Chapter 74: The Troubles of Deep-Water Ports

However, Zhou Ruidong's gentle methods did produce great cohesion, and the mountain people who had been exploited by the local government and landlords and bullies in the past were grateful to Dade for this point, and they were actively involved in the prospecting operations carried out by the factory.

Although the instructor said that this generation has ore veins, but in this mountainous area to find a mining point that can be mined, it is not an easy thing, with the ten old miners as the team to form a prospecting team, Zhou Ruidong also wholesale the introduction of the competition mechanism from Qin Kai, the prospecting group is divided into three large groups, good and bad, take out the results to speak.

On the map that Qin Kai gave to Zhou Ruidong, there were dozens of possible mineral excavation sites, but on that map drawn by Qin Kai, the location he pointed out was equivalent to the range of several villages in reality, and even he couldn't determine whether the exact location he had consulted in his light brain was accurately marked on this map drawn by non-professionals.

However, the good news is that the shallow coal mines of this generation are widely distributed, and the iron ore and copper ore are large areas in the form of ore veins, and according to Qin Kai's estimate, the probability of finding the ore is still very great.

Lu Qing of the second prospecting group, a young man of Chinese descent who ran three fast, joined after seeing the news of the Chinese Mutual Masonic Association in Haiphong City, and heard that the brigade was going to the inland, and after he discussed with his family, he followed the brigade as a member of the Mutual Masonic Association.

When he arrived at Shishan Pass, the young people of the Freemasonry Association were sent out to various villages to develop members, and he was also very surprised to see that the prospecting team in the base was recruiting apprentices, Lu Qing was also the boss, literate and able to write, but when it came to ability, there was really nothing that could be done, he pondered for a while, he felt that he was always smarter than those old miners who had dug all his life, and it should not be bad to learn this mén craft, so he signed up and was assigned to the old miner Wu Qing to learn to recognize ores.

Among these young people who signed up, Lu Qing was the one who could write and remember, so the prospecting team arranged for him to record the content of the teachers' teachings, which gave him an additional channel to learn ability.

Almost all of the three prospecting teams are looking for ore veins in the mountainous areas near each village according to the clues provided by the villagers, and the villages participating in the Mutual Masonic Association send a lot of collected ore samples every day, and the old miners who stayed behind will examine these ore samples one by one to distinguish the ore varieties, and if there are important ores such as iron ore, coal mine, and copper ore, they will arrange for the prospecting team to go to the site for inspection.

In this atmosphere, the young people of the prospecting team are growing up very quickly, and it would be strange if they were talking to all kinds of stones every day, and all they heard were stories about stones.

Lu Qing was checking the ore samples sent by some Freemasonic villagers in Liujiazhuang this day, and in addition to the mineral specimens made in the large factory of the prospecting team, the rest were stones! In fact, the stone specimens sent by the villagers are useless, but recently several xiǎo detachments have found an iron ore mine and a xiǎo coal mine in them, which can be regarded as a slight harvest.

He carefully took a book to record the origin of valuable ores, like this book, in ten days can be recorded seven or eight books, he picked up a piece of gray sè ore, this stone old miners have been identified, is green iron ore, belongs to the low content of iron ore raw materials, generally does not have much mining value!

However, Lu Qing quickly noticed that this was a large piece of long ore, and at the bottom of the section, it showed a kind of jet-black face, and he used his hand to mō the black sè substance at the bottom of the ore, obviously, it was not some kind of stone powder, but like coal dust! He immediately called up the notebook, and in his memory, it was a new discovery.

Sure enough, in the record, the prospecting xiǎo detachment did find some ores near Liujiazhuang, all of which were concentrated in the poor iron veins of the green iron ore, and did not mention the problem of coal, and the distribution of the green iron ore was also all over the surrounding mountains of Liujiazhuang, not a single source, which made Lu Qing have a bold idea, could it be that there are huge iron ore veins in Liujiazhuang, and these poor iron ore are just appearances!

He went to find his master Wu Qing, but Old Man Wu didn't support his inference, "Xiǎo Lu, it's good that you do your job, there are other people doing prospecting and collecting specimens, so don't toss around!" ”,

Lu Qing, who was speechless under the "......", took a look at the opportunity in the base to find Luo Yan, a soldier next to Qincha, and now the Chinese of the Mutual Freemasonry know that these soldiers who are meticulous with a straight face on weekdays are actually tǐng easy to talk to, and if there is something to find, as long as it is a reasonable thing, these soldiers will be happy to help.

The next day, Lu Qing was personally summoned by Zhou Ruidong, he expounded his thoughts and basis, Zhou Ruidong naturally couldn't judge the real situation, but he didn't mind letting Lu Qing give it a try, and immediately ordered Lu Qing to take 5 prospectors to Liujiazhuang to investigate carefully.

The results were amazing and unexpected, and a week later, a large vein was really found in Liujiazhuang, but it was ...... However, it is not an iron-rich mine as Lu Qing imagined, but a high-quality anthracite mine covering the mountains behind Liujiazhuang, and it is a shallow and easy-to-mine coal mine.

Lu Qing explained the scope of the vein, "On the soil hill west of Liujiazhuang, the coal seam will be explored by digging a shallow shaft of three meters!" 500 meters to the north of the hillside, 7 meters of dòng were laid, and the coal mine was also dug ......"

"Coal mines! Good, good! Zhou Ruidong and Wu Jingui looked at each other and smiled, this coal mine is a lifeline for the fleet.

Among the two, in fact, Wu Jingui was even more surprised, he had always admired the unpredictable ability of this Lord Qin, but he did not believe that the vigorous battle of foreign cloth, the huge energy and thunderous follow-up measures displayed by this Lord Qin, made the Japanese and the British suffer a big loss, which made him join Qin Kai's group with all his heart.

The subsequent establishment of Mawei Shipping Company once again demonstrated Qin Kai's foresight, Mawei Shipping brought predictable huge profits, but when this Lord Qin suddenly changed his career to become a miner, Wu Jingui was really surprised, of course, he did not express any objections, but he had already prepared to return in vain this time, but this result once again let him see the magical magic of this Lord Qin!

"Wu Da shopkeeper, this big coal mine has finally been found, you see if you are going to a horsetail, report this matter to the superintendent, the superintendent has not taken special care, if the high-quality anthracite here is put into production, he must know it as soon as possible!"

"Okay, the recruitment of miners and the preparation of the mining plant here, and I will leave as soon as I arrange it," Wu Jingui had already secretly made up his mind, and all kinds of incredibleness had already convinced him that this Lord Qin was a big man with a destiny! This time, he also hopes that the family will use more manpower to invest in Mawei Shipbuilding, because now it seems that the future of this investment is getting brighter and brighter.

The first stop of Qin Kai's fleet was not to Hong Kong, which was leased by the British, but to the port of Huangpu in Guangzhou, where he hurriedly went ashore and had a secret conversation with Schleier, the German consul in Guangzhou, before continuing to drive.

After returning from the 501 ship, Chen Mo has been observing the fleet, and soon he found some special places in the fleet, the merchant ships that lined up behind the ironclad ships, there were 4 ships that were obviously just ordinary merchant ships, and the remaining two were different. The Ji'an ship, which was on alert duty, repeatedly cut through the convoy from a short distance.

He observed that the sailors on both merchant ships were practicing militarized cào, and even temporarily installed a ménxiǎo speed shè gun on the stern of the ship, and there were also teams of sailors who took turns to practice loading shells. Soon, Chen An and Chen Mo's uncle and nephew had a sincere conversation......

"Mingyuan, I have talked to Lu Gengtang and Xu Yùshan about your situation, and they are also welcome to go, but according to the rules of the training camp, even if you have the face of the uncle, you still have to start from the bottom, but it is not like in the Nanyang Naval Division, you can become a military attache when you come, you have been in the army for five or six years, and the uncle's face can still give you a position of pipe, what do you think?"

Chen Mo thought about it for a while, and then made a decision, "Uncle, I've thought about it, the Nanyang Sailor is not suitable for me!" I want to join the training camp as much as I can, and I can be a soldier! ”

"You are also a 9-rank military attache now, in the past, when you are a xiǎo pawn, you have to endure hardship, being a soldier in this army is not like being a military attaché, you can also see the hard work of being a xiǎo pawn in our Nanyang Naval Division!" In the army of the Qing Dynasty, this xiǎo soldier is an officer is a vassal, he fights miscellaneous anti-package on weekdays, and he has to protect the officials in wartime, and he is a cheap life when he is a pawn, even if Lu Han and Xu Shoushan take care of it, thinking of his nephew in the past, this inferior day still has to survive for a while, Lao Chen has some ideas.

"Uncle, you don't have to worry about this, no matter how I am, I am much stronger than those soldiers recruited from the field, and the soldiers transferred by their security regiment are also well trained, I will not embarrass you, I still have this confidence! I've decided to go to the training camp as much as I can! ”,

"This ...... I'm afraid it won't work, I also told Gengtang that I asked you to go over to be a personal soldier for him, but Gengtang means to let you stay at your own duty in this cruise first, and leave a good image for the superintendent, and today he also asked people to send these xiǎo booklets, which can be regarded as opening a mén road for you, and first familiarize yourself with the rules of the training camp! With that, he handed Chen Mo a cloth bag.

"Oh! Understood, uncle! Chen Mo took the cloth bag, sat on the side and opened it to study carefully, there were only two xiǎo booklets inside, one was the "Training Minutes", and the other was the "Regulations on the Management of Officers and Soldiers", he still knew a lot about Western-style military training, so he opened the training minutes first.

On the first page are a few lines of slogans, "Military discipline is like iron, will is like steel, hard training, strict requirements", "Use me in the first battle, use me to win", "Blood, sweat and tears, lose skin and ròu do not fall behind", "Practice hard skills, protect the family and defend the country......

These are all slogans personally selected by Qin Kai from the later generations of the Iron Army, Chen Mo read them softly twice, these words are very simple, but they make people have a strong sense of responsibility, so he can't help but applaud!

The later training is quite reasonable with the new military academy in the West, emphasizing the exercise of discipline and will, which is completely different from the Qing army he saw, and under careful consideration, he has a lot of understanding, these training and military discipline are obviously more suitable for the characteristics of the Eastern nation than the pure Taixi's new army training, emphasizing the fearless jīng god for the country and the honor of being a soldier! But...... In the content of the later training, it gave a detailed explanation of mutual protection and individual survival.

After leaving the Huangpu Port in Guangzhou, sailing along the continental shelf all the way, the cruising speed of the fleet was also at 8 knots, and the voyage at 24 Xiǎo could only run more than 300 kilometers by sea, and it would take nearly 2 days to reach the Hehui Temporary Port at the next stop, so the soldiers on the flagship 501 began their routine cào practice under the command of the officer.

The senior officers are organized to carry out the experience of nautical chart measurement, which is a compulsory course in modern naval operations, fortunately, the officers in the training camp are basically from the ship master school, and they are very good in basic skills, but this route calculation and drawing is not just an optical meeting, learning is just to enter the mén, and it is really good to use it, which requires rich knowledge of the waterway and navigation experience to do.

As a reconnaissance force in front of the rush, the Ji'an ship slipped back and forth from time to time, but for two whole days, the Ji'an ship hung a flag showing no condition, and early on the morning of the third day, the fleet finally approached the coast on the periphery of Hehui County, and Zhang Kui, who had been waiting here, came to pick up with two 200-ton steam ships, one of which led the way in front and entered a nearby temporary port with the cargo ship.

Zhang Kui slowly approached the 501 ship, and the first thing he said when he climbed on the boat and saw Qin Kai was, "Instructor, you're here!" I'm dying of poverty! ”

"you, dead xiǎozi! Aren't all the factories here in operation, and when they are put into production, this is a treasure land, you can take a good look at it...... Let's go, go inside and talk! Qin Kai patted Zhang Kui's shoulder enthusiastically.

When he arrived at the command room, Qin Kai took out a document and handed it to him, "This time I shipped the mines and artillery you need, this is the first batch of products of the Artillery Bureau, and there are two bomb experts to guide you on how to use it!" Especially mortars, I wrote a combat application of mortars, you ponder! That's right...... How's the fort being built? ”

"Instructor, the channel on this side of the river juniper is really not suitable for mooring large warships, but it is convenient for defense," Zhang Kui took out a shore defense map, pointed to several positions on it and said: "This shore gun main battery is built according to the specifications of the fortress, the top is 5 meters thick, and it uses 280mm heavy guns, after calculation, 5mén artillery can completely cover the channel!" ”

Zhang Kui explained all the points on the map, and now the only problem is that now the entire Hejuni Port has only cleared a channel that can take two thousand tons of cargo ships, and this area has a chain of peripheral islands, resulting in reefs, and the defensive pressure is not great, but he still put forward the requirements of large-scale immigration, Hejuni, Xian'an is now completely under control, everything is good, but there are too few people!

Qin Kai had been planning this for a long time, but what he fancied was Lianzhou Mansion, Gaozhou Mansion, which was close to Hejuni and Xian'an, and finally Qiongzhou...... In addition, he had already asked He Xing to go to the interior to recruit workers, as long as the industrial base of the river juniper was rolled out, this labor force would be recruited by the Chinese Mutual Masonic Association from all over Vietnam, but by Mawei Shipping from the mainland.

But such a large-scale transportation faces this other problem, the port ...... He needed a deep-water port, and apparently the temporary port that the current river juniper developed could not meet this requirement at all.