My Daming New Empire

Page 422

Today's fleet only has 2 navies, 7 young troops, [-] Habayashi guards, and thousands of other personnel. The total number has changed from nearly [-] to more than [-].

However, in addition to the reduction of [-] navies, the most powerful young army and Habayashi Wei are still with the team, and their combat effectiveness has not decreased.

Although the fleet has lost more than 2 people and nearly [-] ships, most of the remaining ships are warships, and the remaining [-] troops are all elite soldiers.

From here on, the fleet will no longer be divided into troops, but will only be divided into the front battalion, the middle battalion, and the rear battalion, stretching for hundreds of miles, all the way westward.

The equipment of the ships in the former battalion is divided into two categories, one is fast and the other is shallow.

Because in addition to surveying the waters and exploring routes, the front battalion also undertakes the task of exploring trade, continents, and islands along the way.

As for the middle battalion and the rear battalion, they are mainly cargo ships and frigates, and the speed will be slower.

From the Persian Gulf to the southern corner of Africa, this will be the most difficult part of the entire voyage to the West, even more difficult than the trip to South Africa.

Because the direction of the ocean current in the Indian Ocean is clockwise, and from April onwards, the wind direction is also southwesterly.

In other words, the entire fleet must not only head against the wind, but also against the current.Only after crossing the equator line, will it turn into an upwind and smooth sailing, and the voyage will be easier.

In future generations, Zhu Zhanji would never choose this route, but there is no way now.Because today's ships have no ability to resist strong winds and waves, they can only walk along the coastline.

Even if you arrive in South Africa and then turn northward, it does not mean that the following journey will be easy, because the next thing you have to face is the Atlantic Ocean with the most complicated water regime.

Although the Pacific Ocean has the largest area, it is still very safe to avoid the typhoon season because of the regularity of ocean currents, which is why the name of the Pacific Ocean comes from.

If the Pacific is a lady, compared with the Pacific, the Atlantic is a irascible picker.Losing your temper at every turn, especially in the South Atlantic, can be said to be a forbidden zone in this era.

And between April and October, it is also the typhoon season in Africa and the Atlantic Ocean, no matter how careful you are, you can't take it too seriously.

Zhu Zhanji didn't want his elite fighters to die in the typhoon instead of on the battlefield.

With these concerns, and the fact that the former battalion still needs to go ashore along the way, leaving behind one or two battalions of thousands of households to conduct local inspections, the speed of the fleet is very slow.

And this time the fleet is almost walking close to the coastline, as long as it encounters signs of strong winds, it will immediately go ashore to take shelter.

Starting from Socotra Island, wherever they went, the front battalion was in charge of contacting and trading with the local Jotan. When the Chinese army arrived, they exchanged goods according to the deal that Yu had previously negotiated.

Afterwards, the fleet arrived in Somalia in later generations, which has been completely deserted in later generations, but now, there are still large tracts of farms and pastures.

The tribes here fish, hunt, grow all kinds of crops, and look even richer than they did 600 years later.

In Somalia alone, there are three large tribes, which are called Mugudushu, Zhubu and Malin.They were short of everything, and every item that Da Ming brought out made them envious.

It's a pity that they don't have many commodities that Da Ming likes. Except for a few gold and silver, Da Ming doesn't care about food at all.

No matter where they went, Daming's mighty fleet was daunting, and no tribe dared to challenge the authority of Daming.

Zheng He communicated with them with the help of Tong Shi, and any reward made them willingly recognize Daming as the suzerain state.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Zhanji couldn't help being a little amused. This so-called vassal state was originally obtained by bribery!

However, seeing that they got a few bolts of cloth, a few bolts of silk, a set of porcelain, and a bag of the cheapest tea, they willingly signed and stamped on the national certificate. Zhu Zhanji felt that this method was actually very good.

They don't need to fight and kill to make them willingly recognize Daming as the master. As long as they occupy the position, it will naturally be easy to intervene in their country in the future.

When the fleet arrived in Mombasa, later Kenya, it encountered the first strong wind, but the fleet had been prepared and all hid in the inland bay of Mombasa.

Mombasa is a natural harbor with two pieces of land sandwiching an island, two waterways and two inland bays.

Although there are no mountains here to block the wind, there are no big waves, just strong winds, which do not cause much damage to the fleet.

After the strong wind, only the masts of two ships were blown off, and the skilled craftsmen only took one day to replace the masts with new ones.

This area was originally dominated by African indigenous people, but since 300 years ago, trading Arabs have controlled this area.

The Arabs drove the local cannibals to the inland area, and built a new city on the island at the mouth of the bay, which became Mombasa in later generations.

Because it was controlled by the Arabs, they were originally trading for a living, so while the fleet was being repaired here, the goods of the two ships were also exchanged.

Although this place is very suitable for building a supply point, Zhu Zhanji has no such intention.

First of all, this place has been controlled by the Arabs, and secondly, they are doing well so far. Once the fleet arrives, they will be able to provide perfect services.

Since you can get supplies without investment, why bother yourself?

Zhu Zhanji's real goal is Dar es Salaam, which is less than [-] miles south of Mombasa. It is also the place where Zheng He has arrived twice in history, and many Chinese have settled down here.

Dar es Salaam is also a natural harbor and has a large river leading inland.More importantly, this place is rich in gold. In the original history, the local natives used simple tools to pan for hundreds of tons of gold.

Although Zhu Zhanji didn't know where these gold mines were, as long as he was in this area, he wouldn't be afraid to find them.

When Mombasa was already occupied by the Arabs, it was more in the interests of development to choose Dar es Salaam, which no one pays attention to and where only a few tribes survive.

So when the fleet arrived here, the Ming Fleet made its first repairs and built a supply point here.

This place is different from Nanzhou. There are only a few hundred thousand natives in Nanzhou. It needs Ming to develop from scratch, and no one else can get involved there.

However, the northern region has already been occupied by the Arabs, and there are a large number of indigenous tribes in central Africa. Since it takes more energy to monopolize it, it is better to share it with others to facilitate the establishment of an exploiting class.

Today's Dar es Salaam is still barren, only some large tribes in the interior have extended their tentacles here, but not many people pay attention to it.

It wasn't until Daming repaired the filter pool that people from the tribe made initial contact with them.

This tribe is a large tribe called Morocco, with a total population of more than 500 million people.The capital of their tribe is called Morocco, which is about three or four hundred miles away from Dar es Salaam.

This tribe is very powerful and occupies almost all the plains south of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Because of their great influence and large numbers of people, of course they occupy a lot of resources.Daming's goods are high-end goods that they have never thought of.

It didn't take much effort at all, and their tribal leader agreed to Da Ming's construction of a supply point at the mouth of the sea, and made a deal with Da Ming.

However, when they took refuge in Daming and recognized Daming as the suzerain, they had some hesitation.The tribal elders who came here can't make decisions, they can only postpone this matter until next year, and they will continue to discuss this matter when the Ming Fleet returns.

Although it seems a bit child's play, but if you think about it carefully, you can understand it.

The cruel era of great voyages has not yet begun, and European countries are fighting their own hands.The whole world is in a kind of regional international relations, and many people are curious about the outside world.

Apart from the surrounding tribes, these African tribes lacked an understanding of the whole world. When the Deming Fleet driving the Armada arrived here, they had no other thoughts except shock and curiosity.

When facing the mighty Ming Dynasty, they were full of fear.Before Daming raised the butcher's knife first, they were willing to choose to get along friendly.

The fleet continued to set off, and the second supply point in Africa was set up in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique.

The reason for choosing this place is of course because of the gold in South Africa.This is the area closest to Johannesburg and the last settlement of various races on the African continent in southern Africa.

Before the European invasion of Africa, from south of the Zambezi River in central Africa, there were actually very few indigenous peoples.

Although northern Africa is the birthplace of world civilization, in the south, life is extremely primitive.