Insufficient balance
One morning at the end of March, Liu was fishing on a fishing boat when he suddenly saw large patches of smoke appearing on the surface of the sea in the distance. From his experience over the past few months at the dock, Liu knew that it was just a large steamer or fleet of steamers entering the port. The freshwater harbor was only a supply harbor, and large quantities of sugar and camphor were all shipped from the Taichung harbor, so except for naval ships coming to replenish supplies, there were rarely any large coal-fired ships entering or leaving here.
To be on the safe side, Liu Fei hastily retreated to the driver's cabin and even started the main engine, preparing to make a run for it at the slightest sign of danger. More than half an hour later, the fleet could already be seen with the naked eye - two very large ships flying the French flag, slowly approaching the largest dock on the west side under the guidance of small boats from the port's naval department.
Looking at the appearance of the ship, it didn't look like a warship, so Liu Ye put his mind at ease and wondered if it was the first batch of equipment and technical personnel that David had mentioned. As a result, Liu Ye's guess was correct, and soon after the two ships docked, some naval soldiers came to deliver a letter.
The letter was written by David, roughly saying that the first batch of equipment has arrived. Due to time constraints, most of the equipment is second-hand, but the quality should be fine. The list includes: a set of equipment for a 200,000-ton cement plant per year: 2 vertical kilns, 2 raw material mills, and 3 cement mills; a set of equipment for an iron and steel plant with an annual output of 40,000 tons of steel rails and 20,000 tons of steel: 2 blast furnaces, 4 converters; a set of matching coking plant equipment; a set of power plant equipment; and more than 200 installation technicians. The letter also mentions that there is a little surprise from David as a personal gift to Liu Fei at Captain Monty's place.
After reading the letter, Liu Fei was overjoyed. After a year of hard work, he had finally made some progress. With this foundation, he didn't need to do much more. He thought that with another 5 years of effort, he would have basic self-defense skills and wouldn't have to be like now, running away at the slightest rumor.
Good riddance to good riddance, anyway this big pile of things is enough to keep busy for a while. No need to bother ourselves with the installation of equipment, just call over those few hundred people from Keelung and that's it. However, the food, accommodation and safety issues of those 200 plus technical installation personnel are really a big headache.
The last time I received a telegram from David, I knew that technical personnel would be coming over, but I didn't expect so many. The three courtyards prepared in advance on the Keelung Harbor side are clearly not enough to accommodate them, and they need to build houses urgently. Moreover, with so many foreigners arriving, although having Father as a backing, it was not mentioned to Father that there would be so many at first. In case these foreigners cause any trouble that reaches the imperial court, Father may not be able to withstand it either. Therefore, safety issues also need to be resolved.
First, find Liu Fu and have him arrange for people to build houses, following the style of the first three courtyards, and build seven more. Also, allocate some manpower to purchase various vegetables and meats in the villages near Taipei City. Then send a telegram to Guangzhou, requesting translations in French, English, German, and Spanish, and have dozens of them come over. Additionally, hire several chefs who can cook Western cuisine, as Chinese food, although delicious, would likely be unaccustomed to their taste buds, and they need something to mix it up with.
After arranging these things, Liu Fei hurried to the dock on the west side and found the captain of the Monty ship mentioned in David's letter. Monty was a bearded French captain, not tall, with a lot of fat, standing there without careful observation, just like sitting down. However, this old French man was very kind, using English with an accent to praise David heavily, as if David had been elected President of the European Union. When Liu Fei gave him several barrels of Zhongnanhai as a gift and slightly mentioned the surprise gift that David had given himself, the bearded old man mysteriously told Liu Fei that it was not convenient to take out this surprise now, and it would be better to unload the goods at night. Liu Fei didn't have time to grind his teeth with Monty, so he just said "tonight" and thought to himself that he wasn't lacking in surprises anyway.
That afternoon, Liu Fu brought several hundred young and strong men to the dock to start unloading. Because the ship was loaded with large equipment, although they were all unassembled, they were not small in size, and they all had numbers, which had to be stacked uniformly according to the numbers, and the order could not be messed up. So Liu Fu couldn't leave, he was the only one who understood English here, he had to act as a translator, otherwise the workers wouldn't know what those foreign engineers were saying.
Liu Mei didn't think of it until she was exhausted from working all night. There were still 3 Americans and 2 interpreters at the school, and she couldn't let them have an easy time while her own throat was parched from exhaustion. She would get them to work on the dock first thing tomorrow morning.
To make a long story short, under the great power of silver, Liu Ye gathered dozens of laborers from nearby areas who could work, and even pulled out dozens of Green Camp watermen to earn extra money. The loading and unloading work went relatively smoothly, and it took only half a month to transport all the equipment into place.
As for David's surprise to Liu, it was 50 Swiss rifles and 5 Maxim heavy machine guns, as well as 100,000 pointed bullets that could be used by both types of guns. In the words of Captain Mondey, imitating David, these little gifts were to protect David's son, whoever dared to touch his son would be shot, Liu thought to himself, this was blatant intimidation, and the object of intimidation was himself, should he go back and give his son a kick?
David's son, originally named Shandru Woberg, is now over 2 years old. He can barely crawl on the ground and has been well-fed, making him white and chubby. His two eyes are a bright green color and glow in the dark at night, which once scared Liu Fu's visiting relatives so much that they wet their pants.
These guns are definitely contraband, but a factory as big as Keelung really needs someone to take care of it. After conveying this idea to his father, Liu Mingchuan assigned the 100 Huai Army naval troops originally stationed at Keelung's Xiaogang Port to be commanded by Liu Ye, but they had to provide their own food and pay, and the Provincial Governor's Office would not be responsible for it.
The Huai Army naval force stationed in Keelung Harbor were all Anhui soldiers who followed Liu Mingchuan to Taiwan. Judging from their appearance, they seemed much stronger than the Fuzhou soldiers stationed in Taiwan. After taking over, Liu immediately tripled their salary and paid them in silver, issuing one month's pay at a time. He also brought out two Maxim guns, which quickly intimidated the soldiers who had just been stunned by the money. At this point, the highest-ranking military officer, Bai Zongyu, patted his chest and swore to heaven that as long as he had breath, no matter who came, without the permission of "Lao Ye" (Old Master) and "San Shao Ye" (Third Young Master), no one would be able to enter or leave Keelung Harbor standing. After listening, Liu rewarded Bai with 10 taels of silver, thinking to himself that it seemed they were still not intimidated enough, but at least they knew to put "Lao Ye" before "San Shao Ye".
