Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 326 Yulin Port

On the morning of March 11, the joint fleet of Huiyou Company and Li Zhongguo's troops sailed out of Nanwan and headed south under the influence of the northeast monsoon.

Lin Hai stayed in Haojing for a total of three days. After visiting the Bugalao Cannon Foundry, he hoisted more than a hundred cannons onto the ship the next day.

This batch of artillery is basically of the specifications of 6-pound and 9-pound guns. The caliber is a bit small for use as fortress guns, but fortunately there are enough of them and they can be lifted onto the ship for use when necessary.

Nearly half of the 1500 muskets purchased by the Council have arrived, and the remaining half will require Li Zhongguo to send a ship to pick it up in a few months.

In addition, Lin Hai also sent people to buy a large amount of gunpowder and food. These were given to Li Zhongguo for free. Li Zhongguo was now penniless and had to give him some start-up capital with thousands of mouths to feed. After all, Yulin Port was still a barren place.

After the fleet sailed out of Nanwan, it sailed south for half an hour and arrived at Shizimen. The famous Shizimen naval battle took place here in the late Southern Song Dynasty, which was said to be the largest naval battle in history with a scale of 50 people, which actually included all the accompanying personnel of the remaining Southern Song government.

The so-called Cross Gate is a cross-shaped body of water that separates the four islands of Taipa, Coloane, and Hengqin Island. However, in later generations, these four islands have been connected into two, and the cross has become a straight line.

Lin Hai and Zhu Niang's wedding was held here. At that time, Li Zhongguo's troops were ambushed in a harbor of Dahengqin Island. They took advantage of the complex terrain of the Shizimen waters to attack unexpectedly...

Three years passed quickly. Lin Hai stood on the stern corridor of Dingyuan, looking at the familiar scenery through the stained glass. For a moment, he was filled with emotion:
He would never have imagined that in just a few years he would be able to revisit his old place on a giant Galen weighing thousands of tons, and recruit the former leader of the Pearl River Estuary as his younger brother.

After passing the Shizimen, the fleet reached the open sea and turned southwest along the coastline of Guangdong. In the evening of the same day, it arrived at Wuzhu Mountain in the Chuanshan Islands, which was later named Wuzhu Island.

This is the first lookout mountain west of the Dangan Waterway on the Western Compass Route of the Ming Dynasty, and is also the node used as a landmark in the Compass Route Formula. When the fleet arrives here, they no longer need to look at the coastline and can just continue forward according to the Western Compass Route Formula.

"Captain, shall we rest here for a night before setting off again?" A young captain on the Dingyuan asked to see Lin Hai and gave him some navigation advice.

"Oh? Why do you need to rest for a night?" Lin Hai really wanted to reach Yulin Port as soon as possible, but he still patiently asked the reason.

"It's like this. We can reach Qizhou Ocean at 13 o'clock if we sail with the wind from Wuzhu Mountain. I don't think it's safe for such a large fleet to cross Qizhou Ocean in the dark." The young captain added, "As the saying goes, 'We are afraid of going to Qizhou and afraid of returning to Kunlun.'"

Lin Hai had also heard the latter sentence before. It referred to the two most dangerous places that Chinese merchants had to pass through when sailing to the West. One was the waters of Kunlun Island in southern Vietnam, and the other was the Qizhou Ocean where the Qizhou Islands were located, located in the eastern waters of the northeast corner of Hainan Island.

The danger of the Qizhou Ocean lies mainly in the turbulent water flow. Most of the sea route compasses in the Ming Dynasty devoted great attention to this and recorded the tidal patterns here in great detail.

So Lin Hai was no stranger to this, and immediately decided to follow suit: "Your suggestion is good, I'll do as you say."

As he said this, he ordered the Navy staff officer beside him to go and pass on the message, and then asked the young man: "What's your name? Can you read?" "To the commander, my name is Meng Jianghong, and I can read."

"Very good. When you return this time, you will report to the Admiralty General Staff."

On the afternoon of the 13th, the fleet passed the dangerous Qizhou Ocean and after another day and night of sailing arrived at Duzhu Mountain, which is Dazhou Island in the southeast of Wanning City in later generations.

At this point, the fleet had to sail along the near-shore route again. Fortunately, it was only more than 200 miles away from Yulin Port by water, and it would arrive in five or six hours.

On the morning of the 15th, the fleet passed over the waters off Yalong Bay and rounded Cape Jinmu, the southernmost tip of the Celestial Continental Shelf. Cape Luhuitou, 20 miles away, came into sight. This is why Sanya City is called Lucheng.

We finally arrived at Yulin Port. Between the Hutouling Peninsula where Jinmu Cape is located and the Luhuitou Peninsula is the Yulin Outer Port, also known as Dadonghai, with a water area of ​​more than 200 square kilometers.

This is a scenic bay with clear blue water, white sandy beaches and coconut trees everywhere, forming a beautiful and pristine picture.

"Brother-in-law, how is the scenery here? It's pretty good, right?" Lin Hai said to Shibi with a smile on the Dingyuan. This place was a famous military port in later generations. He had also come here for tourism, but the scenery was still better four hundred years ago.

"Qiongzhou Prefecture is really a deserted place. There is not even a fishing village in such a big place. It is not even as good as the chicken coops a few years ago." Looking out from the stone wall, there was not even a single ship in sight in the huge Yulin Outer Harbor.

"The north is better. The population density in the south is probably almost the same as that in Dongfan." Lin Hai specifically looked through the official data of that era. Hainan's population is highly concentrated in northern Hainan counties such as Qionshan, Chengmai, and Lingao.

As for the south, the total registered population of the two counties of Yazhou, Lingshui, and Ganen is just over 20,000, and most of them live near Yazhou City. Although Yulin Port is under the jurisdiction of Yazhou, it is actually closer to Lingshui County, which has a total population of just over 3,000, which is equivalent to a large indigenous village in Tainan.

Of course, the actual population of counties and cities in southern Hainan should be about twice the official data, but even after doubling, it can still be described as barren. This is probably largely due to tropical diseases, led by malaria.

This was something Lin Hai could not help because Tiandu Iron Mine was just over ten kilometers away from Yulin Port, so he had to occupy it.

Combined with the port conditions and geographical location of Yulin Port itself, this place became the third territory in Lin Hai's mind besides Dongfan and Jeju Island, and the company wanted to have complete control over it.

Of course, Yulin Port has its own particularity. After all, it is the royal land of the Ming Dynasty. In order to monopolize the interests of Tiandu Iron Mine, Lin Hai has also spent a lot of effort.

On the one hand, he used Li Zhongguo as his black glove to occupy this place, and on the other hand, he secured a position of chief sealholder for Yang Ce in Yazhou City, a hundred miles away - the ruling center of the Ming Dynasty in the southern part of Qiongzhou Prefecture. At the same time, he also sent Xu Xinlan, who was well versed in officialdom and the ways of the world.

With both the black and white sides under his control, no matter whether you are an official or a gentry, no matter whether you are playing a conspiracy or an open conspiracy, if you want to get involved in the Tiandu Iron Mine? Don't even think about it!
(End of this chapter)