Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 163 Surprise
"You mean, our Qiming Island will welcome nearly 3,000 Ming Dynasty immigrants?"

After listening to Wei Yingbin's brief report, Luo Zhenhui widened his eyes and looked at him in disbelief.

"Well, probably less than 3,000 people," Wei Yingbin said. "Of the five Portuguese carracks, two were smaller, around 300 to 400 tons, and could only carry 250 to 280 people at most. And our 'Polang' and 'Kaiyuan' unloaded over 250 people at Linhai Fort."

"Based on this calculation, the number of Ming Dynasty immigrants who ultimately arrived on Qiming Island should be around 2,600 to 2,700. Of course, this assumes that the immigrant ship doesn't suffer significant damage during the journey, and that not too many people die."

"Even if it's 2,600 people, that would double our population!" Luo Zhenhui said with a smile. "This morning, when we were surveying the locations of the coastal defense batteries, we were still discussing the manpower shortage. I didn't expect you to give us such a big surprise so soon!"

"When you were transporting immigrants, did you load some food on the ship?" Li Xianqing suddenly asked.

"The three immigrant transport ships belonging to our Qiming Island should all have some food on board. Besides what's needed for the journey, there should still be quite a bit left over after returning to Shixing Port," Wei Yingbin replied. "Since we've brought back so many immigrants, we've naturally considered food reserves back home. Oh, and by the way, we have over 120 tons of food in the hold of the 'Breaking Waves,' enough to feed a thousand people for over four months."

"That's good!" Li Xianqing nodded slightly. "However, the cabin conditions of other immigrant transport ships are not as good as the 'Breaking Waves'. I don't know how much usable food we can collect by then."

The storage environment in the cabins of wooden sailing ships of this period was extremely poor: damp, dark, desolate, and filled with the stench of sewage and rotting meat.

Moreover, no matter what the weather is like, the bottom cabin of a sailboat always leaks, and it is difficult to completely block the leakage of seawater through the seams of the planks.

In bad weather, waves hit the hatches and the bottom deck is full of water. Once the cabin is wet, it is difficult to dry it out.

If the ships transporting immigrants stored all the food they carried in the bottom hold, it would inevitably become damp and moldy after several months of sailing.

Once we get to Qiming Island, God knows how much edible food we can still clean out.

As for the Portuguese transport ships, don't count on them too much. In order to maximize profits, they probably won't load too much grain, but instead load as much Ming Dynasty goods as possible and sell them to Qiming Island along with the people and goods.

After all, this immigration business is purely a one-way trade. Apart from precious metals such as gold and silver, there is nothing valuable that can be brought back to the Ming Dynasty for sale.

The furs hunted on Qiming Island will naturally not be sold to the Portuguese at a very low price. For the time travelers, these are one of the few commodities that can be shown off in the Ming Dynasty. They can make some profit to subsidize the high immigration costs.

"By the way, the reason why we, the 'Breaking Waves', came here early is not only to inform you that the number of immigrants is huge and we need to make corresponding preparations for receiving them in advance, but also to confirm whether we have prepared the expenses for the five Portuguese immigration ships?" After a brief greeting, Wei Yingbin asked with a serious expression.

"Even if the five Portuguese merchant ships had a total of 1500 people on board, that would be over taels of silver. Adding the cotton cloth, tung oil, gunpowder, saltpeter, tin, lead, sugar, silk, canvas, hemp rope, ink, and other supplies they carried, the total payment would likely be over to taels of silver."

"Although we robbed a Spanish treasure ship near Guam and seized over 250,000 Spanish pesos, equivalent to nearly 200,000 taels of silver, we shared 30% with the Portuguese, leaving us with 140,000 taels. We also spent nearly 60,000 taels on purchasing necessary production and living supplies in Guangzhou."

"In addition, Meng Shengxin planned to order a large immigrant transport ship in Guangzhou, as well as funds for the next year's activities. We left him another 40,000 taels of silver. When we left Linhai Fort, we also left nearly 10,000 taels of silver for Wei Zhonglong and the others as a precaution. With this calculation, the total amount of silver we brought back was less than 30,000 taels. If we paid the Portuguese so much silver all at once, wouldn't it empty our coffers?"

"Although 250,000 taels of silver is a huge sum, our current gold and silver reserves allow us to pay it without draining our family's coffers," Li Xianqing said. "Over the past six months or so, we've mined over 12,000 taels of gold in the Jinsha River (also known as the Fraser River), which translates to approximately 140,000 taels of silver. Adding this to our existing reserves, we should still have tens of thousands of taels of silver left after paying the Portuguese shipping costs."

"Furthermore, our Qiming Island is currently able to steadily produce some iron farm implements and tools, as well as daily necessities such as wine, refined salt, pottery, soap, and so on. Based on the smuggling prices from Spanish America, this should provide us with an annual income of over 10,000 taels of silver. As production capacity continues to expand and the variety of goods increases, our profits will also increase year by year. We can be considered to have achieved initial self-sustaining capabilities."

"Great!" Wei Yingbin couldn't help but clapped his hands and sighed. "Based on this, we can be considered to have established a firm foothold on Qiming Island and laid a solid foundation. We're no longer in the impoverished situation we were a few years ago!"
-
The public canteen in the temporary quarantine and resettlement area for immigrants was packed with people, all with their heads down, wolfing down their food.

God bless you, the more than one month's sea voyage was a hellish torture for everyone.

They ate rotten dry biscuits and drank green smelly water. Every day in the cabin, they were constantly rocked by the waves and were always in a daze.

The most anticipated moment every day is to take turns going to the deck to get some fresh air, feel the breeze, and stare at the endless sea for a while.

For more than a month, almost every one or two days, someone would die silently in the cabin, and then be ruthlessly thrown into the sea by the sailors on the ship to be eaten by fish.

Now, they finally reached the shore, arriving at this unknown new continent. After getting off the ship, they were first divided into different resettlement areas according to gender, and then ordered to take off all their clothes and enter a huge public bathhouse to wash their bodies.

Then, each person received a set of simple linen clothes at the exit of the bathhouse. After they were dressed, all their hair was forcibly shaved off.

During this process, there were also some who fiercely resisted and made noises to oppose this humiliating act of shaving their heads.

Our bodies and hair are given by our parents, and we should not damage them. This is the beginning of filial piety!
However, a team of fully armed guards wielded sticks and knocked down four or five of the most resistant immigrants to the ground, and then forcibly shaved their heads bald. The rest of the people had no choice but to accept the other party's arrangements.

These people are clearly my Han Chinese compatriots, how could they do the same things as the Jiannu?

Although they told us that this arrangement was to prevent the introduction of diseases, they couldn't be so rough!

You know, many people have to work hard to grow their hair on Pi Island!
Just when everyone was in a panic, they followed several stewards to this huge public canteen with extremely nervous mood, and were immediately attracted by the food on the table.

Large chunks of fish, buckets of delicious fish soup, pots of steaming potatoes, and bowls of sticky corn paste immediately whetted everyone's appetite.

I haven't had a decent meal in several months!

"grown ups……"

Luo Congnan ate a few pieces of fish on the plate in two or three bites, and then couldn't wait to stuff all the steamed potatoes into his mouth, and immediately choked and his eyes widened.

Deng Kun, who was sitting opposite him, gently pushed a bowl of fish soup towards him. He quickly picked it up and drank it in big gulps.

"Look at you, you look like a starving ghost!" Deng Kun glared at him.

"Sir, uh..." Luo Congnan burped, looked around, and whispered, "The people here look brutal and rough. They forced us all to shave our heads, but the food they provide is quite good. It's really a surprise! Back when we followed the general, we didn't often have such sumptuous meals. ... Hey, damn, this fish and meat are free, everyone has it in their bowl. By the way, this can't be the last meal before execution, right?"

"That's all bullshit!" Deng Kun picked up a piece of fish and put it in his mouth. He pushed the plate in front of the two children next to him and gave him a sidelong glance. "They brought us all the way from Pi Island to here just to chop off our heads? ... You're probably overthinking it!"

"Oh, that's right." Luo Congnan nodded, picked up his bowl of corn porridge and drank it slowly.

Well, this paste is sticky and has a strong fragrance. After chewing it in your mouth, it has a faint sweet taste. It tastes quite good.

Several cafeteria staff members dragged large wooden barrels back and forth between the rows of seats, shouting, "Everyone, eat your fill! We'll give you a good lesson later. Don't slack off! ... Who needs more food? Plenty of potatoes and cornmeal!"

"Sir, can you give me a few more of those... potatoes?"

"Master, give me another bowl of...porridge."

"Slow down, slow down!... Stop rushing! You're all starving ghosts reincarnated!... Line up and take your turns!"

"Let me tell you, we on Qiming Island are the most disciplined and we must maintain order. You must obey orders and follow arrangements in everything. Don't act like savages."

"Also, we don't call each other 'Master' here. I just came here two or three years earlier than you, but I can't be your master! Hehe, you can come here and enjoy it!"

"From now on, you won't have to worry about going hungry anymore!"

(End of this chapter)