The last time the Pride brought him three small wooden boats and ten tricycles, from which the small wooden boats were untied from the three sailing boats, which were the materials of the cave and were used to transport coal for him.

According to Captain Gu's request, Ren Ke should try to keep some coal on the dock as much as possible, so that Nicole can get fuel replenishment at any time when it comes.

According to the schedule of the Nicole to and from Sin'an City-Sulu-Red Pier, the Nicole will pass by Zixia Island almost every month and a half, which is how often Ren Ke prepares coal for Nicole.

Nowadays, whether it is used as a fuel or as an industrial raw material, the demand for coal in the Red Mansion is increasing.

But to get coal from Timor, not only did it take someone else's hand, but it also took several hands, and for well-known reasons, the supply of coal on Timor is now extremely unstable.

Of course, the cost factor is also a key factor, and even if the coal on Timor Island is cheaper, it is still high compared to Zixia Island.

You must know that Ren Ke's eighty-person escort team is now a young man, a strong laborer, and now he has one or two or five dollars of silver every month, and he has good food and drink, and if he doesn't use it to work, will he keep it as an uncle?

In a word, there is no free lunch in the world, and it is definitely impossible to let this group of people be idle.

Therefore, in order to dig more coal, Ren Ke recruited miners from the immigrants on the one hand, and also sent the escort team to work in the mines in shifts.

The Red Mansion side is very supportive of Ren Ke's approach, which is completely different from the style of slamming the door on Wei Hong's side, and the Federal Ministry of Finance presided over by Xia Xiaoou gave the green light to the military budget of the Zixia Island Escort.

Why? Because Ren Ke's escort team is not only engaged in military training that costs money, but also does a money-making coal digging business, and later, the coal money paid by the shipping company presided over by Captain Gu to Zixia Island every year can actually offset more than half of the military expenses, and the Federal Ministry of Finance is of course happy to see such a good thing.

Fortunately, the open-pit coal mine in the upper reaches of the Heishui River is indeed very convenient to mine, and it is easy to transport, by waterway, it can be transported by wooden boat in the river, and by dry road, there is a simple dirt road on the river bank that has been opened in advance, and it is transported by tricycle.

So Ren Ke divided the 80-person escort team into five squads, each squad had a squad leader and a deputy squad leader, one shift and two shifts to dig coal, three shifts to transport, and four shifts and five shifts to stay by Ren Ke's side to engage in military training and perform various duties and take turns to rest, so that the soldiers combined work and rest to take turns to shift shifts, nervous to nervous, but it seemed that they were not tired.

Back on June 2, 1659, the Pride had left the Zixia Bay Pier three days earlier and continued to go north to do their own business, Lao Wang and Lao Zhu were temporarily left on Zixia Island, and the two bigwigs were waiting for the arrival of Nicole.

On this morning, Nicole's tall figure finally appeared in the distance of Zixia Bay, and a majestic whistle sounded, making the people on the dock forget the work at hand and look up at the legendary Australian iron ship blankly.

Because Nicole's draft couldn't get to the Zixia Bay Pier, as soon as the Nicole arrived, a small boat immediately sent the two bigwigs over.

At the same time, five lifeboats were also laid down on the Nicole, and these empty dinghys were carried with empty baskets, and the acting first mate of the Nicole, Li Junming, led the ten crew members to row to the dock, apparently they were here to transport coal.

Ren Ke saw his friends at home again, and he was in a very happy mood, but everyone didn't talk much, just greeted them affectionately, made a few jokes about meat and vegetables by the way, and then hugged enthusiastically and started to go their separate ways.

Only Li Junming hurriedly told Ren Ke that the Nicole had just arrived from the port of Holo in Sulu, and based on what we had, it was almost certain that there would be a big change in Sulu by the end of the year, perhaps by the beginning of next year at the latest.

Li Junming said quite confidently, that young king is very likely to be in power, and you may get thousands, or even tens of thousands, of Han tenants here at one time, so you should be prepared here, don't get in a hurry at that time.

Ren Ke was very excited when he heard this, once he had an abundant labor force, his various careers on Zixia Island would soon develop by leaps and bounds.

Replenished with fuel, the Nicole quickly left Zixia Bay, and its next stop was Sin'an City.

After Lao Wang and Lao Zhu got on the Nicole, they immediately sent a telegram to Xin'an City, they told Xiao Wei and the two ---- that the main task of this trip was to go to the Duchess's manor to guide the agricultural and animal husbandry industry at the invitation of the Duchess, and at the same time explore the possibility of planting cocoa beans and spices in the manor. The two decided to talk to Mr. Sun who is currently in Xin'an City first......

Two days later, while on the voyage, the Nicole suddenly received a surprising telegram from the Pride:

"To the Red Chamber: Our ship arrived at Manado on June 3, and because of an emergency, we fought a battle with the fleet of the local indigenous kingdom on the island of Sulawesi, which was related to the friends Zhu Beiguo had made at the beginning, and the battle was won a great victory...... The specific process report is as follows......"

However, I don't know which correspondent on duty added this sentence at the end of the telegram:

“…… Ladies and gentlemen, Brother Li has since left the ranks of virgins......"

So the telegram immediately aroused everyone's interest.

It happened on the morning of June 3, as agreed with the King of Sulu, the Pride arrived at Minado, located in the northeast corner of Sulawesi.

As soon as the Pride stopped at the agreed place and anchored, Li Sanduo received a report from the lookout on duty that a small boat was approaching rapidly in the direction of the Minado coastline, and in addition to the two men who were paddling on board, there was also a girl! In terms of dress, it looks like a Han woman.

Li Sanduo immediately notified the whole ship to be on alert, and then picked up the binoculars himself and carefully observed the direction of the coastline.

The waves of the sea in the distance are rolling, Li Sanduo really saw a small boat speeding away, it is a small wooden boat carved with various colorful patterns, Li Sanduo and the crew are very familiar with this kind of small wooden boat---- this is a small boat commonly used by the locals, when the Pride first arrived, the local natives drove this small wooden boat around the Pride to do fruit trading.

And the girl standing on the bow of the boat, with a cyan stand-up collar placket on her upper body, below the waist, wearing a pink skirt, the sea breeze blows, the belt and hair fluttering, which can blow the peach bun on the girl's head.

Li Sanduo's heart jumped at that time, and he stayed for a long time without issuing any captain's orders.

It's just that when the new first mate of the Pride, Han Qisheng, turned around at the bow of the ship and shouted to Li Sanduo:

"Brother Li! The sister is Huang Xianggu, and our translation sister is here! ”

In fact, Li Sanduo at this moment has already recognized it---- yes, it is indeed the translation girl, the mysterious woman who once let him and Zhu Beiguo discuss for a long time, and asked Brother Zhu to take out a string of titanium alloy stainless steel bracelets to "make a good relationship" with him......

"Dismiss the alarm! Put the gangway! ”

After saying these words, Li Sanduo put down the binoculars, subconsciously left the bridge and walked to the freeboard, put his hand on the pergola, and looked at the place where the boat came from.

Today's Huang Xianggu is quite familiar with the crew on the Pride, since the first time they dealt with it in June last year, as long as the Pride came here to do business with the secret envoy of the Sulu State, Huang Xianggu and Huang Xi'er sisters would come together every time, they quickly revealed their identities to the Australians, and frankly told their origins and life experiences, which also made Zhu Li and others, especially the crew members on the Pride, amazed---- sighed and admired the life experience of the girls......

In short, all this undoubtedly greatly narrowed the psychological distance between the two sides, plus these two girls belong to the bold type, so the two sides quickly became friends who talked about everything.