Chapter 177: Island Planning

"No, no! How does this make! That ocean island is an important place on the Dongjiang River, and it can be lent to others. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info "Shen Shikui listened to Li Xiao's conditions, and his head shook like a drum. "Mr. Li's condition, Shen is difficult to obey."

Li Xiao laughed: "Mr. Shen has said it. According to Li, the ocean island is located in a remote area, and only about 20 fishermen are stationed on this island for a long time, and your army has only sent 200 old and weak soldiers to garrison it. If Shen General Soldier lets our army manage such a remote island that is not a strategic place, one can be exchanged for silver, and the other can be used to help, which is the best of both worlds. ”

Shen Shikui muttered to himself, he also knew in his heart that what Li Xiao said was very reasonable, but as the chief soldier of Dongjiang Town, he resold the land under his jurisdiction so easily, and if he was played to the court by someone with ulterior motives, he was only afraid of causing unnecessary trouble to himself.

It's just that if he forcibly refuses Li Xiao, he will undoubtedly offend the biggest financier in Dongjiang Town, and the 50,000 taels of silver sent to the door will be really unwilling if he is easily pushed away like this.

"General Shen is worried, our army will not return it for a long time?" Seeing Shen Shikui so silent, Li Xiao took a sip of tea and said softly.

Shen Shikui's heart lit up, knowing that this was Li Xiao at the foot of his own steps, and hurriedly said: "Mr. Li, you still understand Shen's difficulties." It's really not that Shen is stingy, it's just that this ocean island is also the land of the Ming Dynasty, and it is really difficult to take others lightly. ”

Li Xiao laughed: "That's it, Li doesn't want to embarrass Lord Shen, now Li Mou said it bluntly, this ocean island, this official is leased from Dongjiang Town for five years, and after five years, it will be returned to Dongjiang Town, so good?" ”

Shen Shikui was shocked when he heard this, and then secretly rejoiced in his heart, if Li Xiao only borrowed for five years, but the time was not long, it could be worth 50,000 taels of silver, it would still be a good deal.

So, he pretended to cough twice, then stroked his beard and said, "Well, since Mr. Li begged with all his might, Shen can only be an adult." The matter is thus agreed upon and the instrument is signed. ”

"Okay, Mr. Shen is bold, Li Xiao thanked him, in order to show the closeness of the two armies, Li Xiao gave the adult another 100,000 catties of sea salt, as a congratulatory gift for the signing of the agreement." Li Xiao said with a smile.

Shen Shikui's face suddenly burst into laughter, and he nodded again and again: "Mr. Li is a cheerful person, but Shen is disrespectful to this batch of sea salt." ”

Li Xiao saw Shen Shikui smiling so brightly, but he was secretly sighing in his heart, this Shen Shikui rented this ocean island to himself for five years, and thought that he had taken a big advantage, but he didn't know that he just ate a hollow rice ball.

After all, in real history, Dongjiang Town only has two years to live, and Shen Shikui, the chief soldier of Dongjiang Town, will also be killed by Ma Futa, the general of the Qing army.

However, if I don't travel from the afterlife, who knows how the situation will develop in the future.

After the talks, Shen Shikui set up a banquet and chatted and drank with Li Xiao and others, and there was a harmony between the guests and the hosts.

After the banquet, Shen Shikui ordered the deputy general Jin Riguan to take Li Xiao and others to visit Phi Island.

Li Xiao saw that in the entire Phi Island, there were only more than 3,000 garrisons, and there were less than 5,000 households in total. The barracks and houses are all dilapidated, and apart from a few watchtowers, there are basically no special defensive measures on the entire Phi Island.

Li Xiao sighed secretly in his heart, no wonder in history, after Huang Taiji led the Qing army to conquer Korea, he was able to enter the island with a small partial division, and wiped out all the defenders on Phi Island, and killed the chief soldier Shen Shikui. Speaking of which, it was the Ming army in Dongjiang Town that was not angry, its fighting spirit was depressed, and it did not have enough defensive means that made it so easy for the Qing army to succeed.

But having said that, now that the Later Jin Dynasty has merged with the Mongolian tribes, it is already a great national strength and a vast territory, which is very different from the Later Jin in the era of Mao Wenlong. This Phi Island is so close to the coast of Liaodong, and under the increasingly severe situation that the enemy is strong and we are weak, it is basically impossible to escape the fate of being destroyed.

The enemy is getting better day by day, we are rotting day by day, and in another nine years, even the Ming Dynasty will be destroyed.

Not long after, Li Xiao and his entourage, under the leadership of Jin Riguan, came to the blacksmith shop.

"Hey, Fron, Aranda, Amier, Sa, are you all right?" After Jin Riguan gave a concise introduction to Li Xiao and the others, beside Li Xiao, the voice of Zhao Jie, the chief of firearms, sounded in surprise.

"Oh, is Zhao Jie you? How did you get back? Didn't you go to Shandong? A Portuguese stiff Chinese sounded in surprise.

Zhao Jie walked over quickly, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Fulang Aranda, I came back this time, but I have good news to tell you." You have been bought by Master Li, the commander of the Red Phoenix Guard, and you are about to go south to Shandong with me. ”

After Zhao Jie finished speaking, he hurriedly introduced Li Xiao to the three Portuguese.

"Lord Commander-in-Chief, this is the gunsmith Fulang Aranda, this is the mechanic Amier, and this is the gunnery Sa Cong, all of whom were hired by the Dengzhou Firearms Battalion that day and paid a lot of money to hire Portuguese technical personnel."

Li Xiao walked over with a smile and saluted the three Portuguese: "Li Xiao is really happy to meet three talented people, but he hates to know it too late." ”

At this time, Li Xiao suddenly remembered a history book about the Denglai Mutiny that he had read in his previous life, which was Mao Xi's "Counterinsurgency" in the Republic of China, which wrote that in the fourth year of Chongzhen, after Xu Guangqi's arrangement, the Portuguese missionary Lu Ruohan and the Portuguese general Gongsha Lao came to Dengzhou in March to assist Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Penglai, Shandong, in building artillery and training soldiers. In addition, the deputy commander Lu Weiliu, the commander of the Gun, the commander of the Frilang Aranda, Fonsigu, Ehonglu, Gongsaqi, Anni, Amier, Sacong, Amdo, Ujowang, Berta and many other Portuguese technicians assisted in the research and development of firearms in Dengzhou.

Li Xiao was very glad in his heart that these top firearms talents of this era had the opportunity to fall into his own hands.

Next, Li Xiao learned from Zhao Jie that the Portuguese general Lao and Lu Weiluo, the deputy commander of Gongsha, had been killed when Dengzhou was captured by the rebels, and the rest of the Portuguese, some of them died in Dengzhou, and some of them were brought out by Kong Youde's main force to break through, and several Portuguese were taken to Houjin, but these three Portuguese were intercepted by the Dongjiang Town Sailor that day, so they have been working in the blacksmith shop on this Phi Island.

Li Xiao greeted the three Portuguese for a while, and then said to them bluntly: "Three gentlemen, you and others are all armed with firearms and mechanical skills, and they are rare talents, and now they are staying in our army to serve, and they will definitely play a greater role, and this official will never treat you badly." ”

What Li Xiao didn't expect was that Fulang Aranda shook his head again and again: "No, no, no, we have suffered enough in Dengzhou, and now this Phi Island is just a waste of time here, the three of us have agreed that if we get out of trouble, we really don't want to stay in Mingguo anymore, we want to take a boat to Macau, and then return to China from there." ”

Amigar and Sajong also expressed the same thoughts as the Francoida of Furang.

Seeing that he was full of enthusiasm, but was indifferent to these Portuguese, Li Xiao changed his face, and he snorted coldly: "Since you have been obtained by me, you should be used by me, how can you shirk it!" Zhao Zongtou took them and a group of other craftsmen to the ship, and then returned to Shandong with our army. ”

With that, Li Xiao turned his head and left.

Seeing Li Xiao's pretended angry face, Zhao Jie couldn't help laughing and made a gesture to the three Portuguese: "Rank, since Lord Li has given the order, please go on the boat with a certain family." ”

Fulang Aranda struggled to break free from several soldiers who came to arrest him, and with an angry face, he loudly expressed his dissatisfaction with Li Xiao's back: "General Li Bing! Li Xiao! You devil, bastard! What power do you have to control our freedom! God will punish you! ”

Amigar and Sajong also shouted loudly to express their anger.

Zhao Jie walked over, with a crying and laughing expression, he patted Lang Aranda's shoulder and said, "Everyone, don't be noisy, let's get on the boat first." Zhao really can't help it, I don't dare to disobey Shangguan's instructions, don't be impatient, follow me on the boat to rest first. ”

.。。。。。。

Li Xiao only stayed on Phi Dao for two days before bidding farewell to Shen Shikui.

Li Xiao has too many things to implement, and he can't do sightseeing on this Phi Island for a long time.

When Li Xiao returned, he happened to take the ship from Dongjiang Town to Chifengwei to collect and sell commercial goods. Li Xiao proposed to Wang Tingrui, the general of Dongjiang Town, who led the team this time, that he should detour to the ocean island in the southeast to see the general situation of the ocean island, but Wang Tingrui readily agreed to his request.

After a day and a half of travel, the ship finally arrived at Ocean Island, the farthest point of the Long Island Islands.

When Li Xiao and the others came ashore, they could clearly see that this ocean island was much larger than Phi Island, and the coastline was also quite long, and there were many mountain peaks on the entire island, the terrain was hilly, and there were many primeval forests, and the forests were lush and luxuriant, and there were basically no traces of development such as cultivated land. Only along the coast, with a few military camps and sparse fishermen's houses, the island is largely unexplored.

After Li Xiao checked the terrain, he had already made a preliminary decision on the planning of Ocean Island.

In the highlands surrounded by mountains, a Thousand Households Fort similar to the original Chifeng Fort could be built, and the circumference of the city wall could also reach 2 li. Such a large fort built by the mountain, the terrain is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, if it can garrison more than 1,000 troops, with a sufficient amount of firearms such as earth-shaking thunder, it is enough to resist nearly 10,000 troops.

Li Xiao thought to himself, this castle is a mountain that chokes the sea, so it will be called Zhenhai Fort in the future.

Now, if you want to build this castle, the actual cost is much less than when you built the Red Phoenix Castle.

Because whether it is foundation bluestone, bricks, lime, etc., Li Xiao's Chifengwei can be produced, and what makes Li Xiao most proud is that just some time ago, Chifengwei finally developed cement, and there is no need to use any glutinous rice juice and other mixtures to prepare mortar like the previous construction of Chifeng Fort.

It took nearly three months from Li Xiao's authorization for the craftsman Liao Quanlu to develop cement to the successful development of the final product.

At first, Liao Quanlu was inexperienced, and he mixed lime and clay raw material and knocked it into very fine pieces, but because it was impermeable, it was extremely difficult to burn. Later, he learned a lesson and deliberately kept the raw meal in large pieces, so that after stacking them together, each piece of raw meal could be smoothly inlet between them, and then it was successfully ignited and fired.

Liao Quanlu was later inspired by Li Xiao's ironmaking techniques, and he added a thick layer of pulverized coal to the bottom of the raw meal, which greatly accelerated the firing of cement.

After repeated research, Liao Quanlu found that the three-to-one mixing of clay and lime had the best firing effect, and the cement produced could achieve the same use as later generations, and the degree of firmness was also very considerable, which was finally recognized by Li Xiao.

In fact, although the cement has been developed, Li Xiao is not very satisfied with it, because the cement produced by Liao Quanlu is slow-drying type and has a long setting time.

Li Xiao remembers that in modern times, if cement is to dry quickly, it seems that polyacrylamide can be added as an additive. It's just that Li Xiao, a college student majoring in mechanical engineering, is not easy to refine cement for him, and it is difficult for him to understand chemical engineering, so he can't have the ability to produce polyacrylamide now.

Therefore, Li Xiao comforted himself, and now in the era of the Ming Dynasty, it is not bad to be able to use this kind of rough slow-drying cement, after all, this is a high-tech product that is beyond the times. Li Xiao can only do this step alone, which is also very rare.

Li Xiao rewarded Liao Quanlu with 100 taels of silver to encourage him to come up with a way to use a porcelain kiln to fire cement, and finally succeeded in firing the cement.

Subsequently, Li Xiao ordered Liao Quanlu to serve as the director of the cement factory and produce cement in large quantities in the area of Squatting Dog Mountain.

Now, the cement produced is just used in the construction of this Zhenhai Fort, realizing the seamless connection between production and use.

Li Xiao planned that after the fort was built, he would start to actively develop the wasteland and coastal tidal flats on the island in order to develop as much arable land and salt pans as possible.

Li Xiaoxin estimated that this 19-square-kilometer ocean island is equivalent to one-eighth of the size of Huang County, and if it is fully developed, at least 40,000 mu of cultivated land can be reclaimed.

Moreover, Li Xiao has seen that because there is living water on the island, the land on this island is quite fertile, and if these 40,000 mu of land are developed, it should be able to fully reach the yield of Chifengwei's midfield.

Li Xiao looked at the area of the beach along Ocean Island and estimated that nearly 2,000 acres of salt pans should be built. In this way, the number of salt pans that can be developed here will be twice as large as that of Chifengwei!

Li Xiao sighed in his heart, this almost useless ocean island in the hands of Dongjiang Town, but how much wealth and benefits can it bring to him.

Although this ocean island, which was built into a national forest park in later generations, was developed by itself in this way, and it was suspected of destroying the heavens, but at this moment when the nation and the country were in danger, it was a rare good thing that this remote ocean island could play such a great role in its own development and growth.

After completing these settlement work, Li Xiao naturally started to build the Sailor Port.

In fact, since he came to the island, his eyes have been quickly attracted by the excellent natural deep-water harbor.

Feng Shi, the head of the sailor, also smiled, he knew that this port, which had a narrow entrance and a wide and deep inside, was really a good sailor port. This harbor, Li Xiao estimates, is more than enough to park nearly 100 No. 1 large fortune ships.

Li Xiao plans to continue to use the existing term Taiping Bay, and the meaning of this name is quite good.

"Feng Shi, in the future, after our army builds Taiping Bay on this island, we will build a large shipyard next to this port. Strive to build your own ships as soon as possible, but you don't have to rely on Dongjiang Town all the time. ”

"Your Excellency is right, now that it is someone else's ship, it is inevitable that it will be controlled by others, and it is a good thing that you still have to be able to be independent. It's just that the craftsmen and technicians who build ships are also hard to find. ”

"This, the official will have his own way when the time comes, these shipbuilders, the official will definitely try his best to get it."

"Then dare to be kind, when this shipyard is built, we have our own fleet, and we should go to sea. If the water division becomes a scale, I, the Red Phoenix Guard, will definitely get more space and opportunities for development. Feng Shi said with a happy face.

The sea was windy and waves, Lin Mu Xiaoxiao, Li Xiao and Feng Shi and others laughed loudly, and everyone's faces were filled with joy and yearning. (To be continued.) )