the shipyard.

“I have this confidence.” Shi Jiantao had already prepared a full set of plans and drawings. He quickly presented them. “Our idea is standardized shipbuilding—like the Liberty ships.”

“Hmm,” Wu De nodded. Standardized shipbuilding was nothing new. The current 854-class and 901-class were also standardized ship types.

“You know very well that what we lack most is transport capacity. To expand transport capacity, we must expand shipbuilding. To expand the number of ships built, we must improve production efficiency,” Shi Jiantao said eloquently. “So we have designed the ‘Harmony-class’ ship, which follows the ‘Liberty ship’ concept.”

“Harmony-class,” Wu De’s expression went blank for a moment.

The Harmony-class ships were neither harmonious, nor were most of them steam-powered. They were just cargo ships built in large quantities using standardized drawings, mass-produced standard parts, and assembly line production methods, referencing the ideas of the Liberty and Victory ships built by the United States during World War II.

Just as the Liberty ships built by the Americans were not of a single type, the Harmony-class ships built in Lin’gao also had several standard designs.

On the Planning Department’s schedule, the shipbuilding plan of the Lin’gao shipyard was “Class A shipbuilding,” while the Hong Kong shipyard belonged to “Class B shipbuilding.” There was a clear gap in the allocation of materials, personnel, and the technical level of the ships. Therefore, the “Harmony-class” ships were almost all wooden-structured, sail-powered, small and medium-sized auxiliary ships not exceeding 800 tons.