Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1753 Southern Railway Transformation ([-])

On January 1677, 1, as the steam boom delivered the last box of officers' special food produced by Dafeng Food Company to the deck, the empty cabin of the "Andean Condor" was now full of people including Mate There are nearly a hundred kinds of commodities including tea, coffee, cocoa, biscuits, canned food, high-quality Virginia tobacco, various medicines, dyes, calico, woolens, clocks, and musical instruments.

These things are mainly to supply the large number of people on the east coast of San Francisco in the Far East—mostly soldiers, technicians, officials, businessmen, sailors and their families—rather than to supply local residents. More and more locals are beginning to prefer the consumption habits of the east coast.

Together with the "Andes Condor", there were five other ships, two of which belonged to the Sun Chunyang Transportation Company, which was entrusted by the Ministry of the Army to transport two ships of military supplies to the Far East; There are dozens of women and children on board the special ships for immigrants. These are the families of officials or engineers on the East Coast working in the Far East. In addition, their limited cabins also carry a lot of people who are sent to the colonies along the way, such as Turtle Island Islands and Daxi Island. The ground and Rabaul’s materials, even bundles of steel rods in the ballast bottom; the last ship is also under the flag of Yu Xing, named "Acacia Wood", which was bought at an auction The old foreign merchant ship, about [-] tons, is currently filled with standard rails, which were commissioned by the Southern Railway Company for transportation.

The terminal officials shuttled flexibly among several ships, checking all kinds of departure documents one by one, including the certificates of settlement of various port fees, cargo insurance certificates, export duty payment certificates and identity documents, which is basically routine.Moreover, when the "Andes Condor" was inspected, he, who was a retired officer of the Southern Railway Guard Brigade, saluted the original training officer Xu Xiangdong, and then let them all go.

The total tonnage of the six ships is close to 2 tons, which is quite impressive in the Pacific Ocean.After enjoying the last lunch made of fresh food, the six ships raised their sails and left the pier one by one. After a little formation at sea, they headed north along the strong Peruvian cold current and arrived on February 16. Xuanwu Port in the Turtle Islands, which is later known as Baxori Moreno Port.

The island of Turtle Island is located in the tropics, thousands of kilometers away from the Spanish Guayaquil Inquisition District on the mainland, so it has always been inaccessible.The Spaniards have operated the Americas for more than 100 years. Only a few missionaries and explorers landed on the island in the 16th century, and then they gave up because of the lack of fresh water and no resources on the island, and never came again.

During the last East-West War, the archipelago was occupied by the East Coast Navy and used as a temporary material transfer station, ship repair shop and field hospital.After the war, the people on the east bank did not completely withdraw. Instead, they expanded the small ship repair shop built during the war. At the same time, they also built facilities such as lighthouses, warehouses, cities, forts, and military camps. The intention of long-term occupation is very strong. obvious.The main reason is that the geographical location of this archipelago is so important. If ships from the east coast go northward to mainland China via the Pacific Ocean, this island is a very good intermediate node, which can supply fresh water and food to the passing ships, and take care of the wounded. It is very useful for sick people, repairing and maintaining ships, and even avoiding bad weather at sea.

After the war, the Spaniards also discovered the Turtle Islands, which were brazenly occupied by the East Coasters, and also recognized the threat of this island closer to the mainland.Therefore, they have been seeking to drive the people from the East Coast out of here for many years, and rejected all the exchange of interests proposed by the people on the East Coast regarding the sovereignty of the Turtle Islands.In the end, the people on the east coast also became angry, directly pointing out whether the sovereignty of the island must belong to the Kingdom of Spain is still doubtful, because there is no evidence of Spanish activities on the island, on the contrary, the activities of the colonists on the east coast spread all over the three islands in the archipelago. island.Later, after discovering that the Spaniards were shameless, the members of the local executive committee directly authorized the Southern Railway Company to choose a port in the archipelago to build a colonial base. A certain basic wartime camp was opened up as a port city, named "Xuanwu Port".

Naturally, the Spaniards also knew about the behavior of the people on the east coast. Although they hated such a direct slap in the face of the Southern Railway Company, but if they want to let the colonists on the east coast leave the Turtle Islands, they will definitely not be able to rely on words alone. , still have to use means, including force.But the problem is also here. With the poor strength of the Spanish Lima Fleet, it is really powerless to restore the Turtle Islands, not to mention that even if they have a few large ships, they will be afraid that the Third Fleet of the East Coast will retaliate in the future. As a result, the matter came and went and froze. After the stalemate lasted for a long time, fewer and fewer Spaniards were willing to fight for the sovereignty of the Turtle Islands.By the time of 1677, some missionaries in the two viceroyalties of Peru and New Spain were still running around to appeal, but it was a pity that no one responded to them.

Now, as the number of colonists on the east coast of the archipelago has officially exceeded 500, the skeleton of the ship repair industry is not only supported, but also the agricultural output is very considerable. With the number of ships passing by the Pacific route every year, Xuanwu The port can easily provide many foods including wheat, corn, vegetables, melons and fruits, salted fish, beef and mutton, and even built a small-scale reservoir on the island (this is very important for tropical islands with low rainfall). very critical), which made many people, including the South China Sea Transportation Company, Sun Chunyang Transportation Company and even the Third Fleet of the Navy, very satisfied.

And there is another thing that is even more exciting, that is, because this archipelago is far away from the mainland in history and is too inaccessible, there has never been a vicious tropical disease such as malaria.After the arrival of the colonists on the east coast, perhaps because of the small number of people, or perhaps because of luck, there has not been a malaria parasite carrier who has been sucked by mosquitoes so that the mosquitoes on the island can spread the disease.All in all, this large-scale archipelago is a very good overseas supply colony. Its only disadvantage is that it is relatively dry and hot, which makes it impossible to carry out large-scale agricultural reclamation, and the population it can carry is not that much.

A formation of six ships sailed into the port one by one, filling up the small Xuanwu Port at once.If there are other ships entering the port at this time, sorry, they can only anchor at the offshore of the harbor, and then transfer personnel and materials back and forth by small boats.

Xu Xiangdong went down to the shore with a group of confidants to rest.Since Xuanwu Port has not yet been officially handed over to the government—if it is handed over, the Government Affairs Council will allocate 20 yuan for compensation, which can be regarded as "buying" the port and its ancillary industries—so local officials are still employees of the Southern Railway Company, so Xu Xiangdong and others Received a relatively good reception, which allowed some technicians in the team who were dizzy for the first time to sail on the voyage to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The rest on the Turtle Islands lasted only three days.After the craftsmen of the shipyard on the island roughly repaired some ships (replaced some ship boards and sewed some canvas), the six ships set sail again.They first sailed slowly to the southwest for a while, and after catching the ocean current and the weak crosswind, they adjusted their course and headed west along the current.Due to the ups and downs of the weather along the way, it took them more than a month to arrive at Jinhua Port, which is under the jurisdiction of the Tahiti Pioneering Team.

Jinhua Port is the largest and only city on Tahiti Island. It is currently managed by the Tahiti Management Committee, and Han Xiangdong is the director of the management committee.The development of Jinhua Port in recent years can only be said to be so-so. It can stably supply a certain amount of specialty commodities to Australia and other places, mainly coffee, sugar, vanilla, dried fruit and black pearls. The only thing worthy of criticism is probably the area under the jurisdiction of the management committee population declined rapidly.

The main reason is that when the local plantation economy, which was in its infancy, squeezed the natives too hard, they were overwhelmed and died in large numbers.For this reason, Han Xiangdong, director of the Tahiti Management Committee, has written a letter ordering them to temporarily stop this kind of behavior, stop expanding the scale of the plantation at will, and instead invest precious manpower in other aspects, such as the cultivation of food, vegetables, melons and fruits etc.

Unsurprisingly, the arrival of Xu Xiangdong and others caused a sensation on the island again, because it meant that a large number of commodities from the outside world would flow into the local market.Whenever this time is also a traditional holiday time on the island, residents will come from all over the country to the port to go to the market, and celebrate by the way, even many slaves who have not yet formally been captured from other islands are rare. Kanen has a day or two of free time to spend.

Han Xiangdong is also a second-generation wearer. He served as the deputy director of the Tahiti Management Committee many years ago. After Zhang Jinhua returned to his hometown and was promoted to the executive committee of the Executive Committee, he naturally took over the position of director. Islands or reefs.This position is undoubtedly prominent, but at the same time it is super boring. If it is not a shortcut to promotion, he, Han, would not bother to waste time here.

Therefore, when Xu Xiangdong brought him a lot of books, newspapers, and magazines from the local area, and chatted a lot of local dynamic news and anecdotes, the relationship between the two was quickly established, so that they both began to call each other brothers. up.After drinking hard for two times, Han Xiangdong even said that if the Southern Railway Company is interested, it can completely participate in the trade in Tahiti, and he can call the shots and give preferential prices to local specialties.What's more, even with the Rabaul Management Committee, it's not like he can't help to contact, everything is easy to talk about.

Xu Xiangdong thanked him for his kindness and said that he would seriously consider the feasibility of this kind of trade.Later, seeing that the ship was almost repaired again, he waved goodbye to Han Xiangdong, and took the remaining five ships (an immigrant ship sank on the outer edge of the harbor due to strong winds and sudden swells when entering the port. Fortunately, most of the crew were rescued in time), pulled anchor one by one, left Jinhua Port, continued to sail westward, and arrived at Noumea, the southernmost tip of the later New Caledonia Island, on April 1677, 4. Anchor near Agang.

According to the plan, they will leave a batch of key supplies for the east bank team who set up an expedition camp here, including daily necessities, weapons, medicine and some exploration equipment.The size of this team is about a hundred people, one-third are engineers and technicians from the local geological department, and the remaining two-thirds are armed personnel sent from Australia to protect them.

Their most important task is to establish a small and stable stronghold here, and then rely on it to continuously expand to the inland area to find nickel mines with mining value.Judging from the latest information, the situation is quite optimistic, because the technicians on the east coast were excited to find that this big island with an area beyond imagination is almost entirely composed of nickel ore. Mines with mining value.It can be expected that when they finally send this report back to the mainland, the people on the east coast will greatly speed up the colonization of this big island, so as to mine as much nickel ore as possible and send it back to the mainland as soon as possible.

Although Xu Xiangdong had no direct business relationship with them, he still encouraged them and gave the expedition team a box of wine that he carried with the ship.For these people who are fighting on the front line and making great sacrifices for the development of the country, Xu still has a little respect in his heart, and he is not hesitant to express his appreciation to them.

After leaving the island of New Caledonia, the five ships continued northwards without delay, towards the Rabaul Management Council area.To be honest, this part of the journey is quite difficult, because it is in the period of changing seasons and wind directions, and the ocean currents are slightly disturbed. Therefore, although the distance is not very far, they still wandered on the sea for a full month and a half before arriving in Rabaul. port.

This port is the last supply point for their trip, so every ship has been carefully overhauled, and at the same time, a large amount of fresh water, fruits, vegetables, and live poultry and livestock have been added to the ship, even those that are not easy to perish. A lot of spirits have been purchased.During the five days of rest, Xu Xiangdong didn't bother to wander around, but concentrated on writing reports until the day of departure came: June 1677, 6.

After crossing the equatorial windless belt for a long time, the next part of the voyage was much more convenient, because there was a strong southeast wind blowing on the sea, which was very conducive to sailing north.But unfortunately, they still lost a ship in the ocean east of the Philippines, a ship belonging to the Sun Chunyang Transportation Company loaded with arms: more than 9000 flintlock rifles or heavy matchlock guns sank to the bottom of the sea, together with it There were also [-] bolts of calico, [-] military tents, [-] cannons of various types, and a large number of hardware products such as shovels and picks that sank. The losses were not insignificant, and the East Coast Insurance Company had to bleed heavily again. .

On August 1677, 8, after more than seven months of arduous voyage (this was relatively smooth, otherwise it would have been longer), the fleet arrived at Yantai Port smoothly. The sea adventure journey that was once talked about in the future has finally come to an end.

(End of this chapter)