During this trip to the Far East, in addition to the "Democracy" entering the dock for rest, the "Equality" was also requisitioned for the construction of Xinlu.

Xinlu is a vast new world, which requires a large supply of building materials and daily necessities.

Relying only on the three offshore transport ships "Zhu Chenggong", "Zhang Huangyan", and "Li Dingguo" is still a little inadequate, and needs the help of large ships.

The lack of two 2,000-ton ships in the ocean shipping fleet has inevitably led to a decline in capacity.

However, in the shipyard of Xinjin Port, there are three sister ships of the "Chengxin" and "Friendship" under construction, which are expected to be launched in two months, and the population will be transported up to 15,000 people per month.

On July 16, the fourth day after the fleet left the port of Xinjin, a huge island appeared in the vast ocean.

This is the first overseas territory of the Ming Dynasty, Kodiak Island, which is 2,000 kilometers away from Fengdu.

From a distance, there are only a few wooden houses on the island, which look unusually small between the sea and the sky.

But on the flagpole in front of the house, the flags of the sun and the moon flutter high, announcing to this sea and sky who is the real master of this place.

Among them was a special house, not on flat ground, but on the hill, which was the lookout's hut.

Under the guidance of the watchman's flag, the Ming fleet slowly entered the harbor.

On the "Fuqiang", Zheng Baoguo introduced to Ito and Xia Zhixin: "Professor Xia, Ito's special envoy, for the Arctic scientific expedition of the Ming Dynasty, our naval division has stationed a company here for a long time, and it is rotated every 3 months. ”

Xia Zhixin touched his beard and nodded: "Nature contains infinite treasures, the saint said that the North Pole is an inseparable part of the Ming Dynasty, and the monarchs stationed in the northern frontier of the empire are really admirable!" ”

After a pause, Xia Zhixin beckoned to Ito Hirofumi again, and said: "Ito-kun, since the sailor is about to change the guard, you might as well go around the island with the scientific expedition team of our museum, I heard that there are the world's largest brown bears on this island, as well as many meat mountain walruses, these are the native products of the Ming Dynasty, and they need to be recorded well." ”

"Hey!"

Ito hurriedly bent down and bowed, "It's a great honor to be invited by Professor Xia. ”

……

Ito is a naturalized Ming man who has not long been naturalized, and his loyalty has yet to be tested, so he still has to avoid such a sensitive event as the change of guard of the troops stationed on the island.

Ito is a very intelligent person, so he understands this, so he changed into an explorer's suit and followed the museum's scientific expedition team to investigate the island's ecological resources.

This outfit was only worn when he was exploring Yunnan with Morishita before, but I didn't expect it to be used near the North Pole this time.

Fortunately, it is now July, and due to the influence of ocean currents, the temperature on Kodiak Island is very pleasant, and if he comes after October, he will have to freeze to death.

"Kodiak" is the indigenous language of the Aleutian people, which means "island", and has not been officially renamed by the Ming Dynasty for the time being.

In addition to more than 150 heavily armed Ming sailors, there are about 1,000 Aleutian natives on the island.

The Aleutian natives are a branch of the Inuit, and the Inuit are basically no different from the Mongols in appearance.

Originally, there were tens of thousands of natives on the island, but the Russians were known for their ferocity in the Far East, so these indigenous tribes have basically been destroyed.

As soon as Zheng Baoguo got off the boat, an enthusiastic figure rushed towards him.

That's because of the current head of New York, a woman named Pearl.

She once followed the "Zhu Chenggong" to the Fengdu Dynasty to meet the Ming Emperor, and then led the way for the Ming sailors, severely damaging the Russian fleet.

With the support of the Ming Dynasty, Pearl gained an unparalleled voice among the tribe.

At present, all the natives on the island mainly work as outsourcers of the Daming Water Division, working in the meat factory and maintenance factory.

Of course, these natives can't do any complicated work.

The main purpose of the meat complex is to slaughter walruses, refine oil, make hides, and provide enough meat for the fleet.

As for the repair shop, in fact, the main thing is to let the natives help clean the barnacles on the ship,

Barnacles are a nightmare for ocean-going vessels, accumulating in large quantities on the bottom side of the ship, which can greatly affect the speed and carrying capacity.

For a fleet like the Daming Marine, which spans more than 9,000 kilometers of ocean, it is very important to clean barnacles regularly.

In fact, Zhu Fugui did not want Kodiak to become the Puerto Rico of the Ming Dynasty, but wanted to integrate it into the empire.

Therefore, the household department made a plan for the relocation of the Aleutian people early on.

It's just that it's too difficult to find someone who can replace them to enrich the northern frontier, and this plan has been shelved for the time being.

When the population is abundant in the future, Daming will naturally introduce a series of policies to encourage Daming locals to go to the Arctic to start a business and realize their dreams.

The fleet rested for a day on Kodiak Island, and the 3 Squadron of the Marine Division Mobile Detachment completed the change of defense.

At the same time, part of the dehydrated vegetables and daily necessities loaded by the fleet were replaced with fresh meat, elephant oil, bacon meat, and furs.

In other regions, meat is worth more than vegetables, but on the sea, on Kodiak Island, meat is the cheapest.

Loaded with cargo, the fleet continued its journey.

Ten days later, after a voyage of 6,000 kilometers, the Ming fleet docked at the ocean more than 10 kilometers west of the Maguan Strait.

In fact, it is more convenient to travel from Kodiak Island to Choshu Domain via the Seto Inland Sea.

However, there are a lot of people in Japan recently, and it is better to avoid some of them under the banner of the Citigroup.

It's not that I'm afraid of those guys, just the 20,000-ton fleet, it's not that Zhu Fugui has a big heart, and he may not be able to beat the joint attack of the Japanese domains.

After all, the shogunate's new gunboats had been cut off by the Ming Dynasty, and the strongest ships on the Japanese side were probably a few Western-style boats ordered by the Satsuma clan from Shanghai.

The reason why the Ming fleet avoided its edge and made a detour to the Sea of Japan was mainly to prevent the samurai of the Choshu Domain from not speaking of martial virtues.

In case the little brother Ito was hacked to death with a knife just before he had time to reveal his identity before he got off the boat, the matter would be a big deal.

After the flotilla was moored, a small boat was lowered from the "Fuqiang".

Hirobumi Ito sailed to Shimonoseki with a few sailors.

Half a day later, the boat returned, and only two ships, the "Fuqiang" and the "Harmony", which were loaded with trade supplies, were allowed to enter the port.

Although Ito Hirofumi is valued by Maori Jingqin, he is just a fledgling young man after all, so he naturally has no face.

However, he boasted that he had brought reinforcements to the Choshu Domain from overseas, and even used the name of his home as a guarantee, which allowed the vassals of Shimonoseki to send letters and a revolver to the feudal office, the capital of Maori's relatives.

Originally, the Chōshū Domain's domain was located in Hagi Castle, but after a battle with the Great Powers last year, Mori Keiko felt that Hagi Castle was too far away to direct the battle, so he moved the domain office to Yamaguchi Castle, which was very close to Shimonoseki.

That night, Mori Kei hurried to Shimonoseki to meet Ito in Shimonoseki Castle.

The reason why he is so proactive is that Maori is at stake.

On August 18 last year, the Choshu Domain's Tsunaku faction was expelled from Kyoto, and the Choshu Domain's priests were killed and arrested by the Shinsengumi under the Aizu Domain.

Not long ago, there was another change of ban, and the shogunate ordered a crusade against the Choshu domain and announced that it would deprive Mori of his official position.

Now that the army of the Choshu Domain has been assembled near Osaka, the entire Yamaguchi Castle is in turmoil.

According to the original history, two months later, the Choshu clan was defeated in this crusade, and the three elders of the family, Kuniji Shinano, Masuda Uemonsuke, and Fukuhara Echigo, were forced to be tortured, and Mori Keiko was also severely punished.

At such a critical juncture, I heard that Ito Hirobumi, who had been reported missing by Inoue Shin, had actually returned with a Western firearm, and Maori Keiqin naturally came to inquire in person.

It can be seen from the dispatch of Inoue Shin and Ito Hirobumi to study in the United Kingdom that although Mori Keiko was extremely disgusted with Yoshi, he did not oppose advanced Western technology, but wanted to introduce it in a big way.

In fact, as long as there is no mentality of the Manchu Qing to be wary of the Han people, everyone knows that foreign guns and cannons are a good thing, and there is no need to argue at all.

Mori was surprised to find that the young man Ito Hirobumi had only been seen for half a year, but he had become a stranger.

He did not salute himself with courtier etiquette, but with diplomatic etiquette.

This made Maori very unhappy.

After all, in Eastern culture, it is quite despised to seek glory by betraying one's master.

However, Ito Hirobumi calmly dealt with it: "I respect the emperor of East Asia as the master, how can I betray the master?" ”