However, in the history of the East, this kind of human tragedy that happened on this continent is not limited to these, as Zhu Beiguo used to say to a group of high school students, you must have strong nerves when reading real history---- because on this continent, history will often present you with scenes of hell on earth.

Probably because everyone was reluctant to think deeply about this, everyone's attention was quickly attracted by another report from Xia Xiaoou---- the annual budget of the three garrisons, from capitation fees to weapons and ammunition, this year a total of 100,000 taels of silver will be spent.

According to the implementation of the annual budget reported by Wei Hong, Xiao Ai, and Ren Ke to the Ministry of Finance, there is no problem in the rapid expansion of the garrisons of Wanshan Island and Zixia Island to more than 2,000 people by the end of the year, while the number of the Xin'ancheng garrison has long exceeded this number -- if the Ministry of Finance does not limit the budget in this regard, it will be easy for the total number of the three garrisons to exceed 6,000 by the end of the year, and it is obvious that the scale of the armed forces will become stronger in three years.

Everyone was satisfied with this---- if we were to go all out on the southeast coast in three years, we should be able to fight a local war with the Qing army, of course, the premise is that the war cannot be protracted.

However, there are also different voices, some parliamentarians believe that transporting people from the mainland to overseas is a long-term action, and it is obvious that a long-term and protracted action is logically incompatible with a short-term local war, unless it can rely on a short-term local war to defeat the Qing court, it is better to adopt a low-key way to send people overseas - therefore, is the "White Lightning" landing operation worth it?

The final voting result also fully reflected everyone's doubts---- which is why Ren Ke's "White Lightning Operation" was fully discussed and highly affirmed in the Senate, but in the end, no resolution was formed.

However, there is no doubt that this seed has been sown, and the final fate of "Operation White Lightning" will not be finally decided until the time comes.

Then the Senate members suddenly changed the topic, because Yu He submitted a report for the president - the "Northbound Fund" intends to lend another 100,000 taels of silver to the federal treasury as funds for the follow-up work of Operation Changfeng.

However, this plan has sparked discussion among shareholders, some of whom believe that the federal treasury's spending must be monitored, and at least some of the expenditures need to be scientifically analyzed and optimized, and they feel that there must be a problem of spending lavishly - these people firmly believe that all governments in the world have this problem, especially those that are not supervised.

So, Xia Xiaoou immediately made a keynote speech, the core meaning of her speech is only one: although it looks like a lot, but in fact, the silver is very unspent, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are not at home---- Changfeng Action is actually very expensive, because we don't just send the immigrants to the destination, but there are a series of follow-up, very expensive settlement assistance measures, these measures are necessary, as for whether there is waste or improper spending - Xia Xiaoou also honestly admitted:

"There may be...... Therefore, the Ministry of Finance will also send people to verify and supervise, and of course you also need to participate. ”

Xia Xiaoou continued, but if you want to save money through verification and supervision, it is just wishful thinking, after all, all expenses are open and accounts can be checked, so if you want to save money, the only way is not to spend money!

Xia Xiaoou said that everyone suddenly lost their temper, and then Minister Xia said that although our business is indeed thriving, the current situation is that the expenditure has also expanded sharply, and there is even a little stretch.

Obviously, this topic will be endless as soon as it is discussed, so Lao Ba, as the president of the Senate, immediately came forward to propose that this issue should be discussed later, please go back and prepare for it, discuss an opinion at the meeting, and then wait for the next Senate meeting, please put forward some targeted and mature suggestions, so that it can be efficient.

Everyone could only nod their heads in agreement.

So Lao Ba clapped his hands and announced the end of the meeting......

At the end of November 1659, just one month after Ren Ke submitted the "White Lightning Operation" plan, the reclamation of Zixia Island finally came to an end temporarily, and the sowing of seeds almost at the same time as the reclamation was also completed, and the immigrants entered a relatively fallow period.

Zixia Island's climate is a tropical rainforest climate, and the dry season began in October, during which Li Junming focused on promoting an important cash crop to farmers, the cocoa tree, at the request of Lao Wang.

It is still a cocoa seedling, which is a newly developed hybrid variety in Lao Wang's experimental farm - cocoa beans from the old world and wild cocoa seedlings from the New World have been crossed to cultivate a cocoa species suitable for the South Sea climate, resistant to diseases and pests, fast-growing and high-yielding - Lao Wang obtained wild cocoa seedlings and cocoa beans from the Americas from the Duchess Margaret in Dili City more than half a year ago, so Lao Wang, who is like a fish in water, has been working day and night to engage in hybridization, which is the result of his painstaking research and development for half a year.

Li Junming also knows that the reason why farmers are willing to grow this kind of crop that they have never seen and know the use of at all, in addition to good management and no labor, is also because the Australians promise to buy all the cocoa beans they produce, and ensure that the income per unit area of the growers is higher than that of other crops, such as wheat, rice, sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn.

Although the latter two are not familiar to the farmers, everyone knows that it is a full stomach, because in the early days of the landing, there was a period of time when the Australians provided these things to the immigrants, so the farmers put sweet potatoes and corn kernels into the rice porridge and boiled them together, just like drinking sweet potato rice porridge, which was actually very popular.

As a result, most farmers choose to grow these grains after the land reclamation, but the area under wheat and rice cultivation is not large.

Li Junming reported the situation to the old queen, but the old Wang said that in fact, the farmers' practices are very scientific, and sometimes they are much more practical than their own ideas - because these crops are not only resistant to water and insects and have high yields, but also have the effect of ripening fields and conserving soil, so most farmers will first plant a crop of miscellaneous grains on the newly reclaimed land.

Since none of these crops are intensively cultivated, there is relatively little agricultural activity during this time.

In addition, although Zixia Island is also Lao Wang's agricultural base, he will not come to inspect during this time, and a while ago, Lao Wang also clearly told Li Junming: You have nothing to see there for the time being, my current focus is to be a consultant to Duchess Margaret, and now the sugar cane forest in the Duchess's manor has expanded, and various varieties of spices for the production of five-spice powder are thriving on the land of the manor.

Lao Wang believes that the duchess's manor may be the planting base for the production of five-spice powder, rather than Zixia Island, because the manor is an intensive labor area, and there is no problem of convincing farmers to accept the varieties in advance, so Xin'an City may be the first to become a trading base for five-spice powder, rather than Zixia Island.

But according to Hou's later telegram to Li Junming, one of the other reasons why Wang did not come to Zixia Island was that he was now enjoying "the treatment of a respected polymath and agricultural expert" at the estate of the Duchess of Margaret outside Dili—a phrase that the governor of Pimont praised him.

Therefore, Lao Wang's current situation seems to be the same as Wei Hong's, four words - happy and unhappy.

Later, Xiao Pingguo also sent a telegram to gossip, saying that Master Wang was old, but he was very enthusiastic with the maids in the manor, especially with one of the Arab girls.

This sister is now Lao Wang's official "female apprentice", so the sister has recently openly taken care of Lao Wang's daily life!

And the origin of this girl is also a legend.

She was on a ship from the port of Aden on the Red Sea - on board the slave ship of Lefik.