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Saturday, March 21, 1626, the 24th day of the second lunar month, the vernal equinox.

The annual spring ploughing has finally begun, and the land of North America, which has been baptized by a harsh winter of severe snowstorms, has finally given the American Republic of China a great reward for its hard work. After the snow melts, the soil is full of nutrients and moisture, and the diseases and insects are dead and warped, and it is very easy to plough.

From Jersey Town in the south, to Porter City in the north, and then to Qingcheng City, hundreds of kilometers away, in the orderly farms across the country, the vigorous spring ploughing has begun. Rows of heavy-duty horses and tractors follow a set course, breaking through patches of dark soil, and then burying the carefully treated wheat seeds into the soil with great efficiency, and finally sprinkling green fertilisers made with whalebone meal, dried whale powder and some natural raw materials.

In the pasture, groups of cattle and sheep are running excitedly under the sheepdogs, leisurely chewing the freshest and most tender forage in the first crop of spring. Livestock that can survive a cold and harsh winter, all of them have a very strong physique, coupled with the continuous import of excellent breeds, it only takes half a year to make up for the loss of last winter.

Standing on the balcony of the official residence in Porter's downtown area, looking at the lively scenes in the distance, the mayor Lin Chaoen was full of spirits. After two years of arduous development and construction, Porter City has finally officially launched the national agricultural core base management plan.

Last year, the agricultural planting area of Porter City was less than 8,000 acres, and this year it directly exceeded 30,000 acres, and the utilization rate of agricultural storage machinery is also the highest in the country. At present, more than two-thirds of the city's more than 1,600 residents are agricultural, and nearly 1,000 are employed by the surrounding Indian tribes. By the time of the summer harvest, the harvest of all kinds of agricultural products will directly knock down the town of Jersey, which has been triumphant until this time next year. The area of agricultural land will be expanded to 50,000 acres, and the entire city of Porter will be surrounded by farms and pastures on both sides of the Song River. At that time, just one Porter city will be more than enough to feed the entire population!

At the same time, groups of small private traders from Manchester City and West Point Town who were like "flies" also flocked to Porter City in this spring season. They would use it as a base to spread their nets into the surrounding areas and even the Iroquois as far west as possible. Gorgeous Indian traders will buy all kinds of furs, native products, and even doghead gold and natural copper from the Indian tribe villages that have endured for a winter, and then Porter City will become the largest Indian trade center in the country, thus adding to the commercial trade atmosphere that Porter City does not specialize in. To this end, a battalion of Army units stationed at the Army Military Base in Porter City and the local National Guard will be escorted in batches. to ensure the interests of the country's merchants.

Unfortunately, the high-grade shallow magnetite and anthracite mines, more than 10 kilometers north of Porter, which have long been explored, will continue to be hidden. The development of these minerals had to wait until the completion of the simple road leading to the mining area, for which Lin Chaoen once engaged in a "competition" with Mao Jian in Yushu Town. to compete for prisoner of war servitude from Butterfly Island as well as annual immigration quotas. However, in view of the transportation problem, the value and difficulty of iron ore mining in Yushu Town will be more favorable, so Lin Chaoen's largesse was decisively suppressed by the government cabinet.

In fact, Lin Chaoen does not have to worry about Porter City being underestimated at all, as the core city of the country's northern strategic layout, many policies and construction and development projects come directly from the government cabinet, and basically immigration and labor resettlement are the highest priority. And after two years of "extravagant and wasteful" national key investment, the integrity and rationality of some of Porter's municipal infrastructure are even higher than that of the capital city. Coupled with the Cabinet-approved private leasing policy for agricultural land, Porter is the only local city that allows and encourages small-scale private farms (over 300 acres and under 1,000 acres), making it very attractive to domestic immigrants, especially ethnic Chinese.

Etcetera. Porter City's urban population settlement target for this year, Lin Chaoen directly set at 3,000 people, and as early as half a year ago, the relevant urban expansion has begun.

When Lin Chaoen was hiding in the official mansion alone, his mind was crooked. On the edge of a forest farm on the southwestern outskirts of Porter, next to Huamei Wood's paper mill. In a farm on a sloping hill, a large group of children are playing around a group of strange animals under the protection of the keepers, and the furry animals are also very well-behaved and constantly sniffing the children's hair, and even licking the children's faces, causing bursts of laughter.

If there is a crossing crowd present at this time, it is estimated that he will directly shout the words "grass mud horse", well...... It is indeed a grass mud horse. Since its introduction last year, more than 200 of these rare alpacas, which come from the mountains of the South American highlands, have been housed in the livestock area of Porter City. Alpaca is an extremely high-quality wool fiber and meat livestock breed in later generations, with very mild habits, cute appearance, excellent eating habits, almost no destructive habits to the pasture, and strong adaptability to the climate of Porter City.

It is said that the wool output of these alpacas has been booked by Yang Wenwen's textile factory in advance, and even Ren Changle and his wife, who have long been dealing with the Portuguese and Spaniards in South America, will independently introduce more alpacas and entrust them to the state-owned agriculture, forestry, fishery and animal husbandry group in the form of a joint venture for breeding and breeding. Starting this year, alpaca wool will be processed as a raw material for high-end wool garments to satisfy the "luxury complex" of the nouveau riche.

In addition to alpacas, a large-scale horse farm was also formally established on the east bank of the Song River in Porter City, when the time comes, in addition to the horse breeding farm in Jersey Town, Porter City will have the second and even largest horse breeding base in the country, and the future inland development needs a large number of high-quality horses, in addition to high-priced imports, it is counting on the output of Porter City.

……

The spring ploughing campaign represented by Porter City was in full swing this weekend, attracting the attention of the whole country, including Manchester City Weekly and Manchester City Radio. But that doesn't mean there aren't more exciting things happening on this day.

At this moment, in the naval base military port in the western district of Long Island, Manchu City, five sail light cruisers dressed in red and green and painted with the classic black and white camouflage of the Chinese US Navy are making preparations before sailing. At the pier, the military band was already in place, and a number of government officials or public guests were also waiting for it.

The five sail light cruisers lined up are the USS Constitution, which was reinstated in October last year. The Republic and West Point, which have completed major refit and upgrades, as well as the Sapphire, the lead ship of the Jewel-class sail light cruiser, and the opal, the same ship, which completed the entire construction period and sea trials half a month ahead of schedule.

The two jewel-class sail light cruisers, with their more beautiful flying cut bows, are the latest flagship warships of the U.S. Navy in China. This kind of warship, with a full load displacement of 1,450 tons and two groups of 320 horsepower steam engines, directly ran a cruising speed of 9 knots with pure steam power in sea trials, which was 1 knot faster than the Constitution, and the pure steam power full speed sailing set a record of 14 knots. Moreover, after stricter quality control, the sea trial table of this type of battleship Xiàn appeared more confident than the original Constitution.

Today, five light cruisers will form the first all-hybrid formation to date. Travel to Guadeloupe's Butterfly Island and represent the Navy in the West Island Clean-up Campaign.

With the drumming of the military band, the "Sapphire and Opal Entering Service and Fleet Sailing Ceremony" was opened, and under the leadership of the five captains, all the officers and men of the formation lined up neatly. Reviewed by Rear Admiral Wang Tiehammer, Commander of the Navy.

The captain of the USS Constitution is still Sun Yang, but at this time Sun Yang has been promoted to lieutenant colonel, and he is also the captain who has the most experience in commanding sail-powered warships in the navy, of course, the experience points brought by the explosion of the boiler on the USS Constitution account for a considerable proportion.

Captain of the Republic, Wang Zhihua. Wang Zhihua succeeded Sun Yang as acting commander-in-chief of the fleet in the Battle of Guadeloupe. Biao Xiàn is excellent, has been promoted to major, and continues to "steal" the job of the former captain of the Republic, Bai Jun, becoming the latest captain of the Republic after the overhaul. Interestingly. Wang Zhihua, who has always been known as the "Phantom Bar Navy Doublebon" with Sun Yang, unexpectedly married a Chinese immigrant woman, and then became a lot more "honest and responsible", which made Sun Yang instantly "alone". And Bai Jun, who stepped down from the Republic. At the same time, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was arranged by Wang Tiehammer to enter the Long Island Naval Academy to complete the more important task of naval talent training.

Acting Captain of the USS West Point. Captain Liu Chang, the former marine engineer assistant of the customs anti-smuggling boat, has a very shy personality, and his military qualities are very average in the past few years, but he is better than "decent" and "obedient". Although he has been a captain for almost three years, Liu Chang's transfer from the USS Enterprise frigate to the USS West Point as captain clearly indicates that he will soon be promoted to the rank of colonel.

Captain of the Opal, Major Wentuo. Since fighting the Battle of Bermuda a year and a half ago, Wen Tuo has become a "master tactician" in the navy, and his naval command level has become more professional, and he has taught naval warfare at the Long Island Naval Academy many times. Moreover, Wen Tuo is more calm and introverted, and can be called the confidant and favorite general of Rear Admiral Wang Tiezhu, the commander of the Navy. Lieutenant General Wen Tuo, a self-proclaimed descendant of Wen Tianxiang, became a well-known naval hero, especially to many Chinese families, and was well deserved to be transferred from the USS Delaware frigate to the newest Opal as captain.

The last Sapphire, the acting captain was Captain Andrew. Captain Andrew, who almost lost his life in the USS Constitution boiler explosion, finally got his wish and became the first European captain of the U.S. Navy's first main battleship, this 41-year-old Danish man, one leg has not fully recovered, but his body is still standing straight.

This fleet of five strongest warships is about to start, Wang Tiehammer is excited in his heart, but on the surface, he still calmly shakes hands with each captain one by one, and then hands over the two naval flags symbolizing the official service of the warship to Wen Tuo and Andrew respectively.

Amid the military music, the USS Constitution was the first to leave the dock, and then the rest of the ships left their berths. The military and civilian representatives on the shore cheered loudly, especially the cadets of the Long Island Naval Academy who came to watch the ceremony, they all opened their voices and shouted slogans loudly, and their faces turned red one by one, hoping that they would graduate soon and join such a fleet that exuded a strong momentum from the inside out.

Yan Xianping, standing in the crowd, was dressed in a white spring and autumn women's navy uniform, her eyes were full of stars, and she was muttering something to herself. Echoing with the imposing naval music in his ears, looking at the Chinese and American Navy flags fluttering on the masts of the fleet ships, Yan Xianping seemed to have an unprecedented dream, and for a while, the blue and white naval flags seemed to have changed into another color.

……

A few days later, the ocean-going shipping company under the state-owned import and export group finally signed a contract with the Beiyang Shipbuilding Company to build a large ocean-going sailing merchant ship, and at the same time, the Navy Command was also working on a special ocean-going transport ship plan.

The Manatee experimental iron-boned wood-hulled sail merchant ship, which You Qi once resented, finally attracted the attention of shipping companies and the navy after more than three years of "internal self-use". The stable long-distance performance, sturdy hull structure, and large loading space make it excellent on the routes between Manchester and Qingcheng, and even the speed of coastal routes is in many cases faster than that of pure sail clippers. The success table of the Manatee was recognized.

The "misers" of the Navy Command are a little more sensible, and the demand put forward is limited to 3,000 tons of full load displacement, while the state-owned ocean shipping companies with deep pockets have great ambitions. Out of the simple consideration of saving comprehensive operating costs as much as possible, the performance requirements put forward by a group of laymen exceeded You Qi's expectations: the full load displacement is not less than 3,500 tons, the maximum cargo load is not less than 1,600 tons, the pure steam cruising speed cannot be less than 10 knots, and the sailors required cannot exceed the Aoguang-class large flying scissors merchant ships. Such a demanding requirement immediately caused the entire Beiyang Shipping Company to exclaim.

This kind of iron-boned wood-hulled merchant ship with cargo capacity and stability as the first performance requirements will inevitably sacrifice some drag reduction performance in the design of the ship type, and to ensure a pure steam cruising speed of at least 10 knots or more, the steam power will require thousands of horsepower. At present, the largest horsepower marine power unit under development by General Industries is an 800-horsepower three-expansion steam engine to be launched next year, and it seems that it needs to be equipped with two sets.

I think that the full load displacement of the Manatee was only 1,800 tons, although there are already three dry docks that can provide the theoretical material conditions for the construction of 5,000-ton ships, but the largest ship ever built is only the Ao Guang class with a full load of 2,500 tons, and the tonnage scale has suddenly increased to more than 3,000 tons.

It is not a problem to simply enlarge the design of the ship, but many ship components, including the large iron keel, will be a new challenge for Beiyang Shipbuilding Group in its history.

This time, You Qi did not have any ideological preparation and design plan at all, and even General Industries and North Industries, which were responsible for supplying key components, had to participate in this contract and conduct feasibility studies on various processing capacity links.

The intention of the contract is naturally not refused, and You Qi is ready to spend several months with relevant enterprises to design, calculate, ponder and prepare, and then eat this kind of order that can bring huge returns both in terms of economic benefits and technological improvement. But in any case, whether it is the "Gray Whale-class" ocean-going transport ship proposed by the navy or the "Chaoyang-class" large ocean-going sailing merchant ship expected by the state-owned ocean-going shipping company, it will not be seen until the second half of 1627 at the earliest. (To be continued)