The fleet led by Zhu Hao successfully arrived on the west coast of Central America in early October.
When they saw the vast tracts of land, everyone on the ship was very excited, dancing, shouting, or hugging each other and crying. After a long voyage of eighty days, they finally arrived at their destination. They were so excited that they completely forgot that this was just a journey.
A place where they go to work overseas, and their ultimate goal is to return to Daming.
"The fleet is not busy docking. It first sends two large ships to approach the shore, and then sends out small boats to find a suitable docking place to prepare for landing."
When Zhu Hao discovered land, he had already made arrangements. Guan Jing and Lu Bing, two young generals with experience in colonizing the American continent, would serve as the vanguard, and each would lead 500 soldiers ashore to observe the surrounding environment.
Only when a suitable place is found and a bridgehead is established can the large troops go ashore.
After setting up camp, the next step is to search for food, explore for iron ore and coal mines, manufacture bricks, glass and cement, then start building forts, and gradually conquer the nearby Native Americans, allowing the natives to join in his colonization process.
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The ship docks.
As expected, no resistance was encountered.
Although there were indigenous residents on the American continent at this time, the tribes were in a loose state. Battles between city-states usually took place on some territories worth fighting for. Places with dense forests were not suitable for growing food and living. Especially in China.
The indigenous people in the Americas were not used to fishing for a living, so there were very few city-states and tribes along the coast.
Without any incident during the exploration, a team of 10,000 people disembarked from the ship that night and began to set up camp on land.
Lu Bing led 500 cavalry to explore the surrounding area and guard the area.
Guan Jing came back early and explained to Zhu Hao what he had discovered here.
"We should have been here last time, but we did not dock here. There are many trees here. According to previous records, walking south from here for about fifty miles, there is a wide river leading inland. There are a large number of trees scattered on both sides of the river.
Savages, it’s not an exaggeration to say that they eat hair and drink blood. Even women are basically covered only in thatch and fur. They are more primitive than the Tatars and have no fighting power at all. They don’t even have livestock for farming..."
As Guan Jing spoke, he looked down upon the indigenous people of Central America.
The civilization of the Ming Dynasty continued to progress, but Central America was completely isolated from Eurasia, the center of the world, because it was separated by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. There were no horses here and a lack of livestock as transportation and combat tools. In addition, their smelting technology was extremely
Being backward, weaving and weaving were in a primitive state. According to Guan Jing, they had just randomly sent a few people ashore to capture the tribe, and encountered minimal resistance.
we can even say……
Those tribes don't like to resist and seem to be used to submissiveness. They may also know that fighting a powerful opponent will only bring disaster to the tribe. Taking the initiative to join the other tribe and fully integrating into the other tribe is the way to survive.
Zhu Hao had observed the map drawn by Guan Jing and the others, but unfortunately it was too backward to determine where this place was directly from the topography. He could only conclude from the hot climate that this place was relatively close to the equator, and the rainy season and dry season were clearly distinguished.
It should be during the dry season.
This is probably an important reason why surrounding tribes like to gather in rivers.
Fight inland along the river, and you can recruit many tribes along the way.
"There's no need to rush to the south. Let's establish an outpost here first and send out manpower to explore the surrounding area!"
Zhu Hao knew his mission very well.
The purpose of going to sea this time was completely different from the last time Guan Jing and Lu Bing went to sea. Last time, Guan Jing and the others just shot and left, and they could plunder as many resources as they could.
And this time he came to colonize. This period may even be five to ten years. To take root in a strange place, he must first build a strong fortress that can be advanced, attacked, retreated and defended, and a city fortress at the mouth of a large river.
It's good, but if the impact is too great, it's likely to attract attacks.
It is better to build a city in this place surrounded by winding streams and lush forests, so as to ensure the water source and carry out various constructions at the same time.
According to the horse exploration report, there is a large lake three miles deep into the land through the dense forest in front. As long as the water is dug and diverted, and water wells are dug to ensure water supply before the rainy season, the operation of a city can be guaranteed.
"Is it right here? It looks like the situation isn't very good. Is it better somewhere with mountains?"
Guan Jing looked very opinionated.
After his last trip to sea, he felt that he had rich experience in marching formations and wanted to take Zhu Hao with him.
Zhu Hao did not feel dissatisfied, and pointed to Lou Suzhen beside him with a smile: "As for the establishment of the camp, follow her instructions. Early tomorrow morning, let the people on the boat take turns to go ashore, and build the dock first. The trees here must be fully utilized.
.I will have someone check the quality of the trees tonight."
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As a large number of people landed, Zhu Hao had to guard against mutiny in the army. There were actually restless soldiers at sea before, but they did not dare to break out at sea. Once they found land, Zhu Hao had to reiterate military rules and regulations and give clear instructions.
instructions to put them into production.
"Sir, is this really suitable for building a city?"
Even Lou Suzhen seems to have objections to this.
Zhu Haodao: "I only said to build an outpost here. Our biggest resource now is actually our ships. In a strange place, we must first establish whether the enemy poses a threat to us. If we just face the indigenous people, they will not
It might hinder us, but if it's a Franco robot that can take out artillery and blunderbuss, then the situation will be hard to predict!"
That night, Zhu Hao patiently waited for the news from Lu Bing.
Lu Bing led the cavalry a little deeper into the land. In addition to detecting the terrain, he also had another purpose, which was to capture living people and bring them back as guides.
Among the people who were captured by Lu Bing and others before and brought back to the Ming Dynasty, some of them learned Chinese relatively quickly and were able to communicate at a basic level. Zhu Hao also basically understood the other party's language through communicating with them, so he did not have to worry about being deceived.
"We...don't come here...it's too far..."
The person summoned for questioning was a man, probably in his early twenties, but with an old appearance. In this era, it is not easy for even the people of the Ming Dynasty to live to be fifty, let alone these native Americans, who can live to be thirty.
Shangxia is good. For them, the annexation between tribes and the war between city-states are very cruel, and survival is extremely difficult.
Zhu Hao asked: "Why don't you come here? Is it just because it's a long way?"
The man couldn't understand Zhu Hao's words, so someone who specialized in teaching him Chinese explained it to him, and the man said: "It's very bad here, it's windy, there's a curse..."
The general meaning is that the consciousness instilled by their tribe's wizards is that there are big winds and waves here, and the products are not rich. It is an ominous place, and they would not go near it at all. So this is actually telling Zhu Hao in disguise that no one will disturb the nearby area.
, quite good in terms of stability.
Someone had been exploring the surrounding terrain that night, and the report given was that there was no trace of human activity here. Then the soldiers had used wooden barrels to transport a large amount of fresh water back from the nearby lake.
Although the water source problem has been solved, it is obviously unrealistic to develop a city with a population of about 40,000 people. Therefore, after the "bridgehead" is built, it is necessary to find a new place to build the city.
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"Do you have a silver mine here? Is this the kind of thing?"
Zhu Hao kept the native in his tent and inquired about the situation here.
Zhu Hao named this person "Ada", which means the vanguard among the indigenous people. This person will be responsible for communicating with surrounding tribes in the future...
One of the important reasons why he sent people to the New World in advance and captured them back to the Ming Dynasty was to teach the captive indigenous people the Ming language, and also to allow some Ming people to communicate with the local indigenous people without any hindrance.
Otherwise...it would be too troublesome for both parties to rely solely on gestures to express themselves.
"There aren't many here. We have to go south."
Ah Da is considered a know-it-all among the tribe, and even learns Chinese faster than others.
Zhu Hao felt that this person could be promoted to an official in the future.
Silver mines are of little significance to Zhu Hao's current colonial enterprise. After all, they cannot be exchanged for anything valuable in America, but they are more useful than anything else in stabilizing the morale of the military.
Once a silver mine is discovered and mined, the army lieutenants, craftsmen, farmers and even fishermen who come with them will feel that the trip to sea is very worthwhile.
But we must also prevent those who follow us from taking advantage of the situation.
Therefore, the best way is not to open a silver mine directly, but to get a batch of finished products back first, distribute them and reward them, so that everyone can have a head start.
"Coal mines, and iron ores... show them to him..."
Zhu Hao asked people to bring iron ore, copper ore and coal and show them to the native.
Apart from Copper Ore, Ada said he had never seen the other two types.
Zhu Hao originally thought this product was quite useful, but now it seems that his knowledge is still too shallow to be of much use.
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There was no dispatch for the fleet that night.
It wasn't until dawn that the fleet's ships docked in large numbers and moved all the people at sea to land.
And Lu Bing's team finally came back after a night out, and captured less than twenty indigenous people... It is said that there is a valley near the woods near the mountains, where four or five families live, with simple houses built on them.
Together, they are surrounded by wooden fences and are surrounded by reclaimed farmland.
"What they eat...are the things I mentioned before...called corn bread."
Lu Bing brought the corn to Zhu Hao for inspection.
Zhu Hao had sent the corn seeds back to the Ming Dynasty before, as a gift to Zhu Si.
As for whether corn can be successfully promoted in China in the next few years, it depends on whether Zhu Si is determined to seek welfare for the people of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Hao said: "It's good. If we want to live here for a long time, we need a lot of food. With the food we bring, we can only last for seven or eight months at most."
As he was talking, Su Xigui finally landed. He was a little afraid. He had been hiding on the boat before because he was afraid of any ferocious beasts and savage natives after landing. When he saw that the Ming Dynasty's landing army had used trees to set up within a few miles of the landing site.
After building the fence and starting to build wooden houses, Su Xigui came over to Zhu Hao to discuss setting up camp.
"This is just a temporary transfer station."
Zhu Hao said to Su Xi Guiming, "After we have discovered the surrounding terrain, in the next few days, we will move eastward and sweep away the nearby tribes."