In the sea ahead, the outline of an island is gradually emerging, and this is one of the most important stops on this route, Fushuizhou Island. The expedition team was relatively lucky, although there were some twists and turns on the way, but they finally arrived here before dark, and they could go ashore by boat at night and sleep peacefully.

After approaching Fushuizhou Island from the north, the two boats split into two routes, starting from the northern tip of the island and heading south along the island's coastline. According to the information available to the expedition team, the island is triangular in shape when viewed from the air, narrow in the north and wide in the south, and the only coast that is convenient for ships to dock is at the southern end of the island.

The results of the two boats' field trips are basically consistent with the data, except for a 200-meter-long arc of sandy beach at the southern end of the island, and all the other coastal shores are steep cliffs, and there is no place for ships to dock. From a military point of view, this is a good thing, because it reduces the pressure on the entire island to defend itself, and a simple defensive line at the southern end can prevent foreign invasion.

Of course, it is unlikely that the Executive Committee will build a large fortification on such an isolated island in the middle of the ocean, after all, in the era when there is no maritime boundary demarcation, this place has no great strategic value at all, and the only reason the Executive Committee wants to develop this place is to need a docking point between Hongji Port and the west coast of Hainan Island. Unless the Executive Committee takes large-scale military action against the Vietnamese side in the future, the small island may be designated as a military strategic point.

Seeing that it was getting dark, the expedition team did not immediately explore the island after stopping the boat and landing on the shore, but found a sheltered location on the coast and set up camp. According to previous observations on the ship, there were no inhabitants of the island, so everyone slept soundly that night.

However, from the early hours of the morning, it began to rain in the sky, followed by strong winds, which caused some problems for the planned island exploration, and the team had to huddle in tents and cabins for a boring morning. The rainy season in this area is from May to August, and the timing of the expedition was indeed a bit coincidental.

It wasn't until around two o'clock in the afternoon that the rain gradually became lighter and the sky slowly began to clear. The expedition team seized the time and divided into three groups, one group stayed on the boat, and the other two groups traveled north along the east and west shores of the island, meeting at the northern end and then returning to the southern end from the middle road to complete the exploration of the entire island. (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable)

Although the coastline around the island is dominated by cliffs, the terrain on the island is relatively gentle, and only one hill in the middle of the island is only about 60 meters above sea level, which is considered the commanding height of the whole island. Soon after the search for the eastern front set out, the team found a spring on a slope, and after a brief examination by Dr. Morgan, it was determined that the spring was freshwater that could be directly cited, and the good news made everyone quite excited. The discovery of fresh water means that there will be no need for additional fresh water to be opened at sea transit points in the future, and the maximum number of people that can be supplied to the island will be greatly increased.

The two search teams spent a full three hours searching the entire island, and no signs of inhabitation were found on the island, nor were there any deposits of large carnivores. In fact, apart from the variety of seabirds, there are almost no other terrestrial animals here. Tom Wang, who has been sailing on the sea all year round, is also an expert in half seabirds, and under his guidance, the team members got to know a variety of seabirds such as white-bellied brown boobies, red-footed boobies, and seagulls.

The trees on the island are relatively dense, and most of them are typical island green forests formed by jatropha trees. The height of these trees is about ten meters, and the diameter of the trunk is more than half a meter at its thickest. This tree tends to grow together to form a very dense woods and is the main habitat for the island's various boobies. In addition to this, there are clusters of dense and impermeable shrubs, which are commonly known as "sheep's horn trees". This tropical evergreen plant grows well even on coral rocks, sand, or sandy beaches, and is very vigorous. After the inspection, the members of the Ministry of Agriculture believed that in the future, the island could be cultivated on a small scale to cultivate some relatively flat land and grow some tropical fruits and vegetables, which could also effectively relieve the pressure on food supplies.

The biggest windfall, in addition to fresh water, is the guano resources on this small island. The dense forests have turned this uninhabited island into a bird paradise, and a large amount of guano has formed a guano layer over the years, which is gradually dissolved by the organic acids generated by plants in a hot and rainy environment, and the phosphorus in guano slowly penetrates, fills, and cements into the soil, and then changes into bird-born apatite, which is commonly known as guano phosphate ore. Rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, this guano phosphate rock is an excellent comprehensive fertilizer for crops, and its effectiveness is comparable to that of the famous Jinkela. According to Tian Yeyou's calculations, the reserves of guano phosphate rock on this small island are at least more than 10,000 tons, and it has the value of large-scale mining.

However, Xie Chun of the Ministry of Shipping believes that Tian Yeyou's view may be difficult to realize in the short term: "This place is too far from the base camp, and it is better to transport guano back from here than to excavate directly on the east and west islands of Sanya Bay or a few small islands in Yalong Bay, which will have a shorter transportation distance and more convenient mining." ”

Tian Yeyou retorted unconvinced: "We can also mine the phosphate rock here and sell it to the Vietnamese as fertilizer." ”

Xie Chun sighed: "Brother, you are stupid! There are more than 3,000 islands in Halong Bay, and if we want to dig up guano and sell it to the Vietnamese, we can just dig it in Halong Bay, so why do we have to go so far to make a fuss! In my opinion, the only place where guano on this island can be used will probably have to wait until we open a mine in Shilu. There are millions of acres of coastal plains over there, and no amount of guano is enough to fill in there. ”

The fleet was scheduled to continue westward the day after completing the island expedition, but a small accident occurred. Because the members of the mining exploration team stayed in the inland area for a long time, they did not have the opportunity to eat fresh seafood, so they were greedy for too much in the two days after departure, and they couldn't stand up with diarrhea. As a result, the entire expedition team had to postpone the day's journey and stop to let these gluttons recuperate. Morgan even used a valuable strategic reserve for this purpose, giving them each a bag of glucose water to replenish the water lost by the body.

For the sake of unity, the expedition agreed not to mention the matter in their liaison with the base camp. Tom Wang only said that he had to be delayed for a day on Fushuizhou Island because of the weather, but the executive committee did not doubt him, but only told the expedition team to pay attention to safety, not to rush to complete the expedition task, and to wait until the sea conditions improved before setting off. Several perpetrators led by Tian Yeyou were very embarrassed by this small episode, and they all said that they would make up for their mistakes in the later work.

After a day's rest at Fushuizhou Island, the two boats set off early in the morning to sail west. It is only more than 60 nautical miles from Fushuizhou Island to Hongji Port, and with the normal speed of two sailing ships, it can reach the destination in five or six hours.

At noon, islands began to appear on the surface of the sea. After an hour, the density of islands on the surface of the sea begins to rise rapidly, and most of these islands stand directly on the surface of the sea like mountain peaks jutting out of the sea, which is very different from the appearance of the islands that are generally perceived. The sea is full of mountains and islands, dotted with thousands of postures, and it is no wonder that this place has been rated as a World Natural Heritage Reserve in later generations.

Tian Yeyou, who has always been obsessed with this place, couldn't help but mutter: "This place is very similar to Guilin, I knew that I should have taken my girlfriend to Guilin to go around first to relieve my hunger......"

Geographically, Ha Long Bay and Guilin do have something in common, both of which show very significant karst features, except that one is on land and the other is on the sea. Almost all of the members of the expedition team who came here for the first time were overwhelmed by the beauty of this place, and even the well-informed Tom Wang couldn't help but say to Morgan: "I think I have to revise my previous thoughts, and being sent to this place by the Executive Committee is not necessarily a bad thing." ”

The crew consciously lowered the sails and crossed this rare island spectacle at a slow speed, until it was getting dark, and the reluctant crew members raised their sails and accelerated at the urging of old Morgan: "This place will be ours sooner or later, and there will be a lot of time to visit here slowly, and now what we need is to stop the boat and dock as much as possible, and no one can guarantee that we will not run aground in this place after dark!"

June 20, 1627, the eighth day of the fifth month of the seventh year of the Great Apocalypse. After four days of departure from the port of Shengli, the expedition finally arrived at the destination of the trip, the location of the future Hongji Port in Vietnam.

From a military point of view, the location and topography of Hongji Port are not too ideal, this harbor is narrow and short, the outer width and the inner narrow are cone-shaped, and it will be difficult for large ships to turn around in this harbor, let alone have any defensive depth at all. In terms of defense, the only natural terrain that could be relied upon was the coastal hills near the port entrance, where a few shore defense guns would have been enough to cover the entire entrance and exit of the harbor. In any case, it was not a suitable location for development as a commercial or military port, and the cargo terminal did seem to be its only reasonable use. Thousands of islands of all sizes stand on the sea surface outside the harbor, which makes the difficulty of sea defense here increase exponentially.