1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 602 The End of the World ([-])
At noon on December 1647, 12, two ships from the Qi State Expeditionary Fleet sailed along the coastline of the island to a protruding bay (near the town of Kaikoura on the South Island of New Zealand today), and entered the water. In the eyes of the officers and soldiers of the division, there were more than a dozen huge sperm whales jumping out of the sea from time to time.

When the sea is blue and the sky is blue, the figure of a sperm whale will suddenly appear, with a beautiful streamlined body and firm and smooth skin, just like a beautiful girl dancing among the blue waves of the Pacific Ocean.It dances gracefully, lightly and freely, and sprays water jets into the air from time to time above its head, as if declaring to the world: I am the ruler of the ocean.

After floating and breathing on the sea surface for more than ten minutes, the whale jumped up and lifted its tail high out of the water.Knowledgeable officers and sailors in the fleet will tell everyone that this action means that the whale will not come out for air again until 1 to 2 hours later.

In addition to huge whales, there are many dolphins, sea lions, and ferocious sharks in this sea area, and there are even some "stupid ducks" (penguins) shaking their heads, pacing lazily along the coast.

"With so many whales, sea lions, and seals here, our country of Qi should occupy this island!" Lu Zusheng looked eagerly at the sea lions on the coast and the whales jumping out of the sea from time to time.

"How can anyone from us come to fill this island?" Dong Fengshan shook his head and said: "The mainland is such a large piece of land, and we only occupy a few points in the coastal area. You know, our country of Qi is currently at most 25-26 With a population of [-], how can we take care of so many sites!"

"Master Admiral, even if we have fewer people now, there will definitely be millions of people in the next few decades or hundreds of years. If we extend the time a little longer, how about three to five hundred years? How about 500 years?" Lu Zusheng said: " In the future, the population will only increase, but the land in this world is fixed. Even if we don’t immigrate to this island on a large scale, at least a few hundred people will come and occupy it first. , and keep it for later development.”

"Hundreds of people may not be able to occupy such a big island." Dong Fengshan said: "The natives here are tyrannical and powerful, and the population is estimated to be quite large. If one is not good, the people brought here will be eaten by others. !"

"Then send a soldier from the Marine Battalion first to subdue the natives here, and then we can emigrate!" Thinking of the scene of cannibalism in the native camp a few days ago, Lu Zusheng felt a chill in his heart.

"Since you want to draw attention to this island, you have to describe the geographical conditions here, and do a good job in hydrogeological and meteorological surveys." Dong Fengshan couldn't help laughing.He found that all the teenagers who had studied with Qi Tian before had a desire for radical expansion, wishing to incorporate all the unknown territories they discovered into the scope of Hanzhou, and create a huge living space for future generations as much as possible. .

"Of order, Lord Admiral!" Lu Zusheng promised loudly with a smile.
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On December 12, the exploration fleet seemed to have reached the northern edge of the big island, and there was no land ahead. The fleet then turned around and headed northeast along the northern coast of the island.

The next day, a large fragmented peninsula and archipelago appeared in front of the fleet. In order to ensure the safety of the ships, the two armed exploration ships shifted their routes slightly to the north to avoid this complex sea area.

"My lord, please have dinner." Zhang Laifu came to Lu Zusheng with a plate, and respectfully placed it in front of him. The food was simple, half a can of whale canned, a piece of bacon, a few pieces of rotten cabbage, and half a cup mead.

"Well, let's put it there." While observing the coastline on the left side of the ship's side, Lu Zusheng used charcoal to describe the nearby landforms and coastlines, ignoring the lunch that was delivered.On the ship, unless you are very hungry, the average person has little appetite for the food on the ship.

Hearing this, Zhang Laifu gently withdrew from the podium, returned to the deck, and continued to work as an observer.He immigrated from Daming Dengzhou two years ago.However, at the earliest time, he was a boatman on a canal tank boat.Later, when Jiannu entered the customs, Liu Zeqing, the general soldier of Shandong, fled all the way south to Huai'an, occupying a large area near the canal.These boatmen and many tank boats stranded in Huai'an were naturally taken under Liu Zeqing's command.

However, as Jiannu came from the north, Liu Zeqing took these tank boats with them, entered the sea from the Huaihe River, fled to Haizhou (now Lianyungang), and first surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.Later, driven by the Qing government, they went to attack Denglai, but they were defeated by many gunboats from Qi State in the first battle, and their boatmen and tank boats fell into the Yongchu court.

Before all the boatmen could recover, those tyrannical officers and soldiers of the Qi State Navy could not help but select more than [-] boatmen from among the captured boatmen, and shipped them all back to Hanzhou.

God, we have spent our entire lives living in the small ditch of the canal. We have never seen such a vast ocean, and we have traveled tens of thousands of miles by boat, so that we finally came to this desolate Hanzhou continent.

After two years in Hanzhou, Zhang Laifu was assigned to Yongchang (now Gold Coast, Australia) to work on a transport ship under the local government. In August last year, he was recruited by the Qi State Navy to serve in the exploration fleet.

Although life in the fleet was difficult and dangerous, Zhang Laifu was very satisfied with the generous military pay.In the troubled times of the Ming Dynasty, human life was as cheap as a dog, how much extravagance can you expect in the future?Furthermore, the fleet's exploration of unknown seas may not always be dangerous. After several years of service and a large amount of money accumulated, it happens to be able to live a good life in Hanzhou.

However, there are too many rules in the fleet, especially when sailing, they must resolutely obey the orders of the fleet commander and officers at all levels, and they seem to control everything.

For example, you can't choose what to eat on the boat, but you can always decide what you don't want to eat.Because I didn't like to eat sour food since I was a child. Whenever I eat it, not only my teeth are sore and painful, but also my whole stomach is convulsed.

More than ten days ago, I and two other brothers secretly threw the dried lemons into the sea because they didn’t want to eat them. When the admiral found out, he whipped us twice angrily and ordered us to clean the deck for a week.Thinking about it now, I still feel wronged.

In the fleet, everyone respects and fears the admiral, and he will punish any officers and soldiers who make mistakes without mercy.He also stated many times that if someone dared to make a big mistake, he would cut off that person's head with his own hands.All the officers and soldiers believed in this.Because, it is said that the admiral was a pirate more than ten years ago, and he must have at least a dozen lives in his hands.

Fortunately, the deputy commander of the fleet, Mr. Lu, is more kind. Although the officers and soldiers who made mistakes will be punished, at least he will explain the reasons for the mistakes and the basis for punishment, which makes people more convincing.

What's more rare is that Mr. Lu seems to have read books and knows a lot of things. He can also play with several precision instruments on the ship, draw pictures, and write, which makes all the white sailors on the ship admire him.

Yesterday, the fleet crossed a wide strait (Cook Strait) before turning north and following the western coastline of another island (New Zealand's North Island), exploring the geography and hydrology of the island.At that time, the admiral asked several officers on the ship how to name the two islands.

Mr. Lu said that in this vast ocean, the island in the south is like a stone thrown into the sea by the bird of Jingwei. It is dark and overlapping, so it can be called Jingwei Island; There are faintly towering mountains, just like Gonggong touching the mountain, so it can be called Gonggong Island.Then Lord Admiral seems to be very satisfied with these two titles, and also praised Lord Lu for his extensive knowledge and knowledge, and he can be the successor of the fleet command.

At night, when the fleet was moored, Mr. Lu also told many of our officers and soldiers the ancient legends of Jingwei reclamation and Gonggong touching the mountains. Everyone listened with gusto and learned a lot.

While Zhang Laifu admired him, he thought in his heart that after he married a wife and had a baby, he must provide for his children to study well.Even if he can't become an official, he can at least enter the army and become a learned officer like Mr. Lu.

Of course, the journey on the boat was not so smooth.For example, on December 12th, when our fleet sailed into a bay surrounded by a northern island (now Wellington Bay, New Zealand), there was a conflict with the local aborigines.The aborigines on the shore tried to attack us by boat, and they didn't communicate with us first like the aborigines on the island to the south for more than ten days.

Well, it may be a group of barbarians, who have no desire to contact people from the outside world. They drive a dozen canoes, hold wooden spears and stones, and want to drive us back.

The admiral immediately ordered to fire a counterattack, and the gunners on the ship replaced them with grape bullets viciously, and they bombarded the native ships swarming towards them.I bet that those natives who were killed and fell into the sea will not have any pain. Seven or eight artillery pieces, countless cannonballs and lead bullets will definitely punch holes in their bodies.We sailors with muskets didn't even have a chance to shoot. The remaining natives turned the bow and fled towards the shore.

It may be that these natives disrupted our landing operation, so we had to stay on the ship. Therefore, the gunners were a little annoyed, and then chased them in the direction they were fleeing, and fired another round of shelling, killing almost everyone who dared to rush. The natives who came were all killed at sea.

In the following [-] days, the fleet slowly circled the island in the north—oh, it should be called Gonggong Island at this time—almost half a circle. On the east coast of the island, there are many good landing points. Later suitable for establishing immigrant settlements.But unfortunately, it seems that these good places are occupied by local aborigines.And in order to avoid trouble, we did not try to contact these natives by landing.

Of course, these primitive canoes of the natives could not pose the slightest threat to us. When we saw our boats passing by from afar on the shore, they waved their wooden spears, bouncing around, and seemed to be demonstrating to us.Master Lu said that in the future, he will bring the brothers of the Marine Corps to the island to let them know the power of modern civilization.

As for what modern civilization is, I haven't figured it out yet.However, I think we are stronger than the natives on these islands, and our living standards are much higher than theirs.

Regarding the aborigines on these two islands, the admiral proposed another way to deal with them, saying that our country of Qi should try to assimilate them, and use these aborigines' aggressive and ruthless nature to train them into our armed servants. To conquer the natives on the South Sea islands.This move can not only consume the local natives, but also expand the territory of our country of Qi and save our own force, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Although I don't really understand the affairs discussed by the big shots, I privately feel that the admiral's method is really a good suggestion.At that time, we boatmen of the canal tank boats followed Liu Zeqing to surrender Jiannu, and found that many of the Jiannu officers who commanded and ordered us were originally Han Chinese, but they surrendered Jiannu very early and became their main "thugs". ".These so-called Eight Banners of Han fought fiercely like real Jiannu, and helped Jiannu grow step by step, and finally broke into the pass, harming our millions of Han people.

On January 1, our fleet had circled the northeast coast of Gonggong Island and arrived at a protruding peninsula area, where we stopped for a day of rest.We deliberately replaced the fresh drinking water on board and collected some edible wild vegetables.Next, we may have another long voyage.Because, the admiral is going to end the exploration of the two islands of Gonggong and Jingwei, and start to explore the sea area in the northeast direction.

At the temporary stop, we caught some fish with fishing nets and had a sumptuous and fresh dinner. The admiral specially allowed all the officers and soldiers to drink a glass of wine, no matter whether it was honey wine or shochu, and everyone cheered for it.Each of us knows that we may not have fresh food and drinking water for a long time in the future, and we will have to stay in small and closed cabins all the time.Maybe half a month, maybe a month, who knows?
On January 1, the exploration fleet set sail, left Gonggong Island (North Island of New Zealand), and headed northeast, following the footsteps of the Dutch a few years ago, to find the small island they called Tabu (Main Island of Tonga) .

Compared with the voyage between Bliss Island (now Tasmania, Australia) and Jingwei Island (now New Zealand’s South Island), the current sea area where the fleet is heading northeast, both in terms of weather and sea conditions, must appear The weather is exceptionally calm, worthy of being called the Pacific Ocean.

However, also because of the calm weather, the overall speed of the fleet is not fast, maintaining a speed of two knots per hour. Sometimes, when encountering no wind or light wind, the speed of the fleet will be even slower.

The sailing time may be 20 days, or maybe a month, Zhang Laifu can't remember clearly.At the beginning, the sailors on the ship would often ask Mr. Lu how much distance he sailed every day, but after a long time, everyone seemed to lose interest.When I open my eyes every day, what I see is the boundless sea, as if it will never end, and it seems meaningless to ask how many voyages I have traveled.

There are no birds in the sky, which means that our fleet is still far away from the mainland or islands, and is still floating on the vast sea.Now, the sailors on the ship don't like to talk very much, and the atmosphere has become very depressing and dignified.

Perhaps feeling the low morale of the officers and soldiers, the admiral lowered all the sails of a group of two ships on a sunny afternoon and stopped temporarily, intending to rest for half a day.He ordered the quartermaster on board to take out more than a dozen cans of precious fruit and share them with all officers and soldiers.

Then let the depressed officers and soldiers take off their clothes, go down to the sea to swim happily (I think it is a disguised way to let the sailors take a bath), take out fishing nets and fishing rods to kill nearby swimming fish, and let everyone enjoy two fresh meals.

After taking a bath in the sea and eating a few delicious grilled fish, Zhang Laifu held a golden and crispy grilled fish and prepared to send it to Mr. Lu.When he was about to approach the command platform, he faintly heard Mr. Lu reporting to the admiral. It seemed that the fleet's direction had shifted a few degrees to the southeast from the original route.

Are we going the wrong way?

(End of this chapter)