Chapter 17: Lin'gao-Chengmai-Qiongshan

And the vast tracts of wasteland on both banks of the Nandu River also attracted the agricultural department to establish plantations.

“This time, I plan to investigate in Haikou to make a good plan for the construction of the first model farm in northern Hainan Island.”

[Wu Nanhai][y009] nodded. “Then let Dugu Qiuhun go with you. He told me he wants to go to Wenchang to select a group of future employees from the first batch of immigrants allocated to the agricultural department.”

Dugu Qiuhun worked barefoot in the rice paddies every day, but dreamed of washing his feet and coming ashore every night. If the agricultural department were to build an agricultural reclamation system, there would be people and territory, and it would naturally be a steel barrier of the planned economy, which was quite in line with the political spectrum of the one he supported. Naturally, it was a path to advancement. Therefore, he was full of drive for this and was a capable hand in lobbying the departments.

And these two were well aware of Dugu Qiuhun’s intentions but did not expose them. After all, what he was doing was beneficial to the department.

On this day, when the sun was just beginning to rise, Yun Suji and Dugu Qiuhun set out from Lin’gao with four horse-drawn carriages in a grand procession. By the time the sun was high in the sky, they were already resting at the post station in Chengmai County.

After the victory in the defense of Lin’gao, as part of the “Great Crossroads” transportation plan, the transportation department organized a prisoner-of-war brigade of more than 3,000 people. It took them two months to complete the construction of the cinder and gravel road from Chengmai to Qiongzhou Prefecture, following the route of the Hainan West Line Expressway in the old world. The post stations along the way were all renovated, and flame trees were planted on both sides of the road. In the old world, the flame tree was a tall plant with a wide, drooping crown that provided shade in tropical regions. In the new world, the flame tree was also chosen by the transportation department as a tropical roadside tree and grew lushly on both sides of the roads in places like Lin’gao and Sanya.

Now, there was a new scenery along the road. Black utility poles had been erected, and the first phase of the island-loop wired telegraph project was largely complete. The wired telegraph from Lin’gao to the west had already connected Chengmai, Qiongshan, and Wenchang.

As Yun Suji traveled along, all he saw were harvested fields. Now, the fields were planted with green manure for rice paddies: Chinese milk vetch. As far as the eye could see, there was already a touch of green. With the keen observation of someone who had long been on the front lines of agricultural technology, he could see at a glance that the number of farmers in the fields was significantly small.

“A good man doesn’t earn money in June,” he said to himself.

This was a common saying. Although it wasn’t June now, the busy season of autumn harvest and planting was over. The farmers had gathered their grain and were beginning their slack season, so very few people were working in the fields. In the past, Yun Suji had mocked the Southeast Asian natives for doing nothing all day. He had originally thought that this saying was just something people said, and who would pass up the chance to earn money? But in these two or three years in Hainan, he had come to deeply feel the truth contained in this saying.

In the first year after the Senate landed, the villagers saw money like mosquitoes see blood. With heavy rewards, the speed of various construction projects was repeatedly refreshed. However, with the help of the Tiandihui and the initial improvement of rural life, many people became content with a little wealth. Although the future “old dad’s tea” had not yet been born, in the dozen or so relatively prosperous villages around the East Gate Market, there were already many people addicted to the “Australian lifestyle” and “senatorial enjoyment.” These newly rich farmers spent their days idly drinking tea and wine in the East Gate Market, or squatting in Bopu to watch the big ships. They knew that with a little more effort, they could live better, but they were already very satisfied with their current lives. Some even stopped going to the mandatory corvée labor for farmland and water conservancy construction every winter, directly hiring new immigrants to do it for them.

This point was not only felt by him and the Tiandihui, but was also commonly mentioned by the senators on the front lines of industry, agriculture, and civil administration. Some senators from the finance and economics department proposed that the agricultural tax should be appropriately increased and the scissors gap between industry and agriculture expanded to reduce the disposable income of farmers.

This was a common practice in late-developing industrial countries. In the absence of overseas markets, the surplus value of the countryside was exploited to the maximum extent to build an industrial system. Although the Senate had a huge overseas market, its demand for capital and manpower was always insatiable.

In the view of the professionals in the finance and economics department, the living standards of the peasants under the rule of the Senate had improved too quickly. The increase in their disposable income meant that they would inevitably use their surplus accumulation to improve their lives—this was human nature. However, the Senate’s industrial system was still very weak. A large amount of accumulation and industrial capacity had to be used for the production of export goods and the expansion of infrastructure investment. Now, in order to meet the demand of the domestic market and maintain the stability of the circulation coupon’s value, they had to increase the production and sales of goods for the domestic market.

This proposal caused great controversy within the Senate. The Senate wanted the new society in Lin’gao to have a “beacon effect,” and improving the living conditions of the peasants was the most effective way to do this in this time and space. Forcibly lowering the income of the peasants would not only damage this policy, but also have a negative impact on the morale of the people.

Some busybodies then found another way, listing a history of the development of the Hainan agricultural reclamation system, which was mainly composed of workers from Sichuan and Hunan. After reading that post, Yun Suji couldn’t help but feel a sense of empathy, which strengthened their determination to lobby the departments and demand a larger share of the immigrants from the “Engine” project.

Although the Planning Council was very generous with the agricultural department’s request for people, some still questioned whether northerners could grow rice and tropical crops. Dugu Qiuhun, who was in charge of lobbying at the time, replied, “The discipline required for a plantation is no less than that of industry and mining. We have enough whips and gallows.”

No one questioned this.

The northern immigrants settled in northern Qiong were interspersed with Fujianese and settled according to the standard village model. Among them, 50 standard villages were established in Lin’gao, 35 in Chengmai, and 12 in Qiongshan.

What was annoying was that the mentality of being content with a little wealth prevented the standard villages from achieving maximum efficiency. [Wu Nanhai][y009] was very dissatisfied with this—he had made a big promise at the Government Affairs Council, and he couldn’t explain it if he didn’t get the output up. So he told them to look and listen more during this investigation and try to find the root of the problem.

“The traditional thinking of ‘a good man doesn’t earn money in June’ must be broken by agricultural reclamation!” Yun Suji thought to himself.

Out of consideration for the importance of Qiongzhou Prefecture city, the Senate had so far not directly entered it, but had built a new town in the Haikou area instead. At the same time, an army base was established: Haikou Fort.

As for the navy under Tang Yunwen, originally stationed at the Baisha naval base in Haikou, it was now completely a decoration. Shortly after his disastrous defeat at Chengmai, Commander Tang sent people to Guangzhou and other places to seek a transfer. Now, he neither patrolled nor took roll call, just sat and collected his 800 circulation coupon subsidy from the Senate every month while waiting for a transfer. The remaining handful of soldiers also relied on the Senate’s “assistance” for their pay—of course, it wasn’t a free gift; they had to work for it. Many of the able-bodied soldiers had simply defected to the Australians, and the rest were the old, weak, sick, and disabled whom the Australians looked down on.

The Ministry of Land and Transport used the post station in Chengmai to establish a horse-changing station. Yun Suji and Dugu Qiuhun changed horses and continued on their way. The Mongolian horses were not very adapted to the environment in Hainan and had a high mortality rate, so they had to be used sparingly.

On the four carriages, there was a senatorial guard standing on the left and right, a total of eight. They wore tropical colonial helmets, short-sleeved straw sandals, and carried pistols. All the carriages looked identical on the outside, but the two of them were in the fourth carriage. The first three were occupied by the naturalized citizen staff and cadres who were going with them. All the luggage was neatly tied to the top of the carriages.

When passing by Shishan, Yun Suji spoke up. He asked Dugu Qiuhun about the deeds of the agricultural vehicle detachment chasing and killing the routed Ming army in this area. Although Dugu Qiuhun had not participated in the battle, he had been to the battlefield shortly after it ended and knew a lot about it. He talked with great enthusiasm and even took out a notepad to draw a battlefield situation map for Yun Suji.

“At that time, the killing was a sea of blood and mountains of corpses. The agricultural vehicles chased and killed them all the way, and the ground was covered with bodies. It was truly a river of blood…” He couldn’t help but get lost in his memories. “Look, that’s the memorial tablet built after the battle, specifically for the dead Ming soldiers. The ashes of the fallen soldiers are under the hill.” He pointed to a stone monument standing alone on a small hill outside Chengmai county town.

“What about our people?”

“They are all buried in Cuigang. This is the memorial for the Battle of Chengmai.” He pointed to another mound. “That’s the remains of the earth city built at that time.”

Directly opposite Chengmai county town, on the remains of an earthen dike that had collapsed into a mound but whose shape was still roughly discernible, stood a tall cylindrical monument. At its top was a double-headed eagle military emblem cast from captured bronze cannons, standing on a gear and wheat ear.

Yun Suji noticed that the hill was lush and green, with no miscellaneous trees or shrubs. It was surrounded by a crisscrossing network of fields and groves. A small path snaked its way to the foot of the monument. It was clearly being maintained by someone.

As if knowing what he was thinking, Dugu Qiuhun said, “The Chengmai county office is responsible for managing this place. The students of Fangcaodi come here for camping and training every year, and they also tidy up the surrounding environment.”

“That’s right,” Yun Suji said. “Only by educating the next generation well can we pass on our cause.”

“Educating the next generation well is one thing, but the most difficult to educate is this generation,” Dugu Qiuhun said. “Do you know which number this military emblem is?”

”?”

“The third.” Dugu Qiuhun smiled. “Because it’s made of copper. Actually, it’s not all copper, just a wooden frame covered with copper skin. The culprit was caught and sent to the labor camp—I suggested at the time that he be dismembered by five horses directly under the monument, but the law department disagreed. As a result, the second military emblem was made and installed, but it was lost again a few months later. This time, the circuit court sentenced him to death for ‘lèse-majesté’ and had him hanged in front of the monument. The third one has been up there peacefully ever since.”

“In the end, it’s all because of poverty…”

“No, actually, they are not poor anymore, at least not to the point of needing to steal to survive. Before we came, they didn’t have enough to eat. And now? The few thieves who were caught all have stable sources of income.”