Chapter 357: Opening the Port (24)

The mosquitoes, savages, and mountain paths of the Miaoli Mountain Area didn't take long to torment Feng Guanjie half to death. There was nothing here but primeval forest, and that feeling of being far from civilized society made him want to flee this place every single moment.

Thank the heavens, word finally came that the Shanghai Free Trade Zone was starting construction. So Feng Guanjie didn't waste a single word—he went back, said his goodbyes, and rushed to the front lines. Anyone who dared mention the word "Miaoli" again, he'd be at their throat. Over half a year had passed; it was time for a rotation anyway.

Taking a few apprentices, he first arrived in Hangzhou, then Feng Guanjie took a riverboat and hurried to Xiong Dao's location.

Learning that Feng had arrived, Xiong Dao dared not be negligent. This man's position had already been clearly defined via telegraph: Chief Designer of the Free Trade Zone, responsible for the overall design and planning of the port district, the riverside industrial zone, and the residential zone.

So today, Xiong Dao had brought Feng Guanjie to Zhang Sutan for an inspection.

By now, it was already May, and the weather was turning hot. In years past, Zhang Sutan would have long been overgrown with waist-deep thatch by this season, providing the perfect cover for criminals and outlaws.

But now, Zhang Sutan had undergone a massive transformation. Located where the Huangpu River and the Yangtze estuary converge, Zhang Sutan had a superior geographical position and minimal demolition difficulty, making it the earliest core area of the Free Trade Zone to be designated as the Pier District.

So the earliest batch of construction workers arrived at Zhang Sutan and began building. The main force of this group consisted of landless tenant farmers split off from Zuo Family Village. Later, large numbers of refugees and beggars from the surrounding area gradually joined the construction team, swelling the numbers to over two thousand.

Undertaking large-scale projects in the Jiangnan region had one advantage found nowhere else: grain.

Engineering in the 17th century was extremely difficult. In many places, if several thousand able-bodied laborers were suddenly gathered, the grain transport—something later generations have absolutely no concept of—would become a huge headache.

It was equivalent to assembling an army with an enormous appetite near a county seat. In any slightly impoverished region, the stockpiles would quickly run out, requiring grain and fodder to be shipped from nearby areas. And the cost of such transport was very high; in the northern regions, if you sent ten carts, five arriving was considered good.

When the Transmigration Nation undertook projects in Fujian, they suffered this exact hardship. Grain transport in the mountains was difficult, and Fujian itself was a grain-deficient province, so the inexperienced project command post stumbled quite a few times in this regard early on.

But in the Jiangnan region, such problems didn't exist. First, the crisscrossing network of inland waterways ensured timely, low-cost supply delivery.

Second, although grain fields had been largely replaced by vast cotton fields, because Hangzhou was the Canal Transport Hub, the Jiangnan region was not short on grain—the canal grain from all the southern provinces gathered here.

Throughout the Ming dynasty, in order to maintain the nominal quota of 4 million dan of canal grain, the cost of the entire canal transport system grew higher and higher.

By the late Ming, the so-called 4 million dan quota had long been insufficient. The central government, local authorities, gentry, petty officials, and the grand mandarins who fed off the canal transport system—all these powers, with one accord, inserted their straws into this great artery of the nation to suck blood.

So the current situation was this: on paper, the canal grain was still 4 million dan, but after the grain actually collected was run through the gauntlet of various national taxes, customary surcharges, and spoilage levies, the amount was inflated to the level of ten million dan.

For the Transmigrators, however, this situation was actually a good thing: because grain could be purchased in bulk.

After the officials and gentry collected this extra grain, they certainly weren't going to use it to steam rice for their own families. This grain would ultimately be sold to merchants to be converted into cash, completing the cycle of wealth accumulation.

So now, when a certain power brought out silver and all sorts of rare commodities to trade for grain, it was truly unstoppable. At first in Hangzhou, this was still a somewhat clandestine affair; but after Cao Jiangjun's recruitment and amnesty, the Taiwan side began brazenly shipping boatload after boatload of industrial goods to Hangzhou.

After the industrial goods were converted into silver on the spot, boatload after boatload of grain and people were hauled back to Taiwan—the Ming nation had an inexhaustible supply of "currency" to offset the trade deficit: people.

The consequence of a powerful consumer suddenly appearing out of thin air was this: starting in the second half of 1628, grain prices in the Jiangnan region began to rise slowly; by early 1629, during the lean season before the new harvest, the price of brown rice had been pushed up to one tael of silver per dan.

This change, which had never occurred in the original history, led to the production of even more refugees in the affected areas. The good thing, however, was that after getting through the initial difficulties, these surplus refugees and bankrupts were being steadily shipped away.

And in the future, as the 4,000-square-kilometer great granary of Tainan was gradually reclaimed, within a few years, grain produced explosively through industrialized means would be able to flow back and support the Ming nation's population collection operations.

The story returns to Zhang Sutan: thanks to the ample grain supply, the infrastructure operations here quickly gathered a construction force of 2,000 men.

Achieving this scale was also thanks to the Transmigrators' tireless, relentless push for large-scale infrastructure. A large batch of experienced construction personnel had now been trained. Simple tasks in the early stages of construction—organizing civilian laborers, setting up the construction site, leveling the land—no longer required the Transmigrators to oversee.

This was how "export turned to domestic sales" came about. These foremen and technicians had gone to Taiwan, learned their skills, and were now sent back to the Ming nation to shoulder heavy responsibilities. Unlike before, they no longer had long hair. To avoid causing alarm, they had no choice but to shave their heads bald and pass themselves off as monks.

The original Zhang Sutan Wharf had already been burned down. Now, after preliminary remediation in the early phase, that river channel had also been filled in and merged with River Heart Island into a single landmass.

On the original site of River Heart Island, a traditional wooden pile jetty was extending out over the river surface. Swarms of workers, like ants, bustled around the yet-unfinished jetty.

Accompanied by Xiong Dao, Feng Guanjie took a tour around the still quite rudimentary Pier District. With a rough idea in mind, he began work the next day.

The first thing Old Feng did was take his apprentices and survey the entire surrounding area. This kind of work basically no longer required his direct involvement; the young people could now skillfully use instruments like total stations, carrying tripods and running all over the place.

After obtaining the detailed data on the surrounding land, Feng Guanjie moved into the landlord's residence in Zuo Family Village and began drawing up blueprints, sheet by sheet.

Since all the projects were currently concentrated around Zhang Sutan, his design tasks were still relatively easy: level the riverbank, pave the roads in the Pier District, build a few jetties, a few warehouses, and a few blocks of housing—that would be fine... and of course, the most important thing: the roads.

As for the industrial zone, that would have to wait. At present, both Xiong Dao himself and the Cabinet far away in Dayuan had reservations about setting up factories belching thick black smoke in the Jiangnan region; the timing didn't seem ripe yet.

But Feng Guanjie still mapped out the industrial zone. Large-scale proper factories weren't realistic, but a small number of steam-powered machines to provide power for the docks would be no problem.

Moreover, if large factories couldn't be built, things like the handmade paper-making workshop promised to Yu Bende, as well as the planned match workshop, mahjong workshop, and other such "smokeless industries," could all be started in the early phase.

"One step at a time," Feng Guanjie said. With his apprentices, he spent roughly half a month drawing up all the blueprints for his planned Phase One project.

The total footprint of the entire Phase One project was quite large, roughly three square kilometers, located in the area that would later become Gaoqiao Port.

After leaning over a large table and examining Feng Guanjie's master design, Xiong Dao offered no opinion: he knew nothing about architectural design and couldn't critique it in any meaningful way.

However, the next moment, Xiong Dao reached out and pointed to a spot in the upper-left corner of the design: "This plot doesn't need to be built on urgently, right?"

Feng Guanjie propped himself on his arms, glanced at the map, stroked his stubble, and thought for a moment before saying, "This is the planned concrete gravity dock area. In the future, it's meant for docking warships and unloading heavy equipment. To build this, we first need to construct a cofferdam, and since there's no construction machinery here, the construction period will be very long."

Feng Guanjie paused here and gave a knowing look: "Even if we started tomorrow, it wouldn't be finished in half a year. Besides, we can't start tomorrow anyway."

Hearing this, Xiong Dao felt his head swell: "This plot hasn't even been purchased yet."

"Then buy it quickly. This is land extending westward; you'll have to acquire it sooner or later."

... Xiong Dao understood what Feng Guanjie meant.

The Huangpu River, as it enters the Yangtze near Wusongkou, is a waterway running south to north; the river surface at Wusongkou here forms an "S" shape. In the Transmigration Nation's planning, the upper half of the "S"—that is, the nearly thirty square kilometers east of Wusongkou and west of Gaoqiao Town—was the future territory of the "state within a state."

In other words, on this peninsular land, all natives would eventually be cleared out, turning it into an administrative zone akin to a "concession." Then, on the day the Great Ming collapsed, the large forces assembled would swiftly sortie from this wellspring of war and seize every part of Jiangnan.

The "land extending westward" Feng Guanjie had just mentioned referred to the land west of the Gaoqiao riverbank—plots that, in the long-term vision described above, were core areas that absolutely had to be secured. So Xiong Dao shouldn't be hesitating on this matter.

"The problem is, this plot has a huge background!" Xiong Dao shook his head helplessly. "I've stirred up quite a few things lately; I'm already too conspicuous. This land is the estate of a major aristocratic family. I really don't want to go stir up trouble right now..."

"How you deal with the natives is your business; it's not my concern."

Feng Guanjie laughed heartily, gloating. "The only thing I can offer you right now is professional advice: it's best to secure this plot early. As soon as the jetty is finished, some construction machinery will arrive, and work there will need to begin."

"If it really can't be done, I'll revise the blueprints. But a friendly reminder: whether you stick your neck out or pull it back, the blade is coming. That land will have to be taken sooner or later."

Xiong Dao let out a long sigh. "Ah... I understand what you mean. But the situation is very tense right now. I need to think it over. Let me discuss it with the Old Home first."

That plot of land was the estate of the late Senior Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Grand Preceptor, posthumously titled Wenzhen—Xu Jie, Xu Zisheng's family...