Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 229 Midway Island Scenery
On the 27th day after setting sail from Manila, two large sailing ships, one in front and one behind, arrived at Midway Island, docked at the pier, and brought a lot of supplies to the residents of Midway Island.

Of the fleet of 11 sailing ships, the other 9 cargo ships had no supplies to unload at Midway Island and sailed directly to their destination port on the North American continent without detouring around Midway Island.

Only these two large sailing ships left the fleet, adjusting their course and heading towards Midway Island.

Lieutenant Colonel Wang Haigou was also on the ship in front. When he saw the black masses of albatrosses flying in the sky between the sea and the sky, he was so shocked by the scene that he was speechless and felt that his eyes had been opened.

Tens of thousands of albatrosses soared in the sky, like dark clouds blocking the sun, circling around the sailing ships, attracting many sailors to watch.

Soon they couldn't laugh anymore, and a dense cloud of flying shit filled the sky.

The white sails were dyed into a speckled shit-yellow color. Almost all the sailors were affected and had to hide in their panic with their heads in their hands. Lieutenant Colonel Wang Haigou also hid in the captain's room.

"What the hell! My ship, these damn thieves destroyed my ship. They did it on purpose, I'm sure." The captain shouted angrily.

Lieutenant Commander Wang Haigou hid in the stern cabin, looking at the bird droppings flying all over the sky, and replied thoughtfully: "This is the birds' revenge, and also a counterattack against humans invading their territory. It seems that they don't welcome us."

"Then we must kill a few more birds to eat, otherwise it will be difficult to relieve the hatred in our hearts." The captain said bitterly, and couldn't help licking his lips.

Albatross meat is firm and delicious. This large seabird usually reaches adulthood at the age of 6 to 7, has a wingspan of up to 3 meters, weighs 16 to 20 kilograms, and has a very long lifespan.

The bird meat is more delicious and rich than that of goose, and is suitable for stewing. Crew members traveling to and from Midway have tasted this delicacy and often praise it.

The two sailboats approached the dock, and with the sound of more than a dozen musket shots, albatrosses fell from the sky one after another.

The flock of birds was frightened and scattered, and fled far away.

In a short period of time
A thick layer of slippery bird droppings had accumulated on the deck of the sailing ship, emitting an unpleasant odor.

If you walk on it and are not careful, you will fall flat on your face. That feeling is really painful.

The captain directed the sailors to stand at the side of the ship and use buckets to draw sea water to wash the deck, the side of the ship, the pile of ropes, and themselves as well.

The sailors were very efficient in doing these things. This was actually a daily operation, but there was just a lot more "goods" today.

Dozens of sailors worked together and washed the deck very quickly.

Wang Haigou and others also washed up. At this time, Lieutenant Hu Dafu, the garrison commander of Midway Island, had come to the side of the ship with some of his men. Standing on the dock, he laughed and said loudly;

"I'm sorry, my guests from afar. These birds on this island are very vengeful. Nowadays, every ship that comes here is inevitably attacked. We'll stew some bird meat for everyone to taste as an apology."

"Nothing, nothing. What can a bunch of flat-haired beasts do?"

"Captain, what did you bring this time?"

"Hahaha...they're all good stuff. There are over a thousand muskets, 80 barrels of gunpowder, some wine and cotton cloth, steel bars, barbed wire, fishing nets, four small boats, and some daily necessities."

"That's great! This is exactly what we need," Lieutenant Hu Dafu replied with a smile. He turned and instructed the soldiers, "Go and call more people to unload the cargo. Have the women cook more bird meat. Today, we want to let the guys from afar taste our island's specialties."

"Okay, boss." After receiving the order, the soldier ran away.

Not long after
This attracted a large group of people, who pushed dozens of wheelbarrows to the dock and started moving the goods.

Wang Haigou and others also went down to the island. All the officers in their group were in plain clothes so as not to reveal their identities. Others thought they were just ordinary merchants.

On the Pacific route

Since 1840, Chinese tourists have been a very common group. In normal years, about to people travel to North America each year, and in more years, there are to people, most of whom travel from mainland China to North America.

There are also three to four thousand people returning every year, and in some years there are seven to eight thousand people.

Especially in recent years, with the gold rush in San Francisco, the number of Chinese people who spontaneously travel to North America has exceeded 1 every year. In recent years, the number has mostly ranged from to to or , which is quite lively.

Midway Island is not on the Pacific route, but is located further north. Most cargo ships traveling on the Pacific route do not pass through here.

There are more than 140 troops stationed on the island, hundreds of militiamen, and more than 2700 Chinese immigrants, both men and women, who have recently arrived, making the island suddenly lively.

Midway Island did not have to undertake the task of supplying passing cargo ships, but served more as a forward outpost on the Chu State's maritime frontier, with a more defensive than supply role.

After landing on the island
Lieutenant Colonel Wang Haigou discovered an interesting phenomenon. The residents of the island also lived in stone enclosures, but there were large tracts of reclaimed land here, and the crops were growing very well.

In the fields
Not only were large nets spread out, but dozens of scarecrows were also erected, fluttering in the wind. The cloth strips wrapped around the scarecrows looked like countless tentacles fluttering in the sea breeze.

There were also militia guards armed with bows and muskets, according to the islanders;
If we don't watch over them, the flocks of birds will fly over and destroy all the crops in a short time, leaving nothing behind.

Nowadays, there is no need to hunt on the southwestern islands where flocks of birds live. You can just set up nets next to the farmland and catch many birds every day.

There are as few as dozens and as many as hundreds.

Wang Haigou saw many wooden cages near the islanders' houses, which were filled with cawing albatrosses. He could slaughter fresh birds at any time to eat them.

No wonder these birds hate the islanders so much, and no wonder the flocks of birds attacked the arriving cargo ships. The grudge between the two sides is too deep to be resolved.

What should I do when guests come?
They heated up the oil in a wok and dozens of indigenous women worked together to slaughter hundreds of albatrosses, plucking their feathers and cleaning their stomachs. They piled the livers, hearts, intestines and necks of the birds into a pile and threw them into a large pot to stew.

On the other side, large pieces of bird meat are chopped, added with ginger, green onion, and cooking wine, and stir-fried in a pan. Dozens of large pots work together, and the rich aroma quickly spreads across the island.

The women washed and cut the white radishes piled up like a small mountain into pieces, quickly added them into the pot to stew, and then put the pancakes on the edge of the pot. It didn't take long for them to be served.

The soup pot for stewing bird meat also contains a lot of shrimps, plump fresh clams, and clam meat as big as a child's fist, which makes the stewed soup extremely delicious and does not require any seasoning at all.

The women would dip the dough cakes on the edge of the pot, bake them until they were golden brown, scoop them out with a small spatula, put them into bamboo baskets and serve them on the table.

The dishes were served in wash basins placed directly on the ground. A group of people gathered around to eat. They were so satisfied with the food that they almost swallowed their tongues.

It’s just one dish, with meat, seafood, vegetables and pancakes, and everyone who eats it says it’s delicious.

After one group of people ate, they took over and added more soup to the big pot. After all the soup was served, they heated up the oil in the pot again and filled the pot with soup.

More than 3,000 people on the entire island squatted on the cobblestone main street, gathered around hundreds of large basins, eating meat and drinking soup, chatting and laughing, and the atmosphere was quite lively.

Those who haven't got a turn yet will step aside and chat about other people's affairs, waiting patiently.

After the people in front finished eating, they took the empty bowls to get the dishes, and came back with a full bowl. The people behind them squatted down and continued eating. The atmosphere was quite lively.

Lieutenant Hu Dafu entertained the sailors and guests on the ship at a restaurant in the town, with more than twenty tables set up, and the dishes were of much higher standard.

In addition to a large pot of bird meat and seafood stew, each table also had a large plate of braised bird liver, intestines, neck, and heart, a rich and unique blend of flavors. There were also scrambled bird eggs with onions, braised yellow croaker, stir-fried black croaker with vegetables, steamed crab, boiled shrimp, and stewed squid with green beans. The table was filled to the brim, and each table also had a jar of wine.

It has to be said that the marine resources near Midway Island are extremely abundant, enough to be self-sufficient and even have some left over.

Wild albatrosses feed on small fish, shrimps and shellfish. The fact that such a large albatross population has formed naturally around Midway Island shows that the vast coral reefs here are extremely rich in marine resources.

According to the island's civil affairs commissioner
These islanders do not hunt albatrosses every day, nor are they allowed to hunt albatrosses at will. Hunting must be organized on the island and carried out in a centralized and orderly manner.

Nowadays, a stable rule has gradually been formed. Birds are basically not hunted on islands where they are concentrated in the southwest. Instead, they are hunted mainly around farmland using nets, bows and arrows, or guns.

Over time

The albatross flocks also know that the humans here are not easy to deal with, so fewer birds fly here and there, causing less harm.

The residents of the island still dare not slack off, especially when the crops enter the filling and heading period, and the vegetables and fruits enter the fruiting period. They must arrange people to watch over them day and night to prevent flocks of birds from coming to cause damage.

Island regulations
The number of albatrosses killed per month is not allowed to exceed one thousand, the number can only be less, not more.

If we catch a lot of fish in the farmland, we can no longer hunt them in other places. Except for the militia who are looking after the crops, residents on the island are strictly prohibited from hunting them privately.

This is because bird droppings are an important resource and a rare fertilizer for crops, and they are a good thing that can be sold for money.

Cargo ships passing through Midway Island, if sailing west, would load large amounts of guano onto Wake Island as long as there was capacity on board.

This is a long-term plan to improve Wake Island. By transporting nutrient-rich guano to Wake Island and mixing it with the sandy soil on Wake Island, high-quality farmland can be gradually formed, producing enough fruits and vegetables for daily needs.

Here on Midway Island, large tracts of fertile farmland have been cultivated, and the yield is extremely astonishing.

Calculated by yield per mu
An acre of wheat field on Midway Island yields an average of 600 to 700 kilograms, which is more than double the yield on the Hainan Islands.

With two crops of wheat and one crop of soybeans every year, the yield of one acre of land is equivalent to that of six or seven acres of land outside. Not only is the grain yield high, but it is also of good quality.

The most important thing in all this is the nutritious bird droppings.

Due to the shortage of fresh water resources, rice is not grown on the island. Instead, drought- and salt-tolerant crops such as wheat, soybeans, sorghum, sweet potatoes, and radishes are grown.

The people on Midway Island are not short of food. They can't eat all the seafood they catch or the grain they produce. So why would they focus on the bird meat?
Only by ensuring the number of albatross populations can we obtain more guano. This guano can also be sold in Honolulu and used to improve local soil, and the price is not low.

After eating, Wang Haigou felt very full and walked around the island.

Midway Island is a coral atoll with a circumference of 24 kilometers and a land area of ​​5 square kilometers. It consists of Sand Island, East Island, and Spit Island. It is located on a huge reef with a total area of ​​more than 170 square kilometers and is surrounded by a large lagoon.

Humans occupy the larger Sound Island, while albatross colonies are on the smaller East Island and Spit Island.

The former is not connected to the latter two by land and is about 2.3 kilometers apart. You can travel between the two places by rowing a small boat.

Midway Island is not a big place, and the albatross flocks gather on the southwest side of the island. When the tide goes out, a large shallow beach appears here.

The shallows are extremely rich in various small fish, shrimps and crustaceans. At this time, it attracts albatrosses flying in the sky to come and feed, and the scene is spectacular.

Midway Island had also just received a large number of Chinese immigrants, numbering over 2700 people, and was currently constructing residential areas and new stone enclosures on a large scale.

It is more like a fortress than a stone enclosure.

In the quarry
The mined stones were piled up into a small hill. Chinese immigrants pushed them to the construction site with wheelbarrows and stacked them along the building red line. They were already half a person's height.

Small gravel is used to pave the road. Stone powder and collected shell powder are diluted and mixed with glutinous rice paste and egg liquid, and then used to fill the gaps between the stone slabs. A small amount of steel bars are added to reinforce it, making it indestructible.

Each albatross egg weighs between 1 ounces and pound. Hundreds or even thousands of eggs can be easily collected every day, making them an important resource in construction.

There is not much land on the island, and it can be cultivated by a few dozen people.

The vast majority of the remaining manpower, except for some people sent to fish and catch shrimp, were concentrated on construction sites, focusing on building the Midway Fortress.

There was originally a shortage of manpower, but now with the arrival of more than 2700 Chinese immigrants, the scale of the project has also expanded.

The fortress, built on a high point of Midway Island, covers an area of ​​approximately 0.8 square kilometers, which is slightly larger than the Forbidden City. It is a fortress-style building with pointed bastions on both sides.

After completion

All islanders can move in and live there, which is both windproof and rainproof, and provides a comfortable living environment. It can also play a huge role in guarding the sea borders.

Lieutenant Hu Dafu shouted the slogan "Build a happy home in three years", which greatly boosted the confidence of the people on the island.

If you have enough food and clothes to eat, why should you be afraid of working?

The outer shell of the Midway Fortress is built with stone slabs, earth and cement trenches, and appropriate steel bars are added to strengthen the skeleton. The inner shell is built with traditional rammed earth layers, about 12 meters high and 4.2 meters wide, and is lined with wooden walls on the inside.

It actually doesn't take much time to build such a building structure.

While building the city, a large number of people had to be deployed to build houses inside the city, which diverted a lot of energy.

Now many Chinese immigrants come to the island and everyone lives together in a crowded place. There are thirty or forty people living in one wooden house, and there is no room to sleep.

This is only a temporary measure, and housing must be built to resettle the people.

With such a large population, if the forests on Midway Island were cut down, all the forests would be cut down.

The houses on the island are all made of stone, so construction cannot be done quickly.

At the construction site that Wang Haigou saw, there were hundreds of houses with their foundations laid and under construction. This was also part of the fortress.

Once the houses are completed in more than a month, the tense living conditions on the island will be greatly eased.

Many more houses like this need to be built. According to a rough estimate, it would take three years to build so many houses and a fortress.

Fortunately, the people on the island are in high spirits. The island is rich in natural resources, and every time a fishing boat goes out to sea, it returns loaded with seafood and fish.

Fishing here is so easy. All you need is a fishing line and a hook, throw it into the sea and big fish will come to bite the hook. They will eat any bait, so just pull it up.

Standing on the island, you can see huge schools of fish swarming beneath the clear sea, which is simply astonishing.

Small fishing boats cannot cast their nets when going out to sea. If they do, the nets will be so full that one or two people cannot pull them up. That’s how much seafood they can catch.

(End of this chapter)