Heavy snow is falling.

The whole sky is like an inverted cauldron, and the surface of the pot seems to have been carefully smeared by someone, showing an extremely uniform gray; The gray clouds kept sprinkling snowflakes on the earth, sometimes large snowflakes in clusters, sometimes fine snow particles, smashing on the rattan basket with a loud sound.

Chu Fan wrapped a thick fur, sat on the wooden board in the rattan basket, and leisurely enjoyed the beautiful scenery under the hundred meters.

The secret agreement with the Shimazu family was signed on the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month, except for the first one was exchanged for 50,000 taels of silver, the other three did not change in any way - Chu Fan knew very well that the Shimazu family had been riding the wall for a long time, and he was neither willing to fight against the Fuliao army nor offend the powerful Dutch, but he still accepted the other party's 50,000 silver and released Van Oost and the St. Paul.

Because he had already got everything he wanted - the smooth passage of the Nagasaki waterway, the polishing of the three fleets with actual combat, and the morale boost with victory...... As for Van Oersted, there will definitely be another battle with the Dutch in the future anyway, so you might as well wait until that time to clean him up; For the sake of such an insignificant person, it would be unwise to completely push the Shimazu family who rode the wall to the Dutch.

Chen Xinji's body was sent over by the Japanese people, along with his No. 2 fortune ship and a dozen or so prisoners; According to the prisoners' confessions, the task force spent two more days on a trip to the island of Chen Xinji's lair, 300 miles away, and after sweeping away all the personnel and goods left behind, especially the two fortune ships and the three Guangzhou ships, they returned to the sea satisfied.

On the route of the return voyage, Chu Fan still chose to go north along the west coast of Kyushu Island - anyway, why not survey the terrain of the Shimazu family's Satsuma domain on the spot?

The operation was a real success: each of the eleven warships of the task force towed a captured ship, and the largest and fastest Jinfeng towed two Galen ships and three giant ships in a row. It looks spectacular; The goods are also considerable, the indemnity plus ransom is 150,000 taels, and the gold and silver saved by Chen Xinji are not below this amount; As for the prisoners, there were even more, and more than 200 Dutch, Japanese and Hokkien were concentrated on a Galen ship.

There are many boats and many things, plus headwinds. The speed of the entire fleet slowed down suddenly, and it took three days to travel 600 miles to the vicinity of Shimosu Island, southeast of Nagasaki.

In these three days, the fleet spent the first year of Chongzhen on the vast sea, that is, the Spring Festival of 1629 AD; The morale of the victory was high, and although they were adrift in a foreign land, they could not stop the sailors from full of holiday joy.

Finding a sheltered harbor to moor, the warships spent half a day preparing the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, and the captured tequila and sake were drunk openly. Everyone had a happy Chinese New Year's Eve, and did not set sail again until the early morning of the first day of the new year.

As they sailed through Akune, in the northwest corner of the Satsuma Domain, Chu Fan's liaison officers went ashore with the servants sent by the Shimazu family, who were to establish a liaison point for the Ming East India Company in Akune in order to prepare for the next step in expanding the "trade routes."

When I left Akune and entered the sea near Shimosu Island, the sky began to snow, and the northwest wind was a little lighter, making it easier for Chu Fan in the hot air balloon to observe and draw a topographic map of southern Kyushu.

View from a height of 100 meters. The scattered islands on the west side of Kyushu Island are truly beautiful: the islands full of pines and cypresses are like green gems, set in the dark blue sea; The heavy snow has colored the emerald dots with large and small white halos. Make the gems look even more dazzling.

As the Kanho turned northeast, the narrow strait between Shimosu Island and Amakusa Island gradually became clear.

There are large and small fishing villages on both sides of the strait, and Chu Fan took out a clairvoyant mirror and observed it with great interest.

The small fishing village in the camera is quiet and peaceful, and the fishermen in kimonos and hats do not stop working because of the New Year, dragging small fishing nets in the wind and snow towards the small fishing boats that are only two or three meters long on the seaside; Women and small children are also bent over and busy on the beach. Digging through the mud despite the cold weather, looking for anything to satisfy your stomach.

There are already many fishing boats floating on the sea, and from time to time you can see tabletop-sized fishing nets being thrown out, like small white flowers in full bloom.

A little closer to the sea, small fishing boats rushed to reel in their nets when they saw the arrival of a huge fleet. shook and fled desperately into the strait; As the Golden Phoenix turned west again, they stopped fleeing and stared at the mountain-like giant ship in a daze.

After putting down the clairvoyant mirror, Chu Fan fell into deep thought.

Obviously, the Japanese people are still wary of outsiders, which makes Kagoshima's gold mining plan difficult-Chu Fan is not worried at all about finding the gold mine, he is worried that how to prevent robbery and robbery is the biggest problem in mining such an eye-catching deposit of gold in a foreign land that is both poor and hostile.

Judging by common sense, the gold mine must be located in the vast mountains of southern Kyushu, and there must be a considerable distance from the coastline; The best way to secure the gold mines is to station a large number of troops along the line from the gold mines to the coast.

According to Chu Fan's judgment of the combat effectiveness of the land division of the Fuliao Army, if he wanted to ensure the safety of the entire line from mining to transportation of gold, the number of troops required was quite large; Even if a port is not large, the garrison must have at least one battalion to ensure safety; Considering the need to monitor the miners, the gold mine itself required more troops, conservatively estimated at least two battalions; If the gold mines are too far from the coast, a battalion will have to be prepared along the way.

In this case, the Kagoshima gold mine alone would require at least four battalions, or about 1,500 troops; And the total strength of the land division of the Fuliao Army is now less than 2,000 people -- even if you add Fujian recruits, it is barely 3,000 people!

Half the troops spent for a gold mine? Then this gold mine is inevitably a little more than worth the loss.

This is the biggest problem at the Kagoshima Gold Mine, is there any way to solve the safety problem once and for all?

There is a way, and that is to turn southern Kyushu and even the entire island of Kyushu into a no-man's land!

Without people, there is naturally no threat! At that time, I am afraid that only one or two battalions will be able to easily defend the gold mines!

This thought startled Chu Fan: it wasn't that he didn't have a grudge to kill—he didn't care how many Japanese people died—what scared him was that the plan was too big.

It must be known that even in his previous life, weapons had advanced to the point of outrageousness, and it was extremely difficult and protracted to wipe hundreds of thousands or even millions of people off the map in a short period of time.

It seems that this way is not going to work!

In contemplation, the Golden Phoenix had already turned northeast again, entering a harbor, and another fishing village appeared on the skyline, and Chu Fan picked up the clairvoyant mirror again.

Suddenly, he screamed excitedly.

"I've figured it out!" (To be continued.) )