On November 1, 1639, just as spring was blooming in the southern hemisphere, two ships of the East Coast Exploration Fleet, which had been adrift for most of the year, hurriedly sailed into the dock of Fort River.

A ship-repair yard is now set up on the quays of the River Fort, and a number of craftsmen and apprentices have been sent from the country to repair passing ships. After several months at sea, the battleship "Free Trade" and the armed transport ship "Exocet Galicia" had to be urgently repaired because of the damage to the sails, masts, rigging and the leakage of the ship's planks.

After repairs were completed, on 5 November, the Exploration Fleet set sail again, spending a month crossing the Atlantic and docking at Berth 1 of the military dock in Port Vostochny.

The officers and sailors of the Exploration Fleet have been away for almost a year since their departure in January, and the excitement of returning to their homeland is self-evident. The sailors stood on deck and waved their arms to the dock workers on the shore and cheered, and the dock workers on the shore also gave them a round of applause to commemorate the great voyage.

"Clean and tidy marina, the sea is still clean and the air is fresh. The efficiency of the docks was also very high, were slave workers used on the docks? They look strong and orderly. Hassan stood on the deck and looked at everything in the dock with curiosity, and then asked Guo Zili through an interpreter.

"No, they're all freedmen, official contract workers recruited by the Port Authority." Guo Zili replied casually, and then said solemnly to Hassan and his interpreter: "Mr. Hassan, please and your companions must abide by our agreement and do not go out of the designated area on the dock. We'll send someone to arrange your accommodation. You know the truth. Your identities are sensitive. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, I would like to ask you to keep a low profile until the official decision of our government is made. ”

Hassan and a group of Ottoman naval officers looked at each other, then nodded in agreement. The Ottoman Empire, as a great empire spanning three continents in Asia, Africa and Europe, with a population of more than 30 million, and a sworn enemy of the Christian world in Europe, their officers appeared on the east coast.

Therefore. For now, their identities and existence are kept secret. After all, the cooperation between the two countries that they are going to talk about is not such a trivial matter as buying a few tons of wheat or a few pieces of cotton cloth, but a major event that is likely to have a certain impact on the military balance in a certain region.

Speaking of which, in fact, we have to mention the somewhat embarrassing positioning of the East Coast Republic of China today, that is, whether this country is a Western country or an Eastern country. If it were an Eastern country, then it would not be too much of a problem to deepen relations with the Ottoman Empire; But if you are a Western country through and through, and now you go out of your way to help the Ottomans, then it is very likely that you will arouse the resentment and hostility of the Christian world in the West, and at the end of the day, you will inevitably be rejected by them. In particular, Venice and Spain, whose interests were directly threatened. Their relationship with the East Bank is bound to deteriorate dramatically.

Of course, this question is not absolute. A lot of the time, it still depends on the strength to speak. Don't you see that France and the Ottomans worked together to build a foundation, and the Ottoman warships were anchored in the French military port of Toulon for a long time.

For today's East Coast Republic of China, culturally speaking, this country is undoubtedly more similar to the Eastern countries. However, in terms of trade and exchanges, this country has become closer to the Western world, and its exchanges have become closer. It can be seen from this that the interests of the Eastern Coast and the Western World are very deeply entangled, and since you want to mix in the circle of others, then you must pay attention to the influence, because you are not strong enough to ignore the opinions of others and make rules on your own.

Today's Western world is a world of one superpower and many powers, one of which is obviously Spain, which is a foreign power, and Austria, the Netherlands, France, England, Sweden and other countries below Spain, as for Portugal, Denmark, Venice, Russia, Poland and other countries are slightly inferior. No matter how these countries fight with each other, they are still fighting for leadership within themselves, but the collision and competition between them as a system and another system such as the Ottoman Empire is an innate instinct, and there is no room for reconciliation, and it will always end with the collapse of the other side.

To be honest, after so many years of development and two wars, the East Coast Republic of China has initially gained the recognition of the first world realm system. It can be said that if the people on the east coast maintain the current momentum of development and appropriately adjust some policies, it will not be difficult to achieve a good position by relying on the golden finger of foresight and foresight, slowly integrating into the Western world. But if this is done, the future of the country is really not promising. They are not without sober-minded people, and they deeply realize that if the current weak national strength and not very strong culture on the east coast are completely integrated into the Western world system, then it is likely that they will eventually be assimilated by this system, and eventually become a country like Australia, South Africa, and Canada in the future.

And this is not the result that the traversers want to see. What the traversal wants is to build a system of their own and assume the responsibility of being the leader of the world. Of course, this requires a prosperous economy, a strong force, a strong culture, the huge difficulties, the hardships of the process are really indescribable, maybe many people who travel through the poor will not see this day in their lives, but no matter how difficult it is, they have to do it, right?

If you want to be the leader of the world, your wish is good, but the reality is that the Eastern Coast Republic still has to maintain a relatively harmonious relationship with the Western world. Because many things needed on the eastern coast, such as immigrants, markets, raw materials, and talents, could only rely on the western world before opening up the eastern route—of course, now there is another choice for the Ottoman Empire.

Hassan and the others were respectfully invited to the dock hotel to rest for a while, and the waiter served each a few glasses of cocoa powder. The décor in the hotel rooms is very simple, even shabby: the walls are painted with lime water, the furniture is made of ordinary pine, the chairs made of tree stumps, and there are only three or four candles on the candlesticks, but fortunately the rooms are fairly clean.

What's more, the room was bright – the East Coast people installed glass on the windows of the room. The glass is embedded in the window frame made of wrought iron window strips, and it can be seen that the East Coast people's glass-firing skills need to be improved, and there are many bubbles and impurities in the window glass, but in general it is quite clear and transparent.

It was noon, and the waiter quickly served them a simple lunch. Hassan glanced casually and saw that the main dish of lunch was a dough cake, several stacked on top of each other on a wooden plate. The side dishes are slightly more hearty: prawns, squid, eggs, vegetables, shell soup, and it seems that the hosts have taken their religion into account, and the meat is served with only one steak.

Hassan and the others, as middle-ranking officers in the Ottoman Egyptian fleet, could not eat such dishes often, so they all ate and drank unceremoniously. Hassan thought to himself as he ate, seeing that the waiters had just turned a blind eye to these dishes, they should be able to enjoy them regularly. In other words, even a lowly "slave" who served others could enjoy the sumptuous food that only Ottoman officers could enjoy, so how rich should this so-called eastern Chinese republic be?

Hassan's trip not only consulted with the people on the east coast about entrusting the construction of ships, but also had the important task of inspecting the customs and social conditions of the east coast. Because those adults in China are eager to know what the strength of the potential partners they are looking at. The Ottomans were a big and powerful country, and a country that was too weak was not qualified to be a partner of the Ottoman Empire.

After lunch, the service staff came over and collected their utensils. At this moment, there was a sudden burst of shouting on the flat ground across the low wall from here. Hassan walked to the door and looked intently, only to see a large group of about hundreds of thin, thin men training in a queue, and a dozen uniformed officer-like men walking around the crowd with short sticks, and from time to time striking at someone to punish those who did not obey the command.

"Who are these people? They seem to be training, are they conscripted slave soldiers? Hassan quickly asked the waiter through an interpreter.

Thankfully, the waiter understood Spanish, but after a moment's deliberation, he seemed to think the question could be answered, and then said, "They are not slaves, and in fact our country does not use any slaves except in some mining areas." They were all contracted freedmen, who had just arrived last month, from the East, and there were more than 1,200 people in all. Damn, those greedy Portuguese, for whom the Ministry of Finance paid a huge sum of more than $400,000 in total, almost dragging the finances down. For this reason, several water projects have been cancelled this year, as has the canal project from Port Vostochny to the Chuy River, supposedly to save money......"

Hassan nodded, it seems that this Eastern Republic is desperate for people, especially those from the Far East. For the sake of them, the people on the east coast can even offer an unbelievably high price, which can be reported to you in detail, the Ottoman Empire, as a large country with tens of millions of mouths, may not lack all kinds of slaves. From this point of view, there is a good basis for cooperation between the two sides.

In the afternoon, several officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Eastern Republic came to the hotel to invite the Ottoman guests to the conference room of the Executive Committee's administrative building, and many of them wanted to meet them. (To be continued......)