"Turn, fifteen degrees south-east!"

"Lowering the sidesail!"

"Notify the engine room, start a fire, turn on!"

“……”

On the vast surface of the Pacific Ocean, more than 20 ships lined up in two columns, sailing at 42 degrees north latitude, like two small strings of dead leaves, meandering eastward along the strong North Pacific Current.

As one of the first ships signaled a turn, the boats began to adjust their sails and follow the change of direction towards the southeast.

Obviously, at this time, out of the wind direction, it must be close to a certain island, ready to temporarily stop and replenish some fresh water.

"I guess we will be able to reach Tianweng Island (now Midway) in one day, so we can take a break. Otherwise, the women on the ship will die again. Shi Baoshan, the captain of the Shengyuan, couldn't help but sigh slightly as he watched the two sailors drag the dead woman's body to the deck, and then lifted it into the sea with all his might.

"There is no immortal on a ship on the sea." Boatswain Liao Fuyuan just glanced at it indifferently and didn't care, "What's more, these women who have never been to the sea, have been bumpy on the sea for more than 20 consecutive days, and it is understandable that they have not survived, and it is normal for a few to die." I heard that when I immigrated to Qi in the early days, almost two or three percent of people died when I came down. Hehe, it's also lucky, that is, our ancestors and old people have a hard life, so you and I can gallop on the sea like this. ”

"Well, who's to say it's not." Shi Baoshan said with a smile: "It is definitely a great fortune to be able to survive in an era of frequent wars on the mainland, and to insist on coming to Hanzhou." Alas, I was just thinking that if this woman died too much on the way, when she arrived in Yinzhou, I was afraid that she would have to change a lot less fur and gold and silver. ”

The "Shengyuan" successively loaded more than 520 women in Kamizong (present-day Kobe), Sendai, and Qingyuan (present-day Hakodate), and in addition to Japanese descent, there were also some women from Korea and Qin, and the sailing ship with a displacement of 1,300 tons was almost stuffed to the brim, and many people were even placed in coal bunkers.

Although, during the journey, the crew arranged for the women to take turns on the deck to ventilate, and also replenished them with carrots, bean sprout soup, fresh wort every day, and distributed lemon slices to prevent scurvy.

But the cramped space, the foul and filthy air, the hairy dry food, the dry and hard salted meat, and the green drinking water, still made the passengers on the ship inevitably contracted various diseases, seasickness, diarrhea, fever, fainting, ......, so that the crowded cabin fell into a terrible disaster.

Less than five days after leaving Qingyuan Port, the crew began to throw the woman's body into the sea, and almost every day one or two bodies were dragged out of the bilge, which was shocking.

However, it is helpless to think about it, the "Shengyuan" is just an ordinary merchant ship, not equipped with medical care and various assisted living facilities like a special ship for immigrants, and it is completely transported by mixing the women with goods, and it is stuffed so much at one time.

There was a certain degree of "attrition" on the way, which was also expected by everyone.

"We transported more than 100 women this time, what do you say King Yi will not accept when the time comes?" Liao Fuyuan hesitated for a while, and finally raised the question in his heart.

"Don't worry, no matter how many people we bring over, King Yi will accept it." Shi Baoshan said firmly: "King Yi wants to follow the example of Qingguo, establish a feudal system, and become an influential kingdom, which is not a secret in the entire Yinzhou. Oh, if you want to build a vassal state, in addition to expanding your own territory, then you can't accumulate more population? How to save the population, in addition to spending money on immigration, the only way to encourage the people in the domain to have more children is to encourage them to have more children. But if there is no woman, how can I live? ”

"Will the emperor and the cabinet allow King Yi to establish a vassal state and expand his strength?"

"I guess so." Shi Baoshan thought for a while, and said with some uncertainty: "Anyway, our Qi country government can't directly control such a large territory, so it's better to support a vassal country and achieve indirect rule to increase the influence of my Qi country." If you think about it, the Nanyang region can allow the existence of vassal states such as Shunguo, Sulu, Weiguo, and Luzon, not to mention that King Yi is still the royal family of my Great Qi, and there is no reason to refuse his request to establish a domain. Don't forget that the Yizhou fiefdom (present-day Oregon region of the United States), where King Yi is located, is sandwiched between the Pengzhou Governorate and the Xuanzhou Governorate, which constitutes a certain degree of restraint on the King of Yi, and he does not dare to offend the emperor and the cabinet in the future. ”

"If this King of Yi establishes a vassal and gradually expands his sphere of influence, he should be extremely dependent on eastern trade for a long time, so it will be an excellent opportunity for us, right?"

"That's nature. With the pitiful population of the entire Yin Zhou, how can it digest hundreds of thousands of furs every year. Well, even if you add the American territories of the Spaniards, it won't work. In this way, it would have to rely on us, the merchant ships that sailed to and from the Pacific, to bring them back to Japan, to Qin, or to sell them locally. This, combined with their daily necessities, weapons and ammunition, and even population, would be enough to attract more merchants and transport ships to the American trade. Moreover, I believe that the trade in the Americas is definitely not as competitive as the prosperous trade between the South Seas and India. ”

As a captain, Shi Baoshan received some shares from the shipowners, and if the trading company he belonged to could make a lot of profits in the American trade, he could naturally get a lot of dividends.

Well, it would be better if the entire Yinzhou region, including Yizhou, developed into the American territories of Spain or England, where the population flourished and the demand was strong, so as to further promote the long-term prosperity of Pacific trade.

On November 25th, the fleet arrived at Tianweng Island and prepared to stop there for three days, so that the sailors and passengers on board could take turns to land on the island to rest and relieve the boredom and suffering of the journey.

Tianweng Island was once an uninhabited island, which was discovered by a Qi captain in the eighth year of Hanxing (1678). Later, as the Qi State began to colonize Yinzhou, the Ministry of Immigration and the Navy at that time built the island as a temporary supply point for ships traveling to and from the Americas to dock and rest.

The island is inhabited by tens of thousands of albatrosses, especially in July and August, countless albatross gather over the island, and the white figure almost covers most of the blue sky, so it is named Tianweng Island.

So far, there are only about 170 immigrants on the island, and their main business is to grow fruits and vegetables, while food and daily necessities are transported from the Weiyi Islands.

In addition, the six-square-kilometre island is covered with a thick layer of guano mines, but it is too far away to be exploited on a large scale due to the cost of mining and transportation.

It is well known that most of the world's arable land is not highly fertile, except for the land covered with volcanic ash or the black soil itself that is fertile. At this time, the cultivation technology can only greatly increase the yield with sufficient fertilizer - in this regard, Europe is extremely unbearable, because they do not know how to "play", and sometimes this "greatly increases" even by several times.

However, the source of fertilizer is a big problem. Relying on animal manure is obviously of limited use - breeding animals is limited at this time, and a large number of farmed animals also need feed, and growing good feed also requires fertilizer. Growing legumes to fix nitrogen is also not a good way out – growing beans requires land and energy, and beans are not very productive and do not contribute as much to "eating well" as other cereal crops.

In the middle of the vast ocean, there are many small islands with many seabirds and bats. For thousands of years, guano has been deposited on these islands, some of which can be tens of meters long. It has been found that these guano droppings are rich in fertility (ammonium nitrate), and the fertilizer efficiency is dozens of times that of ordinary manure.

As a result, guano has become the main "farm manure" material. Decades ago, the Qi State discovered a small island rich in guano in the northeast of Weiyuan Island, Feidao (present-day Nauru), and sent a large number of transport ships to excavate and collect them every year, and transported them back to Hanzhou in a steady stream to improve the extremely barren arable land in the country. It is reported that the maximum amount of guano pulled back has reached 70,000 or 80,000 tons per year, which has greatly improved the conditions for domestic agricultural production.

However, guano on this small island has been accumulated for thousands of years to have so much. If they are exploited at any cost, they will be depleted sooner or later, because they are essentially "non-renewable resources".

In order to ensure the continuous supply of guano, the state of Qi issued a "Fat Island Decree". According to this decree, any Guano Island found anywhere by a Qi national, regardless of whether the island is inhabited or not, and whether or not there is an indigenous regime on the island, may take possession of it and exploit it, and will receive half of the proceeds, and the government will provide the necessary support and protection for such possession and exploitation.

As a result, for a long time, "looking for" became the "entrepreneurial outlet" of Qi at that time, and countless captains and investors frantically searched for desert islands with guano in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

According to records, in the process of "looking for", about 100 "dung islands" have become private territories under this law - of course, they have also become one of the many overseas territories of Qi State.

The discoverers of Tianweng Island had sought investment partners in China to jointly develop guano on the island, in the hope of gaining the opportunity to get rich. But after a few years, because it is too far away from the mainland, the transportation cost is relatively high, so that it has lost a lot of money when it is shipped back. Japan, the Northern Ming Dynasty, and the Qin State on the mainland are either so poor that they don't have money to buy "", or because the territory is vast and sparsely populated, they can take the way of arable land rotation to slowly restore the soil strength, and they are not very interested in guano, which makes people not depressed.

As a result, this small island, which contains guano mines, can only be temporarily reduced to a temporary supply point in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

However, the discoverers of Tianweng Island did not completely lose confidence. He firmly believes that with the development of the times and the continuous expansion of agricultural demand, this guano resource located in the depths of the ocean will sooner or later attract a huge market demand.

But for the more than 100 immigrants on the island, they don't care about the ambitions of the "island owner" at all, they are only full of infinite yearning and anticipation for the waves of ships stationed here.

This is an isolated island, as far as the eye can see, in addition to the endless sea, there is only a blue sky, and there are no inhabited islands within more than 1,000 kilometers of the surrounding area, which makes people feel an inexplicable loneliness and ...... Panicky.

Today, a fleet of more than 20 ships came, which suddenly made all the immigrants on the island extremely excited.

Whether it was the Qin, the Japanese, or the Koreans, the inhabitants of the island were so enthusiastic that they would babble for a long time when they caught one, regardless of whether they understood what he was saying. Even the hen in the house laid a few eggs yesterday, and she will tell you several times.

Before he does, he will exchange his vegetables, chickens and ducks, fruits, and eggs in the chicken coop for cloth, needlework, tea, spices, farm tools, hardware, kitchen utensils, and all the daily necessities they need.

Yes, although the inhabitants of the island also collect money, but more often than not, they have to exchange for things that can be used.

In terms of administration, Tianweng Island belongs to the Weiyi Governor's District, and it is also the westernmost boundary of the Weiyi Detachment patrol, and there are several naval officers and soldiers stationed there, so they assume the responsibility of managing the island, and it can be regarded as a military area.

However, the officers and men of the navy did not interfere too much in the lives and work of the islanders, and basically let themselves go, occasionally giving "patriotic" lectures to let them know that they were nationals of the overseas territories of Qi and not to admit the wrong "master".

Generally speaking, although the life of more than 100 immigrants on the island is a little hard and a little lonely, the standard of living is not bad. Every few months, the Weiyi detachment would bring them food, sugar, salt, and even canned fish and canned fruits, which were basically enough to eat and clothe them, which was much better than the precarious life in Japan, Korea, or the mainland.

If there were any more merchant ships (fleets) stationed here, the inhabitants of the small island would have an opportunity for rapid growth in wealth. A handful of green vegetables can be exchanged for tea or spices worth a few dimes, an egg can be exchanged for a foot-long cloth, and even a few fruits can be exchanged for a dozen iron nails.

This phenomenon made the sailors who were used to running the ship very angry.

This day Urn Island is simply a "black island"!

In the past, Lao Tzu could exchange several fine sea otter skins for natives on the Black Rock Islands (present-day Aleutian Islands) with a single iron nail.

What, the natives of the Black Rock Islands?

Are you mistaken, this Tianwen Island is full of people from my Qi country's overseas territory, and they are not savages who don't understand anything!

If you are too expensive, you can not exchange it with us!

If you endure it for more than ten days, you will be able to get enough fresh vegetables and fruits at a cheap enough price when the ship sails to the Weiyi Islands.

You see, more than 20 ships and thousands of people are docked on our Tianurn Island, which is too small to be smaller, and the supplies they can provide are naturally limited.

Scarcity is expensive!

(End of chapter)