Chapter 149: The Taijiang Defense Plan

As time went on, word that a certain power had seized Dayuan would keep spreading, and the Transmigrators' exchanges with the outside world would also grow more and more frequent — in 1628 some medium and large vessels were bound to come to Dayuan, which made the dredging of the Dayuan Channel and the whole of Taijiang ever more urgent.

"How efficient is this boat? How long until it can clear a channel?" Xia Xianze, who had been watching Seabed Scoop from among the crowd, lowered his telescope and asked.

"The grab bucket isn't very big, so efficiency won't be high." Yao Zhesheng, the dredger's designer, stepped forward to explain.

Because of the counterweight issue between the metal boom and the grab, the top-heavy log raft hadn't dared mount a large grab bucket, so each scoop moved only 0.6 cubic meters of mud and sand. Add to that the crude operating system and the difficulty of moving the raft itself, and the efficiency was bound to be low.

Of course, when it came to efficiency, compared to certain maniacal island-building ships of later ages, the Transmigrators' Seabed Scoop was naturally a feeble chicken, but in the 17th century this boat's efficiency was indisputably number one under heaven.

"If we dredge the main channel to an average depth of two meters, it shouldn't take more than a month." Chen Dong from the Infrastructure Department added from the side.

The "main channel" Chen Dong spoke of was in fact the South Channel that vessels used daily to enter and leave Dayuan. And the North Channel, separated from the South Channel by a long narrow sandbar, had silted up so badly in earlier years that by now it was practically joined to Beixianwei Island.

"At two meters, this kind of ship wouldn't need lightering anymore, right?" Xia Xianze asked after hearing this, pointing at the Xing'anping, which was just then heading toward the opposite shore of Taijiang.

"No, any sharp-bottomed blessing ship under 800 liao could pass through."

"Still not enough. Half a year — use half a year to deepen and widen the channel thoroughly, ideally cut through the sandbar and link the north and south channels into one. Prepare the channel to the draft of a thousand-ton-class gunboat." Xia Xianze settled the matter with one hammer blow.

The people around him raised no objections. Spending half a year to clear the most critical channel first was proper business; as for the rest of Taijiang, they could put up with it for now. After speaking, Xia Xianze raised his telescope again. "Where's all the sand being hauled to?"

"Luermen." Liu Zhe, dressed in a blue Type 07 navy service uniform and currently doubling as Commander of the Coast Guard Command, replied.

Luermen was a waterway at the northern tip of Beixianwei Island. This waterway was extremely narrow, passable only by small boats, and its currents were fierce, its terrain treacherous, with all sorts of mishaps occurring constantly. Because of tides, earthquakes, shifts in the Zengwen River on the opposite shore of Taijiang, and other reasons, Luermen was forever silting up and changing course, unpredictable and inconstant.

In the original history, thirty-three years later, the fleet led by the National Lord, guided by the turncoat interpreter He Bin, would ride a great tide and burst through Luermen into Taijiang, taking the Dutch from behind.

The Transmigrators had no need for that kind of uncertainty. Even with cannon fire sealing it and radar illumination — the military's instinct was to control every such gap in management. So Liu Zhe had demanded from the start that the barges haul all the mud and sand to Luermen and fill in that waterway completely.

Not only fill in the waterway — many parts of Beixianwei Island flooded at high tide, and in the future all those places would need to be filled in and raised as well.

In the military's planning, the tip of Beixianwei Island and the southern end of Dayuan Island would both, using sea sand produced by the dredger, eventually be built up into a sand embankment linking to the main island of Taiwan. That way, not only would both islands have a direct land connection, but defense would also be very easy.

The "mouth"-shaped closed defense scheme blocked any possibility of a fleet charging into Taijiang from elsewhere; only the main channel left open in the middle of the left side allowed entry and exit. Of course, if anyone tried to ferry men back and forth by boat, intending to form up and charge onto Big Island over the sand embankment, then the philosophical question of exactly how many men a single 12.7mm machine-gun round could penetrate would receive its definitive answer…

…After hearing Liu Zhe's entire defense plan for the Taijiang Inner Sea, Xia Xianze swept a glance around. Seeing that no one raised any objection, he nodded, indicating the plan was approved. Next, everyone went their separate ways — Seabed Scoop had passed its acceptance check, the on-site meeting was over, and the dozen or so people scattered like birds and beasts.

Most people returned to the Shang Hall to work; only Professor Luo, after coming down from the fort, hurried off to the wharf. Nowadays, trade activities involving the Ming people were his responsibility, so he had to go receive the Xing'anping and the Lin brothers.

Professor Luo had, in fact, only just returned from Madou Society a few days earlier. During his time holding the fort at Madou, Professor Luo had conscripted labor, beaten up village elders, swindled children, and seized commoner women — in short, he had committed every imaginable outrage.

After returning to Dayuan, the Great Office, in view of the fact that during his time in Madou, Professor Luo had supplied the Kiln District, Chikan Academy, and the New District with many able-bodied youths, students, and women of childbearing age — achievements of outstanding merit — promoted Professor Luo to Director of the newly established Port Authority, with additional charge of domestic trade specifically aimed at Ming merchants.

By the time Professor Luo took a sampan to Chikan Wharf, the Xing'anping had already entered its berth, stopped, and dropped anchor… The Lin brothers were at that moment at the bow directing the unloading.

Even now, the two brothers had not managed to shake off the shock that Dayuan had given them. The difference was that Lin Bao'an, being a bit younger, still had his attention fixed on the sea dredger; standing at the bow, he kept turning his head back to stare.

Lin Baoquan, however, was widely experienced, seasoned and steady. What preoccupied him even more at this moment was the Chikan New District behind the wharf.

The Taijiang East Bank had now been fully planned out. The Chikan City / Chikan District administrative grid, still under construction, sat on the middle stretch of Taijiang, gazing across at the Dayuan Trading Post on the opposite shore. Bounded by the Chikan Grid, to the north were several upscale ocean-view residential blocks; further north still, one reached the corner of Taijiang, where the shipyard and shipyard dormitory district were planned.

South of Chikan City lay the wharf and warehouse district. The Xing'anping was moored at the newly built pier area in the lower right corner of Taijiang; other planned wood-gas cold-storage facilities had already begun construction, and the warehouse blocks, including all manner of large storehouses, would extend continuously southward.

As the upscale ocean-view residential area second in priority only to Chikan Academy, the first grid block was already complete: long, low red-brick walls, handsome black basalt paths, camphor-wood houses brimming with tropical charm, and ornamental plants that looked haphazard but in fact were perfectly placed to block the gaze of neighbors…

These were no dull worker dormitories. These houses, built for the Transmigrators to live in, were standard issue for later-era seaside resort districts — fine materials, fully equipped. The owner could sit on the veranda sipping iced tea while gazing at the sea, or barbecue skewers out back; when the mood struck, he could even get it on with a girl in some dim, secluded corner. The design could be called reasonable, the style flirtatious, entirely free of formaldehyde… only the girls were missing.

The girls were not far off — once the district was finished, the fleet carrying many ripe and unripe girls had set out for Dayuan at the first possible moment. The ripe girls had not seen their masters for half a year, and the unripe girls did not yet know who their masters were. But that didn't matter; the purchasing agents had long since sent self-portraits back to Dayuan, so the masters knew who was who.