On November 8, 1640, it took only two days for Li Yi's fleet to return safely to the docks in Xinhuaxia Bay. Their victorious return caused the entire castle to thunder with joy, and even the slaves of the Eight Banners were talking about the fall of the barbarians who had been bothering them until now.

Looking at the Bezimisaraka people who rushed down from the boat, they fell into joy from the bottom of their hearts. They don't know what these barbarians are trying to provoke them, maybe the East Coasters have encroached on their land, or they have desecrated their traditions, but who cares? Now that they have been wiped out, no one in the land can question the authority of the East Coasters. The people of the East Coast have already shown their strength, and even the most uncivilized and stupid barbarians should know that they are afraid at this moment.

Sure enough, in the next twenty days of this month, there was no more prying eyes or harassment of any barbarians in the vicinity. It was as if they had disappeared overnight, logging camps, cement kilns, brick kilns, and everything they had ever seen were gone, as if they had never been there.

Regarding the disposal of the total 987 Bezimisaraka captured, Shi Qinjie decided to send them to South Africa and hand them over to Mo Ming after discussing with Li Yi, so as to exchange some relatively reliable and obedient Eight Banner slaves with him to be summoned to the New China region. In addition to these slaves, Li Yi also took some hump cattle and 100 red sandalwood and yellow sandalwood trees that had been preliminarily treated—all of which were to be transported back to the local shipyard to be dried and used for shipbuilding.

After Li Yi's fleet left, on December 10, the cruiser "Chaoyong" of the Second Fleet escorted a merchant ship of the South China Sea Transportation Company to the Xinhuabao dock unexpectedly. with them. and Liu Ang, the mayor of Hezhong Town and the deputy captain of the South African Pioneer Team. He was ordered by the Executive Committee to escort a batch of materials and personnel to Fort Xinhua.

"What is the wind that is blowing you this way?" Shi Qinjie who greeted him was also confused. He didn't know why the Executive Committee had sent someone at this time. Moreover, he and Liu Ang are not very familiar with each other. Liu Ang was born in the military intelligence system, and went to South Africa very early to preside over the affairs of Fort Hezhong with Mo Ming, and today's meeting was actually the third meeting between them.

"It was the southeast trade monsoon that blew me here." Liu Ang also made a joke, "Okay, let's go to your city and have a look." It's really hot here, it must be over 28 degrees, right? It's raining so much, it's impossible for South Africa to see such a heavy rain. Hehe. God is so biased, you have so much rain on your side, but South Africa is so dry. ”

"You think I want so much rain here?" Shi Qinjie handed Liu Ang the umbrella in his hand, and then said: "If you are not careful, there will be a flood, this is not a joke. Moreover, the climate here is hot and humid, and the plants grow very quickly, and the weeds and bushes that were cleared today may grow back in a few days, which is a headache. And. Too much rain is not good, and the minerals in the soil are washed away or infiltrated into the deep soil. So the arable land is a little barren. ”

"Hehe, you know that you are an agricultural expert." Liu Ang smiled and said, "I still understand the leaching effect." However, it is not impossible to solve the problem, as long as the rice field drainage is done well, this situation should be alleviated. You can also harvest rice and plant a crop of deep-rooted crops like corn and sweet potatoes to make the most of the fertile soil in the deep soil. In this way, you can harvest three times a year, one crop of rice, one crop of corn, one crop of sweet potato, rubbing, don't be too cool, it's much stronger than one crop a year in South Africa. ”

"It's still early to plant the land and collect grain, you know, there is not a single resident on my side at present, and the slaves still have to build city walls, sewers, houses or something, there is no land reclamation and farming, and even the people who cut wood are insufficient." Shi Qinjie shook his head and said to Liu Ang as he walked.

"You've miscalculated this time." Liu Ang held his umbrella and smiled mysteriously, then pouted at the deck of the ship behind him.

Shi Qinjie turned his head to look and saw that on the flute-shaped transport ship, men and women in oilcloth raincoats were carefully climbing up the rope ladder to the pier trestle. Some of them also carried a small package, and some of them were even more exaggerated, with a live piglet or lamb in the package on their backs, which looked as if they had come to settle here.

"This is ......" Shi Qinjie's mind couldn't turn for a while, "This is a settler?" No, it turned out that the Executive Committee and I agreed that the first batch of residents would come in October '41, but now that the construction has not been completed, why are there settlers coming? Aren't they afraid of the harsh environment here, how can they change the plan at will, this is not scientific! ”

"Things have changed." Liu Ang explained briefly, and then said to Shi Qinjie: "Okay, you can send someone to receive these new residents, and we will talk about the specific situation when we get to the place." ”

"It's fine." Shi Qinjie nodded.

The two arrived at the house one after the other, and Shi Qinjie ordered the orderlies to bring a cup of tea to each of them. Liu Ang took a sip, then spit out the tea powder with a frown, and said, "A musty smell." ”

"Is there one?" Shi Qinjie was a little embarrassed, and then laughed self-deprecatingly: "The weather here is too humid and hot, many things are not easy to preserve, and it is normal to be moldy, anyway, I am used to it, and I can't smell it." ”

"Okay, no more nonsense." Liu Ang also sat up straight at this time, and said to Shi Qinjie seriously: "This time, I sent more than 400 immigrants to your New China Colony, and the specific list will be given to you later." The more than 400 men were all British immigrants who had previously fled from Fort Good Hope to Fort River, mostly Irish and a small number of English. Except for a few of them who have already obtained their identity cards and stayed in Fort River, I have brought the rest to you, and I will now hand them over to you as the first batch of settled residents of Fort Xinhua. You'll have to settle them well, and to be honest, even though they've been black before, they're still old residents of our Riverfort. At first, Captain Mo was reluctant to let them here, but later the Executive Committee decided to add 400 French immigrants and 200 Guarani to Fort River. ”

"Hehe, Captain Mo is really doing a good business." Shi Qinjie said with a smile, and then his face turned pale, and he assured Liu Ang: "Don't worry, since you have come to Xinhua Fort, then they are our official residents here, and they will definitely not treat them badly." Now, with these manpower, some arable land can be reclaimed next to the Coconut Tree Creek Reservoir. Well, in the last two days, preparations for this will have to be made, and the land will be leveled out in the rain, and the irrigation canals will be built. If you are tight enough, you may be able to plant a crop of sweet potatoes. If it is not good, you can also open up some vegetable fields first, plant some vegetables first, and then the fleet will go to the Portuguese in the west to replenish when the fleet comes. ”

Seeing Shi Qinjie thinking about farming there, Liu Ang was a little dumbfounded, this person really deserves to be from the Ministry of Agriculture, and all he thinks about in his mind all day is how to farm.

"Also, don't worry about your affairs yet, there is something more important this time." Liu Ang looked into Shi Qinjie's eyes and said: "This time, the executive committee has transferred some technical personnel from the local area, a total of about 50 people, most of them are some technical technicians and skilled craftsmen drawn from domestic shipyards, anchor chain factories, shipyards and other shipbuilding-related units, and some people are transferred from local wood products processing factories. As soon as the Executive Committee saw some of the fine timber shipped back from you in May, it decided to speed up the construction of the new Chinese colony, and to give you the greatest resources possible. These technicians and craftsmen are the first batch to be sent here to support your construction, you can rest assured, they have signed an agreement in the local area before they came, and they will all be counted as Xinhuabao people in the future, and their families and household registration will be transferred here in the next step. According to the intention of the Executive Committee, Xinhuabao first relied on these people to initially set up a timber processing plant, a timber drying kiln and a small shipyard shelves. Wait until the next stage is surplus to find a way to expand the strength of these factories and strive to make them fully operational. ”

Speaking of this, Liu Ang's tone was a little sour. It is important to know that the Fort in the River has only a small ship repair yard until now, and can only carry out some limited repair services for passing ships. Mo Ming and Liu Ang don't know how many times Lu Dao has applied to the mainland to expand the scale of the ship repair yard and even set up a shipyard in South Africa, but each time they have been rejected, the reason is nothing more than "insufficient technical personnel", "unsuitable" and so on. I didn't expect that Xinhuaxia didn't mention anything here, and the executive committee sent everyone over, this is really more people than people!

"That's a good dare!" Shi Qinjie was also excited, and saw him rubbing his hands and walking back and forth in the house, and then said, "It's a good thing to build a shipyard and a timber processing factory." There is a shortage of manpower, and the natives around us are all of Malay descent, and they themselves can build some canoes and build some wooden houses, and there should be no shortage of people with good carpentry and shipbuilding skills. When the time comes, I can send people to recruit them, and if they can't do it, they will be arrested, and in short, I will first move a part of the population to Xinhuabao to work. They have a bit of a foundation, and it shouldn't be a problem to do a hands-on job, so that a large part of the staffing gap can be solved. ”

Liu Ang was even more stunned when he heard it. The shit luck of co-authoring this new Chinese colony is really good, and the neighbors with them are not like the blacks and reds on the side of the river fort, but the descendants of the Malays who have entered the feudal civilization or at least some skills are close to the feudal civilization.

None of them can compare to others, how will this Hezhong Fort compete with the New China Colony for the resources of the Executive Committee in the future. Thinking of this, Liu Ang was a little sad. (To be continued......)