The more than 40-meter mountain on Keelung Island blocks the harsh north wind, and the highest fort guards the harbor like a sentry, and for the island's residents, the fort is a sense of security.

He did not live in the Peace Fort, but built a yard on the southern slope of the mountain. The Chinese-style wooden building has a few green bamboos planted in a small courtyard.

A drizzling rain dripped down the eaves with a crisp sound. Keelung is a rainy harbor that rains all year round. In winter, the rain is worse than the snow, and it is damp and cold.

Enzo, Wu Zhixiang, Yang Wei, Yang Bang, Murong Parrot, and several of them were wrapped in thick fur clothes, including animal skins and seal skins. Hui Xiang served the wine and asked everyone to take care of themselves. There is a shortage of food in Taiwan, and there is a lot less distilled liquor brewed recently. Only a handful of people have access to the unrestricted and unrestricted supply of alcohol.

"Gentlemen, please come, there is something to please." Seeing Enzo take out his paper and notebook, Shouxu raised his hand and said, "Don't record." ”

"Some time ago, you were in different places and received your own tasks. Enzo was responsible for the refit of the two ships, the West Reef and the Luofu, Lao Wu was responsible for finding manpower, and the Yang brothers were responsible for stockpiling supplies. Once you are together, you should realize that this is preparation for a voyage. ”

Several people nodded their heads, and after meeting, they exchanged information with each other, and the result was not difficult to guess.

"You're about to be involved in a top-secret mission, and no one knows where you're going except me and the Governor of Taipei. All information about your voyage can only be reported to me or to the Governor of Taipei. Shou Xian slightly accentuated his tone, "The rules of secrecy are familiar to everyone, so I won't repeat them." I just want to remind you that not even your letters to your family can mention the slightest information about this voyage. ”

The officers sat on their knees, looking a little nervous.

Shou Xu took out 10 documents and sent 2 to each person, "These are two documents, one of which is your application to withdraw from the navy, and the other is to join the Taipei Reclamation Company." ”

Enzo: "Your Excellency, I don't understand. ”

All of them are promising officers in the navy, and they are all surprised by their retirement.

"This voyage is a private expedition, and I need you to get out of the navy." Shou Xuan explained, "Rest assured, gentlemen, this is only temporary. ”

The Taipei Reclamation Company is a newly established company with relatively dispersed shareholdings, and all the old brothers in Taiwan and a few wealthy Chinese businessmen have invested. They didn't know what the company was doing, so Shou and Maiden told them to vote, and they did. Shou Xiang let Hui Xiang take out all her private money and invest in this company, and she has a lot of shares.

Several people exchanged glances, with Wu Zhixiang and Yang Wei taking the lead, and others also signed the documents one after another.

"Old Wu, let me confirm, do you think the sailors are all right?"

"Your Excellency, rest assured. I selected these 69 people from all over Taipei, and many of them were veterans at sea, and I personally trained them for another 4 months, and there will be no problem. ”

"I'm not worried about their abilities, but their character and ethics must be strictly controlled." Shou Xuan Dao, if he has any problems that he is not worried about this voyage, people are the most critical of them.

Wu Zhixiang: "Your Excellency, according to your request. The sailors are all innocent sons of good families, with parents, wives and children, and they all have the name of filial piety. ”

Selecting the crew was the most difficult task in the early preparation of this voyage, and Lao Wu ran all over Taipei, and only selected more than 90 people. After 4 months of intense training in Nanao Port, Yilan, these 69 people were left in the end.

"How's the ship?" Shou asked Enzo.

"Your Excellency, the West Reef and the Louvre have been refitted. We only left 4 4-pounder guns, retaining a minimum of self-defense capabilities, and the tonnage saved could be reloaded and reloaded. ”

Order: "Where's the sail?" ”

Enzo: "The rigging of both boats was replaced, and the sails were changed according to the plan. I assure you, Your Excellency, that no ship in Manila or Batavia can run faster than we do. ”

"Spare ship?"

"The mast, the boom, and the anchor are all prepared in double copies."

Shou Xuan nodded, and then asked about the supplies that the Yang family brothers were responsible for.

Yang Wei: "We made enough nautical biscuits, marinated seal meat, wild boar meat and salted fish, enough food for 70 people to use for one year. ”

Yang Bang's scalp was numb when he thought of the food he had made with his own hands, and it was not a big problem for those wild boar meat to be used as bricks to shoot people to death.

"Rum?"

"Exceeding the standards of the Dutchman's voyage."

Orderly: "Although you can often stop at the islands for supplies on this route, just in case, the navy will also bring more portable soup." ”

"Yes, Your Excellency."

Several officers were very reliable, and the order was only confirmed with them one last time. This will be the first time the team has sailed without his involvement. At the moment, the mood of the order is a little strange, and I can't help but nag a little.

Murong Parrot did not participate in the preliminary preparations, and he and Shou Xu returned from Zhoushan at the latest. When Shou Xuan was on the Qinjiang, he roughly revealed to him his thoughts on the voyage.

"Your Excellency, where is our voyage going?" Murong leaped into words.

Shou Zhi smiled, as a top-secret operation, until then only he and Maiden knew about it.

"Gentlemen," said Order, spreading a large map on the table, "I introduce you, Solomon and Eastern Australia. ”

The map is exceptionally beautiful, enlarged to the same scale as the orderly's own map book. It took four years to keep the order, and it was only half of the work.

All five of them stood up, their faces full of strange emotions and soft chattering voices revealing their inner turmoil.

Under the propaganda of the Spaniards, the legend of gold in the Solomon Islands is so touching.

"This voyage will be the cornerstone of our country's future leapfrog development, and your adventures will go down in history as a legend sung by poets." Shou Xuan paused slightly, and the corners of his mouth turned into a smile again, "That will also make you one of the richest people in the world." ”

Adventure and gold, the life that men desire the most.

The Solomon Islands themselves were not as wealthy as the Spaniards advertised to explore the new shipping routes, but next to the Solomon Islands, at 3 degrees 8 minutes south latitude and 152 degrees 38 minutes east longitude, there is a small uninhabited island called Lihir with a huge open-pit gold mine. And Eastern Australia's gold mines are more and bigger than Lihil Island.

There was no standard longitude scale in this era, for example, the Dutch used Tenerife in the Atlantic Ocean as the starting point for longitude. For the sake of convenience, all maps are customary in later generations, using the Granich prime meridian as the line of 0 longitude.

Australia's first rapid growth in history was due to the gold rush. Although the gold mines off the coast of Western Australia are larger, they are located on Dutch routes, Batavia can send warships to cruise in Western Australia at any time, and the sea conditions near the coastline of Western Australia are complicated, which is not a good choice for order.

This was not the case in Eastern Australia, where the Dutch had not come close to the coast of Eastern Australia on several voyages, and there was a blank slate on the map. The Dutch controlled the Sunda Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Spice Islands, and the Java Sea and the Banda Sea were the inner lakes of the Dutch. There is no way to approach the Australian continent from the Indian Ocean or from the north.

Australia's closest big gold mine to Taiwan is in the Palmer River basin at Cape York, but since the Dutch have not discovered the Torres Strait, there is no need for the Dutch to help them open this route, so let the Dutch guard the northern, western and southern coastlines of Australia.

In this way, there is only one route left, starting from Nanao Port in Yilan on the Pacific coast of Taiwan, all the way to the south.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I remember the last time you sailed with the Tasman, and ended up skirting the southeast corner of New Guinea and following the coastline of New Guinea into the waters of the Spice Islands."

Enzo, "Yes, Your Excellency. According to your map, New Guinea is an island. The island is so large that it destroys the equatorial windless zone, and it's not too difficult to navigate along the coast as long as you take care to avoid the reef. ”

Orderly's finger crossed north to south, "Ladies and gentlemen, your mission this time is to go back to the last course. ”

From Taiwan to the Philippines in the south, this is a very mature route, no problem. From the Philippines to the Spice Islands, Spain traveled back and forth several times during the war with the Netherlands. And from the Spice Islands all the way to New Guinea, the four members of the Tasman expedition ran once, and it was not a problem.

There are two geographical problems, the first is how to accurately locate Lihil Island among the islands scattered in the Bismarck Sea and the Solomon Sea. The second is how to pass the Eastern Australian breakwater, the Great Barrier Reef.

The first landing site in Eastern Australia was 25 degrees 48 minutes south latitude and 153 degrees 3 minutes east longitude, passing through the strait between Fraser Island in Queensland and mainland Australia, and entering the narrow bay behind the Rainbow Coast that is more than ten nautical miles long and winding.

The Great Barrier Reef stretches for more than 2,000 kilometres from the Torres Strait, and its southern edge is Lady Elliot Island, north of Fraser Island, providing a solid natural barrier to the intended landing site.

The Guard did not choose to land in New South Wales and Victoria. Although it is the richest part of Australia, it is further away, and the Dutch are only a step away from the map of the southeast corner of Australia, so the risk is greater.

In contrast, the Kimppie region in Queensland is more secluded. At this time, it was almost impossible to get close to the north-east coast of Australia across the Great Barrier Reef. Then the Golden Skin area behind the Rainbow Coast is the closest big gold mine to Taiwan. And because of its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef and the cover of Fraser Island, the landing site is hidden deep in a narrow bay, and the harbor is sheltered from the wind and waves, and the geographical conditions are very advantageous.

Although Jincheng is closer to Australia, there is no free route to the ocean, and the matter of going south to Australia can only be done in Taiwan. The port of Nanao faces the vast Pacific Ocean and has free access.

It would be very difficult for the Spaniards in Manila or the Dutch in the Spice Islands to intercept a small fleet of sailing ships in the Pacific, and the sailing ships did not have that kind of perception, unless they could open a closely monitored chain of cruisers with nearly a hundred warships, which was obviously impossible.

The only thing to worry about is the strait between New Guinea and the Solomon Cluster. But all the order had to do now was to open the course and draw the local charts. Gold mining is not in a hurry at this time, which will go hand in hand with his plans to build a large navy.

"Mr. Murong," Shou Xuan said, "I will leave the matter of surveying and mapping geography and observing astronomy to you." ”

The orderly map can only give an intuitive impression to the expedition and guide their voyage in the general direction. If the route is to be truly mature, it must be described in terms of the charts of the era and the observed planetary heights. Island reefs on the course, depth of the channel, tidal winds to the current

"Keep an eye on the reef and put safety first." "The situation at sea is changeable. If the wind is unfavorable, it is up to you to decide whether to go to the Australian mainland this time, and we have time. ”

The leadership of the entire expedition was the five of them, and all major decisions had to be made by a five-member council of officers.

It is currently the northerly wind season, and the voyage from Taiwan to New Guinea is 1,800 nautical miles, and it will definitely be there within a month. The monsoon in New Guinea is very regular, with the northwest monsoon prevailing throughout the island from November to April and the southeast monsoon from May to October. The southeast and northeast trade winds move up and down at about five degrees of latitude, allowing the monsoon to pass through the islands and straits near New Guinea, disrupting the equatorial windless belt that can carry them all the way to Australia. As long as they are close to the coast of East Australia, the South Equatorial Current will be blocked by the Australian mainland and the East Australian Current will help them again.

Shou Order, pouring 6 glasses of wine and raising his glass, "Gentlemen, the Southern Cross is with you. ”

Enzo and the others raised their glasses and drank them all.

Coming out of the orderly courtyard, Enzo let go of his palm, and a beautiful timekeeping instrument was in his hand at the moment.

This artifact has about 3 years of life, 3 years, enough for them to complete the route exploration.