Second Lieutenant Huang Yang, Second Staff Officer of the Admiralty, stood up, nodded to Ding Canlin, and said unhurriedly: "According to the plan, the Admiralty will build two forts at the mouth of the Bergrivier River (Bergrivier Dutch: Berg River) about 150 kilometers north of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. In addition, a castle and a river harbour pier will be built on the site of the later city of Verdref in Hanoi. The lower reaches of the Berg River are wide and abundant in water, and with a little dredging, they can accommodate large warships and transports. Far from the rough open sea, the river port is an ideal anchorage for our transport fleet and naval fleet. ”

Huang Yang was a freshman in high school before he crossed over, and after a few years of experience, he is now a rising star in the Admiralty. With Huang Yang's words, everyone turned their eyes to a hand-drawn large-scale map of the African coast directly in front of the conference room, and Mo Ming pasted a small red flag to the mouth of the Berg River.

"Why didn't you build the harbor to the location of the future Cape Town?" Someone asked, "I think it seemed to be a good deep-water port, but in later generations it was the legislative capital of South Africa, and it was very prosperous." ”

"That's right. The port we chose was not a commercial port, so her first focus was safety, concealment and resistance to wind and waves. If you look at the map, the lower reaches of the Berg River meander and meander to the mouth of the sea with a natural sand dam that blocks the waves that may arise from the sea, just like the mouth of Duck Lake. With such excellent natural conditions, the current at the anchorage in Shaba is very gentle, which is conducive to the protection of ships from bad weather. In addition, the narrow and winding channel at the mouth of the sea makes the speed of passage much slower and the time it takes for ships to pass through is greatly reduced. Once an enemy ship comes to attack. We just need to hold the batteries on both sides of the river. There will be enough time to sink the enemy ship. The most rear. The most important point is concealment. Since it is an inland port, we only need to use the terrain to conceal the fort at the mouth of the sea, so it is difficult for anyone to find the port from the distant sea. This is very suitable for us who are small and weak and cannot put too many troops and people here. Huang Yang talked eloquently on the map, explaining the benefits of choosing this port one by one, which won the affirmation of many people present.

"After Counselor Huang finished talking about the benefits, I will talk about the disadvantages of choosing this port." After Mo Ming saw that Huang Yang finished speaking, he cleared his throat and continued: "The main thing is one point. When the flow of the Berg River has calmed down, the sediment carried by the river tends to accumulate at the mouth of the sea, reducing the depth of the port. Of course, this only needs to be done with regular dredging, which is not a big problem. And, as far as I know, the water of the Berg River is clear, the river does not carry much sediment, and the interval between the dredging of our port is probably in the case of ten years. ”

Mo Ming and Huang Yang sang and harmonized, and finally reached a consensus with everyone on the choice of this node in South Africa.

Next, Mo Ming continued: "After the navy established a solid foothold at the mouth of the Berg River. It will be based on this stronghold and head south around the Cape of Good Hope. Discover the best routes into the Indian Ocean and the climatic and hydrological conditions of the seas along the route. Thanks to the guidance of captured British sailors, it is expected that this process will be shortened to a few months to a year. Upon entering the Indian Ocean, the Navy will select a node at the northern tip of the island of Madagascar, tentatively designated as the future Antsiranana. ”

After Mo Ming finished speaking, Second Lieutenant Huang Yang stood up again, pasted a small red flag on the position of Antsiranana, and then said to everyone: "Everyone, please look at the map, Antsirana is located in the northernmost part of the island of Madagascar, and it is an excellent natural deep-water port. Several deep-water bays are enclosed by two relatively extended headlands, and the interior of the headland is calm and there are many excellent deep-water anchorages. The water depth is generally more than 10 meters, and there are ultra-deep water anchorages of more than 20 meters. The width of the waterway between the headlands was less than two kilometers, and the fort was enough to block any hostile ships trying to pass through the waterway, and the excellent natural conditions were even better than those of Jiaozhou Bay in Qingdao in later generations. ”

"I'll interject." Fan Lei, a traveler from the construction team, raised his hand and said, "I'm not worried about South Africa, the conditions over there are okay." But what about Madagascar? Especially in the north, Antsiranana is a low-latitude region with a tropical rainforest climate, which breeds mosquitoes and flies, and is prone to diseases. In particular, a fruit fly can parasitize under the human epidermis to lay eggs, which is very harmful. I've worked in Africa before, so I know this, so you must pay attention to it! I don't have anything else to add, you go ahead. ”

After carefully writing this down in her notebook, Mo Ming flipped through the paper and continued: "The geographical location of the port of Antsirana is extremely important, and it is an important intermediate node to communicate our shipping routes. In the future, whether it is going north to the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf, or eastward to Southeast Asia, this is an important position to connect the past and the next. Once we have managed this place, we have a foothold in the western Indian Ocean. Next up is the last intermediate node of our entire African route – Djibouti, yes, Djibouti on the western side of the Gulf of Aden. Next, the content about Djibouti will be explained in detail by Second Lieutenant Huang. ”

Huang Yang nodded, then walked to the map, pointed to a place in Northeast Africa in the upper right corner of the map, and said: "This is Djibouti, located on the west side of the Gulf of Aden." In later generations, it was once a French colony called French Somalia. The port we were to choose was not located in what would become the city of Djibouti, but to the west along Tajoura Bay into Lake Gebt and at the foot of a series of mountains on the southern shore of the lake. The reason is the same as before, safety! All for safety! You see, at the mouth of Lake Gebt there are two sharp corners that extend relatively long, shortening the width of the waterway connecting the inner lake to the open sea to less than a thousand meters, and the terrain is extremely dangerous. By the same token, a fort at the top of this sharp corner would keep all enemies out of the lake, ideal for a naval base. ”

"It's North Africa, and it's close to the Arabian Peninsula, so there should be very little rainfall, right? Wouldn't it be inappropriate as a naval base and supply port? "Objections were raised.

"That's why we have to have the harbor on the south side of Lake Gebt for the sake of the country." Mo Ming explained, "Although there were some seasonal rivers in the later Djibouti city area in Tajoura Bay, they were generally drier, hotter and less watery, and later generations of local residents bought water from Ethiopia. The south side of Lake Gebert is different, it is a place of high mountains, the vegetation coverage at the foot of the lake and mountains is quite good, and there are some rivers and streams in the mountains that flow into the lake. We can make full use of these mountain water sources and build artificial reservoirs, which will be enough to support a fleet and the few local residents to survive. Later generations remember that the Chinese government invested in the construction of a transit port in Lake Göbert as a port for the export of the rich potash resources of Lake Assal, not far to the northwest. I think everyone knows the importance of potash fertilizer to agriculture, and this is a treasure trove that can be developed in the future. ”

"Alright, after talking about Djibouti, the next step is our terminal - the port of Suez in the Ottoman Empire." Mo Ming closed the manuscript paper in hand, looked at the silent crowd under the podium and said: "From the port of Orient to the port of Suez, the entire route has a voyage of more than 10,000 nautical miles, and according to the cruising speed of 4 knots, it may take more than four months for our fleet to complete the first voyage, not including the time to avoid bad weather halfway. Here we can make it clear that the Executive Committee has made up its mind to open up new routes, and even if the difficulties are great, we will open up this passage, which can be called the second lifeline of the sea. This is not only a business issue, but also a matter of basic national policy for the Executive Committee and the East Coast Republic of China for decades or even centuries to come. I can reveal here that the Ottoman Turkey, a great empire that has begun to decline, will be an important weight for the Executive Committee to balance the situation in Europe in the future. ”

"In the future, if we manage these nodes well, can we use this as a basis to go east to the Ming Dynasty?" Finally someone has asked the question. In fact, there has always been such a call among the traversers, that is, to open up the eastern route and find a way to immigrate to the Ming Dynasty by themselves, so as to save a lot of money; If necessary, it was even necessary to intervene in the situation of the Ming Dynasty and pull or fight against the several forces that existed at the end of the Ming Dynasty to make it more in line with the interests of the Eastern Coast Republic.

In the past, due to the small and weak strength of the Republic of East Coast of China, self-protection was still trembling, let alone expeditions to East Asia, so these people rarely mentioned this stubble. Now that there is the opening of African routes, these people will bring up the old things again, the reason is very simple, from Antsirana or Djibouti to the east across the Indian Ocean into Southeast Asia, it is not far from the Ming Dynasty, maybe the East Coast Republic of China can extend its tentacles here.

"There will be no such plan for a few years, maybe in the future it will go east, but not now." Mo Ming said clearly, "Please note that our total population is still very small, and it is only 17,000 people who have recently arrived in Hong Kong from Europe and East Asia. With such a small population, it will be too much to do anything, and after we manage these intermediate nodes and open up the entire route to maturity, I am afraid it will take several years, and this matter cannot be rushed. The development of the country needs to be gradual, and this is no joke. ”

For the rest of the day, a group of people spent the conference room arguing, discussing and even arguing about details. It wasn't until the evening that Mo Ming sorted out a draft for opening up new routes according to the opinions of various departments. In the draft, the materials, labor, ships, troops, and technical personnel needed to open up the route are all clearly listed, and they will be sent to the Executive Committee for approval after further improvement. (To be continued......)