December 25, 1651, the Mangoki River Delta.

When the three East African transport company ships sailed from the port of Suez to the sea off Xinhua Bay, they were stopped by a traffic boat sailing out of the bay, and then the three ships joined a newly launched flute-type transport ship (loaded with a large amount of pioneering materials) and turned around and sailed directly to the Mangoki River delta in the western part of New China Island.

The big ships on the east coast did not dare to approach the coral reef-covered offshore at all, so they put down many small boats at the anchorages in the open sea and then barge them back and forth. This is no joke, the island was probably connected to the African continent in "antiquity" (perhaps dating back to the Cretaceous), as evidenced by the fact that the water on its west coast (the Strait of Mozambique) is much smaller than that on the east coast - the sea is full of shoals and coral reefs, especially around the island of Comoros, which is known as the Comoros Plateau.

The rivers and their tributaries that flow westward into the Strait of Mozambique from the Great Central Highlands have carved the coastal strip of limestone, sandstone and volcanic rocks throughout the western part of New China into "corridors". In addition, a large amount of sediment carried by the river washed away and distributed over the vast lowlands, and over time, the land overcame the sea, and the area that was originally the sea was silted up again and became a fertile alluvial plain.

Among these vast alluvial plains, the most famous and largest are the Bwana Basin with Mahajanga as the core, and the Manaper Basin to the south - of course, in view of the factor of an old indigenous kingdom that has always caused trouble for the people on the east coast, Shi Qinjie, the leader of the New China Pioneer Team, has officially named this basin the Daqing Basin, which means to celebrate the inevitable victory of the military campaign against the Manaber Kingdom.

The area around the Mangoji River delta, where the four big ships of the people on the east bank were anchored at this time, is the largest estuary delta with the best agricultural conditions in the Daqing Basin. Meantime. This alluvial plain, with an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers, is also one of the few deltas on the entire New China Island.

At the same time, the climate here is undoubtedly hot. Rainfall is also not very much. Even during the so-called rainy season (i.e., summer), the northeast trade winds in the Northern Hemisphere shift to the southeast after crossing the equator. This, combined with the expansion of the depression zone in the Mozambique Channel into coastal land, and the interception of rainwater in the central highlands, have greatly reduced precipitation in the western coastal basins, especially in the southwest, which is almost arid due to strong evaporation.

Since it was the first time for the people on the east bank to develop the area of the Mangoki River, they did not have the local meteorological numbers at hand, and the port of the Cotton River was on the other side. Due to the negligence of the previous work, the temperature, wind, sunshine, and precipitation numbers recorded were pitifully small, so the number of the Mangoki River Delta can only be guessed.

The Agricultural Bureau under the jurisdiction of the New China Development Team estimates that the annual rainfall days at the Mulundawa estuary should be about 60 days, with an annual precipitation of 700 mm; The number of the Mangoki River Delta is likely to need to be cut by about one-third on this basis, that is, the annual precipitation here is likely to be only about 450-500 mm, and this rain will be concentrated in a month or two; As for the Cotton River and the Tuulare area, it would be good to have an annual precipitation of more than 300 years. The general trend of precipitation is less as further south as it goes, with cooler temperatures and more coastal shoals and reefs.

And the temperature that will have an important impact on the sugarcane that people on the East Coast will be planting. People on the east bank are not worried about this, because whether it is in the Mangoki River Delta or the Cotton River area in the south, the annual accumulated temperature is generally above 8,000 degrees Celsius (the average annual temperature at the mouth of the Mangoki River in later generations was 24.9C). The absolute maximum temperature was 38.2C, and the river flow was highest in January, at 1251 cubic meters per second; 23.8C in Tulare and 39.8C in absolute maximum), ideal for the growth of sugarcane as a crop.

In fact, this place has long been targeted by the New China Pioneer Team, and its time is about when Tahitian sugarcane was introduced to the Botanical Garden of Guihua Port, when Shi Qinjie sent a team composed of a small number of expedition members, and landed here by boat several times, and it was very important to investigate the various conditions in this place. Finally, it was found that the area around the Mangoki River Delta was most suitable for the growth of this crop with heavy economic value.

Now, taking advantage of this war, the New China Pioneer Team finally decided to set up a settlement here. Then vigorously promote the cultivation of sugarcane, and if necessary, set up a sugar mill and a distillery. In order to improve the economic added value of the product. The size of this settlement, to be honest, is not small. According to Shi Qinjie's plan, the settlement was to make it another economic center on the island, like the coal industry of Tacheng Port, and make it another big cash cow for the pioneer government—and probably the most profitable one.

The landing of four large ships lasted several days before the 1,000 Polish prisoners of war who had been granted "amnesty" (i.e., granted free status) for their good performance on weekdays, together with more than 2,000 Ming immigrants (servant officers and soldiers who had been dismissed from Shandong and their families) who had been intercepted by Shi Qinjie, crossed the shallow waters off the coast of the sea, and then landed near the mouth of the river and planted a flag of the Republic of China on the east coast of China, officially declaring sovereignty here.

Although drought is the main tone in the entire western region, and the yellow grassland is the main color, there are still vast areas of forest near the mouth of the Mangoki River. Compared to the dark, dense forests around Xinhuagang, the forests in this area are "brighter", which often means that the forests are sparsely populated.

There are many common tree species in the forest, such as the branch palm, raffia (raffia), East African sugar palm, small sour jujube, fig and other genera, as well as the famous baobab tree. For these trees, the New China Pioneer Team actually has a protective attitude. Over the years, the area of these bright forests has been greatly reduced by uncontrolled logging by the indigenous people and the rising wildfires. The shrinking of the forest area can easily lead to the desertification of the soil in these semi-arid areas, and eventually the ecological environment of the entire region will deteriorate dramatically - this is not alarmist, but what happened in Madagascar in later generations, and we have to learn a lesson.

As a result, one of the four large ships that came this time carried about 200,000 red bricks and a small amount of lime cement -- enough to build ten or eight standard houses on the east coast. The early settlers will use these building materials to build a small brick kiln, small lime kiln and small cement kiln, and the local limestone resources and clay are abundant, which is suitable for the development of these basic but important building materials industry. As for the houses where these immigrants live temporarily, it is very simple, there is a ship filled with all kinds of wood scraps accumulated by Xinhua Shipyard and other units over the years of shipbuilding and furniture, which can be used to build houses, warehouses, livestock pens and so on, which is very suitable.

As for the question of the location of settlements, in fact, it is also very particular. It was already the end of December, and the raging waters had filled the bed of the Mangoki River (in the dry season, a considerable part of the riverbed was exposed, and the sandy riverbed was overgrown with reeds and aquatic weeds), so that the people on the east bank could not settle too close to the riverbank, in case of a sudden increase in the flow of the river, which is often the case, depending on the amount of rainfall in the upper central highlands, and flooded to the banks of the river; Besides, there are quite a lot of swampy areas on both sides of the river, and mosquitoes breed in abundance, and if they are not well modified, it is easy for the residents to get malaria and die, so it is better to consider the location of the settlement to the south.

With this in mind, McKinley, an official in charge of the local pioneering, said McKinley (former Irish fugitive slave Charles. McKinley, one of the inventors of the 108 medicinal liquor, and the brother of the current Admiral McKinley, decided to set the settlement not far from the later Murombe. The land here is dry and does not breed mosquitoes, but there are some small tributaries of the Mangoki River that could be transformed into an artificial lake that could be used as a source of drinking and domestic water for the local population - provided that a water treatment and water supply facility is built, which is especially important in the harsh tropical regions and can effectively reduce mortality.

At the same time, the name of the settlement was already given, which was Xinlaibao, in order to give some memories to the local pioneers from Laizhou, Shandong Province (at the same time, the Mangoki River was officially named Xinlai River). The only drawback of Neulaiburg is probably that the harbor conditions are poor, and it is impossible to moor large ships - even medium-sized ships cannot moor, and it is estimated that small fishing boats with shallow drafts can get in and out for a while, and it is quite troublesome. In short, there is a lack of the necessary conditions to constitute a port, and if the sugarcane and sugar palm industries develop greatly in the future, and sugar extraction, wine-making and other deep-processed desserts become popular, how to transport these high value-added goods out for sale is still a headache.

It was impossible to say that the Xinhua Pioneer Team could only come forward and ask the local authorities for permission to build a coastal railway between Xinlaibao and the Mianhe River. In any case, the terrain here is a coastal alluvial plain, and the geographical obstacles to the construction of railways do not exist at all, but the only place that can be used as a high-quality deep-water port is the Cotton River-Turare, and the rest of the city is either shallow or densely covered with coral reefs, which is not suitable for the construction of a port. It is believed that the executive committee should finally agree to this plan after argumentation, because there is only one suitable outlet for the construction of a port in the entire Daqing Basin region, so the communication between other regions can only rely on railways, otherwise rapid development cannot be carried out at all.

On December 29, the unloaded four flute boats set sail and sailed to Xinhua Port (to continue transporting construction materials) along the southeast trade winds. The settlers who remained in the fort of New Laibao, after scaring off a handful of nomads from the snomads who had come to snoop on Sakarava, also threw off their arms and began the construction of the settlement in full swing. (To be continued)