Chapter 253: Moon Mountain

At dusk, the fleet slowly sailed into the mouth of the Tamsui River amid long-lasting cheers.

Zhu Daolin, who was on the bow deck, put away his binoculars, stared at the Spanish red and yellow flags fluttering in the wind above the two rows of stilt wooden houses on the south bank, gently pulled Yang Dading who was cheering beside him, pointed to a bush of lush bamboo not far from the east of the stilt wooden houses, and whispered a few words in his ear.

The first and second warships of the flotilla were the first to approach the wharf on the south bank of the estuary, which was made of logs, and the 17 Spanish officers and men who remained behind had already lined up, and Bagas, who served as the liaison officer, lay down on the side of the ship, loudly inquired and communicated with an officer on the wharf, and soon ordered the sailors to put down the five-meter-long sturdy pedals and respectfully ask Zhu Daolin to be the first to land.

Zhu Daolin, who changed into the three-grade court uniform of the Ming Empire, took a deep breath, and boarded the dock through the pedal amid the cheers of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the fleet, Yang Dading and Bagas, who were wearing leather armor and leather helmets, quickly came to Zhu Daolin and stood solemnly, Vargas stared at the Spanish officer who saluted and reported to Zhu Daolin, and translated his words to Zhu Daolin in a low voice.

Zhu Daolin returned a standard military salute with his head held high, and took two steps forward to politely shake hands with the black and thin Spanish officer:

"Thank you, Mr. Ensign! Thank you and your soldiers for protecting this land for us, and on behalf of the Emperor and the army of the Ming Empire, I would like to express my sincere thanks to you and the loyal and brave Spanish officers and soldiers! ”

"Thank you, Your Excellency!"

The black and thin ensign saluted again, then humbly stepped aside, and watched with a smile the officers and soldiers of the Ming Empire who were constantly walking down the two warships, and when he saw the new flintlock pistol with exquisite workmanship on the shoulders of the Ming officers and soldiers and the saber of uniform style on his waist, his eyes were full of shock.

The remaining 16 Spanish soldiers came to their officers one after another, curiously asking how the army of the Ming Empire could be so rich?

Thousands of people were all dressed in fiery red uniforms and beautiful leather armor and leather helmets, each with a delicate sword of uniform style hanging from his waist, a uniform style of thick-soled canvas high-top military shoes on his feet, and a beautiful flintlock pistol with a workmanship and texture far superior to that of the Spanish army. Are they the emperor's guards?

Two squads of Ming officers and soldiers have been busy under the leadership of Yang Dading, one team of soldiers digging holes in the ground above the wharf, and the other group of soldiers on the east bank of the river wielding knives to cut off the bamboo branches that fell to the ground, and soon carried the big bamboo pole with a bowl mouth thick of more than ten meters.

Yang Dading personally tied a boat pulley tightly to the end of the bamboo pole, and after wearing another slender hemp rope, he shouted "erect a flagpole", and more than a dozen energetic soldiers worked together. The long flagpole is erected and the thick bottom end is inserted into the freshly dug pit.

Several soldiers immediately stuffed large and small stones and dirt into the deep pit, and two soldiers armed with eight-pound hammers kept tamping the filled stones and soil, and soon the emerald green flagpole more than ten meters high was firmly erected.

The sunset slowly sank into the end of the sea in the west, the sunset decorated the blue sky extraordinarily gorgeously, more than 2,000 officers and soldiers of the Ming Empire faced the flagpole in the sound of the bronze whistle, lined up neatly, and more than 3,000 haggard immigrants around the wharf seemed to feel an extraordinary solemn atmosphere, and those who could stand stood up one after another. Curiously looked at the officers and soldiers lined up neatly.

"Raising the flag—"

"Salute—"

More than 2,000 officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and their commander Zhu Daolin, like their commander, raised their hands and saluted, watching the fluttering red green dragon battle flag rise to the top of the flagpole, and every pair of eyes were full of excitement and pride.

At the end of the symbolic flag-raising ceremony, the officers and men immediately returned to the wharf to carry supplies, and six chief managers with dirty clothes and tired expressions came to Zhu Daolin's side to discuss the resettlement of the migrants and the situation of the more than 300 seriously ill migrants.

It's comforting. A large number of 3,721 migrants arrived at Tamsui Port...... To everyone's sadness, despite all the preparations that could be done before departure. But during the eight-day and seven-night voyage, 342 migrants fell ill one after another, and 37 of them were slightly smelly corpses when they were carried off the ship.

If it weren't for Zhu Daolin, in order to appease the emotions of the immigrants and show humanity and fraternity, and considering that there would be no problem even if there were dead people on board during the multi-day voyage, Zhu Daolin had given the order not to abandon a single person before departure, I am afraid that all the dead would have been thrown into the vast sea.

"Settle in the ground. Choose a remote place at the foot of the southern mountain and bury it! Write down the name of the deceased and tell the villagers that when we have settled down, we will set up a monument to the deceased, so that the lost can bless us to build a new home quickly and well. Zhu Daolin instructed Wei Yuying, the captain of the medical officer and his senior brother.

Wei Yuying nodded and went to handle it.

Zhu Daolin led more than ten members of the civil affairs team, including Jiang Zhaohuan, the first head of civil affairs of Tamsui, and Fan Sanmin, the head of Tamsui construction. Inspections and condolences began to be carried out along the wide coastal areas where the migrants were resettled.

The officers and men of the Tamsui battalion set up military tents one after another, and bags of rice, barrels of oil, salt, bacon, copper basins, and so on were placed outside each tent one after another, and the young and strong immigrants who gradually recovered took the initiative to bring back piles of hay and firewood from the surroundings, brought basins of clean water from the river and poured them into the huge marching pots, and the women and children, with the help of the officers and men of the sailor division, built more than 100 simple stoves with shovels, hoes, stones, and soil.

As night fell, more than 100 blazing bonfires lit up the wide plain on the south bank of the Tamsui estuary, and the more than 20 members of the military and political team gathered around Zhu Daolin were finally able to drink tea and discuss tomorrow's work.

"The moon is so round!"

The 43-year-old director of Hushan Manor is Zhu Daolin's die-hard loyalist, and he took the initiative to move to Taiwan with his wife and three nearly adult children.

Everyone looked at the distant and blue sky in the northeast, and looked at the bright full moon on the top of the mountain, no one spoke for a long time, and even Zhu Daolin felt a faint melancholy and longing in his heart.

Jiang Zhaohuan, the experienced civil affairs administrator, coughed lightly, laughed and asked loudly: "General, give the mountain on the north bank a nice name." ”

"That's right! There is also the big rock mountain behind us, no one knows what it is called, and it is inconvenient to come up with a nice name. ”

Fan Sanmin also came to his senses and hurriedly echoed Jiang Zhaohuan's opinion, and everyone also made the same request to Zhu Daolin.

Zhu Daolin glanced at the swarthy big stone mountain behind him, turned his head to look at the towering and heavy Yangmingshan on the north bank, and made a decision quite apprehensively:

"This big rocky mountain on the south bank is called Nanshan, and the upcoming freshwater port is on the seashore west of Nanshan. The big mountain on the north bank that stretches for dozens of miles has a name called Grass Mountain, and at the foot of the mountain, the mountainside stretches for dozens of miles with dense thatch, and there are several rare hot springs at the foot of the mountain in the middle......"

"I looked through my binoculars before dark, and saw the deer herds and lush forests on the mountain, which will soon provide us with enough high-quality wood and deerskins, and this mountain faces the sea on both sides, and can be seen on the sea more than ten miles away, just as the stars and the moon can guide the course, I think, let's call it Moon Mountain!"

The crowd applauded.

Today is the first time to set foot on this land, it happens to be the night of the full moon on July 15, so that Moon Mountain is not only warm to the scene, but also contains a strong sense of homesickness and a more far-reaching commemorative significance.

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