The fleet formed by the Tang Western Company and the Guedes Trading Company is said to be a merchant fleet, but in fact it has always been armed!

The sailors on this side are all armed men!

And you look at their equipment again, and then you will know why they are armed fleets!

The fleet consisted of two cruisers, six armed merchant ships, and eight ships with a total of more than 100 guns of various calibers and about 40,000 rounds of ammunition.

There are about 500 flintlock muskets and 500 arquebuses in the fleet, and there is more than one musket per capita, and in addition, each musket has an average of 500 rounds of ammunition, and 500 rounds of ammunition for a smoothbore gun is enough to fight many large-scale battles!

In addition, there are about 500 sets of plate armor of various types, such as full-body armor, half-body armor, and cuirass, which is enough to give a plate armor to all those who are ready to fight.

In addition, there is also a melee weapon of the Tang Army: hand grenades, with a total of about 2,000 ammunition in reserve, which is enough to fight a large-scale battle!

With this strength, in fact, in the South China Sea, except for the Tang Navy or the Portuguese fleet, it is basically impossible to meet any opponents!

Even if you are a little more daring, you can sneak attack a wave of Malacca!

Of course, after the fight, the Portuguese will definitely go crazy, maybe the war between the two countries will break out because of this!

Now the high-ranking officials of the Tang Dynasty do not want a war with the Portuguese now, they prefer to turn against the Portuguese after obtaining the second channel of European trade!

And the fleet of Datang Western Company bears this responsibility!

Saying anything about going to Europe for trade, it's actually nonsense, people Guedes really went to Europe to trade, the four merchant ships were loaded with all kinds of goods, but the four ships of the Tang Western Company, the two cruisers were carrying all kinds of supplies, except for food and drink, which were used to fight.

And the remaining two Type 680 merchant ships, although they also carried some goods, actually occupied less than a quarter of the cargo holds, and the remaining three-quarters of the cargo holds? It's still for eating, drinking, and fighting!

These two 680 merchant ships are actually supply ships for these two cruisers!

From the composition of these four ships of the Datang Western Company and the materials on board, it can basically be judged that this is not to trade at all, but purely to explore new routes and establish a battle fleet of trade sites!

It's just that even Guedes doesn't know that the two 680 merchant ships of the Tang Western Company did not carry any goods for sale at all, and most of them were supplies.

But Guedes doesn't care, anyway, he is going to Europe, and on the way to Europe, he must break through the blockade of the Portuguese, and in the process of breaking through the blockade, the outbreak of fighting is a high-probability event, and he is also relieved that Datang Western Company is in the way.

After the fleet successfully arrived in Luzon, Ying Zihua sent people ashore, and then set up a very rudimentary supply depot on Mingh Lao Island.

Then Ying Zihua left more than a dozen people to garrison this small fortress and let them wait for the arrival of the second batch of domestic ships!

In order to plan this exploration of the westward mission, it is naturally impossible for the Datang Western Company to have only these four ships, the fleet led by Ying Zihua is just the vanguard, and there will be ships with armed personnel and goods one after another, if nothing else, there will be a second batch of two 680 type armed merchant ships to arrive on Mian Lao Island in half a month, and then bring at least 100 armed employees of the company to guard the expansion of trade supply depots.

After establishing a small supply depot on the island of Myonlao, the combined fleet quickly departed and continued south, this time to the eastern seas of Malacca.

At that point, they will have a choice between venturing through Malacca and crossing the Indian Ocean, or continuing south and then crossing the strait between Sumatra and Java into southern Sumatra and then westward across the Indian Ocean.

The specific decision, they are not yet sure, Guedes suggested that the time go directly south, because two very conspicuous cruisers, that must not go to Malacca, the Portuguese are not blind, even on a rainy day, you can see these two cruisers at a glance, and then needless to say, the fleet will definitely be dispatched to intercept it immediately.

On the other hand, other merchant ships are okay and can sneak through the Strait of Malacca, and whether they will be intercepted depends on luck.

However, Ying Zihua was hesitant about this, he wanted to go directly through the Strait of Malacca, and then go north to Burma to establish a trade supply station, because from the geographical environment, Myanmar is just on the edge of the empire's Yunnan, and there is a huge land pressure from the empire, giving the natives on the Burmese side a hundred guts, and they dare not refuse his request to establish a trade supply station there.

Then he wanted to go to the east coast of India and establish several trade supply depots.

On the one hand, for the sake of the vast trade market on the Indian side, and on the other hand, if there is no trade supply depot on the Indian coast, it is difficult to directly cross the Indian Ocean to the east coast of Africa with the current speed of ships and the supplies they carry, and the risk is too great.

There must be a supply depot on the way through the Indian Ocean, otherwise European trade will be a dead letter!

If you go around the strait between Sumatra and Java, not to mention whether it will be intercepted by the Portuguese there, but the distance alone is a long way away, and if you want to go north to Burma at that time, it will be more distant, and at that time it is better to cross the Indian Ocean directly and then go to Ceylon, well, although Ceylon is now in the hands of the Portuguese.

The choice of route represents the risk, so whether it is Guedes or Ying Zihua, it is impossible to determine for a while, so we can only take one step at a time.

Just when Ying Zihua felt a little difficult, an officer from a young military camp found him, and then mysteriously said to Zihua: "After arriving in the eastern waters of Malacca, I need a ship!" ”

"You need a boat? What are you kidding, even if you are an employee of our Datang Western Company and have the rank of captain, you can't say that if you want a ship, you want a ship! ”

But at this time, the officer of the young military camp took out an envelope and a seal, and when he saw this seal, Ying Zihua was surprised: "You are from the Military Intelligence Department?" Aren't you from the Navy, and the name is true? ”

The young officer nodded: "Yes, I am the deputy station of the Nanyang Station of the Military Intelligence Department, of course, I am also a retired officer of the Navy, and Wang Shanxi is indeed my real name."

Ying Zihua took the seal and the envelope with a puzzled look, and then there was a letter in the envelope, this letter was written by the head of the Royal Assets Section, and he didn't say the detailed reason, but just asked Ying Zihua to support the work of their Military Intelligence Department, and send a ship to obey the officials of their Military Intelligence Department, that is, the command of this Wang Shanxi, there is no need to ask anything, just follow the arrangements of the officials sent by the Military Intelligence Department!

After Ying Zihua carefully confirmed the authenticity of the seal and the letter on the letter, he checked the identity of the young officer in detail, and finally confirmed that the letter was genuine, and this Wang Shanxi was really a member of the Military Intelligence Department.

These spies are really everywhere, he never thought before he came that the officers under his command would still have people from the Military Intelligence Department, and their positions were not low.

Since the people of the Military Intelligence Department want to do things, and there is a personal letter from the head of the Imperial Assets Section, he doesn't bother to ask why, what do these people who play all kinds of espionage, assassination and other conspiracies think, he really can't understand!

The devil knows what they want the ship for, maybe they want to assassinate the king of an indigenous kingdom, or find some pirate treasure, or simply want to find the elixir of life for His Majesty!

So Ying Zihua just asked casually: "Where are you going to go then?" ”

Wang Shanxi of the Military Intelligence Department still said with a mysterious face: "It's inconvenient to say this, but it will definitely not be in the same direction as you at that time!" ”

It's not the same direction as them at all times, so it's not east, and it is estimated that they can't go north, that's the way back, that's east? I heard that there are still some islands in the east, but I heard that the natives there are quite violent, and it is not a problem to eat human flesh raw, and now even those Western barbarians dare not go there, what are they doing in those islands in the east?

As for the further south, it is south of the island of Java, and what else is there to the south of the island of Java? Except for the vast ocean, it is estimated that there is nothing left!

Ying Zihua was an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before, and he was very familiar with world geography, and he knew very well that on the world map officially published by Datang, and even on the map with the highest level of secrecy, the south of Java Island was blank!

Ying Zihua guessed, but he didn't know what these people were going to do!

If it is a war, it will certainly not, because they only need one ship, and at most a ship will carry more than a hundred people, and if there are more, the people can be loaded, but the voyage can easily cause a shortage of supplies.

What are these hundreds of people doing?

After guessing again, Ying Zihua couldn't guess what they were going to do, so he simply didn't guess, maybe he wanted to ask for the elixir of life for His Majesty!

Ying Zihua is naturally no, Wang Shanxi and them are also shouldering a heavy responsibility, and this task is still very arduous, and it requires a high degree of secrecy.

They were ordered by Li Xuan to find the legendary Australia!

When Li Xuan taught the students of the Young Military Camp and the Royal Institute of Technology geography knowledge by himself, he basically said it elsewhere, but he didn't say Australia!

At this time, Australia only existed in Li Xuan's mind, and now, Wang Shanxi is going to find it!