On July 5, 1642, two expedition ships of the Republic of the Eastern Coast arrived on Rishiri Island near Ezo with a southeasterly wind. Li Yi led the expedition ship "Chopper" around the north side of the island for a long time, and it was best to choose the later Japanese Yuanbo Port as the winter place for the east coast fleet.

Deep in the midst of Japan's warm current, Rebun Island on the northwest side of the island is a natural windbreak and breakwater, and a small peninsula on the west side of the port that stretches several hundred meters into the sea keeps out the waves coming in from the northwest. In addition, it does not freeze all year round, the island has abundant precipitation, and part of the cultivated farmland can also be reclaimed, which is very suitable as an outpost port and winter base of Heishui Port.

The few Ainu people on the island watched them in horror, wondering what the sudden appearance of outsiders was doing. Li Yi and the others didn't pay too much attention to them, but just exchanged some seafood with them with the little cloth left on the boat, which was regarded as contacting them in advance.

On July 6, the East Coast Expedition Fleet left Rishiri Island and headed south, crossing the Tsushima Strait and the ocean east of Taiwan, heading straight for Jinshan Port in the southeast corner of mainland Australia. This time to the south, the two ships have been sailing against the wind in the ocean north of the equator, but when they cross the equator and enter the South Pacific, the two ships can go south along the warm current of East Australia, which is quite convenient. As a result, it took the two ships about a month to arrive in Melbourne from Rishiri Island, about the same time as they had taken a few months earlier, with no stops other than a replenishment of fresh fresh water and coconuts near the port of Rabaul.

Jinshan Port is now in the middle of winter. With a bitter cold wind blowing on the sea, the two expedition ships cautiously sailed into Jinshan Bay, one after the other.

Thank goodness they're still alive! This was the first thought that popped into Li Yi's mind after entering the bay. Yes. More than ninety Eight Banner warriors he left here are still alive. They were standing on the only wooden pier on the dock, waving their arms vigorously at the two large ships.

With the rapid movement of the steam winch, the "Chopper" lowered its head and tail anchors and docked steadily at the side of the trestle. Li Yi, dressed in a cotton coat, was the first to jump off the trestle, and he shook hands with each of the Eight Banner warriors who came to greet them by the trestle, and patted them on the shoulders vigorously to show encouragement. It's not easy for them to stay here alone, but it's worth it

He was followed by hundreds of soldiers from the 2nd Squadron of the Advance Team, as well as hundreds of North Korean immigrants. After a month-long voyage at sea, these people are not in good physical condition. Many were even carried down. Even the brave Hezhe and Oroqen people, who had sailed in the Tatar Strait in canoes at most, had never seen the stormy waves of the ocean. After a nightmare month that they will never forget, they are now all soft-footed shrimp. Of course, these people were lucky, because almost twenty companions had already left them forever during the voyage, and they were buried in the depths of the ocean, sleeping with the darkness.

The mortality rate of the 600 Koreans who brought them was even higher, because they were not physically stronger than those of the Sakhalin people, and because the cabins they lived in were worse and more cramped, so that nearly 150 people were thrown into the sea during the voyage. The mortality rate is as high as a quarter in a month, which can be described as alarming.

The team and the North Koreans combined were nearly 550 people. Naturally, it is impossible for so many people to put all of them on the side of Jinshan Port, very simply, because there is not enough food to eat. When he first passed by here, Li Yi ordered people to leave them about fifteen tons of grain, a small amount of seeds, and farm tools, but considering that it was already the end of April, the ninety Eight Banner warriors who stayed here had neither time nor hand to reclaim a piece of farmland for sowing. Therefore, these fifteen tons of grain will be enough for them to eat for another half a year. If they had leveled their fields in the winter and sown potatoes and sweet potatoes with short growing seasons as soon as spring began, they might have been able to sustain their grain just enough until the harvest. But with the addition of a few new arrivals, this fragile food balance can soon be upset.

This question is more troublesome, Li Yi scratched his head, there are still thirty or forty tons of grain in the cabin, but it is left on the ship just in case, and he also has to leave some food for the Gushan Port that he will go to next, because Li Yi can't be sure that the Gushan Port has not had time to harvest a crop of grain this year. However, after thinking about it again, Li Yi still reluctantly ordered the sailors to unload fifteen tons of sweet potatoes and five tons of corn from the cabin, and at the same time threw some salted fish, cured meat, and bacon that were about to spoil in the food hold to them, saving them a lot of waste.

After calculating the total amount of grain in Jinshan Port, Li Yi felt that he could only leave about 150 North Koreans here, because no matter how many people there were, there would not be enough food to eat. Stranded in this desolate place, they could neither hunt nor fish, and had to survive on food reserves.

150 men were quickly selected, all of whom were Korean soldiers captured on Jeju Island, and they were still quite strong, so it was only fitting that they should be left here to dig coal and cultivate the land. But when it comes to digging coal, more than three months have passed, and a batch of coal has been stored here at Jinshan Port, which is piled up on the grass by the wharf. Li Yi made a rough estimate and felt that it was about more than 800 tons, but unfortunately most of it was lignite and the calorific value of combustion was low. Moreover, most of this coal has not been washed, and it is mixed with a lot of coarse coal gangue, and the actual calorific value of combustion may be even lower. But it's better than nothing, at least it's coal, and it can be burned, right?

The newly landed 150 Korean sergeants only had time to rest for one night before they were kicked and screamed by the Eight Banner warriors, and then rushed to the dock and began to wash coal with the Eight Banner Warriors and the soldiers of the Standing Brigade, and prepare fuel for the two ships of the East Coast Expedition Fleet, which were about to sail. When they were busy, Li Yi also took the "Chopping Wave" and "Breaking Waves" to catch fish in the nearby ocean to reserve more food for Jinshan Port. It's a pity that maybe there is no good fishing ground here, or Li Yi and others are unlucky, and after tossing for several days, they caught a total of more than ten tons of fish and shrimp. If the inedible parts are removed, these fish and shrimp may be less than ten tons. However, Rao is like this, so many fish and shrimp are enough for them to eat for more than a month after being stacked with salt, which can save a lot of food.

After a few days of washing and sorting coal, these people finally managed to roughly sort out about 360 tons of coal. This coal, combined with the 30 tons of coal remaining in the coal tanks of the two ships, is almost enough for the two ships to sail to Xinhuabao.

On August 16, 1642, the two ships of the East Coast Republic Expedition Fleet left the port of Jinshan again, and under the watchful eyes of more than 90 warriors of the Eight Banners and 150 Koreans on the dock, they turned due west and headed for Gushan Port in the southwest corner of the Australian mainland.

Gushan Port is located in the southwest corner of the mainland, except for the first part of the voyage, which can sail downwind, the whole journey is neither downwind nor smooth. Some people here may say that why not go to the north coast of Australia, where there is both wind and water, and it is very suitable for sailing. But isn't this to hide from the Dutch? Otherwise, who do you think will take this bullshit route that is neither smooth nor smooth?

In this way, they wandered on the sea for about 20 days, and it was not until September 8 that the two ships sailed with difficulty into the bay where Gushan Harbor was located. As with the port of Jinshan, the expedition fleet left about 70 Eight Banner warriors stationed here when they first passed by. If more than five months had passed, these Eight Banner warriors would still be firmly guarding the walled city that had been built for them. Sure enough, the combat effectiveness of the Australian aborigines is scum, can the primitive people of the Stone Age still be called human beings? I'm afraid the only difference between them and animals is that they can use some simple tools.

The situation is more optimistic in Gushan Harbor, at least they have reclaimed some wasteland around the walled city, planted some potatoes with short production cycles, and harvested a crop in late July. Although it is a wasteland, the yield per mu is only more than 600 catties, but it has also harvested nearly 70 tons of grain, almost filling several wooden grain warehouses in the walled city.

This situation made Li Yi breathe a sigh of relief, because it meant that he no longer had to travel long distances to return to Xinhua Fort with a group of people because of the lack of food here. Therefore, he quickly made a decision: the remaining 300 or so North Korean men and women, as well as more than 100 officers and men of the 2nd Squadron of the Advance Squadron, were all stationed here. They will open up wasteland and cultivate land here, and build a port and urban area at the same time, because in the future, a large-scale oriental immigration plan may soon be launched in China, and Gushan Port, as an important transit node, must be built no matter what.

In the Executive Committee's long-term plan, more than 10 transport ships will be mobilized in the next few years to carry out a large-scale operation of oriental migration. The location of Gushan Port is extremely important, and both outbound and returning fleets will stop here to replenish and repair ships. Even if the Dutch were at odds with the Dutch in the future, the fleet on the east coast would be able to go north from here to Batavia and the Spice Islands, which would certainly be a great surprise to the Dutch.

On September 14, 1642, the two ships left the wharf of Gushan Port in turn, turned due west, and then sailed north along the cold current of Western Australia, and then along the warm current of the south equator and the southeast trade wind, towards the colony of New China. (To be continued......)