On August 8, 1630, the first day of the seventh month of the third year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, the beginning of the autumn of the lunar calendar.

It has been more than two months since the last departure of the Portuguese migrant transport fleet, and due to the capacity constraints of the trans-Indian Ocean, there are now more than 7,000 Ming refugees still stranded overseas on the Pearl Island, and if you add the residents who originally settled here, the entire Pearl City has been filled with nearly 10,000 people inside and outside.

Since Congress had previously frozen most of the Far East construction bills, Pearl Island, now with the title of overseas leader, is basically a transit point for immigrants and a logistical support for the Asian fleet. A small municipal-run cement brick workshop, a temporary commercial building of COSCO International Trade Group, and a number of small shops spontaneously formed by local residents are the only economic content of Pearl Island, and there is hardly any domestic investment in the industry.

Except for the hospitals, construction teams, and army and navy garrisons stationed in China last year, the vast majority of the 2,000-odd people who were originally designated as local residents were in a state of "idleness," like a self-sufficient state-owned farm, with the city government relying on meager financial allocations and port cargo tax revenues to cover almost all the daily expenses.

Although the acting mayor George does not have the ability to run a business factory, he is not a person who follows the rules, knowing that sooner or later this place will become the core stronghold of the country's Far East, and many Chinese merchant ships or immigrants are anchored here, so George especially strengthened the construction of ports and storage areas in advance. The symbolic labor salary of $2 per person per month immediately gathered thousands of manpower, and everyone worked extremely hard, while those who were not recruited were full of envy and regret.

Such a low labor cost and honest image made George, who had served on Butterfly Island and was no stranger to Chinese Americans, secretly understand why Congress would care so much about bringing in immigrants from the East.

Soon, George's hunch was answered, and a telegram from the cabinet brought good news to the whole local government of Pearl City: this year's convoy had set sail. Moreover, a new large-scale enterprise will fully invest in contracting various business affairs of Pearl Island.

The domestic convoy had just departed, and the George was eager to recruit another workforce to expand the land in the interior of the city. Anyway, the thousands of immigrants who have not been transported away on the island usually stay and stay there, and they have to be raised by the city government every day, so it is better to exert their strength. This time it was simpler, with a salary of $1 per person per month, plus an extra meal a day, and thousands of refugees poured into the construction site that day, and there was almost a stampede. There were very few police officers transferred from mainland China to Pearl Island, and as a result, George had to find a local army garrison. Set up the organ machine gun to restore the chaotic order to normal.

Within a month, a large area of regular industrial and agricultural land was developed in the west and north of the Pearl City, waiting for the "Huamei East India Company" to come and pay for the real estate, and also let the Pearl City Government make more financial contributions.

Early this morning, Su Minggang, the leader of Chinese merchants in the Dutch colony of Batavia, personally arrived at Pearl Island with two merchant ships. Su Minggang, as always, played the style of "benevolence and charity" of traditional Chinese businessmen, and after getting off the ship, he saw the hot construction scene in the inland and immediately donated a batch of money and goods. For this generous but extremely shrewd old Chinese businessman, George knew that the other party must have "squatted" here in advance. I am going to grab the gorgeous goods that shipped this year.

A banquet set up for the "visit of friendly businessmen and friends" was held at the city hall of Pearl Island, and George specially invited the "foreign ministry officials" and army and navy commanders stationed in the local area to share a batch of fine wine that had just been obtained from Su Minggang.

Major Liu Chenxu, commander-in-chief of the Pearl Island Army Garrison, and Major Kent, commander of the Asian Fleet, both came to the banquet with high spirits at this time. From the departure of the expeditionary fleet the year before last to the present. Both have been on Pearl Island for almost two years, and these months will be their last term.

Finally, Fan Li, director of the Asian Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and his assistant Jin Xiaohan, who came late, but their public identities on Pearl Island were the Department of Asian Affairs of the Chinese and American Foreign Ministries in Pearl City. These two people "quietly" arrived on Pearl Island with a group of people in the first half of last year. Most of the time, no one had seen each other. It is said that Fan Li and Jin Xiaohan have actually traveled to Macau, Guangzhou, Chaozhou, Fuzhou and other places in the past year, and God knows what they are doing sneakily.

……

Su Minggang is very low-key. He was very skillful in interpersonal communication, and seemed to feel that his image project had been in place, and soon "overwhelmed with alcohol" to leave and return to the residence that George had specially arranged for him. As a result, there was only a bunch of Zihua military and political officials left in the city hall restaurant, still eating and drinking.

"Major Kent, in a few months, you will return home, and I will miss the precious friendship we have shared for more than a year!" George seemed to have drunk too much, and actually held a whole glass of white wine with a sad expression, and said inconsequential words.

"Your Excellency, I heard that your family is also in this convoy, and you will be reunited with your own family sooner than we do." Major Kent touched his beard and laughed.

"It's really boring here, and two whole companies of soldiers are here to bask in the sun, or just bask in the sun, or just think nonsense. I think once they return home, I'm afraid they will be very unaccustomed to it. Liu Chenxu glanced at Fan Li and Jin Xiaohan, who were sitting together "lonely" not far away, and always felt that there would be a sense of alienation with this kind of "own person" who was full of thoughts and didn't know what to think, and the ridicule in his mouth also pointed at Fan Li as if he were nothing.

"Uh...... Maybe that's the working rule of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Major. George had already realized that these Oriental colleagues were not as perfectly in tune with each other as he imagined, and he could only laugh and play in the round.

“…… Xiao Han, I have already contacted Liu Xiang's fleet in advance, and you need to go to Manila in person next week. Gather the key members of the team there for a meeting to sort out their work and eyeliner development...... Until we have sufficient communications equipment, we can only use this method to ensure that the intelligence channels are unimpeded. ”

"Okay, Brother Fan...... By the way, sister-in-law will come this time, right? Jin Xiaohan's temperament at this time has changed greatly from before joining the Intelligence Department, and judging from the expression in his eyes alone, he is almost as shocked as Fan Li.

"Well, I heard that Serena gave me a daughter, hehe. It's a pity that I broke my promise, and before she could go back to her hometown to meet her, I ended up here, and my daughter is more than a year old, and I haven't named her yet. A trace of tenderness appeared in Fan Li's eyes, and he seemed to feel guilty for his wife and daughter not sparing thousands of miles to come to Pearl Island to accompany him, "It's you, do you have any plans?" Will you stay here for many years and won't regret it? ”

"Hey, it's okay. It's exciting. I'm still young, so I'm not in a hurry. Jin Xiaohan scratched his scalp and regained his appearance as a young boy.

Just when the two of them were chatting alone in the corner as if no one was around, suddenly the door of the restaurant opened, and a middle-aged man dressed as an ordinary fisherman hurriedly walked in.

Everyone looked back, revealing a trace of doubt, and the person who came was Sun Erxi, an employee of the "Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Jin Xiaohan stood up on the spot, while Fan Li still sat on the chair like an unpredictable prophet, drinking slowly and methodically.

"Director. There's news from the north...... Yuan Chonghuan has indeed been imprisoned by Emperor Daming, I am afraid that he will not be out for two months, and he will ......" Sun Erxi didn't even look at others, and walked directly to Fan Li. The voice was very low, "It is said that the crime is to secretly communicate with Jiannu and deceive the king and betray the country." ”

"He couldn't get away with this, I don't care about that. There's no movement in Dongjiang Town? Fan Li put down his glass. looked at the former Ming secret agent in front of him with a little majesty.

"Back to the director's words, after Dongjiang Town beat Mao Wenlong's death, there will be civil strife. Liaodong has split them many times, and some of them have returned to Shandong, and now the defense of the islands in Dongjiang Town has become useless. However, according to the director's plan, his subordinates have already sent people to contact the remaining Ming troops in Phidao Shuizhai and sent a lot of silver, which should be able to settle down. Hehe, this is a letter written to me by the guard of the Phidao Water Village named Zhang Jingye, and he also sent a confidant to come over, willing to listen to us afterwards. However, Zhang Jingye hoped to obtain a large sum of money and guns so that he could collect the other people's warships. ”

After speaking, Sun Erxi hurriedly took out a letter wrapped in oil paper from his arms and handed it to Fan Li respectfully.

"Hehe, good, well done!" Fan Li finished reading a letter in traditional Chinese that was obviously written semi-literately, and a smile appeared on his face, "It's okay to ask for money and supplies, as long as he can scrape together enough ships we need." However, now the routes around the Dongjiang River are all controlled by the Ming army and naval divisions in Shandong, and they have to pass through Zheng Zhilong's sphere of influence, so it is not good luck to pass. ”

As he spoke, Fan Li looked at Major Kent, the commander of the Asian Fleet, who was not far away, intentionally or unintentionally.

"Mr. Fan, is there anything you need me to help with?" Kent once sent a warship to escort Fan Li and the others to Dayuan Anping Fort, and seeing that Fan Li was looking at himself with the same eyes again, he immediately realized and strode over.

"Mr. Major, I'm afraid that this time we will need to use naval warships again to transport a batch of supplies, and the distance is very long, and some places must be bypassed." Fan Li pulled out a black-and-white printed map from his bosom like a trick, drew a line to Kentby, and finally stopped his fingers on a stretch of sea on the western side of the Korean Peninsula.

"The warship can go to Anpingbao to refuel coal, and I will write another letter to Yan Sihai to 'borrow' a batch of supplies, and then transport them to that place...... This Mr. Sun will go with him, and when the time comes, he will just do what he says. Fan Li quickly decided on a plan of action, and his decisive and delicate style of action made Sun Erxi and Jin Xiaohan on the side look respectful.

"It's an honor to serve you, the frigate Yueji will complete maintenance tomorrow and will be ready to sail at any time!" Kent drank his wine in one gulp and strode towards the door of the restaurant, also with the demeanor of a professional soldier.

"Make a decision immediately, act resolutely, what can't you do......" Looking at the deployment of the operation that was quickly completed within a few minutes, Sun Erxi couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion.

"Sun Erxi, go and come back quickly this time, in a few months, you can go home on vacation to see your wife and children, and come back next year." Fan Li was also about to leave, and when he got up, he said coldly to Sun Erxi, who was thinking about things in a daze.

"Multi-...... Thank you, Director...... Your subordinates will do their best! Sun Erxi was stunned for a moment, and immediately showed a hint of joy.

……

Time passed quickly, and on September 4, 1630, 8 flying scissors merchant ships and 1 naval transport ship arrived in Pearl City safely and smoothly under the escort of the Tulip sail frigate, carrying more than 3,000 tons of various materials and commodities, and the thousands of crew and passengers who stepped off the board surprised the residents and refugees of Pearl City who were waiting to unload their goods as helpers at the port.

A cannon salute to the garrison of Pearl Island sounded from the frigate Tulip, colorful flags were raised at the army's coastal fortresses and naval bases, and the officers and men of the army and navy, the construction engineering team, the merchant house, and the staff of the local hospital who had stayed on the Pearl Island for a year all flocked to the port, and whether they knew each other or not, they hugged the people who disembarked and landed on the shore.

"Oh my God, it's so lively! If you don't look at the map, maybe it's more like it's just a few hundred nautical miles from Manchester City. Freiji pulled two large boxes and looked at the crowded port, unable to help but be dumbfounded.

"Well, in just one year, the harbor has been repaired so widely, although it is not as good as Shuangwan City, but it is also impressive, and the officials here are quite responsible." Zhao Mingchuan was also quite surprised by the slightly simple but wide and strict wharf in front of him, and believed that the reuse of the materials and equipment transported this time would definitely build a port no less than Bermuda Island or Butterfly Island.

In order to support the preliminary project of the development and construction of Pearl Island in the coming year, in addition to nearly 100 skilled craftsmen from all walks of life, the Oriental Transportation Company and the state-owned Ocean Shipping Company have brought four wharf heavy steam cranes, hundreds of other types of steam machinery, industrial equipment and a large number of maintenance parts. According to the extremely proud words of Andrian, president of the Oriental Union Group before his departure, "With only this small part of the forces sent by the Oriental Union Group, it is more than enough to build a fleet on Pearl Island!" ”

It's a bit arrogant to say, but if it weren't for the ban on some oriental industries by Congress and the Cabinet, it is estimated that the Oriental Union Group would really be able to replicate a small Manchester industrial area on Pearl Island.

In the evening of the same day, the city hall once again held a grand dinner to welcome the big patrons from China. Despite the scarcity of local supplies, Mayor George did his best to entertain the management of the OUCC and the army and navy officers who came to rotate the local garrison. (To be continued......)