Chapter 1929

After the reception banquet that night, the group followed Qiao Zhiya's arrangements and took a car to settle down at his private manor. Although it was difficult to see the surrounding environment clearly at night, the tranquility here was easy to feel. Inside and outside the manor

A large number of trees have been planted. The gate into the manor is a large courtyard with rockeries, flowing water, pavilions, green plants, cloisters, and stone paths. It is easy for people inside to mistakenly think that they are in Jiangnan.

In a garden somewhere, not near a small county town on an island in the South China Sea.

Li Bo is a person who prefers peace and quiet at heart. This place is obviously more pleasing to him than the relatively noisy environment in the county. At that moment, he half-jokingly joked with Qiao Zhiya: "Since Mr. Qiao has such a good place, what happened just now?"

The meal should also be arranged here!”

Qiao Zhiya said with a smile: "The environment here is better than the restaurants in the county town, but I don't usually hold banquets here, and the kitchen utensils required are not all available, so it is safer to place this reception banquet in the county town."

Li Pu thought to himself that you are an official of one parent, and you want to temporarily requisition people and kitchen utensils from a local restaurant. That's not a matter of just one sentence. There may be something hidden in it. But since Qiao Zhiya didn't say anything, of course he was sensible enough not to ask further.

.

In fact, the secret behind this is also very simple. The restaurant where Qiao Zhiya hosted the banquet is the newly opened business of his brother-in-law. As the saying goes, the money does not go to outsiders, but he also takes this opportunity to raise the standard of the restaurant - after all, it is Mr. Qiao.

The designated restaurant for entertaining foreign dignitaries can still be used in a small place like Changhua.

Qiao Zhiya's personal guard usually maintains its establishment in the name of militia, but the training frequency and equipment level are far beyond that of the militia. Today, an important person is visiting, so Qiao Zhiya dispatched this team to take charge of the armed guard of his estate. To

In terms of familiarity with the inside and outside of the manor, his own personal guard is naturally the best choice. He is responsible for controlling the roads leading to the manor and the surrounding areas. The men and horses brought by Gai Liangcai were deployed to Li Shu's residence.

The surrounding areas are responsible for close defense, and the task is relatively easy.

Since many furnaces in the Changhua Smelting Area operate around the clock, workers work in two or three shifts. Even in the middle of the night, there are groups of workers entering and exiting the county, so there is no curfew here.

, walking around in the middle of the night is actually not noticeable. However, Captain Xue and others were not aware of this situation and did not dare to take action on the night of arrival. It was not until the next day that they inquired about the location of Daling Manor and prepared to visit North Korea.

This is the place where the prince settled.

But they were taking one step at a time, and Haihan's arrangements would not stop and wait for them. While they were still thinking about how to get to the Qiaozhia Manor without attracting attention, Li Bo and his party were already preparing to set off from the manor to go

A railway station located east of the county seat.

The reason why he went out so early in the morning was mainly because the trains on this railway only run twice in the morning and once in the evening, and Qiao Zhiya did not intend to adjust the departure time to make it more convenient for North Koreans. However, Li Hao

I think there is nothing wrong with this arrangement. When he was in Sanya, he missed the train to Tiandu because he had other sightseeing arrangements in the morning. As a result, he could only take the short trip from Victory Port to Sanya Port. Since the Haihan train

The flight is so early, so just leave earlier.

The only adjustment Qiao Zhiya made to the morning train for Li Bo and his party was to add a VIP carriage. This carriage is usually parked in a specially built garage at Changhua Station, and is only used when important people come.

It will only be enabled during the inspection here.

However, this carriage was manufactured several years ago, and its comfort is not as good as the VIP carriage Li Bo rode in Sanya. Fortunately, Li Bo actually doesn’t pay too much attention to such details. He paid more attention after getting in the car.

The ground was placed on the scenery outside the car window.

It is different from the desolate situation along the railway when it was first built a few years ago. Now, after the local government has carried out planned resettlement, people have begun to live along the railway. This railway is almost parallel to the bank of the Changhua River.

The water conservancy conditions near the railway can fully meet the needs of agricultural development. However, since most of the local labor force is concentrated in the smelting industry in Changhua and the mines in Shilu, agricultural reclamation along the railway is only sporadic and not

There are not large plantations and collective farms like other places.

The scale of this kind of agricultural development is limited, but it can at least solve part of the local food demand. Moreover, after there are people living along the railway line, part of the railway maintenance and repair work has gradually been handed over to the people along the line. As long as after short-term training, even for

People who know nothing about the principles of railway operation can also perform the task of inspecting the track once a day and receive corresponding rewards. This greatly reduces the pressure on the transportation department and provides people along the line with an extra livelihood.

Although there are still many practical problems in this operation, for the Shilu area of ​​Changzhou, which always has a labor shortage, it is already a relatively effective way to solve railway maintenance problems at this stage. And through these part-time maintenance personnel

, officials can also publicize railway-related knowledge to people along the line to reduce the occurrence of railway accidents.

"I heard that this railway is four times longer than the railway in Sanya. I must have encountered many difficulties during its construction, right?" After the train started to leave the station, Li Bo couldn't wait to ask questions to Qiao Zhiya.

Qiao Zhiya responded: "The biggest difficulty at that time was actually the shortage of labor force. The prince can see that there is actually no population along the railway line, and the labor force in the entire Changhua County at that time was even less than 3,000. We need to spread this manpower among the eighty

On a construction site that is many miles long, the effect can be imagined. Later, we thought of many ways to import labor here, and it took a year and a half to open the transportation line from Changhua to Shilu."

"As for the cost..." Qiao Zhiya shook his head and said: "That actually doesn't matter. We know that as long as this road is built and mining of Shilu Iron Mine begins, the cost will definitely be recovered. The sooner the mine is put into operation, the better we can

The sooner you can get benefits.”

Li Bo asked again: "The Shilu Iron Mine is located deep inland. How did your country discover this mineral deposit? Can Mr. Qiao tell you something?"

Of course, Qiao Zhiya couldn't tell him that Haihan's prospecting was all based on maps from another time and space, so he immediately boasted that Haihan sent many people to explore for metal deposits across the island and found Shilu.

It was because folk rumors heard that copper ore was produced here, and the so-called "Shilu" was the name for copper ore, so the official sent people to follow the clues to find it, and finally found a large vein, but the copper ore was

It is a supporting role, but the real protagonist is the iron ore.

This is also the second and largest iron ore deposit that Haihan officials have discovered on this island after the Sanyatian Du Iron Mine. In addition to iron, this place also has copper, gold, sulfur and other mineral resources.

, it can be described as a natural cornucopia.

Li Pu thought that if this was true, then Haihan's fortune was indeed his destiny. Otherwise, without so much steel, how could Haihan easily form a strong army fully equipped with firearms? But he didn't know that these people were there.

Before choosing Hainan Island as a place to stay, I had already considered where to get steel. The development of Shilu Iron Mine was originally a step in Haihan's development plan, and it was not a matter of luck.

The supplies transported by this train to the Shilu Mining Area included two wagons of food, one wagon of production tools and various building materials, and another wagon containing two steam engines for mining gravel, as well as a train to power the steam engines.

Two wagons of coal. Behind these six freight wagons are two passenger carriages and the VIP carriage where Qiao Zhiya and others are.

The so-called passenger carriage is far from having the same conditions as the VIP carriage. There are no windows inlaid with plate glass, and it is almost like a tin can. There are only two rows of benches fixed on the walls of the carriage, and the rest of the people can only sit on the floor in the middle of the carriage.

The two passenger carriages contained more than 200 and nearly 300 people, most of whom were miners.

Since these miners who live in Changhua have a long round trip, they usually stay for ten days and a half months or even longer after going to the mine to save time and travel expenses. Nowadays, many miners have chosen to simply leave their homes.

Being in the mining area, although the living conditions are not as good as those in Changhua, work is much more convenient. Moreover, the development of the smelting industry in Changhua has caused serious local air pollution, but there is no such problem in Shilu. The steam engines burning in the mine

The total smoke and dust generated by coal may not be as much as that of an operating blast furnace in Changhua.

After listening to Qiao Zhiya introducing the situation of Shilu Mine like a treasure trove, Li Pu could feel that this high-ranking official of Haihan was indeed very familiar with the industry under his control, and he should have paid much attention to it. Haihan Kingdom appointed him here.

Being a local official is indeed very particular.

Halfway through the journey, the whistle was heard. After a while, the train Li Bo was riding passed on the railway track with the train coming from the opposite direction. The sound was quite alarming.

Qiao Zhiya had long been accustomed to such scenes, and calmly continued to introduce the situation of the train on the opposite side to Li Bo. The trains leaving the mining area mainly carried ore that had been initially screened and crushed, and occasionally some

It will carry felled logs and some local products in the mountains. Of course, there are also many people on the car who have received their wages and plan to go back to reunite with their families after completing several days of hard work, or who want to spend a few days in Changhua.

of miners.

At this time, Captain Xue and others had just left the county town, and divided into several routes to approach the Qiao Zhiya Manor near Daling. They pretended to be people who went into the mountains to collect herbs, collect firewood, and hunt. They slowly approached this place, which was probably North Korea.

The manor where people stayed. But at this time, half of Qiao Zhiya's personal guards followed the car to Shilu, and the remaining personnel who stayed here had already received orders to lower the defense level. After all, the targets of protection were no longer here, so there was no need.

Maintain high-intensity patrolling and guarding.

But even so, there are still checkpoints on the boulevard leading to the manor, and Captain Xue and others can only take a detour to avoid the surveillance range of these armed guards.

After they approached cautiously, what they saw put a basin of cold water on everyone's head. The manor, shaded by green trees, was surrounded by a 1.5-foot-high wall. It was impossible to see it from the outside.

When they get to the manor, unless they continue to climb the mountain and reach the high point of the big ridge behind the manor, they may still be able to see a little bit of the scenery inside the manor. But after climbing to a high enough height, the distance from the manor will widen.

When it is several miles away, even if it can be seen, it will definitely not be clear, and the reconnaissance effect will not be achieved at all.

This is of course not a coincidence, but the owner of the manor has already considered security needs during the site selection and design stage, calculated a relatively safe range, and used topography and architecture to reduce security risks. Captain Xue also

They quickly realized this and knew that this reconnaissance operation would hardly yield any actual results unless they climbed over the high wall directly and went inside to see if there were any North Koreans.

Captain Xue, who prefers to be cautious rather than radical, naturally would not make such an irrational decision. He spent a lot of time regrouping the team, then selected several relatively hidden locations near the manor, and divided into groups to monitor the manor.

The situation of people entering and exiting.

Yes, that's right. When there was nothing he could do, the only strategy he could adopt was the most primitive strategy of waiting. Because the information he had was extremely limited, he couldn't even determine whether the North Koreans had moved into the manor, so he could only take

This extremely inefficient reconnaissance method attempts to confirm the movements of North Koreans.

Of course, Captain Xue was not stupid enough to throw all his people here to wait for a rabbit that might not exist. After making arrangements, he took the remaining people back to the county seat and tried to find out more about it.

news about the North Koreans. But to his disappointment, there was no local official news about the North Koreans’ visit. It was not until noon that his men finally found out that a group of important people had been received at a restaurant somewhere in the city last night.

Among the guests was the local chief executive Qiao Zhiya.

Theoretically speaking, senior officials from Haihan will definitely receive the visiting Joseon Crown Prince in person, so the important guests having dinner with Qiao Zhiya are most likely the group from Sanya. However, Captain Xue did not immediately understand why Qiao Zhiya was not there.

The banquet was held in his own private manor, but the reception venue was chosen in the county town that smelled of coal smoke. Is there any special signature dish in this restaurant that you must try and regret for the rest of your life if you miss it?

With the idea of ​​​​finding out, Captain Xue also went to this restaurant, ordered a table of dishes as a foreign businessman, and then chatted with the shopkeeper who took the initiative to say hello and establish a relationship, and he really asked him to come up with something to say.

, only to find out that the owner of this restaurant and Qiao Zhiya are related by marriage, I couldn't help but feel dumbfounded at the moment, no wonder this high-ranking official from Haihan would make such an arrangement.
Chapter completed!