Chapter 482: Return Voyage

Just as Mei Fuxi received his orders, a fleet docked outside Dagu Kou. After reorganizing its formation, the fleet began slowly tracing up the Hai River, skirting the visible and hidden reefs and sandbars marked by buoys along the way, heading toward Dazhigu several dozen li away.

The Transmigrators, who possessed military wireless telegraphy, naturally would not tell the locals the fleet had arrived. Yet faced with profit, the native merchant groups had long since devised their own countermeasures.

The masters had arranged fast horses and lookout posts at the Hai River mouth; the very first moment the fleet arrived, the bustling commercial port of Dazhigu erupted into frantic activity.

Countless people stood on the docks craning their necks in anticipation, children chased each other wildly along the shore, and the news spread at lightning speed. Merchants from the surrounding regions would rush over within the next few days and, like ants, devour every last bit of the sea cargo shipped from afar.

In past years, during every summer and autumn, southern fleets would also ride the south wind in an endless stream to Tianjin, so the locals were no strangers to fleets.

The reason the natives were so excited about the fleet from Yi Province — aside from it ignoring the wind direction and arriving out of season — was that profit was the greatest driving force.

The cargo carried on ordinary Ming ships was nothing more than some Jiangnan local products; the highest-value items were various silk goods, along with many daily necessities and grain.

But the holds of the Yi Province ships were packed with high-value commodities like kerosene lamps, kerosene, glass mirrors, lychee cans, vacuum flasks, tinplate, wheel bearings, and brick-making machines.

This was tantamount to concentrating wealth; though it appeared to be merely a ten-ship fleet, the total value of the goods far exceeded that of a traditional merchant convoy composed of several dozen sand ships.

Yi Province goods were not only high in value but never lacked buyers; no matter where they were shipped, they would be swept clean and were perpetually out of stock. This was the driving force that had merchants swarming like ducks to water: every Yi Province fleet's arrival at port could spawn a batch of rich men and earn merchants everywhere a hefty profit.

So when the fleet traced upriver to Dazhigu, both banks of the river were already thronged with people, and the docks were packed with merchants waiting to receive the ships, all waiting for wealth to come ashore.

The fleet arriving in Tianjin this time was again composed of the same model of 800-ton New Lock Ships. However, as time passed, the shipyard had launched new vessels one after another, so the fleet's numbers had increased this time, reaching twelve ships.

Under the nonstop day-and-night unloading by a multitude of native laborers, the cargo totaling over 5,000 tons was entirely distributed to the warehouses of major merchants across various regions in less than two days.

In the Beijing-Tianjin region of the Ming dynasty, capital circulated. The 5,000 tons of cargo seemed enormous, but backed by the capital from Beijing, it was still entirely bought up by the natives without any glut occurring.

The direct consequence of this was a colossal amount of payment. But the Transmigrators from later generations would certainly never bury silver in a cellar. These payments would be used on the spot and re-enter the economic cycle.

As before, the largest expenditure item among the payments was always people.

The current relationship between Taiwan and the Great Ming was, to put it plainly, that of a colony and its suzerain. Of course, this only referred to the economic aspect — the Transmigrators exported industrial goods, and the Great Ming provided the market, raw materials, and population.

In this process, the Great Ming generated a massive trade deficit. On this point, however, the Great Ming had no worry about payment, because it possessed a nearly limitless currency: people.

The fleet brought so many goods, yet in the end, the majority of the proceeds were exchanged for people.

Raising a person is very expensive.

Collecting refugees seemed to cost nothing, but the Transmigrators had to spend a great deal of money purchasing grain and clothing locally in Tianjin.

Not only that, they also had to provide them with materials to build camps and medicine to treat diseases. In the cold north, they had to provide fuel, equipment, hot water... and so on and so forth.

In short, once the silver was in hand, it flowed right back into every channel of society. What it ultimately exchanged for were shaven-headed Northerners wearing coarse work clothes, crammed in vast numbers into the ship holds — both men and women, ladies first.

Because this fleet had to take on many other people, only half the ships were loaded with refugees; the remaining cabin space was left empty. A few days after unloading was complete, the fleet finished its preparations for the return voyage and began boarding people.

The first to board were naturally the refugees.

The ruddy-faced refugees, families in tow, silently queued up and stepped onto the gangplank; there were no scenes of weeping or heartbreaking farewells.

Fear stems from the unknown — locals who had previously gone to Yi Province had now returned to serve as propagandists, so people already knew Yi Province was a good place. Moreover, all along everyone under Grand Commandant Cao had been well-fed and warmly clothed, never bullied, and even paid in silver for their work, so people's resistance had been dissolved.

The next to board were the land-purchasing individuals going on a group tour to inspect Yi Province. These people were mostly family stewards, advisers, retainers, and managers from wealthy households, so they generally brought attendants and stayed in first-class cabins with relatively good living conditions.

Boarding after them were merchants heading to Yi Province to do business and seek opportunities.

Though all were merchants, their financial means differed, and so did their treatment. Some carried bundles on their backs and squeezed into steerage, while others brought concubines, attendants, servants, and maids and stayed in private cabins — a vast disparity.

The last to board were, naturally, the Transmigrators and the soldiers under their command.

On the morning of May 10, 1630, Zhang Dongdong and his party stood at the bow of the flagship, bidding farewell to the two who were staying behind.

The ones staying behind were Zhang Zhongqi and Yao Jianshe. Zhang Zhongqi was the public face, responsible for managing the Flying Tiger Battalion and constructing the Tianjin Outer Port. Jin Station Chief Yao Jianshe was responsible for commerce, trade, and covert operations.

These two, plus Xue Haiyuan in Beijing, would be the three titans the Transmigrators had planted in the north for the coming period.

In addition, the three titans also shared a jointly responsible task: operations targeting the Dongjiang Garrison.

Ever since Mao Wenlong's death, the Dongjiang Garrison had fallen into extreme chaos. During this period, the imperial court, far from mending the fold after the sheep were lost, had instead intensified its efforts to dismember the Dongjiang Garrison; the Donglin Party was also straining every sinew to help the Later Jin eliminate this flanking threat.

Throughout this time, the court's most central tactic was cutting off grain and pay.

The policy of reducing the Dongjiang Garrison's supplies, which had been implemented since Yuan Chonghuan's tenure, was not only fully inherited by the court but intensified, causing vast numbers of the Dongjiang Garrison's several hundred thousand soldiers and civilians to freeze and starve to death.

The newly appointed Minister of War, Liang Tingdong, also declared his complete distrust in the Pi Island army's ability to pin down the enemy, and at one point even let slip that he planned to withdraw the Pi Island army's main force by sea to Guanning.

As a result, the Dongjiang Garrison's high-ranking figures left behind after Mao Wenlong's death — Chen Jisheng, Liu Xingzuo, Mao Chenglu, and others — under the combined pressure of internal strife, external threats, and swirling rumors, completely fell apart into disunity.

The Dongjiang Garrison nowadays was filled everywhere with officers and soldiers at a dead end. These people's original fates were either to starve to death or be forced to rebel and then be killed by the court, just like those peasant armies.

In the end, this group became utterly corrupted, and from generals down to common soldiers, all harbored a deep loathing for the Great Ming. Thus, from among them emerged Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming, and a cohort of others who took their advanced artillery technology and subordinates and defected to the Later Jin.

Ultimately, the Great Ming's passes were smashed open by these turncoats, the dynasty's fate collapsed, and the altars of state turned to ash — the Ming's fall began with Mao Wenlong and ended with the Three Successive Kings, which can be called the greatest satire upon the Donglin Party and Chongzhen, who single-handedly destroyed the Dongjiang Garrison.

Precisely because of this, an important task for the Transmigrators remaining in the north in the coming period would be to absorb the officers and soldiers of the Dongjiang Garrison.

Rather than let these excellent soldiers, who fought the Tartars year-round in the ice and snow, freeze or starve to death, it was better to bring them over, feed them up, train them, and make them into capable hands again in the future.

However, this task had to be handled with care; otherwise, it could easily provoke a backlash from the military strongmen, and it would not do for the matter to be brought up in court. So it was still a technical job, requiring close cooperation between Tianjin and the Capital to achieve results.

After the several Transmigrators standing at the bow had discussed this matter for quite some time, a loud brass horn sounded from the bridge — it was time to set sail.

So they bid each other take care and went their separate ways.

At the same time, Mei Fuxi was also waving vigorously from the ship's rail, bidding farewell to the family who had come to see him off. As one of the first batch of military cadets sent south for training, Mei Fuxi had the good fortune to also board the flagship.

The Mei family had already benefited from Mei Fuxi's reflected glory this time. Not long before, Mei's father, in his capacity as a military dependent, had invested 5,000 taels of family savings to buy shares in the newly opened Jin Leather Factory. Thus, the Mei family was now effectively bound to Grand Commandant Cao, counted among his die-hard followers.

Upon spotting the flagship's horn signals and flags, the fleet ships one after another weighed anchor and hoisted sail, slowly departing their berths and following behind the flagship, tracing the Hai River gradually toward the river mouth.

The fleet's speed was very slow along this stretch, so Mei Fuxi, staying at the stern to watch the scenery, was able to see both banks of the Hai River from a unique angle.

Although Tianjin could be counted among the coastal cities, its main city was a full 80 li from the sea, so most Tianjin natives had never been out to sea. After all, this was the north, where transport relied mostly on mules and horses, and not many people made a living from the sea.

Mei Fuxi had likewise never been out to sea, so today he tried to find every opportunity to stay on deck. It was not until dusk that the fleet finally finished the 80-li river course and burst out of Dagu Kou.

After entering the Bohai Sea, the fleet adjusted its formation, raised full sail, and began heading south at full speed.

Just then, by the golden light of the setting sun, Mei Fuxi spotted a large construction site not far south of the river mouth.

Dense crowds of workers toiled like ants on the saline-alkali land at the Hai River mouth; excavated dirt mounds were everywhere, and in the distance, curling black smoke rose — he had no idea what they were doing.

What Mei Fuxi saw was precisely the Tianjin Outer Port construction site chosen by the Transmigrators. The imperial court's documents had previously been issued, granting this desolate beach to Grand Commandant Cao for him to establish a logistics base.

It was now mid-May, and the fleet could originally have ridden this year's last north winds to sail south smoothly.

However, as the Transmigrators had successively established bases along various points of the continental coast, the fleet's fuel could now be fully supplied. So not long after putting out to sea, faint smoke began to curl from the ships' chimneys — the coal-gas system had been activated.

Thus, the speed of the downwind ships quickly increased to seven knots. After departing from Tianjin, the fleet, traveling day and night, traced a straight line across Bohai Bay. And so, at some moment on the second day, Mei Fuxi, leaning over the gunwale, caught sight of a great city on the shore — Dengzhou.