Chapter 54: Navy Construction

After the Beggar Sect matter concluded, everyone sat down again and discussed for a while the topic of how to distribute the "import goods" in the future.

It couldn't be helped — there were too many clever people these days. Every single item, a crystallization of wisdom accumulated by humanity since the Industrial Revolution, was practically a great killer when brought to the seventeenth century, even the most unremarkable little thing.

The clever people realized: whenever they themselves or their own departments wanted to accomplish something in the days ahead and have a louder voice, the amount of "imported" supplies would be the decisive factor. Since that was the case, how to distribute these supplies in the future was something that needed to be properly discussed.

If they really sat down and discussed it seriously, this problem was not hard to solve. Given that the number of transmigrators was currently small and no powerful factions existed, the matter was quickly resolved.

One: Regarding quotas, from now on all demand lists would be submitted by department as the unit, with the final decision made through joint discussion at a meeting of all department heads.

Two: No department or individual was permitted to bypass the meeting and seek backdoor favors from Cao Zong; violators would be stripped of quota application eligibility for a period of time.

It was a very fair decision, and no one had anything to say — at least, that was what everyone thought when the meeting ended.

However, in the long years to come, the flame posts, provocations, duels, group brawls, and even all manner of alliances and betrayals, schemes and intrigues sparked by the import goods quotas — none of this was something the people at that meeting could have imagined.

"The radar and propulsion problems can't be put off any longer. We absolutely must solve them this trip back!"

"Yeah, yeah. We're transmigrators, after all. What's the story with not even daring to sail the ship once it gets dark?"

Two sand ships were forming up on the Dinghai sea, heading north toward Hangzhou. Inside the cabin filled with various navigational instruments, Liu Zhe, Bai Hongda, and several other transmigrators were discussing something.

The navy construction of the Crossing Faction could truly be described with the phrase "twists and turns."

The first batch of shipwrights had been found with the Liu Family's help, some of whom were boatmen from grain ships who worked the Canal year-round. Transmigrators with zero medieval sailing experience, who didn't know a thing, commanding a bunch of not-so-reliable shipwrights — it certainly produced plenty of jokes at the start.

Fortunately, everyone was just splashing around at the mouth of Hangzhou Bay where the water was shallow, so no major disasters occurred. Once the transmigrators themselves got their bearings, the situation gradually improved.

At this point, the problem of insufficient shipwrights came to the fore.

In the existing crude Zeelandia Strategy, the transmigrators' plan was: the first wave of combat personnel charging in should be no fewer than one hundred. Adding non-combat personnel and various supplies, this would require at least two ships. That wasn't even counting those on standby for reinforcements at the base — the entire operation needed at least four ships to launch.

The problem was inadvertently solved by Chen Huoding, Chen Erye.

After Pingfeng Stronghold and the Transmigration Company formally reached a cooperation agreement, Chen Erye immediately began appearing around every gun-equipped transmigrator as one of their own. However, this was of no use — the Company currently had no plan to hand great killers over to natives for use, and Erye was no exception.

A turnaround came just a few days later: while Liu Ke and the others were discussing which channel to recruit crewmen from, a certain person loitering nearby overheard them. The fellow instantly perked up and declared the matter simple — just give him a rifle, and he'd get as many crewmen as they wanted.

As mentioned earlier, Chen Erye was originally a native of Dinghai Rear Garrison. He'd had no choice but to escape after drunkenly hacking up a Guard second-generation. Although he'd been mixing in the mountains all these years, he still had acquaintances back in his old home.

Since that was the case, let's talk terms.

The final conditions were as follows: if Erye could recruit fifty qualified seagoing crewmen, he would be eligible to learn the "secret arts" alongside the transmigrators. After completing courses like firearm maintenance, Erye would receive one M9 and fifteen bullets (exactly one magazine), though once the bullets were used up, that was it.

Chen Huoding agreed with great delight.

Afterward, when everyone set out to sea, Erye guided the ship all the way to a bay near Dinghai, then went ashore alone with a packet of loose silver.

Over the next two days, people came looking one after another. Most were military households from Chuanshan Rear Station subordinate to Dinghai Guard, predominantly young men. By the third day on the return voyage, the ship had gained forty extra men.

The men had all been sweet-talked over by Erye — a sea lord was raising a banner, and now was the perfect time to open the mountain gate wide. Erye now had a stake in the great gang too, so he was calling on the brothers to come show their support.

The transmigrators made the tragic discovery that proper shipwrights were hard to find in this era, but people aspiring to the pirate profession were a dime a dozen. And this bunch of pirate hopefuls, ever since arriving at Tangzhuang, had been in high spirits with soaring morale.

It couldn't be helped — the treatment was too good.

Three meals a day, all the coarse rice you could eat, fish and vegetables every day, and from time to time duck intestines and pig offal to improve the diet.

After a few days of getting organized, when everyone boarded the ship, they discovered it wasn't to go fight for their lives, but to start drilling first?

According to the military households' simple logic, if the boss had treated them to good meals for several days, there had to be a big deal waiting for everyone to go risk their lives on. Otherwise, why go to such expense?

Yet that was the reality, and these people were overthinking it. The transmigrators' current purpose for going to sea, aside from meshing personnel and drilling the team's ship-handling skills under various sea conditions, was to survey the hydrological conditions along the Fujian coast. Beyond that, there really wasn't much else.

This newly recruited bunch suited the transmigrators perfectly — first, they had come precisely to sell their lives, so no further ideological work was needed. Second, as Dinghai natives, these men were quite familiar with the entire Fujian sea, especially the complex waters around the Zhoushan Archipelago. After a few days of sea drills, the transmigrators had added considerably to their existing data on the tides, undercurrents, sheltered harbors, and so on in this area.

Since these men were highly motivated and their obedience was decent, the transmigrators issued each person one tael and five mace of silver as training-period wages ahead of schedule.

This was how "a warrior will die for the one who appreciates him" came about.

For military households who never had enough to eat year-round, were occasionally rented out by the General-in-Chief to moonlight as pirates, and got little benefit after risking their lives, there was no better object of loyalty than the new boss.

After this, the ship made a trip to Dinghai — some people wanted to send the silver home. But when the ship returned a few days later to pick them up, several dozen more had appeared on the shore to join up.

This time the newcomers came not only from the Rear Station, but also from Dasong Station and Guoju Station. There were also over a dozen genuine sea bandits who came to offer their services, sailing a leaky, wind-battered wreck of a boat and loudly proclaiming they wanted to "buy in."

A happy trouble had thus descended without warning.