"The straight coastline of the East Coast is a disaster for ocean transportation." Yang Jie, commissioner of the Zelu District Administration and commander of the garrison, sailed off the east coast on a naval ship, looking at the beautiful scenery on the distant horizon, and said with emotion.

Due to the particularly strong monsoon and the influence of the tide, it is difficult for the rivers on the east coast of Xinhuaxia Island to enter the sea, and the rivers have to change their flow direction under the action of strong external forces, and the overall trend is north-south, and then it is difficult to flow into the sea in a suitable place. After the long operation of the rivers under these conditions, a series of oxbow lakes, sandbars and marshes formed along the coast, which were beautiful and beautiful, but not very friendly to agricultural work, and required great efforts to transform.

Yang Jie has worked in Australia for many years, and he has seen a lot of the twists and turns of the coastline there, and he has nothing to say about the ports and hydrological conditions on the east coast of Xinhua Island. In fact, Duofan Port and Tacheng Port are not good ports, the former is too high, the bay is too wide, and the latter is just a short general, at best, it is just a rare promontory on the east coast that extends into the deep sea, the water depth is enough, there is no natural breakwater, and there is no necessary terrain for building military fortresses, so it can only barely be used as a commercial port with not very good conditions.

In fact, not only the east coast, but also the west coast, especially in the central and southern regions, the conditions of the only large port Mianhe Port are actually not very good: the amount of sediment carried by the river is too large, which makes the port easy to silt, and it needs to spend a sum of money every year to desilt; The terrain of the harbor is also not good, and it is not possible to keep the wind and waves out of the harbor in stormy weather—and at worst, to weaken the energy of the incoming waves, but this also seems difficult to do, unless a huge amount of money is spent on artificial breakwaters.

The real ports with excellent conditions on Xinhuaxia Island are actually in the north, and the excellent conditions of Xinhua Port are rare even in the mainland, and the conditions of other places such as Kanghua Port are also not bad, which can be used as a commercial port, and of course can also be used as a military port. The biggest disadvantage of these places is probably that the environment is too humid and stuffy, and it is easy to reduce the number of people due to diseases in the early stage of development. However, in the places that have been developed today, the superiority of its port conditions has slowly been reflected, and it has begun to provide sufficient impetus for economic development, especially when the so-called sugar bull market, rubber bull market, and coffee bull market have slowly arrived.

"No matter how difficult it is, it has to be transported, and the soil environment on the east coast is very suitable for the cultivation of cash crops such as pepper, oil palm, and sisal, as well as grain growing areas, forests, and fishery resources, and it is really difficult to have no port." Talking to him is Li Zemin, commander of the Second Fleet of the Navy, after taking charge of the Second Fleet, this gentleman began a drastic rectification and reform, strengthened the training frequency of the fleet, and improved the training methods, not to mention how much the strength of the guys in the Second Fleet has increased, but this spirit is good, of course, this also requires a lot of resources and money, and Li Gongzi dares to play like this, who can let people pull sponsorship and subsidies?

Today, he and Yang Jie took the flagship of the Navy's Second Fleet, the "Control East", south along the east coast to the Fort Dovan Naval Base. This relatively old "10 August" class battleship was overhauled and extended last year, and tens of thousands of yuan was spent, and now the ship is in good condition, and it looks like it can serve for some more years, until the Navy's shipbuilding plan is completely completed and replaced by a new "Temperary" class frigate gunboat.

The "Control of the East" followed the ocean current southward, all the way through Tacheng, Gaodu, Lu'an and other places to Daze County's Duofan Harbor, which is also a base of the Second Fleet. There is a large lighthouse on the mountain, and there are also many coastal defense cannons hidden in the verdant trees, and the muzzles of the black holes are facing the outside of the harbor, ready to be smashed to pieces by future enemies.

"Dorfan Harbor is much more prosperous than I expected." Watching the ship lower its sails and slowly enter the port at a low speed driven by steam power, Yang Jie said with emotion: "Chairman Heqiang has lived on Quansheng Island for so long, I am not even used to it. In that deserted place, there are not many outsiders all year round, and young people are trying to find a way to run towards the Australian continent, which is really lonely. Looking at Duofan Port again, it is actually just a small county town in an overseas colony, but it has a population of more than 8,000 people, yes, yes, I have never seen such a prosperous place in Australia. ”

"Hehe, it's all prospered after the navy moved over." Li Zemin dismissed the efforts of local officials for many years, and only listened to him continue: "Now there are at least four warships stationed here all the year round, and there are quite a few merchant ships coming and going. Coupled with the increasing prosperity of coffee cultivation in the nearby area over the years, it is expected that the population here will increase day by day, which is normal. ”

In fact, the population of Duofan Port and even the entire Daze County has indeed been increasing rapidly over the years, but the reason is not like what Li Zemin just said is the credit of the navy. The navy brought in a large number of soldiers, technicians, officers and their families, and the local population grew, but it was nowhere near what it is today. The real development of the population and economy of Dofangang is due to the gradual expansion of the coffee cultivation area in the nearby mountains and the development of all walks of life brought about by it, which is the most important.

Speaking of this coffee cultivation, it is impossible not to mention the struggle between the people on the east coast and the local indigenous groups led by the Antai Faji people and the Antai Moro people in the southwestern mountainous area of New Huaxia Island. After uniting the Bala and Anteyfarje hill peoples on the Mahafali Plateau to expel the French colonists, the basis for cooperation between the East Coasters and these natives ceased to exist, and the relationship gradually deteriorated, and armed conflicts began over land and wealth.

The first to develop disputes with the people of the east coast were the most civilized indigenous people of the island, the Antai Faji and the Antai Moro people, who could write books in Arabic variants. They initially used the remaining weapons of the French to fight the Easterners, but they were quickly depleted. At this time, it was the Omanis of the Sultanate of Muscat who gave them a large amount of military aid out of religious sentiments, which undoubtedly angered the people of the east coast and took more drastic measures.

Yes, the people of the eastern bank first contacted the de facto ruler of the Mahafali Plateau, Chief Mananzano, and bribed him with gifts to get him to agree to send troops to flank the Antaefarizians from the west. After several embarrassing defeats on the battlefield, they quickly sent representatives to make peace with the easterners, redrawing the borders: the easterners seized the opportunity to acquire large tracts of land suitable for growing coffee, and the chieftain Mananzano received all the spoils of war as compensation, to the delight of all.

However, the war between the East Coasters and these mountain groups did not end there. Because the appetite for land on the east coast was insatiable, coupled with the presence of some powerful colonial officials, the two sides clashed for three days. As soon as several clashes came, the East Bank Commander, who did not want to spend too much money but wanted to take the opportunity to escalate the situation, repeated his old trick and bribed Chief Manangzano with gifts, so that he could send troops to sneak attack from the flank and contain these mountain people, and cooperate with the East Bank Militia's offensive in the front, which had a very good effect.

Under these several blows, the Antai Faji people, the Antai Morro people, and other groups with low productivity, low organization, and equally low war potential, were crippled by the East Coast. Some of them fled into the hinterland, where they survived near the plateau, where they were at any time exposed to a possible threat from the Melina. The rest surrendered directly to the East Coast side as a whole, and then were broken up and reorganized into the Eight Banners of the Islands, becoming the servant tribes and servant armies of the East Coast people.

After the overthrow of the organized resistance of the Antemoro and Antefaji, the coastal plains, forests or mountains where they lived became a paradise for the people of the eastern coast. Although there are not many people who have moved there now, they have been marked on the map as the actual control area of their own side, and it is a high probability event that they will be developed in the future - in fact, with the popularity of coffee in the mainland and overseas colonies on the east coast today, it is only a matter of time before these places are developed, and there are already many businessmen who have come to negotiate and inquire, but they still have doubts about the security in the mountains, and they are still in the early contact stage.

Compared to the Antemoro tribe, the fate of the Bara, who once fell in love with them, was not much better. After the death of the powerful chief Mananzano due to illness, his sons who were divided into various places rose up to compete for the throne because of the backward tribal succession system. Their strength was strong and weak, and their support was also different, so for a time it became a pot of porridge, making the Mahafali Plateau a bloody slaughterhouse, countless brave Bala warriors were killed in each other's attacks, and even some of their servant tribes such as the Mahafari and the Antondruva were also killed and wounded, and the entire Bala Plateau ushered in a bloody feast.

In this internal conflict between the indigenous tribes, the East Coast people were initially neutral, and only slightly took in some farmers and herdsmen who had fled to the East Bank control area due to the war, as well as some scattered deserters, and incorporated them into the Eight Banners system of the island to enrich the strength of the servant army.

The plateau was in turmoil until the middle of 1682, seeing that all sides were exhausted, the people on the east coast suddenly accepted the invitation of a defeated small tribe, mobilized a new Huaxia infantry battalion, plus the militia of the security regiment of three counties, supplemented by some naval gunners, a strong lineup of nearly 3,000 people, brazenly entered the territory of the former chief of Manangzano, and launched a fierce offensive against the remaining forces.

In this series of offensives, the organized resistance of the Baralians was completely crushed, and the rest either scattered and fled into the depths of the wasteland, or surrendered directly to the army on the east coast, and were incorporated into the farming system of the Eight Banners of the island. They were accompanied by a large number of Mahafaris and Antondrua, numbering more than 20,000, which greatly enriched the Dingkou of the island's Eight Banners, and freed the major state farms, ranches, orchards, and lumberyards from suffering from a shortage of labor for a short time.

The Eight Banners tribes on these islands are guided by instructors and advisers on the east coast, and they are under militarized management and discipline. In addition to cultivating their own land, they also need to regularly serve as conscripts on farms, pastures or logging fields on the east coast, which is actually quite difficult. However, the people on the east coast will also sell them a large number of daily necessities and even medicines at a very fair price, and at the same time help them design and build various facilities in the settlement (of course, they have to pay for it) to reduce the invasion of diseases, and at the same time send a few teachers to teach them Chinese, you must know that this is funded by the government, and how many barbarian tribes want to learn and have no chance.

Not to mention, the Eight Banners tribe of the island, which often follows the people on the east coast to "abuse vegetables", receives a lot of loot. Among these trophies, most of the gold, silver, treasures and slaves were looted by the East Coast government, but some grain, livestock, daily necessities, weapons, etc., the proud officers and soldiers of the Great East Coast could not look down on them, and all of them were sent to the Eight Banners of the island that had repeatedly charged into battle, and sometimes even rewarded some people to them, and the harvest was very large.

Therefore, the Eight Banners tribes on these islands are actually quite lucky to follow the people on the east coast, and their living standards and civilization are much better than those compatriots who are struggling in the wilderness. At the very least, the upper echelons of Chinese language can already write the history of their tribe and record some of their experiences, which will be beneficial for the future development of their community.

After seeing that the Eight Banners of the island were so loyal and the assimilation policy was beginning to bear fruit, over the years, the local authorities had relocated several batches of people to settle on the African continent on the west coast of the Strait, which was roughly located in the wild area on the northern edge of the Yicheng region, bordering the black settlements. The above meaning is probably to let them live on the dividing line between civilization and barbarism, defend the territory for the country, block a large number of blacks from the north, and at the same time have the meaning of waiting for an opportunity to advance north and expand the territory.

At present, this policy has been implemented for some years, and the effect seems to be okay, at least the local officials in the northern part of the Yicheng region have reacted very well, praising the Eight Banners of the Island for their ability to fight well, and expelling the Tunga and Swazi people far away, as if urging the higher authorities to send the next batch of Eight Banners of the Island to hurry up.