Although a test ride was arranged, the "Intercity Rail Transit Scheme" carefully designed by the Ministry of Construction was not favored by investors, and except for Li Nai, no other investors showed obvious investment interest in the project. The North Vietnamese mission quietly inquired about whether this artifact could be introduced to Annam, but after listening to the quotation and construction period of the railway project, Zheng Zheng silently kept his mouth shut, and instead of recruiting thousands of migrant workers to spend several years building the railway from Thang Long Province to the front line, it was more practical to train these migrant workers to be sent to the battlefield as musketeers.

The reason for this is that investors do not have enough confidence in the future development of Sanya, and do not dare to invest in projects with large upfront investment, uncertain market prospects, and a particularly long payback cycle. Schneider, who was in charge of attracting investment, was not very upset about this, and he had somewhat expected this situation in advance.

The main reason why this kind of infrastructure projects that investors are not very interested in are added to the list of projects of "Qiong Lianfa" is that these projects will involve various sensitive issues related to land in the process of implementation, and the executive committee needs the shell of "Qiong Lianfa", a "private enterprise", as a cover, to control some of the contradictions that arise at that time in the process of civil conflicts, and not to rise to the height of "Haihan vs Daming". It does not matter whether these infrastructure projects are successful or not, after all, such projects are regarded by the Executive Committee as the foundation for the future development of Sanya, and will not simply be based on profitability as the basis for implementation, even if not a single foreign investor participates, the Executive Committee will still allocate special funds for implementation.

On the morning of April 6, the members of the "Qiong Lianfa" shareholder delegation came to the Shengli Port Wharf with sleepy eyes, and their itinerary today was also very full, in the morning to visit the production of the two salt communes of Shengli Port Salt Field and Tielu Port Salt Field, and if time permitted, in the afternoon, they would go to the west of the Lianghe area to inspect the future Sanya River Port Project.

Salt has always been one of the most important products in the Executive Committee's strategy of exporting industrial products to the mainland, and salt production has been a key production project of the Executive Committee since the early days of the journey. In the view of the Executive Committee, salt, an industrial product, was not as lucrative as glass and munitions, but it was sold as a necessity of life far better than other commodities. With the help of advanced production and management technology, Haihan Salt has maintained a very low production cost while continuously expanding its production capacity, which is a competitive advantage that Daming's official counterparts do not have.

Some of them, such as Li Nai and Zhan Gui, have long been cooperating with the Crossing Group to traffic illicit salt, and others who have not yet come into contact with this business field are the objects that the commerce department is preparing to focus on promoting. In fact, one of the development projects of "Qiong Lianfa" is the "Haihan Salt Industry Operation Plan", which is to further expand the sales scale of the salt industry in the mainland that was originally exclusively represented by "Fu Ruifeng", and to make the cake bigger in the form of a joint venture of more than 10 shareholders. The purpose of arranging the site visit was to demonstrate to these stakeholders the local salt production capacity and to reassure them that the port would be able to provide sufficient supplies.

When the ship arrived at the salt field of Shengli Harbor, it was just in time for the cargo ship "Fu Ruifeng" to load salt here. Guan Anxi, the salt owner of the group, took the opportunity to introduce the current situation of the Shengli Port Salt Farm to the delegation: "The Shengli Port Salt Farm Commune has more than 800 members, and the annual output of salt is more than 8 million catties. At present, we export 500,000 to 600,000 catties of salt every month, and all the bosses should be very clear about the price of salt in Daming now. ”

Someone in the inspection group asked: "According to what Director An said, isn't it that the per capita output has reached 10,000 catties?" As far as I know, there is no salt farm in the Ming Dynasty that has such ability. What is the evidence for such a large production?"

"It's not easy to look at the evidence. Anxi raised his hand and pointed ahead: "Over there is the salt warehouse of the Yanchang Commune, let's go over and have a look." ”

At present, the reconstruction and expansion project of the Shengli Port Salt Works has been basically completed, and the construction of the production and living areas of the entire salt works has been completed, and the last part of the project is the construction of several salt warehouses near the coast. In order to prevent water and moisture, the salt warehouses are all made of bricks and stones, and the roofs are made of locally made cement prefabricated panels, and even asphalt, an important material currently under the direct control of the Executive Committee, has been used to make a comprehensive waterproof and seepage treatment.

Anthy had one of the warehouses open, and it was full of sacks that reached to the ceiling. A few bags were randomly checked for everyone to show, and they were all filled with high-grade refined salt, and the inventory of such a warehouse was as much as four or five hundred thousand catties, to say the least.

At that moment, people who were anxious began to ask Anxi if the salt in this warehouse was sold, and Anxi smiled and said: "The salt in this warehouse has been booked, if you are interested in buying it, then ask Li Gongzi of 'Furuifeng' directly." ”

Li Nai saw that everyone's eyes turned to him, and hurriedly clasped his fists and said: "Everyone, this salt is not ordered in the next one, and 'Fu Ruifeng' is just doing it for you." Among them are the Wang family of Nanxiong Mansion, the Qin family of Shaozhou Mansion, the Li family of Zhaoqing Mansion, and the Zeng family of Luoding Prefecture...... There are always more than a dozen of them, and my family is just delivering them on behalf of them, so don't misunderstand. ”

Rao is Li Nai can speak well, and this explanation is also a little weak. This is not because what he said is not the truth, "Fu Ruifeng" has been operating private salt for more than half a year, and has gradually established a set of sales network in Guangdong Province. Most of the salt trafficked from Shengli Port to the mainland is resold to local merchants, who then distribute it locally, rather than setting up their own sales terminals in each place in the same way as "Fu Ruifeng" used to.

This mode of operation also comes from Schneider's guidance, and the commercial department does not want "Frefeng" to control the sales of the entire salt industry in their own hands, but requires them to quickly occupy the market by developing distributors. Of course, the reason for this is not only for economic reasons, but also for security considerations, if the competent department of the Ming Dynasty wants to investigate the sale of private salt, it will not involve one or two households, but a large number of businesses throughout the entire sales area, which greatly reduces the danger of the "Fu Ruifeng" family. Take 10,000 steps back, when the time comes, "Fu Ruifeng" will really be investigated, and there will be other distributors' deposits, and it will be less difficult for Haihan to rebuild the sales network.

The reason why "Fu Ruifeng" will give up part of the profits and implement it according to the sales strategy given by Haihan is also because its own strength is indeed a little weak, and there is no foundation in the area outside Guangzhou Prefecture, and the sale of private salt in the local area is likely to touch the interests of some local snakes and cause trouble. Therefore, after opening up the trade routes of various prefectures and cities in Guangdong, "Fu Ruifeng" began to transform and concentrate on becoming an agent, reselling and wholesale the salt shipped to the mainland to other local distributors.

However, because the other shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa" were not involved in the illegal salt trafficking before, they did not know the inside information, so Li Nai's explanation sounded like some kind of pretext.

"Everyone, what Li Gongzi said is indeed the truth. At the critical moment, Anxi still stood up and helped Li Nai explain: "Our sales strategy is to develop more distributors, and with such a vast area in the mainland, can we cover all the provinces in South China with 'Fu Ruifeng' alone? As for selling salt, we don't need to do it ourselves, just leave it to the local merchants. This is not to share our profits with others, but to let more people into the industry and help us make more money. ”

Although there were a lot of strange words in Anxi's words, the people present basically understood the ** points. Some people with flexible minds immediately figured out the beauty of it. Of course, there are also people whose brains turn more slowly, and they are still wondering why more people in this business can increase their income.

Anxi didn't explain in detail at the moment, and naturally there would be people from the commerce and trade department to do ideological work for the rich businessmen. The thing to do now is to show these wealthy businessmen the local salt production capacity.

The abundant use of wind and animal power irrigation devices in the Yanchang Commune aroused great interest among wealthy merchants, and it is not difficult to imagine that with these efficient and convenient mechanical devices, the manpower required for salt production was reduced, while the production efficiency increased significantly, and the control of production costs became possible. Although the salt drying is not an advanced technology, the salt drying pond built by the Haihan people is much more advanced than the stone salt trough commonly used in the Daming salt field. The things that ten salt dings in the Daming Salt Farm can do well here with about two or three people. At this time, the members of the delegation gradually understood why Anxi could have full confidence in the cost advantage of Haihan refined salt.

The living conditions of the members of the salt factory also made the delegation impressed by the operational ability of the Haihan people. Most of the salts in the Daming Salt Farm are poor and white, and the salts in many places will even flee on a large scale when they can't survive, directly abandoning the salt farm. However, these members of the Haihan Salt Farm Commune live quite well, and the houses in the villages they live in are all neat and consistent, and they are obviously new houses built in a unified manner, which alone is enough to compare most of the Daming Salt Farms.

After a brief look at the production of the salt works in Shengli Harbor, the delegation returned to the seashore and continued to board two catamarans to visit the local salt works in the east of the Iron Furnace Harbor. Next to the narrow waterway into the Iron Furnace Harbor, the construction of a fortification has recently begun, and after completion, several small-caliber guns may be placed in it for defensive fire, which is also a plan that has been proposed by the Military Police Department many times more than half a year ago, and it is only recently that sufficient resources are finally available to carry it out.

The construction of the Iron Furnace Port began in mid-October last year, and it has been nearly half a year since then. During this six months, the Executive Committee arranged for thousands of immigrants to settle in Tielu Port, which had become the first and second communes of Tielu Port, and carried out the initial development of agriculture and salt industry in the port area. At present, nearly 3,000 acres of salt pans have been built, although for the time being it is not comparable to the scale of Shengli Port Salt Farm Commune, but the geographical environment here is better, and there is no need for special irrigation facilities, just by virtue of the daily ebb and flow of the tide can complete the seawater irrigation operation, and the production cost is much lower than that of Shengli Port Salt Field. Compared with Shengli Port in the west, the development potential of Tielu Port is greater, and it is estimated that the salt pans here will reach three times the area of Shengli Port Salt Works after the development is completed in the future, and the production capacity is estimated to be more than four times.

Great progress has also been made in agriculture, and the Ministry of Agriculture's plan for planting saline-tolerant crops for the Tielugang area has yielded some harvests, and the harvested saline-tolerant vegetables have been regularly delivered to the local market as a daily supply during the expedition to Annam. At the same time, the two communes were also cooperating with the former Fushan Li people who had moved to the nearby ravines to build a land passage from the Iron Furnace Port to the Tiandu area. At present, this 12-mile-long dirt road has been basically connected, but the transportation capacity is limited, and it is not able to transport heavy and bulk goods for the time being, but it has basically met the design requirements of the Executive Committee as a passage for the residents of Tielu Port to retreat inland to Tiandu under certain extreme circumstances.

The population of the Tielugang area is four times that of the Victory Port Yanchang Commune, and in addition to the commune's administrative institutions, a supporting medical, educational, public security, military and other institutions have been established here. Of course, compared to Victory Port, the structure here is still relatively simple and crude. For example, the medical institution is a small clinic where four people take turns to sit for treatment, and some incurable diseases can only be treated on a cargo ship that transports supplies to Shengli Port. Educational institutions do not have a perfect setting like Shengli Harbor Primary School, but only a few literacy classes run by the public, which start every other day, and the education is mainly for school-age children who are not yet able to work.

Compared to the Port of Victory area, the proportion of children here is much higher than that of the Port of Victory because the immigrants who moved to Tielu Port are mainly North Vietnamese refugees and have a large family structure. However, due to the limited consciousness of the people of this era, although the residents here have basically obtained the nationality of naturalized people, most of them are reluctant to send their children to Shengli Harbor with better conditions, and would rather let them study in a local literacy class or something. Although Ningqi, who is in charge of education, has repeatedly put forward rectification opinions at the executive committee meeting of this situation, after all, he is still limited by the current shortage of teachers, and there is no way to open a formal teaching institution in Tielu Port for the time being.

In contrast, the security agencies in the Tielu Port area quickly took on the role, and long before the large number of immigrants from the North Vietnamese area were repatriated, the Executive Committee had already transferred a group of indigenous security personnel who had been trained in the area from Heitu Port back to take charge of the grassroots security affairs of Tielu Port. At present, there is a grassroots police station in Tielugang, and there are more than 30 public security policemen in the official establishment, half of whom are North Vietnamese immigrants, and the other half are composed of Ming, Li and Miao people. A miniature version of the labor camp was also set up in Tielu Port, and those who were arrested for violating the law and discipline in the local labor camp were directly involved in the local labor camp to serve in the fortifications that the inspection team saw when they entered Tielu Port.

The military defense of the Iron Furnace was not stationed near the commune, but on the hillside at the mouth of the Iron Furnace Harbor. At the top of the mountain, which is 150 meters above sea level, is the commanding height that can be seen more than ten nautical miles nearby, and at the bottom of the mountain is the waterway fortifications under construction, and the daily supply is carried out by cargo ships entering the iron furnace port. Although the Central Military Commission has only deployed the strength of one platoon here, in view of the terrain at the mouth of the Iron Furnace Harbor, the strength of this platoon is enough to undertake the task of daily defense.

The delegation's interest in the Tielu Port area was significantly greater than in the previous visit, perhaps because the vast majority of immigrants here came from Annam. The more curious people began to ask the people how they had come to settle here across the sea. As for the production status of the Iron Furnace Port Salt Farm, because it is basically the same as the Shengli Port Salt Field, everyone has just read it hastily, but they have no interest in in-depth research. After all, although salt is good, but if you see too much, you will feel tired, and after looking at the white salt pan for a few hours, everyone feels that their eyes are about to be blinded.

After visiting the Iron Furnace Port, Schneider, who accompanied the delegation, looked at the time, and it was too late to go to the inland port area in the west to investigate, so he temporarily changed the plan and arranged for the delegation to visit the sugarcane planting base in the Yalong Bay area on the return trip. Originally, because it had not yet entered the harvest period, it was not included in the list of places to visit at first, but the effect of this temporary arrangement was unexpectedly good, and all shareholders showed strong interest in this sugarcane forest with an area of thousands of acres, and immediately began to ask Schneider about the sugar production process after the harvest period