The exploration fleet led by Guo Zili stayed in Hezhong Fort for three days.

Because it brought beautiful hope to the bachelors in the region to marry their wives, the naval officers and soldiers were very popular inside and outside Hezhongbao City. Not only did the town government acquire the Persian female slaves they had at a premium, but many former bachelors who were quickly getting married also invited the naval officers and soldiers to drink and have dinner every now and then. In short, they were extremely enthusiastic.

Of course, the scalpers and camels they bought from East Africa are also very popular among local residents. They were bought by the town government and started raising them in order to expand the population.

After a few days of rest, the exploration fleet, which had been replenished, quietly left the Hezhongbao Pier. After more than a month of sailing, finally arrived at the Dongfang Port, which had been away for more than five months, on the evening of December 31, 1638.

The docks of Oriental Port are still extremely prosperous. Ships from Brazil, La Plata, New Spain, and even Chile, Peru gather here. They transported a ship of industrial raw materials and consumer goods needed on the east shore of the ship, and transported cotton, wool, saltpeter, struvite, cocoa, coffee and other industrial products and consumer goods, and transported cotton, wool, weapons, hardware products, fine coal, leather goods, cement, red bricks and other industrial products. The prosperity of trade has made Oriental Port a leading Da Shang port in the New World.

In addition to these ships from the New World, many other ships passing through the Strait of Magellan like to replenish and rest in the East. This includes many merchant ships, whaling ships, and some well-disguised pirate ships. However, these pirate ships have no resistance at all in the face of the proud speed of the Navy High-speed Cruiser formation on the East Coast, so they are generally honest on the east coast and dare not act rashly.

A large group of men wearing round-collar white shirts on the military dock are undergoing basic queue training. These are former pirate members recruited from the Caribbean in recent times. These pirates have a wide range of sources. They have from all countries and nations. Many people have become accustomed to unorganized and undisciplined lives. For these pirates who are very pirates, the East Coast does not need them. They want pirates who are tired of hiding from Tibet.

These pirates who were eager to become good were wanted in the Old Continent, and many people had a home and could not return, so they could only hang out aimlessly in the Caribbean Sea, wasting their lives. Now the East Coast people found them through some old relationships and promised to give them official identities. How could these people not be ecstatic? In addition, some East Coast Navy officers and soldiers who were originally from pirates appeared and said that in July, the East Coast Navy's recruitment of pirates was a great success, and more than 500 pirates were recruited in Cape France and near Tortuga Island in just one time.

Except for some older people who are unwilling to continue their maritime careers, most (about 300 people) chose to join the Navy of the East Coast Republic of China, which has a large staff shortage. Those who are unwilling to continue to make a living at sea, except for a small number assigned to shipyards by the State Council, most of them, together with more than 2,000 newly arrived French immigrants and more than 1,000 Ming Dynasty immigrants, were assigned to the vast inland areas to establish new settlements.

The first highway in the East Coast Republic of China - Highway 1 (Dingyuan Township, North City, Dongfanggang - Dingyuan Township), has been continuously expanded and extended in recent years, and has reached the fishing wharf on the shore of Dayu Lake. The originally extremely rich fishing resources of Dayu Lake are almost exhausted after uninterrupted fishing in recent years. In order to provide Dayu Lake with rest, the State Council decisively decided to transform Dingyuan Township. The economic model, which originally mainly focuses on planting, fishing, salt drying, and fishing product processing, will undergo a large-scale transformation.

To be honest, Dongfang Port and its surrounding areas are not suitable for large-scale agricultural production at present. There is no other reason. The main reason is water shortage. Yes, there is a lack of large surface runoff. In layman's terms, there are some small streams with not very abundant water, and many of them are seasonal rivers. There is no way, grassland areas are just this kind of virtue. If the Government Council had not spent a lot of effort and built a large amount of reservoirs, rainwater collection pools, artificial reservoirs and farmland water conservancy irrigation facilities in recent years, it would have been difficult to feed the more than 10,000 people in Dongfang Port and its surrounding areas, not to mention opening up various types of farmland with a total of more than 20,000 mu.

Since we have realized this problem, the Executive Committee and the State Council naturally cannot make this mistake again. In order to alleviate the population pressure in the areas near Dongfang Port and provide sufficient raw materials for the further development of the domestic textile industry, the State Council decided to exchange the new immigrants in total with Dingyuan Township, some old residents of Dongfang Port, and then send them to the inland northwest near water sources to build new settlements, and then grazing and reclamation.

The grazing varieties are mainly some fine-haired sheep introduced from Europe to provide sufficient raw materials for the increasingly prosperous textile industry in the country. Speaking of this, it is a pity that diplomats in the East Coast Republic have tried their best to solve the problem and methods, and have not yet obtained the famous Spanish merino sheep. At present, the State Administration of Information has begun to think of ways that if this sheep with large quantities of high-quality fine wool can be brought to the East Coast prairie for breeding, it will surely give the development of the wool industry in the East Coast Republic.

On the north shore of Dayu Lake and its vicinity, the location of the new settlement was even determined as early as the middle of the year, and some preliminary construction was carried out by the construction team. There are two planned settlements, namely the Cotton Fort on the north shore of Dayu Lake. As the name suggests, the residents of this settlement will mainly plant cotton here; and Zhenyuan Fort near the city of Castilos in later generations - the residents of this settlement mainly raise sheep.

The cotton and wool produced in the two settlements were sent to Dongfang Port and Ping'an County for production and processing respectively. In order to improve the transportation efficiency, the East Bank Construction Company built a small dock at the north bank of Dayu Lake. After loading, the cotton produced here will be transported to Dongfang Port through the Dayu Lake-Dayu River system, with convenient transportation. Zhenyuan Fort is still about ten kilometers north of Kuannong Fort. In order to improve transportation efficiency, the construction company has begun to plan the asphalt road from Kuannong Fort to the extension of Kuannong Fort to Zhenyuan Fort. After this road is completed, it will be supplemented with a large four-wheel freight carriage. Zhenyuan Fort and Kuannong Fort will be easily connected.

In order to increase the labor enthusiasm of new immigrants, the State Council has also issued a new policy this time. The general content is to distribute more than 2,000 sheep currently in the hands of the Animal Husbandry Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture to various new immigrants in the form of loans. Of course, the houses, rations, land, agricultural tools, seeds, etc. prepared for them in the future will also be included in the loan. No interest will be levied within three years, and a little interest will be gradually levied after three years to encourage new immigrants to enter the role as soon as possible and obtain output to repay the loan.

To this end, with the approval of the Executive Committee, the State Council specially established a policy bank, Northwest Reclamation Bank, to handle the matter specifically. The Northwest Reclamation Bank, the first financial institution in the East Coast Republic of China, has reserved 2,688 sheep, 200 tons of potatoes, and several agricultural tools, seeds, building materials and other materials, which is extremely shabby. Of course, more than 50,000 acres of land in the two places have been classified as well. After the development of these lands, they can be sold to local farmers for money.

After the policy was established, in mid-December, the first batch of 600 immigrants arrived at the Cotton Fort on the north bank of Dayu Lake by boat under two platoons of militia. Among the 600 immigrants, 300 were old residents of the original detached township, and only 300 were new immigrants. The new and old immigrants lived in each other, which was also specially done by the State Council. After all, with old residents, new immigrants can adapt to the new environment faster, and the speed of assimilation in all aspects can be slightly accelerated.

At this time, the Cotton Fort was still a large construction site. More than 200 workers from the East Coast Construction Company were working overtime, striving to build city walls, houses, toilets, canteens, bathhouses, reservoirs, warehouses and other facilities. Around them, the Coisans, with as many as 1,000 people, were arduously tidying up foundations and moving building materials under the surveillance of East Coast militias.

The thousand Coisans were the second batch of labor dispatchers sent from Hezhong Fort last month. In addition to the slaves who lowered the two banners, they were more families and immediate relatives of the indigenous Eight Banners soldiers who escaped in the last battle with the British. They were implicated by their families and sent to the local area to do hard work. Of course, before coming, they were also told that after the three-year period expired, they would be deported to South Africa and raised to the upper Six Banners to gain freedom.

The docks of the Cotton Fort were shouting and neighing, and there was noisy. Waves of supplies, personnel and livestock were transported by Dayu River - Dayu Lake water system, and then continued to transport them north until Zhenyuan Fort. After several years of development and precipitation, the East Coast Republic has now had the ability to organize thousands of people to do large-scale projects at the same time, which is a considerable progress. You must know that such large-scale projects are a test of the country's financial resources, organizational capabilities and transportation capabilities. The organizational capabilities and transportation capabilities are naturally no problem, and there are such a small problem with financial resources.
Chapter completed!