Li Guodong smiled and said, "I guess, but if General Xiao Cao doesn't believe it, we can make a bet. If I win, you will always be loyal to me in the future. If I lose, I will find a chance to let you go back to Liaodong. How about it?"

"Go and bet!" Cao Bianjiao said loudly, "If I lose, as long as you don't betray the court, I, Cao Bianjiao, will follow you all my life!"

The distant Annan Tokyo (now Hanoi) Prefecture has an atmosphere of prosperity and stability that has not been seen in more than a hundred years since the decline of the Li Dynasty. The streets of Shenglong are bustling with bustlings, wearing headscarves, bamboo hats, and long gowns, surging shoulder to shoulder on the streets. Among them, Annan women are wearing colorful traditional clothes, highlighting their beautiful figures.

What brought prosperity to Shenglong Mansion was the Zheng Zhilong fleet from the Ming Dynasty in the north. Zheng Zhilong's fleet brought silk, ceramics and tea to Annan. These goods from the Ming Dynasty in the north were not without them, but there were also them. They were transported by land, and the cost was high. After being transported to Annan, the price became very expensive. Now, with the goods transported by water, the price has dropped a lot, making it possible for small and medium-sized landlords who could only drool at these expensive commodities to afford these Ming Dynasty goods.

Annan himself also made ceramics, but they produced blue and white porcelain, which was not as white as jade as the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the blue and white porcelain produced by Annan himself was expensive and was not high-end products that ordinary people could afford.

Arriving with Zheng Zhilong's fleet were also strong and mighty military men. These tall and fair-skinned soldiers were wearing red mandarin duck battle jackets and goose yellow and red tassel felt hats, and they looked majestic.

"Wow, he's so handsome!"

"It's so tall. The men in our village are not as tall as me when they stand up!"

"So white, not like the men here, black and thin."

Those military men from the Ming Dynasty attracted the admiration of countless girls.

"Brother, how long do you plan to stay here?" A brave girl stepped forward and a strong man.

The strong man blushed, took off his hat at a loss, touched the back of his head, and after a long time, he squeezed out a few words: "We are going to build a warehouse here, and we don't know how long it will take to repair it."

The girl ran away with a giggle. The strong man looked at the girl's back and was stunned.

"Zhang Ashui, are you thinking about women again?" A soldier came up with a smile.

"No!" Zhang Ashui replied awkwardly. Seeing that there were young and beautiful girls everywhere, he suddenly felt that he had applied to leave Tongyang and came to Annan, and that he was right.

Another soldier laughed and said to the soldier just now: "Liu Dewang, don't you think about it. Zhang Ashui is almost forty and hasn't tasted a woman's taste. Isn't that normal?"

"Hahaha!" A group of soldiers laughed.

These soldiers came to Annan, not as they were preparing to occupy Annan as in the Ming Dynasty, but came to build a large-scale construction project. Moreover, these soldiers came to Annan with the consent of the four masters of Annan. In addition to building a material warehouse near Shenglong Mansion, they will also build material warehouses in several ports in Annan, purchase grain from Annan with the specialties of the Ming Dynasty, and then transport them back to the Ming Dynasty. This in and out can make huge profits.

Annan has high grain output, with three ripening land a year, and three ripening land is all rice, which is much higher than that of Huguang in the Ming Dynasty. Annan lacks Ming Dynasty goods, and the cost of land transportation is too high. The price of entering Annan by water is much cheaper.

According to Li Guodong's proposal, Zheng Zhilong set up a development zone in Annan and rented land from Annan. After the development zone built a warehouse and workshop in the future, he would have to pay taxes to Annan again. Such generous conditions made the four masters of Annan very grateful to Zheng Zhilong and Daming, believing that this was the God of Wealth falling from the sky! Daming only asked for some unplanted mud on the beach, but paid huge rent. After the warehouse, dock and workshop were built, they would have to pay taxes.

It is said that in the future, the development zone will build new towns and recruit locals in Annan to work and live in the town. The living conditions in the new town are much better than those at home.

The third day after Zhang Ashui arrived in Annan, the engineering corps rested for two days before starting construction. The first ones started construction were ports and docks, but the port established by the Ming Dynasty in the Li Dynasty was not in Tokyo, but near a small fishing village with only more than ten people at the entrance of the Red River.

In addition to a lonely small fishing village, this large area is the mouth of the muddy Honghe River, which is the location of the Haiphong City in later generations. But now, it is still a desolate mudflat.

Ports, docks, warehouses, workshops and towns in development zones will be built here. When the port is completed, the large ships of the Zheng family fleet and the large ships of the Westerners can be parked here. When the big ships arrive at the dock, the cargo will be unloaded from the big ships, sent to the warehouse, or loaded onto a small boat to transport them away. However, it will take at least five years to complete the port and supporting facilities. Within five years of the port being completed, the Zheng family fleet will be parked on the sea surface of the Honghekou, and the small boats will be loaded into Tokyo. This is very efficient and dangerous, but the port terminal has not been completed yet, and the Ming Dynasty urgently needs a large amount of food, so it can only be done.

"Oh my God, there are all mudflats here. How do you build a city?"

"How do you do this muddy land?"

"Anyway, let's repair the dock first."

When the engineers arrived at Honghekou, they saw a large area of ​​mud flats and mud, and people were talking about it.

At this moment, an officer shouted: "Stop talking, prepare to work. Listen to the superiors, you can do whatever you want!"

The first thing to do is to drive piles by the river. In the future, the large ship will sail into the estuary. Since the water level is very different when the high tide and low tide, the position of the dock berth must extend to the middle of the river. This requires piles by the river and then build a platform on the pile to extend out. After repair, the large ship will directly approach the dock to facilitate loading and unloading of goods.

Zhang Ashui followed other engineers to work. At the beginning, he was rowing a boat away from the shore when the tide was low, and then someone went into the water to construct.

The boat rowed more than ten steps away. Several engineers with good water properties jumped into the water, dived underwater, measured the depth, and the people on the shore cut wooden boards based on the water depth data.

The cut wooden boards were placed in the water, and the engineers nailed the boards, thus forming a circle in the water with a height higher than the highest tide level.

"Transfer the water pump over and prepare to pump water." The officer ordered.

Zhang Ashui, although he had the word "water" in his name, he was a land duck who was short of water in the five elements. After joining the Engineer Soldier, although he learned to swim, except for how to do a few dog-planing styles, the water quality was still very poor, so he did not go into the water. Instead, he sat on the boat and waited for the boat to reach the pile driving position. He shook the pump and pulled out the water surrounded by the wooden board.

Two ships carrying water pumps started construction at the same time. In just two days, the water in the wooden board was drained, revealing the silt at the bottom of the river.

After pumping the river water from a pile driving site, Zhang Ashui took a boat to the second place and began to shake the water pump in sweat, pumping out the river water inside.

"It's already autumn, and the weather here is still so hot." Zhang Ashui wiped his sweat and said.

"It would be great if our Ming Dynasty Central Plains were that hot, and we wouldn't have become refugees." said a soldier.

After draining all the water, the engineers began to drive piles. Several people jumped into the cylinder surrounded by wooden boards, waved the shovel, sweated heavily, and dug under the mud. The people drilled into the cylinder for construction, and the wind was blocked. The inside was stuffy and hot. After only a while, they were sweating profusely.
Chapter completed!