On 12 September, after a week of fighting, the original landing site of the expedition had a new look. A brand new wooden pier extends 20 meters into the lake, and the "East Shore Eagle" docks at the pier, which is the new port of choice.

"The new port is located at the top of the peninsula extension, opposite the island of Baser on the opposite shore. This section of water, which is about 200 meters wide, has a gentle current and a depth of about 4-5 meters, making it a good natural harbor. In the future, we plan to build forts at the top of the peninsula and on Baser Island, which will not only protect our own safety, but also block the passage of Duck Lake to and from the sea. Lu Ming, who had followed the Galician Exocet back to Vostochny Harbor, was reporting to Shao Shude in the makeshift office of the coal working group in the administrative building in the center of the city, and he turned the next page and continued: "At present, many new shelters have been built on the shore for laborers and expedition members. These dwellings are simple houses made of woven reeds, and the rooms are disinfected with lime powder. Thanks to everyone's hard work, as of September 12, an area of about hundreds of acres of land has been initially cleared, mainly to clear the reeds and miscellaneous bushes on the land, and at the same time to start excavating the foundation, preparing for the construction of formal brick houses and city walls. Team leader, I'm coming back this time mainly to ask for someone. Hehe, you also know that this is a new city, and in the future, it will be a transshipment port for coal export at the northern end of Yahu Lake. The stakes are very high, so how about you think of a way to get the Executive Committee to allocate some manpower to us? ”

"Anyway, where is there no shortage of manpower now?" Shao Shude held his forehead and lamented, "In the war with the Spaniards a while ago, more than 120 people were killed, 30 or 40 were injured and disabled, plus some wounded soldiers who couldn't do heavy physical work, so there were nearly 200 strong laborers. Originally, we didn't have enough manpower, and this time it is even worse, and now we are rebuilding after the war, and there is a shortage of people everywhere, so where do you let me find someone. ”

"Hey, hey." Lu Ming smiled dryly and continued: "Now there are 2,500 people in Dingyuan Township, which is basically saturated, after all, with the current scale of farmland reclamation, it is enough for the people of the whole country to eat with an open belly. Counting Dongfang County again, there are nearly 5,000 people crowded in the county now, which is really too much. Shipyards, steel mills, arsenals, textile factories and so on can't use so many people in terms of the current scale of production, I calculated, at least more than 1,000 people can come out. How about it, Team Leader Shao, let's go to the activities of the executive committee and try to squeeze out some manpower. Otherwise, the Duck Lake side will continue according to the current progress, and I don't know if it will be completed in the Year of the Monkey, so I might as well go back to the Navigation School to do my job as the principal, and whoever likes to do the mess on this side of the Duck Lake. ”

"Alright, alright! Don't talk nonsense! I'm scared of you. Shao Shude waved his hand again and again, and said with a wry smile: "Forget it, I'll tell you the truth." Even if you don't ask me for someone today, I'll send a group of people to Duck Lake in the next two days. There is a shortage of people over there, so can I, as the team leader, not care? I have already asked for people from the Executive Committee, and there are not many of them, more than 200 people, men, women and children. Don't be satisfied, now that there are trade deals with the Spaniards, major factories are expanding, and there is a huge labor gap in infrastructure construction, it's good to get you so many people. If you want to be grateful, thank Chang Kaisheng of the first post of the army, this guy is lucky, two days ago on the west bank of Dayu Lake ended two Chaluya villages, capturing a population of nearly three hundred. If it weren't for the new population replenishment, I would have had no hope of getting a group of people to go to Duck Lake in the short term. ”

"Okay, it's good." Lu Ming exclaimed, "Since people are doing such a good job, why don't you send him more people, let him make persistent efforts, and arrest more indigenous people, we are short of people." ”

"It's not that easy. Now it's getting harder and harder to catch these indigenous people, and people are not stupid, I know that we want to arrest them, and we can stay where we are and wait. Shao Shude looked at Lu Ming with disdain, and said: "Now there are no Charuya villages in the Dayu River and Dayu Lake, and if you want to continue to catch the Charua, you have to search northward and go to the front line of Milin Lake to search and arrest; Or simply go into the mountains and cross the border to capture the natives to the west. In a word...... Ahem, it's far away, okay, don't pestle here, now you take this document and go to the Census Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and they will tell you where these people are. After finding people, organize them to board the ship, be efficient, and strive to leave before noon. I'll get the business at hand and I'll go with you when the time comes. It's been so long since the work started at Duck Lake, and it's really too unreasonable for me to be the team leader if I'm not in place. ”

Lu Ming didn't get everything done before noon after all. When Lu Ming arrived at the docks, Julien de Eblore, the captain of the Galician Exocet, was organizing sailors to help them carry their luggage onto the ship, after more than 200 residents who had settled in the city at the southern end of the Duck Lake, which did not even have an official name.

The berth of the quay, where the Galician Exocet is moored, is bustling with activity like a vegetable market, with residents carrying large bags of luggage. Over the years, the freedmen who have crossed the crowd have generally been relatively generous, and now even the lowest-paid workers have a monthly wage of 1-1.5 yuan, and the average salary has reached the level of nearly two yuan. Therefore, these residents who have been here for a few years have more or less accumulated a little bit of family money.

Before and after the outbreak of the war with the Spaniards, a wave of land redemption in the then Dingyuanbao Reclamation Area, now Dingyuan Township, greatly stimulated these so-called "urban residents". Many of them have relatives or friends in Dingyuan Township, and those "rural residents" have permanently bought out the land they cultivated at a relatively low price, getting rid of their status as hired farmers and becoming enviable homesteaders, and have since owned fixed assets. Now, the Executive Committee has promised them that the residents who have moved to Duck Lake will also be able to buy their own land in the future, so many people have become desperate to move to Duck Lake. The climate, natural conditions, and the threat of barbarians were no longer a formidable obstacle, and a large number of "city dwellers" asked people to intercede and squeeze into the list of immigrants. Lu Ming himself has received several tentative questions more or less, but he has perfunctorily passed it on the grounds that the list is decided by the executive committee.

Today, it seems that the enthusiasm of these residents for the land and their desire for a happy life are truly overwhelming. They sold all the possessions they had and bought seeds, farm implements, fishing nets, chickens, ducks and geese, lambs, piglets, and everything else necessary to settle down from the livestock farms and supply and marketing cooperatives. What's more, some of the wealthy veterans who had been discharged from the army even joined forces to buy some cattle and prepare to take them to the other side of Duck Lake to plow the fields.

This chaotic and lively scene lasted until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Shao Shude and several members of the coal working group hurriedly boarded the transport ship "Galician Exocet", and in addition, the frigate gunboat "Red Trout" of which Navy Lieutenant Guo Zili was the acting captain also went with a batch of building materials and food. At four o'clock in the afternoon, after submitting the departure documents to the port authority, the two ships slowly left the Oriental Port and headed for Duck Lake.

On the morning of September 17, the two ships successfully docked at the new port pier in Duck Lake. After Shao Shude got off the ship, he went straight to the construction site of the new town with great interest and observed the construction progress. A few days have passed, and at this time the construction on the inland ground of the port is entering a climax. More than two hundred reed houses have been built, and the breeze blows, and there are flying reeds everywhere. The weather has been fine these days, and more than 100 laborers and more than 80 naval crews have worked hard to level the land in the planned city, and many of the foundations have been compacted, and the construction team has begun to allocate materials and prepare for the official construction of the brick building.

"At present, the first phase of the city can accommodate 3,500 residents, and the port will build two cement trestles to ensure that at least 25 to 30 ships can be berthed at the same time. The circumference of the planned city wall is 1800-2000 meters, the height of the city is 5-6 meters, and the thickness of the city wall varies from 3 meters to 3.5 meters. An artificial reservoir was built in the south of the city to serve as a source of water for the entire city, and some irrigation canals were built along the perimeter of the reservoir to open up land for farming. "In addition, in terms of defense, two coastal artillery forts will be built in the southeast corner of the city and on Baser Island opposite the port, and in the future, when conditions permit, another small peninsula directly south of the city across the narrow waterway, and in the north of Basser Island, a battery will also be built in the area of São José in the north. ”

"Huh." Shao Shude sighed twice, such a large-scale plan will be completed, and I don't know how to wait until the Year of the Monkey. "By the way, I remember that the main function of this new port city is to serve as a transit port for the future policy of transporting coal from the north to the south, and the military aspect is to block the entrance and exit waterways. The city doesn't have an official name yet, does it? ”

"Uh... Not yet. Bo Sen helped his glasses and said.

"Then let's call it Zhenhai Fort!" Shao Shude made the final decision.

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