On the warship carrying the fog balloon and airship, Yuqing put away the telescope and said, "What are you talking about with my brother-in-law and Situ Muran?" Talked for so long? Aren't they afraid of the cold? Xiaoling, ring the bell to change shifts, let everyone pay attention to safety, and be sure to grasp it, otherwise it will be dangerous to fall into the sea. Xiao Ling answered the order, rang the bronze bell for the shift change, and several teams of female soldiers rushed onto the deck, replacing their former comrades and guarding about two dozen wooden boxes.

It was about noon when we departed from the military port, and it was almost dawn when we arrived at the Emerald Isle, but fortunately the sailors were very familiar with this route, otherwise they would usually choose to stay somewhere at night and would not venture forward.

The reason why it took so long was that the structure of the warship itself was not perfect, and the resistance was too large to affect the speed, and secondly, according to Yuan Fang's previous requirements, the front sails of all warships had been removed, which was equivalent to a loss of at least one-third of the power, and the speed was sharply reduced again.

The so-called it is easy to go up the mountain and difficult to go down the mountain, the same is true for getting on and off the ship, there is no port on the Emerald Island, the big ships can only be moored in a deep enough sea area, and the materials on it can only be transferred ashore by small and medium-sized warships, there is not enough winch noose, but it took a lot of effort, the sailors are okay, they are used to such a climate, and the female soldiers are not good, their clothes are soaked when they wade and push the boat, and they fell ill a lot that day, Su Ming and other military doctors set up tents for the first time, took turns to fight, and all kinds of medicines were in a steady stream to control the condition in time.

At the same time, with the continuous supply of material resources to the beach, according to Situ Muran's instructions, began to build a camp in a sheltered mountain col, which will become a material secondary school base and a temporary training ground, according to Yuan Fang's vision, it will be transformed into a forward base of the navy in the near future.

After listening to Yuan Fang's attention to the navy and his vision for future development, Situ Muran was full of hope and enthusiasm, and immediately ordered a part of the empty ships to return to the military port and bring more sailors to help.

At the same time, after consulting with Yuan Fang, Situ Muran issued the first military task, sending half of the small and medium-sized warships to carry enough supplies to disperse the two main sea routes of the Dongsheng Empire and the Liusang Empire to monitor the movements of the empire.

On the third day of arriving at the Emerald Island, the ships requisitioned by Kaiyang Port arrived and brought the second batch of materials, which were mainly based on building materials and weapons, building materials are necessary materials for the construction of the base, and the weapons were applied to the empire after Yuan Fang saw the downfall of the navy.

When the merchant ships arrived at the Emerald Isle, the requisitioned laborers were busy unloading the ships and transporting them in small boats, so many merchant ships carried much more cargo than warships, seven or eight large cargo ships and a dozen or so medium-sized cargo ships, and it was difficult to empty the goods in two or three days.

The construction of the camp was carried out in an orderly manner, and the five hundred laborers were very busy, and although the weather was cold, the scene was in full swing.

In three days, Yuan Fang had already surveyed the pirate in detail, and the so-called survey was to take a casual walk around to see the general topography, which made Yuan Fang hesitate that the beach of this pirate was not deep on three sides, and the only deep water area in the south was full of reefs, and the ships could not approach it at all.

The reality is cruel, Yuan Fang had to admit that his previous fantasy of planning to build a military port here came to naught, he asked a lot of senior people, if the reef in the south is cleared, open up a harbor, not to mention how difficult it is, just hiring manpower and more than ten years of construction is not Yuan Fang can wait, at the same time, Yuan Fang accidentally learned from the merchant ship crew that about a hundred miles east of the Emerald Island, there is an island called Long Ring Island, Long Ring Island is ring-shaped, and the land area is not large, There is a gap of about ten kilometers to the southwest, and there is a lake-like bay inside, which is a natural semi-open port, and from the shape and geographical location on the map, it is very suitable as a naval base, but the long ring island is not under the control of the Eastern Saint Empire, but is occupied by a group of pirates named Hengsha.

The Hengsha pirates are said to have more than 100 warships, of which more than half are large warships, and the combat effectiveness of the remaining small and medium-sized warships should not be underestimated, and the personnel are more than 5,000, which is still a conservative number, because no one has been to the Long Ring Island, and I don't know how many people live on the island, and this number is only analyzed according to the number of warships, which is relatively conservative.

After getting this news, Yuan Fang immediately found Situ Muran to ask about Changhuan Island, Situ Muran's face was not very good, and he said: "Lord Yuan, that Changhuandao is terrifying, it is the largest pirate gang in the nearby waters, but it is very strange, they have never plundered in the nearby waters, we have passed there before, and they have not shown any hostility, they just don't allow us to approach." ”

Yuan Fang was surprised and said, "There is still such a thing? Why haven't you said that before? ”

Situ Muran said innocently: "Changhuandao is not close to us, and they have never harassed the ships passing by, and they are not in our waters, and they have no hostility towards our Eastern Saint Empire, I don't think they will pose a threat to us, so I didn't say anything." Lord Yuan, what are you asking about Changhuandao? ”

Yuan Fang didn't answer and asked: "Since they are pirates, they can't do nothing, so what do they eat and drink?" How much do you know about them? ”

Situ Muran thought for a while and said: "It's not that they don't rob, I heard that someone saw that their fleet once appeared in the eastern waters of the South Seas, carrying a few merchant ships of a certain country on the Nanda Road back to Changhuandao, and no one knows what happened later, as for their strength, we were defeated by the Japanese fleet two years ago, and in the process of retreating, we passed through the long roundabout, and saw from a distance that there were dozens of large and small ships moored in the bay in the middle of the roundabout. ”

Yuan Fang interrupted and asked, "Dozens?" Isn't it over a hundred? ”

Situ Muran was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "Lord Yuan, you won't listen to those people from the merchant ships, they like to exaggerate, how can they surpass the white warships, what kind of strength does that have to be?" It is estimated that the smallest kind of dinghy is counted, which is about the same. According to my observation, they have about twenty large warships, and the number of medium-sized warships is about the same, and there are probably more small ships, but the small ships basically have no combat effectiveness and are generally not counted in the fleet sequence. Yuan Fang nodded, deep in thought, Situ Muran took the teacup handed by Sang Rou, politely thanked him, and drank tea and waited.