Chapter 684: Here comes a captain called Vancouver
Although the flag of the Northern Navy has been erected in Kinmen Town, there are still many things to do next.
Naturally, there was no need to look for the location of the camp. The location of the fortress chosen by the Spaniards was very good. It was not far from the sea and had a well. However, after inspecting the fortress, Lucci was impressed by the quality of the construction inside the fortress and the poor quality of the building.
Extremely dissatisfied with the sanitary environment, he decided to rebuild a new fortress in his mind.
Before taking action, the first thing he had to solve was how to deal with the more than fifty imprisoned Miwok Indians.
Even though Rucci didn't understand Spanish, he brought a translator. So under the confused gaze, this guy first said "Hola" to these people through the mask, and then took out the translator and translated the words in advance.
The translated "You are free" was released.
Luqi thought that with this hand, he could instantly gain a halo, and he changed his name to "Magic" from then on. Unexpectedly, the faces of the Indian men and women who had been brainwashed by the monks all changed drastically, and they kept retreating, muttering something in their mouths.
Word--Diablo.
Got it! Failed to show off...
Lu Qi was so depressed that he suddenly felt like his head was full of black lines. If the other person said something else, he might not understand. The problem is that he was too familiar with a certain game from another time and space, and he immediately understood that they were saying he was a devil.
In desperation, he had no choice but to put away the translator and ordered Li Shi on the side to bring some food and water to these Indians, and then give each of them a blanket to spend the night, and then let them all get out early tomorrow morning and go wherever they like.
Which. In addition, he also specifically told Li Shi to try not to have physical contact with these people, and he must not take off his mask and gloves at close range.
Li Shi asked puzzledly why. In fact, from the moment they entered the fortress gate, Lu Qi ordered all soldiers to wear masks. If they want to drink water or eat, they must return to the temporary camp near the fort, and after returning
The first thing to do is wash your hands.
"Why? They have stayed with the Spaniards for a long time, and they may have infectious diseases on their bodies." Rucci pointed at a woman with red spots on her face and said, "Did you see that? That is the one who is sick."
Li Shi trembled and said in astonishment: "Sir, what kind of disease is that?"
"Hualiu! It can be transmitted through saliva. Yellow fever and diphtheria are also contagious!"
"He'll get the crooked sun!" Li Shi was so frightened that he broke into a cold sweat and blurted out his hometown dialect in Henan. Chai Rong and Chen Yingqi, who were standing behind him, also turned pale.
You must know that Lu Qi did a lot of homework before coming to North America. The reason why he did not bring his newly engaged fiancée or let someone from the overseas corps bring his family was because he was worried about infectious diseases.
Since the 16th century, the most lethal weapon used by Westerners against the Native Americans in North America was not guns, but infectious diseases caused by various germs, including smallpox, malaria, hemorrhagic fever, tuberculosis, yellow fever, influenza, cholera,
plague......
Not to mention, on the other side of the North American continent, a yellow fever pandemic almost wiped out Philadelphia. In just three months, more than 5,000 people were killed, and the entire city fell into panic;
Tens of thousands of people, including federal, state and city government officials, fled in panic.
The source of this plague was Haiti, which was in turmoil. Due to the uprising of a large number of local blacks, the French could not resist it. So when the French who escaped from Haiti brought their slaves to Philadelphia, disaster struck.
The problem is that it was only the French who had to repay it. Starting in 1791, the British and Spanish also sent troops to invade because they coveted the plantations there.
Who knows if any of the Spaniards who lived in the fort went to Haiti before? And the winter in California is not that cold!
If this disease causes an infection, only Lu Qi and Wang Yuanfang, who have been vaccinated, will be spared. Moreover, there is no specific medicine for yellow fever when there is a fever, so the only option is to rest in bed and replenish electrolytes.
Lu Qi did not expect that his words, exaggerated by Chen Yingqi and Chai Rong, immediately aroused panic among more than 200 soldiers in the regiment. By night, no one was willing to go on duty in the fortress compound. At most,
Stay outside the door.
When Li Shi was getting blankets for the Indians from the supplies he brought ashore, he thought it would be a pity to use military blankets for these guys, so he took more than fifty outdoor emergency blankets on his own initiative. This thing was bought by Zhao Xin from another place.
Ichikong purchased it mainly to give soldiers an emergency shelter from the cold when performing missions in the field. After all, the PET film is extremely light and does not take up much space in a bag.
Unexpectedly, because the outer layer of the emergency blanket was plated with double-sided silver to keep warm, it became a treasure in the eyes of the Indians, and triggered a series of effects in the future.
Early the next morning, under Li Shi's order, several soldiers were wrapped tightly from head to toe, leaving only a slit for their eyes, which shocked the Indians. They quickly
Just as the soldiers with guns led them to the gate of the fortress, several soldiers gave them a bag of food, waved their hands to let them go, and at the same time said the "libertad" that Lu Qi taught them.
More than fifty Indians also noticed that these outsiders who looked similar to them were disgusted with them. However, they were still very happy to be free and have food to eat.
As soon as the Indians left, Rucci ordered the military doctor accompanying him to prepare disinfectant. He planned to disinfect the inside of the fortress first, and then demolish all the buildings, especially the monastery.
He was very busy here, and Wang Yuanfang, who was on the Thor, was not idle either. There was still a lot of supplies on the ship that had to be delivered ashore, and it was estimated that it would take at least three to five days to transport them all.
On November 22, 1793, a set of radio waves was transmitted from the Thor in the Golden Gate Strait, passed through two relay stations on Unalaska Island and Dabo Town, and finally arrived at Beihai Town.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Needless to say, there is Dabo Town on Kuye Island, and the Unalaska Island relay station located in the eastern part of the Aleutian Islands is where Wang Yuanfang and the others are coming.
It was set up on the road, and a platoon of troops was specially left on duty.
The reason why we chose it there was firstly because we wanted to use Unalaska Island as an advance base for landing in Alaska in the future, and secondly because the Russians had a permanent settlement there.
Fifty-two years ago, that is, in 1741, Danish Vitus Bering and Russian Alexey Chirikov were commissioned by the Russian Empire to sail to the North Pacific on the St. Peter and St. Paul.
During the exploration, after the ship was separated by a storm, Chirikov discovered several islands in the eastern part of the Aleutian Islands, while Bering discovered several islands in the west.
What happened later is known to many people on earth. Bering contracted scurvy and died in the Komandorsky Islands. The survivors returned to Okhotsk and reported that a large number of fur animals were found on the Aleutian Islands.
.So fur hunters from Siberia flocked to the area and gradually moved eastward through the Aleutian Islands to Alaska.
In 1759, the fur trader Stepan Grotov landed on the shore of Unalaska and set it up as a stronghold. Only four years later, due to the cruelty and greed of Russian traders, the local Aleuts were forced to
They worked for them and paid fur taxes, and also took their families hostage, which eventually triggered a large-scale resistance by the Aleuts.
Afterwards, the Russians launched a bloody revenge, killing at least 5,000 indigenous people, and the number of Aleuts on the entire island was reduced by two-thirds.
By 1768, Unalaska Island became Tsarist Russia's main port in the region. Furs obtained from the islands were traded there and then transported back to Okhotsk by merchant ships. Four years later, the island
It became a permanent settlement of the Russians.
If we follow the trajectory of another time and space, the next step for the Russians is to establish the "Russian-American Trading Company", start a 19-year monopoly on North American trade, and gradually engulf Alaska.
However, in this time and space, everything has completely changed due to the "Battle of Usolye" three years ago. Since the power of the Tsarist Russian Empire was completely driven out of Eastern Siberia, whether it was Okhotsk or Kamchatka, all coveted
Merchants with fur profits turned their allegiance to Beihai Town.
You must know that although Beihai Town today nominally controls the entire Eastern Siberia, because Okhotsk and Kamchatka Peninsula are far away and extremely cold, they are still controlled by a group of fur traders. Zhao Xin is also happy with this, he feels that anyway
The land transportation to the west is all under his control, and the Russian businessmen cannot make any money out of it.
Since last year, the businessmen of Baibai City have been lobbying the Governor's Office to jointly establish a "China-US Trading Company". Considering the massacre of the Aleut aborigines by Russian fur traders in history, Zhao Xin asked Baibai
The businessmen were told that as long as they paid taxes on time and abided by the laws of Beihai Town, they could do anything else and the Governor's Office would not interfere.
On the way to California, the Thor stopped at Unalaska Island and spent a week building a relay station tower. Of course, the Russians on the island didn't dare to fart, otherwise they wouldn't be able to transport even a hair.
When they arrived in Europe, they didn't understand the purpose of the triangular tower made of steel pipes, but they still patted their chests and said they would protect it well. The only request was that they hoped that the ships passing by the Northern Navy in the future could carry more food and altitude.
liquor.
After receiving the telegram, Zhao Xin learned that Wang Yuanfang and the others were making good progress. He immediately notified the Navy and asked the "Jaguar" motor and sailboat to go to Whale Port to load supplies immediately, and set off a week later to be responsible for delivering the second batch of supplies to Kinmen Town.
"Jaguar" is the second clipper ship built by Beihai Town Shipyard, with a length of 68.88 meters, a width of 12.13 meters, a draft of 6.4 meters, and a full load displacement of 1,550 tons. The ship has a crew of 50 and is equipped with a four-door 75
mm cannon and four heavy machine guns.
The entire ship, including the keel, auxiliary keel and main topmast, is made of teak. The rib frame, side plates and decks are made of welded and riveted steel plates. The part below the waterline of the hull is covered with copper. In addition, the parts in the middle of the hull are
In the lower cabin, a 600-horsepower medium-to-high-speed diesel engine is also installed to drive the double-sided propellers at the tail.
This scissor-type cargo ship took eight months from construction to launch. Later, it underwent many sea trials, and parts that were easily damaged by strong winds were modified and reinforced. Its current fastest speed record is 16 to 17 knots.
Preliminary estimates currently indicate that it will take the Jaguar approximately 25 days to arrive at Kinmen Town starting from Whale Harbor and heading east along the Aleutian Islands, including stopover time.
If there are no accidents in this voyage, the shipyard in Beihai Town will use it as a template to build at least fifteen more large clipper ships of the same model to meet the increasingly tight demand for maritime transportation capacity.
Just when Rucci led his men to carry out large-scale demolition work on the Spanish fortress on the third day, on the Thor anchored in the strait, the second officer on duty in the cockpit noticed on the radar screen that five
There are two boats kilometers away, sailing from north to south, along the coastline.
After learning of this situation, Wang Yuanfang immediately ordered the entire ship to enter combat readiness, all personnel transporting supplies returned to the ship, and notified Lu Qi on the shore using a walkie-talkie.
"Comrade Lao Wang, is the ship coming from the north Russian? Over."
"It's not like that, those businessmen don't know we're coming to California. Over."
Half an hour later, the target appeared, which was a fleet of two brigantine sailing ships. However, when Wang saw the flag flying on the main mast through the telescope in the distance, he blurted out in surprise: "Why is it the British?"
people?!"
...
Ten minutes ago, in the captain's cabin of the Discovery, a young officer on duty came into the room and reported: "Sir, we are about to arrive in San Francisco."
"Yes, this trip is quite far. Inform Lieutenant Broughton that we will stop here for two days to replenish fresh water before heading to Monterey."
The speaker was a middle-aged officer with a medium build. He had a round face, a double chin, and piercing eyes. This man's name was George Vancouver, a captain of the British Royal Navy, and he was also on this ship.
Commander of the team.
Well, in another time and space, the city of Vancouver and Vancouver Island in Canada, as well as Vancouver in Washington State in the United States, Mount Vancouver on the US-Canada border, and even Mount Vancouver in New Zealand were all named after him.
Vancouver is famous in history because of exploration. From 1791 to 1794, the expedition he led explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America and drew detailed maps.
At this time, Vancouver turned to another middle-aged man wearing glasses and casual clothes in the room and said: "Mr. Menzies, are you planning to go ashore later?"
"Forget it, I hate Catholics, and I hate Brother Verez here even more. He is a hypocrite."
"But there is also Catholicism in Monterey. Why do you hate Catholics so much?"
"Catholics are a group of insidious people, don't even think about repentance or anything like that." The doctor began to ramble. "They tried to overthrow Congress. One of my best friends, you don't even know how kind she is. She
Many things were said to me about the Catholics, which I have forgotten, but I know they are sinister and sinister. They cannot be trusted at all."
Just as Vancouver was about to retort, the door to the captain's cabin was pushed open violently. The officer on duty who had just left said to him with a panicked look on his face: "Sir, come and take a look. There's something going on! Come from the strait."
Caught a strange ship!"
When Vancouver and the doctor came to the front deck, the Thor across the strait was only three nautical miles away from them. There was no trace of fog on the sea at this moment, the view was good, and the tall poop of the Thor was clearly visible. The British on the two boats
They were all dumbfounded. When they saw the flag hanging on the Thor through the telescope, they were even more confused.
"Mr. Menzies, have you ever heard of a country with a white five-pointed star on its flag?"
The ship's doctor looked at it with a telescope for a long time, and said with some memories: "I have never seen or heard of such a flag, but I have heard of such a ship in India."
"Well?"
"Captain, do you remember the Dr. Higgins we met in Madras two years ago? He said that he saw a large white ship near the Pearl River in the Qing Empire a few years ago.
We passed the other party's ship as a guest. However, when the ship was leaving, it inexplicably bombarded their warehouse on an island."
Vancouver's forehead buzzed and he immediately recalled what was going on. He immediately ordered the entire ship to prepare for battle and notified the Chatham. To be honest, both of his ships were exploration ships of the British Royal Navy.
I can still fight a dozen merchant ships when I encounter them, but with such a big thing in front of me, I feel really unsure.
After some struggle, he finally decided to send someone to contact the other party first to find out the truth. It might not be a good thing for such an unknown force to suddenly appear in North America. And judging from the fact that there has been no movement from the shore forts so far, I am afraid that the local