Chapter 484: The Swordswoman

"Quick, quick, look at this, look at this!"

"Hey hey, look at that, look at that!"

At the intersection of Chikan Avenue, Mei Fuxi stood there with his two attendants, just like any other country bumpkin new to the place, looking left and right, his eyes dazzled by the cool, light clothing of the young women filling the streets.

One could hardly blame the young men for having their jaws drop. Back in Tianjin, the most they'd ever seen was a coarse country woman showing mud-caked legs, or an arm accidentally exposed in the summer heat. When had they ever witnessed such exotic island charm?

Although they had already changed into thin olive-green military uniforms suited to Tainan's climate before leaving camp, looking no different from the other soldiers on the street, the drooling, lecherous expressions on these three instantly exposed their country bumpkin nature for all to see.

"Good heavens, the women in the Grand Commandant's domain are just too... free and easy, aren't they?"

"Could it be a leftover custom from the island natives?"

Even Young Master Mei, who claimed broad knowledge, was now unsure. He couldn't deduce whether the cool attire filling the streets was an inherited custom of the island's original inhabitants or a practice brought by Grand Commandant Cao.

"Alright, don't look at what is improper! Look at you two, where's your sense of decorum?"

After ogling the girls for half a day, Young Master Mei, who had at least drunk some ink, finally remembered the principle of not looking at what is improper and hurriedly led his attendants away.

But walking away was one thing; looking at girls was still a must.

Today's mission was to stroll the main streets, so as they wandered in and out of the various high-end shops on Chikan Avenue, they continued to happily gaze around in all directions.

After a morning of browsing, Mei Fuxi returned with a huge haul of loot. This time, however, he felt he'd been duped — many of the local products he had previously bought at Shanghai Port were actually produced in Taiwan, or were knockoffs of goods from here.

He used the same old method, handing all the goods over to the shipping department. In his letter this time, he described the places of origin for these goods in detail, then suggested that if his old father had the time, he should come see Taiwan for himself, as there were many business opportunities here.

After completing his purchasing mission, Young Master Mei took his attendants out for a feast. This time they chose a hot pot restaurant with a novel way of eating. On the server's recommendation, the young master ordered a four-section pot with tomato, spicy red oil, three-fresh, and mushroom broth, plus a pile of ingredients for dipping.

The Transmigrators didn't yet have the ability to force-ripen vegetables with fertilizer, nor to produce various chemical seasonings, so the tomato broth had a natural sourness, and the three-fresh soup base was also blended from natural ingredients.

Most of the dipping ingredients were seafood, because seafood was cheapest here. Guests from the north, in this single meal, ate a variety of seafood including lobster, grouper, and large yellow croaker.

The fresh, spicy flavors had these first-time hot pot diners exclaiming in satisfaction, sweating profusely and with appetites wide open. Young men can eat, so they later added main dishes like venison, noodles, and sesame flatbread.

This was only because Young Master Mei didn't lack money — noodles and flatbread were common in Tianjin, but in Tainan they were precious ingredients, because flour was transported circuitously from north of the Yangtze River, small in quantity and high in price, unaffordable for ordinary people.

Here we must talk about Taiwan wheat.

Earlier, the people of Taiwan did not eat flour-based foods; for thousands of years, the locals ate rice. Then, in that year when a great number of defeated soldiers flooded in, the social conditions for eating flour-based foods first emerged. Coincidentally, America was also dumping large quantities of unsold flour as aid at the time, so braised beef noodle soup began to spread in popularity across the entire region from this point onward.

At the same time, Taichung, Taipei, and other places also began the history of planting wheat — although it couldn't be grown all over the island, there were certain places where wheat could be planted, and the yield was not low.

After this, due to industrial restructuring, the Taiwan region began exporting high-value fruit, reducing farmland and importing flour, and wheat cultivation once vanished.

By the 21st century, due to fruit gluts triggered by periodic economic crises, local farmers began trying to plant wheat again to raise the food self-sufficiency rate.

Because of climate and environmental constraints, Taiwan proper can only plant highly spring-sown wheat varieties in winter, so places like Tainan couldn't grow it; it had to be planted in the central and northern lands where there was a temperature difference.

In short, Taiwan can grow wheat, and when grown well, the yield is not low.

However, at present, the Transmigrators had no way to plant this.

Taichung was currently under the dominion of savages, malaria, and primeval forest; Taipei was the same and even worse, with rain falling nonstop all year round. The Transmigrators had only set up mining operations in Taipei for now, and it was simply impossible to consider clearing land to grow wheat — the price to pay for a couple of mouthfuls of noodles was far too great.

So for a very long time to come, if everyone wanted to eat beef noodles, they could only rely on imported flour.

This was also the only grain crop the Transmigrators were still importing from the Great Ming this year: ever since large quantities of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn had ripened, they no longer bought rice from the Great Ming, and the freed cargo space was all used to transport people.

After finishing the hot pot, Mei Fuxi and his companions' happy day continued. Chikan District could not be fully explored in a single day now — the commercial streets, the docks, the government affairs hall, the sightseeing yachts on Taijiang, and the most lively lantern-lit night market in the evening, all made first-time Ming visitors linger and forget to leave, exclaiming that the trip was well worth it.

Early the next morning, Mei Fuxi went to the Kiln District to see the factories.

Previously, when he was in the north, he had heard vague descriptions of factories many times through different channels. The speakers always mixed in exclamations, carrying a flavor of "you haven't seen China until you've climbed the Great Wall."

Now that he was finally here, how could he not hurry to see it for himself?

In the end, it was completely different from what he had imagined. A Ming person's concept of a workshop, even having heard news beforehand, was still a mental image of a thousand craftsmen laboring together.

So upon arriving at a real factory, the cold steel assembly line, brimming with immense power, was bound to deliver a huge shock to the visitors.

Mei Fuxi and his companions were no exception.

Giant hammers roared, fiery slag shot out, and red-hot steel blocks were flattened and kneaded like lumps of dough — this scene made the young men's blood boil.

Besides watching the spectacle, Mei Fuxi also carefully observed those dizzying production lines.

Though from a military family, Young Master Mei was actually born into a merchant household and naturally did not despise the skills of all crafts. So when he roughly estimated the assembly line's production capacity, the young master's first reaction was that this deal was secure... it seemed the Mei family had placed their bet on the right horse by tying themselves to the Grand Commandant.

Unlike the rhetoric scholars habitually spouted, like "he who possesses virtue shall occupy it," the maxim Mei Fuxi held as a golden rule was the truth that "he who has money is the Great Lord."

With money, you have soldiers, you have armor and grain, you have heroes and strategists coming to serve, and you can have "he who has strong soldiers and sturdy horses shall occupy it." On this point, Young Master Mei, from a merchant family, was deeply convinced.

And Grand Commandant Cao's situation was no longer just a matter of having money. Possessing so many divine engineering skills, no wonder he carried himself with an air of wealth and generosity wherever he went, his soldiers well-fed and horses strong, as different from the court's beggar-like troops as clouds from mud.

Unlike his two foolishly happy attendants, after emerging from the Kiln District Industrial Base, Young Master Mei also wore a smile, but his was the smile of one who has a well-thought-out plan.

And so, the three of them, gesticulating animatedly as they discussed those mechanical iron contraptions, passed through the tree-lined avenue leading from the Kiln District to Chikan, preparing to take a turn around the beautiful Xiehu District in the distance and see the natural scenery not found in the north.

The next moment, trouble came.

"Stop right there!"

With a pleasing, delicate shout, Young Master Mei's trio had just crossed the road when they were surrounded by four or five girls!

These girls had originally been sitting in a roadside pavilion, laughing and roughhousing, but for some unknown reason, when the leader saw Young Master Mei, she gave a loud shout and stopped the trio.

Young Master Mei was dumbfounded.

Although his former profession was young knight-errant, that was a high-style path of a lofty wanderer of the martial world, having nothing to do with the likes of a Street Tiger who accosted girls on the street. So Young Knight-Errant Mei actually had little experience dealing with unfamiliar women, let alone a situation he had never anticipated... In the Great Ming, young girls would take a detour upon seeing someone like him; how would they dare to surround him like this?

The other two attendants were no better off. They watched the girls surrounding them with some panic, at a loss, not knowing how to handle this bizarre scene. The only thing left in their minds was the regulation from before they went out — do not molest women. But the regulation didn't tell them what to do if girls molested them?

The trio stood there dumbstruck and stupefied, seemingly not even knowing where to put their hands and feet. Unexpectedly, the next moment, one of the girls who had been keeping a stern face couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.

With this laugh, the tense atmosphere vanished completely, and the whole group broke into loud laughter.

At this, Young Master Mei's trio became even more dumbfounded.

The leader of the girls was a round-faced one with a bun hairstyle; she was the one who had stopped Young Master Mei with that delicate shout.

This girl had fine features, a fair complexion, and wore a goose-yellow blouse with the hem tied in a knot. On her legs were denim cropped pants, revealing healthy, wheat-toned skin, her whole body brimming with the flavor of youth.

In this brief moment, the bun-haired girl had already clasped her hands behind her back and, smiling, circled around Young Master Mei once, finally stopping in front of him. She tilted her head up and asked in Mandarin tinged with a Wu-dialect accent: "Big guy, where are you from?"

Mei Fuxi had practiced with blade and staff since childhood and never lacked nutrition, so his height was a full 1.73 meters, which in the eyes of Ming people made him a solid big guy.

Having been utterly confused just moments ago and inexplicably laughed at by these girls, Young Master Mei was already on the verge of breaking out in a cold sweat. Now, hearing the girl's question, he instantly felt much more at ease. Yet the next moment, when their eyes met, Young Master Mei inexplicably blushed: "Oh, I... um... this humble one... oh, from Tianjin."

Young Master Mei's incoherent reply immediately drew another round of soft laughter.

"Tianjin? Where's Tianjin?" The girl blinked her large eyes a few times.

"Oh, well, Tianjin... a thousand li to the north, near Beijing."

"So far!" Seeing Mei Fuxi's still-bewildered expression, the girl beamed at Young Master Mei the next moment. "Never mind that. Even if you're from Tianjin, you still have to pay the toll... Big guy, this mountain was opened by me, these trees were planted by me!"

"Ah!" Mei Fuxi was stunned. He looked left and right at the flat coastline around him. "Where's the mountain?"