In the early morning of September 7, 1638, the East Coast Exploration Fleet, which had just been baptized by the storm, was temporarily stationed in a calm bay. According to the map of later generations, it should be located near Port Elizabeth in South Africa. Of course, this place was still a barren land at this time.

Some sailors rowed their boats toward the coast, and on the weeds on the coast, some black Xhosa people watched in shock at these "giant monsters" floating from the sea. Therefore, when the sailors on the east coast were waiting for the shore, these Xhosa people even forgot to escape.

An East Coast sailor took out a sharp skinning knife and gave it to a Xhosa man closest to him. The man took the knife foolishly and slashed his hand gently, and the blood beads immediately surged up. It was fine if he didn't make a stroke, but the man jumped up immediately and was talking in his mouth that the East Coast people couldn't understand, and it seemed that his emotions were not very stable.

The man quickly turned around and ran backwards, and disappeared into the weeds on the shore for a while. Several other Xhosa people followed him. Several East Coast sailors looked at each other, not knowing what happened. However, they were too lazy to care about so many. Several people moved a heavy stone from the boat, with some words engraved on the stone, which meant that this was the land "discovered" by the exploration fleet of the East Coast Republic of China, but there was no intention of declaring territory. They just simply expressed that they had been there, which was a commemoration.

The stones were not small, and the lower half was buried deep in the soil by the sailors, and some of the words were exposed on the ground. The sailors quickly finished doing these things and were about to return to the shore, a group of yelling black men suddenly rushed out of the depths of the land. The leader was the one who had just scratched his hand with a knife. At this moment, he drove more than a dozen sheep. While waving his hand, he came to this side. Behind him were more black men. Some of these people drove cattle and sheep, some carried food, some carried fur, and some carried ivory, and rushed towards the coast like a festival.

It turns out that this is coming to trade! The sailors quickly reported the intentions of the Xhosa people to their superiors. Guo Zili was organizing people to repair the ships. After the storm, the three east coast ships were injured to varying degrees, such as damage to some shipboards, such as some artillery or boats falling into the sea, such as some pulley booms damaged, etc. Taking advantage of this rest, the boatmen on the ship took out tools and spare parts to start repairing them nervously. At this time, when they heard the rewards from the people below, Guo Zili was also incompetent, and even acquiesced to the transaction with the Xhosa people.

So a transaction led by lower-level officers and ordinary sailors began on the beach. The East Coast people took out some valuable metal products, small pieces of glass, fire utensils, spirits, even some leather shoes, sugar and other daily necessities, and traded a large amount of fur, ivory, gold and other items from the Xhosa people, and everyone made more or less wealth.

Of course, the officers on each ship who were responsible for supplying materials also purchased some live cattle and sheep, fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as a small amount of sorghum and peanuts from these Xhosa people, and all they paid was just some fine salt. During the storm a few days ago, the fleet lost some wooden barrels filled with food and fresh water. Now the fleet is docking near the sea, which is a good time to replenish supplies.

Six or seven buckets on the boat with a capacity of 100 gallons were lost, most of which were fresh water, and a small part were beer. In addition, these were used up every day. There was not much fresh water on the boat. Just as there was a big river flowing hundreds of meters away from the coast here, and some sailors rowed over the boat and took the spare empty wooden barrels over to fill the clear river water.

"The weather today is really good. I really can't imagine that we were struggling in the storm a day ago." Juan, the navigator of the battleship "Free Trade", leaned on the railings of the top deck of the stern building, looked at the blue sky, and said with some emotion.

"Who said no?" Ji Wen was chewing a pinch of tobacco in his mouth, and half-squinted his eyes at a group of seagulls flying by not far away. The bright sunshine was a little dazzling, but he still enjoyed the rare warmth of this winter.

"Where will we go next?" Ji Wen asked casually, "Are you going as planned?"

"Of course." Lieutenant Juan nodded and said, "At least I have not received the order to change the route by His Excellency Commander. That is to say, our course remains unchanged, and the next destination is still Mozambique."

"The Portuguese territory." Jiwen curled his lips and said, "I hope that the city is still in their hands when we get there."

Jiwen's words are not groundless. You should know that the Portuguese are still in a state of war with the Dutch, and their strength is really weak. At the end of last year, even though they were equipped with many cannons from the East Coast people, the Portuguese Fort Ermina colony in Ghana was inevitably trapped in the hands of the Dutch. After capturing this castle, the Dutch continued to work hard and successively eliminated the Portuguese trader stations and small fortresses in the Gulf of Guinea. Even the trading stations near Congo were attacked by the Dutch.

This is true in West Africa, and East Africa is not peaceful. The Dutch have always been salivating at the coastal areas of Mozambique, which are rich in gold. Several rich cities such as Sena, Sofara, Mozambique Island, Lorenzomaguis, and Climane have attracted frequent visits from the Dutch pirate ships. The weak Portuguese often can only stay on land and struggle to resist the Dutch's savage invasion again and again.

"I hope so." Juan was not very optimistic about the Portuguese. As a Hispanic East Coast, perhaps out of some prejudice, he has always been disliked by this neighboring country on the Iberian Peninsula.

However, at this moment, he hoped that the Portuguese could compete for the strength so that the East Coast people could have a safe supply point there. Due to the "gentleman agreement" reached with the Portuguese (the Portuguese were responsible for transporting the Ming people to the East Coast, and the East Coast people sold weapons to the Brazilian authorities to support their war), the relationship between the East Coast Republic of China and the Netherlands has been very rigid, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a little hostile. Therefore, if the Dutch occupied these Portuguese strongholds in East Africa, it is difficult to say whether they would open ports to supply the East Coast people.

Of course, there is not a high possibility that this situation will occur. Although the Dutch fleet in the Far East is not weak, there are not many people who can be divided into East Africa. Moreover, the Portuguese Governor of Goa (the Portuguese East Africa is administratively managed by the Governor of Goa, India) is also very vigilant against the Dutch, so hundreds of European white troops ranging from thousands of to thousands of important areas such as Mozambique and Senna, as well as indigenous black soldiers who are several times the number of white soldiers. It is really difficult for the Dutch to capture these places. All they can do is to go to remote ports with weak Portuguese strength to plunder.

In addition to these important areas, the Portuguese could only be said to be unable to control the rest of the vast areas. For example, the Mombasa Uprising broke out in 1631, the Sultan of Mombasa, Yusuf Ben Hassan killed the local officers and some merchants in Portugal, and then declared independence. Then in the next few years, a shocking scene appeared. This man attacked the Portuguese everywhere, and even captured the Portuguese military city, Fort Jesus, in 1632. In addition, Yusuf also drove a backward Arab sailboat and repeatedly attacked the Portuguese ships at sea, and the Portuguese had no choice. Even when the Lord passed away in 1637, the Portuguese still did not catch him, which shows the weakness of the Portuguese in the local area.

The two of them talked about some personnel and affairs on the boat for a while, and then went to work on their own.

Early in the morning of September 9, after two days of rest, the exploration fleet of the East Coast Republic rose to its sail under the order of Lieutenant Guo Zili, left the sea area of ​​Port Elizabeth, turned to the northeast, and sailed along the coastline of the African continent.

The bitter southeastern wind swelled the sails, and the fleet was moving forward with an average speed of 4 knots. This journey seemed quite easy. In just ten days, the fleet left the east coast of South Africa and entered the famous Mozambique Strait. In this "longest strait in the world" about hundreds of kilometers wide, the climate seemed so warm and the wind and waves seemed so calm.

The entire fleet went upstream and crossed the entrance of the Zambezi River on September 27. Here, they encountered a fleet of three Portuguese merchant ships. After seeing the mighty figure of the battleship "Free Trade" and the twin-sword eagle flag fluttering in the wind on its top mast, they couldn't help but sing flags and greetings. This is a respect for strength!

After crossing the mouth of the Zambezi River, the Eastern Coast Republic explored its fleet sailed north for another three days, and finally arrived on the coast of Mozambique on the morning of September 30. This is the core area of ​​the Portuguese ruled by the East African region. There are complete facilities in the port, which is enough to deter pirate ships that are generally blind.

However, they were facing the "August 10th" class battleship with heavy naval guns. The bronze artillery on the turret, which was already a bit old, lacked too much deterrence in Guo Zili's eyes. Of course, he did not think about attacking the Portuguese turret, so that even if his fleet wins, it would have to pay considerable losses. What's more, the Portuguese and the East Coast are still in their honeymoon period, and the bilateral relationship is still quite good.
Chapter completed!