Chapter 150: Sights and Sounds of Chikan

Chikan City, the very symbol of the crossing regime's ruling majesty, had its construction timeline shamefully delayed yet again.

There was always some more important building cutting in line: the school can't wait — this is called political correctness, you can't make children attend class in a condemned building... the township 'government' building will just have to wait a bit!

Next, naturally, was the project every single transmigrator had their eyes glued to — ahem, the affordable housing district. Can't leave our brothers waiting like lonely widows... the township 'government' building will just have to wait a bit!

And so it went, until the first batch of affordable housing was finished, until the ladies set off on their journey, the Chikan District 'government' building still wasn't completed. Only a handful of workers toiled away each day, a lifeless, stagnant scene — you'd believe it was an abandoned project. Economy Housing District Two had already broken ground; resources had been siphoned off yet again.

Comrade Lin Baoquan, standing now aboard the Xing'anping, naturally had no idea that the 'government' building — which in his eyes already looked immensely grand — had been built through such hardship. Peering through a gap in the unfinished wall, it had already reached the second floor. The red-brick building, laid out in a "tong"-shaped structure, was indeed quite imposing. Well, that's how it looked in the eyes of Ming people.

What astonished him even more were the rows of districts enclosed by red-brick walls, the neat rows of wooden houses, the straight boulevards, the pristine environment, the bustling dock and construction site... All of it, without exception, reminded Lin Baoquan: the master of this place was no simple band of pirates. These people harbored ambitions far from petty; they had a grand vision.

Before this, the Lin brothers had already gleaned some public information about the transmigrators from the harbor pilot. The brothers had been puzzled earlier: the Red Hair's territory, yet not a single Red Hair in sight. Looking out, Dayuan Port was crawling with Kun people showing off their short-cropped hair. Had the Red Hair all died off? Only now did it dawn on them — that mysterious smile that would surface on the face of that Master Xiong, Xiong Dao, back in Hangzhou City, whenever the topic of "the people of Dayuan" came up...

Kun people or Red Hair, they were just some strange folk from across the sea. Even if this place were some overseas Liangshan stronghold, the Lin brothers had no such sentiments of worrying for the nation and its people. Though they had witnessed many marvels today, in the end, settling accounts with goods and coin was the real business. So when Lin Baoquan learned that a local official had come to visit, he hastily called for his clansman brother to disembark and meet the guest.

As the Lin brothers had expected, the Professor Luo waiting on the dock to receive them was likewise a Kun man. The outfit of jacket, casual trousers, and black leather shoes was becoming somewhat familiar in their eyes. Only Professor Luo's greasy middle-aged man's 70-30 side part gave Lin Bao'an a moment's idle speculation: could it be that these Kun people determine their seating hierarchy by the length of their head hair?

"Ha ha, you worthy brothers are truly men of your word! Crossing a thousand li of waves, keeping your promise and honoring the contract — we brothers are full of admiration!"

Witnessing Professor Luo's utterly incongruous salute and his Mandarin, the Lin brothers understood in that moment: that strange accent of Hangzhou's Master Xiong, mixed half with the Hangzhou local dialect — so this was where it came from...

"Not at all, not at all. We're just country folk with no experience. Only upon entering did we learn Dayuan has changed masters. What a grand enterprise you great kings have built here! This Lin has truly had his eyes opened today. Impressive, most impressive!"

... And so the mutual commercial flattery began. They walked and flattered as they went, only stopping once they entered the office. The office was a blue color-steel hut, serving as the temporary headquarters of the Port Authority.

After entering, Professor Luo deliberately did not call his assistant in to brew tea, but did it himself — giving the Ming people some time to adjust.

The Lin brothers, unsurprisingly, spent a while studying the blue color-steel panels and the bright white LED bulb overhead. Lin Bao'an, being a bit younger, couldn't contain himself within two minutes and began asking Professor Luo: how does the bulb light up? Are you selling them?

Professor Luo smiled and shook his head, pointing mysteriously at the ceiling... Go ahead and guess the reason yourself; I simply won't tell you there's a photovoltaic panel on the roof.

Once everyone was seated, Professor Luo began to question — no, to inquire, in a conversational manner — about the Lin brothers' detailed experiences on this sea trade voyage.

As the first Ming merchant ship to officially come to Dayuan for trade, the Xing'anping and the Lin brothers' data were a very important commercial sample. Professor Luo needed to gather more information before he could formulate future trade plans targeting Ming merchant ships.

The Lin brothers had just begun to speak when they were startled yet again: a silver slab on the table was suddenly shoved aside by someone... because the silver slab had a picture of a fruit with a bite taken out of it; they had originally thought it was a fruit platter.

Professor Luo asked questions amiably while occasionally typing a few words on his laptop. The Lin brothers, though astonished, felt it awkward to ask too many questions. This inquiry-style chat went on for a full hour before it was declared finished.

Next, both sides swiftly settled their accounts. Then Professor Luo took two land coupons from a drawer and handed them to Lin Baoquan, to make up the price difference.

"Treasure notes?" Lin Baoquan immediately recognized the nature of this slip of paper.

Lin Baoquan's face instantly turned pale. Then, seeing Lin Bao'an already red-faced with anger, Professor Luo couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. He quickly produced a product catalog and handed it to them: "Worthy brothers, do not be alarmed. This item is silver. Everything on the goods list can be redeemed for it. Furthermore..." Professor Luo paused here, offering a mysterious smile. "Why don't you two gentlemen first tour Chikan for a few days? Once I've sorted things out on my end, I will prepare some benefits you won't find anywhere else. We must ensure you worthy brothers leave satisfied."

Lin Baoquan, having by now roughly scanned the goods list, realized his family had been somewhat rash earlier. He hurriedly apologized repeatedly, saying it was all a sickness brought on by fear of Ming treasure notes. Professor Luo smiled and shook his head. Understand, understand...

And so the Xing'anping settled in at the Pier District. That night, the crewmen all lodged at the dedicated pier district inn. The so-called inn, for now, was merely a few rows of bamboo huts, still with large communal sleeping platforms. Only the two Lin brothers were assigned a double room. Inside, it was plain and clean; apart from a plate of wrought-iron fresh flowers, there were no other furnishings.

One novel feature: the inn had a shower-style public bathhouse, providing warm water at set times, with bamboo-pipe showers. The crewmen, you could say, had a thoroughly satisfying wash.

Early the next morning, the physicians arrived. Dressed in moon-white cloth long robes, looking more like White Wuchang ghosts than physicians, these people entered and immediately took a strange-looking device and waved it one by one over everyone's necks. During this, a Southern Fujian dialect interpreter loudly informed the crowd: to prevent epidemic disease, anyone found with a headache or fever must go to the clinic on Beixianwei Island to recuperate, and could only go out after recovering.

Fortunately, the Xing'anping's time at sea this trip had not been long, and the crewmen were all still healthy. After bustling about for a while, this group of physicians turned around and left, not even asking for a consultation fee.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. The Lin brothers naturally could not say much at this point. These Kun-haired people who claimed to be from "Kunlun" seemingly spoke in the official tongue, yet their conduct and mannerisms were exactly the same as those of uncivilized folk, utterly lacking the style of the Great Ming.

Therefore, the Lin brothers now purely viewed the transmigrators as foreigners. Since these strange people possessed many ingenious mechanical contraptions, they probably had just as many taboos: a love of cleanliness, a fear of epidemic disease. They just didn't know what other rules this place might have.

On the second day, after the cargo was unloaded, the Lin brothers began to wander this uncivilized land.

This time, they looked even more closely: the boiler room belching green smoke, the massive sewer pipes, the endless red bricks, the mortar that became incredibly hard once dried...

The more they looked, the more alarmed they became; the more they looked, the more fascinated they grew. At noon, after chatting with a few brick-hauling countrymen eating lunch and resting at the construction site, they felt a sensation of sheer horror: everything before their eyes had been built in just half a year!

Lin Baoquan simply could not believe such speed. All afternoon, he dragged his clansman brother around doing nothing else but fixating on Chikan's sewers: he watched the workers dig earth, watched them mix mortar, watched them lay bricks. In the end, he personally jumped down into a previously completed sewer to experience it for himself...

Standing in this so-called "drainage ditch," which rose above his head and was absurdly wide, stroking the smooth soil-cement walls, gazing up at the clear blue sky... Lin Baoquan remained silent for a long time. After this, he and his clansman brother sat by the sewer and talked about something; no one knows what. Only, when Professor Luo received the two again a few days later, the very first request Lin Baoquan made was actually to tour the Kiln Area Base.

This request, this fellow Luo naturally would not refuse: in the early days of reform and opening up, vast numbers of conservative cadres would go sightseeing and take photos at the Empire State Building one moment, and upon returning home, their resistance to reform and opening up would vanish. There was no need to arrest them for brainwashing; the Manhattan skyline, in silence, had breached these people's defenses.

The Kiln Area Base now served the same function: industrial tourism, soul tourism. A strong regime has confidence; it likewise has no need to debate anything with Ming people, and in the future, even less need to engage in controversy with the gentry class of the Ming nation.

The so-called discourse power of the gentry is only most effective in times of peace. In chaotic times, even in the later period after Li Zicheng grew powerful, it began to lose its effect.

Against the butcher's knife of the Manchu slaves, it was utterly useless. The gentry class had absolutely no capability to incite the common people into a life-or-death resistance. Discourse power, before cities being butchered into empty wastelands one string after another, appeared so pale and powerless.

Now, with the far more powerful transmigrators entering the stage, even if the gentry could incite the theoretically maximum number of bottom-level commoners to rise in revolt, these people would be utterly unable to withstand a single strike before a crossing regime that possessed sewers, fertilizer, sulfonamide, and seamless steel pipes.

Resist or submit, the super gear simply doesn't care; it just steadily devours as it passes. In this process, one part of the gentry will perceive this irresistible power and thereby change, while those who cling stubbornly to that set of rotten theories will be mercilessly crushed, ultimately becoming sludge in the gutter.

This is the transmigrators' theoretical approach: the brainless ones who want to compete with an industrialized group for ruling power will drop dead in the first wave; those who survive will definitely not be taking up the Analects again to go reason with the transmigrators.

It was with this mindset that Professor Luo cheerfully agreed to the Lin family's request to visit the Kiln Area Base.

The tour was just an added bonus. Professor Luo had come this time bearing a decision reached after meetings and research with his colleagues. To some extent, this was a promotional event akin to "buy three, get one free."