Yan Yingyuan's Fourth Army completely annihilated the Spanish army on Luzon and the news of the capture of Luzon reached the city of Nanjing.

"Congratulations to the Emperor, congratulations to the Emperor! took the four southeastern countries and Luzon Island, and then expanded the territory for the Ming Dynasty for 3,005 miles! Li Yan congratulated Zhu Ci.

Burma, Siam, Nanzhang, Zhendian, Luzon, etc., are all small countries compared to the Ming Dynasty, but if they are really taken together, they are also 3,500 miles in radius, which is equivalent to the size of nearly five provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Ciji also smiled, if you open the map, the entire East Asia and Southeast Asia were captured by the Ming Dynasty and became the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

The territory of the Ming Dynasty at this moment is more than three times that of the Chongzhen period, but this is not over.

"This time after three years, I don't plan to end here, there is still a place, I also want to take it on the occasion of this opening of the territory!" Zhu Ci said with a smile.

"Oh? Which piece of land is it? Li Yan said curiously.

According to the huge world map on the Jinluan Palace, almost all the places around the Ming Dynasty have been taken by the Ming Dynasty, leaving only the Tsarist Russian Empire in the north, the Manchus and Cossacks in the west, and the Mughal Empire in the southwest.

The Ming Dynasty opened up its territory and expanded its territory, not just by conquering it, but also by subsequent transformation, immigration, etc., before it was completely occupied.

Therefore, even if the Ming Dynasty is strong, it is impossible to keep expanding its territory, and it is always necessary to stop for a period of time from time to time to digest the territory captured, and also let the soldiers of the army get a period of rest.

This time, the Ming Dynasty expanded the territory of 3,500 miles, if you want to digest it, it will take two or three years, if you want to continue to attack a piece of land, Tsarist Russia, Manchus, Mughals, etc. have a large population, Li Yan does not support attacking these places now, then only continue to the south.

Li Yan looked at Zhu Cihe, waiting for Zhu Cijiao to say the final answer.

Zhu Ciji also saw some information from Li Yan's eyes, and immediately smiled: "I'm afraid Aiqing also guessed it, yes, it is to continue to the south, there is still a piece of land there, called Australia, which is more than twice the size of the four southeastern countries combined, I plan to take advantage of this time to take it together!" ”

In later generations, Australia was first occupied by the British, and this was a rich land, and Zhu Ci could not let it go.

"But Your Majesty, such a large piece of land, if it is captured at the same time now, I'm afraid it won't be easy to digest, right?" Li Yan said.

Judging from the map, Australia is more than twice the size of the four countries of southeast Burma combined, almost one-third of the current territory of the Ming Dynasty, plus the four countries of Burma and Luzon that have just been captured, the Ming Dynasty has expanded its territory for tens of thousands of miles at a time, which does not look very stable, at least it is difficult to digest in a short time.

Zhu Ci knew that Li Yan must not have such a concern if he didn't understand the situation in Australia at the moment, and immediately explained: "Although the Australian continent is large, there is one thing that Aiqing may not know, there are less than one million uncivilized indigenous people on the entire Australian continent, and the number is only about the same as Luzon. ”

According to later generations, the indigenous population of Australia was not only sparse, but also in the era of uncivilized barbarian tribes.

The most difficult thing to digest a piece of land is to assimilate the population above, and because Australia does not have a large population, although the territory is vast, it is at least much easier to assimilate than the four countries of southeastern Burma.

After Zhu Cihe's explanation, Li Yan understood.

"In that case, the minister supports the emperor!" Li Yan said to Zhu Ci with his hand bowed.

On the same day, Zhu Cicheng issued a holy decree, sending officials and garrison troops to take over Luzon, and at the same time, ordered the Fourth Army to suspend rest and recuperate, and follow the South China Sea Fleet to continue the conquest of Australia.

Attacking Australia is very simple, the British discovered Australia when they sailed four years ago, and the British ** team landed two years ago, but it only landed in the Sydney area of eastern Australia and established the first castle, Sydney City!

Yan Yingyuan and the other Fourth Army did not need to capture the entire Australian army, they only needed to capture the city of Sydney established by the British and expel the British.

After receiving the decree, Yan Yingyuan immediately handed over the jurisdiction of Luzon Island to officials and garrison generals sent by the imperial court, and immediately led the soldiers of the Fourth Army to board the ships of Zheng Sen's South China Sea Fleet in Manila Bay.

Zheng Sen's South China Sea Fleet has often traveled to the northern part of Australia in recent years to protect the Indonesian archipelago.

Although he had never landed in Australia, because Zhu had conveyed a secret order for his East China Sea Fleet to explore the waters around Australia, Zheng Sen had personally led several warships of the South China Sea Fleet to sail around the Australian continent two years ago and draw a nautical chart.

The ships of the South China Sea Fleet carried Yan Yingyuan and other Fourth Army troops all the way south from the Luzon Islands, through the Strait of the Indonesian Islands to the northern waters of Australia, and then sailed along the Australian mainland line to the east coast, pointing directly at the city of Sydney, which was established by the British on the east coast.

"Admiral Zheng has been to this sea before?" Yan Yingyuan asked Yan Yingyuan.

"I've been here, it's a big continent!" Zheng Sen said with a smile.

It is indeed very big, when he looked at the world map printed by Hubu, Yan Yingyuan still didn't believe that there was such a big island in this world, but after turning around himself, he believed that this was so big that it couldn't be called an island at all, and could only be called another continent.

Especially when he recently learned from the emperor that there were only less than a million natives living on such a large continent, Zheng Sen felt only shock and incredulity.

If this continent is a barren land, it would be fine, but after hearing the emperor say that Australia's land is no less fertile than Burma, Siam and other countries, he feels that it is too wasteful to be occupied by that bit of natives.

Yan Yingyuan nodded and did not continue to speak.

The ship sailed on the Pacific Ocean off the east coast of Australia, and the waves were quite calm, and there was no feeling of a vast ocean at all, so it is no wonder that the map calls this ocean the Pacific Ocean.

According to the nautical charts, it would take them about two days to sail to the waters around the city of Sydney, which was founded by the British.