Chapter 1221
Arriving at Star Island
Chapter 1221 Arriving at Star Island
Annbuna Island is the last resting place on the voyage of the southbound fleet. After leaving here, the fleet will divide into three groups, heading east, south and southwest respectively.The eastward fleet is mainly based on ocean route surveys. It will complete a round-the-island voyage along the coastline of Borneo Island. Island, inspect the local customs, look for coastal harbors suitable for colonial development, and finally return to the starting point of Anbuna Island, and then turn back north.
The fleet going south is going to Bangka-Belitung Island between Sumatra Island and Borneo Island. Haihan has built two tin mines and smelting workshops on these two islands, and has a small army stationed there. .However, in order to avoid the misunderstanding of the Dutch in the city of Batavia, which is more than 300 nautical miles away, Haihan has not really started construction in the local area. Even the work of introducing immigrants and building settlements is being done quietly. Advance slowly.
The fleet headed southwest to the Singdao area at the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca. After the Haihan Navy arrived here at the end of 1633, they left manpower to garrison there, and designated Singdao as Haihan's sphere of influence.After that, they increased their troops several times and built military strongholds and military docks in the local area to stabilize Haihan's deterrence in the local area.
The destination of Tan Juren's trip was Xingdao, and the [-] immigrants he led were all assigned to settle in this area.As the first batch of immigrants sent from Hainan Island to the area after Haihan occupied the area, they will take on the task of establishing settlements, reclaiming farmland and achieving self-sufficiency.After these people have successfully settled down, Haihan will send the second and third batches of immigrants to the area one after another, with the goal of increasing the local resident population to [-] within three years.
Before this, Xingdao was managed by the military. Tan Juren was the first chief executive in the true sense. The special significance in Haihan's development strategy has also been well understood.
Xingdao is currently the westernmost overseas enclave in Haihan's control area. Haihan's purpose of setting up a stronghold here is to control the waterway in the Strait of Malacca.There are only two main waterways from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea of the Pacific Ocean, the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Sunda. The latter is currently controlled by the Dutch who occupy a favorable location, while the situation in the Strait of Malacca is relatively complicated. There are several small indigenous countries in the area. , There is also the intervention of Western maritime powers such as Portugal and the Netherlands.However, Haihan will not ignore the existence of this strategic location, and after his rise, he listed this place as one of the targets that must be controlled.
Under the existing traffic conditions and technological level, the expansion of the territory is also limited, and this place will basically be the west gate of Haihan Kingdom for a long time to come.Going further west, with Haihan's current population and transportation support capacity, it will be difficult to ensure the ethnic composition of the new colonies further away, and it may not be possible to maintain a stable Han regime in the local area.The Haihan executive committee does not want to take risks like this that will affect the stability of the rule.Instead of continuing to expand to the West, where racial and cultural differences are very obvious, of course, the countries in the Far East such as Daming, Annan, North Korea, and Dongying are more worthy of intensive cultivation. After all, these countries are similar to Haihan culture. It is obviously much easier to obtain immigrant population from its country or to open up a local trade market than to go west.
"Xingdao is an important town on the southwestern frontier of our Haihan Kingdom!"
Tan Juren still clearly remembers that Tao Donglai had so firmly stated to him the strategic significance of Xingdao at the practice meeting before departure.The importance of Xingdao to the country meant that the appointment he received from Tan Juren was equally important, and he could understand Tao Donglai's implication.
The determination of this statement has already been expressed before the departure from Sanya, and the next step is to put these statements into practice.The more than 300 nautical mile voyage from Annabuna Port to Xingdao is also the last sea voyage of this southward journey.Tan Juren has slowly withdrawn his thoughts of traveling all the way. He will spend the next period of time on Xingdao. It is time to study how to carry out his work.
After the Anbuna port was divided into three groups, Tan Juren's fleet was escorted by only two exploration-class warships, but fortunately, the sea area between Anbuna Island and Xingdao has been cleared many times. In terms of safety, there will be no problems.The fleet maintained a speed of five knots and sailed steadily to the southwest.
Three days later, the outline of Bintan Island, which symbolizes the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, was finally seen on the sea level, which made everyone on the boat, including Tan Juren, finally heave a sigh of relief.The long southward voyage has finally come to an end, and it is a relief for every passenger that they no longer have to endure the constant turbulence of the wind and waves on board.
At the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, there are a large number of islands scattered on the sea, and the northernmost one is a strait about ten kilometers wide formed by the Malay Peninsula and Bintan Island and Batam Island across the sea. This is also the Strait of Malacca. It is the shortest route to Northeast Asia.The stronghold established by Haihan here is located at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula, on Xingdao, which is separated by a strip of water.
Before crossing, this island was the country of Singapore. There are actually quite a few traversers who have been to this place. For example, Roger, the general who is currently guarding here, has been here more than once before crossing. The Ministry of National Defense sent him here. There are more or less considerations in this regard.However, Tan Juren did not have such an experience. This was the first time he had come to this place in his life, and the novelty was still very strong.Looking at the northern coast from the boat, he has already begun to outline the development plan after taking office in his mind.
Compared with the previous colonies visited, the port of Xingdao is still relatively small in Tan Juren's opinion. It is naturally far behind the large military port of Cam Ranh Port, but compared with the safe port that does not have a natural harbor itself, Buna Island is slightly better, at least the coastline that can be used to build a port is longer than Anna Buna Island.However, the area of Xingdao is only about one-third of that of Ambuna Island, and the area available for development is relatively smaller.But for Haihan, this is already the largest area under the jurisdiction of the South China Sea colonies.Although Bangka-Belitung Island in the south has a large area, Haihan actually controls only a few tens of square kilometers in the local area, while Xingdao has the entire island under its own control.
Of course, this place was not an unoccupied land. In terms of actual control, it should be regarded as the territory of the Sultanate of Johor. However, because of the endless wars between the Johor Sultanate and Portugal, Sumatra and other parties, this Xingdao is an uninhabited land. Before Haihan arrived, it was actually used as a buffer zone for wars of various countries, so Haihan did not encounter too much resistance and pressure in the process of occupying here.
"Welcome to Xingdao Base!" Roger stepped forward and shook hands with Tan Juren who had just disembarked: "It's been a hard journey!"
Following behind Roger were his officers in charge of various local affairs, and he also introduced Tan Juyi one by one.In the next overwork, these military officers will hand over the local affairs they are temporarily responsible for to Tan Juren's subordinates.And Tan Juren also followed the gourd painting and introduced several cadres under him to Luo Jie.
Roger also brought a few carriages to welcome Tan Juren and his men, but this carriage is not comparable to the high-end carriages on Ambuna Island, it is just the most common Chinese-style carriage.Because the cost of transporting large goods from Sanya is extremely high, the carriage was also made by the garrison in the local area, and only a few spare parts were brought from Daben.
Of course, Tan Juren would not dislike the lack of quality of this kind of carriage. Before coming to Xingdao, he already had a general understanding of the situation here, and he understood that this kind of treatment was basically regarded as the highest level in the local area.However, he still wanted to fully show that he was prepared, so he immediately rejected the invitation to ride: "I'd better ride a horse!"
"In such a hurry to inspect the territory?" Roger asked his subordinates to spare a mount for him while joking: "I just got off the boat for a few days, don't force it!"
Tan Juren nodded, took the reins from the soldier, raised his hand to hold the saddle, stepped on the stirrup with one foot, and turned his body and got on the horse with force with both hands and feet. The movements were extremely clean and neat.Before he set off from Sanya, he went to practice equestrianism for a period of time, because he considered that the infrastructure on Xingdao might be relatively simple, and it wasn't like Sanya that he could go anywhere by horse-drawn carriage or train.
Seeing that he was skilled in getting on the horse, Roger immediately nodded to him to express his appreciation.He was not familiar with Tan Juren before, he just knew that there was such a person, and he was actually a little worried whether the people sent from Sanya could adapt to the relatively difficult living environment in Xingdao, but seeing Tan Juren's attitude at this time Being so positive made me feel relieved at the moment.
So Tan Juren asked several of his men to ride in the carriage, while he rode side by side with Roger on horseback.In fact, as Roger said, after staying on the boat for a few days, he rode a horse immediately when he got off the shore, and continued to bump on the land after the sea. This feeling is uncomfortable, but for the sake of future work, he can only act like I gritted my teeth without incident and passed this level.
The infrastructure development of Xingdao is still relatively primitive, as can be seen from the construction level of the port and wharf. Although the navy also has a few warships stationed here, the port currently built is too small, and the port area where it calls is not It is completely isolated from the berthing area of civilian ships, only a hundred meters away.The roads leading from the port area to nearby towns are still relatively primitive loess roads. It can be seen that the daily flow of people and goods in this port is not large, and it is not even necessary to lay gravel roads.
The new immigrants who disembarked from the immigration ship were still at a loss. Although they had been notified that this was the end of their trip and their future destination, they were still a little overwhelmed when they first arrived in an unfamiliar environment.Fortunately, Roger's subordinates are already organizing and guiding them, preparing to lead them to the prepared campsite.
The resettlement of immigrants is also one of Tan Juren's primary tasks here, so he quickly took the initiative to talk to Roger about this matter: "How is the local resettlement work going?"
Luo Jie responded: "We have been building housing for resettlers since the end of last year. However, Director Tan, you should know that the manpower for engineering construction is far from enough. Soldiers have to be temporarily transferred from the army to participate. So far, the two immigrant villages that have been built can accommodate about 600 people, and the rest can only temporarily live in military tents, and then move after the final phase of the project is completed. I went in. However, the basic living facilities are ready for use, so take a rest today, and tomorrow I will take you there to see the situation on the ground."
"Thank you!" Tan Juren was not very satisfied with what Roger said. Of course, he hoped that the local immigration acceptance work had been completed, and the immigrants could move into the built village immediately upon arrival.But what Roger said was indeed true. The local population of Xingdao was still dominated by the garrison. The combined population of civilians and military dependents was only 500, plus a small number of immigrants recruited from nearby areas.
If you want to implement a larger infrastructure project, you can't gather enough labor with such a population base, so there will be the situation that Roger said that the army will be transferred to participate in the construction of houses.But even so, the infrastructure project of the immigrant village still has not completed the expected goal, which cannot but be said to be a small regret.
"When these immigrants are resettled, arrange them to participate in the construction project as soon as possible!" Now, Tan Juren can only try to remedy this hole.Three quarters of the [-] immigrants who followed him here are young and middle-aged laborers. After this force is invested, it should be able to improve the slow progress of local infrastructure projects.
The two chatted while walking on horseback, and soon arrived at a town only one mile away from the port.This is also the main population settlement of Xingdao at present. A small river running from east to west divides the entire town into two parts, the north and the south. The south side is near the port is the military camp, while the north bank of the small river is the village where the people live together. There are three bridges in the middle Connect the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The reason for adopting such a regional plan is mainly to consider the needs of military defense. The military camp is close to the port, which is convenient for quick response to the enemy coming from the sea.And if the incoming enemy is too large, the troops can retreat and rely on the natural barrier of the river to organize a second line of defense.The separation of the military area and the residential area is also easier to manage. For example, now that Tan Juren is here, the handover process is much easier.
(End of this chapter)
Annbuna Island is the last resting place on the voyage of the southbound fleet. After leaving here, the fleet will divide into three groups, heading east, south and southwest respectively.The eastward fleet is mainly based on ocean route surveys. It will complete a round-the-island voyage along the coastline of Borneo Island. Island, inspect the local customs, look for coastal harbors suitable for colonial development, and finally return to the starting point of Anbuna Island, and then turn back north.
The fleet going south is going to Bangka-Belitung Island between Sumatra Island and Borneo Island. Haihan has built two tin mines and smelting workshops on these two islands, and has a small army stationed there. .However, in order to avoid the misunderstanding of the Dutch in the city of Batavia, which is more than 300 nautical miles away, Haihan has not really started construction in the local area. Even the work of introducing immigrants and building settlements is being done quietly. Advance slowly.
The fleet headed southwest to the Singdao area at the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca. After the Haihan Navy arrived here at the end of 1633, they left manpower to garrison there, and designated Singdao as Haihan's sphere of influence.After that, they increased their troops several times and built military strongholds and military docks in the local area to stabilize Haihan's deterrence in the local area.
The destination of Tan Juren's trip was Xingdao, and the [-] immigrants he led were all assigned to settle in this area.As the first batch of immigrants sent from Hainan Island to the area after Haihan occupied the area, they will take on the task of establishing settlements, reclaiming farmland and achieving self-sufficiency.After these people have successfully settled down, Haihan will send the second and third batches of immigrants to the area one after another, with the goal of increasing the local resident population to [-] within three years.
Before this, Xingdao was managed by the military. Tan Juren was the first chief executive in the true sense. The special significance in Haihan's development strategy has also been well understood.
Xingdao is currently the westernmost overseas enclave in Haihan's control area. Haihan's purpose of setting up a stronghold here is to control the waterway in the Strait of Malacca.There are only two main waterways from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea of the Pacific Ocean, the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Sunda. The latter is currently controlled by the Dutch who occupy a favorable location, while the situation in the Strait of Malacca is relatively complicated. There are several small indigenous countries in the area. , There is also the intervention of Western maritime powers such as Portugal and the Netherlands.However, Haihan will not ignore the existence of this strategic location, and after his rise, he listed this place as one of the targets that must be controlled.
Under the existing traffic conditions and technological level, the expansion of the territory is also limited, and this place will basically be the west gate of Haihan Kingdom for a long time to come.Going further west, with Haihan's current population and transportation support capacity, it will be difficult to ensure the ethnic composition of the new colonies further away, and it may not be possible to maintain a stable Han regime in the local area.The Haihan executive committee does not want to take risks like this that will affect the stability of the rule.Instead of continuing to expand to the West, where racial and cultural differences are very obvious, of course, the countries in the Far East such as Daming, Annan, North Korea, and Dongying are more worthy of intensive cultivation. After all, these countries are similar to Haihan culture. It is obviously much easier to obtain immigrant population from its country or to open up a local trade market than to go west.
"Xingdao is an important town on the southwestern frontier of our Haihan Kingdom!"
Tan Juren still clearly remembers that Tao Donglai had so firmly stated to him the strategic significance of Xingdao at the practice meeting before departure.The importance of Xingdao to the country meant that the appointment he received from Tan Juren was equally important, and he could understand Tao Donglai's implication.
The determination of this statement has already been expressed before the departure from Sanya, and the next step is to put these statements into practice.The more than 300 nautical mile voyage from Annabuna Port to Xingdao is also the last sea voyage of this southward journey.Tan Juren has slowly withdrawn his thoughts of traveling all the way. He will spend the next period of time on Xingdao. It is time to study how to carry out his work.
After the Anbuna port was divided into three groups, Tan Juren's fleet was escorted by only two exploration-class warships, but fortunately, the sea area between Anbuna Island and Xingdao has been cleared many times. In terms of safety, there will be no problems.The fleet maintained a speed of five knots and sailed steadily to the southwest.
Three days later, the outline of Bintan Island, which symbolizes the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, was finally seen on the sea level, which made everyone on the boat, including Tan Juren, finally heave a sigh of relief.The long southward voyage has finally come to an end, and it is a relief for every passenger that they no longer have to endure the constant turbulence of the wind and waves on board.
At the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, there are a large number of islands scattered on the sea, and the northernmost one is a strait about ten kilometers wide formed by the Malay Peninsula and Bintan Island and Batam Island across the sea. This is also the Strait of Malacca. It is the shortest route to Northeast Asia.The stronghold established by Haihan here is located at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula, on Xingdao, which is separated by a strip of water.
Before crossing, this island was the country of Singapore. There are actually quite a few traversers who have been to this place. For example, Roger, the general who is currently guarding here, has been here more than once before crossing. The Ministry of National Defense sent him here. There are more or less considerations in this regard.However, Tan Juren did not have such an experience. This was the first time he had come to this place in his life, and the novelty was still very strong.Looking at the northern coast from the boat, he has already begun to outline the development plan after taking office in his mind.
Compared with the previous colonies visited, the port of Xingdao is still relatively small in Tan Juren's opinion. It is naturally far behind the large military port of Cam Ranh Port, but compared with the safe port that does not have a natural harbor itself, Buna Island is slightly better, at least the coastline that can be used to build a port is longer than Anna Buna Island.However, the area of Xingdao is only about one-third of that of Ambuna Island, and the area available for development is relatively smaller.But for Haihan, this is already the largest area under the jurisdiction of the South China Sea colonies.Although Bangka-Belitung Island in the south has a large area, Haihan actually controls only a few tens of square kilometers in the local area, while Xingdao has the entire island under its own control.
Of course, this place was not an unoccupied land. In terms of actual control, it should be regarded as the territory of the Sultanate of Johor. However, because of the endless wars between the Johor Sultanate and Portugal, Sumatra and other parties, this Xingdao is an uninhabited land. Before Haihan arrived, it was actually used as a buffer zone for wars of various countries, so Haihan did not encounter too much resistance and pressure in the process of occupying here.
"Welcome to Xingdao Base!" Roger stepped forward and shook hands with Tan Juren who had just disembarked: "It's been a hard journey!"
Following behind Roger were his officers in charge of various local affairs, and he also introduced Tan Juyi one by one.In the next overwork, these military officers will hand over the local affairs they are temporarily responsible for to Tan Juren's subordinates.And Tan Juren also followed the gourd painting and introduced several cadres under him to Luo Jie.
Roger also brought a few carriages to welcome Tan Juren and his men, but this carriage is not comparable to the high-end carriages on Ambuna Island, it is just the most common Chinese-style carriage.Because the cost of transporting large goods from Sanya is extremely high, the carriage was also made by the garrison in the local area, and only a few spare parts were brought from Daben.
Of course, Tan Juren would not dislike the lack of quality of this kind of carriage. Before coming to Xingdao, he already had a general understanding of the situation here, and he understood that this kind of treatment was basically regarded as the highest level in the local area.However, he still wanted to fully show that he was prepared, so he immediately rejected the invitation to ride: "I'd better ride a horse!"
"In such a hurry to inspect the territory?" Roger asked his subordinates to spare a mount for him while joking: "I just got off the boat for a few days, don't force it!"
Tan Juren nodded, took the reins from the soldier, raised his hand to hold the saddle, stepped on the stirrup with one foot, and turned his body and got on the horse with force with both hands and feet. The movements were extremely clean and neat.Before he set off from Sanya, he went to practice equestrianism for a period of time, because he considered that the infrastructure on Xingdao might be relatively simple, and it wasn't like Sanya that he could go anywhere by horse-drawn carriage or train.
Seeing that he was skilled in getting on the horse, Roger immediately nodded to him to express his appreciation.He was not familiar with Tan Juren before, he just knew that there was such a person, and he was actually a little worried whether the people sent from Sanya could adapt to the relatively difficult living environment in Xingdao, but seeing Tan Juren's attitude at this time Being so positive made me feel relieved at the moment.
So Tan Juren asked several of his men to ride in the carriage, while he rode side by side with Roger on horseback.In fact, as Roger said, after staying on the boat for a few days, he rode a horse immediately when he got off the shore, and continued to bump on the land after the sea. This feeling is uncomfortable, but for the sake of future work, he can only act like I gritted my teeth without incident and passed this level.
The infrastructure development of Xingdao is still relatively primitive, as can be seen from the construction level of the port and wharf. Although the navy also has a few warships stationed here, the port currently built is too small, and the port area where it calls is not It is completely isolated from the berthing area of civilian ships, only a hundred meters away.The roads leading from the port area to nearby towns are still relatively primitive loess roads. It can be seen that the daily flow of people and goods in this port is not large, and it is not even necessary to lay gravel roads.
The new immigrants who disembarked from the immigration ship were still at a loss. Although they had been notified that this was the end of their trip and their future destination, they were still a little overwhelmed when they first arrived in an unfamiliar environment.Fortunately, Roger's subordinates are already organizing and guiding them, preparing to lead them to the prepared campsite.
The resettlement of immigrants is also one of Tan Juren's primary tasks here, so he quickly took the initiative to talk to Roger about this matter: "How is the local resettlement work going?"
Luo Jie responded: "We have been building housing for resettlers since the end of last year. However, Director Tan, you should know that the manpower for engineering construction is far from enough. Soldiers have to be temporarily transferred from the army to participate. So far, the two immigrant villages that have been built can accommodate about 600 people, and the rest can only temporarily live in military tents, and then move after the final phase of the project is completed. I went in. However, the basic living facilities are ready for use, so take a rest today, and tomorrow I will take you there to see the situation on the ground."
"Thank you!" Tan Juren was not very satisfied with what Roger said. Of course, he hoped that the local immigration acceptance work had been completed, and the immigrants could move into the built village immediately upon arrival.But what Roger said was indeed true. The local population of Xingdao was still dominated by the garrison. The combined population of civilians and military dependents was only 500, plus a small number of immigrants recruited from nearby areas.
If you want to implement a larger infrastructure project, you can't gather enough labor with such a population base, so there will be the situation that Roger said that the army will be transferred to participate in the construction of houses.But even so, the infrastructure project of the immigrant village still has not completed the expected goal, which cannot but be said to be a small regret.
"When these immigrants are resettled, arrange them to participate in the construction project as soon as possible!" Now, Tan Juren can only try to remedy this hole.Three quarters of the [-] immigrants who followed him here are young and middle-aged laborers. After this force is invested, it should be able to improve the slow progress of local infrastructure projects.
The two chatted while walking on horseback, and soon arrived at a town only one mile away from the port.This is also the main population settlement of Xingdao at present. A small river running from east to west divides the entire town into two parts, the north and the south. The south side is near the port is the military camp, while the north bank of the small river is the village where the people live together. There are three bridges in the middle Connect the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The reason for adopting such a regional plan is mainly to consider the needs of military defense. The military camp is close to the port, which is convenient for quick response to the enemy coming from the sea.And if the incoming enemy is too large, the troops can retreat and rely on the natural barrier of the river to organize a second line of defense.The separation of the military area and the residential area is also easier to manage. For example, now that Tan Juren is here, the handover process is much easier.
(End of this chapter)