Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 103 Beach
In October, the autumn atmosphere on Qiming Island becomes more intense, with golden and green colors interwoven, occasionally dotted with a few blushes. The whole earth seems to be a colorful painting, which looks so beautiful and colorful.

The river sparkled silver under the sunlight, and occasionally a salmon jumped out of the water, causing ripples.

The wild animals on the island also became busy. Squirrels were busy collecting pine cones, black bears were feasting before hibernation, elk were eager to nibble on green grass leaves, and wolves were wandering in the woods and valleys, looking for their prey.

In the sky, migratory birds fly in flocks, their figures draw elegant arcs between the blue sky and white clouds, and their chirping sounds echo in the open fields.

People in Shixing Fort and Guangfeng Fort were also busy harvesting crops and welcoming the joy of a good harvest.

In this season, countless seals crowd the beaches of Qiming Island, lazily drying their fur in the warm sunshine.

In the bushes along the coast, a group of hunters, armed with sticks and javelins, crouched low, and slowly walked out, cautiously approaching these carefree seals.

“Ah Lu…, Ah Lu…”

Several seals seemed to sense some potential danger, stood up, and turned their heads to look around.

But more seals were still unaware, gathering together and lying on the beach, enjoying the rare sunshine.

"kill!"

With a low shout, dozens of people rushed out quickly, then threw the spears in their hands fiercely and stabbed them towards the group of seals.

Immediately, blood splattered everywhere, screams rang out one after another, and the entire beach was dyed blood red.

The frightened seals flapped their bodies and crawled into the sea to avoid this sudden bloody massacre.

But a group of hunters had already rushed forward, waving wooden sticks in their hands and repeatedly hitting the seals' heads, causing these clumsy crawling creatures to lose their ability to move in a very short time.

As time went on, more and more seals were killed, and the hunters, like cold-blooded machines, kept repeating their actions until there were no more moving seals within their sight.

"Okay, let's rest for a quarter of an hour!" Liu Guoqiang threw the wooden stick in his hand casually onto the beach, then walked to a reef, sat down, and gasped for breath.

"Hey, there are about twenty-six or twenty-seven of them!" Shu Wendong also came over and sat down next to him. "Skinning them, cutting up the meat, and then transporting them to Shixing Fort, it's enough to keep us busy for a whole day!"

"With so many seals brought back, I wonder if the boiling workshop can handle it?" Liu Guoqiang said, "Everyone is busy harvesting crops right now, so there aren't many people to boil seal oil."

"If you are too busy, then you can work harder and spend some time cooking it at night. Otherwise, the oil will not taste good after a few days." Shu Wendong looked at several Indian natives on the beach who were still extremely excited and were picking up knives to peel off the seal skins. He couldn't help but sigh at these people's endless energy.

"Indeed, in a few days, these seals will leave the waters of Kaiming Island and head south to California. We have to take advantage of their frequent activities in this area and hunt more to store more meat. Otherwise, we will have to wait until next spring."

In the waters near Qiming Island, there are a large number of seals and sea lions active.

However, their activity patterns are somewhat seasonal.

From August to October every year, a large number of seals and sea lions from Alaska swim to this sea area to enjoy the feast of salmon migration during this period.

In addition, from March to May each year, gray whales and killer whales migrate from the coast of Mexico to Alaska, passing by Qiming Island on their way. However, Qiming Island currently lacks the vessels and tools to hunt whales, and has no whaling experience. They can only watch helplessly as these giant whales spout past Qiming Island and then drift away.

"How many Ming immigrants can the 'Breaking Waves' and 'Zhengtu' bring back this time?"

"Who knows!"

After a long silence, Shu Wendong asked quietly, "Can we have more than 650 people?"

"That's tough!" Liu Guoqiang thought for a moment and said, "The two ships will need to procure a large amount of production and living supplies, and even the amount of food will probably be quite a bit. As a result, there won't be much space left for immigrants on board. I'd guess a little over 600. If the sea conditions aren't good on the way, and the conditions in the cabins are even worse, many people might die."

"Didn't Instructor Meng and Zhong Minghui stay in Guangzhou? Logically, they should have prepared the immigrants and ensured their health before the arrival of the 'Breaking Waves' and 'Zhengtu'. Once the ships arrived, they could have directly selected the healthy immigrants for embarkation. That way, the mortality rate on the way wouldn't have been very high."

"It's hard to say what will happen at sea." Liu Guoqiang shook his head and said, "What if one immigrant carries a hidden virus? It might cause a large number of immigrants to be infected. You know, Doctor Dong didn't go with us on this trip to Daming."

"We should recruit a few Ming Dynasty doctors aboard. Not only can they look after the immigrants' health along the way, but they can also increase our medical reserves once we reach Qiming Island. Professor Dong's four students alone will take at least seven or eight years to be able to fill the void."

"I guess it's difficult. Doctors and medical practitioners should be very popular in the Ming Dynasty. Unless there is a large-scale war or famine, they can generally live a life of food and clothing. In this case, I'm afraid no one is willing to take the risk of going out to sea to pan for gold."

"If no one wants to come, we can just kidnap them secretly!"

"Damn, you really think the order of the Ming Dynasty has collapsed!" Liu Guoqiang laughed. "Even if Chongzhen hangs himself a dozen years later, the Qing invades and occupies Beijing, and the entire South holds out for a few years, we can't do whatever we want. The local Ming government can't defeat the Qing invaders or the refugees, but they can still arrest a hundred or so of us small-time thugs."

"Well, tell me, why didn't we sail back to the mainland, or to the Nanyang region, and find an uninhabited island to use as our base. Maybe the development speed would be much faster. After all, the distance is closer, so it would be easier to immigrate, right?" Shu Wendong said softly.

"Look at what you're saying! What if we run out of daily necessities at sea and can't gain a foothold near Daming or the Nanyang region? What then?" Liu Guoqiang retorted, "You know, when we arrived at Qiming Island, we had no idea what year or month it was, let alone the general situation in the world. How could we dare to run around randomly? If we encountered a powerful local force, wouldn't it result in the sacrifice of many lives?"

"I think it's a good idea to settle down in North America. At least it has all the resources we need for development. More importantly, this vast continent is sparsely populated, allowing us to freely stake out territory."

"Such a large territory would require a massive population to fill it. Even if we bring in boatloads of people, it's still going to take forever to fill it up. By the time we're gone, will the population reach five million?"

"I don't think I can reach that. ...A little over a million should be enough, as long as..."

"Oh! Oh! Oh! ..."

“…The ship, the ship is coming!”

Suddenly, several Native Americans on the beach waved their wooden sticks and howled loudly towards the sea.

The people sitting on the rocks on the beach stood up one after another and looked out to sea following their gaze.

But then a three-masted sailing ship appeared from the sea in the distance, with its sails half-open, slowly approaching at a speed of three to four knots.

Towering masts, white sails, light blue hull, slender shape, protruding bow, and a few numbers faintly marked on one side of the ship.

"The Breakers are back!"
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(End of this chapter)