The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 72 Timber Factory

After pondering for a few days and clarifying the affairs of Yanwang City, Feng Guohui received news from Surabaya City;

Mr. Link von Biedrins, Chairman of the Official Council of Surabaya City, returned recently. Leading figures from the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce such as the Qiao family, Lin family, and Hu family in the city went to the pier to greet him. The scene was quite grand.

Mr. Link von Biedrins inspected the new dock area and trestle built by Nanyang Company at the Surabaya Port pier, as well as the roughly formed Seven Star Fortress and warehouse area. He kept a dark face and said nothing during the whole process.

Immediately, Feng Guohui, the actual controller of Nanyang Company, was summoned in the name of the Official Committee Council to come to the Official Committee Council for questioning.

Link, that old white man, wants to see me?

When Feng Guohui received the news, he was drinking and having fun in a manor in the eastern suburbs. The beautiful Zuma danced to the music and performed a Balinese-style indigenous dance.

He waved his hand and the orchestral musicians and maids left one by one. Zuma stopped singing and dancing and sat down as docilely as a kitten.

Knocking Feng Guohui's legs gently with gentle movements, the main thing is to be a companion.

Feng Guohui put the thick palm of one hand gently on Zuma's slender waist, which was less than a handhold. The other hand was playing with the thin porcelain tea cup, thinking about what would happen to Surabaya City after Link von Biedrins returned. Possible changes in situation.

In this regard, Feng Guohui has been keeping a close eye on him. He doesn't want to wait until someone comes to kill him to find out the whole story. Then it will be too late.

In just over two hours, Feng Guohui and his party arrived at the southern suburbs of Surabaya City.

"Then go get ready. We'll be leaving in a moment."

The main equipment is two large circular saws driven by steam engines. It is really fast and good to cut logs into pieces, and manual work cannot be compared at all.

There were no obvious military movements of the Royal Dutch Army in Batavia. Combined with the deployment of troops in the Governor's Palace, it is not difficult to infer a truth that is closer to the truth.

News from Batavia shows

In the sawmill

"Yes, I, my humble concubine, will obey the master's instructions."

The main roads from Yanwang City to Surabaya in the north, to Bromo Town in the south, and to Tianjia Town in the east have been continuously repaired and are wide and flat, with few water accumulations and potholes.

Proper display of muscles can make the people in the Surabaya City Official Committee sober up.

In the past six months

This time

This left Nanyang Company with a precious period of development. It was important to keep a low profile and be tolerant, and not excessively stimulate or disrupt the distribution of power in Surabaya City.

The plan in mind has been decided

Feng Guohui reached out and patted Zuma's slender buttocks gently, and said warmly;

"We haven't been here for two days, and there is another accident in Surabaya. You quickly tell the servants to collect your things, and come back with me to live in the big house."

When Link von Biedrins was in Batavia, he went to the Governor's Palace with the people of Kapitan Lin Zongguang, and Feng Guohui had long been aware of it.

Instructing several guards to send Zuma and other family members back to the Feng family mansion, Feng Guohui took the remaining people in a detour and headed straight to the lumber factory in the south of the city.

After a while

A group of more than 20 cavalry escorted three carriages and rushed out of the eastern suburbs manor, heading quickly towards Surabaya City.

The Chengnan Timber Factory, like the Port Timber Factory, is a newly established industry of Nanyang Company. It has recruited more than a hundred workers and is busy with production every day.

This is a routine operation in the military. As the saying goes, it is called planting a spy.

The upper echelons of the Dutch Government House are temporarily unable to project military power to the Surabaya area, which is great news for the Nanyang Company.

Hearing the urging, Zuma's lovely red lips turned into the word "o", but she didn't ask anything, but stood up and hurried inside, ready to go.

But forbearance does not mean blindly submitting to compromise. Considering that the closed training of the second and third battalions has come to an end, Hu Huhu's second battalion can be transferred to return to Surabaya City first.

The harsh sound continued, and workers covered in sawdust were busy. A large number of processed wood chips were pushed out on rubber carts and sent to the storage area to dry in the sun.

There are rows of wood storage areas, with a foundation made of gravel below, which are rectangular stacks, about 20 centimeters high.

The wood is stacked layer by layer, with herringbone beams on top to protect it from wind and rain.

Shade-dried wood will not warp and deform, making it the best material for building wooden houses. It is very popular in Surabaya, and demand exceeds supply.

Here Feng Guohui saw many trucks coming to haul lumber, and there was a long queue. Many of the lumber that had been opened was not completely dried in the sun, so it was bought by others.

You can also buy it and put it under the eaves to dry in the shade, which will not affect its use.

Generally speaking

To build a brick and stone house with a clean courtyard in Surabaya City, with three main rooms plus a side room and a kitchen, the price would be 1,780 silver coins no matter what, and a better one could cost two to three hundred silver coins. It saves a lot to build a wooden house. The materials for buying a wooden house at a wood processing factory only cost about twenty silver coins. You can go back to find a few helpers and build it in a week.

Feng Guohui walked out of the sawmill with a whip in his hand and thick sawdust on his feet, and saw Zheng Xiucai walking towards him in a hurry.

When Feng Guohui reorganized the armed forces under the Nanyang Company, he also asked Zheng Xiucai if he wanted to serve as a battalion commander or something like that?

Zheng Xiucai declined. Rather than going directly to the battlefield to fight and kill, he was better at taking care of civil affairs and coordinating the business and industry of Nanyang Company inside and outside.

"Master, are you back?" Before Zheng Xiucai came closer, he clasped his fists and saluted.

Feng Guohui raised the whip in his hand as a return gift. Said: "As soon as the red ghost guy came back, he hurriedly asked me to go to the city council to question him. What the hell is Zhongzhi holding back?"

"I've also heard that, ghost guy, it's just a good person who doesn't come here."

"Mom Pu Ta, I have urgently ordered Tiger to bring back the first battalion. We are marching very fast all the way. It's a matter of front and rear feet!"

"It's great that Tiger can come back. With a general like him at the front, we won't be afraid of the ghost guy causing trouble?"

"Hahaha... the scholar still knows me." Feng Guohui laughed when he heard this.

Nanyang Company has never been a down-to-earth business, its main business is to convince people with force and speak with fists.

This is what Feng Guohui and his gang of hairy remnants are best at.

If we really want to talk about intrigues and the Hezhong Lianhe scheme in these shopping malls, he may not be the opponent of several major local Chinese families.

Feng Guohui and Zheng Xiucai walked side by side, talking while walking, mainly about the progress of the port project and some situations on the site during the time he left Surabaya City.

Zheng Xiucai gave a general report. The number of Chinese immigrants arriving at Surabaya Port increased significantly in April. Before the end of the month, the number had exceeded 4.

There is a lot of noise about Nanyang Company's port project. The surrounding areas know about it and they also know that they are recruiting manpower vigorously here.

One pass ten, ten pass a hundred.

Some Chinese immigrants have arrived from as far away as Sumatra, Malacca and Penang, looking for some employment opportunities around Surabaya City.

This is mainly due to the white Dutch colonists, who have not allowed Chinese immigrants to obtain land since 1830. The development of Chinese associations is mainly concentrated in cities, forming Chinese districts of varying sizes.

As the population grows, the number of jobs available in these cities with little industrial base is very limited.

This has made it difficult for many Chinese families with a large population to survive, and the involution has become serious. The day laborers who carry bags at the port terminals are willing to work exhaustingly for a whole day as long as they are given a stutter.

Therefore

Feng Guohui is not worried that the Landoshan Mine will not be able to recruit people. The more Chinese families there are, the better. Those who can hyphenate Chinese characters and have a good craft will be given priority.

After recruiting at the dock, each person was given a piece of dry biscuit and allowed to walk to the Landa Mountain Mine on their own.

In the next step, the Landoshan Mine will build houses, factories and other facilities on a large scale to form a small settlement town. The real construction climax has not yet started.

Wu Xiazi's side in Yanwang City will plunder a large area of ​​unclaimed land from indigenous tribes after the military operation is launched.

By the time

He can handle as many Chinese immigrants as he wants. Feng Guohui is not afraid of crowds. The more the merrier, he opens the door to welcome Chinese immigrants of the same clan and ethnicity.

So after listening to Zheng Xiucai's report, Feng Guohui happily waved his hand and said;

"Let people spread the news. As long as we arrive in Surabaya City, how many Chinese immigrants will come, how many do I want? We have a good appetite, let alone 3, we can digest as many people as we come."

Zheng Xiucai didn't know that Yanwang City was planning to launch a new military operation. After hearing this, he stopped in surprise and persuaded, "Master Ding, if so many people really come, we can't bear it."

Feng Guohui laughed loudly when he heard this, then lowered his voice and said something like this close to Zheng Xiucai's ear, and then he suddenly realized.

The local indigenous tribes are naturally lazy. Even if they have large areas of land, they have not developed it and have left it abandoned.

There are many fruits and vegetables in the tropical jungle, and growing vegetables and grains is even more gratifying. They are harvested three times a year, so there is basically no need to worry about filling your stomach.

If such good land is cultivated by the Chinese, it will not be difficult to increase the output of food and other crops several times.

(End of this chapter)