When the two were eating, people in the restaurant came to greet Liu Jilu from time to time, and it could be seen that he was very good at eating locally, and his popularity was also good.

"Hey, there's spices in this soup?" Zhou Dahe shouted out in surprise after taking a sip of the soup.

"Oh, that's cinnamon." Surgeon Liu Jilu said innofactorily, "If you don't use this, the smell of mutton is too strong, and many people are not used to it." Well, this spice was transported from Xiangshan Fort, and the price was not expensive, only one pound was sold for one yuan and two jiao. There are only two or three grams in this bowl, but it's only worth half a penny, hey! ”

Liu Jilu is a senior technician of the agricultural technology station, with a monthly salary of six yuan and five jiao, and welfare payments during the New Year's holidays, half a cent is really nothing in his eyes.

"Fort Fragrant Hill? Where is this? Zhou Dahe asked with some confusion. In his memory, there was indeed no place called Xiangshan Fort in the country.

"Hey, the little brother is really dedicated to studying, and he doesn't care about national affairs." Technician Liu Jilu teased, and then said: "Xiangshan Fort is a new settlement that was just established last month, and it was only last month that the first batch of immigrants settled in the past. However, specific urban construction began half a year ago. The specific location is in the area opposite the mouth of Yazi Lake and the harbor of Zhenhai, well, the preaching team has talked about it in the market before, and it has also been published in Pravda. Little brother, I didn't say you, we are from the yamen...... Belch...... Civil servants can't be deaf and blind, this news must be well-informed, and Pravda must be subscribed, understand? ”

"Brother Liu's heartfelt words, little brother keep it in mind." Zhou Dahe said gratefully. Indeed, a while ago, he only immersed himself in his studies in the accounting vocational school. Even the banquet between some classmates was postponed. Now that I think about it, I'm too autistic. Of course. On the other hand, if it is not based on this basis, it can only be said that he will not be a blockbuster in the final exam and achieve a good score of third place.

In fact, the matter of Xiangshan Fort is not as simple as Liu Jilu said, or this time the Executive Committee did not only set up a new settlement of Xiangshan Fort, but also set up two other new settlements in the Yazihu area, and Xiangshan Fort is just one of them.

At the beginning of November, in 1640, the third and last settlement of new settlers settled at the mouth of Duck Lake, named Fort Fragrant Hill, in the area of São José in the north of the city, opposite the harbor of Duck Lake. Before this group of new immigrants (400 Ming, 200 French, 100 Germans) arrived here. In this area of Cinnamon Forest, only a few solitary naval batteries stand here.

Fortunately, however, the city already had some foundations, and later the Government Council sent a South African construction team to build a new castle along the vicinity of the naval fort fort, which was integrated with the naval fort. The inhabitants of this settlement mainly pick and grow cinnamon spices, supplemented by the cultivation and cultivation of grapes (the local Sapa terrain is particularly suitable for growing grapes), and may also take part in some wineries and other projects in the future. Whether it is spices, grapes or wine, in addition to partially satisfying the consumption needs of the domestic market, most of them are exported to neighboring regions in exchange for foreign exchange.

During the off-season, the farmers in Xiangshan Fort can also grow some vegetables, raise some poultry, and raise some goats. The technicians of the breeding center of the Animal Husbandry Bureau have taken a fancy to the environment here, and have set up a breeding station here, and in the future, some of the cultivated bighorn goats from the east coast and their subsequent test varieties will be handed over to the farmers for raising. In order to observe the characteristics of each variety, such as disease resistance, adaptability and genetic stability, so as to better improve the existing varieties.

And before Fort Fragrant. Two other settlements have also been established in the Duck Lake area.

At the beginning of October, 800 new immigrants (500 Ming and 300 French) were assigned to a water-rich site on the north bank of the Canal between the Two Lakes (formerly the Canal of Saint-Gonzalo between Lake Mirin and Lake Duck) and on the west bank of the Pelotas River (near what would become Pelotas, Brazil), where the construction of a new settlement, named Fort Baguine, began.

In the past two years, with the take-off of the domestic shipbuilding industry, the industrial development of Zhenhai Port has also begun to accelerate. By October 1640, the permanent population of the city had officially exceeded 4,000, and the entire city was filled with naval officers and sailors, shipyard industrial workers and their families.

However, with the development of industry, the region's agriculture has always relied on the export of Ping'an County in the north, which occupies valuable tonnage of inland river transportation. In addition, Zhenhai Port also has to undertake the supply tasks of transshipment ships such as the southern transportation of coal from the north and the northward entry of western mines, and the material gap has always been very large. Therefore, this time the Executive Committee simply decided to build a new settlement in its vicinity, which would take over the heavy responsibility of supplying the ships that came and went. The new settlement is ideally located for ships to pass through almost all of the south, especially when the canal runs south of the Chuy River to Port Vostochny, which will become one of the most important nodes in the domestic canal network of the Republic of the East.

After the completion of Hekoubao, the local area will take agriculture and animal husbandry as one of its main business activities, in order to make full use of the rich water system and lake resources nearby, vigorously develop rice, soybean and corn cultivation, and raise cattle and sheep. The Executive Committee optimistically estimates that in just two years, the area around the town port may no longer need to be transshipped from the north for supplies.

A wharf will also be built along the river, and a small ship repair yard will be set up to provide repair and maintenance for passing vessels. According to the plan, next year, led by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the First Machinery Factory and the Zhenhai Shipyard will also transfer some technical personnel to establish a small inland steamer factory here, specially for the construction of small steamers for domestic inland waterway shipping, and for the steaming of dozens of existing inland river flat-bottomed transport ships. After this shipyard has some technical foundation, it will also develop special ships such as sand dredging ships, dredgers, and hoisting ships in the future, and become a civil special shipyard.

In mid-to-late October, another group of new immigrants (400 Ming, 300 French, and 100 Charua) were assigned to the vast plain west of Lake Duck, between the San Lorenzo and Camacan rivers in the south, to cut down trees, clear weeds, and build water facilities. In this area, which is named Xihu Fort (meaning west of Duck Lake), the Executive Committee expects to relocate about 3,000 immigrants and reclaim 20,000 to 30,000 acres of farmland here, mainly to grow rice, wheat, soybeans, corn and other crops, and gradually build it into the granary of the Republic on the east coast of China. After all, the slightly arid Dingyuan Township area is not very suitable for agricultural cultivation, and only the Yahu Lake basin, which has a warm climate and abundant water resources, is a natural food producing area.

After the output of various crops here is stabilized, the Ministry of Agriculture and the United Industrial Credit Bank will also invest in the construction of a series of grain deep processing enterprises such as a machine oil mill (using soybeans as raw material), a machine flour mill, and a brewery (using corn as raw material) to fully tap the potential of this agricultural production area. At the same time, the development of the abundant timber resources in the vicinity has also been put on the agenda. It is reported that the executive committee has recently formulated a plan to relocate the timber processing plant in Henan Township, Dongfang County, to the West Lake Fort as a whole, so as to make use of the rich timber resources nearby to provide a large number of rich products for the growing domestic demand for furniture, desks and chairs, industrial and agricultural supplies. Although the Henan Township Government was not very happy, considering that the forest resources in the temperate grassland area are extremely precious and should not be harvested in large quantities to avoid damaging the local environment, it decided to relocate the only professional timber processing factory in China after careful consideration.

"A total of 2,300 new immigrants have been allocated to the first batch of these three new settlements this year, and it is expected that thousands more will be sent to the above three places in the next two years to develop them as soon as possible." Clerk Liu Jilu was drinking beef soup while foaming at the mouth and recounting the news he had read from the newspaper, but as he spoke, he turned to a mysterious whisper to Zhou Dahe: "I heard that after the arrival of these new immigrants this year, some people in the government who were worried about state affairs clamored to assign most of them to Hezhongbao and the New China Colony, so as to accelerate the development process of the two places and create conditions for direct shipping to the Ming Dynasty. But later, I don't know what Lu Dao is for, and this matter was vetoed again. ”

Speaking of this, Surgeon Liu Jilu looked regretful.

"Huh." Zhou Dahe smiled perfunctorily. Liu Jilu didn't know where he heard the gossip from, how could this level of decision-making be known to him as a technician of a small township agricultural technology station? Most of it was just gibberish from a wine table.

Fortunately, the country is not in the hands of these people. The elders of the Executive Committee did not follow these people's ideas, and they still knew the deep-rooted importance of the Tao. What is fundamental? The east coast and the Duck Lake area are the foundation and foundation of the country. Only after the foundation has been firmly laid and the local construction is perfected, will the human and material resources at hand be appropriately invested in overseas colonies when there is spare capacity, instead of giving priority to the development of overseas territories by putting the cart before the horse.

The two ate for a while, then checked out and left. Surgeon Liu Jilu was more enthusiastic and directly paid the accounts of the two together. Two bowls of beef vermicelli soup cost 4 cents, and a plate of sauced beef and two dishes add up to 1 jiao and 2 cents, for a total of 1 jiao and 6 cents. And the Albanian who had sat across from them before had quietly left at some point. (To be continued......)