On the night of May 2, the six ships gathered sailed out of the Zhenhaibao Naval Base in a low-key manner in the night. After their departure, the port was sealed off by the Zhenhaebao Naval Base and a strict policy of seclusion was enforced.

The naval fleet, named the Guinea Task Force, headed east toward the west coast of South Africa to avoid the popular Brazilian coastal route and reduce the chance of detection.

On 5 June, the Guinean task force crossed the Atlantic and found the location of the mouth of the Berg River on the charts, where the South African pioneer team sent by the Executive Committee was supposed to establish a stronghold along the Berg River. Even the name of the stronghold has already been named: Fort in the River - meaning a fortress surrounded by a river in the middle.

Navy Second Lieutenant Sang Kai and Army Lieutenant Jiang Zhiqing led a platoon of army soldiers wearing thick oilcloth raincoats and rowing small boats under the pouring rain to try to march towards the Berg River, they were looking for this stronghold. After rowing for more than half an hour, the group had to abandon the boat and walk ashore in order to avoid accidents due to the abundant water and turbulent waters of the Beg River during the winter rainy season.

It's really rare to see this kind of rain near Cape Town, South Africa. Jiang Zhiqing wiped the rain on his face, and there was a gray rain curtain between the surrounding heaven and earth, and everything was not very real from more than thirty meters away.

"Sang Kai, do you think Mo Ming will have an accident with them?" Jiang Zhiqing said with some uneasiness, "We haven't seen him since he set off with one or two hundred people, and it's really not easy for more than a hundred people to open up in such a barren place." The last time I got the news from them was more than half a year ago, when Li Yi and Huang Yang came back to transport supplies, alas, they said Li Yi and them. I don't know what's going on over there in Baleen Whale Harbor. Let's hope they're all right. ”

"Don't talk nonsense." Sankai pursed his lips. Continue to walk one foot high and one foot low on the muddy grass on the riverbank. Behind them were sixteen soldiers. In such weather, their flintlock pistols were turned into burning sticks, so each of them carried a 3-meter spear on their backs as a weapon of self-defense.

"The indigenous Khoisan people of this part of South Africa are red, short, mild-natured, and unlike the Bantu blacks in East Africa, they are not very aggressive. Basically, they can get along with each other in a friendly way. Sang Kai said as he walked, "Mo Ming, they have more than a hundred people, and they are also well armed, and after building basic defenses, I don't believe that these red men can defeat them." ”

"Alright then, let's move on." Jiang Zhiqing wrapped the rain cloth on his body and said, "Maybe their city was built far upstream in order to hide. Also, I think the river here is relatively fast, and it is not suitable for building a port. Get. Let's move on. ”

The group continued to walk for about three kilometers before finally seeing a gray city hidden in the rain near an open river bend.

"It's a riverbank!" Jiang Zhiqing said with some excitement. In the cold winter rain, the white vapor exhaled from the mouth drifted in the air.

"Not bad! Fort in the River for sure! Let's go, go up and have a look. Sankai also limped over, his cowhide boots filled with muddy water and mud all over his body, looking extremely embarrassed.

The soldiers, whose morale had been somewhat depressed by the heavy rain, also cheered up a little, and they mustered up their courage and walked forward step by step behind the two officers. Of course, in order to prevent the possibility of other events, they also removed the spears from their backs.

Jiang Zhiqing wiped the rain from his face and looked fixedly: a short man in a black uniform and a big cap was waving his arms under a tree on the bank of the river.

"It's Sheriff Avani!" A soldier from Orient Harbor recognized the man waving his arms, "He's Sheriff Avani of the Oriental County Police Department!" Thankfully, our people are still around! ”

……

The news quickly reached the Guinean task force that was cruising in the open sea, and everyone smiled happily after hearing that Mo Ming and the others were safe and sound. Soon, the Fort River, with a few pilots, guided the whole fleet to avoid some of the easily stranded shoals in the Berg River, and under their guidance, the strong sea breeze avoids some of the easily stranded shoals in the Berg River, and reaches the improvised pier on the banks of the Fort in the River.

Six galleons filled the tiny dock. It is a wide bay with a water depth of more than five or six meters and a river width of 600-800 meters.

The Navy sailors threw the cables to a few bearded, worn-out raincoat Charuya dock workers who walked up to the wooden docks, and they feebly tied each cable one by one, and then watched with amazement as the Navy and Army soldiers disembarked from the ship.

"Brother, what did you bring from China?" "Brother, I am looking forward to someone coming to China...... "Relatives, since two ships of building materials were brought from Baleen Whale Harbor a few months ago, I have never seen anyone from the civilized world. ”

As more and more Navy and Army soldiers disembarked, dozens of residents of the River Fort suddenly rushed to the docks, and these residents, who looked not much like savages, were crowded on the docks in simple raincoats woven of leaves, watching the task force with their eyes in disdain.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!" There was a sound of scolding on the dock, and Liu Ang of the State Intelligence Bureau led a group of people to kick and beat him with sticks, so he easily squeezed open a crack and rushed to Lu Ming, who had just disembarked.

"Relatives...... Liu Ang cried and held Lu Ming's hand tightly with a sad face, shaking it uncontrollably, "I can count on you coming." ”

Lu Ming looked at the former senior researcher of the General Intelligence Bureau in front of him with a torn oilcloth umbrella, his clothes were torn and faded in many places, his beard was unkempt, and his hair was like a chicken's nest, and he couldn't help but get goosebumps all over his body, why was he so cold.

"How did you get this way?" Lu Ming couldn't help asking, he looked ahead as he asked, and more people were pouring in from the castle in the rain.

"What else could be the reason?" Liu Ang scolded, "It's still that bullshit Li Yi and Huang Yang, it's been almost half a year." Haven't delivered us supplies yet. Damn it. I don't know if they died. We need gunpowder, we need cannons, we need manpower, we need medicine, we need clothes, we need sugar, wine, tobacco, cocoa, even tissue paper, everything we need. ”

Lu Ming was a little speechless, and then he turned his head and ordered his adjutant to take someone to unload some of the supplies from the two transport ships and leave them in the river fort.

"Originally, I wanted to supply some supplies to you, but now it's good, let's post a lot of them first." Lu Ming shook his head and said with a wry smile.

After seeing Lu Ming order to give them some of the supplies, Liu Ang jumped up happily. Then he shook Lu Ming's hands vigorously and said, "Commander Lu is really a good person!" If you want to restock, it's easy! Although our Hezhong Fort looks very cold, it has also opened up 500 acres of wheat fields and 200 acres of vegetable fields, and it is not a problem to solve some of your fresh vegetable supply. The brothers also raised some pigs and sheep, but the number was still small, and they were usually used for tooth sacrifices. There are quite a few cattle, and recently a tribe of Khoisan came to attack us, and we repulsed them. Then the brothers pushed back, and in one fell swoop took their old nest, and seized a lot of the herd that the tribe had raised. ”

"What about Mo Ming? Why didn't I see him? Lu Ming suddenly asked. As the captain of the South African Pioneer Team. Mo Ming didn't come out to meet the task force, which made him feel very strange.

"Captain Mo was injured a while ago in his crusade against that Khoisan tribe. The injury is not serious, but the wound is accidentally infected. Then it wasn't until the past two days that he recovered, and he picked up a life, and now he is still lying in bed. Liu Ang said with a sigh on his face.

"What?" Lu Ming was also afraid for a while, once Mo Ming, the captain of the South African pioneer team, died, although the base of Fort Hezhong would not collapse immediately, it was certain that it would suffer a heavy blow.

The two men said as they walked into the city, where Navy sailors had begun to unload cargo from the docks with pulley booms. After boxes of canned food, sugar, cocoa, coffee, soybean oil, candles, paper, gunpowder, building materials and other materials were unloaded, the residents of the river fort on the dock burst into enthusiastic cheers. As lonely on the southern tip of the African continent, aid from their homeland has given them hope to persevere.

The construction of the Fort in the River went relatively smoothly. Even though they were very short of manpower and supplies, and a nearby Khoisan tribe was constantly harassing them, Mo Ming's South African pioneer team was able to initially build basic facilities in a little more than a year: a masonry fence about 400 meters in circumference, hundreds of acres of farmland and livestock pens enclosed by barbed wire between the wall and the river bank, and civilian facilities such as residential buildings in the city, so that this small river fort was initially self-sufficient.

Mo Ming, who had a sallow face, sat on a chair wrapped in cotton clothes and greeted Lu Ming and his party, he shook around the Ghost Gate Pass this time before coming back, and his spirit looked a little sluggish. His orderlies brought a freshly unloaded coal stove from the docks, put in honeycomb coal, and boiled a pot of coffee.

"Thanks to the supplies you sent." Mo Ming sat on a chair covered with lion skin, looked at Lu Ming with a smile and said.

"Rub, ivory, antelope skin, dog's head and golden ......" Several of the navy officers who followed Lu Ming in saw the decorations in Mo Ming's room and were immediately amazed.

"Hehe, it's all gadgets." Mo Ming said nonchalantly, "If you like it, the brothers will take a few things each, anyway, there is no shortage of these things here in South Africa." Commander Lu, are you passing by this time or what? ”

"Passing by." Lu Ming nodded, "We are going to replenish some fresh vegetables, meat, and fresh water here, and then we will go north along the Benguela Current, quickly break into Gambia, destroy the British's trading posts and military facilities in one fell swoop, and then take action." ”

"It's a risky military operation, but there's no better way." Mo Ming sighed understandingly, "It's not difficult for you to supply some food and water, we have also planted hundreds of acres of land over the past year, and it is more than enough to supply you with a fleet." If the country gives me some more manpower and materials to fully build this place, then we will have much more room for maneuver in the future, and the next step of exploring the Indian Ocean route can be put on the agenda. ”

"That's too far." Lu Ming smiled bitterly, "Let's get through the current level first." Okay, you are just in good health and need to rest more, so I won't bother you, and I will go with Liu Ang to discuss the matter of material supply. (To be continued......)