Mo Ming of the River Fort was already the next day when he received the news from the heralds. At this time, he was receiving a group of acquaintances on the dock of the Fort in the River - Li Yi and Huang Yang from the Falklands Baleen Whale Harbor, as well as several Portuguese captains.

Li Yi and Huang Yang finally remembered that South Africa was waiting to be fed here, and they urgently needed them to transport supplies, so they picked a good day and took a small risk to rush over with a full load of goods. They had been staying in the barbelen whale harbor as turtles, but they weren't all to blame. The main reason is that they have not returned to the mainland to transport supplies for a long time, and the second is that there have been British pirate ships wandering outside Baleen Whale Harbor, so they have never dared to venture out to sea in Baleen Whale Harbor.

However, it is indeed quite torturous to be alone in the cold baleen whale harbor, and the batch of materials that were transported to South Africa from the mainland last time has been stored in the baleen whale harbor for a long time, almost a year, and they can't bear the guilt if they don't send it to South Africa. Therefore, taking advantage of a stormy and snowy weather, the two drove the battleship "Eagle on the East Coast" and the armed transport ship "Exocet Galicia" loaded with a batch of weapons, building materials, and daily necessities to South Africa in the northeast.

After a month of fearful sailing, the two boats finally sneaked into the quay of the river fort this morning. Along the way, they were lucky not to encounter any foreign ships - except for the few Portuguese ships they encountered outside the mouth of the Berg River, they were successful in this adventure.

"How did you do that?" Mo Ming gritted his teeth and whispered to Li Yi: "Why did you bring the Portuguese here?" Fuck you think we're long-lived, don't you? The British did not know that we had this secret supply port in South Africa, and it was better for you to take the Portuguese here. Will I be able to keep it a secret here in the future? If you don't tell me what the hell is going on today. I'm not done with you! ”

"See for yourself, don't you know the way?" Li Yi gave him a blank look. said: "These three ships are loaded with thousands of Far Eastern immigrants, and the leader is Captain Carvalho, who is also our old acquaintance. We happened to meet them in the open sea, and told them that a large number of British warships and pirate ships were now hovering along the east coast, and that their three ships could not reach the port of Orient. As soon as the captains of the ship agreed, they prepared to sell the Far Eastern immigrants to Rio de Janeiro as slaves. How can I agree to this, you haven't seen those black slaves in Rio de Janeiro, how miserable it is. Besides, these Far Eastern immigrants were also our predestined 'goods'. So what about ......"

Mo Ming glanced at him stupidly, and the anger on his face dissipated slightly, but he still sighed and said, "Although it is difficult to say whether what you did was right or wrong, hundreds of people on this side of the river fort are really going to be killed by you." We don't even have coastal defense batteries now, and if we let the British fleet kill us, what defense will we have? Just like Lu Ming did in Gambia, the fleet lined up and bombarded our city walls, so we still have a fart! ”

"Don't worry." Li Yi said with a big grin, "Didn't we bring you a few coastal defense heavy artillery?" It's all on board. ”

"Really?" Mo Ming's eyes lit up, "How many doors?" What caliber? ”

"2 24-pounder guns, 2 18-pounder guns, 2 12-pounder guns. How's that, impressed, right? Li Yi said with a smile.

"Touch you!" Mo Ming burst into a foul mouth, "I know that you can't be trusted, what can these cannons do?" A British warship is dozens of guns, although the caliber will not be very large, but it can't hold a large number. These six cannons are not enough for people to stuff their teeth! When the British killed Lao Tzu, they had to abandon the city and lead people to fight guerrillas in the wilderness, otherwise they would be bombarded into slag by their artillery! ”

"These six cannons are not for you to use like this." Li Yi smiled mysteriously, and then whispered to Mo Ming: "I have seen the terrain, this Beige River course is tortuous, you can choose a turret at the bend of the river with strong currents. If a British warship comes, if you are not familiar with the hydrological situation, you will not dare to come in for a while. Why, I'm afraid of running aground! The ship ran aground, and that was a live target for the battery! And the river here is not very wide, and the water depth is different in various places, so it is the body of water in the center of the river that can sail large ships, right? Don't say I didn't teach you, if you really fight, you will let the gang of the South China Sea Transportation Company drive a large transport ship full of ballast stones, sink in the narrow part of the downstream channel, block the channel, and see if the British ship can still fly over? At that time, the British will still have to honestly get off the ship and gnaw at your fortress, and it will be much easier. ”

"You crooked person really has a bit of a crooked idea, this time you have passed." Mo Ming suddenly smiled and said, "By the way, the Portuguese let you fool over, what about this freight?" How can I afford hundreds of thousands of dollars? ”

"It's your business, I just can't bear to watch these blood cousins being trafficked into slavery." Li Yi spread his hands and said, "You still have to figure out how to deal with the money." Please, Boss Mo, I'm sending you a mouthful, don't look reluctant, okay. Do you think that if we hadn't been at war with the British, there would have been a chance that these thousand people would have fallen into your hands? Hey, go dream! Relying on the local area to give you dozens of hundreds of people a year, you can only develop in the Year of the Monkey? I'm doing a good deed for you, and I don't appreciate it, really! Don't thank me, my surname is Lei. ”

"Okay, I'm too lazy to pay attention to you." Mo Ming buttoned his hat on his head, then pulled Avani next to him and said, "Sergeant Avani, you now go and bring someone to assist Lieutenant Li Yi in unloading the goods and placing the personnel." By the way, the people were placed in the warehouse first, and there was nothing left in the warehouse anyway. Remember, everyone has to take a shower and eat after the shower. ”

After finishing speaking, Mo Ming hurried back to the city, but unexpectedly bumped into Liu Ang, who was going out to watch the excitement. Mo Ming grabbed him, and then asked, "Why are you going?" Come with me and count the supplies. ”

"I don't need to count them, the accounts are all in my head." Liu Ang waved his hand and said decisively: "More than 7,000 pieces of fur, 2,500 tusks, 500 bags of wool, plus some dog's head gold of different gold contents that we have collected, the total value will not exceed 150,000 yuan." What is the use of this money, it is not enough to pay half of the freight, don't think about it, it is not enough. ”

Mo Ming scratched her head a little depressedly and said, "I originally thought I had a lot of money on hand, but I didn't expect it to be so little, alas, I hate less money when I use it." This morning, the commander came back to tell me that Xie Hansan had broken through a small and medium-sized tribe of Xhosa and seized a lot of supplies, and we would like to see if they could surprise us. If you really can't do it, we will sell people! Sell those Bantu blacks! ”

"Selling people is one way, and there is a shortage of slaves in Brazil, and I think these Portuguese must be happy to trade slaves from us to Brazil, after all, it is very profitable." Liu Ang thought for a while and said, "But how can we raise enough slaves for a while?" In my opinion, you might as well hit the heads of the ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company. As far as I know, all the British supplies and gold that the naval fleet had seized in the Gambia were on those transport ships. Now we are in a hurry to use the money, and it doesn't matter if we ask them to 'borrow' at all, but we can just make a report to the Executive Committee to clarify the situation later. ”

Speaking of the most reluctant, Liu Ang had already laughed a little, it seemed that his idea of beating that batch of gold was not a day or two.

Mo Ming only hesitated for less than five seconds, and then "readily" agreed with Liu Ang's opinion, the batch of materials consisted of gold, cane sugar, furs, ivory and spices, and its value was conservatively estimated to be more than 200,000 yuan. With such a large amount of money, it will not be a problem to find a way to get together and get a fund of three or four hundred thousand yuan. With such a sum of money, it is roughly able to pay the high freight costs of this group of immigrants to the Portuguese.

Most of the more than 1,000 immigrants were Ming citizens, and a small number came from Korea, Japan, Ryukyu and other places. Liu Xiang, the "old friend" of the crossing crowd and the gold medal agent of the Portuguese, Liu Da Chief, was finished two years ago and died under Zheng Zhilong's repeated pursuit. Therefore, the Portuguese, who had been forced for the past two years, sent people to Zheng Zhilong to establish relations, and on the other hand, mobilized business partners on the land of Liangguang to recruit displaced people in the interior of the Ming Dynasty in the name of reclamation, and promised these people huge profits.

Now Daming is leaking everywhere and crumbling. Local officials also turned a blind eye to the aggressive efforts to recruit displaced people, and even wished that they would let more people go, and that these displaced people in the province who had no food would gather together to make trouble and cause trouble for themselves. Therefore, the Portuguese, who originally thought that it would be difficult to recruit immigrants after Liu Xiang's death, were pleasantly surprised to find that things were not as difficult as they imagined.

The price that the Portuguese paid to the "homeless traffickers" in Guangdong was 4-5 taels of silver per adult man and woman, plus some dotting fees, and the cost of each adult immigrant would not exceed six taels of silver. But as soon as they resold it, they sold it to the people on the east coast for more than 400 taels of silver per adult male and female immigrant, and the profit was nearly 100 times! Even if the death rate of immigrants is half, this business is dozens of times more profitable. This kind of profit is about the same as the profiteering Chinese porcelain, and it is really a great business.

After the problem of huge freight was solved, Mo Ming couldn't help but be complacent. With these more than 1,000 new immigrants, plus a batch of muskets, cannons, and building materials that had just been sent from Baleen Whale Harbor, he could not only build a small coastal defense battery, but also partially expand the walls of the river fort.

In this way, the Fort in the River is somewhat decent in terms of population and area. Next, I will show my strength, and I will have a solid backing. (To be continued......)