Chapter 576 - 70: The Invaders (Part 2)
"When the next dry season arrives, Kilian will definitely attack the island. To ensure nothing goes wrong, he might even gather more ships and bring more men to launch a direct assault on the beach."
This was the unanimous speculation reached after discussions between Chen Zhou and all the high-ranking individuals on the island.
And because of this, the Steel Bone and the Iron Heart have been training so frequently, and have even conducted several practical drills.
No one expected that their preparations to deal with Kilian would end up confronting another group of pirates.
Furthermore, no one expected that a guy, stubborn to the extreme, would dare to send three armed merchant ships to a completely unfamiliar place in search of treasure, just for a ruby said to be larger than a pigeon egg, even during the rainy season.
...
Besides training the sailors on the two steamships, other matters on the island have also been progressing smoothly in recent months.
For example, the currency.
Based on his understanding of modern currency, Chen Zhou minted three denominations of currency.
The smallest currency had a simple wooden hut printed on it, roughly equivalent to 1 yuan RMB, representing Chen Zhou’s first step from the island.
The next larger denomination had a cave dwelling on the 10 yuan currency, symbolizing Chen Zhou’s stable life and the second phase of challenges.
The largest denomination featured a factory, with a ship’s outline underneath having typical steamship characteristics, valued at 100 yuan RMB.
The currency’s purchasing power was linked to several grains on the island, but since the currency was just issued and grain production was low, its actual purchasing power was much lower than that of 21st-century China.
Chen Zhou anticipated that after bringing other small islands under control, subduing all the indigenous people in the Archipelago, cultivating large areas of land, and establishing trade relations with the outside world, even building estates in North and South America, the purchasing power of the currency would steadily rise.
However, for now, the new currency was still in the initial stage.
With limited knowledge of economics and currency, Chen Zhou could only modify the currency system bit by bit based on feedback from the islanders, while also amending laws to prevent unscrupulous merchants from exploiting legal loopholes for profit.
Fortunately, democracy, freedom, and equality were not issues on the island.
As the highest ruler of the entire island, holding both military and political power, his authoritative position was unshakable. Even if he changed policies overnight, no one dared to utter a word of disagreement.
...
As islanders adapted to the new concept of currency, the island’s infrastructure projects did not lag behind.
As the saying goes, "To get rich, build roads first."
Though situated in the ocean, these roads couldn’t transport goods to the mainland. However, to facilitate the islanders, allow ease of cycling, and transport stone, timber, and other materials, building a few stone roads was still very necessary.
After all, coming from the infrastructure-obsessed country with the most developed infrastructure globally, Chen Zhou had an obsession with road-building.
The newly joined islanders, half were engaged in cultivating wasteland and planting crops, while most of the other half were diligently transporting stone and building roads.
There were also some responsible for constructing houses and expanding the "Circular Execution Square" complex.
As for the skilled veteran islanders, most were busy manufacturing the third steamship, while others led new islanders, teaching them skills and supervising the quality of roads and houses.
Everyone had something to do; everyone had food to eat and a place to live—
This was what Chen Zhou was currently striving to achieve.
He did not dare to claim that every islander could live a happy and prosperous life, nor could he ensure that each meal was abundant and nutritionally balanced.
For now, he could only try to ensure all islanders had enough to eat, no longer going hungry.
For the new islanders who were indigenous until recently, this was enough.
...
December 28, 1666.
It was another rare sunny day during the rainy season. The Steel Bone and the Iron Heart set sail early in the morning for a routine patrol of the Archipelago, while also gathering the latest intelligence on the island’s indigenous people from the sailors stationed there—
The frequent patrols of the two large ships near the small island, combined with one capture action after another, had long informed the island’s indigenous people of the presence of these outsiders.
If the outsiders were like the Spaniards, looking completely different and not understanding their language, the indigenous people might have fallen into panic.
But the crew of the two ships were all of indigenous descent and spoke the indigenous language, with many even familiar with the island’s indigenous people.
After some simple exchanges and witnessing the power of the firearms akin to divine punishment, the indigenous people were all subdued under the management of the outsiders.
They ceased conflicts, banned cannibalistic behavior, and even learned to weave simple clothes from leaves and vines.
In return, the sailors began teaching the indigenous people to farm and fish, and brought them some practical tools like fishing nets, pottery jars, shovels, and axes.
With these tools and food acquisition knowledge, even though the indigenous people ceased cannibalism, their quality of life did not decline but improved. At least everyone could manage to catch one or two fish each day to eat.
Even if they didn’t catch fish, they could gather some shellfish or seaweed to cook a pot of soup, and with the coarse salt brought by the sailors, at least they had a decent meal.
...
The sea during the rainy season, although devoid of storms and rains, appeared much darker than during the dry season.
Sunday was discussing with the first mate about what tactics to employ in the next drill, and how to defeat the Steel Bone with minimal losses to achieve a decisive victory when suddenly a sailor knocked urgently on the captain’s cabin door.
"Come in, what’s the matter?"
Despite his normally stern demeanor, Sunday truly cherished these young sailors in his heart.
Sunday had heard from Chen Zhou that in the "God’s Kingdom," there were not only even larger and faster iron ships than factories, but also "airplanes" that could soar in the sky, with people skilled at piloting these planes being more valuable than the planes themselves.
In his eyes, these young sailors were as precious as pilots.
Therefore, his strictness was only directed at the mistakes sailors made during training. In life, he was always exceedingly tolerant of any issues the sailors had.
...
Upon receiving permission, the sailor immediately opened the door and spoke rapidly.
"Captain, I was on lookout on deck just now and saw the silhouettes of a few suspected enemy ships in the distance, but they were too far for me to see clearly."
Upon hearing this, Sunday immediately perked up, put away the tactical planning board on the desk, took the telescope down from the wall, and with large strides, almost at a jog, left the captain’s cabin.
The mysterious reward in the second half of 1666 brought a batch of modern binoculars. Chen Zhou kept one for himself, while the rest were distributed to the security team and two ships.
However, there were only 10 binoculars in total. Apart from a few high-ranking individuals, most ordinary sailors still used the 17th-century single-tube telescopes.
This sailor on lookout duty was one of them.
...
Reaching the deck, following the sailor’s indication, Sunday raised the telescope towards the distant sea.
The sky was slightly overcast, and visibility was somewhat dim.
On the deep blue sea, three large ships appeared at a little distance from each other in the same line.
These three ships had features remarkably similar to the large ships the sailors stationed on the island had seen before, like three moons, with high bows and sterns, low centers, tall masts with broad sails filled with wind, racing at full speed.
"Is it Kilian?
After waiting for so long, his fleet has finally arrived!"
Confirming that the three ships were indeed heading toward the island, Sunday felt his heart rate begin to increase.
"Notify the Steel Bone, the enemy has arrived, prepare to engage!"
He hastily gave an order to the nearby sailor and handed over the telescope to another sailor, instructing him to closely monitor the movements of the three large ships, then quickly returned to the captain’s cabin.
Although, judging by paper data, just the Iron Heart alone could easily sink three wooden sailboats, war was no child’s play, especially naval warfare.
The situation was urgent; Sunday had to quickly come up with a sound plan to achieve the most comprehensive victory with minimal loss.