On July 5, 1642, two expedition ships from the East Coast Republic arrived at Rishiri Island near the Hokkien under the southeast wind. Li Yi led the "Zhenbo" expedition ship to wander the north side of the island for a long time, and it was best to choose the later Japanese port of Yuanbo as a winter place for the East Coast fleet.

Deep in the Japanese warm current in the island, Liwen Island on the northwest is its natural windbreak and breakwater. On the west side of the site of Yuanbo Port, a small peninsula extending hundreds of meters into the sea, blocking the waves coming from the northwest, which is indeed a good natural shelter. In addition, it is not frozen all year round and the island is rich in precipitation, and some farmland can be reclaimed. It is the outpost port and winter base of Heishui Port.

A few Ainu people on the island looked at them in fear, not knowing what these suddenly appeared outsiders came here for. Li Yi and others did not pay much attention to them, but just exchanged some seafood with them with the remaining cloth on the ship, so as to contact them in advance.

On July 6, the East Coast Expedition fleet left Rishiri Island, headed south, crossed the Tsushima Strait, headed east of Taiwan, and headed straight to the Jinshan Port in the southeast corner of the Australian continent. This time, the two ships sailed against the wind on the ocean north of the equator, but after crossing the equator and entering the South Pacific, the two ships could go south along the East Australian warm current, which was quite convenient. Therefore, the two ships only took about a month to arrive from Rishiri Island, which was similar to the time they took to head north a few months ago. In the middle, they did not stop any longer except to add fresh water and coconut near Rabaul Port.

It is now the middle of winter in Jinshan Port. The sea is covered with a bitter cold wind, and two expedition ships carefully sail into Jinshan Bay one after another.

Thank goodness, they are still alive! This is the first thought that burst out in Li Yi's mind after entering the bay. Yes. The more than 90 Eight Banners warriors who were left here are still alive. They are standing on the only wooden trestle on the dock, waving their arms hard at the two large ships.

With the rapid movement of the steam winch, the "Zhuo" put down the double anchors from the head and tail and steadily stopped at the edge of the trestle. Li Yi, wearing a cotton coat, jumped off the trestle first. He shook hands with every Eight Banners warrior who came to meet them by the trestle and patted their shoulders hard to show encouragement. It is not easy for them to guard here alone, and it is worth it.

Following him were about a hundred soldiers from the 2nd Squadron of the Stand-Up Team, as well as hundreds of North Korean immigrants. After a month of long-distance voyage at sea, these people were not in good condition. Many people were even carried down. Even the brave Hezhe and Oroqen people, the warriors who had only sailed in canoes at most had never seen the stormy waves on the ocean. After experiencing a month of nightmares that they would never forget, they all became soft-footed shrimps. Of course, these people were lucky, because nearly twenty partners had left them forever during the voyage. They were buried deep in the ocean and sleeping with the darkness.

The mortality rate of the six hundred North Koreans brought over was even higher. First, because their physical condition was not as strong as those of Sakhalin Islanders, and the cabin conditions they lived in were worse and more crowded, so nearly 150 people were thrown into the sea during the voyage. The mortality rate in a month was as high as one quarter, which was shocking.

The uprising team and the North Koreans combined were nearly 550. Naturally, it was impossible for so many people to be all placed at Jinshan Port. It was very simple, because there was not enough food to eat. When I passed by, Li Yi ordered people to leave them about fifteen tons of grain and a small amount of seeds and farm tools. However, considering that it was the end of April, the ninety Eight Banners warriors who stayed here had no time or anyone who had no hands to cultivate a farmland for sowing. Therefore, these fifteen tons of grain would be enough for them to eat for another half a year. If they level the fields in winter and sow potatoes and sweet potatoes with short growth periods in spring, then perhaps their food could be just enough to maintain the harvest. But if some newcomers were added, the fragile food balance would be quickly broken.

This problem is quite troublesome. Li Yi scratched his head. There were still thirty or forty tons of grain in the cabin, but that was left on the boat just in case. And he had to leave some grain for Gushan Port that he would go to next, because Li Yi could not confirm that Gushan Port had not had time to harvest a crop of grain this year. However, after thinking about it for a while, Li Yi still ordered the sailors to unload fifteen tons of sweet potatoes and five tons of corn from the cabin. At the same time, he threw some salted fish, cured meat, bacon and other things in the food cabin to them, saving waste.

After calculating the total amount of grain at Jinshan Port, Li Yi felt that he could only leave about 150 North Koreans here, because no matter how many people were, there would be no food to eat. They were trapped in this desolate place, unable to hunt or fish, and could only rely on food to survive by storing grain.

150 people were quickly selected. These people were all Korean soldiers captured on Jeju Island. They were quite strong and it was appropriate to leave them here to dig coal and farm. However, when it comes to digging coal, more than three months later, a batch of coal was stored at Jinshan Port and piled on the grass next to the dock. Li Yi roughly estimated that it seemed to be about 800 tons, but unfortunately most of them were lignite and had a low combustion calorific value. Moreover, most of these coals had not been washed and selected, and there were a lot of thick coal gangue in it, so the actual combustion calorific value might be even lower. But finally, it was better than nothing. At least it was also coal, could it be burned, right?

The newly landed 150 Korean soldiers had only had time to rest for one night, and were kicked and beaten by the Eight Banners warriors, and then rushed to the dock to start washing coal with the Eight Banners warriors. The soldiers of the forward team washed coal and prepared fuel for the two ships of the East Coast Expedition Fleet that were about to sail. While they were busy, Li Yi also took the "Zhubo" and "Bolang" to catch fish on the nearby ocean surface, and reserved more food for Jinshan Port. Unfortunately, there were no excellent fishing grounds here, or Li Yi and others were not lucky. After several days of tossing, they caught a total of more than ten tons of fish and shrimp. If the inedible part was removed, the fish and shrimp might be less than ten tons. But even so, after so many fish and shrimp were plastered with salt, they could save a lot of food.

After washing coal for a few days, these people finally made up about 360 tons of coal. The coal burning coal with the thirty tons of coal still in the coal compartment of the two ships was almost enough for the two ships to sail to Xinhuaburg.

On August 16, 1642, two ships from the Eastern Coast Republic expedition fleet left Jinshan Port again. With the eyes of more than 90 Eight Banners warriors and 150 Koreans on the dock, they turned west and headed towards Gushan Port in the southwest corner of the Australian continent.

Gushan Port is located in the southwest corner of the mainland. In addition to the initial period of sailing, the whole journey is a difficult voyage that is neither smooth nor smooth. Some people may say here, why not take the North Coast of Australia, which is both smooth and smooth, and is very suitable for navigation. But isn't this to hide from the Dutch? Otherwise, who would take this bullshit route that is neither smooth and unhappy.

They wandered on the sea for about twenty days, and it was not until September 8 that the two ships struggled to enter the bay where Gushan Port was located. Like Kingsoft Port, when they passed by, the expedition fleet left about seventy Eight Banners warriors here. If more than five months had passed, these Eight Banners warriors were still firmly guarding the city they built for them. As expected, the combat power of the Australian natives was a scum. Can the primitive people of the Stone Age still call humans? I'm afraid the only difference between them and animals was that they could use some simple tools.

The situation in Gushan Port is more optimistic. At least they have reclaimed some wasteland around the city and planted some potatoes with short production cycles. They harvested a crop in late July. Although it was wasteland and the yield per mu was only more than 600 kilograms, they also harvested nearly 70 tons of grain, almost filling several wooden grain warehouses in the city.

This situation made Li Yi very relieved, because it meant that he would no longer have to take a group of people to return to Xinhua Fort due to insufficient food here. Therefore, he quickly made a decision: the remaining about 300 North Korean men and women and more than 100 officers and soldiers from the second squadron of the Standing Team were all staying here. They would open up land and farm at the same time build ports and urban areas, because the country might soon launch a large-scale oriental immigration plan. As an important transit node, Gushan Port must be built well in any case.

In the vision of the Executive Committee, more than ten transport ships will be mobilized in the next few years to carry out large-scale Eastern immigration operations. The geographical location of Gushan Port is extremely important. Whether it is the outbound or return fleet, they will dock and repair the ships. Even after fighting with the Dutch in the future, the fleet on the east coast will still travel north from here and directly to Batavia and the Spice Islands, which will definitely give the Dutch a big surprise.
Chapter completed!