1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 927 Going South to Java
"Lack of education, shameless!" Zhang Dong gave a very harsh evaluation after listening.He has lived in Sanya for several years, and he has long been used to being surrounded by educated and reasonable civilized people. It is really hard to accept such a group of unclothed indigenous people, which is too different from the education he has received. up.

Zhang Yun just smiled and didn't comment. He has hundreds of years more experience than these two children, so naturally he doesn't take this kind of topless aborigine to heart.Looking at the areas near the equator around the world, there are thousands of indigenous tribes like this, which is not uncommon at all.Nutation will make a fuss about this, but it's just not enough knowledge.

However, the performance of the black soldier Marcus made Zhang Yun very satisfied. When he used his body to protect Zhang Zhi just now, he didn't even hesitate. This can only be done by people with extremely high courage and loyalty.Although Marcus is a foreigner, his performance in a critical situation is not inferior to the Han soldiers in the militia. Zhang Yun gave Marcus a thumbs up to express his appreciation.

Marcus had been in the army for almost a year, but he also understood that this gesture meant a compliment, so he grinned wide, revealing two rows of big white teeth.To be appreciated by a chief, even if it's just a small gesture, is a great honor for soldiers like them who enlisted as slaves.

Although the aborigines did not show any hostile actions, their appearance still made the soldiers in charge of the military escort nervous.The officer in charge immediately sent someone back to the coast and sent a signal to the fleet at sea.

"Indigenous people? No one was injured, right?" Yan Chujie was not surprised by this. Human settlements began on this island more than ten centuries ago, and it is normal for natives to appear.With Zhang Yun's temperament, maybe he has already started to tell the students about the natives of Borneo.The only thing he cares about is Zhang Yun's personal safety. Every traverser is a unique treasure to Hai Han, and Yan Chujie doesn't want anything to happen to this single seedling in the field of natural science.After getting an affirmative answer, Yan Chujie felt a little relieved.However, for the sake of safety, he is still planning to recall the scientific expedition team in advance.

"Why don't I go ashore for a run!" Luo Jie was a restless person, so he took the initiative to ask Yan Chujie immediately.

"Are you going there yourself? Isn't this a big battle?" Yan Chujie was a little hesitant. After all, Luo Jie is also a general in the army. Sending him to perform this kind of guard mission is a bit overkill.

"Just think of it as a way to exercise your muscles and bones, and by the way, let's see what treasures there are on Borneo to attract Teacher Zhang from Sanya." Seeing that Yan Chujie did not insist on objecting, Luo Jie got up and ordered: "Take my equipment. Come!"

Of course, Roger's own equipment is still the foreign goods brought over by the North American gang. The firearms are well maintained, but the stock of bullets is inevitably getting smaller and smaller.Although he, as a mechanic with strong hands-on ability, has also mastered the bullet reloading technique, but this is still not enough to cover the speed of consumption.This year, Roger didn't even use his own special weapon for target shooting on the island, and he used the Trinity rifle more often, and only when he was on a mission like this, would he take out his treasure to show off debut.

So Roger took another platoon of people and landed in a small boat to join the scientific expedition team that had landed earlier.Roger's state of mind was to vaguely hope that something would happen, so that the group of his subordinates could move and have a chance to show their actual combat ability.However, the aborigines in the nearby area may also feel that this group of outsiders are not easy to mess with, and they have never appeared again after hiding in the forest.After Zhang Yun led the students to complete the specimen collection in the vicinity for two days, the group returned to the ship safe and sound.

The fleet continued south along the coastline. After sailing for a day, they came to a river estuary and found a fishing village here.Although the aborigines here were a little apprehensive towards the outsiders arriving by big boat, they did not take a hostile attitude.After the two sides communicated through simple body movements, the Haihan people took out crystal clear glassware, fine salt and large pig iron ingots, and exchanged a lot of fruits and fresh catches from the locals.

For the uncivilized natives, Haihan's best weapons are not rifles and cannons, but various cheap industrial products across the ages.Even the civilized world can hardly resist the influx of these low-cost products into the market, and the less-informed indigenous people are even less resistant to this.This trick was used on the Yu family and his son in the fishing village as early as the time when the Crossing Group landed in Yulin. Over the past few years, they have accumulated enough operational experience. The Haihan people who are good at trading sell these things to them.

Of course, Haihan doesn't expect the natives to come up with any valuables to trade with him, the purpose is just to establish a good image first, so that the local natives can distinguish Haihan from those blond-haired, blue-eyed western colonists Come on, when you officially set foot on Borneo in the future, you may encounter less resistance because of this.

On October 30, the fleet arrived at Sukardana Bay, the only bay on the southern coast of Borneo. However, there is no natural harbor in this bay with a span of more than [-] nautical miles, and the fleet does not intend to stay here. Stop for supplies, because the ruler here is loyal to the Kingdom of Mataram, and Haihan's current contacts with the Kingdom of Matalam are only trade through middlemen. hostility from the opponent.Yan Chujie didn't want to offend the country of Mata Lan with extra problems, so he ordered the fleet not to stay here, and sailed directly across the bay from the open sea.

About [-] to [-] nautical miles south of Sukardana Bay, the coastline begins to turn eastward, and this is the southern tip of Borneo.The United Fleet turned to the east and continued along the coastline according to the established route, and by the way, corrected the chart in Haihan's hands.

Both Fan Ji and Zheng Zuo were envious of the sea charts in the hands of the Haihan people.They really don't understand how the Haihan people who claim to have come to this sea area for the first time have such a highly accurate sea chart in their hands?With this thing, the convenience brought about in formulating routes and calculating voyages cannot be calculated with money.It is no wonder that the Haihan people are so courageous that they dared to send their fleet to unfamiliar waters thousands of miles away from the base camp to conduct military exercises. In addition to their confidence in their own force, the navigation data they have mastered should also be their reliance one.Haihan people claim to know the world and the earth, and they really have real skills.

It took the United Fleet more than three days to complete a cruise of nearly [-] nautical miles off the coast of the southern tip of Borneo.Except for the continuous rain that makes people feel irritable, they have not encountered any other troubles during this period.Occasionally, other ships appear on the sea, and they will immediately turn their bows and leave away after seeing this huge fleet.

The southern coast of Borneo has fewer populated areas than the west coast. Although there are vast coastal plains and numerous rivers, the Nanyang aborigines who are not good at farming obviously do not know how to use these lands to improve their living conditions.Most of the indigenous villages and towns seen by the United Fleet are still in the original tribal state, and the civilization process is at least nearly a thousand years behind places like Daming Annan.It is said that the Sulu Kingdom and Boni Kingdom in the northern part of Borneo once accepted the canonization of the Ming Dynasty, and their civilization level should be slightly higher. However, by the time of the 17th century, they had been suppressed miserably by the Spaniards entrenched in the Philippines.

On October 24, the joint fleet arrived at the southeastern tip of Borneo. From here to the north is the Makassar Strait leading to the Celebes Sea and the Philippine Islands. West Island.There are many mineral deposits on this island, but they are not among the research targets of this trip.

The Combined Fleet plans to turn here and head south across the Java Sea to conduct a comprehensive cruise on the northern coastline of Java Island.The biggest risk on this voyage is not the Dutch who are entrenched in Batavia at the western end of Java Island, but the Kingdom of Mataram, which occupies most of the island.

The terrain of Java Island is long and narrow, about 970 kilometers long from east to west, and about 160 kilometers wide at its north-south point, covering an area of ​​more than 12 square kilometers.This place is located in the Pacific seismic belt, and the frequency of earthquakes is beyond ordinary people's imagination. There are as many as a thousand earthquakes every year. It is not really a livable place.

At the end of the thirteenth century, Kublai Khan sent an army of thousands of warships from FJ Quanzhou to expedition to Java, but the results were not ideal. Withdrew the Yuan army.In the current period, the Majapahit Kingdom has long since disappeared in the long river of history. The Matalam Kingdom that replaced it has a larger territory and stronger strength. It not only occupies most of Java Island, but also expands its sphere of influence to Southern Borneo and Eastern Sumatra.It's a pity that they failed to attack Batavia last year. If the Dutch were expelled from the area, it would basically declare that the entire Java Island was brought under its rule.

Matalam is full of hostility towards the Dutch, but this does not mean that they will regard Haihan as one of their own. In terms of the degree of ambition for external expansion, the ruler of Matalam, Laden Langsang, probably It will not be much worse than the Haihan Executive Committee.If he understood the development trajectory of the Haihan people in the past few years, it is very likely that he will regard Haihan as a competitor.

But Yan Chujie didn't want to take a quick walk around the open sea. Before departure, the executive committee made a request, hoping that he could lead a team to the ports of Surabaya, Semarang, and Cirebon on the island of Java to have a look at the local ports. Regarding the development status, if possible, it would be better to discuss trade cooperation with Mata Ram.

Of course, the United Fleet was not unprepared for this. When it went south, it had already contacted several Ming businessmen who had business dealings with Mataram, and asked them to send people to accompany them on a boat from Ambuna Island.When the fleet sailed south across the Java Sea and near Madura Island in the southeast of Surabaya, it sent a supply ship with several envoys of Ming merchants to the port of Surabaya to contact the Matalan people and inform the joint fleet of their request to enter the port for supplies.

The current name of Surabaya is actually Surabaya, and the Chinese name "Sishui" was originally after the Zhangzhou military disaster in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. A large number of FJ immigrants from Longxi County, Zhangzhou Prefecture in southern Fujian came south to Java, bringing folks from southern Fujian. Believe in "Sizhou Buddha" and build a temple to worship it.Later, these temples dedicated to gods "Sishui Temple" gradually evolved into the place name of this place.There is another explanation that "Si" means swimming, and Sishui means that the Han people left their hometowns to make a living in Nanyang.

Although in the current period, this place does not yet have the name Surabaya, but all the maps in the hands of the Haihan people label this place as "Sishui", so they have continued to use it by mistake.It has been one of the most important external ports on Java Island since the Middle Ages. Before the rise of Batavia, more than [-]% of the import and export trade of Java Island was completed here, which shows the importance of its status.

The envoys sent by Haihan should be very eloquent, and they actually persuaded the Matalan people in Surabaya Port to allow them to obtain supplies locally.However, the Matalan people were also very cautious. After hearing that the opponent was a fleet, they asked to send people to sea to check the situation first.This look almost scared the Mata Lan people back. As long as you are not blind, you can see that [-]% of the ships in this fleet are warships, and several of them are smaller than the Dutch warships in Batavia. Much bigger.With such a formation, the Matalan people would not dare to put the fleet into the port. If the Haihan people had ulterior motives, the defenders in the port would not be able to defend the attack of this army at all.

Fortunately, Yan Chujie quickly provided a new compromise plan, that is, let the fleet dock near Madura Island opposite the Surabaya Strait, and only send supply ships to purchase the required supplies in the port of Surabaya.Of course, Yan Chujie did not forget to ask for a meeting with the local managers during this period in order to deepen mutual understanding and discuss the possibility of trade between the two sides.

On October 28, the fleet dispatched two supply ships, led by the Matalan guide ship, to enter the port of Surabaya from the north of the Surabaya Strait.Just in case, there were no traversers leading the team on these two ships, but Roger's subordinate Li Dagui was in charge.He will engage with local authorities at the port and then see if there is an opportunity to arrange an official meeting nearby.

These two ships also brought a lot of good things produced by Haihan and Daming to show Haihan's sincerity in wishing to start trade with Matalam.Yan Chujie believed that no one would refuse such a good offer of door-to-door delivery, because these products had to be re-exported to Surabaya Port through Daming merchants in the past.

(End of this chapter)