Chapter 488: The Situation in the Special Zone (I)

The Fuyuan, a full size larger than the Zhenman, was even more majestic in bearing — without a doubt the greatest giant ship on the seas of present-day East Asia.

The fleet charging upstream from the lower Pearl River barreled straight ahead, forcing every vessel along the way to clear the channel. Meanwhile, Yu Sibao and his whole group jumped and shouted on the lighter, even sounding the steam whistle, trying to catch the attention of the great ship.

Regrettably, it paid no heed whatsoever to civilian craft and sailed on, proud and aloof. Its enormous blue-and-gold hull brushed past the lighter, then swaggered off toward the Huangpu Naval Port upstream.

Even so, as official public servants of the Empire, the people on the lighter were still beside themselves with excitement. Everyone now ate from Grand Commandant Cao's table, so naturally they hoped Grand Commandant Cao's military strength would flourish day by day.

After bombarding that landlord's residence in Shanghai, the Zhenman had returned to Taiwan for refit, and afterward had been reassigned to Guangzhou. The fleet built around the Zhenman then began a bloody slaughter across the Pearl River Estuary and the seas off Macau, wiping out countless scattered pirates and smugglers running the blockade, proclaiming the establishment of a new order in the waters off Guangzhou.

This series of operations was aimed primarily at the Portuguese in Macau. Because escort ships were enough to deal with scattered pirates; a monster like the Zhenman was held in reserve, ready to hit the Portuguese hard at any moment.

Unfortunately, the Portuguese didn't take the bait.

Every European nation had professional warships of a thousand tons or more back in home waters. But East Asia was a place for trade — no one would be foolish enough to sail such a ship all the way here. Everyone used armed merchantmen with high cargo capacity, and it was impossible for the Portuguese to send armed merchantmen of significant tonnage to slug it out with an opponent.

Besides, the Portuguese had learned quite a bit from the Spanish about the number of warships stockpiled at Taijiang and the Transmigrators' true military potential. They understood that even if they won this round, it would be like poking a hornet's nest, and they could even face a land attack. So the Red Hairs chose to turtle up.

Even without a direct confrontation, the Red Hairs had been scared witless these days — dozens of powerful 24-pounder heavy cannons would, from time to time, smash a ship to splinters right outside their doorstep. This was a naked display of muscle and provocation, and anyone who saw it understood perfectly.

But the Red Hairs had no choice; for now, they could only swallow their pride. After all, they were outsiders. Faced with this suddenly emerging, aggressive "Ming" navy, were they supposed to go to Guangzhou City and file a complaint?

Within the Ming officialdom of Guangzhou City, there had always been voices calling for the Franks to be expelled. If this matter blew up further now, no matter the outcome, no one would speak a good word for the Red Hairs.

And so, over these past few months, the new order in the waters off Guangzhou, garrisoned by the Zhenman, was established just like that.

Nowadays, every vessel departing from the Guangzhou sea lanes must declare at the customs posts set up by Grand Commandant Cao and submit to inspection by "Official Army" patrol boats. Those who refused were all blasted into the sea to feed the fish.

In this process, the offshore skimming structure previously jointly controlled by pirates and the Portuguese was wiped out overnight. All trading vessels had to carry designated commodities along designated shipping lanes.

The once-common practice of Ming people taking ships to Manila to make a living was now forbidden. All emigrants aboard ships heading from the Guangdong coast to the South Seas would be forcibly transferred to Taiwan. Furthermore, metal raw materials — including gold, silver, copper, iron, and mercury needed by the South Seas colonizers — were now all under strict control.

The noose was slowly tightening.

The reason Macau had not yet been dealt with was, first, because the paperwork in Beijing was not yet complete — the Emperor had not yet nodded his assent; and second, because Governor-General of Liangguang Wang Zunde was still in office, meaning the Transmigrators could not yet fully cut loose here. So for now, this standoff was maintained.

However, as time passed, the situation was developing in the direction of the original plan — Wang Zunde had fallen gravely ill in early June of this year. By the middle of the month, he was already unable to leave his bed and looked to be on his last legs.

Upon receiving this news, the Transmigrators urgently notified Xiong Wencan in Fuzhou on one hand, and the intelligence departments in Beijing and Tianjin on the other — including Xiong Wencan's and Grand Commandant Cao's folding-paper offices in Beijing — demanding that all departments coordinate and lay the groundwork in advance, to ensure that when the news of Wang Zunde's death from illness reached Beijing, they could maneuver the Emperor into issuing an edict appointing Xiong Wencan as Governor-General of Liangguang.

At the same time, the battleship Fuyuan, which had just completed its sea trials, also received orders: go to Guangzhou, relieve the Zhenman, and have it return for refit.

The above was the background for the Fuyuan's arrival at Huangpu Port today. It involved not only the matter of the Portuguese in Macau, but also Guangdong officialdom and Beijing — the internal factors were rather complex.

Although the 1,400-ton Fuyuan was massive in volume, to the seventeenth-century Pearl River, the Fuyuan was merely a single ship — in later generations, even on a much narrower channel, 3,000-ton inland river vessels could sail directly to Zhaoqing.

So the Fuyuan sailed unimpeded. It only needed to watch out for those reefs and sandbars that had not yet been cleared, and it could reach Huangpu Naval Port directly.

Huangpu Port lay at a bend on the eastern bank of the Pearl River, still forty li from Guangzhou City. Ever since last November, when Regional Commander Cao had dealt with the surrounding pirates, Huangpu Port had entered a construction phase. Seven months later, today, it had become a vital military base controlling the approaches to Guangzhou.

Huangpu Port was not open to civilian vessels. In normal times, apart from warships, the only presence within the port area was a battalion of troops stationed there.

The identity of these soldiers changed constantly. Sometimes they were local poor men recruited openly; sometimes they were battalion troops who had undergone primary training; of course, when necessary, within the sealed-off Huangpu Naval Port, a battalion of the Empire's elite troops would also emerge... perhaps even two or three battalions, who could say.

When the Fuyuan slowly drew alongside Pier One of Huangpu Port, Mu Longcheng, dressed in a white Major General of the Navy uniform, disembarked onto the jetty with several officers.

Greeting him was Ding Liqiu, the Head of the Guangzhou Special District, arriving with a large entourage.

Seeing Ding Liqiu, Mu Longcheng was somewhat surprised and hurried forward to shake hands. "Aiyaya, this is extraordinary. Old Ding, to come in person — Old Mu here is overwhelmed by the honor!"

"Cut it out." Ding Liqiu laughed and cursed. "I'm still concurrently serving as Director of Huangpu Port — shouldn't I come by often to check on things?"

"Well, that's wonderful then. Today, we two brothers shall have a few cups."

"It's hot — let's just do beer. A couple of drinks is still fine for me."

Afterward, the two men set up a table and chairs on the roof of the Port Authority's red-brick building and drank home-brewed beer.

After two rounds of drinks, Ding Liqiu finally slowly laid out the military threats currently facing the Guangzhou Special District — as a special zone chief handling a myriad of affairs daily, he naturally hadn't come to meet the ship for no reason.

The special zone plot, located on the map at the site of later generations' Guangdong South Station, was currently racing to build infrastructure.

To carry out construction, the first necessities were things like cement, bricks, and steel bars. Moreover, the special zone plot had only been planned for administrative and commercial-residential areas, not for industrial zones, because the planned industrial zones would not be crammed together with the administrative area — they needed to be dispersed in places with resources.

For instance, the steel plant would be close to the iron mine zones of northern Guangdong, and cement and brick plants would also be sited in areas rich in limestone resources.

In general, since the Transmigrators would be using Guangdong as their main base for a period going forward, both industrial and commercial layouts had to follow scientific planning, taking the entire province into view. They could no longer cram everything together as they had in Tainan.

This brought Ding Liqiu face to face with a problem: banditry.

The Pearl River Delta had a developed water system, with rivers crisscrossing everywhere. In this period of the late Ming, one could say without exaggeration: bandits were everywhere.

"Bandit" was merely a blanket term; it encompassed many varieties: water bandits in various places, mountain bandits in the hills, rootless boat-dwellers, semi-merchant semi-bandit boat gangs, local bully private armies who set up checkpoints to skim profits... and so on and so forth.

In short, if the Transmigrators wanted to open factories and enterprises across Guangdong and wanted commodities to circulate freely, the pressing problem they now faced was bandit suppression.

Compared to this matter, the Portuguese in Macau were actually not so serious, because if it truly came to a fight, the Portuguese probably couldn't hold out against the Transmigrators for three days. But the dense, web-like waterways across Guangdong, and the countless varieties of bandits hidden within them — those could not be dealt with in three days.

Therefore, as the person currently actually presiding over the province-wide planning work, Ding Liqiu's purpose in coming specially to meet the ship today was to touch base with military personnel and see what countermeasures there might be.

Hearing this, Mu Longcheng was not surprised. "Old Ding, I've read the staff reports on the situation you describe before, but the topic you're raising is too broad. The two of us alone can't handle it."

At this point, Mu Longcheng raised his cup and took a sip of wine. "If it's just small-scale skirmishes around this area, then no problem — we can treat it as training the troops. But if you want to do the whole province, or even just a major bandit-suppression campaign along the main routes, then it'll have to go to a Cabinet meeting."

Mu Longcheng then extended three fingers and began counting them off. "First, two to three regular battalions will be necessary, plus a large number of auxiliary troops in coordination, including local units familiar with the situation. That amounts to a large-scale mobilization — both we and Guangdong officialdom will have to get moving."

"Second, a large number of shallow-draft inland river craft are essential, of every type and model."

"Furthermore, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System and the Special Operations Team will also need to be deployed here. Don't you underestimate these water bandits hiding in the river forks and reed beds — without powerful reconnaissance methods, our ordinary soldiers will suffer for it."

"Mobilizing so many resources means it absolutely must go to a meeting."

Mu Longcheng then leaned back in his chair and said with a slight smile, "The bandit situation in the Pearl River Delta is very complex; we haven't faced this kind of scenario before. So my personal suggestion is, this matter can't be rushed. First, request an elite unit to be sent here, and start by practicing and gathering experience right around Huangpu. When the time is ripe and the Cabinet has invested all the resources here, then we'll carry out the large-scale cleanup."

After listening, Ding Liqiu considered for a moment and ultimately nodded in agreement with Mu Longcheng's opinion. "Mm, that makes sense. One step at a time. In that case, I'll send a telegram with the request when I get back today. When the personnel and equipment arrive later, you keep an eye on things and take charge."

"Alright. I'll be in Guangzhou for the near future anyway, so no problem with this."

In just a few words, the two men settled the plan.