Chapter 848 - Planning
Guo Yi had no intention of letting Li Xijue wriggle out of this so easily—he was counting on the government to serve as his demolition crew. Although the buildings requiring demolition outside the city were few, land acquisition remained complex work. Landlords, great households, and clan organizations would make the process impossibly difficult if the transmigrators attempted it alone. While Guangzhou was essentially already in the Elder Council's pocket, the time had not yet come for open and brazen political control.
"They're just country bumpkins—how worldly can they really be?" Guo Yi wore a knowing smile. "Besides, we're not stingy people unwilling to spend money. With government assistance, what matter can't be accomplished? Surely no one expects to work for nothing."
"Well, this, um..." Li Xijue genuinely did not dare commit to anything. Australian affairs could be made into something major or minor, and they had become a thorny matter that everyone in officialdom desperately wanted to avoid. After thinking it over, he had no choice but to continue his delaying tactics: "This matter is of great importance. Allow me to return and think it over carefully..."
Guo Yi gave a cold laugh and lifted his teacup to his lips.
"Such a trivial matter, and you still need to think it over?"
Li Xijue felt a chill—not because Guo Yi was radiating some powerful fighting aura, but because he recalled the "grand spectacle" of just a few months past: transmigrator warships bombarding Humen, their forces arriving at Baie Tan, the burning of Wuyang Post Station. He had witnessed with his own eyes how government troops had collapsed at first contact, how the transmigrators' advance to the walls of Guangzhou had been like crushing rotten wood.
Within the Governor-General's staff, he had never been fully trusted. If these negotiations went well, fine; but the slightest mishap would make him a ready-made scapegoat. If he offended the transmigrators and provoked some incident, the Governor might simply hand him over to appease them.
A desolate sense of having no one to rely upon settled over him. He could only nod: "I wonder what insight Master Guo might offer on this matter?"
"I have no particular insight," Guo Yi's expression softened, "but I do have a proposal here. This matter will certainly not put you in a difficult position—not only will it not inconvenience you, but it will benefit everyone..."
On Huifu Street, a temporary "Grand World Project Team" was established. The project team was headed by Hong Shuiyin, the Hong Kong Trade Representative. He currently had nothing to do in Hong Kong—Dutch ships would not arrive for several months at least—so he was temporarily transferred to lead the new project. The other key member was the future Grand World's "General Manager": Zhang Yikun.
The Grand World project had originally been Zhang Yikun's brainchild. In the old time-space, he had run a small business, and his commercial instincts and public relations abilities were quite sharp. But in Lingao, there was little room to exercise such talents, so he had spent his time idling about in the Commerce Department. Li Mei already felt her own workload was too light; his situation was even more dire. With so much idle time on his hands, he had been conscripted by Hu Qingbai to serve as a part-time teacher at Fangcaodi, instructing everything from arithmetic to language to natural science.
Getting the Guangzhou Grand World project approved had immediately elevated Zhang Yikun's standing. As the project's initiator and planner, and given his relevant expertise, he easily won the appointment as operations manager in the open recruitment held by the Organization Department.
At this moment, he was in a courtyard on Huifu Street, studying the draft design for the future Grand World—hand-drawn by Li Xiaolü just a few days prior. To ensure speedy construction, Mei Wan had specifically instructed both Mei Lin and Li Xiaolü to remain in Guangzhou to support the project. To facilitate her work, Li Xiaolü had been provided with a set of professional drafting tools and even special lighting—powered by a hand-cranked generator assigned to the Guangzhou Station.
The guiding design philosophy of the "Grand World" was essentially an armed trading post combined with a shopping mall. Li Xiaolü had no concept of what this peculiar hybrid should look like. Though she had spent her days in the old time-space doing drafting work, she had never drawn structural diagrams for a bastion—let alone one with commercial functions. Hong Shuiyin and the others had explained and sketched until she finally understood what they envisioned.
However, the draft she had produced remained quite far from their vision. At least the basic shape was there now. The drawing showed a "pentagonal building complex"—figuratively speaking, like the Pentagon.
"Now we're getting somewhere!" Zhang Yikun nodded repeatedly. "But the internal structure..."
"We'll refine it gradually. It would be best if you could give me a clear functional and structural sketch—that way I can produce a proper design." Li Xiaolü stretched. "Some concepts simply can't be designed. They conflict with building function and structure."
"Of course, of course. We'll defer primarily to your professional opinion." Zhang Yikun nodded vigorously. He was exceedingly courteous to the female architect—not only because she was quite professionally capable, but also because of the rumor that she had an ambiguous relationship with someone on the Executive Committee. People had seen that someone enter and exit her apartment overnight.
"There's also the geological data," Li XiaolĂĽ said. "Next, I need to design the building structure. You'll need to get me the geological data for the construction site as soon as possible."
"We'll send people to survey as soon as we confirm the site." Zhang Yikun studied this somewhat listless woman and thought that although she was fair-skinned and delicate-looking, with a scholarly demeanor, she possessed no particularly impressive figure or features. She was also rather inactive, spending all day with a languid air. How had she caught the eye of someone on the Executive Committee?
Multiple proposals existed for the Grand World's site, but the project team's basic requirements were clear: it must be outside the city walls and backing onto the Pearl River.
Being outside the city meant being away from the government's core area of control, allowing greater freedom of action and making it easier for authorities to turn a blind eye. It also meant more open land, making acquisition, demolition, and construction far more convenient than attempting urban renewal inside Guangzhou. The Guangzhou Station had learned this lesson the hard way: when building the facilities on Huifu Street and elsewhere, just getting construction materials into the city each day had been a headache. The roads were narrow and winding; all building materials had to be carried to the site by hand. The inefficiency of transporting materials had significantly delayed the entire construction schedule.
However, the Grand World could not be too far from the city either—excessive distance would make it difficult to attract sufficient customers while also increasing road construction costs. Thus the proposal to build in Huangpu was rejected. The distance from Huangpu to Guangzhou City, unless the Station also built a small railway to transport customers, would simply fail to draw clientele.
"No more than five kilometers from the city walls—under good road conditions, that's still an hour's walk. This would significantly reduce how often city residents visit our Grand World."
If a city resident left home, averaged half an hour to exit the city, then walked another hour, the round trip alone would consume three hours. Spending too much time traveling would keep him from visiting the Grand World frequently. The group concluded that two to three kilometers was optimal.
Backing onto the Pearl River was primarily for convenient water intake and drainage. The Grand World's water consumption would be enormous—wells and small streams could never suffice. As for drainage, great rivers had served as natural waste channels since ancient times.
Building along the Pearl River would also facilitate cargo transport and the projection of deterrent force. If necessary, naval gunboats could anchor offshore, conveniently supporting the trading post's defense or covering an evacuation.
After discussion, they settled on a location roughly two kilometers east of the Great East Gate, then slightly south—approximately where the Dashatou used goods market or the Star & Light Electronics City would stand in the old time-space. This area was alluvial land along the Pearl River, mostly unclaimed official land with minimal acquisition and demolition requirements. The space was also ample enough to accommodate their ambitions.
"However, to build something as enormous as the Grand World, building materials will be a major problem. We can't rely on Lingao to ship them all to us..." Mei Lin studied the design drawing. Though it did not fully match Zhang Yikun's vision, in terms of scale it followed the group's specifications exactly. Each side of this "Pentagon" stretched a full two hundred meters. The Grand World's perimeter would be nearly a full kilometer.
A building complex with a one-kilometer perimeter would be practically a small city by the standards of this era. Mei Lin had worked as a project manager before and understood immediately the engineering volume and quantity of building materials such scale would require.
"Hasn't the Planning Commission agreed to establish building materials factories and light industrial enterprises right outside Guangzhou City?"
"Exactly why the scope of land acquisition can't be too small," Mei Lin said. "We need to factor in construction land for supporting enterprises. We can source bricks, tiles, and stone locally, but we'll absolutely have to build our own timber processing plant—traditional lumber processing is far too inefficient."
"Ideally we'd build our own brickworks too. Traditional brick firing couldn't supply anywhere near enough volume," Hong Shuiyin added. During his construction work in Hong Kong, he had initially purchased bricks and tiles from kilns in Kowloon and elsewhere, only to discover that these purchases were unsuitable—the dimensions were too large, and the production volume too low. Procurement agents had soon traveled so far to secure adequate bricks and tiles that transportation costs exceeded the cost of the bricks themselves.
"But would it be appropriate to site those factories next to the Grand World?" Zhang Yikun raised the concern. Brick-making and timber processing were both highly polluting. Placing them adjacent to a commercial center would severely impact the environment.
"We can find another location. We don't even need to invest ourselves," Hong Shuiyin proposed. "Let local magnates invest. We'll contribute technology and equipment as our stake. With a guaranteed market, they'll definitely want in, right?"
"We need a cement plant," Mei Lin said. "Shipping cement from Lingao isn't practical. The same goes for lime production. All of that needs to be solved locally."
Building materials were low in value and high in transport cost. Even cement, with its relatively higher value, had a sales radius of no more than five hundred kilometers in modern society.
Though local raw materials for cement production were limited around Guangzhou, the production sites were not far away, and all were connected by the Pearl, East, and West Rivers. Transportation was convenient.
"And a timber processing plant and woodworks factory," Hong Shuiyin added. "In the near term, we can process lumber and produce woodwork for the Grand World project. Later, we can supply the Hong Kong shipyard. In the future, we can support the New Guangzhou project."