The Western Fleet left the Taichung Basin and continued southward, arriving at the Changhua Plain in central western Taiwan.
The Changhua Plain is bounded by two east-west rivers, the Da'an River and the Zhuoshui River, and is approximately an equilateral triangle. It covers an area of about 900 square kilometers, with flat plains and fertile soil. Because of the benefits of irrigation, it is also an important rice producing area in Taiwan, and is known as the "Rice Barn of Taiwan" in later generations. It is also very suitable for growing cash crops such as sugarcane, rapeseed, and flax, and is an absolute treasure land.
Since it is a precious land, of course someone has occupied it. The large amount of cultivated land and villages are the best proof of this.
What was surprising was that when the Western Fleet stopped at the mouth of a Tamsui River, the local indigenous people came to greet them warmly and brought them fresh vegetables and venison as gifts.
This made Tang Youde fully realize that the indigenous peoples' positions are complex and diverse and cannot be generalized.
Zhao Hao happily accepted their gifts and gave them cloth, salt and barrels of wine on the ship in return. This kind response also made the other party very happy. After finding an interpreter who could speak Ketagalan among the aborigines, the two sides started a pleasant exchange.
When Mr. Zhao learned that they were the indigenous people of the Babusa tribe and that this place was pronounced as "Lugang" in the Babusa language, he couldn't help but be moved and whispered to Fatty Tang beside him: "The Babusa people are also important members of the Eighteenth Society."
Tang Youde understood immediately and launched a passionate emotional offensive against several chiefs. The aboriginal chiefs could not resist Old Tang's tactics and soon they felt sorry for meeting him and cordially invited them to have dinner at Lugang Community.
Master Zhao readily agreed, saying that the village was right under the guns of the warships and there was nothing to worry about.
But he soon regretted it, because when they arrived at the aboriginal village with bamboo huts and earthen walls, and were invited to sit cross-legged on rattan mats, singing and dancing girls brought him and Fatty Tang a bowl of deer blood.
Tang Youde's new friend told them that this was a freshly hunted deer and the first bowl of blood would be offered to the most distinguished guest.
Fatty Tang immediately put down his bowl and said, "Then I can't drink it. Our young master is the most noble."
But they said, it’s okay, that’s your second bowl…
Oh no, Fatty Tang had no choice but to pinch his nose and drink the bowl of hot and fishy deer blood.
Master Zhao knew that he had to drink this bowl.
He sighed secretly, tilted his head back and drank the bowl of aphrodisiac deer blood.
The two of you felt hot all over in a short while...
Zhao Hao was fine, he just had to do an extra hour of push-ups when he got home. But Fatty Tang didn't bring a woman on board, he only brought a pretty follower... Although he could be used in an emergency, he and his father Tang Baolu shared a room!
"Oh, what should I do tonight..." Tang Youde was secretly worried, thinking, should I ask my new friend to arrange it? No, it would definitely make me a laughing stock.
If it really doesn't work, I can only use my pistol... Old Tang never thought that after becoming a millionaire, there would be a day when he would have to do it himself...
~~
After drinking deer blood and eating roasted and stewed deer meat, everyone became a family. In addition, with the Ketagalan people's testimony, the Babusa people took the initiative to request to sign a covenant modeled on the "Badouzi Covenant" and said they would help to attract as many villages and communities as possible to join.
Things went so smoothly that Zhao Hao even had some doubts, but in order to avoid any further complications, he suppressed his doubts and asked Tang Youde to represent the group and sign the "Lugang Covenant" with the Babusa people that day.
After the treaty was signed, he arranged a cannon salvo show to celebrate the alliance and to flex his muscles to his allies so that they would not have any ulterior motives.
Then Zhao Hao asked the interpreter to ask if they had any difficulties.
Several Babusa chieftains were shocked by the earth-shaking power of the artillery volleys, and finally told the truth that they were indeed in trouble - in the past two years, a group of pirates had been regularly attacking their villages and communities, stealing food and deerskins. Their livelihoods were greatly affected, and many villages and communities moved to the Taichung Basin, and their strength naturally became weaker and weaker.
So they wanted to see if a 'powerful ally' who specialized in fighting pirates could help them eliminate this threat.
Zhao Hao and Fatty Tang smiled at each other. It seemed that the aborigines were just uneducated, but not stupid at all. On the contrary, these leaders were very smart and thought of a way to drive the tiger to devour the wolf in a blink of an eye.
However, wiping out all maritime forces in the Taiwan Strait was originally the mission of the southbound fleet, so Master Zhao readily agreed and then asked them about the origins of those pirates.
The Babusa people only knew that those people came from the south along the west coast, and must have come from a very far place, because they had searched the coast of the Jianan Plain and found no trace of this group of pirates.
Hearing this, Zhao Hao looked at Tang Baolu and remembered the coconuts he bought.
Tang Baolu also looked enlightened, and guessed that they were the group of people who beat the dog.
~~
The fleet rested in Lukang for one night and left the Changhua Plain the next day.
Under the combined influence of the northbound Kuroshio Current and the Penghu Channel, the fleet's speed became slower as it moved southward. The constant northeasterly wind in the strait pushed the fleet further away from the coast!
The dangerous Black Water Channel is less than 20 kilometers from the coast. In addition, the west coast of Taiwan is a shallow water area, and the rivers on the island wash a lot of silt into the coast. Under the influence of ocean currents, the silt forms a long underwater sand dune belt, resulting in an extremely complex underwater terrain, which can easily lead to aground.
So for safety reasons, the fleet must stay more than 10 kilometers offshore.
This leaves the safe waterway less than ten miles wide.
Ten miles may seem wide, but it was a daunting challenge for the captains who relied on coastal landmarks to navigate. Basically, Ming ships that tried to sail south along the west coast were either blown into the Black Water Channel by the wind or ran aground because they were too close to the coast. Therefore, ships that visited Taiwan would turn around when they saw the Zhuoshui River and dared not continue south.
But for the Coast Guard Fleet, this is not a difficult task. The assessment items for officers and soldiers in the Coast Guard School are much more demanding than this. At such a slow speed, with a wealth of navigation instruments and scientific and reasonable navigation techniques, they can easily maintain safe navigation without deviation.
Mr. Zhao had nothing to worry about and continued his coastal sightseeing trip.
After passing the Zhuoshui River, the dividing line of the Changhua Plain, you will reach the largest Jianan Plain in Taiwan. This plain covers a vast area from Chiayi to Tainan, with an area of 4,500 square kilometers, which is 11 times the size of the Taichung Basin!
But the problem is that this place is similar to the Taoyuan Plateau, with poor water storage capacity and few surface rivers, so the harvest depends entirely on the weather. When there is plenty of rainfall, there will be a good harvest, but when there is little rainfall, the surface will crack directly under the strong sunlight, so how can there be any harvest?
This type of weather-dependent fields accounts for 60% of the Jianan Plain, and another 10% is saline-alkali fields near the sea, so only 30% of the land that can be irrigated can ensure a yield regardless of drought or flood.
In later generations, it was only after the completion of the Jianan Canal that this place became the largest granary and sweet storehouse on the island.
However, if you want to supply water to such a large plain, this project is too big and must be planned in the long run. Fortunately, the Jianan Plain is so large that even if only 30% of the land is good, it is much more than other places, so this is still the main direction for future immigration.
Besides, that one percent of saline-alkali land is not a bad thing. Why did the coastal areas of Jianan Plain form large saline-alkali land? Because the rivers do not have much fresh water. Moreover, the monsoon is strong, the winter half year is dry and rainy, the sunshine is long, the temperature is high, the evaporation is fast, and the salt content of the seawater is high. This environment is most suitable for drying salt.
Especially the coastal area of Chiayi, with its wide sandy beaches and gently sloping terrain, is a large and excellent natural salt field. The Budai Salt Field, one of the three largest salt fields in Taiwan and known as the "Salt Warehouse of Southeast China", is located in this area.
Mr. Zhao's desire for salt is no less than that for sugar. In addition to edible salt, industrial salt is more important. Mr. Zhao's basic chemical industry is eagerly waiting for a large amount of cheap salt to start!
Because salt is one of the most basic raw materials in the chemical industry, it is known as the "mother of the chemical industry". The main products of the basic chemical industry, such as hydrochloric acid, caustic soda, soda ash, ammonium chloride, chlorine, etc., are mainly produced using salt as raw material.
There are also various uses such as soap making, sodium hydroxide production, etc.
Zhao Hao had never thought that the chemical industry he had high hopes for would be choked by salt. But it was also normal. Ever since Guan Zhong, the "ancestor of brothels", proposed "official mountains and seas" to Xiaobai, the government of every dynasty has implemented a salt monopoly, monopolizing this daily necessities with a stable source and high demand.
Although Mr. Zhao had a good relationship with the Yangzhou salt merchants, it was not a problem for him to buy a large amount of low-priced salt. However, the amount of industrial salt was too large. Even if the salt merchants gave him an internal price, it would be enough to bankrupt Mr. Zhao. So the only way left for him was to produce salt himself.
First of all, it would definitely not work on the mainland, as that would be too irritating to the government. So the salt field had to be set up overseas, but there were no suitable beaches in Tamra, Japan, and Ryukyu, so for a long time, all Zhao Hao's hopes were placed on the future Budai Salt Field.
He instructed Tang Youde in a deep voice to set up a salt field here as soon as possible and start drying salt, so that Xishan Island can use Taiwanese salt next year.
~~
A hundred miles south of the Budai Salt Field, the scene on the shore changes again. Dense rivers nourish the land on both sides, and the dense forests are still green, with no sign of autumn at all.
Zhao Hao knew that they had arrived at Tainan, the most beautiful part of the Jianan Plain. There were many rivers here, and the water was very abundant. The future Jianan Canal would store water here and divert water to irrigate other places.
After sailing for another 30 miles, we arrived at a huge bay. The silt carried by many rivers accumulated into a long sandbar at the mouth of the bay, which became a natural breakwater of the bay.
This is Dayuan Bay.
With such an excellent harbor and such fertile land, it is no wonder that the Dutch chose to start from here. In the following hundreds of years, this place has long been the center of Taiwan.
"The future Dayuan City will be located here." Zhao Hao pointed at Dayuan Bay and said proudly: "It will become the most prosperous city in Taiwan, no doubt about it!"
There were no pirates in the Dayuan Bay. Because of the Black Water Channel, no ships had been seen sailing since we passed Chiayi.
If it weren't for the green coconuts brought by Tang Baolu, Zhao Hao would never have imagined that there was already a large-scale Han immigrant settlement in Takao, 80 miles south of Dayuan Bay.
He couldn't wait to go to Takao, so the fleet did not stop in Tainan, but went straight south to Takao!
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