For any sovereign state, it is undoubtedly hostile for a non-national warship to approach its own shores, or even sail into its own ports. Even if Annan and Haihan have maintained a so-called alliance since the establishment of diplomatic relations, it cannot hide the reality that there is a huge disparity between the surface forces of the two sides, and the consequence of this imbalance of power is that Annan has to endure the situation of his own coastline being under the control of others for a long time.

Would the Annam court turn a blind eye to such a state of affairs? The answer is clearly no. Annan never even surrendered defeat in the face of the huge imperial conquest armies of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and did not hesitate to fight with the strength of the whole country, how could he be willing to bow his head in front of Haihan. The silence was only to maintain the cooperative relationship with Haihan and use Haihan's maritime capacity to deal with the southern rebels.

At present, not only are the major ports north of the Hengshan Mountains under the actual control of the Haihan, but even the affairs of coastal defense and shipbuilding have to rely on the Haihan, so the Annan court has almost no influence on the passage of Haihan warships on its own coast. The main reason why both sides tacitly did not raise this issue separately before this is to maintain the relationship between the two sides, which is not particularly strong.

Zheng Lin secretly gritted his teeth before he spoke: "Lord Yan, have your warships ever encountered any restrictions when entering our country's ports?"

Yan Chujie slowly shook his head and said, "That's not true, I just don't know if your country will continue this kind of policy." In order for our relationship to continue for a long time, we need a more formal commitment from your court. ”

Zheng Lin took a deep breath and calmed down his feelings, and then responded: "After returning to Annan, I will report this matter to the imperial court, and then give you an answer." ”

Yan Chujie didn't intend to force Zheng Lin too hard, nodded and said, "Since this is the case, then I will wait for your country's reply with peace of mind." ”

The members of the executive committee raised various questions one by one, and most of them exceeded the authority of Zheng Lin's special envoy and could not give affirmative answers at all. However, for the executive committee members, Zheng Lin's attitude can basically be understood as the attitude of the Annan court, and judging from Zheng Lin's response, Annan not only wants to pay four port concessions and a few thousand laborers this time, but what they want to exchange for this condition is also quite valuable, and it is not a deal that Annan took the initiative to post upside down as everyone thought at the beginning.

For Zheng Lin, who came to Sanya full of hope, his envoy trip was destined to be disappointed. There are many uncertainties in the quid pro quo that Annan offered, and these factors are potential risks for the Executive Committee. For example, the method of determining the number of workers, the method of payment of wages, and other seemingly inconspicuous details may become loopholes that delay the implementation of the project. Of course, one of the most difficult problems to solve is that Haihan's own engineering and technical personnel are far from enough, and there is no way to supervise the Changhua Hualu road construction project and then go to the coast of Annam to build a large port area.

On July 12, Zheng Lin left Sanya and returned to Thang Long Province with the "Draft of Cooperative Development of the Southern Seaport of Annam" drafted by the Executive Committee. The draft puts forward some specific requirements for the plan for the joint development of the port between the two sides, especially in terms of the number of workers, jurisdiction, and attribution, and sets out extremely detailed provisions. In addition, Annan's request for aiding the construction of shipyards and the purchase of large ships has also been reduced to a certain extent: the order of 400 large ships in the next year has been reduced to 10, but as compensation, the order of 10 200 ships can be increased; and the three new shipyards required by Annan have also been reduced to one, but this shipyard and the original Heitu Port shipyard will have the manufacturing capacity of 400 seagoing ships, which can be regarded as making up for the gap that Annan's domestic shipyards are currently unable to manufacture large seagoing ships.

But even if the Annam court had been able to get through the draft and sign the agreement in the shortest possible time, and avoid an endless tug-of-war with the Haihan over the details, the earliest implementation of the agreement would not have to wait until three months later. This is because the Changhua Hualu Traffic Engineering Headquarters needs enough time to formulate a construction plan for the next six months or even a year, and then a part of the manpower can be dispatched to Annan to preside over the work.

Although three months was definitely a long time for the Annam Imperial Court, for the technicians of the Haihan Construction Department, these three months meant that they had to work overtime to complete the tasks that should have been undertaken during the longer construction period.

The distance from Changhua Port by the sea to the mining area of Shilu is 80 miles in a straight line, but fortunately, most of the area on this road is plain, so the difficulty of building the road is not particularly great. The plan of the engineering headquarters was to build the road in sections, and after the construction of a section, lay a section of track forward, and gradually advance inland. The benefits of this are obvious, as all kinds of engineering materials and construction personnel can be transported to the front-line construction site in the fastest way, and after the full line is completed, the convenience of rail transportation will also improve the construction efficiency of the development of Shiroku Iron Mine.

On the same day that Zheng Lin left Sanya and returned to Annam, the steam locomotive carried by the No. 3 ship of the "Expedition Class" of the Mintuan Navy after modification finally arrived safely at Changhua Port after a week of drifting at sea.

The locomotive prepared by the industrial department for the future Shilu iron ore mine is the "Hercules II" that has been modified and started production only this year, and this new locomotive is compared with the "Hercules I" currently used on the Sanya-Tiandu track, without much change in volume and weight, the power output has increased by 20%, and the time for trouble-free operation has also been nearly doubled. Some of the parts that were exposed to problems on the Hercules I have been technically improved on the new model, and some of the key pipe valves have even used the material reserve of traversal, so it can be said that this locomotive has represented the highest level of technology that can be achieved by the industrial sector at present.

At the same time that this large iron lump with a total length of more than seven meters was being manufactured in the Tiandoku Industrial Zone, the shipyard was already refitting the ship for its transportation problems. At present, none of the ships of Haihan can directly carry this heavy behemoth, and in the end, the Ministry of Shipping can only send a report to the Military Commission to provide a "Expedition-class" warship that has begun to enter service, and its hull will be technically modified to meet the needs of this special task.

As a result, under the order of the Executive Committee, an "Expedition-class" warship with a displacement of 500 tons was towed back onto the slipway and underwent a transformation for more than a month. The shipwrights dismantled the original main deck, as well as the second deck for arranging the ship's guns, to create a huge fluted cargo compartment for the predetermined large cargo. At the same time, the cargo terminals of Shengli Port and Changhua Port have also been rebuilt accordingly, and two sets of hoisting facilities dismantled from the "New World" have been installed on the wharf.

If it weren't for the fact that it had been in operation for two years, this kind of project, which required the collaboration of many units, would have many problems. This time, the executive committee personally came forward to coordinate, and all units worked together, and it only took two months to complete the corresponding work after determining the development deadline of the Shilu project.

After the locomotive is transported to the port of Shengli, it is towed directly from a special track to the dock with animal power, and then hoisted. This part of the process was probably the most nervous part for everyone, the locomotive head weighing several tons was slowly lowered into the special cargo hold under the traction of the wire cable, until the rope was loosened and the hull did not appear to be significantly tilted, and everyone finally breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The carrying capacity of the "Expedition-class" warship is not a problem, the combined weight of the guns on the ship has greatly exceeded that of this steam locomotive, but the original arrangement of the artillery was after repeated calculations and long-term counterweight balance tests, and the hoisting of this big guy could not be adjusted in advance at all, and could only rely on the experience of technicians to complete. Fortunately, after the locomotive boarded the ship, it did not affect the balance of the ship.

However, in the process of transportation, there was still no carelessness, and Yue Zhiyun personally served as the captain to escort the ship. Ships have been moving along the offshore route in order to avoid the ebb and flow of the waves at sea as much as possible. With the performance of the "expedition-class" warship, it was originally possible to arrive in Changhua in two or three days, but after loading this big guy, it took a week to walk at sea.

After arriving in Changhua, it took a full two hours to reload the locomotive from the ship to shore. However, the locomotive cannot be put into use immediately after it arrives, in order to prevent accidents, a considerable number of more important parts are dismantled and transported separately before shipping, and they need to be reassembled in Changhua. In addition, the distance of the track laid here in Changhua is also very limited, only more than a month of construction time, and only two or three kilometers of roadbed laying from Changhua Port to the north of Changhua County has been completed, and even the railroad track has not been fully laid in place.

"Xiao Yue, bring this big guy over, you have worked hard all the way. I asked the cafeteria to prepare a reception banquet, and everyone ate and drank well in the evening, and then went back after repairing for a day or two. On behalf of the local engineering headquarters, Liu Shanxia greeted the arrival of Yue Zhiyun and others from the Ministry of Shipping, who undertook the transportation task.

Yue Zhiyun smiled bitterly: "Then you have to be busy, at least you have to catch the wind for me several times." The first batch of this new locomotive is planned to be built four units, all of which will be put into the Shilu project, and will definitely have to be added when the double line is opened. It is said that in the future, the kind of small locomotives used in the mine will also be phased out, and they will be replaced with Hercules series, which is very troublesome to transport across the sea, and there will be a time when I will be busy in the future. ”

"So in the future, the Heitugang Coal Mine will also be replaced with this kind of large locomotive?" Tian Yeyou next to him hurriedly asked. After completing the iron ore exploration in Shilu, he went back to Shengli Port to live for a while, but perhaps he was used to being outside, but after returning to Shengli Port, he felt that something was wrong, and finally took the initiative to report and apply to come to Changhua. Although he is an exploration professional, he also directly participated in a lot of infrastructure projects during his time in Heitu Port, and now he can be regarded as an all-rounder, although it is still far from being as professional as Liu Shanxia, but it is no problem to do a job such as on-site supervision.

"It has to be replaced, Tiandu Iron Mine has begun to be replaced, and the eliminated small locomotive is said to be used on the track line between Tiandu and Tielu Port, and will be responsible for transporting salt from Tielu Port to Tiandu Industrial Zone in the future. Yue Zhiyun conveyed the latest movements of the base camp to everyone present.

"The rail line from Iron Furnace Port to Tiandu has also been completed?" someone in the crowd asked, and when he heard it, he was a person who had not returned to the base camp for a long time.

"Yo, rare guest, isn't this Xie Chun?" Yue Zhiyun heard the prestige, and found his old colleague in the crowd: "Why don't you go back to Shengli Port to see us when you are so free?" Now that Shengli Port has changed a lot, if you don't go back to take a look, I'm afraid you will get lost in the future!"

Xie Chun has been working in the shipping department since the beginning, and the two can be regarded as old colleagues. However, when Heitu Port was developed, Xie Chun took the initiative to invite Ying to go to Heitu Port and was appointed as the local shipping chief. After Zhou Hengxing was transferred back to Sanya to take over as the director of the port management committee, Xie Chun concurrently served as the local civil affairs chief, which can be regarded as a small promotion to another level. In the past year or so, he has almost stayed in Annan, and he has indeed not been back to Sanya much.

Xie Chun said with a smile: "I came to Changhua to have the same mission as you, I'm afraid I won't have time to go back to Shengli Port this time......"

It turned out that Xie Chun's trip to Changhua was to escort two large ships totaling more than 70 tons of coal, as well as tar, asphalt, and so on, which were special products of the Black Earth Port. Of course, if it is only these goods, there is no need for him to go out in person, and more importantly, there are a group of naturalized cadres on board who have been recommended by the management committee to study in Sanya because of their good performance in Heitu Port. However, Xie Chun still had to go back to look after his family, so this group of people could only be sent to Changhua, and then take a boat from here to Sanya.

After listening to Xie Chun's story, Yue Zhiyun nodded and said, "That's right, I'll go back after a day of rest after unloading the goods, and I can bring all the people from Heitu Port." By the way, I heard that the group of people you sent to the Black Earth Harbor have quietly started a family over there one by one?"

Xie Chun patted Tian Yeyou next to him and said: "It's not this guy who took the lead! Since he came back from Guangxi to marry an eldest lady, the minds of the people in Heitu Port have been activated, and several people have married Daming girls this year." It is estimated that there will be two or three marriages to be done in the second half of the year, but unfortunately they are too far away to give joy candy to everyone in the base camp. ”

"You say me, aren't you the same yourself?" Tian Yeyou choked back: "In the first half of this year, you have already made three or four trips to Lianzhou, when will you bring your daughter-in-law back?"