Chapter 1282 Changhua County

Liu Shang continued to fall asleep after lunch. When he woke up, it was already afternoon. He stood up and walked to the porthole to look out. He could vaguely see the shadow of the land. Judging from today's route, it should be Hainan.

The west coastline of the island. However, the ship is still several miles away from the coastline at this time, and it seems that it will not dock for a while.

Liu Shang didn't have much experience in sailing, so he couldn't rely on natural reference objects such as the sun and ocean currents and wind directions to judge his position on the sea. He immediately asked other people and learned that he was still about half a mile away from his destination.

The voyage of time.

Liu Shang said casually: "I hope we won't be blocked outside the port like the day before yesterday and couldn't get in."

Someone next to him responded: "It's hard to say. Changhua Port is also famous for congestion. There are many small boats in the port, and they might be blocked outside. You can see black smoke rising from the shore in the distance. There is

It’s Changhua County.”

Sure enough, when the ship they took arrived at Changhua Port, they found that the situation here was exactly the same as when they entered Yinggehai Port the day before yesterday. A large number of cargo ships were parked outside the port waiting for passage. However, these ships were not loaded with white salt.

Instead, it's dark coal. The black smoke rising in the sky not far away is all highlighting the uniqueness of this place.

A few years ago, Changhua was just a small county with a small population on the west coast of Qiongzhou Island in the Ming Dynasty. Even within the scope of this island, it had no reputation. But now it is known as the City of Steel in Haihan. In just a few years

The changes in the area are astonishing. However, Liu Shang did not know the past history of Changhua. He only knew that the Haihan people discovered an iron mine somewhere inland here, and then established a large-scale smelting workshop in Changhua.

, is now the main steel producing area in Haihan. The cargo loaded on these cargo ships waiting to enter the port at the seaside is fuel shipped from Annan Black Earth Port for the local smelting industry.

Changhua Port was originally just a small fishing village port at the mouth of Changjiang River. Its location is just within the mouth of the river. The width of the channel entering and leaving the port is almost the same as that of Yinggehai. Although several cargo terminals have been expanded on the bank of Changjiang River in the past two years,

However, due to the serious sedimentation situation at the mouth of the Changjiang River, sea-going vessels with a deeper draft still need to operate carefully when entering and leaving Changhua Port. Therefore, the navigation capacity of the local port is still far behind that of Victory Port, Sanya Port, and Danzhou

A large port with deep water and wide port.

With Haihan's current engineering capabilities, it is still beyond its capabilities to complete projects such as dredging river estuary channels. Therefore, although the construction scale and supporting facilities of Changhua Port have not kept up with actual demand, at this stage it is still only

It can be used temporarily. However, the Ministry of Construction has currently included the expansion of Changhua Port on the agenda, but the specific implementation time and construction scale have yet to be discussed by the Executive Committee before a clear decision can be made.

Liu Shang looked at the cargo ships filled with coal on the shore, and he secretly admired Haihan's generosity. He actually established a cross-border shipping route specifically for this purpose to provide coal for the smelting industry here. Think of the one on the other side of the sea.

An Nanguo was also able to bear it. He was forced to occupy a large coal mine by Haihan, and he could still pretend that nothing happened and continued to be on good terms with Haihan for so many years.

But Liu Shang then thought about it, and the local governments in the southeastern part of the Ming Dynasty were not like this. Qiongzhou Island has been divided by Haihan armed forces for several years. How could the officials of Guangdong and Guangxi have ever tried to take back the sovereignty here? In the end, it still depends on who has the fist.

Basically, the armed forces confronting Haihan have suffered more or less. After seeing Haihan's terrifying military strength, it is indeed difficult for people to resist again.

What Liu Shang doesn't know is that Haihan's overseas mining operations have long been carried out in far more than just Black Tu Port, including the Miaoli Chusangkeng Oil Field in Taiwan Island, the Jinguashi Gold Mine in Jilong Port, the Fushan Copper Mine in Dengzhou, Shandong, and the Nanhai

A large number of overseas mines are currently mining the tin mines in Bangka-Belitung Island. After rough processing is completed locally, they are then transported back to Hainan for refinement and purification. The coal transported back to Changhua from the Black Earth Port will also be

Most of it will be made into coke locally and then used for smelting.

Although this overseas mining model is relatively inefficient and highly dependent on maritime transport capacity, it is the only way for Haihan to develop. Hainan Island has certain geographical advantages in the early stages of crossing.

However, there is an obvious disadvantage that the types of mineral resources are relatively limited. Local production alone cannot meet the needs of the Executive Committee for the development of industrialization. This method of seizing overseas minerals for development is a more practical method for Haihan.

.

As for the resulting demand for shipping capacity, the Executive Committee believes that it is a double-edged sword. While these mineral routes occupy a large amount of maritime shipping capacity, they also have a huge stimulating effect on Haihan's shipbuilding and shipping industries. Last year, various

Almost half of the cargo ships of more than 200 tons launched at the shipyard are allocated to these mineral routes as transportation vehicles. The energy output of Heitu Port provides most of the coal for the entire Haihan Kingdom.

The port is equipped with four fleets of heavy-duty cargo ships, which are constantly transporting back and forth between Heitu Port and Hainan Island. The coal cargo ship Liu Shang saw now is one of them.

The congestion situation this time seemed to be more serious than that in Yinggehai the day before yesterday. When dusk fell, there was still no sign of the fleet photographed in front of them moving. Although Yu Xiaobao has a special status, it is not easy to directly

Taking advantage of his privileges, he asked Zhang Qianzhi to come forward and launch a small boat into the water. Several sailors rowed the small boat into the harbor to see if there was any accommodation.

It wasn't until the lanterns were lit on the boat that Zhang Qianzhi finally came back, followed by several other small boats. After returning to the boat, Zhang Qianzhi told everyone that the coal ship in front of the port had not finished unloading its cargo.

There are currently no vacant berths, so we can only park the big ship on the coast, and then take a small boat to enter the port. If we want to wait for the big ship to enter the port, we have to wait at least until dawn tomorrow morning.

Upon hearing this, everyone had no choice but to act like this. They immediately returned to the cabin to get their belongings, then got down from the gangway to the small boat, and slowly headed towards the entrance to the sea.

When they arrived at the harbor, it was almost dark. Under the guidance of the lights of the staff on the shore, the small boat they were riding in docked at a corner of the pier. After Liu Shang landed, he found that there were soft things under his feet, as if

It was not a stone ground. When I looked through the light of the lantern next to it, I realized that the ground was entirely made of coal. Looking to the side again, I saw mountains of coal piles on the dock, stretching to the end of the field of vision. I didn't know there were any.

It was as much as tens of millions of kilograms. Only then did Liu Shang realize that the place where they landed was a cargo terminal used to unload coal.

Liu Shang has no idea how many ships it would take to transport so much coal to this place and how much it is worth. Anyway, in the past thirty years of his life, he has never seen as much coal as here. The coal terminal here

, can be said to be a symbol of Haihan's national power. For Liu Shang, the visual and psychological impact is really not small.

Liu Shang followed the team in front and walked in twists and turns among the coal piles for a while before finally arriving at the town outside the port. The towns here were obviously not as good as those in Yacheng and Yinggehai that he had visited before.

It was lively. There were almost no pedestrians on the street at this time, and there were not many street-facing shops that were still open.

This scene is also related to the local social environment. Since the main industries in Changhua County are mining and smelting, and the products are basically digested by Haihan's industrial system, there is not a large floating population here, and the main activity areas are

Concentrated near the port. As for foreign merchants, there are even fewer. Most of the goods coming in and out here are operated by the government, and there is not much cash flow. The market is naturally not as prosperous as the trading port. In addition, the air here

The coal ash in Changhua is very heavy, and many people do not like to come to Changhua to trade or settle down, so there are not even many business houses in the local area.

The commercial district was replaced by a huge smelting workshop and a residential area for steel workers. In terms of industrialization level, this place is second only to Sanya Tiandu Industrial Zone in the Haihan territory. The proportion of workers specializing in industrial manufacturing is also the highest in the country.

. To exaggerate a little, Changhua County can be said to have entered a quasi-industrial society.

Although the county town located next to Changhua Port is not prosperous, it has been developed and constructed for several years, and the facilities and institutions are complete. After everyone came to the government-run guest house, Liu Shang found that the living conditions here were not as good as

The difference is elsewhere, but perhaps due to the special local social environment, there are not so many rooms for receiving guests. There are only two-person and four-person rooms available. However, Liu Shang does not care about these details and uses them in the guest house with everyone.

After dinner, I went back to the room on the third floor to rest.

But Liu Shang slept on the boat all day, but he didn't feel sleepy at night. After his companions went to bed, he still couldn't fall asleep. He only felt hot and humid all over, so he simply got up and went to the terrace, intending to enjoy the sea breeze before going into the house to sleep. But then

When he came to the terrace, he unexpectedly found that there were many places in the distance that were faintly glowing with red light, which was very obvious in the night. Liu Shang looked around for a while before he came back to his senses. Since this place is famous for smelting steel, it must be indispensable.

The large and small stoves and the red light in the distance should be those stoves that never go out day and night.

Liu Shang looked into the distance and thought that based on the amount of steel needed to build railways and steam engines in Haihan, the steel output here must be very amazing, but he didn't know whether it was higher or lower than Foshan, Guangdong, known as the "Railway Capital of the South".

Foshan's two pillar industries, pottery and iron smelting, have a long history. Ironware has been exported overseas since the Song Dynasty. By the Ming Dynasty, nearly 70% of the local people were engaged in the iron smelting industry, and Foshan has thus become the center of Guangdong.

One of the business centers.

Liu Shang believes that there are tens of thousands of people engaged in the iron smelting industry in Foshan, and it is unlikely that Changhua County has such a large working population, and there may be a possibility of competition. But this understanding is also because he completely

I don’t know that Haihan’s smelting method is more advanced than Ming’s existing technology, and the scale of production is even different. If he knew something about Changhua’s smelting industry, he probably wouldn’t put the two together.

Compared.

In fact, almost half of the workers living in Changhua and engaged in the smelting industry are from Foshan, Guangdong. This is naturally one of the achievements of the civil affairs department. Since the Shilu project was launched in 1629, Haihan has simultaneously recruited skilled workers in Foshan.

Smelting craftsmen, and with the gradual formation of the Shilu-Changhua coal-iron composite system, the immigration of smelting craftsmen from Foshan is also increasing year by year. Haihan's great efforts to introduce skilled workers are not in vain, the arrival of these craftsmen

It has indeed provided great assistance to the smelting industry in Changhua. The furnace heads in charge of the production of each blast furnace are almost all old craftsmen with experience ranging from several years to decades. Of course, after they immigrated, they came from Haihan Institute

The labor remuneration received is naturally much higher than the previous income level in Foshan.

The steel production in Changhua County has exceeded the total steel production in Guangdong, including Foshan, as early as three years ago. Now the production cost of Changhua Steel is much lower than that of Foshan, but Haihan's domestic steel production is lower than that of Foshan.

The demand is too great, so steel products are rarely exported. Otherwise, Foshan's smelting industry would have been like the salt industry, which had been wiped out by Haihan's cheap industrial products.

Early the next morning, Qiao Zhiya, the chief official of Changhua County, also came to the guest house and met with Yu Xiaobao and his party.

Among the group of time-travelers who had the experience of joining the army, Qiao Zhiya was one of the few who switched jobs from the military to the administrative agencies. Among the North American gangs who were often entrusted with important tasks in the early days of time travel, Qiao Zhiya was originally one of the backbones, and in the military

There is also a bright future, but now, apart from Johnson, the surgeon who stayed in Sanya for family reasons, only Qiao Zhiya is still engaged in work that is not directly related to the military. The others have their own achievements, Wang

Tom is now the commander of the navy, Roger is in charge of Star Island on the South China Sea, Shi Diwen is in charge of Zhenjiang and Zhoushan, and Morgan is in Dengzhou, Shandong Province. They have all become generals in the army.

It’s not that Qiao Zhiya doesn’t have great ambitions. It’s just that after working as a chief official in Changhua for a few years, he seems to have gradually adapted to this relatively stable life and doesn’t want to go out and have a hard time. Now he is married and has a family with two rooms.

Concubine, I have a son and a daughter at home, and I don’t want to leave home to fight on a battlefield thousands of miles away.

For him personally, joining the army or politics will actually give him the opportunity to move to a higher place. Staying on Hainan Island as a local official has many benefits. In addition to the convenience of life, it is also easier to stay close to Sanya.

He maintains contacts and information channels. Moreover, the smelting industry in Changhua is an important condition for Haihan to enter the industrialized society. If he can achieve political achievements steadily in this position, there is really no need to go overseas and suffer.

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