Chapter 40: A Gathering of Turnips, Part 2

He pulled a notebook from his pocket and spoke while glancing at it: "As of today, the transmigrators who have successively arrived in the Great Ming Dynasty total eighteen. Currently, the Company holds one piece of real estate—yes, that's Tangzhuang—along with one sand ship, automatic weapons, steel bars, cement, and various living supplies. I have a detailed list here; everyone can come find me to review it after the meeting."

"Since most of our energy in the previous period was focused on 'receiving' newcomers and familiarizing ourselves with the Ming Dynasty's environment, the Company has only initiated two projects so far. One is the Tang Village Renovation Project, and the other is the Hangzhou Bay and Offshore Surveying and Mapping Project. Next, the handlers of these two projects will each give their reports."

At this point, Xia Xianze raised his chin toward Liu Zhe: "Start with the maritime matters first."

Liu Zhe gave a start, instinctively about to stand up, but then realized the room was too cramped. So, amid some awkwardness, he began to speak: "Right, the specifics are as follows: some time ago, the Company purchased a sand ship through the Liu Family's connections and hired a group of boatmen along the way. A few of us colleagues from Maritime Affairs have been taking turns going to sea. We can now skillfully operate the sand ship for navigation, and the hydrological conditions around Hangzhou Bay have been recorded. In the past few days, we have advanced to the Zhoushan Archipelago area to begin surveying and mapping."

"Have you discovered any problems?" Old Xia asked.

Liu Zhe nodded: "People. It's a problem with people."

He immediately continued: "These current boatmen are all temporary workers and aren't very reliable. We usually need to hide many secrets, which is very troublesome. Likewise, these boatmen are also very puzzled by our behavior of sailing around in an empty ship. What's urgently needed now is a group of 'our own people' who can accept our preliminary training. Also, the matter of installing communication and power systems on the ship needs to be put on the agenda."

With that, Liu Zhe's report was essentially finished.

"The manpower issue already has a plan." Xia Xianze raised a hand: "Regarding this, I've discussed it with Cao Zong, and it will be resolved together with Pingfeng Stronghold. As for the ship modifications, that definitely has to wait until personnel are in place before it can be implemented. Right now, we lack professionals and equipment."

At this point, Xia Xianze turned his head to look at Cao Chuan. After seeing him nod, he addressed a bald monk in his thirties with somewhat dark skin: "That's all for maritime matters for now. Chen Dong, go over the Tangzhuang situation."

Chen Dong was from the Transmigration Company's infrastructure department. Before being tricked into coming here, he had been doing road and bridge design in Africa, so he was considered professionally trained. Hearing his name called, he slowly fished out a stack of reports from his jade-colored kasaya: "Then I'll go over the engineering aspects."

The slow-tempered man delivered his report in a leisurely manner, making the entire roomful of people drowsy. Stripping away all the tedious data on earthwork, costs, and labor, the entire Tang Village Renovation Project actually consisted of four sub-projects: River Bend Dredging, Hidden Canal Excavation, New Enclosure Wall, and Rear Garden Renovation.

These projects corresponded respectively to transportation, security, and the renovation of the transmigrators' living environment.

After the "Backyard Alliance," Xia Xianze had begun considering the future development plan for the transmigrator power base. Unfortunately, he was just a Light Pole Commander back then, without even a single person to discuss things with. This kind of matter, as one might imagine, was not something one or two people could decide, nor did he have that authority. So, after the first batch of five transmigrators arrived, Old Xia prioritized initiating the two aforementioned projects—no matter how the future was planned, these two tasks were a necessity.

Though the Liang Garden is fine, it is no place to linger forever. The Jiangnan region had always been the stronghold of the reactionary gentry. The so-called "Hangzhou Bay Surveying and Mapping Project" was actually preparation for everyone's future escape—ahem, for opening up a new base.

As for the Tangzhuang renovation, there wasn't much to say about the private port expansion; it was simply to facilitate future ship travel and cargo handling.

Digging a hidden canal to channel water from the direction of the Tang River was mainly to solve the transmigrators' drinking water problem: Hangzhou, even into the 21st century, was one of the cities most severely affected by tides. With the rise and fall of the great "salt tide," the salinity of the groundwater changed daily, and during the dry season, seawater would even flow backward.

The transmigrators had no intention of fetching water bucket by bucket from the salty well in the courtyard, hence this hidden canal—directly building a reservoir in the backyard and using a hand pump to store water when the Tang River's salinity was at an acceptable level.

Considering that under certain extreme circumstances, the crossing faction might suffer a "ruthless suppression" by the reactionary lords of the Great Ming, the defense system of Tangzhuang had to be strengthened.

This scenario was indeed possible: fake monks and fake Daoists with strange accents and bizarre behavior; some gaunt, sallow yamen runner with a mouthful of yellow teeth who, at the slightest disagreement, would shoot you, and then each side would call for reinforcements, the conflict would escalate, and a great army would converge to suppress them.

This situation was at least logically plausible.

Based on this anxiety, the transmigrators decided to add a new wall, six meters high, outside the original enclosing wall of Tangzhuang, along with additional camouflaged corner towers and stepped walkways. If the worst-case scenario occurred, this enclosing wall would become the Ming Dynasty's version of the Somme River!

The material for the new wall was entirely blue hemp stone—when the grain ships returned south, they naturally wouldn't load grain again. When northern local products were insufficient, they mostly used hemp stone as ballast; it was cheap and plentiful. Of course, cheap was only relative to the transmigrators: a certain power base's current silver ingots were measured in cubic meters.

Finally, there was the rear garden renovation: the old houses from before would be torn down. Under the transmigrators' guidance, Ming craftsmen would lay the foundation and build the four walls. After that, their work was done; the floor slabs for the two-story modern building would be handled by the owners themselves afterward using steel bars and cement.

In short, after the entire Tang Village Renovation Project was completed, the transmigrators would possess a secure, enclosed, and comfortable base. After this, they would also "import" photovoltaic panels and cables to charge equipment and enable long-distance communication—those several cubic meters of crates Cao Chuan brought over had a strong "imported" flavor every time they were opened.

Even if the main force relocated elsewhere in the future, Tangzhuang could still serve as a distribution center for supplies and personnel, rooted in the wealthiest region of the late Ming, Jiangnan, continuously providing various resources for the crossing faction.

As a certain someone's slow summary concluded, the drowsy transmigrators in the room finally awoke. A burst of impatient applause immediately rang out. CEO Xia also clapped with a wry smile: "Chen Dong's work summary is very detailed. This is… good! Right, next is the most important agenda item for today. It's very simple: where exactly will our power base go next to build factories and erect chimneys?"

As his words fell, the room suddenly became quiet for a moment. Old Xia looked around and asked, somewhat puzzled: "What's the matter? Hasn't this question been around for a while? I've seen everyone discussing it quite warmly these past few days. Don't be shy; everyone here is a Company partner with full speaking rights. If you have ideas, bring them up."

"There's actually no need for extensive discussion on this issue!"

A transmigrator with a long, thin face and a protruding forehead, after exchanging winks and grimaces with a few others in the room, raised his hand and said.