On November 15, 17th year of Chongzhen, the waterway from the downstream Changhua River was finally built to the iron ore factory. On the day of navigation, Tong Tuchang gave all the craftsmen a day off because it was too difficult to repair this route.

The Changhua River section is easy to repair, after all, the water volume is very large. Just remove some sand dunes in the river and the huge rocks. The difficulty lies in the Shilu River section.

The water volume of Shilu River is enough, which means that the river channel is narrow and there are many huge rocks.

Tong Tuchang had no choice but to ask Zhou Yu to send a team of engineers. It took ten tons of gunpowder to clear the twenty-mile river channel of Shilu River in half a month. But in this way, the 300-stock sand ship could not directly reach the iron ore factory area, and could only reach the mouth of Shilu River.

Compared with the fact that ore is easy to mine, the Tengtian ore vein is an open-pit ore vein. The surface soil layer is only two meters deep, and a large amount of iron ore will be exposed after cleaning. Just blow it up with gunpowder and then mine it with manpower.

Hundreds of tons of ore have been mined in the iron ore area, and transportation has now become the first problem. The iron ore is five miles away from Shiluhe Wharf, and transportation depends on cattle and horses to pull.

The last craftsman asked whether he could make a track, just like in the Dongguan Steel Plant. He did it when he thought of it. With everyone's efforts, this iron-brown rail that was more than 3,000 meters long was built.

Seeing that the track was completed and Shilu River was already open to navigation, Tong Tuchang calculated the time. It was November 15th, and there was still half a month left before two months, so he should be able to catch up.

The next day, Tong Tuchang ordered the loading of the ship. He stood on the shore and watched ten small boats carrying 80 tons drive out of the dock. Tong Tuchang said in his heart: "The first batch of ores have finally been transported out. I hope I can catch up with the time."

The convenience of water transportation was revealed at this time. Ten small boats flowed downstream to the estuary on the same day, and loaded three large sea boats at the dock the next day. Then the small boats were flowing upstream and loading the second batch of ore.

These three sea ships arrived at Baisha Port in Qiongzhou three days later. Tong Yangjia was very happy to see that the first ship of ore was finally transported out within two months. He planned to go back to Dongguan with the ore ship to find Zhu Hongsan to make contributions while asking the King of Chu to dispatch personnel. The construction of Baisha Port here has also begun.

Tong Yangjia boarded the cargo ship and finally arrived at the Dongguan Wharf one day before the deadline.

After getting off the boat, Tong Yangjia looked at the Dongguan County Town. Now the county town is connected to the industrial area outside the city. All the city walls outside the county town were demolished, and a large road came out of the county town and led to the distance.

Now the population in the county is growing. Tong Yangjia remembers that when he came last August, there were only more than 20,000 people in Dongguan County. Now, there are five or six thousand people on the dock at a glance. Several high-rise buildings have been built in the city in the distance, with five or six floors. I don’t know what to do.

Leaving the dock, it was a large commercial area. Tong Yangjia himself also had several shops on this street, earning him a lot of money every month.

The commercial area was crowded with people from all over the country, and people from all over the country could see it here. Tong Yangjia just took a rough look. The main thing he came back was to report on the iron ore situation, not to watch the excitement.

Tong Yangjia found a carriage on the side of the commercial street and said that he went to the Chu King's Mansion, and the coachman took Tong Yangjia out of the city.

It is almost the twelfth lunar month, and the weather in Guangdong is already very cold. However, Tong Yangjia saw that the pedestrians on both sides of the road were quite good, and there was no such dish that is common in the north.

Now there are houses on both sides of the road. Tong Yangjia remembers that when he left on October 1st, there was only one side of the road with factories. He didn't expect that it would expand so much in just two months.

The coachman saw Tong Yangjia looking at the factory outside in a daze and couldn't help but say, "The customer is a new customer, right?"

Tong Yangjia said, "It's not new here either. I came here two months ago and there is no house on this road yet."

The coachman said, "Now, don't talk about you outsiders in Dongguan. Even if I don't go out for half a month, I will get lost. New factories are built every day, and people are everywhere. I heard that there are 200,000 people in the entire Dongguan county town. I'm about to catch up with Guangzhou Prefecture. I heard that the Governor wants to upgrade Dongguan County to a prefecture!"

Dongguan wants to upgrade? It seems that he was picked up by Gong Dacheng when he helped him get this magistrate. Tong Yangjia said, "Carrier, are you from Dongguan?"

"yes."

"Then why did you come out to drive the bus? I heard that the locals in Dongguan are now landlords."

"It's not all right. The old man used to open a small tavern in the city. After Nancheng became a development zone, someone came to buy my tavern, which was also expensive. I saw that I was old and planned to sell the tavern and wanted to go back to the countryside to retire.

But unexpectedly, the countryside land was classified as a factory area this year, giving the little old man a lot of money. Now my family of six is ​​not worried about food and drink. My two sons also work as workers in the King of Chu’s factory, and the eldest son is still a foreman. Even the little old man is old and has nothing to do every day. He can find something to do with a mule in the commercial street."

It seems that this is also a vested interest class. Tong Yangjia continued to ask: "Brother, why haven't you opened your own factory and become your own boss?"

The coachman smiled and said, "Haha, I'm old, but my son wants to do it by himself. He works as a foreman in the canning factory and will resign next year and open a canning factory by himself."

Canned food is a new thing made by Zhu Hongsan. Clay pots are used instead of later generations of iron cans and glass cans. After putting food in high temperature, disinfecting it at high temperature, and then sealing it with wax. It can be stored in a room temperature environment for half a year.

Zhu Hongsan made this thing to prepare to preserve food for the army, but he didn't expect it to be very popular when it was launched. So now several varieties have been created, including canned fruits and canned meat.

Canned fruits are now sold to Sichuan and Beijing. After all, it is winter now, so what kind of fruits are there in the north? Therefore, this canned food has earned a lot of money for Zhu Hongsan.

The canned meat was made by Zhu Hongsan imitated the canned lunch meat in later generations. He used some beef, mutton, pork, add starch, salt, and five spices, and then put it in canned food and steamed it. Zhu Hongsan had eaten this kind of thing, but he vomited it in the first bite. Zhu Hongsan has been very popular and spicy in recent years, so he can still eat this kind of thing.

However, this kind of canned food is the favorite of refugees. A canned meat of five kilograms, plus twenty kilograms of potatoes, a pot of potato soup, and a cornmeal steamed bun for each person, can serve a good dinner for 100 people.

It is these things that ensure that more than one million refugees in Guangdong have not starved to death on a large scale.

Listening to the coachman's talk, Tong Yangjia knew that the power of the King of Chu had been fully expanded and his power had risen. It seemed that the matter of Qiongzhou Prefecture should be tightened.

Zhujiazhuang's Chu King's Mansion is fifteen miles away from the county town. Now there are houses on both sides of the road, which is almost the same as in the city. It took an hour to get there for these fifteen miles.

The carriage stopped two hundred meters away from the Chu Palace. The coachman said, "Call, if you don't let you enter inside, you can get here."

Tong Yangjia nodded, got off the car and paid for it, and headed for the Chu Prince's Mansion.

The Chief Secretary of the King of Chu Mansion is right outside the King of Chu Mansion, so there are so many people coming to do things every day. Chinese people have always liked to get close to the Center of Power. The streets outside the King of Chu Mansion have changed a lot. There are three or four-story high hotels and inns on both sides of the road.

Seeing a long queue outside the Chief Secretary’s Office, Tong Yangjia thought about it and went to see Ma Mingyuan first. After all, Ma Laoer is now the chief secretary in name, so it would be better if he didn’t tell him when he came back.

The Chief Secretary now has a three-in-one large courtyard. The first floor yard is divided into six rooms. According to the six departments established by the Six Departments of the Court of Officials, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, Households, and Households, all of them are merchants who come to do things.

When he came to the gate of the first floor yard, he saw that Tong Yangjia was coming. He hurriedly stepped forward to salute and said, "Mr. Tong is back."

Tong Yangjia nodded and said, "Is Ma Changshi there?"

"I'm having a meeting on the third floor yard, so I'll bring the adults in."

Tong Yangjia followed him into the second floor yard, which is the office of the Sixth Department, and the third floor is Ma Mingyuan's office and conference room.

I went to a living room on the third floor yard and sat down, and Tong Yangjia was waiting here.

After waiting for half an hour, the tea was served twice before Tong Yangjia waited until Ma Mingyuan.
Chapter completed!