Chapter 1622 - Local Industrial Potential

"Every time I look at it, I'm amazed. After all this time, the steel industry turns out to be a traditional leading industry of Guangzhou Prefecture!" Liu Xiang exclaimed after carefully reorganizing the data.

This wasn't exactly a secret, but Liu Xiang rarely paid attention to historical materials of regions unrelated to his jurisdiction. Now that he examined them closely, he felt quite surprised.

From the reorganized results, due to the Senate's long-term economic intervention, current Guangzhou Prefecture had formed three major industrial clusters of considerable scale in the secondary sector: iron smelting, timber processing, and brewing. And among these three, iron smelting was actually a traditional leading industry.

He opened the Grand Library's Compilation of Economic, Industrial, and Commercial Historical Materials of Guangzhou. It turned out Guangdong's iron in this era was originally quite famous. The so-called "Southern Iron" or "Guang Iron" referred to pig iron produced by small local workshops. And the smelting and casting industry in Foshan was historically renowned.

Zhaoqing produced high-grade iron ore. After being mined, it scattered into various small workshops along the West River, was smelted into iron ingots by traditional blacksmiths, and finally concentrated in Guangzhou Prefecture City. The imperial court had even established an Iron Affairs Bureau and Iron Tax Bureau in Guangzhou Prefecture specifically to manage this industry.

Because the pig iron here was all smelted using charcoal, it didn't contain the impurities—especially sulfur—found in the pig iron smelted with coal in the north. Consequently, the quality was very high. For this reason, the Ming court arranged for the casting of Red Barbarian Cannons in Guangdong whenever possible.

Lingao's enormous industrial appetite had further intensified the expansion of this traditional advantageous industry—before building its own blast furnaces, the Senate's industrial system had always relied on importing pig iron from Guangdong for re-smelting to supply its steel needs. Even now, with the Ma'ao Iron and Steel Company in operation, the Planning Academy still imported a portion of high-quality pig iron from Guangdong directly for production.

Timber processing was driven directly by the Hong Kong Shipyard. The standardized production model brought convenience not only to the Hong Kong Shipyard but also greatly improved production capacity at various workshops that had undergone industrial transformation. In particular, improvements in precision and the unification of weights and measures made large-scale collaborative production and subcontracting possible. Besides ship material production—which promised the largest profit and offered the best opportunities to learn "craftsmanship"—these old-style workshops had also begun trying to collaboratively produce other products according to "Australian craftsmanship." However, they relied almost completely on orders from the Planning Academy, and their technical level and processing capabilities remained very low. Further improvement required relevant technology transfer and additional processing equipment. The latter was difficult for the industrial sector, whose production schedule was already maxed out. Liu Xiang felt the potential here wasn't great.

The greatest influence instead came from the brewing industry, driven by domestic and export sales of distilled spirits like "Princess of Tang," "Scholar Unrivaled," and "Lady Lan." Because local brew was purchased on a large scale—with complete disregard for taste in favor of alcohol content—local brewing workshops had sprouted like bamboo shoots after spring rain throughout the surrounding areas. Even peasant households with some surplus grain—such families seemed to have increased significantly since sweet potatoes were introduced to the Guangzhou Prefecture market—would make a vat of local wine, cover it with a quilt, and wait for the liquor collectors to come and exchange it for money.

With more people brewing wine, grain seemed to be in higher demand. In the past two years, many families had switched to growing grain, especially sweet potatoes. To a certain extent, this had transformed the traditional agricultural structure of the farmland around Guangzhou Prefecture, which had mainly focused on vegetables, breeding, and economic crops like indigo and plant dyes. This constituted a massive impact spanning across industrial sectors!

"This is the power of industrialization! Even if it's just the radiant heat of a few industries, it can boil the waters of a small peasant economy!"

"This line of thinking can also apply to Vietnam and Ryukyu!" Liu Xiang continued deducing in his mind.

"As for Ryukyu..." Liu Xiang grabbed a map of East Asia and used his pen to measure distances.

"Looking at straight-line distance, Jeju and Ryukyu are actually about equidistant from Japan's main trading ports. But the problem is, except for us who dare to sail the Kuroshio Current, other sea merchants don't! They inevitably have to go north along the island chain. So these Ryukyu islands should function mainly as cargo distribution centers."

Liu Xiang struggled for some time between the Sanzan Islands and the Amami Islands, but finally circled Naha Port's position with a red pen.

"Still deeply influenced by Uncharted Waters," Liu Xiang sighed again. "Sulfur... sigh, forget it—fine particle crushing isn't something this broken little archipelago can handle. Just honestly pack it in boxes and ship it away." Liu Xiang recalled the posts on the BBS that had enthusiastically discussed comprehensive utilization of sulfur and concluded that there really was no capacity to support a sulfur chemical industry with such unreliable production from manual collection at volcanic craters.

"If we want to do this, I'm afraid I'll have to write about the advantages of a single-center star-shaped logistics system again. I don't know if those guys in logistics will endorse my 'theory.'" Liu Xiang studied the arc-shaped coastline of eastern China, and his confidence increased: It's already shaped like this; not using star-shaped logistics would be a waste of transport capacity!

"Vietnam—ah, I feel the probability of going there is very high! Coal and grain—isn't this situation exactly like what I did in Qiongshan! Just swapping Jiazi Coal Mine for Hongay Coal Mine. This overwhelming sense of familiarity!" Liu Xiang spent the least thought on Vietnam because, analyzing from an industrial perspective, if he went there, apart from increasing the military proportion, the rest would just be an enlarged version of Qiongshan County—and even more unscrupulous! After all, the Vietnamese were not "of the same language and race" in Liu Xiang's perception, so he could act more drastically.

"However, I must make my attitude clear: absolutely no Governor-General system in Vietnam!" Liu Xiang pondered further. "Many Senators hold maps from the two Han dynasties proclaiming that the lands of Tonkin and Annam have been China's inherent territory 'since history began,' being the Jiu Zhen and Ri Nan Commanderies. If we establish a Governor-General system, then later when we conquer the core territories of the ancient Nine Provinces, do we also have to establish Governor-General offices? This is purely asking for trouble by starting off on the wrong foot." Liu Xiang sighed.

"The three Lius left the capital; the abolition of the Inspectorate and the establishment of State Shepherds marked the beginning of the chaos of the Flaming Han! Did the initiator of this have no descendants!" Suddenly, his train of thought jumped to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Liu Xiang started sighing at tangential historical parallels.

Looking at the map while recalling the infinite cycle of Vietnam's annexation, submission, rebellion, and independence, a certain person who claimed to be "the best in liberal arts among engineering students, the strongest in science among liberal arts students, and the best in engineering among science students" had already begun composing the Manifesto on the Crusade Against the Rebels of Nanyue.

"...You hundred tribes of Nanyue, before the Qin established the Guilin and Xiang Commanderies, were all barbarians—disrespecting ancestors, having no written records, possessing no name of a state. It was not until Zhao Tuo established himself that civilization arrived... And now, the Senate of the Australian Provisional Government of the Great Song specially dispatches one hundred thousand elite troops and ten thousand ships to hunt in the land of Nanyue, solely to restore China and save the common people! You should conform to heaven and respond to men, welcoming the King's army with baskets of food and pots of drink..." Liu Xiang took a deep breath, pushed open the porthole, and shouted the final sentence loudly to the sea: "Do not say you were not warned!"

After shouting it out, Liu Xiang instantly felt as if he'd been buffed by a hundred spells, emanating various light and shadow effects intended to blind all pay-to-win players.

"Ba... baaaa..."

Liu Xiang was struck by the "Cute Sound of Instant Death," and his fierce expression immediately softened.

"Miss! Could you perhaps be the reinforcement summoned by the monkey?" Liu Xiang, incapacitated by cuteness, scooped up the little girl who had woken from her nap, tickling and teasing her.

Guo Ling'er watched the father and daughter laughing loudly with a baffled expression.

"What monkey?" Just as she asked, Guo Ling'er spotted the documents on the table, especially the map of the Indochina Peninsula she had seen many times and grown familiar with. She instantly understood—her husband had been contemplating national affairs.

"Husband, the ship is arriving soon. Do you need to change clothes?" Guo Ling'er asked while tidying the things on the table.

"Mm, raise my flag." Liu Xiang nodded.

Since Elder Ming raised his own Admiral's flag on the Lichun, the Senators had unanimously decided that such an ego-boosting practice must be popularized. Coupled with agitation from Senators like Hong Huangnan, who had been pushing for establishment of a College of Arms, the Executive Committee went with the flow and granted everyone a favor: allowing each Senator to design their own coat of arms and flag.

The moment the document came down, the five hundred reacted like cold water dropped into hot oil. In an instant, the thresholds of art-and-design-related Senators' homes were worn down, and foreign artisans like Trini became hot commodities.

Liu Xiang's design wasn't complicated. Originally, he had intended to use only a seal script character "Liu." But Liu was a big surname, and many Senators shared it. To distinguish himself, Liu Xiang encircled the outer ring with a red dragon and white python, red above and white below—alluding to the story of the High Ancestor slaying the white snake, the Red Emperor and the White Emperor. This practice met with resolute resistance from other Liu-surnamed Senators. In the end, a compromise was reached: any Senator surnamed Liu could use this red dragon and white python symbol if they wished.

Although the red dragon and white python were relatively complex, compared to the elaborate European coats of arms with various flowers, grasses, and griffins designed by other Senators, it was considered quite concise and lively—at least embroidering a red dragon and white python wasn't difficult for the refugees brought from Jiangnan, where skilled embroidery women abounded.

First rose the Morning Star Flag, and then Liu Xiang's personal flag. Liu Xiang stood on deck holding his daughter, enduring the setting sun that was sinking in the west but still incredibly dazzling, gazing at the dedicated wharf for Senators in Lingao.

"Back again!" Liu Xiang sighed with emotion. Although he had returned to Lingao many times during his term in Qiongshan—to report on work or "lobby the ministries for funding"—he always felt like a rubber band was tied to his back, pulling him away before he could stay long. Arriving in Lingao this time, he truly felt a sense of "coming home." Although the new job would press down soon, at least this time he had a month or so to rest properly in Lingao.

(End of Chapter)