Keelung, a few months ago, was a ruin, but now in addition to a few pine pier piers jutting into the bay at the harbor, there is a shipyard by the pier, and on the shore of the shipyard there are several ships that are about to be completed, and a few nimble sloops in the berth area, swaying in the breeze.

I don't know when the sailors in Jiangbei preferred schooners, because schooners could sail in headwinds, and they didn't need to just take the "Z" route when headwinds like schooners.

The current Keelung is not so much a small bay city that has just emerged, but rather a forward base

In the past few months, thanks to the southward monsoon, more and more prisoners of war have been exiled here, and they have cultivated mountains and trees, built houses, towns, and wasteland, and of course the timber and sulfur mines produced near Keelung are also important materials for Keelung, especially the latter, which is necessary for the manufacture of gunpowder.

At the entrance of the bay, Keelung Island, which guards the entire Keelung Bay, was inhabited by hundreds of natives a few months ago, but now they have all moved out of the area like the natives near Keelung, although they are a little reluctant to leave. But in the absolute balance of power, they still moved to the distant mountains.

Compared with the lively Keelung City on the shore of Keelung Bay, Keelung Island, which is located at the entrance of the bay, is a little deserted, most of the people who live here are soldiers, they are stationed in the Western-style fortress, guarding the bay, and the 12 24-kilogram cannons and 27 18-kilogram cannons above the fortress are pointing directly at the sea, vigilantly watching the sea in the distance.

Early in the morning, a wood-colored sampan was rowed by two sailors and landed on Keelung Island, on the dock of Keelung Island, the hull of the "Fubo" undulated with the wind, this cruiser with 36 guns, is the most powerful warship in Keelung Bay, compared to the other four sloops, like gadgets, and even two of them are still built of softer cypress, and they were built on the spot in Keelung, and they were built only to enhance the power of the sea.

Jumping from the sampan to the trestle, when the two soldiers on duty saw the comer, they immediately stood up and saluted, and at this time Li Le was no longer dressed as a civilian, but changed into a military uniform again. He was not only an expedition leader, but also an infantry squadron leader.

"Captain Li, the Governor is waiting for you!"

Governor.

This is Shen Hefei's official title, and it can be said that he is also the first official in the Loyal Army to run the local area as a soldier, which also determines the difference between Keelung and other regions. It is not a civilian officer who is in charge here, but an officer. As an officer, although his official title is "Governor-General", it is only "Governor-General Keelung Military and Political Affairs", which is completely different from the "Governor-General" in the mainland, but his power is far greater than that of the "Governor-General" in the mainland, and he also holds the power of life and death of the Keelung military and civilians. Because of this, this "Governor's Palace" is, to a certain extent, the heart of Keelung, symbolizing the rule of the Loyal and Righteous Army here.

Arriving at the governor's chamber, which was located inside the fortress, Li Le saw that the governor was eating breakfast there.

"I've seen the sir."

When Li Le saluted, Shen Hefei looked up at him and said.

"I haven't eaten breakfast yet, so let's sit down and eat together!"

There was no doubt in his tone, as the governor of Keelung. With 2,000 soldiers and nearly 10,000 prisoners of war and more than 1,000 exiles in charge of life and death, he has long been accustomed to such a tone, and as the captain, the captain's orders are also unquestionable.

"Thank you, sir!"

Sitting directly opposite the governor, Li Le began to enjoy breakfast, compared to the land division of the loyal army, the shore meal of the naval fleet can be said to be extremely rich, which Li Le can be said to be deeply experienced, when sailing at sea, in addition to biscuits, salted fish, salted meat and other meat are also necessary every day, and on land, fresh fruits, meat is also a must.

It's like breakfast in front of you, with eggs, stir-fried vegetables, rice porridge, and even fruit. It is said that this is a requirement of the warp strategy, just like the soldiers of the fleet have to drink persimmon leaf tea every day. However, Li Le was not interested in the sumptuous breakfast on the table in front of him, and at this time, his expression seemed a little excited, and just as he was speaking, the governor's voice reached his ears.

"Captain Li, have you gained anything from this expedition?"

Expeditions were sent to reconnoiter the vicinity of Keelung, both to determine the strength of the natives and to obtain nearby resources.

"Yes, Governor!"

Li Le, who looked a little excited, took out a piece of ore and put it on the table, and said:

"This is where we found the ore!"

Looking at the piece of ore, Shen Hefei asked directly.

"What is the mine? I don't know much about that. ”

"Lead Mine!"

Lead!

Shen Hefei, who was originally eating, finally put down the chopsticks in his hand, he even stood up, picked up the piece of ore, and then asked with interest.

"Lead ore? Is there a lot of them? ”

When he asked this sentence, he himself didn't realize that his words seemed a little excited, and the reason why he was so excited was simple—the army's need for lead was urgent!

Unlike Zheng Jiajun and Qing Lu, now the musket has begun to become the main weapon of the loyal army, there are only two spear squadrons in Keelung, and the others are musketeers, and muskets need gunpowder, and they also need lead pellets!

In order to obtain the lead used to make projectiles, the government office can be said to have exhausted almost all methods, but whether it is purchased from the private sector or purchased from other places through businessmen, it is not a stable source, and if you want to obtain a stable source, unless you have lead ore yourself.

And now that a lead mine has been discovered near Keelung, it is undoubtedly good news! Even in Shen Hefei's view, lead ore is more important than sulfur ore. After all, there are other ways to deal with sulfur, such as buying it from Japan or buying it from Dutch merchants, and the demand is always limited, but lead pellets ...... It is too important to be honest, without lead pellets, the fire gun becomes a burning stick, and more importantly, there is a great demand for lead in the army.

Now that there is a lead mine, if the quantity is sufficient, it can save a lot of silver, not to mention, more importantly, Keelung also has a foothold, after all, whether it is sulfur or wood, for the government office, it can be replaced. But lead is irreplaceable, at least for now, and the discovery of lead ore here means that the government will increase its investment here. The more investment, the faster Keelung's development will be, and the more power he will have as the governor of Keelung, of course, it will be easier to attract the attention of Jinglu, so that he will become an important member of Jinglu's command in the future.

So, both public and private, it's a good thing!

"That's a lot!"

Li Le nodded excitedly.

"There, the lead ore is completely exposed, and even the river valley is full of ore washed down by flash floods, most of which are lead ore, and it is estimated that there may be some copper, but the content is very low, and there should be no mining value, and the preliminary estimate is that if 500 laborers are invested, at most next month, the first batch of lead can be produced, and by the end of the year, the Quartermaster Bureau will no longer need to worry about lead!"

As an officer of the Lu Division, Li Le knew very well the importance of lead to musketeers, and it was precisely because of this that he rushed here in a hurry.

"So, I hope to be able to immediately send a pioneer team to mine lead ore and build a lead smelter! After all, if the lead is produced here one day earlier, it is possible that the Northern Expedition will be one day earlier in the future......"

For almost every officer and soldier of the Loyal Army, to a certain extent, the Northern Expedition was their dream, and this was a dream that had always been instilled in their hearts, and they hoped that the Northern Expedition would restore the Central Plains. Of course, this is also the wish of all of them.

"Expelle the Tartars and restore China!"

If you want to realize this dream, you need to prepare a large number of military supplies, and lead and gunpowder are the top priorities.

"Hmm!"

Shen Hefei, who knew the importance of the ship mine, nodded and said.

"It seems that when the time comes, we will have another reason to defend Keelung!"

Must keep Keelung?

The governor's words made Li Le stunned, and he asked urgently.

"The Dutch called?"

"Dutch? Do they dare? ”

Shen Hefei's face showed a sneer,

"The Dutch are more afraid of us! After all, the balance of power between the two sides is too great! ”

Compared with the limited number of Dutch, the manpower invested by the Loyal Army in the Keelung basin is almost 100 times that of the Dutch, and more than 10,000 immigrants poured into the north in a short period of time, although they are either prisoners of war or exiles, but this absolute superiority in strength makes the Dutch at the mouth of the Tamsui River only carefully keep their distance to avoid conflicts, and even the natives who have clashed with the Dutch many times in the past and have cooperated with them have also taken refuge in the mountains and forests, so as to avoid the blows of the armed forces.

In this case, maintaining friendly relations with the Keelung authorities has become the focus of the work of the Dutch, for them, now they prefer that the two sides can "coexist peacefully", and for Shen Hefei in Keelung, he also needs to maintain "relatively friendly" contact with the Dutch, so as to avoid them becoming the help of the Qinglu, after all, at this stage, for the loyal army, the biggest enemy is the Qinglu, as for the Dutch, what they seek is only commercial interests, and, according to the plan of Jinglu, The development of overseas trade is related to the future development of Jiangbei, if there is a conflict between the Dutch now, it will pose a threat to the future Haijiu trade, after all, even if the loyal army now solves the Dutch in Taiwan, it is not able to solve the Dutch in Batavia, in this case, it is also in Jiangbei's interests to temporarily maintain the "peace" between the two sides and avoid conflict.

Because of this, to a certain extent, Shen Hefei does not mind making appropriate concessions to the Dutch in exchange for Fang's "peaceful coexistence", but compared to him, those Dutch who are thieves are more cautious, for fear that if they are not careful, they will be "swallowed alive" by Shen Hefei, so he will have a taste of contempt in his tone.

"It's Qingyu!"

"Qinglu?"

Nodding, Shen Hefei said.

"The Qing captives in Fujian have begun to build ships on a large scale and mobilize their troops to prepare for an expedition to Keelung!"

The sudden news made Li Le stunned and asked urgently.

"This ...... How can they move so fast? ”

Originally, according to Li Le's estimate, it should be a few more years before Keelung attracts the attention of the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty will definitely not attack Keelung, after all, they haven't even explained the problems of Xiamen and Kinmen, let alone Keelung, which is far away from the ocean?

"Don't forget, what kind of place is Keelung!"

Looking at Li Le, Shen Hefei said.

"It's a place of exile, more than 1,600 people from the Hou family, and now there are tens of thousands of exiled family members of Shiqing traitors and puppet officials on the mainland waiting to get on the ship, and the reason why the Qing captives are eyeing here is because of this reason!"

The Hou family who was exiled to Keelung was the first to be exiled, and every once in a while, there will be traitor families who are exiled here, and because of this, the ordinary people here also have their special identities, and it is precisely because of this that Shen Hefei, as the governor, will control their power of life and death.

And now, the movement of the Qing army in Fujian, how could he not know that the movement is so big that it cannot be concealed, and whether to defend Keelung or not is a problem, and the existence of lead mines, in Shen Hefei's view, undoubtedly adds a powerful bargaining chip to defend Keelung.

"That's why those traitors will be in fear all day long, and in order to appease those traitors, Qing Yu will order Li Shutai to attack Keelung! They thought that as long as Keelung was taken away, they could avoid the traitor's family being exiled overseas. ”

With a mocking smile on his face, if it weren't for being the captain of the ship, maybe Shen Hefei wouldn't be able to imagine how big it was overseas, but now he knew that in addition to Keelung, there were many places suitable for such an exile site. It's even worse than Keelung.

For example, in the South Seas, where the climate is much worse than here, of course he doesn't know that exile is just a means now! The purpose was not to exile, but to shake the foundation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in order to prevent the Han officials from being used by them, and to give them advice with all their hearts, as for exile, it was just a means, nothing more.

"So what do we do now? Do those people need to be mobilized? ”

Although the use of prisoners of war is very cautious, it does not mean that there are no collaborators among the prisoners of war, and it is the most basic strategy to treat prisoners with prisoners, and compared to hard labor, they are naturally willing to take knives and guns again in exchange for freedom - in several conflicts with the natives, a few people were given free bodies for meritorious service, and even were rewarded with a piece of wasteland of dozens of acres. Those people have always been the envy of most prisoners of war.

"Not yet!"

Shaking his head, Shen Hefei said seriously.

"We have to be cautious with these captives, remember, after all, they are traitors!"

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