Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 174 Bold Behavior

On December 12, the winter solstice, all the residents of Qiming Island ate dumplings and glutinous rice balls according to the traditional customs of the mainland and happily celebrated the first festival since the beginning of winter.

On December 12, Catholic Christmas Day, hundreds of Hispanic residents celebrated the holiday publicly for the first time after obtaining permission from the decision-making committee.

Some Ming Dynasty immigrants looked at these foreigners with some curiosity as they placed things like "Christmas cribs" and "poop dolls" in the courtyard, and sat together with their families, praying devoutly to their gods.

On December 12, the immigrant and trade fleet set sail again. Six ships (including two small transport ships) raised their sails, pulled in their anchors, and slowly left the dock, towed by several small boats.

The relatives who came to see them off braved the biting cold wind, waving their arms towards the large ships and silently praying to Mazu in their hearts, praying for their loved ones to return safely.

"Raise the foremast jib!"

"Yes, Captain! ... Hoist the fore-mast jib!"

"Five degrees right!"

"Yes, Captain! ...Five degrees starboard!"

"..."

On the slipway of the Kaiyuan (the captured former Spanish ship Santo Domingo), Erich stood upright with a tense face, meticulously repeating the orders issued by Captain Carvajal loudly and conveying them to various operating positions.

"Young man, don't be so tense," Captain Carvajal said with a smile. "Relax. Standing like this will not only make you tired easily, but you'll also fall while the ship is moving. I don't want my trainee herald to be unable to perform his duties because he broke an arm or a leg shortly after setting sail."

"Yes, Captain!" Erich relaxed his tense body a little, but still maintained a serious expression.

"Haha..." Captain Carvajal couldn't help but smile knowingly when he saw this.

Back then, when I first boarded a ship as a trainee sailor, I seemed to be so nervous and restrained.

Because of this, he was often teased and ridiculed by the old sailors.

In the blink of an eye, it has been almost twenty years.

Thanks to God, I have never encountered a terrible shipwreck in all these years of sailing career. Moreover, with the increase of years and experience, I have gradually climbed from a trainee sailor to the position of captain.

The original plan was to sail for a few more years, save enough money, and then return to land, buy a farm in Mexico or Peru, raise a dozen Indian slaves, and enjoy a peaceful and comfortable pastoral life.

However, he never expected that last year, when he was driving the "Santo Domingo" in the waters near San Fernando (now Guam), he was besieged by several armed ships of the Qiming Island people - oh, yes, now they should be called Xinzhou Huaxia people.

After struggling for half a day, he was finally intercepted by the enemy and became their prisoner along with more than 60 sailors on the "Santo Domingo".

In the following period, Harvey came several times on behalf of the New Continent Chinese to persuade himself to serve them together with the captured sailors.

The fleet commander, "General Wei", also repeatedly persuaded him to surrender, and promised that as long as he served them for five years, he would let him leave and return to mainland Spain or go to Mexico.

While serving the Chinese people in New Island, he will be able to receive higher treatment and status than before as captain of the "Santo Domingo".

Of course, he could also refuse the other party's request and stick to his Spanish pride.

Then, after returning to Qiming Island, he would be sent to the mine as a prisoner of war. Like those Indians, he would have to do heavy physical labor in exchange for a pitiful amount of food, until he was finally defeated by strain and disease and died silently in the mine.

Faced with such threats and inducements, Captain Carvajal quickly gave in and began to "enthusiastically" serve the Chinese people in New Island with his crew.

After all, in this world, nothing is more precious than life and health.

They were dispersed to three other ships, and under the supervision of Chinese sailors, they followed them to steer the ships and arrived in Guangzhou, Ming Dynasty.

Here, in addition to seeing many Ming Dynasty immigrants, they also saw the Portuguese.

No one expected that these money-hungry Portuguese would actually dispatch five ships to help the Chinese transport immigrants.

After seeing what happened to them and dozens of Spanish sailors, they did not show any sympathy, but instead seemed to gloat over their misfortune.

There were even some vicious and hateful Portuguese sailors who committed various humiliating acts against them.

Oh, God!
These Portuguese people have no feelings of being "compatriots" of the same country at all. Seeing that they are in such a situation, they actually behaved like this.

Have they forgotten that you Portuguese swore allegiance to our King Philip IV?

After staying in Guangzhou for half a month, and with the cabins filled with thousands of Ming immigrants and a large amount of Ming goods, the fleet sailed away from the port in a mighty manner.

After leaving the Pearl River Estuary, the fleet did not follow the planned route along the Ming coast, but instead headed east. After passing the northern tip of Formosa Island, the fleet adjusted its course to the northeast, struggling to advance towards Japan.

The fleet did this to avoid interception by the Ming Navy (Zheng Zhilong), thus saving the "ship toll" of up to two to three thousand taels of silver per ship.

After more than twenty days of sailing, they arrived at a hidden supply point.

After resting for a few days and replenishing fresh water and some vegetables, the fleet plunged into the vast Pacific Ocean and headed towards the American continent.

After a long and difficult journey, the fleet finally arrived at its destination safely in mid-October.

It may be that during the several months of sailing, Captain Carvajal behaved extremely obediently and responsibly, thus winning a little trust from the Chinese.

Not only did they arrange a comfortable house for him in Shixing Fort, but they also thoughtfully assigned him an Indian girl to take care of his daily life.

With the mentality of making the best of what has happened, Captain Carvajal accepted everything that happened at present.

For the sake of your own life and for that possibly false promise, serve the Chinese people for five years!

During the more than two months after returning to Shixing Fort, he would work with Harvey and several Chinese captains to compile and improve many navigation teaching materials during the day, and at night he would intensively study the difficult and hard-to-remember Chinese language with a group of Spanish sailors.

The days were busy and fulfilling.

It can be seen that the Chinese people are accumulating strength very quickly.

It is said that five years ago, they had only fifty or sixty people and a simple wooden fortress.

Now, they have a population of more than 6,000, several strong fortresses, and dozens of settlements.

They also built more than ten workshops of various types, which could be used to dry salt, process many foods, smelt iron, and make pottery.

Oh, by the way, they can actually produce cannons and muskets!

To further increase their naval power, they built a shipyard.

Although, the scale of this shipyard may be insignificant compared to the Havana Shipyard.

But it took them less than eight months to successfully build a ship with a displacement of more than 200 tons.

What was even more surprising was that the shape of this ship was different from any other ship he had ever seen.

The hull is slender, the sails are fully rigged, and the speed is incredibly fast. It is said that it can reach an astonishing speed of 15-16 knots.

This ship may just be their test product, in order to accumulate experience and explore the shipbuilding process.

Because next they will build a larger ship to travel back and forth between the two sides of the Pacific Ocean and transport urgently needed people.

At their current rate of development, it is estimated that within a few years, tens of thousands of people will be gathered on this island, and many industrial and mining workshops related to production and life will be established, achieving a certain degree of self-sufficiency.

In time, uh, as far as the current situation is concerned, they will be able to gain a foothold on Qiming Island and, as Harvey said, eventually build an ideal country and a paradise on earth.

It is conceivable that when the Spanish officials in the American territories learned of this news, they would be very surprised and shocked.

Of course, the prerequisite is that the governor and generals can find the location of the Chinese people in Xinzhou.

But what if we find out?

How much force would the American colonial authorities need to mobilize to conquer a powerful local force that could manufacture its own cannons and muskets, and the distance was more than 1 leagues (4.8 league is approximately equal to kilometers)?

In other words, how much force can they mobilize?

Not to mention, Xinzhou Huaxia has begun to form and train a small but powerful army, and has also built artillery batteries in ports and several strategic locations, obviously targeting possible future invasions by the Spanish.

If the Spanish colonial authorities in America were arrogant and treated the New World Chinese as an ordinary indigenous force or a simple pirate group, they would definitely suffer a great loss.

On January 1631, 1, when arriving at a deserted island far from the coast at the northern end of the Baja California Peninsula (now Guadalupe Island, Mexico), a small transport ship broke away from the fleet and headed straight for the island.

Afterwards, it began to organize the landing and transported countless construction materials and daily necessities up one by one.

"Oh my God!" Captain Carvajal was extremely surprised when he saw this. "The Chinese are so bold! They are actually planning to establish a secret base right under our noses!"

(End of this chapter)