After negotiating the terms with the Englishman Abraham, Xu Xin was a little excited. He walked around the room, weighing the pros and cons. Judging from the current situation and the information available, the contradiction between the King of England and the enlightened aristocracy and the emerging big bourgeoisie in Parliament is very acute. In line with the principle that the enemy of the enemy is the friend, the British king and the church can barely be regarded as "allies" that can be used by the people of the East Coast, and selling weapons to them at a preferential price is a sure thing for the East Coast.

After all, these weapons are not for fighting the East Coast, they are only used against Scottish heretics and parliamentarians. If he helps the King of England to strengthen his armament as soon as possible, so that he can survive a war with the Parliamentarians for a longer period of time, or even if his character is reversed, then the East Coast will make a lot of money.

Of course, there is no way to keep such a thing as selling weapons to the royal party completely secret. After all, the prestige of the "Tatartan Cannon" was not covered, and the parliamentarians could easily discover the source of the king's weapons, which would inevitably lead to their hostility. But so what, the East Coast and the British bourgeoisie are in constant rivalry. Even if a peace agreement is signed today, everyone knows that this will only be temporary, and sooner or later the two sides will break out again, which is almost inevitable.

Therefore, Xu Xin's decision to block the enemy was to be carried out resolutely. What's more, the profit of this business is not bad, and those royal party elements in Britain will send ships to Bordeaux to pick up the goods, so what is there to hesitate.

The only thing worrying at the moment is when the ships from the mainland will be able to come. Bordeaux's East Coast trading station has been expanded several times and now covers a large area, but it still can't accommodate the thousands of bankrupt workers and their families who have been sheltered for more than half a year. and more than 300 street children. As a last resort. Xu Xin had even gone to the countryside of Bordeaux to buy land and build houses to resettle these people through Julian's connections.

The daily expenses of more than 1,000 people eating and drinking Lazar are not small. There are still nearly 20,000 francs in the warehouse of Rao is trading station, and the payment is a little unbearable, and it is not a good thing to sit on the mountain and eat nothing.

"I hope the war will end soon, and the local transport ships will come soon." Xu Xin could only comfort himself like this.

While Xu Xin was chattering about the local transport ships, the three transport ships of the South China Sea Transport Company (the "Abbot" was also incorporated into the company's fleet) were now moored at the dock in the South African River Fort with nothing to do. After the Guinean task force had resupplied the harbor in early September and sent a group of sick and wounded to the fort, the remaining five warships set off again and disappeared into the vast sea.

After attacking the British East India Company's trading fleet in the northwest ocean of the Cape of Good Hope, the remaining five warships of the navy did not dare to stay here in order to avoid possible encirclement by the British. They began to "run away". The runaway fleet headed north, sank a British slave ship off the coast of Luanda, Portugal, and then turned southwest and disappeared from view.

Today is the end of October, and I don't know where the navy has gone, how to supply fresh water, food, vegetables and ammunition, how to settle the wounded and sick, this guerrilla fight is not easy, there must be many supply points near the coastline, otherwise you will play yourself to death first in a long-distance attack.

The affairs of the navy are not in the hands of the Fort of the River. They have their own troubles at this time.

Mo Ming sat in his bedroom and office in Fort River, carefully looking through the account book in his hand. Secretly frowned. Three transport ships of the South China Sea Transport Company were anchored in the harbor, and with more than 100 sailors, hundreds of British and Dutch prisoners, and more than 100 wounded and sick people placed here by the task force, plus a company of security forces left here by the fleet to reduce attrition, these 500 or so people ate and drank Lazar as a heavy burden on the Fort in the River.

After all, Hezhongbao is only more than 100 official residents, and now it has only opened up 500 acres of wheat fields and 200 acres of vegetable fields, and it has been less than two years since the development of this place. If they could provide some fresh water, meat and vegetables for the fleets of the passing navy, it would even be a perfect score, after all, they only had one hundred and fifty inhabitants at the beginning, and they knew nothing about the local situation, and the natives and diseases could crush them, and whether they could stand on their feet was completely in between.

However, it turned out that Mo Ming and Liu Ang, the leaders of Hezhongbao, were very capable. With their dedication and the help of the initial construction team and navy, they not only succeeded in establishing a stronghold and dock in the area, but also cultivated hundreds of acres of farmland, and achieved initial self-sufficiency.

But there are limits to this self-sufficiency. The Fort of River, with its ability to cultivate and trade with some of the Khoisan reds and the Bantu tribes further afield, managed to survive and amassed some food and supplies. It is naturally no problem for the accumulated grain to occasionally replenish the passing fleet, but it is a little difficult to supply the lives of the extra few hundred people for a long time.

And this is also where Mo Ming is worried at the moment. He currantly rummaged through the books and found that the grain reserves had fallen to a dangerous level. Among them, the wheat is less than 10,000 catties, in addition to nine cows, 16 pigs and more than 40 sheep.

Mo Ming thought about it for a long time, and felt that the only way to solve the problem was to ask the surrounding red and black tribes to "borrow" food. Of course, this kind of "borrowing" will naturally not be repaid, and the process is not destined to be peaceful. For these red or black people are not having a good time these days, especially the bitter Khoisan red people, who live by hunting and gathering wild fruits alone, they have no food at all, but those Bantu blacks who like to burn the land for cultivation and grazing may have some food.

Over the centuries, these migratory Bantu blacks began to move from north to south into the vast South African region. Wherever they arrived, they began to burn the land, then planted sorghum on the burned land, and grazed some cattle and sheep. It can be seen that these Bantu blacks have a higher level of civilization than the indigenous Khoisan red people in southern Africa. They are also taller and more athletic than the generally short red people, which is why they have gradually gained an advantage in South Africa. In later history, the Khoisan red race in South Africa was almost wiped out under the joint strangulation and squeezing of the Dutch colonizers and the Bantu blacks, and most of the remnants fled to the neighboring Botswana region.

Deep in southwestern South Africa, Fort Riveroline is mostly surrounded by Khoisan red territory, but there are also a few small Bantu black migratory tribes far to the east. The Khoisan people live entirely by collecting mushrooms, wild fruits and other food, as well as hunting some hares, antelopes, bison and other animals, and the living environment and conditions are extremely difficult.

After the arrival of the East Coast people, their traditional habits of life have been affected to a certain extent, and it seems that their living conditions have improved. They can exchange the fur they have from hunting animals for some food and tools such as knives, and they can also exchange some of the golden "stones" they have picked up for food with the East Coasters. Each piece of ko's head gold can be exchanged for three to five times the weight of cured meat from the people of the East Coast, which is very "cost-effective".

Of course, not every Khoisan tribe traded with the Coasters in a proper manner, and some of the Kuisan tribes, who were proud of their large numbers, tried to attack the strongholds of the Coasters, but now their tribes are in the past, and most of their members have been killed or reduced to slavery.

The Khoisan people of Kuhaluha have nothing to scrape. If you want to solve the dilemma of the river fort, you have to look to the east to find a way for the tribes of the Bantu blacks. The black tribes had the habit of growing sorghum and were observed to graze large numbers of sheep and cattle. If they were all eaten, the captured cattle and sheep would be enough to cover the expenses of the fort for more than a year, and the business would still be very cost-effective.

Although there is no grievance with these Bantu blacks, and they even get along very tacitly, who says that they are short of food now, then they can only take you under the knife. After all, barbarians have no human rights at all in this era of the jungle.

"We are not here to teach you the Holy Mother of the civilized world." In Mo Ming's opinion, these barbarians will eventually be slaughtered and enslaved by the Dutch, so there is no need to feel guilty at all for doing something at this time. Perhaps, when the East Coast people take over this vast land, they can drive these Bantu blacks and Khoisan reds to the desert or jungle to the north, and then teach them some civilized ways of life.

Mo Ming is now the captain of the South African Pioneer Team, and he is in charge of all the affairs of the River Fort, even the three transport ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company and a company of army soldiers temporarily stationed here. Of course, he also communicated with the company commander of this security army company, Lieutenant Xie Hansan, and the deputy company commander, Lieutenant Lan Guo, about the predicament of the Fort in the river and his own plan in advance, and won their support.

In this way, the plan to rob the neighboring Bantu blacks was thus decided. The troops on the expedition consisted mainly of the army security corps company, supplemented by some local militia on the east bank as guides and baggage soldiers, plus a small number of Khoisan slave servants in the fort of River, with a total strength of about 200 people. Armed with more than a hundred flintlock rifles, several cannons, and numerous pieces of armor, there was a significant difference in the generation of weapons between them and the Bantu blacks who wore animal skins and carried pikes, a force that was powerful enough in South Africa to sweep away any force in the vicinity at this time. (To be continued......)