In the endless, never-ending rain, a large number of construction workers are fighting for construction on the coast of a foreign country.

There are two kinds of construction personnel, and it is clear from the attire: one is a short and thin local wearing a cloth or tattered homespun clothes; The other is an outsider in a canvas raincoat.

After the first two difficult days, the traversers, who had gained a foothold in Hongji Port, could not wait to order the troops to attack from all sides and "recruit" local natives to participate in the construction.

So Wu Sanye's mobile team received the task, pulled out in the continuous rain, and ventured inland to search.

Soon, some coastal fishermen and indigenous people from scattered inland villages were "invited" by the pioneers to the Hongji Fort construction site.

Under normal circumstances, indigenous villages are not so easy to follow. However, in the rainy season, the harsh natural environment greatly limited the reaction speed and movement ability of the natives, so Wu Sanye and the others easily blocked the natives in the nest.

At this time, the natives can only honestly "respond to the government's conscription". Yes, in a copycat country like Annam, its political system is learned from China from top to bottom, including forced labor.

As for the government...... The interpreter with a local accent told the natives that this key project was an order from the government, and didn't they see the well-equipped "Royal Forest Army" coming to the door?

The natives who were invited by guns and bayonets, although they muttered about the legitimacy of the comer, had to obey the orders of the comer in their actions.

However, things soon turned around. After being escorted to the construction site for a day's work, the frightened people not only ate enough high-calorie meals, but also received their wages at the end of the evening: copper coins of their choice, cloth, candles, salt, rice, and other daily necessities.

For the poor peasants of Annam in the 17th century, it was not too cost-effective to find such a well-paid job during the rainy season. At this time, there is no fake official mansion, and the official with the banner of the word "Cao" is the real official mansion, who says that it is a fake Lao Tzu and who is in a hurry!

Soon, the natives called on their friends, braved the rain, and brought their fellow villagers and relatives to support the construction of the country.

Indigenous people are more accustomed to the local rainy season and terrain than outsiders, so they do almost all the non-technical work...... For example, clearing the vegetation on the perimeter and bringing back enough building materials to the site.

The so-called building materials are mainly wooden poles and wide plant leaves. Both of these things were used to carry out Zheng Yangyang's previous instructions: digging ditches and building sheds.

The circle that Zheng Yangyang drew on the map before was actually a square. The reason is simple: compared to odd-shaped bastions and round castles, square buildings are the most time-consuming, the least costly, and the easiest to plan and expand afterwards.

With advantages comes disadvantages: square cities will leave a wide attack surface for the besiegers and have low defenses.

However, the army had confidence in the square. So far, the crossing army has completed siege operations that require more resources and technical content, at least in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, there has never been a situation of hard defense of the city.

Extrapolating from this, a stronghold that requires only a small number of troops to defend has a very high bonus for the side with the technical advantage. The Annam army may be able to put pressure on our side in the field, but the military does not care about defending the city, even during the rainy season.

Even if the combat effectiveness of the regular army of Annam is not low, it is also a military consensus that no one can capture the city with rapid-fire guns and breech guns.

Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, a trench appeared on the coast of Ha Long Bay.

A trench is two lines that bear parallel states.

The inner enclosure of the moat was square, deep and wide, which was the foundation for the city wall. The trench as a perimeter protection is much shallower, and only a low wall needs to be built here, and there is no need to build a neat square, facing the inland direction.

The next step is to build a straw hut.

If you want to build walls with bricks and cement during the continuous rainy season, waterproofing must be done well. After the rainproof grass shed above the trench is erected, the next step can the builder level the foundation, allocate cement, and build the wall.

In this process, some drainage ditches are also dug in the side of the trench to drain the groundwater at any time.

There is no doubt that the brick walls that are being built in the current environment are certainly not as strong as the northern standards, after all, the cement can only be slowly solidified after the rainy season. However, this is a minor problem for the traverser: under the canopy, the firearm fire rate is greatly increased, which is enough to destroy the enemy in the charging path...... If there really is a large force to charge.

All of the above work involves the strength of the largest number of engineering personnel. Another focus is on the wharf, where a stone wharf is being built deep into the bay...... Even the stones were brought in from the sea, and there were no stone processing companies on the deserted Annam coast.

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While the pioneers were desperately racing against time on the coast of Annan, a large passenger ship departing from Taijiang Port stopped at the official wharf in Guangzhou New District.

Disembarking from the ship was a team from the north.

Previously, at the end of May, the imperial court received a letter from the south. In addition to reporting the cause and effect of the war in Macao, it also attached a stack of land deeds, which are said to have been "lost" to the government by the merchants of Francois after the city of Macau was broken.

Happy to lose this kind of trick, the court is a clear person. However, the focus was not on this: the loot and title deeds from the South were the main thing. No one doesn't like to make war money, but the Ming monarchs and ministers have always lost money in wars, and they haven't enjoyed this kind of taste.

After that, there was also a round of offensive and defensive battles between the monarchs and ministers around the spoils of war. Of course, the young emperor was unsurprisingly defeated by the ministers and robbed of most of his booty.

And the one who disembarked at the wharf in the new district today was the team sent by the imperial court to receive the title deed grange.

The receiving group is made up of several groups of people with different identities. Among them, there are two main ones: Ma Min, the head of the household department, and Du Shangbao, the deputy eunuch of the inner treasury.

Ma Min and Du Shangbao, one represents the household department, and the other represents the inner palace, which is a standard receiving officer.

And the rest of the receiving group are sent by the bigwigs from all walks of life to see the direction of the wind.

As early as the first entry of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and after Cao Zongbing went to Beijing to Qinwang, the interest of the Beijing tycoons in buying real estate in the south has risen day by day.

At the beginning, people had a tentative attitude and sent domestic slaves to Yizhou to buy some legendary fields to test the waters.

After that, aside from the rich industrial returns, there is another very important concept that has been slowly changed by high-level people: miasma.

Yes, the phenomenon of "miasma land", which has killed countless people since ancient times and was avoided by the ancients, does not exist in Yizhou, or even expanded to all the Cao clan's territories.

Now, with the passage of time, the Ming elite in the far north has undoubtedly confirmed this. Although there are all kinds of strange legends, the facts cannot be changed: in places like Yizhou, there are very few people who suffer from miasma (malaria) and various fevers.

This phenomenon undoubtedly added a dazzling aura of mysticism to Cao.

In this way, the simple investment behavior of "buying property in the south" has become complicated: since the miasma can be broken, can the clansmen go to the place where the four seasons are like spring to "spread the leaves" and "recuperate"?

With this idea, since the beginning of this year, people from all over the Ming Dynasty have come to buy houses in various parts of the south, and the price of land, including Yizhou, has attracted a small increase. You must know that as of today, the degree of development of the Tainan Plain is far from being as good as that of later generations, and there are still many, many fields that can be sold in theory, which can make the Chikan District Government smile crookedly.

And this time, the imperial court set up an official receiving team because of the title deed presented by Uncle Zhongyong, which was an excellent opportunity to go to the south to investigate. The reason is that the excerpt room of the Zhongyong Bo Mansion in the capital has already released a word, saying that the miasma of Annan Nagada has been eliminated, and the people of Annan are also hospitable, and Cao Zongbing has also collected a lot of land deeds in the local area, so he is waiting for everyone to invest.

Now the Ming people have understood a truth from the Tatars who rolled back to the Guanwai and the Yizhou natives who sold fried chicken: since the soldiers are strong and strong, and the fierce and domineering Zhongyongbo said so, then those Nanyi who eat grass must be hospitable, and Annan must have a lot of land deeds and other people to pay for silver.

As a result, the Beijing bigwigs received the delegation and formed it in this way.

The members of the group not only include the chief and eunuchs with official status, but also the henchmen and family members sent by various wealthy families in the capital. By the way, when the ship arrived at Zhangsutan Port in Shanghai, it also picked up a large number of gentry and slaves in the south of the Yangtze River, among which there were several current heads or second generations of the gentry families.

Therefore, the number of guests who disembarked at the official wharf of the new district today is quite a lot, counting the servants who followed and served, there were 300 people.

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After the delegation disembarked, there was no doubt that they stayed at the Baietan. In the evening of the same day, under the luxurious large crystal chandelier, Dr. Ronglu Zhu Guo Imperial Feng Zhong Yong Bo Bing Lang Hou Jun Du Governor Cao Chuan Cao stood in the hotel lobby, personally holding a glass of bright red grape wine, toasting the distinguished guests of the delegation in turn, and the lively banquet lasted until the early hours of the morning.

Two days later, the members of the delegation seized the opportunity to visit relatives and friends in the city of Guangzhou, and then wandered around the new district, thoroughly experiencing the difference between the "modern" city and the old city.

After that, the delegation hurriedly boarded the passenger ship: the Nth transport fleet organized by the new district was about to go to Halong Bay to unload its cargo, and the delegation naturally had to move with the large fleet escorted by warships to be safe.

So one morning in late July, in a bay not far south of Fangchenggang, a member of the delegation inadvertently witnessed someone's violent and domineering behavior.