The situation has stabilized for the time being, but it does not mean that peace is coming, on the contrary, both sides are actively preparing for war, and the clouds of war are getting thicker and thicker over both sides. Unless the leaders of both sides change their will, which is clearly unlikely at the moment. Leaving aside the area of Fort Hezhong, where the clouds of war were looming due to the ambitions of some people, the construction of the new Chinese colony was still on track.

On February 20, 1640, the fleet of the Republic of China on the east coast of China, led by the main force of the Second Fleet of the Navy, sailed into the New China Bay in the drizzle. The fleet was still led by Navy Captain Wang Tiehammer, and the fleet included two warships, the battleship "Common Market," the cruiser "Chaoyong," and the transport ship "Exocet Galicia," as well as the newly built Nanhai Transportation Company's "Buzhou" and "Tianmu" flute-type transport ships.

The transport fleet brought a total of 500 slaves, 50 Eight Banner overseers, and a large amount of grain, cloth, farm tools, building materials, fuel and other production and living materials to the New China Colony, and at the same time, Xu Gang, the commander of the 101st Company of the Army, also rushed over by ship with a large number of weapons and ammunition with soldiers from the last three platoons.

During the rainy season, the construction of the Xinhua Fort Pier has been delayed a lot, so there is still only one trestle next to the pier, which is only enough for two ships to berth and unload at the same time. In desperation, Wang Tiehammer could only order the whole fleet to anchor in the bay, and then let the transport ships dock in the harbor first.

A few brick houses with steeples have been built along the docks, and a few bored Irishmen are sitting on a few wooden piers down the hallway, munching on coconuts and bragging. At this moment, as soon as they saw a ship flying the flag of the Republic of China on the east coast of China docking, they immediately put on their ponchos and rushed into the rain and walked towards the wharf. One of the guys, who seemed to be the leader, took out a brass whistle hanging from his neck and blew it. Soon. Under his whistle. Dozens of Eight Banner slaves, also wearing ponchos, immediately poured out from under some thatched huts on both sides, and they also walked towards the dock with tools, preparing to unload their goods.

Wang Tiehammer walked slowly on the docks, his lieutenant Second Lieutenant Anji following him with an umbrella. Every time I come to the New China Colony, it is a rainy day, as if the sky has collapsed here, and the rain is endless every day. People have been in such an environment for a long time, and if they don't adapt to it, they will become sick even if they are not sick.

The highway has been reorganized. The pavement is paved with waterproof asphalt and looks much better than the muddy red dirt roads around it. When rainwater falls on the road surface, it begins to collect through numerous drainage holes on both sides of the road due to the curvature of the road surface. The drainage holes are made of red brick and cement, and are covered with an iron cover with holes, from which rainwater seeps into the underground drainage ditch. The main body of the drainage ditch is connected by laying cement culvert pipes, buried in the ground about one meter, the whole pipeline system has a certain inclination angle, and all the rainwater is discharged into the bay through the pipe. In Xinhuaxia, a place with an annual precipitation of about 2,000 mm, the construction of urban sewers is a top priority. Otherwise, if one is not good, urban waterlogging will occur, affecting everyone.

It's a huge undertaking. At present, Xinhuabao is only building a section next to the important highway of several hundred meters long on the Shugang Highway. As for the construction of the sewer network in the entire urban area, it can only be prepared in advance when the city wall is built, and as for the large-scale laying, on the one hand, it depends on the surplus of materials and manpower, and on the other hand, it must wait until the end of the rainy season to carry out large-scale construction, right? This is not like building a city wall, which can still be started by erecting a canopy during the rainy season, which requires the excavation of a large number of underground pipes, and it has to wait until the dry season to carry out the construction.

The wild coconut groves on both sides of the road seem to have been harvested on a large scale. Coconut trees produce dozens of coconuts every year, and there are hundreds of coconut groves in this area, and the wild coconut groves on the coast in the distance are even more abundant. When it comes to coconuts, we have to thank the Malay descendants on the island. Their ancestors traveled thousands of miles to Madagascar on a small raft carrying this magical tree that was originally only found in the Malay region, and since then coconut palms have spread all over the island. Coupled with the climate suitable for its growth, it has experienced thousands of years of reproduction, and it has become what it is today.

After crossing the coconut grove, the gray outline of the castle wall of Xinhua Fort is revealed. More than three months have passed, perhaps because of the inconvenience of construction in the rainy season, the construction of the city wall has not progressed too much, and it is still in a state of scattered repair of one section here and one section there, and there is still a considerable distance from completion. The walls were surrounded by a plain field, and according to what Wang Tiehammer had heard before, it seemed that Shi Qinjie was going to make it a commercial area, and to build a large square on it. Licensed merchants from all over the world can trade in the square, including industrial goods from the East Coast, local building materials, cattle and sheep, grain and timber, precious stones and spices from India, camels and horses from the Middle East, fruits, tobacco, slaves and other goods from the East African continent.

To put it bluntly, if this commercial area does develop as expected, then the trade between the East African coast and the Portuguese island of Mozambique will be basically nothing. The island, which is just over a square kilometer in size, has little potential for development, and it is not surprising that it has been replaced.

After walking into the city, Wang Tiehammer went straight to Shi Qinjie's office. Several Irish militiamen who were standing guard at the gate saw a group of naval officers coming, and after being stunned, they hurriedly stood up and saluted. Wang Tiehammer returned the salute, and then walked straight into the house.

"Huh......" Wang Tiehammer took off the oilcloth raincoat on his body, hung it under the eaves, and then said: "This annoying heavy rain is not refreshing for a moment, hey, there is no one?" ”

There was no sign of Shi Qinjie in the house, but Rodrigo, the secretary of Shi Qinjie himself, who had recently arrived from the mainland, was sorting out the documents in the house. Seeing Wang Tiezhu's question, Rodrigo hurriedly walked over and explained: "Captain Shi went to the health center to visit the wounded and sick, and then he will go to the wood processing factory to inspect, and it may take another hour to come back." ”

"Oh? He worked tirelessly, but there were many wounded and sick people in the health center? Wang Tiehammer sat down on a chair and asked casually.

"Not a few." Rodrigo said with some concern: "In May, August and November last year, three batches of slaves totaling 1,300 people came, and at present 119 people have died due to diseases, work-related deaths, battles and other factors, and more than 400 people have fallen ill before and after, of which there are as many as 87 patients with incurable falciparum malaria, and the rest are more or less suffering from some chronic diseases, and the total attrition rate is shocking." Moreover, the mortality rate of the first landers in May last year has now climbed to more than 30 percent......"

"Hmm." Wang Tiehammer didn't know what to say. At present, although there has been some progress in science and technology, there is still a blank in medicine, and the reason is that there is too much knowledge and talent in this area. Correspondingly, the level of doctors and nurses trained by domestic health schools and medical schools is also very low, and the role they can play for sick people is really limited. Not to mention that it has only partially broken away from the barbaric atmosphere of the New China Colony, and all that the limited medical staff here can do is to provide a relatively comfortable living environment and more careful care for the sick. As for letting them treat you, forget it, it's better to rely on yourself.

"But fortunately, the dead and sick are basically the slaves of the Eight Banners." Rodrigo carefully explained, "The officers and men of the 101st Company and the valuable technical personnel are in good health, and even the more than 400 new Irish immigrants are generally in good health, as can be seen from the number of sick days at each time of intensive military training. ”

"Everything will slowly get better. The development of the wilderness realm is limited, and death is inevitable. Wang Tiehammer casually encouraged, "I think you guys are doing pretty well here now." At least a few hundred meters around the city is refreshing, and if you don't go out of the city, the chance of getting malaria is greatly reduced. By the way, now that the production of the coking plant in the local area is gradually on the right track, give them some time and they may be able to make some pesticides out of benzene, and then they can send some here to try the results. ”

"That would be great." Rodrigo said with some joy, "Now the demand for timber is gradually increasing in the local area, and we have more and more slave laborers who need to go into the mountains every day to log, and there are four logging camps in the mountains alone, and these people will be bitten by mosquitoes and contract malaria. We've filled in some puddles there, but it's still not enough to completely eradicate mosquito infestation, and some insecticides should greatly improve their situation. ”

Wang Tiezhu smiled and didn't speak again, he just said it casually, and he couldn't take it seriously.

It is said that it is not so easy to use benzene extracted from coal tar to make poisonicides such as pentachlorophenol, hexahexane, and DDT. Not to mention anything else, the production of pentachlorophenol first requires hexachlorophenol, and hexachlorophenol requires the reaction of benzene and chlorine, and the production of this chlorine gas is not a simple matter for the east coast of China at this stage. The traditional method of electrolytic saturated brine preparation is not realistic for now, because we have not yet played the step of electricity, and it is too wasteful to use concentrated sulfuric acid, sodium chloride and pyromanganese ore to react to make chlorine.

Therefore, Wang's words are just a consolation for others, and it will be difficult for the chemical sector to produce enough pesticides and disinfectants through cheap industrial production models for at least a few years. (To be continued......)