"No, no! How can this make! The ocean island is a major area in the Dongjiang River, who can borrow it from others?" Shen Shikui shook his head like a drum when he heard Li Xiao's conditions. "Shen, General Li, will not obey his order."

Li Xiao smiled: "General Chen has said it. According to Li, the ocean island is located in a remote area, with only twenty fishermen stationed on this island, and your army has only sent 200 old and weak soldiers to garrison. Such a remote island is not a strategic location. If General Chen is allowed to operate it in our army, he can only exchange for money and provide assistance. This is the best of both worlds."

Shen Shikui pondered inwardly, and he knew in his heart that what Li Xiao said was very reasonable, but as the general of Dongjiang Town, he easily reselled his land under his jurisdiction so easily. If someone with ulterior motives reported it to the court, he would only cause unnecessary trouble for himself.

However, if he strongly rejected Li Xiao, he would undoubtedly offend the largest financial backer in Dongjiang Town. In addition, the 50,000 taels of silver delivered to him would be unwilling to be easily pushed away by himself.

"General Chen is worried that our army will not return it for a long time?" Seeing Shen Shikui's silence, Li Xiao took a sip of tea and said softly.

Shen Shikui's heart lit up. He knew that Li Xiao was under his own steps and hurriedly said, "General Li, you still understand the difficulties of Chen. It's not that Chen is stingy, but this ocean island is also a territory of the Ming Dynasty, so it's hard to be careless with others."

Li Xiao smiled and said, "Let me do not want to make Lord Shen embarrassed. Now Li has just said that this ocean island will be rented from Dongjiang Town for five years, and will be returned to Dongjiang Town after five years. How good is that?"

Shen Shikui was shocked when he heard this, and then he felt secretly happy. If Li Xiao had only borrowed five years, but the time was not long, it would be worth 50,000 taels of silver, it would be a good deal.

So he pretended to cough twice, then stroked his beard and said, "Well, since General Li begged for one force, Chen can only become a beautiful woman. This matter is agreed upon and sign the document."

"Okay, General Chen is really generous. Li Xiao thanked him. In order to show the closeness of the two armies, Li Xiao gave him another 100,000 kilograms of sea salt to the Lord, thinking that the congratulations for the agreement was signed." Li Xiao said with a smile.

Shen Shikui's face suddenly turned apart, and he nodded repeatedly and said, "General Li is really a cheerful person, so Chen will be disrespectful to this batch of sea salt."

When Li Xiao saw Shen Shikui smiling so brightly, he sighed in his heart that Shen Shikui rented the ocean island for five years and thought he had taken advantage of it, but he didn't know that he had just eaten a hollow dumpling.

After all, in real history, Dongjiang Town has only two years of life left, and the general of Dongjiang Town Shen Shikui will also be killed by Qing army general Ma Futa.

However, if I had not come from later generations, who would know how the situation in the future would develop?

After the meeting, Shen Shikui held a big banquet and had a happy chat with Li Xiao and others, and the guests and hosts were in harmony.

After the banquet, Shen Shikui ordered Deputy General Jin Il-guan to take Li Xiao and others to visit Pi Island.

Li Xiao saw that there were only more than 3,000 troops garrisoned in the entire Pi Island, and there were less than 5,000 families. The military camps and houses were dilapidated. Apart from the several guardhouses in the entire Pi Island, there were basically no special defense measures.

Li Xiao sighed in his heart, no wonder in history, after Huang Taiji led the Qing army to conquer Korea, he could use a small partial army to enter the island, and eliminate all the defenders of Pi Island and kill the general Shen Shikui. After all, it was the Ming army in Dongjiang Town that was not successful, had a depressed fighting spirit, and did not have enough defensive means, which made the Qing army so easy to succeed.

But then again, now that the Later Jin Tian merged with the Mongolian tribes, the country is already very powerful and has a vast territory. It is a world of difference from the Later Jin Dynasty in Mao Wenlong's era. This island is so close to the coast of Liaodong. With the increasingly severe enemy and we are weak, it is basically impossible to escape the fate of being destroyed.

The enemy is getting better day by day, and we are getting worse day by day. In another nine years, even the Ming Dynasty will be destroyed. Under such a decayed country, if we want to blame Dongjiang Town alone, it is also suspected of being biased.

Not long after, Li Xiao and his group came to the blacksmith shop under the leadership of Jin Il-guan.

"Hey, Fulang Yaranda, Amier, Sacong are you okay?" After Jin Il-guan briefly introduced to Li Xiao and others, the voice of Zhao Jie, the head of the firearms, was next to Li Xiao, and the voice of Zhao Jie, the head of the firearms, sounded in surprise.

"Oh, is Zhao Jie you? Why are you back? Haven't you gone to Shandong?" A Portuguese stiff Chinese sounded in surprise.

Zhao Jie quickly walked over, patted his shoulder and said, "Fulang Yaranda, I am back this time, but there is good news to tell you. You have been bought by Lord Li, the general of Chifeng Guard. You are about to go south to Shandong with me."

After Zhao Jie finished speaking, he hurriedly introduced Li Xiao to the three Portuguese people.

"Sir, this is the gun division Fulang Yalanda, this is the mechanic Amier, and this is the gun calculation master Sacon, both of them were technical talents from the Portuguese country hired a lot of money by Dengzhou Firearms Battalion that day."

Li Xiao walked over with a smile and greeted the three Portuguese people: "Li Xiao was really happy to meet three talented people, but he regretted that he was too late to know."

At this time, Li Xiao suddenly remembered a historical book about the Denglai Mutiny that he had read in his previous life. It was Mao's "Record of the Rebellion" by Mao during the Republic of China. It stated that in the fourth year of Chongzhen, after Xu Guangqi's arrangement, Portuguese missionary Lu Ruohan and the Portuguese general Gongsha Lao came to Dengzhou in March to assist the Shandong Penglai Governor Sun Yuanhua to build artillery training. In addition, the deputy commanders Lu Weiluo, the gun troops Fulang Yaranda, Fangsigu, Ehongluo, Gongssa, Anni, Amier, Sacon, Ando, ​​Wuruowang, Bodog and many other Portuguese technicians assisted the research and development of firearms in Dengzhou.

Li Xiao was very glad that these top fireworks and humanities of this era had the opportunity to fall into his own hands.

Next, Li Xiao learned from Zhao Jie that the Portuguese general Lao and the deputy commander Lu Weiluo, both were killed when they were captured by the rebels in Dengzhou. Some of the other Portuguese died in Dengzhou, and some were led out by Kong Youde's main force in breaking out. Several Portuguese were taken to the Houjin. However, these three Portuguese were lucky enough to be intercepted by the Dongjiang Town Navy that day, and they had been playing in the Pidao blacksmith shop.

Li Xiao asked the three Portuguese for a while, and then said to them directly: "Three Gentiles, you are all possessing firearms and mechanical skills, and are rare talents. Now that you stay in our army, you will definitely play a greater role, and I will never treat you badly."

What Li Xiao didn't expect was that Fulang Yaranda shook his head repeatedly: "No, no, no, we have suffered enough in Dengzhou. Now this Pi Island is just wasting time here. The three of us have agreed that if we have to escape from the difficulties, we really don't want to stay in Ming Kingdom anymore. We want to take a boat to Macau and then return to China from there."

Amier and Sacon also expressed the same ideas as Fulang Yaranda.

Seeing that he was full of affection, but was coldly opposed by these Portuguese people, Li Xiao changed his face and snorted coldly: "Since you have obtained by me, you should use it for me, so how can you refuse it! Mr. Zhao took them and all the other craftsmen to the ship, and then returned to Shandong with our army."

After saying that, Li Xiao turned his head and left.

Seeing Li Xiao's pretending to be angry, Zhao Jie held back his laughter and made a gesture to the three Portuguese people: "Everyone, since Lord Li has given the order, please go on board with a certain family."

Fulang Yaranda struggled to break free from several soldiers who came to capture him. He looked angry and expressed his dissatisfaction with Li Xiao's back: "General Li! Li Xiao! You devil, bastard! What power do you have to control our freedom! God will punish you!"

Amier and Sacong also shouted loudly to express their anger.

Zhao Jie came over, and he looked amused and cried, patted Langyalanda on the shoulder and said, "Everyone, stop arguing, get on the boat first. Zhao really has no choice. I dare not refuse to obey Shangguan's instructions. Please be careful, please follow me on the boat first."

.........

Li Xiao only stayed on Pidao for two days before saying goodbye to Shen Shikui.

Li Xiao had too many things to implement, and he couldn't travel for a long time on this Pi Island.

When Li Xiao returned, he happened to take Dongjiang Town to Chifengwei to pick up merchant goods. Li Xiao suggested to Wang Tingrui, the general of Dongjiang Town who led the team this time to detour to the ocean island in the southeast to see the general situation of the ocean island. Wang Tingrui readily agreed to his request.

After a day and a half, the ship finally arrived at the ocean island, the farthest end of the Long Island Islands.

When Li Xiao and others came to the shore, it was clear that this ocean island was much larger than Pi Island and the coastline was quite long. There were many peaks on the entire island, with hilly terrain, many primeval forests, lush trees and flourishing, and basically no traces of development of arable land. Only in the coastal locations are scattered with several military camps and sparse fishermen's houses. The island is basically in an undeveloped primitive state.

After checking the terrain, Li Xiao had already made a preliminary decision on the planning of the ocean island.

In that highland surrounded by mountains, a Qianhu Fort, similar to Chifeng Fort can be built, with a circumference of the city wall of 2 miles. This kind of fort built on the mountain has a steep terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack. If more than a thousand troops can be stationed and combined with sufficient firearms such as the sky-shaking thunder, it will be enough to withstand nearly ten thousand troops.

Li Xiao thought to himself, this castle will be crossed by mountains and seas, so in the future, it will be called Zhenhai Castle.

Now, if you want to build this castle, the cost of actually being reduced much compared to when you built Chifeng Castle.

Because Li Xiao's Chifengwei can be produced whether it is foundation bluestone, bricks, lime, etc., what makes Li Xiao most proud is that just a while ago, Chifengwei finally developed cement, and there is no need to use a mixture of glutinous rice juice or other ingredients to make mortar like the ones that were built in Chifeng Castle before.

It took nearly three months since Li Xiao authorized the craftsman Liao Quanlu to develop cement and the final product was successfully developed.

At the beginning, Liao Quanlu had no experience. He knocked the raw material mixed with lime and clay to a very fine and fine, but it was extremely difficult to burn because it was airtight. Later, he learned his lesson and deliberately kept the raw material in large blocks. After stacking it together, each piece of raw material could be smoothly air-injected, and then it was successfully ignited and fired.

Liao Quanlu was later inspired by Li Xiao's iron smelting technology. He added a thick layer of coal powder to the bottom of the raw material, which greatly accelerated the firing of cement.

After repeated development, Liao Quanlu found that the mixed fire of clay and lime was the best effect, and the cement produced could achieve the same purpose as later generations, and the degree of strength was also considerable, and it was finally recognized by Li Xiao.

In fact, although cement has been developed now, Li Xiao is not very satisfied, because the cement produced by Liao Quanlu is all slow-drying and has a long settling time. Unlike modern cement, it is divided into various models, with fast and slow-drying.

Li Xiao remembers that in modern times, if cement is to be dried quickly, it seems that polyacrylamide can be added as an additive. However, Li Xiao, a college student majoring in the mechanical department, is not easy to refine cement. It is difficult for him to understand the chemical engineering major, so it is impossible for him to produce polyacrylamide now.

Therefore, Li Xiao comforted himself that it would be good to have such rough slow-drying cement in the Ming Dynasty. After all, this is a high-tech product beyond the times. Li Xiao can only do this with his own strength, which is also rare.

Li Xiao gave Liao Quanlu 100 taels of silver to encourage him to come up with a method to fire cement in a porcelain kiln, and finally successfully fired the cement.

Subsequently, Li Xiao ordered Liao Quanlu to be the director of the cement factory and to produce cement in large quantities in the area of ​​Shouquanshan.

Now, these produced cements are just used in the construction of this Zhenhai Castle, achieving a seamless connection between production and use.

Li Xiao planned to start actively developing wastelands on the island and coastal mudflats after the construction of this fort, so as to develop as much arable land and salt fields as possible.

Li Xiao thoughtfully estimated that this ocean island with an area of ​​19 square kilometers is equivalent to one-eighth of Huang County. If fully developed, at least 40,000 acres of arable land can be reclaimed.

Moreover, Li Xiao saw that because there is live water on the island, the land on this island is quite fertile. If these 40,000 mu of land are developed, it should be able to fully reach the output of Chifengwei's Zhongtian level.

Li Xiao checked the area of ​​the coastal mudflats of the Ocean Island and estimated that nearly 2,000 acres of salt fields should be built. In this way, the number of salt fields that can be developed here will be twice that of Chifengwei!

Li Xiao sighed in his heart, how much wealth and benefits this almost useless ocean island in the hands of Dongjiang Town can bring to himself.

Although this ocean island, which was built into a national forest park in later generations, was developed in this way and was suspected of being wasteful of natural resources, it is rare for this remote ocean island to play such a great role in its development and growth at this moment when the nation and the country are in danger.

After completing these settlement work, Li Xiao naturally began to build the Navy Port.

In fact, since he came to the island, his eyes have been quickly attracted by the excellent natural deep water harbor.

Feng Shi, the chief of the navy, also had a smile on his face. He knew that the narrow entrance and wide and deep port inside was really an excellent navy port. Li Xiao estimated that even if he parked nearly 100 large-scale lucky ships in No. 1, it would be more than enough.

Li Xiao plans to continue to use the existing word Taiping Bay in this Navy Harbor to be built, and the meaning of this name is quite good.

"Feng Shi, after our army built Taiping Bay on this island in the future, we will build a large shipyard next to this port. We will strive to build our own ships as soon as possible, but we don't have to rely on Dongjiang Town like this."

"Sir, you are right. Now that others' ships are finally bound to be controlled by others, it is a good thing to be independent. However, it is difficult to find the craftsmen and technicians who build ships."

"This is my official who has his own way at that time. I will definitely find every way to achieve these shipbuilders."

"That's good. When this shipyard is built, we have our own fleet and we should go out to sea and ocean. If the navy becomes large, our Chifeng Guards will definitely gain greater development space and opportunities." Feng Shi said with a happy face.
Chapter completed!