1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 139 Overseas Colonization Operation Begins

July 1627, 7, the fifth day of June in the seventh year of the Ming Dynasty.The pier of Victory Port was crowded with people early in the morning, and it was noisy. Thousands of people gathered here just after dawn.

These people got the news in advance and came to the pier early to see off the overseas colonization team that was about to depart.There are more than 300 people in the colonization team alone, plus the relatives and friends who came to see them off, and the enthusiastic crowd who came to watch. The entire dock is full of about 20% of the current residents of Shengli Port-Tiandu Line.Many Li and Miao mountain residents even heard that the Haihan people had a large fleet going overseas, so they came to Shengli Port from their cottages more than [-] miles away to watch this spectacle.

It was the first time for so many people to gather together to cross the group's control area.The military and police department responsible for maintaining order on the scene was under great pressure and had to transfer all the staff from the new barracks.As the crowd of onlookers continued to increase, the Military and Police Department could only transfer all [-] naturalized soldiers from the colonization team to the pier to participate in maintaining order.Fortunately, the local laborers have already formed a habit. Seeing the naturalized soldiers in green clothes and green trousers appear, they automatically stop the disorderly crowding, otherwise they will be hit with hard sticks later.In an area like Victory Port, where the people are not yet enlightened, sticks are obviously better than the law for ordinary people to learn to obey the rules faster.

A group of idlers in the small courtyard of the Inspection Department had already been woken up by the bustling crowd, and they were lying on the fence looking bored at the lively scene on the pier from a distance.Someone said: "There is so much chaos on the pier, could it be that the Haihan people are going to abandon this place and run away?"

Another person retorted: "Flee? They have no opponents in the local area, why should they flee?"

"They're not trying to escape, they're going to send a fleet." Wei Ping was quite knowledgeable, and after observing for a while, he came to a conclusion: "Moreover, the place this fleet is going to is probably far away from Shengli Port. It is impossible to turn around inside, so there are so many people rushing to see them off."

Soon the sound from the tweeter on the pier confirmed Wei Ping's guess: "My compatriots, fellow fathers and folks, you are here today. In addition to seeing off our relatives and friends, we will also witness our grand voyage together. The group has entered a new stage of development starting today..."

Although Wei Ping couldn't see the situation on the pier clearly, he was familiar with the voice. It was the leader named Tao among the Haihan people.During the first two days of our stay, the tweeter sounded on time in the morning like a thunderstorm, scaring them all to the point of pissing their butts. It was later discovered that this was a trick of the Haihan people, just to remind everyone to get up .But people outside the yard have things to do, and the dozen or so people in the yard can only stare at each other after breakfast, which is really boring. After a few more days, the tweeter in the morning will be like a curse Generally annoying.

Tao Donglai couldn't control what the unlucky ghosts under house arrest thought. He stood on the bow of "Shangyun 01", holding a microphone in his hand and continued to deliver an impassioned speech: "... Please remember, The travel of our companions will open a door for us. Behind this door is a fast-growing Jinguang Avenue! They will continuously transport coal for us from overseas and help us produce more Commodities are exchanged for silver, and then the executive committee can allow more people to have food, clothing, books, and housing! Our life will become better and better because of their contributions, please Remember them, remember these warriors who bravely went overseas for the benefit of our collective!"

The hundreds of colonizers who were standing on the pier and hadn't boarded the ship all held their heads high at this time, and even those who were not happy because they were recruited before had a look of pride at this time.The onlookers applauded loudly, using the Haihan people's unique way of applauding to cheer up the warriors who are about to go out.

Someone in the small courtyard of the inspection department murmured: "Are these Haihan people crazy? There are coal mines in Danzhou to the north. Why do they send so many people overseas to dig coal?"

Wei Ping scolded: "Danzhou's coal is not much better than mud, and all the Danzhou coal on the market has been snapped up by the Haihan people, which shows that their demand for coal is greater than that of the entire city of Yazhou. Didn't you hear that? As the saying goes, with coal, they can produce more things to sell, and this is the real reason why they send people to dig coal overseas!"

The person who was refuted said unconvinced: "But with just two or three hundred people, how much coal can be dug in a month? The coal dug by such a small number of people may not even be enough to supply Yazhou. How can it meet the needs of Haihan people?"

Wei Ping couldn't think of any reason to continue arguing this time, and immediately said impatiently: "If we can understand the thinking of the Haihan people, we won't be trapped in this place! Don't talk about it, just watch the fun Bar!"

After Tao Donglai spoke on behalf of the executive committee, the Ministry of Shipping began to arrange for the crew and colonists to board the ship one after another.In addition to more than 300 colonizers, there are also more than 100 sailors on the eight Chinese-style sailboats. In addition, the executive committee specially dispatched the "Flying Speed" and the North American special warfare team who are relatively familiar with the waterway Escort the fleet. "Flying speed" will escort the fleet all the way to the destination, and be responsible for security, route survey and guidance along the way.

There are almost 500 people in the entire fleet, and more than [-] tons of various materials are transported with the ship. This is the largest sea operation after traveling to this era.And the difficulty of this operation is even far more than the original crossing and landing. The voyage alone is dozens of times that of the landing operation, and the fleet is all Chinese-style sailboats. All operations on the sea can only be realized by wind power. For a team that still has a considerable number of rookie crew members, it is really an insurmountable problem.

In order to solve the problem of uneven strength of the crew and sailors, the executive committee had to break up some of the sailors on board and reorganize them.As for the three rented ships, there were quite a few old sailors on board. Although they were not familiar with this newly opened route, at least there would be no technical obstacles to completing this voyage with a ship leading them.The executive committees of these three ships paid half a year's rent in one go. Although the rent they paid was much more expensive than buying a ship, the executive committees who were anxiously waiting for the ships couldn't care less about the little things. Little profit.The executive committee has figured it out now. It is unrealistic in the short term to wait for its own shipyard to build ships and launch them into the water to organize the fleet. The most practical and most effective way is to spend money directly on a fleet , Even if the price is a little higher, it is worth it. You must know that the saved development time cannot be bought with money.

After the dispatch of the fleet this time, in the near future, only one small Guangzhou ship and the "Lightning" can go out to sea in Shengli Port, and the strength and scope of maritime vigilance will be greatly reduced.In order to cope with this unsafe period, the executive committee made a request during Luo Shengdong's visit a few days ago, hoping that he could mobilize several warships from the Yazhou Shuizhai to station in the Shengli Harbor area for more than ten days or 20 days. .

Of course, this favor was not in vain. The executive committee offered a price of 500 taels of silver for this mercenary, with full board and lodging included.Faced with such a favorable condition, Luo Shengdong naturally would not refuse, and agreed immediately, and said that after returning to Yazhou, he would immediately go to recruit General He, and strive to make the trip as soon as possible.These soldiers lived in the water village and were eating public food anyway, so they could save a lot of daily expenses when they were stationed in Shengli Port. In addition to the money given by the executive committee, it was enough for Luo Shengdong to save some benefits for himself after going up and down.According to the latest news sent back by the Yazhou Office yesterday, the Yazhou water village has already started to make preparations. It is estimated that Luo Shengdong has already opened up He Shenjiang's joint, and the travel time is only a day or two.

At [-] o'clock in the morning, after all the crew boarded the ship, the lead ship "Flying Speed" slowly left the pier and headed for the open sea.Behind it, eight sailboats set sail one by one, and sailed out of the harbor in a long queue.The crowd on the pier did not gradually disperse until the fleet disappeared on the sea level.Those family members with relatives in the colonization team stood on the trestle bridge for a long time, silently praying for the safety of their departed relatives in their hearts.

Although the Ministry of Shipping, the Ministry of Agriculture and other multi-department joint weather forecasting teams have analyzed in advance that there are no obvious signs of strong winds in the waters to the south and west of Hainan Island recently, but it is just ordinary sea turbulence, which soon caused the first batch of winds to appear on the ship. People who are seasick.Although each ship is equipped with medical staff or naturalized citizens who have received relevant medical skills training, there is really no magic formula that can cure seasickness. Within two hours, he couldn't stand up straight, and could only lie in the cabin and groan weakly.Fortunately, the proportion of people with severe seasickness is very low, but only two to three out of a hundred, and it will not affect the progress of the entire fleet.

The route of the colonizing fleet is to go west along the coastline from Shengli Port, and after passing Yinggezui in the southwest corner of Hainan Island, it leaves the offshore and sails directly to the east coast of Vietnam.From Victory Port to Thanh Hoa on the east coast of Vietnam, the voyage on paper alone is more than 250 nautical miles. The Ministry of Shipping estimates that the actual voyage is about [-] nautical miles. Considering that the average speed of the entire fleet is only about [-] knots, No matter how fast it takes to complete this voyage, it will take thirty or forty hours.In addition, the speed of sailing at sea at night is much lower than that during the day, so it will take at least two days to complete this voyage.For those unlucky people who suffer from severe seasickness, these two days will definitely be an unforgettable period of their lives.The supply of the fleet is very sufficient, so they will have to wait until the fleet docks in Qinghua area to transport Vietnamese refugees at the earliest, and they will have the opportunity to go ashore for a short rest.

(End of this chapter)