Great time travel

Chapter 18, 27 Moments in the Four Years of Chongzhen (Eighteen)
No.18 moments: Unexpected and unscientific
December 1630, 12, off the coast of North West Australia
An expedition ship "Chopper" from the "East Coast Republic", an emerging power in South America, is slowly heading north along the coastline of Western Australia, driven by ocean currents and steam engines.Due to the unfavorable wind direction, all the sails on the mast of the "Breaking Wave" fell down, only the huge paddle wheels on both sides of the ship's side were still spinning, providing acceleration power for the expedition ship drifting along the ocean current.

Captain Li Yi stood on the poop of the expedition ship, casually looking at the desolate coastline in the east with binoculars.

Indeed, in this desolate land, there are countless high-quality mineral deposits that are easy to mine, but for the small East Coast Republic with few people, it is of no significance.And the main goal of Captain Li Yi's voyage this time was not to seize an Australian colony for the east coast country.

——The most important purpose of his sea expedition is to try to bypass the blockade of the European powers and open a route to the Ming Empire, so as to collect more Chinese for the East Coast Republic located in the Uruguay region of South America. migrant.

Since more than 500 Chinese traversers from the 21st century established their country in the Uruguay region of South America on the east bank of the La Platte River, they imported people of the same language and species from the distant Ming Dynasty to ensure the number of main ethnic groups and maintain national stability. It has become a national policy on the east coast.

However, Uruguay, located in the south-central part of South America and adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, is too far away from the homeland of the Central Plains.If the East Coast Country wants to obtain a large number of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, the only way is to entrust them to China to recruit refugees through the Portuguese channel. In these years, they are the only Westerners who have a stronghold and connections in China. Neither the Chinese nor the Dutch have opened a way to communicate directly with the Ming Dynasty.

Obviously, any monopoly business will lead to huge profits.What's more terrible is that in the New York region of the original time and space in North America, nine thousand kilometers away, there is another group of Chinese traversers "Huamei", which also has an urgent need to import Chinese immigrants from the East.Under the rush of bidding by two buyers, the only "supplier" grape people took the opportunity to sit on the ground and raise the price, causing the two Chinese transmigrator groups in North and South America to complain. The price of an immigrant to America was actually raised by the Portuguese to a full 400 taels of silver!This is still the lowest reserve price!If it was a thin little girl who was transported here, the amount of silver worth so much would probably be about the same as her weight!
In the Ming Dynasty at the same time, the price of buying a little girl was no more than four taels of silver, and the cheap ones were often only one tael to two taels...

As a result, Huamei and the East Coast countries have built many "advanced" industries such as textiles, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, and sun-dried salt over the years, and used technological advantages to carry out a considerable part of the development dividends obtained from the industrial revolution in advance. People swallowed it in one gulp.And the oil and water scraped from the two American traverser groups through population trade reached one-fifth of the annual fiscal revenue of the Kingdom of Portugal! ! !

After gritted their teeth for several years, Huamei and Dong'an Nation finally couldn't stand such an expensive and large expense, and started to explore the Eastern sea route one after another. Unfortunately, things didn't go well from the beginning—in order to obtain The relay station leading to the Eastern world, the Huamei and the East Coast countries established colonial strongholds in South Africa almost at the same time, and because one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, serious armed conflicts broke out soon... Beginning in 1628 AD, The indigenous vassal armies of the two sides launched armed confrontation and small-scale firefights in South Africa. The warships flying the blue and white five-star flag (Huamei) and the red-bottomed double-sword goshawk flag (East Coast State) opened their guns to each other, and they were at war with each other. A South African war seemed imminent.

In the end, given that Huamei in North America already possessed steam armored warships, and had superior firepower and military strength on the South African battlefield, the east coast countries in South America were forced to compromise and retreat, and the peace talks ended—Huamei got the territory of South Africa, but the Due to the friendship of fellow countrymen, the port must also be open to the East Coast countries, and people from the East Coast countries were also inserted in the colonial government, which is a bit similar to the public concession in Shanghai during the Republic of China.Then, the colonists of the East Coast Country who withdrew from South Africa in despair moved to Madagascar, where they established a port "Tacheng" as a base for advancing to the East.

Next, the East Coast Kingdom sent two warships to try a voyage to the East in 1629, but they were beaten up by the Dutch fleet in the Strait of Malacca and fled. The British maritime power in this era has not yet developed, and the Netherlands He is the world's most powerful ocean overlord, with at least [-] warships and armed merchant ships all over the world, the title of Sea Coachman is really not for nothing!

As the key to controlling the spice trade, Batavia's Dutch fleet is also quite powerful, second only to the Netherlands itself.With such a powerful fleet, the Dutch almost monopolized the eastern route in this century, especially the crucial Strait of Malacca, which was regarded as a taboo by the Dutch.Except for a few British, French or Danish ships that had exchanged interests with them, which might pass through in peacetime, as long as other forces appeared near the Bay of Bengal and the Strait of Malacca, they would be attacked by the Dutch fleet.

Even the Portuguese and Spaniards who came to the East earlier were blocked by the Dutch fleet in this century. The connection between the mainland and the Far East colonies is always intermittent, often for many years without a Portuguese ship. Arriving in Macau... Fortunately, around 1630, the relationship between the Portuguese and the Dutch was not bad, so they were able to do business with two groups of travelers from America who trafficked people from the Ming Dynasty.

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There are only two ways to break through the Dutch blockade. One is to assemble an unprecedentedly large fleet to the Far East, so that the Dutch Far East Fleet will not dare to talk and move; If it is fast, it may be able to break through the blockade of the Dutch in the Strait of Malacca... But the price of the former is too terrible, and the latter is too unreliable, so the east coast country chose the third method: do not go through the Strait of Malacca, but detour!
——Specifically, it takes the westerly drifting belt of the southern hemisphere ocean as the natural power source, sails from Uruguay to South Africa or Madagascar, and then continues from the southern tip of Africa to cross the Indian Ocean with ocean currents, reaching Perth on the west coast of Australia—this sea area Far from land, desolate and open, there is basically no danger of encountering pirates and enemy navies.Then turn the rudder north from here, and follow the cold current of Western Australia all the way north into Southeast Asia—this area is dotted with thousands of islands. No matter how strong the Dutch are, they can only control Batavia and Malacca at best. Waiting for a few key points, there is no way to monitor every shipping route. Stowaways can calmly cross this sea area and reach Japan, Taiwan, North Korea and even mainland China in the north.When it’s time to return, you can go south along the East Australian warm current on the east coast of Australia, enter the westerly belt of the southern hemisphere again, and then take the wind across the Pacific Ocean, pass through the Strait of Magellan or the Drake Strait, and finally return to the East Coast Republic .

Of course, this immigration route around the earth was only drawn by a few naval officials from the sea charts, and it seems to be feasible in theory. As for what troubles will be encountered in practice, no one knows at all... ...For this reason, there is Captain Li Yi's voyage.

More than a month ago, Captain Li Yi was ordered to command the two newly developed steam paddle wheel-sail hybrid exploration ships on the east coast—the "Breaking Wave" and "Chopper" with a displacement of more than 730 tons. The Tacheng base anchored and set sail, and it took about half a month to successfully cross the Indian Ocean and reach the desolate and dry west coast of Australia.After landing and surveying the landforms, burying a stele of sovereignty, and replacing the stinky water in the water tank full of suspicious green suspensions with fresh water, Li Yi left the "Breaking Waves" to build a colony in the original time-space Perth area. From the stronghold, I took the "Chopper" replenished with fresh water and continued northward to survey the route conditions in Western Australia.

Looking towards the shore from the "Chopper", you can see a desolate long yellow sand, lack of plants, no rivers, barren and drought are the main colors here.However, at the foot of the raised mountains in the distance, there are some green embellishments. Perhaps only the mountains can have so few streams that can provide the source of life for this arid land.As the expedition ship moved slowly, the desert landscape on the shore gradually turned into a flat prairie, but it was still quite arid, and even trees were rarely seen—due to the impact of the cold current in Western Australia, Western Australia is like this A barren scene where tropical grasslands and tropical deserts intersect. In terms of living environment, it is probably similar to the Western Regions of China, and it is even more lonely and lonely. There are no relics left by human civilization, and even the animals are far behind the Eurasian continent. an era...

Just as Captain Li Yi, who had just had breakfast, was holding his teacup and thinking wildly, the lookout at the top of the mast suddenly blew his copper whistle... which indicated something that had never been thought of before. , has quietly happened...

Then, through their respective binoculars, they saw in disbelief the ruins of artificial buildings scattered along the coast, boats and rafts wandering by the sea, and a beacon tower on a cliff, billowing thick smoke into the sky. It seemed that I heard gunshots vaguely before...

For a moment, Captain Li Yi and the officers who traveled through him were all dumbfounded:

Hey, according to historical records, the British should not begin to colonize Australia until 150 years later!And these buildings and houses on the shore, no matter how you look at them, are not what the stone age aborigines of the Australian mainland could have built... This is unscientific!
Then, another even more unscientific thing happened:
They found a man who could fly!
Facing this "flying man" in the sky, many sailors were so frightened that they fell to their knees and prostrated themselves on the deck, expressing their awe and fear in the most humble gesture.Even the East Bank country traversers headed by Captain Li Yi had weak legs and confused thinking.

And this "flying man" circled slowly over the "Chopper" and shouted to them in English, French, Italian and Mandarin Chinese, "...you have entered the jurisdiction of this city, please Identify yourself, gentlemen! And, welcome to Australia!"

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Half a month later, the last day of the year on the Gregorian calendar, December 1631, 12

Captain Li Yi stood on the dusty streets of Zhongnan City, which had just begun to be rebuilt, watching forklifts, forklifts, and trolleys coming and going on the sandy road. members) chanted to set up pillars and wooden beams, and then accompanied by a roar from far to near, a steel monster like a hill drove over from the road screaming.Well, for people of this era, the heavy trucks produced in Shaanxi, China nearly 400 years later can definitely be called steel monsters.

——After being in contact with each other for so long, the travelers from the east coast of South America have basically regained their composure to these "time-traveling Australians" who suddenly appeared.After all, he experienced such horror and shock once when he learned of the existence of another group of traversers in North America a few years ago—since Manhattan, New York in North America can have a coquettish "Huamei" ", then why can't there be a group of "modern Australians" from the 21st century in Derby Harbor in the northwest of Australia?

Of course, it’s calm to be calm, but what should be excited is to be excited-although the planned journey to China to recruit refugees is estimated to be abandoned halfway, but what they discovered in Australia this time is enough to make up for any losses: not to mention If the modern galleon with a full load displacement of more than 1 tons can be abducted, it will drive the heads of the navy crazy.Just these 140 compatriots who traversed, if they could be fooled back to the East Coast Republic, they would definitely contribute far more than a thousand immigrants from the Ming Dynasty to the country's construction.

In fact, even this Central South City (later Port of Derby), which is regarded as a bitter place by the "time-traveling Australians", is also a very good navigation relay station, coal filling station and forward base in the eyes of the Republic Navy on the East Coast: There are woods that can provide timber, grasslands that can herd horses and sheep, and valleys and streams that can be cultivated-although water resources are estimated to be able to support the production and life of tens of thousands of people at most, but for this era of vast land and sparse population More importantly, there are coal mines, copper mines, silver mines, and iron mines that have already been developed... The "Breaking Waves" and "Chopping Waves" that have arrived in Jinwan successively, just pretend to be Full of good quality coal previously mined by the "Australians".

According to the most perfect vision of Captain Li Yi, the captain of the Eastern Expedition, it is best to lure these more than 140 "modern compatriots" back to the east bank. Get the "Cosco Star" back—in the world at this moment, the tonnage of the "Cosco Star" may be the number one in the world!If it is hung on a red-bottomed double-sword goshawk flag and changed to a navy flagship, it will be absolutely outrageous!In addition, the thousands of tons of various modern metal products carried on this ship are also things that are coveted by everyone in the East Bank country-many alloys can’t be bought in today’s world, no matter how much money you have. !
As for this Central South City, it will be managed by the black militia and European immigrants he brought from Madagascar. Aboriginal slaves captured by the "Australians" of course continued to work here until their death.And those Polish big noses who have an equal relationship with "Australians" can allow them to choose freely: those who want to go to the east coast can go to the east coast, and those who want to stay here can stay... Anyway, the east coast has always been lacking labor force.

It's a pity that the above-mentioned trick plan of recruiting people into the group cannot be implemented for the time being, because the "Cosco Star" was washed into the lagoon by the flood in the rainy season. Unless a canal leading to the open sea is dug, it will have to wait until the water level rises in the next rainy season. It is possible to sail—according to the amount of work calculated by the traversers on both sides, it is simply impossible for them to dig such a canal on the wet and muddy beach.

Therefore, no matter how greedy he is for the "COSCO Star" with a full load displacement of 11000 tons, Captain Li Yi can only stay calm for the time being, and first reach a cooperation agreement with more than 140 "Australians" on board. The grain seeds and vegetable seeds carried allowed the fields in Zhongnan City to be sown with potatoes, sweet potatoes, wheat, rice, gourds, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cabbages, water spinach and other crops.In addition, the expedition team also generously allocated more than 20 tons of flour directly to the "Australians", which made these poor people who were already tired of eating kangaroo meat smile.

But despite this, there is still no further progress on the matter of recruiting Australian traversers to join the East Coast Country.The most critical problem is that Captain Li Yi's rank is really not high enough, so he can't make any reliable guarantees about the treatment of the Australian traversers after they are incorporated - both sides are treacherous modern people, and they both know the random tricks of the little devils below, and the above The boss may not recognize it...so Captain Li Yi alone can't talk about anything.

——The attitude of those "Australians" towards the incorporation of the East Coast Country is: it can be considered, but please talk to someone who can speak!
This answer made Captain Li Yi, the expedition leader, feel very frustrated, but there was nothing he could do about it: If he asked domestic replacements to negotiate, his credit would be greatly reduced—if he was not directly drifted away...but if he used force directly, The consequences would be even more unimaginable.

——For the modern Chinese time travelers who are trying to survive together in this strange world, fighting between time travelers is a very taboo thing.Unless it is absolutely necessary, no one wants to set this precedent.Even in the military conflict between the East Coast States and the United States for the South African colony, only a handful of European and Indian officers and a small group of black soldiers died, and the warships of the two sides never broke out. There was an artillery battle, and none of the traversers on both sides died under the opponent's guns and swords... Captain Li Yi didn't want to be the first to set a precedent in this regard!

Just as Li Yi was thinking so wildly, Li Wei, one of the leaders of the "Australians", hurried over and greeted him.

In the eyes of Captain Li Yi, it is a miracle if the "COSCO Star" and the Australian traverser were discovered during this expedition.Then meeting Li Wei, a senior traveler who was once pulled into the infinite space by the "lord god" and lived in medieval Europe for several years, is even more a miracle among miracles-infinite space, the lord god light ball, reincarnation, British and French centuries-old War, the Black Death... and Doraemon?This unscientific! ! !

In fact, if he hadn't seen the magical props [Bamboo Dragonfly] and [Shrinking Lamp] in Li Wei's hands, Captain Li Yi would never have believed that this yellow-haired Chinese-Russian mixed race had such an incredible experience, let alone believe it He used to be a super soldier reincarnated in infinite space—but unfortunately, after trying these two things with his own hands, which obviously surpassed the technological level of the 21st century, all the travelers in the East Coast Kingdom had to believe that Li Wei The outrageous stories told are likely to be true.

What's even more regrettable is that the [shrinking light] in the hands of this strange man Li Wei is a miniature product the size of a finger. It is probably not a problem to deal with opponents of the same size as tanks, dinosaurs, and whales, but for " The Cosco Star” is a huge man-made object like a [-]-ton modern sailing ship. Otherwise, he would have shrunk the “Cosco Star” into a miniature model aircraft, picked it up, and then taken it to the open sea to “release”.

However, Li Wei came here this time, not to show off some magical props to him, nor to discuss how to get the "Cosco Star" [-]-ton modern sailing ship out of the shallows, "...Captain Li Yi, Baron Andrew's funeral is coming soon." It's about to start, don't you want to participate?"

Sir Andrew?Captain Li Yi blinked, and after thinking for a few seconds, he remembered that this was the name of the little Polish nobleman.

"...Uh, is that the Pole who wanted to die yesterday? He's going to be buried now? Then I'll go and see it too!"

Captain Li Yi replied casually, bent down and picked a white flower from the grass on the side of the road, and stuck it on his chest, "...but...hehe, this guy actually died like Franklin...should Are you saying that he really deserves to be a Pole with a talent for death?"