July 18, 1639, Tongzhou Fort.

This season in Tongzhou Fort is one of the most comfortable seasons of the year. The sunny weather, the temperature of about 26 degrees, and the gentle sea breeze make people feel extremely comfortable and comfortable.

After several months of construction, today's Tongzhou Bodeng has changed a lot compared to the original. First, there is a wooden trestle deep into the sea. The simple trestle built with pine trees cut from the nearby forest has

It is more than 40 meters long and can accommodate two large transport ships to dock and unload cargo at the same time.

However, this trestle is temporary in nature. When the materials and personnel here become more abundant in the future, Tongzhou Fort will organize manpower to build a more modern cement permanent pier.

At the end of the trestle is a road paved with broken bricks and gravel. Because of the heavy rainfall in the rainy season here, the dirt road is easily softened by moisture in rainy weather, which affects the efficiency of cargo output and input in the terminal. Therefore, in

Tongzhou Fort commander Wang Xiangmin organized immigrants and natives to use the broken bricks and tiles left over from the brick-making process, mixed with some gravel, sand, etc., to pave such a relatively simple road to the port.

Going west from the dock road through a virgin sago coconut grove, extending about a few hundred meters, is the Tongzhoubao City under construction. Today, more than 20 rows of neat brick and tile houses have been built in the city. Some

It is similar to the spire style common in the southern water towns of the Ming Dynasty. It has red brick walls, green eaves, and large areas of vegetables planted in front and behind the house.

On the north side of the residential area, there are several large-scale masonry buildings, which are the most important storage facilities in every new colony in Hanzhou. In addition to the daily material reserves of the more than 200 residents of Tongzhou Fort, there are also storage facilities for a large number of immigrants passing through.

Necessary supplies for life.

In the place where they first landed, all the trees were cut down. There are still many wooden houses built at that time, and more than a dozen rows have been added. These houses are for the Hanzhou natives and the natives captured nearby.

In addition to compacting the wooden boards, it is also covered with thick thatch and rammed earth is used to smear it. During the dry season, it can barely be habitable.

There are two windows of 30 centimeters each on the walls of these wooden houses, and gauze is usually used to block the entry of mosquitoes and flies. It was early in the morning, and some Hanzhou natives and local aborigines were slowly coming out of the wooden houses listlessly.

After walking out, they didn't even wash up. They went directly to the entrance of a large canteen outside the camp, and then lined up neatly, preparing to enjoy their daily breakfast.

Breakfast was very simple, just a bowl of corn mush and a few pieces of potatoes. It didn't have much nutrition, but it was enough to fill you up. A few country soldiers carrying muskets and daggers walked around these coolies and kept talking.

What, judging from their appearance, they seemed to be scolding them for getting up a little late, which might delay the day's work. Those Hanzhou natives and aborigines squatted on the ground silently, eating the food in their hands quickly.

About seven or eight hundred meters to the north of the wooden house area where the coolies live, you can vaguely see a tall chimney standing there, with black smoke still pouring out from the chimney mouth. Judging from the size and height of the chimney,

Look, there should be an earthen kiln below. As for what kind of kiln it is, it is nothing more than a brick kiln or a pottery kiln. Of course, it may also be a retort kiln for smoking and drying wood.

After Cui Shaochuan followed many immigrants from the "Pioneer", what he saw along the way was those scenes. After more than 20 days, he visited Hanxing Island and Midway Island, and arrived at this immigration transit place said to be under the jurisdiction of Hanzhou

Point. On the boat with Qi Dajiang

After talking with others, he learned that it was still more than twenty days' voyage from the mainland of Hanzhou, and his heart was full of bitterness and despair. He claimed to be well-informed and had an understanding of the entire Nanyang geography, but Hanzhou was so far away

It was still beyond the scope of his imagination.

In the south of Nanyang, he originally thought that it was around Borneo or Java Island. Now it seems that Hanzhou is actually far away. But the only thing that made him feel a little relieved was that whether it was Hanxing Island or Midway Island,

, or in this place called Tongzhou Fort, we, the Han Miao people, are obviously in a dominant position at the upper level. Many local natives are all driven by the Han people to build and work hard.

Suddenly, the immigrant team that was queuing up to enter the camp on the south side of the city let out a burst of exclamations. Cui Shaochuan looked for a voice and saw several wooden stakes erected near the edge of the forest, with several naked natives tied to them.

, several of them were obviously dead, their bodies were covered with maggots, and they looked horrible. This made the immigrants who saw this situation feel panicked.

"Why did those people on the tree stumps look like this?" Cui Shaochuan asked the soldiers on one side of the team who were maintaining order.

"They are all man-eating demons!" Seeing Cui Shaochuan's scholarly appearance, the soldier knew that this was one of the most valued talents in Hanzhou, so he said in a more respectful manner: "They were all taken from a nearby tribe last week.

They were captured from the camp. They resisted fiercely and even injured our people. Our commander, the King of Tongzhou Fort, became angry and ordered us to put them up on a pole to show the public."

"Are the natives here very ferocious? Are they really cannibals?" Cui Shaochuan asked doubtfully.

"When we broke into their tribal camp, we found some bones that did not look like animals. Our captain suspected that they were man-eating demons."

"Ah!" Cui Shaochuan was also shocked. There are only some records of cannibalism in ancient books, but there are occasional rumors in some deep mountains and forests in the Ming Dynasty, but he has never seen it with his own eyes. Now he has arrived at the remote Weiyuan Island.

, but suddenly heard that there was a cannibal nearby. Even though he had experienced a lot, he was still a little frightened.

"You..., have you ever wiped out the cannibals in this area?"

"The forest here is dense, how can we completely clear it out?" The country soldier was also troubled, shaking his head and said: "Only when we have more people here, maybe we can catch them one by one from the forest. However, these natives are

It's easy to deal with them. As long as they don't get attacked by them in the forest, they are no match for our country soldiers."

Cui Shaochuan felt a little relieved after hearing what the village soldiers said. Then he looked around at some places outside the Tongzhou Fort. He saw watchtowers erected high in several directions of the camp. Outside the tight wooden walls, there were several

A protruding masonry bastion with several artillery mounted on it. These defensive facilities should be more than enough to deal with some weak natives.

"Commander Qi, you have worked hard all the way!" Wang Xiangmin, commander of Tongzhou Fort, welcomed Qi Dajiang, Niu Hu and others into the official hall, and asked people to bring basins of fruits.

"Commander Wang, I haven't seen you for a few months. You have kept this Tongzhou Fort in good order!" Qi Dajiang followed the others, grabbed a coconut in the basin, pried open a hole with a short knife, and drank while holding it.

"The road is so rough!" Wang Xiangmin said: "Everything is good here, but there are too few people. That... Commander Qi, how many people can we keep in Tongzhou Fort among this batch of immigrants?"

"How can you ask me how many people are left?" Qi Dajiang drank the coconut in one breath, then touched his mouth and said: "What is the immigration quota for Weiyuan Island given by the civil government? When the time comes, you will

We have to discuss how to divide it with other points."

"How can our Tongzhou Fort be qualified to negotiate with several other places?" Wang Xiangmin said: "Commander Qi doesn't know yet. Our Weiyuan Fort has established a separate colonization area, with Xie Limin, the former commander of Weiyuan Fort, as the general manager and unified planning.

Manage the entire Weiyuan Island. Moreover, our immigration quota for the entire Weiyuan Island is only 1,500 people per year."

"That's fine." Qi Dajiang said with a smile: "If you leave more people in Tongzhou Fort, the number of immigrants that Jinhua Fort and Weiyuan Fort can allocate will naturally be less."

"I don't know if the Annan people you brought this time count as immigrants. If not, you can leave more people for us." Wang Xiangmin said: "There are also those with physical problems, we might as well temporarily resettle them here.

, you can do something for our Tongzhou Fort."

"I want to keep more people here, but you don't have many houses for people to live in."

"Kick those natives out of their wooden houses and make room for immigrants to live in." Wang Xiangmin said disapprovingly: "As for those natives, just put up some tents for them."

Qi Dajiang smiled and did not respond. Almost all places in Hanzhou were extremely short of people, and the few transfer points they occupied were far away. They all hoped to increase the population in the areas under their jurisdiction. Not only

It is to obtain more labor, and more importantly, it is driven by the insecurity factors hidden in the hearts of people. After all, in this wild area, there are more similar people who can rely on each other and stick together to defend against foreign enemies.

"What's the new news in Hanzhou?" Qi Dajiang asked.

"In the eastern part of Hanzhou, two new settlements were opened south of Weihai... Xinxiangbao began to expand to the west, destroying many native tribes along the way. Oh, by the way, a month ago, our Hanzhou

Two warships fought with the Dutch not far from Jianye Port, and the Grand Steward was also on one of the ships at that time."

"Oh!...How is the situation?" Qi Dajiang asked nervously. Hearing that Qi Tian was also at the scene of the naval battle, he couldn't help but worry.

"At that time, the Dutch were also two warships. They were chasing the Grand Controller's ship from the direction of Timor Island. As a result, when they arrived in the waters outside Jianye Port, they encountered our newly built warship Yangming. I started to eat some

Unfortunately, the Yangming used a missile to hit a Dutch warship and set it on fire. The other Dutch warship saw that the situation was not good and fled immediately."

"The Dutch are so bullying!" Qi Dajiang said bitterly: "Two warships dared to come to my Hanzhou waters to invite me to fight. What happened next?"

"Later?...Later, they came with two more warships and touched outside our Jianye Port, but they did not dare to enter the harbor. They lingered for a day and then left."

"Is there any news about Dili City?"

"...No news has come out." Wang Xiangmin glanced at Qi Dajiang and said: "According to several inspections by Feiyu Ship, the Dutch still maintain a blockade outside Dili Port with three or five warships."

Qi Dajiang was somewhat silent after hearing this. The Dutch seemed to have clearly used Dili City as a bait, trying to lure the Hanzhou warships over and deal a heavy blow. Their persistence greatly exceeded Hanzhou's pre-estimates. Even more
Chapter completed!