Chapter 384 - Bachi's Ambition

Wei Bachi couldn’t help but “humph” when he saw the land enclosed by the Naval Department. The Navy was practically an emperor in Kaohsiung; everything had to revolve around them.

Of course, Admiral Ming wouldn’t boss him around, but his subordinates, the young and upcoming naval officers—in the Yuanlao Senate’s “jargon,” “young and upcoming officers” specifically referred to military enthusiast officers who were not from a military or professional technical background in the old world—were much less polite. Every few days, someone would come to “visit” him, demanding that he solve various needs of the Navy.

The Navy established a coaling station at the Qijin camp of the “National Army” in the old world, which served as a berthing place for the First Fleet. Besides the warships and supply ships of the First Fleet, light vessels of the Coast Guard were also stationed there to monitor the nearby waters and escort transport convoys. This place had already become an important naval base.

Originally, the Navy wanted to establish a base in Zuoying, but considering their limited strength at this stage, it was not advisable to disperse their forces. Also, to save on dock facilities and reduce workload, they established their first camp here.

Due to the large number of ships stationed and their frequent comings and goings, Qijin became a major part of the infrastructure construction in the Kaohsiung area. A naval base was not as simple as an army base, which could make do with tents and barracks. The Navy had to service warships, especially steam-powered warships like the Lichun, which were still in the verification stage and heavily dependent on logistics.

To reduce the logistical pressure on Kaohsiung, the Joint Logistics Headquarters established a shipyard in Hong Kong Island using the local shipyard to specialize in repairing and maintaining warships, only dispatching a repair ship to Kaohsiung for simple repairs. However, dedicated naval docks, piers, warehouses, barracks, and coaling stations were still needed.

The Navy’s needs squeezed Wei Bachi’s limited human resources. Wei Bachi was reluctant to see resources consumed by the Navy, but under the grand banner of Operation Engine, he could not refuse the Navy’s requests. Besides, he himself was well aware that without the existence of the First Fleet, there would be no Kaohsiung City.

The carriage entered the courtyard in front of the City Hall, and the honor guards at the gate saluted simultaneously. A naturalized citizen in an open-collared tropical cadre uniform came out to greet them and led them into the main hall.

Wei Bachi asked, “Is the banquet ready?”

“As you instructed, the welcome banquet is ready. It is set up on the rooftop terrace.”

The group went up to the rooftop terrace of the City Hall. A sunshade had already been set up, and under it, rattan tables and chairs were neatly arranged. The sea breeze blowing from the sea was very comfortable. A sumptuous feast was already laid out on the tables. The bottles of iced kvass and lemonade were covered with a fine layer of condensation.

Zhong Lishi and the others had lost their appetites after eating “sea rations” on the ship. Seeing a table full of delicious food and drinks, their eyes turned green. They didn’t stand on ceremony with Wei Bachi and sat down to eat heartily.

The main course at the banquet was venison—this was Taiwan’s second-largest export after deerskin. Venison was almost all lean meat with little fat and had a relatively light flavor, which was very suitable for the hot climate here.

Dr. Zhong saw the venison, pheasant, seafood, and vegetables on the table. Although it was abundant, the cooking was simple and the seasoning was not rich. It was still at the level of “big fish and big meat,” which made him feel even more like a pearl had been cast before swine. He was originally a person who enjoyed fine dining. After years of eating the food from the Yuanlao Senate’s canteens in Lingao, he had found it bland and had long since started cooking at home.

Seeing that the ingredients here were quite rich, he couldn’t help but start planning how to arrange his own little life here.

From here, one could get a general view of Wei Bachi’s territory. Although the City Hall was very magnificent, and the square, roads, and docks were also impressive, looking at the entire Kaohsiung City, it was a huge shantytown—albeit a neatly constructed one. The buildings that occupied the main area of Kaohsiung City were rows and rows of unadorned, tar-painted stilt houses. Scattered among them were some sporadic two-story wooden houses. Taiwan was prone to typhoons, earthquakes, and mudslides, and this type of wooden house was better adapted to the environment.

The entire Kaohsiung City was surrounded by earthen ramparts, bamboo fences, and moats, with wooden watchtowers with thatched roofs along the line. With this city as the center, some farmlands and plantations had already been opened up around it. One could see unfinished, slightly messy roads, moats, and canals. A little further along the roads, a few settlements could be seen—newly built standard villages.

As for a place that “looked like a city,” there was only this City Hall, the docks, and a commercial street outside the city gate to the northwest.

Further out, there were large stretches of desolate plains, with most of the vegetation still in its original state. Sitting on the roof of a European-style city hall in the center of such a city, dressed neatly, drinking iced lemonade, and being served by maids and servants, gave the Yuanlao a sudden feeling of being like the British in their colonies.

However, the area they had reclaimed was pitifully small. Besides the piece of land they were on, the developed farmland looked like just a small scar on the skin of the dense vegetation of the wasteland from the rooftop. The beaches were covered with mangroves, and there were dense banyan trees, cycads, and bamboo everywhere…

From a tourism perspective, what they were seeing was a pristine tropical coastal landscape that the petty bourgeoisie would love. But these few people were all worried and under great pressure.

How many years would it take to build this so-called Kaohsiung City, which looked like an early medieval European city, into the capital of Taiwan, a regional center connecting Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, a naval base, a political, economic, cultural, and industrial center, and a starting point for the development of Taiwan?

The group toasted each other. During the banquet, when they asked about the development of Kaohsiung, Wei Bachi couldn’t help but sigh about his hardships again. After his continuous efforts, the quota of immigrants he could settle locally had been expanded to ten thousand. This finally gave him a larger basic team on top of the first wave of the Tainan agricultural reclamation corps.

But with more people came heavier tasks. These ten thousand people had to be settled after purification, configured into various settlements according to Chief Wen’s standard village model, and established as intensive state-owned farms. Wei Bachi knew that although the Agricultural Committee had not issued a land reclamation target, Kaohsiung faced the vast Jianan Plain, which was the most important agricultural area in Taiwan in the old world. The expectations for agriculture here were very high from top to bottom. If he didn’t produce solid results after a year of effort, he wouldn’t be the mayor of Kaohsiung anymore.

Wei Bachi had calculated several times and set a target for himself: to complete the reclamation of thirty thousand mu of wasteland by the end of 1632.

These thirty thousand mu of cultivated land, converted to his ten thousand population, meant that each person had to reclaim three mu of land in half a year.

This was still a bit difficult for completely virgin land with dense vegetation—especially since the vegetation here was very developed. After slash-and-burn, even plowing with oxen often resulted in insufficient ox power. They had to rely on manual hoeing and turning the soil.

“…Reclaiming land and planting is hard work, and it consumes a lot of tools. Here, besides the Tainan corps which is fully equipped, I don’t even have tools for the ten thousand people assigned to me…” Wei Bachi said, “Bai Yu said he would give me a few steam tractors, but I don’t know when they will arrive. Fortunately, Feng Zongze is a good friend. The horses and cattle approved by the Planning Commission were sent over immediately.” He said, looking out at the farmland outside the city, “It would be great to have tractors.”

The people who came had no research on agriculture and naturally couldn’t comment. However, Liu Zheng was very concerned about another matter.

“You’re reclaiming land and planting here. Haven’t those cannibalistic savages given you any trouble?”

According to Liu Zheng, and also the thoughts of most Yuanlao, after landing in Taiwan, Wei Bachi would have to play the role of a colonist who tricked the natives out of their land with glass beads. Unexpectedly, there was no contact at all.

Wei Bachi shook his head, “Not really—the natives have long since retreated from here. I don’t know why. The special reconnaissance team’s report said that there were originally native villages and rice paddies here. When we first landed, we found that many places had indeed been cultivated. I don’t know why they all moved inland.”

Liu Zheng knew about this: “They suffered at the hands of the Ming pirates. When the pirates landed, they went to take heads. The pirates suffered losses and came back for revenge, slaughtering them like chopping melons and vegetables. So they fled inland. These savages, they don’t know what’s what until you use a knife!”

“The natives here, besides some who came to peek secretly at the beginning, have basically not appeared. But they don’t have any contact with us either, and they don’t come to the market.” Wei Bachi took the cool towel handed to him by his life secretary and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Last year, the Haitian had a fight with them here and killed a lot of them. So now they both hate and fear us. I heard from the Han Chinese peddlers who do business there: to the natives, we are like monsters. That’s good too, it saves me the trouble of tricking them into signing land deeds…”

Dr. Zhong smiled, “This is only a matter of time. Don’t say the natives are uncivilized, they are very attached to their land.”

Fang Jinghan had been concerned about his investigation mission. Hearing that there were peddlers who had contact with the natives, he was immediately very interested—he needed a guide to start his investigation trip. He then asked for details.

Wei Bachi said that he had renovated a small port to the west of Kaohsiung City and then set up a commercial street by the port.

The purpose of this commercial street was not entirely for profit, but more to gather intelligence by trading with the local Han Chinese and natives, and to see if he could recruit a few collaborators.

“The natives around here, what’s their attitude towards outsiders? Do they headhunt?”

“I’ve heard from the natives that there are the so-called ‘Eight Villages of Fengshan’ here. They don’t have the habit of headhunting. But they are not very welcoming to outsiders. Killing a stranger is a common thing for them,” Wei Bachi said. “When the Haitian came to scout, they also launched a surprise attack on the reconnaissance team.”