"The autumnal equinox is coming, hey!"

"Rice fragrant, hey!"

In the early morning on the Lushun wharf, bursts of rough and loud, like roaring and singing, passionate and high-pitched shouts are endless, and in the first military port of the Far East, which was said to be calm in the past, countless figures are busy and lively.

Restoration work began the day after the capture of Port Arthur, with a large number of Russian prisoners becoming the first builders, and later recruiting craftsmen from all over the neighboring towns to join them, and of course, the Nanyang coolies who were successively delivered here.

In order to repair this extremely important military port, Li Enfu, who was the first to come here, not only approved special funds, but also decisively transported the last two batches of local coolies that were originally shipped to Taiwan to be the first to be transported here.

Standing on the deck, looking at the crowded scene in the bay, and looking around at this beautiful seaport, which is known as the Pearl of the Far East and the only beautiful seaport in the entire Northeast region that does not freeze all year round, Young Master Li still frowned.

The damage inflicted on this beautiful military port by the Russian Far East Fleet was staggering, and from the waterway it was now full of ruins and ruins, and according to the returned Witteheft, they had suffered very strong resistance here, and in order to reduce the sacrifice, he ordered the fleet to shell for several hours.

Although the Russian [***] ship is inferior to the Pacific Fleet in terms of artillery power and shell charge quality, several hours of shelling still caused unimaginable damage to this beautiful seaport.

And this is just a point, extending north from here, there are Liaodong, Jilin and Heilongjiang, two and a half provinces the size of a place, it is indeed a much-needed base, but it is also the source of Li Mo's headache.

Because the Qing Dynasty has not paid attention to the development of Guanwai over the years, that is, because of Port Arthur and Liaodong Bay, Fengtian and Liaodong are slightly better, as for Jilin and Heilongjiang, which are farther away, it is even a scene of slash-and-burn nomadic free-range breeding, if you want to completely change the three provinces and build it into your most solid base, even Li Mo is a little worried, although he has the experience and knowledge of later generations, but to be honest, whether in his previous life or in this life, he has never faced such a big project.

This is a challenge to himself, and it is also a test of the political axe of Honolulu under his current control, so he wants to use the platform of the three northeastern provinces to create a solid foundation and at the same time hope to train a group of capable officials.

With a whistle, the Sky Survey slowly approached the dock in Li Mo's thoughts, and before he could get off the warship, a light cruiser flying the Russian [***] flag and two French freighters outside the dock suddenly caught his attention, how could there be Russians here at this time?

After disembarking from the ship, Li Enfu, who was the first to come to the town after completing the handover procedures with the Qing court, answered his doubts, and it turned out that the cruiser was carrying no one else, it was the new commander of the Russian Far East Fleet, Makarov, who had traveled thousands of miles to pick up the first batch of Russian soldiers and return to Vladivostok together.

Probably because there was really no fate between the two, before Li Mo could meet this relatively capable officer in the Russian Navy, the Russian cruiser had already lifted anchor and left, and the two French freighters also slowly left the dock together.

"Hey, watch out for mines." Young Master Li smiled and pretended to shout softly, his voice was still shaking in his throat, and he was attracted by the hot scene in the port area, a large number of craftsmen were busy under the shouts of the engineers, and there were also a lot of Nanyang coolies and Russian soldiers who watched the freighter leave but had to work as coolies first.

Of course, in order to ensure that these people did not make trouble, the Marine Corps specially sent two battalions to monitor these guys all night, and the heavily armed soldiers made the port area look a little nervous.

Li Enfu's stationing in Liaodong also means that including the Government Affairs Yuan, the Ministry of Equipment, the Ministry of Construction and other departments, involving a huge strategic shift has quietly begun, although Honolulu, the place of origin, and the Ryukyus, which have begun to take shape, are still the core of the Pacific Army's defense, but for a long time in the future, the important surnames of the two places will temporarily give way to the three northeastern provinces.

Although the Government Council has dispatched more than 300 young officials who have been trained over the years to come here this time, and are ready to rely on them to build a complete management structure of the three provinces, compared with the huge territory, more than 300 people can't even see a splash, so how to select officials and put up the shelves of the three provinces as soon as possible has become Li Enfu's biggest heart problem.

In addition to this heart disease, the follow-up construction has also become a headache for everyone.

Looking at the two dredgers that reoccupied the waterway after the Russian cruiser left, Li Mo also sighed, because Port Arthur handed over all the projects to the foreigners at the beginning of the construction, and also allocated them to Germany, France and Britain, and even Italy in order to balance the interests.

Now it is being bombarded by the Russians with artillery, and it is even more chaotic, and it is definitely not possible to just do repairs, because this military port, which is known as the first in the Far East, cannot even reach the passing line in his eyes. In addition, the tonnage of the ship will exceed 10,000 tons in the future, so the battleship can only enter and exit at high tide, so in order to make better use of this ice-free harbor in the future, this time it is not just a restoration, but a thorough expansion and transformation.

The navy is a century-old project, not just an empty word, so according to the plan, the narrow tiger tail islands and reefs in Port Arthur will be completely blown up and cleared, in addition to the need to expand and deepen the waterway, requiring a perennial water depth of at least 20 meters, in addition to the new eight deep-water wharves that can dock super-large ships with a length of more than 250 meters, and at most 20 warships and 10 10,000-ton cargo ships can be stationed at a time.

When I heard about this plan, the newly established Ministry of Construction, which had just separated from the equipment department, almost didn't bare at it, but fortunately, everyone had also been nurtured by the tide of development in Honolulu and the Ryukyus, and the navy also attached great importance to the restoration of this military port, so it sent more than 1,000 naval engineers who had participated in the construction of Pearl Harbor and Bahai Harbor.

Beyond the port area, the original Beiyang Naval Division barracks appeared in front of them, but now it has become a temporary camp for the marines. At present, there is also a large-scale expansion here, according to the plan these old-fashioned wooden barracks will also be replaced by three-story brick and wood barracks, because these live technology content is not high, so most of them are captured Russian soldiers, according to Zhang Shun, this is called labor reform!

"Ya, I know that I will learn from the young master's speech and then fool people!"

Li Mo kicked Zhang Shun away, but he didn't think much of this way of dealing with it, compared to being executed, now it's just letting them work, and there is food and drink, which is not bad!

Under the threat of death, the Russian soldiers were very "hard-working", so the construction speed of the camp was the fastest, so that Li Enfu was a little reluctant to let these free coolies who worked better than the war leave, but because the throughput of the expanding port area is now limited, there is still a relatively large gap in building materials, and the construction of the camp still takes time.

Accompanied by Li Enfu and other officials, Li Mo soon climbed the most important Golden Mountain Fort, and the damage left by the Russian shells is still vivid, but looking down from here, the entire Lushun is full of vitality because of the construction.

"How long do you think it will take for the harbor to be expanded?" Young Master Li stood at the highest place, looking at the several engineering ships that were salvaging the Beiyang shipwreck at the foot of the Golden Mountain, and his brows became tighter and tighter.

"It was supposed to be ten months, but now it seems." Li Enfu smiled bitterly and shook his head: "There are too many places that need to be demolished, and the delay in the construction period is very serious. ”

"And it's already September, and it's going to snow in the northeast in October, so we estimate that if we can't continue to invest manpower, it will take at least a year to put it into use at least at the current pace."

Hearing Li Enfu's words, Li Mo also frowned, it will take a year to repair a Port Arthur, so what about the entire Liaodong, Jilin and Heilongjiang?

It is now the end of the Qing Dynasty, there are neither highways nor railways here, and water transportation is still the most important means, but in a few months, once the sea surface freezes and Andong Port cannot be put into use, then all materials in and out of the Northeast need to be transferred from Lushun to the inland by land!

You must know that some of the materials in the previous order to break the Liaoliao alliance have been loaded in various countries and will arrive here soon, if there is no seaport, will the huge materials and goods be soaked in the sea?

Thinking of this, Li Mo immediately said: "You don't need to worry about manpower, I have ordered Chen Ping to transport the 20,000 Nanyang natives sent to Ryukyu first, and Mr. Yan has also replied to me, Luzon can also provide another 50,000 people immediately, if it is by January next year, the number should reach 200,000, so I have asked the navy to dispatch transport ships to cooperate with Lin Yongxiang to transport them over." ”

Hearing that there are so many free coolies delivered, everyone is relieved, only Li Enfu frowned slightly, it's not that he doesn't like free coolies, it's just that so many people have become the most difficult problem after they arrive, you must know that it is only September, and there are already a lot of natives sent by Nanyang who feel unwell, if it comes to the cold winter of the snowy wax moon, God knows if they can still work.

It seemed to see Li Enfu's worries, Li Mo continued: "In terms of food, Mr. Li doesn't have to worry too much, Anton has already reserved some in the past two years, and Tang Shaoyi has signed a purchase agreement with American grain merchants, in addition, I also ordered Yan Fu to buy through the French governor in Vietnam, and Australia has also set up a procurement point. ”

"That's a good dare, the navy has become a pirate, and the coastal areas of the Qing Dynasty really don't dare to provoke our people." Zhang Shun didn't know where he came out again, and laughed funny.

"Come on, the Navy is a bandit now!" Listening to what the young master said, Li Enfu, who had already been stretched out by the navy to ask for funding, glared at several naval officers behind him, but unfortunately the big guy was not here, and several officers did not dare to fight with Li Enfu, so they had to shrink their necks and give up.

"Now there are three of them." Li Mo smiled and stretched out his first finger, and continued: "The first is to prepare as soon as possible, settle those Nanyang coolies, and find a way to order a batch of cotton clothes and pants for them, although they don't get paid, but I don't think everyone wants them to freeze to death after working for so long, right?" We also spent two taels of silver alone. ”

Hearing Li Mo's words, everyone laughed, even those young government officials who were holding notepads and comparisons nodded again and again, what a pity it would be if hundreds of thousands of free laborers died all at once, and they would have to be squeezed clean anyway.

"The second is to immediately set up temporary wharves in Jinzhou Bay, Dalian Bay and Yingkou and other places where conditions permit, and the Government Council should immediately purchase enough animal power, organize manpower to be ready to transfer the arriving materials and machinery at any time, and transfer more materials as much as possible before the sea is closed, so as to reduce the pressure on Port Arthur."

"Young Master, where is Dalian?"

As soon as Li Mo was about to put up his third finger, he heard someone asking, and then he suddenly remembered that there was no place name Dalian at the moment, and he didn't know how to explain it, so he had to shrink his mouth and say nonsense: "It's the current Qingniwa, I told Chen Ping last time that the Qingniwa is not good, so I changed the name to Dalian." ”

Dalian?!

Although a few people felt a little weird about this name, who dared to say no to the young master's decision? The new name was immediately marked on the green mud puddle.

Seeing that everyone didn't show any weirdness about changing their names, Li Mo breathed a sigh of relief and raised a third finger at the same time: "Third, it's a sentence, called, "If you want to get rich, build roads first." ””

Young Master Li moved the big slogan of the rural whiteboard wall in later generations, and said: "The smooth road can not only promote the circulation of goods, but also speed up the flow of people, and the people will be willing to go farther to work when it is convenient for them to go out, so it is imperative that the railways and highways must start immediately." ”

"If you want to get rich, build roads first."

Everyone was chanting Young Master Li's words, and when they carefully understood the meaning, Li Mo had already waved his arms: "The land of the three provinces is very poor, and there is almost nothing, but for all of us, it is like a blank paper spread out before painting, what we have to do is to fill in our own colors on the white paper, instead of modifying it."

I believe I don't say that you all know that the 20-year lease is just a front, so I hope that you can work together to overcome the current difficulties and build this land together, which will be our home anytime and anywhere! ”

"Do you have faith?" When Young Master Li said this, he suddenly pointed to the vast land behind him, and his voice was excited.

Except for Li Enfu and a few others, they are all hot-blooded young people, and they can withstand the words of Young Master Li's encouragement, so after hearing the interrogation, they patted their chests one after another, and their faces were flushed to promise that they would complete their mission.

Compared with the happy and excited young officials, Young Master Li sighed quietly in his heart.

Coolies are free, but where is the money going to rob?

(To be continued)