"Population?" Qian Tiandun and Xie Chun asked in unison. It has been two months since they left the base camp, and they are not very clear about the current construction progress of the base camp, and naturally they do not know how big the labor gap is currently facing by the crossing group.

"At present, the speed of immigration in Victory Port is almost unable to keep up with our development, and we must establish new immigration channels. Tao Donglai briefly explained a series of plans in the near future.

The first is the construction plan of the salt works in Tielu Port, which requires the placement of at least 500 people in the local area, and the establishment of a corresponding salt factory second commune to manage it. The expansion of the production capacity of the salt plant is an important part of the next development plan of the Group, so the Executive Committee requires all departments to give priority to the implementation of the Iron Furnace Port plan. However, no matter how the law is guaranteed, this personnel gap cannot be filled immediately by policy.

The second major labor gap is in the planning stage of the Victory Harbor business area. After the construction of the landscape avenue from the port to the No. 1 base, the blank area on both sides of this avenue was demarcated as the future Shengli Port business area. The first investor, the "Fu Rui Feng" firm, has already demarcated the land in August, and reached an investment agreement with the executive committee to open a commercial inn, a hotel and a ** that is still controversial today. Subsequently, another partner, "An Fu Hong", was not far behind and enclosed land here, preparing to open a commercial inn and restaurant.

In addition to these foreign investors, the Executive Committee is also preparing to build buildings such as the Haihan Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center and the Port Building in the business zone, which will require a large amount of labor to implement. In addition to the ongoing construction of the cargo terminal, the number of laborers required at the Shengli Port construction site is also several hundred.

The biggest real labor gap is not in the previous two places, but in the various production units that urgently need to expand the scale of production. Among them, the Tiandu Industrial Zone is the most, from the Tiandu iron ore mine to the smelting workshop, to the military industry that produces guns and cannons, all of which need to expand production capacity in the short term. The same situation is also seen in the chemical sector and the glass products workshop under construction, which is not worried about not being able to sell what is produced, but needs to worry that the production capacity cannot keep up with the speed of goods export. The number of industrial workers required by these units is not small, and the increase in production capacity will lead to the development of a series of other supporting industries, such as building materials supply, transportation and so on. According to the estimates of Ning Qi, the head of human resources, with the current planned industrial capacity, there is still a labor gap of at least about 2,000 in terms of industrial workers alone.

This sudden blowout development is actually affected by fuel, and the various industrial units that were originally limited by fuel supply have solved the biggest bottleneck that restricts development after the Heitu Port is put into operation, and the number of industrial workers that seemed to be saturated has suddenly become a short board. If you look at the entire Sanya area, the next manpower gap that the crossing group will face is at least more than 3,000, and relying on the immigration rate of hundreds of people per month, it is obviously unable to keep up with the needs of local development.

At present, the source of immigrants in Shengli Port is mainly the Yazhou area of Hainan Island, in order not to form a hostile state with the Ming Dynasty, it is inconvenient for the crossing group to take some more radical ways to obtain immigrants, mainly relying on various channels to solicit, and the speed of obtaining immigrants is still very limited. The Executive Committee had no choice but to look beyond Hainan Island, but the Guangzhou Office had only just been established, and its influence was still very limited, and the number of immigrants that could be sent to Shengli Port was not as large as Yazhou, and the mainland direction could not be counted on for the time being.

As the second overseas trading object of the Crossing Group, Vietnam was a natural target for the Executive Committee. Compared with the current situation is still relatively calm in the Ming Dynasty, Vietnam is undoubtedly a better target for immigrants in the midst of civil war, and before that, the Black Earth Port has successfully resettled thousands of Vietnamese immigrants, and has accumulated certain experience, and there are traces to carry out large-scale cross-sea migration. Tao Donglai had consulted with several other members of the executive committee before his departure, and believed that he should seize the opportunity to negotiate trade with the Vietnamese side and seek a more official way of cooperation with immigrants.

"Is that exchanging people for goods?" Although Qian Tiandun is not very clear about what is called "a more official form of immigration cooperation", he can roughly imagine the nature of this transaction.

Tao Donglai nodded, and did not deny Qian Tiandun's way of understanding: "To be precise, we need to legalize the current immigration methods, and let the North Vietnamese regime take the initiative to provide us with more immigrants." However, what exactly can be negotiated depends on whether the meeting will go smoothly. ”

"Mr. Tao, with all due respect, I think the difficulty in this matter is not only to make the North Vietnamese side relax on the immigration issue, but also to think about how this person should be lucky. Xie Chunjian said: "If we really want to transport people back to Shengli Port on a large scale, then the current cargo ship route arrangement may need to be greatly adjusted." ”

According to the previous arrangement, the cargo ships between the two places of Shengli Port of Heitu Port generally go to the coastal areas of Vietnam to load migrants when they return from Shengli Port, the reason for this is that the ships departing from Shengli Port are often relatively empty, and it is more cost-effective to load a trip to Shengli Port, and most of the ships from Heitu Port are fully loaded, considering the transportation efficiency, there is no need to delay another day's trip to the Thanh Hoa area to carry a few immigrants, but take the route of Fushuizhou Island and the west coast of Hainan Island to go directly to Shengli Port.

If a resettlement agreement is reached, then the Ministry of Shipping will inevitably make adjustments to the existing shipping routes, and may even need to arrange special flights to the coast of Vietnam to load people, and this change must be arranged in advance to avoid confusion in the arrangement of cargo ships.

Tao Donglai said: "The thing you said has also been arranged, a newly bought ship in Guangzhou will be slightly modified after returning to Shengli Port, specially used to transport immigrants, and at the end of the year, there will be two new ships we ordered before in the capital of Qiongzhou to be delivered, there are three special ships to run this route, each ship can run at least three times a month, and if you go by, you can transport back at least 2,000 people from here every month." ”

If Vietnam can be used to fill the current labor gap, it will undoubtedly greatly promote the development of the Crossing Group. Of course, this is not without its concerns, after all, if the Vietnamese immigrants were to be brought in on a large scale, it would inevitably change the proportion of the population in the area controlled by the crossing group, and such a change could cause unease among the local population. After all, a few hundred people can be easily dispersed and resettled in various places, but if a few thousand people come in a short period of time, then they will face many problems when they are resettled.

But in the end, the urgency of manpower needs prevailed, after all, if there is a problem, it will only happen after the introduction of immigrants, and if we do not try to solve the labor shortage, it will be a problem soon. As for the issue of the proportion of population sources that some people are worried about, the Executive Committee believes that with the gradual expansion of the control area in the future, it is completely possible to gradually dilute the immigrants from Vietnam, and the future source of immigrants will definitely focus on the Chinese mainland, and the way to introduce immigrants from Vietnam is only an expedient measure in the early stage of entrepreneurship.

In fact, in the minds of a limited number of people such as Tao Donglai, there are more ideas for the use of non-Chinese immigrants, but at present, these ideas are only long-term visions, and there is no need to rush to put them forward at the executive committee.

Qian Tiandun is more concerned about the arms deal: "If we want to negotiate with the Vietnamese tomorrow, we may need to do some weapons displays, after all, the Vietnamese army has not yet begun to be equipped with hot weapons such as muskets and artillery." ”

Tom Wang smiled and said, "Don't worry, early this morning, people have been arranged to set up a shooting range on the island and build a target." The militia brought this time are all carefully selected good hands, and tomorrow I will show the Vietnamese what is the way to fight in the era of hot weapons. ”

"However, the Vietnamese have never used firearms on the battlefield before, and I am afraid that this transaction cannot be just sold, and the other side may ask us to help train firearms troops. Qian Tiandun added.

"Don't worry, even if the other party doesn't say this, we will take the initiative to mention it. Tao Donglai said with a smile: "The establishment of military advisers, I will be handed over to Heitu Port to be responsible for when the time comes." ”

Qian Tiandun's eyes lit up, and he immediately understood what Tao Donglai meant: "This establishment is for the planned army, right?"

Tao Donglai said: "The number of military and police personnel stationed in Heitu Port is limited, so an additional establishment must be added to complete the after-sales work of weapons. The cost of this military advisory team will definitely be borne by the other party, and as for weapons and equipment, the base camp will be equipped with the same standards for the armed forces stationed abroad. ”

"Great!" Qian Tiandun was very excited when he heard the news: "In this way, the funds and establishment have all been solved!"

Qian Tiandun proposed early on the formation of a special combat force with mountains and jungles as the main combat area, but due to various reasons, this mention has been suppressed in the military police department. This time, Tao Donglai was ready to take advantage of the opportunity of the arms trade with Vietnam to solve the problem of funding and staffing that the Military Police Department had been worried about. Of course, it will not be the unit that is being created that will actually be sent as military advisers, but some of the militia that will accompany the ship this time. These people will be assigned to the military and police establishment of Heitu Port for some time to come, and some of the militia stationed in Heitu Port will be transferred back to Shengli Port to fulfill the original commitment of the Executive Committee to rotate posts abroad and maintain that Shengli Port has sufficient military strength. Under these circumstances, it is logical for the Military Police Department to request an increase in the number of personnel in the Heitu Port, which is short of manpower, and the personnel and operating expenses will be solved by the local government, and it will be more likely that the executive committee will be able to obtain a clear guò.

"The establishment of a company, by April next year at the latest, when you cross the anniversary of success, you have to let the Executive Committee see the results. Although Tao Donglai managed to satisfy Qian Tiandun's proposal, he would not relax his demands either, because this force was of illegal significance to the future development of the military power of the Crossing Group.

The natural landforms of the South China Sea region, including the two broad strips, are mostly mountains and jungles, and this will be one of the main battlefields for the Haihan Army in the future, but the existing military training system has not reflected the targeted effect, and the subjects of militia training are mostly defensive battles relying on existing fortifications, although there are many mountain people from the Li and Miao ethnic groups in the existing militia in Shengli Port, and they are also very suitable for training into field combat units, but the existing training direction and limited military budget have limited this possibility. At present, there are no field units in the real sense under the Military Police Department, and this is obviously inconsistent with the general direction of the future expansion of the Crossing Group. The formation of an army unit with combat effectiveness in the field is an inevitable step for the Military Police Department in the future, and Qian Tiandun, who was a former professional soldier, undoubtedly saw this earlier than most people.

"Guaranteed to complete the task!" Excited, Qian Tiandun couldn't help but stand upright, raised his hand and saluted Tao Donglai.

From a professional point of view, Qian Tiandun is undoubtedly a qualified soldier, he has no ideas about fame, money, and women, and the purpose of participating in the crossing is only to be able to complete his dream that he failed to achieve in another time and space, become a generation of famous generals, lead the troops to conquer the Quartet, and write his name in history with the victory of the battle.

One of the important reasons why Qian Tiandun was willing to obey the deployment and come to Heitu Port to serve as a military commander was that he took a fancy to the freedom of military development of overseas bases. There will be no base camp civilian system in Heitu Port, and Qian Tiandun can train the local military and police forces according to his own design. Of course, the difficulty and cost of forming a real combat force are incomparable to those of the existing militia groups, so if Qian Tiandun wants to realize his ideals, he still needs to obtain the approval and support of the executive committee, and now Tao Donglai has promised to provide him with the necessary conditions, if he can't get results in half a year, Qian Tiandun feels that he probably doesn't need to be this military chief again.

That night, several people discussed some situations that might arise in the negotiations, and Tao Donglai also made slight adjustments to the original negotiation plan based on some information provided by Qian Tiandun and Xie Chun. Everything is in place, just wait for the representative of the other party to appear.

The next day, Tao Donglai and others got up early to inspect the shooting range built on the peninsula yesterday. The munitions loaded on the two cargo ships were also unloaded ashore, and the guns used for the demonstration were mounted on the gun carriages and pushed to the range in advance for position calibration. Prior to the demonstration, all of these guns were set up by the Travelers to be able to hit the target with one shot during the demonstration.

In addition, the musket corps, which was composed of militiamen, also began to assemble on the beach to practice their formations in accordance with the usual drills. At present, the militia units are mainly equipped with arquebuses, which are gradually replaced by flintlock muskets that are faster and more convenient to fire, but both guns have the disadvantages of short range and limited accuracy, coupled with the slow rate of fire, and are not suitable for the skirmish line tactics of the later army, so they are still trained according to the historical queue shooting array, so as to ensure sufficient firepower intensity in battle.

Although the tactic of queuing to shoot may seem funny in later generations, it is the most practical tactic in this era. Even if there is a crouching tiger in the military and police department, given the current level of armaments, it is impossible to use a more optimized battle formation.

However, the once glorious Spanish phalanx and its contemporary, Gustavus, did not appear in the training of the militia of the crossing group, and the militia did not even distribute spears as their main weapons on a large scale. Because the flintlock pistol was finalized and put into production, the density of the musketeer's firepower was greatly increased, and it was suitable for the use of a shallower and tighter horizontal formation than the arquebus. Moreover, the application of the bayonet made the spearmen for melee defense insignificant, and on this alone, the militia of the crossing group was half a century ahead of the Western armies of the same era, and the Swedish commander Gustav at this time still retained more than a third of the spearmen in the army, and it was not until the 90s of the 17th century that the bayonet was invented by Western countries, which completely eliminated the establishment of spearmen from the army.

The use of cartridge propellants allowed the militiamen armed with flintlock muskets to fire four times in a minute, and this rate of fire, combined with a horizontal row of rounds, was enough to contain the charge of cavalry, let alone ordinary infantry, at a distance of about 100 meters. Of course, in order to ensure such a density of firepower, the musketeers must undergo long-term rigorous training, otherwise in the face of the fierce cavalry troops, I am afraid that a considerable number of soldiers will be so panicked that they will not even be able to reload their bullets. This kind of rigorous training started from the soldiers' daily repeated drills, and the constant repetition of guò made the soldiers turn obedience to orders into an instinct, and only after achieving the effect of 100 or 1,000 people being uniform, they could be used freely on the battlefield.

The advantages of the group's technical reserves in armament technology can quickly complete the research and development and upgrading of weapons, and the increase in the range and accuracy of flintlock pistols are small problems that can be solved in the processing technology in the near future, thus further widening the gap in military strength between the group and its contemporaries.

At present, the musket that the crossing group can sell to the outside world is still only the 27-type arquebus that was initially finalized and mass-produced, but even this kind of weapon that seems very primitive in the eyes of the crossing crowd is still a very advanced black technology in this era. Tao Donglai and others firmly believe that after the other party has seen the demonstration of the musketeers, they will definitely not be able to resist buying this weapon.

In the afternoon, the "Feisu," which was cruising in the sea off the Tushan Peninsula, sent back a message with a walkie-talkie and saw two sailing ships heading in the direction of the Tushan Peninsula. According to the information provided by Qian Tiandun in advance, the "Feisu" saw the flag representing the identity of the other side on the bow of the ship, and determined that this was the North Vietnamese caravan that had come to participate in the talks.