Chapter 52: Qingcheng City and Elm Town

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A sail galen ship with the sign of "North America Unicom International" on the hull slowly sailed into Massachusetts Bay, which has been renamed "Qingcheng Bay". In front of the bow of the ship, the peninsula jutting out between the mouth of the Qingcheng River and the bay is already visible, and the wharf of a simple colonization village is hidden in the green shadows of green hills, and behind it, three overlapping low green hills are faintly visible.

This is the historical "Three Hills City" Boston, a North American metropolis with an important position in later generations. But today, on the administrative map of the American Republic of China in the 17th century, it is "Qingcheng, the capital of Haizhou Administrative Region", a small colonization community surrounded by primitive nature, with only 247 old immigrants and 85 new immigrants, including 147 Chinese and 185 Europeans. In addition, there is a platoon of small army units that serve as garrison defense duties.

The implementation of the policy of colonization and expansion of new towns is a national strategic plan that China and the United States must speed up at present. At this stage, the population capacity of the capital city of Mangju has reached a bottleneck stage. One simple example is that a city's water supply has reached a tipping point. The inflow of seawater during the dry season of the Song River puts the capital's water allocation in a very awkward state. Since last year, it has become difficult to meet the daily needs and industrial water of more than 26,000 citizens of the capital with streams and underground water sources alone. According to the rough calculation of Zhou Yi, the Minister of Construction, before there is a more scientific and reasonable water supply system, the current urban water supply limit of the capital city can only cope with the population of 30,000.

In addition, the urban infrastructure construction of Manchester City has also reached the time when it needs to carry out a cycle of major rectification. The first batch of ill-laid out old neighborhoods and street renovations were imminent, and these works were not completed until they were completed. The city of Manchester is no longer well suited to accommodate more migrants. The only way is to arrange for the relocation of nationals or the diversion of new immigrants to the surrounding cities and towns from now on, which can also play a role in expanding the territory of control.

In the context of this issue, in addition to Songzhou's continued development of new towns, the establishment of a second state-level administrative unit, Haizhou, has become one of the core tasks of the country's local development in the next few years, and has been deliberated by the National Assembly several times as early as half a year ago.

The administrative territory of China and the United States is delineated. Basically abandoned the model of the later generations that was engraved with the imprint of Yan zhòng, and the longitude and latitude boundaries that went straight to and from were difficult to see, and taking mountains and rivers as the natural dividing line became the dominant idea. Due to the existence of the first state administrative district, Song Zhou, the newly established Haizhou administrative district, its administrative jurisdiction is completely different from the historical one, including half of Connecticut, most of Massachusetts, and the entire state of Rhode Island.

Qingcheng City is the capital of Haizhou after the approval of the Cabinet of the Chinese and American governments. Only at the moment, the city is incredibly small. There are no overwhelming merchant ships, no huge construction teams, and no mountains of port supplies, and it looks more like a small fishing village in the middle of nowhere.

A small dhow has just returned from fishing, and the pot-bellied galen with a full load displacement of nearly 600 tons, purchased from the Netherlands, is entering the port. A number of fishermen on the small sailboat stood excitedly at the stern of the boat and waved frequently.

As the shore drew closer, the sailors could already see the colonization community in the distance. A few hundred meters away from the wharf, simple houses of concrete or stone mixed timber structure are arranged in an orderly manner at the bottom of a small stream that flows into Qingcheng Bay. On the western slope of the hill is a small army military base of mixed timber construction, with the only observation tower and defensive gun emplacements built of pure concrete.

Guan Ruzhong, the former police chief of West Point, still stands by the small dock in the same familiar look: a modern outfit in the style of traveling tracksuits. Hanging from his waist is the dog-legged knife that has not left his body since he crossed. Guan Ruzhong, who is over 32 years old, has personally experienced West Point Town from scratch, from small to large. From obscurity to prosperity, he and William, the mayor of West Point, and Mao Jian, the director of civil affairs and finance, are affectionately called "the three fathers of West Point" by the older generation of West Point residents.

The successful development of West Point Town in the environment of external crisis has become the identity signboard of Guan Ruzhong with the richest local management experience in China. The difficulties and lessons learned from many West Point towns have become the reference for the daily work of the government cabinet. Now, Guan Ruzhong has finally been entrusted with the important task by the cabinet and has become the governor of Haizhou and the mayor of Qingcheng City.

Guan Ruzhong's task is to develop Qingcheng City in the absence of national mobilization and construction, and to promote the establishment of other small towns in Haizhou.

From the capital city of Manchester, even a slow sail galen boat can only take a little more than two days to sail, which can provide a more immediate and convenient shipping turnaround. Since the official listing of Qingcheng City in early September, at least one merchant ship has arrived in Qingcheng Bay every week, and the supply of hundreds of tons of various materials every week is far more substantial and powerful than that in the early stage of the development of West Point Town.

Residents of Qingcheng who worked as temporary dock workers surrounded the merchant ship with anticipation, and with the help of a medium-sized steam crane, the sailors of the merchant ship also helped to unload the cargo. Several heavy pack horses, a large number of prefabricated building materials, boxes of grain, and various daily necessities or production tools were landed one after another, which made the acting civil affairs officer of Qingcheng City who took inventory of the goods smile.

On the other side, more than 30 curious European-American immigrants, men, women and children walked down from the board. They are French Protestants who have arrived in North America this year with the lifting of immigration quotas. The religious conflicts in the south of France in recent years have led to the displacement of a large number of persecuted Protestants to the Portuguese territories in the Azores, and now these European families of masons, carpenters or stonemasons who have passed the guò sanitary quarantine have been given priority by the Ministry of Immigration to Qingcheng, which presumably welcomes such migrant craftsmen.

A small contingent of 10 policemen, including the acting European sheriff, rushed up to meet them, and then led the poor people from France towards the small neighborhood, ready to cooperate with other acting municipal officials to resettle the immigrants who were looking for a new life.

God forbid, the honorable sheriff has admired Guan Ruzhong for the past few years, "I really envy them for getting a new life with you, and I believe that in the near future, this will definitely be a prosperous town again!" ”

"Hehe, I like this sycophant." Guan Ruzhong was quite pleased to pat the manager of North America Unicom International in front of him, who he didn't actually know, and was very satisfied with the efficiency of the other party's performance of the contract. "You're going to have to work the community and the surrounding wasteland, and you'll be able to get to the acting treasurer, Danielson, who you should know, and there's a shopping contract and a community medical clinic that your company needs to take over."

"Of course, our company is the most professional!" When the European manager heard that there was more business, he quickly puffed up his chest.

Today, North America Unicom and Moose Logistics are competing for the cargo transportation or urban construction business in Qingcheng. Not only did both sides fight hard in terms of price, but even urban construction projects that were not part of their business scope, they tried their best to eat them in a way that was convenient for customers, and then hired a small construction team to execute them temporarily.

In less than a month, North America Unicom got more than $20,000 in orders for the company through Guò, a business manager who is very close to Guan Ruzhong. The net profit is already close to $4,000. In addition, the company has secured a number of contracts for supply and small urban construction projects in Porter. Although the profit of each contract does not seem to be much, but in this way, the company's monthly profit can exceed 10,000 US dollars, and it is not difficult to reach 100,000 yuan in a year. And all of them are in a very close local area, which is a stable business with low risk and time cost.

There was a pleasant greeting. Looking at the busy and fulfilling work of hundreds of citizens, Guan Ruzhong slowly walked back to his small "Haizhou and Qingcheng City Government Residence", ready to complete today's established government affairs.

First of all, a decree was signed on the distribution of cash benefits for citizens on National Day, and the specific process will be followed by volunteers from West Point, and it is only a long time to mistake a lot of words

Then, Guan Ruzhong opened the notepad again and began to carefully consider the future development of Haizhou. First of all, it is the development direction of Qingcheng itself.

As early as the second half of last year, many small private businessmen from Manchurian City established a non-permanent Indian Trade Point in Qingcheng Bay, and Qingcheng City took advantage of this convenient condition to expand on the basis of the Indian Trade Point. The nearby Wampanoags and Massachusetts, like the Dravaare, were relatively mild Indian tribes. At the beginning, the European colonizers took revenge and fiercely satirized Thanksgiving, which also led to the catastrophic "King Philip War" decades later, when the Wampanoag people who had been taken by the European colonizers came to a great outbreak, and thousands of European immigrants died.

But now, the reputation of Huamei here is much better, and the large number of goodwill exchanges for more than a year has made the people of Wampanoag pay a high degree of enthusiasm in return. Naturally, the Indian trade will continue to be strengthened, and as long as the relationship continues to be stable, it will continue to attract the surrounding Indian villages as a source of future workers.

A livestock breeding company with a loan from the city government to encourage local citizens to become shareholders is in the pipeline. With its pleasant climate, fertile coastal plains and lush pastures, it was the perfect place for livestock farming, and it became an important livestock and cheese base in Massachusetts.

Relying on the small hills that have been almost completely bulldozed in history, as well as the natural geology of the Qingcheng estuary area, the acquisition of stone, sand, limestone, and clay is very simple. The nearby forest area is also rich in peat resources, so fuel is not a problem. The production of many basic building materials can be solved on the spot, and a small building materials company that attracts residents to invest behind the scenes can save a lot of money.

Taking advantage of the natural high-quality port geographical conditions, Qingcheng will become the second port to directly establish ocean trade with Europe after the capital Manchu. There is also abundant primeval forest resources here. The quality of the tree species is better than that around the city, especially the oak trees. Beiyang Shipbuilding Company will welcome shipbuilding timber from Qingcheng City. If possible, it is not impossible to jointly invest in the construction of a small shipbuilding enterprise with the Beiyang Shipping Company.

In addition, Guan Ruzhong is also ready to plagiarize history, and with the help of the beautiful coastal natural environment, he will strive to establish the national university in Qingcheng, which the country has been preparing to establish since 1626, and promote local economic development with the higher education industry, for which he will persuade a number of congressmen who are vigorously promoting national higher education.

The development context of Qingcheng City is basically clear, next. It is the development layout of the entire Haizhou. According to the information compiled by the Ministry of Land and Resources, Guan Ruzhong has given priority to two places as the focus of the construction of local towns in Haizhou in the future.

The first is the Lynn area, more than 20 kilometers north of Qingcheng City, in later generations. There are abundant open-pit marsh iron ore and coal mines that have not yet been developed in this time and space. Although the grade of this bogma iron ore is not very high, it is a particularly easy ore variety to smelt, and the natural geographical conditions for obtaining raw materials for iron smelting are much better than those of West Point, so it was an important iron producing area in the area around Boston in history. When the construction of Qingcheng is on the right track, it will inevitably be built into the first industrial port town in Haizhou. It is only fitting to invite the state-owned energy and mining group or NORINCO to establish a joint venture there to establish a complete iron and steel metallurgical industry.

The second is the historic island of Martha's Vineyard in the southern part of the Cape Cod Peninsula in the southeast of Haizhou. The whaling fleet of the state-owned Agriculture, Forestry and Animal Husbandry Group has been carrying out continuous whaling operations in the Atlantic Ocean east of Haizhou for the past few years, supplying important whale processing products to all walks of life in the country, but it is time-consuming to make a trip to Manchu. Haizhou has a better coastline and natural geographical conditions of the islands than Songzhou, and Guan Ruzhong plans to have the right time next year. In later generations, a port town was also established in the eastern part of Massa Vineyard, which developed into an important base for whaling and cetacean product processing industry, and the fertile soil and climate of Massa Vineyard itself are also a natural sanctuary for high-quality grapes, vegetable and fruit planting, winemaking, livestock breeding and other agricultural industries.

In total, Guan Ruzhong has listed a number of the most advantageous economic development projects in the coastal area of Haizhou. In his opinion, as long as the state does not be too stingy in its financial allocation to Haizhou. Five years is enough time to build Haizhou into an economic powerhouse in China by relying on Qingcheng City as the center, thus laying a solid foundation for the development of the entire country on the northeast coast of North America.

However, the state finances are limited right now, and the state financial allocation in the last few months of this year is only $200,000, so it can't be too urgent. According to Guan Ruzhong's accumulation plan, in the last few months of this year, Qingcheng City will also adopt a more conservative development strategy, and the relocation population will only increase to 700 people at the end of the year, so as to reduce the burden of winter, and wait for the completion of the first phase of municipal public infrastructure, residential communities and medical clinics, and then focus on the development of the first batch of small economic industrial projects after the beginning of spring, so as to realize the basic self-hematopoietic function, and gradually expand and move forward at a steady pace.

……

Just as Guan Ruzhong was carefully planning his "new Eden", on the north shore of Long Island Bay, two hundred kilometers to the southwest, a small town appeared at the mouth of three rivers.

Across the sea from Long Island, it belonged to the city of New Haven, Connecticut, and is now geographically part of Song State, and the new town was named "Elm Town". The mayor of the town is none other than Guan Ruzhong's old partner, Mao Jian, who used to be the director of civil affairs and finance of West Point Town. As the name suggests, Elm Town is a bend of three rivers with lush vegetation, abundant hardwoods, and many elm trees.

The town, which has only been built for a month, has a population of less than 300 people and is still in the most basic stage of construction. A large number of trees were harvested, and a large amount of sand, gravel and stone from the surrounding area was excavated, combined with cement and a small number of prefabricated parts, to create a mixed wood housing community for Yushu Town that was far cheaper and faster than Qingcheng City.

A small port a few hundred meters away is already capable of docking small sea boats, and in the town's community, a small construction team of just over 40 people belonging to Angel Urban Construction is busy filling a swamp to the west. In order to speed up the progress of the project, the residents of Bailai, who were anxious in their eyes, took the initiative to participate in the construction, and even the local army garrison sent a squad of soldiers to work on a voluntary basis.

Angel Urban Construction Company, which has Lv Shengqiang, the major shareholder behind the scenes, and Chang Kun, a "Huamei relative", is currently the "three most" construction company with the smallest investment, the lowest level of construction technology and the most miscellaneous main business in China. But there are many employees. As soon as it opened, there were nearly 200 people, except for a few skilled construction workers who were recruited with high salaries. Basically, they are a large group of "idlers" who have just immigrated this year and have encountered more stringent job selection conditions from domestic enterprises, thus falling into an employment crisis.

The company undertakes all kinds of housing construction, land reclamation and leveling, road repair and ditch digging, and material procurement...... In short, the company is happy to receive miscellaneous contracts for the operation and construction of various towns. I also scraped together to find out where to get two small sail galen boats that had been eliminated by the whaling ships under the state-owned Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery and Animal Husbandry Group. This kind of old goods that can be used with a little repair and transformation, the cost of a single ship is not even 5,000 US dollars, and it can run at a speed of 4 knots per hour on the coast with a full load of more than 100 tons of goods, which has become the main force of the company's coastal transportation.

Mao Jian, who has an excellent personal relationship with Congressman Lu Shengqiang, naturally favors Angel Urban Construction Company. This kind of small unspoken rule is currently more common in the circle of traversal. Although there are doubts and public opinion about "unfair competition", as long as the bidding price can be comparable to that of other companies. Basically, many small contracts Mao Jian is willing to hand over to Angel City Construction to do. As for projects with stricter cost requirements and higher technical content, Mao Jian still invested in powerful large companies such as Yang Wenwen's Moose Logistics and North America Unicom International.

Mao Jian, the mayor of the town, is subordinate to Tang Ke, the governor of Songzhou, in terms of administrative relations, but his vision and experience in local construction are much stronger than Tang Ke. In the view of this former dock construction worker, the natural products here are only more than those around West Point, and the transportation conditions are better than West Point, and the development potential of Elm Town is very large.

First of all, the historical New Haven area is not only rich in forest resources. There are also rare small, high-quality open-pit iron mines nearby, but due to the poor policy of controlling the iron-smelting industry in the colonies of New Haven in the past, this advantage has been snuffed out.

With Elm Town so close to Manchester Bay, a hundred kilometers of sea routes, and a natural harbor for large merchant ships, its iron ore mining and transportation must be far stronger than that of West Point, the main supplier of iron ore. Even if the mining road in West Point has just been put into use. However, the bottleneck of ore transportation is still in the capacity of the Song River. In contrast, from Elm Town, a short shirt-class shear-class merchant ship with a cargo capacity of more than 400 tons, with an average speed of more than 10 knots, is no less cost-effective than the slower, less than 100-ton inland waterway carriers. It is also a new industrial park in the outer islands of Manchuria. The appetite for iron ore is never filled.

Mao Jian has already made an agreement with NORINCO to "buy" at least 300 Caribbean prisoners of war from Butterfly Island for labor. Recruit some migrant miners, and strive to complete the high-quality open-pit small iron mine and simple road in the north of Yushu Town by the end of the year, so as to achieve a monthly output of 10,000 tons of iron ore after it is put into operation in the spring of next year, and then only the iron ore output will increase the local fiscal revenue by nearly 100,000 US dollars in addition to national taxes!

Secondly, Mao Jian also plans to take advantage of the natural geological conditions here to vigorously develop stone processing and sand and gravel industry. High-quality building stone is much more valuable than the bricks and tiles burned from the mud. At present, many high-end buildings in China have gradually "despised the use of cement", and the demand for natural stone is growing, and now only Yingu Town is monopolizing the supply of such high-grade building materials, but whether it is mining volume or quality, the stone of Yingu Town may not be able to compare with Yushu Town. The abundant sand and gravel resources in the area of Yushu Town can not only be used as a building material filler, but also as a raw material for glass manufacturing. In view of the development of the domestic wine and food processing industry, as well as the shortage of glass markets in Europe and Asia, it is necessary to recruit a group of glass technicians from West Point Town, purchase production patents, and build a small glass products company locally!

In addition to this, the climate and soil of New Haven have historically adapted to tobacco cultivation. As the founder of the West Point Tobacco Company, although he was "devastated" by the country's extremely bad tobacco special tax, and the quality of tobacco in Yushu Town is unlikely to be comparable to that imported from Central and South America, Mao Jian still will not miss the opportunity to continue to grow his best economic industry in Yushu Town.

Because the transportation between Yushu Town and the capital city of Mancheng is so convenient, Mao Jian is not as careful as Guan Ruzhong to think about the issue of winter, in his plan, in the next few months, he will first ask for people from the state, but he wants it vigorously. By the end of the year, the population will exceed 1,000, of which at least half will be old nationals who have moved from West Point and Manchester, so he will not hesitate to pay a higher moving fee to attract people!

Mao Jian's "magnificent plan" naturally received strong support from Tang Ke, the governor of Songzhou, and judging from Tang Ke's ambition to show his ambitions as governor of Songzhou, perhaps the entire Songzhou would become Mao Jian's rear supporter. Moreover, Mao Jian is more sleek than Guan Ruzhong, and I believe that with his eloquence, it is not difficult to coax those domestic capitalists to invest.

At this time, Mao Jian was running around in the newborn town with a bunch of "sweet dreams", and even his European pregnant wife and one-year-old eldest son were left in West Point Town, and he was concentrating on studying the details of future construction.

The autumn breeze is blowing, quiet and peaceful, and the immature Elm Town is like a budding sapling, quietly revealing its old and tenacious vitality hidden in the body.

Chapter 52: Qingcheng City and Elm Town