Chapter 569 - Breakthrough
"Good, but don't expect much support. The Executive Committee is notoriously stingy with funding and personnel allocations for the Religious Affairs Office. The Catholic Church currently operates mostly on Jesuit money."
"I don't need many resources," Zhang Yingchen said modestly. "Just allocate me the necessary personnel—a dozen or so orphans will suffice. As for funding, current needs are limited; I can cover it myself for now."
"Personnel is extremely difficult—everyone's competing for them." He Ying shook his head. "And you want orphans? Do you realize orphans are a scarce commodity?"
"There must be some available. My requirements aren't high—ten would be enough. All boys, ages eleven to sixteen, preferably thirteen or fourteen. The fair-featured type. I'll train them personally."
"Everyone else is thinking about raising lolis, but your tastes are truly distinctive," He Ying remarked.
"Not at all." Zhang Yingchen coughed awkwardly. "I do have specific requirements! No orphans tainted with underworld associations. None who are too honest and inflexible. Preferably those who've received training in theater troupes or similar places—who understand musical instruments. Ideally with high hatred values: the more they despise this era, the better they suit our needs."
"Submit a report after the hearing passes," He Ying said. "Purely a queue-up formality—the chances of getting people immediately are slim."
Ultimately, Zhang Yingchen's proposal passed the Standing Committee's hearing and received Executive Committee approval. As for the novices he wanted—there were none available. Just as He Ying had warned: orphans were a scarce commodity in high demand from all quarters. His application wouldn't go through without waiting several months.
Zhang Yingchen decided not to wait. He chose the Sanya Development Zone as his first missionary testing ground. Large numbers of laborers there desperately needed religious solace. Moreover, launching missionary work directly in Lingao would easily create conflict with Old Wu. Though Wu Shimang was no crusader, it was wiser to avoid such direct intrusion into someone else's territory.
He resolved to use his medical skills as a vehicle for spreading doctrine. To this end, he had He Ying temporarily transfer his personnel file to the Health Department, positioning himself to compete for an assignment to Sanya in a health service capacity. As a precaution, he also had He Ying provide an introduction letter bearing the Religious Affairs Office's stamp and the State Council's seal. The Elders in charge at Sanya—Wang, Xi, Zhuo, Li, and the rest—were no gentle souls. If they mistook him for some "cult" operator and arrested him first to ask questions later, the embarrassment would be considerable.
Beyond this precious letter, Zhang Yingchen's belongings were deliberately spartan. He intended to emulate those missionaries who had blazed trails through thorns and ventured into remote regions, carrying only the most essential supplies, attempting the simplest possible lifestyle for living and proselytizing. This served not only to project the humble appearance expected of a religious person but also to prepare himself for future missionary activities deep in wilderness areas.
Besides the self-made Daoist robes he wore, he carried only a double-shoulder wicker backpack made by the Lingao Clothing Factory. Inside: several sets of coarse cloth undergarments issued to laborers; similarly labor-issued towels and enamel cups; a tin lunch box; an oilcloth rain cloak; two spare pairs of leather-soled cloth shoes; and Army-issue cloth puttees. His Swiss Army knife was the sole piece of modern equipment. Beyond this was a standard medical kit, containing mainly various Chinese patent medicines developed under Liu San's supervision, plus a few crude antibiotics.
Zhang Yingchen decided to train himself with this equipment at Yulin first. He approached the Long-Range Exploration Team and completed a four-week wilderness survival course, learning direction-finding, route selection, foraging, and various other skills. He also began studying several local dialects, including the most widely spoken Hainan dialect and military dialect. As for the Li language, there was nowhere to learn it yet.
When Hippo returned, he brought smoking braziers, medicine, food, more nurses—and this suddenly appearing doctor.
Wang Luobin and the others had already left the command office; only Zhuo Tianmin remained on duty. He'd suffered considerable injury in the riot and was temporarily convalescing at the command post.
Zhuo Tianmin examined the dispatch certificate, then studied this strange man in his strange clothes with his strange hair: a wicker box on his back, a standard Health Department medical kit slung over his shoulder, a Model 29 jungle machete hanging from his belt, a bamboo hat resting on his shoulders, and several water-filled bamboo tubes around his neck.
In this getup, he looked less like an Elder and more like an ordinary native.
"You're a doctor?"
The tall Daoist smiled and extended his hand. "Zhang Yingchen. I heard the Sanya Development Zone needed additional medical personnel, so I came here first. I'll need your assistance going forward."
"Your appearance—" Zhuo Tianmin studied him skeptically.
"Indigenous equipment setup," Zhang Yingchen explained. "I plan to venture deep into the interior to explore and gather herbs, and incidentally make contact with the local Li and Miao peoples to gauge their receptiveness to doctrine."
"I see." Zhuo Tianmin nodded. "But this equipment is too crude."
"It's sufficient." Zhang Yingchen wore his gentle smile. "Natives travel the same way, perhaps even worse equipped. If they can manage, so can I."
Zhuo Tianmin had no interest in the man's peculiar hobbies, but remained skeptical of his stated mission. The person kept claiming to be here as a doctor, yet his introduction letter and dispatch certificate both bore the Religious Affairs Office's seal.
Wang Luobin cared nothing about whether the medical personnel temporarily supporting from Bairren City was a Daoist or a priest. Once this self-proclaimed medical worker presented his attending physician certificate from Bairren City's medical system, he was cleared to assist at the clinic immediately.
But Zhuo Tianmin remained uneasy about this fellow who resembled a religious huckster more than a doctor.
In his view, the appearance of such a strange doctor in Sanya—where nerves were already frayed from constant workplace accidents—was itself an uncertain factor. Having personally experienced the Li boss's riot, Zhuo Tianmin couldn't help voicing his doubts to Wang Luobin.
Wang Luobin was unconcerned. In his view, Zhang Yingchen was at minimum properly trained. His medical skills surely exceeded those of the hastily trained veterinarians and nurses among the transmigrators, and a clergyman's appearance would serve as a timely emotional stabilizer for native workers.
"The Portuguese and Spanish brought priests to the Americas and Southeast Asia," he replied without looking up from his engineering reports. "Religious brainwashing is an indispensable weapon for colonizers. Worst case scenario—Old Zhang is one of us, an Elder too. Surely you don't think he'll carve a one-eyed stone figure at midnight and bury it at the work site to organize these natives for revolt?"
The discussion about the newly arrived Daoist doctor ended inconclusively. Zhang Yingchen, currently busy treating patients and assuring the dying that he could certainly transcend them to the Elect Heaven, had no idea two colleagues had just engaged in an unpleasant argument about him.
He soon experienced his colleagues' hostility toward his missionary activities firsthand. One day he was paired with Guo Fu. During a break, he expounded some doctrine to her. The next day, Hippo summoned him for a very serious conversation:
"I know you came to Sanya with an experimental missionary assignment. This was approved by the Central State Council." Hippo's tone was firm. "But you should know that according to Executive Directive 1-61, employees like nurses cannot be targets of proselytizing."
"Executive Directive 1-61 only prohibits proselytizing in schools, government offices, and the military. It doesn't say nurses can't be proselytized..."
"At this stage, hospitals and clinics are government offices. Nurses are public servants—no proselytizing." Hippo had no desire for his nurses to develop religious inclinations—even though religious organizations running hospitals was common worldwide.
To Zhang Yingchen, this seemed like baseless interference. But he didn't argue. To establish himself here, he needed support from the local Elders; confrontation would accomplish nothing and would only damage his prospects.
So he redirected his missionary efforts toward ordinary laborers. He believed management wouldn't interfere with such proselytizing. Moreover, after the riot, the Sanya Military Committee bosses would surely be eager for some spiritual opium to soothe the masses.
When Zhuo Tianmin received Hippo's report, he felt somewhat uneasy. After conferring with Wang Luobin, Xi Yazhou received orders to "keep an eye on that Daoist."
According to various reports, Zhang Yingchen wasn't particularly interested in traditional Daoist occult arts and immortal ascension. His missionary theory, in Zhuo Tianmin's view, was practically a variant of Christianity.
Setting aside his abstract explanations of "the Dao" as Daoism's supreme object of faith, what this short-haired Daoist constantly preached was: "The Lord Laozi pitied mankind's many hardships, and thus dispatched five hundred true immortals aboard one iron ship, descending upon the South Sea, manifesting as Holy Sovereign forms to enlighten the people, awaiting the arrival of the Land of Great Peace. Those who follow this enlightenment are the Heaven-chosen people, who will surely have a place in the Land of Great Peace; even if they unfortunately perish, they will ascend to the Elect Heaven."
This was practically nonsense, Zhuo Tianmin thought. But he also acknowledged that under current harsh conditions, giving native laborers some spiritual sustenance was beneficial. Those who believed a good place awaited them after death would be braver facing it.
Through everyone's collective efforts—particularly the widespread distribution of compound antimalarial tablets and significant nutritional improvements—the malaria tide suddenly receded after reaching its peak. Mortality plummeted. By the end of the second month, no new cases of illness or death were reported. Sanya development had finally weathered its first hurdle.
Though workplace injuries still occurred sporadically, the lifting of epidemic fears greatly calmed minds. Combined with Zhang Yingchen's tireless preaching that those who died from disease or accident had ascended to the Elect Heaven, the dual impact of material and spiritual support finally settled the previously anxious native laborers. As the environment was further modified and hygiene campaigns expanded, mosquitoes, flies, leeches, and various parasites saw their habitats deteriorate and their populations collapse. Illness rates dropped dramatically, and project progress accelerated substantially.
On April 20th, amid crackling firecrackers, the railway finally reached the Tiandu Iron Mine site. Before enthusiastic cheers from the railway workers, Wang Luobin, Zhuo Tianmin, and others symbolically drove the last spikes into the rails. The Yulin-Tiandu Railway was officially operational—the transmigrators' first formally running railway line, distinct from the industrial tracks that moved raw materials around Lingao's industrial zone.
This railway of less than twenty kilometers was later called the "Road of Blood" by certain commentators: hundreds had died from workplace accidents and epidemics during its construction. The independent scholar Dubai wrote in his work The Bloody Giant Beneath the Modernization Mask (now banned):
"...According to statistics, during the initial phase of 'Project Giant' implementation, the foundational engineering work—railway, road, and communications construction—saw nearly a thousand laborers die from accidents, overwork, disease, and malnutrition due to the extremely harsh climate and living conditions along the construction line, compounded by inhumane forced labor under certain individuals like Zhuo, Wang, and Pan. For this reason, this section of the project was later called the 'Road of Death.'"
Yet for the Elders managing Sanya development, the completion of this line represented a decisive victory. The railway was like a great blood vessel, finally capable of continuously transporting construction materials and labor to the front lines. Wang Luobin wrote in his reminiscences: "...If we still had doubts about the prospects before this, then at the moment the railway was completed, I believed Sanya development's success was only a matter of time."
Meteor No. 2 locomotive departed from the crude wooden platform of Yulin Stockade station amid firecrackers. (Meteor No. 1 had been completely wrecked due to inadequate component strength and had no repair value; it was returned to Lingao for dismantling and recycling.) Meteor No. 2 used a Mozi Type 3 steam engine with 500 horsepower output. The massive boiler devoured premium Hongji anthracite, boiling thousands of liters of water into scorching steam that drove pistons and levers. The black iron wheels slowly turned. The fully loaded train of construction materials accelerated steadily, finally reaching twenty kilometers per hour as it headed toward Tiandu Station.
The Elders laid a foundation stone at the original site of Tiandu Town, formally commencing Tiandu Iron Mine development. Supported by bulldozers, explosives, and the "Purple Lightning Kai" wheelbarrows, labor teams wielding steel tools completely destroyed the local vegetation and original landforms. Wetlands were buried under waste soil and rubble; grass and shrubs were cleared entirely. Vast swaths of brush were simply burned away. The river valley once lush with subtropical vegetation had now become mostly barren wasteland.
The Tiandu River had dried up as well—dammed temporarily upstream while the riverbed was dredged and deepened. Wang Luobin planned to build a small reservoir nearby to supply Tiandu Town and the mining district with domestic and industrial water. If the water volume proved sufficient, they might add a small hydroelectric plant as supplementary power.
(End of Chapter)