Chapter 604: Crawley's Fantastical Journey (VII)

Though the merchant ships of every nation were visiting the Guangzhou New District for the first time, the thing was, most people adapted very quickly.

The New District was, to put it plainly, a scaled-up, upgraded Dayuan. For foreign merchants who frequently did business with the Crossing Faction, the unfamiliar New District felt familiar instead. Everything here was tidy, clean, and brimming with vitality — that unique social rhythm, where vast crowds gathered yet remained impeccably ordered, left an unforgettable impression on sea merchants long accustomed to the filthy, chaotic port cities of this era.

Sure enough, the familiar routine, the familiar flavor.

The European-style sailing ships that followed the escort vessels into the New District's harbor were first guided by the familiar pilot boats to the familiar docks.

The New District's docks, like those at Dayuan, were trapezoidal piers built by pouring cement into large stone gabion nets. The difference was that the New District had far more docks, each wider and longer, every one capable of berthing two large sailing ships on each side.

After disembarking at the designated dock, sure enough, not far away lay the hostel district specifically built to accommodate large batches of foreign crewmen.

The hostel district was much larger in area. Just like at Dayuan, there were tidy beds and bars that operated late into the night.

Considering how the drunkards at Dayuan often got into fights, the New District had added more bars with different themes, such as the Jack Sparrow Rum Bar and the Aoi Geinou Izakaya.

The scum of every nation now each had their own territory; they no longer had to mix together.

The hostel district still used red-brick buildings, still isolated them with enclosing walls, and still had sanitation and epidemic prevention personnel on standby twenty-four hours a day.

Thanks to advanced imported infrared components, the epidemic prevention staff could monitor large-scale infectious diseases using the most convenient method: taking temperatures.

The vast majority of infectious diseases — including the common cold, which counted as a killer in this era — had elevated body temperature as their primary symptom upon onset. In this city flooded with outsiders, wherever crowds gathered, including the hostel district and workers' residential areas, inspectors took temperatures morning and night every day, so that problem cases could be isolated in time.

Isolation was the most effective epidemic prevention method under current conditions. With the Crossing Faction's meager chemical and health infrastructure, there was simply no way to manage treatment after the fact; they could only use this "detect–isolate" approach to block the spread of large-scale infectious diseases.

As for what happened after isolation — if the isolated person was lucky, things like a cold could still be cured, and they'd be fine after a few days. For other illnesses, once the doctor's assessment was complete, they could only resign themselves to fate. There was no medicine anyway; it all came down to betting on their own immune system.

The Western sailors skillfully underwent infrared temperature checks at the dock, then poured into the hostel district bathhouses, adeptly bathing, eating, and sleeping.

These scum knew perfectly well they wouldn't be let out for the first few days, so they all conserved their strength, preparing to hit the bars hard at night and have a wild time.

The lives of the lower-deck sailors had nothing to do with the upper echelons.

Crawley and Old William also underwent the screening, but afterward they went to the Merchant House District.

In this day and age, the East India Companies of every nation already performed diplomatic functions themselves, so the Merchant House District was the diplomatic quarter. Construction of this area had also begun very early; its location was superb, occupying a stretch of riverside scenic land, and it was not far from the New District's administrative center, allowing for excellent travel and security services.

The public construction funds for the Merchant House District, including roads and landscaping, were provided by the New District Government. The individual national trading posts themselves, however, were supplied by each country's own East India Company, counted as pre-ordered commodities.

Since the clients were not Ming people, these trading posts were ultimately built to match each nation's local character as much as possible — no difficult task for Transmigrators who possessed extensive architectural history materials. The various Gothic, Victorian, Nordic, and other styles familiar to later generations all made an appearance in the embassy district.

However, due to the shortage of building materials and skilled labor, most of these stylized buildings ended up somewhat off, a mishmash that resembled nothing in particular. Well, the British had no idea what Victorian style was anyway — they were busy plotting to chop off Charles I's head right now. Everyone would just make do.

Crawley moved into just such a "luxury residence" — this was Old William's heartfelt praise for the Dutch Trading Post, and Crawley concurred: a running-water system with its own boiler, beautiful tiled bathrooms and lavatories, a dining room filled with splendid Chinese porcelain, and a marvelous Western-style fireplace — all of it left the merchants full of admiration.

After enjoying the comfortable sanitary facilities and a delicious Chinese-style seafood dinner inside the trading post, Crawley finally stood on the trading post balcony at nightfall and beheld the "City of a Nation" that Old William had spoken of time and again.

The nighttime cityscape that people of later generations saw was, in this era, the most soul-stirring of miracles. Even if this nighttime vista was only at the county-town level, the vast expanse of twinkling lights that met his eyes was enough to leave the newly arrived Crawley utterly dumbstruck.

Hastily dragging Old William out of the trading post, Crawley climbed into a four-wheeled carriage fitted with glass windows.

For those with money, this city was warm and welcoming. The handsome carriage traveled slowly along handsome paved roads; sitting inside, Crawley could not stop looking at the glowing gas street lamps and the lit windows lining both sides of the road.

Amid the peculiar sensation of being at once brightly lit and steeped in darkness, the carriage traveled silently for a long while. Yet in the end, Crawley still could not bring himself to believe any of it: an entire city of dense street lamps — how many gold coins would the rulers burn through in a single night?

"How have the Orientals achieved all this? Are they truly so wealthy?"

Old William chuckled, took a sip of rum, and then, patting his belly, told his nephew: to his knowledge, the Orientals were just as impoverished as the Europeans. Most of those legendary tales of riches were lies. It was only within the territory of the Earl of the East that such a city of light could appear.

As they spoke, the carriage arrived at a street market bustling with extraordinary noise. The trading post translator assigned to the carriage pointed at the great stone memorial archway at the street entrance and told the two gentlemen: this place was called "Zhuangyuan Food Arcade."

In seventeenth-century Europe, streets in the darkness were rife with theft, betrayal, and murder. In any city of this age, the streets at night were unsafe places. Even the cozy taverns of film and television were, in reality, lit by only a few candles — venues meant for conspirators in the shadows to whisper.

Crawley lost himself in the bright and boisterous night market.

The night market surged with people, mostly young men and women, though there was no shortage of middle-aged folk with faces full of exhaustion.

Crawley noted that most of the people who came here were lower-class folk wearing short T-shirts — by now he could roughly distinguish the ranks of Eastern city-dwellers.

The gentleman, dressed in a Western suit of later-generation style, drifted with the crowd in novel fascination. He saw food stalls hung with gas lamps, saw young men and women frolicking without restraint, saw the vitality and safety of this city.

Next, together with Old William, the gentlemen sampled some more novel Eastern foods: grilled squid, rice noodles, grilled oysters, and milk-and-egg fermented rice.

Finally, after extending his sleeve to wipe the grease from the corner of his mouth, Old William said with meaningful emphasis, "I imagine that even relying solely on the tax revenue from the night market, His Lordship the Earl could well afford the lighting expenses."

Crawley thought it over, then agreed.

A nighttime tour of the city sent the gentlemen home spiritually enriched. And, of course, their bellies were enriched as well.

After returning to the trading post, Crawley discovered that quite a few equally excited merchants had gathered in the brightly lit smoking room to chat, so he joined in, and only in the small hours did everyone disperse to sleep.

Having come to a modernized city for the first time, Crawley spent the following week in this state of novelty.

His main task during this week was to accompany Old William in handling affairs.

First, Old William sold all the nitre in the Jacob's Wife's cargo hold to the Ministry of Commerce, in accordance with the prior contract. The proceeds from this nitre, along with the earnings from selling horses at Hongji Port, were settled by Old William in a single lump-sum payment.

Next, Old William and the other merchants on the ship still needed to seek buyers at the harbor exchange to sell the other traditional goods in the hold, such as Indonesian spices, Indian cotton gauze, gemstones, rice, and rosewood.

In between commercial activities, Crawley also had to follow Old William in visiting old friends. In truth, this sort of social call on the powerful was Old William's most important business activity, because it allowed him to obtain opportunities others could not.

For example, attending the groundbreaking ceremony for the "Guangzhou-Macao Expressway."

In this plane, there had been no opportunity for Hong Kong Island to develop. The Guangzhou New District, opened centuries ahead of time, had already effectively assumed all the foreign trade and commercial activities of the Old World's Hong Kong.

And the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway was the strongest declaration of governance the Transmigrators had made since relocating to the mainland: "To get rich, first build roads" — this saying was an irrefutable truth across planes.

April 5, Year 16 of the lunar calendar, the 7th day of the lunar month — auspicious for opening a business, breaking ground, moving house, and repairing graves.

Outside the Great South Gate directly south of Guangzhou Old City, crowds surged and colored banners fluttered. The originally cramped prime Guanxiang land, where merchants had occupied every inch, had now been cleared into a large open space; on the walls of some distant buildings, the character "Demolish" circled in white lime was still visible.

Thanks to Old William, Crawley managed to snag a chair today on the ceremonial dais erected in advance at the city gate.

A tremendous voice drowned out the clamorous scene, drifting through the air: "Honored leaders, distinguished guests, foreign friends, natives of Hong Kong and Macao — today, I am filled with excitement—"

After a long while, when some bigwig from the Ministry of Transportation had finally finished reading the groundbreaking eight-legged essay, the two scarlet-robed grand officials seated on the main dais rose arm in arm. Surrounded by a crowd of old-style officials in long robes and Transmigrators in Western suits, they proceeded together to the groundbreaking pit where the commemorative monument had already been planted.

Immediately after, Crawley witnessed a strange Eastern custom: a circle of Eastern dignitaries, backs bent and buttocks thrust out, each using an iron spade to scoop up roughly a pound of soil, collectively turning to look at a bizarre machine nearby that was flashing continuously — their faces piled high with smiles, utterly motionless, as if they were zombies.