Three days have passed since Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

At this time, Feng Yunshan stood on the deck of the imperial ship "Hong Kong", followed by Wu Chongyao, governor of Guangdong, Tan Tiyuan, deputy commander of the Nanyang Fleet, Zeng Guoquan, commander of the 38th Division, and Liu Shengbang, commander of the Imperial Forest Army.

The "Hong Kong" has left Hong Kong and is heading for Qiongzhou Prefecture, targeting a seaside town called Ma Yuan in Lingao County.

But at the moment, he is still thinking about Hong Kong's arrangement, and he doesn't know if it is appropriate.

On the day after Hong Kong's return to the motherland, Feng Yunshan appointed Xu Xianggui, deputy general manager of Nanyang Company, to directly serve as the county magistrate of Hong Kong, the original deputy governor of Hong Kong Island, William Kin as the deputy county magistrate of Hong Kong, the police secretary Charles May was still the chief of police, and the assistant secretary Mao Sha was appointed as the director of the China Merchants Bureau. Because Xu Xianggui himself has been at the headquarters of Nanyang Company in Guangzhou, even though Hong Kong is not far from Guangdong, it takes three or four days to go back and forth, so the focus of Xu Xianggui's work is still on Nanyang Company, but the former Deputy Governor of Hong Kong Island, William Kin, has become the person with the greatest actual power in Hong Kong.

The reason for such an appointment is that Feng Yunshan does not want to toss Hong Kong too much, William Jian has been in Hong Kong for many years, and he has a very good management, so he will be in charge of Hong Kong, there will be no big mistakes, and other officials will be replaced, it is estimated that it is no different from other states and counties, maybe, because it is just an island, there is no land to plant, but it is worse. Second, William Jian stayed and took the initiative to recommend himself, saying that he wanted to work for him, Feng Yunshan had long known the relevant situation of the deputy governor from the secret service department, except for the desire for power and official addiction, the others, Chinese, management experience and popularity are not bad, and the greater the official addiction, the better it is for Feng Yunshan. Therefore, Feng Yunshan regarded him as the actual person in charge of the Hong Kong Special County, which was to signal to those foreigners who remained on Hong Kong Island that although Hong Kong was withdrawn, the political pattern and business atmosphere would not change much. As the deputy general manager of Nanyang Company, Xu Xianggui, now that Nanyang Company has a lot of business, he naturally does not care about this Hong Kong Island, he is just a shield used to appease the Chinese people, at least on the surface, the Hong Kong county magistrate is not a foreigner.

But it's not all about throwing away all of Hong Kong and betting on William Kin alone. Feng Yunshan was still a little worried, after all, he was a foreigner. He had a detachment of the South Ocean Fleet stationed in the bay of Hong Kong Island for the purpose of protecting and supervising the Customs and Excise Department, and at the same time stationed a battalion of captives on Hong Kong Island. What's more, Feng Yunshan also asked the Ministry of the Interior to organize a group of students who graduated from the Chinese Imperial Business School to come to Hong Kong to take up their posts, following William Jian, while assisting, and on the other hand, he was also half overseer.

As a port island, Hong Kong undoubtedly relies mainly on resale trade to develop, but it is difficult to say whether the whole whole, like the others, can develop again. Feng Yunshan also has no bottom in his heart, more importantly, he is influenced by later generations, and always feels that Hong Kong should not be turned into a place like other Nanao Island and Dongshan Island, there is no difference.

This time to the south, in addition to handing over Hong Kong, there are two important things, Feng Yunshan has to go to the country in person.

One is to go back to Xiangshan to worship the ancestors, and seal the ancestors for several generations, after all, you are the son of heaven, and the ancestors, especially the last three generations, must have a prominent title of the emperor, for this, Feng Yunshan is not interested, but because of the repeated urging of the ministers in the court, he can only come once, of course, he just went through the process hastily, those ancestors are the ancestors of the original Feng Yunshan, but not his. However, he also wanted to go out for a walk, since he ascended the throne, he only left the palace because of the Yellow River's breaking and diversion, and the rest didn't leave the palace much, so he was really panicked. It's a rare opportunity, so naturally you can go around a little more. Now that the Chinese Empire has entered the fourth year of Taisheng, it is about to usher in the fifth year of Taisheng, the political situation is stable, and the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in various places have been basically purged.

Another matter, that is, the governor of Guangdong, Wu Chongyao, came to report, saying that it was the original arrangement for the Hakka people of Liangguang to move to the island of Qiongzhou Mansion to plant the novel tree species called rubber, and now it has grown into a small size, and Wang Chenglie, the magistrate of Lingao County of Qiongzhou Prefecture, collected the gum harvested by tree farmers and offered it, but when it was sent to Guangzhou City, it had solidified into a group, and it was moldy because of the rainy weather. For this reason, Wu Chongyao also wrote a self-condemnation letter, although he did not know what the rubber was used for.

Feng Yunshan was overjoyed to hear the news, this rubber is a treasure of modern industry, and it has a wide range of uses. In addition to other strategic resources for military use, such as tires for automobiles and airplanes in the future, it is a great thing to use them as cable insulation for communication and telegraphs. You must know that at this time, the European telegraph cables were made of a kind of guta gum collected by the natives of Malaysia and the East Indies, which is actually a rubber tree, but it belongs to the lowest yield of natural rubber like the eucommia gum in China.

Natural rubber is actually divided into three categories according to the yield of tree species. The first category is the Brazilian rubber tree, which is actually a rubber tree in the traditional sense. The others are actually not rubber trees anymore, but the sap also contains rubber components, and it can also produce gum improvised, such as the second type with much less yield, silver chrysanthemum, rubber grass and the like. As for the third category, it is the gum produced by the ancient tower tree, eucommia ulmoides tree, etc., and the output is less.

As soon as the production volume is low, it will naturally affect the production of cable insulation as an insulating material, and with it, the production of cables will also be limited. Moreover, scarcity is expensive, and these cables are not only extremely expensive nowadays, but they may not be available if you have money.

It is not very difficult to set up a telegraph office and lay communication cable lines, but in fact, the most important thing is that it is impossible to get cables. Nowadays, the whole world is in full swing to build communication cables, and there is a great shortage of cables. If you want to quickly establish a complete communication system in the Chinese Empire, you will definitely not be able to rely entirely on foreign cables.

If you have this natural rubber as an insulating material to produce cables, you can not only save a lot of money, but also involve the strategic issues of the entire empire, and can better maintain your own rule.

Not to mention other uses of rubber: rain boots, elastic bands, gloves, blood vessels, gaskets, rubber tubes, hot air balloons, gas masks, wetsuits, etc.

This rubber is a big treasure. Therefore, Feng Yunshan came to see it excitedly. In this world, he is the only one who knows some applications of rubber and what kind of treasure this thing is.

Soon it will be there. Feng Yunshan thought that Mayuan Town, like other villages known as small towns, had more than 100 households, but he didn't expect to see from a distance, rows of neatly planned brand-new houses appeared in front of him, and the walls made of seaside pebbles and triad soil were yellow and white, which was quite good-looking. The scale of this town is not small, densely packed with rows of houses, and it seems that there must be at least seven or eight hundred households. It would have to have a population of three or four thousand, which is indeed a big town for this era!

The boat docked, and in the midst of exclamations and shouts of worship long live, Feng Yunshan got off the boat. On the shore, Tang Jisheng, the prefect of Qiongzhou, and Wang Chenglie, the magistrate of Lingao, who were confirmed to be identified, as well as the magistrates of nearby counties such as Qiongshan, Chengmai, and Danzhou, have already knelt down at the wharf to greet them. Behind these officials, there were even more hierarchical kneeling officials, garrison soldiers and civilians, and the black pressure was pressed to the ground, making Feng Yunshan's scalp tingle. Damn, come out and make such a big move, no wonder those ministers always don't approve of traveling by themselves. It's just that, thinking about the era when everyone is said to be equal in later generations, high-ranking officials still need to close the road when they travel, not to mention that the noble son of heaven in this era is the supreme son of heaven!

waved his hand to make everyone even, Feng Yunshan was not interested in making any speeches or anything like that, he was still concerned about the rubber. The unrelated people and officials, after seeing the present day, were quickly dispersed by the Imperial Forest Army who disembarked from the ship, leaving only a group of officials above the deputy county magistrate level and the soldiers of the captive army standing guard.

Tang Jisheng, the prefect of Qiongzhou, was originally the prefect of Jingzhou in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and was transferred to the prefect of Qiongzhou after surrendering to the empire. Tang Jisheng was very concerned about this, and often came here to take care of the Hakka people who migrated, organized them to build houses and open up wasteland, and settled down, and urged Wang Chenglie, the magistrate of Lingao County, to vigorously support them to plant that kind of tree, and the prefect and county government helped to find farm fertilizer, and provided loans to buy holy fertilizer (phosphate fertilizer), and the government also sent police officers from the police station to guard the saplings, watching the saplings grow and grow day by day, but the emperor has not had any news. Just when Tang Jisheng thought that there was no hope, he suddenly received news that the emperor wanted to go to Qiongzhou Mansion to see those rubber trees. He immediately knew it was a great opportunity to perform.

"County Magistrate Wang, you did a great job!" After Wu Chongyao introduced these local officials and these magistrates visited again, Feng Yunshan walked to the side of the Lingao county magistrate and patted him on the shoulder, making the county magistrate burst into tears in public like a child, almost speechless.

"And the Tang Governor's Mansion, I remember you, when you were still in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, you were the Jingzhou Governor, and after returning to the Empire, I sent you to this Qiongzhou Mansion, and you were alone overseas, you can calm down, take root among the people in the township and do a lot of practical things for them, and I planted this rubber tree for me, and I have made outstanding contributions!" Feng Yunshan also gently patted Tang Jisheng, the prefect of Qiongzhou, who was kneeling beside him, "Spread my will, reward Tang Jisheng, the prefect of Qiongzhou, with five thousand holy yuan, and Wang Chenglie, the magistrate of Lingao County, with three thousand holy yuan." ”

When Tang Jisheng heard this, he also cried loudly, kowtowed desperately to thank him, and his heart swelled with the pride of dying as a confidant. After hibernation for so long, it finally ushered in glory. He knew that he had made the right bet, although the emperor only rewarded him with money this time and did not directly promote him, but he could be remembered by the emperor, as long as he could continue to plant this rubber tree well, it would be a matter of time before he was promoted.