sjar Chapter 948 An old friend is ill.
Chapter 948 An old friend is ill.
The boat owner smiled and said, "Of course it is useful. We have many small boats there, all powered by diesel. Last time, the court gave us another 200 diesel-powered boats. It is very convenient for everyone to fish with small boats."
"Two hundred small boats?" Ye Kun didn't know about this and smiled, "That's good, that's good."
Two hundred small boats are nothing to the imperial court.
Because the diesel engine production base in Beihai County now has an annual output of nearly 100,000 units.
There are also gasoline engines and a large number of steam engines.
There are more than 10,000 steam engines, diesel engines and gasoline engines in the Oil Peninsula.
After the questioning, Ye Kun personally boarded the merchant ship of Xihua Island to comfort the sailors and crew members and see everyone's work and life.
According to what Ye Kun saw, the lives of these crew members were not bad.
Ye Kun distributed gifts to everyone, chatted casually, and asked, "How many cities are there on Xihua Island now?"
A young man said: "There are now three coastal cities and two inland cities. Together, there are more than 100,000 Han people, which is quite lively. In the future, when the children grow up, the population will be even larger."
Ye Kun knew what was going on and said with a smile, "Can hundreds of thousands of people all be fed?"
"Of course we can eat our fill, because the natives are working for us." The young man grinned.
“How many natives are there to help you with the work?”
"Not many. We have captured 70,000 to 80,000 people... There weren't many natives on the island to begin with. Now, it's getting harder and harder to capture them."
"Oh, I know."
Ye Kun nodded slightly, as if he remembered something.
There must be not many indigenous people on Xihua Island.
Because it is thousands of kilometers away from the African continent by sea.
In ancient times, there were not many people who could cross the ocean to Xihua Island, and the population reproduced very slowly.
For example, the twin islands of Yuanhua under Australia were very prosperous in later generations, but now, it is still an uninhabited area.
After a day of understanding, Ye Kun already knew the situation of Xihua Island.
Xiao Dequan is a hero and has the potential to be an emperor.
With his iron-fisted approach, he will definitely strictly control the local indigenous people and develop the labor value and other values of every indigenous person!
From what we know so far, Xihua Island has long achieved food self-sufficiency.
Eating and drinking have long been no problem.
The business is doing well and I can make money.
The total population is small, making it difficult to develop industry.
At the port, there are also merchant ships from major immigration points in Africa that come here to exchange goods.
However, there are more official vessels in major immigration points in Africa.
Because it was just beginning to develop, almost all of its supplies required support from the imperial court.
Mosquito nets, masks, cool mats, mosquito coils, floral water, wind oil, ironware, porcelain and glassware, as well as food and seeds.
All the major immigration points are needed, as you can imagine.
Ye Kun looked at the shiploads of supplies and felt a little skeptical.
Will developing Africa not be worth the cost?
Do the descendants of the Chinese really need such a large territory?
Should we divide up the African continent and seal off all of it?
If all the kings were given fiefs, they would be strongly supported in the early stages. Once the kings became stable, the court could stop caring about them and let them develop on their own.
If the imperial court wants to control the African continent, it needs to continue to immigrate and invest!
It would be extremely difficult to make back the investment money from the African continent!
But things have come to this point, and Ye Kun has no choice but to bite the bullet and continue developing the African continent.
When you really can't control it, just let the kings fend for themselves.
At the port, Ye Kun investigated for three days.
I stayed in the small port town for two more days.
When Jiang Yourong and Xie Baochan returned here, they were very familiar with the place, as if they had returned to their hometown.
After resting for a few days, Ye Kun headed north along the Red Sea Strait to see the Suez Canal.
The canal has been open to navigation for two years, but construction is still going on here.
There are hundreds of sand-sucking ships sucking sand from the river and dumping it in the deep reaches of the Red Sea Strait.
The canal command center is still there, and the commander-in-chief came to meet Ye Kun and report on the situation of the canal.
Ye Kun listened to the report and laughed bitterly: "You see, the standard set at that time was too low. Now it has affected development, right?"
When the Grand Canal was constructed, in order to open it to navigation as quickly as possible, the standards for its width and depth were very low.
Now it's all over, even medium-sized ships have difficulty navigating.
Only small boats of 600 tons can travel.
The commander-in-chief said: "Your Majesty, from the current point of view, as long as we persist in governance, the passage of small boats will be absolutely no problem. Making more small boats and running faster can also meet the demand."
Ye Kun looked at the written report, pointed and said: "There are several intestinal obstruction areas here, which must be deepened and widened. Otherwise, the blockage will only become more serious in the future!"
The commander-in-chief sighed, "These sections of the canal are covered with rocks. With our current technology, we can't construct under the sea. If we build a sluice and drain the seawater for construction, it will inevitably affect the navigation of the canal."
It would be fine if there was no canal, but once we have a canal, we can’t live without it!
In the past, Chinese immigrants had to go around the African continent to go to the Mediterranean region.
Now we are passing through the Red Sea Strait and directly bypassing the African continent!
The total flight distance was shortened by 20,000 to 30,000 miles!
Construction cannot be carried out if the canal is to be kept navigable.
Tan Bamao grinned and said, "Godfather, I have a solution!"
Ye Kun was stunned: "What do you have in mind? Tell me now."
Tan Bamao smiled and said, "We can fill the Red Sea trench with all the sand in the desert, and then the sea level will rise. Once the sea level rises, large ships will be able to pass through."
"Your uncle, with your IQ, how did you live to be over 70? According to your thinking, you can push all the mountains in the world into the sea!"
Ye Kun rolled his eyes and drew a circle on the map:
"For these sections of intestinal obstruction, we can open a branch road next to the original river channel and make a detour. In this way, construction can be carried out. The Roman Empire left behind so many laborers. Why keep them if we don't use them?"
The Roman Empire left behind tens of millions of slaves, whom Ye Kun called laborers.
This is called respect.
Slave, that's too ugly.
The commander-in-chief nodded and said, "Of course we can do this, but it's a huge project, requiring a lot of manpower and money, and it requires the approval of the court, or the emperor."
Ye Kun waved his hand and said, "Let Oil Peninsula and Ye Shusheng bear this small amount of money. In addition, we should increase the toll for merchant ships on the canal to raise funds for the expansion of the canal."
When expanding and dredging the Grand Canal, Ye Kun took the future into consideration and instructed: "This time, the construction should take into account the development of the next 100 years, and strive to avoid large-scale expansion and dredging within 100 years."
The commander-in-chief smiled and said, "In this case, it will take about three years to complete the project."
"It doesn't matter if it takes longer. We can wait. It won't affect navigation anyway."
After implementing the plan to expand the canal, Ye Kun personally sank the ship and entered the Mediterranean.
Ye Shusheng and Huangfu Lin both came over to pay their respects.
Huangfu Lin smiled and said, "The Emperor is still strong and healthy. I am very happy to see him come to the Mediterranean again."
Ye Kun didn't see Yingtao, so he frowned and asked, "Where's General Yingtao? Why didn't he come?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty, Cherry is...sick and can't get up. I'm afraid she will die in...a few days." Huangfu Lin's eyes turned red.
"You bastard, Cherry is sick and dying, and you actually come to see me!"
Ye Kun felt distressed and angry, and angrily said: "Go back immediately and stay with Yingtao. Stay with her all the time. I don't need you to accompany me here!"
Ye Kun has no personal feelings for Cherry.
But there is a close comradeship.
When Ye Kun heard that Cherry was critically ill, he felt very sad!