Thanh Hoa was a rather unfamiliar city to the expedition. The information in the hands of the expedition team is basically the domestic situation of Vietnam before the crossing, and it is only known that this is the capital of Thanh Hoa Province of Vietnam in the later generations, and it is one of the major cities in the eastern coastal area of Vietnam, but this information can hardly play any reference role in the current judgment.

At the critical moment, the expedition team still thought of asking for help from the base camp, at least there were some semi-professionals like Ning Qi who were more familiar with history, and maybe they could provide some more useful information. Sure enough, the expert group in the base camp did not disappoint the expedition team this time, and after receiving a request for help, the expedition team quickly received the guidance of the expert group.

Prior to this operation, Ninh Ki had mentioned the domestic history of Vietnam during this period in the training course of the expedition, and one of the important historical events was the independence of Vietnam from the Ming Dynasty in 1427. The Vietnamese Le Ly, who led the independence movement, was born in Thanh Hoa, and his armed rebellion against Ming rule in 1418 was in Thanh Hoa, Vietnam, in Thu Xuan district, Vietnam, which is known in Vietnamese history books as the "Blue Mountain Uprising". Le Le single-handedly established the Lê dynasty known as Dai Viet, which was divided for a long time during its reign, but barely maintained until the end of the 18th century, when the Nguyen dynasty came to power, and the Lê dynasty withdrew from the stage of history. By the way, it is worth mentioning that the current name "Vietnam" is the name of the country used by the Nguyen Dynasty in the early 19th century.

100 years before he traveled to this time and space, that is, in 1526, the then emperor of the Li Dynasty, Li Zhaozong, was killed by the powerful minister Mo Dengyong, and the following year Mo Dengyong usurped the throne and established the Mo Dynasty. At that time, the ministers of the Lê Dynasty, Nguyen and Zheng, supported the succession of Zhao Zong's son Le Trang Zong in Thanh Hoa, forming a situation of confrontation between the North and the South of Le and Moz. During this period, Thanh Hoa had been the de facto capital of the Lê dynasty. It was not until 1592 that Zheng Song, the general of the Lê Dynasty, destroyed the Mo Dynasty and moved the capital of the Lê Dynasty back to Hanoi, which was called "Thang Long Mansion" at this time.

However, Zheng Song immediately became a new generation of powerful ministers, with the Lê emperor continuing to be reduced to a puppet, while another powerful minister, the Nguyen clan, occupied Hue in the south as a stronghold, forming a new north-south confrontation. The Annam Civil War, which began in 1627, was a head-on collision between these two powers in the country. And the former temporary capital of Thanh Hoa has become the first choice for war refugees who fled north.

However, as for the situation in Thanh Hoa at this time, and what the garrison strength and political situation were, the expert group in the rear could not provide more detailed information. After all, the expert group is all keyboard historians after all, and their limited energy is basically spent on studying domestic history and European history, and it is not easy to understand such a country of Vietnam's level.

Armed with this information, the expedition team again brainstormed and finally developed a few rules for the next day's actions. The first is to avoid the local army as much as possible, because the country is still in a state of civil war, and it is difficult to say whether the presence of the expedition will attract an attack by the military; second, it is necessary to maintain an appropriate safe distance from the large number of refugees that may occur, after all, there is only one word difference between the displaced and the outcasts, and people under the pressure of survival can do anything; the third is to find suitable anchorages in the coastal areas in case the convoys that may carry migrants here on a large scale in the future, and if possible, to see if there is an environment suitable for the establishment of places such as refugee camps。

On June 25, 1627, the ninth day of the expedition, the expedition continued its voyage south along the coast. The voyage was smooth, and the expedition team completed the 40-nautical-mile voyage in only three hours and arrived off the coast of Thanh Hoa.

The two guides hired by the expedition had only moved out of Thanh Hoa a few years earlier, and according to them, it was about 30 miles from inland Thanh Hoa, and there were two options to get to Thanh Hoa City by land and water. However, the expedition team did not need to go to Thanh Hoa City to find out the situation, the two ships went around near the mouth of the Thanh Hoa River, and they had already seen many people carrying bags and baskets on the shore.

"This is what we want to see as war refugees. Xie Chun muttered, turned to the two guides and asked, "Why are these people gathered here?"

"They were waiting for the boat to cross the river. One of the guides answered Xie Chun's question: "They want to continue north. ”

Xie Chun nodded, agreeing with the guide's answer. Although geographically, this place is far away from the battlefield, but being able to cross one more river to the north is more certain for life. Moreover, just over 30 years ago, Thanh Hoa was the main battlefield of the war between the north and the south, and the Li Dynasty and the Mo Dynasty fought on the front line of Thanh Hoa for more than 60 years before distinguishing the superiority. Now that the resumption of the Great War between the North and the South is imminent, the Vietnamese people who have suffered greatly are naturally reluctant to stay in this place for too long, perhaps in their opinion, the farther away from the battlefield is better, and it is not so clear where they will eventually go.

The sudden appearance of two sailing catamarans did not dampen the refugees' determination to flee north, and hundreds of refugees still gathered on the south bank, waiting for two or three small wooden boats to be ferried on the river. According to what the expedition observed, there were hundreds of refugees at the mouth of the river alone, and thousands of refugees from here to Thanh Hoa City. However, these small wooden boats on the river can only carry about a dozen people at a time, and it will take an unknown amount of time to transport the growing number of refugees to the north bank.

Roger, who was standing on the bow of the "Speedy" to observe the situation, whistled and said: "If our New World can still move, it will be enough for the population needed to mine in the north at this time." ”

"There's no hope for the New World, we don't have enough fuel reserves left to sail from Port Victory to this place. Wang Tom also regretted what he saw in front of him, if the crossing group can now have enough transportation capacity, then it should not be difficult to recruit some people from this place. These people just want to live a peaceful life, and for those who want to live well, a stable environment is obviously more important than anything else.

The two sailing boats found a place where there were relatively few refugees to dock, and then asked two guides to disembark and bring twenty or thirty refugees nearby to inquire about the situation. As they thought, the vast majority of these refugees came from the southern districts of Quang Tri, Quang Binh, and Ha Tinh, and left their homes to escape military service and hard labor that would soon be sent to war.

According to the accounts of these refugees, the current confrontation between the northern and southern armies is mainly between Hue and Quang Tri, and in the recent skirmishes it seems that the northern Korean army has suffered some losses and is showing signs of defeat. The area around Guangzhi, which was about to become a frontal battlefield, was already empty, and a large number of people began to flee to the north. One of the older refugees claimed that at least 10,000 refugees had fled north in Guangzhi alone. In the eyes of these refugees, even though Thanh Hoa City is 800 miles away from Hue, it is not an absolutely safe place. They will continue their march north as long as they are likely, and some may even try to escape the fighting in the farther inland areas northwest of Hanoi.

When refugees were asked if they would be willing to work in undeveloped areas of the north on the premise of ensuring food, clothing and shelter, about two-three out of 10 said they would go. And when they learned that this place was only three or four hundred miles away and could be reached by boat in two days at most, at least half of them expressed their willingness to go, and if they mentioned the guarantees of medical care, education, and the promotion mechanism, the expedition team believed that this proportion would increase significantly. The results of such a survey made the expedition team feel extremely excited, and they already had a vague premonition that the problem of the labor force in overseas bases, which had plagued the Executive Committee for a long time, seemed to have found a key to a solution.

The expedition was kind enough to ship the refugees to the North Shore and gave them a small amount of salt. As they left, the refugees were told that if they were willing to wait here for an additional half a month, a boat would take them to the north, where there was no fighting, to start a new life.

The two guides were also placed on the North Shore, and they had to walk home on their own. But it was not a big deal for them, because in the end the expedition gave them two taels of silver as an additional reward, which was enough to cover their harvest for a year. At the same time, the two guides were reminded by the expedition that there would be a fleet of boats to visit their fishing village next time, hoping that more young people like them would join.

The expedition team, which had already returned to its heart, even gave up the usual work of burying pots and cooking ashore, and set sail directly away from the coast of Vietnam, heading at full speed in the southeast direction. The next morning, the fleet arrived at Yingge Tsui in the southwest corner of Hainan Island, but the fleet did not stop to rest, but continued to sail westward to the base camp as fast as possible. At two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the familiar mountains of Yulinjiao finally appeared in view, and the crew, who had been sailing on the sea for twenty-four hours in a row, couldn't help but cheer. Ten days after departure, the expedition team finally returned to Victory Port intact, bringing back a large number of ore specimens and graphic images of the field trip.

Almost all the members of the Executive Committee, who had received the news in advance, rushed to Victory Harbor to welcome back this group of members who were on their first overseas mission. All the members who participated in this expedition have undoubtedly added a very important piece of their personal resume. The people who were able to participate in this operation were carefully selected, and their personal abilities were beyond doubt. As long as there are no major accidents, in the future development of the group, these people will inevitably be reused by the executive committee.