Maiden summoned Ding Yaokang and Leng Ying from Taipei, and Shou Xu first cheered them up and asked them about their family's life in Taipei.

Ding Yaokang's wife and daughter both live in Taipei Town, and the Taiwan Council gave him 30 acres of salary land, which is cultivated by official slaves, which can be regarded as worry-free food and clothing. Leng Ying was alone, and Xintian was the same as Ding Yaokang.

Ding Yaokang is over 40 years old, soft and rigid. Leng Yinggong worked in the official career and had a lot of research on the forces in Shandong. Shou Xun quickly finalized the personnel arrangements for the two. Ding Yaokang, with his wife and daughter, left the dangerous city at night, escaped from great difficulties, and saw that his heart was still good.

Considering Ding Yaokang's age, it was not suitable for the expedition, so he was promoted to the post of Taipei County in an orderly manner. Keelung Military Port is a military area, directly under the jurisdiction of Taipei Prefecture, and the remaining areas of Taipei Prefecture are now planned to be Yilan, Taipei, Tamsui, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Hualien, Taichung seven counties, the population is not much, there is no county, temporary power to dispatch.

The bureaucratic game is very interesting, the shelves of institutions are erected, and only by having officials can they attract official immigrants. Taipei County was the first county to be set up. Shou Xuan handed Ding Yaokang a full glass of whiskey, "After this glass of wine, Shouxian will hand it over to you." ”

Ding Yaokang has been in Taiwan for a year and a half, and he has seen a lot of ghosts who treat drinking alcohol as tea, compared with Jianzhou's shaving his head and keeping braids, drinking is simply a trivial matter worth mentioning.

The wine was dry, the liquor was spicy and pungent, spreading from the lips and tongue to the belly like a fire, Ding Yaokang's pride suddenly became angry, he put down the wine glass, and slammed it to the ground, "Yaokang will go all out to repay the grace of the lord of the country." ”

Shou Xuan sighed, and poured Leng Ying another glass of wine, "You come with me." ”

"My lord, where are you going?"

Shou Xuan glanced at him, "The circumference of the earth is only 80,000 li, where in the world can you not go?" ”

Leng Ying's heart froze, "Ying is only the first to look forward." ”

Orderly laughed.

The educational curriculum in Taipei is based on textbooks that are personally approved by the order, with a focus on geography. Physical chemistry is too profound, and I don't expect the scholars of the Ming Dynasty to understand it.

Geography is different, open your eyes to the world. The Ming Dynasty is very strong, but other countries are not fish belly, and East Asia has lagged behind Europe much militarily. First of all, we have to educate the officials and gentlemen, which is a great change that has not been seen in thousands of years. For Jianzhou, it is necessary to admit the reality that they are strong in East Asia, but there is no need to be in awe. Compared to the whole world, Jianzhou has always been just a tribe of barbarians born in the corner of the wilderness. The rise and fall of this barbarian tribe has been performed countless times on the big stage of history. The statehood is not the first, but they are the last!

The Jurchen Manchu is invincible is the myth of the Khitan people to the former Jin, which deeply influenced the Ming Dynasty people of this era. The most direct and labor-saving way to eliminate China's reverence for the founding of the state is to re-establish the self-confidence of civilization from a higher level of knowledge and cognition. There is nothing to be ashamed of learning from contemporaneous Europe, the civilized world is originally promoting and developing each other in exchanges, and there is no need to compare up and down. This is a game that belongs to civilized people. As a member of the civilized world, China and Europe have been engaged in exchanges for more than 2,000 years, and the joint efforts of the two cores of Eastern and Western civilizations have promoted the development and progress of human history. It is normal to lag behind temporarily, and Europe has lagged behind at one time. Acknowledging gaps and maintaining an attitude of humility and learning are the most precious qualities of a nation and a civilization.

After receiving the two representatives of the northern scholars, Maiden asked Leng Ying to hand over the errand on the spot and stay in Keelung Port. Leng Ying was able to attend several subsequent military meetings.

The number of Jincheng's army was not large, but Leng Ying deeply realized during this time how different the energy contained in the same number of troops was.

The southerly wind season is almost over, and time is tight.

Filhoff selected 200 men from mines and construction sites, and expanded all three army companies to 350 men, and even a certain degree of overnumbering.

The army of Jincheng did not have a gateway between them, as long as they were selected into the army, whether he was a former mine slave or a tenant farmer. Taipei immediately designated 20 acres of land as the basic tax-free land for soldiers. Shou Xiang promised all the soldiers that as long as they behave well, each of them will be rewarded with a wife, and if they behave well, they will have more land and more wives.

One month of training is only enough to popularize military discipline for recruits and complete the most basic queue. Filhoff asked to give him 2 months to allow the Army to complete the convoy conversion during the shooting and offensive of the recruits. But the monsoon waits for no one, and the order can't be given that long, and the rest of the training sessions will be completed later.

While training in the Army, Maiden cut the large stones for construction, prepared enough low-grade brown sugar and lime, and loaded them all onto the ship.

At the end of September, the last southerly wind period.

Filhoff led the battalion headquarters, 3 army infantry companies, half an artillery company of 400 people. 80 artillery crews were transferred from each battery, and the Chinese consul guards were re-expanded with the order, and a total of 630 men formed the army part of the northbound detachment. The naval detachment left 2 notification ships in Keelung and took away all 6 horn-bluffing galleons.

With the converted Melville as the flagship, Shou Xiang led the mixed fleet out of Keelung Harbor. The Melville was not as large as the previous flagship, the Nanhai, and could only accommodate the orderly Chezhidan Guards and a capable army and navy staff team. The Navy's staff team was led by Harris, deputy director of the Operations Department of the Naval Command Department. Acton led 4 people. There is only one army staff officer, Liu Jinqing, an army second lieutenant who has just graduated from the crash course at the Jincheng Military Academy.

Six days later, the northbound detachment arrived at the first stop, Sijiao Mountain, Zhoushan Islands.

The Zhoushan Islands were originally Huang Binqing's territory. According to the surrounding intelligence collected in Taipei, in addition to Zheng Zhilong in Fujian, there are two major forces in the sea of Zhejiang that deserve attention, namely Zhang Mingzhen, a general of Shipu, and Huang Binqing, a general of Ning Shaotai.

Huang Binqing started in the last years of the Apocalypse in Guizhou's extravagant Chongming and An Bangyan rebellion, these two thousand-year-old Tusi families raised troops to defeat the entire Guizhou Province and a small part of Sichuan, and at the most brutal time, Guiyang City was surrounded by Tusi soldiers and beat people to eat people. Huang Binqing rose in the brutal national war and grew from a small hundred households to a handsome. Since the tenth year of Chongzhen, Huang Binqing has occupied Zhoushan for 7 years and is deeply rooted. The new emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who had just ascended the throne in Nanjing, promoted Huang Binqing to the general army, and the 5,500 water division of the department was transferred to the Yangtze River to do river defense. Now the Zhoushan Islands are managed by Wang Zhiren, the chief soldier of Dinghai. Wang Zhiren is the cousin of Wang Zhixin, the eunuch of Dongchang, the governor of the Chongzhen Dynasty, although he also has a sailor, but his combat power is not strong.

Therefore, for a short time, the defense forces of the Zhoushan archipelago were at a very weak stage. Shou Xuan chose the Shengsi Islands, the easternmost part of the Zhoushan Islands, as the base for this time.

Orderly transfer to a small boat to climb the main island of the Shengsi Islands, Sijiao Mountain, and the landing site is selected at the famous Jihu Beach in Sijiao Mountain.

The beach is 2 kilometers long, the beach is wide and clean, the sand is fine and soft, people walk on it, like walking on a carpet, and the air is fresh and abnormal, making people feel quite comfortable and comfortable. Looking up, the beach is surrounded by black pine and green bamboo, a touch of lush forest is more than 10 miles, the blue sea and golden sand, the water and sky are wide, a primitive natural scene.

Sijiao Mountain covers an area of 21 square kilometers and was also a large market town on the sea in the Southern Song Dynasty. After the Ming Dynasty banned the sea several times, there were only a few hundred fishermen on the island. Sijiao Mountain is close to the mouth of the Yangtze River, in the northeast of the main island of Zhoushan, the Ming army has almost no defense force in the local area, and was once a place for pirates to gather.

The Zhoushan archipelago has many bays that can be used as good harbors, but most of them are near the main island of Zhoushan, close to the core area controlled by the Ming army. Shou Xiang didn't want to irritate the Ming Dynasty government too much now, and Sijiao Mountain, which was far away from the main island of Zhoushan, was his best choice. As a naval base, three conditions must be met: the island has fresh water; The harbor is sheltered from wind and waves; There was enough space for a fort. Sijiao Mountain barely meets these three conditions.

Sijiao Mountain is a rocky island that has been cultivated by the Han people for hundreds of years, and there are some farmland along the mountains and rivers. The island is of moderate size, with a commanding height in the southwest of the island and an altitude of more than 210 meters. On the southwest side of the island, under the commanding height, Sijiao Mountain Island and the outlying island of Maji Mountain in the southwest form a bay, Sijiao Mountain and Maji Mountain block the southwest and northeast monsoons, and the sea Tan is often calm. The great pirate Wang Zhi of the Jiajing Dynasty once used this as a lair, and the famous general Yu Dayou called this place the Dragon Cave. In later generations, Majishan Port was the largest iron ore transshipment port in Asia.

Stepping on the broken waves and fine sand, Shou Xu took the technicians to the stone pillar wharf under the flag post on the highest peak of Sijiao Mountain. This is the bay where fishermen on the island take refuge from the north wind.

In the distance, at the foot of Mount Maji, the island's headland to the north encloses a 200-meter-square bay. It is the only bay in the surrounding area that does not require a breakwater to shelter from both the north and south winds. The bay is not big, but it is enough for the time being.

Filhoff turned his head to look at the commanding heights behind him, and said to Order, "Your Excellency, to secure this harbor, we need to build at least three large forts. ”

Keeping the order of the head, "one is a horse trace mountain, one is a stone pillar wharf, and one is on the top of the flag gang mountain." ”

Liu Jinqing said, "My lord, the largest flat land in Sijiao Mountain is in the north of the island, if you consider possible immigration, will a fort be built over there?" ”

Filhoff glanced at the Chinese and shook his head, "Maybe in the future, but now we don't have enough building materials." ”

"Three forts will be built for the time being, and the forts in Sijiao Town will be built later."

Filhof dispatched manpower, and although the natural conditions of Maji Port were the best, there was no fresh water on Maji Island, which determined that it could only be used as a safe haven. The construction of fortifications on Sijiao Mountain must be mainly on the island. The building materials carried by the fleet were only able to build three round forts, and the island would have to be expanded in the future. Fortunately, this island is a rocky island, as long as the volcanic cement is transported from Taipei, the stone is available everywhere.

More than 1,200 people from the army battalion and the navy galleys and sailing fleet were involved in the infrastructure project. Fishermen on the island were also requisitioned to fish between the islands to provide additional nutritional supplements for construction workers.

The 3 batteries were equipped with a total of 20 cannons, 5 6-pounder guns and 2 4-pounder guns in the Majishan Battery; 2 12-pounder guns, 2 4-pounder guns, 2 5-inch howitzers; Stone Pillar Pier 5 6-pounder guns, 2 4-pounder guns. The 12-pounder guns were heavy guns removed from Taipei, and the rest were new guns brought from Jincheng by Order. In order to put it into use as soon as possible, the first phase of the fortifications of Sijiao Mountain all used brown sugar ash as a binder. Former members of the Australian expedition, Yang Wei and Yang Bang served as the chief and deputy commanders of the Sijiao Mountain Garrison.

During the construction of the fort, the galleys and 2 frigates and 1 notification ship remained in Sijiao Mountain. Orderliness sailed north with the Melville.