A two-masted clipper is sailing along the coastline towards Kaohsiung. It is a "reconnaissance ship" belonging to the navy. It is the same type as the "Haitian", hence the name "Haiqi".
"Haiqi" is a two-masted reconnaissance ship of the Navy. Although its tonnage and firepower are not outstanding, it is often used as a transportation ship because of its shallow draft, fast speed and flexible use.
It appears off the coast of Kaohsiung at the moment, and there is nothing special about it.
In the distance, a puff of white smoke appeared, followed by the faint sound of gunfire.
"Who is firing off the cannon?" Jin Xiaoyu, standing on the poop deck, said in surprise.
"It's okay, it's the Dutch who are firing cannons in salute." The captain said nonchalantly, and at the same time ordered, "Fire cannons in return!"
The captain of the "Haici" was a Spanish named Moreno Suleiman. He was the second officer on the San Raimundo captured by the Senate during the sack of Galen in Manila in 1632. He was captured.
Not long after, he entered the service of the Senate, and after a period of service in the great shipping industry, he joined the navy as an experienced navigator.
He has excellent sailing skills and rich sailing experience on sailing ships. After joining the navy, he has been commanding sailing ships. A year ago, he was officially appointed as the captain of the newly built reconnaissance ship "Haiqi".
Although the "Haiqi" is called a "reconnaissance ship", it is actually mainly responsible for "rapid transportation" work. After it was put into service, it frequently traveled between various naval bases, and often appeared around the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Islands. It is responsible for
Transport people and important supplies.
Today, its mission is to transport a female senator and a dozen naturalized cadres to Kaohsiung. Moreno Suleiman has carried out the task of transporting dignitaries many times, but it is a woman who is responsible for transporting a senator.
It was the first time, so he was extremely attentive along the way. This made Jin Xiaoyu very embarrassed.
The "Haiqi" passed by the outer sea of Damuan Port. Jin Xiaoyu picked up the telescope and saw a series of sandbars in front of him. It can be seen that these sandbars were independent in the past, but now they are almost connected together, forming a natural
of breakwater.
"Is this the so-called Da Yuan Island?" Jin Xiaoyu asked.
"Yes, this is it." Moreno nodded, "It is said that there are seven sandbar islands connected to the city. When you enter, you will reach the Taijiang River. It is also called Da Yuan Bay."
Jin Xiaoyu knew that Dayuan Bay had been silted up and disappeared during the Qing Dynasty. When she traveled to Taiwan, there was no trace left. If it weren't for the ruins of Chican City, it would probably be unimaginable anywhere.
At this moment, through the telescope, you can see that this long sandbar island has dense and lush coconut groves. There are also acres of garden land on the island, which seems to have been reclaimed as plantations. The sea breeze blows, and the coconut grove beach has a beautiful scenery.
The castles and forts built by the Dutch are distributed on this long and narrow island. The Dutch's largest investment in Northeast Asia: the Castle of Geranje has been completed at this time. It is exactly the same as the historical specifications: the castle is three stories high and the main castle has a total of
There are four convex corner forts and four half-moon forts. Such a magnificent European-style fort can be said to be unique in Northeast Asia.
The residential area outside Fort Relancha, known as Dayuan City, is now beginning to take shape. However, it is much smaller than in history, because most of the Chinese who originally gathered here live in Kaohsiung City.
Although Jin Xiaoyu is not very interested in historical and geographical things, since he was transferred to Kaohsiung, he also knows a little bit about the local situation. He knows that the Dutch built this castle at all costs to protect the people entering Taijiang River, that is, Dazhan
The main channel of the bay.
But now the emergence of Kaohsiung has made the presence of the Dutch in Danguan quite embarrassing. Although Wei Bachi of Kaohsiung is "full of goodwill" towards the Dutch, even a considerable part of this huge castle was built by the construction team sent by Kaohsiung.
However, after years of channel dredging by the Senate, Kaohsiung Port is much better than Taijiang in terms of berthing capacity and wind shelter.
Taijiang River is an inner port in a lagoon. The water is deep enough to accommodate various voc ships in the Far East. However, the waterway entering Taijiang River is severely affected by sand siltation. When the Dutch first discovered this place, there were ten waterways that could enter Taijiang River.
There are many places, but by around 1635, only two channels were of navigable value. One of them was the main channel between Da Yuan Island and Beixianwei Island.
Even this main channel can only be sailed by small and medium-sized ships with a draft of about three meters during spring tide, and it is even shallower at ordinary times. This seriously limits the navigation capacity of ships. As for the Luermen Channel, the navigation capacity is even greater
Weak, almost not worth mentioning.
The most terrible thing is that Taiyuan Port seems to be surrounded by a lagoon, but the storm protection conditions are very poor. It can only avoid the northeast but not the southwest wind - but most typhoons blow from the southwest. In many cases, ships cannot
Do not go to the Penghu Islands for shelter.
Because of such poor berthing conditions, large trading ships bound for Japan used to be anchored at the anchorage outside Damuan Port. After the construction of the Castle of Geranje, they were anchored outside the water gate of the castle facing the Taiwan Strait, making it easier to load and unload cargo.
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But when Jin Xiaoyu arrived, there were no large voc ships anchored outside the castle water gate. Now most of voc's large trading ships sail directly to Kaohsiung. There are better wind shelter conditions and docks there. The Australian warehouses also have sufficient goods to provide trade.
Relanjia Castle now only reflects VOC’s presence in Taiwan.
The "Haiqi" sailed past the Jelanje Castle and soon saw the lighthouse on the Cijin Peninsula. This lighthouse is now the symbol of Kaohsiung Port.
The observation post suddenly reported loudly: "The port management asked if water diversion and tugboats are needed..."
"Answer: No," said the Spaniard.
Although the water channel entering Kaohsiung Port is not deep enough, the width of the strait between Cijin Peninsula and the main island of Taiwan is only 60 meters. What is even more troublesome is that there is a moving sandbar under the water, which will be affected by storm surges.
Moving all the time. This is a great threat to large naval ships that often need to enter and exit the port. Therefore, the Kaohsiung Naval Base has two 621 modified bucket-type steam-powered dredgers stationed here to dredge the channel at any time.
At the same time, a 621 steam tug was stationed to help large sailing ships safely sail through the Cijin Strait.
Sure enough, a Type 621 steam tug was sailing slowly on their port side, spitting out black smoke. The Spaniards gave loud commands and began to adjust the sails and cables.
Jin Xiaoyu felt that the speed of the ship began to slow down. Moreno picked up the telescope and kept giving steering commands. The ship began to sail towards the entrance of the strait.
For a sea-going ship, the 60-meter-wide channel is already very narrow. For a sailboat that has no power of its own and relies mainly on wind propulsion, it is difficult to maintain its course in such a narrow channel without hitting the shore.
Going up to the rocks requires high maneuvering skills. For safety reasons, before there were no tugs on duty, most sailboats coming to Kaohsiung would put down rowing boats and be towed by rowing boats when passing through this section of the strait.
There are forts on the sentinel bow in the north of the strait and on the mountain behind the flag in the south to monitor the entire strait.
Passing through the strait is the long-flag Kaohsiung Inland Sea. This is actually a lagoon, and the depth is limited in most places. Therefore, most of the warships of the Navy's Kaohsiung detachment and the large merchant ships traveling here are anchored at the guard ships opposite the Cijin Peninsula.
Head Anchorage - This is the deepest place in the entire lagoon. The draft of "Haiqi" is not large, so there is no need to anchor here. It continues sailing into the interior.
Standing on the deck, small fortress-like villages are scattered on the coastline on both sides of the lagoon. The villages are surrounded by scattered farmland and plantations. The dark-skinned farmers with bare backs and wearing bamboo hats are working on the newly reclaimed farmland.
, a tropical pastoral scenery.
Jin Xiaoyu looked at the beautiful scenery here and was filled with emotions. In the old days, she had studied in Kaohsiung for several years and received a master's degree. Several years of studying abroad made her very familiar with this place. Especially the Cijin Peninsula, where
The old time is the campus of Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology. She has been here many times to attend lectures, watch exhibitions and performances. However, at this moment, even the topography cannot be connected with the Kaohsiung in her memory. Looking around, many places
It is still a primitive forest wilderness.
The "Haiqi" docked at the passenger ship terminal. A larger h800 has been parked here. Beside the trestle, there are four-wheeled carts parked - because Kaohsiung is not suitable for raising horses, carts are used
The workers of the shipping company, who were dragged by manpower, were enjoying the shade under the straw shed.
Seeing so many carts, Jin Xiaoyu knew that these were newly arrived immigrants preparing to disembark. After the Senate launched the mainland strategy, the number of immigrants from Guangdong and Guangxi suddenly increased.
Jin Xiaoyu took the students off the boat. After several days of sailing, they were all so dizzy that they could no longer stand firmly on the ground at the dock.
Those who came to greet Xiang Tianying at the pier were Jing Chu, Xiang Tianying's secretary, and a clerk from the Kaohsiung City Government. Because Jin Xiaoyu was a veteran, out of respect, Wei Bachi sent someone to welcome him even though he was not present himself.
Because there were so many people coming for this education visit, the city government specially sent two carriages to welcome them: a light two-wheeled carriage for Jin Xiaoyu, and a four-wheeled freight carriage.
The normal school students loaded their luggage and climbed into the freight carriage. They looked at the subtropical scenery in front of them, excited and curious. As the carriage moved, the young people began to sing.
Jin Xiaoyu said a few polite words to the clerk who came to greet him, saying that he would first go to the school to "check in" and come back the next day to "visit". The clerk also expressed his "welcome" in a routine manner and presented a gift on behalf of the Kaohsiung City Government and Wei Bachi personally.
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Jin Xiaoyu and Jing Chu boarded the two-wheeled carriage together, and the group headed to Kaohsiung National School.