Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 162 Coastal Defense
The time travelers have been establishing their base on Qiming Island for over five years. They have successively built Shixing Fort, Guangfeng Fort, Fenzhou Fort in the north, and Jinchuan Fort in the former Vancouver City. They have begun to take shape and have gained a firm foothold.

However, these strongholds have been basically undefended so far.

Not only were there no necessary coastal defense batteries, there wasn't even a basic defensive wall.

The crude wooden wall might have played a certain defensive role against the Indians who had no weapons and the roaming grizzly bears and wild wolves, but when facing fully armed foreign enemies, especially when the enemy used artillery attacks, it was simply unable to prevent the enemy from easily breaking into the city.

Although the time travelers purchased more than 30 cannons from the Portuguese in Macau, most of them were deployed on several immigrant transport ships, used as armed robbery ships to attack Spanish merchant ships.

As for the few remaining artillery pieces, they were placed on the walls of Shixing Fort and Guangfeng Fort and used as city defense cannons.

However, when the Shixing Fort Gun Factory successfully cast several 8-pound and 4-pound cannons in July, the decision-making committee decided to build several port artillery batteries after the autumn harvest to protect the safety of Shixing Port and prevent the enemy from landing smoothly.

On September 9, after the smallpox virus epidemic stabilized slightly, Luo Zhenhui and his team began to investigate and explore suitable locations for building artillery batteries.

In fact, judging from the location of Shixing Port, it is very well defended. The entire port is located deep in a winding bay, and the east and west banks are not far apart, only less than 800 meters.

If several artillery batteries were set up on the land on both sides, the entrance and exit of the waterway could be completely blocked, keeping any foreign enemies out.

"The hill opposite is about sixty or seventy meters high, right?" Luo Zhenhui stood on a hill protruding from the bay, looking at the lush mountains on the opposite bank, secretly calculating the height difference in his heart.

"Yeah, that's about right." Li Xianqing nodded and said, "Using this hillside below us and the hilltop on the opposite bank as base points, we can build two artillery batteries and protect the entire port. If the Spanish fleet dares to intrude without permission in the future, the crossfire between the two batteries will definitely keep them away!"

"The terrain here is quite dangerous and the view is very wide, so it can be used as the main artillery position. During the winter break, we can select dozens of gunners, train them well, and mark the corresponding shooting parameters in advance. With the intensive firepower, we should be able to sink the intruding Spanish warships at sea." Kuang Xu also agreed to set up the future main artillery position here.

"If necessary, build another fort near the fort and station thirty or forty musketeers there to protect it," Luo Zhenhui said. "This place is high, surrounded by dense forests and rocky mountains. Even if the enemy lands somewhere else and bypasses here, they might not be able to capture this fort easily."

"That hill on the opposite bank can be set up as a secondary artillery position, similarly supplemented by small forts. With another twenty or thirty guns of various calibers deployed, we can lock down the entire entrance to the bay. I don't believe the Spanish would dare to force their fleet in under the firepower of two artillery positions!"

"We can now steadily produce three to five tons of cement every day. After the autumn harvest, we will allocate manpower to collect some stone slabs, mix them with bricks, and design a semi-sheltered structure with a protective thickness of half a meter to one meter. We will strive to build the fort into a solid tortoise shell so that it can fully withstand the bombardment of 32-pound heavy artillery."

"The Spanish can't launch a landing attack from the port. Therefore, they can only make a detour to shallow beaches or sparsely forested areas far away from our Shixing Port and conduct a beach landing. In this case, it will be difficult for the enemy to transport heavy weapons such as artillery to the shore in a short period of time. We can seize this opportunity to organize a powerful counter-landing operation and eliminate the enemy's active forces on the beach."

"Oh, by the way, how many cannons has Zhang Ruosong already cast?"

"Because of this smallpox outbreak, I haven't paid much attention to the gun factory in a while." Li Xianqing was stunned when he heard Luo Zhenhui's question, then smiled and shook his head. "About half a month ago, they cast a total of five qualified cannons, all of which were small and medium caliber 8-pound and 4-pound cannons. At that time, he reported that they were preparing to try to cast larger caliber cannons, but the specific progress is still unknown."

"However, he complained to me that the gunyard was too short-handed. Besides two craftsmen and five or six young apprentices, there wasn't much else to do. This forced them to temporarily transfer workers from the blacksmith shop to help with the cannon casting. But the autumn harvest is about to begin, and all the farm tools and machinery need repair and maintenance. I suspect he'll have to stop working again."

"Alas, we're still short of people!" Luo Zhenhui couldn't help but sigh after hearing this. "Because of the smallpox epidemic, we've been forced to temporarily isolate those Indians, which has left us short of manpower. Now that the autumn harvest is coming, I'm afraid we'll have to mobilize everyone again!"

When everyone heard this, they all smiled bitterly.

We time travelers had just gotten rid of agricultural production and hadn't enjoyed the pleasure of "giving orders" for long. As a result, a smallpox epidemic suddenly broke out, causing widespread illness among the surrounding Indian tribes. They could no longer provide "surplus" labor, which immediately caused a serious labor shortage.

Because everyone knows that the number of Ming Dynasty immigrants arriving this year will definitely be much higher than last year, and may reach 1500-1700 people.

After acquiring a ship sold by the smuggler Pedro, the number of immigration ships on Qiming Island increased to three, each capable of carrying 900-1000 people.

If the Portuguese could be persuaded to send two ships to participate in the immigration operation, there would be 600-700 people.

With so many more people to feed, the food reserves on Qiming Island will definitely face great pressure.

To this end, during the winter and spring of last year, the decision-making committee mobilized almost all of its manpower, recruited more than 700 Indians, and opened up more than 8,000 acres of land, bringing the total amount of arable land on Qiming Island to more than 32,000 acres.

Among these arable lands, more than 70% are planted with high-yield crops: corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

The reason for this is to maximize food output in order to try to meet the rapidly growing population.

Assuming that the number of immigrants this year is 1800, the population of the entire Qiming Island will exceed (including to Indians who are brought under rule).

With such a large population, the annual food consumption is more than 2 million kilograms (during this period, an adult could be relatively full if they consumed 1 kilograms of food a day, and 365 kilogram would be enough to barely survive, so the average annual consumption per person was between 730 and kilograms)!

In order to cultivate so many fields, the time travelers almost used all the manpower available to them.

Well, the autumn harvest is approaching, and tens of thousands of acres of corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, soybeans and other crops are about to mature. It is the time when a large number of agricultural production workers are needed, but they cannot be recruited because the Indian tribe is hit by a smallpox epidemic.

Suddenly, there was a shortage of four or five hundred strong laborers, so all manpower had to be mobilized, including these time travelers who had left their jobs and had to pick up their sickles and go to work in the fields.

How sad!

Of course, the main reason is the lack of manpower.

Any slight change will disrupt the entire production plan.

"...Look, isn't that the 'Wavebreaker' coming back?" Kuang Xu raised the telescope, suddenly pointed his hand in the direction of the bay, and shouted loudly.

Hearing this, everyone immediately looked in the direction he pointed.
I saw a sailboat turning the corner of the bay, with its sails half-hanging, slowly heading towards the port at a speed of 2-3 knots.

The slender hull, the white sails, the light blue sides, and the protruding side mastsails, it must be the "Wavebreaker"!
"Why did the Breaker come back alone?"

Seeing this scene, this question popped up in everyone's mind.

(End of this chapter)