Chapter 1221 Arriving at Star Island
Ambona Island is the last resting place for this southbound fleet. After leaving here, the fleet will be divided into three groups, heading east, south and southwest. The fleet heading east is mainly for ocean route inspection. It will complete a circumnavigation along the coastline of Borneo Island. On the way, it will also pass through major islands in the South China Sea such as Palawan Island, Sulawesi Island, Sunda Islands and Java Island. Island, inspect the local customs and customs, and look for coastal harbors suitable for colonial development. Finally, return to the starting point of Ambona Island, and then turn back north.
The fleet heading south is heading for Bangka-Belitung Island between Sumatra and Borneo. Haihan has established two tin mines and smelting workshops on these two islands, and has stationed a small number of troops. . However, in order to avoid the misunderstanding of the Dutch in Batavia, which is more than 300 nautical miles away, Haihan has not really started any major construction projects there. Even the work of introducing immigrants and building settlements has been carried out quietly. Advance slowly.
The fleet heading southwest headed for the Star Island area at the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca. After the Haihan navy arrived here at the end of 1633, it left manpower to garrison there and designated Star Island 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 deterrent power in the local area.
The destination of Tan Juren's trip was Xingdao, and all the 800 immigrants he led were assigned to settle in this area. As the first immigrants sent from Hainan Island to the area after Haihan occupied the area, they will take on the task of establishing local settlements, cultivating farmland and achieving self-sufficiency. After this group of people successfully settles down, Haihan will successively send the second and third batches of immigrants to the area, with the goal of increasing the local permanent population to 10,000 people within three years.
The local area of Xingdao had been managed by the military before. Tan Juren was regarded as the first chief executive in the true sense. Before his departure, he participated in special preparation meetings convened by the executive committee for this purpose many times. For this place, Xingdao The special significance in Haihan's development strategy is also well understood.
Star Island is currently the westernmost overseas enclave in Haihan's control area. Haihan has only one purpose of establishing a stronghold here, which is to control the Malacca Strait channel. There are only two main waterways from the Indian Ocean into the South Pacific Ocean, the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Sunda. The latter is currently controlled by the Dutch, who occupy a good location. The situation in the Strait of Malacca is relatively complicated, with several small indigenous nations in the area. , there is also the intervention of Western maritime powers such as Portugal and the Netherlands. However, Haihan would not ignore the existence of this strategic location. After his rise, he listed this place as one of the targets that must be controlled.
Under the existing transportation conditions and technological level, the expansion of territory is also limited. This 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 capabilities, it will be difficult to ensure the racial composition of new colonies further away, and it may not be possible to maintain a stable Han government there. The Haihan Executive Committee currently does not want to take risks like this that will affect the stability of its rule. Rather than continuing to expand to the West, where racial and cultural differences are very obvious, of course, the Ming Dynasty, Annan, Korea, Japan and other countries in the Far East are more worthy of efforts to cultivate in depth. After all, these countries are connected with Haihan culture, whether it is to It is obviously much easier to obtain immigrant populations from within the country or to open up local trade markets than to go west.
"Xingdao is the important southwest border town of our Haihan Kingdom!"
Tan Juren still clearly remembered that in the practice meeting before departure, Tao Donglai so categorically explained to him the strategic significance of Star Island. The importance of Xingdao to the country meant that the appointment he received from Tan Juren was equally important. Naturally, he understood what Tao Donglai meant.
The determination of the watch has been expressed before departure from Sanya, and the next stage is to put these statements into practice. The more than 300 nautical miles voyage from Port Ambuna to Star Island is also the last sea voyage of this journey south. Tan Juren has slowly stopped thinking about traveling all the way. He will spend the next period of time on Star Island. It is time to study how to carry out work.
After the troops were divided into three groups at Ambuna Port, Tan Juren's fleet was left with only two exploration-class warships for escort. Fortunately, the sea area between Ambuna Island and Xingdao had been cleared many times. There won't be any problems in terms of safety. The fleet maintained a speed of five knots and sailed steadily toward the southwest.
Three days later, the outline of Bintan Island, symbolizing the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, was finally visible on the sea level. This made everyone on the ship, including Tan Juren, finally heave a sigh of relief. The long voyage south has finally come to an end. It is a relief for every passenger no longer having to endure the constant bumps of wind and waves on the ship.
There are a large number of islands scattered on the sea at the eastern entrance and exit of the Strait of Malacca, and the farthest north is a strait about ten kilometers wide formed by the Malay Peninsula and Bintan Island and Bataan Island across the sea. This is also the Strait of Malacca. The shortest route to Northeast Asia. The stronghold that Haihan established here is located at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula, with a strip of water on Star Island.
Before crossing over, this island was the country of Singapore. There are actually many travelers who have been to this place. For example, the general Roger who is currently guarding here has been here more than once before crossing over. The Ministry of National Defense sent him here. There is more or less some consideration in this regard. However, Tan Juren had no such experience. This was the first time in his life that he had come to this place, so the novelty was still very strong. He looked at the northern coast on the boat, and he had already begun to outline the development plan after taking office.
Compared with the several colonies he had visited before, Tan Juren thought that the port of Xingdao was still smaller. It was naturally far inferior to a large military port like Cam Ranh Port, but compared with the security of a port that did not have a natural harbor. Buena Island is slightly better. At least the coastline that can be used to build a port is longer than Ambunas Island. However, the area of Xingdao is only about one-third of Ambona Island, and the area available for development is also relatively smaller. But for Haihan, this is already a place with a larger jurisdiction among the South China Sea colonies. Although the Bangka-Belitung Island in the south is quite large, the actual area under Haihan's control is only a few dozen square kilometers, while the Star Island has the entire island as its own.
Of course, this place is not unclaimed land. In terms of actual control, it should be regarded as the territory of the Johor Sultanate. However, due to the endless wars between Johor and Portugal, Sumatra and other parties, this island is regarded as an uninhabited land. , before Haihan arrived, it was actually used as a buffer zone for wars between various countries, so Haihan did not encounter much resistance and pressure in the process of occupying it.
"Welcome to Xingdao Base!" Roger took the initiative and shook hands with Tan Juren who had just disembarked: "It's been a hard journey!"
Following Roger were his officers who were in charge of various local affairs, and he also introduced them to Tan Juren one by one. In the subsequent overwork, these officers will hand over the local affairs they are temporarily responsible for to Tan Juren's people. Tan Juren followed suit and introduced several of his cadres in charge to Luo Jie. Roger also brought several carriages to greet Tan Juren and his men, but these carriages were not comparable to the high-end carriages on Ambrosia Island, they were just the most ordinary Chinese carriages. Because the cost of transporting large goods from Sanya is extremely high, this carriage was built by the garrison by logging local trees, and only a few spare parts were shipped from the headquarters.
Of course, Tan Juren would not object to the lack of quality of this kind of carriage. Before coming to Star Island, he already had a general understanding of the situation here, and understood that such treatment was basically the highest level in the local area. However, he still wanted to fully show that he was prepared, and immediately refused the invitation to ride: "I'd better ride a horse!"
"Are you in such a hurry to patrol the territory?" Roger joked as he asked his men to free up a mount for him: "You just came 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, worked hard with his hands and feet, turned over and got on the horse, his movements were extremely clean and neat. He practiced equestrian for a period of time before setting off from Sanya, because he considered that the infrastructure on Xingdao might be relatively rudimentary, and it was not possible to go anywhere by carriage or train like in Sanya.
Seeing that he was skillful in mounting his horse, Roger nodded to him in appreciation. He was not familiar with Tan Juren before. He just knew that there was such a person. He was actually a little worried about whether the people sent from Sanya could adapt to the relatively difficult living environment here in Xingdao. However, seeing Tan Juren's attitude at this time Being so positive made me feel a lot more relieved at the moment.
So Tan Juren asked several of his men to ride in a carriage, while he and Roger rode side by side. In fact, as Roger said, after staying on the boat for a few days, he got off the shore and immediately rode on horseback. It was uncomfortable to bump from sea to land and then bump again. However, for the sake of future work, he could only act like it. I gritted my teeth and got through this without any problems.
The infrastructure development status of Xingdao is still relatively primitive, which can be seen from the construction level of the port and terminal. Although the Navy also has several warships stationed here, because the currently built port is too small, there are no docking ports. It is completely isolated from the civilian ship docking area, 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 there is no need to even pave gravel roads.
The new immigrants who got off the immigration ship were still at a loss. Although they had been informed that this was the terminal station of their trip and their future destination, they were still a little overwhelmed when they first arrived in a strange environment. Fortunately, Roger's men were already organizing and guiding them, preparing to lead them to the prepared camping site.
The resettlement of immigrants was also one of Tan Juren's first tasks when he came here, so he quickly took the initiative to talk to Roger about the matter: "How are the preparations for the local resettlement work?"
Roger responded: "We have been building houses for resettlement since the end of last year. But as for the situation here, Director Tan, you should also know that the manpower engaged in engineering construction is far from enough. Many times, 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. The remaining people can only live in military tents temporarily until the final phase of the project is completed. Moved in. But the basic living facilities are ready for use. You can take a rest today and I will take you there to see the situation on the ground tomorrow.”
"Thank you!" Tan Juren was not very satisfied with the situation mentioned by Roger. Of course, he hoped that the local immigration acceptance work had been completed and the immigrants could move into the built villages immediately upon arrival. But what Roger said is indeed true. The local population of Star Island is still dominated by the garrison, with only four to five hundred civilians and military dependents combined, plus a small number of immigrants recruited from surrounding areas.
If you want to implement large-scale infrastructure projects, it is impossible to generate enough labor force with such a population base, so there will be a situation where the army is mobilized to participate in housing construction as mentioned by Roger. But even so, the infrastructure project in the resettlement village still failed to achieve the expected goals, which can not but be said to be a small regret.
"When these immigrants are resettled, arrange for them to participate in the construction project as soon as possible!" At this point, Tan Juren can only try to remedy the hole. Three-quarters of the 800 immigrants who came here with him this time are young and strong laborers. After this active force is invested, it should be able to improve the slow progress of local infrastructure projects.
The two of them walked and chatted on horseback, and soon arrived at the town only one mile away from the port. This is also the main population center of Xingdao. A small river running from east to west divides the entire town into two parts, north and south. Near the port in the south is the military camp, while on the north bank of the river are villages where people live, with three bridges in the middle. Connecting both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The reason for adopting such regional planning is mainly to consider the needs of military defense. The military camp is close to the port, which facilitates rapid response to invading enemies at 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 military areas and civilian areas also makes management easier. For example, now that Tan Juren has arrived, the handover will be much easier.
(End of chapter)