July 17, 1627, the fifth day of the sixth month of the seventh year of the Great Tomorrow Apocalypse. The wharf of Victory Harbor was crowded and noisy early in the morning, and thousands of people gathered here as soon as it was dark.

These people all got the news in advance and came to the dock early to wait for the farewell of the overseas colonization team that was about to depart. There are more than 300 people in the colonization team alone, plus relatives and friends who came to see them off, and enthusiastic people who are strong onlookers, and the entire wharf is full of about seventy percent of the residents of the current Shengli Gangtian independent line. Even many Li Miao mountain people heard that the Haihan people had a large fleet to go overseas, so they specially rushed to Shengli Port from a cottage more than 20 miles away to watch this strange scene.

It was the first time that so many people had gathered together, and it was the first time for the control area of the crossing group. The Military Police Department, which was responsible for maintaining order on the scene, was under great pressure and had to transfer all its personnel from the recruit barracks. As the number of onlookers grew, the Military Police Department could only transfer all 80 naturalized soldiers of the colonization team to the dock to participate in maintaining order. Fortunately, the local laborers have already formed a habit, and when they saw the naturalized soldiers in green clothes and green pants appear, they automatically stopped the disorderly crowding, otherwise there would be a ** stick on the body later. In a region like Victory Harbor, where the people are still unintelligent, it is clear that the stick can help ordinary people learn to follow the rules more quickly than the law.

A group of idlers in the courtyard of the Inspection Division had long been woken up by the bustling crowd, and they were lying on the fence boredly watching the lively scene on the dock from a distance. Someone said: "There is such a commotion on the dock, isn't it that the Haihan people want to abandon this place and escape?"

Another retorted, "Flee? They have no opponents in the local area, so why should they flee?"

"They're not trying to flee, they're sending a fleet to travel. Wei Ping was still a little knowledgeable, and after observing for a while, he came to a conclusion: "And the place where this fleet is going is probably far away from Shengli Port, and it can't turn back in a short time, so there are so many people rushing to see it off." ”

Soon, the sound of the loudspeaker on the pier confirmed Wei Ping's guess: "Compatriots, fathers and fellow villagers, everyone is here today, in addition to bidding farewell to our relatives and friends, and also witnessing our group enter a new stage of development from today......

Although Wei Ping couldn't see the situation on the dock clearly, he was very familiar with this voice, which was the leader surnamed Tao among the Haihan people. The first two days of staying, the loudspeaker that sounded on time in the morning was like thunder, and all of them were scared to the point of urine, and then I slowly found out that this was a trick of the Haihan people, just to remind everyone to get up**. But the people outside the courtyard had something to do, and after the dozen or so people in the courtyard got up and had breakfast, they could only stare at each other with big eyes, and they were bored, and after a few more days, the loudspeaker in the morning was as disgusting as a mantra.

Tao Donglai couldn't care what a few unlucky people under house arrest thought, he stood on the bow of the "Shangyun 01", holding a microphone in his hand and continuing to give an enthusiastic speech: "...... Please remember that the travel of our companions will open a door for us, and behind this gate awaits us a high-speed development of the Golden Strip! They will continue to transport coal to us from overseas, help us produce more goods to exchange for silver, and then the Executive Committee will enable more people to have food, clothing, books, and housing! Our lives will get better and better because of their contributions, please remember them, and remember these brave warriors who bravely went overseas for the benefit of our collective!"

The hundreds of colonists who had not yet boarded the ship standing on the dock were all holding their heads high at this time, and even those who were not very happy because they had been drafted before were proud at this time. The crowd of onlookers applauded loudly, cheering up the warriors who were about to travel with the unique way of applauding the Haihan people.

Someone in the small courtyard of the inspection department muttered: "Are these Haihan people crazy? There are coal mines in Danzhou in the north, why do they send so many people to dig coal overseas?"

Wei Ping reprimanded: "Danzhou's coal is not much better than mud, and the Danzhou coal on the market has been snapped up by the Haihan people, which shows that their demand for coal is greater than that of the entire Yazhou City." Didn't you listen to what I just said, but with coal they can produce more things to sell, and that's the real reason why they send people overseas to dig coal!"

The man who was refuted was not convinced: "But with just two or three hundred people, how much coal can be dug in a month? I am afraid that the coal dug up by such a few people is not enough to supply Yazhou, how can we meet the needs of the Haihan people?"

Wei Ping couldn't think of any reason to continue arguing this time, and immediately said impatiently: "If we can understand the thoughts of the Haihan people, we won't be trapped in this place!

After Tao Donglai spoke on behalf of the Executive Committee, the Ministry of Shipping began to arrange for the crew and colonization team members to board the ship one after another. In addition to the more than 300 colonizers, there were also more than 100 crew members on the eight Chinese-style sailing ships, and in addition, in order to ensure that there was an emergency, the Executive Committee also specially dispatched the "Feisu" and a North American special operations team that was relatively familiar with the shipping lanes to escort the fleet. The "Flying Speed" will escort the fleet all the way to its destination, and will be responsible for vigilance, route survey, and guidance along the way.

The entire fleet had a total of about 500 people, and the ships carried more than 300 tons of various materials, which was the largest maritime operation since crossing this era. The difficulty of this operation is even far more than the original crossing and landing, the voyage alone is dozens of times that of the landing operation, and the fleet is all Chinese-style sailing ships, and the operation at sea can only rely on the wind to achieve, which is really a difficult problem for a considerable number of rookie crew members.

In order to solve the problem of uneven crew strength, the Executive Committee had to break up some of the sailors on board and reorganize them. As for the three chartered ships, there were quite a few veteran sailors, although they were not familiar with this new route, but with the ship under their guidance, there would be at least no technical obstacles to completing this voyage. The executive committee of these three ships all paid a deposit for half a year in one go, although the deposit paid was much more expensive than buying a ship, but the executive committee that was waiting for the ship could not care about the small profits. The executive committee has now figured out that it is not a realistic idea to wait for its own shipyard to build and launch to organize the fleet, and the most practical and effective is to use money to directly smash a fleet out, even if the cost is a little larger, it is worth it, you must know that the development time saved is not bought with money at all.

After this fleet dispatch, in the near future, there will actually be only one small Guangzhou ship and the "Lightning" in the entire Shengli Harbor that can go to sea, and the intensity and scope of maritime vigilance will be greatly reduced. In order to cope with this period of insecurity, the Executive Committee made a request during Luo Shengdong's visit a few days ago, hoping that he could mobilize several warships from Yazhou Shuizhai to garrison the vicinity of Shengli Harbor for more than 10 days and 20 days.

Of course, this favor was not in vain, and the executive committee offered the mercenary a price of five hundred taels of silver, and all food and lodging. In the face of such favorable conditions, Luo Shengdong naturally would not refuse, so he agreed to it, and said that he would go to General He immediately after returning to Yazhou, and strive to make the trip as soon as possible. These soldiers live in the water village anyway, they also eat public food, and they can save a sum of daily expenses when they are stationed in Shengli Port, plus the silver given by the executive committee, which is enough for Luo Shengdong to leave some benefits for himself after he goes up and down. According to the latest news sent back by the Yazhou Office yesterday, Yazhou Shuizhai has begun to prepare, and it is estimated that Luo Shengdong has opened up the joint of He Shenjiang, and the travel time is only in this day or two.

At about 9 o'clock in the morning, all the crew members boarded the ship, and the pilot ship "Feisu" slowly left the dock and sailed to the open sea first. Behind it, eight sailing ships set sail one by one, forming a long line and sailing out of the harbor. The crowd on the dock did not begin to disperse until the fleet disappeared from the sea level. Those family members who had relatives in the colonization team stood on the pier for a long time, silently praying in their hearts for the safety of their departed relatives.

Although the Ministry of Shipping, the Ministry of Agriculture and other departments of the joint weather forecasting team in advance, there are no obvious signs of strong winds in the sea south and west of Hainan Island recently, but it is just an ordinary sea turbulence, and the first batch of seasickness soon appeared on board. Although each ship is equipped with medical personnel or naturalized citizens who have received relevant medical skills training, there is really no tried-and-true cure for seasickness, and the vast majority of seasickness people are unable to stand up within an hour or two after going to sea, and can only lie in the cabin and make a weak **. Fortunately, the proportion of people who are seasick is very low, but two or three out of a hundred, but it does not affect the movement of the entire fleet.

The route of the colonization fleet was from Shengli Harbor along the coastline all the way west, passing through Yingge Tsui in the southwest corner of Hainan Island, and then leaving the offshore sea and sailing directly to the east coast of Vietnam. The voyage from Victory Port to Thanh Hoa on the east coast of Vietnam alone is more than 200 nautical miles on paper, and the Ministry of Shipping estimates that the actual voyage is about 250 nautical miles, and considering that the average speed of the entire fleet is only about six or seven knots, it will take thirty or forty hours to complete this voyage no matter how fast it is. In addition, the speed of sailing at night is much lower than during the day, so it takes at least two days to complete this part of the voyage. For those unlucky ghosts who are seasick, these two days will definitely be an unforgettable period of their lives. The fleet was well supplied, so they would have to wait until the fleet docked in the Thanh Hoa area to load Vietnamese refugees before they had the opportunity to go ashore for a short rest.