After disembarking, the expedition members were surrounded by a crowd and returned to Base 1, and after a brief welcome dinner, the exhausted team members returned to their barracks to rest. After the Executive Committee learned that the expedition team had sailed for more than 20 hours in a row to rush back, the team members were allowed to make up for a few hours of sleepiness and wait for the evening to recuperate before reporting on the expedition. Of course, before that, the expedition team had already handed over the port area map and route chart to the executive committee, so that they could cooperate with the relevant departments to start preparations immediately, and the planning and design of construction plans for such a complex project as the construction of the port area could not be done in a day and a half.

During the nine days of the expedition team's trip, the relevant departments were not idle, and the preparations made by the entire crossing group for overseas mining did not stop for a day.

First and foremost is the metallurgical workshop, which is responsible for metal processing in addition to the day-to-day pig iron smelting tasks. Mining overseas will require a large number of iron tools, and the whole workshop has been producing all kinds of shovels, hoes, hammers and other tools non-stop these days. In order to ensure sufficient supply for mining operations, the Crossing Group even suspended the export of iron to Leo and Yazhou.

The second steam engine has also entered the assembly and commissioning stage. With the experience of manufacturing and using the first testing machine, the second steam engine has made a lot of technical improvements in the manufacturing process, and the technical team hopes that this steam engine can reach the level of continuous operation for 72 hours without failure in actual use. This may seem like a low requirement, but considering the current level of production technology and machining accuracy, it is not easy for the technical team to do this. Only after the large-scale electric transmission and processing equipment are installed in place, so that the processing accuracy of some important parts can be qualitatively improved, and the actual efficiency of the steam engine will have a big leap. As for the many steam trains and steam galleons that have been waiting for the crossing, I am afraid that it will have to wait until the cross-cutting group begins to have the capacity to smelt steel on a large scale.

In addition to the production tools, the production of weapons was also a key project during this time. At present, the Type 27 arquebus has begun to be finalized and mass-produced after repeated trials and improvements in the early stage, of course, this so-called mass production is only relative to the production efficiency of the current era, and the current production capacity of the group can only reach the level of 120 to 150 per month. The more technologically advanced flintlock pistol has also been trial-produced samples, and the difficulty in manufacturing is still stuck in the material, in order to increase the power of the firearm, the current pig iron barrel has not much potential to be tapped, and it is necessary to use more solid steel to meet the requirements, and now there is simply not enough steel reserves in the hands of the crossing group to supply the military industry for mass production.

In terms of artillery, the 6-pounder army gun has been basically finalized, and the sea gun has also begun to be loaded on ships for sea tests. It is worth mentioning that in the process of trial production of matches by the Ministry of Chemical Industry, potassium chlorate required for the evolution of artillery has been created by the way, which is an important material for making artillery fire tubes, and the Ministry of Military Police has been waiting impatiently for this thing. With the firing tube, there is no need to use ignition powder and open flame for gun firing, which not only greatly increases the safety of the artillery crew during firing, but also solves the problem of low success rate of artillery firing on rainy days.

The Executive Committee and the Military Police Department have held many discussions on how strong the armed defense forces needed to be used for overseas mining and whether it is necessary to equip firearms on a large scale, but no final conclusion has been reached. This is partly due to the fact that the final location of the port area has not yet been determined, and it is impossible to estimate the number of armed forces needed for defense, and partly because there is still a debate within the Crossing Circles about what kind of armed forces should be established at overseas bases.

Some people believe that the training time of naturalized civilian soldiers is still very limited, and both the technical and tactical level and the ideological transformation work are only in the initial stage, and they are not suitable for being sent overseas in large quantities. Even if a certain number of local security forces are required, the number of naturalized armed personnel should not exceed that of the crossing people.

However, the opinion of the Military Police Department is that the main body of the armed forces stationed abroad should be mainly naturalized civilian soldiers, and only a small number of commanders should be sent through the country. As for the deployment of firearms, the Military Police Department believes that since the training of arquebuses and gunners has begun in the new barracks, it is necessary to put these people into actual combat as soon as possible, and the sooner they master the combat skills of the firearms era, the better. Of course, stationed in the Hongji Coal Mine may not encounter any battles, but this experience of being stationed overseas is undoubtedly a good training for soldiers.

In fact, the Military Police Department did not just pay lip service, and after obtaining the approval of the Executive Committee, the preliminary preparations were already carried out before the expedition set off. The second batch of 110 naturalized civilian military and police cadets had already been stationed in the new barracks half a month ago, and like the first batch of cadets, they were recruited mainly from the three communes under the jurisdiction of the Executive Committee. After a period of intensive training, they will be added to the local security and defense forces to make up for the manpower gap caused by the deployment of armed personnel to overseas stations.

The first batch of local security guards and soldiers, who have been trained for more than a month, will be sent to overseas stations. In addition to the increase in their salaries, these personnel stationed abroad will also be given the opportunity to be promoted after completing their overseas service, and it is very likely that the first batch of junior officers of the naturalized civilian forces in the future will be among this group. The news that the crossing group will establish an overseas base has been semi-public, and the basic treatment of expatriates has also been spread in private, and anyone with a little brain knows how to choose this kind of opportunity. According to an internal survey conducted by the Military Police Department, the enthusiasm of naturalized civilian soldiers is very high at present, after all, the power of double salary and early promotion is still quite large.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that more than 40 local teenagers under the age of 16 were selected for the newly established Scout camp, and these teenagers were recommended by the cultural and educational system in charge of Ningqi. The selection criteria of the relevant departments are very simple and crude, such as poor academic performance, slow academic progress, and a tendency to make trouble and have a tendency to violence, all of which are the reasons for being selected for the Scout camp. The bear children will be trained semi-militarily in a scout camp until the age of 16, when most of them will join the military and police system.

As for the most pressing capacity issue of the Executive Committee, it seems that there is a glimmer of hope. Just the day before the expedition team returned, He Xi, who had gone to the capital city of Qiongzhou alone to inquire about the situation, had already returned to Shengli Harbor on the ship "An Fuxing", and he returned with a ship of 400 fortunes and 47 sailors who towed their families and mouths.

Relying on the introduction of "An Fu Xing", He Xi met a lot of maritime merchants who traveled back and forth between Qionglei and Qionglei during his time in Qiongzhou, and was lucky to meet a merchant who was ready to sell his ship back to the north, and finally bought this sea ship in good condition for 800 taels, and recruited a group of poor sailors in Qiongzhou to bring it back. As for the sellers of sea vessels, there are still a few, but the tonnage of these ships for sale is too small and does not meet the requirements of the Executive Committee that this route can run more quickly.

But that didn't bother him, and he quickly thought of a compromise. At a price of 200 taels of silver per month, He Xi searched the market for large merchant ships willing to accept employment. This price immediately caused repercussions among the maritime merchants, and soon several maritime merchants took the initiative to contact He Xi to discuss employment matters. For these shrewd maritime merchants, it is better to have a long-term charter of the ship to him than to sell it to this wealthy "Haihan man" for a price. So He Xi had already negotiated the lease of three large ships before he came back, but these ships were not empty at that time, and he had to go to Xu Wen on the other side of the Qiongzhou Strait to get to Shengli Port to obey the dispatch. Of course, during the charter period, the salaries and expenses of all sailors and shipwrights on board will also be borne by the crossing group.

In addition, He Xi also placed an order for two 400 ships in the only shipyard in Qiongzhou Prefecture, totaling 2,200 taels of silver, but only a deposit of 600 taels was given at present, and as for the delivery date, I am afraid that it will need to wait until the end of the year. Of course, this money will not be paid in vain, and he quickly persuaded several veteran shipwrights with rich qualifications to follow him south on the condition of offering three times the salary at the shipyard, and completed a successful poaching at a very small cost.

These may seem like a lot of expenses, but the Executive Committee is not worried about the burden on the finances. The last time the "Anfu Hong" took a few sets of glass stationery samples, on the day of the exhibition at the Qiongzhou head office, they were snapped up by various magnates, and it is said that at least two sets have been sent to the prefect's official residence, causing a popular trend in the market is only a matter of time. When He Xi was sent back to Shengli Port this time, the shopkeeper Zhang of "Anfu Xing" immediately ordered a full 200 sets, and said that "Anfu Xing" and Haihan could fully use "negotiable coupons" for account settlement. This means that in the future, the "Anfu Bank" in Qiongzhou or other places can directly purchase goods with negotiable coupons. Of course, this treatment is also based on Schneider's commitment to adopt an unlimited redemption policy for "Anfu Bank", which can exchange negotiable coupons for huàn to full silver at any time in Shengli Harbor without any restrictions.

The Ministry of Commerce is very confident that with the continuous enrichment of product categories and the rapid progress of product technology, even if it is only the foreign trade income of glass products, it is enough to offset all the current commercial expenditures including the purchase of raw materials and achieve a trade surplus.