On the afternoon of April 20, on the humid and stuffy Isthmus of Panama, a team of about 120 people lined up in a long line and marched with difficulty.

There were only eight wagons and more than a dozen horses and mules in the entire team, carrying a large amount of water, canned food and other supplies. Some passengers who were sick or attacked by poisonous insects, snakes and ants were allowed to lie down in the wagons so that they could keep up with the procession.

This ancient post road, which has been opened for nearly 200 years, was the only way for Spain to transport Peruvian gold and silver mines by land, as well as a transport hub between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

The road stretches from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean and is about 70 kilometers long. Straddling tropical rainforests and swamps, it is an area with a hot and humid climate and exceptionally rich vegetation.

Standing on the west side of the Isthmus of Panama Post Road, overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean, white waves crashing on coral reefs and seagulls hovering in the air, as if calling you to explore the endless ocean.

On the other side is the emerald green rainforest, with lush vegetation and towering canopy that makes you feel like you've stepped into a sea of green, and the air is filled with a strong floral scent, and you can even hear insects and birds.

As you walk along the Isthmus of Panama, you'll see the ruins of abandoned carriages and the bones of Bai Sensen, as if witnessing 200 years of history. Vehicles and crowds of people walked along the rugged post road, from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side, like tiny ants, navigating through the mountains and dense forests.

The canyon is narrow and steep, and the raised hills in the distance are bathed in dense woods. A giant python with colorful stripes spit out a letter and coiled itself on a tree branch, staring ahead, as if looking for something. Several monkeys were jumping on the high branches, mischievously chasing each other and frolicking.

There was a faint sound of thunder in the distance, dull and oppressive, and as time went on, it became louder and louder, terrifying the people on the dense forest post road. Everyone knew that a heavy rain was coming, and in order to avoid getting wet in the rain, they had to speed up their march in the hope of finding a post station to hide.

"Boom, boom, boom......" A gentle sound of horses' hooves sounded, and the knight who was exploring the way in front carefully manipulated the reins and slowly galloped to the middle of the group.

"Sun experienced, there is an indigenous village ahead, you can take a break and shelter from the rain." The knight removed the veil from his face, revealing a sweaty face.

"I've been walking this broken road for three or four days, and apart from the dense valleys and dense forests, there is not even a decent town or village." Chen Wangfu experienced Sun Dongchen reached out and wiped the sweat on his forehead, and then asked, "What is the situation of the indigenous villages?" Don't run into a den of thieves! ”

"The indigenous village was about 180 inhabitants, and the Spanish guide, Ryctor, said that it was originally a village founded as a post station. Looking at their appearance, they should all be familiar feudal domesticated by the Spaniards, and there are some Western monks, not as fierce as the fleeing natives near Panama City. ”

"Did the Spanish guide say how far the port of Cologne is away?"

"It's about 30 kilometers away. If we had traveled a little faster, we would have been there in two to three days. ”

"Alas, although it takes more than two months to take this post road than to take a boat to bypass most of the American continent, this broken road is really not easy to walk, and there are two craftsmen on the road, which is inevitably a little more than worth the loss!" Sun Dongchen sighed.

“……”

When the people around heard this, their faces were bitter, and they shook their heads and sighed.

Their group of more than 100 people were the royal officials of Qi Weijun, the former king of Chenzhou (that is, the island of Newfoundland and Arcadia ceded by the Kingdom of England), as well as scholars and craftsmen recruited from the mainland.

Two years ago (1728), King Jia was suspected of competing for the throne during the death of the crown prince, so he was crowned King Chen by Emperor Taiping, and ordered to leave Hanzhou within a time limit and take up Chenzhou.

In a hurry, His Royal Highness King Chen only had time to pack up some of the soft and buy some daily supplies, so he hired a sailboat and left Chang'an gloomily with dozens of close people.

Considering the remoteness of Chenzhou and the lack of materials, life in the future must be extremely difficult. Therefore, before leaving, King Chen ordered the subordinate officials of the royal palace to continue to purchase all kinds of materials and machinery and equipment to send to Chenzhou in the local area, and to recruit more scholars, craftsmen, and armed guards as the foundation of Chenzhou's sustainable development in the future.

From Hanzhou to Chenzhou, there are two normal routes.

First, it started from the southeast of Hanzhou, all the way east, passed through Dongzhou (now New Zealand), sailed to the southern tip of the Americas, crossed the Suining Strait (i.e., the Strait of Magellan), entered the Atlantic Ocean, and then traveled north along the east coast of South America, crossed the Caribbean Sea, and finally drove directly to Chenzhou.

The other route is from the southwest of Hanzhou, across the Indian Ocean, to Qianzhou (now South Africa), carefully sail through the choppy Cape of Good Hope, stick to the west coast of Africa all the way to the north, to the Gulf of Guinea, and then take advantage of the warm current of the South Equator, across the Atlantic, into Brazil, and finally turn north, through the Caribbean, to Chenzhou.

The two routes, the distance is similar, even if you take a sailboat, it will take at least five months, and it is definitely the farthest overseas territory from the mainland of Hanzhou, and there is no one.

In order to better communicate with the local area in the future, two batches of personnel and materials sent to Chenzhou before and after Chen Wangfu took two routes respectively to determine the best route.

Generally speaking, the eastern route has a slight advantage in comparison, although the Pacific route is longer, but from Dongzhou to the Suining Strait, to Qingguo, it is within the sphere of influence of the Qi State, and can obtain sufficient water supply and security guarantees. What is even more rare is that the ship can also carry a large number of local industrial products, which can be sold to Qingguo and Portuguese Brazil, and then purchase cheaper grain, livestock, and cane sugar and other materials from these two countries to take to the territory of Chenzhou.

In this way, most of the transportation costs to Chenzhou can be shared.

Well, I heard that in addition to the rich fishery resources in Chenzhou, there seems to be nothing valuable, and for the long-term, Chen Wangfu naturally needs to be careful with his calculations.

You must know that King Chen became a vassal and the royal family and the cabinet allocated a total of 500,000 yuan as a one-time expense for him to establish a feudal state.

This is too much for anyone who wants to build a vassal state that can barely stand on its own feet from scratch.

More than two months ago, Sun Dongchen arrived in Panama with more than 100 recruited scholars and craftsmen on two merchant ships carrying railway equipment, and he was going to try to explore a third route to Chenzhou. That is to cross the Panamanian Isthmus Post Road to the port of Colon on the Atlantic side, and then hire a merchant ship to pass through it and go to Chenzhou.

According to the calculations of nautical professionals, if you sail from Hanzhou through the Isthmus of Panama and then take a boat to Chenzhou, it can save at least more than two months compared with taking a boat around the American continent.

Therefore, before setting off, Sun Dongchen decided to take the recruited people to try to walk this route. If the road is smooth, then the immigrants recruited by Chenzhou in the future can get a convenient passage and reach the boundary of Chenzhou faster.

"With the current process of railway construction, it will take two or three years for the whole line to be completed."

Sun Dongchen stood in front of the window of the church, and through the misty rain and mist, he could see the scattered Spanish-style wooden houses in the village, which were built by the Spaniards many years ago when they opened up the post road, either to shelter from the wind and rain, or because they did not want to continue to move forward and stay here.

Nowadays, it has become a longing and stop on the way. There is no shortage of fresh fruits and game in the villages, which can provide ample material security for the weary traveler.

The village is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and a small river meanders through the front of the village, and the green mountains and green waters form a beautiful picture. The streets of the village are narrow and winding, and the facades of the houses on both sides are built of local stone and wood. The streets are lined with a variety of grocery stores, all of which are small shops for residents to buy daily necessities. The vast majority of the inhabitants of the village are Indians, with a few Spaniards, who mainly grow rice, corn, bananas, and cassava.

Of course, their greatest source of wealth was to provide food and lodging for travelers passing through the post road, earning a rare amount of gold and silver currency.

The inhabitants here live a simple lifestyle. Sometimes, the residents of the village gather on the empty dam at the entrance of the village, singing songs and dancing traditional Indian dances, which is very lively. There are also some travelers passing by in the village, and some of them will stay in the village for a while, exchanging stories and experiences with each other.

In the center of the village is an old church, the building of which is made of stone and wood. The interior of the church is very simple, with only an offering table and a few benches. Despite this, the church remains the center of the spiritual beliefs and culture of the villagers, and every Sunday, the inhabitants come to the church dressed neatly and attend Mass under the auspices of a Spanish priest.

After chatting with the priest in the church through an interpreter, Sun Dongchen learned that although the Atlantic side of the Panama Isthmus Railway is also under construction, due to the same complex terrain and the passive sabotage of Indian laborers, the progress is also very slow.

Sun Dongchen couldn't help but shake his head and sigh at this, it seems that in the short term, it is unrealistic to use the Isthmus of Panama to transfer a large amount of supplies to the Atlantic side.

——

On April 23, Sun Dongchen and his entourage finally arrived at the port of Cologne, where they stopped for six days to rest, and waited for a three-masted galleon "Fuyun" belonging to an American trading company, so they paid the freight to them and asked them to be transported to Chenzhou.

Probably wondering whether they could find business opportunities in Chenzhou, and not wanting to offend the royal family, one of the shopkeepers of the trading company who accompanied the ship did not refuse their request, and only accepted a friendly price, loaded more than 100 passengers on the ship, replenished some fresh water, and set sail into the Caribbean Sea.

On May 16, the "Fuyun" arrived on the Spanish island of Santo Domingo (present-day Haiti) and sailed into the port of Nyrian in the Bay of Neva (present-day Puerto Baraona in Dominica).

Ruian Port was a port leased by the Kingdom of Spain during the Qi-British War four years ago to combat the commercial power of the Kingdom of England in the Caribbean, so as to be used for docking and supply.

After the end of the war, the Spaniards continued to lease the port to the Qi people in order to counterbalance the French in the western part of the island of Santo Domingo, trying to place it between the two countries and prevent the French from continuing to encroach on the eastern part of the island.

In this regard, the people of Qi naturally smiled happily, but they were disrespectful.

Although the Bahamas was declared a colonial territory by England in 1717, for more than 100 years before that, it had been a refuge for pirates, and except for Nassau, which had a little normal order, the other islands were all outside the law, inhabited by a large number of scum and villains, and could not be brought under the rule of the colonial government without a thorough purge.

In addition, the entire archipelago has no valuable property, so when negotiating the terms of the armistice with the Qi State, the Qi State directly rejected the Qi State's request for Jamaica Island, and instead "generously" ceded the Bahamas to the Qi State.

After Qi acquired the Bahamas, it did not have time to resettle and develop it, and only sent a governor and more than a dozen officials to receive it, and everything was as before.

In this way, in the Caribbean, the port of Ryan is extremely important.

After all, during the war, the Qi navy built a large number of storage facilities in the area, as well as a small ship repair yard, and relocated more than 200 immigrants from Qianzhou and the Qishan Islands (present-day Canary Islands), forming a sea supply port with decent conditions.

However, the port of Ryan has so far not achieved basic self-sufficiency, including food, cloth, sugar and other daily necessities need to be imported from the Viceroyalty of Santo Domingo and New Granada.

The Atlantic Fleet, which was established only last year, deployed two aircraft and sail warships in the Caribbean Sea, based in the ports of Ryan and Nassau, and cruised in the Caribbean Sea to declare the presence of the Qi Navy.

The "Fuyun" stayed at Ryan Harbor for two days, unloaded some grain and other supplies, and then continued its voyage, sailing along the Gulf Stream towards Newfoundland.

As you pass through the waters off the east coast of North America, you will occasionally encounter English merchant ships. When they saw the "Fuyun" flying the flag of Qi State, they showed strong hostility.

Although these English merchant ships did not make any attacks, when the two ships staggered by, their sailors could be observed through the telescope making all kinds of provocative and insulting gestures on the side of the ship, and some even stripped off their pants and twisted Bai Huahua's ass at the "Fortune Luck" as a sign of humiliation.

In this regard, the Qi people on the "Fuyun" felt both ridiculous and boring.

Isn't it just a beating up of you English?

Why be so careful!

It's so tasteless.

In response, the sailors of the Qi State did not care whether the other party could hear or not, lying on the side of the ship, facing the English merchant ships, and constantly greeting their female relatives with various insulting words.

Seeing this, Sun Dongchen smiled, but he couldn't help but feel a trace of worry in his heart.

England occupies almost half of the east coast of North America, and has been operating for more than 100 years, with a population of more than one million.

If at some point in the future, Qi Ying fights again, and war breaks out, won't they be able to use the powerful strength of their North American territory to destroy our Chenzhou in one fell swoop?

When the French occupied the place, they had colonized it for nearly a hundred years, but when they faced the attack of the English, they were still invincible, and chose to surrender voluntarily and obediently became a submissive citizen of the English.

So how will we respond to the threat from England?

(End of chapter)