A brig sailing ship is sailing towards Kaohsiung along the coastline, which is a "reconnaissance ship" affiliated to the Navy. It is the same type as "Haitian", so it is named "Haiqi".

As a navy's double-brid reconnaissance ship, the "Haiqi" ​​is often used as a traffic ship despite its shallow draft, fast speed and flexible use.

It appears outside Kaohsiung at this moment, and there is nothing special about it.

In the distance, a white smoke emerged, followed by a faint sound of cannons.

"Who is firing a gun?" Jin Xiaoyu, who was standing on the deck of the stern floor, said in surprise.

"It's okay, it's the Dutch who fired the cannons and greeted him." The captain said indifferently, and at the same time ordered, "Come on fire and return the salute!"

The captain of the "Haiqi" ​​was a Spanish man named Moleno Suleiman. He was the second deputy of the san raimundo, captured by the Senate in 1632 in robbing Galen, Manila. Not long after he was captured, he changed to the Senate to serve. After serving Dabo Shipping for a period, he joined the Navy as an experienced sailor.

He has excellent navigation skills and rich sailing experience in sailing ships. After joining the Navy, he has been commanding sailing ships. He was officially appointed as the captain of the newly built "Haiqi" ​​reconnaissance ship a year ago.

Although the "Haiqi" ​​is a "reconnaissance ship", it is actually responsible for "fast transportation". After it entered service, it frequently traveled between various bases of the navy and often appeared around the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago. It was responsible for transporting personnel and important materials.

Today its mission is to transport a female veteran and more than a dozen naturalized civilian cadres to Kaohsiung. Moleno Suleiman has performed many tasks of transporting people, but it is the first time that a woman is responsible for transporting a veteran, so she is extremely attentive along the way, which makes Jin Xiaoyu very embarrassed.

The "Haiqi" ​​swept across the sea outside the Dayuan Port. Jin Xiaoyu picked up the telescope and saw a series of sandbanks in front of him. It can be seen that these sandbanks were originally independent, but now they are almost connected into one piece, forming a natural breakwater.

"Is this the so-called Grandmaster Island?" Jin Xiaoyu asked.

"Yes, this is it." Moleno nodded, "It is said that it is seven sandbank islands. There is a whole city. When you enter, it is Taijiang. Also called Dayuan Bay."

Jin Xiaoyu knew that Dayuan Bay had already accumulated and disappeared in the Qing Dynasty, and when she went to Taiwan, there was no trace left. If it weren't for the ruins of Chichaicheng, it would be unimaginable where it was.

At this moment, from the telescope, you can see that the long sandbank island is dense and lush coconut forests, and there are also lots of gardens on the island, which seem to be cultivated as a plantation. The sea breeze blows, and the coconut forest beaches are beautiful.

The castles and forts built by the Dutch were distributed on this narrow island. The Dutch's biggest investment in Northeast Asia: the Jelancha Castle was completed at this time. It is exactly the same as the historical specifications: the fort is three stories high, and the main fort is built with four horned forts and four half moon forts. Such a magnificent European-style prism can be said to be unique in Northeast Asia.

The residential area outside the city of Relan Chambaugh, which is now Dayuan City, is now considered to have begun to take shape. However, it is much smaller than in history, because most of the Chinese who originally lived here now live in Kaohsiung City.

Although Jin Xiaoyu was not very interested in historical and geographical things, since he was transferred to Kaohsiung, he knew a little about the local situation. He knew that the Dutch built this castle at all costs to protect the main channel of Taijiang, which is Dayuan Bay.

However, the emergence of Kaohsiung has made the existence of the Dutch in the presence of the senior officials quite embarrassing. Although Wei Bachi of Kaohsiung is "full of kindness" to the Dutch, a considerable part of this huge castle was built by a construction team sent by Kaohsiung. However, after years of dredging of the Senate, Kaohsiung Port has a much better parking ability and wind sheltering effect than Taijiang.

Taijiang is an inner lagoon port with a water depth that can accommodate various ships in the Far East. However, the channel entering Taijiang was affected by severe sea sand siltation. When the Dutch discovered this, there were more than ten channels that could enter Taijiang, but by around 1635, only two channels had navigable value. One of them was the main channel between Dayuan Island and Beishio Island.

Even this main channel, during the tide of the new year, only small and medium-sized ships with draft depths of about three meters can pass through, which is usually even shallower. This seriously limits the navigational capacity of the ship. As for the Luermen waterway, the navigational capacity is weaker and is almost worth mentioning.

The most serious thing is that Dayuan Port seems to be in a lagoon surrounded by all sides, but the storm prevention conditions are very poor. It can only avoid the northeast, not the southwest wind - but most typhoons blow from the southwest. Many times, ships have to go to the Penghu Islands to shelter from the wind.

Because of such poor mooring conditions, large trade ships heading to Japan have always been anchored at anchor outside the Dayuan Port. After the construction of the Jelanzha Castle, they were anchored outside the castle water gate facing the Taiwan Strait, so that it was easy to load and unload goods.

However, when Jin Xiaoyu arrived, there were no large Voc ships berthed outside the castle water gate. Now most of the large Voc trade ships head directly to Kaohsiung. There are better shelter conditions and docks there. Australian cargo warehouses also have sufficient commodity to provide trade. Jelan Chateau now only reflects the existence of Voc in Taiwan.

The "Haiqi" ​​drove past Lelanzha Castle and soon saw the lighthouse on the Qijin Peninsula. This lighthouse is now a symbol of Kaohsiung Port.

The observation post suddenly reported loudly: "The port asked if water diversion and tugboats are needed..."

"Answer: No," said the Spanish.

Although the waterway entering Kaohsiung Port is not as deep as Wentong, the width of the strait between the Qijin Peninsula and the Taiwan Island is only 60 meters. What is even more troublesome is that there is a moving sandbar underwater, which will move at any time due to the impact of storm surges. This is a great threat to large naval ships that often need to enter and exit the port. Therefore, there are two 621 modified bucket steam-powered dredgers located here at the Navy Kaohsiung Base, which dredges the channel at any time. At the same time, a 621 steam tug is also stationed to help large sailboats sail safely across the Qijin Strait.

Sure enough, a Type 621 steam tug was sailing slowly on their port side, spitting black smoke. The Spanish issued a loud exit order and began to adjust the sail cables.

Jin Xiaoyu felt that the ship's speed began to slow down. Moleno picked up the telescope and kept issuing steering commands. The ship began to sail towards the entrance of the strait.

For a sea boat, the sixty-meter-wide channel is already very narrow. For sailboats that have no power and rely mainly on wind power, it requires high boat driving skills to maintain their course in such a narrow channel and not hit the reefs on the shore. For safety reasons, before the tugboat is on duty, most sailboats who come to Kaohsiung will lay down their rowboats when passing through this strait and are towed by the rowboats.

There are forts on the bow of the strait in the north and the flagback mountain in the south, monitoring the entire strait.

Through the strait, there is the long flag of Kaohsiung Inland Sea, which is actually a lagoon, and the depth of most places is limited. Therefore, most of the warships of the Navy Kaohsiung Detachment and the large merchant ships coming and going here are anchored at the bow anchorage opposite the Qijin Peninsula - this is the deepest place in the entire lagoon. The draft of "Haiqi" ​​is not large, so there is no need to be anchored here, it continues to sail inside.

Standing on the deck, small fortress-like villages scattered on the coastlines on both sides of the lagoon, surrounded by scattered farmlands and plantations. Dark-skinned farmers wearing straw hats are working on the newly reclaimed farmland, a tropical pastoral scenery.

Jin Xiaoyu looked at the beautiful scenery here and felt a lot of emotion. In the old time and space, she had studied in Kaohsiung for several years and obtained a master's degree. Her several years of international studies made her very familiar with this place. Especially in the Qijin Peninsula, which was the campus of Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology in the old time and space, she had visited lectures, exhibitions and performances here many times. However, at this moment, even the terrain cannot be linked to the Kaohsiung in her memory. Looking around, many places are still primitive wilderness.

The "Haiqi" ​​is docked on the passenger ship dock. A larger tonnage h800 has been parked here. Four-wheeled vans are parked next to the pier - because Kaohsiung is not suitable for raising horses, vans are dragged by humans. The workers in the shipping company enjoy the cool under the straw shed.

Seeing so many carts, Jin Xiaoyu knew that this was a new immigrant who was preparing to land. After the Senate launched a mainland guide, the number of immigrants from Guangdong and Guangxi suddenly increased.

Jin Xiaoyu took the students off the boat. After a few days of sailing, they were all confused and they couldn't stand firmly when they stepped on the ground of the dock.

The dock came to welcome Xiang Tianying's secretary Jing Chu, and another was a clerk of the Kaohsiung Municipal Government. Because Jin Xiaoyu was a veteran, out of respect, Wei Bachi himself would send someone to welcome him if he was not present.

Because this education service sent a lot of people, the municipal government sent two carriages to greet them: one was prepared for Jin Xiaoyu, and the other was a four-wheel freight carriage.

The teacher trainees packed their luggage and climbed onto the freight carriage. The teacher trainees looked at the subtropical scenery in front of them, and they were all excited and curious. The carriages moved together, and the young people started singing.

Jin Xiaoyu and the clerk who came to greet him made a few polite words, saying that he would go to the school first to "report" and come to "visit" the next day. The clerk also expressed his "welcome" routinely and gave gifts on behalf of the Kaohsiung Municipal Government and Wei Bachi personally.

Jin Xiaoyu and Jing Chu boarded the two-wheeled carriage together and headed for Kaohsiung National School.


Chapter completed!