Chapter 232: Complicated

Wu Qun felt somewhat troubled by Lin Rong's enthusiastic invitation.

The weapons had not yet been unloaded, several ships still had soldiers who had not disembarked, and the camp site had not yet been found—for him, as the commanding general, to go off for tea and rest at such a time simply did not fit his usual style.

But if he refused Lin Rong's invitation, it would seem as though he looked down on the other man. A seventh-rank civil official being so courteous to him was an extremely rare thing.

"General, please go with Magistrate Lin to the county office. Your subordinate can handle matters here!"

Sun Rengui said with clasped fists.

"Then might I trouble Your Honor to leave a servant behind, so that once the troops have assembled, he can lead the soldiers to the camp site to pitch camp?"

"That is easily arranged! Lin Yong, you stay behind and guide the troops when the time comes!"

One of the two attendants following Lin Rong answered in acknowledgment. Lin Rong gestured invitingly and turned to lead the way. Wu Qun gave a few instructions to Sun Rengui, then followed with a dozen or so personal guards.

"Magistrate Lin, I have heard that there are already over two thousand farming households on Taiwan Island. Why is it that along the entire journey, I have not seen anyone working in the fields? It should be around the hour of wei now, not mealtime either—where have all the people gone?"

The group left the dock and stepped onto an earthen road heading east. Several hundred paces ahead, the faint outlines of houses were visible. On both sides of the road stretched large tracts of lush green rice paddies. It was already the fifth month, and the heavy rice ears had bowed their heads—it looked as though they would soon be ripe.

A few farmers were busy in the fields. Seeing Wu Qun's party, they all stopped their work and stared in surprise at the tall, sturdy personal guards.

"General Wu, you may not know this—the island does indeed have over two thousand farming households, but most of them are presently harvesting sugarcane to supply the island's sugar mills for pressing. The cane fields lie to the north; from here, they are beyond the reach of the eye!"

Lin Rong replied with a smile.

The dozen or so personal guards split front and back, surrounding Wu Qun and the others in the middle. Each man held a loaded flintlock pistol, sweeping their gazes warily across the surroundings while curiously eyeing the tall coconut groves in the distance.

"Those trees in the distance that seem to touch the sky are called coconut trees. Their fruit is enormous, containing a great deal of juice, and sucking it out is extremely sweet! There are quite a few coconuts at my residence—when we arrive, everyone may enjoy them to their heart's content! Hehe!"

Lin Rong greatly savored this feeling of being surrounded and escorted. Enclosed by so many pistol-bearing guards, he felt as though he had become a high court official.

He knew that people from Shandong had almost never seen the plants, fruits, and vegetables of the south, so he spoke proudly as he walked along.

"This island is rich in products, its fields are fertile, and rainfall is abundant—extremely suitable for the growth of all kinds of crops. It is only a pity that the island's population is too small. In the several years since reclamation began, only a few tens of thousands of mu have been cultivated, and most of that has been planted with sugarcane. It truly is a waste of heaven's gifts!"

Lin Rong sighed.

As a clerk in the Revenue Section of Quanzhou Prefecture, he had frequently gone down to the villages to collect rents and taxes, and over time he had come to know a great deal about farming.

As they spoke, the group arrived before the buildings they had seen in the distance, and only then realized this was a small town of modest scale. Since they had not yet penetrated deep into the town, they could not tell how many streets it had.

Because the town's farmers were all busy in the fields, the town seemed extraordinarily quiet—scarcely a single figure was to be seen.

"General Wu, this way, please! Lin Hu, go quickly and brew some tea!"

After entering the town and walking only a short distance, Lin Rong stopped before the gate of a courtyard facing the street and gestured invitingly with a smile.

"This... this is the county office?!"

Wu Qun stared at the courtyard before him, which was clearly a private residence, his face full of disbelief. The dozen or so personal guards were equally astonished.

In their impression, a county office was always an imposing and solemn place. Although Taiwan Island was newly opened territory, the island still had over two thousand people. Even if the county office did not look like those inland, it should not be this cramped and shabby—and moreover, there was not even a single plaque bearing the office's name.

"Hehe, this is the Taizhong County office. General Wu, let us speak inside—I have important matters to discuss with you! Please, enter!"

Though Lin Rong felt extremely embarrassed inside, reality was what it was. At this point he could no longer worry about face. Only by building a good relationship with Wu Qun could he accomplish anything on the island.

Wu Qun followed Lin Rong into the courtyard. Li Cheng, the squad leader of the personal guards, left eight men at the gate to stand watch, while the remaining few entered the courtyard and took position at the inner gate. He himself followed Wu Qun to the main hall and stood in attendance before the door.

After Lin Rong and Wu Qun took their seats as host and guest, Lin Rong said with a laugh: "This humble office is truly too crude. I myself only set foot on the island a little over a month ago—everything is still in its initial stages. I hope Assistant Regional Commander Wu will not take offense!"

"I have been in the army since I was a boy of ten-odd years; sleeping in the open and eating in the wind are ordinary matters to me. Magistrate Lin, as a court-appointed official, can dwell here without impatience—I am deeply impressed!"

Wu Qun's words were not mere courtesy. For a military man like himself, no place was too crude to matter, but that Lin Rong, a civil official, could face such circumstances so calmly was indeed worthy of respect.

"Alas, I too am left with no choice! Since matters have come to this, I can only continue to carry the burden forward! General Wu has likewise been ordered here. From now on, you and I must cooperate sincerely, managing Taiwan Island well for the court, so that His Majesty's realm may gain new territory!"

"Magistrate Lin speaks truly! Since we have both been sent here on orders, we naturally must put official duty first. Magistrate Lin, please rest assured—I am not a man unreasonable. Anything that benefits the court, I will do with all my strength!"

At this moment, Lin Rong's clansman Lin Hu walked in from outside carrying a pot of hot tea. After pouring tea for the two men, Lin Rong instructed: "Ahu, go cut open a few coconuts for the officers outside the gate to taste!"

Lin Hu set down the teapot and went off with an acknowledgment.

"Magistrate Lin, what is the true situation on this island? I keep feeling that something is amiss. Since the two of us will be working together for a long time, I ask that you tell me the truth about everything. Also—where are the red barbarian natives on the island? My two thousand elite troops were sent here precisely because of foreign enemies. To know nothing of them would be a cardinal error in the art of war!"

After taking a sip of hot tea, Wu Qun finally could no longer hold back the questions in his heart.

Having been ordered to come to the island to resist foreign aggression, he needed to understand the enemy situation—to know where the enemy was and how many troops they had, then send out scouts to investigate the enemy in detail, and afterward formulate a corresponding battle plan.

But the island gave him a feeling of extraordinary peace. He had spoken with Lin Rong at length and had not heard a single word about enemy movements from his mouth, which left Wu Qun deeply frustrated.

"General Wu, before I came to Taiwan, Mr. Zhang, the staff advisor of Censor-in-Chief Zou, spoke with me in detail about the island's situation. The red barbarians on the island are divided into two groups—the Dutch and the Folangji—occupying the northern and southern ends of Taiwan respectively. Their soldiers number only a few hundred, and they are far too distant from where we are in Taizhong. Taiwan's rivers and forests are dense, and the natives all live deep in the mountains and wild forests—overland travel is simply impossible. Thus, what we need to worry about now is not the red barbarians or the natives, but how we within the Great Ming divide our responsibilities on this island!"

Lin Rong then told Wu Qun in detail everything he knew about the Zheng family's control over immigration to Taiwan. At the end, he said: "From what I have learned, the court intends to relocate disaster victims from Shanxi to Taiwan on a large scale. At present, we must take administrative control of the island away from the Zheng family, and turn Taiwan into territory of our Imperial Ming—not the private domain of the Zheng family! All under heaven is the king's land, and Taiwan is no exception! Such fertile soil should belong to Imperial Ming! In the days to come, as more migrants arrive, you and I will join hands to transform this wild, uncultivated place into rich farmland that can supply the Great Ming with enormous quantities of grain—that would be a merit great enough to reach the emperor's ears directly! With such an achievement alone, the prospects for both of us would be limitless!"