Chapter 153: The Girls

After the Lin brothers emerged from the Port Authority's mobile house, they exchanged a glance and saw the excitement and elation brimming in each other's eyes.

Professor Luo had lent them pearls and silver worth about 5,000 taels at low interest, a sum that instantly solved the brothers' most pressing need. With this, raising the rest of the funds once they returned home would be much easier; all that remained was a trip to Fuzhou to sell the pearls, and the brothers' dream of breaking free from their family's shackles and owning their first cargo ship for independent business was within arm's reach!

The Lin brothers' view of these Kun people had also changed considerably by now... once your stance shifts, your perspective naturally shifts with it. In the two men's eyes, Professor Luo had now become the generous and chivalrous Song Gongming, and Chikan New District had turned into a Liangshan Marsh where good people gathered to pledge brotherhood — aside from their hair being a little short, these people had no other flaws.

After discussing things together back home, the two found that all matters had already been settled; now they only had to wait until after a tour of the Kiln District, and in a few days they would board a ship and return home smoothly.

The cargo brought by the Xing'anping had already been warehoused and the delivery completed, and of the four types of bulk goods Dayuan could currently export, the Lins had also selectively purchased two for the return voyage.

These four bulk goods were: wood, red bricks, salt, and soil cement.

The Lin family had no need for bricks — Minbei locally produced green and red bricks. Although the red bricks from Dayuan were straight and uniform, of higher quality than local earthen bricks, Minbei was, to put it bluntly, an impoverished backwater mountain region without enough wealthy households to consume luxury goods; shipping bricks was far less profitable than shipping salt.

Wood was even less necessary — throughout the entire Ming dynasty, Fujian fir was the most important source of construction timber and shipbuilding material for the Jiangnan region.

Lin Baoquan chose salt and cement.

The salt produced in the Kiln District was currently being loaded onto the ship. Part of the salt was crude salt from the Salt Field's trial production, and the rest was refined salt from the Kiln District.

Whether crude or refined, the quality far surpassed the various impure salts the brothers were accustomed to seeing. The industrially produced refined salt was indistinguishable from the bagged supermarket salt of later generations — pure white and fine, utterly free of impurities, with a clean salty taste and a sweet aftertaste. The moment Lin Baoquan first tasted a salt sample, he decided to stuff the cargo hold full of salt sacks for the return trip.

However, after wandering around Chikan for two days, he suddenly discovered that the soil cement at the Construction Site was also quite useful, so he added a little cement to the cargo hold as well.

The soil cement was not actually all that crude; all its ingredients, including calcium oxide, clay, and furnace slag, were no different from those of later generations. The Tainan Plain was poor in mineral resources, and the only one that could meet industrial mining standards in later generations was limestone. The Transmigrators' cement formula was actually quite conscientious — the calcium oxide ratio was certainly higher than that of the cement plant owned by the county magistrate's brother-in-law.

But no matter how good the formula, it was useless if the equipment couldn't keep up. The rotary kiln used in later generations to calcine cement, which spun constantly like a popcorn popper, was something the Industrial Department had no intention of importing for now — it was too large and required too many supporting facilities.

Without a rotary kiln, they could only use the old-fashioned layered stacking method for calcination; this method heated the raw materials unevenly, so the finished product's results were barely satisfactory.

Of course, even this old-style cement was shocking enough to a native like Lin Baoquan, so on its return voyage, the Xing'anping would also carry several dozen packs of soil cement back to port for sale.

These bulk goods, plus matchlocks and two cannons, had already completely exceeded the brothers' expectations. Moreover, the Liangshan heroes had spent the past few days intensively training some of the Xing'anping's crew; the gunpowder left behind by the Dutch was being used to fire cannons and guns, teaching the trainees how to kill and burn... honestly, where else could you find such thoroughly attentive service from a Crossing Faction?

Two days later, the Lin brothers finally got their wish and were granted permission to visit the Kiln District.

The effect of the tour was naturally quite intense — the shock an old man singing Qin opera felt the first time he saw Auntie Lee Jung-hyun's fan dance could not have been greater than this.

Everywhere was the sound of loud roaring and sharp shrieking — craftsmen with cloths covering their faces, grinding wheels spraying sparks, great logs instantly sliced apart by huge iron saws.

And then there was the Steelmaking Workshop, like something from the underworld... the enormous iron furnace devouring iron material, the iron claws sliding overhead, the glowing red molten iron the furnace vomited forth, the blue ingots of fine steel...

An ancient ironworks required a great number of hired laborers: "There are those who mine the ore, those who burn charcoal, those who fan the furnace; the rest — tending the furnace, transporting ore, selling rice, selling wine, and other duties — each require several dozen men, so that one batch often gathers several hundred people."

The Lin brothers could not comprehend this mysterious method that required no adding of carbon, no stirring of the furnace, no working of the bellows — just a few idle-looking men who seemed to do nothing, yet could produce ingots of fine steel. When the brothers emerged from the Steelmaking Workshop, their legs were weak — the combination of the wildly violent steelmaking process and the extremely sparse number of Workers struck them as eerie and terrifying.

Professor Luo, who was accompanying them on the tour, was considerate and quickly took the brothers to the far less shocking Brick Kiln to relax.

The Brick Kiln had a good effect; at least the electricity-driven Brick Making Machine was neither noisy nor disruptive. Watching workers shovel brick clay into the machine on one end while neat brick blanks were ceaselessly expelled from the other, Lin Bao'an simply could not suppress the question in his heart: right now, he desperately wanted to know — how did these mechanical iron devices move?

Professor Luo naturally could not introduce Comrade Faraday to the two of them. When faced with something he couldn't explain clearly, he could only resort to the tried-and-true Oriental Mystery of the Unmoving Vajra — a single hand pointing to the sky, a mysterious smile on his face, and a slight shake of his head.

Oh... at this, the Lin men instantly understood. So this method of making iron devices move by themselves without wind was a secret art the Kun people would not transmit! No wonder these Kun people had set up their stronghold here — so they possessed secret arts!

Lin Baoquan and his clansman's perspectives had always differed; his clansman focused on the micro, while he belonged to the macro. So while his clansman was inquiring about their secret arts, Lin Baoquan had long since run off to one side, gazing with emotion at the endlessly flowing Rotary Kiln that ceaselessly produced bricks, and at the boundless expanse of red brick stacks on the Brick Factory grounds.

In Lin Baoquan's eyes, those giant logs being sliced up in minutes at the woodworking plant were the warships of the future; the fine steel that the ironworks could produce in an hour was the cannons and firearms of the future...

His thoughts drifted far in that moment. He now finally understood why Master Xiong in Hangzhou and Master Luo in Dayuan had both worn utterly unconcerned expressions when lending him money... these Kun people possessed such divine arts — how could they be content to remain here? This group would surely gather troops and march forth one day; when that time came, who would dare owe them silver, unafraid of having their homes confiscated and their clan exterminated?

In that moment, Lin Baoquan's mind became clear and free of all doubt. He turned his head to look at the back of his clansman, who had already run off to visit the Salt-boiling Pond, smiled faintly, and followed.

Four days later, the Xing'anping, laden with cargo, departed from Taijiang.

The Xing'anping set out following the fleet led by the Dog Eye as the Pilot Ship. The Transmigrators' fleet no longer had to return to Hangzhou with empty holds; besides salt, wood, red bricks, and cement were now all export goods.

The Lin brothers stood at the bow, waving constantly. In truth, what they had gained from this trip to Dayuan far exceeded the value of the goods themselves — these things were not only cargo, but also loans and something even more important: hope.

No native could remain unmoved after seeing a steel factory, and the Lin brothers were no exception. At this moment, standing at the bow of the Xing'anping, gazing at the gradually receding Dayuan Island, their feelings grew ever more complex.

As some people left, others arrived. Just a few days after the fleet carrying the Lin brothers departed, the girls everyone had been watching for with eager eyes finally came...

In this era, there was no such thing as demanding a divorce just because a couple lived apart. It was far too common for a man to go out to take exams, seek work, do business, or serve as an official, and not return home for years or even over a decade; it was equally common for a newlywed wife to serve her in-laws at home, and years later, after the children had grown, to receive her husband's ashes brought back by a fellow villager.

Nearly half a year had passed since the Transmigrators occupied Dayuan. During this time, the girls the Transmigrators had purchased from Hangzhou in the early period had remained in Tangzhuang the entire time, never stepping beyond the inner or outer gates, just like those wives serving their in-laws at home. The only difference was that they did not study needlework — they studied arithmetic.

The majority of the girls had been purchased from the Hangzhou human market; there were no free girls among the refugees. Or rather, before becoming refugees and beggars, families would sell their daughters off... at least that was a path to survival.

In fact, the vast majority of "High-level Population" had to be purchased. This included girls, children, and some local craftsmen who had pawned themselves into slavery — the Hangzhou Station had to purchase them all first. The refugees and beggars who cost nothing were merely bankrupt farmers.

To support this population transfer operation, which was always classified at the "highest level," the comrades at Hangzhou Station had not only poisoned two Official Brokers to death in succession, but had also spent a large sum to buy a Broker License from the Provincial Administration Commission's office and install one of their own people in the position — all just to buy some "High-level Population."

After the Transmigrators purchased these girls from poor households, a video showcasing their figure and appearance would be recorded, and then the hard drive would be sent out with the fleet. On the Dayuan Forum, there was now a dedicated "Flower Pomegranate Community" for displaying the girls' images, and every Transmigrator had one opportunity to use their "Concubine Fund" to select a girl.

Every so often, new videos of girls would be uploaded. If someone took a liking to a particular girl, they could use their one and only "Concubine Fund" opportunity to make a reservation. If multiple people took a liking to the same girl at the same time, and negotiation failed, the brutal Roll Dice Mechanism would be activated to resolve the dispute.

From the very day it was founded, the Flower Pomegranate Community had been one of the most followed forum sections; every day, people were on the forum making critical remarks. Whenever a situation arose where many people were vying for a particular girl, it became a program everyone delighted to see, immediately drawing out a horde of armchair Military Advisors, along with commentary, jeering, and cursing.

Including Master Miaoshu, the originator of the "Concubine Fund," a portion of those who had crossed over earlier and had already purchased girls in the early period had no chance to select a new girl: the Concubine Fund was a one-time opportunity per person, and with resources currently tight, only one wife was temporarily permitted... so this group was rather disgruntled.

The newly arrived comrades didn't have it easy either; they often fell into agonizing indecision: people always felt that a better girl would appear in a few days.

They told themselves to wait a little longer, yet at the same time feared that once the girls were shipped over, if they still hadn't picked one they were satisfied with by then, wouldn't they have to go listen at the neighbor's wall in the middle of the night?

This indecision ceased to exist after the Great Office officially announced that the next wave of ships would begin transporting the girls.

Overnight, all the girls on hold across the forum were swept clean.

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