Chapter 386: Home Port

The reason why Ye Tao chose this slightly risky attack method was because he believed in the power of ballistas and Greek fire, except for the metal turret of the three-person gun set specially used for close combat, the movement of other ballistas in both horizontal and vertical directions was not very convenient. On these ships, in order to reduce the weight of the structure, the gun carriage of the ballista is a two-stage adjustment, which can move freely in a small range, but on a large scale, there are only two gears of curved fire and flat fire. There is still a large gap between the curvature of the ballista and the flamethrower. After approaching, he directly launched a round of attacks with a combination of flat fire and flamethrower, and basically one of the opponent's warships was finished, and there was absolutely no escape. The explosion of fire oil bombs from ballistas and Mars bombs killed and injured a large number of opponents, while Greek fire burned thick planks to ashes in a short time. After being hit like this, even if the other party wants to collide with the ship desperately, he has to consider whether he can rush over. Ships that shoot at close range in this way do not need to think much about the accuracy involved, and basically maintain a high speed and shoot while moving......

Although this method of warfare is somewhat risky, it is not the first time that Nanami Trading Company and the Samir family have used it. They have fought an unknown number of naval battles against many opponents in the South China Sea and the Middle East, and they have tried all kinds of combat methods. And this way of approaching high-speed shooting, because it is very exciting, very lethal, and also very tests everyone's ability to operate the ship and shoot, is widely used. Originally, everyone was still worried that their fleet was loaded with such a large number of important personnel, and they probably had to worry more about safety, and even prepared to let Qi Zhu's ship wander away from the edge of the battlefield and not join the battle, but what they didn't expect was that Ye Tao and Qi Zhu not only asked to participate in the war, but also became the command ship of the entire operation.

The full sail allowed Ye Tao's Huya ship to maintain a fairly high speed, and at a sharp angle, it went straight to the center of the battlefield, directly into the middle of the outer circle where the pirate fleet was besieging and the inner circle where the besieged merchant fleet was located. The moment the ship opened fire, orange-red flames erupted from the wide copper-skinned firing ports on both sides of the hull. Let everyone on the boat be full of such bright colors at that moment. Mars bombs, with black smoke trails on their tails and elongated flames, fired at enemy ships in a straight trajectory. Considering that the target of their first round of firing was a pirate ship that was much, much smaller than the Huya ship, Ye Tao only ordered a third-third of the ballista to be designed.

Almost instantly, the pirate ship was set on fire. The creaking and cracking sound was incessant. In this case, it was not the pirate ship that was attacked, even the pirates around were instantly stunned. The pirate fleet, which was originally a little loose and ready to flee if the situation was not good, barely formed any obstruction to the mixed fleet, and the mixed fleet rumbled past the interception line, spreading out the two flanks, preparing to annihilate the pirate fleet in one fell swoop.

The entire battle lasted less than an hour, and after chasing a distance of more than ten miles, the pirate fleet was completely annihilated. And the merchant fleet has basically completed the containment work by this time. This merchant fleet, which was dominated by Chunnan merchants, encountered two turns in the past few hours, and I didn't know what mood it was at this time. Although Dongping and Chunnan are allies, in Nanyang, all the people from Middle-earth still take care of each other and understand each other in most cases. And in the fight against the three major evils of hurricanes, pirates, and the Xuanyi Society, everyone is even more ambitious.

The merchant fleet encountered such a situation, and now it can only follow the combined fleet closely to the home port of the Seven Seas Trading Company in Yazhou. However, they have no complaints, and it is good that this rather powerful fleet is willing to accommodate their speed and escort them. The home port built over the years by Nanami Trading Company is not only a fortress with abundant means of defense, but also a rich city with many branches, many workshops, and many unique products. This place, called Hengbo Port, is not only the capital of Yazhou, but has also faintly become the center of the entire South Seas.

Yokoba Port now has a permanent population of more than 100,000 people, and a slightly smaller number of floating populations. The various employees, associates, craftsmen, and hired laborers associated with the Seven Seas Trading Company alone, as well as the families attached to the many auxiliary organizations in the vicinity of the Seven Seas Trading Company, are in the tens of thousands. Although Seven Seas Trading Company has gained a firm foothold in Nanyang by relying on the many products of Middle-earth and many unique products of Yip's Workshop, Seven Seas Trading Company has also tasted the sweetness of Nanyang cultivation.

Although the tropical plantations established according to Ye Tao's ideas were only beginning to take shape, those tropical products such as rubber, coffee, and chocolate made great profits for Nanami Trading Company. Seven Seas Trading Company now has nearly 15,000 employees in the cultivation sector and their families. Of course, not all of them are growing tropical cash crops, and rice cultivation is also a very basic business. Farms that are intensively managed with the concept of a modern large-scale farm have caught up with last year's late rice planting, and this year's ripening season has fully recovered the high cost of land preparation and even transporting a batch of cattle to the area. According to Seven Seas Trading's estimates, their current cultivation area, based on the production of tropical climates, is about 450,000 people. For the time being, food is given priority to the Samir family, who are still in the midst of the founding war, and there is no plan to greatly increase the number of people who need to be supported in the South Seas.

The plantations of these cash crops, along with large areas of farmland, radiate around the port of Hengbo. Well-planned towns are located in the middle of it, housing farmers and their families. At the same time, these small villages and towns are also fortresses that can be used to defend against threats from the ground. Each small village has its own set of defense systems, regardless of whether they are free or not, and all farmers are required to undergo military training when they are not working. The Seven Seas Trading Company was mainly engaged in maritime exploration, and although the merchants from Middle-earth were far more interested in farming than the Samir family, the work itself was quite challenging. Rather than blindly raising the butcher's knife, the Seven Seas Trading Company pacified, domesticated, and exterminated each other. After several years of operation in Nanyang, many of the remnants of the tribe who were originally hostile to the Seven Seas Trading Company have become loyal to the Seven Seas Trading Company and the Yazhou residents of Dongping because of the improvement of their lives and the edification of their education. These people are not the same thing as those who still covet the wealth of the Nanami Trading Company and are always thinking about how to drive the Nanami Trading Company and any other non-local forces out. Relying on such a group of artificial buffers, Hengbo Port is even more impregnable.

Ye Tao walked around Hengbo Port in a hurry, and he could feel how cautious Seven Seas Trading Company was in running Nanyang, and he also understood why Seven Seas Trading Company's total net profit in recent years would be so low. The area of Hengbo Port, which has a population of more than 100,000, is actually larger than that of Yicheng Port, which has a population of hundreds of thousands. And the defense system surrounding the port of Hengbo, both on land and on the water, is very well-developed. The density of various heavy equipment equipped on the periphery of the entire Hengbo Port is probably not much different from that of Danyang. Ye Tao was surprised to find that almost all of the 40,000 core troops who had recruited poor and homeless people from all over Dongping, and hired a large number of retired sergeants as the backbone at a high price, could operate ballistas and divine arm bows. And among the commanders of this army, many of them are even retired soldiers of the Blood Qi Army. The retired soldiers of the city guards from all over the country are even more innumerable. A total of fifteen battalions of this army, whether in terms of establishment, training or the style of weaponry, are very similar to the Blood Qi Army with a strong Ye Tao style and many armies in Yunzhou, on the one hand, it emphasizes the professionalism of the sergeants, and on the other hand, it is also very concerned about the ability of the various armies to switch battlefield functions with each other in an emergency. The slight difference is that, due to the characteristics of the tropics, the three heavy equipment battalions basically have no need for movement and operation, and are completely based on urban defense. There were only two battalions of cavalry, each of which had a brigade of scout cavalry. The others were two longbow battalions, five light infantry battalions, and three baggage battalions. These troops are not bad in terms of equipment, because many armies in Dongping have been constantly replacing weapons over the years, and the Seven Seas Trading Company, which Tan Xiaopei personally expressed his support, purchased weapons very cheaply, and the equipment of these troops was better than that of the military in Dongping at that time before Ye Tao came into contact with the army. The configuration of various weapons and armor is quite complete, but because this army is expanding too quickly and the sources of troops are complicated, it is not strong enough in temperament and has not yet formed an invincible spirit.

Due to the super cheap local labor, the Nanami Trading Company even had tens of thousands of indigenous tuntian soldiers, far more than the many tribes hidden in their super-large island, which was slightly smaller than the mainland. And according to Qi Zhu, the cost of feeding so many tens of thousands of people is probably less than one-tenth of the army that was recruited entirely from the mainland. Except for food, simple weapons, the cost of incentives in training and combat, and post-war rewards and pensions, almost nothing is used, and there is no salary at all. And these tuntian soldiers, in order to keep the land they obtained from the Nanami Trading Company and the current Yazhou Governor's Office, fought especially bravely. The last two tribal coalition forces have invaded, and they have almost been deterred by the courage of these Tuntian soldiers to fight to the end. It was precisely because of this situation that the Seven Seas Trading Company and the Governor of Yaju were discussing the strengthening of the education of the Tuntian soldiers, improving their equipment and treatment, and gradually giving these local residents who were mostly slaves and captives.

Compared with the developed workshops in Hengbo Port, Ye Tao really can't figure out what stage Hengbo Port is in? Is it a semi-colonial society? Is it still a rudimentary capitalist society? …… As far as the governance mechanism of Hengbo Port and the entire Yazhou is concerned, it is very non-feudal anyway, and it is completely a joint discussion and joint decision-making, whether it is the Seven Seas Trading Company or the official system of the entire Yazhou Governor's Office that has not been here for a long time, no one will bypass the other party to decide anything alone, everything must be decided through collective decision-making.