Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 277: Acceleration of Immigration

"Since the natives here have chosen to surrender and show weakness, there's no need to cause too much bloodshed."

Captain Hu Mingshan of the "Metro-3" stood on the wall of the North Point Fort, watching a dozen Maka people holding up several beautiful furs and respectfully submitting to a Xinhua negotiating party. He said softly, "We have demonstrated our formidable military force to them. I believe they know their own weight and will not dare to cause any more trouble."

"These natives chose not to follow the others and flee further into the mountains and forests, which shows that they no longer want to live the primitive and difficult life they once did. Give them a slap, then give them a sweet treat. If you can win them over and appease them, it won't be long before you can completely bring them under our Xinhua rule."

"Uh..." Liu Sanshui hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly, but his tone still carried a hint of disdain: "Alright, then, let's take them in. These foreign vassals insist on giving them a good beating before they realize how good we are to them. They're truly cheapskates! If it were on our homeland, they'd have to do unpaid hard labor for several months, just like those captured Western barbarians, to atone for their sins."

Hu Mingshan waved his hand and said calmly, "Don't be too harsh. Since they've chosen to stay, it means they're ready to accept our constraints and control. From now on, we just need to slowly tame them and make them a force for the development and construction of your North Corner Fort."

"By the way, haven't the Western Yi reached a ceasefire agreement with us yet?" Hu Mingshan suddenly thought of something.

"Oh, you've asked the wrong person!" Liu Sanshui said with a smile, "Our Beijiao Fort is remote, how can we know the latest news from the mainland?"

"Anyway, the ship that brought us supplies over three months ago didn't bring us any news of a ceasefire, so we were told to remain vigilant and not let our guard down. Perhaps the Western Barbarians are still unconvinced and want to continue fighting with us, Xinhua."

"Tsk!" Hu Mingshan sneered. "How dare the Western Barbarians come and die again? Last year, they couldn't defeat us. Do they think they can defeat us this year? Every year or two of delay means Xinhua can add thousands of new people, all young and strong. How many people will they need to fight us?"

"Of course not!" Liu Sanshui agreed. "Before, our immigration fleet could only make one trip a year, and the number of new immigrants was only a few thousand. Now, your newly built immigration express ships can make two trips a year. Over the course of a year, our Xinhua population has skyrocketed!"

After hearing this, Hu Mingshan smiled bitterly, shook his head and did not respond.

With the commissioning of three new immigration speedboats last year, Xinhua's immigration fleet has reached 10 ships, which can theoretically carry 2200-2500 people at a time. Combined with the locally born population, Xinhua's population can increase by more than each year.

But in reality, due to various factors, the actual number of immigrants that can be attracted is not that high.

In order to protect the normal immigration activities in the Daming area, Xinhua not only strengthened its cooperation with several military leaders in Dongjiang Town, but also retained an armed merchant ship in Liaohai and Beiying Island (now Hokkaido) to deal with various emergencies.

In mid-October last year, Xinhua's top warship, the "Polang", chased the Spanish expeditionary fleet all the way from Qiming Island to Mexico, thus missing this year's immigration season.

In order to quickly increase the population, the Navy Department and Xinhua Transport Company decided to use the speed advantage of five clipper ships to try to make three trips in two years, or two trips a year, so as to speed up immigration.

After departing from Xinhua mainland, these five clipper-shaped immigration ships no longer needed to reach the coastal ports of Daming. Instead, they went directly to Beiying Island to load immigrants and then returned directly to Xinzhou mainland.

According to rough estimates, if the time is properly arranged and there is no delay in the middle, the round-trip time can be controlled within three to four months. In extreme cases, it is even possible to achieve the goal of making three trips a year.

However, considering the storm season at sea and the need for ships and sailors to rest (care) and recover (maintenance) for a certain period of time after each voyage, it may take an extra month or two. Two trips a year would be the ideal model.

"MRT-3" is one of the express trains that is trying out this new immigration model.

In early April, it arrived at Natsuzu Port on Hokuei Island (now Otsu Port Town, Hokkaido), rested for more than ten days, and then carried more than 270 immigrants and sailed rapidly towards the Shinjuku continent along the Kuroshio Current.

After reaching the waters near the mainland, they braved the strong northwest monsoon and trudged north. After entering the Qiming Strait, they were only a day's sail away from Shixing Port, and they arrived at their destination in a flash.

However, the "Metro-3" was slightly delayed on the way, several sails were damaged, and there were also several seriously ill immigrants on board, so it decided to temporarily stop at the small outpost of North Point Fort for a while to rest.

Thinking that after arriving at Shixing Port, the crew would only have to stay on shore for a month at most before embarking on the next trans-Pacific voyage, Hu Mingshan felt hopeless and his mouth was full of bitterness.

Alas, it’s because there are too few new Chinese people!

This resulted in a severe shortage of sailors for the immigrant fleet, which had no choice but to rely on the existing crew members to sail the ships without many replacement personnel.

Let's just hold on for a few more years. As the population of Xinhua gradually grows, the number of sailors will probably increase significantly. Then we won't have to work so hard, drifting on the sea for seven or eight months a year.
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The "MRT-3" stayed in Beijiao Fort for only one day, then after leaving behind several unwell immigrants, it set sail the next morning and headed towards Shixing Port.

In the evening of June 6, the ship arrived at the bay near Shixing Port, but unexpectedly encountered an armed merchant ship flying the Burgundy Cross flag, the emblem of the Kingdom of Spain.

Captain Hu Mingshan was shocked when he saw this and immediately ordered the sailors to adjust the sails, change direction and make evasive moves.

Damn it, could it be that the Spaniards are coming again?
You should know that the "Metro-3" is a purely immigration ship. In order to maximize the number of immigrants it can carry, it is not equipped with any weapons.

Not to mention encountering a Spanish armed merchant ship, even if they ran into an ordinary pirate boat, the best strategy would be to hide, relying on their own extraordinary speed to quickly escape the enemy's pursuit.

But strangely, when the "Metro-3" was hurriedly avoiding to the southeast, the Spanish armed merchant ship did not make any pursuit moves, but continued to sail slowly towards Shixing Port, as if it completely disdained the prey that appeared in its sight.

Wow, the Spaniards are quite brave, they dare to break into Shixing Port with only such an armed ship!
Aren’t they afraid of being blown to pieces by the port artillery?
"Captain, do you think this Spanish ship was sent by them to negotiate a ceasefire with us?" First mate Zhao Bingkun suddenly said.

"Huh?..." Hu Mingshan was stunned for a moment, then looked up at the Spanish armed ship again.

Perhaps considering their approach to the coast, the Spanish ships had begun to lower their mizzen sails and slow down to avoid hitting the reefs hidden in the water.

Judging from his appearance, he really doesn't seem like he's here to fight.

"You know what? The Spanish might really be here to negotiate peace with us." Hu Mingshan smacked his lips. "If that's the case, the war is over, and Xinhua can enjoy a rare period of peaceful development!"

"Then shall we..."

"Let's wait a little longer," Hu Mingshan said. "If we don't hear the roar of artillery fire after this Spanish armed ship enters Shixing Port, it will prove that they are indeed envoys sent by the Spanish. ... Then it won't be too late for us to enter the port."
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(End of this chapter)