"The Second Fleet is getting harder and harder now." In this season when the wind direction and ocean currents are not favorable, the "Fubo Wanli" battleship that can sail against the wind and against the current arrives at the Molieyan Naval Academy on the island of Lenba and complains to his subordinates.

It is the end of April and early May, and the north winds are still dominated by the West Indian Ocean. This strong airflow stirs the sea water hard, forming a counterclockwise circulation, which is very unfriendly to any ship trying to sail from south to north, and the East Coast people are naturally no exception.

Not to mention, because of the tense situation in the islands, the "Fobowanli" battleship, which was originally undergoing a life-long treatment in Xinhua Port to continue serving, had to leave the port in late April and sail to the direction of the islands in the north, without any other ships accompanying him.

This can be said to be two reasons. First, the second fleet has received very limited supplements over the years. Basically, the first fleet, which is responsible for the main force of the navy, eliminated ships that were not used, such as three or four old "Hodao"-class sail guard gunboats, to replace many retired armed transport ships and guard gunboats. In terms of basic strength, there was no increase, which made the Second Fleet very dissatisfied. Then, they jointly requested the Navy Department and even the Joint Staff Headquarters to allocate more new ships to join the Second Fleet combat sequence to enhance the naval power of the East Coast people in the Indian Ocean.

Their joint request was naturally rejected without surprise. The "nothing bureaucrats" of the Admiralty only allocated a training fee and said in a lesson tone: "Before requesting newer warships and more cannons, we still need to train all kinds of skills that we need to master."

These words made the Second Fleet very angry, and they complained that they were the one with the least grants from the three major fleets and were raised by stepmothers. Even the weakest third fleet has maintained a rhythm of one "Yaksa"-class armed transport ship a year in recent years. As for their Second Fleet, they were simply one underground.

However, their complaints were not accepted by the class. In the end, Chief Guo of the Joint Staff could not bear it anymore and instructed the Navy to properly strengthen the Second Fleet. The bureaucrats in the department picked two "Madao" class guard gunboats from the First Fleet, renovated and handed over to the Second Fleet. Later, they were still somewhat conscientious and sent a retired ammunition supply ship to the Second Fleet. The ship's hull was fine, but the steam engine needed to be overhauled, which cost a lot. The First Fleet felt it was troublesome and ordered a new ship, so they threw the old ship to the Second Fleet to block their mouths.

Now, the ammunition supply ship that the First Fleet despises and cannot be seen in all kinds of ammunition and cannot be seen has been overhauled and is quietly anchored in Xinhua Bay. Mo Liei estimated that in a few days, the ship will have to be loaded with a batch of ammunition and soldiers (mainly from the New China Security Corps) to come to Lenba Island to meet them. This kind of steam-powered ship can ignore the ocean currents and sail in the wind, although the speed is only a pitiful two knots.

"In this season of bad weather, we only have two ships that can sail against the wind and flow. It's really bad." Mo Lie's Eel looked at the Somalia cold current rolling southwards outboard, waiting until summer and autumn, with the strong southwest wind blowing, the Somalia current will turn north and turn into a warm current. At this time, it is very convenient for the east coast ships to say in a slightly helpless tone: "Fortunately, our enemies do not have too large fleets, so the two warships we left on the island of Lenba can shock the ready-to-be enemies. But if external enemies participate, this little power may not be enough, although this possibility is not very large."

By the way, the Second Fleet's belongings are probably a battleship (also flagship), six "Hodao"-class sail guard gunboats, an ammunition supply ship and a sailing troop ship modified with a merchant ship, a total of nine ships, with a total tonnage of just over five thousand tons.

In terms of tonnage alone, this scale may have declined before, because a large number of mixed rapid cruise ships, armed transport ships, and guard gunboats were basically retired one after another. Although the combat effectiveness of the ships that were supplemented was much greater, the tonnage was not as good as that. Therefore, this has often become the target of complaints by the officers and soldiers of the Second Fleet, and is the "important evidence" that they are not welcomed in the three major fleets.

As the ship's hoist sent the heavy anchor into the mud and sand at the bottom of the sea, Mo Lie Eel School cleaned up his clothes and hats, and then took seven or eight followers to board a small boat and rowed to the shore. The commander of the garrison of the Layer Island and the Navy Captain Ashto had been waiting respectfully there.

"What did you do this time? It's okay to beat the Omani merchant ships, why did even the Indian merchant ships get black? Don't tell me I haven't warned you. The positioning of the Sebata Island was originally a commodity distribution center, a trade heart, and should have used the means of winning over merchants from all over the country, but what are you doing? Killing people and robbing goods! Is this alike? I'm crazy about money?" As soon as the strait, Mo Lie's eel school cursed the group of Sebata Island guards headed by Ashto's (basically all came from the navy, and the island was also under the jurisdiction of the Second Navy Fleet).

"The ship was loaded with some Oman soldiers, and we happened to be intercepted in the sea, so we took it down together." Captain Ashto was the officer who was in charge of the island's sea and land defense, so he explained to Molie's eel.

"Are you pretending to be an Oman soldier? Did you come for us?" Mo Liei frowned and asked.

"This is not. They seemed to be heading to the Swasili coast, perhaps to conquer some Tubal princes who were disobedient and turned to the Portuguese. There were three ships in total, two Muscat Sultanate, an Indian merchant ship, with a total of three or four hundred soldiers, and more than half of them had muskets. The destination was indeed not our Lampa Island, but the mainland, but the three ships were too close to us, so they were caught by the two warships inspected and sunk directly." Ashto replied carefully. This time they seemed to have caused some trouble, because the Omani merchant ships were not here to deal with them at all (although the relationship between the two countries was extremely tense), but they were caught and beaten up. If the news spread, the Omani people might find a way to retaliate, then it would be a little more or less a threat to Lampa Island.

"You guys, you can really cause trouble." Mo Liei shook his head helplessly and said, "The positioning of Sebata Island is the heart of trade. The nearby Swahili coast produces a large amount of gold, ivory, fur, herbs, rhino horns and other commodities. The annual trade volume is huge. Last year, the customs tariff revenue of Sebata Port has exceeded 100,000 yuan, and it is still increasing year by year. Such a large gold mine is too late to operate well. You are still using such a black hand. What are you good at? Is it worth robbing that ten thousand yuan? Well, okay, nothing needs to be said. This time, we have done it and we can't change anything, but we must pay attention to it in the future. Sea robbery must be strictly prohibited, and violators will not be punished strictly! "

"In addition, the defense system of Libashima itself must be established as soon as possible. Now there are only a few thousand immigrants here, and the black slaves are almost transported. They are not too late to work, so there is really no extra money to train in the army. So, this time I asked Captain Huang Yihuang for instructions. The three counties of Xinhua, Tacheng and Mianhe took turns to send militias to guard the army until a solid military system was established here. We have offended so many people on the Swasili coast over the years, and some things must be guarded against!" Mo Liei thought for a while and reminded: "Remember, you only have three years! I don't care what you use. The garrison soldiers from Xinhuaxia Island will withdraw in three years, and everything will depend on you in the future. At least 300 professional soldiers in the security team are the minimum requirement. Whether you organize training or recruit outside, you can do whatever you want, I just want to see the results."

Speaking of which, in recent years, the East Coast people rose strongly on the Swasili coast, breaking the pattern of the original sharing of interests by the Sultanate of Muscat and the Kingdom of Portugal, and holding a large amount of interests into their arms. This naturally caused great dissatisfaction between the Portuguese and the Omani people. However, the East Coast people remained indifferent to this and continued to do their own things, which eventually caused the breakdown of the tripartite relations.

Their and the Portuguese broke down. After experiencing a war, they had no mutual trust at all. How bad can the relationship be? Moreover, the Portuguese are a little good. Even if they can't stand you or have cold relationships, they will still do business when they should do business. As the saying goes, businessman's true nature is naturally what people on the East Coast want to see. Therefore, the two sides have been able to live up to these years and no obvious armed conflict has broken out.

But it is completely different from the Omani! These people are completely "pig-brained" and "a stubborn" (Huang Yi's comment). Because the relationship between the Qingniu Palace (i.e. the Taoist temple in Ningguo County, called Qingniu Palace, was rebuilt from the original Marenjia Mosque) broke down and fell to freezing point. Not only did bilateral trade completely stagnate, but even the sea was encountered was tense. Even the East Coast people received some familiar Swasili Tubang King's secret announcement that they had died in various parts of the Swasili coast in recent years. Many of the missing East Coast merchants or explorers were secretly killed by the Muslim Prince who was bewitched by the Omani people. This made Huang Yi, the captain of the New China Development Team, and then adjusted the policies to the Omani, which further deteriorated the relationship between the two sides and made the small movements frequent.

I believe that if the East Coast people's focus on operating New China Island itself, the Swasili coast, which is full of black people and harsh environment, did not have much territorial ambitions, the East Coast might have started a full-scale war with the Muscat Sultan. Sometimes Molieei thought about it and found it incredible. Could the Omani Sultan really not see the situation clearly? A small desert country with a population of hundreds of thousands actually wanted to control such a long Swasili coast. This would be too greedy? If you know the truth, let some coasts go to monopolize the business of the East Coast people, which might help them share some pressure from the Portuguese. The remaining Portuguese forces in Mombasa and Mogadishu were probably jointly captured by both sides. How could it be so tense like now? It was simply sick!

Thinking of the end, Mo Liei could only tell that these extremely greedy and highly missionary Omani people were "brained sick"! Now the East Coast people are too lazy to pay attention to you. Only after the expansion phase of New China Island in the future will they find a way to solve the threats of the Omani and the Portuguese. At present, they only want to interfere in the business on the Swasili coast and only want to make money. Of course, if the Omani people were destined to challenge the sea hegemony of the East Coast in the Western Indian Ocean before, then even if the Second Fleet's strength has declined in recent years, it would be easy to purge your broken ships!

Mo Lie's eel stayed on the island for a month until the ammunition supply ship of the Second Fleet carried three hundred dejected New China militias to the dock. During this period, the wind direction in the Indian Ocean also changed a little. The southwest wind began to gradually overwhelm the northeast wind, and the direction of the Somalian currents gradually began to change. All the astronomical phenomena indicate that now sailing northward and eastward has become the mainstream direction of sea trade ships. Naturally, the small broken ships of the Omani people can no longer come to the Swasili coast. The threat from the East coast people is temporarily resolved, unless the princes and princes on the shore can't think of a big attack, of course that is basically impossible.

At this time, Mo Liei thought about whether to take the "Fubowanli" and the ammunition supply ship to the Persian Gulf together. Anyway, regular cruises to the Persian Gulf are also one of their tasks. If necessary, the sea war monsters like the "Fubowanli" can also be allowed to turn around the periphery of Muscat, and demonstrate in disguise to make the Omani people's heads clearer.

In addition, the Dutch East India Company had previously refused to stop the East Coast immigrant ships from the Port of Malacca and Galle Fort because of the capture of the Cape Town colony. Although there were few immigrant ships taking the Indian Ocean route, the nature of the matter was very serious. The local government did not intend to turn a blind eye to it, so it sent a diplomatic email to authorize the New China Development Team to negotiate with the Dutch East India Company. However, Huang Yi was also lazy and directly suppressed the task to himself. Mo Liei was inconvenient to refuse, so he had to agree.
Chapter completed!