Chapter 795: Searching for San Francisco

There is no shortage of lucky speculators in the market, and these people are all ruined by the news released by the military and the government the next day. The attitude of the military was rather blunt, and it simply informed the media how many strategic warehouses of materials to be cleared, how many materials to be put on the market, what the price was and so on. The government was relatively moderate, and held a press conference to announce that because of the continuous increase in grain prices, which had caused considerable cost pressure on the animal husbandry industry, the government had decided to put some of the old grain in the reserve grain on the market ahead of schedule.

If yesterday's evening newspaper was just news with no actual figures, today's two news are a clear indication of what will happen to the market. The diving of the futures market is out of control, and capital has fled, but this kind of thing is not something you can escape if you want to. If you want to get rid of it, even if the price is very low, no one may dare to take over.

Whether it's futures or the stock market, some people make money and some people lose money. Moreover, the people who make money are always a minority, but they are still the target of the world's attention, which leads more people who don't know the details to follow the example and jump into this pit. If the rules of this pit are strict, and no one can exceed the rules, the people in this pit can still play happily, and if someone can break the rules of the game in the pit anytime and anywhere, this is a fire pit.

The fluke psychology in human nature occupies the mainstream, and they all feel that there will be people who are stupider than themselves who will end up in the pit. In fact, in this pit, Murphy's Law is the truth. If you fall into a pit, it's definitely the worst you don't want to see.

Speculating in stocks becomes a shareholder, copying futures and finally becoming a shipper, such a thing is definitely the mainstream that audiences outside the pit like to see.

When the outline of the horizon was revealed in the vast sea, the lookout post on the mast screamed: "See." Land! ”

The shout alarmed Li Heng, who was dozing off in the sun on the deck, the purpose of this trial voyage is to open up the Pacific route, from Nagasaki to Hawaii, and then to North America, today is the fiftieth day of departure. This fleet except for the necessary seafaring personnel. There was also a battalion of marines and a 200-strong Japanese women's service corps.

Standing up, Li Heng lazily walked to the railing, and reached out to take the telescope handed over by the maid beside him, a long horizon that seemed to have no end. Looking back at the entire fleet, there were ten ships in total, including five third-class warships and five armed merchant ships. This fleet had the experience of sailing to Europe, but crossing the Pacific Ocean was a different experience. If you don't encounter a storm, you are lucky, and if you are unlucky, if you encounter a hurricane, whether you can survive depends on God's will.

Li Heng's luck was good, he encountered only one storm along the way, and the fleet was carried down smoothly, and not a single ship was lost.

"Based on the calculations, we didn't go on the wrong route. In terms of latitude and longitude, we should be in this lot. "A huge map spreads out. When it was placed in front of Li Heng, Dai Zhiyuan, chief of staff of the expedition fleet, pointed to a place on the map.

Li Heng looked at it carefully and let out a long breath: "Very good, according to the marks on the map, this generation is San Francisco, which is rich in gold." Why is it called this name, Li Heng doesn't know. That's what he got on the map. As for the claim that this place is rich in gold, it comes from the content of a "Brief Introduction to North America" that everyone received before departure.

Approaching the coast, it was already dusk, and the fleet followed the coastline, looking for a suitable landing site. The surveyor again reported the depth of the water. Li Heng decided to anchor here overnight and continue to land early tomorrow morning.

Dinner at sunset took place on the deck, and the two sitting opposite were naturally the supreme commanders of the fleet. There are three enamel plates on the table, canned stewed luncheon meat with green beans, stir-fried bean sprouts, and a plate of braised fish. The wine is Moutai in porcelain bottles, and only officers are eligible to enjoy it. The soldiers drank sorghum in large jars in the bilge.

Officers above the rank of captain can carry a maid, and the others need to solve the problem, so they can only go to those who accompany the women's service team, and they still have to pay for it.

"Your old partner Zhang Guangde should also go to Europe now, right? He was gone three months before we did. Dai Zhiyuan and Li Heng touched the teapot, and after killing the wine in it, they looked at the coastline and asked.

Li Heng nodded and said: "It should have arrived, but it is not easy for him to go this time, if he wants to land in North America, the wind and waves in the North Atlantic are much more fierce than those in the Pacific Ocean." It's unrealistic to think that we only have two days to travel here, crossing North America by land. If you take the sea route, you have to make a big circle, passing through the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Looking at the map, Mexico to the south is the closest to us, and we will have to deal with them sooner or later. ”

"When gold was discovered in Australia, hundreds of thousands of Ming people and Japanese people flocked to it. If gold mines can also be found here, how many people do you think it will attract to come? Dai Zhiyuan suddenly changed the topic, and Li Heng smiled with disdain when he heard it: "If I were an ordinary person, I wouldn't dig any gold mines, just go to the iron mine, and then open a tool workshop to make a lot of money." ”

"That's right, Governor Gao made a fortune selling wood and squeezing cane sugar in Honolulu, and the local natives followed him to sell coolies for a little cheap daily necessities and iron tools, and also fought a civil war and captured a lot of slaves." Dai Zhiyuan was naturally referring to Gao Qiang, the governor of Hawaii, who was appointed as the local governor after the discovery of Hawaii. This governor was not easy to be at first, with hundreds of men under his command, and exchanged a boatload of machetes and hoes for Pearl Harbor, and then slowly developed. In the current colonies near Pearl Harbor, there are only about 5,000 immigrants from all over the world, which is less than the local natives. Harvesting zuò sandalwood and sugar cane are the main businesses of the region, with sandalwood mainly sold domestically and sugar pressed to Europeans.

"Now that we're here, let's stay and develop. Just leave one warship to protect the sea behind you, and the other ships will go back full of gold, what do you think Daming will do? Li Heng asked with expectation, but Dai Zhiyuan hesitated and said: "It's really as the "Introduction to North America" said, if the San Francisco generation can easily get gold from the river, how can it attract five or six hundred thousand immigrants, right?" ”

"It's too early to say this, we need to find the Golden Gate Strait and then land on the south shore." Li Heng ended this topic, Dai Zhiyuan continued to drink without being very cooperative, this trip to the Americas, after finding San Francisco and establishing a settlement, Li Heng must stay, and the position of governor must be his. If Dai Zhiyuan wants to make a difference, he has to wait for this trip to return, take another group of people, sail south, and open up another colony in a place called Los Angeles, and then have the opportunity to become the governor. Why do you think so? In fact, the reason is very simple, opening up an overseas colony in the overseas alliance will get extremely high honors and knighthoods. As far as the governor is concerned, he has the most power in the local area, not to mention the emperor of the soil, and can also obtain huge economic benefits. Taking Hawaii's Gaoqiang as an example, 30% of the local trade tax revenue goes to him personally, 30% is used for local development, and 40% is handed over to the headquarters of Xinghai City.

Of course, not everyone is willing to take the risk of going to sea to work hard, and Li Heng, who has a rich family, is one of them. But he couldn't even if he didn't want to come, because the trip to Europe made a mistake, and the trip to the Americas was a punishment for him. At the same time, his family also needs a person within the overseas alliance, who can continue to climb up the ladder to ensure the prosperity of the family. Therefore, on this trip to the Americas, the five warships belong to the navy, and the armed merchant ships are the Li family's private fleet, which can be regarded as an investment in Li Heng.

The people on the armed merchant ships were also very miscellaneous, in addition to the necessary crews, there were also some explorers sent by the maritime merchants who had a good relationship with the Li family, and the miscellaneous added up, and the five ships brought more than 600 expedition members in addition to the crew. If San Francisco is found, in addition to Li Heng and the officers and men of a battleship, there are more than 500 marines, more than 600 expedition members, and 200 Japanese female service personnel.

Early in the morning, Li Heng, who had consumed a lot of energy holding the maid last night, was still asleep, and the officers and soldiers on the battleship had already gotten up and started to be busy every day. The emergence of new naval guns has greatly alleviated the situation that naval guns occupied a lot of space and tonnage in the past. This "Zhang Qian" with a displacement of 1,800 tons was produced by the Xinghai Shipyard and was officially put into service in March of the previous year. Equipped with four 105 reframe guns and twelve 75 mountain guns, the firepower is absolutely first-class among the world's warships, and the standard firepower of the third-class warships of the Alliance Navy. Its biggest advantage is the use of steel keels, and only five of these ships have been built, all of which were sent for this trip to North America.

When the battleship was anchored, Li Heng also got up and freshened up under the service of the maid Lana. Said to be a maid, but in fact a slave girl, a slave girl from the Ottoman Empire given by a certain nobleman in Spain on her last trip to Europe.

After breakfast, Li Heng habitually walked on the deck with a glass of lemonade, looking at the fleet lined up in a "one" line, sailing along the coastline, Li Heng couldn't help but think of the old wine in his hometown of Shaoxing. This wine was not popular in the Navy, not because it was not good, but because it was too little to use. Not as powerful as soju, which, in the words of the Navy, should be drunk by the Navy.

Sea voyages, in addition to carrying compressed biscuits and luncheon meat, there are also plenty of soybeans and lemons. Soybeans are eaten as sprouts, lemons are sliced, officers can add sugar to soak in water to drink, soldiers generally swallow directly, and the regulations stipulate that it is not okay not to eat it. (To be continued......)