Chapter 15: The Controversy of the Colonial Plan

“I don’t think it will come to that.”

“Old Si, you really don’t understand the local customs of Guangdong. Although the Cantonese, Chaoshan, and Hakka are all Han Chinese in Guangdong, their relationship is like fire and water, far more than just ‘not getting along.’ When they fight, it’s a matter of wiping out entire families. And this kind of fighting doesn’t change with migration. The Qing dynasty moved some Guangdong Hakka to Hainan because of the conflicts between the natives and the Hakka, and as a result, conflicts between the natives and the Hakka broke out in Hainan. Besides, both the Hakka and the Chaoshan people are notoriously clannish. You’re not just putting these two groups together, you’re also throwing in the Minnan people. Are you afraid they won’t kill each other thoroughly enough?”

“You mean these people can’t be used?”

“What I mean is: without systematic social transformation, breaking the original social structure, and instilling in them a modern national and civic consciousness, simply playing the game of using barbarians to control barbarians and pitting them against each other is useless. It will only further intensify conflicts and even let the wolf into the house. In the old world, weren’t there few cases of overseas Chinese playing ‘using barbarians for self-aggrandizement’ and inciting natives to massacre their fellow countrymen? You should know that in the old world, the ones who harmed the overseas Chinese the most were often other Chinese. In the 17th century, this situation will only be more serious,” Ran Yao said vehemently.

“It’s not impossible for Xue Ruowang to start a plantation, but it can’t be in Palembang—that’s the territory of the Aceh Sultanate. The Dutch have some influence there, but Aceh is no pushover. If we stick our foot in, a small investment won’t be enough to protect it, and a large investment isn’t worth it. Little Xue himself is stuck in Batavia and can’t look after Palembang, so we’d have to send another senator to watch over it… Since we’re already preparing to open a base in Brunei for oil extraction, the tropical plantation might as well be in Brunei.” Wu De had already effectively vetoed this plan. “As for Little Xue, his work in Batavia is still very important, especially in urging the Dutch to plant our rubber well.”

Wu Nanhai was most concerned about the tropical plantation. He immediately stated, “I am one hundred percent in favor of starting a tropical plantation. I have no opinion on where to start it. The Dutch are probably unreliable. No one has ever started a rubber plantation in this time and space, so they would also have to learn from scratch. I think it’s more reliable for us to handle it ourselves. I have a senator here named Xiao Hezhou. He has always wanted to start a rubber plantation. Why don’t we let him handle this business in Brunei?”

“Xiao Hezhou? Didn’t he used to fry chicken cutlets in the cafeteria? His coconut-crusted chicken cutlet is very good, but I heard he’s in finance or something. Does he know anything about rubber?”

“He’s not in the cafeteria anymore. He’s now a technician at our farm’s tropical crop experimental garden, and also a technician at the food factory. Besides chicken cutlets, he can also make fish floss—but let’s not talk about that. As for knowing about rubber cultivation, I don’t know either. We all have to learn from scratch. I think he’s very motivated.”

“As long as he himself is willing to go to Brunei, I see no problem,” Ma Qianzhu said. “The hard truth is to let the broad masses of senators go out and take charge of their own areas. Of course, we still have to have an open recruitment. If there’s a more suitable candidate, they can go too.”

Seeing no objections, Ma Qianzhu turned a page of the document. “Next, let’s talk about agriculture, especially grain. If there’s not enough grain, the people’s hearts will not be stable. And we need a lot of grain to win the hearts of the people and protect the civilian population when we attack the mainland.”

Wu Nanhai cleared his throat. “Let me give a brief overview. We currently directly manage about 1 million mu of cultivated land in Hainan, Taiwan, and Jeju Island—including state-owned farms and contracted land under the Tiandihui—both dry land and paddy fields. Next year, we plan to plant two seasons of rice and one season of safflower on 500,000 mu of paddy fields. The average yield per mu for the two seasons is about 600 jin of rice, which is equivalent to about 450 jin of brown rice. Based on an average monthly consumption of 30 jin of grain per person, the rice alone can feed 620,000 people. Considering that this is only our directly managed land and does not include the harvest of the self-managed land of the peasants and landlords in Hainan, it is no problem to feed the people of Hainan, Taiwan, and Jeju Island.”

“Is this yield per mu estimate a bit high? I remember that pesticides and fertilizers have never been sufficient. And not all the cultivated land on the state-owned farms has been improved.” Ma Qianzhu expressed his concern.

“A part of these 500,000 mu has been improved, and a part is paddy fields that were already in good condition. With our advantages in seeds and field management, it is entirely possible to achieve this average yield per mu. I have done research: in agricultural counties like Qiongshan and Wenchang in Hainan, the yield per mu of ordinary paddy fields for the late rice in a normal year can reach more than 2 shi.”

Wu Nanhai spoke without ambiguity, and the ministers nodded frequently. Although they had been ordinary people in the past, in these few years, they had all become high-ranking government officials in charge of a region, and they understood the importance of grain to the country better than before.

“The remaining 500,000 mu are mainly dry land and paddy fields in poor condition. Apart from a portion used for planting cash crops, I plan to use all of it to plant potatoes, sweet potatoes, and miscellaneous grains. The output from this part can feed another 400,000 people.”

1 million people, which was almost the entire population of the Senate’s ruled areas. However, the peasants were self-sufficient and also paid land taxes to the Senate. The Senate could also supplement its grain supply with rice imported from Tonkin and Siam. This grain was their capital for launching the Liangguang campaign.

“…The main problems in our agriculture are still the same old story. Modern agriculture has three magic weapons: seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. We have seeds, but the scale of breeding is not keeping up. The planting rate of improved varieties is less than 30% even on directly managed land. There is too little fertilizer. We are now using green manure and fermented manure and garbage to replace nitrogen fertilizer, and guano and fishmeal to replace phosphate fertilizer. Not only is the fertilizer efficiency low, but it also consumes a lot of labor. The biggest problem is with pesticides: we basically cannot produce chemical pesticides and can only rely on so-called ‘native pesticides.’ The main raw materials for native pesticides are plants. To produce them on a large scale, we need to plant them on a large scale, which requires a lot of land and manpower. Moreover, their efficacy is poor and their shelf life is short, making them very uneconomical. And modern improved varieties are generally not optimized for pests and diseases, so the demand for pesticides is particularly large. I hope the chemical industry can make a breakthrough in organic pesticides as soon as possible.”

Zhan Wuya thought for a moment and said, “The chemical industry is indeed our weak point. To have a breakthrough, we need a breakthrough in materials. Our processing technology is seriously surplus, while our materials are seriously deficient. We just talked about building an electric furnace. If we can succeed, the doors to the chemical and electrical industries can basically be opened. Hainan has manganese, and a small tungsten mine has a little molybdenum. The plan is to start mining next year, but we are still lacking too many things. Mainly chromium and nickel. Without these, we basically can’t start the chemical industry. Whether it’s petrochemicals or coal chemicals, there’s no hope. Synthetic ammonia, pesticides, all no hope.”

“Chromium and nickel are very difficult to obtain. It’s not that the refining is difficult, but that in the 17th century, no one was mining and refining these two metals. We have to build a whole industrial chain from scratch. The key is that these two mines are hard to find in China…”

“Isn’t Lando in charge of this in the Philippines?”

“The Philippines… just the difficulty of mining there makes my blood run cold,” Wu De frowned. “Tropical primeval forests. If the ore is by the sea, it’s one thing. If it’s inland, just finding the vein alive would be a miracle…”

Hainan itself has nickel and chromium ore reserves. The nickel ore reserves of the Shilu cobalt-copper mine in Changhua are quite rich, but they all have the problem of small reserves and low grade, and the mining cost is not small, making them a typical “chicken rib” resource.

“The Southeast Asia Company should not be satisfied with trade now. It should have more exploration and development components,” Ma Jia proposed. “We are going to implement a mixed ownership system, and the Southeast Asia Company is already a mixed ownership company. I think we can take bigger steps, absorb more private maritime merchant capital and manpower into the company, and grant more autonomous management rights. We can imitate some of the European practices, support and encourage adventurers to go out, and not worry about ‘losing control.’ With our strength, how much control can a small colonial force lose? We should make full use of private power to find and obtain resources for us, and not interfere too much. Now we have to do everything ourselves. Some are technical problems that have to be this way, but something like mining can be completely operated by private capital. The key is to regulate it well in law.”

“You really can’t get away from your profession,” Wu De said with a smile. “Are you going to make an exploration law or a colonial law? By the way, your Law Society has been messing around for so many years, but apart from a ‘Public Security Ordinance,’ a ‘Marriage Ordinance,’ and a ‘General Principles of Civil and Commercial Law,’ not a single formal law has been enacted. Every time there’s a trial, you use some ‘Australian precedent’ to cover it up. It’s practically arbitrary judgment…”

Ma Jia’s face flushed, and he defended himself, “Law is a very serious matter. We have to consider all aspects. Besides, our work is not simply copying legal articles. We also have to combine it with the specific situation of this time and space. We can’t be careless. As they say, we must draw on the strengths of all schools of thought on the basis of full investigation and research…” Fearing that the crowd would follow up by questioning the efficiency of the Law Society, he quickly added, “Our Law Society has already drafted the ‘Marriage Law’ and the ‘Criminal Code,’ and the draft of the ‘Civil Code’ is almost ready. Don’t underestimate these few laws. The ‘Marriage Law’ includes the basic content of civil law centered on the small family, such as inheritance law, and provides a legal guarantee for us to establish a new social atmosphere. The ‘Criminal Code’ and the ‘Civil Code’ provide us with the legal basis for suppressing and liquidating clan strongmen and all kinds of monsters and demons. With these few laws, we basically have the basis for ruling the country by law.”

Xiao Zishan asked, “How are senators positioned in your law?”

Ma Jia said, “The first article of every law states that senators are sacred and inviolable, that senators are the pillars of the state, that senators are not bound by this law, and so on and so forth. Any legal issue involving a senator will be handled by the Senate in accordance with the Common Program.”