Just when Xu Xiangdong had to stay in Vladivostok to "celebrate the Spring Festival" with a group of people, the Jiaodong Peninsula in the first month of 1680 was also ushering in the most festive day of the year.

Because of the earthquake of a considerable scale in Hebei in the second half of last year (the earthquake was felt in several neighboring provinces), tens of thousands of people were killed and injured, and even the city of Beijing collapsed and damaged more than 30,000 houses.

In Yantai County, the center of the East Coast people's rule, Liu Jianguo, the captain of the Denglai Pioneer Team and the commander of Denglai Security, had just watched the famous song "Peony Pavilion" in a famous theater outside the city, and then went straight to the train station, planning to take the train to Fushan County for the New Year.

Yantai Railway Station was built in the middle of last year, designed by Sun Dapeng, a famous architect on the east coast, and completed under the supervision of the Southern Railway Company. The steam locomotive is not the latest Star de La Plata series, but the more old-fashioned Barbarian series, but in the land of Denglai, where the train first appeared, it is already very good, and it can be said that it is the enlightenment of modern industrial civilization.

Behind the locomotive hung a modest eight carriages, one coal and water carriage, six freight carriages and the last passenger carriage. The six freight cars were filled with cured meat and salted fish from Heishui, honey and tobacco from North Korea, and bits and pieces of handicrafts from Japan, while the passenger cars were filled with the heads of the Heishui pioneers, such as Liu Jianguo, and the accompanying escorts.

The train they were taking had been overhauled several times before, and the driver and crew were veterans who had been stationed from the country with high salaries, so it was really steady and fast, and it took less than an hour to blow the whistle and drive into the red-clad Fushan County Railway Station - although Fushan County had built five or six kilometers of railways to the south, there was no need to go any further, and the train could not be driven to the wilderness for the New Year.

And when it comes to this railway, we can't fail to mention the construction progress of the Jiaoyan railway, which is now eye-catching. According to the original plan, the railway that runs through the Jiaodong Peninsula was built at the same time from Yantai, Taocun and Jiaozhou, and has been built for almost a year, of which the northern section has been repaired for about 30 kilometers, and Yantai to Fushan County has been put into operation; The middle end is more embarrassing, and Taocun has been built less than ten kilometers to the north, and the progress is slightly slow, and there is great potential to be tapped; The progress in the south is the fastest, and the whole line between Jiaozhou Port and Jimo County, an agricultural county, has been opened to traffic, and this mileage is not short when it is thirty or forty kilometers.

Combined, these three sections of the railway have been built for almost 75-80 kilometers, which is more than one-third of the total length of the railway, but it only took a little more than a year. However, considering that the local government along the railway has done a lot of preparatory work before this, it must be very convenient to build in the first year, but it may be slower from the second year, so if the entire rubber tobacco railway is built, it may take about three years under the premise of continuous funding, provided that the government of the Denglai development team does not continue to increase the number of labor force on this basis.

Unlike the travel of local officials in the Qing court, the people on the east coast are not popular with the old gentry (isn't this nonsense, Denglai was beaten into a blank field in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and the local order completely collapsed, it has only been more than 30 years, where did the old gentry come from), but there should still be pomp and circumstance: all the main officials below the county magistrate of Fushan County were present, and there was also a band seconded from the third division of the Denglai New Army.

The band played the East Coast national anthem, Liu Jianguo got off the train with a smile on his face, and then shook hands with the officials of Fushan County one by one. ”

"It's not hard, it's not hard, it's all as it should be." The magistrate of Fushan County is an old man over sixty years old, who was born as an officer in the Dashun Peasant Army in his early years, followed Guo Sheng to Shandong, and later entered the system of the East Coast people, and became the magistrate of Yantai County after 30 years. The position of Fushan County magistrate, you don't need to be smart, how capable, economic development actually doesn't need you to bother more, anyway, around Yantai to do a good job of service, this position needs the most is to upload and issue a smooth and resolute implementation of orders, and this he undoubtedly has it, and do a good job, so in Fushan County, a large county with 80,000 or 90,000 people, the position of county magistrate has been sitting for many years.

"Next year, we have to pay more attention, we can't relax, I'm in a hurry." Liu Jianguo turned around and shook his hand again, and said: "The Jiaolai Xinhe defense line is still under continuous construction, and the amount of work is huge, and it is far from being completed. As one of the counties aided by the rear, Fushan County will continue to provide ding, money, and grain next year, and complete its own work under the unified deployment of the Jiaolai River Defense Command. The section between your county and Taocun on the Jiaoyan Railway will continue to provide people and grain, and the Southern Railway Company will appropriately pay some personnel employment fees, but it is definitely not enough, and you must be psychologically prepared. Of course, the construction of the county itself cannot be left behind, I know that you are engaged in water conservancy, this is very good, very important, I also support it, if you do a good job, not only the people of Fushan County will benefit, but also the military and civilians of Yantai. It's just that, in this case, the task is a bit heavy, you have to know it yourself, and don't let the people have turmoil. ”

In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that now the entire counties of the Denglai Pioneer Team - especially the states and counties near the Jiaoyan Railway - are like a taut string, all kinds of work are overwhelming, and the folk Ding Zhuang has also been requisitioned severely. If this was an ancient feudal dynasty like the Ming and Qing dynasties, it would have led to large-scale civil unrest for various reasons, because this forced labor was too heavy! However, fortunately, the system and governance methods of the people on the east coast are somewhat different from those of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the middle gentry class has taken advantage of the plunder, oppressed and exploited less (the ancient forced labor is likely to bring down a family), and the upper class also distributed a large amount of money and grain to subsidize it, and the people at the bottom have a certain amount of savings because of the average land for more than 30 years, so they have finally paid it up to now. Although the people can already be regarded as complaining and complaining, there will not be any large-scale turmoil, after all, it has not yet reached that point, and the prestige of the East Coast army is not fake, no one dares to make a mistake easily.

However, fortunately, after the completion of the construction of the Jiaolai Xinhe defense line and the Jiaoyan Line Railway, many places can breathe a sigh of relief, after all, there is no shadow of the construction of the Pingrong Railway now, whether it is the Denglai Pioneer Team or the Southern Railway Company, it will probably not be on the Ma Pingrong Line when the Jiaoyan Line has just been opened to traffic, which is impossible, and even more unnecessary.

Liu Jianguo stayed in Fushan County until the fourth day of the first lunar month. On this day, he personally went to the railway construction site, met with more than 3,000 people who had started work in the early days, distributed some cured meat and salted fish to everyone, and at the same time closed two yuan of silver for each person, which was regarded as the meaning of the festival fee, and immediately attracted thunderous cheers on the construction site, and the morale rose slightly.

Then, together with 400 recruits from Fushan County—the recruits of the 4th Division of the Denglai New Army in Taocun, and Fushan County supplied 400 men—he walked to the Taocun Railway Station in the south, intending to visit the 4th Division of the New Army, which had already formed about 80 percent, and by the way, also sent them a batch of New Year's goods—the New Year's goods were the materials that came with them by train, and they had been transported to Taocun in a horse-drawn carriage in Fushan County.

The Fourth Division of the Denglai New Army in Taocun has three infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment and several regiments directly under its command, with a total strength of about 7,500 men, a very high proportion of firearms, and spearmen are rare, and the degree of modernization is still very high. The divisional headquarters and an infantry regiment of this division will be stationed in Taocun, the cavalry regiment will be moved to Laiyang County in the future, and the remaining two infantry regiments will take turns to defend Wendeng, Weihai, Ninghai, Rongcheng, and other major cities in Dengzhou. Of course, if there is a situation ahead, it cannot be ruled out that this division will gather its forces and march westward to Jiaolai Xinhe to guard the river defense together with the 3rd Division of the Denglai New Army, which has been formed long ago.

After the formation of the Fourth Division of the New Army is completed, the Fifth Division of the New Army in Zhejiang will also be perfected as soon as possible, and at the same time, the area under the jurisdiction of the Denglai Pioneer Corps will also gradually eliminate and reorganize a number of old-fashioned units such as the servant army, so as to make room for the preparation of the Sixth Division of the Denglai New Army. After all, the defense line of the new river in Jiaolai is extremely long, and although the river is wide, the fortifications are strong, and the firepower is fierce, it will also need a sufficient number of soldiers to defend it. If all the old army is transferred, then at least three whole divisions, that is, more than 22,000 troops, will be needed to fill each node, and then the second line will also need some mobile troops (at least 1-20,000 people, which can be replaced by the old army for the time being) to check and fill the gaps, so that the entire defense line can sit back and relax, and Denglai can rest easy.

Of course, Liu Jianguo is also very clear about this matter, and he has been working on it. It's just that cutting out the old army and recovering territory has always been a very sensitive matter, and if it is not done well, it will force people to rebel (this is not without precedent). Therefore, this kind of thing can only be slowly found opportunities, slowly eliminated, and reduced in the hands of the servant generals in the most gentle way possible, and finally achieve a smooth transition, and any hasty behavior may lead to unpredictable consequences, so we must be cautious.

Liu Jianguo watched a drill of the 10th Infantry Regiment (main force) of the Fourth Division by the way, and was not particularly satisfied after watching it, because its combat effectiveness was indeed a little far from that of other old units, but at the same time, he couldn't be particularly harsh on them, because when they were formed, they had a poor foundation and few veterans, and it was indeed not easy to train them to look like now. In the next step, it is best to pull these troops out to experience and experience, and that is the best way to quickly increase combat effectiveness.

Liu Jianguo calculated that Ma Wenqiang in Ningbo in the south had already sent a letter requesting that he jointly mobilize troops and horses to land in the southern part of Anhui at an opportune time, cooperate with the Jiangxi Shun army, and reduce the pressure on the Shun army. After all, at least so far, the greatest significance of the existence of the Far Eastern feudatories is still to provide a massive source of immigration to the mainland of the New World. Although it seems that the local side no longer requires the number of people to move in a year, if the number is too small, it will definitely not work, and if it is not good, it will be held accountable by the superiors.

Of course, the East Coasters don't just have one plan. In fact, the plan of "plundering the city of Guangzhou and immigrating 500,000 people" has always been constantly improved (the time has not yet come), and landing in Jiangbei is also one of the options, because this can well attract the Qing troops in northern Anhui and Henan to move eastward, reduce the pressure on the Shun army in the frontal battlefield in Hubei, and indirectly support the Sichuan battlefield. Each of these plans looks pretty good, but it will be interesting to see which one to choose, but it must be moved, otherwise there will really be no population.

After staying in Taocun for a few days, Liu Jianguo and his entourage rode to Jiaozhou Port, the end point of the Jiaoyan Railway, and inspected the Jiaozhou Ship Repair Yard, which had just been expanded. A large number of ships are crowding here for the winter, and by the way, they are doing some repairs and maintenance, and the servant army Xie Zhen, Dong Dalang, and Niu Gui have only arrived here for a few days, and they are being placed in the temporary barracks near the dock.

After a while, these people will board the ship and head south with the 7th Mixed Battalion to arrive at the port of Dingding, Ningbo, where they will first do adaptation training. After the end of the migration season in late April and a large number of ships were vacated, they and a servant army division in Ningbo in the south, led by the 7th Mixed Battalion, broke into the Yangtze River valley by boat and launched a series of campaigns to support the Shun State—of course, for the people on the east coast, supporting the Shun army may still be secondary, and their main job was obviously to collect the Qing people and transport them away.

"The Jiaozhou Fortress is really impregnable now. The city is strong and there are many forts, and in the future, the Third Fleet can really consider abolishing the establishment of the Okhotsk Sea Squadron and replacing it with a Yellow Sea Squadron. All types of ships start from here, go south to control the prosperous place of Wuyue, and go north to break into the heart of Beijing and Tianjin, and the end is a first-class good place. Standing on the fort of Jiaozhou Port in the cold sea breeze, Liu Jianguo was a little high-spirited, and only heard him say: "A few years later, as soon as the Jiaoyan Railway is opened, Jiaozhou Port will be even more powerful." If you also attract British, Dutch, Portuguese and even French merchants to trade, the port will be even more presentable. Of course, these are not in a hurry, just take your time, and now that all the work of Denglai is progressing steadily, I am very comfortable to see. No hurry, no hurry! ”