Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1127

On March 1657, 3, when the civil servants and military generals on the east coast "broken their hearts" for Spain's Caribbean territories, the heavily armed three-decked battleship "Executive Committee" just tried its hand in the waters off the Strait of Magellan. Finished, sinking an unidentified ship trying to cross the strait.

The tonnage of this ship was not large, about two to three hundred tons. It had not applied to cross the Strait of Magellan at Xingnan Port before, and at the same time refused to obey orders to stop the ship for inspection. As a result, it was sunk by Lieutenant Commander Huang Yang, who was angry.As a result, there was naturally no suspense. Although the ship (the sailor who was rescued later proved that it was a British privateer) ran very fast-this may be one of the reasons for its refusal to stop the ship, because everyone knows that three The big guy like the deck battleship moves very slowly - but driven by the powerful "Sailor-450 B Kai" steam unit with two shafts and two propellers of 5 horsepower, the "Executive Committee" caught up leisurely This British privateer, and then beat it into the bottom of the sea together, it was absolutely incomparable.

After sinking this sneaky ship, the "Executive Committee" patrolled the sea for several days before leaving the eastern mouth of the Strait of Magellan, and stopped at Ning Fuego on the morning of April 4. South Port (newly established within a few months, located near the city of Rio Grande on the east side of Tierra del Fuego), and then sent sailors to go ashore in small boats to purchase supplies—no way, the ship was built to the "Executive Committee" At this level, they are more picky about the conditions of the port. New settlements like Ningnan Port, which are waiting to be built, cannot receive the "Executive Committee", and the required supplies can only be transported back and forth by small boats. More troublesome.

You know, this ship designed and built by Zhenhai Shipyard is 61 meters long, 15 meters wide, and has a draft of 7.3 meters deep. Due to the installation of two steam boilers, the displacement of the whole ship has reached an astonishing 1730 tons.Such a large "body" cannot be stopped in a small remote port like Ningnan Port. The "Executive Committee" has one and only one home port in Patagonia: it spent tens of thousands of yuan to build a battleship. Xingnan Port with dedicated wharf.

It is said that since the "Executive Committee" entered service, it has been conducting sea trials and training in the offshore Patagonia. After nearly a year of training and running-in, more than 800 officers and soldiers on the entire ship have fully familiarized themselves with the performance of the warship. , with a certain degree of combat effectiveness, if they encounter ordinary enemy battleships, they may be able to defeat them.

Of course, the combat effectiveness of the "Executive Committee" is beyond doubt. This ship is equipped with 8 artillery pieces ranging in size from 32 pounds to 108 pounds, which are arranged on three decks. The medium guns are placed on the middle deck, and the light guns are placed on the top open deck to make the center of gravity of the ship more stable.This kind of warship is not only first-class in the New World, but even in the Old World, its combat effectiveness is also one of the best, and it is basically invincible in one-on-one battles.

"This is the legendary battleship that cost 20 yuan. Hmph, I think it's not bad." On the construction site in Ningnan Port, Wang Dali, who came to explore the national road, set up a tent to look at the distant sea. The "hill" curled his lips and said, "It's a waste of money! If you have this money, it's better to build a few more schools. The universal primary education set by the Executive Committee has not been achieved so far, and it has almost become a joke. Money Building warships but having no money for children to go to school, I think this country will end sooner or later. Moreover, this kind of large warship with hundreds of cannons is not built and finished, and the annual maintenance and training expenses in the future will also be the same. It is not easy for a country to raise an astronomical figure."

Meng Hu, who was leaning on the pile of bricks and sniffing a wild flower, laughed loudly, and said after a long time: "It's ridiculous that some people in the local area are getting hot-headed, thinking that if such a powerful warship is built, it won't work if it doesn't go out and pretend to be forced." Happy, I am trying my best to make the country spend more money. 20 yuan? Hehe, I really want to be tossed about by them, let alone 20, 200 million can’t beat it! The Ministry of Finance recently wanted to pay Spain People have borrowed money, and they have already issued a lot of money to purchase materials in the country. If there is another war with the British, the inflation index will definitely explode."

Wang Dali also smiled wryly after hearing this: "Forget it, let's not mention these. This time, the Nantie Company has more money to burn hands, and plans to set up in Ningnan Port and Shanhou County - in early 1657, under the jurisdiction of Shanhou Town and Shanhou Zuo Township , Shanhouyou Township, Shanhouqian Township, and Jiehu Township (near the town of Tolhuin in later generations) five townships, with a total population of more than 1.1 people-it is a big effort to build a second-class national road between them. It seems that Liu Ang I want to bring the entire island under the rule, and the natives in the eastern and northern plains of the island are expected to suffer a lot, it’s a pity that there are only a few thousand people.”

"There are at least five or six thousand natives living on that great plain, and they usually make a living by fishing, hunting and gathering. Those guys from the Taoist Association have been pretending to be ghosts and infiltrating there for many years, but they have only attracted less than a thousand people to us. Most of the remaining natives still don’t buy it from us.” Meng Hu said with some melancholy, “In fact, on this planet, everyone has the right to live freely under the sun, and the Ona people naturally No exception. Unfortunately, look at the current situation here in Ningnan Port. That guy Xu Gang led the team away yesterday, right? One hundred Shandan hunters, 250 Russian Maozi soldiers and one hundred Gaucho mercenaries, okay? The guy is fully armed, and he said he was going to expropriate land from the natives to build roads, but who knows what he is doing? The Ona people also have human rights, and we cannot deprive them of their property and lives at will. It seems that I don’t expect to see it on these greedy warriors.”

"Don't talk about these annoying things." Wang Dali put the backpack on the pack horse's back depressedly, and then said: "I'm about to set off, the weather is getting colder every day after April, we have to try our best before the storm hits." Do more work, so as not to delay the progress."

Due to the relationship between latitude and location, the cold and windy climate has always controlled most of the plains of Tierra del Fuego. In places like Ningnan Port, even the best average temperature in January is difficult to break through 1°C, which means that There is no real warm season in this area, only a period of cold relief.Fortunately, due to the distribution of the strait, the westerly wind from the Pacific Ocean can enter the nearby area unimpeded, without having to rise above the mountains, so this cold climate area is greatly affected by the ocean, which in turn leads to a colder April-September average The temperature is only between 20-4 ℃, which is not considered cold in the absolute sense - Tierra del Fuego is so strange, it can't get hot in summer, and it can't get cold in winter. The temperature difference is not big. The whole island is in a very strange However, it is true that the climate in winter is far worse than in summer.

After parting with Meng Hu, Wang Dali, who was over fifty years old, sat on the back of a docile old horse and set off southward with a team of five or sixty people.In addition to some engineers and technicians, this team also has nearly 60 officers and soldiers of the road protection team of the Southern Railway Company. They will go all the way south along the Great Plains on Tierra del Fuego to explore a national road route leading directly to Shanhou County.

On the afternoon of the same day (April 4), Wang Dali and others crossed the fast-flowing Ningnan River (Grande River) in batches.The Ningnan River has most of the characteristics of the rivers on Tierra del Fuego, that is, the river is relatively short (originating from the Magellan Mountains), but the water volume is extremely abundant, and because of the steep slope of the terrain, it can be used for hydropower generation. The feature may not be particularly obvious, but it is most obvious in the many rivers that flow from the Magellan Mountains to the Beagle Channel.

Many fields have been opened up on both sides of the Ningnan River. The fields are planted with the "High Sugar 54" sugar beets recently bred by the Northern Seed Company, the "Geshuang 50" soybeans suitable for the cold southern regions, and some potatoes and vegetables.As for the grains consumed by the residents in their daily life, they can only be imported from Peru or the mainland, which is very cheap anyway.

After crossing the Ningnan River, there is a large area of ​​grassland or tundra.Thanks to the "blessing" of the Southern Railway Company, people on the east coast insisted on introducing alien species to Tierra del Fuego many years ago: mainly reindeer from the outer northeast, Sakhalin moose, musk ox from Norway, and North America. bison etc.After so many years of continuous introduction and self-reproduction, the number of these animals is now quite large.Especially on the main island, there are also reindeer and moose (animals such as musk ox and bison are mainly introduced to small closed islands). Because of the suitable environment and abundant food (weeds, moss and lichen are everywhere), the population grows rapidly , making the forest rangers of the Southern Railway Company who have been working like a day for ten years very happy.

After passing by these happy animal elves, Wang Dali and others headed south along the relatively flat coastline.Here the coastline of the Patagonian region loses its character of steep cliffs and becomes flat and sandy.There are many glacial lakes (fresh water) or lagoons (brackish water lakes) along the coast. Due to the rainy and cold climate, similar to Mashima Island, the soil here is relatively peaty. If it is well exploited in the future, it will be a fortune.

On April 4, Wang Dali and others decided to rest for a whole day by the scenic Jiehu Lake (Lake Fagnano) after a roughly 26-kilometer journey from Ningnan Port to Jiehu Township.At the same time, I also improved the map drawn along the way and the route of the national road—in fact, this second-class national road is not difficult to repair, and the route is easy to determine, because the areas it passes through are basically flat tundra.When planning the route, just pay attention to avoid some swampy areas with a lot of water, and you really don't need to pay too much attention to other aspects, and this also made Wang Dali and others call the South Railway Company in private Survey fees are easy to earn.

On May 5, after the rest, Wang Dali and others set off again, moving forward along the boundary lake, heading straight for Shanhougang.

(End of this chapter)