1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 283 Vitality ([-])

The exploration fleet of Dong Fengshan and his party of three flying fish ships returned to Tongzhou Fort (now Manokwari City, Papua, Indonesia) on Weiyuan Island (New Guinea Island) on February 1639, 2, and was surprised to find that Tongzhou Fort There were actually a few more smoking buildings.

He found that the smoking buildings were not the smoke from cooking fires in ordinary dwellings, but the factories that produced industrial products—brick kilns and cement kilns.Although the production of building materials is not a lot, at least it can barely maintain a certain amount of infrastructure construction.And in this way, some space can be freed up for the ships that are transported to and fro, and more important living materials and necessary personnel can be loaded.

After disembarking with a group of tired sailors, I saw Niu Jinming, the commander of the naval transport fleet, organizing the construction and colonization of Tongzhou Fort.

"Niu Da, the small Tongzhou Fortress, I can ask you to come and take command!" Dong Fengshan joked with a smile.

"You think I want to stay here! Isn't that right? I haven't been able to find someone to replace me!" Niu Jinming welcomed Dong Fengshan and other officers of the exploration fleet into a brick building.

"How is it? Have you arrived in Daming?" Niu Jinming asked.

"It's here!" Dong Fengshan said with a smile: "We can go to Daming from the east in the future!"

"Where is the place near Daming?"

"Ryukyu, it's only two days' flight from Da Yuan, and less than five days to Daming."

"Then we won't have to worry about the Dutch blocking our route to Daming from now on!"

"That's natural!" Dong Fengshan said proudly: "Hey, Niu Da, what's the situation between Hanzhou mainland and Timor Island now?"

"I don't know either." Niu Jinming shook his head and said, "Hanzhou mainland and Timor Island are blocked by armed merchant ships of the Dutch, and there is no news. However, it should be no problem to come to Hanzhou mainland. Xinxiangbao also If we can protect ourselves, the only thing to worry about is the city of Dili. If the Dutch want to fight hard, the situation will be a bit bad."

"Qi Dalu is in Dili City." Dong Fengshan said softly.

"However, Commander Qi Er has never led the fleet to rescue the siege." Niu Jinming said: "I am afraid that if I go there, I will meet with the Dutch fleet and cause unnecessary losses."

"There are nearly 800 people there, so we can't throw them all to the Dutch, right?" Dong Fengshan asked worriedly, "It's not easy to get some people back from Daming!"

"We only need such a small number of ships and sailors, how dare we compete with the Dutch at sea!" Niu Jinming said depressingly: "When we bring more people back from Daming and build more warships, we will fight with the Dutch." Care about!"

"Then when we return to Fort Weiyuan, we can organize a fleet to go to Daming to pull people!"

"That depends on how the Second Commander Qi weighs it." Niu Jinmin said: "Last month, when our four ships were transporting weapons to the native state of Java Island, we bumped into three Dutch armed merchant ships and suffered a bit. The division is still thinking about organizing another four or five armed ships to stay on the Dutch route, find a place to recover, and attack the Dutch merchant ships near the Spice Islands. Or go directly to Java Island and capture several Dutch strongholds."

"I think it's more important to bring people back from Daming." Dong Fengshan said: "If you accidentally miss a merchant ship or their stronghold that attacked the Dutch, it will be a big loss."

"But don't hurt the Dutch, how can they sit down and negotiate peace with us?" Niu Jinmin said: "Don't forget, we are facing the threat of the Dutch in the north and northwest of Hanzhou. We can't When we want to live a good life, we still have to be worried that they will attack us. Didn’t the commander-in-chief and the chief manager also say that a fierce battle with the Dutch is to maintain a peaceful life for more than ten years. Then, we can develop Hanzhou and several surrounding territories with peace of mind."

"However, we still have to draw out ships to Daming to pull people back." Dong Fengshan said: "The situation in Daming, especially in the north, is getting worse and worse, and there are countless hungry people."

"The boats can take out five or six ships, and if they go to Daming, they can bring back more than 1000 people. It's just right, to fill my side with some people."

"Do you have anything to eat here?" Dong Fengshan said with a smile, "Most of the food reserves are in Weiyuan Fort."

"There are so many people that I can't afford it, but if I leave a hundred or 80 people, I can barely make a living for them."

After two days of refitting at Tongzhou Fort, the exploration fleet pulled anchor and set sail for Weiyuan Fort (now Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea).When passing through Jinhua Fort (now the city of Lai in Papua New Guinea), two Hanzhou transport ships docked here.They shipped more than [-] native Portuguese servants captured in Dili City to Jinhua Fort and Tongzhou Fort to supplement the manpower consumption in the two places.

And those useful Portuguese craftsmen and craftsmen were transported back to the mainland of Hanzhou not long after the capture of Dili City.Those Portuguese descendants of mixed blood in Timor Island were all drawn to Fort Weiyuan to enrich the working population here.

The geographical location of Jinhua Fort is quite good, just sandwiched between two big rivers, there is also a small river (Bumbu River) in between, the water source is abundant, and the river bend is flat, if it is developed, it can support tens of thousands of people Not a problem at all.

Dong Fengshan learned from the passing transport ships that at present, all the large ships in Hanzhou are docking at Weiyuan Fort. While waiting for maintenance, they are also discussing and discussing the next step of the fleet.

Therefore, the exploration fleet did not delay any longer, replenished some fresh water, sailed directly to the southeast, returned to Weiyuan Fort as soon as possible, and reported to Qi Dajiang the exploration of the eastern route and the news obtained from Guangzhou.
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Commander Wang Zhenliang of Weihaibao (now Cairns, Australia) looked happily at the potato vines all over the ground, calculating how much the field could produce, and silently calculated how much the 2000 mu of land could produce in total.Perhaps, these potatoes can meet the food rations of more than 700 people in Weiyuanbao and five or six nearby settlements for several months.

If we add another 2000 mu of corn and [-] mu of wheat, Weiyuanbao can completely achieve self-sufficiency in food this year, and there is still a little surplus.So, is it possible to open up one or two new settlements and reclaim more farmland to wait for the arrival of subsequent immigrants.But the annoying thing is that there is a lack of large animals such as cattle and horses here in Weihai, and plowing the land is more labor-intensive.

As for the more than 3000 mu of cotton, the current growth is only at the height of the calf. Although it has not yet reached the fruiting period, it is reluctant to look at the growth.In another two months, it should also be harvested.However, the construction of a weaving workshop cannot be realized due to the lack of necessary craftsmen and entertainers.Only after the Dutch lift the blockade of Jianye Port can they ask for support from Jianye City.

Weihai City has expanded into a small city with a circumference of more than 600 meters, with solid walls and bastions built.The artillery on the city wall and the tall watchtower provided enough security for the more than [-] people in the small city.

Although the six nearby settlements do not have tall and solid walls, the parapets surrounded by rammed earth and wooden rafts are enough to resist the attacks of enemies without artillery.

After more than half a year of raising generals, the starving people of Daming who used to have a haggard face have now recovered a little bit, and their complexion has become rosy.When they heard that as long as they worked hard to colonize for three years, they would allocate [-] mu of land to each person.As for the attached seeds and agricultural tools, the Hanzhou People's Government will lend them to farmers who have allocated land in the form of interest-free loans.The excitement of all the newcomers couldn't be added.

The first batch of more than 100 township soldiers who came to Weihai were transferred from Jianye City and Heishan City to cultivate new territories.Therefore, at the beginning of the new year in 1639, the Weihaibao people's government granted land to all of them according to the promise at that time.

This move undoubtedly stimulated the new arrivals even more.Although this Hanzhou is said to be tens of thousands of miles away from our Ming Dynasty, it seems that it is already far away, and it has been hard to cultivate.However, the officials and lords here will actually allocate land to the common people, and the land allocated is the cultivated land that they have worked hard to reclaim and open up wasteland.

Oh my God, that's thirty acres of land!How can a person manage to farm the land that belongs to him.It is unavoidable that after marrying a daughter-in-law, they will give birth to a few more boys so that they can help with the crops.There seem to be a little less women here, though.

For those old people who came two years earlier, I heard that many of them are bachelors.In October last year, more than 100 local girls were sent from Jianye City and assigned to the rural soldiers.Looking at the appearance, although it is not as straight as our Daming woman, it can still be seen.Those village chiefs said that these native women, traced back to their ancestors for more than a hundred years, are all Ming people.

In fact, for ordinary immigrants, it doesn't matter whether there are native women of Ming descent.As long as a baby is born to a Ming man, then the offspring will all be Ming people, oh, no, they should all be Hanzhou people.

And wait a minute, I heard that our soldiers from Hanzhou captured many natives in Timor Island, and there should be native girls among them.We should let Mr. Wang from Weihai do the dredging, and don't take advantage of those people in Weiyuan Island.After all, we are the mainland of Hanzhou, and they are just overseas territories.

Didn't those young officials in the city say that the most important thing for the development of Hanzhou is to lay a solid foundation.What is fundamental is to let the local people of Hanzhou marry their wives and husbands first, this is the right way, isn't it!

Wang Zhenliang naturally understood the thoughts of these new immigrants from Weihai, but he was quite disdainful of those native girls, and they were the real native native girls on Timor Island.To build a foundation and establish a career in Hanzhou, of course the Han people must be the main ones.The natives of the Nanyang islands are lazy and stupid, don't get some native girls back, and pass on their inferior temperaments to the Han Chinese and seedlings.

The mainland of Hanzhou should be the foundation, and the people who live there should naturally be mainly Han people.This barbaric continent, since the arrival of my Ming Han descendants, all of them are full of vitality.Don't look at the fierceness of the Dutch red-haired barbarians, but after years of development in Hanzhou, with ample population, abundant grain, and sharp soldiers, we will definitely be able to defeat you severely.

(End of this chapter)