Chapter 508: Chicken Soup

The crowd of Guangdong officials standing on the dock to welcome the guests, seeing Xiong Wencan and the red-hot rising star Cao walking down from the warship together, could not help but inwardly grumble about Lao Xiong among all those official hats: such arrogance — where is the decorum?

Yet grumbling aside, in the end the subordinates still piled on smiles and pressed forward to greet them.

The officials' information channels were unimpeded, so they knew perfectly well that at this moment, no one could do anything to the "Cao Xiong" pair. Even if these two acted so outlandishly, no bystander could use it to bring them down.

Even if that fellow surnamed Cao stirred up such fury and resentment in the region that heaven raged and men hated, the Emperor, under pressure, would at most issue an edict of mild rebuke — not even a harsh word.

Most critically: so long as those Tartars entrenched in the White Mountains and Black Waters of the north were not yet exterminated, the Emperor would certainly never take any substantively punitive action against the one surnamed Cao, and by extension, the one surnamed Xiong likewise became an un-topplable tumbler.

So the hostile parties, knowing full well they could do nothing to these two, did not bother to stir up that rhythm this time.

When a provincial Governor-General arrived at port, the welcoming protocol was naturally of the highest specification. The moment Lao Xiong stepped onto the dock, the Music Office troupe, long since prepared, struck up drums and pipes in unison, playing a lively welcoming melody.

Next came the standard protocol and bureaucratic formalities.

The Governor-General exchanged pleasantries one by one with the Provincial Administration Commissioner and other high officials who had come to receive him; then the crowd boarded the official sedan chairs waiting to the side in turn, setting off in order of official rank, heading for the largest restaurant in the city.

The lively welcome banquet lasted until the afternoon. Throughout, goblets crossed and entertainers performed; the assembled Guangzhou officials spent their own provincial treasury's public funds, listening to their own Music Office's tunes — harmonious and joyful, the scene was one of perfect concord.

The conspicuous Regional Commander Cao, for his part, stirred up no mischief this time, remaining honest and obedient throughout, advancing and withdrawing with the group.

After the affair concluded, Xiong, having bid farewell to his colleagues, set off alone with his retinue of honor guards back to his residence.

Because Liangguang was far from the Emperor yet critically positioned, the territorial authority stationed here had to possess sufficient power to handle all manner of emergencies. In the late Ming and throughout the Qing dynasty, the Governor-General of Liangguang, most of the time, concurrently held the post of Grand Coordinator of Guangdong.

That is to say, although Lao Xiong's Zongdu Yamen was in Zhaoqing, just like Wang Zunde, Lao Xiong in fact also had a grand mansion in Guangzhou City: the Guangdong Governor Yamen.

In the days that followed, the newly arrived Lao Xiong naturally would not handle any official business, but rather focused on receiving various visitors and familiarizing himself with local conditions.

As for Regional Commander Cao... the matters that needed discussing had already been thoroughly discussed aboard the Fuyuan; now he naturally would not join that bustle to disturb the Governor-General.

All that was needed was patience — to wait methodically, step by step, for events to unfold.

The story now splits in two.

On that day, after the fleet entering the Pearl River parted ways outside Huangpu Port, the transport ships carrying Third Lord Wu and the other Pioneer Army officers and soldiers entered the port to "unload."

Although Taiwan was prosperous, in the minds of the Ming people it was, after all, a remote region. Now, having come from that outer island to the great city of Guangzhou in their minds... its urban-rural fringe, truth be told, these natives' mood was quite good — especially after the instructors announced they would be given a few days' leave.

And so, this bunch of Pioneer Army soldiers, neither quite soldiers nor quite civilians, set up camp at Huangpu Military Port.

Having reached this step, the time before these men went into battle was not far off. Thus, the very first order of business was: pouring chicken soup.

In this era, the status of traditional soldiers was low; eating as a soldier was the sole motivation. There was no propaganda about protecting home and defending the country — all under heaven belonged to the Emperor's house, so the common people naturally had no spare heart to go defend someone else's household possessions.

But among the Transmigrators, the system was several grades more advanced, so whether for the regular army or the Pioneer Army, the principle of "what you fight for" had to be made clear to the soldiers.

Thus, after Third Lord Wu and the others rested and reorganized at the military port for two days, and ate several fine meals of fried fish, they welcomed a personal visit from the Governor.

Morning, the grand campus. Five hundred Pioneer Army seeds, successively ferried to Huangpu, with camp stools stuffed under their backsides, sat in neat rows at the center of the campus.

Clubs and whips were the most rapidly effective educational tools. In these recent days, it was by relying on these two props that these undisciplined natives had swiftly learned to observe military decorum and discipline.

The regular battalion soldiers stationed at Huangpu Port, at this moment, stood with loaded firearms around the campus perimeter, displaying to these bumpkins what was called standard military bearing.

The next moment, Pioneer Army Commander Wang Bo, dressed in an olive-green short-sleeved general's uniform, accompanied by a group of staff officers, ascended the Type Zero platform.

The Ming people were now quite familiar with this setup. Whether in the towns of Taipei or the communities of Tainan, the "domestically produced" tin megaphones had deeply integrated into people's lives, bringing the swiftest channel of information dissemination to this society without cell phones or telephones.

Sure enough, after the big boss mounted the platform, the familiar speech, tinged with a faint electric current hum, rang out from the megaphone.

"Most of you are men with criminal records, originally doomed to labor until death. Now, having this chance to join the Pioneer Army is like being reborn — this is a blessing; cherish it well!"

"Grand Commandant Cao is generous and open-handed, never mistreating his brothers — even the household staff know this. Since you men joined the army, not only have you lacked nothing in food and clothing, you've all received full pay. Has anyone had theirs withheld? Look at what kind of days the Official Army lives!"

"Follow the Grand Commandant, and it is surely a fine path to rising above the rest. Coming to Guangdong for this bandit suppression campaign is to train your skills. When we later go down to the South Seas, the warships' cannons will blast once, and then everyone will rush in with a volley of gunfire — the natives' territory and women will be seized!"

"The Grand Commandant has already promised: the territory seized, every brother gets a share! When the time comes, every one of you will be a great landlord. Anyone with less than a thousand mu of land and ten wives would be too embarrassed to greet people when going out!"

"Follow Grand Commandant Cao, and you become masters among men!"

"Take a gamble — bumpkin turns to old wealth!"

"If you can do it, you can do it — you definitely can do it!"

The mobilization assembly ultimately concluded amid the excited shouts of slogans from all the officers and soldiers.

The natives, pumped full of chicken blood, were now all incredibly worked up, each one rubbing fists and wiping palms, just waiting to finish off the bandits and then do the natives.

Next came the formal live-combat training: the five hundred men, organized by company, squad, and platoon, after preliminary grouping, began integrated training in cold weapons and hot weapons.

For suppressing bandits in the densely vegetated Guangdong of the seventeenth century, and later doing the natives in the dense forests of the South Seas, cold weapons were indispensable, because there was not that much open terrain to let firearm soldiers easily whack moles.

Thus, a large batch of cold weapons had already been ferried to Huangpu Port. Furthermore, considering that the Pioneer Army contained various Edo figures like Third Lord Wu, the variety of these cold weapons was very mixed and very complete — everyone could find a handy tool among them.

Among these were not only sabers, spears, swords, and halberds, but also cold-forged armor and so on and so forth — in short, all eighteen kinds of weapons and protective gear were present, leather, cloth, chain, and plate all complete.

Of course, the most formidable, most core weapon was also prepared: the Type 30 Fusil.