Early the next morning, Chen Xin came to the newly built port at the mouth of the Yalu River to have a look, although sitting in the office and looking at the daily work report can know the progress of the work, but Chen Xin, who was only a small person before, has not yet adapted to the days of reading the report, and always feels uneasy if he does not see it with his own eyes. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Although the current main vessel, the Kuaixi-5, has a deeper draft than the previous model, it is still unimpeded on large waterways such as the Yalu River and the Yangtze River, and Chen Xin was not in a hurry to build a port here.

But after going around, at least 30 large sea ships were captured, and those types of ships could not sail in the river, and if they were not careful, they would touch the bottom, which was too dangerous.

Although there is a shortage of materials, we can only find ways to squeeze out some materials from other projects that are not too high-priority.

The local labor force was not enough to start construction of a new seaport, and some North Korean laborers were transferred from Busan.

After the personnel and materials arrived, the construction finally began, and while the wharf was being built, a fortress had to be built on the shore.

This is the front line of the war, next to Dongjiang Town's base on the sea, without the protection of the fortress, Chen Xin is not at ease to send his precious troops here.

As he walked, he saw a group of laborers hoisting goods with pulleys, and they were constantly moving materials back and forth from the heads of a group of workers, and Chen Xin called the person in charge on the spot.

"When using pulleys to lift materials, you must be careful, and you, as the person in charge, must operate in accordance with safety regulations. If you do this way, if the rope comes loose, there will be dozens of lives below. ”

"If the subordinates make a mistake, we must teach these Koreans Chinese characters and various operating norms as soon as possible."

A sentence from the person in charge reminded Chen Xin that except for the Chinese language classes offered in the army, the Chinese language and Chinese characters have not been popularized among the people, and the best way to assimilate a nation is to assimilate it with culture, and this is a matter of urgency.

Immediately take out a notepad and write down carefully, "Popularize Chinese and Chinese characters as soon as possible." ”

After inspecting the new port in rapid prototyping and writing down everything that should be remembered, Chen Xin ordered his attendants to go to the corresponding departments with the newly issued orders, and then stepped on the fast ship to Maoshan.

Maosan is located on a peninsula in the easternmost part of Korea, in the upreaches of the Yalu River, passing through seven or eight cities along the river, and in these places, the general staff has already sent troops to capture the county seat and stationed management personnel during the period when Chen Xin went to sea.

At present, they are not familiar with those places for the time being, so the managers and soldiers sent there did not rashly reform all kinds of maladministrations, except for silently collecting information and suppressing the rebellion, everything else is as usual.

Chen Xin was ready, and when the supply of materials in the south of the Ming River began to be stable, he would open commercial banks in these places and use economic means to carry out work.

Colonial expansion in history has all used commercial trade as a means of breakthrough.

Trade can not only be profitable, but also an important means of gaining a foothold in the region.

Now that the territory has been occupied by violence, the next step is to strengthen the ties between the two sides, to free themselves from the status of the aggressors, to become people who can bring their benefits, and to bring the locals to their side.

Along the way, the boat passed through these places, Chen Xin did not stop, along the way the fast crab day and night, against the current, under the boat, the day finally arrived at Maoshan Wharf.

The civil affairs supervisor of the Maoshan area personally came to pick up Chen Xin, and introduced along the way: "General, we have gathered thousands of laborers here, and we have been able to use gunpowder every day to blow up the mountains and open mines, and now we can meet the needs of two iron-making blast furnaces, but if we increase the number of blast furnaces, we will have to add the number of laborers." ”

"Who are the workers? How is it managed? Is it paid? Is there enough food now? Chen Xin asked a bunch of questions like a machine gun, no way, Maoshan is Chen Xin's only source of self-produced steel now, if something goes wrong in Maoshan, then the blow to Chen Xin's power is great.

"They are all victims brought from war-torn areas, and we divide them all into groups, manage them layer by layer, and after working every day, exchange points according to the amount of labor, and then use the points to exchange for food. These people have all had hardships, know gratitude, and work very hard. Grain is delivered from Uiju by boat every month, and we have at least two months of grain in stock, and as long as the headquarters keeps getting food, we will not have problems here. ”

"How is the housing here solved?"

"It's July, and it's hot, so everyone is working on the ground, but the ministry has issued a document asking us to build a number of houses before winter. After internal discussions, we built all the townhouses, most of which were large shops for a dozen people, and a small number of houses were used as a reward for those who were active in their work, so that they could live together as a family. ”

"Yes, I have a lot of ideas, I support your decision, report what you need, and I will let the Ministry of Civil Affairs give priority to solving your difficulties here."

"Thank you, General."

Saying that, Chen Xin remembered another purpose of coming this time: "How is the coal washing process being studied now?" ”

"General, no one has ever heard of coal washing, and our technicians are working the experiment according to the ideas you provided, and we don't know when we can get it out."

Chen Xin could only comfort, "It's okay, take your time, the current wrought iron is enough for the time being, and the demand for steel is not too urgent, after all, there is crucible steel that can last for a while." ”

All the way, Chen Xin's feet didn't stop at all, and the director of Maoshan didn't care, he knew what Chen Xin was looking at today.

Entering a valley, the soldiers on duty at the mouth of the valley gave a military salute to Chen Xin, Chen Xin returned the salute and swept the grassy hilltop out of the corner of his eyes, and there were bunkers built on several dangerous positions in the valley, where infantry cannons and hand cannons were placed, and a team of musketeers was stationed nearby.

Continuing to move forward, and finally standing in front of a row of houses, Chen Xin listened to the whining sound coming from inside, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but grin.

When I entered the inside, I saw a small boiler, which was constantly whining under the high temperature of the coal, and white steam came out from time to time at several pipe connections of the boiler.

Several craftsmen who were holding a notebook to record data saw Chen Xin coming, and hurriedly saluted respectfully, but Chen Xin hurriedly stopped him. "Several of them are the founders of the future development of our army, so you don't need to be polite."

After a few greetings, Chen Xin turned his attention to the machine in front of him.

"This is the first small steam engine you built?"

"General, this can only be regarded as a model, we followed the method you explained, starting with the smallest teapot, imitating it, modifying it no less than a hundred times, and finally came up with such a steam engine that can drive a small wheel to rotate."

Chen Xin asked eagerly: "With the current technology, can it be enlarged a little more?" In fact, the steam engine in front of me is too small, and all the boilers, water pipes, and linkage devices add up to less than the size of a coffee table.

"General, it's not okay now, this model was fine when it ran before, and there were no problems for three consecutive days, but yesterday, it began to leak, and the leakage is getting bigger and bigger, and now I can't even carry the small wheels."

Chen Xin was not disappointed, after all, the steam engine was already high-tech at this time, how could it be completed in just half a year.

"So do you have any good solutions for air leaks?"

"The subordinates have also studied it, and there are some methods, but they still need to be verified."

"Oh? Got an idea so quickly? Let's talk about it. ”

"The subordinates think that they can use the fire cloth as a sealing gasket, and the fine linen cloth is wrapped on the kapok to act as a piston, so they should be able to give it a try, but it is still uncertain how effective these two things will be at high temperatures."

"So, when will the next improved model be manufactured?"

"This steam engine is very dangerous, any part is unqualified, there will be steam leakage, and the bigger it is, the more dangerous it is, all the parts must be carefully polished by skilled craftsmen one by one, so the next improved model may have to wait for a few months, the specific time, the subordinates are really not sure."