According to the original sailing plan, the Pride should go south directly after leaving the Sulu Sea, passing through the waters of Zixia Island and returning to the Red Pier on Mornington Island, but because the Pride accidentally acquired a large amount of sulfur and refined nitrate in Macau, these are the raw materials needed for the current Xin'an City Ammunition Factory, if it is transported back to Mornington Island first and then moved to the Nicole for transshipment, it is obviously too detoured.

So a telegram from the Red Mansion caused the Pride to change its course, and the Pride turned southwest after leaving the Sulu Sea, and came to Xin'an Port again.

Since December last year, the Pride has made three trips back and forth between Macao and Mornington Island, the last two of which were Pride's solo voyages, and the last two solo trade trips to Macao can be summed up in the words "fruitful", the most notable of which is the Pride transporting back to Mornington Island for the children and teenagers.

So far, including Nicole, more than 200 children have been brought back from Macao, half of whom are between the ages of five and 12, and more than 100 teenagers and girls over the age of 13, including 21 orphans on the Pride this time.

Nowadays, both Mornington Island and Xin'an City are very interested in the 21 Han teenagers on board the Pride this time, because these teenagers are Han orphans who have just been transported to Macao from Wuzhou, Huizhou, Shaoguan and other Lingnan and Guangxi mainlands, and all of them are 14 to 15 years old.

These young men were recruited by the Church of Mercy Abbre, in the name of the Church of Mercy Navigation School, from various churches in the interior.

It is said that these orphans are baptized teenagers who have grown up in the church and worked in the fields and workshops owned by the church, and that it is customary for these young people to leave the church soon to fend for themselves in the interior.

Just a few months ago, after receiving the request of Ingres, the churches immediately recruited these teenagers, saying that they were going to be sent to the sea ship as apprentices, and the number of volunteers at that time reached more than 60 people, so the pastors of the church sent these young people to the Holy House of Mercy in Macao through various channels, but when these young people heard that they were going to go overseas in the extreme south, most of them were unwilling, and most of them left at that time, and the rest stayed in the orphanage in Macao for various reasons.

However, after a few days, they walked a little more one after another, after all, to cross the ocean to a strange and unknown place, which is a test in itself, and usually, most people do not have the courage to rush on the ship unless they have to.

So when the Pride arrived at Macau Harbour, only 21 of the teenagers ended up on board.

Although these teenagers only learned some Chinese characters through the study of the Bible when they were young, and they also knew a little bit of Portuguese, they did not seem to have any level of education, but it was obviously much better than the illiterate people.

Therefore, the Red Chamber thinks that this group of teenagers is an excellent labor force, and they are not very old, they belong to the young people who can be cultivated and molded, and the various industrial groups in the family want these people very much.

According to the latest regulations of the Board of Education, all teenagers and girls who enter school at about the age of 15 will be subject to a different school system than children under the age of 13---- and those who are over 13 years old will be subject to a part-time school system of work and study, whether in Sunflower or Bamboo Garden.

That is to say, they spend half of their time in school, and the other half of their time learning crafts and techniques at the work site with their respective "masters", and a total of more than 40 boys and girls among the 180 or so children in the early stage adopt this part-time work-study system.

This is an important measure to alleviate the labor tension at home, and as soon as the method of the Educational Examination Committee chaired by Xia Xiaoou was introduced, it was immediately supported and praised by everyone, and of course, it also immediately triggered a war for people.

Obviously, these young people are the most favored labor force among professionals in various industrial groups, including Lao Wang Lao Zhu and doctors, and these boys and girls are finally sent to different positions after a series of tests and assessments by a group of professionals, and after some fierce bargaining and balancing.

Although these teenagers lacked much in terms of knowledge, at least in their daily work, especially in the operation of several factory production lines, many of them had become the right-hand men of these professionals, and in many respects they were much better than the adult Han Chinese men and women who were born as tenant slaves.

For the same reason, at this time in Xin'an City, Hou Xianglin and ** paid much more attention to this group of teenagers than the goods brought by the Pride, when the Pride docked on the Blue Wharf, Hou Xianglin quickly arranged the unloading of the wharf, and then took **Gui Xianning and Xiao Pingguo to see this group of children impatiently.

Hou Xianglin wanted to take this opportunity to find some suitable assistants and employees for his future construction company, and ** hoped to find a few heralds who knew Chinese and could speak.

As for Gui Xianning and Xiao Pingguo, the two of them do not have the same life and career plan as Hou Wei and the others for the time being, and they came over just to be curious to see the excitement.

In the crew cafeteria, Hou Xianglin and ** saw this group of teenagers, the spirit and mood of the teenagers looked very good, and they were also very lively, it seems that this group of teenagers and the crew have been in the same boat for more than ten days, and they have become very familiar with each other.

These young people are now doing the work of "trainee crew" on the ship, in fact, the main job content is to clean and help Daiyama in the kitchen, and occasionally be called to help carry goods, although they are not idle every day, but it is not very hard, at least much less hard than the teenagers used to think.

The point is that the food is unexpectedly good, and many young people say that in these ten days, they have eaten more oil, water and delicious food in their stomachs than in more than ten years combined.

Therefore, when Governor Hou and Captain Wei met with this group of young people, the atmosphere in the restaurant was very good, and the teenagers greeted Hou Xianglin and ** in turn very politely, and that attitude was very similar to the appearance of subordinates when they saw a big man who was several levels higher than themselves, so the two brothers immediately subconsciously smiled and made a look like their parents visiting the grassroots, and began to ask for warmth, shaking hands, waving hands and even patting their shoulders---- I don't know where they learned this style.

However, the two sides soon entered into various substantive and in-depth exchanges, and the brothers began to understand the life experience, hobbies, and skills of the group of teenagers in front of them, in short, later, the conversation between Hou Wei and the teenagers became more and more like recruitment interviews.

However, this "interview activity" was quickly interrupted by Li Sanduo and Zhu Beiguo, and as the boatswain Hu Xiaolin entered the restaurant with a serious face, and called the teenagers away to help on the deck, in a blink of an eye, only Li Zhuhou and Brother Wei were left in the restaurant.

Next, when Hou Wei and the others asked the two of them if they could leave us a few teenagers, they were immediately rejected by Li Zhu and the others on the spot.