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April 13, 1629, Friday, March 20, the second year of Chongzhen of the Ming Empire.

The local government of the Pearl Island Overseas Territory of the People's Republic of China and the United States of America was formally established today, and the final selection of the remaining official residents was only in their early 2,000s, and the starting scale seems to be much stronger than the foundation of the overseas territories established by the previous country. As early as a month ago, more than 2,000 Daming refugees stranded due to malaria had been taken away by the Portuguese fleet and four short shirt-class flying clippers merchant ships.

A small local government team on Pearl Island was officially inaugurated today, and the acting mayor is Henry, the former tax collector of Butterfly Island's Twin Ports, a tailor on the Mayflower. Before Yan Xiaosong's plan for the Oriental business layout was finally approved by Congress, Henry's cabinet instructions were simple: the Pearl Island Overseas Territory, far from the mainland, would only serve as a transit point for immigrants and supplies from the East for the next year, as well as provide basic logistical support for the Pearl Island Naval Base. In addition, it is not expected that this hard-pulled overseas consulate can exert much economic value in a short period of time, and everything will be fine if it can maintain its own basic operation.

In front of the large open space that has just been leveled out to serve as a central square, a mixed-timber city hall building is still under construction, but the flag-raising ceremony of the government, a symbol of national sovereignty, has already begun. Nearly 1,000 army soldiers stood in a large phalanx and saluted the rising national flag to the accompaniment of the national anthem.

Around the square, there are thousands of pairs of blank eyes, although they have long "resigned" to the rule of these gorgeous Fanyi, but the Ming refugees who have experienced many hardships are still hesitant about the future they have been told.

The living allowance policy for overseas nationals, which began to be officially implemented a few days ago, allowed these former Ming refugees who got out of the suffering sea of the epidemic to once again see the peculiar ruling policy of this gorgeous country. The process of distributing a large number of cloths, grains and farm tools makes people have an inexplicable enthusiasm of "changing the dynasty and showing a new look", but when the "Loan Contract for Resettlement and Resettlement" is delivered to everyone, it is another experience of "just leaving the wolf's den and entering the tiger's den".

But anyway. These former Ming refugees, who were told by the government to visit the flag-raising ceremony, finally realized an unchangeable fact: from today on, they are not Ming people, and there is no way to refute them, and there is no way to refute them.

Liu Xiang, the chief of the "South China Sea Volunteers," Li Guozhu, the "president of the Luzon Chinese Entrepreneurs Association," and the representatives of Portugal, England, and the Netherlands who accompanied the expeditionary fleet to Asia, all attended the declaration of sovereignty over the Pearl Islands and the inauguration ceremony of the government.

Compared with the thoughtful or even worried expressions on the faces of the Europeans, Liu Xiang and Li Guozhu's henchmen were much more elated. In their opinion. In such a vast and plague-ridden South Sea, it is really not a big deal to stake a place with a big palm, not to mention that it will still be my biggest place of reliance in the future.

But in the eyes of those European officials, this was undoubtedly the prelude to the reshuffling of the Far East's interests after the Dutch East India Company was taught a lesson. But. Compared with the pale expressions of the representatives of the Dutch government and the East India Company, the representatives of England and Portugal were somewhat smiling, for they had foreseen that this time they had chosen to side with China and the United States, and that their future interests in the Far East would only increase, not decrease.

The scheduled "Far Eastern Conference" will be held in Manila, the capital of Spain's Philippine colony, in a few months, when a table that has been dominated by the Dutch East India Company for decades will be relocated. Although everyone knows that this is not necessarily the good intentions of China and the United States, at least quarrel is better than war, right?

……

The Sino-American expeditionary fleet after the crisis. Final preparations are underway. For several days in a row, there were Portuguese merchant ships from Siam, Daming Maritime Merchants, or the English East India Company, which brought large quantities of Siamese rice.

More than 1,000 tons of Siamese rice are now ready to be loaded onto fleet transport ships. Eventually, the number will exceed 2,000 tons, and they will be life-saving food that will soon arrive in Taiwan.

Historically, the Siamese rice trade was an important part of the Southeast Asian trade circle, and only Siamese rice was exported to the Daming coast. In the early 17th century, it reached a scale of more than 100,000 koku per year. Even for a long time, rice became the settlement currency for the spice trade in Southeast Asia. Even the Dutch East India Company often paid rice along with cloth as a staff salary.

This is a trade that can make any Atlantic merchant jealous, even if he knows that the other party is also making a lot of money, but the purchase price of Siamese rice, which is less than seven coins of silver (equivalent to $10 per ton), still surprises Zhao Mingchuan, who followed Yan Xiaosong back to Pearl Island. Even if China and the United States have initially solved the grain problem and got rid of the extortion of European grain merchants at high prices, in the domestic market, where grain prices have dropped by a large margin, the price of a ton of wheat is still $100. Thinking of the still collapsing European wheat prices at this time, Zhao Mingchuan was puzzled.

Of course, it is easy to explain this phenomenon with the economic knowledge of later generations, but now no one has the leisure to solve Zhao Mingchuan's doubts like "Mentor Di Zugong". On the other hand, several Daming maritime merchants recommended by Li Guozhu finally completed the stocking, and several large ships of Daming goods arrived on Mingzhu Island, allowing a group of people to come to the East to make soy sauce, and the domestic nouveau riche trade representative who was almost killed by an epidemic finally became excited.

Although the commercial freight from Pearl Island to the mainland of North America could not be carried out, and the purchased goods could only be stacked in temporary warehouses and then piggybacked on the road by the returning transport fleet, Yang Xiaohua and others still increased the follow-up order, which made these Daming maritime merchants who were pulled by Li Guozhu smile.

Now, basically, the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty are full of news of "suppressing bandits in the South Seas of the Huamei Fanguo" and "arresting pirates who plundered and sold Chinese".

According to the latest adjusted plan, the Dandelion frigate, which escorts the second batch of transport fleets, will temporarily join the expeditionary fleet and be responsible for patrolling around Pearl Island, and the general headquarters will leave a small part of the army forces to garrison Pearl Island, while the remaining main force of the whole army will go north to the Taiwan Strait.

Yan Xiaosong and Katarina's third child, or the first baby daughter, was finally born on April 15. Although her birthplace is not the authentic territory of the Ming Dynasty, Katerina still happily named this daughter who was praised as "looking like her mother" Yan Aizhen with the meaning of "Oriental Pearl".

Before he had time to hold a celebration for the birth of his child, a day later, Yan Xiaosong accompanied Zhang Chunrui to board the light cruiser Republic, the flagship of the expeditionary fleet, without any sailing ceremony, and the fleet was directly drawn. Because the seventh uncle and seventh aunt of the Yan family had just recovered from their illness, they had to continue to stay on Pearl Island to recuperate, so there were only two people in the Yan family's homecoming group with the ship, Yan Xianping and the maid Xiaoyu.

……

On Saturday, April 20, 1629, March 28 of the second year of Chongzhen in the Ming Empire.

At dusk, boosted by the southwest wind, a fleet consisting of five light cruisers, two armed transport ships, one naval work ship, and three large sailing merchant ships quietly appeared on the ocean dozens of nautical miles south of Guangzhou.

The fleet slowed down, but was not in combat readiness. Sailors stood on the side of the ship, and army officers and men lined up on the deck of the transport. Every officer and soldier has changed into a brand new uniform, and it seems that some special solemn ceremony is now going on.

"Ready!"

"Put!"

On the transport ship Gray Whale, Sergeant Major Makarov waved his hands, and a wreath that had been prepared before setting sail was thrown into the sea by two soldiers, and then the soldiers lined up on the deck began to fire guns into the air.

"I heard that the descendants of the former Song Dynasty and the Huamei sages suffered great disasters back then, and it was ...... who went to sea from here" Looking at the sea and sky in the north, Qiao Xian seemed to remember the "story" that Colonel He Yu, chief of the army general staff, had said countless times.

"It's great and deserves all of us to pay tribute to them. Without them, we would not be the country we have today. ”

Scott stood on the side of the ship, also thoughtful. Echoing the solemn preparations that preceded the voyage, Scott could at last understand the marvelous euphoria of the Army commanders about this military operation in the Far East.

"The north is our home too, sir." Qiao Yan turned his head, and a wry smile appeared in his eyes, "Seven years ago, I still had Yu Shan, and I was no different from the people on Pearl Island. ”

"But you've learned to see the world in a new light." Skoll nodded his forehead and finally smiled, "We have also witnessed the growth of our country, and perhaps one day, this eastern empire will feel our growth just like Europe." ”

"But when will I be able to pick up my mother......

In the middle of the soldiers, Yu Shan tightened the shoulder strap of his rifle. In his own words, a few Chinese soldiers, including Yu Shan, were looking at the north in a trance.

Wreaths were constantly being thrown into the sea, gunfire was blaring on the deck, and at this moment, the same ritual was being performed on every battleship. However, with the exception of a very small number of people, the vast majority of officers and soldiers did not know the true meaning of this memorial.

"Yangjiang City...... How many years? Maybe it's still a shabby fishing village, why did I choose such a place to wander around in the first place......"

On the side of the Republic, Yan Xiaosong and the others all looked at the north blankly, but without exception, they all had strange expressions.

"Sister Hannah, what are you thinking? Have you been here? ”

Looking at his companions who had arrived temporarily from the Blue Whale transport ship, Yan Xianping was very curious. Why would most of the officers of Chinese descent in the expeditionary fleet not hesitate to take a detour to hold such a strange memorial in this part of the sea? And it seems that no one has any objections yet.

"A long time ago, right? I was too young to remember very well, it was like a dream......" Don Hannah smiled hard and turned and walked towards the cabin.

The ceremony was solemn and swift, and soon the crowd dispersed, and only a certain number of people remained in the officer's cafeteria of the Republic for a banquet, at which Zhang Chunrui was said to have broken the ban on war readiness and allowed everyone to drink, but the Navy officers present were all drunk, and Tang Hannah was sent back to the Blue Whale crying.

(To be continued)