By order of the Executive Committee, a transport ship from the newly established East African Transport Company will also join the fleet. Faced with an order from his local superiors, the sad-faced Shi Qinjie had no choice but to agree. But fortunately, the second 650-ton flute transport ship built by his Xinhuaxia shipyard has been almost built, otherwise he would not have let it go so happily.

The new transport ship was loaded with a large amount of cement, lime, standard bricks, refractory bricks and other construction materials, as well as a large number of hump cattle, large white pigs and other livestock, and then the fleet left Xinhua Port without resting, and arrived at Tacheng Port, which has now been built a little bit on February 2, against the southeast wind.

The passengers on board were allowed to go ashore for two full days. Many of the slave workers on the docks of Tacheng Port seized the time to refill four steam-powered multi-purpose expedition ships with coal. Hundreds of slave laborers worked for two days and two nights to load up to 900 tons of Tacheng refined coal into the holds of the four expedition ships, and by this time, all four ships were almost fully loaded.

In the past two days, Mo Ming and the others also unexpectedly encountered five ships of the Sino-Portuguese combined fleet patrolling here. After a brief conversation with Wang, they received important information: the Dutch began to strengthen their stronghold in Tulare, and many Chinese, Javanese and Indians from the East Indies came to grow pepper in order to secure their shipping routes. Fortunately, however, both the Dutch and the East Coasters have exercised great restraint and have not further aggravated the conflict, but it is anyone's eye that relations between the two sides are cold, if not bad. Sooner or later, the conflict may erupt.

After breaking up with Wang Tiehammer. February 5th. The fleet, which had grown to nine ships, left the Tacheng port area and headed south towards Gushan Harbour in the southwest corner of Australia, after replenishing a large amount of fresh fresh water. At this point, the entire fleet entered the most critical and dangerous part of the voyage. When entering the waters near 38 degrees south latitude, Liu Dafa, the captain of the "Fubo" expedition ship that sailed for the first time, turned white, the ship was shaking too much, and the waves were too high. The ship's pumping machines and drain holes were all open, and the sailors had to walk very carefully on deck. so as not to fall into the sea. In such a high-latitude sea area with strong winds and waves, you don't expect any ships to stop and save you, it's simply impossible.

The Fubo expedition ship had a full load displacement of 1,150 tons, and used a stern tube with a bronze bushing, a 48.3-horsepower single-cylinder steam engine, and a single-propeller propeller. This kind of propeller was imitated by the engineers of the modern special shipyard after referring to the propeller of the decommissioned Yunsheng No. 1 and the tugboat, and then scaled up or down. The propeller is made of cast iron, which is cast using a mold, and after the casting is completed, it is slightly machined on the machine to make it more accurate.

In fact, casting and machining propellers are essential for the Eastern Coast Republic, which now has the most rudimentary industrial processing capabilities. It's not a difficult thing, the highest technical content is the propeller's paddle shaft underwater sealing technology. At present, the "Fubo" and "Zhuhai" expedition ships use steel axles. The difference between the two lies in the different material bushings on the paddle shaft, one is an iron pear wood bushing, and the other is a bronze bushing. The intention of using different bushings is actually to test, that is, the engineers of modern special shipyards want to observe which of these two shaft sleeves is better, and the main indicators to observe are the degree of wear of the bushing, whether the heat dissipation is good, whether it is resistant to seawater corrosion, whether the sealing degree is good, whether it is oil leakage and so on.

The Navy officers and sailors will be responsible for recording various data and submitting it to Hyundai Factory after returning so that they can finalize the design of the country's first propeller thruster. The two boats were relatively smooth along the way, and the propeller thrusters were operating normally. However, it was driving in a normal sea area before, which was nothing, but now that it has entered a sea area with strong winds and waves, it can be said that the real test has just begun.

Today, the waves at sea are more than 4 meters high, and the ship is shaking very much. Mo Ming put on a raincoat, clutched the railing of the ship, and walked carefully on the deck. Not only did the ship sway from side to side, but it also tossed up and down. He was a little worried that something would happen to the bronze bushing of the ship's propeller tail tube, because in this bumpy environment, the propeller shaft and bushing were also being subjected to the force of seawater rushing in from all directions. Moreover, the propeller itself has its own weight, and such frequent axial vibrations may damage the bronze bushing of the stern tube - because the hardness of bronze is relatively soft, compared to the iron pear wood bushing used on the "Zhuhai", so he is quite worried.

The ship's new chief engineer gestured to him as normal, which made him breathe a sigh of relief, and it seemed that there was no problem. Then test it for a few more days, and then you can turn off the steam engine and raise the sails and sail. After all, the equipment of the steam engine and its transmission system will also wear and tear, and if you can open it for a while, you will have to open it for a while.

The entire fleet was led by the "Chopper", followed by the "Wandering Sea"; Behind the most are the "Breaking Waves" and "Fubo". In the middle of the four ships were three flute-type transports, an armed transport, and a fast cruiser, and the entire fleet maintained a speed of 7-8 knots and was heading east at high speed. Perhaps it was God's preference for this fleet, or perhaps the experienced captain of the pilot expedition ship "Chopper", in short, they crossed this stormy sea without danger and arrived somewhere on the south coast of mainland Australia on March 2. After sending someone ashore to measure the latitude and longitude by the length of the midday shadow and the mechanical watch, they took the time to compare the coastline of their area, and finally determined their position. After determining the location, the entire fleet immediately turned due west, and it only took half a day to find Gushan Harbor, which had been set up as a stronghold.

It has been nearly half a year since the last time a ship entered the port. Therefore, after seeing a huge fleet of ships coming from the mainland, the people left behind on the east coast in the port were a little excited. However, there are only three short wooden trestles in Gushan Bay, which can only accommodate six ships at a time. There was no way, nine ships could only come in batches.

As soon as the Eight Banner warriors who stayed here saw Mo Ming get off the boat, they all burst into enthusiastic cheers. Although the old governor often drove them to fight with other tribes when he was in South Africa, he was generally kind to them, and the slaves and supplies captured in the war were always distributed to everyone as fairly as possible, so everyone was convinced of him.

Mo Ming smiled and waved his hand to them, and then also talked a few words with the hundreds of soldiers from the 2nd Squadron of the Standing Force, Hezhe, Oroqen, and Ainu who were standing on the side. Only a few of them could speak some simple Chinese, but this did not prevent the two sides from conveying their respective meanings, for Mo Ming quickly ordered some fine cloths, various liquors, and tobacco to be brought down from the ship and presented to them, which made them happy at once.

There are fewer than 300 North Korean men and women in the port, who are the main laborers in the stronghold, and they are planting some of the fields that have been carved out of the city. At the same time, they were also the servants of more than 70 Eight Banner samurai and hundreds of officers and soldiers of the 2nd Squadron of the Stand Up Squadron in the stronghold, all because they had not yet obtained official status. Mo Ming casually flipped through the record book handed over by the manager who stayed here, a hundred households from Eight Banners, which recorded some trivial matters, such as how many acres of barren land were reclaimed on a certain day, how many acres were sown on a certain day, and how many acres were organized to patrol nearby on a certain day.

One of them records that in December last year, the Koreans rioted, killing one warrior of the Eight Banners, one member of the Standing Force, killing and wounding several people, and then suppressed it, beheading 18 rioters. This makes Mo Ming feel a little interesting, even those North Koreans who drag their families will also riot? Most of them were bullied by those Eight Banner warriors and had to resist. Mo Ming has led these Eight Banners soldiers for many years, and knows some of their virtues, and when he was in the New China region, there were many bad deeds of the Eight Banners raping Malay women, and this time it was probably such incidents that provoked the resistance of the Koreans.

But he didn't intend to delve into it, if he wanted the horse to run, how could he not give it grass? At most, it would be good to warn them and beat them so that they would not dare to do it again in a short time, after all, if the punishment is too much, it will chill the hearts of the soldiers. People have crossed the ocean to pioneer for you, and it's a fart to make a little mistake, so can't you shoot them? And he is not a Soviet commissar!

The transport ships on the docks were still unloading one by one, and due to the lack of manpower, even many sailors and army soldiers were involved. They unloaded a large number of building materials, grain, livestock, farm tools, and weapons, which were used to build a brick kiln factory in Gushan Port; Food, on the other hand, is stockpiled in advance for the influx of immigrants this year; As for the hump cattle, South African cattle, vicuñas, and large white pigs, these livestock remain here for breeding.

At the same time, some brick kilns, shipyards, and technical personnel from the Ministry of Agriculture who have been transferred from the local area will be placed here. In the future, Gushan Port will take them as the backbone and start to build brick kiln factories, ship repair yards, and guide the new immigrants in more scientific and advanced planting and grazing techniques.

The passengers were allowed to go ashore to recuperate, but because there were not enough wooden houses in the area, they had to put up barbed wire and tents along the walled city for two days. Once the ships had unloaded their cargo and replenished with fresh fresh water and vegetables, they set off again for the port of Jinshan to the east. (To be continued......)