At the meeting of the executive committee of the No. 2 base that night, Yan Chujie, as the leader of the action team, made a report on the process and results of the Yazhou inspection operation. （.）

"First of all, let me talk about the results of the military investigation, the garrison of Yazhou is divided into two armies, water and land armies, of which we generally know the situation of the water village, although we have not been able to enter the water village this time, but according to our observations, the general situation should be the same as Luo Shengdong's previous explanation. The garrison of Yazhou is mainly based on the Tun army, with an establishment of about 1,700 people, stationed at the west gate of Yazhou. We managed to get close to the barracks, and found that most of the barracks were empty, and if it were not a coincidence, we thought that the actual number of garrisons in Yazhou City was probably between seven hundred and a thousand. In addition, the proportion of old and weak soldiers in these Ming soldiers is very high, which is consistent with the historical facts that we have grasped that a large number of soldiers deserted in the late Ming Dynasty. ”

"In terms of city defense, the height of the Yazhou city wall is six to seven meters, the thickness is more than three meters, and the four walls are five hundred to seven hundred meters long, and the defense facilities on the city wall are relatively intact, but there are no large-caliber artillery or batteries to be seen, and later Luo Shengdong also confirmed this. According to what we have learned, the proportion of the Yazhou Ming army equipped with firearms is about one-third, but the experience of live ammunition shooting is very small, and the army is not equipped with long-range firepower, only a small number of Franc machine guns, and they are also equipped in the Jiajing period, and it is a question whether it can be fired now. ”

"The garrison outside the city is mainly based on the Yazhou Water Village and the Nanshan Inspection Division as the water and land passes, and it is difficult to say what the water combat ability of the Yazhou Water Village is. Nanshan's inspection department has only more than 40 people, so it will not be much of a threat. In addition, Tianya Town and Fenghuang Town, which are between Yazhou and Shengli Port, do not have official Yazhou agencies stationed there, and I think the Executive Committee can consider sending teams to these places as much as possible. ”

"Finally, according to the assessment of our military team, we will not build a military attack on Yazhou until we have built enough heavy weapons. Even if we forcibly capture Yazhou City without considering the consumption of materials, I am afraid that we will inevitably encounter resistance and casualties in the process of entering the city, and if we don't do it well, it will turn into bloody street battles, which is very unfavorable for our future governance of Yazhou. ”

Yan Chujie closed his notebook and said: "That's all for the military situation, about the trade situation, please Schneider report to everyone." ”

Schneider got up and walked to the front desk and began his report: "According to what I have learned, there are about 4,000 households inside and outside Yazhou City, and the total population is about 20,000 people, including the garrison and various prisoners. Although this consumer market is not large, the actual consumption power is not bad, and what I have observed in the two trading houses in Yazhou is that they sell some relatively high-priced non-necessities, such as high-end stationery, porcelain, jewelry, and so on. The turnover of these two commercial banks is about 500 to 800 taels per month, considering the population base of Yazhou and the stock of other small shops and private traders, this turnover is very good from a commercial point of view, and it also shows that the private purchasing power of Yazhou is higher than we imagined. ”

"In addition, we need to note that Yazhou also administratively governs the five counties of Ningyuan, Thanksgiving, Changhua, Lingshui and Wanxian, and the actual population and area are far beyond the scope of what we know now. ”

"At present, in addition to most of the food sold in Yazhou City, a considerable part of the daily necessities are shipped from Qiongzhou and Guangzhou, not to mention the high prices, and the supply is also very limited. In addition, the salt issue that the executive committee is concerned about, at present, the salt in the Yazhou market is basically shipped from the Yangpu salt field in Danzhou, and the sales price is between three and four hundred yuan, and I think our products can have a good competitiveness in terms of price and quality. And we have also persuaded Luo Shengdong to use the boat of Yazhou Water Village to help us sell illicit salt. Of course, the most urgent task in this matter is to get our salt works up and running as soon as possible, knowing that there is a market of about 500 tons of salt per year on Hainan Island alone waiting for us to occupy!"

"Our export products, the initial should be higher value-added glass products, it is said that the glass products shipped by the Spaniards are very in demand in Guangzhou, and the executive committee of Jianyi is considering setting up an office in Guangzhou to ship our products directly to the Guangzhou market to grab the jobs of the Spaniards......

"We don't have that much available ocean capacity at this stage to run the Guangzhou route. Sun Changmi of the Ministry of Shipping mercilessly interrupted Schneider's impassioned speech: "Now I have a Guangzhou ship and a Haicang ship on hand, and the Haicang ship is still the structure of a warship, and it can't hold any cargo at all." How useful can two ships be to go to Guangzhou and bring back twenty or thirty tons of cargo at most?"

Schneider smiled: "I have already taken into account the problems you mentioned, we can not only use our own capacity, but also our trade partners can work for us." For example, the 'Fu Ruifeng' that reached a deal with us this time is a commercial house in Guangzhou, and they promised to ship the materials we need from Guangzhou in the future, as long as the freight rate is converted. When we set up the Guangzhou office and have more products, there will definitely be more commercial houses pulling goods to Shengli Port to trade with us...... By the way, speaking of which, I must remind the Executive Committee that we have a limited number of temporary docks and that it is time to build a larger, permanent terminal. ”

"There's no one to use!" Ning Qi immediately complained: "The salt works and farms are about to start forming communes, and this will have to drain about two hundred laborers. The land passage from Base No. 2 to Shengli Port has been opened, but then it is necessary to organize people to renovate the ground before the ox carts can pass. The construction site of the hydropower station will not be completed in at least a month, the Tiandu iron ore mine will be officially mined, the charcoal kiln will be expanded, and the cement kiln, iron-making workshop, and glass kiln will be put into operation immediately.

Before Schneider could reply, Tao Donglai spoke: "By the way, what new ideas do you have on the issue of population introduction when you go out for an inspection this time?"

"It's good to say that most of the people in these nearby villages and towns are extremely poor, and if you can find a place with stable food and income, I believe there are many people who are willing to come. However, it is more troublesome to go a little farther away, and if there is a large-scale recruitment in Yazhou, I don't know if it will attract the attention of the official. Schneider is also helpless about this, the executive committee has money and food in hand, but it is not easy to make the residents near Yazhou abandon their existing lives and run to live in the wilderness in their eyes.

"Didn't Luo Shengdong say that prisoners could be sent to Shengli Harbor for hard labor?" Gu Kai interjected and asked.

"That's what he said, but he is still a hundred presidents, and the power at hand is too small to reach the place, so he has to wait for the promotion order issued to him in Qiongzhou Mansion before he can find a way to transfer labor to us. Schneider had already asked Luo Shengdong in detail about this at the wine table, so he knew it more clearly.

"I don't think there will be so many ships coming to Shengli Port in the short term, so the repair of the wharf will be delayed in advance, and the construction will be arranged when Luo Shengdong has specific news. Tao Donglai finally made a decision: "The glass kiln and the salt field should be put into production as much as possible, and the manpower can be given priority." As for the establishment of the Guangzhou office, I will wait until the completion of the hydropower station project, because after all, this is a major event that requires the coordination of multiple departments, and we will not be able to spare so many capable forces to prepare for this matter for a while. ”

In addition to the Ministry of Shipping, which was satisfied with the purchase of tung oil, cloth and shipbuilding tools, most of the other procurement projects were not completed, and sulfur, saltpeter, cassiterite, and dansha were purchased from dozens to one or two hundred catties, while coke and coal, which had a huge demand gap, were only purchased at 500 catties and 1,400 catties respectively, which was a drop in the bucket for the industrial projects that the Executive Committee was going to launch. Fortunately, the two commercial houses in Yazhou have already said that they will do their best to organize the supply of goods and transport them to Shengli Port for trading.

After the report on the field trip to Yazhou was concluded, the next topic was some relatively trivial matters. The person in charge of each project proposes various problems encountered in the actual operation and discusses solutions together. This discussion will take place every evening, and the Executive Committee will adjust the next steps in the development plan in light of the difficulties encountered in each project.

Although many of them were specialized technical talents in the past, in the era of large industry with extremely detailed social division of labor in the past, the vast majority of people did not have much practical experience in the process of project construction, which led to most of the projects crossing the river by feeling the stones, and problems emerged one after another.

For example, Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi, who studied shipbuilding, although they were born in a professional class and are familiar with various hull structures, it is not too difficult to design a sea ship, but it is not as easy as it is to let them pick up an axe and saw to build a sea ship from wood, and their hands-on ability is far inferior to Cai Hongzhan, who has been a carpenter. The same situation is reflected in different ways in almost every project, which slowly exposes the weakness of the crowd structure of the traversal, and there are enough people with theoretical knowledge and too few people with practical experience.

In the face of such a situation, the Executive Committee has no better solution, but to encourage everyone to try boldly on the premise of paying attention to safety, and even if they fail, they will only pay the tuition fees. The only consolation is that the foundation of agriculture is very solid, and there has never been any problems in the crossing, and all the agricultural plans made in advance are being completed step by step, so that at least the people who travel do not have to worry about starving to death because no one can farm in this era.