Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 328 The Great Voyage ([-])

The five hundred Eight Banners warriors who had spent half a month with coal in the narrow cabin were finally able to disembark at this time. Li Yi looked at them and felt that these people looked darker after staying in the coal bunker for a long time.

Well, maybe this is my own illusion.Li Yi shook his head, then strode towards the inner city of the dock.The officials in the New China region seemed to be very busy, and no one came to greet them at present.After walking to the urban area under construction, Li Yi caught Shi Qinjie on the street who was inspecting the residential construction site.

Shi Qinjie wore a hard hat made of rattan on his head, and stood under the sun with his back to both sides.The back of his cotton shirt was already wet with sweat due to the hot weather (30 degrees).He was obviously surprised by the arrival of Li Yi and others, but after hearing about the mission of Li Yi and others and the upcoming itinerary, the expression on his face was as exciting as it could be.

"It's a pity that Wang Tiechui went to patrol the sea, otherwise you can discuss it with him." Shi Qinjie sighed and said, "Even Lao Han's 'Chaoyong' was escorted and did not come back. At present, there is only one in our port. There is not even a ship outside the trial-built flute-shaped transport ship, let alone a naval officer. Forget it, I can't help too much, I can only do my best to provide logistics for you. Tell me, we need us Do those jobs?"

"Coal!" Li Yi said succinctly, "We need a lot of coal. By the way, what happened to the Tacheng Coal Mine you mentioned last time? Has the coal been produced? How is the quality?"

"That coal mine has been tossing around for a while, and I sent hundreds of Eight Banners slaves there." Shi Qinjie said affirmatively, "But you also know the weather here, the rainy season is not suitable for large-scale construction, especially It is a barren land lacking infrastructure in the Tacheng area. Many slaves contracted malaria, and even a few officers and soldiers of the overseers and volunteers died of malaria. Coupled with continuous heavy rains, the coal mines were seriously flooded. These slaves have to build houses while digging coal mines, and the output has always been very low..."

"I didn't get to the point after talking for a long time. I was asking if you have any coal now, and how is the quality?" Li Yi asked anxiously, and a thin layer of sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Hey, Xiao Li, I used to be your superior, and you just talked to me like that?" Shi Qinjie gave Li Yi a blank look, but said in his mouth, "Of course I have saved some coal. The one over there The coal is buried very shallow, basically similar to open-pit mining. Hundreds of slaves have been mining it intermittently for a month, and there should be no less than [-] tons of coal in storage. I also checked the quality, so I set fire to it In other words, it is much stronger than the coal produced by the Ping’an Coal Mine we used to use, and the combustion calorific value is definitely a lot higher, and the quality is undeniable.”

"1000 tons! That's a lot!" Li Yi was a little surprised, "It's much easier to handle that way. Well, give us... well... six hundred tons, um, just six hundred tons. I'll put us on board I will give you all the rotten Ping’an coal, and you will load each of my ships with 850 tons of Tacheng coal. Grandma, the tonnage of the ships is tight, and there are still some soldiers to be loaded. I really can’t fit any more coal. I’ll go back next time , we must let the guys from the modern special shipyard build some real big ships, at least more than [-] tons. The current ship with a full load of [-] tons is still too cramped, and it always feels that it is not enough to put things. "

"Okay, I'm not talking nonsense, you have a mission in hand." Shi Qingjie said straightforwardly, "How about this, Rodrigo, you will send someone to deliver some bacon, bacon, etc. to the ship; fresh coconuts are also picked Some, try to pick fresh vegetables from the field and send them to the boat. Well, do you need anything else?"

"Get us a few more live animals." Li Yi said with his fingers broken, "Fresh water is not in a hurry, and it will not be too late to install it on the day of departure. We are not short of weapons, gunpowder, and food, and we have brought some money. Now The coal has also been settled, and we have prepared many sets of various parts on the ship. Well, there is nothing to add. How about this, give me some spare ship plates; in addition, hurry up and give our two ships some maintenance Maintenance, scrape the bottom of the boat, and then apply tar. By the way, it’s better to give me some cats that can catch mice. The gang of idle bastards on the boat are fighting mice and gambling all day. The dress has been bitten by mice. Grandma, bear, give me some cats, and I will end this litter of mice!"

"Okay, okay, everything is enough for you." Shi Qinjie said with a smile, "I will let Rodrigo take charge of this matter, you can just ask him for anything. By the way, there is no coal here in Xinhua Castle. The coal has been piled up in Tacheng and hasn’t been shipped back. I’m afraid you still have to sail there to load it yourself, and you don’t know if it’s going to be smooth or not.”

"On the way, of course on the way." Li Yi waved his hand and said indifferently: "Anyway, we are going to go south, and then we will stop at Tacheng to load coal. By the way, what are the port conditions over there? There are no hidden reefs or silting. Where? I'm afraid the ship will run aground, and that would be a joke."

"Don't worry, the battleship 'Common Market' can berth, but still can't stop your ship?" Shi Qinjie said, "I have measured it, and the average water depth is more than ten meters, and it can stop large ships. The port is located in the concave of the cape. It is a natural seaport, where a wooden trestle bridge has been built, and your ship can dock there. However, how did you take the route this time? I heard Wang Tiehammer said that this route is the best You can still go along the coastline of Australia, then bypass New Guinea and go north. If this is the case, you should go east from here, why go south? Isn’t the route you determined like this? "

"I would like to go directly north in April, and then go to the northern Indian Ocean, with the wind and the water, and the speed can reach more than ten knots by turning on the steam engine." Li Yi wiped his sweat, then sighed and said: "But this time the top We have been given the task of exploring the southern Indian Ocean routes, avoiding as far as possible the sensitive East Indies belt..."

In fact, according to Wang Tiehui's original idea, after the ship left Xinhua Port, it would sail all the way east, and then try to catch the southwest wind to sail with the wind.The legend of the Dutch in this era went like this. After their ships entered the Indian Ocean, they would take advantage of the southwest wind to reach the Sunda Strait.But at the same time, a problem also arises. Don’t look at the naval officers who travel across the sea. They are usually awesome, but they have asked everyone, including Xiao Bailang, who was the captain before crossing. How they use this southwest wind Sailing can't tell why.

When this wind blows and where it can be caught requires careful exploration.Moreover, the most important thing is that the destination that can be reached along this wind is the Sunda Strait. Isn't this courting death?Therefore, under the repeated planning of the Ministry of the Navy, it was finally decided to select the route in the sea area between 35 degrees and 40 degrees south latitude, that is, to sail eastward along this latitude, and then try to find the Australian mainland.After all, finding a continent always seemed easier.

After finding the Australian mainland, Li Yi and others will first go ashore to replenish, take a rest, and then continue sailing eastward along the south coast of Australia.After crossing the strait between the Australian mainland and Tasmania, the fleet will turn north along the east coast of the Australian mainland, follow the Coral Sea into the Solomon Sea, and then pass through the waters near New Guinea, heading north Inserted in the coastal areas of China.

This route is not much farther than going along the north coast of the Australian mainland, but it is much safer and more concealed.You know, the Dutch have a huge fleet in the Banda Sea, guarding their clove business.Both the Banda Sea and the Timor Sea are actually within the cruising range of the Dutch. If they pass by rashly, they will easily encounter them, and then trigger a series of uncontrollable incidents.That being the case, then everyone might as well take the south coast of Australia, which is a completely desolate route, and there is no need to worry about encountering enemy ships from here, and it is safer to build a supply base.

And this route has a special advantage, that is Australia's rich coal resources.Along the way, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland and other regions have abundant coal resources.Among them, there are four areas that are convenient for mining (buried no more than 3-4 meters underground) and convenient for transportation (close to the harbor), namely the areas near Melbourne (Aglesea, Altona District, Bacchus Marsh, etc.) , Rosevale in Tasmania (Rosevale, with the Tamar River leading directly to the sea), the Hunter Valley near Newcastle and the Bowen Basin in Queensland.

Among these areas, the coal produced by the first two is mainly lignite, and the proportion of black coal is not high, but the advantage is that the transportation is very convenient, and some coal fields are even near the sea; the latter two can basically be mined in the open pit High-quality black coal, but there is still a certain distance from the coast, such as the famous Hunter Valley coal mining area, the coal fields are generally inland areas tens of kilometers away from the coast.After the coal is mined, it can be used as a coal-burning supplement for the steam engines of the people on the east coast to improve the endurance of the ships, which is extremely important for the long-distance east coast fleet.Of course, which one to mine in the end mainly depends on which coal mine is found first. Anyway, with limited manpower and material resources, Li Yi tends to mine coal mines in the Altona District near Melbourne.Although most of its production is lignite with a low calorific value of combustion, it is easy to mine (the coal is buried shallowly) and convenient to transport (just on the coast). No, compared to the Hunter Valley area, it needs to be transported dozens of kilometers on land to the sea. Much more convenient.

(End of this chapter)