Chapter 3561
Chapter 3561
Chapter 3561
After deploying the implementation measures for various industries, the two brothers divided the work for the next arrangements.
The second brother, Luo Shengding, stayed in Tian'an Port to supervise the implementation of various infrastructure projects to ensure that the immigrants could settle down and start production activities as soon as possible. The eldest brother, Luo Shenghuai, led a small-scale armed fleet to go out to sea again and continue to explore unknown areas to the south.
From the map, the location of Swan Harbor is close to the southwest corner of the continent. Luo Shenghuai's goal is to confirm that there are no colonies of other countries in the nearby area, and to continue to look for more habitable areas like Swan Harbor along the coast in preparation for the establishment of new colonies in the future.
After traveling south for more than a hundred miles, the fleet soon discovered another natural harbor near the coast.
The terrain here is quite similar to that of Swan Harbor. It is also a large lake formed near the river estuary, but its area is much larger than that of Swan Lake.
The lake is divided into two parts, north and south, either of which is at least two to three times the size of Swan Lake. However, the siltation here is more obvious, and the navigation conditions in the lake are far inferior to those of Swan Lake, and it is not suitable for development into a large cargo port.
There is a vast alluvial plain on the east coast of the lake, most of which is natural grassland. Whether it is used as a pasture or for cultivation and plantation construction, this place is undoubtedly an excellent choice.
Luo Shenghuai personally led the cavalry team to land and spent several days surveying the plain. The plain extended eastward to a depth of thirty or forty miles inland, while the explored area from north to south was two to three hundred miles long, and the northern end was directly connected to the Swan Lake area.
Luo Shenghuai made a preliminary estimate based on this, and the area of this coastal plain that can be used for agricultural development is at least several million mu. This is simply unimaginable for Xingdao, where arable land is scarce.
Continuing to explore southward, Luo Shenghuai's team discovered many places with similar geographical environments along the way, but their harbor conditions were without exception far inferior to Swan Harbor.
Luo Shenghuai had to admire the means of his father, who was able to make plans thousands of miles away and select the most livable place in such a vast continent in advance.
The fleet sailed south to the southwest corner of the continent, then turned east along the coast and sailed for about two days before finally finding another bay suitable for building a port. The distance from Swan Harbor to here was about 1,200 to 1,300 miles.
The good news was that no colonies established by other foreign civilizations had been found in the coastal area explored by the fleet. The threat posed by the scattered indigenous tribes to Hai Han was extremely limited, so they were automatically ignored by Luo Shenghuai.
Another good news is that in the areas explored in the past few days, the natural environment is relatively livable, even better than the base camp Star Island. It will be no problem to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people here in the future.
Luo Shenghuai also understood why Roger had told the two brothers before they set off that the colony to be established in the New World would change the future of Xingdao and the Luo family.
And this is just a corner of the New World. Luo Shenghuai can conclude that there must be more habitable areas on this continent.
However, considering the consumption of materials and manpower, Luo Shenghuai did not continue to explore eastward. He ordered people to erect a monument at the last harbor they found to commemorate the landing of the expedition fleet, and then led the team back to Swan Harbor. Since there were no-one’s lands everywhere in the New World, Hai Han had no competitors here, so there was no need to rush. He believed that it would not be too late to come back and enclose the land after building the Swan Harbor colony first and having sufficient population and material supply.
At the same time, on the northern coastline of the New World, another expedition fleet finally arrived at its designated destination.
Although the expeditionary fleet sent by the Luzon Region reported to the Executive Committee a few days ago that it had arrived in the New World, it was actually only the vanguard of the fleet. The main force of the fleet was traveling around Sulawesi Island and the Maluku Islands near the Banda Sea, carrying out combat missions until recently when it crossed the Timor Sea and arrived in the New World.
It was also because of the consideration that the fleet needed to cross the Spanish territory when heading south and would inevitably have to fight with its old rivals, so this fleet did not carry many immigrants, but was mainly composed of combat troops.
In addition to establishing a stronghold in the New World, one of its missions was to attack Spanish forces in the waters along the way.
To this end, the Manila authorities drew from their jurisdiction several main forces that had fought against the Spaniards many times, such as the Bangui Battalion, the Subic Battalion, the Cavite Amphibious Force, etc.
However, the combat mission along the way was obviously not as easy as expected. The Luzon Fleet had to spend more time dealing with the Spaniards, which also caused their arrival in the New World to be greatly delayed. They had to separate several ships along the way and symbolically form a vanguard to rush directly to the designated landing point.
But no matter how hard they tried, they eventually fell behind the Star Island Fleet, finishing in second place with only one day's difference, and were forced to give up the credit of setting foot on the New World to their friendly forces.
However, just as Roger told his two sons in the telegram, this first achievement is actually just a pure honor at present, and it will not have much practical effect. The Luzon authorities also understand that the Executive Committee will definitely allow the two major regions of Luzon and Xingdao to develop the new continent simultaneously, rather than allowing one party to monopolize the continent.
This is not only about arranging healthy competition between the two regions, but also about allowing them to check and balance each other in the New World to prevent one company from losing control after becoming dominant.
But the soldiers from Luzon did not show much excitement when they disembarked on this new continent. Instead, they were exhausted after days of fighting.
Zheng Agui stood on a big rock and shouted loudly to his subordinates, asking them to assemble as soon as possible so that they could go to the camp to rest as soon as possible.
Zheng Agui was just a rookie squad leader during the battle for the Philippine Islands two years ago, but now he is a well-known combat hero in the Bangui Battalion, a captain who commands more than 100 people. Qiu Yong, Qin Bo and others who served under him at the time have now been promoted to squad leaders.
Before this trip south, he had just completed a short period of advanced training in Manila. As long as he could gain some military merits in the expedition to the New World, he would have a great chance of being promoted in position and rank again after the war.
But after arriving in the New World this time, Zheng Agui did not feel the same sense of relief as he had after completing his combat mission two years ago. He could clearly feel that the fight with the Spanish in the nearby waters was not over yet, and the opponent's resistance seemed to be much stronger than two years ago.