Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 156 African route ([-])

Second Lieutenant Huang Yang, the second-class staff officer of the Admiralty, stood up, nodded to Ding Canlin, and said in a calm manner: "According to the plan, the Admiralty will place the Bergrivier River (Bergrivier in Dutch: Berg) about 150 kilometers north of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Two forts will be built at the estuary of the Berg River. In addition, a castle and a river port wharf will be built on the site of Verdrif, the descendant of Berg Hanoi. The lower reaches of the Berg River are wide and abundant in water, and can accommodate large warships after a little dredging and transport ships. The river port is far away from the rough seas and is an ideal anchorage for our transport fleet and naval fleet."

Huang Yang was a freshman in high school before time travel, after several years of experience, he is now considered a rising star in the Ministry of the Navy.Following Huang Yang's words, everyone turned their attention to a large-scale hand-painted map of the African coast in front of the meeting room. Mo Ming posted a small red flag at the mouth of the Beg River.

"Why not build the port to the location of Cape Town in later generations?" Someone asked, "I remember that it seems to be an excellent deep-water port, but it is the legislative capital of South Africa in later generations, and it is extremely prosperous."

"That's right. The port we chose is not a commercial port, so she first pays attention to safety, concealment and wind and wave resistance. Let's look at the map. The lower reaches of the Berg River are winding, and there is a natural river at the mouth of the sea. The sand dam keeps the huge waves that may be generated on the sea surface out of the dam, just like the mouth of the Duck Lake. With such excellent natural conditions, the water flow at the anchorage in the sand dam is very gentle, which is good for ships to avoid bad weather. In addition In addition, the narrow and tortuous river at the mouth of the sea greatly reduces the speed of ships passing, and the passing time is also greatly extended. Once an enemy ship comes to attack, we only need to guard the forts on both sides of the river, and we will have enough time to kill the enemy. The ship was sunk. Finally, the most important point is concealment. Since she is an inland port, we only need to use the terrain to hide the fort at the mouth of the sea, so it will be difficult for anyone to find this port from a distance. This is very suitable for us who are small and weak and cannot station too many troops and population here." Huang Yang talked eloquently to the map, explaining the benefits of choosing this port clearly, winning the favor of many people present affim.

"After Mr. Huang finished talking about the advantages, let me talk about the disadvantages of choosing this port." After seeing what Huang Yang said, Mo Ming cleared his throat and continued: "The main thing is that after the water flow of the Berg River calms down, the water in the river will The carried silt is easy to silt up at the mouth of the sea, reducing the water depth of the port. Of course, this only requires us to dredge regularly, so it is not a big problem. Moreover, as far as I know, the water of the Berg River is clear and the water carried in the river There is not much sediment, and the interval between dredging our ports may be in units of ten years."

Mo Ming and Huang Yang sang together, and finally reached a consensus with everyone on the choice of South Africa.

Next, Mo Ming continued to introduce: "After the navy has established a solid stronghold at the mouth of the Berg River, it will use this stronghold as a basis to go south around the Cape of Good Hope to explore the best route into the Indian Ocean and the climate and hydrological conditions of the waters along the route. Because With captured British sailors as guides, it is expected that this process will be shortened to a few months to a year. After entering the Indian Ocean, the Navy will select a node at the northern tip of Madagascar, which is tentatively designated as Antsiranana for later generations."

After Mo Ming finished speaking, Second Lieutenant Huang Yang stood up again, pasted a small red flag on the position of Antsiranana, and then said to everyone: "Please look at the map, Antsiranana is located at the northernmost tip of Madagascar. An excellent natural deep-water port. Two relatively extended promontories enclose several deep-water bays. The interior of the promontory is calm and calm, and there are many good deep-water anchorages. The water depth is generally more than 10 meters, and there are ultra-deep water anchorages of more than 20 meters. The width of the waterway between the capes is less than 2000 meters, and the construction of the fort is enough to block any hostile ships trying to pass through this waterway. The excellent natural conditions are even better than those in Jiaozhou Bay in Qingdao later.”

"Let me interrupt." Fan Lei, a member of the time traveler from the construction team, raised his hand and said, "I'm not too worried about South Africa, the conditions there are not bad. But what about Madagascar? Especially Antsiranana at the northern end, It is a low-latitude area with a tropical rainforest climate, where mosquitoes and flies breed, and diseases are prone to occur. Especially a kind of fruit fly, which can parasitize and lay eggs under the human skin, is very harmful. I have worked on projects in Africa before, and I know this Point, everyone must pay attention! I have nothing else to add, you continue."

After carefully writing this down in his notebook, Mo Ming flipped through the manuscript paper and continued: "The geographical location of Antsiranana Port is extremely important, and it is an important intermediate node to communicate with our routes. In the future, whether it is going north to the Red Sea or Whether it is the Persian Gulf or eastward to Southeast Asia, this is an important link between the past and the future. After we manage this place well, we will have a foothold in the western Indian Ocean. Next is the last intermediate node of our entire African route - Djibouti , Yes, it is Djibouti located on the west side of the Gulf of Aden. Next, Second Lieutenant Huang will explain in detail about Djibouti.”

Huang Yang nodded, then walked to the map, pointed to a place in Northeast Africa on the upper right of the map and said, "This is Djibouti, located on the west side of the Gulf of Aden. Later generations used to be a French colony called French Somalia. We have to choose The port of Djibouti is not located in the city of Djibouti, but goes westward along Tadjoura Bay into Lake Gebert, and chooses a place to establish the port at the foot of a continuous mountain range on the south bank of the lake. The reason is the same as before, safety! Everything is for safety! Everyone Please see, there are two sharp corners extending opposite to each other at the mouth of Gebert Lake, which shortens the width of the waterway connecting the inner lake to the outer sea to less than 1000 meters, and the terrain is extremely dangerous. For the same reason, at the top of this sharp corner After setting up the fort fortress, all enemies can be kept out of the lake, which is ideal as a naval base."

"This is North Africa, and it's close to the Arabian Peninsula. There should be very little rainfall, right? Is it inappropriate to use it as a naval base and supply port?" Someone raised an objection.

"That's why we set the port on the south side of Lake Gebot." Mo Ming explained, "Although there are some seasonal rivers in the later Djibouti City area in Tadjoura Bay, it is generally relatively relatively It is dry, hot, and water-scarce. Later generations of local residents bought water from Ethiopia. The south side of Gebot Lake is different. This is a place where there are continuous mountains, and the vegetation coverage at the foot of the lake is not bad. There are also some rivers, streams and so on in the middle of the lake. We can make full use of these mountain water sources and build artificial reservoirs, which are enough to support a fleet and the survival needs of the few local residents. I remember in later generations The Chinese government invested in the construction of a transit port in Gebert Lake, as a port for exporting the rich potash resources of Assal Lake not far from the northwest. I think everyone knows the importance of potash fertilizers for agriculture. This is a treasure house. , can be well developed in the future.”

"Okay, after talking about Djibouti, the next step is our terminal - Suez Port of the Ottoman Empire." Mo Ming closed the manuscript paper in hand, looked at the silent crowd under the podium and said: "From Dongfang Port to Suez Port, The voyage of the entire route exceeds 4 nautical miles. According to the cruising speed of [-] knots, our fleet may take more than four months to complete the journey for the first time, and this does not include the time to avoid bad weather. Here We can make it clear that the executive committee has made up its mind to open up a new sea route. No matter how difficult it is, we will open up this channel, which can be called the second lifeline of the sea. This is not only a business issue, but also concerns the executive committee. And the basic national policy of the East Coast Republic of China in the next few decades, or even hundreds of years. Here I can reveal one thing, that is, Ottoman Turkey, a great empire that has begun to decline, will be an important weight for the executive committee to balance the situation in Europe in the future .”

"In the future, if these nodes are successfully managed, can we use this as a basis to advance eastward to Daming?" Someone finally raised this question.In fact, there has always been such a voice among the cross-travelers, that is to open up an eastern route and find a way to immigrate to Daming by themselves, so as to save a lot of money; if necessary, even interfere with the situation in the Ming Dynasty, or pull in the few forces that existed at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Or fight to make it more in line with the interests of the Eastern Republic.

In the past, the East Coast Republic of China was small and weak, and they were trembling in self-defense, let alone the expedition to East Asia, so these people seldom mentioned this.Now that there is such a thing as the opening of the African route, these people bring up the old story again. The reason is very simple. From Antsiranana or Djibouti to the east across the Indian Ocean, they enter Southeast Asia, which is not far from Daming. The Kishi Republic can extend its tentacles here.

"There is no such plan for a few years. Maybe it will go east in the future, but not now." Mo Ming said clearly, "Please note that our current total population is still very small, including the latest arrivals from Europe and Hong Kong. East Asian immigrants can only reach 7000 people. Such a small population will be powerless to do anything. Moreover, after we manage these intermediate nodes and develop the entire route to maturity, I am afraid it will take several years. As for time, this matter cannot be rushed. The development of the country needs to be gradual, and this is not a joke."

For the next day, a group of people were noisy in the conference room, discussing and even arguing about various details.It was not until the evening that Mo Ming sorted out a draft of opening a new route based on the opinions of various departments.In the draft, the materials, labor, ships, troops, technicians, etc. needed to open up the route are all clearly listed one by one, and it will be submitted to the executive committee for approval after further improvement.

(End of this chapter)