"Xiao Han, congratulations, it's not easy to become a county magistrate!" Shao Shude, who had just finished inspecting the resettlement work of Wudingbao, congratulated him when he saw Han Gang, director of the Luoqia Bulk Trade Center, who had come to greet him.

At the beginning of this month (August), the four township-level administrative units in Luoqia Prefecture formally established a county-level administrative unit -- Luocha County -- at the request of the Government Council and the approval of the Executive Committee. Luocha County has jurisdiction over Luocha Town (the seat of the county government), Bingtuan Township, Wudingbao and Rongjun Farm, and the total population of Luocha County has exceeded 18,000 if you include the students, teachers and staff of the 10th grade of Bingtuanbao. The county, which is the fourth county-level administrative unit in the country, has left behind the townships and towns in the Milin Lake basin, which are also eager to establish Meilin County, which makes Han Gang, the new county magistrate, extremely proud.

"Isn't it thanks to the old chief! Without you running around, Xiao Han, I wouldn't be able to get to where I am today. Han Gang, who quickly took a few steps forward and shook off a group of entourages behind him, immediately thanked Shao Shude in a low voice.

"Hehe, Xiao Han, you are also working hard yourself, and I also see this. The affairs of the Luoqia Bulk Trade Center are complicated, and it is not easy for you to support it alone, and the government affairs of the county are not left behind. The establishment of Luoqia ginning factory, Luoqia leather factory, and seafood processing plant of Nanhai Fishery Company; The expansion of the cotton planting base in Bingtuan Township, the thriving vegetable and fruit base of the Invalids Farm, the expansion of the Luoqia Lake Fishery Wharf and the Luoqia Port Cargo Wharf are not real achievements. Everyone sees your credit, and Chairman Liu of the Executive Committee also admires you very much, saying that you are a doer. The burden can be entrusted to you. So it's a matter of course for you to become a county magistrate. Shao Shude patted Han Gang on the shoulder. Said solemnly.

Hearing Shao Shude say this, Han Gang also felt a little emotional for a while, feeling that so many efforts in the past few years were not in vain, so many sleepless nights of staying up late to work were not in vain, and so many sweating under the scorching sun were finally appreciated. Now everything has paid off, and he is now one of the four major county magistrates in the country, and he is also a rising star in the civil service system. If he makes some more reasonable achievements in the county magistrate, then after Shao Shude leaves office, he may not be able to climb to the throne of the Xiling District Commissioner, and then attack the throne of the Central Government Council and even the Executive Committee.

"How's the procurement going? You are also currently the director of the Locha Bulk Trade Center. Don't mess this up. Shao Shude waved his hand to let the entourage around him disperse, and then simply walked with Han Gang and the two on the picturesque Luoqia Lake.

"The people of the military department have begun to stock up on cured meat, jerky and other foods in the past few days, and they have sent several military representatives on the dock, and they have almost purchased seven or eight tons of various meat products. At the same time, they also asked for a part of the ration of some tropical dried fruits, tobacco, cane sugar, animal fat, cowhide, palm oil, paraffin and other materials arriving in Hong Kong from abroad, and did not let the customs charge any fees. In the middle of winter, there was a gust of cold wind blowing on the surface of Luoqia Lake, Han Gang tightened the leather coat on his body, and said to Shao Shude.

"The military department started hoarding items so early?" Shao Shude was shocked when he heard this, "How long can marinated meat be preserved?" Even when stored in pasteurized glass cans. Can it be kept for a year? I think it's very hanging! In other words, the start of the war in the military department's plan is not even a year? Maybe it's only a few months?! ”

"I don't know if you ask me." Han Gang said with a wry smile, "But it doesn't have to be the materials prepared for the war. Hasn't the Army recently expanded its army by two companies? It is heard that the hundreds of Polish mercenaries who disembarked in the port of Vostochny will also be diverted to the mainland, instead of being sent to the East. There is also a discussion within the navy that the battleship Bayezid for the Ottoman Empire will be temporarily detained, and two steam/sail power supply ships will be built in a surprise manner, and a lot of new sailors will be recruited from the Caribbean, perhaps these hoarded supplies are for the purpose of adding new soldiers. Moreover, recently, not only the regular army, but also the militia in many towns and villages have also trained very diligently, and the amount of training has increased, and this consumption has also increased greatly, and it is normal to hoard some cured meat. ”

Shao Shude nodded, and then asked: "Cotton, sulfur, copper, lead, tin, graphite, mercury and other materials should also be imported as soon as possible. In the past two years, the amount of exports of various commodities to the Ottoman Empire has increased rapidly, and the state fiscal revenue has temporarily stopped the downward trend, so there are still sufficient funds to purchase materials. The Ministry of Finance has also suspended loans totaling 300,000 yuan in principal and interest that were supposed to be repaid to the Chamber of Commerce of La Plata this year and next, and these money must also be turned into materials as soon as possible. Don't be afraid to spend more money, you may not be able to spend it if you want to go to war. ”

In previous years, when the merchants of La Plata were still in the honeymoon period, the East Coasters had borrowed several sums of money from them to pay for the Portuguese to transport the Far East migrants. The annual interest rate of these loans is between 5 and 10 percent, and the two largest amounts of money will be repaid this year and next, with a total of 300,000 yuan in principal and interest. However, in today's situation, it is obvious that the repayment on time is somewhat unfashionable, so the Ministry of Finance, with the approval of the Executive Committee, temporarily froze the two repayments and diverted the funds to purchase various war materials.

Among all kinds of materials, sulfur, which is related to war, is naturally at the top of the list. At present, although several new equipment for recovering sulfur from the waste gas and waste of iron and steel plants, coking plants and sulfuric acid plants have been installed in Ping'an County, there are still many problems in this method, and the efficiency of recycling needs to be improved, which can basically only solve about one-third of the daily sulfur consumption in China. And this is only in peacetime, and if war breaks out, the consumption of sulfur will rise in a straight line, so it is necessary to purchase a large amount of hoarding in advance, otherwise it is likely that in the middle of the war, there will be no gunpowder available.

Other materials that had to be imported immediately were iron pear wood, an important material for making the propeller sleeves of steamships, and Brazilian sumac, the hull material for the main warships. Of the two, the former can only be imported from Spanish New Spain, and the latter can only be imported from New Spain or the Dutch-controlled Amazon basin in northern Brazil. The people on the east coast must take advantage of the fact that the current relationship with Spain has not completely broken down, and step up the import of a batch of hoards. Especially iron pear wood, you can use it for many years to buy a few trees, and now it would be a fool not to buy a batch and hoard it, otherwise you should be mentally prepared to use a poor quality bronze propeller shaft sleeve.

"Recently, we have increased the amount and price of these goods for ships from all over the world who come to the port of Rocha, and we have also issued the latest instructions to the European trading stations of Bordeaux, Florence, Riga, Danzig, Smyrna, Kaffa and other European merchant ships through our own merchant ships, asking them to buy these materials on the list with all their might, and then ship them back to China as soon as possible." Many of these things were handled by Han Gang himself, so he knew very well and could answer with his mouth open: "However, I also hope that the Executive Committee and the Military Department will delay the war with the Spaniards as much as possible, so that we can step up the search for more materials and even the population to be transported back to China. ”

In fact, since last year, the Executive Committee has instructed the Ministry of Finance to come up with a special fund every month - an amount of not less than 30,000 yuan for the procurement of various materials, so at present, many materials in the major warehouses under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Materials are still quite a lot. But no one dares to say how long the war will last, and what if the Spaniards go crazy and refuse to negotiate peace, and the war becomes protracted? It's not a sure thing. Therefore, it is better to stock up as much as possible before the war.

In addition to materials, the population should also be vigorously introduced. This will require a lot of effort from the trading posts of Riga, Danzig, and Florence, and the Livonians, at least for this year, as many as they want, and the Italians and Poles can also charge a little more. Moreover, as the scale of the war expands, the people on the east coast may need to mobilize the whole country at home, and a large number of militias need to go to the front line to fight, then who will farm the land, who will build the roads, and who will cut the wood in the country will become a difficult problem to get around.

In this way, it seems that it is also necessary to say hello to the South African side, and see if they can send more blacks to the mainland, so as not to have a labor shortage at that time. However, this involves the problem of the bottleneck of the fleet's capacity, and I am afraid that I will not be able to transport a few people back to the mainland. It seems that the exile of the captured Guarani will have to be postponed, and they will have to work in the country until the war is over.

"The purchase of materials should be grasped, but the amount of materials in the domestic market should also be grasped. I think that many households have already started to rush to buy daily necessities, and the average price of the basket of commodity price weighted price index table has also increased by about 5% compared with a month ago. Among them, the price of non-staple food has risen rapidly, especially poultry eggs, chickens, ducks and fish, seafood, etc., which have risen by more than 10%. Of course, there are seasonal factors in this, and last month's Spring Festival on the East Coast was the peak period of consumption, and it is understandable that prices rose slightly. But in normal times, we should try to control the prices as much as possible, especially the prices of food and general consumer goods, and we should not let them rise as quickly as wild horses because of the government's large-scale purchases. Shao Shude told again.

In fact, this is also Shao Shude's worry. With the improvement of domestic transportation conditions, the logistics cost of goods has fallen rapidly, and state-run stores insist on selling all kinds of daily necessities and general consumer goods at low prices, so the prices of these goods purchased by ordinary people on a daily basis are not destined to have much room to rise - unless someone hoards them. But if a merchant does do this, it is certain that the next day he will show up in a labor camp in the country to do hard work to "cure syphilis." (To be continued......)