After leaving Baleen Whale Port, under the westerly wind blowing all year round, the entire fleet turned northeast and headed towards the southwest waters of South Africa at a high speed of 6 knots.

In this smooth environment, the beautiful ship shape of the Bolang is perfectly reflected. After all the canvases are raised, Bolang has reached an ultra-high speed of 12-13 knots with the sails alone, not to mention that she has a speed increase of about 3 knots provided by the steam paddle. In other words, in this area with strong west winds, the Bolang speed is unique. Even if she goes out alone, in front of the full power and a maximum speed of 15-16 knots, those slow Dutch pirate ships can only sigh.

"In the future, you can modify it on the ship and use it to catch whaling, hehe." Standing on the top deck of the stern, Zhang Xiao said enthusiastically, "Add a small cannon that fires whaling forks with gunpowder, and then you can carry out whaling operations. Nowadays, domestic industry is developing greatly, especially the rapid development of the machinery industry, and the demand for high-end lubricants is increasing. Whales are precisely an animal that can extract a large amount of oil and fat, and the market prospects are quite broad. After all, it is not suitable to lubricate machines with olive oil and wax, and the output of refining oil by catching sea lions and seals at the Bruce Whale Port is not enough. Well, whaling is more cost-effective. But we are not in enough manpower now, otherwise we can really form some whaling fleets to hunt whales in the waters near Ma Island."

Whales are migratory creatures, mainly inhabiting the southern ocean, that is, the waters near Antarctica south of 60 degrees south latitude. The waters are isolated from other waters due to the westerly drift belt. The water temperature is relatively cold, but the species of organisms are abundant. Therefore, they become the main habitat for whales. The density of whales in this sea area is far greater than that of other areas. Whenever the southern ocean enters winter and the sea water begins to freeze, whales will leave the sea area and turn north to look for warm sea water. At this time, large whales will often appear in the waters near Horse Island. If some whaling ships move in this water area, they will definitely gain a lot.

Of course, as Zhang Xiao said, the East Coast Republic is currently too small and has a thin foundation. There is really no extra manpower or ships going to sea to fish, which can only be a long-term goal.

Shortly after leaving the Bareback Whale Port, the "Bailang" lowered most of the sails, then turned on the steam engine, relying on steam-powered paddles to provide part of the power, and together with several other ships, it maintained a speed of 6 knots and headed forward. Zhang Xiao wanted to test the stability and reliability of the Popeye-1 type steam engine and its transmission equipment currently in use. After all, after going to sea for so long, the steam power has not been tried seriously. Although they had been able to operate for 120 consecutive hours in the Duck Lake, it was in the calm inner lake, and now it was in the dangerous South Atlantic Ocean. It is hard to say what would happen.

The results of the experiment can only be said to be mixed. From August 12 to the arrival of the Midwhale River in South Africa on September 7, the steam engine has run for a record 26 days. During these 26 days, the entire steam power system suffered many minor faults and minor problems. Almost half of the parts have been replaced. And in the last week, a spring swell in the cylinder failed, causing the cylinder air tightness to begin to decline. The direct consequence is that the speed of the "Balang" slowly dropped by about 1 knot.

The one million yuan silver coins at the bottom of the "Polang" cabin was the most important batch of goods escorted by this trip. Shi Qinjie, the highest commander of the New China Colony, finally breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the money coming. In another two or three months, the first batch of Ming immigrants from the East might arrive. Moreover, the transaction location was clearly stated that it was the New China Colony. If Shi Qinjie had no money to pay the immigration fee, he really couldn't imagine what to do then? Will the angry Portuguese captains demolish the Xinhua Fort?

Fortunately, the first money in the local area has been in place, and it is still as much as one million yuan, which is enough for him to pay for the first batch of immigration. I heard that the local area is still raising subsequent funds everywhere, so the money problem for this immigration should not be big.

More than 400 new Eight Banners supervisors and slaves were taken to the residential area by the management staff, where they would conduct emergency training on how to survive in the tropical areas to avoid repeating the mistakes of some of their predecessors. After the training, they would be sent to the fort construction site at the entrance of the Bay and began to install some of the heavy artillery shipped from the local area.

A lot of foundations, gun positions and underground storage facilities of the fort have been built, and now we are waiting to install artillery. There are three turrets, located in the top of the north cape of the Strait from north to south, next to the small island of the north cape and the top of the south cape, which are called the No. 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The three turrets are made of stones and bricks, and so far less than twenty artillery positions have been repaired. According to the plan, the final number of coastal defense artillery positions is 36, which means that thirty-six coastal defense heavy artillery will be installed here.

Among the 36 sea defense artillery, thirty were installed on the No. 1 and No. 3 respectively. As for the No. 2 turret on the island, only six artillery were assigned. The layout was similar to the four major artillery batteries of Dongfang Port. These thirty-six artillery formed horns to form cross fire, and basically had no dead ends of shooting. If the enemy began to land and attack a certain turret, they would soon fall into the shooting of some artillery on the other two turrets, and they would suffer from enemies from both sides and suffer considerable losses.

There is no doubt that when all the thirty-six coastal heavy artillery are installed and a large number of skilled gunners are trained, any enemy fleet will have to carefully consider it when attacking here. After all, such a turret lineup is too luxurious. In this era, no country can cast so many high-quality steel cannons in one breath like the East Coast. It is precisely with the existence of these large-caliber heavy artillery that every port of the East Coast people is solid.
Chapter completed!