In the evening, the sky is filled with a brilliant sunset.

Red River Valley Estate

After inspecting the southwestern border of the pasture, the return of the large group of horses attracted cheers one after another, and Li Fushou's hand drew a circle in mid-air and shouted;

"Disbanded, a bonfire was raised in the evening, and everyone drank wine and roasted mutton."

"Yo he......"

The knights screamed loudly and stood on their horses and twisted their butts happily in celebration, bringing the joy to a climax.

Li Fushou turned over and dismounted at the gate of the manor, and naturally there were male black slaves who led the sweaty horses down to take care of them.

He strode into the room, his hard riding boots clattering against the floor, and the black waitress Chrissy hurriedly stepped forward to take the cowboy hat and cape, while another black woman waited for Mary to serve hot coffee.

Li Fushou sat on the soft chair, took a sip of fragrant coffee and felt warm, nodded and said;

"Mary, the coffee is good."

"Back to my master, this coffee was brewed by Chrissy, and I haven't learned it yet."

"Well, let's go down."

Li Fushou waved his hand absently, and the two female slaves bowed and bowed and retreated.

The ticket from Australia to Europe was extremely expensive, worth far more than a black slave, and Owen, the son of a gentleman, did not have the kindness to help the black slave pay for this expensive fee, and gave it all as an additional head to the next master, Li Fushou.

The black slaves and white cowboys left behind were all received by the Red River Valley ranches.

There were 64 slaves on the ranch, 13 of whom were women, and the male slaves did some of the heavy work of caring for the livestock in the ranch, and the female slaves were responsible for milking cows, cleaning the yard and feeding the poultry, washing clothes and kitchens.

A few young and beautiful female slaves were responsible for taking care of their masters' daily life, and there was a clear division of labor among them, and the slightest mistake would be severely punished, from starvation to whipping, and even cutting off hands and feet.

White cowboys are treated much better, can get married, have independent families, work on ranches and have income, and are freelancers.

Since the Chinese ranchers bought the Red River Valley ranch, some white cowboys who were unwilling to work under the Chinese ranchers have left, leaving only about 30 white cowboys who have already started a family.

In fact, they have nowhere else to go except here.

This is now the general state of affairs in Australian ranches, where black slaves were used in large quantities to keep costs down, and in the primitive stage of capital accumulation, every pound was filled with sin and blood and sweat.

The Red River Valley Ranch is so large that only about 30 white cowboys can take care of it, and the ranch is recruiting Chinese cowboys on a large scale to take care of more than 100,000 sheep, hundreds of horses and more than 2,000 cattle.

The Chinese gold diggers who came to Australia in the early years learned to ride horses and shoot almost basic skills.

In this era when there were no cars, many Chinese free gold prospectors brought their own horses to the gold fields and carried weapons to protect themselves from attacks by whites and wild beasts.

As a result, recruitment for Red River Valley Ranch went quite smoothly, with many Chinese cowboys who were tired of the dangers of gold mining enthusiastically applying.

The ranch selected a group of people who were honest and loyal and willing to work to supplement them, and quickly made up for the shortcomings.

In the vast Queensland wilderness, there are large herds of wild horses and wild asses, as well as herds of thylacines and wild dogs, so it is essential that there are enough men to protect the herd from the scourge of wild beasts.

Every few days

Large-scale hunts by gunners are organized at the ranch to clear the moorland of thylacines, wild boars and wild dogs, which is an important part of the ranch's daily routine.

in the room

Li Fushou leisurely sipped coffee, sat on the soft chair and enjoyed the magnificent sunset scenery, and it didn't take long for a strong sleepiness to hit, and he fell asleep on the chair.

Chrissy walked over lightly, holding a thin blanket of pure wool in her hand to cover his body, carefully checked the tightness of the cover, and then tiptoed away, for fear that the movement would wake up the master.

Early the next morning

Accompanied by the German architect Feuerbach-Kant, as well as the elder Mike and He Shoutian, Li Fushou inspected the houses and docks that were being built on a large scale, and looked full of interest.

Feuerbach Kant was a rigorous and experienced architect who presided over the construction of Sydney City Hall and St Mary's Cathedral in the city of Canberra, wearing round gold-rimmed glasses, the Prussian's signature beard, and an outrageously demanding attention to detail.

It is precisely because of this extremely responsible attitude that Li Fushou can rest assured that he will entrust him with carte blanche for the construction of the project.

Facts have proved that the construction of the project is progressing very smoothly and the quality is impeccable.

600 Chinese laborers are scattered in various construction sites, mainly at the reservoir site, where nearly 400 laborers are concentrated in full swing, and dozens of ox carts come and go, transporting a large number of logs and boulders, which has already taken the rudimentary shape of a barrage.

"Mr. Li, I still need at least 150 carpenters, 200 masons, and other manpower, with a total of no less than 500 people, to be able to complete a series of construction works by August next year."

"Oh, aren't there enough of them?"

"Yes, I greatly appreciate the steadfastness and hard work of the Orientals, the qualified workman whom every architect likes, almost as much as a Prussian." Feuerbach-Kant's compliments were dry and Prussian, and his gaze swept across the construction site like a falcon; "After my rigorous calculations, I had to use more people to complete the project on time, please trust my professionalism."

Feuerbach Kant took out a stack of paper from his cowhide bag, on which were hand-drawn various architectural patterns, as well as a large number of calculated numbers, densely packed with what looked like a book from heaven.

Li Fushou took it and looked at it, most of them were about the load-bearing structure of the building and the calculation of the amount of earthwork, as well as obscure German proper nouns, and he simply flipped it and handed it back to Feuerbach Kant, looking uninterested.

"Okay, leave this matter to He Shoutian, recruit the manpower needed by the architect as soon as possible, the number of workers in the second batch is tentatively 600 people, I hope to complete all this as soon as possible."

"I know the young master, I'll take someone to Brisbane in a while and send the people I need over as soon as possible." He Shoutian bowed and replied.

"Well, the construction of the Red River Valley Ranch is the top priority at the moment, and we must go all out and not be slack."

"Shoutian understands that the supply of various materials is a priority, and the manpower will never be delayed."

"That's good."

With the promise of the rancher, Feuerbach-Kant became more cheerful and took the initiative to explain the most important reservoir project to Li Fushou.

The reservoir project located in the Red River Valley is a typical canyon gravity dam, which has the functions of flood control and storage and power generation.

The characteristics of the Red River Valley are tortuous and continuous, the bottom of the canyon is deep and steep, the upper end is gentle, and the overall height is between 800 meters ~ 1300 meters, which is suitable for building gravity dams to hold water and store floodwater.

After the completion of the reservoir, the upstream backflow floods more than 110 kilometers of uninhabited area, which will form a long and narrow reservoir, with the widest reservoir area about 15 kilometers above the water surface and the narrowest place only less than 800 meters.

At the dam foundation site, which is currently under large-scale construction, a solid fence is formed with thick logs, and then boulders and concrete are piled up to form a rock-blocking dam about 10 meters high, which has now seen its prototype.

The next step will be to blast the steep mountains on both sides in more than a dozen times, causing a large amount of rock to roll down to the bottom of the canyon, and then manually ramming the cornerstone.

The more than 10-meter-high rock dam that has been built will effectively restrain the soil and rock rolled down by the landslide, and gradually form the main dam body according to the architect's blueprint.

This was repeated many times, and finally the artificially led dam-type main dam body was formed, and facilities such as power plant and diversion tunnel were poured to complete the construction of the Red River Valley Reservoir.

Overall

This is a construction scheme that makes full use of geographical conditions, saves time and is fast, uses directional blasting technology to form artificial landslides, and completes the gravity dam body similar to a dammed lake, and the technical scheme is feasible.

The Germanic people are still reliable!

Li Fushou nodded frequently with satisfaction, suddenly thought of one of the key points, and asked; "Mountain blasting is very professional, do we have the talent to do this?"

"Of course ......"

Feuerbach-Kant's typical upturned Prussian beard stirred, and he turned his head proudly and pointed at the point of several men with the same typical Prussian beards standing far away at the bottom of the canyon, looking at the towering mountains and gesturing, talking about something.

"Look, these are some gentlemen who have traveled from Brandenburg to the ocean, military aristocrats who have made great contributions to the establishment of the Brandenburg-Hohenzollern Empire, they are the best engineer instructors in the world, this bit of explosives is a piece of cake for them, and my construction plan is designed around their skills, which can greatly save manpower and time."

The question in his heart was answered, and Li Fushou was very interested in carefully observing these Prussian military nobles, and when he saw that they seemed to be aware of it, he bowed his head slightly.

These Prussian nobles politely returned the salute and appeared to be very cultivated.

"Let's go, let's take a look elsewhere."

These people need to stay in the Red River Valley Ranch for a long time, Li Fushou doesn't need to be too enthusiastic, and at dinner, you can invite them to join in and release enough kindness.

And what about the military aristocracy?

It's not that you have to go to the ocean to make a living, bend your waist for 5 buckets of rice, and there are a lot of broken nobles in old Europe, especially in the entire Greater German region, and a nobleman of the level of the earl is also a village head.

In this historical period, only six years have passed since the end of the Franco-Prussian War.

Prussia's victory in the French War was of far-reaching significance, completely breaking the land power of the French Empire in Europe for nearly 200 years.

William I, a man of great talent, led a formidable army that swept through Western Europe. Frightened by the independence of several independent states in South Germany, at the end of 1870 a statement was issued announcing its membership in the German Confederation.

January 18, 1871

Officially proclaimed by King William I of Prussia at the Palace of Versailles, France; The German Empire was founded and proclaimed himself its first emperor.

(I am very happy to receive the signing today, and I am finally able to have the opportunity to write down my favorite modern history theme, which is really rare.)

I wrote a book "The Wind of Rebirth Rises in the South Seas" before, and I didn't sign a contract because of the subject matter, but the encouragement of readers made me write 1 million words, and friends who are short of books can read it.

Well, don't digression, two more per day before the official shelf, every weekend, Sunday Wednesday more to ask for recommended tickets and collections, I hope to get everyone's approval and enthusiastic encouragement.

After the outbreak of eight more a day after the shelf, and then weakened down depending on the first order update, the normal second update of more than 6,000 words, if 8,000 words, or even 10,000 words, it needs readers and friends to support the scene, Grape Jun will work overtime to update day and night.

By the way, there are two small problems, first, this is a parallel historical time and space, please do not strictly bring it in.

For example, as a country in the southern hemisphere, Australia's seasons are completely opposite to those in China, with a harsh winter from June to August, and a hot summer from December to March every year.

In June, when the snow was falling, Li Fushou touched the frozen Tie Qing's face, and stretched out his trembling fingers to ask for a recommendation ticket......

Hehe......

This will be easy to play, so slightly modify, as the domestic season, please strictly examine the party, don't spray wildly, and be merciful.

Some readers and friends say that Australia's north-facing windows are to see the sun, but south-facing is shady.

Grape Jun admits that what you said is right, or the same reason, the Spring and Autumn penmanship has been slightly modified, mainly so that readers and friends do not be puzzled, and will not explain similar problems in the future.

Second, this book does not open the golden finger, does not point to the technology tree, everything is deduced according to the original historical time and space steam ironclad battleship, and the productivity and combat effectiveness are maintained at a level close to history.

Finally, ask for recommended votes and collections, especially collections are very important indicators, please collect them and wait for fattening before slaughtering, thank you very much. ）