The Chrysanthemum, the Cross, and the Dragon

by Iver P. Cooper

  "May I have a turn with the spyglass, Juan?" asked Mingyu.

  "Of course! How thoughtless of me!" said Juan, bowing as he handed her the scope. As Mingyu searched for the balloon in the spyglass' rather limited field of view, he added, "I wonder if they are high enough to pass over the spire of Cathedral of St. Mary of the See, in Seville? I came to Manila from Seville. By way of Mexico, of course."

  "How tall is St. Mary's?" asked Mingyu, as she adjusted the focus of the spyglass.

  Juan frowned. "I am not sure.... My host in Seville told me.... Three hundred feet? Three hundred fifty? Something like that."

  Mingyu handed the spyglass back to Juan. "What a marvelous sight. I hope Uncle Dragon didn't miss it."

  Zheng family compound, Anhai

  Mingyu's eyes were wide. "Uncle Dragon! You ascended the heavens in a vehicle from the future and you didn't tell me in advance? What if I had missed it?"

  Zheng Zhilong smiled. "You didn't."

  "But I could have," she wailed.

  "Forgive my little joke, niece," he said. "I asked your father to keep it secret and tell me how you reacted, since I couldn't see it for myself."

  "You are my elder and the leader of the Zheng family, so I cannot reproach you," said Mingyu.

  Zhilong snorted and turned his attention to Juan.

  "Lieutenant Cardona, had you any prior knowledge of these balloons?"

  "Only the vague rumor that the sorcerers of Grantville could fly, sir. I didn't know what to make of it."

  "They are not sorcerers," Zhilong said flatly. "Their balloons, for example, work on the same principle as our kongming, our sky lanterns. But returning to the matter of the artisans of Grantville, their knowledge is wide and deep. The one named Jim Saluzzo is the most knowledgeable."

  "That is an Italian name, sir," Juan volunteered.

  The admiral's eyelids flickered. "Do you speak Italian?"

  "No, but Spanish is similar."

  "I need you to return to Keelung soon, to help Brother Panther consolidate our new holdings in Taiwan and to inform him of the arrival of the Americans, but first I would like you to spend time with Saluzzo. Find out whatever you can about the Americans' balloons and their cannon. Also, they have devices for communicating across long distances quickly, even over water; I very much want to know how we can do the same. And then we must compare notes, see if they tell you the same thing they told me. There may be things they will say to a European and not a Chinese."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Following orders, Juan spoke with Jim Saluzzo, and even served as a member of the ground crew on the second ascent. He didn't discover any great American secrets that had been hidden from Zhilong, but by the time the admiral ordered him and his companions to proceed to Keelung, he had become convinced that the Americans were ordinary men and women and that there was nothing magical about their artifacts.

  Chapter 19

  Keelung, Taiwan (Formosa)

  Year of the Pig, Sixth Month (July 14-August 12, 1635)

  “N

  ow what?” asked Juan.

  "We wait for Uncle Bao," said Mingyu. The two of them, together with Captain Huang, stood on an uninhabited island in the Bay of Keelung. They had been instructed to row themselves over rather than employ the services of one of Huang's sailors.

  Seeing a flat area under a larger shade tree, they made for it, pushing through a stand of foot-tall plants with greenish-white flowers. "These smell like Bai Zhi," said Mingyu. "The roots are used to purge negative influences."

  Gaining the cover of the tree, which appeared to be some kind of evergreen, they squatted down in the shade. This was the hottest and driest time of the year in Keelung, according to the Spanish.

  Juan and Mingyu made small talk about their new life in northern Taiwan. The presence of Mingyu's father kept them from talking about anything serious. At last they heard Bao's voice, calling for them.

  They answered and met him on the beach.

  "Have you searched the island?" Bao demanded.

  "For what?"

  'Why, for anyone that might overhear us!"

  "I wish you had said this before we spent an hour on the island waiting for you and doing nothing useful," Juan complained.

  'The island is small. It will just take us a moment to do a circuit, and then we can talk," interjected Mingyu, seeking to prevent an argument.

  After they completed this precautionary search, Bao told them why they were meeting and the reason for such extraordinary precautions.

  "When you were in Anhai, you met the people from the town of Grantville. Including the one who is Chinese, Mike Song?"

  "Yes," Mingyu acknowledged. "He said that in what they call the old time-line he lived on this very island, but four hundred years in the future."

  "That's right. And he knows where the Chinese mined gold on this island, in that future! So Brother Dragon made a deal with this 'up-timer,' Mike Song, and the Zheng family is determined to find those gold deposits."

  "Is Mike Song coming to Taiwan to lead us to the gold?" asked Mingyu.

  "No," said Bao, "but he drew us a map." He removed a scroll from a leather cylinder that he was carrying and spread it out before them.

  "My orders are to send out two expeditions, one by land and the other by sea. I will command the land expedition, and you will go by sea to this place." He placed a finger on a bay shown on the map, and written beside it in Chinese characters was the name, Shuinandong. "The gold should be near this town-that-would-have-been, 'Jinguashi.' " Bao told Juan that the name meant Gold-Melon-Rock.

  Juan frowned. "This is all well and good, but I have no idea how to find a gold deposit, or how to mine the gold once found."

  "Don't worry about that," said Bao. "My brother's agents have been hiring suitable men and sending them here. Some of them have already arrived, although I have taken pains to sequester them from everyone else. You should be ready to sail next month."

  Mingyu had continued to study the map. "It looks like a short distance, but the jungles around here are not easy to penetrate. And even less easy to find one's way back out of."

  "Some of the aborigines that trade with the Spanish are from that general area, I believe," said Bao. "We'll find one that speaks some Spanish, so you can translate and persuade him to be your guide.

  "Just try to keep the mission as secret as you can, as long as you can. I don't want word to percolate down to the Dutch in the south."

  "Or to the government back home," said Mingyu. "Isn't there a ban on private ownership of gold mines?"

  "There is," Bao admitted. "Brother Dragon doesn't think that it applies to gold mines overseas, but why put some treasury official to the bother of having to decide the matter?" He smirked.

  "Why indeed," agreed Captain Huang.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Most of the would-be miners were laborers who had claimed experience in finding gold in river sand. Mingyu told Juan that this was not unusual. When the demand for field work was low, migrant workers often tried their hand at placer mining.

  A few, however, were real gold miners—those who knew the look and feel of gold ore and how to extract it from hard rock. All of these were from Shandong, where the government only intermittently permitted gold mining. They were among the last to arrive, as the monsoons forced them to first travel overland by the Grand Canal and various mountain roads and river boats before embarking on a Zheng family ship in Fujian.

  "You need to pick a foreman," Bao had told Juan and Mingyu.

  "But I know nothing about mining," Juan protested.

  "Neither do I," said Bao, "but I am 'marrying off the daughter.' "

  There was no one for Juan and Mingyu to pass the buck to. They talked it over but found that they had more questions than answers. Does one who knows how to mine gold that has already been found know how to find it in the first place? Does a hard rock miner know how to extract nuggets from rivers, and vice versa? Is the best miner also the best manager of mi
ners?

  At last they decided to let the men choose their own foreman--after telling them that their pay would depend in part on how successful they were.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Captain Huang's junk was a scene of furious activity, with the sailors loading her up with water, food, gunpowder, and other supplies. While with a favorable wind the passage to Shuinandong would take only a day, unfavorable winds could hold them at bay for a week or more. Worse, a typhoon could blow in and dash her against the shore, or carry her off, dismasted and rudderless, into the Great Sea. Captain Huang believed in being prepared for any eventuality.

  Mingyu was further down the crude dock, observing the preparation of the other two junks, the ones carrying the miners.

  Juan Cardona waved to her, and she waved back, somewhat absently. Juan came alongside Captain Huang's junk and spent a few moments studying its bobbing motion. Once he was sure of the pattern, he leapt on board.

  Captain Huang, he knew, would be at the stern of the ship. Juan made his way aft, the men streaming past him. A few even greeted him, even though he was a barbarian devil. At least, one had told him, he was Mingyu's barbarian devil.

  "Good day, Captain."

  "Lieutenant." It was ironic that despite all the ups and downs in his life, he held the same rank in the Chinese garrison of Keelung that he had enjoyed in the Spanish garrison of Manila. But in Keelung, at least, he was the only lieutenant.

  "As you know, Captain Huang, I have come to greatly appreciate your daughter, Mingyu."

  "Yes, I've noticed," said the captain.

  His expression was not encouraging, but Juan plowed on.

  "I understand that you agreed not to arrange a marriage for her. May I presume that if she consents to marry me we would have your blessing?"

  "Lieutenant Cardona, I don't know how wealthy or high-ranking your family is, but I think it safe to assume that they would not approve of your marrying Mingyu, even if she converted, and even if she came with a rich dowry."

  "I am of age, and I don't need their approval."

  "But lacking that approval, your resources are limited to your individual assets. Which, since you lost everything save the clothing you were wearing when Manila fell, is only what you have earned in the service of the Zheng family."

  "That's true, but I am doing well; I am second-in-command of this colony."

  "And you have yet to resign from Spanish service, so how far can you really be trusted? And thus, how far can you rise in Zheng family service even if you acquire fluency in Chinese? Speak to me again when you are no longer trying to serve two masters."

  Chapter 20

  In due course, three junks set sail from Keelung. Captain Huang had improved the upwind performance of his own junk by making the panels baggier and adjusting the twist in the fanned batten sails, but it didn't make sense for him to sail ahead of his two companions.

  When the wind over the open sea was from an unfavorable direction, the three junks had hugged the coast, taking advantage of the land breeze in the morning and the sea breeze in the evening, and anchoring in-between.

  "Look, Juan!" The Golden Venture had just rounded Shen'ao Cape. Mingyu was pointing at the bay of the same name, which had just come into view. The water of the outer bay was blue, but near the coast, it was a golden-yellow. A good omen. "Yin and Yang! Is it not pretty?"

  "Not as pretty as you," he assured her. She shrugged off the compliment. "It is useful as well as pretty. This bay will provide good shelter against all but northeast winds. It's too bad that it's the northeast monsoon season."

  Experience had taught Juan Cardona that when someone gave him directions and added "you can't miss it," he was doomed to wander around for hours. It therefore came as a pleasant surprise that he and Mingyu indeed could not miss this "Yinyang" Sea.

  "Still, it's an open roadstead," Captain Huang complained. That meant that if a storm came up while the ships were anchored there, they could be in serious trouble. "It's best that I stay on board, with most of the crew, so we can put out to sea if a storm seems to be brewing."

  The path that Juan, Mingyu, and the miners needed to take from Shuinandong was obvious. The bay lay just before a V-shaped valley between two mountains, with a bit of a foothill at the bottom of one of them. Plainly, if gold were responsible for the strange color of the Yinyang Sea, it was being washed down the valley.

  Mike Song's map didn't name either mountain, so Mingyu did so. "Let's call the one on the right Mount Huang and the taller one on the left Mount Zheng."

  Not surprisingly, there was a stream running down the valley to the sea. Mingyu hopefully christened this the "Jinguashi River."

  As Bao had advised, they were accompanied by a native guide, one of the Basay. While they had shown him a small gold nugget from Shandong so he would understand what they were looking for, the Spanish and Chinese had not found any gold ornaments in the Basay villages and thought it unlikely that the Basay could lead them to any gold placers or veins. Hence, the guide was present more to help them avoid natural hazards or unfriendly tribes. In Keelung, the Spanish had told Juan and Mingyu many stories about the mountain tribes' penchant for headhunting.

  They slowly advanced upstream, the gold-seekers stopping repeatedly to scoop up river sand. The hillsides were heavily forested, attesting to how much rain that northern Taiwan received over the course of a year. Near the coast, the trees seemed to be mainly chestnuts and laurels. As they ascended, they saw several oak trees. Alas, it was too soon in the year for acorns to drop.

  At one point, they surprised a troop of rock macaques that were drinking from the stream. They ran for the nearest trees and, safe among the branches, screamed their displeasure at the intrusion.

  After a while, the stream split into two tributaries.

  "Now what?" asked Juan. While he was nominally in charge of the expedition, he was well aware that he was the only westerner in the party and that Mingyu was a kinswoman of Zheng Zhilong, the big boss. Anyway, the writing on Mike Song's map was in Chinese.

  Mingyu took her time studying their copy of that map. "I think the tributary on our left goes toward Jinguashi and the one on our right toward Jiufen."

  The right tributary continued up the valley, whereas the steeper one on the left slanted across the back face of Mount Zheng. "Then I suppose we must go left. Unless Mike Song said that there was gold in Jiufen."

  "I think he said it was a mining town, too. But he didn't know whether it was a place where ore was mined or just one where miners lived. Perhaps we should split up?"

  "I think the left fork is the better prospect, but fine. Take Cut-Nose and the guide with you. You're more likely to encounter natives in the valley."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  It had been several days since Juan and Mingyu had headed inland, and Captain Huang didn't like the way the sea had been acting. The sky was clear and the wind almost calm, but the waves were higher than they had any right to be under those wind conditions. It suggested that somewhere beyond the horizon, the winds were very strong indeed.

  Shuinandong Bay, where the expedition was anchored, offered no protection against a typhoon, if that was what was coming—and this was typhoon season in east Asia. If they could make it back to Keelung, there would be some protection. But to get there, he needed wind, and the normally reliable northeast wind of the season had vanished.

  Or did he? His junk, the Golden Venture, had oars as well as sails. Captain Huang consulted with the other captains; they thought it fine to just stay where they were. Well, that was their choice, for good or ill.

  He told them that if he weren't back when his daughter returned, she should wait for him here, but not beyond the new moon of the ninth month—what Juan would call October 11. If that came and went, she should follow the coast back to Keelung.

  The Golden Venture crept out to sea. However, it didn't have to use oars for very long. The wind picked up, coming in from the northeast, and at first Captain Huang wondered whethe
r he had panicked at nothing.

  But then the wind veered a couple of points to the east and strengthened. As the battens of the Golden Venture's junk sails vibrated, Captain Huang offered prayer to Matsu, the Sea Goddess of Fujian, to protect his ship and his daughter's party against the approaching storm.

  By the time the wind was so strong that several battens had to be brought down to reduce the sail area, they had already rounded the island, Ho-Ping Tao, at the mouth of Keelung Bay. Rather than turn left toward the settlement, he continued to work his way south and west. The natives in the area had previously advised that in one of the "great whirling storms," the water stayed quieter there than near Ho-Ping Tao.

  Any doubt that a "great whirling storm" was indeed coming was dispelled when a mass of cirrus clouds rose over the mountains to the southeast. This was not Captain Huang's first encounter with a typhoon.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  The typhoon had made landfall on the east coast of Taiwan, near modern Yilan City. Halfway across Taiwan, it had turned north northeast, following the spine of the central mountains. Emerging from the mountains, it turned north and entered the East China Sea. In the twelve hours it had taken for the eye to traverse Taiwan, the typhoon had dumped huge volumes of rain on the northern and central mountains, on land already wet from the rains of the northeast monsoon.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Juan's and Mingyu's parties had enjoyed several days of good weather. But soon enough, the sky turned grey. The wind strengthened and they were hit with one rain squall after another. The Basay guide, who spoke Spanish, warned them to take immediate shelter--a typhoon was coming.

  The parties huddled in their tents. The rain squalls became more frequent and the wind fiercer; one of the tents blew away and its former occupants squeezed into one of the remaining tents. The rain became constant, and the once quiet stream was now raging.

  The only consolation for the two prospecting parties was the knowledge that the rain would wash down gold from higher elevations.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  The center of the storm passed about thirty-eight miles to their west. The eye itself was only thirty-two miles in diameter, so they never experienced the eerie respite that it provided. Rather, the howl of the wind and the ferocity of the rain gradually slackened.