An inventory work jointly organized by the Oriental Port Terminal, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Materials is in full swing. It is equivalent to about 160,000 yuan of Chinese gold and silver coins, jewelry, the remaining more than 7,000 fur, 60 tons of cotton, more than 100 Brazilian mahogany, dyes and some textiles, with a total value of more than 250,000 yuan. This is the result of this privateer operation, which does not include the captured 350-ton warship Beagle and the 320-ton warship "Maritime Literati", as well as more than 400 pirate prisoners.

Such fruitful results even shocked the Executive Committee. A private operation actually recovered the expenditure of the fiscal budget for half a year! According to the share agreement reached by the Navy and the Executive Committee, the Navy will allocate a huge amount of more than 75,000 yuan. The shipbuilding funds of the Battleship "August 10" were deficient in more than 30,000 yuan, and the construction funds of the new shipyard of Zhenhaibao and the settlement fees of the craftsmen of the new shipyard. The Navy will have about 40,000 yuan in active funds at once. For this reason, Wang Qinian immediately took out the construction application for the second "Common Market" of the "August 10" class battleship that was shot at the Executive Committee meeting last time from the drawer. After the application was submitted, it was approved unanimously at the executive committee meeting, and the preliminary preparations for basic work were immediately started. Construction will start after the Zhenhai Shipyard is completed.

The 60 tons of cotton was sold by the Executive Committee to the machine textile factory under the Dongban Company for 150 yuan per ton, and the funds were recovered of 9,000 yuan; more than 100 mahogany were directly allocated to the Zhenhai Shipyard under construction, which will be the first batch of start-up funds for the battleship "Common Market".

Speaking of Zhenhai Shipyard, we have to talk about Zhenhai Castle, which has begun to take shape. This castle, which is basically used for military purposes, now has nearly 600 permanent residents. Due to its location, the Executive Committee attaches great importance to this place and provides priority to all kinds of supplies. By mid-May, most of the walls of Zhenhai Castle had been completed, and the two forts located on the top corner of Bathur Island and the peninsula were basically completed. A total of 24 shore defense artillery pieces were installed, which was considered as adding a security key to Yazi Lake.

The trade situation has also been very stable in the past few months. Every month, 200 wool, 1,000 wool, and some hardware products, building materials, fine coal and other materials to La Plata, plus Colonia's taxes and gradually recovered arms exports, the monthly income of the Ministry of Finance can reach about 12,500 to 13,000 yuan, and the expenditure is basically controlled within 14,000 yuan. The fiscal gap has gradually narrowed to a barely tolerable level.

Starting from March, more and more European ships came to Oriental Port to trade, especially some old friends from the Baltic region who also returned one after another. Their arrival not only brought the weapons exports of the Dayuhe Arsenal to the right track, but also brought hundreds of immigrants.

New immigrants brought a long-awaited labor force to the young East Coast Republic. In April, the Executive Committee approved the plan of the State Council to set up a ranch in the northwest of Oriental Port and about 5 kilometers northeast of Dingyuan Fort, and allocated 200 new immigrants to set up places to live here to serve as shepherds and shearers. This ranch is mainly used to grazing sheep and provide high-quality wool raw materials for the rapidly developing textile industry in the East Coast Republic.

In addition to this project, the most massive project in the past few months is the Changshanbao iron ore project, which has been officially implemented for more than a month. This magnetite mine located at the junction of the four provinces of Durasno, Cerro Largo (Spanish: Changshan) and Thirty-Three-Man City has been surveyed and verified by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. It is indeed a vanadium-containing titanium magnetite with rich reserves. The mining area is located in a large hilly hill at the junction of the four provinces, located in the Negro River Basin, and is only a few kilometers away from its large tributary, the Yi River. The mined iron ore can be transported down the I River - Great Ory - Sevoyati River. It can be transported by ships along the I River - Great Ory - Sevoyati River. It will be transported directly into Lake Milin. Next, it will enter the San Gonzalo River through Lake Milin, then enter the San Gonzalo River, then follow the San Gonzalo River into the Duck Lake, and finally shipped to the Ping'anbao Steel Plant at the northern end through Lake Duck Lake.

The entire section has a range of about 670 kilometers and the navigation conditions are acceptable. Some sections may need to be properly widened and dredged. Most of the other channels have sufficient water depth and abundant water volume. The rivers can be navigated all year round. There is no pressure for a flat-bottomed inland boats of dozens of tons to sail. It only takes fourteen to sixteen days for a ship of iron ore to transport from Changshan Iron Mine to Ping'an Steel Plant, and the traffic conditions are quite good.

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the State Council finally decided in early May that the Changshan Iron Mine project would enter the substantive implementation stage. The Changshan Iron Mine is located in a mountainous area, with a complex environment and is far away from the core ruling area of ​​the crossings. Therefore, an experienced person needs to lead the team for development. After selecting it, the Government Council finally recommended Shao Shude, the former leader of the coal working group, to the Executive Committee. The reason is that Shao Shude has experience in presiding over the development of coal mines, so the development of iron ore is naturally not necessary to grow. At this time, the coal working group has been disbanded, and Ping'an Coal Mine has been stably producing coal for several months. Shao Shude's work results are still obvious to all, so most members of the Executive Committee are willing to continue to let Shao Shude take charge of the iron ore development work.

Shao Shude did not refuse. The difficulty of the iron ore development this time must be greater than that of the coal mine, but this iron ore is of great significance and is the cornerstone of the future development of time travelers. No matter how big the difficulties are, they must be overcome. Since early May, Shao Shude began to select personnel, make plans and urge supplies. By May 20, the Executive Committee allocated 600 new immigrants to him, as the first group of residents and miners of Changshan Iron Mine in the plan. At this time, his personnel and materials were almost selected.

On May 21, just as the Executive Committee and the Joint Staff held a celebration banquet for the successful return of the naval privateer formation, Shao Shude led a group of engineering construction personnel, prospecting personnel, management personnel, 72 officers and soldiers from the cavalry battalion, 200 new immigrants and 100 pirate prisoners, and took four 60-ton inland shallow water transport ships, carrying a large amount of food, building materials, tools and weapons, from the Chuyi River to the Milin Lake, and then along the Yi River Shangshuo to the Changshan Iron Mine Area.

Lake Milin is located at the junction of Brazil and Uruguay in later generations. It is the boundary lake between the two countries. Most of them belong to Brazil and a small part belong to Uruguay. The lake is deep, with an average water depth of 12 meters and a maximum water depth of 30 meters. The lake is separated by sandbanks and swamps and the Atlantic Ocean. It is a typical brackish lake. Lake Milin has beautiful scenery, rich fishery resources, and has many freshwater rivers injected into it. It is a fertile land with abundant water and grass. In the past few years, some Chaluan tribes lived here, but most of them have disappeared under the continuous capture of the Eastern Coast Republic Army. They were either captured or fled into the mountains. This will also become a potential threat to the Iron Ore Working Group in the future.

After crossing Lake Milin, the fleet went upstream and entered the Yi River connecting Changshan Iron Mine Area and Lake Milin (crossing the Yi River, the Great Orimal River, and the Sevoyati River were unified and merged into the Yi River). The water flowed slowly at the mouth of the Yi River, with rivers crisscrossing everywhere, and aquatic jungles everywhere were scattered in swamps and river hearts. This was a paradise for birds and big otters. Some cute big otters were playing freely in the water, not afraid of the arrival of strangers at all. The European immigrants looked at the big otters playing in the water or chasing fish, and were already thinking about how to hunt these animals to obtain the beautiful, priceless fur on their bodies.

Four inland transport ships sailed, and the pirate slave paddlers were rowing their oars and moving slowly forward. The sailors on the ship were still measuring the depth of the waterway from time to time. The 72 cavalrymen in the cavalry battalion, one by one, two horses, were divided into two whistles, one by one and one behind, and ran in the grass on the side of the river bank to protect the safety of the fleet.

After four days of advance, the fleet finally ran aground in a shallow river. The immigrants who had been wandering on the boat for several days went ashore and began to build a simple camp under the command of the management of the iron ore working group. The soldiers of the cavalry battalion also took bundles of thick iron wire from the boat under the order of Xu Yu. These wires were made by several manual wire drawing machines in the comprehensive workshop of the Dayuhe Arsenal. It should not be too suitable for use in outdoor camps.

200 new immigrants and 100 slaves began to drive piles to the ground and build tart tents. On the periphery of these tents, the brothers of the cavalry battalion pulled up a circle of barbed wire. The barbed wire was fixed with wooden stakes, and the soldiers tirelessly hung many barbs and bells on the wire to serve as a warning function. The entire barbed wire had only one entrance and exit, which was the exit to the berth of ships on the river bank. From there, the immigrants and slaves would set out to the river channel for dredging.

After everything was ready, 200 immigrants and 100 slaves went to the river to dig sand and clean up the silt, while the women prepared dinner in the camp. They took out a lot of fuel made of gangue and peat from the boat, then set up a large pot and started cooking. The food was standard: cured meat, salted fish, soy products and some easy-to-storage vegetables, and each person could get a small spoonful of sugar and a little wine.

The simple outdoor working meal is both delicious and nutritious, which makes European immigrants who are used to eating black bread and pirate slaves who have been gnawing on maggots biscuits all year round. This meal may not be able to be eaten every meal in the Old World. It seems that the living standards in the New World are generally relatively high.
Chapter completed!