Although Yong'an City (i.e., Batavia) has only been under the rule of Qi for more than four years, the entire city seems to have undergone earth-shaking changes.

The shack area in the west of the city has been swept away and replaced by neat and beautiful two-story residential buildings.

Most of the ditches (canals) and ponds and marshes throughout the city have been filled, and the sewage from the cross-flow of sewage has also been placed in culverts, greatly reducing the breeding environment for mosquitoes.

Potholed streets and roads are also resurfaced with cement, cinder or asphalt.

In each neighborhood with many European-style buildings, more oriental ancient buildings and high-rise buildings of the Han Zhou type have been added, giving the city a strong Qi national character.

The former governor's palace has been given a new owner, with a local governor from Han Zhou and many of his subordinates and retinue staying in the Dutchland-style mansion, built in 1626.

However, instead of being the political center of the island of Kaihua (Java), where the governor's palace was located in Surakarta, the former capital of the Kingdom of Matalan, well, has been renamed Shun Chang (present-day Solo, Indonesia), it has become a pure free trade port, more prosperous than it used to be.

Walking along the wide, clean streets, you will see towering new buildings, brightly lit shops and busy traffic from time to time. Over the course of more than 100 years, the city has forged a unique atmosphere that everyone who comes here can appreciate the charm of this atmosphere.

In the center of the city, there is a magnificent square, on which stands a tall and straight monument, which shows people the great power of the Qi country and the history of the city's prosperity.

A towering flagpole was erected on one side of the square, on which a bright red yellow dragon flag fluttered in the wind.

When night falls, the city opens up a different picture. The two rows of street lamps on the road glitter with the hustle and bustle of the shops and the lanterns in front of the door, creating a wonderful world. High-rise buildings coexist with street food stalls, and hawkers shout to guide passers-by to taste, and from time to time there is a pungent smell of oily smoke. Food and prosperity echo and blend with each other, becoming the most desirable and beautiful scenery in the city.

On the outskirts of the city, there were many modern factories, steam engines emitted a constant roar, and one chimney after another, constantly spewing out billowing smoke, and many of the original residents of the countryside turned into loyal workers.

With a large number of immigrants and immigrants, the city's economy is growing, and its diverse workforce is attracting more investment and innovation. For the city, the combination of modernity and tradition, the intersection of Eastern and Western civilizations, the interweaving of scenery and culture, has an irresistible attraction for those who arrive here.

At this time, it is the Dragon Boat Festival, and the plant flavor of reeds mixed with the aroma of sweet glutinous rice lingers in the streets and alleys of Yong'an City.

Ni Guolu is an ordinary grain and oil workshop owner in Yong'an City, who travels around the city's restaurants and grain and oil shops every day, selling his own production and processing of milled rice, flour and oilseeds.

Today's good day made him collect his itinerary early, first went to the East Market to buy cherries and mulberries, and then bought a small jar of realgar wine at the end of the street. Near the door, I went to the West Market to weigh a few pieces of cloud cake.

The hostess of the house took advantage of the summer heat to wrap zongzi in advance, pickled salted duck eggs, and made a fairly sumptuous dinner.

As the sun fell, the small family, which had been busy all day, finally became free, and set up a table and a few chairs under the banana tree in the courtyard, two oil lamps were lit, and the newly purchased realgar wine was taken out and carefully poured into the wine glass.

Ni Guolu picked up the child who was playing on the side, dipped his index finger in wine, wiped it around his ears, nose, and mouth, and wrote the word "Wang" on the child's forehead, and then patted the child's buttocks, laughed and let him play by himself.

According to the rules handed down by the ancestors, as long as the child is smeared with realgar wine, he will not be harmed by poisonous insects throughout the summer. Of course, from the perspective of future generations, there is no scientific basis for such a practice, but it is the diligent care of parents in this era.

Just when the family is happy, they don't want a group of guests to suddenly visit, which suddenly breaks the tranquility of the house.

"Yo, Xingbao, where did you come from? Weiyuan? Or Jianye? Ni Guolu watched his wife welcome Fan Xingbao into the courtyard, followed by seven or eight young men with restrained behavior, so he put down his wine glass, dragged a lame leg, and stood up from the table.

"Brother-in-law, I came back from the Qin State." Fan Xingbao walked a few steps, came to Ni Guolu, and put the two packs of gifts in his hand on the table, "No, I just came from the dock, and I went straight to you when I entered the city." ”

"Oh, I've gone to the Qin Kingdom...... Ni Guolu glanced at the two large bags of gifts on the table, thinking that they were local products bought from the Qin Kingdom or an overseas territory along the way, and he didn't care, his eyes glanced at a few honest and honest Fan family brothers over there, and laughed, "...... All brought from home? ”

"Well, they're all relatives from my hometown. Come on, come and call people......" Fan Xingbao frowned, stretched out his hand and greeted: "None of them have any knowledge, they are stupid!" …… This is your brother-in-law, hurry up and call someone. Our brother-in-law was a heroic cavalry officer of the Great Qi Army back then, but he was angry! ”

"Brother-in-law......"

"Brother-in-law......"

Fan Agui and other brothers immediately walked over, some clasped their fists, some bent down and bowed, and even a few hesitated whether to respectfully bend their knees and salute, and in a messy manner, they showed respect to this former "military master" of the Qi country.

"You have to ......" Ni Guolu smiled and waved his hand, then motioned to his wife to get a few more dishes in the house, move a few stools out, and then beckoned a few Fan brothers to sit down and eat, "What kind of bullshit officer used to be in the army, but he was just a squad leader and a soldier leader." Not to mention, at that time, it was naturally majestic and angry. But now, our old Ni is just a lame man with a broken leg, and the one who asks for food along the street is just called Huazi. ”

"Brother-in-law, look at what you said." Fan Xingbao took out a handful of silver coins from his arms and stuffed them casually to a few nephews as a gift to meet him, then poured himself a glass of realgar wine with a smile and took a sip gently, "You are in this Yong'an City, you run a grain and oil mill, and you have deep military connections, how can you be called Huazi?" If you become a flower child, then if you leave the mainland, then you will be starving everywhere, and there will be refugees everywhere! ”

"Xingbao, you don't know." Ni Guolu shook his head and said: "Since this Yong'an City came under the rule of my Qi State, in less than four years, countless rich people have poured in from the mainland and Xuanhua (present-day Timor Island). In addition to robbing the Dutch of their livelihoods, they also did not let go of small businesses such as grain, oil and non-staple food. If you look at the entire Yong'an City, there are at least twenty or thirty grain and oil processing factories. Hey, good guy, the steam engine that got a lot of water, that efficiency, that scale, which I can compete with in a small business like this. There is no way, the grain and oil mill at home can only follow other people's machine workshops to reduce prices and grab customers, and the profits will be reduced by several percent all of a sudden. Dog's day, if it weren't for the relationship between the army in the past and won the grain and oil supply order for the local coolies who built the road, I am afraid that the workshop handed down by the old man would not have been opened, and there would be no income! ”

"Really?" When Fan Xingbao heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned, the last time he traveled from Weiyuan (now Port Moresby) to Qin, when he passed through Kaihua Island, he stopped at Quang Ninh (now Cilegon City, Java Island, Indonesia), and he didn't have the opportunity to visit this second brother-in-law, so naturally he didn't know about his business predicament.

"In that case, then my brother-in-law can also get some machines to process and produce grain and oil. The cost has also decreased, the scale has also expanded, and the competitiveness has also risen. ”

"Alas, that's easier said than done!" Ni Guolu sighed and said: "This machine is not cheap, it can easily cost tens of thousands of yuan. Moreover, if the machine is obtained, it is not necessary to build a new factory, which is another huge expense. Although you can borrow some money from the bank to solve the financial problem. But you also know that your second sister is a conservative person, and she is afraid that there will be problems in her business, and she will even fold her old book in it, and she has never been willing for me to take this risk. So, this matter has dragged on until now, and it has not been completed. As a result, the family's grain and oil mill is not up or down, and the money earned is not as good as before. ”

"However, your second sister's worries are not unreasonable. If you don't know, last year the government merged several large state-owned grain and oil trading companies in the country to form the Imperial Reserve Grain and Oil General Trading Company. That capital, that scale, looking at the whole world, is also a giant existence. It is a large-scale monopoly trading company integrating grain planting, management, processing, storage, and sales, and has encircled millions of acres of cultivated land in Kaihua and Quang Ninh alone. In the future, most of this grain and oil business is not as good as before, especially in a small workshop with low production efficiency like me, I don't know how to live this day. ”

As we all know, there are thousands of islands in the South Seas, and there are several islands that are larger than Kaihua Island, but the most elite and fertile island in the entire Nanyang region is none other than Kaihua Island.

This island, which covers an area of more than 130,000 square kilometers, is nearly 1,000 kilometers long from east to west, and more than 160 kilometers wide from north to south. The terrain is mainly mountainous and hilly, with many wide basins between the mountains, the northern coast is an alluvial plain, which can be used as an excellent port with a little construction, and the south coast has a steep terrain and many hills. There are many volcanoes on the island, and many of them are very volcanic, and the island also has frequent earthquakes and tsunamis from time to time, and everything seems to be a harsh environment.

However, the island's abundant rivers, abundant rainfall, and periodic fertilization of the land by volcanic ash make the island's soil exceptionally fertile and its agricultural conditions extremely favorable. Moreover, Kaihua Island is surrounded by the sea on all sides, belongs to the tropical rainforest climate, there is no change of cold and summer seasons, the climate is hot, and the crops can basically be harvested twice a year, or even three cropping, which is definitely the best place for agricultural production.

After deposing several indigenous kingdoms one after another, the Qi state gradually gained control of Kaihua Island, and over the decades, new immigrants were constantly crammed into the island, and the population has reached more than 900,000 to date, a five-fold increase from 40 years ago.

With thousands of plantations carved out here, the island soon became the main food supplier of Qi, producing more than 30% of the country's rice, corn and peanuts.

The output of rubber, sugar, coffee, oil palm, cocoa, kapok and other cash crops is also growing at a rapid rate, becoming an important industrial raw material base in China.

It can be said that as long as the Qi State holds Kaihua Island firmly in its hands, even if the country is defeated in the future, at least it can rely on the very superior agricultural resources on this island and not be afraid of hunger.

Therefore, as early as when the Dutch East India Company had not withdrawn from the island, the Qi government had already made an industrial plan to build Kaihua Island into an agricultural base for the empire, so as to ensure the "rice bags" of tens of millions of people.

In view of this, large and small grain and oil processing enterprises have sprung up, processing rice, corn, peanuts, oil palm and other crops produced by plantations and farmers, and then supplying them to Hanzhou mainland and many overseas territories.

Since the founding of the Dutch East India Company in 1619, Batavia, the predecessor of Yong'an, has gradually developed into a world maritime trade contact center with the extension of the commercial tentacles of the Dutch, expanding its trade to Asia, Europe and Africa, and becoming the largest commodity distribution center and trade center in the South Seas.

After Qi was brought under its rule, in order to prove its superiority, not only did it not cancel and suppress its inherent trade status, but also spared no effort to invest various resources to build its new identity as a trade free port and give it more preferential trade policies.

Therefore, as a local grain and oil producer, Ni Guolu is facing a market demand not only in Yong'an City, nor on the entire Kaihua Island, but in a much larger world market.

Therefore, he complained about his brother-in-law, which can be said to be purely a show. Although the grain and oil workshop he runs is not large in scale and inefficient, with the low purchase price of grain, even if the profit is not much, it cannot stand the wide market demand, and the annual income is still considerable, which is enough for him and his family to live a solid life.

Just by virtue of the spacious Erjin courtyard he owned in Yong'an City, it showed that he still had "a few money" in his pocket.

Seeing that the scale and efficiency of those grain and oil merchants who have introduced large machinery production are growing day by day, seizing more market demand, how can Ni Guolu be willing to do nothing.

My father-in-law's family operates several large-scale plantations in Weiyuan, and I heard that the benefits are good, and it is estimated that the annual income must be tens of thousands.

Is it possible to play the emotional card, borrow tens of thousands of yuan from my father-in-law's family in the name of my wife, and purchase a few advanced large machines from the local area to upgrade my own small grain and oil workshop, so as to become stronger and bigger, and seek a century-old wealth? ——

(End of chapter)