Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 194 The Predicament of the Fort in the River ([-])

It was already the next day when Mo Ming of Hezhong Fort received the news from the messenger.At this time, he was receiving a group of unexpected acquaintances on the wharf of the Fort in the River-Li Yi, Huang Yang and several Portuguese captains from Baleen Whale Port on the Mashima Island.

Li Yi and Huang Yang finally remembered that the river castle in South Africa urgently needed them to deliver supplies, so they picked a good day and took a small risk to rush over with a full load of goods.The two of them had been working as turtles in the forts of Baleen Whale Harbor, but they couldn't be blamed for that.The main reason is that they have not returned to the mainland to transport supplies for a long time, and the second is that there are British pirate ships hovering outside Baleen Whale Port, so they have never dared to venture out to sea while nestling in Baleen Whale Port.

But staying alone in the cold Baleen Whale Harbor is indeed quite torturous. In addition, the last batch of materials transported to South Africa from the mainland has been stored in the Baleen Whale Harbor for a long time. It has been almost a year, and they will not be sent to South Africa. Even if it really broke down because of this, the two of them would not be able to bear the guilt.Therefore, taking advantage of a snowstorm, the two drove the battleship "Eagle of the East Coast" and the armed transport ship "Flying Fish of Galicia" fully loaded with a batch of weapons, building materials and living supplies to South Africa in the northeast. .

After a month of fearful sailing, the two ships finally sneaked into the dock of the Fort in the River this morning.They were lucky along the way, and they didn't encounter any ships from other countries-except for these few Portuguese ships encountered outside the mouth of the Berg River, they considered this adventure voyage a success.

"What did you do?" Mo Ming whispered to Li Yi with gritted teeth: "Why did you bring the Portuguese here? Didn't his mother think we had a long life? The British didn't know we had this in South Africa." The secret supply port, you guys are good, take the Portuguese here, can I keep it a secret in the future? If you don’t tell me what’s going on today, I’ll never end with you!”

"Don't you know if you look at it yourself?" Li Yi gave him a white look, and said: "Thousands of Far East immigrants were loaded on these three ships, and the leader was Captain Carvalho, who is also our old acquaintance. We happened to meet in the open sea. When you arrive at them, tell them that a large number of British warships and pirate ships are wandering along the coast of the east coast, and 100% of these three ships cannot reach the Oriental port. So, after discussing with their captains, they planned to traffic these Far East immigrants to Rio de Janeiro Go to be a slave. How can I agree to this? It’s not like you haven’t seen those black slaves in Rio de Janeiro, how miserable they are. Besides, these Far East immigrants were originally the ‘cargo’ we ordered, so…”

Mo Ming glanced at him resentfully, the anger on his face dissipated slightly, but he still let out a long sigh, and said, "Although it's hard to say whether you are right or wrong, the hundreds of people in Hezhong Fort are really I'm going to be killed by you. We don't even have coastal defense batteries now. If we let the British fleet kill us, what defense do we have? Just like what Lu Ming and the others did in Gambia, the fleet lined up towards our city wall Boom, then we'd still be a fart!"

"Don't worry." Li Yi said carelessly, "Didn't we bring you a few coastal defense heavy artillery, and they are all on board."

"Really?" Mo Ming's eyes lit up, "How many doors? What caliber?"

“24磅重炮2门、18磅重炮2门、12磅重炮2门，怎么样，感动吧？”李毅笑着说道。

"Moving you!" Mo Ming swears, "I knew you were unreliable, what use are these cannons? The Englishman has dozens of cannons on a warship, although the caliber is not very large, but I can't stand the large number. These six cannons are not enough for people to stick between their teeth! If the British kill me, I have to abandon the city and take people to fight guerrillas in the wild, or I will be blasted to pieces by their cannons!"

"These six cannons are not for you to use like this." Li Yi smiled mysteriously, and then whispered to Mo Ming: "I have seen the terrain, the river of the Berg River is tortuous, and you can choose a river with fast flowing water. Set up a fort at the fold. In case a British warship comes over and is not familiar with the hydrological conditions, I really dare not come in for a while. Why, I am afraid of running aground! If the ship is aground, it is a live target for the fort! And the river here It’s not very wide, and the depth of water varies from place to place. The waters in the center of the river are the only ones that can sail big ships? Don’t say I didn’t teach you. The large transport ship with ballast stone passed and sank in the narrow part of the downstream channel, blocking the channel. Let’s see if the British ship can still fly over? At that time, the British will still have to get off the ship honestly and chew on your fortress. It's so much easier that way."

"You crooked person really has a crooked idea. This time, you have passed the level." Mo Ming suddenly smiled and said, "By the way, the Portuguese let you come here. What about the shipping fee? It's 10 yuan, I How can you afford it?"

"This is your business. I just can't bear to watch this group of our blood relatives being trafficked into slavery." Li Yi spread his hands and said, "You still have to figure out the money thing. Please , Boss Mo, I’m here to send people here, don’t look reluctant, okay? Do you think that if we weren’t at war with the British, these thousand Ming people might Is it in your hands? Hehe, let’s dream! You can only develop in the Year of the Monkey if you rely on the native land to give you hundreds of people a year? I’m doing a good deed for you. Thank you, my name is Ray."

"Okay, I'm too lazy to talk to you." Mo Ming put his hat on his head, then grabbed Aiwani who was next to him, and said, "Sheriff Aiwani, you go and get someone to assist Li Yi now." The lieutenant unloads the goods and arranges the personnel. By the way, the personnel are placed in the warehouse first, and there is nothing in the warehouse anyway. Remember, everyone has to take a bath, and eat together after taking a bath."

After speaking, Mo Ming hurried back to the city again, but unexpectedly bumped into Liu Ang who was going out to watch the fun.Mo Ming grabbed him and asked, "Why are you going? Come with me to count the supplies."

"There's no need to count, it's all in my head." Liu Ang waved his hand and said decisively: "More than 7000 furs, 15 pieces of ivory, [-] sacks of wool, plus some we collected. The total value of the dog’s head gold or something will not exceed [-] yuan. This amount of money is enough for everything, and it’s not enough to pay half of the shipping fee. Don’t think about it, it’s not enough.”

Mo Ming scratched her head depressingly, and said, "I thought I had a lot of money at hand, but I didn't expect to have so much money. Alas, when the money is used up, you will hate less. This morning, the orderly came back and told me that Xie Hansan and the others broke through a The small and medium-sized Xhosa tribes have seized a lot of supplies, let’s see if they can bring us some surprises. If they really can’t, let’s sell them! Sell those Bantu blacks!”

"Selling people is a way. There is a shortage of slaves in Brazil. I think these Portuguese will be happy to sell slaves from us to Brazil. After all, it is very profitable." Liu Ang said after thinking, "But it will be a while." How can we raise enough slaves? According to me, you might as well put your mind on those ships of the South Sea Transportation Company. As far as I know, the British supplies, Gold and other things are stored on those transport ships. Now that we need money urgently, it doesn’t matter at all to ask them to “borrow”. At worst, we can report to the executive committee later to clarify the situation, and we are fine. Hurry up and follow the right."

When it came to the end, Liu Ang already had a wicked smile. It seems that his idea of ​​buying that batch of gold is no longer a day or two.

Mo Ming only hesitated for less than five seconds, and then "gladly" agreed with Liu Ang's opinion. The batch of supplies consisted of gold, sugar, fur, ivory and spices, and its value was conservatively estimated to exceed 20 yuan.With such a large amount of money, it would not be a problem to find a way to scrape it together and get a fund of 40 to [-] yuan.With such a sum of money, it is roughly possible to pay the high freight for the Portuguese immigrants.

Most of the more than 1000 immigrants were citizens of the Ming Dynasty, and a small number came from North Korea, Japan, Ryukyu and other places.Liu Xiang, the "old friend" of the time-traveling crowd and the golden agent of the Portuguese, was finished two years ago, and died under Zheng Zhilong's repeated pursuit.Therefore, the Portuguese, who had been struggling for two years, sent people to establish relations with Zheng Zhilong, and at the same time mobilized business partners on the ground in Guangdong and Guangxi to recruit refugees in the name of land reclamation in the interior of Ming Dynasty, and promised these people huge profits.

Now Daming is leaking everywhere and is on the verge of collapse.The local officials turned a blind eye to these forces recruiting refugees, and even wished that they would get more people to leave, so that these refugees who had nothing to eat would gather together to make trouble and cause trouble for themselves.Therefore, the Portuguese, who thought it would be difficult to recruit immigrants after Liu Xiang's death, were pleasantly surprised to find that things were not as difficult as they imagined. In many cases, as long as you paid readily, there would be as many refugees as there were without food.

The price that the Portuguese gave to various "migrant traffickers" in Guangdong was 4-5 taels of silver for each adult man and woman, plus some management fees, the cost of each adult immigrant would not exceed six taels of silver.But when they resold it, the price they sold to people from the east coast was more than 400 taels of silver for each adult male and female immigrant, and the profit was close to a hundred times!Even if the death rate of the immigrants is half, the business is still profitable dozens of times.This kind of profit is about the same as the huge profits of Chinese porcelain. It is really a good business.

After the problem of the huge shipping fee was solved, Mo Ming couldn't help feeling complacent.With this group of more than a thousand newly arrived immigrants, plus a batch of muskets, cannons and building materials just sent from Baleen Whale Harbor, I can not only build a small coastal defense fort, but also partially expand the city wall of the Fort in the River .

In this way, the Fort in the River is somewhat decent in terms of population and area.Next, I will flex my muscles and have a solid backing.

(End of this chapter)