Chapter 533: The Course

The first to step alone onto the conference room platform was Ding Liqiu. When he turned around, he faced a dark, dense crowd of nearly a hundred Ming people below the stage, who had by now collectively risen to their feet and were cupping their hands in salute toward him from afar. Seeing this scene, Ding Liqiu immediately broke into a face full of smiles, stretched out both arms and pressed downward: "Honored guests, please sit at ease — we'll dispense with formalities today!"

Having dealt with them often, they knew the Transmigrators were indeed Ming lords of simple etiquette, and upon hearing this they sat back down.

The Ming people seated here were basically the group of "enlightened individuals" who had dealt most with the Transmigrators across various parts of Guangdong during this stage. Among them, those like Provincial Graduate Bai who had placed heavy bets on the Transmigrators numbered around forty to fifty, accounting for half the total. The rest, still maintaining a wait-and-see attitude, were also friendly elements on the list — otherwise they would not be sitting here today.

Although compared to the vast, boundless numbers of traditional landlords across the Liangguang region, these few people here could only be a drop in the ocean, the Transmigrators were confident this time that they could make those who took the first risk into winners, thereby setting up a replicable model for the Ming people to imitate — the power of example is boundless.

"Though it was the General's Mansion that sent the invitations, honored guests have still made the arduous journey from all over. That we are gathered here together today is truly a rare occasion. Old Ding here, on behalf of Cao Jiangjun, welcomes you all!"

After a few pleasantries, Ding Liqiu swung a hand, and two attendants stepped forward to draw open the goose-down curtain behind him. The next moment, a large "South Seas Geographic Map" appeared on the wall.

Seeing this enormous and exquisitely detailed map that occupied an entire wall, most of the Ming elite present — men well-read in historical texts — let out soft exclamations, and for a moment the atmosphere in the hall turned somewhat strange.

In ancient times, finely detailed geographic maps of mountains and rivers were without a doubt top-level secrets, so it was only natural that the Ming people, seeing this South Seas map so abruptly today, would be astonished — even though this was not the territory of the Great Ming.

"First, a small digression." Ding Liqiu turned his body sideways at this point, traced an imaginary line across the map with his arm, then turned back and placed both hands on the lectern before him, assuming a lecturing pose: "Since ancient times, our Chinese land has cycled through order and chaos, never escaping one single word — 'constraint.'"

"According to traditional thinking, the total acreage of farmland is fixed. Regardless of whether the fields under your names, my lords, pay taxes or not, the total amount is only so much. The Great Ming's territory is only so large — it is impossible to conjure up an extra province's worth of land."

"Then, during times of peace, the population grows day by day. Over these two hundred-plus years of the Great Ming, the good old days when one household farmed fifty mu are already gone. The tenant farmers under your lordships, whether they pay taxes or not, I fear now each household has only three to five mu to farm, am I right?"

At this point, Ding Liqiu revealed a knowing smile.

This "Mayor Ding" spoke with fearless audacity, explicitly pointing out the problem of hidden households and hidden fields. Yet the crux of the matter was not here — the lords below the stage naturally understood by now: short of war and chaos, the common population across the land would certainly grow ever larger, while the total amount of farmland was fixed.

"At present, signs of chaos are already apparent in the Great Ming. The north is engulfed in flames of war everywhere, and the court is mobilizing troops from all quarters to suppress them. The south, though somewhat better off, is likewise filled everywhere with starving beggars and bandits. Can you lords truly not see this in your daily lives?"

At this, Ding Liqiu extended one finger: "A single tile-roofed house — housing one person is spacious, two is comfortable. Then what of five, ten, a hundred? The Great Ming right now has already crammed fifty people inside!"

His eyes blazed as he stared down at the audience: "The so-called cycle of order and chaos through the dynasties is nothing more than this one word — 'constraint.' To put it bluntly, it is simply waiting to die."

Hearing Ding Liqiu so bluntly expose the essence of the chaos, the seated Ming people, aside from secretly marveling at how brazen this fellow's words were, did understand Mayor Ding's meaning. There was no helping it — Mayor Ding's words were far too plain; it was impossible not to understand.

"There is a saying that goes well: a thousand-year plot of land has eight hundred masters; the land is the master, man is the guest. Every lord here today is a person of substance. When that day truly comes, everyone will be in peril, and neither life nor property will be easy to preserve."

After waiting quietly for a moment, letting those below the stage digest this, Ding Liqiu finally revealed a smiling face again: "There is a way to solve the problem, and only one — South Seas Colonization."

Having said this, Mayor Ding picked up a long pointer, smiled, and drew a circle across that large map.

Following Mayor Ding's gesture, the lords below the stage felt their spirits lift: at last, the main topic.

All of Ding Liqiu's earlier eloquence — whether alarmist talk or words of wisdom — the Ming lords naturally understood was merely to find a legal and philosophical basis for today's conference theme. To put it plainly, it was to ensure the campaign had a proper name.

What the lords had not expected was that this fake official surnamed Ding was truly so bold — to go set up a few estates in the South Seas, he even dragged in the rise and fall of the realm… Worthy of a Pirate — oh, Sea Merchant, by origin — utterly lawless in his eyes, daring to say anything.

Fortunately, Ding Liqiu had finally gotten to the point, and now everyone's interest was thoroughly piqued.

"The South Seas — ten thousand li of fertile soil, a warm and hot climate, rice yielding three harvests a year."

"The South Seas — mineral deposits and rare treasures everywhere; in the mountains, great timber stands thick; in the seas, countless fish and catches, there for the taking."

"The South Seas — natives everywhere, without writing or institutions, indolent and cunning, knowing only to gather wild fruit for food, leaving fertile soil neglected, wantonly wasting nature's bounty — deserving of punishment."

"The South Seas — it is the destined land for us Chinese people to break free of our cage. When others hand us gold and we refuse to take it, then whom shall we wait for?"

A textbook pyramid-sales lecture thus began amid Teacher Ding's passionate and wild oratory.

Over the next half an hour, Ding Liqiu broadly gave the attendees a popular-science overview of the South Seas' geography and products, as well as the distribution of the various existing powers there. Among this, Ding Liqiu focused on introducing the target islands the Transmigrators were currently conducting field surveys on.

In that afternoon's course, Teacher Ding began to do the accounting. From the initial investment for a plantation, through the subsequent steps of migration, battle, land reclamation, and planting, Teacher Ding laid out in detail all the expenses and risks involved during this period, for the attendees' reference.

Of course, the most important part of all this was still the profit. Setting aside the thoughts some lords had of leaving a fallback path for their families in foreign lands, substantial profit was the core driving force supporting all these actions.

The afternoon's course was quite interesting. The attendees not only personally tasted various coffees, cocoas, coconuts, and other specialty products suitable for large-scale cultivation in the South Seas, but also saw with their own eyes the oil palm, the plant that would become the world's highest-yielding oil crop in later generations.

The oil palm, a plant originally native to Africa, was extensively cultivated in later generations in South Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia — one could say every part of it was a treasure.

And to bolster the attendees' investment confidence, the Transmigrators had truly spared no expense this time. As the crowd watched, Teacher Ding personally took action, using one specially made small press to crush the seeds of fifty oil palm fruits, then weighed the oil yield.

The so-called "spared no expense" was because these fifty oil palm fruits had been "imported." At this point in time, the Transmigrators could already drink coffee brought to Asia by colonizers, but the oil palm fruit had not yet spread here.

At dinner that evening, Provincial Graduate Bai and the others ate dishes stir-fried with palm oil.