For the huge fleet of 7 ships brought by Zhao Yiwei, Wang Wuwei, the military and political chief of the colonial towns on the west coast of North America, was also very surprised, and it was the first time in many years that he had seen such a large investment in China and the transportation of so many tools, machinery and craftsmen to the colonial towns in North America. Please Baidu search (product book network) to see the most complete! The fastest update!

After more than seven years of development, Daming has built five major towns on the west coast of North America from north to south, including Sanxing Island, New Hangzhou, Dahebao, New Xiamen and Los Angeles.

Of the five towns, the smallest is Fort Grand River, which has more than 500 people, and the largest, Los Angeles, has about 4,000 people, for a total of about 8,000 people. From Los Angeles to the northernmost island of Sanjiao, the Ming Dynasty was able to control a population of more than 20,000, nearly half of which were in these coastal towns. There are about 30,000-40,000 indigenous people in the inland area, but these indigenous tribes are scattered in the mountains and forests, and there are only about thousands of people who are related to the Ming Dynasty.

As for the population under the control of North American towns in the Ming Dynasty, naturalized Indians accounted for about 60 percent, Chinese 1 and a half, Asians 20 percent, and white about half percent.

And south of Los Angeles, on the north side of the California peninsula, only one large white town, San Diego, remains. Thanks to the rapid growth of Los Angeles City, San Diego, which was originally far away from other colonial cities, finally found a trading partner of its own. The iron tools, cotton cloth, and agricultural products produced in San Diego were brought from the country to form a complementary trade, which led to the gradual increase in the number of Santiago's inhabitants, and by the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the area had more than 800 whites and more than 600 colored people.

Although Santiago was founded by the Spaniards, the city was predominantly populated by Portuguese criminals exiled by the New Spanish government, and the latter two former pirates, negligent sailors, and bankrupt merchants, who had come to this desolate place far from the Ming society, apparently for a variety of reasons.

Therefore, after Los Angeles accepted the city into its trading circle, Santiago immediately began to get close to the Chinese, ignoring the New Spain government. Nearly one-third of the city's population was used by the Ming smuggling business, whose goods were transported to Los Angeles and then transported to San Diego by land, or transferred to ships in San Diego to southern Mexico disguised as agricultural products.

When Zhao Yiwei arrived in Japan by ship, he had already received a new order from the emperor, so he knew that his mission this time was not only to establish a North American colony, but also to train the colonies' armed forces to prevent conflict with the Spaniards.

After listening to Wang Wuwei's introduction of the situation of the colonial towns in North America and the geography of the West Coast, Zhao Yiwei looked at the map of the West Coast spread out on the thick solid wood table for a long time, and then said to Wang Wuwei, who was already a deputy general: "In this way, the West Coast of North America can be divided into three parts, the harbor area in the north, the coastal zone in the south, and the central valley area east of New Xiamen.

According to your explorations, the northern part of the Yang Valley area is a forest swamp, a grassland, and a desert in the south. Then the part of this region and the northern part of the region are suitable for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, and we only need to control the exit of the central valley to the new Xiamen port.

If we had a conflict with the Spaniards, Los Angeles would be the first to be attacked, so it was important to prioritize agriculture and livestock in the Young Valley in case Los Angeles ran out of food in the event of an attack. In addition, Santiago must be firmly in our hands and not allowed to become a base for the Spaniards to attack us.

So I intend to divide these towns into three administrative regions, with the North Harbor being our last retreat; The new Xiamen and Yanggu districts are our agricultural bases; Los Angeles and the southern coastal plains will be our military base and manufacturing hub. From north to south, there can be three prefectures of Xianzhou, Yangzhou and Qingzhou, each of which has a prefecture and a guerrilla in charge of military affairs, and the original city council can be upgraded to a state council to assist the governor in governing the locality.

The North American Governor's Office will be located in Los Angeles, and you will be my deputy to the position of Lieutenant Governor. The Colonial Guard will be raised from the current 430 to 750 men, and each state will have to form a militia to maintain law and order in peacetime and assist the Guard in defending the colony in wartime. ”

Wang Wuwei, who had already reported the extension of his service in the North American colonies, naturally had nothing to object to the order to expand the scope of the colony and strengthen the defense of the colony. The more control the Ming had over the West Coast, the safer the colony became, and he even thought that he could take his family over and live in this paradise.

Therefore, he thought for a moment and then shook his head and said, "My lord has already thought it through, and Xia Guan has no opinion. But..."

Zhao Yiwei immediately looked up at him and asked, "But what?" ”

Wang Wuwei thought for a while and said, "Santiago has a very close relationship with us now, and Xia Guan doesn't feel the need to take it immediately. Wouldn't it be better for us to send a small force to San Diego and wait until the time comes to officially turn the other cheeks with the Spaniards? ”

Zhao Yiwei was silent for a moment and then said, "Will Santiago agree to us stationing a detachment of men and horses to enter?" ”

Wang Wuwei nodded and said, "There should be no problem, we can station in the name of guarding the warehouse of smuggled goods, and I think the representatives of the Four Seas Trading Company should help us." In addition, whether or not to start contacting the Indians outside the city of San Diego is equivalent to double insurance, and my righteous son Wang Xihai can go and contact them. ”

Zhao Yiwei immediately agreed: "Then this matter will be handled by you, and in addition, you will accompany the representative of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau tomorrow to pick a place for them to build a shipyard, and the place must be larger." ”

Wang Wuwei repeated with some surprise, "The representative of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau? ”

Zhao Yiwei looked at the map and replied casually: "Yes, half of the materials of this fleet belong to them, and the other half of the materials are also donated by them to the North American Governor's Palace." In return, in the future, the arms and iron tools of the North American Governor's Office will be sent to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau*. ”

Wang Wuwei was a little surprised by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau's generosity, and at this time, Shen Yibiao, the North American representative of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and several shipbuilders were amazed by the rich timber resources of this land.

The most important components in the manufacture of a wooden sailing ship are the keel and the mainmast. Ten years ago, since the imperial court lifted the sea ban and encouraged the shipbuilding industry to build large ships, the Ming Dynasty has formed four shipbuilding hearts: Tianjin, Nanjing, Fujian, and Guangzhou. Tianjin relies on abundant timber resources from the northeast, Fujian relies on local forest resources, Guangdong relies on timber from Guangxi and Southeast Asia, and Nanjing mainly relies on timber from Huguang and Sichuan.

However, as in several other places, Nanjing could not control the timber merchants of Huguang and Sichuan. After all, the good wood in these places is not only supplied to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau for shipbuilding, and the powerful gentry in Jiangnan are more willing to spend money to buy big wood when they build gardens.

And as the size of the ships has grown, the shipyards in Tianjin and Guangzhou have begun to leave Nanjing and Fujian behind. Although there are now splicing methods to compensate for the lack of wood length, such ships cannot withstand strong winds and waves, and can only sail in offshore areas. In particular, the keel made by the splicing method will not be used for warships, which makes the managers of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau extremely nerve-wracking.

This forest resource in the south and north has been controlled by the shipyards in Tianjin and Guangzhou, and even the Tianjin shipyard has built a branch factory in Japan in order to make better use of Japan's rich forest resources. Seeing this situation, Shen Tingyang could only try to invest in this unpopular place on the west coast of North America, trying to win back a game for the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau.

Seeing that the trees near Los Angeles City alone were enough to serve as a good keel and main mast, Shen Yibiao and the craftsmen around him felt that they had come to the right place. As long as there are enough manpower and time, this can obviously become the best shipbuilding base in the Ming Dynasty, even the Tianjin shipyard, which controls the forest resources of the northeast, may not be better than here.

While these artisans from abroad were surveying the rich resources of the west coast of North America, Amsterdam was in a state of depression, despite the regents of the United Provincial Republic, the Prince of Orange and Frederick Henry, Earl of Nassau, who had seized Breda in the southern highlands.

Europe's most active commercial city has yet to emerge from the tulip crisis of a year ago. Tulips, which once drove the Dutch crazy, have now become a nightmare that citizens don't want to talk about. A series of arrears over the purchase of tulips are making the city dead.

The tulip craze, which lasted for five or six years, reached its peak on February 5, 1637. But just because a tulip contract in a tavern went unfilled, it caused panic in the market, and the price fell by more than 90% in less than a month.

On February 24, 1637, the florists met in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, and decided that the tulips signed a month earlier must be delivered, and that the buyer was entitled to a 10% reduction in the purchase price of the tulips signed after that. But this decision did not save the market, but only added to the chaos in the market.

On 27 April 1637, the Dutch Provincial Council decided to terminate all contracts. But to this day, members of parliament have not been able to come to a conclusion on these contracts, which has left the market in Amsterdam depressed. Almost every citizen of Amsterdam was involved in this national revelry, and it was estimated that half of the people would go bankrupt if the contract was executed, and almost everyone would suffer if the contract was terminated.

While the members of Parliament were in trouble, a merchant ship returning from Batavia brought back the bad news that the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal had attacked Batavia.

The Provincial Council, apparently unwilling to bear such a burden, kicked the matter to the Council of Seventeen, leaving them to settle the Dutch East India Company's own troubles. Naturally, there were more than 17 directors of the Dutch East India Company, but under the rules of Parliament, the Board of Seventeen was in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the company.

This was a trick devised by the old Speaker Van Auden, Barney Velander, and the doorman Vonnadel, so that they could control the wealth and power of the entire Dutch East India Company with a small number of shares.

However, with Frederick Henry's ascension to the United Provincial Republic and the death of Van Olden-Barnifjerd, the Princely Parliamentarians had gained the upper hand in the United Provincial Parliament, and the Dutch East India Company, which was close to the Republicans, naturally became the target of the Princely Parliamentarians.

The Interprovincial Council had entrusted the Eastern War to the Council of Seventeen, apparently not intending to support the war between the Dutch East India Company and the States, and if the Council of Seventeen did not handle it well, then the Princely Council would have an excuse to readjust the membership of the Council.

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