Chapter 483: Arriving at Port

Dengzhou was the later Shandong Penglai. Just this month, the Western expert Sun Yuanhua had newly assumed office in Dengzhou City, serving as Governor of Denglai.

The Shandong territory the Transmigrators had their eyes on previously was naturally also in Dengzhou. As for the reason, of course it was still people.

By this period of 1630, the number of people fleeing from Liaodong to Shandong to make a living had already exceeded one hundred thousand, the majority of whom were soldiers and military dependents after the Dongjiang Garrison collapsed.

This enormous human resource naturally could not be wasted. Otherwise, by the year after next, when the Cannibal was trapped by the Tartars at the Daling River, Sun Yuanhua would forcibly send Kong Youde to Liaodong to die. Then Kong Youde would rebel halfway, and in the end these people would either die in the seesaw fighting or surrender to the Tartars, and they would also have to forfeit the lives of the natives in the entire city of Dengzhou — a double loss, with zero utilization at all.

So the Transmigrators had intended to set up a foothold in Dengzhou from the very beginning.

The reason they had not sent anyone over yet was, first, the land approval documents had not yet been settled with the imperial court, and second, the Tianjin side had not yet freed up a hand. So what Mei Fuxi saw on the ship's rail today was merely a standard Ming-style city, and near the city there were none of the boiler smoke columns that marked the Transmigrators' territory.

After the fleet set out to sea from Tianjin, it drew a straight line across Bohai Bay, brushed past Dengzhou, then traveled over three hundred li east along the coastline, and saw the landmark at the easternmost tip of the Shandong Peninsula: Chengshan Cape.

After rounding Chengshan Cape, the fleet did not follow the coastline on a detour, but instead sailed directly across the Yellow Sea without reference points, taking the shortest route to Shanghai.

Thanks to the coal gas engines, sonar, and navigation devices, the fleet was able to maintain an average speed of seven knots with a following wind, and managed to travel day and night without stopping.

This advantage surpassed all ships of the seventeenth century.

The fleet could average three hundred kilometers per day, and the straight-line distance from Shanghai to Chengshan Cape was one thousand four hundred kilometers, so after sailing on the Yellow Sea for five days, that evening, a pale-faced Mei Fuxi first saw the Yangtze River Estuary, and then caught sight of Shanghai Port with its rising smoke columns.

Although Mei Fuxi had adapted to jolting from riding horses year-round, this was after all his first time going to sea, so he still showed mild symptoms of seasickness.

But the young man's mood was still very excited. These past few days he had seen geographical sights he had never seen before, including distant islands and cities, the boundless sea with no land in sight in any direction, rolling giant waves, vast and dense schools of fish...

And now, he also saw the legendary Yangtze River and the land of Jiangnan, truly feeling the vastness of the rivers and mountains, the boundlessness of the land, and had broadened his knowledge considerably.

Before night fell, the fleet was entirely berthed at the docks of Shanghai Port. Early the next morning, Mei Fuxi and the others got the chance to disembark and rest.

Shanghai Port nowadays was already incomparably bustling. After Grand Commandant Cao bombarded the Xu Residence to intimidate the scoundrels back then, it had welcomed a wave of rapid development.

Unlike the Tianjin side, Shanghai Port had already installed many large-scale port devices like gas cranes. Whenever outsiders came here, they could always be astonished to see the great iron arms belching black smoke hoisting tens of thousands of jin of cargo up and down, a scene that was extremely shocking.

After docking, the soldiers and passengers received permission to disembark, while the refugees could only move about on the deck. After Mei Fuxi and these young men disembarked, they cheerfully strolled around the port. First they looked at the big cranes, then they went to the commercial district to shop.

Young Master Mei's family was well-off, and he had also made a name for himself among the younger generation, so wherever he went he never lacked followers. At this moment, Young Master Mei was leading two peers, weaving through the bustling crowd, experiencing the broad concrete road surface, and from time to time ducking into the shops along the road with their beautiful glass shop windows to shop.

After a full round of browsing, Young Master Mei bought quite a few local products for his family, such as mahjong tiles and Jierou tissue.

He went to the Port Shipping Department, asked for brush and ink and wrote a letter to his family, then paid and packed it together with the local products. After that, the matter was out of his hands; the parcels would be taken away when the fleet passed by.

After this, the Young Master again led his followers to a restaurant for a good hearty meal, eating several Shanghai local cuisine dishes, such as sweet and sour luncheon meat, eggplant sauce shad, and crab powder buns. The taste was not bad, and the lads all said so after eating.

After eating, they took a walk to digest. The tidy, beautiful, bizarre concrete dock, completely beyond the imagination of Ming people, was something one never tired of walking. As the lads strolled, they carefully took in this strange place filled with industrialization and geometric lines, all clicking their tongues in wonder.

At exactly five in the afternoon, when the electric bell on the Sea Customs Building rang, Mei Fuxi had already returned to the deck — the order he had received this morning was to return to the unit before seventeen hundred hours, and not to step beyond the port's concrete area.

At nine in the evening, the fleet finished resupplying and began to weigh anchor and set sail again. Shanghai Port had complete facilities, with cranes and large gas lamps, so even at night, once the ships finished resupplying, they could go out to sea guided by a bright beam of light.

For the rest of the journey, the fleet sailed along the midline of the strait. Apart from other fleets passing by, there was nothing to see, only the boundless sea.

Until four days later, at nightfall, when Mei Fuxi was called from his hammock, he learned that Taijiang had been reached.

The young man who rushed out onto the deck stared dumbfounded at the Silver River on the Ground gradually drawing near. That river of light, brilliant like a colorful dragon, shocked every outsider standing on the deck.

Due to the power lines, the lighting at Tai River Dock was not something Shanghai Port could compare to. After the fleet docked, the electric lights on the jetty were turned on, instantly making it as bright as day.

And so Mei Fuxi, carrying his luggage, under the orders of the duty officer, queued up, head tilted back, constantly looking back at the river of light, while marching in formation, and was ultimately herded into the barracks.

The excited young men, looking through the glass windows at the colorful glow in the distance, their faces full of longing — those with good eyesight swore solemnly that they had just seen women with bare thighs from the bow... The lads did not sleep well the entire night.

Fortunately, the Transmigrators had seen this situation many times. So the next day, after going through a series of health quarantine procedures, the young men were informed: three days of leave.

Before they could cheer, the bad news came: first memorize the Outing Notice; whoever memorized it thoroughly could leave the camp.

So the impatient people began frantically reciting the Outing Notice written on the wall. This was hard on the illiterates, who numbered over half, so they had to ask others to read it aloud.

Young Master Mei's mounted skills were good, and his literary ability was not weak either: he had been specially taught literary courses by a private tutor since childhood. Standing beneath the wall at this moment, the Young Master did not take long to memorize these "notices" with their missing strokes and simplified characters.

It was at this moment that the Young Master finally confirmed one thing: there really were women with bare thighs outside!

Because the third item in the notice was: "It is a local custom for female comrades to wear short tops and short pants. It is strictly forbidden to make critical remarks about this, and strictly forbidden to molest women. Violators will be jailed."

Seeing this, Mei Fuxi felt a jolt through his whole body, turned around and ran to the doorway shouting: "... Reporting, Squad Leader, I've memorized the regulations!"