Seeing off the Spaniards, Liu Yun rushed back to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a hurry.

In the office building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, many police officers sat around, bragging and chatting, doing nothing. There is no longer a single prisoner in the prison of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or in the limestone mines. During the previous war with the Spaniards, hundreds of Charuas and European prisoners of war were pardoned, and these people immediately participated in the war with the Spaniards, and after the war, the Executive Committee kept its promise and granted them the status of freemen. As a result, the people who currently work in the limestone mines are no longer legally slaves, but wage workers. Therefore, there was no need for the Ministry of Internal Affairs police station to maintain a large number of supervisors there, so many police officers were withdrawn.

When these people saw Liu Yun coming in, they greeted each other. Liu Yun took off the police hat on his head, brushed his hair, and said with a smile: "Okay, don't be lazy there, you have something to do." ”

"What? Boss, is it really alive? Bai Shui, a senior policeman who crossed the crowd, jumped up and asked, "Nima, in the past, when there were prisoners in charge, the big guys had a stipend every day, but now it's okay, as soon as the prison is emptied, the brothers can only live with two yuan a month's dead salary, and in the long run, morale will be hard to boost." ”

"Then you still need to ask?!" Liu Yun threw his hat to him, turned around and poured himself a glass of water, and said while drinking water: "Dingyuan Fort has ended the pioneer team system, and now it has been officially upgraded to Dingyuan Township, which belongs to the leadership of the Dongfang County and County Government. Minister Jiao of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and I revealed that at present, our policemen, prison guards, and supervisors of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be unified into the Dongfang County Police Department. In addition, a public security police station will also be set up in Dingyuan Township, and some people will be sent from you. ”

"How can there be so many places for us at only one police station?" Whitewater was a little deflated. A police station has a director and a deputy director, and he secretly calculated it and found that there were many competitors, and he was not completely sure that he could become a leader.

"Hey! There really is more than one police station. Liu Yun took a big sip of water, and then said with a smile in Bai Shui's eager eyes: "Isn't this a coal working group established, and the next thing is to go to the Yazi Lake (i.e. Patus Lake) basin to open a mine." The head of the working group, Shao, has already been ordered, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will send 12 police officers to accompany him. Don't blame me for not reminding you, this is a big opportunity, it depends on whether you can carry it or not, and whether you are willing to go. ”

Bai Shui struggled a little after hearing this. According to his heart, he naturally intended to stay on the side of Dingyuan Fort, but considering the current unprecedentedly fierce competition situation, should he avoid it appropriately? Avoiding the popular area of the Dingyuan Township Police Station and finding another way to develop in the north, will it be more beneficial to you? Bai Shui was a little entangled for a while.

Ignoring the entanglement and arrogance of the police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, let's turn our perspective to the naval shipyard on the banks of the Big Fish River. At this time, the most eye-catching thing on the slipway was naturally a double-deck battleship that had been officially finalized as the "August 10th" class. Previously, a Walloon shipbuilder proposed to Wang Qinian that judging from the previous European naval battles and the naval tactics of crossing the public, the tactics of using broadside guns against the enemy would become the mainstream of naval warfare, so it was necessary to design a battle line gunboat with multiple decks and mainly facing the enemy with sideboard guns. The leaders of the navy who crossed the crowd were all from later generations, and naturally understood that battleships were the backbone of a country's navy. Therefore, Wang Qinian happily approved the Navy Shipyard's application to build ships, but he changed the plan of the two ships to one. This is not the discovery of his conscience, but mainly the result of his comprehensive consideration of all aspects.

The construction of the 10th of August, the lead ship of the 10th of August, was built during the war with the Spaniards. At first, it was just to use the large number of dry ship materials in the shipyard, so as not to be moth-eaten and wasted. The ship was also positioned only as a frigate gunboat at that time, with a displacement of about 400-500 tons. It's just that after the Walloon craftsman came up with the idea of a battleship, Wang Qinian personally ordered a change in the design of the battleship, so the materials and costs of the ship began to rise sharply.

At that time, some people in the Admiralty had roughly calculated that if the double-deck battleship were to be completed, it was estimated that more than 900 high-quality mahogany trees would be required, most of which would have to be imported from Brazil. Coupled with artillery, canvas, rigging, cables, decoration, etc., the cost of the whole ship is estimated to be about 8-100,000 yuan.

Naturally, such a high cost could not be approved by the Executive Committee. Therefore, as soon as the war ended, the Executive Committee, after hearing some rumors, immediately entrusted the Joint Staff Headquarters to organize personnel to go to the shipyard to conduct an investigation. At that time, the ship had only started construction for more than three months, and the investigation team asked Navy Minister Wang Qinian how much the ship would cost, and bluntly said that if the cost exceeded 50,000 yuan, the construction would be stopped immediately. At that time, Wang Qinian patted his chest and said that it could be built for only 50,000 yuan, and the investigation team let go of this ship to replace the Yunsheng No. 1 that was about to be decommissioned.

Of course, the navy who knew the real situation was not so optimistic, and the ship was destined to become a deep pit for the Admiralty. In the next year, it will be up to Wang Qinian to use all means to maintain and build this battleship. In this regard, there are many people in the Admiralty who have a bad taste to make bold speculations, and their Minister Wang is estimated to use cheeky tactics to learn from Russia's old trick of refitting the "Vikramaditya" aircraft carrier for India, but I don't know how the Executive Committee and the Joint Staff Headquarters, which were furious after learning the truth, will view him.

But today our protagonist is obviously not this large battleship, next to this battleship, there are 4 small flat-bottomed ships that have been built. These punts have a displacement of 18-20 tonnes and are designed for the next coal working group's expedition into Duck Lake (Lake Patus).

At this time, some Charua laborers were towing the four punts into the water, and their job was to row them safely to the two large ships, the East Coast Eagle and the Galician Exocet, which were now moored in the shipyard, and then to tie the cables. Next, the four boats will be towed by two large boats and head to the mouth of Duck Lake.

Today, many people gathered in the Navy Shipyard, most of them members of the coal working group who are about to go to the Yahu Lake basin for exploration and development. According to the plan formulated by Shao Shude, member of the Executive Committee, Minister of Materials, and head of the Coal Working Group, the first batch of expeditions will set off on September 2, that is, today.

The expedition was no small in size, consisting of two platoons of infantry, one platoon of cavalry, four police or intelligence-gatherers, eight prospectors, two trainees, a veterinarian, a biologist and a leading officer, all of 60 men. At present, the Duck Lake basin in Rio Grande do Sul is just in the beginning of spring, and the climate is relatively cold, and the risk factors such as coral snakes and mosquitoes that affect the safety of explorers can be minimized.

The leading officer of the expedition was Captain Xu Yu, commander of the cavalry battalion, who looked at the people gathered around him: two platoons from the army; The cavalry was a platoon of all veterans that he had personally selected; Four police officers and intelligence officers were led by Whitewater; These are responsible for the security aspect. The two doctors were Reverend Francis and another young man from England, and the prospecting team led by Crossing Acha had crossed.

Strictly speaking, there are more than 500 people who have crossed the crowd and have no prospecting talents. However, this time I went to the vicinity of Duck Lake to find coal, and the scope was clear, near Porto Alegre, so there was no difficulty, at most it was bad luck and it took more time. Aicha, a young man from Hunan, is less than thirty years old, and he has no strengths. However, when he was young, he was once sold to Shanxi black coal kiln to dig coal for a while, and with such a wonderful experience, he can be regarded as a rare half of the talent who traveled through the crowd. Therefore, Shao Shude promoted him to be the captain of the prospecting team, and also assigned him five Chaluya assistants.

At nine o'clock in the morning, everything was ready, and the expedition team began to row in four small boats to the two large ships moored in the sea. In the bay sheltered by the breakwater, the 60 expedition members divided into four groups and slid their oars away. Their luggage, weapons, horses, and other belongings had been transported aboard the "East Coast Eagle" as early as last night, and in addition to these things, the "East Coast Eagle" was also loaded with some additional trade goods such as spirits, cotton cloth, knives, iron pots, etc., in case they met the Indians, and it was better to bribe them in case they encountered them, after all, it is better not to have a conflict. In the eyes of the Executive Committee, maintaining a good relationship with indigenous people is of paramount importance to the State.

Soon, everyone was on two large boats, and the four small boats were also tied up with cables. Leonid Fedorovich stood on the deck of the "East Coast Falcon", and when he looked at it, he immediately frowned. The Charua policeman Aivani, who had challenged him in the police station, stood diagonally behind him, baring his teeth and laughing, and that's all, and what was even more unpleasant was that the hateful second lieutenant John Ston was still the first mate of the ship.

Feeling a little depressed, Leonid turned around and walked towards the bilge, instead of watching the cold wind blowing from the annoying people on the deck, it was better to take care of his beloved horse.

A gust of wind blew, and the "East Coast Falcon" took the lead, followed by the "Galician Exocet", which in turn sailed out of the naval shipyard and sailed north with the wind.

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