Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1139 Fengguo
After crossing the strait, the fleet arrived in the New World, but this area was not suitable for settlement due to the climate, so the fleet continued to sail south along the coastline, passed the Alaska area in later generations, bypassed the peninsula, and continued to sail southeast. The exploration fleet had arrived in this place before, but after bypassing the peninsula, it turned to the west coast of the New World and continued south. The previous exploration fleet had only reached the east coast of the Gulf of Alaska, which is near the area of ​​Vancouver in later generations.

This route was not short, and the entire fleet took half a month. However, compared with the previous voyage, the current voyage was much smoother. Moreover, as the fleet headed south, the climate gradually improved. When the fleet arrived at the Vancouver area in the future, Zheng Hongkui ordered the fleet to dock and prepare to rest here.

The Vancouver of today is not yet the city of later times. It is very desolate. Apart from having a good geographical location as a bay port, there is not even a single person to be seen on the shore.

But from Zheng Hongkui's perspective, this place is an excellent choice for a good port, and the main port of the future ocean-going fleet in the New World can be located here.

Moreover, the climate in this area is quite good, similar to the northern region of the Ming Dynasty. After docking, Zheng Hongkui allowed people to land and rest, and on the other hand, he prepared to build a preliminary port and facilities near the port. In addition, the more important point was to ask the two princes whether they wanted to choose to land here and use this as a foundation to develop inland as a place for enthronement.

Zhu Mincheng thought about it and shook his head slightly, rejecting the idea of ​​using this as the place of enthronement. As the King of Song, he had made much more preparations in advance than Zhu Cizhou, especially through his contact with Charles II, he got some information about the New World from the other party.

Although at present, European countries have only occupied the east coast and the central and southern regions of the New World, and rarely set foot on the west coast of the New World, the main reason is that the route is too far. If the shortest distance from Europe to the New World is the central and southern regions of the New World, and to reach the west coast, you have to bypass the entire New World and go around the southernmost tip of the New World near the South Pole. This route takes more than a month, and the sea route to the south is not easy to travel, and there are certain risks.

The main reason for such a route is that although the north and south regions of the New World are narrow, there is no sea route connecting them. The Panama region is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It will take more than 200 years to build a canal connecting the two oceans. With current technological capabilities, it is simply impossible to dig a connection.

Therefore, in the direction of the west coast, only the Spanish Kingdom, which occupied the richest regions of Central and South America, had the ability to directly transport materials from the east coast to the west coast by land, and then load the goods and transport them from the west coast via the Asian route to the South Pacific region, and then from the South Pacific to the west to Europe.

This sea route has always been controlled by the Kingdom of Spain. The Kingdom of Portugal once had a similar route, but later because Portugal was ruled by Spain, the best part of Portugal's colonies in the New World was annexed by Spain during the rule, and thus this route was lost.

As the King of England and married to a Portuguese princess, Charles II knew a lot about the New World. So when Zhu Mincheng asked him about the New World, Charles II did not hide anything and told him everything he knew in detail.

In this case, Zhu Mincheng certainly knew where the richest area in the New World was, and their current location was still far away. Moreover, the further south you go, the more pleasant the climate is, and the more suitable it is for settlement, so Zhu Mincheng did not fancy the current landing area and decided to continue going south to find a better and more suitable place.

Compared to Zhu Mincheng, Zhu Cizhuo showed an expression of interest. Although there were not many people in this place and there were large tracts of virgin forests on the land, he thought it was a very good place for a fiefdom. Especially when Zheng Hongkui had decided to use this port as one of the main ports of the fleet in the future, to build port facilities including shore buildings and leave some troops to garrison, he was even more moved.

Zhu Mincheng saw Zhu Cizhao's excited look and couldn't help but smile.

"This place is pretty good. Why don't you make it your fiefdom?" Zhu Mincheng asked him with a smile.

"Is this... appropriate?" Zhu Cizhao's heart was pounding. Although he wanted to say yes, his reason told him that he must be reserved. Moreover, as two princes of the Ming Dynasty who were enfeoffed in the New World, he, the so-called emperor, was far inferior to Zhu Mincheng in both status and place. Even if he wanted to, without Zhu Mincheng's nod, the choice of the region was not his decision.

"What's wrong with this?" Zhu Mincheng waved his hand and said generously, "We didn't specify any area before we set out to divide the New World. His Majesty has given us the right to act at our convenience. Now that we are here, I think the harbor here is excellent and the climate is not bad. Moreover, Marshal Zheng will station troops here in the future. With Marshal Zheng's fleet coming and going in the future, it will be very convenient for us to communicate or contact the mainland. In addition, the port is much more secure. If you are interested, you can use this as your fiefdom. Marshal Zheng and the court officials who came with him will be recorded in the book and will report to His Majesty after returning to Ming Dynasty."

Hearing this, Zhu Cizhou subconsciously looked towards Zheng Hongkui. Seeing Zheng Hongkui nod slightly, Zhu Cizhou was completely relieved.

"In that case, I will use this as my fiefdom. Thank you, brother Emperor, thank you, Marshal Zheng..." "Hahaha! Sure thing." Zheng Hongkui laughed. As the commander of the fleet, he not only had to escort them to the New World and ensure the smooth division of fiefdom, but also had another task during this voyage, which was to perfect the nautical charts for traffic to and from the New World and establish the location of the seaport here. In addition, he was responsible for determining the location of the other party's fiefdom and then reporting back to the Ming Dynasty.

With the approval of Zhu Mincheng and Zheng Hongkui, Zhu Cizhou no longer hesitated and chose this place as the location of his fiefdom.

Zhu Mincheng was right. This place was good. It not only had a good port, but also had a climate similar to that of the northern part of the Ming Dynasty. This was relatively easy for Zhu Cizuo, who had always lived in the capital, to get used to. More importantly, Zhu Mincheng mentioned the issue of setting up a port for the fleet. With the port and garrison of the Ming Dynasty fleet, it would be much more convenient for him to develop his fiefdom in the future.

As for the rest, Zhu Ci Zhao didn't think too much about it, and he also knew that if he continued to go south, he might find a better place. But the problem was that his identity was different from Zhu Mincheng's. He was Zhu Youjian's prince, which was an extremely embarrassing identity. How could he compete with Zhu Mincheng for a better fiefdom?

Furthermore, there is an old saying that a bird in the hand is worth a hundred years in the forest. As long as Zhu Ci Zhao determines the location of the fief, he will not have to face subsequent troubles. In addition, he can also use this to express his attitude and tell Zhu Mincheng his humble attitude in this way. Isn't this good?

In this way, Zhu Cizuo's fiefdom was set in the Vancouver area. Of course, this place could no longer be named Vancouver, because Zhu Cizuo's title was Prince Yong, so the place where they landed was named "New Yongzhou" and the fiefdom was named "Yongguo".

The specific territorial division is temporarily based on Vancouver as the center, with an area of ​​more than 300 miles from north to south, and about 500 miles inland. Of course, this fiefdom area is only temporary, and there are no strong restrictions. It is just determined as the initial area. After all, they don't have many people now. In addition to the dozens of people given to him by the emperor, Zhu Cizhuo also has more than a thousand Eight Banners reorganized from Liaodong. All these people add up to more than a thousand people. With such a small number of people, it is enough to own a large area of ​​nearly 37,000 square kilometers.

Although the location of the fiefdom and the name of the country including the territorial division have been determined, there is still a lot to do. Zhu Cizhuo, the so-called vassal king, can be said to be poor and penniless, and he doesn't even have a palace to live in, so the next thing to do is to first determine a settlement near Xinyongzhou, build houses and city walls to ensure settlement and security needs, and other things can be done slowly, there is no rush.

In order to help Zhu Cizhou settle down, they stayed here for nearly two months with the consent of Zhu Mincheng. During this period, they not only simply built a port and settlements on the shore, but also built a small city of considerable size using earthen mounds and huge local trees.

Although it was called a small town, it was actually not much different from a military fortress of the Ming Dynasty. Its entire area was probably not even as large as that of an ordinary town in the interior of the Ming Dynasty. As for the houses and facilities in the small town, they were also very simple. Because of the tight time, they were temporarily built with felled wood, but there was no problem with living.

After completing these, Zheng Hongkui left a few ships and some soldiers to continue to assist Zhu Ci Zhao in improving this place, and then took the main fleet and Zhu Mincheng south. Their fleet left Xinyongzhou and continued to sail south.

From the Xinyongzhou seaport, heading south along the west coast, the sea route here is much easier to travel, and the coastline is relatively flat. In addition, the climate becomes warmer the further south you go.

After sailing for about seven or eight days, the fleet finally found another natural harbor in the west coast area. The coast of this area stretched out to the west and was concave near the land. The entire shape was like a crab claw, and the area inside was a natural harbor.

After sending ships into the harbor to explore and confirming the water depth and quality of this natural harbor, Zheng Hongkui decided to set up the port of the second fleet in the New World here.

At this time, Zhu Mincheng, who had landed and sent people to investigate the situation, also took a fancy to this area after figuring out the general situation of the surrounding areas. The climate, topography and location here are all excellent. After consideration, Zhu Mincheng decisively chose this place as the location of his fiefdom and called this port Xinjing Port. Zheng Hongkui assisted in determining the location of the fiefdom and established this place as "Song State".

Next, just like in Xinmingzhou, Zheng Hongkui not only led people to build the port, but also assisted Zhu Mincheng in building a settlement on the shore, including a preliminary city. Compared with Zhu Cizhuo, Zhu Mincheng brought more people and made more complete preparations, so everything was carried out in an orderly manner. Watching the city from scratch, taking shape little by little, standing on the newly built city wall, overlooking the vast land and mountains to the east, Zhu Mincheng was full of pride. This was his fiefdom. Thinking of this, he was secretly excited.

(End of this chapter)