Chapter 138 Entering the countdown
Compared with what Luo Shengdong encountered in Victory Port, the executive committee members were already very restrained in dealing with the group of people sent by Yazhou officials. With the current scale of the Traveling Group, it is not difficult to support such a dozen or so idle people. The Executive Committee also believes that it is worth spending dozens of taels of silver every month to buy a quiet place. As long as these people do not cause trouble in Victory Port, the Executive Committee I am happy to continue the current peaceful trade status with Yazhou.
The small courtyard of the Inspection Department is only two to three hundred meters away from the pier. You can see the situation on the pier without leaving the hospital. After everyone had lived here for two or three days, apart from not having much freedom, there was nothing unaccustomed to them. After eating three meals a day, a group of people stood by the fence and watched the busy scene on the dock.
After living there for the past few days, Wei Ping had a deeper understanding of what Haihan meant by "rules." In Port Victory, everyone seems to follow invisible and intangible "rules". The militia soldiers standing guard around the courtyard left the deepest impression on Wei Ping. The sentries changed guard every hour. During the period of guarding, they stood straight in the same place and did not talk to each other. Some of the provocative behaviors of the onlookers in the courtyard were also ignored.
Of course Wei Ping could tell that these people were local people and not Haihan people. Many of them were even mountain people from the Li and Miao ethnic groups, but these people all abided by the "rules" of the Haihan people without exception. He also felt Luo Shengdong's original confusion - how did the Haihan people train these people to such an extent?
Look at the subordinates around him. After eating every day, they either go to bed or sit by the river and fish to kill time. Although there is nothing wrong with such a peaceful life, Wei Ping feels that such boring days are simply unbearable. But he knew that it would be useless to protest to the Haihan people now, unless he could think of some effective way to make the Haihan people think that it would be better to let him out of the yard and move around freely than to stay in the yard. While Wei Ping was observing the movements of the Haihan people day after day, he was racking his brains to figure out how to get out of this damn yard.
Yazhou officials want to set up an inspection department in Shengli Port for direct management. To the Crossing Group, it is just a scabies disease. The current focus of the Executive Committee is not on this small group of people. Overseas colonization, which has entered the final preparatory stage, is the core of all the current work of the Cross-Travel Group.
Just two hours after Wei Ping and his party arrived at Victory Port, another fleet sailed into Victory Port. Shopkeeper Li of "Furuifeng" finally returned from Guangzhou. Arriving at Victory Port with him were two Guangzhou ships with 400 materials purchased in Guangzhou for the Crossing Group, as well as more than 60 people employed along with the ships. Shipwrights, sailors and a few mechanics.
Shopkeeper Li’s trip also brought other good news. The newly launched glass stationery of Chuanchuan Group was highly praised by the Guangzhou head office, and the market response was also quite good. The samples sent were not sold to the public at all, "Fu Rui said. "Feng" only held one internal promotion meeting for major customers, and it was quickly sold out. This time shopkeeper Li rushed back to Port of Victory. In addition to bringing two large ships that traveled through the group for help in purchasing, he also specially sent thousands of taels of cash in the hope of ordering 500 sets of glass stationery at one time and naming them. You need to buy the "upgraded version", "premium version" and "limited edition" that Schneider mentioned before.
In addition, the head office in Guangzhou has also expressed a certain interest in the private salt business, but hopes that Chuanchuan Group can guarantee a stable supply of no less than 10,000 kilograms per month. In this era, it is almost impossible for the saltworks on Hainan Island to complete such a production task, but for the saltworks commune, which has set this year's production target at 1,500 tons, this amount is nothing at all. At present, the technical renovation work of the salt field is progressing steadily. A large number of cement salt drying ponds have begun to gradually replace the previously used stone troughs. The water diversion channel leading to the inland of the salt field has been renovated. The production efficiency has been improved several times compared with when Anxi first took over the salt field. .
Although the sales of salt are not very impressive compared to the luxury goods business, where a transaction can cost thousands of taels, the executive committee attaches great importance to this project. The reason is very simple, because salt is a fast-moving consumer goods with no threshold at all, and it is also a daily necessity that everyone has to buy. This special product nature makes its circulation in the market much stronger than that of Chuan Chuan Group. The other daily necessities produced can even be used as hard currency to a certain extent, which is an unparalleled advantage of other products.
Shopkeeper Li also said that the Guangzhou head office of "Furuifeng" is still continuing to search for second-hand large ships on the Guangzhou market for Chuanchuan Group, and will send a ship to visit Victory Port in the near future. At that time, the senior personnel of "Furuifeng" will come forward to contact Chuanchuan Group to discuss a long-term and stable business cooperation model.
This good news greatly stimulated the Executive Committee. The opening of the first maritime trade route outside the main island will mean that the products produced by the Chuanchuan Group have a huge consumer market. Compared with this market, the current production capacity of Chuanchuan Group is obviously too low. If it wants to shorten the time of primitive accumulation and get the first pot of gold for development and growth as soon as possible, what Chuanchuan Group needs to do now is to do its best to expand production capacity. To achieve this goal, the first thing to do is to solve the biggest difficulty at present-energy. The number of sea-going ships available for overseas colonization operations has now increased from six to eight, and the total tonnage of the fleet has reached about 1,500 tons. After calculation, the Executive Committee believed that this tonnage could meet the requirements for loading the materials required for the first voyage. In addition, some cabins could be vacated to load some local refugees on the east coast of Vietnam to open up new lands in New Port according to the immigration plan. The conditions for developing the Hongji Coal Mine were ripe. The Executive Committee decided not to delay any further and issued a mobilization order. All departments stopped other matters and made full preparations for this overseas colonization operation.
For this operation, the Executive Committee transferred capable personnel from within and established a "huge" overseas team of thirty-five people. They will lead a team of 80 recruits and 200 local laborers to perform a one-year garrison mission in Newport.
After completing this year's stationing mission, the recruits will automatically obtain the rank of sergeant, and their military pay during the period of stationing will be double the original standard. The treatment of these local workers is much higher than that of their counterparts who stayed in Victory Port. The overseas allowance alone has exceeded the original salary. After the expiration of one year, these people will receive third-level labor treatment and can stay or leave at their own discretion. They can freely choose whether to stay in Newport or return to Victory Port.
Compared with recruits who already have a basic concept of discipline, recruiting labor is still more or less troublesome. The vast majority of people are unwilling to leave their hometowns to work overseas, and they don't even have the high salary and generous treatment offered by the Executive Committee. Can play a big role. In the end, the Executive Committee had no choice but to use some semi-coercive measures and draft conscripts on some families in the commune.
In addition, according to Ren Liang's suggestion, some prisoners with good performance and obedience were selected from the labor camp to join the overseas workers. Of course, it is impossible for these people to obtain the title and treatment of third-level workers after one year. All he got was freedom after a year. But even so, there was almost a rush for this precious quota in the labor camp.
The Ministry of Shipping painted the sides of the three 400-year-old ships it purchased with unified ship numbers, from "Commercial Transport 01" to "Commercial Transport 03", while the previously seized Haicang Ship and Guangzhou Shipyard remained the same. The ship numbers of the previous "Hai Xun 01" and "Hai Xun 02" are used. Although both training ships have been equipped with the Type 27 A 6-pound naval gun newly developed by the military industry department, neither the Military Police Department nor the Maritime Transport Department has any plans to include these ships in the future naval establishment. These ships are not designed and built according to the standards of warships, and they are too reluctant to be used as naval combat ships.
According to the plan after consultation between the two departments, the current level of armament of these ships does not need to be too high. It only needs to reach the level of Chinese-style armed merchant ships of the same era. In terms of the level of weapons produced by the Crossing Group, when equipped with the same number of artillery, these ships can definitely destroy the opponent beyond the opponent's range. In order to prepare for the new arrival of several 400-pound ships, the military industry department has begun to produce 9-pound naval guns and 12-pound naval guns. However, after the guns are cast, they will have to undergo a long-term calibration test. I am afraid that they will not be able to make it in time for the first trip. Time to sail. At present, we can only install a few smaller 6-pound guns on these large ships, which can be regarded as having basic maritime defense capabilities.
However, the shortcomings of insufficient manpower showed up again at this time. It took the new barracks more than a month to train more than a dozen naturalized soldiers who had mastered basic gunnery procedures. This time, all the executive committees were assigned to the long-distance ship. In the team. But even so, the gunners on the ship are not enough. Evenly distributed, there are only two gunners for each gun. If artillery fire is needed to join the battle at sea, I am afraid that the only way is to let the rookie gunners command the temporarily transferred sailors and boatmen.
Due to the increase in naval guns, the demand for gunpowder also increased greatly. The chemical industry department stopped all scientific research work during this period and concentrated on manufacturing black powder. This thing is not only useful for the artillery on the ship, but also for building roads and mines in Xingang, which requires a huge amount of gunpowder. According to the estimates of the Ministry of Construction, the amount of gunpowder required during the construction of the new port was at least one ton. To be on the safe side, the Ministry of Chemical Industry worked overtime to produce two tons of black powder, which also made all the sulfur, saltpeter and other materials in stock available. Sweep away.
By mid-July, all preparations were in place, and the countdown to overseas colonization began.
(End of chapter)