Chapter Thirty-Seven: Heart's Promise

  The second watch arrived.

  Tomorrow will be on the new book list, tonight at 0 o'clock there will be two explosive chapters, Xiaocai will reserve everyone's votes for tomorrow.

  Rush to the homepage tomorrow!

  ————

  Nationalist ideology developed rapidly among the radical members of the Kwangbokhoe after they were absorbed into the Hanmin Party, a selfless belief that united people. Radical nationalist ideas also gave the security corps a strong core.

  On June 1, Xia Jun received last month's popularity points, a total of 460,000 points. Together with the 370,000 points earned from suppressing bandits last month, his territory expanded by 5,600 square kilometers and he gained 1,120,000 points.

  The total points soared to 1.95 million.

  At this time, most of the towns in Jianning Prefecture and Shaowu Prefecture have entered a state of autonomy. In another month, it will be summer harvest, and Xia Jun must call back the second-line troops.

  At the same time, due to the great momentum of the bandit-suppressing campaign, many bandits received the news and it was not easy to suppress them. Moreover, the supply line was too long, making it difficult to suppress them. So, they simply pulled all the troops back to Jianning Prefecture, first solidifying their defense on this land before doing anything else. After all, Xia Jun had obtained 1.12 million points of merit from his territory, and if it were to be occupied, he would lose 2.24 million points of merit, which would directly lead to bankruptcy...

  With a large number of points in hand, Xia Jun began to consider how to develop next.

  The arsenal must be built, and at this time the site is expanded, more troops are needed, and the town's militia training also needs to shoot bullets, and even more rifles.

  Relying solely on exchange is a bit wasteful, but military factories are very expensive.

  A production line that produces 10 million steel shell bullets per year requires 5 million points of credit, and 100 million rounds require 50 million points of credit.

  Moreover, there is no smokeless gunpowder and steel now, and the steel plant in hand can only produce 500 tons of steel per month, which is just enough to produce steel bars.

  All these raw materials need to be imported. Xia Jun is now continuing to import large quantities of raw materials, but importing raw materials requires money and also good transportation.

  Transportation is expensive, and money should be saved up.

  Imports can be made from Fuzhou to contact foreign businessmen, and personnel sent to Fuzhou to buy cotton have contacted a British businessman who can supply large quantities of cotton for a long time. Adding the cotton from Liu Jinshan's side, it is estimated that the textile factory's demand can be met. However, that British businessman may not be able to undertake the transportation of other raw materials.

  But it's also possible to slow down in this regard, after all, there is still a long way to go. It's better to expand first and then connect with the outside world, once you break out of the mountainous area, you can establish contact with other countries and buy raw materials from them.

  Xia Jun then formulated the construction and expansion plan for the second half of the year.

  In terms of expansion, the second half of the year will mainly expand eastward to Funing Zhou, which is also known as Fu'an, Funing, and Ningde. The Ningde area has many bays, vast sea areas, and has not been developed, making it an ideal place to build a smuggling port for Xia Jun.

  Imports can be made from Fuzhou, but exports must go through Ningde.

  At this time, the tariffs of the Qing dynasty were in the hands of the powers, although the revenue of the customs still belonged to the Qing dynasty, but the institutions were controlled by the powers.

  At this time, the Qing government's customs had become an institution that leaned towards the powers, and foreign ships came to trade with very favorable tariffs, so importing via Fuzhou would not increase the cost of raw materials much.

  However, if exports go through Fuzhou or Xiamen, the cost of smuggling will also increase, and this part is naturally to be borne by the factory, so the factory's profit will decrease.

  Administratively, it continued to use high-yielding rice seeds and other means to buy people's hearts.

  In terms of construction, the focus is still on road construction. First, a road leading to Ningde must be built, and roads between towns must also be built, otherwise raw materials cannot be transported to factories.

  ……

  Wang Guanjia returned to the county town and told Li Shilin about Xia Jun's attitude. Li Shilin couldn't help but let out a cold snort, he would rather not do business with the security team than send his daughter to Xixiang.

  In Li Shilin's view, Xia Jun is messing around in the local area and will definitely get into trouble soon. He told Wang Guanjia that Xia Jun looks quite decent and heard that he had returned from studying abroad. If they let their daughter go with him, she might not come back, and when that happens, the whole Li family would be implicated, what to do?

  Besides, his backer in official circles has fallen, he must find a new one.

  Recently heard that the eldest son of the Zhejiang and Fujian governor had just died his rightful wife, Li Shilin couldn't help but feel a little moved upon hearing this news.

  If they can climb up the big tree of the governor-general, the Li family will be able to quickly revive.

  Seeing that the business of the security team in Xixiang was not going well, Li Shilin simply didn't think about it and left with more than 300,000 taels of silver the next day to operate in Fuzhou with Wang Guanjia.

  Li Shi Jing seemed to have realized something. She had been locked up at home for almost a year, wasn't this the same fate as the young ladies from other wealthy families?

  Those young ladies from rich families were raised in boudoirs and never stepped out of the house, waiting for their parents to arrange a marriage for them, then get married and become madams.

  For Li Shiying, who had studied abroad and been exposed to some "unacceptable" ideas, such expectations made her feel extremely fearful.

  She married a man she didn't know, and she didn't know whether he was good or bad, nor did she know what her future life would be like.

  It would have been fine if it were in the past, but now...the image of Xia Jun appeared in her mind.

  It wasn't until this moment that Li Shijin realized that was her true destination.

  Li Shijin asked in a letter to Xia Jun that day, if one day I encounter danger, will you appear like that day?

  The tone of the letter was somewhat melancholic, and after Xia Jun received it, he felt that the timing was almost right. He had been in private contact with Li Shiying for so long that they had already developed feelings for each other, and all that was missing was a clear expression of those feelings.

  Xia Jun immediately replied with a letter, in which he answered Li Shiying's questions very generously and calmly, what about going up the knife mountain and down the fire sea...

  Finally, I'll add one more sentence: because you are my deeply loved little Xiang.

  Li Shi Jing received the letter and rarely showed a happy smile, and replied very briefly, asking only one sentence: "Will you marry me?"

  Xin delivered the letter to Xixiang overnight, and Xia Jun was lying in bed sleeping. After opening the letter, he was shocked and fell directly from the bed. He originally wanted to confess again, but unexpectedly Li Shijian was even more direct, and Xia Jun was afraid of scaring her away.

  After being shocked, Xia Jun excitedly jumped up from the ground, it seemed that he could become a family now.

  —————

  Recommend a new book to friends "Wu Huang Wan Sui", introduction: Cruel, violent, slaughter... This is the Wu, this is the world dominated by the Wu.

  In a far-off ancient country, where numerous war-torn cities lay, there existed a thousand-year-old martial arts family - the Lin Family. A young master of this family, born with no inner energy and ridiculed by all, was banished to the 'Tower of Ten Thousand Crimes'. There, he unexpectedly obtained a mysterious, crimson-colored demon pellet.

  "To survive, you must continue killing, regardless of age or sex, friends and family, all will be slaughtered!"

  One day, Lin Leng heard a voice in his heart.

  Then

  A withered and rotten Wu Huang Avenue is thus opened...

  Lin Leng is willing to kill millions of people, with blood flowing like a river. All for the sake of seeking the path to becoming the strongest in martial arts.

  Unifying all realms, gathering the hearts of all people.

  Long live Emperor Wu!