Chapter 865 - Future Planning

"An ancestral hall?" Mei Lin was puzzled. Among the elders, there were many architectural dreamers—some wanted to build a Soviet Palace, some wanted a Congress Hall, others wanted their own vacation villas, estates, castles, museums, palaces...

But not a single person wanted to build an ancestral hall. The elders had no interest in these symbols of clan society. Perhaps some elders wanted to become "gods," but merely being an "ancestor" held no appeal for anyone.

"What's the ancestral hall for?"

Zhao Yingong's expression was very solemn: "Of course, it's for venerating my Great Song's ancestral emperors."

"I understand." Mei Lin realized Zhao Yingong was preparing to solidify his identity as a descendant of the Zhao-Song imperial house.

This ancestral hall for venerating "ancestral emperors" had originally been planned for the banks of West Lake, but it hadn't materialized due to land prices and the External Intelligence Bureau's disapproval of such ostentation.

"I don't know much about ancient architecture. An ancestral hall would definitely have to be built according to ancient forms, otherwise it wouldn't look dignified—and there's the issue of exceeding regulations. Building Phoenix Villa will certainly require local craftsmen, so be careful not to get reported." Mei Lin was somewhat worried.

Zhao Yingong said: "I've already had the design plans drawn up by someone—don't worry, it definitely won't exceed regulations. I had people from the Grand Library's Historical Research Office, as well as Secretary Wang and others, all look it over."

Mei Lin agreed—after all, he was only responsible for building. But he immediately proposed a counter-condition: he wanted Zhao Yingong to help keep Zhou Dongtian around for a while longer, waiting until he finished his current work before departing—he wanted to go to Nanjing with Zhou Dongtian.

"Having come all the way to Jiangnan, it would be too much of a pity not to go to Nanjing. I absolutely must observe how Nanjing is 'where the dragon coils and the tiger crouches'..."

Zhao Yingong of course knew what he was really thinking. He smiled tactfully: "I'll definitely persuade Old Zhou."

Zhou Dongtian had been indifferent about taking Mei Lin to Nanjing anyway. Hangzhou was quite comfortable; staying a few more days eating and sleeping, and incidentally doing some internal vetting work. The Hangzhou Station's population had increased substantially—besides children, many servants had come. All these people needed appropriate secret investigation and evaluation.

When the subjects didn't know they were being evaluated, one obviously couldn't assume an interrogation posture—otherwise word that some strange people had come to the Zhao residence would certainly spread widely. The inspection team was lodging as Zhao Yingong's friends, and their actions couldn't go beyond what friendship would allow. Zhou Dongtian had received training in body language reading. Just by casually saying a few words and observing the other person's expressions and movements, he could discern the general situation.

As a "consultant" for the Political Security General Administration, he made contact with and observed every servant, particularly watching for any unusual behavior. A spy, once they began operating, would inevitably reveal traces that distinguished them from others.

Several days later, he confirmed that none of the native personnel recruited by the Hangzhou Station were spies. As for the native personnel's reliability, that couldn't be determined in a short time. However, except for the sedan bearers who had some of the rough ways of the rivers and lakes, most of the servants were honest and simple people, relatively easy to bind into a common interest chain with the Hangzhou Station. As for how their reliability might develop in the future, that would depend on Zhao Yingong's own ability to cultivate and manage his subordinates.

But loyalty first required forming a community of interest. Zhou Dongtian believed that no matter how strong one's ability to manage subordinates, one could never become a "queen" or "overmind" like the Zerg. Whether real interests or illusory ones, loyalty still needed to be built on the foundation of shared interests.

Zhao Yingong's main approach was to start with the children. Besides the orphans collected from the streets and human markets, he also organized all the servants' children together.

These children ranged from five or six to thirteen or fourteen years old. Zhao Yingong instructed Sun Wangcai to give pocket money to all servants' children and have them attend the household school in the abandoned garden. He also planned that once Phoenix Villa was completed, all the children would live there in collective dormitories, experiencing complete communal life: eating together, living together, studying together, laboring together—thoroughly indoctrinating them in culture and worldview.

Changing adults was not easy, but children were blank slates. How they were shaped was entirely in Zhao Yingong's control. By first capturing the children's hearts, their parents would follow. Their parents, being servants with basically no education, couldn't possibly have any influence on their children. They would only feel grateful for their master's behavior.

Among the servants Zhao Yingong had taken in, about half had children—he preferred entire families over single servants. People with children had greater survival pressures and greater concerns. Such people, once they had a safe and stable environment, wouldn't have many other ideas. A little kindness was enough to win their complete devotion. And for most people, children were the most effective hostages.

The land preparation for Phoenix Villa was quickly completed. Sun Wangcai and Cai Shi purchased over two thousand mu of land on Phoenix Mountain—for not very much. Most of the land was barren hillside; the land near the river at the foot of the mountain was mostly sandy loam and at risk of occasional flooding. Whether government land or private, it wasn't worth much. All the land was purchased and deeded, with public and private expenses totaling less than five hundred taels of silver.

Zhao Yingong hired a construction firm—a so-called mugui [carpentry cabinet], the ancient equivalent of a construction company, specializing in building projects. The mugui's head was a Dongyang carpenter. He found the architectural drawings Mei Lin produced quite bewildering—not that ancients didn't have architectural drawings, but ordinary building craftsmen rarely used them. Moreover, in his eyes, the buildings Mei Lin designed were all "not according to proper form." For building houses, carpenters relied on the Yingzao Fashi [Treatise on Architectural Methods]. For various types of structures—how they should be designed, their dimensions, their external appearance—almost everything had established patterns.

After studying Mei Lin's drawings for a long time, this carpenter finally said: "Building the houses themselves isn't difficult, but buildings of this appearance are quite strange. Is this how you build houses in Guangdong?"

Mei Lin personally thought his designs still had an "ancient architectural style"—he had just applied modern architectural principles to the structure and spatial arrangement. He hadn't expected the other party to find them strange. If that was the case, bastion-style architecture would be even stranger.

He said carefully: "Back in our Sanshui, we build houses this way. I've heard some of the styles came from overseas."

"Eye-opening indeed." The carpenter muttered while looking. "Sir! I advise you to build according to proper form. Houses built like this will probably be laughed at..."

The two sides had a small dispute over this issue. The carpenter felt that building such unique "Guangdong-style" houses would invite ridicule. Mei Lin naturally insisted on his architectural principles—after all, the estate's buildings were meant to serve practical purposes and couldn't accommodate so-called "proper form." Ming-Qing architecture was certainly beautiful and full of character, but in terms of comfort and space utilization, it was quite poor. Having come to this time-space, he would naturally insist on advanced architectural techniques.

In the end, they built according to Mei Lin's drawings—the Phoenix Villa construction project was substantial, and for the mugui it was a big business deal. No matter how attached the old carpenter was to the Yingzao Fashi, he wouldn't turn away money.

What most surprised the old carpenter was the drainage system and water supply system in the design drawings—of course he wasn't unfamiliar with such things. Many Jiangnan towns and even villages had complete and reliable drainage systems. But he had never seen one designed so "extravagantly." In his thinking, since this was just an estate, there was no need for overly complex drainage. Just laying a few covered stone drainage channels in the residence's courtyards would suffice. There was no need to dig such large channels that a person could almost walk through. As for water supply, digging several wells within the estate compound would be enough—there were already several mountain springs on the foundation; once cleared and fitted with well curbs, they would make excellent wells with good water quality and sufficient supply. Why build such complex drainage channels and reservoir pools and ponds on the hillside?

Bricks, tiles, and lime would be supplied by local kilns; timber would be transported from Dongyang, Quzhou, and other places. The crumbling walls and ruins scattered all over Phoenix Mountain also provided a considerable portion of building materials, especially stone.

During the clearing of broken bricks and rubble, large quantities of Song Dynasty roof tiles and glazed tiles were unearthed. Zhao Yingong instructed that they all be gathered and stored—he planned to use these materials to build the Zhao-Song imperial ancestral hall. Of course, anything that clearly violated regulations couldn't be used and would have to be kept aside for now.

Construction progress was slow—the gap between Mei Lin's architectural concepts and methods and those of this time-space was too great. Every day, considerable time was spent communicating with the mugui's people. Procurement and transport of building materials were also very slow. Two weeks after breaking ground, barely anything had been accomplished. Mei Lin had grown accustomed to Lingao's efficiency and found the local sluggish pace quite frustrating. He also worried that if he lingered too long on the project, Zhou Dongtian wouldn't wait and would depart without him.

"In the future, I definitely have to bring my own construction crew for the work. The natives can only serve as laborers," Mei Lin would complain every day returning from the site. "They always think our methods are too strange. They keep telling me we're just wasting money. Some of them simply take me for a fool!"

Zhao Yingong consoled him: "This is a generational gap. Wasn't it the same when you first had naturalized workers building houses?"

Setting all that aside, the overall layout of the Phoenix Villa that Mei Lin designed still followed traditional patterns. The estate's main residential buildings sat at the foot of Phoenix Mountain, facing Shaozhouwan, backed by Wansong Ridge. The estate itself was built in the style of rural fortified compounds common in this time-space, with some defensive capability.

The residence proper, enclosed by walls, occupied 8 mu of building space, with multiple courtyards distributed throughout. It included the Hangzhou Station headquarters, Zhao Yingong's residence, a Hangzhou Station guesthouse, quarters for Hangzhou Station staff and servants, school and dormitories, warehouses, and more.

Outside the residence, additional mu were set aside as reserve construction land—intended for future quarantine camps, factories, and several residential settlements for housing farm and factory workers. These would be at some distance from the estate residence but connected by roads, and would share a common drainage and water supply system.