A few days after the departure of the Combined Fleet, on February 20, 1642, a second group of Portuguese emigrant ships arrived at Xinhua Port. They brought more than 3,000 Ming immigrants, and the large number of immigrants almost filled the small Xinhuabao wharf. After paying for all the emigration, Shi Qinjie suddenly found that he still had about seventy or eighty thousand yuan in cash on hand, and after a little thought, he decided to keep the money and use it to buy some slaves for the next trade with Muscat merchants or the Ottoman Empire, so as to increase the population of the country. After all, the population is at all times the largest "commodity" imported by the Eastern Coast Republics, and the most important way for them to absorb their foreign trade surpluses.

Just when this group of immigrants arrived here, the first batch of Ming Dynasty immigrants about 1,000 people had already lined up on the dock, ready to take a ship to the mainland. The Galician Exocet, the Penglai, and a chartered French transport ship docked at the dock in turn, where they would return home with more than 1,000 migrants and a batch of timber and a few coal samples. The "Common Market" and the "Voyager" had already gone out to patrol the sea, and then they had to rely on the high-speed cruiser "Chaoyong" to escort them to the middle port of the South African River. As for the return voyage from the port of Kazhong, it was escorted by frigates of the Navy's First Fleet.

Just when the Xinhua area was busy, in the dock of the modern special shipyard in the local Hekoubao a few months ago, Wei Huazheng, the director of the factory, and several naval officers were carefully checking something on a quietly moored ship.

"The ship is almost finished." Wei Hua had a pipe in his mouth, and as he walked, he said to Li Yi, the newly promoted naval captain behind him, "This multi-purpose expedition ship must be regarded as the first steamship in the sequence of the two major fleets of the Navy, right?" Hey. You're in luck, boy. I don't know what Minister Lu Dao Wang likes about you. You were actually the captain of the 'Chopper'. ”

Hearing the ridicule in Wei Hua's mouth, Li Yi, who was quite familiar with him in private, was not angry at all, only to see that he also said in a slightly ridiculous tone: "Did you bring me the rank of captain by a strong wind?" Hey, it's not because I caught a Dutch pirate ship off the coast of Rocha Harbour that attacked our grain ship. It's called luck, and you can't stop it! I still remember the surprised faces of Ding Wei and Huang Yang at that time, Ha Luha, in the end, let Lao Li take the lead and take the ship 'Chopbo' from these animals. ”

What Li Yi said happened last month. That is, in mid-November 1641, when he was conducting a routine patrol on the fixed route between Zhenhai Port and Luoqia Port, he found that a small 72-ton steamer carrying grain from the Inland River Transport Company had broken down and anchored in the ocean more than ten nautical miles north of Luoqia Port. Not far from the small steamer, a suspected pirate ship without any flag was shooting at the small steamer in a threatening manner, while trying to get closer to capture the ship. At this moment, the frigate "Red Trout", which had been patrolling to this point, immediately seized the upper hand and quickly broke the resistance of the enemy ship, which had lowered most of its sails and was temporarily unable to move freely, with a fierce artillery fire.

More than twenty minutes later, the unprepared pirate ship was tragically broken and sank to the bottom of the South Atlantic. The sailors, who abandoned ship and escaped, naturally became prisoners of the East Coasters, and were interrogated by a surprise interrogation. The group confessed that they were from the Netherlands. It turned out that it was about two or three months ago. The Dutch West India Company suddenly announced to all Dutch captains in Recife that they were free to attack any ship of the Republic of China that they encountered. As for diplomatic disputes arising from such attacks, the West India Company will bear full responsibility.

As soon as these words came out, although the Dutch captains present did not say anything on the spot, many people's minds instantly became active. These lawless captains have been at sea for many years, and there is nothing they dare not do. I heard that the people on the east coast are all very rich, and their sea lines of communication have always been very busy, and they are still transporting food, cloth, munitions, and other scarce materials, so maybe it is not a good idea to start a business with no capital. In particular, after some Dutch captains who had gone to the port of Orient to sell their catches had made a vivid announcement about the richness of the east coast, a few anxious captains crossed the sea that night.

After receiving this important information, Li Yi quickly reported it back to the First Fleet Command and the Admiralty, and then the news was quickly fed back to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee convened an emergency meeting on the same day to consult, and it was unanimously judged that this was a dangerous signal, which meant that there had been some degree of change in the Dutch policy towards the East Coast. That is, they had lost patience with the unscrupulous partiality of the people on the east coast in favor of the Portuguese, and they began to encourage their ships to carry out free attacks on the people of the east coast, as they had done with all their rivals in Africa and in the Far East. And such an aggressive move may be just the beginning. If the people on the East Coast continue to maintain their previous policies, perhaps they will consider more radical measures, such as a trade blockade or even a full-scale declaration of war.

Unfortunately, the Dutch faced a different opponent than they had ever faced in the past, and there was no room for common sense. The East Bank was kidnapped by militarists from top to bottom, and they immediately responded to the incident. First, they forwarded a strongly worded diplomatic letter of protest to the Dutch West India Company through a Dutch captain who had come to sell the fish, demanding that the Dutch West India Company respond positively to the matter within three months; At the same time, the Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it would impose temporary punitive tariffs ranging from 12.5 to 75 per cent on all goods carried by ships from the Netherlands for a period of three months, until the Dutch West India Company had given a reasonable explanation for the matter before considering whether to remove the tariff.

As soon as this policy was announced, the smell of gunpowder between the two sides gradually became stronger, and the Spaniards and Portuguese, as if seeing some long-awaited possibility, began to send envoys to the port of Orient frequently. However, none of them were able to get any more valuable information from the mouths of the Easterners, and it was not even known whether the Easterners had made up their minds to go to war with the Dutch.

The Travelers certainly didn't want to go to all-out war with the Dutch, but having said that, there were many things in this world that people couldn't predict. Therefore, the necessary precautions are also indispensable. In mid-August 1641, Wei Hua, the director of the Hyundai Special Shipyard, began to apply to the Lu superiors for the construction of the "Chopper" double paddle steamer, and carried out a lot of preliminary preparations for this, and even he had ordered the workers to use some of the saved materials to build a part of the hull in advance. After this serious attack on the grain carrier, the Executive Committee quickly approved his application for the construction of the "Chopper" and began to step up the import of strategic materials such as sulfur, Brazilian mahogany, lead, copper, flax, and wax.

At this time, it was the end of January 1642, and after more than five months of intense construction, the "Chopper" was now basically ready to go to sea for sea trials. The basic parameters of the "Chopper" are exactly the same as those of the previously built "Breaking Waves", with a displacement of 730 tons, a flying scissor hollow bow, and a three-masted sail. The difference with the "Breaking Waves" is that the "Chopper" is equipped with a total of two paddlewheel propellers, which are located on both sides of the ship's side and are driven by a "Popeye-1" marine steam engine.

The "Popeye-1" steam engine was made by the Second Machinery Factory (reorganized and established after the boiler workshop of the First Machinery Factory was independent) on the original basic model, and its rated output power was slightly increased from the original, reaching about 36 kilowatts, or about 48.3 horsepower. Moreover, the airtightness of this steam engine is also better than the original, and a large number of brass sealing gaskets are used in many parts, which further improve the performance of this model of steam engine.

The two paddle blades of the "Chopper" are made of cast iron and are not easily damaged. Different from the wheel-type drive mode of the "Breaking Wave" train, the transmission rod of the "Chopper" steam engine is directly connected to the central shaft position of the paddle paddle propeller, which directly drives the rotation of the paddle paddle propeller. Similarly, there is still no bearing in this shaft, but the sliding friction between the transmission rod and the paddle shaft drives the rotation of the paddle propeller, so that the wear rate of the equipment is greatly accelerated, and the maintenance personnel need to pay close attention and maintain carefully.

"The steam engine has a rated output of 36 kilowatts, which is about 125 kilograms of coal per hour. How, it's much better than the leaky steam engine of the Popeye-1 basic model, right? Ha Lu Ha, the output power has gone up, and the coal per unit time has been consumed. What does this mean? It means battery life! "This means we can travel longer distances at a faster speed, and if the hold is stuffed with coal, we can even sail directly across the sea to the South African River Harbour across the sea." What do you think? That's a great feat, isn't it? Ha Luha, our industry is progressing bit by bit! I believe that if we continue to work hard to develop a better steam engine and excavate better quality coal, the endurance of this ship will be further strengthened. ”

"That's good!" Li Yi also said with a happy face, "I can't wait to drive out of the sea to go for a ride and find a feeling." (To be continued......)