Chapter 181: Local Economy

The Planning Commission was in urgent need of coal from the Jiazi Coal Mine. Besides the blast furnace’s need for a stable supply of coke, the industrial system also had a great demand for the various chemical by-products produced during the coking process. Just to obtain tar, the supply of coking coal had to be expanded.

Tang Menglong was full of complaints. He had long wanted to leave that isolated Jiazi Coal Mine, but his attempts to be transferred had all failed. Except for the few months he had returned to Lingao before and after Jiang Wenli gave birth, he had been at the mine all the time.

“…I’m turning into a piece of coal refuse at the Jiazi Coal Mine…” he complained. “I can hardly remember what my son looks like.”

It seemed that Tang Menglong was going to wait here for a reply from Lingao. Liu Xiang had no choice but to chat with him for a while longer.

“Chief! Please sign for it!” The person from the confidential section who came in to interrupt said.

Liu Xiang opened the cowhide paper bag sealed with red wax—it was the latest “two journals and one newspaper”: “Morning Star,” “Weekly Update,” and the “Lingao Times Internal Edition.”

Tang Menglong hadn’t seen the two journals and one newspaper for a long time. Since the shipping on the Nandu River had stopped, he hadn’t seen the “mouthpiece” for several days.

Liu Xiang took out the “Weekly Update,” which was a compilation of the internal BBS, and handed the others to Tang Menglong.

“Wow! Little Liu, I only found out after reading it and looking for the author that you wrote this!” Tang Menglong tapped on the front-page headline and said in surprise, “This article has enough firepower!”

“You flatter me! The firepower is not that great. Look at this one, ‘The Wenlan River can be renamed the Variegated River,’ written by those environmentalists. And this one, I won’t say the title, written by Queen Du. That’s what you call combat power!” Liu Xiang also patted the headlines of several pages in his hand and said.

“It’s not the same, not the same!” Tang Menglong knew very well that although the articles written by those people, including Queen Du, had enough firepower, they were monthly topics on the forum that came up every few months. The article written by this Little Liu in front of him, although he was only analyzing the pros and cons of the star-shaped and ring-shaped logistics topological structures, and seemed to be just doing a theoretical analysis, was actually pointing directly at the heart of the matter, a typical “playing the zither to sing a song.”

“Little Liu, what kind of layout are you planning here?” Tang Menglong asked.

“When I sent this, I also sent an application to the Planning Commission, wanting to transfer some of the coconut oil and woodworking industries over here. After all, these are locally produced raw materials. Instead of transporting the raw materials to Lingao for processing, I think it’s better to process them in Qiongshan and transport the products over, which can also promote and strengthen the economic ties between the two places.”

Tang Menglong pondered the two phrases “locally produced raw materials” and “economic ties” for a while and asked Liu Xiang, “I say, Little Liu, is there any industry at our mine that can strengthen the connection with Qiongshan?”

“What? Not enough yellow tickets?” Liu Xiang deliberately joked.

“How could that be!”

“Hehehehe, just kidding, just kidding.”

“Seriously, the production tasks are not small, and the workers are also working hard. But the coal can’t be transported out, so it has to be piled up. Especially in recent months, the morale of the workers has not been high.”

Tang Menglong wanted to get some benefits for the workers, but “no reward without merit,” and the strict salary system made Tang Menglong helpless. Although there was black gold under their feet, apart from the industrial giant of Lingao, there was no second buyer who needed such a large production capacity.

“As for a solution, I have one here. But the problem is, some things have to be decided by the higher-ups,” Liu Xiang thought for a moment and said to Tang Menglong, “Look, whether the higher-ups approve my application or not, we still have to do disaster relief here. For disaster relief, we need to rebuild damaged houses, repair damaged land and irrigation facilities, and rush to harvest and plant. Your Changchang coal is famous for two things: one is that it has a lot of coal refuse, and the other is that it has high humus content. If the policy allows, you can completely produce hollow bricks and cement and produce peat fertilizer yourself. These are all necessary for the county’s disaster relief and self-rescue. Even if this wave of demand passes, will there be any less need for bricks and fertilizer in the various constructions in the future?”

“Hmm, your thinking is quite broad!” Tang Menglong nodded repeatedly. “This approach can indeed solve big problems! Just the coal refuse alone can solve big problems.”

The coal refuse produced by the coal washing plant of the Jiazi Coal Mine had already formed a certain degree of public nuisance in the local area. A large amount of coal refuse was piled up on the bank of the Nandu River, not only polluting the water source, but the mountain of coal refuse also occupied a large amount of land. And the heavy rain brought by this typhoon had caused the coal refuse mountain by the river to collapse into the river.

“But it’s not enough for me to strive for this alone… After all, the Jiazi Coal Mine is a central enterprise…” Liu Xiang said.

Tang Menglong chuckled. “Alright, I understand. I’ll take the lead in applying for this. Supporting the local economy should be a key consideration for the Planning Commission, right?”

Qiongshan’s active efforts received some response. In particular, Mo Xiaoan and Wu Kuangming were very interested in opening new industrial enterprises in Qiongshan. Especially the forestry department, which was finding it increasingly difficult to obtain raw materials in Lingao. In Qiongshan, they could rely on the natural water system of the Nandu River to float timber from the mountainous areas of Ding’an and other places upstream to be used downstream. Moreover, the utilization rate of Haikou Port in Qiongshan was not high at present, and it could be used as an import port for timber.

As for Mo Xiaoan, setting up light industrial processing enterprises in Qiongshan also had advantages. Qiongshan and Wenchang to its east were the traditional major agricultural counties of Hainan. They had large areas of plains and relatively developed water systems, which gave them great advantages in developing agriculture. The light industry under Mo Xiaoan’s system, with the processing of agricultural and sideline products as its main component, was of course more convenient the closer it was to the place of origin. In particular, Wenchang was also the main coconut producing area of Hainan Island, and Qiongshan was the distribution center for the export of dried coconut on Hainan Island. Setting up a dried coconut processing enterprise here could monopolize the circulation and trade of dried coconut on the entire island.

As for the Agricultural Committee, [Wu Nanhai][y009] had long coveted the land of Qiongshan—the large alluvial plain on both sides of the Nandu River was simply a natural large farm. Whether it was planting rice or promoting sugarcane cultivation, there was great potential. Especially in sugarcane cultivation, [Wu Nanhai][y009] had high hopes. As an important cash crop, the income from sugarcane was now the most important source of finance for the transmigrator group.

However, [Wu Nanhai][y009] was not at ease with the land situation in Qiongshan. In his experience, such good land was mostly already developed. Whether the owners were large households or self-cultivating farmers, they were all an obstacle to modern agronomists who were keen on large-scale agriculture. [Wu Nanhai][y009] had always advocated for a rich peasant economy. Although he had also developed a strong interest in intensive state-owned farms after operating the demonstration farm in Lingao—of course, [Wu Nanhai][y009] also knew that this was difficult. State-owned farms relied on the direct guidance and management of the Elders, and in their operation, they would inevitably have bloated institutions and occupy too many administrative personnel.

The most ideal agricultural model in [Wu Nanhai][y009]’s mind was still the European style of the old timeline: a family-based, small and medium-sized intensive farm that employed no more than ten workers.

While all parties were engaged in intensive private lobbying, the situation in Qiongshan had quietly changed. Under the management of Yang Yun and others, the disaster victims in Qiongshan began to flow out on a large scale. A week later, nearly four thousand refugees had been recruited in Qiongshan and were preparing to leave the local area. The large-scale outflow of refugees did not cause panic among the local gentry and large households at first, because they thought that the Australians were just providing work-for-relief. Except for some refugees who had debts and the landlords were afraid that the debts would be lost after they left, most of the large households were even relieved by the outflow of the disaster victims—this not only exempted them from their relief obligations, but also reduced the “riots” that the large households feared most to a minimum.

However, as the truth about the refugees’ work began to leak out, the tenant farmers and long-term laborers were going to be “employees” for the Australians. This panicked the large households. The generous treatment that the Australians gave to their subordinates and their reputation for being “good at confusing people’s hearts” had also spread to Qiongshan. Obviously, once these mud-legged people ate the Australians’ food, it was unlikely that they would come back to be tenant farmers and long-term laborers. This created a terrible problem:

Who would farm the land? No matter how much financial resources one had or how much land one occupied, without people, it was impossible to get any harvest from the land.

In the past, the large households were not too worried about such things. Although Hainan Island was sparsely populated and had a long-term labor shortage, as the capital county, Qiongshan had the effect of a capital city. Haikou Port was the gateway to and from Hainan Island, and the agricultural conditions were also the best. Most of the immigrants who came across the sea stayed in the local area. A steady stream of poor people from Fujian flowed into the local area, effectively supplementing the local agricultural population.

Now, the influx of immigrants from the mainland had completely disappeared. The Australians had a huge appetite for immigrants. Not only did they organize a large number of transfers of mainland immigrants themselves, but after they controlled the Qiongzhou Strait and the ports, all the Fujian and Guangdong immigrants who landed locally were forcibly detained and transferred to Lingao as soon as they landed. Now, to adopt such a method of “drawing the firewood from under the cauldron,” it was clear that it would not be long before there were not enough people to farm the land.

This blow was almost fatal to the large households. For a time, there was a great uproar. The large households gathered together as if they had lost their parents to discuss countermeasures. Some also went to find Hai Shuzu, asking him to come forward and intercede, demanding that the Australians immediately stop recruiting workers and quickly repatriate some people.

Hai Shuzu was originally not very concerned about this—the Hai family did not have much land in the first place, and since joining the Tiandihui, they no longer recruited tenant farmers and used all long-term laborers, and the long-term laborers were recruited and managed by the Tiandihui. He was not responsible for recruiting, nor was he responsible for supervising the work, and he did not even know how much the wages were. The agreement between the Tiandihui and the Hai family was all-inclusive, which was equivalent to the Tiandihui being the Hai family’s large tenant farmer. All they had to do was to give the Hai family a certain percentage of the profits at the end of the year.