A Temporary Farewell to the Great Ming

“Amsterdam…No, Guangzhou. I will be back.”^[1] Xiao Zishan stood in the courtyard, looking downhill where their first Lingnan-style building stood proudly under a blue sky. The red sandstone walls with large curved eaves on the ancient building–oh, not ancient. He smiled subconsciously, “It really does look like a modern building.”

The floors were paved with green bricks, the walls were white and the building was topped with black roof tiles: a residence filled to bursting with the features of the Lingnan style.^[2] Xiao Zishan estimated that they should be standing where Huifu Road was in the 21st century: it was a street filled with cheap and good food and many famous stalls that had been in business for decades. He had been there to eat the famous “Yinji” rice noodles and the “Chengji” porridge noodles…^[3] However, in the current time, this area was still a rather desolate place. Although a few residential houses could be seen, most of the land between them was abandoned gardens and even farmland and vegetable patches, with small bunches of wild vegetation and small ponds interspersed everywhere.

Xiao Zishan had grown up seeing such scenes. The cities of the south where he lived as a child were very similar to this place. In traditional Chinese cities there were always farmlands and wastelands within the city walls. In some places there were even still rural areas within the city well into the 1960s and 70s, including large tracts of farmland and village cottages, and even Production Teams.^[4]

This location had been chosen as the base of their future time travel activity in Guangzhou. The place back on Haopan Street was now only used as an outlet for trade, and would serve as a backup base in the future.

The new residence was paid for by Gao Ju, but the location had been scouted by Sun Chang. Xiao Zishan had come to like this young man more and more. He was efficient on his tasks and was good at understanding the ideas of the time travellers.

The residence they found was elevated slightly. The surroundings were very much untamed, and the building was surrounded by water on two sides. The first owner, who developed the land, built only a small house and filled the remaining space with a garden. Now, after the property had exchanged several hands, the house and the garden had been abandoned and was little more than a wasteland littered with rumble and overgrown with brambles. All that remained of the former scenery was a single pool of water, half a rocky outcrop, a few big trees and a semi-collapsed pavilion.

Among the several properties that Sun Chang had found this one was definitely the most dilapidated, and was also the cheapest. Almost all the buildings and courtyards in this property would have to be rebuilt. On the upside however it was quiet and secluded, and covered a large area, so there was lots of room left if they wanted to expand. When Sun Chang reported about it they decided to buy it immediately.

The renovation plan of the property was completed entirely by architects among the time travellers. The overall thought process behind their design was: without degrading the overall Ming Dynasty appearance of the property, to overhaul and modernise the interiors in order to meet the needs of a base of operations in Guangzhou.

In the future plans of the Executive Committee, this Guangzhou base would serve as a centre of trade, intelligence and communications for time travellers operating on the coast of Guangdong.

The architects preserved the all original building structures and exteriors in the residential area, and only made comprehensive interior renovations and reinforcements where needed. This part of the base would be where they could interact with locals.

A part of the abandoned garden closest to the residential area was marked out for restoration. The rest of the garden was planned to be converted to modern facilities, including offices, dormitories, surveillance rooms, telegraph rooms, warehouses, and secured vaults. Of course, all these new buildings would be built to look like traditional Chinese courtyard buildings. But the interior facilities and design would be completely done via modern architectural principles to maximise the utilisation of the space.

Their plans for the base also included various defence and communication equipment, which naturally raised the issue of electricity. It was obviously not feasible to use wind power in the middle of Guangzhou city. Not to mention that there was little wind because of the city walls, the tall and large wind turbines would be far too conspicuous. The efficiency of solar power generation would also be too low.^[5] Although the Executive Committee had not yet been able to find a way of safely and securely sending a generator to the Guangzhou base, they still prepared to build a sound-proof underground generator room–it was better to be prepared after all.

There were wells both within the garden and the residential area, and they seemed to be operational but currently did not have much water. If they asked the local well diggers to deepen them a little then these wells could provide water for domestic use. However, they would still need to purify this well water for drinking.

Although the Guangzhou base would likely not have electricity or running water for a long time, during the construction they would still leave hidden grooves and spaces where equipment and lines could be installed in the future.

In terms of the defences, the old creeks on the northwest sides were dredged deeper and the revetments repaired. The collapsed outer walls were rebuilt to a uniform 6 metres high. The walls of wealthy families in Guangzhou could reach even 8 to 9 metres, so theirs wasn’t excessive at all. They also planted climbing roses on the walls—the dense thorns could achieve a certain anti-theft effect.

However, all of the above existed only on the designer’s computer at the moment. The funds they had available currently were not sufficient for all their planned changes, and it was not appropriate to invest so much into a non-urgent project. The energy of the wormhole was about to disappear. In order to save this last bit of energy, their trading would have to cease after they return this time. The time travellers who had been active in the Ming Dynasty for several months now would all withdraw and await their ultimate trip.

Consequently, only a small part of the grand design was being implemented. Sun Chang had invited masons, who were now repairing the residential buildings and the outer walls. Watching the construction workers busy laying bricks and mixing mortar, Xiao Zishan was already feeling nostalgic for this place. It was unknown when he would next come back here.

After their formal crossing over, they would no longer be harmless Australian merchants who came to the Great Ming to peddle goods and make money, but rather a new political force with the goal of toppling the government. As a member of the Executive Committee, it was very unlikely that he would be sent to places under the tight control of the government such as Guangzhou. How long would it be until the flag of the time travellers flew in the skies above this city?

Just as he was thinking, he saw Wen Desi come in with a face full of smiles. Xiao Zishan had been supervising the new residence for the past week, while Wen Desi and Wang Luobin were responsible for their last trade deal.

“Xiao Zishan, you’re still supervising them?”

“Wen Desi, why did you run over here? You should be revealing yourself less often.”

“It’s fine, I have a Qiwei escort following me, and I also have a magic treasure for protection…”

“Haha, it’s the same old again right: spray, knife, and vest?”

“No, no. I learned from the last time and also added a simple gas mask.” Chief Wen patted his bulging waist. He had just visited Gao Ju and passed on Yu Eshui’s numinous message.

“What expression did Gao Ju have?”

“Hard to describe!” Wen Desi thought for a while for a description. “He looked like he had just eaten a dozen unripe olives! However, once he learned that we were willing to give him all of our goods on credit before leaving, he became so moved that he was about to cry…”

The two of them laughed together.

The time travellers would not be able to supply such a large quantity of Australian goods for a long time into the future like they could right now. Considering this, they decided to give a huge shipment of goods to Master Gao. This action moved Gao Ju almost to tears; the batch was worth almost 200,000 taels of silver! In reality, for the Executive Committee, having this amount on credit was not that big a risk as the total value on the other side wasn’t more than 30,000 RMB, which did not have any significant impact on their funding.

“Then he must have paid a lot of money, right?”

“Two thousand taels of gold. We also gave him many things that we didn’t dare sell in the past. It’s the last time anyway.” Wen Desi stopped laughing and said seriously, “But this is our last bit of income before crossing.”

“Do we have enough?”

“I’ve calculated and re-calculated everything several times over. What we have currently in reserves is already enough, even excluding the income from this final deal. We even have an extra two million as an emergency fund.

“There will inevitably be people who want to buy more stuff though.”

“If we don’t have it already then we should just not buy more. We’ve already accounted for the things we must have, and adding anything else would just be adding icing onto the cake. It won’t matter if we don’t have it.”

“What I’m afraid of is that we’ve overlooked something important. After all, we want to rebuild a complete industrial system from the ground up. What if we dropped the ball at a critical juncture?” Xiao Zishan was as always the pessimist.^[6]

“Stop being such a downer, let’s wrap things up over here.” Wen Desi said.

Stepping into the newly repaired house, Sun Chang was waiting inside with an account book in hand. He had become the unofficial leader of their activities here in Guangzhou. Entrusting such a large enterprise to someone you’d only known for less than three months was unimaginable in modern times, but for their current situation, the time travellers had no better choices.

“Sun Chang, we are leaving for Australia this time. The next time we come should be next year. In the meantime, you should take good care of the residence here and avoid causing trouble. If you encounter any difficulties you should seek out Master Gao Ju. I have already talked with him, and he will definitely meet with you.”

“Yes. Master, can you please tell me where I should go to meet you next time?”

“No need to receive us, we will send someone after we arrive.” Wen Desi took out an aluminium souvenir badge that had been cut down the middle. He gave one half to Sun Chang. “When the time comes, use this as your key, and listen to the instructions of whoever comes with the other half.”^[7]

“Yes. There is one more thing that I would like the masters’ advice on.” Sun Chang asked, “This residence is so big, so I’m afraid that I can’t take care of it all alone. Could the masters please buy one or two more servant families?”

“No need for that. After we leave, Gao Qing’s family will move in here. Gao Di is learning from your master-uncle, when you have time you should also teach him. Make sure he grows up well, unlike his good-for-nothing father.”

“All the money that comes and goes from this residence is yours to spend. Gao Di is responsible for keeping the accounts. The salary and rice allowance of Gao Qing’s family has already been set by me, and they should be distributed accordingly. Your monthly salary is two taels, and your monthly rice allowance is half a stone. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Now, although I said that you should avoid causing trouble, I don’t mean that you should stay inside all the time like a shut-in.”^[8]

“...?” Sun Chang had a face full of confusion.

Wen Desi realised that he had just let the cat out of the bag, but he didn’t correct his words and continued to lecture seriously: “What I mean is, spend more time going around and gathering information. When we come back we want a report on everything that’s happened in Guangzhou while we were away!”

“I understand Master.”

“Wait for us patiently. We will definitely be back.”

---

The day after the time travellers left, Gao Qing and his family were packing up their belongings and preparing to move into the new residence of the Australian masters. Steward Yan was at the gate and called Gao Qing over again.

Gao Qing was about to go when he heard the voice, but his wife stepped in angrily:

“Bow, bow, bow. Go and bow down again! That’s all you do! We got in first, but Sun Chang came and became the manager of the household first. You are so useless! After getting in first and messing around, you are still a handyman in the end!”

Gao Qing shrunk away and didn’t say a word, and was still moving like he wanted to go out and greet the steward.

Gao Xian cried again, “Following a loser like you is truly the curse of eight lifetimes. Do you have any brains at all? What has Master Gao given us? How does Master Wen and the others treat us? You’re so capable that you even lost money by selling Master Wen out!”

“Master Wen is a foreigner…so in the future…”

“So what if he’s a foreigner? If he treats us well I would be glad to follow him even to the ends of the earth and back! Just go and sell yourself out, go and stay in the Gao family, and go and continue to be a good little servant!”

Their two children watched their mother lose her temper in silence. The children were old enough to understand. They knew that their parents had contradicting thoughts, but they felt overall that the masters from Australia were nicer. They spoke kindly and often gave them delicious Australian snacks and fun little trinkets. Naturally, they were more biased towards their mother.

Gao Qing hung his head down and didn’t speak. Seizing this chance, Gao Xian had already walked out and said to Steward Yan with a smile on her face: “What a coincidence! My husband already went to the other residence to clean up early in the morning. I am packing things up with my children, and will go over there soon. If you have something to say to him, why don’t I tell him to give a reply to you tomorrow?”

Steward Yan knew that she was lying, but he didn’t dare to push her further. He could only leave in embarrassment, cursing in his heart: these foreign merchants are really good at brainwashing people! It’s only been a few days, and all of them are so loyal!

---

1. Don’t know what Xiao Zishan is referring to by this. ↩︎

2. Qing zhuan (青砖) is a special type of brick. See Chinese baidu entry. The Lingnan style is a type of architecture, see this wiki entry. ↩︎

3. Names of time-honoured food brands of the Guangdong region. From my research, Yinji has in fact expanded into the US and Canada ↩︎

4. Organisation dating from the Great Leap Forward. Only Chinese wiki entry. ↩︎

5. Remember they have only 2009 solar panels. The average efficiency of solar panels has risen from less than 5% in 2009 to 25-30% in 2024. This ‘modern’ part of this book is very much ‘history’ to us now as well. ↩︎

6. Nooo, Boaster! You hung and loaded Chekhov's gun. ↩︎

7. Wow that is an absolute fortune of aluminium to be giving away. Note that aluminium was only first isolated in the 1800s, and for the first half-century or so after its discovery was significantly more expensive than even gold. ↩︎

8. He uses the modern slag here ↩︎