King's Landing, Rainbow Coast.

Blue sky, blue sea, golden sand.

The woman was wrapped in a light veil and was practicing horseback riding.

A Chinese-Indian mixed-breed mare, with a shiny black coat, and a lady's side saddle on the horse's back is custom-made for Hui Xiang.

The horses were running happily on the beach, and Hui Xiang was full of excited smiles. Shou Zhi had never seen her smile so charmingly.

After running the fourth round trip in front of him, Shou Zhi stood up and applauded.

"Ma'am, I'm sure you'll be able to ride on your own."

Hui Xiang turned his head, and the heroism of that moment fascinated Shou Order.

"Really?"

"True, ma'am. When you return home, you can go to the cavalry chief to confirm this. ”

Cavalry Commander Walter. Feng. Lieutenant General Angelis, Shou Xiang once took Hui Xiang to inspect Taipei Mansion, and Walter was also in the team, he was Hui Xiang's equestrian enlightenment teacher.

"Good!"

"Go back, you'll get sunburned if you run again."

Shou Xiang walked over, handed Hui Xiang a glass of juice, took the reins of the horse, and walked back to the woods behind the beach.

King's Landing's trees are not tall, only half as thick as those in the South. Some are some kind of palm trees, some are like pine trees, and they are not recognized, and they may be endemic to Australia.

There is a row of wooden villas in the forest, which is the temporary residence of Shou Xu and Hui Xiang in King's Landing.

The sea breeze was gusting and it was cool in the room.

Hui Xiang poured a glass of wine and leaned on the shoulders of the orderly.

"Actually, I don't want to go back."

"Oh, are you afraid that I will have to fight when I return home?"

Hui Xiang shook his head, "It's not because of the war. In the first year of Hongguang, I have experienced Nanjing, Jiading, and Songjiang with you, and I know that you have something to do. ”

Shou Xian touched the woman's soft hair, "Why is that?" ”

The woman buried her head in Order's arms, and her voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible.

"Here, you are the only one with me, but when you return home, there will be three.

One is your wife, a famous family, and the family is your arm in political affairs.

One is the princess in distress, a nobleman.

And my origins ......"

Shou Orderly kissed the woman on the forehead, "Don't care about those things. ”

The woman forced a smile, "I know you're good to me. ”

Shou Xiang held up her cheeks, "You have done a lot of things for me in Taipei for so many years, visiting wounded soldiers, organizing theatrical performances, I remember all of these." ”

"I can only help you do these little things."

"This is not a trivial matter, the feelings of the soldiers are the most real. You know, the army likes you, they all call you Mrs. Taiwan. ”

Hui Xiang remembered some interesting things in Taipei and smiled.

"Your soldiers in Taipei are pretty cute."

"Oh, how to say it."

"The recruits of the past two years, walking one by two, can't wait to have their nostrils facing the sky, and at first glance they look fierce."

Shou Zhi smiled, "What about actually?" ”

Hui Xiang covered his mouth and snickered, "Actually, they are all children, I'm afraid there are few women." ”

"Yes, when you enlist in the army at the age of 16, most people don't get married so early."

"Sometimes they are funny, but they are generally in good spirits. The later you enlist, the better, and this has been especially true in these two years. ”

"What your friend said?"

"Kou Baimen said, you know, she likes handsome young people the most. Last year, Shiramon performed in the barracks, and when he came back, he told me that he had never seen so many heroic teenagers get together. Even when the association and gathering in Nanjing were in those years, the hundreds of scholars who talked about the general trend of the world were far behind. ”

Shou Xuan sighed a little after listening to it, "Ten years of life and reunion, ten years of lessons, and finally some results." ”

"I don't know much, but I can see that the recruits in the past two years are completely different from the previous officers and soldiers."

"Of course."

New weapons will cause a revolution in tactics.

An army, non-commissioned officers and veterans, of course, are the backbone of it, the essence of it. But the flesh and blood that later make up the army, preferably young people between the ages of 18 and 22.

Young people are hot-blooded, young people are motivated, and under the leadership of good commanders, they will profoundly change the way of warfare.

Orderly enjoy a rare vacation in King's Landing.

The route from Keelung to Longshi Island was close to 2,700 nautical miles, and the limit of the fleet was only 6 knots, and the ships were already difficult to maneuver.

The warships and the Ahat ships could only be shipped, so the average speed of the entire voyage was only 2 knots. From Keelung, it took 2 months to arrive at Dragonstone Island.

Dragonstone and New Love are now a colonial administrative district, and the colony is not slow to develop. The capital is Fort Kavien, north of New Love, which is a star fort with 4 bastions and 2 half-moon forts.

The total population of the colony was more than 30,000. It consists of two parts. More than 10,000 Chinese were responsible for farming and warfare, and more than 10,000 natives mined gold on Dragonstone.

The agricultural conditions in New Love Island are still good, and the main problems limiting the yield per mu are the lack of animal power and the shortage of cattle. This time, Shou Xiang brought 100 buffaloes, most of them cows, hoping to alleviate the problem of lack of cattle in Xinai.

The colony was managed by the Yang brothers. Yang Wei was mainly responsible for managing the affairs of the colony, including gold mining, and Yang Bang was mainly responsible for managing the fleet.

Over the years, they have traveled the coasts of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, looting countless indigenous villages. When one's own supply capacity is insufficient, raiding is the only way to go.

Some of the Nanyang islanders had evolved into a class society, with a system of government similar to that of a chiefdom. This kind of island is Yang Bang's favorite, and the population is relatively concentrated, so it is easy to fight.

The so-called armed with sharp weapons and murderous intentions arise, and the colonists only have gold in their eyes, and there is no mercy.

Large settlements near the coast of the nearby islands were frequented. The looted men were imprisoned in the mines, and the women were rationed to the soldiers.

Capacity is precious, and the migrants on the migrant ship are basically men, and there are few women. The few women in the country have basically been divided up by officials.

There are significant differences in the appearance of Nanyang women from the Central Plains, but there is nothing to fault with the soldiers and immigrants who are far from home, and China has more men and fewer women, and it is monogamous and has multiple concubines, so it is difficult for poor families to marry daughters-in-law. For the soldiers, a Nanyang woman is also a woman, and it is better than no woman at all.

The Orderly left Canton and most of the immigrants in the colonies of Dragonstone and New Ai (Erlan) Island.

Although the remaining voyage is only more than 1,000 nautical miles, it has to pass through several islands such as Louisiad, cross the Coral Sea, and have a dangerous Great Barrier Reef ahead, so the safe passage is not wide.

The currents, turbulences, swells and wind directions off the coast of Australia are a bit complicated, and in some small areas, the changes are more significant, and the southern route is not fully familiar to the Federation, so this route cannot be handed over to the fragile Canton ships, and can only be completed by warships and European sailing ships such as Yahat.

Australia is a continent large enough to destroy the Earth's equilibrium pressure zone model.

In the northern hemisphere winter and the southern hemisphere summer, a low pressure zone is formed in the northern part of the Australian continent, superimposed on the southward trade wind belt, and the northwest and northeast monsoons from the Asian continent pass through the equatorial windless belt destroyed by Java, New Guinea and other large islands, and send sailing ships to Australia.

In the southern hemisphere winter, the process is reversed, with the formation of a high pressure zone on the Australian continent, which is superimposed on the northward trade wind belt to form a southerly wind, which in turn sends sailboats back to Asia.

This change in wind direction is the basis for the Commonwealth to develop Australia, once a year, and it is relatively punctual.

Due to the influence of ocean currents and coral reefs, the Australian mainland is not friendly to sailing ships, and the wreckage rate of migrant ships on the southern route is relatively high. The reason for Taipei's tireless expansion to the south was simply because of the discovery of world-class gold deposits at Kaiyan.

The men of Wu Zhixiang, the administrator of King's Landing, found a natural gold nugget weighing 30 kilograms during the expedition.

When this piece of natural gold was placed in front of the Taipei Council, the committee members went crazy, and the cost of opening up Australia became insignificant. In addition to holding Taipei Prefecture, going south is the most important theme.

King's Landing shipping conditions are not as good as those of Dragonstone.

The Taipei Prefecture tried to transport migrants to King's Landing by junk boats, but four of the six transport ships went missing. Since then, junk ships have been banned from intervening in the southern route.

Only European-style ships could afford this route, and for several years, King's Landing's immigrant population exceeded 3,000. Orderly brought 2,500 new immigrants to King's Landing this time, which doubled Wu Zhixiang's strength.

Like Dragonstone, the gold mines of Kaiyan are mined by captured natives. The overall terrain of this area is low and flat, with no high mountains and no large rivers.

There are a number of small rivers around King's Landing that do not stop flowing during the dry season, providing water for the colony.

Kaiyan is located in a hilly area about 100 meters above sea level.

The soil in this area is crumbly sandy, but very fertile, overgrown with trees, shrubs and low grass.

The natural conditions of the new colonies allowed for food self-sufficiency for tens of thousands of people.

With a few hills and rivers to bypass, the overland route from King's Landing to Kaiyan is a little over 80 kilometers, and it is not difficult to build a road overall.

The gold mines here are larger than Dragonstone Island, the burial is shallow, and the climate in the mining area is always rainy, making it less difficult to mine.

The problem restricting the production of Kaiyan gold mine is similar to that of Dragonstone, which lacks manpower and animal power.

The slightly better thing about this than Dragonstone is that in addition to fishing to supplement food, you can also hunt. Kangaroos are abundant and become an important meat supplement for King's Landing.

Australia is vast and sparsely populated, suitable for horse breeding, and more than 100 horses were transported from Taipei to breed in King's Landing. King's Landing had a cavalry of 50 horses, which was much more efficient at capturing slaves than infantry.

In addition, King's Landing has several sloops and brigs, and Lao Wu sends ships to attack New Zealand every year.

Māori have a higher level of social development, are more combative than Australia, and have a more concentrated population. There are several large tribes of thousands of people gathered in the vicinity of Taranaki Bay and Tasman Bay, and the total population of that coast must have exceeded 50,000.

King's Landing was short of manpower, so Wu Zhixiang had to carefully select some small tribes to start, and did not dare to leave the coast too far.

When the fleet escorting the migrant ship arrived, Lao Wu was excited and asked the fleet for a favor. During the windy period, make one sortie to New Zealand.

For the sake of golden face, Collingwood readily agreed.

Shou Xian originally wanted to go over to have a look and satisfy his curiosity, but Hui Xiang didn't want to go, so Shou Xian had to give up and stay in King's Landing to accompany the woman.

From King's Landing to Taranaki Bay, the distance in a straight line is more than 1,300 nautical miles. The wind may not always be smooth, and the actual route is longer.

The King's Landing ship ran for several years, and the result after the actual measurement was that it left King's Landing, went south along the Australian coast, took the southward East Australian Warm Current, until the westerly wind belt, and then sailed directly to New Zealand along the Tasman route.

The return journey is simpler, after leaving New Zealand, head north, find the southeast trade wind belt, and return directly to King's Landing. The outbound journey generally takes more than 20 days and the return journey takes 15 days.

Collingwood set out with 2 battleships, 4 frigates, 6 Ahat ships, and 2 King's Landing ships leading the way.

He returned to King's Landing more than two months later, carrying 4,000 prisoners of war, both men and women.

Collingwood's return meant the end of a holiday of order.

The fleet left three frigates to strengthen King's Landing, and the remaining ships took one month to prepare and set sail in June 1655.

The East Australian Warm Current is separated from the South Equatorial Warm Current, and always flows southward into the westerly wind, and the fleet has a tailwind and adverse water in this section of the southern route.

At Dragonstone Island, it joined 20 Canton ships and simply replenished fresh water, vegetables and fruits, and then continued north.

The return ship was relatively empty, and arrived in Keelung in mid-October 1655.

The Orderly brought back 420,000 pounds worth of gold, or about 1,600,000 taels of silver.