On March 31, 1657, just as civil servants and generals on the east coast were "worrying" about the Spanish Caribbean territory, the fully armed three-deck battleship "Executive Committee" had just finished a small trial and sunk an unknown nationality ship trying to cross the strait.

The ship is not tonnage, about two or three hundred tons. It has not applied to cross the Magellan Strait in Xingnan Port before, and is unwilling to obey the order to stop the ship for inspection. As a result, it was ordered to be sunk by the Major Box Yang Navy who was angry. Naturally, there is no suspense. Although the ship (the sailor's finger certificate that was rescued later was a British privateer) ran very fast, this may be one of the reasons for it to refuse to stop the ship, because everyone knows that a big guy like the third-deck battleship is walking very slowly. Driven by the powerful "Sailor-5 B-B-change" steam unit with a double-axle double-scull 450 horsepower, the "Executive Committee" caught up with the British privateer, and then beat it up and drove it into the seabed, which was extremely impressive.

After sinking the sneaky ship, the "Executive Committee" patrolled the sea for several days before leaving the east entrance of the Magellan Strait. On the morning of April 4, it stopped at the coast of Ningnan Port of Tierra del Fuego (not just a few months after its establishment, located near Rio Grande on the east side of Tierra del Fuego). Then, sailors were sent to take a small boat to purchase supplies, and the ship was so difficult that it was built to the level of the "Executive Committee", so it was more picky about the conditions of the port. New settlements like Ningnan Port that were in ruins cannot be received, and the supply required could only be relayed through small boats, which was more troublesome.

You should know that this ship designed and built by Zhenhai Shipyard is 61 meters long, 15 meters wide, and has a draft of 7.3 meters deep. Due to the installation of two steam boilers, the entire ship's displacement reached an astonishing 1,730 tons. Such a large "body" cannot be stopped by a remote port like Ningnan Port. The "Executive Committee" has only one of its home ports in Patagonia: that is, Xingnan Port, which spent hundreds of thousands of yuan to build a special battleship dock.

Speaking of which, since the "Executive Committee" has been conducting trial sailing and training near Patagonia. After nearly a year of training and running-in, more than 800 officers and soldiers on the ship have been fully familiar with the performance of the warship. They have a certain degree of combat effectiveness. If they encounter ordinary enemy battleships, they may be able to win.

Of course, the combat effectiveness of the "Executive Committee" is unquestionable. The ship is equipped with 108 artillery pieces ranging from 8 pounds to 32 pounds, and is placed in three decks. The general principle is that heavy artillery is located at the bottom, the middle artillery is located on the middle deck, and the light artillery is placed on the top open-air deck to make the center of gravity of the ship more stable. Such warships are not only first-class in the New World. Even in the Old World, their combat effectiveness is one of the best, and no one can defeat them when single-to-one.

"This is the legendary warship that cost 200,000 yuan. Humph, I think it's very ordinary." On the construction site in Ningnan Port, Wang Dali, who came to explore the national road route, set up a pergola and looked at the "small hill" on the distant sea, curled his lips, and said, "It's better to build a few more schools with this money. The Executive Committee's decision to popularize primary school education across the country has not yet been achieved, which has almost become a joke. I have money to build warships but have no money to let children go to school. I think this country will be finished sooner or later. Moreover, this large warship with hundreds of artillery will not be built. In the future, the annual maintenance and training expenses will be astronomical, and it will not be easy for the country to maintain."

Meng Hu, leaning on the pile of bricks, sniffing a wild flower, laughed loudly after hearing this, and said after a long time: "It's ridiculous that some local people are hot-headed now. They feel that such a powerful warship is built, and they are unhappy if they don't drive it out to install a slap. They are trying their best to make the country spend more money. 200,000 yuan? Haha, they really have to be troubled by them, let alone 200,000 yuan. 2 million yuan can't be beaten! In order to pay the Spanish loan a while ago, the Ministry of Finance has issued a lot of currency purchase supplies in China. If a war breaks out with the British, the inflation index will definitely be over."

Wang Dali smiled bitterly when he heard this: "Forget it. Don't mention these. This time, Nantie Company has burned hands because it has too much money. It plans to set up in Ningnangang and Shanhou County in early 1657. It will be under the jurisdiction of five towns, including Shanhou Town, Shanhou Zuo Township, Shanhou You Township, Shanhouqian Township, and Jiehu Township (near the Tolhuin Town of later generations), with a total population of more than 11,000 people. But it's a big deal. It seems that Liu Ang seems to want to include the entire island in the ruling scope. The natives on the east and north of the island are probably going to suffer a great disaster. It's a pity."

"There are at least five or six thousand natives living on that big plain, and they make a living by fishing, hunting and gathering. The Taoist people have been pretending to be infiltrating over the years, but they have absorbed less than a thousand people to live in our settlements. Most of the remaining natives still don't buy it." Meng Hu said with some melancholy, "In fact, on this planet, everyone has the right to live freely in the sun, and Ona people are no exception. Unfortunately, look at Ningnan Port.

What is the situation here? That guy Xu Gang led the team yesterday. One hundred Shandan hunters, two hundred and fifty Russian soldiers and one hundred Gao Qiao mercenaries. Good guy, fully armed, said he was going to seize land and build roads from the natives, but who knows what he is doing? The Ona people have human rights, and we cannot deprive them of their property and life at will. Unfortunately, I don’t expect to see this kind of human nature in these greedy warriors.”

"Stop talking about these troubles." Wang Dali put his backpack on the back of the pack horse in depression, and then said, "I'm going to set off now. The weather is getting colder and colder in April. We have to do as much work as possible before the storm hits, so as to avoid delaying progress."

Due to the latitude and location, the cold and windy climate has always controlled most of the plains of Tierra Tierra. In places like Ningnan Port, even the average best temperature in January is difficult to break through 20c, which means there is no real warm season in the place, and only a while of coldness will be slightly slowed down. Fortunately, due to the distribution of the strait, the westerly wind in the Pacific can enter the nearby areas unimpeded and does not have to rise above the mountains. Therefore, this cold climate zone is affected by the ocean, which leads to a colder average temperature between April and September, which is only between 0-10c. It is not considered a cold Tierra Tierra in the absolute sense. It is so strange that it cannot get hot in summer and cannot get cold in winter. The temperature difference is not large. The entire island is in a very strange state, but the climate in winter is far worse than that in summer, but it is real.

After parting with Meng Hu, Wang Dali, who was over 50 years old, sat on the back of a docile old horse and set off south with a team of fifty or sixty people. In addition to some engineering and technical personnel, this team also had nearly 30 officers and soldiers of the Nantie Company road protection team. They would go south along the Great Plain on Tierra del Fuego and explore a national road route directly to Shanhou County.

On the afternoon of the same day (April 4), Wang Dali and others crossed the Ningnan River (Grand River) with rapid water flow in batches. The Ningnan River has most characteristics of rivers on Tierra Tierra, that is, the river is short (original from the Magellan Mountains), but the water volume is extremely abundant. Because of the large slope of the terrain, the characteristics of the Ningnan River in this regard may not be particularly obvious, but among the many rivers flowing from the Magellan Mountains to the Bigel Strait, it is no longer obvious.

Many fields have been opened on both sides of the Ningnan River. The fields are planted with the "High Sugar 54" beets recently cultivated by Northern Seed Company, which are suitable for "Kechon 50" soybeans and some potatoes and vegetables in cold southern areas. As for the grains consumed by residents in daily life, they can only be imported from Peru or local, which is also very cheap anyway.

After crossing the Ningnan River, there are large areas of grass or tundra. To the "Fu" of Nantec Corporation, the East Coast people insisted on introducing foreign species to the Tierra del Fuego many years ago: mainly reindeer introduced from the northeast, Sakhalin moose, musk ox introduced from Norway, and bison introduced from North America. With so many years of continuous introduction and self-reproduction, the number of these animals is now quite large. Especially on the main island, there are also free-range reindeer and moose (musk ox, bison and other animals are mainly introduced on closed islands). Because of the suitable environment and abundant food (weeds, moss and lichens everywhere), the population has grown rapidly, which makes the forest rangers of Nantec Corporation who have been doing so for ten years are extremely happy.

After passing by these happy animal elves, Wang Dali and others headed south along the relatively flat coastline. The coastline of Patagonia swept through the characteristics of the steep cliffs here and turned into a flat sandy coast. There are many glacial lakes (freshwater) or lagoons (saltwater lakes) on the coast. Due to the rainy and cold climate, it is somewhat similar to the island of Ma, where the soil peat is more serious, and if it is well mined in the future, it will be a wealth.

On April 26, after walking the more than 100 kilometers from Ningnangang to Jiehu Township, Wang Dali and others decided to rest for a few days on the shore of the beautiful Jiehu Lake (Lake Faniano). At the same time, they also improved the maps and national road routes drawn along the way. In fact, this second-class national highway is not difficult to repair, and the route is easy to determine, because the areas passing by are basically flat tundra. When planning the route, just pay attention to avoid some swamp areas with a lot of water. There is really no need to pay too much attention to other aspects, and this also made Wang Dali and others privately say that the survey fee given by the Nantie Company is easy to earn.
Chapter completed!