Compared with an infantry regiment scattered in the northern part of Qiongzhou, the mixed fleet of the navy currently carrying out blockade tasks in the Qiongzhou Strait is not as strong as the army, but its daily military expenditure is much higher than that of the army. The daily consumption of the two flagships alone is equivalent to more than two-thirds of the army, which is not just a matter of signing for Yan Chujie, who is in charge of the overall situation in the city.

"Someone!" Yan Chujie opened his mouth and ordered: "Go and find Xu Yiren from the logistics department." ”

The orderlies took the order, and soon returned to Yan Chujie's office with a man. This man was wearing a camouflage uniform, instead of the gray cloth uniform of the current militia army, and only the older militia soldiers knew that this kind of bells and whistles Haihan-style military uniform was the equipment that the first batch of enlisted militia troops were fortunate enough to have, and almost all of those who remained in the militia to serve in this group were promoted to officers at the company and platoon level.

Xu Yiren is one of these "veterans" - although he has only been in the military for three years now, he is already the oldest naturalized civilian soldier in the Haihan militia. He was also one of the few honor students who could read and count among the first batch of people to join the army, and after enlisting in the army, he was directly recruited by the company to do clerical work. During the Hue Campaign last year, Xu Yiren also went to Annam with a large army, and completed the task of organizing logistics and heavy transportation. After the end of the battle, Xu Yiren was transferred to the logistics department because of his cousin, and he is now the warehouse director of the logistics department of the first regiment. This time, the militia army occupied northern Qiongbei and set up military material distribution centers in the capital city of Qiongzhou and Danzhou respectively, and Xu Yiren was assigned to serve in the capital city.

"Xu Yiren, how much reserve of Annan refined coal is there now?" Yan Chujie asked straight to the point.

Xu Yiren hurriedly responded: "The last batch of refined coal shipped from Annan was half a month ago, a total of 140,000 catties, and after arriving in the local area, the navy directly loaded half of it, but counting the days, it will come back to replenish the coal in about three or five days." At present, there are less than 50,000 catties of coal in the warehouse, and yesterday the regiment headquarters sent a notice that the coal ship in Annam needs to be repaired and maintained, and it will take about 10 days before it can transport coal again. ”

The refined coal brought from Annam was mainly supplied to the steam boilers of the two hybrid warships, and secondly, as the main fuel for cooking and boiling water at sea for the fleet. Recently, the density of naval fleets sailing in the Qiongzhou Strait has been very frequent, and Wang Tom has consciously wanted to train the sailors on the capital ship to be familiar with the steam-powered propulsion method, and the consumption of coal is naturally not a small number. The army's logistics department also uses coal as fuel, which is much more convenient than burning firewood for cooking classes. Therefore, these hundreds of thousands of catties of coal look a lot, but they are very fast to use, and it is not possible to use more than 100 tons of coal from Annan at a time.

Of course, this problem is not impossible to solve, and the easiest way is to ship more here. However, Annam's sea vessels have been busy sending thousands of "pirate troops" back to their stations recently, and there is a lot of pressure on the schedule.

Yan Chujie nodded slightly and said, "The existing coal reserves, if the current consumption rate is maintained, will it not be able to sustain the next time Annan transports coal?"

"There will be a gap of at least eight to one hundred thousand catties. Xu Yiren immediately responded.

"There is a risk of a shortage in the supply of materials, why didn't the logistics department report it?" Yan Chujie's tone suddenly became solemn: "Coal is a strategic material, and the supply is interrupted, affecting the operation of the troops, who is responsible for this?"

Xu Yiren's body trembled, and he hurriedly explained: "I know my mistake in my humble position! It's just that this matter has been communicated to the army three days ago, asking it to temporarily stop using coal and use dry firewood before the next coal transportation. Lignite has also been purchased locally to ensure the supply of military coal for the Navy. ”

Yan Chujie's face softened a little after listening to this explanation: "All the coal in the stock is temporarily sealed and given priority to the navy. On Annan's side, I will ask people to urge them to bring coal as much as possible. Alright, you can go back to work first. ”

After sending Xu Yiren away, Yan Chujie looked at Tom Wang's application report on the table again, and couldn't help but have a wry smile on his face. As soon as Wang Tom opened his mouth, he asked for a thousand tons of coal, but now there are dozens of tons of stock in the warehouse, which cannot meet the needs of the navy at all. Yan Chujie lifted his pen and crossed out the line on the report about coal burning, and then wrote "insufficient supply, deal with it as appropriate".

Then Yan Chujie drafted another telegram, asking the communications department to contact the base camp and arrange for a cargo ship to transport a batch of coal from Shengli Port. Although there are some small coal mines in the northern part of Qiongbei, the locally produced lignite is easy to weather, has a low ignition point, has little calorific value, and is not easy to store and transport over long distances, so the navy does not like to use this low-grade coal. On Hainan Island, only the naval material warehouse in Shengli Port has a large amount of Annan refined coal reserves, compared with the black soil port that can only be shipped ten days later, it is still faster to transport it from Shengli Port in the south, anyway, the military coal stored there is not useful for the time being, it is better to transport it to Qiongbei first to come in emergency.

As for Tom Wang's second application, requesting that an engineering team be stationed in the selected military port area, Yan Chujie could only express his helplessness.

Although the military has begun to set up its own exclusive engineering construction department, due to the lack of technical personnel, most of the professionals in this area are concentrated in the Ministry of Construction, and the military can only turn to the Ministry of Construction when it wants to carry out large-scale infrastructure projects. The main technical forces of the Ministry of Construction are now almost all concentrated in Qiongxi, participating in the construction of the Changhua Shilu project.

Although the construction of the communication line is almost complete, the amount of work at both ends of the communication line is also considerable, and the Executive Committee has even delayed the development of several key sites in the Indochina Peninsula in order to enable the mining base in Qiongxi to be put into operation as soon as possible. It is difficult to say which is more important than these projects under construction, and all the military can do is to continue to present its case to the Executive Committee and apply for the transfer of personnel from the Ministry of Construction to implement the project. As for whether it can be done, it is not something that Yan Chujie can decide unilaterally.

For Haihan, although the strategic significance of occupying the northern Qiongbei region is great, the price to be paid after this is also considerable. Although Haihan has gained a large area of domination and a population of more than 100,000 people, these resources cannot be converted into benefits immediately, at least after a year and a half. However, during this period, the expenditure of funds and materials will not be suspended for a day, and the thousands of personnel sent by Haihan to the newly occupied areas will spend money on food, clothing, housing and transportation every day, not to mention a large number of infrastructure projects such as road construction, port construction, and bridge repair to be implemented in northern Qiongbei. A considerable part of the wealth accumulated in the past three years of various commercial activities in Haihantong Guò has to be smashed in Qiongbei in the recent period.

And the scope of this investment is not limited to Hainan Island, but also in Annam and Guangdong. A large number of people and materials have to be transferred back and forth during this period, and this practice of occupying maritime capacity will inevitably affect normal business and trade activities. For example, in order to realize the transfer of thousands of people between Annan and Hainan Island, Annan had to suspend all commercial shipping and devote all its capacity to the transportation of people and materials. Coal supply disruptions in northern Qiongbei are just one example, but the industrial areas in southern Qiongnan have also been affected by considerable disruptions, with charcoal mills that have been declining year by year restarting to operate at full capacity to offset some of the negative impact caused by the lack of coal supply.

In the face of such a huge investment, the Executive Committee is of course also considering other solutions – such as the fundraising development model, which has been used many times and has fully proven its usefulness.

On November 20, "Qiong Lianfa" held the "Chongzhen Three-Year General Meeting of Shareholders" in Haihan Xingang at the southern tip of Hong Kong Island, and all shareholders of all sizes sent representatives to participate even if they could not be present in person.

The reason why the meeting was held on Hong Kong Island instead of Sanya as in previous years is that recently, the Sanya area, or to be more precise, the ports of the entire Qiongzhou Island, have temporarily closed the navigation of mainland sea vessels, and ships not belonging to the Haihan Maritime Department and the Navy are only allowed to enter and leave, so as to prevent the true situation of Hainan Island from leaking out prematurely. Considering that most of the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" are settled in the mainland, the Ministry of Commerce of Haihan will put this shareholders' meeting in Xingang at the mouth of the Pearl River.

It has been exactly one year since the Hong Kong project was launched in October last year. The small island on the southwest side of the harbor that was originally named Ap Lei Chau in time and space has now been named "Zhennan Island" by the Xingang Port Management Committee, and this port is naturally called "Zhennan Port". Conspicuous grey concrete forts have been built on the island, and fifteen long-barreled large-caliber shore defense guns are aimed at the entrance to and from the harbor on the north and south sides, guarding the new harbor town.

Due to the needs of the war on Hainan Island, most of the Guangdong fleet originally stationed here has already gone south, leaving only two "exploration-class" warships stationed here, but the sailors from the north will not come to patrol here for a long time, so there is no external threat to speak of. There is also a company of artillery and an infantry company stationed on the side of Zhennan Port, and there is also a security police force of 50 people, which is a very considerable defensive force for such a small port with a permanent population of less than 2,000.

The vicinity of Zhennan Port is surrounded by mountains, and the flat land area is relatively limited, and it was basically divided up by various businesses recruited by Haihan during the development period. As a result, the harbor town was almost entirely filled with one merchant house after another, with a series of warehouses, and a small number of local residents either moved to the sailors' quarters on Zhennan Island, or to the nearby hillsides under the unified command of the Haihan people.

Compared with the narrow Wanshan Port, Zhennan Port, which can accommodate more ships to enter the port, is obviously more valued by the majority of maritime merchants. In particular, maritime merchants traveling between Guangdong and Fujian provinces are happy to use it as a supply point and cargo transit point on the shipping route.

Maritime merchants in Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, and Huizhou in the Pearl River basin are now accustomed to coming to Wanshan Port to purchase goods shipped from Fujian. Fujian maritime merchants can also be exempted from taxes to be levied by the imperial court when they transport goods here for trading, and they are also very happy. Therefore, although it was not built for a long time, it is no less prosperous than some famous ports in the southeast coastal area.

And the merchants who come and go here know very well that although this island nominally belongs to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, this town Nangang is the Haihan people who have the final say. To do business on the territory of the Haihan people, first, there is no need to worry about being bullied by forced buying and selling, second, there is no need to worry about all kinds of frauds and other things, and third, if there is a situation of poor turnover, Haihan people are very willing to borrow money to help. Based on some reasons like this, the maritime merchants who came here no longer cared whether the actual ownership of this port was Haihan or Daming, even if it was really occupied by Haihan, it didn't seem that there was anything bad, at least the silver in their pockets had really increased.

In the two or three days before the meeting, shareholders and representatives of companies from all over Guangdong arrived at Zhennan Port one after another. Although the temporary rescheduling notice of Haihan people is a bit hasty, the shareholders who have in-depth cooperation with Haihan are very clear that in addition to reporting the operation of the project, each shareholders' meeting also has a very important content of dividends. It has been a year since the start of the Zhennan Port project, and the official operation has been almost half a year.

Of course, according to the style of Haihan people, there is another possibility in addition to dividends, that is, they are accustomed to making a "surprise announcement" at the shareholders' meeting.

The so-called surprise announcement means that Haihan people announce some new business projects at the annual general meeting of shareholders, and these projects are often beyond the imagination of shareholders, and all have excellent investment prospects. According to the words of Schneider, Minister of Commerce of Haihan, this is a surprise and benefit prepared by Haihan for partners, as long as you become a business partner of Haihan, you do not need to worry about the future of business. And this has become a widely spread topic in the Haihai business circle, every year before the shareholders' meeting is held, the big businessmen in Fuguang and Guangzhou will secretly speculate what kind of new projects Haihan people will come up with to attract investment. There will even be good deeds to draw lottery, leading people to bet on the outcome.

After the shareholders arrived at Zhennan Port, acquaintances naturally walked around to visit each other, and also talked about the "surprise announcement" that is very likely to occur at this shareholders' meeting, and all kinds of speculation are endless.