Chapter 380: Special Envoy

While Cao Jiangjun was entering the city to pay his respects to the big shots, those very big shots in the city were actually waiting for him too.

Although constrained by the superficial rules between civil and military officials, the big shots couldn't proactively go out to greet him; however, their eagerness was entirely genuine — the bandit suppression campaign was one aspect, but the gold mine behind the God of Wealth was the main point. Casually acting as a go-between for merchants could net them huge sums of extra income without harming the common people, so why wouldn't they be happy to do it?

And so, Cao Jiangjun's trip to Guangzhou City, destined to be met with smiling faces, began just like that.

Meanwhile, early the next morning, beside the main gate of the Daoist Temple, a white-painted wooden sign reading "Field Army Provisions and Logistics Office" was hung up.

The moment that sign was hung, the secret "Guangzhou Special Administrative Region" was formally established. This administrative region had a municipal-level establishment concurrently serving as the capital establishment, somewhat similar to the DC special district of later generations.

The special zone's first mayor has already been confirmed as Ding Liqiu, and the municipal government members include the current Guangzhou Station Chief, the former Fuzhou Station intelligence officer Song Jia, and another Transmigrator who handles administration.

Of course, this is just a makeshift team at the moment; more Transmigrators will come to work in Guangzhou later. In fact, within the next few years, the majority of Transmigrators, including the Cao Emperor, will successively move to Guangzhou, and those industries in Taiwan will likewise be transferred here. From now on, Taiwan will return to its original purpose: a super-sized farm.

After the Logistics Department's sign was hung, Ding Liqiu never had another moment of peace.

The first wave to come and pester him was the troop-comforting delegations.

Early in the morning, driving horse carts loaded with chickens and ducks, carrying shoulder poles laden with vegetables, team after team of civilian laborers streamed in endlessly from the direction of Guangzhou. The stewards leading them wore expressions of utter sincerity, their eyes brimming with deep affection for the people's own soldiers. The moment these people arrived at the wharf, they clamored to comfort the troops, putting on an air of forcibly creating a moment of army-civilian fish-and-water camaraderie, instantly shattering the late Ming rumor that "bandits pass like a comb, soldiers pass like a fine-toothed comb."

Ding Liqiu, who was directing the move and settling-in at the Daoist Temple, rushed over upon hearing the news. After a single glance, Adviser Ding, fanning himself, first let out a hehe chuckle, then told the head of logistics: Since these are gifts to comfort the troops, we can't hurt the goodwill of the Guangzhou elders in army-civilian co-construction; we'll accept all these gifts as they come.

After this, Ding Liqiu turned around and went back into the temple. A short while later, several clerks ran out and gave each of the troop-comforting stewards a wooden plaque with a number written on it. After receiving their number plaques, the stewards didn't linger; they unloaded their gifts and took their leave.

So, what was the story with these good citizens supporting the army? It's actually very simple: these were all second-rate merchants from Guangzhou City sent ahead to test the waters.

Being second-rate merchants, their information channels were naturally a bit inferior. The first-rate, top-tier magnates knew in advance that a certain army was coming, while these second-rate merchants only learned the news yesterday after seeing the warships.

So last night, Guangzhou City was actually very lively. The second-rate merchants might not reach the level of Ma Ali, but they certainly qualified as major regional taxpayers and local tyrants; these people couldn't access the military-political agreements of Fujian and Guangdong, but their influence within Guangzhou City was beyond doubt.

Thus, last night, nearly every high-ranking official in the city received a visit from a few uninvited guests coming to probe for information.

In just half a night, the local tyrants had figured out all the causes and effects. Upon learning that the God of Wealth himself had arrived in person, the local tyrants, while cursing the bastards who had controlled the information, spent the rest of the night communicating and making preparations with each other. Early the next morning, as soon as the city gates opened, the troop-comforting procession set out.

Ding Liqiu naturally wouldn't shut the door on the local tyrants' goodwill. The Ming Dynasty was under the rule of the gentry; to overturn this structure, this "urban bourgeoisie," the majority of whose assets were deployed in commerce, was a very important target to win over.

The Transmigrators would vigorously support this class, teach them new concepts, back them up from behind, hone their claws and fangs, and then unleash them to freely tear and bite across the vast land.

After handing out the number plaques to these merchants, Ding Liqiu had to prepare to receive those few truly major merchants.

These people were either the head of some city guild, the spokesperson for some big shot in Beijing, or the commercial manager of some gentry family — in short, all were powerful figures capable of influencing the political situation in Guangdong.

Major merchants naturally have the arrogance and confidence of major merchants. Since they had long ago sent envoys to Dayuan to negotiate with the Transmigrators, there was no need to send any troop-comforting supplies today. Riding in sedan chairs, accompanied by servants, personal attendants, and arrogant household staff, the several masters arrived at the Daoist Temple at the same time in the afternoon, as if by prior agreement.

Upon entering, the masters, with practiced ease, each took over a quiet room beside the front hall... not much different from their usual visits to burn incense. Their household staff immediately placed glass pots onto the kerosene stoves they had brought, then boiled mountain spring water, letting the dark red oolong tea leaves tumble in the pot.

After the masters had set up their posture, they waited for Adviser Ding to come to them... today would be a protracted battle; Adviser Ding would have to conduct multiple rounds of negotiations, and the time would drag on very long.

Adviser Ding soon arrived.

Accompanied by several clerical staff, Adviser Ding, for the remainder of the day, first conducted separate, individual talks with the several merchants. After dinner, everyone then gathered in the Abbot's quarters, brightly lit by kerosene lamps, for a collective meeting.

All parties engaged in candid, efficient, and constructive discussions on topics of common concern, and fully exchanged views on some important issues. In the end... ahem, all parties reached a consensus in every area and signed agreements.

The agreements were roughly divided into two parts.

One part consisted of ordinary commercial contracts covering the product catalogs each major distributor would represent, their marketing territories, agency fees, and so on. This did not include manufacturer rebates or various incentive tasks — in this era, there was never a case of goods not selling, only of the manufacturer not having enough goods, especially the industrial products in the hands of the Transmigrators, so there were no rebates.

The second part was a verbal agreement. The participating parties ultimately reached an agreement on the matters of urging Wang Zunde to submit a memorial recommending Cao and the land acquisition for the new district.

Of these two matters, the former had already been agreed upon previously, and today was mainly to confirm it once more. The latter, however, was an important condition long premeditated by the Transmigrators: the land requisition and development of the new district was a major undertaking, and this time it was necessary to bring in some local powers to "jointly participate in this grand endeavor."

In the coming great wave of "entering Guangdong," the Transmigrators naturally could not place their industrial and administrative zones inside Guangzhou City. Therefore, for some time now, the Guangzhou intelligence station had been secretly accompanying personnel from the construction department on surveys around the perimeter of Guangzhou City, identifying several plots of land suitable for building the new district.

The top-ranked plot among these was near the later generations' Guangzhou South Station.

There were grounds for choosing the new district here. First, this plot was roughly equidistant from Guangzhou City to the north and Foshan Town to the west, forming an equilateral triangle with sides about 30 li long.

This location was downstream from Guangzhou, convenient for the future treatment and discharge of industrial waste, yet also convenient for absorbing the industrial population of Guangzhou and Foshan, making it a relatively ideal plot for development.

Foshan Town in the Ming Dynasty was a famous iron-smelting capital; the entire upstream and downstream industrial chain related to metal smelting could be found in Foshan. There were many primitive industrial workers, making it the best personnel replenishment base for the future industrial zone.

Guangzhou was the future capital of the Transmigration Nation; all kinds of resources, industries, and the large number of Transmigrators themselves moving in were all sources of power. In addition, powerful monitoring, infiltration, and even military force would also successively enter this land. Therefore, in terms of the balance of power, the Ming Dynasty government and the local gentry's meager strength would soon be surpassed and crushed by the new power.

Under these circumstances, inviting local "progressive" forces to jointly develop the new district became a viable path: this place was not like Shanghai Port, isolated far away in Jiangnan, where the Transmigrators' power projection was difficult and required doing things stealthily. In the Guangzhou New District, the pace of reform could be taken a step further, because all possible backlash would be easily suppressed.

Thus, in today's collective meeting, Ding Liqiu for the first time brought out a top-secret document: a high-scale topographic map of the Guangzhou perimeter. He then explained the concept of the new district to the several major merchants. Of course, Ding Chunqiu only introduced the industrial zone here; he would not mention the administrative zone, which was equivalent to a small capital.

Upon hearing this concept, the several major merchants were quite interested: clearing out a dedicated piece of land for building workshops, then everyone investing in the workshops, would allow them to directly control the source of goods in the future.

"This is an act of consolidating the foundation and cultivating the essence, a good thing. Should Mr. Ding give the word, we will certainly join in this grand endeavor!"

After listening to Ding Liqiu's plans for the necessary infrastructure of the industrial zone — such as site leveling, shared power, and transport tracks — the seated few immediately recognized the immense benefits and promptly nodded in agreement.

After discussing this most crucial issue, today's meeting could be considered a complete success. Hosts and guests then held a simple cocktail party afterward, and everyone stayed overnight at the Daoist Temple... mainly because the city gates were already closed.

After this day passed, the following time was for receiving those second-rate merchants. Large numbers of merchants quickly filled the front courtyard of the Daoist Temple, each holding a number plaque, sitting there anxiously waiting for Mr. Ding to call their number, like devoted lapdogs waiting for a seat at Seabed Scoop.

For these people, Comrade Ding Liqiu often sent them on their way with just a few words — many products now had general agents for Guangdong, so it was fine to just send the visitors to find their respective general agents.

While Ding Liqiu was busy, the Fast Fleet once again set out, bristling with killing intent. The fleet had two missions this time: one was to make a show of force at Lamma Island to increase pressure on Liu Xiang; the other was to rendezvous with the Support Fleet and escort them back to Guangzhou.

Soon, on the third day after the fleet's departure, ten New Lock Ships, rigged with Chinese-style stiff sails but with a slightly odd appearance and long, slender hulls, followed behind the Fast Fleet back to White Goose Pond.

As the Transmigrators' enterprise grew larger and larger, the displacement of the New Lock Ships serving as the main transport vessels also grew higher and higher. The latest standard had been raised to a displacement of six hundred tons, which in the eyes of the Ming people was already a large ship of over two thousand liao.

Then, a total of nearly five thousand tons of goods were successively unloaded at Guangzhou Wharf. Upon seeing so many sought-after commodities, the entire Guangdong business community was in an uproar; the merchants who had been hesitating before finally made up their minds to become agents at this moment. A sea of silver was subsequently carted to the Daoist Temple, and the silver-laden carts even formed a long line outside the Mountain Gate.

Even more astonishing events for the Transmigrators followed one after another: on the very next evening after the fleet returned, a special envoy arrived. Yu Xianke, the trusted Adviser beside Grand Steward Liu Xiang, actually came by boat with only two attendants to the Daoist Temple, asking by name to see Cao Jiangjun himself.

On his own territory, Great Cao Jiangjun naturally didn't mind meeting Yu Shiye. However, after Yu Shiye entered the door, he sidestepped, revealing the short-statured attendant wearing a bamboo hat behind him.

"I am Liu Xiang, here to pay respects to Cao Jiangjun."