Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 209: Comprehensive Construction Boom
At the end of December 1866, more than two months had passed
In the past two months

The number of immigrants from the mainland reaches 9.5 per month, and the main destinations are the Manila Islands and the Cebu Islands, with the former accounting for % and the latter for %.

More than 15 Chinese immigrants arrived in towns around Manila. After quickly completing the resettlement and matching work, most of them evacuated to the countryside to farm. The "empty cage and replace bird" immigration work progressed very smoothly.

Today, the resettlement of Chinese immigrants has been completed in the northwest of Manila, the entire Cavite Peninsula and Batangas area, and all local indigenous people have been diverted according to established rules.

No further details
The only difference was that the male indigenous people were diverted to mining labor camps or construction labor camps. The former were trapped in a corner of the mine, while the latter were responsible for the construction of bridges, roads, docks, and farmland water conservancy.

Indigenous women entered the population market as needed, were purchased on credit by Chinese immigrants based on market prices, and were taken back to start new families, settle down in rural areas, and develop production.

Agricultural production is now the top priority. Due to the dramatic changes in the Manila Islands, local agricultural production was severely affected in a short period of time, resulting in a huge gap in output.

Grain ships transferred from the grain-producing areas of Tongzhou Island (note, formerly Mindanao Island) arrive continuously, continuously supplying the Cebu Islands and Mindanao Island.

The southern region's grain supply ensured that the "empty cage, replace bird" policy was implemented thoroughly and without compromise, providing a solid material foundation and maintaining social stability.

With the continued influx of Chinese immigrants, the total number of Chinese people holding household head status reached 12 million at the end of December (Note: this statistic does not include indigenous women in Chinese families), and the population has grown significantly.

And all this

The Greater Manila area is becoming increasingly prosperous today. The Great Chu Kingdom conquered the Hainan Islands (Note: formerly the Luzon Islands) in less than 4 months, and the changes it brought to the region almost exceeded the 300-year colonial history of the Spanish.

Dozens of large-scale infrastructure projects have been started at the same time. With the abundant labor force working day and night, wide roads connecting the prefectures and counties of the Hainan Islands are being rapidly extended, and hundreds of bridges are under construction.

Grain ships from Tongzhou Island (note: formerly Mindanao Island) brought back a large number of indigenous convicts on their return journey. A total of 6.5 convicts arrived in Zamboanga Province, Cagayan County, Davao Province and Puerto Angeles, promoting infrastructure projects and large-scale mining in the above-mentioned areas.

The three major highway trunk line projects on the island that Tongzhou Governor Zheng Shouxin had been planning were also being fully promoted in full swing after receiving sufficient labor support.

The construction of docks and reservoirs in coastal cities, steel plants in the Batangas area, roads and towns was fully launched. Hundreds of thousands of convicts worked hard on the construction sites, and the construction progressed rapidly.

Today
The blockade of the densely populated indigenous areas in the heart of the Luzon Islands by the Great Chu Kingdom's army still exists, strictly prohibiting the flow of any personnel and information. This is a typical "salami slicing" tactic.

These powerful measures prevented the indigenous settlements from receiving news from the outside world, and under the strong suppression of the local garrison, they basically maintained a submissive attitude.

The local natives mistakenly thought that it was just a change of owner.

After enduring more than 300 years of colonial rule by Spanish whites, the local indigenous people had become accustomed to obedience, and the Great Chu Kingdom saved a lot of trouble by promoting immigration policies.

At a time when the current number of Chinese immigrants cannot fill the entire island, it would be wise to adopt a gradual "empty cage and replace bird" policy.

Judging from the current progress
By the end of April next year at the latest, the conquest and diversion of the indigenous people of the entire Hainan Islands will be basically completed.

By then, the total population of Chinese-headed households will have grown to over 180 million (note: this statistic does not include indigenous women in Chinese families), and the population of Chinese families in a broad sense will have reached over 320 million (including indigenous women in Chinese families).

In Manila
There are more than a dozen major infrastructure projects underway, the most prominent of which is the massive Chuwang City. This royal city, which is entirely based on the blueprint of the Daming Palace during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, has mobilized more than 16000 convicts and more than 1100 Chinese craftsmen, and construction is underway day and night.

The Chuwang City was built in the Binondo District, across the river from Manila's Intramuros. It was a large area of ​​undeveloped primitive shrub forest, but now a huge area of ​​about 2.2 square kilometers has been leveled and a palace is being built on a large scale.

Chuwang City is located on the northeast side of Manila Royal City along the river, about 3.1km away from Manila Royal City. It is backed by a huge lake, which is now called "Jingpo Lake".

Because the Chu King City is located here, the "Minlunluo District" is also renamed the "Longshouyuan District", which implies the good wish of a hidden dragon in the abyss. This is a name with very Chinese characteristics.

Countless huge rafts floated up the river and were transported to the Longshouyuan District dock by steam tugboats, where they were piled up into small hills of giant trees.

Various rare stones were transported in shiploads. In order to facilitate the transportation of these heavy materials, a 6.3-kilometer-long railway was built at the Longshouyuan District Wharf and transported using rail flatbed trucks.

The construction of the massive Chu Palace is expected to last 8 to 20 years. After eight years, the three main halls, auxiliary halls, the Chu King's bedroom and other palaces will be completed, providing the basic conditions for exercising the core governance capabilities of the kingdom.

Later, the East Palace complex, the West Palace complex and the North Palace complex will be built. After completion, the total construction area will reach 2.1 square kilometers, which is about three times the size of the Forbidden City.

The reason why it is so big is that it surrounds the entire Jingpo Lake, making it the royal inner lake. The wide lake surface alone is more than 1.3 square kilometers, accounting for almost two-thirds.

The palaces from the heyday of the Tang Dynasty surround Jingpo Lake. After its completion, it was magnificent and had the aura of a great power, which shows the ambition of the emperor of Chu.

The second largest building is the two main avenues that run through Manila, one is Bay Boulevard and the other is Glory Boulevard.

Both avenues were built to the highest standards. Bay Avenue is 72 meters wide and Glory Avenue is 128 meters wide. Both have astonishingly wide green belts dividing the center of the highway, which are planned to be built into city center gardens.

With pavilions and towers and bridges and flowing water, it is a good place for citizens to relax and spend time on weekdays.

With 3.2 convicts working day and night, these two trunk roads progressed rapidly.

nowadays

All the buildings along these two avenues have been demolished, the high-standard main sewer channel culvert facilities have been completed, and the excavated deep trenches have been backfilled.

The planned Da Chu government office buildings are mainly located on both sides of Glory Avenue, including the "Nine Ministries and Three Offices", as well as financial institutions such as the Royal Nanyang Bank, the Da Chu Colonization Bank, the Da Chu Agricultural Bank, and the Da Chu Industrial and Commercial Bank, which were reorganized from the Nanyang Money House.

In addition, museums, public hospitals, telegraph offices, universities and powerful commercial institutions will also be located on both sides of the road.

In principle, residential land will not be approved on both sides of the city's main roads. Government agencies and commercial purposes are the main focus, and various large-scale buildings have been established there.

On both sides of the road

All the construction sites are in full swing, with buildings rising from the ground. It is simply a huge construction site, showing a boom in construction.

Now, all departments of the provisional government are temporarily housed in Intramuros, Manila. Many departments have too many staff and the office conditions are very tight, with desks almost next to each other.

some of

The Ministry of Agriculture was the busiest, with a total of more than 440 officials at all levels, and clerks were spread out in several offices, which was very inconvenient.

The Army Department and the Navy Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs were also crowded into one building, as were the Political Affairs Department and the Telegraph Department, so they had to find two other office locations to split up the staff.

Therefore

All departments of the provisional government are very enthusiastic about building the office building, and human, financial and material resources are given priority, so the construction progress will naturally not lag behind.

In the face of major celebrations, road construction is still carried out intensively day and night.

Hundreds of animal-drawn carts travel back and forth every day, bringing countless coconut trees and various fruit trees, as well as many tropical flowers and trees, to decorate the central dividing green belt of the highway, turning it into a lush central garden.

The roadside trees of these two main urban avenues are tall coconut trees. In the future, a long coconut forest will be formed in the center of the city, which is full of South Asian tropical style.

The second layer of tree forest is planted with perennial fruit trees, including mangosteen trees, mango trees, durian trees, rambutan, myrtle, olive trees, etc., with many varieties.

As low trees, fruit trees do not compete with tall coconut trees for sunlight, forming a lower level of green tree landscape, with the fragrance of fruits and vegetables all year round.

On the lower level, various tropical flowers are selected for cultivation. Taking into account the flowering periods throughout the year, they are reasonably distributed, striving to achieve the beautiful scenery of flowers blooming all year round.

Manila's superior tropical marine climate provides ample guarantee for the construction of picturesque central median parks along the city's main roads.

Due to time constraints, there was no time to complete the details on both sides of the road.

The main lanes on both sides of the green belt are filled with fly ash, gravel, lime and dry soil, and compacted and leveled. They can only be watered for maintenance and will be used for the celebration.
These two main avenues in the city will also be paved with rock-cut dividing stones, the road surface will be paved with bricks, and the joints will be filled with glutinous rice juice mixed with cement powder to complete the subsequent details.

The two urban trunk roads have a total length of 67 kilometers. The average labor density per kilometer reaches more than 480 people. They work in shifts day and night, and the construction progress is very fast.

Now the progress of roadside stones and bricks is not keeping up, so the provisional government has opened five more quarries and deployed more than 4000 convicts to increase supply capacity.

Stone powder from quarries, crushed stone of various specifications, slabs and bricks are all materials needed in large quantities in urban construction, and are also indispensable in the construction of docks and fortresses.

There are already 17 quarries, more than 50 brick kilns, hundreds of lime kilns, coal kilns, and timber mills in Manila. Two more cement plants will be added in the future to meet the large-scale construction needs of cities around Manila.

The third major project is the construction of the new Manila Terminal, which will have up to 12 berths to enhance the port's cargo handling capacity.

Among them, seven berths have a water depth of 7 to 8 meters and are equipped with 9 steam cranes, capable of receiving and unloading 12-ton ocean-going vessels to meet the needs of bulk cargo loading and unloading.

The five deep-water berths are 5 meters deep, equipped with 13 steam cranes, capable of loading and unloading 10-ton ships. These are first-class port and terminal facilities worldwide.

on the dock
The construction blueprint plans a large number of warehouse areas, cargo storage areas and office areas, as well as 7 centralized livestock pens for raising large livestock for transporting goods, mainly horses and mules.

The construction period of the new wharf is two and a half years, and there are currently only more than 7,000 convicts involved in the construction, so the progress seems to be a bit slow.

Once Manila's two main urban highways are completed, most of the 3.2 convicts involved in the construction will be transferred to the port area to participate in the construction, and the construction progress will be greatly accelerated.

in this era

The construction of large projects relies on large numbers of people. As long as there are enough workers, no matter how big the difficulties are, they can be overcome and no matter how big the project is, it can be advanced quickly.

As the grand celebration is approaching, more than a dozen streets in Manila's Binondo district are decorated with a new look, and the atmosphere is full of festive cheer.

Red couplets and door decorations were posted on the doors of every household, and door gods were invited. Teahouses and restaurants hung big red lanterns, making the streets even more lively.

In a teahouse on the street
Wang Haigou, who looked thin, was wearing a light-colored Tang Dynasty shirt and sitting at the tea table by the window, drinking tea leisurely. When he saw a strong man walk in, he tapped the table lightly with his fingers without making any expression.

The sturdy man came over and sat down silently. From his position he could see most of the people in the teahouse, and then he whispered;

"Commander, the brothers in our class have been following this woman for a few days and found that the problem is indeed serious.

This white captain named Charlie is Fanpo's husband. He serves on the ironclad ship Zhennan. Now he is the third mate and the commander of the front main battery. He has been on a sea cruise these days, so there should be no problem.

This foreign woman had a serious problem. She had three secret meetings with the British in four days, each lasting between two and five hours.

We are convinced
A close relationship developed between the two, and the old woman cheated on the captain, and she enjoyed it.

This Englishman was Sir Joachim Anderson, the Civil Commissioner of the Straits Settlements. From his remarks, we can see that he was quite hostile and unfriendly towards our Great Chu.

It is very likely that he was bewitched by the foreign woman and he really deserves to be killed!

In-depth investigation found
After secret identification by many people, we found out that this foreign woman was actually the daughter of the former Governor of France, which was completely unexpected.

It seems there is a major oversight in the distribution of white women.”

"Thank you for your hard work, brothers. Have some tea." Wang Haigou listened to the report calmly, then thought for a moment before giving his orders, "Keep a close eye on this foreign woman. Also, set up a brass amplifier at their tryst rental property and have an interpreter monitor the entire process. I want to know what they're saying."

"Understood, Director. I'll arrange it right away."

"Well, let's go."

Wang Haigou watched the sturdy man leave with an unchanging expression. A fierce look flashed in his eyes and he muttered to himself, "What the king said is truly wise. Those who are not of my kind must have different hearts."

During his tenure as a detective secret agent, Wang Haigou obtained a large amount of military, political and commercial intelligence, which was continuously sent back to Davao Prefecture for use in decision-making by the kingdom's top leaders.

He also persuaded some prestigious Chinese leaders to make contributions to support the army's northern expedition, and was appreciated by the King of Chu.

The Ministry of the Interior has the First Department, the Second Department to the Seventh Department, as well as the Secretariat, the Logistics Department, the Telecommunications Department, the Training Department and the Internal Security Department, each with its own functional divisions.

He is now the director of the Third Department of the Ministry of the Interior. Outsiders don't know what the First or Third Department does. Only senior internal officials know, and it is usually kept secret.

The first is the Political Affairs Investigation Office, the second is the Military Investigation Office, the third is the Commercial and Civil Investigation Office, the fourth is the North American Investigation Office, the fifth is the Southeast Asian Investigation Office, the sixth is the Continental Investigation Office, and the seventh is the Russia, Japan, and North Korea Investigation Office.

The first three departments are internal, and the last four departments are external.

These investigation offices have extremely broad powers and responsibilities, and they mostly conduct secret investigations with quite sensitive content.

It can be seen from the appointment of Interior Minister Dong Huanzhang that this is an important government department that King Zheng Guohui of Chu must keep firmly in his hands.

Despite opposition from Prime Minister Li Hezhang, the King of Chu still insisted on appointing the unqualified Dong Huanzhang as Minister of the Interior and refused to compromise.

Because Dong Huanzhang was one of the original four major staff members, a trusted confidant, and also had the identity of brother-in-law, his loyalty could be absolutely guaranteed.

Sit for a while
After Wang Haigou leisurely finished his tea, he piled a few copper coins on the table, stood up, and walked out leisurely.

On the occasion of this important celebration
The Ministry of the Interior is also busy working overtime and needs to recruit more people to cope with the increasingly heavy investigation work.

Wang Haigou's favorite job is to use injured and retired military officers. These officers have received systematic loyalty and military education, are loyal, proactive, and have considerable courage and knowledge. They are good candidates for investigators.

The Minister of the Interior is a civilian, but the directors under him are all military officers.

Wang Haigou holds the rank of colonel, but for the sake of convenience, he does not normally wear a military uniform.

He soon came to a secluded courtyard, looked around and saw that there was no one there, so he reached out and knocked on the door.

The door opened, and two sturdy men appeared inside, holding revolvers in their hands and looking over with vigilance.

Seeing that it was the commander coming, he silently put away his revolver and opened the door to let the commander in.

This small courtyard has only two main rooms and a side room. It is where Fanpo rented to have a secret meeting with the British.

Walk in and take a look

Two men were laboriously drilling a hole with a hand drill. On the ground lay a thin, long brass tube with trumpet-shaped ends.

This is the brass loudspeaker, used specifically for monitoring purposes.

The house next door has been temporarily requisitioned. The three places do not have enough funds to rent houses everywhere, so they can only requisition it by force.

Once the brass loudspeaker was installed, the interpreter could monitor the conversation from the next room.

He would write down what he heard, sign it and make it into a written agreement, which would then be signed by the squad leader as a guarantee, reviewed and signed by the director, who would also attach his opinions on the handling of the matter and a brief summary of the handling results, which would then be filed in the secret files.

After checking the situation, Wang Haigou nodded with satisfaction and said, "Alright, keep watching. Report any new developments at any time."

"As you command, my Lord."

(End of this chapter)