Chapter 849 - Land Acquisition
Zhang Yikun spoke up: "New Guangzhou and such are still far off. I think the first step should be establishing a Guangzhou Industrial Park. The location should be relatively distant from the city. The first phase would naturally focus on building materials factories—supplying the Grand World and the Zizi brand enterprises initially. Later we can add light industrial ventures. I recall the Light Industry Department has also mentioned wanting to make full use of Guangdong's abundant agricultural products. Wouldn't food processing plants and textile mills be very suitable projects?"
In the near term, these enterprises would provide products for the Grand World and wholesale operations. In the long term, the industrialized production of these factories would deal a devastating blow to Guangdong's handicraft industries. This destructive productive capacity would ultimately exert enormous influence over the province's entire economy and society, eventually accelerating the collapse of traditional society.
Hong Shuiyin said: "As for the location, I suggest we still choose somewhere not too far from the Grand World. That way, in case of armed conflict, the two sites can support and coordinate with each other. And it definitely needs to be built along the Pearl River, with a water transport dock to facilitate the shipping of raw materials and finished goods."
From a planning perspective, the construction site should be downstream and downwind of the Grand World, to prevent smoke and wastewater from affecting the commercial complex. The two sites should be three to four kilometers apart, connected by a good road. In the long term, a small railway could link them.
The group then discussed specific details regarding water supply and drainage, lighting and cooling, and other matters, gradually shaping an overall plan.
"Let's get this organized and send someone back to Lingao for approval right away?" Zhang Yikun said excitedly.
"Send it to Guo Yi first," Mei Lin reminded him. "He is the head of the Guangzhou Station, after all."
"Oh, oh, right. I almost forgot." Zhang Yikun shook his head. "That would be going over his head. I've been self-employed too long—I'm not used to thinking about these things."
The plan quickly received Guo Yi's approval, followed by approval from the Planning Commission. Zhang Yikun personally made the trip back to Lingao to "shepherd" the proposal through—technically, he only needed to hand the plan to the couriers who regularly traveled between Lingao and Guangzhou. But at Guo Yi's suggestion, he went back himself.
The Guangzhou Grand World was an unplanned project. Though it had received approval from the Elder Council and the Executive Committee, in Guo Yi's experience, if the person in charge did not personally follow up, such projects would inevitably be delayed during implementation—whether intentionally or inadvertently. Production departments had extremely tight schedules, and every demanding unit was watching closely. For the Guangzhou Grand World to break ground soon, Zhang Yikun would have to personally "work the ministries."
Thanks to Zhang Yikun's efforts, the project finally received approval item by item. Wu De agreed with his suggestion to first establish several factories to complete the groundwork—from his perspective, this would reduce pressure on Lingao's existing material supplies. Additionally, it meant the entire Grand World construction would be delayed.
From the factories' land acquisition and groundbreaking to formal production, it would take at least half a year to establish stable production capacity. Only then could the Guangzhou Grand World formally enter its construction phase. The material demand pressure it would create would thus be pushed back to the second half of 1631.
The overall plan took shape: beginning in March, there would be land acquisition and infrastructure preparation—leveling, water, electricity, and road access. Besides the core Lingao Construction Engineering Team, all construction workers would be locally recruited laborers. After the project concluded, these workers could become factory employees on the spot. The machinery and equipment the enterprises needed would be produced off-plan as arranged by the Planning Commission. The first batch of building materials would be procured locally in Guangdong, with specialized materials shipped from Lingao—all coordinated and allocated by the Planning Commission. The Commission would also convene a coordination meeting to transfer technical staff from the brickworks, timber processing plant, and woodworks factory to Guangzhou for equipment installation and technical guidance. Some native workers would also be transferred to serve as the backbone labor force for the new enterprises.
Cheng Dong allocated funding and a foreign exchange quota for the Grand World project as well. Of course, this allocation was far from sufficient—it could only be considered seed funding.
The Guangzhou Grand World project was reported to Li Fengjie through Li Xijue's channels. Li Xijue recounted Guo Yi's plan in full. When Li Fengjie received this news, he was reading a book. Hearing the report, he remained silent, his eyebrows not even twitching. Li Xijue knew these senior officials all cultivated "depth of composure" and had mastered the art of controlling their expressions. He simply stood respectfully, waiting.
After turning three or four pages, the Governor finally spoke:
"What do you make of this matter?"
"It would certainly be best not to permit them..." Although Li Xijue had been compelled by Guo Yi to accept this project at their meeting, he felt clarity was essential on this issue. He harbored a vague sense that behind this Grand World project lay an extremely deep plot by the Australians—probably not as simple as just building another grand establishment like "Ziming Tower." Most likely they intended to build an Australian concession outside Guangzhou. He hastened to add: "This is a case of 'borrowing land to dry waterlogged goods'—we have a precedent to warn us. Please consider this, Master."
Li Fengjie stroked his beard in silence. Li Xijue understood what occupied his thoughts. Guangdong officialdom, from top to bottom, had been cowed by the transmigrators. Last year, they had raided the Guangzhou area, occupied Humen, bombarded Guangzhou, thrown the surrounding counties into chaos, killed many gentry, and plundered vast amounts of property. This matter had already attracted the court's attention. Fortunately, heaven was high and the emperor far away; His Majesty was occupied day and night with the roving bandits and the Eastern Tartars, unable to spare attention for affairs down here. Even He Rubin's disaster in Qiongzhou still awaited an official court ruling. According to letters from Li Fengjie's secretaries, fellow examination candidates, and friends in the capital, there was a good chance the matter would simply be glossed over—the government forces had lost troops and officers, sustaining "army losses," but they had not actually "lost territory." In the court's eyes, this still compared favorably to the provinces plagued by roving bandits. However, responsibility would eventually be assigned: General He would likely become a "washed-up officer."
With the Qiongzhou mess as precedent, the attacks around Guangzhou had been characterized as "sea bandits exploiting their victory to raid." After all, such things had happened before—once, a few hundred Japanese pirates had rampaged through Southern Zhili, fighting all the way to the walls of Nanjing. The court had not considered the sky falling then either.
Li Fengjie cared nothing for He Rubin's future. What concerned him most was how to maintain stability in Guangdong, especially around Guangzhou. Last time, resolution had only come through secret "territorial concessions and reparations." If he offended the transmigrators over this matter, who knew what new tricks they might devise? He would have no way to answer to the court.
But these were words he would never speak to Li Xijue. After a long pause, he finally put on an air of indifference:
"Why bring such a trivial matter to me? Let them go see Prefect Yu."
Prefect Yu was Yu Baocun, the Prefect of Guangzhou. Li Fengjie had made up his mind: whether it was land acquisition or building some sort of "World," it was all a local Guangzhou matter—let it be Yu Baocun's responsibility.
Thus the matter landed on Yu Baocun's desk. Li Xijue naturally could not escape either; he had to meet face-to-face with Prefect Yu to convey instructions while doing his best to correctly interpret the leader's intentions. Obviously, His Excellency the Governor had no intention of opposing the transmigrators on this matter.
"The land parcels are right here and here." LĂĽ Yizhong, who had been ordered to discuss the details with Yu Baocun, showed complete indifference to the Prefect's surprise. He produced the map he had brought along: a simplified map of Guangzhou and its suburbs that specifically annotated all terrain features and settlements outside the city walls.
Yu Baocun had already received word from Li Fengjie. He silently cursed the Governor for passing him yet another scorching hot potato, but this was indeed his responsibility, and he had no grounds to refuse. Besides, he still needed to count on Governor Li not to slip any poison pills his way regarding the Commissioner's "departure." For that alone, he had already gifted the Governor's favorite concubine quite a few valuable Australian goods.
He studied where LĂĽ Yizhong was pointing. Both parcels lay outside the Great East Gate, right along the river. Yu Baocun had never seen a modern map, but he had at least seen geographic charts. He examined it carefully; the two parcels the Australians wanted were across the river from each other, several li apart.
Yu Baocun was an official with practical local government experience. Though he could not read the scale, based on the surrounding terrain he could roughly estimate the area of land the Australians wanted—approximately a thousand mu altogether. Most of it was official land, which would not be too troublesome to handle. Yu Baocun finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Master Guo's meaning is this: he is willing to pay for all these parcels. He simply asks the Prefect to help facilitate matters," said LĂĽ Yizhong.
"Of course, of course." Yu Baocun nodded repeatedly, privately cursing LĂĽ Yizhong as utterly shameless for immediately defecting to the transmigrators. But this man had been untouchable before, and was even more untouchable now. He could only smile and agree to everything.
Several people gathered to discuss how to make this matter both legitimate and satisfactory to all parties. The Australians' land purchase could not be made public—an official pretext was required. After consideration, Yu Baocun suggested using the name of establishing a commercial port. The reasoning would be: Guangdong had recently suffered military disaster, natural calamities had been frequent in recent years, and the common people were displaced. Meanwhile, the court was constantly raising large armies, straining imperial finances. Now the only option was to open up new revenue sources and collect more commercial taxes to serve the court. Therefore, they had decided to designate a commercial port along the Pearl River and invite merchants to build there and conduct trade.
This reasoning was righteous, reasonable, and easy to implement. Yu Baocun ordered the county magistrates and secretaries of Panyu and Nanhai to be summoned for joint consultation. After conferring, they decided to allocate as much official land for sale as possible, to avoid disputes during land acquisition that might cause problems—everyone understood this land was actually being purchased by the Australians, so caution was paramount.
With local officials' full support, the land acquisition proceeded smoothly. Guo Yi understood well that in the Ming Dynasty, even if you possessed foreign guns and cannons, without proper lubrication, affairs would progress at a glacial pace. After all, he could not simply drag people out and shoot them. Thus, through LĂĽ Yizhong, he hinted to the major local officials that the Guangzhou Grand World project would be open for public share offerings. If they were interested, they could enjoy the privilege of purchasing "subscription certificates" in advance.