Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 227 New Mission

half a day later
Lieutenant Colonel Wang Haigou came out of the minister's office and waved his fist excitedly. He had found a new direction for making achievements.

This time

The Minister said, "If you do well and achieve great success, I will guarantee you a future as a baron. I will not lie."

This is a noble title that even the commanders of the main army regiments are jealous of. Originally, Wang Haigou thought he had no chance, but there was a turning point here, which made him very excited.

The most prosperous department in the ministry recently is the Fifth Department. Although the Ministry of the Interior strictly prohibits each other from inquiring about information, some news still leaks out, which makes other departments envious.

The third department could have shown up a bit, tracking that foreign woman Aurora and the British Civil Service Commissioner Sir Joachim Anderson's secret tryst, hoping to get some valuable intelligence.

But the result was disappointing and all the efforts were in vain.

When the two met in secret, they talked about topics such as love and freedom. Aurora wanted her British lover to help her escape from the hell of Manila and go to Singapore or even Europe to start a new life.

Sir Joachim Anderson originally agreed to it, thinking it was a trivial matter, but later he changed his mind and was willing to pay 300 pounds as compensation.

The monitoring team under Wang Haigou heard all this bullshit, but didn't get any valuable information they wanted to hear. It was a waste of their time.

They persisted until the British delegation left, the relevant monitoring work was completed, the monitoring materials were signed and archived, and there was no further news.

Because it was a secret operation, no one told Captain Charlie that he had been cheated on.

Internal Affairs officers have their pride; they're not private investigators investigating their wives' infidelity, nor do they have the time to dwell on such trivial matters. Disclosing investigative information is itself a violation of discipline, and no one would be so foolish as to trade their career for someone else's goodwill.

This kind of trivial matter might even lead to complaints.

Lieutenant Colonel Wang Haigou had another thought in his mind;
If the surveillance data is in our hands, it will be a handle.

If necessary, Aurora can be forced to go undercover in Malacca. After all, this woman had an underground relationship with Sir Joachim Anderson, so she can make use of her remaining energy.

After receiving the new task, he threw these trivial matters out of his mind and began to prepare the team to take to Hawaii.

He definitely can't do it alone, he needs to bring some smart and capable people with him.

Ten days later
Wang Haigou took eight capable men and boarded a cargo fleet bound for the United States. The ship was loaded with more than 8 tons of copper ingots and hundreds of tons of tin ingots, and sailed all the way to the east.

After 4 days and 4 nights of sailing, we arrived at Guam, the first stop on the Pacific route.

The fleet stayed here for a day and docked at the pier to replenish fresh vegetables, fruits and melons to ensure the crew's vitamin intake and physical and mental health.

The fleet docked at the pier in Agana, from where you can see the tall Lightning Mountain and large areas of lush tropical forests.

Wang Haigou and others got off the boat and went deep into the town of Agana just to satisfy their appetite. They had been eating dry biscuits and pickles on the boat these days, and their mouths were almost bland.

The town of Agana is very bustling with people coming and going in an endless stream. Shops along the street are hawking their goods, and there are teahouses, restaurants, and hotels with banners fluttering, and brothels are hidden among them.

After a few months of Chinese occupation, a large number of wooden houses with stilts were built in the town, with traditional Chinese flying eaves roofs, and the size of the town expanded several times.

The central block is made up of brick buildings with corridors, which is very suitable for rainy Guam.

If people who are shopping encounter heavy rain, they can take shelter under the corridor, where the wind will not hit their heads, the rain will not hit their faces, and their shopping will not be delayed.

Wang Haigou and others stopped at the door of a restaurant called Huang Ji Restaurant. The rich aroma of food coming from inside made everyone salivate.

Okay, it’s him.

The waiter came out to greet everyone warmly. When everyone entered the store, they saw that most of the more than 10 seats in the store were already full. Many of them were sailors from the cargo fleet, who were eating meat and drinking with relish.

Wang Haigou and others smiled when they saw this. They all had traditional Chinese appetites, and no one wanted to miss the opportunity to improve it!

There were nine people in their group, sitting at two round tables.

The restaurant has a wide variety of dishes, including various sea fish, chicken, duck, and eggs, but no goat, pork, or beef.

According to the store

The goats, pigs, cattle, donkeys, mules and other livestock that have landed on the island have been used to reproduce the population in the past two years. Slaughter without reason is absolutely not allowed, unless the animals are sick or injured. Otherwise, they will be severely punished.

It will take two or three years, until the livestock population expands, before the management committee lifts the ban and allows free trading in the market.

Even without these meats, the selection is still plentiful.

There were two tables, each with a 5-pound braised yellow croaker with green onions, hot octopus, a rooster with potatoes, a pot of salted shrimp, scrambled eggs with onions, baked bacon with pineapple, and a large plate of seafood stew, and that was it.

Bring two jars of wine, and start eating happily. It is really delicious and refreshing!
Wang Haigou learned that a week ago, an immigration fleet had just arrived, bringing more than 2 Chinese immigrants, of which more than were settled in Guam and more than were settled in Saipan, which was not far away.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the original indigenous population on Guam was as high as nearly 30. Large tracts of land had been cultivated, and the island had a good foundation.

But more than three hundred years have passed, and the original indigenous people on Guam have shrunk from hundreds of thousands to only five or six thousand, and their appearance is almost the same as that of the Spaniards.

They also speak fluent Spanish and are devout Catholics.

The natives were separated, the men thrown into labor camps, and the young women were taken away by earlier soldiers and immigrants.

After hundreds of years of abandonment, the large tracts of arable land originally cultivated by the indigenous people of the island have been covered again by tropical trees and ubiquitous bushes, and their former appearance is no longer recognizable.

these days
Large-scale burning has been organized on the island, clearing a buffer zone hundreds of meters wide in the tropical jungle, and then adding flammable sulfur, kerosene and hay to make the fire burn fiercely.

On the days of burning, thick black smoke covered the entire island, and warm embers were falling everywhere, covering the streets with a thick layer that was so thick that it covered the shoes when you stepped on it.

Through large-scale burning, the land in the relatively flat areas was exposed, and the indigenous convicts were responsible for digging pits, digging out the charred tree trunks of all sizes with their roots, and laying them on the burned land.

The Chinese immigrants who followed up, armed with knives, axes and saws, removed the branches of the trees, cut them into sections of trunks, and then hauled them away on ox carts to be processed in sawmills.

The ox cart is also responsible for harrowing and turning the land, clearing out all the large and small plant roots, shrub roots, and stone fragments in the reclaimed land.

Then, lime is used to mark the locations of fields, field roads and irrigation canals, and the land is plowed and deep-turned, leaving the black and oily soil exposed to the scorching sun.

Finally, the land will be distributed to each farmer. Chinese immigrants will use farm tools to break up, harrow, dig furrows and ridges the deep-plowed land, and then they can start planting crops.

Over the years
The State of Chu was very experienced in organizing reclamation. It had formed a mature process, trained a large number of young and middle-aged reclamation officials, and organized it in an orderly manner.

The food, fruits and vegetables produced by the early garrisons and immigrants were supplied to the market after harvest, especially as supplies for the fleets traveling back and forth, and they could often be sold at a good price.

With the recent influx of a large number of Chinese immigrants, Guam's development has entered a deeper level.

Hundreds of new villages and towns were established one after another, and a wave of comprehensive reclamation was set off in Guam. The hardworking figures of Chinese people could be seen everywhere in the fields, and they began to take root on this Pacific island.

According to the waiter

This group of Chinese immigrants includes both men and women, with women accounting for 20 to 30%. Their arrival makes everyone full of confidence in the future prosperity of Guam.

The cargo fleet that arrived in Guam also brought a large amount of food. The large sailboat that Wang Haigou was riding on carried more than 100 tons of food, all of which had to be unloaded in Guam.

The arrival of a large number of Chinese immigrants made the originally abundant food supply stretched to its limit, and the Hainan Islands had to lend a helping hand to replenish the early food stocks.

The fleet heading to the United States consisted of 11 ships of various sizes. The large ones carried more than tons of food, and the small ones carried dozens of tons of food, which weighed the ships down very low, making them almost fully loaded.

After unloading these grains, the side of the cargo ship can be higher and safer.

When crossing the vast Pacific Ocean route, cargo fleets must not be loaded too full.

A huge wave in the deep ocean can cause a ship to capsize and sink in a matter of minutes.

Among the fleet, several ships went to Saipan to unload cargo, mainly grain.

It is expected to return before noon tomorrow, reunite with the fleet, and continue advancing into the deep ocean.

The next target was Wake Island, more than 2000 kilometers away. The fleet also brought a large amount of supplies to Wake Island, and also took risks.

Sailing eastward, unloading along the way, after Wake Island came Midway Island. What they brought to these two islands were a large amount of construction steel, daily necessities such as pots and pans, as well as a large number of farm tools, axes, shovels, hoes, iron rakes, iron plows, hacksaws, oil lamps, etc., which was very thoughtful.

There were not many immigrants on Midway Island and Wake Island, and they were mainly stationed on the coastal border. All the necessary supplies, including food, were brought there by fleets across the Pacific.

The resources on Midway Island are better, so there is enough local food and meat to eat, so there is no need to worry.

Mainly Wake Island, where large warehouses are being built to store enough food and other supplies for half a year.

The island is also building a fortress and a lighthouse. It is planned to build a sturdy fortress that can shelter from wind and rain and has strong defensive capabilities within 8 to 10 years.

A lighthouse was built on another island not far from the fortress to guide passing ships.

After eating and drinking their fill, Wang Haigou and the others strolled around the market again, bought some snacks such as fried cakes, fried fruits, and crispy pastries, and also bought a lot of fruit to eat on the boat.

Everyone was chatting and laughing along the way as they carried the large and small bags back, and then went to the boat to rest.

(End of this chapter)