Five hundred Eight Banner warriors who had been in the cramped cabin with coal for half a month were finally able to disembark at this time, Li Yi looked at them, and felt that these people looked even darker after staying in the coal bunker for a long time.

Well, maybe it's your own delusion. Li Yi shook his head, and then strode towards the dock city. The officials in the Xinhua region seem to be very busy, and there is no one to greet them at the moment. After walking to the urban area that was being built in full swing, Li Yi caught Shi Qinjie on the street, who was inspecting the residential construction site.

Shi Qinjie wore a hard hat made of tree vines on his head and stood in the sun with both sides on his back. Due to the hot weather (30 degrees), the back of his cotton shirt was already wet with sweat. He was obviously surprised by the arrival of Li Yi and the others, but after hearing about the task of Li Yi and the others and the next itinerary, the expression on his face was as wonderful as it was.

"It's a pity that Wang Tiehammer has gone to patrol the sea, otherwise you can discuss it with him." Shi Qinjie sighed and said, "Even Lao Han's 'Chaoyong' has not come back from the escort, and at present, we don't even have a single ship in our harbor except for a flute-type transport ship that is being trial-built, let alone any naval officers." Forget it, I can't help too much, so I can only try to do a good job of logistics for you. Say, what work do we need to do? ”

"Coal!" Li Yi said succinctly, "We need a lot of coal. By the way, what happened to the Tacheng Coal Mine you talked about last time? Is the coal out? What is the quality? ”

"That coal mine has been tossing for a while, and I've sent hundreds of Eight Banner slaves over there." Shi Qinjie said with certainty, "But you also know the weather here. The rainy season is not suitable for large-scale construction. Especially the kind of wild land in the Tacheng area that lacks infrastructure. Many slaves contracted malaria, and even some of the overseers and officers and soldiers of the advance team died of malaria. Coupled with the heavy rains and the serious flooding of the coal mines, these slaves had to build houses and dig coal mines, and the output has been very low......"

"I didn't get to the point for a long time. I'm asking you if you have any coal now, and what is the quality? Li Yi asked anxiously, and a layer of fine sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Hey. Xiao Li, I used to be your superior, and you just talked to me like that? Shi Qinjie glanced at Li Yi, but said in his mouth: "Of course I have saved some coal." The coal is buried very shallowly, almost like open-pit mining, and hundreds of slaves have been mining intermittently for a month, and there should be no less than 1,500 tons of coal in stock. The quality, I also looked at it, in terms of fire, it is much stronger than the coal produced by the Ping'an Coal Mine we originally used, and the calorific value of combustion is definitely much higher than that of Lu. This quality is not to be said. ”

"Fifteen hundred tons! So much! Li Yi was a little surprised, "That way things will be much easier." So be it. Give us... Not... Six hundred tons is good, well, six hundred tons. I will give you all the rotten peace coal on our ship, and you will load each of my ships with three hundred tons of Tacheng coal. Grandma's, the tonnage of the ship is tight, and there are some soldiers to load, so I can't stuff more coal. Next time I go back, I must let the guys from the modern special shipyard get some really big ships out, at least more than 1,000 tons. The current 850-ton ship is still too cramped, and I always feel that it is not enough to put things away. ”

"Okay, you're on a mission, and I'm not going to talk nonsense." Shi Qinjie said cheerfully, "Well, Rodrigo, you will send some bacon and cured meat to the ship in a moment; Some fresh coconuts were also picked, and vegetables from the field were picked as fresh as possible and sent to the boat. Well, is there anything else you need? ”

"Get us a few more live animals." Li Yi snapped his fingers and said, "Fresh fresh water is not in a hurry, and it is not too late to pretend on the day of departure." We are not short of weapons, gunpowder, food, we have brought some money, and now the coal has been solved, and we have prepared many sets of various parts and components on the ship. Well, there's nothing more to add. Well, give me some spare planks; Also, take the time to do some maintenance on our two boats, scrape the bottom of the boat, and then apply tar. By the way, it's better to give me a few more cats that can catch mice, the bunnies on the boat who are idle and have nothing to do are gambling with rats all day long, and one of Lao Tzu's dresses has been bitten by rats. Grandma, a bear, give me a few cats, I'm going to take this litter of mice! ”

"Okay, okay, all for you." Shi Qinjie smiled and said, "I'll let Rodrigo take care of this, you just have to find him for anything." By the way, there is no coal on the Xinhuabao side now, and all the coal is piled up in Tacheng and has not been shipped back. I'm afraid you'll still have to drive your own ship to ship there, and I don't know if it's going to be smooth or not. ”

"By the way, of course by the way." Li Yi waved his hand and said indifferently: "Anyway, we are going south, and when the time comes, we will directly stop at Tacheng to load coal." By the way, what are the conditions of the port over there, there are no reefs or silts, right? I'm afraid that if the ship runs aground, it will be a joke. ”

"Don't worry, the battleship 'Common Market' can be moored, but it can't stop your ship?" Shi Qinjie said, "It has been measured, and the average water depth is more than 10 meters, and it can stop a large boat." The harbor is located in the recess of the promontory, just sheltered from the wind, a natural harbor, and a wooden trestle has been built to allow your ship to dock there. It's just that how did you take this route? I had heard Wang Tiehammer say that it was best to follow the Australian coastline and then bypass the island of New Guinea and head north. If that's the case, you should go east from here, how can you go south? Isn't that the route you've set for that? ”

"I would like to go north in April, and then go north to the Indian Ocean, with a smooth wind and water, and I can fly at a speed of more than ten knots by starting a steam engine." Li Yi wiped his sweat, then sighed and said, "But this time the task given to us is to explore the South Indian Ocean route to avoid the sensitive East Indies as much as possible......"

In fact, according to Wang's original idea, after leaving Xinhua Port, the ship would sail all the way east, and then try to catch the southwest wind and sail downwind. Legend has it that the Dutch of this era followed this route, and their ships would take advantage of the southwesterly winds as far as the Sunda Strait as soon as they entered the Indian Ocean. But at the same time, the problem also came, don't look at the officers of the Navy who crossed the crowd on weekdays, but asked everyone, including Xiao Bailang, who had served as a captain before the crossing, they couldn't say a reason for how to use this southwest wind to sail.

When and where this wind blows, and where it can be captured, need to be carefully explored. Moreover, the most important thing is that the destination that can be reached by following this wind is the Sunda Strait, which is not looking for death. Therefore, under the repeated planning of the Admiralty, it was finally decided to choose the route in the sea between 35 and 40 degrees south latitude, that is, to sail eastward along this latitude, and then try to find the Australian mainland. After all, it always seems easier to find a continent.

After finding the Australian mainland, Li Yi and the others will first go ashore to replenish supplies and rest, and then continue to sail east along the south coast of Australia. After crossing the strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania, the fleet will turn north along the east coast of mainland Australia, follow the Coral Sea into the Solomon Sea, and then cross the waters off the island of New Guinea and head north into the coast of China.

This route is not much farther than following the north coast of mainland Australia, but it is much safer and more concealed. It is important to know that the Dutch have a large fleet in the Banda Sea, guarding their clove business. Whether it is the Banda Sea or the Timor Sea, in fact, they are within the cruising range of the Dutch, and if you rush over, it is easy to encounter them, and then cause a series of uncontrollable events. In that case, you might as well take the south coast of Australia, which is a completely desolate route, and it is safer to take it from here without worrying about encountering enemy ships, and if you build a supply base.

And this route has a particular benefit, which is Australia's abundant coal resources. Along the way, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland and other regions have abundant coal reserves. There are four areas that are easy to mine (buried no more than 3-4 metres underground) and easy to transport (close to the harbour), namely the areas around Melbourne (Anglesea, Altona, Barksmash, etc.), Rosevale in Tasmania (where the Tymaa River goes straight to the sea), the Hunter Valley near Newcastle and the Bowen Basin in Queensland.

In the middle of these regions, the coal produced by the first two is mainly lignite, and the proportion of black coal is not high, but it is very convenient to transport, and some coalfields are even near the sea; The latter two are basically high-quality black coal that can be mined in the open pit, but there is still some distance from the coast, such as the famous Hunter Valley coal mining area, which is generally located in inland areas dozens of kilometers from the coast. This coal, after being mined, can be used as a coal supplement for the steam engines of the East Coast people to increase the endurance of the ships, which is extremely important for the East Coast fleets that travel long distances. Of course, the main thing to mine is to see which coal mine is found first, anyway, under the limited manpower and material resources, Li Yi is inclined to mine coal in the Altona district near Melbourne. Although most of the lignite produced is lignite with a low calorific value, it is easy to mine (the coal is buried shallowly) and easy to transport (just off the coast), which is much more convenient than the Hunter Valley area, which needs to be transported dozens of kilometers by land to the sea. (To be continued......)