Chapter 216 Australian Expeditionary Force

In fact, a long time ago, the civil and military officials of the Dazhong Dynasty, on that night banquet, through the large globe sent by Xiao Tianjian, knew that there was not only such a continent in this world, but a few other continents, but because of the limited power of the Dazhong Dynasty at sea before, the main energy They are all placed in the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Except for several small formations composed of one or two or two or three ships, which went to the east or south for an expeditionary voyage, they did not send large formations to occupy the new colony.

However, with the rise of China's naval power, after more than ten years of vigorous development, the maritime power of China and North Korea has now controlled the whole South China Sea and finally has the strength to do it.

And in the early stage, the Maritime Trade Group Corporation and the Navy Department finally sailed to North and South America through continuous small-scale voyages. More importantly, an expedition ship finally sailed to Australia and drew a route map. These expedition ships finally successfully returned to Guangzhou and put these The first-hand route information they worked so hard to obtain was submitted to the Admiralty, which was relatively well prepared for the next expedition of China and North Korea.

In these years, Dazhong and North Korea have sent dozens of expedition ships of various types, and more than 6,000 sailors participated in this expedition. However, less than half of the ships finally returned to China, and the rest lost their news. It is expected that most of them will be encountered at sea. Unfortunately, for this reason, all those who participated in the expedition, the Great China and North Korea gave them a very high treatment to encourage more people to participate in future exploration activities on the ocean.

At this time, this kind of perseverance can finally be harvested.

So it was not until this time that Xiao Tianjian officially issued the order to form the first expeditionary fleet, began to go to sea, and go to Australia to establish the first colony of the Great China Dynasty in another continent, declaring that Australia would become a colony of the Great China Dynasty. This time, Xiao Tianjian left Beijing's southern patrol for this expedition fleet. Send-off.

In fact, it is not the first time for Western countries to find that as early as the 17th century, Dutch ships had arrived in Australia. After that, explorers from the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom also arrived in Australia, but these Europeans did not give enough understanding of Australia, even It was not even marked on the charts. It was not until the early 18th century that the west coast and north coast of Australia were officially marked on the western charts for the first time. In these decades, Westerners did not try to establish settlements on this vast land, let alone declare their actual occupation.

So this is a rare opportunity for China and North Korea, and Xiao Tianjian, a person from the old time and space, knows better than anyone that the importance of this vast land. China is a copper-deficient country. All dynasties have always been very scarce for copper, and copper is also an important hard currency in China. China's own copper production is very limited, so China urgently needs to find a place rich in copper resources overseas and integrate it under China's rule.

According to Xiao Tianjian's memory, the largest source of copper ore should be Chile. In addition, New Guinea is also rich in copper ore resources. Of course, Australia also has a considerable amount of copper ore resources. The most important thing is that Australia's iron ore reserves are very huge, although now There is no shortage of iron ore in China and North Korea, but Xiao Tianjian knows the importance of Australian iron ore to China.

Only by occupying this continent first, in the future, Chinese people will not have to be blackmailed by the so-called Rio Tinto Billiton for iron ore. In the next few hundred years, China will be worried about the lack of iron ore.

So in choosing the first overseas colony, Xiao Tianjian finally took Australia as his first choice after careful consideration. Of course, this does not mean that Xiao Tianjian does not pay attention to North and South America, but the first step is particularly important for the Chinese people.

What's more, in the current North and South America, many places have been actually controlled by Western countries. Once China and North Korea first chooses North and South America to land, it is inevitable that they will have a head-on conflict with the local colonists as soon as they arrive there.

This is not very beneficial to China and North Korea, which lack long-distance navigation experience, so Xiao Tianjian believes that it is not too late to take Australia as the first step to actually occupy and control it, and then accumulate certain experience, and then go to North and South America and Western colonists to compete for colonies.

According to Xiao Tianjian's plan, in his lifetime, in order to provide for the future resources of Greater China in advance, it is necessary to control some of the most important mineral resources on the earth in advance, and the Chinese people in the province will be worried about these things in the future.

So, under the joint consultation between the Admiralty and the trading group company, the Great China and North Korea finally determined the colonial plan of the expedition to Australia in the thirteenth year of Tianyuan.

This time, China and North Korea prepared 15 ships of various types for their expedition to Australia, including a newly launched first-class battleship, two second-class cruisers, three third-class destroyers, five fourth-class frigates and four large four-mast armed cargo ships.

These ships are all new ships built in the past two or three years. In addition to the wood produced in Liaodong, the wood used by the ships also uses a lot of good wood from the Southern Ocean. The ships are built very strong and can fully withstand the huge waves and bad weather on the sea.

In addition, Dazhong and North Korea have recruited more than 6,000 sailors and soldiers in the navy and maritime trade groups for this expedition. With their strength, they can fully cope with a considerable scale of maritime warfare and land warfare.

In addition to these sailors and soldiers, Dazhong and Chao also recruited more than a thousand technicians from various industries. In addition to carpenters and blacksmiths in the fleet, they also brought dozens of students who graduated from mining schools. In addition, there are also some scholars who study biology, technicians who are good at agriculture, and even A group of construction craftsmen and herdsmen who are good at grazing were brought. Of course, a group of medical officers proficient in medical skills were sent to join the operation as a guarantee for the health of the fleet members.

Most of these people will be the first Chinese immigrants to settle in Australia. According to the plan, once they land on the north and west coasts of Australia and build a bridgehead, their families will be immediately transported to Australia to settle in Australia with them and establish mainland China. Regular routes with Australia.

That's why this led to Xiao Tianjian's southern tour in the 14th year of Tianyuan. He came to Ningbo this time to see off this group of adventurers.

Xiao Tianjian first led the officials to worship the statue of Mazu on the dock, prayed for the fleet, and then boarded a high platform near the dock, and loudly gave an impassioned speech to these people who were about to sail and those who came to see them off. He would all the people who participated in the trip. Call them heroes, and expound the importance of colonization, loudly encourage them, and bravely open up new territories for the Chinese people.

At the end of his speech, the whole crowd at the wharf of Ningbo was boiling, and everyone cheered loudly. Countless people knelt down devoutly and long live the mountain.

Then under the wave of Xiao Tianjian's hand, these expedition personnel immediately began to board the ship that had already docked at the dock.

Xiao Tianjian walked down from the high platform at this time, came to the trestle where the Longquan docked, and once again personally received the commander of the expedition fleet.

The commander of this expeditionary fleet is not someone else, but Shi Lang, a young naval officer who has stood out in successive naval battles over the years.

Although Shi Lang is a very controversial figure in the history of the old time and space. Some people say that he is a national hero and others say that he is a traitor, in this time and space, he is an excellent commander in the navy. Originally, he could not have to be the commander of this expedition fleet, but now He is already the deputy commander of the Southern Fleet. He can stay in Guangzhou or Zhoushan safely and live a quite leisurely life.

But for such people, they are not born to live such a life of fooling around. When he learned that the Admiralty began to recruit expedition personnel, Shi Lang immediately signed up, and immediately Xiao Tianjian directly called the name and awarded him the position of commander of the expedition fleet.

Shi Lang, dressed in a new white navy uniform, immediately took all the crew to Xiao Tianjian to salute Xiao Tianjian when he saw him off at the dock in person again.

Xiao Tianjian looked at these energetic crew members. Today, he did not wear a dragon robe, but also changed into a new military uniform. He wore a delicate waist knife at his waist, raised his hand vigorously, and returned a standard military salute to the crew.

After the official on duty announced the ceremony loudly, Xiao Tianjian put down his arms with all the crew, slowly walked to Shi Lang, patted Shi Lang on the shoulder heavily, and said to him in a low voice, "Go! This is just the first step to the sea on my behalf! There are more places in the future that need you to conquer for me!"

After saying this passage, Xiao Tianjian suddenly whispered to Shi Lang and whispered, "Haoyu is up to you. Don't deliberately take care of him because of his identity. Only the sea eagle that has experienced the wind and rain can really soar on the blue sky! Let him do what he should do! This is my instruction to you! I hope you can do it for me!"

Shi Lang immediately replied loudly excitedly, "Thank you, Lord Long's kindness! Please rest assured! Weichen knows what to do! I will never live up to the expectations of the Holy!"

At this time, Xiao Tianjian turned his eyes to a teenager standing behind Shi Lang. The teenager seemed to have a trace of childishness on his face, but his figure was already very tall, his waist was straight, and his whole body was also dressed in a standard army of the Royal Navy. It looks heroic and very eye-catching.

(Notify the brothers of two messages as soon as possible! Good news, bad news! Let's talk about the bad news first: my new book has failed again, and I have to revise it for the last time! So the new book can't be uploaded to the old book! It's really sad! It disrupted my original plan! The good news is the preliminary confirmation that the new book is not a big problem. Basically, it can be guaranteed that it will be uploaded in early December! I hope my brothers will continue to support me then! Thank you very much!)