On January 15, 1640, several days have passed since the spy incident at Zhenhaigang Naval Base. At present, a total of eleven French spies have been detained. What awaits them is the secret trial of the special court. At the same time, a letter of diplomatic protest to the government of the Kingdom of France was also sent to Bordeaux with merchant ships from the East Coast. The people of the East Coast severely condemned the dangerous behavior of the French government in their hearts to undermine the foundation of diplomatic relations and mutual trust between the two sides, and asked France to give a positive explanation for this.

As for the Dutch East India Company, the Government of the East Coast Republic passed the letter on its behalf through the Dutch West India Company in Brazil. In the letter, the Government of the Middle East Coast Republic unilaterally announced the imposition of trade sanctions on the Dutch East India Company and its allies, prohibiting major domestic companies from selling East Coast goods to the Dutch East India Company. At the same time, the Government of the East Coast Republic will reserve the right to hold them accountable for any country or organization that violates the ban.

The impact of this spy time lock is still in deep fermentation. In just five days from January 10 to now, many government officials have been removed from office. Among them, the main person in charge of Cotton Fort was even arrested. What awaits him will be the charge of dereliction of duty.

As the adjustment has been set at the internal meeting of the Executive Committee, the State Council has come up with a plan to initially develop the Anziranana area at the northern end of Madagascar. All ministries and commissions have also begun to cooperate closely to allocate personnel and store materials, and are very busy.

At this time, at Zhenhai Port Pier, Captain Wang Tiechhui, who had been promoted to commander of the Second Fleet, was proudly watching several ships anchored here - the battleship "Common Market", the "Choyong" high-speed cruiser and the "Galicia Flying Fish" armed transport ship. The above three ships are all the newly established second naval fleet. Although they are not as luxurious lineup of the first fleet, two battleships, two cruisers, three frigates and an armed transport ship, the second fleet has the final say after all. And in the future, the home port will be transferred to the Hezhong Port in South Africa and stay away from the local land. This is much better than being a deputy commander like Guo Zili.

According to the plan, the Second Fleet will be moved to Hezhong Port in South Africa today. In addition to the families of some naval officers and soldiers, there are 500 immigrants who go to Hezhong Fort. Among these 500 people, 300 are stubborn Indian natives, and the remaining 200 are European immigrants who have not been identified after identification - mainly French.

Over the years, as the East Coast Republic goods have been conquering cities and lands in the French market, more and more French immigrants from France to the East Coast Republic. By the end of 1639, in the total population of more than 34,300 in the East Coast Republic, French immigrants had more than 7,400, accounting for more than 21% of the Ming people (20.5%), and they ranked as the throne of the largest nation in the country (the third largest was 10.5% of the Chalujahs, and the rest did not exceed 5%). Even so, this was the only one of the Chalujahs.

There was no French espionage incident this time. The Executive Committee will also introduce measures to suspend the introduction of French immigrants in the past or two years to avoid the possibility of losing the situation. As for the subsequent immigration introduction, there are two main items: one is to increase the efforts to introduce population from East Asia (mainly Ming people, sometimes there may be Koreans and Japanese people), and the other is to introduce Persia, Central Asia, Caucasus, and Balkans from the Ottoman Empire. To balance the national structure in the country, the Executive Committee can rule the entire country more easily.

According to the Executive Committee's consistent policy, those who were disobedient were sent to Hezhong Fort in South Africa, so that they could receive patriotic re-education through wolves. For example, the group of Chalujahs who were sent to Hezhong Fort were now being punished to obey, and to some extent they listened to the government more than those Europeans. Of course, the local Chalujahs are completely different. They are often more stubborn and more difficult to rule than Europeans, and often require the government to spend more effort to assimilate them and educate them.

Following the Second Fleet to Hezhong Port, there were two transport ships from the South China Sea Transportation Company - the two newly commissioned flute transport ships "Kunlun" and "Yaochi" that were newly commissioned in 1639. These two ships were responsible for transporting local necessities such as immigration, building materials, daily necessities, arms and other local necessities from Hezhong Port. On the return journey, they brought local wool, agricultural products, dairy products, animal fat, liquor, leather, dog head gold, ivory and other commodities back to China for sale.

However, now they have another transportation task, namely, transporting large quantities of textiles, dyed leather goods, and arms from the local area to store them to Hezhong Fort to cope with the annual trade needs with the Ottomans and Muscat merchants. To this end, the Hezhong Fort area has begun to build a larger warehouse in the city to accommodate these newly stored materials. After the warehouse is built, when trading along the African route to East Africa or the Middle East, you only need to take cargo from Hezhong Fort, which will be much more convenient and safer.

Given the massive amount of traded commodities with the Ottoman Empire, the Hezhongbao warehousing and logistics center will also benefit a lot. Moreover, Mo Ming had a sudden idea recently and was planning to send someone to the Portuguese Angolan colony in northern South Africa to see if there is a potential consumer market for East Coast goods.

On February 22, 1640, the East Coast fleet, which had been sailing for more than a month, arrived at Hezhong Port in South Africa. The Hezhong Town Government was already familiar with receiving new immigrants and quickly arranged it. With the 500 new arrivals, the free people settled in Hezhong Fort had officially exceeded 2,500. If the former British fugitives in Good Hope Fort were included, the number was more than 3,000. Such a large population could rank in the top five even in the local area. Although it was isolated overseas, its strength should not be underestimated. The Hezhong Fort area could easily mobilize more than 1,000 militias, plus the local South African garrison troops and the two or three thousand African Eight Banners indigenous soldiers controlled by them. If the enemy relies on the existing fortress and solid city walls to defend, it would be impossible to do if the enemy did not come to six or seven thousand people.

Mo Ming naturally agreed with the local government's move to Hezhong Port. For this reason, he not only mobilized a large number of residents and slaves to broaden the river channel and clear the silt in the winter and spring, but also began to build a cement Yonggu wharf in the river bay on the north bank of the Berg River to gradually replace the original wooden wharf. At the same time, the fort at the mouth of the Berg River has also been stepping up the construction of the turret at the mouth of the Berg River. Currently, six gun positions have been installed, four 12-pound cannons and two 18-pound cannons have been installed, and a certain number of skilled gunners have been trained.

Therefore, when the officers and soldiers of the Second Fleet docked the ship before a brand new cement dock, they were all shocked by the refreshing sight in front of them. Many of them had just arrived here a few months ago, and at that time there was no such thing in front of them.

"Captain Mo, thank you for everything the Hezhongbao government has done for the Second Fleet." Wang Tiech took Mo Ming's hand as soon as he got off the ship and said happily: "Although the Second Fleet is a pioneering, it will also carry forward the navy's brave and tenacious spirit, take Hezhong Port as its home, and strive to carry forward the development. This time, many fleet officers and soldiers even brought their families here, and this will be our Second Fleet's home in the future."

"Haha, Hezhong Fortress is not free from the help of the navy," Mo Ming also said with a smile, "You can stay here with peace of mind in the future. Although Hezhong Fortress is not as prosperous as the local area, its food and consumption are not as short as the navy. Please rest assured about this."

Mo Ming had reason to be happy. Since the military department chose Hezhong Port as the home port of the Second Fleet, it means that in the eyes of the military department and even the Executive Committee, Hezhong Fort has a great status. After all, it has many advantages: for example, it has a good geographical location, radiating many places, and controlling maritime transportation lines; for example, abundant products, and even surplus agricultural and animal husbandry products to feed back to the country; for example, sufficient labor, so far, five or six thousand South African indigenous people have been transported to local mines and farmlands through labor dispatch.

Moreover, it is said that the Executive Committee and the State Council have always been very troubled by the inferior coal mined by the local Ping An coal mine. Especially in the past two years, when the steam engines have begun to gradually promote and popularize, the demand for high-quality coal has become more urgent. Therefore, South Africa's coal resources have recently begun to be mentioned by people in charge of local industrial departments. However, South Africa's coal resources are basically distributed in the east and north areas, and the distance from Hezhong Port is really far away. People in the local area have previously reported that there are coal resources in Table Mountain near Cape Town, but after more than a year, people have been sent to the area for open and secret investigations, Mo Ming has never received any return on the news that there are coal resources in the area, and later he gradually gave up.

However, to make high-quality thermal coal, you still have to rely on South Africa. After the Executive Committee has established its foundation in the local area, it will sooner or later develop South Africa, otherwise it will be killed by the lack of thermal coal after the domestic steaming is popularized. Of course, there are no noises in China. For example, some people say that there are coal mines in Tulia, Tamatav, Sakua and other areas on Madagascar, which are all high-quality coal and have not small reserves. Among them, Tulia and Tamatav are coastal areas, and mining and transportation are extremely convenient.
Chapter completed!