"Be careful, hold on!"

Every time Yu Dashan took two or three steps, he couldn't help but turn around and tell the two laborers behind him. He's been working in Victory Harbor for a year, and it's the first time he's taken on such a daunting task.

Behind him, two laborers held a two-foot-square wooden glass box, and moved cautiously under the gaze of the mountain. Of course, with the current flat glass manufacturing technology of Shengli Harbor, such a large piece of glass cannot be made, so each side is inlaid with several smaller glass plates. The chest did not contain gold or silver treasures, but some pieces of white flowers and flowers printed with small letters. But Yu Dashan looked like he was facing a great enemy, for fear that one of the two laborers would accidentally drop the box to the ground.

The paper in the box is the ballot paper for this election, just now there was a burst of rain in the sky, Ning Qi asked Yu Dashan to receive the ballot box into the house first, and now that the weather is clear, it will be carried out again and put outside the gate of the No. 1 base for others to vote, of course, the main purpose of this is to let the naturalized people observe the voting process.

Yu Dashan didn't understand the significance of his bosses getting such a glass box to put outside, so he went to Ning Qi to ask for the mystery. When he learned that the pieces of paper in this box would determine the composition of the next executive committee, Yu Dashan's face turned blue, and he even wanted to resign from this task to Ning Qi.

As the most senior naturalized citizen, Yu Dashan was well aware of the status of the Executive Committee among the Haihan people, and even high-level personnel like Ning Qi had to obey the decisions of the Executive Committee. The first rule to be remembered by the foreigners who want to obtain naturalized nationality in Victory Port is to unconditionally obey the orders of the Executive Committee. It is no exaggeration to say that in the minds of the vast majority of naturalized people, the authority of the Executive Committee has far exceeded that of the Yazhou government. An executive committee member like Ning Qi has a status in the hearts of ordinary naturalized people no less than the Lord Zhizhou in Yazhou City who doesn't show up often.

Although Yu Dashan didn't quite understand why the good executive committee suddenly had to be re-elected, since it was the leader's decision, it was good to implement it. After a year of errand, Yu Dashan also knows very well that the reason why an uneducated person like himself can be reused by the executive committee is to ask less and do more and obey the arrangement.

finally delivered the glass ballot box to the voting office at the door, and Yu Dashan finally breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to leave, someone next to him stopped him: "Uncle Yu!"

Yu Dashan turned his head and saw that this person was wearing a black uniform, with a baton pinned to his waist and a copper whistle on his chest, which was the standard security guard's attire. After a closer look, it was his acquaintance, his son Yu Xiaobao's good friend Fu Li.

"It's Fu Li! Why did you join the security team?" Yu Dashan sighed: "It's really spiritual to wear this official uniform!"

"I wanted to join the militia group, but the instructor finally assigned me to the security team. Fu Li smiled helplessly.

Fu Li's desire to join the militia is not a secret in Shengli Harbor, and many Li people know that the young master of Fu Shantong is unwilling to take over the position of the head of the militia, and he is bent on joining the Haihan militia. Although the relationship between Fu Shantong and Haihan is very close, due to various considerations, the Military Police Department has never let go of this mouth. It was not until the end of last year that the Li people of Fu Shan began to move out of the mountains and settle in the area arranged by the Executive Committee, that the Military Police Department finally let go and agreed to Fu Li's application to let him enter the training camp.

However, from the beginning, the military police department did not intend to let him enter the militia system, mainly because his status is more sensitive, and staying in the militia may have some adverse effects on the unity of the soldiers of the Li and Miao ethnic groups. In the end, it was Ning Qi, an outsider, who built yì and assigned Fu Li to the police system, and was responsible for maintaining civil law and order in the future, which was more suitable for his identity. Now that Fu Li has received more than two months of professional training, he is now in a work internship, and today he is tasked with guarding the ballot box here.

"You have to take care of this box!" Yu Dashan did not forget to tell Fu Li: "This is what Mr. Ning personally ordered!"

Fu Li patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, the security team has already met and talked about this before, and I know the severity." ”

Due to the previous preparation period of more than half a month, the people who have the qualifications to vote have basically already determined the voting object, and the voting work has basically been completed two days before the opening of voting. However, ballot boxes are still displayed at the gates of the two bases in Victorious Port and Tian Du every day, and the local naturalized people also know about the fact that the Executive Committee is being re-elected through various channels.

On 28 March, two other "Explorer-class" sailing ships on the slipway of the Port Victory Shipyard also entered the stage of launching and outfitting. The three ships built in this batch are all built according to the standards of warships, and the total cost of the weapons systems to be equipped on board has exceeded 30,000 yuan. Together with the first ship of this class, the Explorer, a total of four Explorer-class sailing ships will become the first warships after the establishment of the Navy. However, due to the progress of the construction of the latter two ships, it will definitely be too late to complete the outfitting and loading into the navy before the anniversary, and at most it can only be used as a vase in the celebration ceremony.

According to the plan of the Military Police Department, the first fleet of the Navy will be mainly composed of "exploration-class" warships, a total of eight ships, and nearly half of the construction tasks have been completed. Judging by the current pace of shipbuilding, the construction and armament of eight ships will be completed within this year, and it should not be a big problem to put this fleet into practical use. The Military Police Department hopes to complete the construction and installation of at least two 500-ton large warships named "Expedition-class" by the Ministry of Maritime Transport and equip the fleet with at least four supply troop carriers based on the "Exploration-class" within this year. If possible, the Military Police Department even hopes to build two small-tonnage fast sailing ships closer in shape to Western-style clippers to serve as transport vessels for the fleet.

If this construction plan can be fully implemented, the navy will have a "huge" fleet of 16 ships, consisting of eight "exploration-class" warships, two "expedition-class" warships, four supply troop carriers, and two fast-moving ships. However, in order to complete this plan, the investment required is also quite huge, just the cost of building and equipping the ship needs nearly 150,000 yuan, almost reaching the average cost of 10,000 yuan for a ship, and the price of the 400 Fuchuan Guangchuan purchased from the outside world in various ways during the same period is much cheaper, and the cost of building this fleet is almost enough for the Ministry of Shipping to purchase 100 Chinese sailing ships. If you count the sailors, crews, combatants, etc., the initial investment of the entire fleet is almost about 200,000 yuan.

It is precisely because of the large budget that the shipbuilding plan submitted by the Military Police has been stuck in the Executive Committee and has not been approved. Yan Chujie jumped up and down for several months, and finally only got a budget for eight "Exploration-class" warships, and as for the 500-ton "Exploration-class", the executive committee only agreed to build one first to see how effective it would be before deciding on the follow-up construction plan. On the other hand, the supply and fast transport ships were all put on hold, and a part of the Executive Committee was of the opinion that the existing cargo ships could be used as temporary supply troop carriers in wartime, and that the "Speed" and "Lightning" had always played the role of fast transport ships, and there was no need to build sailing ships with similar functions for the time being.

In the eyes of the Military Police Department, this decision of the Executive Committee is completely a layman's command of an insider, but the budget is stuck in the hands of the Executive Committee, and it is useless for Yan Chujie to be unwilling. In January, the expedition to Annam made a lot of money, and according to the calculations after the fact, the North Vietnamese regime had to pay Hai Han a total of 150,000 taels of silver, and with the list of their new arms orders, this figure had exceeded 200,000 taels. However, the financial situation of the North Vietnamese regime was not very good, so the money could not be paid in one lump sum, and only 120,000 taels were paid at present, and the rest needed to be paid in installments over a period of six months.

After this money is in the hands of the Executive Committee, it is necessary to deduct all kinds of expenses in the early stage, as well as various pensions, incentives, and combat salaries advanced for the Military Police Department after the war, and finally only more than half of the military expenses issued to the Military Police Department are actually left. A portion of this money will be used to cover the cost of the army's expansion, and the amount that can be invested in the navy is extremely limited, and it is simply not enough to implement the military police department's concept of a large fleet.

Of course, in addition to the cost of building ships, in fact, the Executive Committee vetoed the fleet plan of the Military Police Department and had other difficulties. After the end of the expedition to Annam, the army's expansion plan was successfully completed, and the local army force in Shengli Port is expected to complete the establishment of a reinforced battalion within this year, which is basically based on the expeditionary force, and on the basis of the original militia regiment, artillery and other special arms will be expanded, and with the addition of non-combatants and reserve troops, the total strength of this so-called "reinforced battalion" will probably be around 1,000 people.

If the fleet plan of the Military Police Department is completed, the sixteen ships will be equipped with at least six or seven hundred people, and the army and navy together will have more than 1,500 people, and these armed personnel will be equipped and trained as professional soldiers, but they are not the amateur soldiers who fight in wartime and farm in leisure time like the Ming Dynasty. You must know that the garrison of the Ming Dynasty on the entire Hainan Island is only 11,000 households, a total of more than 10,000 people, and the ratio of the army to the resident population is less than one-twentieth. However, after the navy of the Crossing Group became a separate army, the ratio of the army to the resident population was nearly one-tenth, and it was completely wartime, and this kind of paramilitary social system was not what the Executive Committee wanted to see.

On March 29, the first phase of the track construction project from Tiandu to Shengli Port was finally completed and opened to traffic. The celebration ceremony was held at the "Shengli Port Station" outside the north gate of the No. 1 base, and the executive committee members were all present to celebrate another "engineering feat" created by the Ministry of Construction. According to the railway completion ceremony of later generations, Tao Donglai, who is the leader of the Ministry of Construction, personally waved the hammer and nailed the last road nail into the sleeper.

After that, the head of the No. 1 steam locomotive, which had already stopped here, began to pressurize slowly, and the water vapor pushed the piston, and the cylinder connecting rod under the locomotive moved with the piston, driving the wheels about a foot in diameter to slowly rotate. The chimney on the roof of the car spews smoke rhythmically upwards with a heart-stopping sound. This almost miraculous scene caused a low cry among the onlookers, if it were not for the simple science popularization of the people in advance, I am afraid that someone would have knelt down and kowtowed to the locomotive on the spot.

The Ministry of Industry has put two steam locomotives on this trackline, but this is not an original work of the plane, but one of the materials procured before the crossing. The Ministry of Industry believed that it would be difficult to manufacture a steam propulsion system with excellent quality suitable for rail transit with the processing level in the early stage, so it added several steam locomotives to the list of materials.

Weighing about 4 tons, this small locomotive can tow a carriage that weighs five times the locomotive's own weight, but its speed is only about 30 to 40 kilometers per hour, which is not even comparable to the "Rocket" steam locomotive built by the British inventor Stephenson in the early 19th century. It's not that you've bought a bad deal, it's that the quality of the construction of this rail line is not guaranteed to make the trains running on it run too fast. However, no one stood up to accuse the Ministry of Construction of cheating and playing tricks in the process of building the tracks, because the matter of rushing the construction period is a clear requirement of the Executive Committee, and if the Ministry of Construction can be given three or five more months to slowly carry out the construction, then perhaps the quality of the project will indeed be improved.

But even if the speed is relatively poor, it has been able to make the executive committee members basically satisfied, and after this track is put into use, it will be able to shorten the travel time between the two places to about one-third of the original. In particular, the transportation of bulk goods and overweight items no longer has to rely on ox carts to move slowly as before.

The small train dragged three cargo boxes and a passenger car box, but in later generations, the executive committee members who were accustomed to the high-speed train did not plan to take this train to enjoy the scenery along the way. Therefore, in addition to the technicians who drove the train, there were only a few representatives of the naturalized people who were selected for the completion of the trial operation, which of course was a very high honor for the lucky ones who were selected.

Several passengers on the slow-moving train excitedly shouted and waved to the crowd of onlookers, and their pride was palpable. If it weren't for the fact that there were a large number of security guards on both sides of the track to maintain order, I was afraid that there would be people who really did good things to rush to the front and make some dangerous moves.

The completion of the first phase of the project does not mean that the construction of the track here is over, in fact, the work of building the track never stops even during the completion ceremony. The current single-lane traffic is only a preliminary solution to the rapid traffic problem between the two places, and a double line needs to be built to achieve the need for two-way traffic at the same time. Of course, the construction period of the double line is not as tight as the requirements of the first phase of the project, and the Ministry of Construction can better control the quality of the double line to improve its operation speed.

Outside of the track line, the original road pavement needs to be re-widened because it is taken up by more than half of the track, and the pavement will be gradually hardened. In the planning of the Executive Committee, industrial production units in the next 10 or even 20 years will be concentrated in the Tiandu area, and in particular, such "high-tech" industries as the military industry must be placed under the nose of the Executive Committee. The traffic conditions between the Tiando Industrial Zone and the port will also be one of the factors affecting the future development of the industrial zone, and the Executive Committee hopes that these infrastructure projects can be dealt with as soon as possible, so that there will be no bottlenecks in the transportation problem when large-scale industrial construction is carried out in the future.

On 30 March, the Guangzhou Office sent a telegram back, saying that the "Qiong Lianfa" shareholder delegation had departed from Guangzhou in the early morning of the same day. However, due to the relatively large scale of this expedition, each merchant prepared their own ships and formed a fleet, so there was no need for Shengli Port to send fast sailing ships to pick up people at the mouth of the Pearl River.

Through the efforts of the Guangzhou Office, the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" finally agreed to the invitation to inspect, and each business sent competent personnel to act as team leaders, and several even big bosses were personally dispatched, and they also wanted to confirm with their own eyes what kind of scene was the Shengli Port, which was rumored to be miraculous.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Cliff Office also sent a telegram back, saying that Luo Shengdong and Wei Ping had persuaded Zhang Tongju and Wang Tongzhi respectively, and that they would also be invited to visit Shengli Port at that time. Of course, the Cliff Office will also pay these two adults a large appearance fee in private. As for the local number one Zhizhou, he unfortunately felt a cold and had been bedridden for many days, and lost this opportunity to go to the cave to make extra money.

On 31 March, Qian Tien Dun led some of his subordinates who had made great achievements in North Vietnam to arrive at Victory Port by boat. In addition to attending the recent public award ceremony, Qian Tiandun will also make a keynote report at the Military Police Department on the operational situation and future development plan of the special operations company. In the battle at the beginning of the year, the most brilliant part of the entire expeditionary force was Qian Tiandun and the special operations company he led, which staged successful sabotage warfare behind enemy lines on many occasions, fully proving that the troop training methods and combat systems he had proposed before were feasible to a certain extent. How to draw on the successful experiences of the past, further improve the training methods and the establishment of troops, and achieve the effect of strengthening the actual combat capability has become one of the key research projects that the Military Police Department will focus on in the future.

In addition, the North Vietnamese side also sent a very important team of representatives to the port of Shengli on the same ship