Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 332 The Great Voyage ([-])

On April 1642, 4, light rain, southeast wind of force three.

Sure enough, it is easier to do things with more people. With the concerted efforts of more than 400 warriors of the Eight Banners and hundreds of sailors from the east coast, they only spent two and a half days digging the first reserve in this small coastal area. Coal point.The burial depth of the coal at this coal storage point is less than three meters, which is very suitable for mining.

After finding this coal storage point, Li Yi immediately mobilized a large number of manpower to start excavating near this point, and found that there is a large coal storage belt here.Although almost all of it is lignite with a low degree of carbonization, Li Yi and others are already quite excited. The appearance of this coal field easily solved the problem of adding coal to steamships that had plagued people on the east coast for a long time.

You know, if this coal field is not found, then the people on the east coast will have to transport a large amount of coal from the Tacheng area to Gushan Port and store it here.And this will inevitably limit the various construction activities of these two supply points, because the ships from the mainland carry a lot of coal, which will definitely occupy the transportation space of other materials, which is actually very good for the long-term construction of these two places. Adverse.But now all the problems have been solved. Apart from carrying a small amount of coal, the ships from the east coast can carry a large amount of living materials and production materials in the cabins, so as to supply the two places for construction as soon as possible, so as to accommodate a large number of people. Immigration from the Ming Dynasty.

"I have decided to leave some manpower here and put up the shelves first. After the influx of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, we will gradually start the follow-up construction. At present, the main task here is to dig out more coal for future supply. A local steam ship that might be passing by." Li Yi bent down and grabbed a piece of dug coal to look at, then turned to An Chu and said: "It's a pity that most of them are lignite. No matter, um, we will take 300 people away, and the rest More than 90 of them are staying here. Just like Gushan Port, we will leave them some weapons, food, seeds, etc., and help them build a wooden stockade, that's it!"

An Chu nodded.Li Yi is right, there is a wooden fort here, and there are nearly a hundred Eight Banners warriors who are skilled in martial arts, which is enough to deal with those Australian aborigines who may appear.Those ignorant and savage Australian aborigines are absolutely unable to fight against the Eight Banners warriors in armor, strong bows and cannons, so there is actually no major problem with the safety here.

"By the way, Gushan Port has been named by me, and the right to name the Melbourne area is handed over to you. How about it, am I interesting enough? Haha." Li Yi patted An Chu's shoulder and said with a smile.

An Chu didn't refuse. After thinking for a while, he called the drawing staff in the distance and ordered him to name this place "Jinshan Port" on the map.Because the Melbourne area is said to have discovered gold mines in history, it makes sense to name this place Jinshan.

On May 5, after helping the 1 Eight Banners warriors staying in the local area to initially renovate a rough camp, Li Yi ordered to leave the last two hump cows on board to the remaining people, and at the same time left them a lot of axes, Tools such as saws and hatchets, as well as a large amount of grain and seeds.After doing this, the two ships left Jinshan Bay one by one, then turned east and then north, heading for the final destination—the coast of Daming.

The east coast of Australia is definitely not an easy voyage for the expedition fleet of the East Coast Republic.The main reason is that the southern equatorial warm current is under the joint action of the earth's deflection force and the Australian continent, forming the east Australian warm current that moves from north to south.This warm current flows south along the east coast of the Australian mainland, and this obviously hinders the navigation of people on the east coast.Fortunately, the Australian continent is now in summer and autumn, and the south-central region of the east coast, like Madagascar, is prevalent in the southeast trade wind. Therefore, some wind power can be used more or less when sailing, which greatly offsets the adverse effects of sailing against the current. coming adverse effects.

On May 5, the two ships sailed to the east of the Bowen Basin, which is already located in the northern waters of Australia.At this time, as the southern hemisphere has entered late autumn, the point of direct sunlight moves northward near the equator.Therefore, the northwest wind originally formed due to the southward movement of the pressure belt in the northern hemisphere has also greatly weakened, and the original southeast wind here has gradually begun to take the lead.In this way, the sails of the expedition fleet on the east coast never came down. Relying on the southeast wind blowing from the sea, and with the assistance of steam power, they marched resolutely northward against the ocean current, and on May 10 into the Bismarck Sea.

After entering the Bismarck Sea, the two ships went ashore near the later port of Rabaul, mainly for some fresh water, and at the same time everyone was going to take the opportunity to pick some fresh coconuts - this is a rare supplement during the voyage, because in this era , Not every coast has coconut trees, this tree native to the Malay region has not spread as much as later generations.The sailors and the surviving Eight Banners warriors in the cabin were also allowed to take turns to go ashore for a short rest. Li Yi and An Chu also waited carefully on land.

This tropical island, which was later named New Britain, is still barren at this moment. The environment on the island is extremely harsh, and it is full of dense tropical rainforests, which makes people feel scalp numb.Neither of them were interested in exploring the interior of the island. Many people died when the Japanese built this place.That was all in 1942. With the technical conditions and industrial development level at that time, it was not possible to completely conquer this place, so it is conceivable that the people on the east coast today are even more helpless.

The two landed on land just to remember and express some special feelings in their hearts.For example, the staff officers who followed them from afar heard some vague words such as "United Fleet" and "Yamamoto 56", but they all looked at each other in blank dismay, puzzled.They only know that this place is not far from the final destination - the coast of the Ming Dynasty in the East. If the ocean current map and climate data sent by the mainland are correct, then they boldly estimate that it is only about half a month from here to the final destination. sea ​​voyage.As for how everyone will proceed after arriving on the coast of the Ming Dynasty, it depends on how the two officers make arrangements.

Their two officers did not linger long here. On May 5, after a short stay near Rabaul for a day, the expedition fleet on the east coast set off again. They crossed the equator after obliquely crossing the entire Bismarck Sea in the northwest direction.After entering the northern hemisphere, not only the ocean currents began to be beneficial to navigation, but even the trade winds began to help the people on the east coast.The southeast trade wind in the southern hemisphere gradually moved northward with the point of direct sunlight, and began to cross the equator to form a southwest monsoon in the northern hemisphere, which greatly accelerated the speed of the expedition fleet on the east coast.

During this process, the people on the east coast have been carefully controlling the distance from the Spice Islands occupied by the Dutch and the Philippine Islands under the rule of the Spanish to ensure that they will not be discovered by these colonists. On May 5, the "Chopping" and "Breaking Waves" traveled through many waves and stopped temporarily on the banks of the Yilan River in the northeast of Taiwan Island to replenish fresh water.

"The two ships have consumed about two hundred tons of coal so far. That is to say, our coal reserves have only been consumed by one-third. However, the consumption of steam engine and its transmission system parts is relatively low. Big, many vulnerable parts have even consumed nearly half of the spare parts, which deserves our attention." Lieutenant An Chu took out a small notebook from his coat pocket, and said while calculating: "But it's not bad at all. , thank God, we finally arrived near the coast of the Ming Kingdom. To be honest, before we set off, I couldn’t even believe that we could get here smoothly. But we really did it, this is a feat!”

"Hey." Li Yi smiled and said: "In the future, the history of the East Coast Republic of China will record our feat of opening up a new route today. Well, we can't stop here, after all, all kinds of sea routes around here The forces are entangled and the situation is complicated. We must try our best to avoid trouble. After replenishing the fresh water, everyone will rest for a while, and then get on the boat and evacuate. Next, we will go to Jeju Island to harass the sticks there! There are almost no With a decent sea power, we can safely and boldly toss there. By the way, don’t turn on the steam engine when we set off, and go north from here with smooth wind and smooth water, and it only takes about two or three days to reach the vicinity of Jeju Island.”

"There should be Korean troops on Jeju Island at this time, right? There may be some of their naval ships." An Chu expressed his disagreement at this time, and he continued: "We have less than three With a hundred Eight Banners warriors and about 200 sailors, it may be difficult to occupy such a large island? Or, I think it is impossible, even if it is captured by us, we will not be able to defend it.”

"Go and see first." Li Yi patted the back of An Chu's head, and said nonchalantly: "Besides, Jeju Island is just the first priority island we determined before, if it doesn't work, go to occupy other islands. There are so many islands along the coast of Daming, just take any one with a deep-water harbor. Of course, you are right in some things. We are short of manpower. This time we mainly go to have a look, inquire about it, and dispatch for the next step. The large fleet finds out the situation. A large island like Jeju Island requires a company of regular army, at least 1 Eight Banners warriors with more than three years of combat experience, and more than four large naval ships. .Okay, stop dawdling and get on board! Let's go north!"

(End of this chapter)