In March of the 22nd year of Zhenguan, the fleet to Australia was finally prepared, and on a certain day in good sea conditions, this fleet composed entirely of steamships quietly left Keelung, passing through various ports on the Luzon and Spice Islands, and after half a month of sailing, finally arrived at the northern tip of Australia in early April, that is, the place where Luwan and his first landing in Australia were made.

However, compared to the desolation when Lu Wan and they landed, now a city has been built in this place, and the whole city is still in accordance with the traditional Central Plains city style, but because it already belongs to the southern hemisphere, the original Central Plains city has just reversed the pattern of sitting north and facing south, and has become a pattern of sitting south and facing north, and people who come here for the first time may feel a little weird.

The name of this city is called Moli City, which is mainly to commemorate the original time when Lu Wan and they landed, the Mo Li tribe living on Sunset Island provided great help to Lu Wan and them, and after the gold diggers came, the Mo Li people on the island were also very friendly to these gold diggers, when the Han people were panning for gold here, many Mo Li people acted as guides, and taught the Han people to adapt to the environment here, it can be said that they made great contributions to the development of Mo Li City.

It was also the outstanding performance of the Mo Li Department, coupled with Li Su's desire to promote in Australia that the Han people came for peace and could coexist peacefully with the local natives, so it was finally decided to name the first city of the Han people in Australia as Mo Li City, in order to commemorate the friendship of the Han people in Australia.

The news of their arrival had already been informed to the city lord of Moli City, and the current city lord was named Lu Li, who was born in the clansmen of the Lu clan in Fanyang. At the beginning, Li Su cut off Fan Yang Lu's financial route, and as a result, they had to give in to Li Su. In the end, Li Su gave them a way out and led the Lu family to the newly developed Taiwan. Later, with the prosperity of Taiwan, the Lu clan shifted its focus from the Tang Dynasty to Taiwan, and many of the Lu clan members entered the Qi Wangfu as officials, and this Lu Li was one of the best, only forty years old to become the lord of a city, and his future prospects are limitless.

Lu Li knew that Li Su and Li Ke didn't want to make a noise this time, and Mo Licheng was only their first stop, and they would leave as soon as the ship was replenished, so Lu Li didn't greet him with much fanfare. Just prepared a place to live, and then took a few people to take Li Su and his party to the city to rest.

Li Su sat in the carriage heading to his residence, but his eyes observed the situation outside through the window, and saw that there were many pedestrians on the streets of Moli City, and most of them were Han Chinese, and occasionally some local natives could be seen. The Moli tribe has now all moved to live in the city of Moli, and has also begun to receive Chinese education, especially the children of the Moli tribe, who have been learning Chinese since childhood. Except for the color and appearance, it is almost the same as a Han child.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the local natives that Li Su saw in the city were not all Moli tribes, but a considerable number of natives from other tribes after seeing the strength of the Han people. They also expressed their respect, so these people, like the Moli tribe, became the first batch of alien races under Li Zhi's rule in Australia. And as long as you pass a certain Chinese language test, you can get the right to enter the Han city.

Although Moli City was the first city established by Li Su in Australia. But in fact, the scale is not large, and the number of Han Chinese is only more than 7,000. In addition, the local natives are only just 10,000, if they are placed in Taiwan or Datang, I am afraid that even the scale of the county is larger than it, but because there are gold mines here, the city is very rich, and the buildings in the city are also very neat and elegant, and there are patrolling policemen on the streets from time to time, making the streets orderly, which can be seen that Lu Li's governance ability is still quite good.

Li Su poked his head to observe the situation in Mo Li City for a while, and then turned back to Lu Li, who was sitting beside him, and smiled: "Lu Li, how is the gold mining in Mo Li City now?" And the workers who came with me this time will also build a steel mill in Moli City, are you all ready? ”

Lu Li, who was in the prime of life, immediately replied: "Your Highness, there are a total of seventy-eight gold mines being mined in Moli City, of which eleven large gold mines are in the hands of the government, and the rest are some privately mined gold mines, among which there are fewer large gold mines, most of them are small and medium-sized gold mines, and most of these gold mines are mined by slaves transported from the South Seas and eastern Australia, and the annual output last year has reached two tons, and there is still considerable room for growth." ”

Speaking of this, Lu Li paused for a moment, and then continued: "As for the construction of the steel plant, we are also ready, not far from the gold mine in the south of Moli City, there is a rich iron mine with quite amazing reserves, but because of the government's manpower problem, we decided to contract the mining of iron ore to private individuals, and now we have signed agreements with several major mine owners, and the other party has also organized slaves to mine, and the steel plant is also under construction, but there is still a shortage of manpower, These workers can just be replenished, and it is estimated that they will be in production by the end of this year at the latest. ”

Hearing Lu Li's words, Li Su nodded with satisfaction, with the application of steam engines becoming more and more extensive, especially the promotion of steam ships, Taiwan's demand for steel has risen sharply, although several steel mills in South Korea have increased production several times, but they still can't meet the demand, so Li Su built several steel bases in Luzon and Linyi and other places in the past few years, but in the end it is necessary to import some steel from Datang to meet the demand. However, when Australia's steel mills are officially put into production, it should be able to get rid of the demand for Datang Steel.

Next, Li Su asked about Mo Licheng's agriculture, fishing industry and food processing industry, these three industries are the most important economic pillars of Mo Li City in addition to the mining industry, so they are also very important to Li Su, to which Lu Li also answered one by one.

That night, Li Su rested in the accommodation arranged by Lu Li for them, and at dinner, Li Su and Li Ke finally ate the Australian lobster that they had been admiring for a long time, this lobster is very large, generally about two catties, steamed directly after cleaning, and then cut the carapace to take out the crystal shrimp meat inside, dip it in the prepared sauce and eat, it is extremely delicious.

These lobsters are all transported from the east coast of Australia by steamboat, in the past, if you want to eat lobsters in Moli City, they are generally transported by sailboats, and most of them will die on the way, but now they are much faster by steamboats, and they can generally be transported here alive, which also leads to a lot cheaper prices, and even heard that there are people who are ready to transport this lobster to Taiwan alive, but unfortunately no one has succeeded for the time being.

Originally, Li Su planned to leave Moli City the next day, after all, this is not the core area of Australia, most of the Han people who migrated to Australia live in the southeast coastal area, where the climate is warm and pleasant, and the precipitation is relatively rich, and a large amount of arable land can be reclaimed, which is the essence of the whole Australia.

However, Li Ke proposed to visit the gold mine in the south of Moli City, and Gao Yang and Qinghe were also very curious about it, because although they had seen a lot of gold, they never knew how gold was mined?

If Li Ke went alone, Li Su would not object, but Qinghe's female dependents couldn't, because as far as he knew, the slaves in the gold mine were generally naked when mining gold, so in the end, Li Ke only arranged for them to go to the gold smelter and visit the process of smelting gold into gold nuggets.

However, when Li Su and the others returned to the city, a very interesting thing happened. Because they returned to the city early, Gao Yang and Qinghe went to Moli City to play together, but they didn't expect to meet someone who was selling dog head gold, and it only cost a thousand.

Qinghe and Gao Yang had long heard that someone in Australia had found the dog's head gold, plus they saw that the dog's head gold sold by the other party had a strange shape, and it looked muddy and earthy on the outside, and there were even a few Hu people dressed as businessmen around who rushed to buy it, which made Gao Yang's brain hot, and he directly bought it at double the price, and even took it back to his residence to show off to Li Su and Li Ke.

However, Li Su soon found out that this piece of dog's head gold should be a fake, Gao Yang didn't believe it at first, and then invited a special person to take a look, and the other party was very sure that this thing must be fake.

This really made Gao Yang angry, Lu Li was also shocked, but his face was worse than Gao Yang, after all, he was managing here, and now there was a liar, and he also deceived the princess, which was simply a slap in the face.

So in the afternoon of the same day, all the official forces of the entire Moli City were dispatched to search for the entire Moli City, and they quickly found this gang of scammers, among them, the one who sold the dog head gold was a Han man, and he was also the leader of this gang of scammers, and the few Hu people who raised the price were his accomplices, not only helped to act when selling, but they were also responsible for making fake dog head gold, and even they had deceived three or four people before.

Needless to say, the fate of this group of liars was naturally not mentioned, all of them were sent to the gold mine by Lu Li to work as coolies, and Gao Yang's defrauded money was also recovered, which made her finally breathe. In addition, this incident also sounded a wake-up call for Li Su, and the security of newly occupied overseas territories like Australia still needs to be strengthened.

After experiencing this counterfeit turmoil, on the third day, Li Su's fleet left Moli City as scheduled, and when they arrived at the Cape York Peninsula in later generations, which is now called the Jianjiao Peninsula by the Han people, they stopped in a city called Jianjiao Port there, and bypassed the Jianjiao Peninsula after adding coal and water, and at this time, what was presented in front of them was one of the most beautiful scenery in Australia, and it was also a unique scenery in the world! (To be continued......)