Hearing Black Coral Islands's name, Felix's mind instantly returned to the thrilling sea chase two years ago.
"It's a pity that I can't accompany you."
Felix visits the familiar ship Cruiser. The bottom cabin carries forty exiled prisoners, all from the mainland of Greece. If they can survive this long and arduous journey, they will become the first residents of Black Coral Islands.
"There are so many Sugarcane. Do you plan to make money by planting Sugarcane on the island?"
Not only that, Felix also discovered seeds of lemons and food crops.
Suddenly, he slapped his thigh suddenly and asked the crew of Scala: "The Dragon's Blood Tree and Banyan Tree on the island are not suitable for shipbuilding. They are the lowest quality wood. Have you brought any seeds from other trees?"
The crew used a crowbar to open a wooden box, which contained pine cones, acorns and Beech nuts, which were used to plant trees on the deserted island.
"Admiralty is very thoughtful."
Felix returned to the open deck and invited the old brothers to have fun in the tavern. He paid for all the expenses tonight.
Thanks to his military exploits, Felix received a hereditary military position and a lemon orchard in southern Crete. He was not good at running industries, so he contracted the land to an agricultural company. Now that he had plenty of money, he could invite these people to play for a week.
The old crew members booed. "Where are we going? You can't entertain us. We have to choose a high-end tavern to have a good time."
Felix: "Candia was severely damaged during the war. There are only two pubs in the city, so there is nothing to choose from."
After the war ended, Venice civilians moved back to the mainland, and there were only three thousand residents left in the city. Most of them were Eastern Roman Empire garrison troops and their families, as well as some prisoner-of-war construction teams.
Now that Candia has fallen into a complete depression, Felix estimates that during his tenure, there will be less than 10,000 permanent residents here, making it a town at best, not a city.
On February 1st, Scala and another Cruiser left Candia.
Compared with two years ago, Scala found that Naples merchant ships of Eastern Mediterranean have increased. From this point of view, Naples is the second largest beneficiary after the decline of Venice.
The pattern of Western Mediterranean remains stable, with three companies, Aragon, Genoa, and Florence, still occupying the dominant position.
In early March, the expedition fleet arrived at Gibraltar Strait smoothly, and the scene on both sides of the Taiwan Strait did not change at all. Castile controlled Cape Gibraltar in the north, and Portugal occupied Ceuta in the south.
The captain used his telescope to observe the Ceuta port in the south and sighed, "The terrain is dangerous, so Portugal would rather abandon one Prince to keep this territory."
At first, the Portugal army attacked Morocco, but the Portuguese army was surrounded inland. Prince Henry asked Morocco for peace and promised to return Ceuta after returning.
In order to win people's trust, Enrique handed over his youngest brother Fernando as a hostage.
After Enrique returned to his own control area, he quickly regretted it. As a result, Fernando was tortured by Morocco's people.
According to external rumors and records in "Golden Horn News", Fernando was forced to clean stables and lived in a narrow shack next to the toilet for a long time. He died of illness within a few years.
Later, Fernando's coffin has been hanging on the city wall for public display. King Portugal wanted to redeem his body, but was repeatedly rejected by Morocco...
Leaving Gibraltar, the two Cruiser sailed to the southern coast of Castile to purchase fresh grains and livestock.
While docking, the Castile nobles were very interested in Scala's expedition and asked them if they were looking for a route around the southern end of Africa.
The captain replied truthfully, "No, we are just going to Black Coral Island."
The nobleman did not believe the captain's words, but he did not dare to take any overstepping measures.
The naval battle between the Eastern Roman Empire and Venice has been a hot topic recently. Castile has internally speculated that even if all the forces of Iberia were put together, they would not be able to accumulate fifty gunboats. For a long time to come, they would not be able to offend the bad-tempered Emperor Vitus.
After the supplies were completed, the two expedition ships sailed along the coastline of Africa. When they were about to arrive at Sahara Desert, the fleet docked again to purchase grain and livestock from the village of Morocco.
On April 3rd, the sunshine was soft and a gentle north wind blew from the sea.
The farther away from the coast, the color of the sea gradually becomes darker, from the turbid blue-green near the coast to an almost inky indigo. A group of dolphins swam on the right side of the sailboat, their dark backs cutting through the water, triggering cheers from the crew.
The appearance of dolphins has always meant good luck.
The next morning, the lookout discovered a deserted island with flat terrain and almost no vegetation.
Scala continued sailing westward, passing five islands of different sizes one after another until their destination appeared in front of them.
Black Coral Island.
This is the westernmost island in the archipelago and the steepest in the entire archipelago. From a distance, you can see a mountain range running through the entire island, with towering ridges like saw teeth, cutting into the blue sky.
At the end of the cape in the distance is a low reef, densely populated with seabirds.
The seabird took a good look at the two behemoths, wondering whether they were sea turtles or huge whales.
The terrain to the north of the mountain range is steep, facing the sea breeze blowing from Atlantic Ocean, and there is a lot of precipitation.
The slope on the south side of the mountain range is relatively gentle. Its disadvantages are sparse vegetation and lack of rivers, making it unsuitable as a parking base.
Under the blowing of the sea breeze, Scala adjusted the sail rope and sailed towards the northern coast in the impression.
After a while, the lookout suddenly discovered bad news: a faint black smoke appeared in the sky ahead, which should be a bonfire set by humans.
Portugal people?
The captain was extremely vigilant.
Before setting off, Admiralty thought about this situation, and the order given by the civil servant was:
If the Portugal fleet captures Black Coral Island in advance, the fleet should try to avoid conflicts and choose an uninhabited island with fresh water to build the site. It is impossible for the other side to capture all the islands.
Now, Portugal's exploration range extends beyond the southern end of Africa. At regular intervals, they build strongholds on the coast to provide supplies to passing ships. Each stronghold requires immigrants. Black Coral's location is remote, and it is impossible for Portugal to invest too many resources here.
As time passed, the atmosphere on the deck became tense and solemn. Each gun crew was busy loading artillery to prevent the enemy from starting a fight at the slightest disagreement.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Scala came to the former beach. Behind the beach stood some rickety houses, which were the temporary residences built by the original Scala crew.
"Yes, there are seventeen in total, and a small bonfire has been set up on the coast. But where is the Portugal people's flag?"
A year and a half later, the captain still memorized the outlines of these houses, looked carefully with a telescope, and saw several naked and hairy savages.
Savage?
"When we explored Black Coral Island, we didn't find any settlement. Where did they come from? Could it be that?"
A guess arose in the captain's mind. He used a semaphore to notify another ship, Cruiser, and jointly dispatched Marines to explore the beach.
Before departure, the captain ordered a crew member who knew Northern Italy to enter Longboat.
At this time, the savages also discovered two Cruiser. Instead of fleeing, they gathered on the beach and danced, watching the two Longboat gradually sail towards the beach.
"You are finally back!"
There were a total of twelve "savages" on the beach, all of them young and middle-aged men. To be precise, they were the crew of the Venice battleship.
After Scala left, they called Longboat and came to this largest island with abundant fresh water and food to survive. In the past two years, five people fell ill and died one after another.
After a short conversation, Venice people heard a bad news and a good news.
The bad news is that Venice was defeated and surrendered, losing its armory and many islands.
The good news is that the war is over and they are no longer hostile to Scala. It seems that the other side does not want to turn them into slaves, nor does it intend to transport them to Anatolia as Miner.
An officer named Lorenzo wondered, "What will Rome do to us?"
Commander Marines asked his subordinates to wave flags to the battleship, and then replied to Lorenzo, "I don't know, this needs to be discussed by the officers at a meeting."
It was less than two hours before night, and Cruiser was busy unloading personnel and supplies, and did not pay attention to this group of unplanned savages for the time being.
The two Cruiser ships brought a total of ninety-five immigrants, and it was planned to build a settlement in Black Coral Island. The chief executive was called Chora Si·Palaiologos.
From the perspective of seniority, Chora is of the same generation as the emperor and is the emperor's distant cousin.
After Chora reached adulthood, he followed the example of those Palaiologos branches and went to the Blachernae Palace to seek a decent position.
It's a pity that the current emperor is Vitus, not the good-tempered John VIII.
If it were in the past, John VIII would not be stingy with this small amount of money if he wanted to save his reputation. Chora would have a high chance of getting a position. No matter what happened, he would still be able to harvest a piece of land, and he would have no worries about food and clothing from now on.
Vitus is different. His past military exploits have created his indelible reputation. Why should we care about the attitude of the Imperial Clan? Even if Imperial Clan slanders him, what will change?
Chora was Blachernae Palace who arrived in July last year. That afternoon, he took a solo exam and only answered one-third of the questions.
Subsequently, Chora Si was asked to run with weights and Blunted Sword Combat with a guard, and his performance was equally bad.
After the assessment was over, Chora Si was arranged to live in a mansion outside the palace. Every time he asked the civil servant in charge, the answer he received was to let him wait and the emperor would make arrangements when he had time.
After waiting for several months, Imperial Clan, who lived next door, gave up asking for an official position and returned to his hometown with a generous reward.
The reward was as much as one hundred Florin, which was more than ordinary farmers could save in a lifetime. Chora When Si was about to take the money to return home, the crown prince made a proposal to him:
"Africa has a vacancy at Black Coral Islands. Are you interested in serving as Chief Executive?"
Chora Si thought that Rome wanted to regain Cyrenaica (a section of coast west of Egypt), and Black Coral Islands was located near the coast, so he happily agreed.
In the afternoon of that day, Chora went to the Administrative Department gate to go through the formalities and became a registered Eastern Roman Empire civil servant. It was only when he was receiving induction training that he discovered the exact location of Black Coral Islands.
At this time, he could no longer regret it.
In the next half month, the crew assisted the immigrants in building docks and residences.
Subsequently, the immigrants set fire to the weeds, temporarily cleared a vacant land, and plowed the soil with only eight Harness Horse horses.
According to Lorenzo's description, there is no winter on this island. Rainfall is concentrated from August to October, and there is less rainfall in the other months.
He suggested that immigrants give priority to sowing Barley with stronger vitality, and plant a small amount of Sugarcane and wheat near rivers. After the immigrants become familiar with the climate throughout the year, they can then formulate detailed planting plans.
Lorenzo came to a sloping land and introduced to Chora, "This place has no winter and is really suitable for growing Sugarcane. As long as irrigation is ensured, Sugarcane can grow all year round."
Not far away, two Harness Horse horses dragged a heavy plow. The plows cut through the top soil, revealing the dark brown soil and grass roots underneath. Several women followed the heavy plow, picking up grass roots and stones from the ground and putting them into wooden baskets carried on their backs.
Chora Si believes that there is a lot of idle land here, which is more suitable for grazing goats. Lorenzo did not comment too much, and his thoughts gradually shifted to his distant hometown.
A few days ago, Lorenzo persuaded Scala to take them back to Southern Italy. His cousin is the baron of Naples and can help pay two hundred Ducat as shipping fee.
Of the remaining eleven survivors, six wanted to return to their hometown, and five decided to stay here and become official residents of Black Coral Island.
Black Coral Island The climate is mild, the sources of meat are abundant, and the living conditions are much better than in their hometown.
On April 20th, Scala was about to return. The captain warned Chora:
"I don't know Admiralty's plan. The next ship may arrive at the island next year. I hope you will handle all matters properly. If the Portugal merchant ship comes to the island, you can directly identify yourself and they will not dare to fight with us."
Under the farewell of the immigrants, two Cruisers sailed away from the island. The cabins were loaded with some Black Corals and various characteristic animals and plants, which were sold to the upper class after returning.
More than a week later, Scala and a friendly ship were sailing along the west coast of Sahara when they suddenly encountered three medium-sized sailing ships.
The flag of the Castile royal family hangs on the opposite side - the flag is divided into four areas, with a red lion in the lower left and upper right areas, and the remaining two areas are yellow castles.
"What's going on?"
The two Eastern Roman Empire battleships were put on alert. The crew loaded their guns and watched the Castile sailing ship with vigilance.
Not long after, the three warships disappeared in the southern waters. After they left, Scala was released from the war preparation state. The captain was very confused:
"The internal struggle of Castile is fierce. I heard that Finance has a big problem. Under such circumstances, investing in overseas exploration is a bit too hasty."
He thought for a long time and felt that Castile was stimulated by Portugal and Rome. The king made a temporary decision and decided to participate in this business of opening up a new sea route and make a lot of money.