Chapter 2452 - Uncle and Nephew Reunited

Chen Ding was no scholar, but he understood the principle of "look at nothing contrary to propriety." Staring at the girls felt terribly rude, so he forced his gaze away. Yet before long, he found himself stealing glances again. It wasn't that these Australian girls were exceptionally beautiful—his wife and chambermaids were attractive enough—but there was something special about them, a charm he couldn't quite resist.

Fragments of their conversation drifted over on the wind, though Chen Ding caught little of it since they spoke in "New Language." Something about "new perfume... department store." Suddenly one of the girls turned and looked his way. Thinking he'd been caught, he hastily averted his eyes—only to land on a familiar face.

His nephew Chen Lin stood by the gunwale not far away, obviously having been stealing glances at the female students himself.

Their eyes met across the deck, and both froze. Beyond surprise, their faces flushed with embarrassment.

At that precise moment, a voice drifted through the air: "Hmph, old pervert!" accompanied by girlish laughter. Uncle and nephew alike turned crimson.

Chen Ding had never expected to see his nephew here. Just ten days ago, the young man had sent word through Master Wu that he intended to stay in Nansha. Yet here he was on a boat to Lingao. Had something changed in Nansha Village? Had his third brother hatched some new scheme?

By all rights, a reunion after such trials and tribulations should have been joyful, perhaps even tearful. But having met under such awkward circumstances, both uncle and nephew withdrew their gazes in unison and pretended not to recognize each other.

Wu Yijun remained oblivious to his cousin-nephew's presence aboard and was chatting loudly with Huo Maixiong. Ordinarily, he wouldn't bother with this leader of the declining paper guild. But the man's lavish spending at the auction had piqued his curiosity—where on earth had he found the money for such a desperate investment? A paper mill required substantial capital; the transfer fee was merely the beginning.

The movement of funds in the market was always Wu Yijun's chief concern. "Money has legs," he often said. Wherever large sums flowed, new opportunities emerged. Money never flowed into someone's hands without reason; there had to be some special purpose.

Unfortunately, Huo Maixiong proved to be a wily old fox. No matter how Wu Yijun probed, the man circled around every question, keeping silent about where the money came from.

Wu Yijun was growing frustrated when someone poked him in the side. Turning, he found Chen Ding beside him. Before he could speak, Chen Ding whispered urgently, "Lin'er is here too?"

"What?" Wu Yijun was startled. Are you delirious from seasickness?

"He's right here on this ship."

"Then why don't you call him over?"

"No, no, don't call him." Chen Ding was too embarrassed to mention their awkward encounter. "We're all getting off at Lingao anyway. We can find him after we disembark."

"What are you playing at?" Wu Yijun still didn't understand.

"Just... don't greet him now. Let's pretend we don't know him."

The steamship gradually approached port. During the Second Five-Year Plan, two new ports had been built to address Bopu Port's shallow waters and limited throughput. One stood at Xinying Port in the west of the Special Municipality, destined to become Lingao's main passenger and cargo gateway, with construction of the Xinying-Urban Area city rail line already underway. The other was at Hongpai Port in Ma'ao Bay. Though its conditions were generally inferior to Xinying's, the Bopu-Ma'ao city rail had already opened, allowing passengers and cargo arriving at Ma'ao to be quickly transported to Bopu and onward throughout the city.

The Baiyunshan's berth was at Hongpai Port.

As the steamer entered Ma'ao Bay, Hongpai Islet came into view first. A fortress had been built on the barren rocky island to guard the bay. Heavy cast-iron cannons stared grimly from the bastions toward the strait. The Morning Star flag fluttered above the central observation tower, which doubled as a lighthouse. Sentries in greatcoats stood motionless at their posts like stone statues, rifles ready, eyes fixed on the water.

A murmur rippled through the crowd on deck. For those visiting Lingao for the first time, this scene was quintessentially "Auto-Song"—perfectly matching their imagination of the Senate's domain: solid stone fortifications, massive cannons, elite soldiers...

The Baiyunshan's whistle gave a long blast, answered by a cannon shot from the fortress. The giggling girls on deck snapped to attention and bowed fifteen degrees; Fubo Army soldiers and police in uniform saluted the flag in unison. Naturalized cadres stood at attention and performed eye salutes. The sentries on shore presented arms in return.

Chen Ding, Wu Yijun, and the other natives on deck didn't understand what this was about, but they felt the atmosphere transform instantly—solemn and reverent. Conversations and laughter died away of their own accord.

As the ship sailed past the fortress, Chen Ding sighed with emotion. "The Australians truly live up to their reputation!"

Wu Yijun had spent enough time in Guangzhou to grow accustomed to Australian ways, yet the scene still moved him deeply. It wasn't surprising for soldiers, police, or "cadres" to behave this way—but those young wenches too? The Australians' art of controlling subordinates had reached perfection. No wonder problems that baffled capable Ming officials were handled so cleanly in Australian hands! It all relied on these "naturalized citizens" who responded like arms to their master's will.

"Impressive," he murmured to himself. "Truly impressive."

His feelings were complicated. On one hand, he felt genuinely pleased. Clinging to the steel giant ship of the Australians meant that he and his descendants would enjoy endless benefits. But boarding this ship was no easy matter, and getting off was harder still. Once aboard, there was nothing for it but wholehearted devotion and unwavering loyalty.

Chen Ding entertained no such complex thoughts. "I've long heard the Australians govern with military discipline," he said excitedly. "Truly majestic!"

As the ship sailed past Hongpai Islet Fortress, towers, pipelines, and chimneys appeared along the coastline, spewing black smoke and white steam into the sky. The sea breeze carried a pungent smell and a rumbling roar. Cranes rose like iron pagodas on the wharf; loading conveyors stretched out like giant dragons. Huge bulk silos and open-air mounds of slag and coal ash stood like small hills.

For natives witnessing this for the first time, the impact of this scene—so far beyond their comprehension—far surpassed even the fortress. People gazed nervously at the coastline. Someone spoke up: "This is the Ma'ao Iron and Steel Company, where they smelt iron..."

"Like the iron workshops in Foshan?"

"Yes, more or less."

"Good heavens, how much iron do they smelt? How can they use it all?"

"Australians use iron to build ships and pave roads. Calculate how much iron that requires."

"Then won't they dig up all the iron in the world?"

...

Chen Ding had been searching for the legendary "Iron Giant Ship," but while Ma'ao Bay held many vessels—including large ones rivaling the Baiyunshan—the famous iron ship was nowhere to be seen. He only learned from Chen Xiaobing, the naturalized cadre accompanying them, that it was docked at Bopu.

"...This place was originally just a desolate bay," Chen Xiaobing explained. "Only salt-boiling households and Tanka fishermen lived along the coast. After the Elders came, they first built windmills at the Ma'ao Saltworks, then erected blast furnaces and established the Ma'ao Iron and Steel Company..."

"Windmills?"

"You can't see them from here; they're on the other side of the peninsula."

"Why use windmills for salt production?"

"To lift water. Don't you need seawater to produce salt?" Chen Xiaobing laughed. "It's different with windmills. The saltworks that originally produced only five hundred tons of salt a year now produces ten thousand."

"Ten thousand tons?" Chen Ding found it hard to believe. He knew that one Australian ton equaled the "kilogram" now commonly used in Guangzhou—one thousand jin. A single household used only a few dozen jin of salt per year. "So much salt—how can it possibly be consumed?"

"This salt isn't for eating." Chen Xiaobing couldn't help laughing, making Chen Ding feel rather ignorant. "It's used as chemical raw material."

"What is chemical raw material?"

"Well..." This stumped Chen Xiaobing somewhat. He actually knew little about chemical engineering. Among naturalized citizens, chemical enterprises were the least popular assignment. "It's using salt, coal, and various other things to make useful products. Fertilizers, pesticides. Since you want to open a cotton spinning and weaving factory, the dyes used for dyeing will also come from chemical factories."

Chen Ding thought to himself, This must be what everyone means when they say Australians possess the power of ghosts and gods, seizing creation's wonders. What could possibly be made from salt? He racked his brain but couldn't understand. Salt, absorbing water, became brine; add more water, and you got saltwater; burn it to coagulate it, and you still got salt blocks. No matter what you did to it, it remained salt. How could it transform into something else? It was a pity Master Wu was opening a cotton spinning factory rather than a "chemical factory"—otherwise he might have used this opportunity to understand.

The Baiyunshan gradually moved away from the steel plant wharf, and the number of docked ships increased. Most numerous were the ocean-going freighters carrying bulk cargoes—coal, iron ore, sea salt. Next came steam barges that sailed the coast, moored row upon row in the bay.

"Look, Australian warships!" someone shouted on deck. Chen Ding looked in the direction of the voice. Sure enough, a majestic warship was docked on the far side of the bay, surrounded by three or four small speedboats. Ma'ao wasn't the main Fubo Army Navy base, but a naval detachment was deployed here to guard Lingao, including two Type 901 gunboats retired from frontline service and four two-masted cutters.

(End of Chapter)