1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 223 The Dilemma of Hanzhou

"I heard that Feiyu 1, which was exploring to the east, sank?" Yu Fukun asked with concern,
"It sank. Not far south from Weihai, it hit a rock and sank." Qi Tian was a little depressed. There is a Great Barrier Reef stretching thousands of miles in the east of Hanzhou. barrier reef.

But they never thought that a month ago, two "Flying Fish" went south to explore a new colonization point. Just less than 1 kilometers away from Weihai Fort, "Flying Fish [-]" crashed into the barrier reef, breaking a big hole in the bottom of the ship.Ten minutes later, it rolled over on the barrier reef.A shipwreck in which five people died and the cargo was lost.

Over the past few months, Hanzhou has received all bad news.First, a large and threatening indigenous tribe was discovered deep in the interior, but because of the impassable roads, it was impossible to send a large army to conquer it.

Then, it was the Portuguese who sank the Hanzhou immigrant ship in the waters near Xinxiangbao.And, in fact, already in a state of war hostility with Portugal.

Then, the seven warships that received the Han-Dutch coalition fleet were wiped out by the Spaniards.The whereabouts of Cao Xiong and the remaining Dutch fleet are unknown.

Afterwards, two shipwrecks happened one after another. In addition to the "Flying Fish 1" in the east that was on a mission to explore a new colony point, there was also a pirate ship that took refuge in the south of Java Island. The hull leaked and capsized.Of the more than 60 immigrants on board, more than 20 were not salvaged in time and fell into the sea.

Is it because the development of Hanzhou was so smooth in the past two years that God couldn't see it?God, this thief, if there is no way for people to live in Daming, why does Hanzhou have tens of thousands of starving people and treat us like this?

Yu Fukun secretly cursed God's injustice in his heart, but he dared not say it out loud.

"General Manager, Commander Yu!" Just as the old and the young were sitting in the Commander's Mansion and lamenting endlessly, Dong Fengshan, the captain of the Hanzhou Expedition Team, pushed the door in with a serious face.

"What's wrong?" Qi Tian's heart skipped a beat. The expedition team also sank? !

"Fort Weiyuan (now Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea) was attacked by local savages." Dong Fengshan said: "More than 70 Hanzhou natives and Luzon natives died, and we must immediately replenish the manpower!"

"More than 70 people died!" Qi Tian was taken aback. In Weiyuan Fort, there were only more than 130 Hanzhou natives and Luzon natives. Nima, more than half of them were wiped out.

"If the rest of the people hadn't hid in the storage area and fought back with muskets, they might have been killed by the savages who attacked!" Dong Fengshan said: "When the two ships of our expedition returned to Weiyuan Fort, Those aborigines and Luzon natives seemed to be scared out of their wits. If I didn't forcefully stop them, they would have fled to our ship."

"Fucking hell, isn't it just fighting with savages! What are those natives afraid of?" Yu Fukun said disdainfully.

"Commander Yu, the natives of Hanzhou said..., they said, the savages who attacked, eat people!" Dong Fengshan said, and glanced at Qi Tian.In the past, the chief executive said that the savages on the big island are some cannibals who like to eat people.At the time, I didn't think so.

But when he passed Weiyuan Fort, he saw the terrified expressions of those Hanzhou natives and Luzon natives, and even described with gestures, the behavior of leaving life and death, and the incomplete corpse.Rao is his own boldness, at that time, his heart was trembling for a while.

He appeased the remaining aborigines and Luzon natives, added some muskets to them, and then quickly returned to Jianye City by boat.

"Man-eating savage!" Yu Fukun was also shocked. Sometimes death is not scary, but the scary thing is that after a person dies, others will eat you up. This sounds creepy.

"How is the forest near Weiyuan Castle cleared? Have the nearby ponds and swamps been filled?" Qi Tian asked.

"The one-mile radius of Weiyuan Fort has basically been cleaned up. Moreover, only three natives died of illness last month." Dong Fengshan knew that Qi Tian was asking whether the environment of Weiyuan Fort could be used for immigrants.

"Uncle Kun, why don't we pick some marines from Guangdong and Fujian to go to Weiyuan Fort to clean up the surrounding savages?" Qi Tian turned his head and asked Yu Fukun.

"Sometimes, sacrifice is inevitable." Yu Fukun knew that Qi Tian was worried that sending a marine corps there would cause a large number of non-combat attrition. "When Xinxiangbao was first established last year, many people died."

"Then send [-] marines to clean up for a few months, and then rotate." Qi Tian made a decision, "By the way, another [-] natives and Luzon natives will be recruited and sent to Weiyuan Fort and Jinhua Fort respectively. .”

Jinhua Fort is the second supply point established on Weiyuan Island (Guinea Island) in November last year. It is located in the city of Lai in the northeast of Papua New Guinea.At present, two batches of Hanzhou natives and Luzon natives have been transported here, and a camp has been initially established.

In order to prevent Jinhua Fort from being attacked by savage tribes, while reinforcing Weiyuan Fort, a large amount of personnel and supplies were also sent to Jinzhou Fort.

After arranging the reinforcements for the two eastern supply points on Weiyuan Island, Qi Tian was about to leave the Commander's Mansion and prepare to go to the breeding farm outside Jianye City.

"Commander Yu, chief executive!" A Marine Corps officer walked in.

"What's the matter?" Yu Fukun's head tightened, as if another attack would happen somewhere.

"The immigrant ship that just returned brought back the news of Xinxiangbao." The officer said: "The Portuguese came to Xinxiangbao and issued an ultimatum to Hanzhou. They demanded to withdraw from Timor Island and return the captured Portuguese sailors. compensate them for their losses.”

"You fucking Portuguese, how dare you open your mouth!" Yu Fukun got up abruptly after hearing this, "How did Chen Dalang respond?"

"Commander Chen said that Han Zhou will go to Oecussi and Dili of the Portuguese to seek justice for the more than 50 immigrants who died in the shipwreck!"

"Well said! When the commander comes back, we will go to their Ocussi and ask them for justice!"

"Didn't the Portuguese blockade Xinxiang Castle?" Qi Tian asked.

"No. There are no Portuguese warships near Castel Neuva."

At present, all the immigration ships in Hanzhou are transported in a centralized manner, led by the captured two Spanish warships, now renamed "Yangwei" and "Yangwu", followed by four transport ships, starting from Batavia, Return to New Township.

The immigration transport from Xinxiangbao to Jianye City is carried out by two newly built 150-ton flying shear ships "Flying Fish No. 4" and "Flying Fish No. 5".They can quickly travel back and forth between the two places with super high speed.Even if you encounter a Portuguese interception, you can quickly get rid of it.

"The black-clothed guard went to contact the Kingdom of Weihali, but there is no news yet?" Yu Fukun asked.

The Marine Corps officer shook his head blankly, how could an ordinary officer know what the black-clothed guard did.

"I'll go to the Black Clothes Guard and ask." Yu Fukun went out anxiously and left the Commander's Mansion.

Hanzhou seems to be facing many difficulties at present. It stands to reason that Hanzhou has a population of 3 and is highly organized. In addition, it can produce guns and artillery. Such strength is enough to beat all surrounding forces.

However, among all the difficulties in Hanzhou, the biggest problem is that without strong sea power, it is impossible to effectively deploy the force it has.Therefore, the Dutch took it lightly and the Spaniards bullied it. Now even the Portuguese, whose strength is declining year by year, dare to issue an ultimatum to Hanzhou.

Build a ship, build a big ship, build a powerful professional warship!If Hanzhou had about five professional warships, it would not even need the tier-1000 sailing battleships of more than 600 tons in later generations. As long as it was a tier-800 sailing cruiser with a displacement of [-]-[-] tons, it would be enough to deter all surrounding Nanyang forces.

During this period, Western colonists almost all used armed merchant ships as warships that came to Nanyang.The slightly more powerful warships in the Far East are the Spanish sailing warships, but they are not professional warships, they are just slightly larger armed merchant ships.Because the colonists from the west came to Nanyang to do trade and make a fortune.

As for professional warships, if they come from Europe, they need to sail tens of thousands of miles, which takes five or six months, and the transportation space is also small, which is extremely uneconomical.

As the local tiger in this area, if Hanzhou owns five or six professional warships, although the combat skills may be a little bit worse, we can rely on the professional warships' many artillery pieces and strong hulls to fight ten times. , Bully the armed merchant ships of the Western colonists who have little skin and guns.

What a wonderful thing it would be if the Cavite shipyard of the Luzon Spaniards could be handed over!Qi Tian came to the shipyard and saw more than a hundred shipwrights busy on the berth, building a 150-ton flying shear ship.

In fact, the transportation volume of a clipper ship with the same displacement is far inferior to that of ordinary Fuchuan and Galen boats.However, as Hanzhou, which lacks maritime force, it seems that it can only build such ultra-fast ships at present.When encountering a powerful merchant ship, we can't beat you, but I can run fast.

(End of this chapter)