On November 15, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the channel of the Changhua River downstream was finally repaired to the iron ore plant. On the day of the opening of the voyage, Tong Tuchang gave all the craftsmen a day off, because it was not easy to build this route.

The section of the Changhua River is easy to repair, after all, the amount of water is very large, as long as some sand dunes and boulders in the river are removed. The difficulty lies in this section of the Shilu River.

The amount of water in the Shilu River is sufficient, but the river is narrow and there are many boulders.

Tong Tuchang had no choice but to ask Zhou Yu to send a team of engineers, and it took half a month to clean up the twenty-mile river of the Shilu River with ten tons of gunpowder. But in this way, the sand boat with 300 materials could not go directly to the iron ore factory area, and could only go to the mouth of the Shilu River.

Relatively speaking, the ore is easy to mine, and the Tengtian vein is an open-pit vein, with a surface soil layer only two meters deep, and a large amount of iron ore is exposed after cleaning. Just blast it with gunpowder and mine it out with manpower.

Hundreds of tonnes of ore have already been mined in the iron ore mines, and transportation is now the number one problem. The iron ore is still five miles away from the Shilu River wharf, and all the transportation has to be pulled by oxen and horses.

The last craftsman asked if he could make a track, like in the Dongguan steel mill. With everyone's efforts, this iron-clad wooden track with a length of more than 3,000 meters was built.

Seeing that the track has been completed and the Shilu River has been navigable, Tong Tuchang calculated the time, it is now November 15, and there is still half a month before the two months, so he should be able to catch up.

The next day, Tong Tuchang ordered the loading to begin, he stood on the shore and watched the ten small boats with a load of 80 tons drive out of the dock, Tong Tuchang said in his heart: "The first batch of ore has finally been shipped, I hope it can catch up with time." ”

The convenience of water transport became apparent at this time, and ten small boats went down the river to the mouth of the sea on the same day, and three large ships were loaded on the dock the next day. The boat then went upriver to load the second batch of ore.

Three days later, these three ships arrived at Baisha Port in Qiongzhou, and Tong Yangjia was very happy to see that the first ship of ore had finally been shipped out within two months. He planned to go back to Dongguan with the ore ship, and at the same time to find Zhu Hongsan's merits, he also asked the King of Chu to send manpower, and the construction of Baisha Port here had also begun.

Tong Yangjia boarded the cargo ship and finally arrived at the Dongguan wharf on October 29, one day before the time limit.

After getting off the boat, Tong Yangjia looked at the county seat of Dongguan, which is now connected to the industrial zone outside the city. The city walls outside the county were all demolished, and a large road came out of the county seat to the distance.

Now that the population of the county has increased, Tong Yangjia remembers that when he came to Dongguan in August last year, there were only more than 20,000 people in Dongguan County. Now there are five or six thousand people on the wharf at a glance, and in the distance there are several high-rise buildings in the city, five or six floors, and I don't know what they are for.

Leaving the wharf is a large commercial area, and Tong Yangjia himself has a few shops on this street, earning him a lot of silver every month.

The business district is crowded with people, and all kinds of people from the north and south can be seen here. Tong Yangjia just took a cursory look, and the main reason he came back was to report on the situation of the iron mine, not to see the excitement.

On the side of the commercial street, Tong Yangjia found a carriage and said that he would go to the Chu Palace, and the coachman drove Tong Yangjia out of the city.

Now that it is about to enter the wax moon, the weather in Guangdong is already very cold. But Tong Yangjia saw that the pedestrians on both sides of the road were okay, and there was no such dish as common in the north.

Now there are houses on both sides of the road, Tong Yangjia remembers that when he left on the first day of October, there was only one side of the road was a factory, but he didn't expect it to expand so much in just two months.

The coachman saw Tong Yangjia looking at the factory outside, and couldn't help but say, "The guest officer is a new merchant, right?" ”

Tong Yangjia said: "It's not new, I didn't have a house on this side of the road two months ago. ”

The coachman said: "Now don't talk about you outsiders in Dongguan, that is, I, a local, will get lost if I don't go out for half a month." Every day, new factories are built, and there are people everywhere, and I heard that there are now 200,000 people in the entire Dongguan county. It's about to catch up with the Guangzhou Mansion. I heard that the Governor intends to upgrade Dongguan County to a state! ”

Dongguan to upgrade? It seems that he helped Gong Dacheng to get this magistrate at that time. Tong Yangjia said: "Coachman, are you from Dongguan?" ”

"yes."

"Then why did you come out to catch the car, I heard that the locals in Dongguan are now landlords."

"It's not all right, Xiao Lao'er used to open a tavern in the city, and after Nancheng became a development zone, someone came to buy my tavern, and the price was also generous. I see that I am getting older, so I am ready to sell the tavern and want to go back to the countryside to retire.

But I didn't expect that this year, the land in the countryside was zoned as a factory area, and I gave Xiao Lao'er a lot of money. Now my family of six is not worried about eating and drinking, and my two sons are also working as workers in the factory of King Chu, and the eldest son is still a foreman. It's just that the little old man is old, and he has nothing to do every day, so getting a mule to do some work on the commercial street can be regarded as finding something to do. ”

It seems that this is also a vested interest class, Tong Yangjia then asked: "Brother, why didn't you open your own factory and be your own boss." ”

The driver smiled: "Hehe, I'm old, but my son wants to do it himself." He works as a foreman in a cannery and is ready to quit his job next year to open his own cannery. ”

The canned food is a new thing made by Zhu Hongsan, using clay pots instead of iron cans and glass jars in later generations, sterilizing at high temperature after putting in food, and then sealing with wax, which can be stored for half a year at room temperature.

This thing was made up by Zhu Hongsan to prepare to save food for the army, but he didn't expect it to be very popular as soon as it was launched. So now I've made a couple of varieties as well. There are canned fruits and canned meat.

Canned fruits are now exported to Sichuan and Beijing, after all, it is winter, and there are fruits in the north, so this kind of canned food has earned Zhu Hongsan a lot of silver.

The canned meat was made by Zhu Hongsan after the canned luncheon meat of later generations, using some scraps of beef, sheep and pork, adding starch, salt, and five spices, and then steaming it in the can. Zhu Hongsan had eaten this kind of thing, but he vomited at the first bite. Zhu Hongsan has eaten fragrant and spicy food in the past few years, so he can still eat this kind of thing.

But this kind of canned food is the favorite of the homeless, a five-pound canned meat, plus twenty catties of potatoes, to make a pot of potato soup, plus a cornmeal nest per person, can provide a good dinner for 100 people.

It is precisely these things that have ensured that the more than one million displaced people in Guangdong have not starved to death on a large scale.

Listening to what the coachman was talking about, Tong Yangjia knew that now that the power of the King of Chu had been fully spread out, and his rights were also rising, it seemed that the affairs of Qiongzhou Mansion should also be tightened.

Zhujiazhuang Chu Wangfu is fifteen miles away from the county seat, and now there are houses on both sides of the road, which is almost the same as in the city. It took an hour to walk the fifteen-mile road.

The carriage stopped two hundred meters away from the palace of the king of Chu, and the coachman said, "Guest officer, if you are not allowed to enter inside, you can get here." ”

Tong Yangjia nodded, got out of the car and paid for the car, and headed towards the Chu Palace.

The history office of the head of the Chu King Mansion is just outside the gate of the Chu King Mansion, so there is a tide of people who come to do things every day, and the Chinese have always liked to be close to the center of power, and the streets outside the Chu King Mansion have changed greatly, and there are three- or four-story hotels and inns on both sides of the road.

Seeing a long queue outside the door of the Changshi Office, Tong Yangjia thought about it and went to see Ma Mingyuan first. After all, Ma Lao Er is now a nominal long history, and it's not good if he doesn't talk to him when he comes back.

The long history office is now a large courtyard with three entrances, the first courtyard is divided into six rooms, according to the six departments set up by the six departments of the imperial court officials, household rites, soldiers, and criminal work, and the front of the engineering department and the household department are full of people, all of whom are merchants who come to do things.

When he came to the courtyard on the first floor to guard the door, he saw that Tong Yangjia was coming, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute and said, "Lord Tong is back." ”

Tong Yangjia nodded and said, "Is Ma Changshi here?" ”

"It's a meeting in the courtyard on the third floor, and I'll take the adults inside."

Tong Yangjia followed him into the courtyard on the second floor, which was where the six departments worked, and the third floor was Ma Mingyuan's office and conference room.

came to a living room in the courtyard on the third floor and sat down, Tong Yangjia was waiting here.

After waiting for half an hour, the tea was served twice, and Tong Yangjia waited for Ma Mingyuan.

Ma Mingyuan is now a big celebrity in front of the King of Chu, managing the eating, drinking, and pulling of millions of people in the four mansions, and handling hundreds of things every day, although Ma Mingyuan does not need to do it himself now, but he still needs to grasp the general direction, so now Ma Mingyuan has a lot of power in his hands, and he already has some appearances of the first assistant.