After a splashing sound, Shimazu Mitsuhisa was the first to ride through a ford and set foot on the north bank of an unknown stream. Dozens of knights followed and followed. Most of the people on the horses were wearing kimonos.

They were short in stature and were riding the tall horses brought to the Americas by the Spaniards, which was a bit uncoordinated. There were also a few larger ones, all of Western race.

The stream that Shimazu had just passed merged into a large river not far away. On both sides of the river, the terrain was quite open. If you look into the distance, you can see mountains. A team was marching sparsely on the west bank of the river. Less than half of the team was

There were men in their prime, and the rest were young women. Some of the young women were already pregnant, so they were riding on horses, while the others were all on foot. There were many horses accompanying them, totaling four to five thousand. Except for a small number of people, the rest

They were all carrying big bags of goods. And the people walking on foot were also carrying big bags of luggage, and they were walking hard step by step.

Needless to say, these men and women on foot and women on horseback are all short Japanese refugees. They are now heading north along the Central Valley under the leadership of de Velasco, the governor of California in New Spain.

De Velasco also had some admiration for these short and small refugees who came across the ocean. They all became homeless dogs and ran from the prosperous East Asia to the desolate California. They all had high morale and could still do things from time to time.

Hear the laughter.

Also, these little East Asians don’t seem to get scurvy!

Those slow-moving Chinese-style bird boats drifted in the Pacific for more than two months, and not a single case of scurvy occurred!

This phenomenon made de Velasco very worried about the Pacific Maritime War that he did not know how long it would last - if East Asians were really immune to scurvy, then the naval personnel of the Ming Empire would be able to stay at sea longer, and

In the extremely vast Pacific Ocean, this will be a huge advantage!

In addition, the "Bombardment Artillery Revolution" also caused great troubles to the Royal Spanish Navy, which was financially strapped. To complete this naval equipment revolution, it is not just about adding a few short-barreled large-caliber guns to the traditional armed Galen ships.

Instead of bombardment cannons, we need to design a new type of warship!

Because a traditional battleship with two to three gun decks, often with dozens or hundreds of guns, is basically a floating gunpowder magazine. When a naval battle is going on, the gun deck is basically a mess. At this time, go down and walk

If you go around a circle, you will definitely see powder barrels and powder bags that are not arranged according to regulations - dozens or hundreds of artillery pieces! How many gun crews are squeezed into the small gun deck? In the chaotic firefight, how can

Maybe everything is done in accordance with the regulations? Even if everything is done in accordance with the instructions, when a 24-pound, 32-pound or even 40-pound shell explodes in the gun deck, it can avoid causing a fatal explosion and a series of subsequent disasters.

? Don’t even think about such a good thing!

Therefore, designing a new type of all-bombardment gun battleship has become the primary task of every naval power in the world today!

As far as De Velasco knows, the Ming Dynasty, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, which are wealthy and have developed shipbuilding industries, have already begun designing and manufacturing new battleships.

The Ming Dynasty's first-generation all-bombardment battleships, the Yingtianfu-class, have already been put into active service!

But what about Spain?

De Velasco couldn't help but sigh when he thought of his motherland, which should have owned the world but was so poor that he couldn't even pay for the dowry of the princess.

At this moment, the knights in front of him suddenly stopped moving forward. De Velasco was not paying attention and almost bumped into the butt of the horse in front. After a while of fussing, he stopped the horse, which was very disobedient.

The war horse he had summoned, Shimazu Mitsuhisa, had already driven to his side.

"Your Majesty the Governor, let's settle down here!"

"Here?" De Velasco looked around. This should be somewhere in the northern part of the Central Valley. It is a river bend, and there are several unknown streams coming down from the mountains to the west. The terrain is not very good.

It is open and undulating, the trees are very lush, and it looks relatively humid.

"Isn't this place too remote?" De Velasco thought for a moment and then asked, "And the northern part of the Central Valley often floods, which is not conducive to farming. How about we go back south and pick a better place...

….There’s plenty of land in California anyway.”

"It's very nice here!" Mitsuhisa Shimazu smiled, "This place is very much like my hometown of Satsuma."

The Satsuma Kingdom is in the valley? De Velasco said to himself: You old man must have been confused by the boat ride. When we were in San Francisco Bay, we said that it was like the Satsuma Kingdom and that we wanted to settle there...

.

"Okay!" De Velasco thought for a while, but agreed to Shimazu Mitsuhisa's request - San Francisco Bay cannot be given to the Japanese, it is too important. And the northern part of the Central Valley... should be given to the Japanese

It doesn't matter if the people are there, with them blocking us here, it will be difficult for the Chinese to go south!

Shimazu Mitsuhisa asked again: "Your Majesty the Governor, what is the name of this place?"

"A name? It hasn't been chosen yet." De Velasco said, "Mr. Shimadzu, how about you come up with one?"

"Okay!" Shimazu Mitsuhisa said, "From now on, this place will be called the Satsuma Valley! The Satsuma people will reproduce here and continue to live forever!"

De Velasco nodded: "Okay, let's call it the Satsuma Valley...but you have to be careful about flooding. If you want to carry out reclamation, you must build the dam first."

"Hai! Thank you for your concern. We will definitely pay attention." Shimazu Mitsuhisa nodded heavily.

De Velasco added: "I have already mentioned the formation of a new fusilier regiment to the Duke of Florida...The Duke has approved it. But you know, our Kingdom of New Spain is a big country and there are many things.

It needs to be done slowly, and it may take two years to be implemented. Before that, I hope you can build a castle in the Satsuma River Valley and build a camp enough to accommodate 30,000 people. If you still have enough energy, reserve as much as possible

food."

He paused, then looked at Shimazu Mitsuhisa: "Boss, can you finish this in two years?"

"No problem!" Shimazu Mitsuhisa said, "As long as the Governor's Palace can provide some more iron tools and food, my people will definitely be able to build a castle and military camp in the Satsuma Valley within two years, and can also reserve at least 20,000 koku of food."

"Is it really possible?" De Velasco still wanted to make sure.

"Absolutely no problem!" Mitsuhisa Shimazu answered in the affirmative.

"That would be great!" De Velasco smiled, "In this case, we will be able to drive the Ming people away from the Gulf of America soon!"

He spoke very quickly, certainly very fast by the standards of the Kingdom of Spain... For the "King of the World" Philip IV, there were really a lot of things that needed to be done quickly in the summer of 1660

!

The first thing is of course to win the trust of German and Italian bankers, so that the country can get out of the predicament of being unable to borrow money as soon as possible - for Spain, borrowing usury is not the worst thing, the worst thing is that it cannot borrow usury at all!

I just don’t know how those bankers who have suffered enough from Spain can trust Philip IV’s credit again?

Secondly, of course, it is necessary to formulate a timetable for military reform - the navy must be reformed, and the army must be reformed! Due to the leadership of the suddenly powerful Ming Empire in the East, the military powers in Europe, including France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Sweden, are now

The reform of the army and navy has begun. Even the Holy Roman Empire, which has not completely emerged from the shadow of the Thirty Years' War, has also begun the reform of the army. The enemy of the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, has launched an ambitious reform plan.

Reinvigorate their navy and Sudanese Guards!

Only Spain, the "world hegemon", seems to be stuck in a quagmire, unable to exert any energy to carry out reforms.

The third thing that needs to be done as soon as possible can actually be done, which is to marry Princess Maria Theresa to Louis XIV of France. This matter is not easy! Fortunately, Philip IV has been
Chapter completed!