Chapter 122: The Maniao Private Market

Yang Yun walked as he calculated.

To adapt to the changing situation, their civil affairs department had long ago requested the construction department to add kitchens to some of the dormitories under construction—at the very least, public kitchens, turning them into residential-style dormitories suitable for families. This was to temporarily house those who demanded to buy a house, with the promise that they would have priority in purchasing new apartment buildings once they were completed. To be fair, they even assigned numbers.

Nowadays, the standard for purchasing an apartment building had also been informally raised. Cadres, military officers, and skilled workers had priority. Those who were not of a high enough rank had to wait. Even if they were married, they could only move into the residential-style dormitories and get in line. This, in turn, motivated the older workers who had skills but struggled with their studies due to age and were resistant to the B-level diploma required for the skilled worker qualification exam. The night school was most energetic with them.

According to the figures he now had, not counting the military personnel and cadres who had to be guaranteed housing, less than half of the naturalized citizens had fixed housing like dormitories and residences. The rest were in temporary housing.

Specifically, the naturalized citizens in special departments such as the military, police, and administration were all guaranteed housing. The agricultural and fishery departments, which mainly built their own bungalows, could basically guarantee a place for every household, although the quality of the houses was not high. As for the industrial sector, the worst off were the construction workers and miners. Because they followed the projects and mines, except for skilled workers, the rest basically lived in temporary sheds at the construction sites and mines, which were even worse than the quarantine camps. The situation in the manufacturing industry was much better, as it required higher quality workers. More than 80% of the official workers had fixed housing. In addition, there were apprentices who were younger. If they were orphans, they were mainly housed in the master’s office, warehouse, or gatehouse.

Yang Yun had some vacant dormitories on hand, but less than three hundred residential-style units. As for the residential buildings, there were only a few dozen units, reserved for outstanding newlywed cadres and military officers, which could not be touched at all.

Housing was so tight. That’s why a new branch of the Civil Construction Company was set up a few months ago specifically for this purpose. But it had just started, and even with a compressed construction schedule, the first batch of thirty buildings would take at least three more months to complete.

Moreover, after the Engine Operation began, a new batch of immigrants would soon pour in in large numbers. If the dormitories were not vacated as soon as possible, the future housing pressure would be even greater.

The immigrants from the Engine Operation and the typhoon disaster were often whole families. It was impossible to force a whole family to live separately! Therefore, these people had to be settled by household, which in turn reduced the efficiency of dormitory use and increased the pressure on civil construction.

These immigrants were mostly farmers. The number of people in each household varied greatly, from one or two to five or six, and even a dozen. Although immigrant households with large populations would be split up or assigned to agricultural companies for farming as usual, and single people or couples were planned to be sent to mines in Sanya, Hongji, and other places, there were still more than a thousand immigrant households that needed to be housed immediately. Even with the ongoing dormitory renovations, there was still a large gap, not to mention the immigrants who would continue to pour in in the coming years.

The new community in Maniao not only had to be completed on time to use the vacated dormitories to accommodate these new immigrants, but the construction process also had to be accelerated. Otherwise, they would have to come up with countermeasures in advance.

The land situation in Lingao was currently rather chaotic. Although most of the land was firmly under the control of the Yuanlao, a small portion was privately owned. Some of these landowners, seeing the strong demand for housing, had already built many houses for rent and sale. Since the current land policy had not been sorted out, there were no rules on how to deal with these.

When Yang Yun commissioned the Grand Library to look up information, he happened to find a book for leisure. He discovered that Lingao was currently facing that kind of situation. At that time, the conflict between these local immigrants, who had become rich overnight due to rapid urbanization and soaring land prices, and the new immigrants would bring a large number of social contradictions. This was a very dangerous sign.

By the time he had finished his calculations, Yang Yun and Dai Xiu had already arrived at the East Gate of Bairen City. Having already been notified by the General Office, the platoon leader of the garrison battalion on duty, along with a squad of guards, immediately stepped forward and saluted. Then he ordered two ready soldiers to step out.

As the control area expanded and new roads were constantly being built, the Yuanlao’s control over Lingao increased.

Daily public security continued to improve, and the original neighborhood watch system had lost much of its meaning and also consumed a lot of manpower. Therefore, important highways and railways such as the Baibo Road, Baima Road, and Bainan Road now used a system of key area guarding and patrols.

This system had a much longer response time to emergencies. The population of Lingao was becoming increasingly complex, so now Yuanlao who went out on official business alone were equipped with personal guards. Although the Yuanlao themselves also had weapons, safety came first.

Two young soldiers stepped out smartly from the gatehouse, each carrying two holsters slung across their chests, containing the long-barreled 1630-type manual revolver pistols specially used by the guards. On their belts were two ammunition pouches, each containing three loaded speedloaders. In addition to the spare ammunition and grenades in their backpacks, the two guards were sufficient to deal with a close-range surprise attack by more than a dozen people, even without counting the Yuanlao’s firepower.

“Second squad, third platoon, first company of the garrison battalion! Reporting to the Chief, ready to depart, requesting permission to set off!”

“Good, let’s go.”

Seeing his young soldiers in high spirits, Yang Yun’s mood improved considerably. He and Dai Xiu, along with the two guards, boarded the Yuanlao-exclusive Dongfeng two-wheeled official horse-drawn carriage. This carriage could travel along the highways to all parts of Lingao, and it could also go directly to the VIP area of the East Gate City train station, from where they could board a first-class carriage and travel along the existing railways of Lingao to all directions.

Although some people had clamored for a Yuanlao-exclusive train, such an extravagant and inefficient practice was not supported by many at present.

The carriage bypassed the East Gate Market, which was as prosperous and bustling as ever. The tide of people coming and going from the county town and Bopu was endless, including citizens, porters, gentry, and even women and girls in new clothes, presenting a scene of peace and prosperity.

The train departed quickly. Since it was morning, there were many Yuanlao, naturalized citizen cadres, and local merchants going out. Yang Yun greeted those he didn’t know well and exchanged a few pleasantries with those whose names he could call. Then he took his four companions to their seats. The two guards sat opposite each other, concentrating as they had been trained, to nip any possible accidents in the bud. Dai Xiu didn’t have many opportunities to sit in a first-class carriage and was clearly a little excited at the moment, her eyes darting around and frequently looking out the window.

Because a Yuanlao was on board, a specially trained female attendant was arranged in the first-class carriage this time. They usually checked tickets and provided information, and only when a Yuanlao was on board would they get on to provide special services. This was also to highlight the status of the Yuanlao.

The young female attendant brought a basket and respectfully served drinks and snacks, asking if they needed anything else. She bowed and retreated only after seeing Yang Yun wave his hand.

Nearly an hour later, the train arrived at its destination—Maniao New District.

Yang Yun looked at his watch. It was still an hour before noon, so he thought he would go find someone after work. He took out his PHS and called Zhang Xingpei, but the other party either didn’t hear or didn’t answer for some reason.

I’ll just go over directly later, he thought. Then Yang Yun took the three of them towards Bopu, turned onto the Boma Highway, and walked for two kilometers. They could see a dozen bungalows and one apartment building on the hillside a kilometer to the south, and closer, there were dozens of shacks of a considerable scale. The dirt road under his feet happened to pass through them. Although the dirt road had not been properly built, it had obviously been leveled, and a layer of fine coal cinder had even been laid on it.

This place was far from Bairen City. Although Daijia Village only had the Dai clan, there were only a dozen households. They had sold grain and vegetables to the Yuanlao very early on and were quite cooperative in various civil affairs. They were considered local natives with a good relationship, so although they were registered in the household registration, they had not been disturbed too much. Yang Yun knew that Dai Xiu’s home was here.

At this moment, Dai Xiu beside him was also a little surprised. She kept looking at the familiar yet strange place opposite her, and then turned back to pay attention to Yang Yun’s expression. She hadn’t been home for more than half a year, and she didn’t expect it to have grown to this scale.

Previously, when the Boma Highway began to be built here, her father had leveled the fields by the road, built two sheds, and sold tea, food, and miscellaneous goods to the road construction workers. Later, other families in the village followed suit. Some small merchants from Chengmai who couldn’t afford the expensive shops in the East Gate Market, after discovering the popularity here, even took the initiative to rent the land here to build sheds and sell goods.

The last time Dai Xiu saw her father at school, she learned that the family no longer grew vegetables. Just the rent from the land and the built sheds brought in more income each day than selling vegetables before. But she was still very surprised by the prosperous situation today.

It was not yet time to get off work, but just the family members of the workers who were willing to walk a few more li for a cheaper price already made the place quite popular. In these simple shops, there were not only local products from various counties in Hainan, but also all kinds of goods transported from Guangzhou and other places. Although the tax department had long been eyeing this place and had issued tax receipts, due to the cheap rent and convenient transportation, the prices of goods here were still very competitive.

Dai Xiu did not know that the newly built two-story wooden longhouse on the hillside was her father’s new inn. Since the train started running, business had been extremely prosperous. In addition to the traveling merchants who stayed here for the lower price from the wharf, there were also many male and female workers who had taken a liking to each other but were not yet married who came here for a good time. There were also many naturalized citizen cadres who gave up the noisy dormitories and rented rooms here by the mountain for long periods, naturally not alone.

Yang Yun knew from his apprentice’s report: after the place became popular, local farmers also came here to sell melons, fruits, vegetables, daily necessities, and snacks, forming a complete market. And after the construction of Maniao New District was in full swing, it was said that there were even private prostitutes who rented rooms in that inn to do business. The workers came here more frequently, and of course, the public order also began to become a bit chaotic. The civil affairs department had received relevant reports from the police headquarters, mentioning that the number of public security cases such as theft, unlicensed prostitution, fighting, gambling, and fraud here was on the rise. Murders and robberies also occurred from time to time.