Chapter 100: The Family Fortunes of Two Worlds

Dog Eye returned to Hangzhou from Dayuan on October 24th, carrying almost no cargo — practically an empty ship. Even empty, even able to sail at night, with the wind direction against her, Dog Eye was forced to zigzag across the sea surface like a submarine on the run, and only reached Hangzhou after eleven days.

After a few days of rest and reorganization in Hangzhou, Dog Eye set out again for Dayuan without pause, this time with a newly purchased sand ship in tow. En route, she passed the other two sand ships still struggling against the headwind.

Each of those two ships was carrying one hundred laborers, along with rice, some cloth, and daily sundries. The transmigrators who had been lingering in Hangzhou all boarded this time, along with the last reserves of steel bar and cement — everything was shipped to Dayuan.

Dayuan Port was unusually lively today. Over a month ago, the two sand ships had set out from Hangzhou with a grand send-off, everyone standing on the shore waving farewell. Now they gathered at the shore again, the pioneers turned into the welcoming party.

As of this reunion, the transmigrators who had successively arrived in Great Ming numbered eighty-eight in total, including Cao Chuan. The total number of laborers under the Crossing Faction's control was seven hundred and fifty — a figure that did not even include the natives and Japanese who could be hired at any time.

In the month and more since arriving in Dayuan, the transmigrators had wiped out the Dutch faction and the Japanese faction, and won the surrender of the Xingang Society, a native power, allowing their decrees to pass unhindered throughout their controlled territory. The prestige of the transmigrators now thundered like a drum in the ears of the other natives.

Repairing the Dayuan Trading Post, constructing two new bases at the Kiln District and Chikan, dredging Xingang Creek... thinking it over, it was quite a sense of accomplishment.

That evening, Xia Xianze held a banquet, attended by all the transmigrators in Dayuan. Before the banquet, General Manager Xia delivered a speech titled "Time Waits for No One," calling on all transmigrators to unite, seize every second, fight while building, and struggle to the end for everyone's "own cause"!

At this point, whistles and applause rang out.

The several cases of German black beer and Niulanshan sorghum liquor that Cao Zong had originally bought in bulk from the supermarket were swept clean that night. In fact, all the alcohol was drunk dry. Farewell, canned black beer.

Early the next morning, a general assembly of all shareholders was convened on time in the Great Office. The meeting was broadcast live on the forum, mainly to disclose the family fortune and discuss the plans going forward.

The Company's books currently held 550,000 taels of silver. Of this silver, 220,000 taels were old-style silver bars and silver coins from the Dutch and the Japanese.

The remainder was all silver ingots and silver bars that Cao Zong had gradually brought over from later generations. At first, Cao Zong brought 50-tael Ming Dynasty silver ingots. Later, when cargo space grew tight, he switched to 925 silver bars, which the transmigrators themselves mixed with a bit of lead and tin to recast into ingots. Still later, when space grew even tighter, a portion of the silver bars was replaced by pearl necklaces.

A single perfectly round (Rolling Bead), fine-quality, 1-centimeter-diameter non-nucleated cultured pearl from Wu County could easily sell in Hangzhou for 50 to 70 taels of silver. However, pearls follow a progressive pricing system: string ten identical pearls into a piece of jewelry, and 500 taels won't buy it. Yet the volume of ten pearls is very small — smaller than a 50-tael silver ingot — saving cargo space.

Apart from being a bit slower to liquidate, pearls were far more cost-effective than silver. So the Company still held several hundred pearls of various colors in reserve. All of the above could be considered the liquid family fortune of the Crossing Faction.

All kinds of import goods were controlled by the Crossing Faction's foremost vital department: the "Import Materials Management Committee." Of course, the "Chairman" was definitely Xia Xianze — this was the household guardian treasure that the top leader had to hold.

Xia Xianze then posted the materials inventory on the forum. In truth, the shareholders already had a rough idea of the goods in the Warehouse, because every time Cao Chuan brought crates, they were unloaded personally by the transmigrators.

Twenty-two cubic meters — equivalent to the transport volume of a medium-sized container. At first, everyone rushed in together. Later, Xia discovered people stealing cigarettes while unloading, so he switched to designated personnel for loading and unloading. But others could still watch from the side, so everyone knew what goods were there.

The goods list had quite a few categories, including firearms and ammunition, medicines, steel bar and cement, and mechanical parts — these were the bulk items. Other daily necessities were also in reserve. In essence, distribution was according to need: for example, transmigrators doing fieldwork could apply for hiking boots, with the Committee making the final decision.

Foodstuffs had long been gone, and the alcohol had just been finished yesterday, so those were also struck from the list.

This was the entirety of the family fortune. All the materials Cao Chuan had accumulated since his first crossing over were right here.

There was no gold on the Company's books — all the gold had been taken away by Cao Chuan. The things Cao Chuan took back from the Ming Dynasty also included rosewood furniture, seal stones, and a small amount of sundries.

All in all, Cao Chuan's return cargo space had been somewhat idle lately.

After the initial phase of frenzied expansion, the commercial empire Cao Chuan had built in later generations had entered a stage of stable operation. Several furniture factories under different domestic and international brands, several domestic and international antique shops, two auction houses in which he secretly held shares, various warehouses and properties scattered across different locations, a great many shell companies...

Under these circumstances, complete sets of antique rosewood furniture and high-quality chicken-blood stone, which easily drew the attention of the observant, were no longer items Cao Chuan prioritized collecting. On the contrary, some inconspicuous raw rosewood logs were the optimal choice.

These raw logs could silently and seamlessly be turned into modern high-end furniture, appearing in ordinary furniture markets. Although the profit margin was a bit smaller, that was only relative, and it was stable and safe. One had to know, the furniture factory brands he had acquired were themselves more or less profitable.

On this trip to Dayuan, Dog Eye had brought twelve cubic meters of raw rosewood logs with her. As for rosewood furniture, there was only one set. Too much was useless; now auctions were only organized after very long intervals.

Due to its latitude, Taiwan did not produce rosewood in large quantities. The occasional few trees were not worth searching for in the Dense Forest. The most valuable wood found locally was Taiwan black ebony. This black ebony was not highly priced — sold by the ton, unlike flower pear wood, which was sold by the catty.

So for the next period, Cao Chuan's dimensional trading would go through an unprofitable phase — the Kiln District side was nearly ready.

When the time came, Cao Chuan would make multiple round trips in a single day, transmitting the prepared, expensive industrial equipment over.

The equipment had long been listed by Zou Guoqing and the others. To ensure the longest possible operation in a medieval era, the equipment and parts were all advanced products chosen without a second thought. Where time allowed, some parts were even custom-made.

Even a brick-making machine common in the countryside: bearings from Sweden's SKF, molds from Sweden's ASSAB, and the motor — had to be Siemens... This kind of perverse stuff left the purchasing manager Cao Chuan had hired utterly baffled, his doubts multiplying, suspicions growing thick.

Lately, this fellow had already begun trying to part the clouds of doubt, poking and prying, conducting secret investigations. Probably, when he first applied for the job, he truly believed he had earned this generous position through his own talent, never once connecting his lone-star calamity of a resume to the job. But no matter — soon enough, he would be reunited with all this equipment he had procured, equipment both moronic and perverse. Who knows, he might even end up personally operating that Swedish brick-making machine.