The cold southerly wind is raging across Australia. Many vegetation in the south has withered, and the temperature has quietly reached more than ten degrees, highlighting the winter that belongs to this continent.

Amidst the sound of waves on the seashore, the largest peninsula in southern Australia shows the atmosphere of human industrial civilization, with towering chimneys built on that originally barren land.

The chimney is emitting a stream of white hot air, and the long white air column is connected with the clouds in the sky, making this workshop like a production base of clouds.

Of course, this workshop full of human industrial civilization will not be so fantastic. It is actually a steel production workshop built by the United Business Group after mining iron ore.

Australia is located in the South Pacific and is less affected by external climate and physical conditions. The geological structure is long-term stable, the strata are ancient, and there have been no strong geological movements for hundreds of millions of years, which is conducive to the long-term accumulation and enrichment of minerals, resulting in continuous improvement in the quality of iron ore.

The improvement has reached an astonishing average of about 60%.

Later, due to wind erosion, the burial depth of these iron ores gradually decreased and even came to the surface, becoming the easiest deposit to mine, and the quality here reaches 65%.

Compared with the gold mines and silver mines in South America, the iron produced by the iron mines here is as cheap as mud, but it is the greatest wealth for China today.

Whether it is the steel ban in the Ming Dynasty that inhibited the rise of the entire nation, or the low quality of the Ming Dynasty iron ore that is not conducive to the steel industry, Australia's high-quality iron ore will undoubtedly help China embark on the road to industrial civilization.

The United Business Group did not choose to dive into the gold and silver mountains, but took the initiative to shoulder the national mission and overcame many difficulties to take root here, hoping to bring the highest quality iron ore here back to the Ming Dynasty.

In view of transportation costs and the discovery of abundant coal resources here, the joint workshop decided to build a steel workshop directly in this new continent.

Thanks to the efforts of the United Business Group, they quickly established a foothold here and now have a large steel workshop with thousands of workers, making it the largest steel production base in China.

Although this land has entered winter, the Australian winter cannot stop the enthusiasm of China.

As pieces of coal were thrown into the incinerator, the burned iron ore quickly melted into red molten iron, which quickly flowed out of the iron trough next to it.

Hey yo! Hey yo! Hey yo!

Several steel workers wearing cotton gloves quickly pulled out the steel before it solidified, thus forming a long strip of steel, shouting slogans neatly.

As the steel that meets the standard is rolled and broken, they will obtain steel products of the same standard, and these steel products will be transported back to Daming by the United Merchant Ship.

"The city lord is here!"

A worker saw a young man appear and warned him carefully.

Yang Fuhe adheres to the rigorous attitude of his father's generation and goes to the workshop in person every day to check the production status and deal with various production emergencies.

"City Lord, it is estimated that we will be able to produce enough quantity today, and we can ship it back tomorrow!" Qian Feng, the supervisor in charge of the warehouse, saw Yang Fuhe and hurried forward to report.

Yang Fuhe knew that the ship had been waiting for two days, so he nodded gently and said: "That's very good. You can arrange for people to load the ship today and try to set sail early tomorrow morning!"

"Yes!" After receiving the reply, supervisor Qian Feng immediately turned around and left.

Whether it was the culture of the United Business Group or his experience of poverty, he cherished this job very much and completed the affairs he was responsible for efficiently.

Perhaps it is the serious and responsible corporate culture of their United Business Group. Although the United Business Group is scattered across the ocean, they are still closely connected.

Yang Fuhe watched Qian Feng leave in a hurry, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He then called Liang Lianying and Lin Wenjie to discuss the preparations for the second steel workshop.

Ever since the three of them formed the Iron Triangle and came to the Union Peninsula to manage this new continent, they have been advancing step by step, from building a city, mining on site, to establishing a steel workshop.

It's just that they are not only burdened with one or two tons of steel needs, but the steel needs of the entire China, so they also need to expand production crazily.

As Mr. Lin said in his letter, as long as they transport enough steel back to China, China will have the best iron products and weapons in the world, and will have no fear of Japanese pirates, Tatars and Westerners.

For this sacred national mission, he, Liang Lianying and Lin Wenjie were willing to stay deeply rooted in this vast land until the iron ore here was moved back to China.

Dong dong dong...

At noon, a crisp sound of bells came from the bell tower.

After the workers finished the work at hand, they headed towards the canteen one after another, preparing to enjoy their lunch, and then they would continue to work.

Although the three-point-one-line life here is hard, they feel very happy. Not only can they fill their bellies, but they also get a lot of money every month.

Shuiwei was originally an ordinary citizen who had fallen into the lower class. Although he was a famous blacksmith in the village, his ancestors owed a debt that kept him from straightening up his waist.

After seeing three children pitifully eating their own slugs, he gritted his teeth and joined the United Merchant Group and became a glorious United employee.

He sends his monthly money home every month. Not only has he paid off the debt owed by his ancestors, but his children can also wear new clothes, which makes him very satisfied.

When I came to the canteen, I smelled the fragrant seafood porridge and plump lobsters.

Since they came here to build a city, they were pleasantly surprised to find that this is a pristine sea area with the richest seafood resources in the entire continent.

Originally they were worried about food, but when batches of abundant seafood were easily caught, their worries about food immediately became unnecessary.

There are a large number of oysters, abalone, George's bream, southern rock lobster and bluefin tuna. If it were not for the food culture, they would have been self-sufficient without even needing food transported or planted by the Ming Dynasty.

"Kuiwei, I sent it for you last time, you can send it back for me this time!"

"Brother Wei, I trust your character, please help me too!"

"Brother Wei, we have been brothers for a year, you have to help with this!"

…

When several people saw Shui Shuiwei in the cafeteria, they all gathered around him and handed the paper envelopes they had prepared to Shui Shuiwei.

Since there are boats returning to Foshan every month, they are accustomed to handing over their monthly money to their relatives through trustworthy people.

Although they can all be sent back through the United Business Group, the United Business Group needs to send additional specialized personnel to be responsible for the delivery, so a certain fee is also charged.

After all, they all come from poor families, even if they are now in the high-income group, it is natural to save money if they can, so they are used to helping each other.

Faced with these envelopes, Shuiwei pretended to accept them correctly and promised to deliver them to them.

The next day, on the dock of Union Port.

As people boarded the ship one after another, a sea-going ship loaded with steel officially set sail.

Although this batch of steel is no more than scrap metal when it comes to ordinary forces, it is worth tens of thousands of dollars to the United Merchant Group and the Chinese nation. Therefore, three-masted gunboats are arranged to escort each voyage.

This is not the first time for this kind of voyage. The whole journey is from Union Port in Australia to Foshan in Guangdong. It is already the most important steel route in the Ming Dynasty.

From Union Port, you need to cross the strait into Nanyang, then go north through Luzon, and finally return to Guangdong along the already developed Luzon route.

Since the power of the United Merchant Group has already penetrated the entire Southeast Asia, and even the actual controllers of many waters in the Southeast Asia are the United Merchant Group, there is no need to worry about supply issues along the way.

This voyage was as usual as before. Since the Spaniards had been driven away, there would be no pirates in the South Seas who dared to challenge the United Trade Group, so the journey seemed very peaceful.

After a month of sailing, this steel fleet saw the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but did not enter from the Pearl River Estuary. Instead, it chose to go north from the Xijiang River, and finally arrived at the dock in Foshan.

Thanks to Foshan becoming the largest production base of Daming iron products, the dock here is in full swing, with hundreds of dock workers busy loading and unloading goods.

Shuiwei got off the boat and first helped unload the steel to the large warehouse next to the Foshan pier, and then hurriedly left with the baggage.

He was originally from Foshan Town. He took a carriage and returned to his village that afternoon. At the entrance of the village, he saw his wife and four children waiting.

When he saw this scene, his eyes couldn't help but get wet, but he didn't know that his wife had been waiting every day or had received the message in advance. He immediately stopped the carriage and jumped out with his luggage.

"Dad!" From a distance, three children saw Shuiwei's return and immediately rushed towards him excitedly and shouted.

Shuiwei excitedly picked up the three children whom he missed so much, and then came to his wife and said, "My dear, thank you for your hard work!"

"It's you who have worked so hard, the head of the house! The fourth child is still waiting for you to come back and give him a name!" The woman said to her son, who was not yet one year old, with a happy expression on her face.

Shuiwei looked at his son who looked a bit like him and blurted out: "Then let's call him Huang Xinsheng!"

After getting rid of the debt that had weighed on him for more than ten years, and now having a high-paying job, he truly felt that his life had ushered in a new lease of life.

When the woman heard this festive name, she seemed to have seen through her husband's little thoughts, and couldn't help but purse her lips and smile.

Shuiwei had a large amount of banknotes in his waist and a bag full of Australian seafood, which gave him a little more confidence and said: "Come on, let's go home. Dad has brought you all delicious food. I guarantee that you will never

Eaten!"

The time he can stay at home this time is actually only fifteen days. If he cannot return to Foshan Pier on time to follow the ship south after fifteen days, he will be expelled from the joint business group.

However, he has already made plans and will arrive in Foshan one day in advance to report. At the same time, he will seek his wife's opinion and move the family to United Fourth City.

In fact, there are many low-level people who follow the prestige situation. They all got a new life here after joining the joint business group. And they are also willing to integrate into this big family, and even move their families away from their hometowns.

Although Chinese people have a strong attachment to their homeland, if they can do things that benefit the entire nation overseas, then they are undoubtedly a part of China.

What China needs today is not the overseas gold that dilutes the wealth of ordinary people, nor the overseas silver that is exchanged for the fruits of China's labor, but high-quality steel that can promote national progress.

While enjoying the wonderful time of getting together with relatives in Shuiwei, a huge Portuguese ship arrived at Xiangshan Port, and Xiangshan City has become a model area for the integration of Chinese and Western things, especially where it is filled with a large number of Chinese and Western buildings.

Simon, who had already received the title of knight, once again set foot on the territory of the Ming Dynasty. He and the United Merchant Group have become the most stable trading partners, and he is even the European Intelligence Commissioner of the United Merchant Group.

Nowadays, students from the Union Academy will travel to the West with Simon's fleet every time, so Simon has always been regarded as an honored guest by the Union Business Group.

Just like this, when Mr. Shen Liu learned that Simon had arrived, he warmly received him.

"Master Shen Liu, I want 10,000 nail clippers. The price can be doubled, but you can't sell them to those old bastards Antonio and Fabio!" When Simon saw Master Shen Liu, he immediately got straight to the point.

Offer price.

Master Shen Liu was well versed in business, but he invited Simon to sit down and have tea, and then said in a deep voice: "If you can eat 20,000 nail clippers at three times the price, I can decide not to deal with them in the future.

Trade, the European nail clippers market will only be yours from now on!"

"Okay, it's a deal!" Simon agreed happily as he had been dealing with Mr. Shen Liu for many years and believed in the credibility of the United Business Group.

He had brought a batch of nail clippers back to Europe earlier, but he never expected that such expensive gadgets would be sought after by the upper class, and he immediately realized that this was a big business opportunity.

The load capacity of each trip is limited, so Simon has always favored high-yield silk and porcelain, but does not like bulky wood, stoneware, etc.

Nowadays, the advantages of nail clippers are very obvious. The weight of shipping can be ignored, but when brought back to Europe, the profit return is several times or even ten times.

That's why he sold a batch of Suzhou silk at a low price this time and hurried back, just to seize the opportunity before competitors such as Antonio and Fabio could react.

Master Shen Liu saw Simon's reaction in his eyes, but he also had his own Xiao Jiujiu in his heart.

Although he knew that direct sales to Europe through joint business groups would be more profitable, he knew that if he wanted to do long-term business, it would be far inferior to the current production-focused model. With channel partners like Simon, agents would be enough.

It is precisely because of their focus on production and research and development that a small nail clipper actually brought a trade volume of 60,000 taels to Ming Dynasty at one time, with a market potential of millions of taels.

In the early days, he had always doubted whether Lin Haoran was right to develop the Australian iron ore. But after seeing the trade volume brought by this little nail clipper, he knew that the big man had an unimaginable vision and could truly bring China into the world.
Chapter completed!