"Lao Xu, what about people? Lao Xu! Zhang Xiao stood outside Shi Qinjie's office and grabbed Xu Gang, the commander of the 101st Company of the Army, who had just finished a meeting with Shi Qinjie and others.

"What's the matter? In such a hurry? Xu Gang cupped his eyes on the bridge of his nose and asked in confusion. Even in the temperature of twenty or thirty degrees, Xu Gang was wearing a meticulous and straight military uniform, and the gloves on his hands were spotlessly white.

"Ask you something." Zhang Xiao wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Did you go on an expedition to the south in July this year?" ”

"We've been going south once or twice a month since April, and we've been attacking at the beginning and end of July at the end of the month, and I don't know which one you're asking?" Xu Gang said with a straight face, his hair combed meticulously, just like his face that has always been unsmiling.

"Even the one you went to the southern promontory, I can't tell, but it's the southern promontory of St. Mary's Island." Zhang Xiao talked for a long time, but he still didn't know where it was.

"Oh, you're talking about that place." Xu Gang reacted quickly, and then nodded: "I arrived there with the officers and soldiers of the whole company on July 4. There are some indigenous villages, presumably also Bezimisalaka, who make a living from fishing and rice cultivation. On that day, we conquered five villages in the vicinity and captured more than 800 slaves, the most of any single slave we ever captured. Some of these slaves are still built in the local area, and some have been loaded onto ships and sent to Hezhong Harbor to replenish the Eight Banners. When I returned, I studied the map drawn up by the staff officers, and found that the cape was probably the port of Tamatave in the east of Madagascar. ”

"Is it a port? That's even better! Zhang Xiao slapped his thigh happily and said with a smile: "Did you come back with a lot of coal?" ”

"Coal? Yes, there is. Xu Gang nodded in affirmation. Then he turned around and instructed the deputy company behind him, "Go and get the battle record." ”

Shou Daoist quickly took the battle record. Then it turned to the record of the day of July 4: "Breaking the resistance of the Bezimisaraka people." 166 enemy casualties were killed and wounded, and 847 were captured; 122 hump cattle, 32,000 catties of rice, 205 swords, bows and spears, and more than 8,500 catties of coal were seized......"

"By the way, this is it!" Zhang Xiao snapped his fingers with his right hand and said, "Have you asked these natives where they got their coal?" ”

Shou Daoist turned the battle record back to another page, and here is the interrogation record of the captives after each battle: "The native confesses. There are several places in the area of a small hill about 10 kilometers from the coastline where you can pick up this burning black 'stone'. They found that the stone was particularly resistant to fire, especially when the firewood was wet during the rainy season. However, they also found that the black stone was not suitable for smelting metal, because it would make the iron more brittle, and the knives made in this way could be easily broken, far less than the iron smelted with charcoal. ”

"It's a high-quality hard coal, and it's a waste to use it for cooking." Zhang Xiao immediately said, "There must be a coal field near Port Tamatave, I don't know how many reserves there are, but it must be enough for us at present." Company Commander Xu. I suggest we take it at once! It's so important to our country, you know. Nowadays, the quality of the coal produced by our local Ping'an Coal Mine is so poor that even the fire is too gray. Now that we have such a ready-made coal field in front of us, what are we waiting for? Go ahead, the Executive Committee will definitely approve it! Now that we spend an average of tens of thousands of dollars a month on precious foreign exchange funds to import high-quality coal to Europe, and now that we are finally able to mine our own coal and get rid of our dependence on the outside world for energy, what are we waiting for? Even better, the coalfield is located near the harbor and is extremely easy to transport. I also know the port of Tamatave, the average water depth in the bay is 10 meters, it is completely able to berth large transport ships, compared to the inland of South Africa to mine coal I don't know how many times more convenient! ”

Xu Gang fell silent. He doesn't know exactly what the coal resources of Madagascar are, but he also vaguely knows that the Sakua coalfield in the southern region of Madagascar has huge reserves, although it cannot be called a world-class coal field, but its reserves are definitely not to be underestimated. At that time, this also attracted many countries, including China, to explore and exploit, and the coal of this coalfield is mainly buried in the inland area of southern Malaysia, about 100 kilometers from the coast, and there are multiple extensions along the coast.

In addition to this large coalfield, there are also small and medium-sized coalfields in some parts of the south and north of Malaysia, because these coalfields are not large enough to attract foreign capital, so they are generally mined by the locals themselves, and most of the users are from the surrounding areas. However, in the future, some large coal companies in China will not look down on the coalfields, which does not mean that they will not be looked down upon by the public. The East Coast Republic is only a large industrial scale today, and a small and medium-sized coal field that everyone looks down on in the future can definitely support the appetite of the East Coast people at this moment. Not to mention that this coalfield also happens to be around a good port, and the mined coal can be directly loaded and transported on ships at an extremely low cost, which is much more reliable than the current hollowing out of some people in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to mine coal in the interior of South Africa.

Thinking of this, Xu Gang also nodded and said approvingly: "I also suggest that this area can be taken, the country's industrial development is booming, and the demand for high-quality coal is also rising day by day." If we don't solve the bottleneck of coal, especially high-quality thermal coal, what kind of development will we talk about, and what kind of steam era will we talk about! In this way, Zhang Gong, you and I go in and find Captain Shi and tell him about the situation. It is better to report to the Executive Committee in the name of the Madagascar Pioneer Team, otherwise the local bureaucrats will not pay attention to it! ”

"Okay, let's go in and talk to Captain Shi. This incident is very beneficial to expanding the scope and influence of the new Chinese colony, and its importance to the national economy is self-evident, and I think Captain Shi will make a correct judgment. Zhang Xiao also said without hesitation, and after speaking, he returned to Shi Qinjie's office with Xu Gang.

Several people immediately discussed behind closed doors in the office, and Shou Daoist consciously stood up outside the door to prevent all idle people from approaching. More than an hour later, Zhang Xiao walked out with a happy face, and said as he walked: "Company Commander Xu, there is no other power over there now, right?" Well, even if there is, we will wipe them all out! This coalfield is of great significance to the country, and we will kill whoever stands in our way! It's rare that Captain Shi is so supportive of our work this time, so I think it's better to do it as soon as possible. It just so happened that the officers and men of the 3rd Company of the Army, who had come to take over, were also there, and the two companies worked together to occupy the place first. ”

"It's okay, I'll go and discuss with Company Commander Liao, it shouldn't be a big problem." Xu Gang nodded and did not speak again.

……

On October 7, 1641, with the support of Shi Qinjie, the captain of the Madagascar Pioneer Team, Xu Gang, the commander of the 101st Company of the Army, took all the officers and soldiers of the company, as well as half of the 3rd Company (6 platoons and 126 people) assigned to him under his command, and headed south on the multi-purpose ship "Breaking Waves", which had just completed simple maintenance in the Xinhua Ship Repair Institute.

Due to the southeast wind blowing on the sea, the "breaking waves" lowered the sails, the ship's steam engine was activated, and the billowing black smoke from the flat chimney of the ship's amidship quickly dissipated into the sky under the blowing of the sea breeze. The whole ship sailed south at a speed of about 5 knots (along the current) in the "whooshing" paddling sound of the tail paddle wheel, anyway, there were nearly 190 tons of coal in the cabin, Zhang Xiao didn't care, it was burned, and the ship couldn't sail without coal.

On October 9, the "breaking wave" passed through the narrow strait between St. Mary's Island and the western coastline. Here they came across two galleons of three or four hundred tons, which had flags of various strange patterns flying on their masts. Xu Gang, who had been here for nearly a year, told Zhang Xiao that these were European pirate ships gathered on St. Mary's Island. These European pirate ships numbered five or six at the time, and at the time they numbered a dozen or so, gathering hundreds of people.

Regarding the existence of these European pirates, the people on the east coast of Xinhua Port have a neutral attitude that is neither friendly nor hostile. After all, the main target of these European pirates was the Dutch merchant ships passing through the area, and to some extent, the two sides actually had a common language on the matter. In fact, these European pirates cultivated land on the island, and many of them married local indigenous women, and they were very hungry for the goods of the people on the east coast of the new China region, "from the world of civilization", and often exchanged some agricultural products or catches, and sometimes some stolen goods that were difficult to sell.

Under Shi Qinjie's instructions, the East Coasters did not deliberately suppress the stolen goods in the hands of these pirates every time they exchanged. They also gave a fair consideration for the agricultural products and catches they brought, so they won the favor of the pirates. Coupled with the strong force of the East Coasters here (180 musketeers, more than 400 militiamen, and more than 200 Eight Banner overseers), these pirates did not dare to think anything wrong, so the two sides lived in peace for a while. Later, after the easterners built strong forts and walled cities, the pirates completely abandoned their attempts to plunder the easterners, and instead used Xinhuabao as a place of supply and trade. After all, pirates are also human beings, and they also need to enjoy some goods in the civilized world, and they also need to live the life of the civilized world, otherwise they are so desperate to rob that they are so desperately robbed that they have wanted warrants from several countries, what is the picture? (To be continued......)