Early the next morning, accompanied by Chai Cheng'an's wife and Tan Yue's newlywed wife, Chu Mei took a group of guards to Baoshan Port, which tens of thousands of people participated in the construction, to visit the site.

After months of hard work, the 500 selected families built small farmhouse courtyards with blue bricks and gray tiles on the north bank of the 20-mile boundary river in the southernmost part, forming a village living by the water.

More than 1,200 laborers, with the participation of thousands of naval officers and men in turn, successfully reclaimed 30,000 acres of grassland by weeding and burning wasteland, and sprinkled three grass species in early summer, such as alfalfa and broad-leaved pasture, which are now full of green.

When Zhu Daolin arrived, more than 1,000 farmers and herdsmen were wielding sickles to harvest reeds at the edge of the pasture, gradually expanding the area of the pasture, and many families raised ducks and geese, dogs and rabbits.

"The largest horse farm in the south of the Yangtze River is the Lishui Shijiuhu Horse Farm, although most of it has been abandoned, and local tyrants and officials at all levels are in their hands, but there are still more than 3,000 stallions."

"Most of the 30,000 acres of grass seeds we sowed two months ago were bought from there, and at first we were worried about the proximity to the sea and the severe salinity of the land, which would affect its growth. Fortunately, after burning the wasteland and plowing to remove the weeds, the seeds sprinkled sprouted and grew......"

"Our brothers and hundreds of herdsmen in the Equine Administration Department of the Quartermaster Department believe that this is due to the Huangpu River to the west and the dense reeds that stretch for dozens of miles along the coast, but so far, no one dares to guarantee that they can raise expensive Arabian horses, and perhaps it would be better to introduce Liaodong mongrels and purebred Mongolians."

Li Yiquan, the quartermaster general, reported to Zhu Daolin in a low voice.

Zhu Daolin was also uncertain, but the success of breeding Arabian horses at the horse farm under the shogunate mountain made him quite confident: "So be it." In the name of the Quartermaster Department of the Navy General Headquarters, you sent a letter to the North Sea Fleet, asking them to recruit a group of experienced stables from among the Liaodong people throughout Korea, and then carefully select 500 purebred Mongolian horses and 500 Liaodong horses to be transported back for breeding. ”

"I'll bring in 50 Arabian stallions from the horse farm at the foot of the shogunate mountain and cross them first...... You have to take your time. We can't be in a hurry, it takes at least ten or even decades to breed a good horse breed, and we can't rush it, but we have to do it. ”

The generals nodded frequently, and Shi Qingyang, who loves horses, said with a smile: "Isn't there also a horse farm built at the foot of Laoshan Mountain to the west of the Qingdao base?" It is backed by Laoshan Mountain, with abundant water sources, and the climate is more suitable for horse breeding! ”

Zhu Daolin nodded: "Qingyang is right, the horse farm under Laoshan Mountain is ten miles away. The streams are crisscrossed, and the climate and land are much better than those on the Jiangnan side. ”

"In two months, after the port of Qingdao is repaired, thousands of craftsmen and laborers will move there to build horse pens, reclaim pastures, and strive to sow grass seeds in autumn, so that they can get abundant pasture next spring."

"It's still too hot now, wait for autumn to be cooler. I will send most of the Arab stallions, nearly half of the stables and veterinarians from the Shogunate Mountain Horse Farm to the horse farm at the western foot of Laoshan Mountain. It will be the largest breeding base for military horses in our army in the future. ”

"But I can warn that the expansion of the local horse farm must not be relaxed, even if it can't raise war horses in the end, it can still provide a large number of horses for the entire Jiangnan area, which is worth doing."

At night, Chu Mei, who was full of interest, finally returned to Zhu Daolin's side. When he entered the inner room, he hugged Zhu Daolin and said excitedly:

"Baoshan Port is so beautiful, the scale of the port and the four sand banks and breakwaters stretching out to the center of the river on the east and west sides are very spectacular, several times larger than I imagined...... In particular, the two European-style buildings that have been built to a height of three floors above the pier are all large buildings with a length of 100 meters and a width of more than 40 meters. It's amazing! ”

"The facades of those buildings are all made of large square stone strips, and the inner sides are poured with reinforced concrete columns, which are very strong, and I heard from the accompanying guards that the four engineers and the two overseers were all Spaniards from Manila, and one of them had also built a palace for the Spanish royal family, which I was very surprised to hear and thought was amazing!"

"I heard that when the foundation was dug fifteen meters deep, the foundation alone cost tens of thousands of tons of stone and cement, and each stone bar of the building was connected and reinforced with herringbone iron castings, and melted lead and tin were poured to prevent rust, so the process is really unimaginable in this era, and after the two buildings are built, they will definitely become majestic and magnificent landmarks."

"No matter how spectacular it is, it is also piled up with silver, in order to build these two buildings, I spent 1.2 million taels of silver, not counting the interior decoration after completion!"

Zhu Daolin was not as excited as Chu Mei, for the sake of these two buildings, the stubborn forces in Jiangnan were not less coldly slandered, and even several shareholders of Bofu Money were full of jealousy.

How did the kind and simple Chu Mei know the huge pressure that Zhu Daolin was under, she hugged Zhu Daolin's waist and said: "I have already seen Baoshan Port, I will give you eighty points, but I haven't visited Shanghai County yet, can you accompany me tomorrow?" ”

Zhu Daolin, who was always worried about his assassination, was willing: "Do you think that today's Shanghai is the Shanghai of a few hundred years from now?" The city wall with a radius of less than five miles was built to defend against the Japanese during the Jiajing period, what is there to see like a fortress? It is better to visit the Baoshan Acropolis where we are located, except for the absence of temples, it is a hundred times better than the dilapidated Shanghai City in all aspects. ”

"Huh!? How so? ”

Chu Mei was very disappointed after hearing this, thought about it and immediately made a decision: "Then tomorrow we will set off for Jinling, okay?" ”

Zhu Daolin nodded when he heard this: "Okay, eat quickly, after eating, I will hurry up and hold a military meeting and arrange the autumn conscription work before leaving." ”

"The naval transport fleet will rest for another day to replenish supplies, and when it is over, it will immediately go north to Phi Dao to transport immigrants, and the orders I gave to the Dongjiang New Army and the North Sea Fleet and more than a dozen letters of appointment need to be handed over to the fleet to bring over, if you want, accompany me to the military meeting later."

Chu Mei was about to refuse, but soon came to her senses: "Do you have any other purpose for letting me participate in the military meeting?" ”

Zhu Daolin said calmly: "That's right! The navy is my confidant and my greatest reliance, and more than 30,000 officers and men are extremely loyal to me, and they have no idea of loyalty to the monarch in their minds, only the defense of the homeland and loyalty that I constantly advocate in the army, and the South China Sea Fleet, which will be established next year, and the Pacific Fleet, which has been stationed in Keelung Harbor and Ryukyu for a long time, will be separated from the East China Sea Fleet. As the master mother, the navy must give you the highest respect and the greatest support in addition to being loyal to me. ”

Chu Mei was shocked and moved, hugged Zhu Daolin tightly, and offered an affectionate kiss.

***************

PS: Thank you Qin Han Tang Ming for your big reward! (To be continued.) )