Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1584 West Indian Ocean ([-])

The turbid seawater carrying a large amount of silt washes over and over again the pier embankment of Dinghai Port. Major Junio, who just arrived in Ningbo to discuss with Jiang Zhiqing about the reorganization of the volunteer team, stood quietly on the pier and bid farewell to some An old subordinate who has been fighting for many years.

Some of these veteran subordinates come from the Standing Team system, some from the Local Defense Team system, and some from the Intelligence and Governance System. They are generally not young and have families. In addition to returning to the mainland to live a better life, most of the people were affected by the reform of the military system and felt unhappy. Frustrated, they planned to move their families back to the mainland and no longer work in this place.

It is a pity for Junio ​​to be honest about the departure of these people, because these people have generally served for many years, have seen many battles, and have very rich experience, so they will definitely not be useless.It's a pity that, as the saying goes, one emperor and one courtier, now it is Denglai's Liao Xiaoyao, Commander-in-Chief Liao, who is in charge. He is naturally more willing to give priority to selecting officers he is familiar with and trustworthy to enter the new army system, and then it will be the turn of others , and these middle-aged military officers in front of them naturally couldn't compete with "others", so they could only take a fairly generous severance pay and find their own way out.

Naturally, Junio ​​has nothing to do about this, because he is currently insecure, to put it bluntly. He is the captain of the first wing of the stand-up team (and also in charge of the fourth and fifth teams of the stand-up team). It is the top of the Far East military system. Unfortunately, the two captains of the pioneering team, Shao Shude and Liang Xiangjian, who had always admired him before, have resigned. The newly appointed Liao Xiaoyao is not very interested in him. An old subordinate for many years, so the veteran Junio ​​is so tragic. I believe that after the stand-up team system is dismantled—this is almost inevitable in this military reform—he can only serve as A high-ranking but not very powerful idle position should be retired. Anyway, he is not young anymore, and his best youth has already been dedicated to the army.

"It's good to go back to the mainland, at least the living environment there is good, there are many opportunities to make a fortune, abundant living materials, various schools, and convenient medical treatment. This advantage is incomparable to any other place." He said in a sad tone: "The fifth brigade of the stand-up team is gone, and the fourth brigade will also be dismantled and reorganized, and even the first wing will have to withdraw its designation as a whole. Everyone is just leaving first, it doesn't matter too much, maybe After some time, I, like the brothers, packed up and returned to the mainland. Speaking of which, after working hard in the Far East for so many years, I can only see local news from newspapers, books and magazines, and I am indeed a little curious."

"By the way, others choose to go back to their homeland when they go back. At worst, they choose to settle in a resort in Ningbo or Denglai. It's good for you guys to go to such a plagued place like Xinhua Island. Have you really thought about it? There The annual death rate is not low, not only because of the fighting with the natives, diseases, natural disasters and other messy causes of death, but it has always troubled most of the residents there." Junio ​​suddenly pointed to the front A few middle-aged men in old military uniforms shook their heads and said puzzledly, "Just because it's easy to do business there? Well, I respect your choice, and I wish you good luck."

In fact, Junio ​​is right. Even after many years of governance, the current Xinhua Island is limited to the humid and hot climate in the tropics. Hit the ground.Sometimes people are fine during the day, but at night they suddenly fail, with fever, vomiting, and diarrhea.This is okay in the city, maybe there is still a chance to seek medical treatment (but the price is quite expensive, and often face the dilemma of lack of medicine), but if it is in a remote place such as farms, forest farms, plantations, etc. If you are unlucky, the possibility of dying is very high, which makes the natural population growth rate of Xinhua Island not as good as that of other places all year round. The main reason is the environment, there is no way.

Therefore, several of Junio's old subordinates plan to go to Xinhua Island to settle down together, and then use the severance pay and their savings over the years to form a business with them. It is really admirable for their courage.Because they not only have to face the risks they may encounter in business, but also the threats brought by the environment, especially when the places that can be approved for you to start a plantation are generally not good or familiar.However, seeing that several old subordinates had made up their minds, he had nothing to say. He could only wish them all the best and not lose the reputation of the Fifth Brigade.

Half an hour later, with the sound of a loud siren, the bosun's rough voice sounded from a sail transport ship that was loading cargo and people. It will open in 10 minutes, and everyone is overdue.

This is an immigration transport ship with a tonnage of 1150 tons. It is one of the few ships dedicated to the Indian Ocean route. It has just been renovated in Dinghai Port, and it is time for a new look.In this season when the southeast wind prevails, this ship would not have sailed against the wind, but who made the situation in the south tense now, and Guangdong and even the Southern Ming court urgently needed a lot of military resources and equipment?Therefore, these immigration transport ships will depart from the ports of Denglai and Ningbo respectively in the near future. The cabins are full of various war materials (the bottom cabin is made of copper and copper smuggled from Japan), and they plan to go to Haizhu Island. The commercial station was unloaded, and then it was repaired there for about two months. Finally, it was filled with Dan people and ordinary immigrants from Guangdong, and they went to the sea and arrived at Xinhua Island through the North Indian Ocean.

As for the other brigade transport ships, they will not go to sea to transport immigrants until the northeast wind blows in late October, and they are taking the southern Indian Ocean route, and they are also the main force of transport.It is said that there were frequent disasters in Shandong in the past few years. Except for the hundreds of thousands of victims who were resettled on the spot in Denglai, Liaodong, and Heishui, there are still more than 1673 people waiting to be transported, which is enough to make all the immigrants from the Far East Ship transportation ended in 1675 (arrived in the mainland in [-]), which is Liang Xiangjian's political achievements.At the same time, it also strengthened the East Coast government's idea of ​​balancing the situation in the Far East in order to gain benefits and population.

On August 1670, 8, several immigrant ships taking the Indian Ocean route arrived at the mouth of the Pearl River, and then anchored in the Yaniangxie Island area of ​​Humen.Since the British Weddell merchant fleet attacked and destroyed the Humen Fort in 5, it has been gradually abandoned because Li Chengdong, who owns Guangdong, does not want to spend huge sums of money to repair the fort. The East Coast engineer once gave Li Chengdong a budget, pointing out that Everbright The procurement and installation of sea-fire artillery with a caliber and a long barrel cost 1637 taels of silver. In addition, the construction and repair of the fort itself and the fortress are also a major project. If the recruitment and training of personnel are added, the one-time expenditure is 10 Ten thousand taels of silver is not out of the question, of course, there are also factors including the people from the east bank wantonly falsely reporting in vain to make huge profits, but it is a pity that Li Chengdong was not fooled.

And since Li Chengdong doesn't like this place, someone will pick it up.No, after Jiang Zhiqing heard about this, he immediately ordered his subordinates to visit and survey the Humen Fort area, and then gave a feasible plan for a person from the east bank to build a fortress-style fort there.The feedback from military engineers is generally optimistic. They pointed out that the original Humen Fort (including many forts) suffered a lot after being bombarded by British merchant ships and landing on the island more than 30 years ago. After being destroyed by it, neither the Ming government nor the subsequent ruling Li Chengdong allocated funds to restore it. This is probably because they are not maritime regimes.

Today in 1670, even the main building of the fort has been rotten in the wind and rain day after day. The people on the east bank can use it, I am afraid that only the foundation of the year is there, and the rest of the bricks and stones Building materials such as wood and wood have to be purchased nearby or shipped from other places, and the cost of construction may not be very low.However, it seems that Jiang Zhiqing's determination is still relatively firm. While he allocated money from the already quite tight finances, he also let the Bank of Taiwan bleed and sponsored part of the arrears. Anyway, he also felt that the fortress would benefit the Bank of Taiwan the most. , It's not too much to ask them to pay some money.

There is no doubt that after the fort is built, it will not be reserved for Li Chengdong to enjoy, but it will be used by the people on the east bank to effectively control the Pearl River waterway. Just as the Dutch controlled the estuary of the Schelde River in the South Netherland and forced its trade to divert, the people on the east coast who controlled the estuary of the Pearl River can also control various commercial activities near the river basin at will. The benefits here are simply unimaginable.

At present, it may be that Li Chengdong does not have much intuitive and perceptual understanding of the consequences of the construction of this fort. In short, Li Chengdong didn't react too violently to this, as if he acquiesced to the actions of the people on the east coast.

In this way, the people on the east bank began to break ground on the site of the original Humen Fort, and the first one to be built was the fort of Yaniangxie Island.The fort is a semi-enclosed modern fort with a land defense fortress. It is planned to install more than [-] various types of sea fire artillery and almost the same number of land fire artillery.All the cannons will be transported from the mainland by long-distance sea. Among them, the sea cannons are mainly cast, and the land cannons are forged as usual. The cost is not low if the freight is included.

In addition to the fortress fortress, a small pier was also built here, which is specially used to supply water for the ships on the east coast, and can also temporarily accommodate some wounded and sick. This is where these immigrant transport ships dock. Obviously, they will stay here until mid-to-late October, and wait until the north wind blows before sailing to Malacca, which is under the rule of the Dutch East India Company.

At this time, there are already many people from the east coast on Yaniangxie Island, most of them are soldiers and craftsmen, and the rest are a large number of local residents in Guangdong. They are hired to transport building materials to the island and help build fortresses. , forts, in order to earn a little money which is quite rich for them.Intimidated by the people on the east coast for many years, the local government in Guangzhou can't stop them. What's more, they can't be distracted from these affairs now. Wu Sangui's Zhengming is their top priority. There are occasional objections to the construction of the fort, but it cannot become the mainstream.

The materials on several immigrant transport ships were loaded into the cabins of some 72-ton small steamers on Yaniangxie Island, and then pulled to Guangzhou Xiguan further upstream, and these small ships often loaded with some supplies when returning and migrants in transit.In this way, from early August to late October, the monotonous and repetitive transportation work lasted for two and a half months. During this period, a large amount of arms and supplies were transported to Li Chengdong's army, and then either were left for his own use, or were used by others. It was transported to Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou.

On October 1670, 10, a steady northeasterly wind had begun to blow in the Far East Sea.The captain of the team ordered the immigrants to board the ship, and the sailors checked the supplies and prepared to sail. At this time, the large-scale immigration transfer work in Yantai, Jiaozhou, Dinghai and other places began almost at the same time.

On the afternoon of October 10th, a total of six immigrant transport ships set sail, left Yaniangxie Island, where they had been stationed for many days, and began their annual ocean-going adventure (departure to the mainland).The road is dangerous and the situation is complicated. Every year, one ship is sunk—sometimes, if you are unlucky, there will be two ships, and even more ships are sunk on the southern Indian Ocean route. This is why many high-ranking officials prefer to stay in their homeland , and the reason for not wanting to go overseas.After all, everyone has a family, a job, and a good life. Why should I risk my life to go out to sea? It's just some "stupid young people" who are keen to go to the Far East for gold plating.

In late December 1670, after a long two-month journey—stopping in Malacca and Galle Fort for supplies and avoiding bad weather—an immigrant transport ship had been lost (sinking in Galle Fort, Ceylon Island) Outer Seas) fleet successfully arrived at Xinhua Port on Xinhua Island for supply and maintenance, and by the way, the immigrants on board were allowed to come down to let the air out, so as not to get sick from boredom.

Of course, New China, the fourth largest island in the world, is also the final immigration destination of many of them—after all, most of these boats are immigrants living in Guangdong, who are more suitable for this kind of climate—for example, in the Officers and family members of the Fifth Battalion of the former Standing Brigade bid farewell to Junio ​​on the Dinghai Port Wharf.

I'm really busy during the Chinese New Year, and the update is not stable, please bear with me, thank you!

(End of this chapter)