Another cheap paddle steamer bought by the Nanzhi Railway Company rushed into the relatively calm sea in Montsch Bay. They had just suffered a sudden storm. The 72-ton boat did not dare to wander on the sea, so they increased their horsepower and plunged into the bay named after the first explorer, Meng Hu, to avoid the harsh sea conditions.

This bay faces the Guafukou Strait (the strait between Guafu Island and the Jonos Islands), located on the north side of Greater Guayitca Island. It was originally "discovered" by the Monghu people two years ago, so it was named Montessori Bay. There are dozens of Eight Banners prisoners who were exiled here on the coast. They are monitored by dozens of other Shandan or Patagoni immigrants, and they form a small fishing village, Montessori Port.

Montessori Port is the last supply land for the east coast ships to trade in Maolin Port. This jingling-poverty port sells vegetables, potatoes and fresh meat (mainly goats) to the passing ships. The most imported supplies on weekdays are spirits, tobacco, cloth and grains. On Ascension Island, which is only separated from the Great Guaitca Island in the east, there is also an exile site of the East Coast Republic on the original site of the Melinka Port in Chile, Blue Whale Port. Currently, this settlement has 73 criminals and their families, 88 prisoners of the Qing army, and 95 Polish prisoners of war (usually aristocratic) who are unsubmissive. In addition, there are 226 foreign immigrants such as the Ona, Patagonians, and the Shandans. The total population of the whole Hong Kong is no more than 500.

The existence of Montessori Port and Blue Whale Port has clearly proved that the East Coast Republic of China has begun to exile prisoners on the broken islands on the southern coast of Chile at least two years ago - the second year of its establishment. As an early attempted immigration, this is probably the confidence of the South Railway Company to secretly immigrate to the southern end of the abandoned island of Chiloe by the Spanish. Anyway, in the Treaty of Valladolid, the Kingdom of Spain has sold the fishing rights in the southeast Pacific waters of southern Chile to the East Coast people, so it is understandable that the East Coast people set up some temporary rest and supplies nearby in these waters - anyway, there are some disputes about this matter. In the end, the East Coast government spent a lot of money to compensate, and the Spanish took the opportunity to go down.

However, it is not accurate to say that the East Coast government exiled criminals to these places because they were just idle, but they were not very accurate, because they really considered how to use the rich fishery resources here. Due to the influence of the Peru cold current, the rising sea currents near Chile have greatly increased the nutrients in the seawater, thus forming a rich local fishery resource. In addition to the famous horse mackerel, the local salmon and shrimp and crab resources are also very rich. The waters of the Corkova Bay north of Blue Whale Port, east of Chiloe Island, and south of Barrios Port (later port Monte), have always been the main place for blue whales to move. The density is rare in other waters in the world. Later generations have once counted that more than one-tenth of the 3,000 blue whales that survived at that time actually lived in this sea area, which shows that.

In order to effectively discover local whale resources and increase the company's revenue, Nantie has planned to order some whaling ships from the modern special ship factory. Then, using Blue Whale Port and Seaview Port as bases, whaling operations are carried out in the Bay of Corcova. The captured whales will be dragged to Blue Whale Port for processing for secret relations, and then transported various products back to Araucan Port and finally transported them back to the local area for sale to obtain profits.

Of course, the role of Blue Whale Port is obviously far more than that! From here to the south, to the sea area of ​​about 50 degrees south, extremely abundant salmon grows. Later Chileans in the Moraleda Strait south of Melinka Port (the strait between the Jones Islands and the mainland), in addition to regularly fishing in summer and autumn, they also set up a large number of salmon farms in this semi-enclosed waters. Chile has become the world's largest salmon farming country, exporting a large number of high-quality salmon to foreign markets every year, relying on this cold and clean water.

What's more, most of the salmon farms in Chile in later generations were in the Strait of Morales (this sea area is a national protected area in Chile) - the large number of islands here provide a natural attachment point for salmon farming cages - and from here to the south to the waters north of the Port of Araucan, they can actually be used to breed salmon. In other words, the salmon farming potential in southern Chile is far from being realized, and the yield can be greatly improved.

How can this kind of heavenly wealth be spared? Neither the East Coast Executive Committee nor the Nantec Corporation that has the right to fish here (the East Coast government has placed the fishing rights obtained as an investment in the Nantec Corporation), they will not watch the wealth flow away in vain. So, they have been exiling prisoners here two years ago and resettling immigrants, and built two port towns in advance to provide sufficient supplies to passing ships and immigrants who may come later.

After the construction of these two small settlements, the Nantie Company has begun a intensive preparation work: customization of aquaculture cages - this requires special ordering of high-end cages made of sisal from New China Island. Ordinary fishing nets may not be able to withstand the huge salmon farmed in this cold water; ordering of fishing boats (parts of whaling ships and processing ships, part of salmon and horse mackerel fishing boats) and recruiting sailors; the number of seafood processing personnel is also very easy to deal with, and only a part of them needs to be drawn from the Ming Dynasty immigrants and can be competent for it.

After all this, the South Railway Corporation will set up a midway haven in Puertoaguirre, on the south side of the strait, to provide supplies and shelter for fishermen who fish and salmon farming in this area. At the same time, the island plans to set up a meteorological observation station and a botanical garden, which are managed by the Navy and the Ministry of Agriculture respectively. The meteorological observation station is responsible for observing and recording the weather in the nearby waters, and also undertakes a number of tasks such as measuring the water depth in the nearby waters and drawing island maps - of course, this is a long-term task, and it is not in a hurry to complete it in a short period of time.

The botanical garden is more interesting because experts from the Ministry of Agriculture found on this island that all kinds of tree species in the mountainous areas of southern Chile, such as beech, cypress, pine, etc., can be seen here. In addition, animals such as yellow-legged fox, Chilean deer, Chilean beaver, small otter, seal, etc. can also be seen occasionally. Sometimes if you are lucky, you can also have the honor to have a glimpse of the huge and elegant figure of whales. In short, you can see everything else in southern Chile here.

Of course, the above are not all factors that the Ministry of Agriculture decided to set up a botanical garden outside the East Coast territory in theory. The main reason why the Ministry of Agriculture decided to set up a botanical garden and seed cultivation base here was that the unique wild potato variety was found on this island.

Jin Kela, chief agricultural expert on East Coast, former Minister of Agriculture, and now vice president of Nantec Corporation, learned about this news, thought hard for a long time. Finally, after carefully studying the potato samples brought back by the expedition team, it was inferred that this was probably one of the original origins of potatoes, and the potato gene resources were extremely rich, so it is worth setting up a national breeding center here.

As we all know, potatoes are suitable for living in relatively cold plateau areas. If they live in warm and humid plains, they are prone to illness and the varieties are easily degraded. The Jones Islands in southern Chile are humid and cold all year round, and the cliffs and mountains of each island stand tall, which is not so strange. Setting up a potato breeding center here will naturally make use of the rich local wild potato resources and an environment that is extremely suitable for potato growth to cultivate high-yield potato seeds or seedlings, which is of great significance to increasing the grain yield of the Eastern Coast Republic.

At present, there are dozens of farmers on the island. Under the leadership of several Corps and Fort scholars, they built their own residences while waiting for the arrival of experts from the Ministry of Agriculture. Then they began to study and cultivate this potato variety called "Aquinas" by the Indians on nearby islands. By the way, the port scheduled to be built on this island was named "Qingfeng Port" by agricultural expert Jinkola - an extremely vulgar name - meaning that the future production of potatoes and salmon in the East Coast Republic of China will be a bumper harvest, and fishermen and farmers will celebrate this.

However, these farmers in Qingfeng Port are obviously not the first batch of local outsiders. The initial immigrants on the island and some nearby scattered islands were naturally buffaloes and various goats and sheep bred by people on the east coast. These animals are thriving freely on these broken and uninhabited islands (some are home to a small number of Indians, who use canoes as their main means of transportation). They have no natural enemies, abundant food (the islands are full of hills, dark woods and dense weeds), and relatively closed environment (meaning that disease is not easy to spread). I believe that in time, the population of these free-range animals will surely usher in explosive growth.

From 42 degrees south to 52 degrees south, there are huge number of broken islands distributed along the coast of Chile. In normal people's eyes, these scattered islands with towering mountains, glaciers, dark and humid, and the westerly winds are probably a burden of no value. But in the eyes of people on the east coast, this is indeed a treasure land rewarded by the Heavenly Lord. In the cold and clean waters, there are huge numbers of whales, salmon, horse mackerel and pearl resources. The island's forests are densely packed with dense forests.

Cloth (most of them can be used to build ships), seals, beaver, otter, foxes and other animals with extremely high economic value are also everywhere, and it is also suitable for cultivating some high-yield potato varieties. Based on the above factors, this is obviously a treasure land! I am afraid that only the Spanish will look down on such places. For the East Coast people who are mainly farming and fishing, this is indeed an inseparable source of wealth and must be held tightly in their hands.
Chapter completed!