The lighthouse directs the ships in and out of the harbor. In the bay that is more than ten miles wide, with white sails dotted and masts, Chinese-style sailing ships and Western sailing ships intersect with the harbor, and iron wheels drag soot to sail in the bay, this bay appears so blue and clear, countless seagulls soar freely, like meteors dense in the sky.

This is the port of Incheon in 1890, although it is not prosperous after a hundred years, but it has been the prosperity of the commercial port, which can be called the first natural port on the west coast of North Korea, Incheon, since the opening of the port more than ten years ago, although limited by the barren materials of North Korea, its development can not be compared with the port of Busan, which is located in the southern plain and has rice and other products exported, but because of its proximity to China, it has become the preferred port for Chinese merchants, and it is also the main gathering place for national businessmen, from Shandong to Shanghai, Guangdong and other places to open business inns in Incheon, Incheon prospered by importing foreign goods into Korea and trading with North Korea centered on Incheon.

The climate of Incheon is rainy, although it is late autumn, but the rain still falls, a rain in the near afternoon drove the people of the Incheon concession back to their houses, and the street vendors also drove to their homes, and in this dripping rain, in the dense dry grass at the foot of the northern beach of the Incheon concession, the group walked among the half-height dry grass, and finally the group walked to the beach, so that it was convenient to stop on the gravel beach.

"Gui Zu, do you think this is the most suitable place to build a shipyard?"

Pointing to the beach in front of him, Tang Haoran asked with great interest Stengge beside him, in the past few months, Stengge, who studied shipbuilding, has been staying in the Tongjian Mansion, almost idle, and the reason is simple-the Tongjian Mansion has no money to set up a shipyard. There is no money to build ships. And even together with the ships of the Beiyang Shipping Company. It's all just old boats bought, and there are two sailboats.

Now, however, after the Bank of Korea opened branches in Shanghai and Hankou, in just half a month, the Bank of Korea has absorbed more than 13 million taels of deposits, of which more than 4 million taels have been earmarked for the Navy Yamen Railway, but this is not the biggest head, and the real big deal is the deposit of the Hubei Anti-Smoking Bureau -- the deposit of the tobacco merchants. The Anti-Smoking Bureau has licensed more than 5,000 cigarette dealers in the province, and their deposits are as much as 8 million taels, and it is these two deposits that enable the Bank of North Korea to provide loans of 10 million yuan to the Beiyang Company in two batches.

The reason why I came here today was to choose the location of the shipyard, which was actually chosen by Stenge. For the past few months, he has seemed to have nothing to do. But he was never idle, he continued to work on ships on the one hand, and even took two students with him, and on the other hand, he studied where the Incheon area was suitable for building a shipyard.

After some inspection, Stengge chose this beach, not only because of its deep water, but also because of the screen of Yeongjong Island, which can be said to be a natural harbor, suitable for harbor construction, and suitable for hosting a shipyard here.

"The water depth of the beach is more than 3 zhang and more than 4 zhang, and the beach depth is more than 300 zhang, and the width is 5 or 600 zhang, and the ground level is wide, there is no better location in Incheon!"

Stenger pointed to the beach in front of him and continued.

"And it is located in the port of the important place, if the dock is built here, the shipyard, the ship docking is very convenient, and this mountain foundation is determined by the previous few days of investigation, it is also mainly granite, in the view of the post, can be directly along the coast blasting quarrying, as soon as it can be widened inward, for other Japanese machine factories, workshops, silos, and can be directly used to take stone through the dock, in addition to the iron sluice, machine Qì and ash still need to be imported, it is estimated that only one raw material, that is, can save tens of thousands of taels of silver!"

With an umbrella in his hand, Shi Tengge walked back and forth on the beach, at this time he looked extremely excited, originally he even suspected that Tang Haoran invited him to come to the court, but it was just for him to know the ship, at most it was to set up an enterprise like the China Merchants Shipping Bureau, and entrusted him to preside over the enterprise, but he had thought that he took out 100,000 taels of silver from the 1.25 million taels of silver he carried, so that he could buy the ship publications of various countries, learn about the latest ship information, and even decided to establish a ship administration department in the sea school that was in preparation, specializing in shipbuilding, However, the shipyard was put on hold for the time being due to financial problems, but Stengge saw that Tang Haoran was different from other Chinese officials.

Just as he had promised, as soon as the financial problem was resolved, he took out 600,000 yuan for the establishment of a shipyard, although the amount of money did not seem to be much, and it was not even as expensive as the cost of building a dock in Lushun. However, Shi Tenge knew very well what the problem of the government-run dock was, and the 600,000 yuan was enough to set up a well-equipped four-dock shipyard, and there were all kinds of workshops such as wrought iron.

"My lord, yesterday at the Incheon Department of Customs, I made a special inquiry, Incheon has no less than 100 foreign ships and national ships every month, and their repair and maintenance are all to Japan, Tianjin, and even Shanghai......

Listening to the construction of Stenge, Tang Haoran just smiled and said.

"Gui Zu, you are an expert in shipbuilding, this matter is completely responsible for you, I still say the same thing, you build the ship, I will use the ship, when the time is ripe, let's ......"

Pointing to the harbor in front of him, Tang Haoran said with longing,

"Let's build warships here, I'm going to build a navy in Incheon, a real modern navy, I've already thought about it, the naval school will be built on Yeongjong Island, away from the filthy things on land......"

When it came to the Naval Academy, Tang Haoran looked at Su Yueyang beside him, and Su Yueyang, who was originally excited by the words of the adult, bowed down and responded.

"What the adults said is very true, whether it is the Tianjin Naval Master School or the Fujian Shipbuilding School, you can see taverns, brothels, and even smoke houses everywhere out of the school, if it is built on an isolated island, it will be able to cut off ......"

While speaking, Su Yueyang suddenly thought of the brothels and taverns that he saw on the island when he was conducting sea training on Liugong Island. That confidence was suddenly gone.

"Your Excellency. The school was built on an island. But the merchants are all profit-seekers, and if they set up shop on the island, they will only be afraid ......"

Listening to Su Yueyang's worries, Tang Haoran waved his hand disapprerovingly and said.

"It doesn't matter, there are almost no inhabitants on this Yeongjong Island, except for the Korean forts, it is completely a desert island, and the whole island will be directly listed as a military forbidden place at that time. Traders who dare to enter, there is no mercy! ”

In order to ensure the learning environment of the school, the Japanese Navy moved the naval academy to Etajima, and signed an agreement with the surrounding landlords and tyrants that the land around the school must not be used to build taverns, brothels and other places that may corrupt people, so as to ensure the "purity" around the school from the environment, and then enable the students to devote themselves to learning.

Now come the times. Naturally, you might as well directly apply this "success model", for Tang Haoran, who doesn't understand education. Learning from the "successful experience" of later generations is undoubtedly the best choice to avoid failure.

"My lord, wouldn't this be too ......?"

Don't wait for Stenge to say that it was too harsh, Tang Haoran smiled.

"Harsh? Is military law a child's play? Whether it is a training guard or a policeman, but those who dare to smoke big cigarettes are also killed, in my opinion, this policy should be implemented throughout the country, and tobacco merchants who dare to sell big cigarettes to officials and soldiers should also be handled accordingly, not with an iron fist, talk about a rich country and a strong army! ”

Looking at Incheon Bay under the rain curtain, Tang Haoran only felt a heat wave churning in his chest, and he didn't even notice that compared to when he first came to this era, he had undergone many changes, especially a certain change in mentality, he became more utilitarian, even unscrupulous.

Of course, he himself is not aware of this change, but he feels more and more integrated into this era. At such a time, when life and death are decided, there is no burden at all.

"Pingtao, what do you think?"

After some sharp words, Tang Haoran turned his gaze to Su Yueyang, and the smile on his face was completely devoid of Fang Cai's awe-inspiring killing intent.

"What your lord said is extremely true, the first thing to do is military discipline, in the opinion of the standard, the new army and navy are different from the old army, and the military discipline should also be the first to be promoted, and the combat strength of the army depends on the strictness of military discipline, not only should those who eat tobacco be killed, but also strict military discipline should be respected in daily training, and the soldiers cannot be afraid of military discipline like tigers and wolves, and how can they train the division of tigers and wolves!"

There was no murderous intent in Su Yueyang's words, but only a seemingly touching experience.

"Marked in Tianjin, although the national dynasty often beheaded the heart of the army when it is in trouble, but it is extremely rare in the Western army, the national dynasty to govern the army, all to the official is right, not in wartime and there is no intention to strictly control. On the other hand, the Western army is governed by military discipline first, and there are special soldiers to restrain military discipline, and its military discipline is even stricter than that of the national dynasty, and the words and deeds of the soldiers are subject to it, and its soldiers regard military discipline as a tiger and wolf, and they dare not do their best in wartime......

When Fang Yueyang explained the difference between the national dynasty and the Western army, Tang Haoran thought of another sentence in his heart, "The biggest difference between the feudal army and the modern army is military discipline", and naturally he very much agreed with Su Yueyang's opinion.

"Pingtao, regarding the matter of military discipline, after you go back, you can negotiate with Shang Dequan and them, refer to the Taixi countries, and then formulate a military discipline suitable for us in combination with our habits!"

Military discipline, the current military discipline of the guards is still too general, since what he wants to build is a modern army, this military discipline should naturally be formulated, when Tang Haoran was giving orders, Shi Tengge, who had been listening to the conversation between the two on the side, saw that the adults finished speaking, so he said on the side.

"My lord, I don't know if I have a little idea at work!"

"If you have any thoughts about returning to your ancestors, just say it!"

Looking at Shi Tengge, who looked extremely serious, Tang Haoran said with a smile.

"That's right, my lord, although my wish is to build ships, but there is one thing that I can't help but say, my lord, do you know why the shipbuilding of the shipyard in Jiangnan and Mawei is quite expensive? So much so that Li Zhongtang and others said that shipbuilding is not how to buy a ship? ”

"Well, should it have something to do with the system?"

"It is also the cause, and it is not the main cause!"

"Oh? How so? ”

Tang Haoran looked at Shi Tengge with doubts, is there any other reason besides corruption?

"My lord, although the dynasty has begun to build ships since more than 20 years ago, but its ship materials are from the ocean, such as wood mostly from Siam, iron and steel are from the United Kingdom, for example, each ton of shipbuilding steel plate, in the British shipbuilding price is only 26 taels, and shipped to Shanghai, Fuzhou, plus freight and foreign bank price increase, as high as 36 taels per ton, if it is a warship with Harvey steel, the price is as high as 100 taels, to the next 1,000-ton iron-hulled ship as an example, only the ship material costs tens of thousands of taels, the price of materials is not lower, the price of the ship is naturally high, This shipbuilding is better than buying a ship. ”

This......

Shi Tengge's words made Tang Haoran stunned at first, and then there was silence for a while, it is indeed as he said, the price of shipbuilding raw materials remains high, how can the cost of shipbuilding come down?

Build a steel mill!

This is not only the need of shipyards, but also machinery factories, arsenals and other undertakings need steel, this era is the germ of the iron and steel age, if there is no steel plant, all other businesses will be rootless, and more important is probably because of their own profession - Tang Haoran himself is a steel major, if you run a steel plant, at least this major is the counterpart.

Although there is no bituminous coal suitable for coking in North Korea, Kaiping coal is very suitable for coking, and coal ships export anthracite to Tianjin, and then transport cheap Kaiping coal for coking in Incheon, and coking gas can also be used for civilian use.

The development of the iron and steel industry was originally one of the plans for the construction of the special zone, but it was just ...... Tang Haoran did not want to use his own money to set up a steel factory, although the bank can now provide another loan of 5 million yuan, but if possible, he still hopes to use other people's money to do this.

If North Korea has iron ore, you can consider building a steel plant with an annual output of about 1......0,000 tons, and the cost is only tens of thousands of taels, after all, whether it is a railway, shipbuilding, or ship repair, steel will be needed in the future."

Tang Haoran's silence, in the eyes of Shi Tenge, made him think that he was hesitating, he had been immersed in studying the ship and the location of the shipyard, and he did not know that the steel plant had already entered the planning of the unified supervision government and the company.

"10,000 tons per year? No! ”

Shaking his head, Tang Haoran said seriously.

"Such a steel plant is too small, at least forty or fifty thousand tons, otherwise it will not be enough for railways, shipbuilding and mining, not to mention industrial steel, but this steel plant, we must find a way to let others pay this money!"

(Tomorrow will be added, ask for a monthly pass!) Empire's Chaoyang Reader Exchange Group: 150536833, you are welcome to join, what ideas or suggestions do you have, although to the speechless mention! Thanks! (To be continued......)