Chapter 526 - The Guangzhou Station Before the Assembly

Every Saturday evening at this hour, the members of the Guangzhou Station gathered secretively in the station's safe house to hear the latest directives from Lingao.

The people seated around the rosewood table were almost unrecognizable compared to their former selves. The most striking difference was their hair: all had grown it out and tied it into topknots. Meng Xian, whose hair was still too short, wore a false topknot concealed beneath a gauze turban.

They were dressed in the attire favored by wealthy men of the Great Ming—silks and satins went without saying. The accessories and pendants they wore were enough to drive any colleague back in Lingao wild with envy. Pepi's gauze gown was so sheer, its colors so vivid, and its embroidery so exquisite that any female transmigrator who saw it would die of jealousy.

On the table sat four varieties of dried fruit. The topmost-grade Wuyi Da Hong Pao tea—by any standard in this timeline—had gone cold. None of them bad taken a single sip. In any other residence, attendant servants and maids would long since have poured out the cold tea and brought fresh. But here, they dared not enter. This courtyard on Huifu Street was Master Guo's forbidden ground; any servant who ventured in unbidden would vanish without a trace before the sun rose.

Guo Yi, Yan Maoda, Zhang Xin, Pepi, and the recently arrived Meng Xian sat around the table, watching as Zhang Yuchen unfolded the telegram and read it aloud.

They had already guessed most of its contents. Although no official dispatch had yet arrived from Lingao, news of the "Maid Revolution," the Executive Committee's resignation, and the impending Second General Assembly had reached Guangzhou through casual radio chats between Zhang Yuchen and his sister, Zhang Yu. Not long ago, they had received an official telegram announcing the Executive Committee's resignation and the formation of the caretaker cabinet.

The news unsettled the Guangzhou Station personnel. Under the previous Executive Committee's leadership, the station's development had been smooth sailing. Now they suddenly heard there was to be a change of leadership—though they knew it was arguably the proper course. Hearing that the maid issue had stirred up serious internal strife only deepened the anxiety of these staff members stationed far from home. First, they feared internal disputes could split the collective; second, they worried about becoming targets for certain elements within the group. When it came to possessing women, everyone at the Guangzhou Station except Pepi was "over quota." Their colleagues back in Lingao were agonizing over personal secretaries, while here they were surrounded by lovely maids and concubines. If those people ever saw this, they would be torn limb from limb.

Should someone with ulterior motives whip up the "Guangzhou issue," there was no telling what decisions the caretaker cabinet might make against the station under pressure from "public opinion." The recent establishment of an audit department, coupled with rumors of a comprehensive financial audit and inspection of all departments, only deepened their concerns. If problems were sought, they would be found: the Guangzhou Station handled enormous sums of money, grain, and goods—there had to be irregularities. It all depended on whether anyone intended to make an issue of it.

Guo Yi was particularly anxious about his own future. Though he was station chief—the transmigrated collective's number-one general in the commercial and foreign-trade arena—his status remained a problem. To this day, he still held only a temporary ID.

If someone intented to single out a negative example from the Guangzhou Station, he—an outsider with no power base within the collective—was the ideal candidate.

The telegram had two parts. The first requested that the Guangzhou Station quickly prepare a batch of women in Guangzhou—"women who suit modern tastes"—with basic requirements of good health, regular features, and unbound feet, aged between sixteen and twenty-five.

"…Three to four hundred in number," Zhang Yuchen read. "If genuinely difficult, at least one hundred must be shipped to Lingao by the end of January 1630. Expenses are to be listed under the special-expenditure category."

"It's not that there are none, but assembling that many will be hard," Zhang Xin muttered. The Guangzhou refugee camp was under his management.

The second part of the telegram informed them of the Second General Assembly's schedule. They were to conduct proposal submissions and discussions in Guangzhou as well. Assembly proposals advancing to full discussion would be delivered by Navy transport ships. The Guangzhou Station's proposals could be submitted by telegraph.

Finally, they were reminded that they must return to Lingao by January 25 to attend the General Assembly. One or two could remain behind at their discretion; the choice was up to the station.

"I'll stay behind," Guo Yi said. "I'm probably the most suitable."

Everyone knew that, strictly speaking, Guo Yi was not a member of the transmigrated collective. Whether he had the right to speak or vote at the Assembly was an open question; whether he attended was not a major concern.

"I think you'd better go back," Yan Maoda said. "For one thing, there's the Assembly; for another, it's also a work report. The Guangzhou Station has been operating for over a year now, and the Executive Committee surely owes everyone an accounting. You're the one in overall charge; not going would look bad."

Guo Yi nodded. Beyond its explicit meaning, Yan Maoda's remark carried a second implication: if he avoided going back, people would not assume it was about voting rights—they might instead suspect he had done something shady in Guangzhou and dared not return to report.

Zhang Xin added, "I agree. As for staying behind, Pepi and I will do it." Zhang Xin was essentially the station's general manager, familiar with every aspect; with him there, things would run smoothly.

No one objected. Pepi had no interest whatsoever in General Assemblies. She was wholly absorbed in Ziming Tower, adeptly navigating among officials and the powerful, reveling in the flattery of men. From time to time, she hosted local notables and their cherished mistresses at her little salon. Her life was infinitely fulfilling; Lingao held no appeal.

Zhang Yuchen, on the other hand, was eager to go back. He would finally get to meet Zhang Yu in person. After more than a year of radio chats, he was dying to see this girl. He had even scoured Guangzhou for pretty little trinkets and clothing to present to her.

"The issue is preparing the girls—that's not easy, and they're in such a hurry," Zhang Xin said. "Three or four hundred girls meeting these requirements can't be rounded up at short notice. Even a hundred is difficult."

"First, let's see how many girls in the refugee camp fall within this age range," Yan Maoda said. "As long as they're the right age, healthy, with unbound feet and a minimum height of 1.55 meters, that should be enough. As for 'meeting modern aesthetic tastes'—that standard is too vague; just ignore it."

"Even so, there aren't enough." Zhang Xin retrieved an account book from a locked cabinet in the safe house. "As of last Sunday's count, not counting age, females total just over six hundred. Those in the target age bracket are under a hundred. Everything else is a non-starter."

"Besides, they're all sallow and emaciated—hardly 'healthy.' The caretaker cabinet definitely won't be satisfied if we send them to Lingao."

Local procurement was an option, of course, but the cost would be steep. Girls in the hands of slave traders commanded high prices. More importantly, a purchase on this scale could not be concealed. This was not their usual practice of picking up vagrants off the street under the guise of charity; this was a single bulk purchase of several hundred young women. Anywhere in the world, that would attract considerable attention.

After a moment's thought, Zhang Xin said, "How about this: tell Sun Kecheng to buy in areas where Rising Power Escort Agency has outposts—Guangdong and Jiangxi. Maybe a dozen per location. Added up, that could amount to around a hundred. Then we find some suitable candidates in the refugee camp."

Everyone found this workable. Yan Maoda smiled. "It's a good thing we took a controlling stake in Rising Power back then. With this subcontractor, everything's so much easier. Boss Sun is upright and reliable."

Over the past year and a half, Rising Power had leveraged the transmigrated collective's funding and ever-expanding business to grow from a small escort agency into a giant renowned throughout Guangdong. Setting aside its "external-counter" operations, the agency's core business alone now boasted over three hundred registered escorts.

"Rising Power will definitely come up at the meeting when I go back to Lingao," Guo Yi said. "The agency's grown large. They're only partners with us—there's still a layer in between. Their autonomy is too great. Right now, that's not a big issue, but once the authorities get involved, it may not be so easy to manage."

"True," Zhang Xin nodded. "And Rising Power has basically become a Jiangxi gang. Boss Sun is a good man, but his approach to hiring is traditional."

Almost every escort in Rising Power was a disciple or protégé of Sun Kecheng and his martial-arts brothers—or a fellow townsman or relative. The overwhelming majority hailed from Boss Sun's home region. Those from elsewhere were almost all assigned to the external counter.

This system fostered tight cohesion but inevitably smacked of nepotism. And such clannishness posed a latent threat to the transmigrated collective.

"I think we should absorb Rising Power—bring it completely under our control," Yan Maoda said. "If we don't take it over now, it'll only get harder once the scale expands further."

"How do we do that?" Guo Yi had pondered this too but had not found a good solution.

"Scatter the sand."

"You mean insert our own people? That would be difficult!" Zhang Xin shook his head. "Sun Kecheng's group sticks together tight. Inserting outsiders is nearly impossible. If we force it, we risk hurting feelings."

"I said scatter, not insert." Yan Maoda explained: "Right now, the Jiangxi clique in Rising Power is a lump of sand, compacted tight here in Guangdong. But if we scatter them across the country? The lump falls apart."

"You mean we should have Rising Power expand nationwide?!"

"Exactly," Yan Maoda nodded. "There's no real need to go nationwide—first establish presence in Jiangsu–Zhejiang and the capital. Once the scale grows, the current personnel will have to disperse. Old Boss Sun will probably be thrilled to see his disciples going off to run their own operations. And that's when we insert our people at the local level."

(End of Chapter)