In the past two years, with the help of a large number of mobile salesmen and technicians sent by the Ministry of Agriculture, the General Administration of Textile Industry, and the Northwest Reclamation Bank, nearly 4,000 residents of the two places have initially gained a firm foothold.

Among them, cotton farmers have successively opened up 30,000 acres of cotton fields, and 1,500 tons of lint are expected to be harvested in 1640. However, this proportion is still too small in Zhou Dahe's opinion, and it must be increased to at least 70% to be reliable.

The importance of cotton to the textile industry, which is now the backbone of the financial support of the Republic of China (military exports are unstable). Ensuring the security of supply of raw materials is the foundation for the development and growth of the entire industry. It is reassuring to note that the country's leaders are now very clear in their thinking, and they have a very clear view of the weak maritime supply lines for raw materials in the Eastern Republic, and have been trying to increase the self-sufficiency rate of cotton and wool for the past two years.

In recent years, the annual export volume of cotton cloth has increased from more than 100,000 horses to more than 500,000 horses last year, and correspondingly, the demand for raw cotton has also grown rapidly. Although many cotton fields have been vigorously opened up in the country, the gap is still huge, and even the cotton production in French Santo Domingo (Haiti) is somewhat insufficient, and the General Directorate of Textile Industry began to turn to Brazil, Florida and other places to import some local cotton, of course, this also led the colonial plantation owners in the two places to invest heavily in cotton planting.

Recently, the Government Council, the General Administration of Textile Industry, and the Cotton Farmers Township Government have been investing heavily in infrastructure and opening up new cotton fields. However, due to the shortage of manpower, the growth of cotton fields is limited. Recently, they have begun to apply for slave quotas from the Executive Committee. In order to increase the domestic cotton production as soon as possible. In Zhou Dahe's opinion. Perhaps in a few years, the cotton self-sufficiency rate on the east coast will reach a new level.

The carriage was still driving unhurriedly, and the people in the carriage fell silent. Fortunately, the journey was not too far, but it was only a little more than an hour, and the carriage stopped steadily at the bus stop outside the south gate of Zhenyuan Fort. The so-called bus station is actually just three brick bungalows and a walled courtyard. Vehicles are parked in the yard, one of the three bungalows is for parts and tools, and one is a stable. There is also a room for the staff on duty.

"Technician Liu Jilu" grabbed Zhou Dahe, who was standing at the entrance of the station, and shouted: "Let's go, little brother, it's noon, let's go eat first." ”

Zhou Dahe was also hungry at this time, so he didn't excuse himself, and walked towards the city with Liu Jilu.

There were several policemen standing at the south gate of Zhenyuanbao, one of whom was wearing the black uniform of the police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The inventory of foreign populations is extremely strict. No, the policeman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs took Zhou Dahe's ID card, registration card, and the letter of introduction issued by the head office of the Northwest Reclamation Bank and carefully read it for a long time. Only then did he return it to him with an expressionless face and let him go.

Immediately adjacent to the south gate is the commercial area of Zhenyuanbao. Speaking of a commercial district, of course, it can't be compared with big places like Dingyuanbao, Dongfanggang and Ping'an Town, and the so-called commercial area here is just a medium-sized grocery store, a grain store specializing in grain, oil and dried fruits, and a few small restaurants. Clerk Liu told Zhou Dahe that the grocery stores and grain stores were run by the government to sell production and daily necessities to the common people at affordable prices, while the small restaurants were privately run.

Zhou Dahe and Liu Jilu walked one after the other, and the ground was a gravel road, which looked quite smooth. On the left side of the road were several stone bungalows in the shape of warehouses, which Liu Jilu told him were the armory and material depot in the city, storing some weapons such as muskets and cannons, as well as grain, cotton and other materials. Sure enough, Zhou Dahe observed that there were armed militiamen on duty at the entrances of these houses.

On the right side of the road are grocery stores and grain stores. There are a wide variety of goods in the grocery store, from farm tools and machetes to needles and threads, from production tools to consumer goods. In addition to a small amount of expensive rice, wheat is not very sufficient because it is requisitioned by the military, but the supply of potatoes and South African sorghum on the east coast, which are eaten and consumed by ordinary people in large quantities, are open. In addition to staple foods, the supply of non-staple foods is no less: salted dried fish, sausages, preserved eggs, South African ostrich eggs, antelope jerky, etc., fill the shelves.

In addition to these, the most popular fruit in the store is the fruit shipped from all over the world. A few months ago, the local residents of Zhenyuanbao had just taken the sheared wool to the wool purchasing station of the General Administration of Textile Industry for sale, so they now have some surplus money on hand, and many people who have been thrifty for many years have a certain consumer demand for fruits and other non-necessities such as fruits under the condition of food and clothing, which can be seen from the slightly dense crowd in front of the fruit shelves.

Zhou Dahe glanced at it and saw that there were many locally produced raisins, jujubes, chestnuts, as well as some tropical fruits shipped from Brazil, and even coconuts from the New China region were placed on the shelves.

"Hehe, didn't expect that, right?" Seeing that Zhou Dahe was attracted by the bustling crowd in the grain store, he said with a little pride: "The local people raise sheep in every household, and at the end of the year, everyone will kill a goat that can't be sheared to celebrate the New Year. I'm afraid you don't know the way, in Zhenyuan Fort, the price of pork is three times that of mutton. Hehe, why, there are fewer pigs! They all have to be transported by small steamer from Dingyuan Township in the south, can it be expensive! By the way, this fruit is not much cheaper than mutton! Especially this coconut transported from the New China area, it is big and thick, and it tastes good! Does the new Huaxia area know the road? That's another piece of land that our country has taken down, and I heard that it is so rich that the natives sleep every day and never go hungry without working. ”

Speaking of which, it has to be mentioned that since the east coast is located in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are opposite to those in the northern hemisphere. As a result, the Government Council organized a handful of people to compile an East Coast calendar over several years. This calendar is modeled after the Chinese lunar calendar, and the new 24 solar terms compiled by Bai Siwen Bai Da of the Historical Records Office according to the local climate, which are parallel to the Western calendar and have the significance of guiding agricultural production. After the promulgation and implementation of the East Coast calendar, the date of the Spring Festival was generally moved from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year, so there is a saying that the local people have just finished the New Year.

Hearing what Surgeon Liu said this, Zhou Dahe smiled and didn't squeak. Of course, he knew about the New China Colony, because one of his buddies who fled from Daming together was now a platoon commander in the 101st Company of the Army. In January, he was still growing potatoes at home, and in February he was urgently called up for intensive training, and then the whole company was loaded onto South Africa and then to Fort Neunew.

A letter he wrote from Fort Xinhua last month was shipped to Orient Harbor with a ship from South Africa, and then delivered to Zhou Dahe by a postman. In the letter, his buddies first complained about how terrible the mosquitoes were, how bad the weather was, and how stupid the slaves were, and then they described in detail the richness of the land and the abundance of fish and shrimp in the bay. If the Northwest Reclamation Bank had gone there to open a branch at that time, Zhou Dahe would definitely be the first to sign up.

The two walked forward for a while, and at this time, several private restaurants were revealed on both sides of the road, and Operator Liu Jilu walked into the first one with Zhou Dahe. To be honest, the store is not big, there are only five or six tables, and it is a meal at this time, and the store is full. Technician Liu looked around, and then pulled Zhou Dahe to sit at a table in the corner.

There was already a man sitting at this table. Zhou Dahe looked at it casually, and he was thundered. This gentleman was wearing a tattered shirt, and he exuded an unpleasant smell all over his body, and it seemed that he had not taken a shower for many days. Are there still such miserable people in the Eastern Republic today?

"The Albanian, called Bogdan, crossed the border from the west the other day." Technician Liu Jilu and Zhou Dahe whispered: "Now I am collecting sheep manure for people outside the city, and someone from Ping'an Town will come to buy it." This man is said to have been a famous family in Albania before, he could read and write, and he could also do arithmetic, and he heard that he had fought with the Turks, and then fled to Austria, but he was sent to the Spanish in La Plata, by the Austrians. Hehe, it's miserable. It is said that in the past, people like him would not be so depressed, and it was not difficult to find an ordinary job. But who let there be a big spy case a while ago, and now Europeans like them who can write and calculate and whose origin is unknown, no one dares to hire them, hehe, count him unlucky. ”

As the two spoke, Bogdan glanced up at them, then lowered his head and continued to eat his bowl of beef vermicelli soup.

Zhou Dahe sighed, he glanced at the moment when Bogdan looked up just now, this person had a scar on his face, which looked extremely scary, but his eyes were extremely resolute, probably because he had been trained by fighting the Turks in adversity for many years.

"Boss, here are two bowls of beef vermicelli soup, a plate of beef with sauce, and two side dishes." Surgeon Liu shouted. The owner of this shop is said to have immigrated from the Huainan region of Anhui Province in the Ming Dynasty, and the small shop specializes in beef soup, and later added vermicelli made from potato flour to the beef soup according to the eating habits of the East Coast, and it is said that the business is good. (To be continued......)