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, Rucci was extremely dissatisfied with the construction quality and poor sanitary environment inside the fortress, so 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.
Although Lu Qi didn't understand Spanish, he brought a translator. So under the confused gaze, this guy first said "H" to these people through the mask, then took out the translator and played out the pre-translated "You are free".
Lu Qi thought that with this hand, he could instantly gain a halo, so he changed his name to "Magic". Unexpectedly, the faces of the Indian men and women, who had been brainwashed by the monks for many years, all changed drastically, and they kept retreating, muttering one word - Diablo.
have to! Failed to pretend...
Lu Qi was so depressed that he felt like his head was covered with black lines. If the other party said something else, he might not understand. The problem is that he is 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. where. In addition, he 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, Rucci 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 the first thing to do after returning is handwashing.
"Why? They 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's the one who is sick."
Li Shi trembled and said in shock: "Sir, what kind of disease is that?"
"Hua Liu! 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. Chai Rong and Chen Yingqi standing behind him were also sweating.
You must know that Rucci did a lot of homework before coming to North America. The reason why he didn't 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 epidemic nearly wiped out Philadelphia. In just three months, more than 5,000 people lost their lives 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 at all. So when the French who escaped from Haiti brought their slaves to Philadelphia, disaster struck.
The problem is that this is only the French's fault. Starting in 1791, the British and Spanish also sent troops to invade because they coveted the plantations there.
Does anyone know if any of the Spaniards who lived in the fortress went to Haiti? And California winters aren’t that cold either!
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. The only way to recover is through bed rest and electrolyte supplementation.
Lu Qi did not expect that his words, exaggerated by Chen Yingqi and Chai Rong, would immediately trigger panic among more than 200 soldiers in the corps. At night, no one wanted to go on duty in the fortress compound. At most, they stayed 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 it upon himself to do so.
I took more than fifty outdoor emergency blankets. Zhao Xin purchased this thing from another time and space, 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, the outer layer of the emergency blanket was plated with double-sided silver to keep warm. As a result, this thing 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 were soon led by gun-wielding soldiers to the outside of the fortress gate. Several soldiers gave them a bag of food, waved their hands to let them go, and said the "libertad" that Lucci taught them. .
More than fifty Indians also noticed that these outsiders who looked similar to them disliked them. But they were still happy to be free and have food to eat.
As soon as the Indians left, Rucci ordered the military doctor accompanying the team to prepare disinfectant. He planned to disinfect the inside of the fortress first, and then demolish all the buildings, especially the monastery.
He was busy here, and Wang Yuanfang, who was on the Thor, was not idle either. There is still a lot of supplies on the ship that need to be sent ashore, and it is estimated that it will 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 in Beihai Town.
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 was set up by Wang Yuanfang and the others on the way here, and a platoon of troops was specially left on duty.
The reason why they chose it there was that they wanted to use Unalaska Island as an advance base for future landings in Alaska, and the other reason was because the Russians had a permanent settlement there.
Fifty-two years ago, that is, in 1741, Danish Vitus Bering and Russian Alexei Chirikov were commissioned by the Russian Empire to sail to the North Pacific on the St. Peter and St. Paul. explore. After the ship was separated during a storm, Chirikov discovered several islands in the eastern 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 Siberian fur trappers flocked to the area and gradually headed east 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 merchants, they forced the local Aleuts to work for them and pay fur taxes, and also took their families as hostages, which eventually triggered a large-scale resistance among 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. After another four years, the island became a permanent Russian settlement.
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.
But in this time and space, everything changed completely due to the "Battle of Usoliya" three years ago. Since the power of the Tsarist Empire was completely driven out of Eastern Siberia, all businessmen who coveted fur profits, whether in Okhotsk or Kamchatka, turned to Beihai Town for allegiance.
You must know that although Beihai Town today nominally controls the entire Eastern Siberia, because Okhotsk and Kamchatka Peninsula are so remote and extremely cold, they are still controlled by a group of fur traders. Zhao Xin was also happy about this. He felt that the land transportation to the west was under his control anyway, and the Russian businessmen would not be able to get away with it.
Since last year, businessmen from Baibai City have been lobbying the Governor-General's Office to jointly establish a "China-U.S. Trade Organization".
Easy Company". Taking into account the historical massacre of the Aleut aborigines by Russian fur traders, Zhao Xin asked Bai Boer to tell those traders that as long as they paid taxes on time and abide by the laws of Beihai Town, the Governor's Office would not interfere with anything else.
On its way to California, the Thor specifically stopped at Unalaska Island and spent a week building a relay station tower. Of course, the Russians on the island dare not fart, otherwise they would not be able to transport even a single hair to Europe. Although they didn't understand the purpose of the triangular tower made of steel pipes, they still patted their chests and said that 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 alcohol.
After receiving the telegram, Zhao Xin learned that Wang Yuanfang and the others were making good progress. He immediately notified the Navy to have the "Jaguar" motor and sailboat 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. It is 68.88 meters long, 12.13 meters wide, with 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 four 75mm cannons 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, a 600-horsepower medium- and high-speed diesel engine is installed in the lower cabin in the middle of the hull 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 the "Jaguar" will set off from Whale Harbor and head east along the Aleutian Islands. Including stopover time, it will take almost 25 days to reach Kinmen Town.
If nothing goes wrong 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 Two boats were sailing along the coastline from north to south, kilometers away.
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, a fleet of two brigs. But when Wang saw the flag fluttering on the main mast through the telescope from a distance, he blurted out in surprise: "Why are they British?!"
...
Ten minutes ago, in the captain's cabin of the Discovery, the 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 has a round face with a double chin and bright eyes. This man's name is George Vancouver, a British Royal Navy captain and the commander of this fleet.
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 for its exploration in history. From 1791 to 1794, he led an expedition that explored the Pacific Northwest 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 bunch of insidious people, don't even think about making confessions or anything like that." The doctor began to ramble. "They tried to overthrow Congress. One of my best friends, you don't know how kind she is, she told me a lot of things about Catholics that I have forgotten, but I know they are all sinister. It's not like that. Can't trust them."
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." Got a strange ship!"
When Vancouver and the doctor came to the forecastle, the Thor across the channel was only three nautical miles away from them. There was no trace of fog on the sea at this moment, and the view was good. The tall poop of the Thor was clearly visible. The British on both ships 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 by the other party's ship as a guest. But 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. They could fight a dozen merchant ships, but with such a big thing in front of them, they really didn't know what to do.
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 lack of movement from the shore forts, I'm afraid the local Spanish fortress has fallen.
