Great time travel

Chapter 26, 27 moments in the four years of Chongzhen (26)

No.20 Six Moments: The Lone Ship of Kitakami

At the end of December in the fourth year of Chongzhen, early in the morning, in the northern part of the East China Sea, near the mouth of the Yangtze River
Although today is approaching the New Year's Eve and the sea is rough and windy, the poor fishermen, who are overwhelmed by exorbitant taxes and skyrocketing food prices, are forced to take the risk of sailing out to sea early in the morning. He was struggling to pull the few fishing nets to the boat, and his thin body seemed unable to withstand a gust of sea wind, but he froze like a weed in a strong wind, struggling to survive in the waves.

On a certain fishing boat, a child about five or six years old was wearing an old gown, sitting barefoot on the bow of the boat, holding a paper windmill in his hand, and a long cloth belt around his waist , and the other end is tightly wound on the bow prop.For some unknown reason, this naughty child always looked into the distance from time to time—at the end of the misty sea level, there seemed to be some blurred images that attracted his attention.

Then, a towering white sail slowly appeared on the sea... The huge hull hidden behind the fog was something the ignorant fisherman had never seen in his life, and the dark cannon on the boat was even more impressive shudder.Although the boat in front of me is still far away, the incomparable hull has already stunned the fishermen who have been drifting at sea all their lives. In this world, there is such a big boat!

——Although western-style galleons of this tonnage are not uncommon on the coast of Fujian and Guangdong, and lucky ships of several hundred tons are even more common, but on the coastline of mainland China north of the Yangtze River estuary, since the disappearance of the treasure ships during Zheng He’s reign, there has been There has never been a "giant ship" of this size.

At the same time, this thousand-ton western-style galleon that rides the wind and waves—the steam-sail hybrid battleship "Haitian" with chimneys erected on the deck, didn't pay attention to the surprised eyes on the small fishing boats at all. Continue heading north along the coastline of mainland China.On the deck of the sailboat, several officers in blue military uniforms with stand-up collars, slender sabers hanging from their waists, each holding a binoculars, were chatting about something.

And in front of them, a general of the Ming Dynasty, wearing a bright armor and a scarlet cloak, was standing tall with a sword, standing firmly on the slightly undulating deck, facing the howling winter wind, squinting. He closed his eyes and looked thoughtfully at the sea of ​​mist ahead.

He is the Fujian General Soldier of the Ming Dynasty, the Army Commander-in-Chief of the "Kun Thieves", and the legendary general who fought all over Liaodong in the past: Huangshi, Huang Dashuai!
At the end of the fourth year of Chongzhen, the East China Sea was still covered with mist. It first appeared pink like a fairyland, and then gradually turned white.The sun was wrapped in this morning mist, gradually rising, emitting a weak light.The thick fog stood in front of the sailors like a wall, cut open by the bow and closed again by the stern.And the officers standing on the deck also felt that water was almost dripping from the air.

As the sun rises, the mist on the sea gradually thins, and the west coastline clearly appears from the mist.The lookout on the mast shouted down through the sound tube, and several naval lieutenants went to the chart room to make calculations, and finally conveyed it to the captain of the personal guard, who came out to speak to Huangshi who was meditating on the deck, "... ...Report to the Commander! This ship has already passed the Shengsi Islands! Is it going directly north to Liaodong?"

"...No, according to the original plan, we will go to North Korea's Jeju Island first, and investigate the situation of this scheduled transit point!"

Huang Shi pondered for a moment, then turned his head and said, "...Also, raise my military flag! Now there is no need to hide it!"

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With Huangshi Huang's order, the deck of the Haitian battleship suddenly became busy, with beeping sirens and jingling copper bells everywhere.The sailors were busy hoisting and furling the sails and adjusting the cables.The black smoke from the chimney is getting thicker and thicker. It is obvious that the fireman is desperately burning the boiler, ready to turn and accelerate.A general flag with the words "Da Ming Fujian General Soldier Huang" written on it, a Green Snake Army flag of the fire-fighting battalion of Marshal Huang's direct troops, and a blue-and-white Qiming Cross Star flag of the Lingao Senate were hoisted on the mast at the same time, waving against the hunting sea breeze. .

At the same time, Marshal Huang, who had been blowing the sea breeze for a while, slowly walked back to his cabin under the poop deck, taking a rest.

——In the establishment of the Lingao Traveler Senate Navy, the name "Haitian" originally belonged to a 170-ton Guangzhou ship, which once served as a transport mission in the Pearl River Estuary raid by the "Kun Thieves".Next, with the decommissioning of the old Guangzhou ships, the name "Haitian" was transplanted to a [-]-ton European-style two-masted schooner. During the battle between Taiwan and Japan, a series of investigations were carried out. mapping tasks.However, during this year's expedition to the Satsuma Domain, the "Haitian" ran aground and was difficult to repair for a while, so the Senate simply gave it to the allies of the Changzhou Domain, and then gave the name of the "Haitian" Once again transferred to a newly launched steam-sail hybrid battleship.

The "Haitian" III that Huangshi is currently riding on has a full-load displacement of 1050 tons and is powered by two steam engines of about 300 horsepower. Driven by propellers, it can reach a speed of [-] knots at the fastest in a downwind state.As a warship, the hull of the "Haitian" is covered with copper skin. The ship is equipped with three rotary rifled guns, sixteen smoothbore guns and several "typewriter" rotary guns (the predecessor of the machine gun, or small-caliber plus Tring Cannon), in this era of Northeast Asian seas, it is reasonable to say that it is almost an invincible behemoth.

But Huang Shi was not satisfied with this lonely battleship—he was supposed to take a huge fleet including transport ships, medical ships, battleships and marines to Liaodong to pick up those suffering, hungry and cold old Dongjiang soldiers. By the way, teach the Tatars a lesson.Instead of just taking a boat and sailing northward at the end of the year as it is now, at best it can only bring life to a few dozens of refugees, which is purely better than nothing.

Under Huangshi's hard work, the Senate had already made a perfect plan for the "Liaodong Great Retreat". It planned to occupy North Korea's Jeju Island as a transit point, import and stockpile the rations needed by the refugees from Japan, and then in the Repeated transfers between Liaodong, Jeju, Taiwan, Fujian, and Hainan Island, trying to rescue at least 10 people from Liaodong at one time, so that our national power will explode again to a higher level.

However, with the expeditionary fleets of the East Coast Countries and China and the United States, they traveled thousands of miles from North and South America to East Asia, and the "real" Australians' [-]-ton modern sailboats came to Batavia Port, the entire Lingao crossing The group suddenly felt as if it was facing a formidable enemy, and no longer had the heart to pay attention to the affairs of Liaodong.This large-scale rescue and immigration operation has been put on hold indefinitely—most of the fleet and troops under the Senate will be shrunk to Lingao, not only for precaution, but also to show off their power and show off to other continents. Chinese traversers show strength: Any diplomacy needs to be backed by force!
Therefore, at least until this unprecedented "Global Traveler Summit" is successfully concluded, there is no way for Lingao to make any big moves.

But the problem is that Dongjiang soldiers and civilians who are currently trapped in the chaos, including many acquaintances of Huangshi, may not be able to survive this winter!
Huangshi was very anxious about this, but he couldn't convince those elders. In the end, the Senate just looked at his face and dispatched a warship "Haitian" to carry out a reconnaissance mission to the north to prepare for the "Liaodong Retreat" that may be re-launched in the future. Taking action to collect information, and if conditions permit, a small group of refugees can also be brought back... So, the frustrated Huangshi held the idea that "it is only one person who can save an old friend", and rejected the seat of Lingao's conference. Not at home anymore, personally led an elite guard, took the Haitian and headed north, preparing to go to Liaodong to rescue old friends. ——No matter how many people can be rescued in the end, at least he must do his best, otherwise Huangshi simply doesn't know how to explain to the old Liaodong troops around him.

In fact, from Huangshi's point of view, the Lingao's traveler Senate was so nervous that he was actually scaring himself.Even if the Lingao side is negligent, according to common sense, the "compatriots" who travel through the Americas and Australia should not have any malice towards the Lingao side...

——From the map, the "Huamei" with New York as the capital in North America, the "East Coast Country" with Uruguay in South America as the core, and their colonies in southern Africa, as well as the Australian crossings that occupied the later Derby Port, Like clusters of sparks, they illuminate every wild corner on the edge of the civilized world.However, the reason why they are called sparks is because their foundation is not solid, and they are in danger of being extinguished at any time: the total population of these three "distance traveling forces" may not even be 100 million!
The group in Australia is in the worst situation. Although they have a modern galleon that is superior to East Asia, they have almost nothing else: no population, no market, no army, and even the timber suitable for shipbuilding and food for sustaining life are scarce. scarcity.If they are unlucky, as long as a natural disaster or even a group of pirates, they can kill the small colonial city-state they established in their infancy.

The two groups of people from the Americas have come to this world for ten years, they have bumped and bumped along the way, and now they can barely gain a firm foothold.However, the East Coast Republic is located between the colonies of Portugal and Spain. In order to develop and expand, it is impossible not to fight with Spain. There is no way to spare too much energy to intervene in other corners of the world. South America and Spain die while serving.

The Huamei Republic in the north occupies the basic market of the future United States. Behind it is a vast and rich North America that can be developed. The development space and environment are relatively ideal, and there is little interest in other overseas territories.But on a very fatal issue, it is as embarrassed as the East Coast Republic.

——America and Australia, sleeping in the wild, not only means great wealth for the traversers, but also means crisis and burden!No matter which group of them founded the country, it was a marginal corner of the entire civilized world, far away from the main wealth and cultural centers of the world at that time.There is almost nothing but nature, and they can only rely on them to start from scratch, a little bit of thorns and thorns.However, this requires continuous immigrants from the civilized world to join in order to raise the most basic labor force for development work.

However, the Americas face Europe and Africa across the Atlantic Ocean, and the immigrants that can be introduced relatively easily are naturally only Europeans and Africans—in most cases, of course, Europeans are the majority.However, the rulers of these two time-traveling groups are later generations of Chinese, the official language can only be Chinese, and the mainstream culture must also be Chinese culture.And in Europe these days, there is no such thing as "multiculturalism", only the firm belief that "God rules everything" and the glorious mission of "burning the heretics"-in this way, the so-called clash of civilizations is inevitable, and the entire ruling class As if sitting on the crater, the resistance of the indigenous people and the turmoil of European immigrants, coupled with the fuel of the enemy's forces, may overthrow their country at any time!
In this way, unless the traversers are willing to switch to English or Spanish and convert to Christianity collectively, even if it is just to maintain the survival of the country, a large number of immigrants must be introduced from the Ming Dynasty to balance the domestic situation.Even if it depletes the national treasury, it will not hesitate!

Even if they don't consider the friendship of fellow travelers, under such circumstances, how dare they offend the Lingao travelers who are stuck in the immigration channel?
In contrast, the situation of Lingao crossing people entrenched in the southern gate of China is much more comfortable - they can effectively use the market of Ming Dynasty, and can easily interfere with the situation of Ming Dynasty, without the need to The two forces are the same, and they have to travel thousands of miles across half the world.Even attracting immigrants is much easier - after all, Lingao is still within the traditional territory of Ming Dynasty, but America is already a place beyond the imagination of Ming Dynasty people.

In short, the current situation is that the forces of traversers in the Americas and Australia are seeking to cross the mountains, not the other way around—the Huamei and the East Coast countries in the Americas cannot affect the development of the situation in the Ming Dynasty, and they have no power to turn the flames of war. Spread it to the gate of the Lingao Senate...

The above reasons were mentioned by Huangshi at the general meeting of Lingao, and they were also recognized by many people.But the problem is that even though they know that people from the Americas and Australia are basically unlikely to be malicious, most of the veterans still insist on using their military forces as much as possible in line with the idea of ​​"not afraid of ten thousand, just in case". Having gathered in Lingao, at any rate, they can feel more secure—so, the Liaodong rescue operation finally came to a halt.

And Huangshi had no choice but to leave Lingao full of depression and helplessness, and sailed northward on the "Haitian" alone.

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Due to the unfamiliar route and unfavorable wind direction, the "Haitian" did not arrive in the waters near Jeju Island until the New Year's Eve in the fourth year of Chongzhen.

At this time, the boat is full of "New Year's taste" - even if they have to drift away during the Chinese New Year, the Chinese must try their best to gather a decent New Year's Eve dinner: the dumplings are too late to make, but the chef still puts them on the boat. The bacon, radish, onion and other shelf-stable vegetables are boiled in a large pot, together with authentic Longkou vermicelli, sprinkled with some spices, and stewed until it is fragrant.The soldiers also received a special ration from the quartermaster: two taels of rum, two cigarettes, a pastry and a few pieces of fruit candy.Couplets were pasted on the cabin door, lanterns were hung in the canteen, and there was joy everywhere.

However, just as everyone on the boat found an opportunity to come to the kitchen door to smell the aroma and wait for the meal like a cat scratching in their hearts, there were bursts of panicked screams from the lookout post, which attracted everyone to wait and see... …After a while, and then, like the lookout on the mast, the other people on the ship also fell into a state of confusion in the wind, and the corners of their mouths twitched like epilepsy, and they could no longer speak .

Even the commander-in-chief of Huangshi, who has always been known as "Mount Tai collapsed on the top without changing his face", was also stunned and stunned.

——In front of their field of vision is the sea, islands, and ships.

But the problem is that the unidentified ships that appeared in front of the Haitian warship in the waters of Jeju Island, Kingdom of Korea, were not the simple merchant ships or fishing boats that were commonly seen along the way, nor were they the plank boats and turtle boats of the Korean Navy, but a group of A surprisingly large, terrifyingly large steel giant ship!

Compared with it, the Haitian under their feet is like a toy!
All of a sudden, the oppressive feeling of looking down on all living beings penetrated deeply into everyone's pores—unexpectedly, the people on the big iron boat opposite saw a ship that should have appeared on the East Asian sea in the seventeenth century. After the steamships that existed in the nineteenth century, they were also inexplicable.

Then, Marshal Huang of Huangshi looked at the five-star red flag on the top of the mast of the "crocodile" landing ship opposite, and couldn't help but burst into tears, "...that is... the five-star red flag of New China?! How is this possible? Could it be this ship? The boat traveled back to modern times?! And I can go to see my parents?!!"

——Unfortunately, the reality may not be as beautiful as Marshal Huangshi imagined.

After getting in touch with the landing ship opposite, initially figuring out the origin of the other party, and confirming that he had not returned to modern times, Huang Shi's mood sank.When his Haitian was "escorted" by two iron-hulled armed fishing boats of the Far East Company and sailed into the port of Jeju Island, and found many acquaintances of the Dongjiang Army wearing Russian military uniforms here, Huang Shi's mood became even more embarrassing. I don't even know how to complain.

At the same time, because the Haitian was not equipped with a radio, the upper and lower members of the Lingao Traveler Senate, who knew nothing about it, were still in full swing preparing for the Global Traveler Summit—people from distant America and Australia. The "Visiting Fleet" has set sail from Batavia at this time...