Chapter 545: Preparations of the Great Ming Military and Civilians (I)

At the same time the Portuguese gentlemen were actively preparing for battle, a group of Great Ming gentlemen were doing exactly the same thing as their Folangji counterparts.

At the dock at the foot of the Lotus Stem Pass Gate, Bai Shenming, Old Master Bai, and over ten other "progressive" figures disembarked from their boat.

Ever since the Lotus Stem Pass Gate had been established, this primitive seventeenth-century customs post, much like its later-era counterparts, had gradually formed a bustling market both inside and outside the gate.

After all, with goods and daily necessities, as well as grain, vegetables, and people needing to pass through customs every day, the soldiers at the gate naturally had to take time to conduct spot checks. As a result, tea stalls for travelers to rest and large sheds for oxen and horses had sprung up behind the gate.

Then, gradually, some inns, civilian houses, fish columns, and vegetable markets appeared. Later on, even half-door establishments—the fighter jets of the service industry—made their appearance.

However, when Old Master Bai and his party arrived at the gate today, they discovered that the area inside and outside the city gate had been placed under military control, and all loiterers had vanished. In their place were soldiers and large numbers of laborers wearing indigo work vests and canvas shoes, holding various tools, their shaved heads topped with straw hats.

The shaven-headed laborers were busy at this moment. They were swiftly demolishing houses one by one, then carting away the debris on pushcarts, clearing the open ground in front of the city gate.

The demolition of these illegal structures proceeded very quickly, largely because most were temporary sheds built from grass and wood, and even the best-quality ones were merely plank houses on brick-and-stone foundations. So, in just one morning, the laborers razed every building inside and outside the gate barrier.

When Provincial Graduate Bai and his group arrived at the Lotus Stem Pass Gate in the afternoon, this low city gate tower had already reverted to the desolate scene of its early days of construction. Apart from the dock behind the gate, the land both in front of and behind the pass was a stretch of bare earth.

Afterward, Provincial Graduate Bai and his companions, escorted by several young military officers, ascended the gate barrier.

Previously, the Ming Court had stationed a squad commander and troops to guard the gate. But now, on the gate barrier, the squad commander and the Ming soldiers with their long spears were nowhere to be seen, replaced by new-model soldiers in later-era uniforms, holding rifles.

The view from the gate tower was expansive, offering a clear sight of the island across the water that was about to be engulfed in war. However, within the visible range, aside from a patch of tranquility, the naked eye could not discern any atmosphere of war. Fortunately, ascending the tower for a view was merely a procedural event to begin with. After a cursory distant look at Haojing'ao and then overlooking the cleared land below, Advisor Xiao, who was in charge of reception, invited the gentlemen back down from the tower.

The observation group had not come today to watch laborers demolish buildings.

For the impending war, the Transmigrators' intended objective was "the military sets the stage, politics performs the opera, demonstrating hard and soft power to awe the native elite."

People from the future understood the power of the word "propaganda" all too well.

Since their next step involved intentions toward Guangdong, this war presented an excellent opportunity to use propaganda—the cheapest means—to erode the natives' will to resist.

Just as a certain Cao had previously sailed out from White Goose Pond in grand fashion to annihilate Liu Xiang, after which the people of Guangzhou learned of a Grand Commandant Cao, this time they were copying the same pattern, a larger-scale propaganda campaign.

As for Macau itself... from a purely military perspective, the Transmigrators had many ways to take it in seconds. But doing so would simply waste this opportunity to put on a show right at their doorstep.

It was against this backdrop that today's observation group, and the recent war propaganda appearing among the common folk of Guangzhou Prefecture, came about. The Transmigrators hoped that any natives with the means would come to watch the battle when the time came, thereby reinforcing an unspoken implication for the people of the Min-Yue Region—choose your side carefully, for in the days to come, the imperial court may not be reliable.

After descending from the gate tower, Advisor Xiao, wearing a qualification badge on his chest and a standard olive-green Wei officer uniform, smiled and gestured for the visiting delegation gentlemen to walk toward the rear of the pass.

Advisor Xiao Qiqian was lean, fair-skinned, and handled people with a spring-like warmth, possessing the demeanor of a reception manager. Yet this seemingly ordinary man was a regular officer from a certified child scholar background, currently attached to the Army Staff Department. He was a "family-born" of the Army, with boundless prospects.

Speaking of the concept of "family-born," it had actually been widespread in every trade of the Crossing Faction since the early days of developing Taiwan.

Once they had a territory, the Transmigrators, ready to roll up their sleeves, farm hard for a few years, and then emerge to crush all manner of demons and monsters, soon discovered a cruel fact in daily production: they lacked grassroots cadres.

Laborers to dig earth and build houses were delivered by the boatload and could start work in three days, yet the Transmigrators lacked foremen who could read building blueprints.

Clumsy young workers, after a week or so of training, could also operate woodworking machines to cut logs. Yet what the Transmigrators lacked most were section chiefs and workshop directors who could read process documents.

Grassroots cadres are the skeleton of a regime.

If the Communists back in the day hadn't vigorously trained grassroots cadres during the Yan'an period, their later takeover would never have gone so smoothly.

This difficulty, something completely unimaginable in later eras, nearly killed the ambitious Transmigrators... What, you can't even find a single labor contractor? Weren't there so many college graduates they were sweeping public toilets?

Nothing can be advanced without a backbone of intermediate-level personnel, even for Transmigrators possessing boundless wealth and knowledge—the wealth piled in their storehouses and the knowledge stored in their brains lacked the right talent chain to be converted into reality.

In the end, certain people, slapped in the face by reality, had no choice but to honestly start from scratch, enduring great hardships and blazing a trail, personally training grassroots cadres hand-in-hand.

The grassroots cadres mentioned here naturally included grassroots military officers in the army.

In fact, compared to other professions, the army's need for low-ranking officers was even more urgent. The military talents who had crossed over were only a handful. To train a modernized army of ever-increasing numbers, it was impossible without educated low-ranking officers.

Looking at those "future flower buds" still studying courses in military academies and schools, the Transmigrators, knowing that distant water could not quench immediate thirst, had no choice but to pick up the ancient training method of "master teaching apprentice."

In every trade, including the military, all Transmigrators, in the early days, selected some adult natives and kept them by their sides as personal attendants or in roles similar to orderlies. Working with them by day and personally tutoring them by night, truly enduring every hardship in teaching by word and deed—only thus did the Crossing Faction's first batch of crash-course social backbones emerge.

Advisor Xiao was one of this group.

As one of the earliest orderlies by the side of Army Commander Han Bo, Xiao Qiqian, from a child scholar background, was a "disciple of the son" within the Army. Not only was his foundation solid, but he also possessed a rare strong learning capability, mastering many new military theories brought by the Transmigrators in a short time. He was an excellent staff officer-type talent—a quality especially precious in an army currently overrun with brutes.

His assignment this time as the guide for the visiting delegation was also part of the "higher-ups'" intention to cultivate him. After all, with no military attaché positions available yet, to enhance the comprehensive ability of outstanding officers, they had to find various tasks for them to perform.

The observation group passed through the city gate, returning to the Ming side. After this, the group walked north along a temporarily compacted cinder road for less than half a li, and then they saw the main objective of the day: the battlefield hospital.

The battlefield hospital was a unique product of the Transmigrators, ahead of its time. Compared to cannons and armies, many natives who did not understand military affairs could actually more easily discern the true strength of an army from its logistics, and this was precisely the purpose of the Transmigrators organizing the observation group.

In the sparsely populated seventeenth century, originally, half a li beyond the gate barrier was a forest of mixed trees and shrubs. Now, this vegetation had been cleared away, and the battlefield hospital was situated right here.

What met the eye first was a neat array of green canvas tents and fully armed guards with loaded rifles.

The tents were very spacious, totaling around twenty or so, neatly divided into four squares by lines of calcium oxide on the ground. Following later-era custom, each tent had a large red cross pattern on a white background at its entrance.

When Bai Shenming, Old Master Bai, stepped into the "medical hall," the first thing he noticed was the ground beneath his feet.

What Old Master Bai's fine water buffalo leather shoes were now stepping on was a layer of black felt-like material. Yet though it seemed like cloth, this substance had a faint sheen, as if coated with tung oil.

Seeing Old Master Bai's attention on the ground, Advisor Xiao beside him smiled slightly and explained, "According to regulations, to prevent insects and dampness, the ground of a temporary battlefield hospital is first covered with a layer of calcium oxide, and then covered with tarred felt. This material is not only lightweight but also waterproof and insect-repellent. It is made by coating both sides of thick paper with a layer of asphalt produced in Taiwan."

"Oh, so that means this stuff could also be used on roofs?"

Old Master Bai truly lived up to being in the sundry goods business; upon hearing that the tarred felt was lightweight and waterproof, he immediately made connections to other uses.

Advisor Xiao couldn't help but give a thumbs-up. "Old Master Bai is brilliant! Taiwan is rainy and humid, and the proper use of this material is precisely on roofs!"

Old Master Bai's face was full of smiles upon hearing this, and while verbally claiming Advisor Xiao was flattering him, in his heart he had already decided to first import a batch of tarred felt to sell in his own shop and see how it went...

Just as Old Master Bai was finding a new source of income for his family, the other gentlemen had already begun to stroll around inside this large tent.

Since it had not yet officially "received guests," there were currently only two male nurses in green robes and cotton cloth masks inside the tent, organizing instruments and equipment. The shiny instruments were incomprehensible to the gentlemen; the only thing they could probably understand were the two mobile surgical beds placed on the ground.

However, as the saying goes: there is no coincidence without a story.

Just as the gentlemen were growing a little bored, a show arrived: a group of laborers came running from the main road, carrying a workmate covered in blood, shouting loudly from afar: "Doctor, doctor, help! Someone's been hit by a cable!"

With this clamor, the previously quiet battlefield hospital instantly boiled over like a pot of water, entering work mode.

Quickly, several male nurses who heard the shouts rushed out of their respective tents, then, with everyone lending a hand, lifted the injured man onto a bed cart and pushed him into a tent.

Seeing that the battlefield hospital had smoothly admitted a poor laborer, the gentlemen of the visiting delegation now all perked up. As activists, everyone had more or less heard of the divine doctors of Taiwan and their ability to cut open bellies. Judging by the scene today, might they actually get to witness it with their own eyes?

The next moment, the door curtain lifted, and Dong Qiang, the director of Chikan Hospital, walked into the tent with a group of male and female students.