"Australia, very desolate, even more desolate than we expected, Chen is led by Jinyuan, along the coast of Australia for more than half a month, thousands of miles, but all you see is a desolation!" Wang Shanxi was explaining to Li Xuan what he had seen in Australia.

Desolate?

Li Xuan didn't feel strange about this, and even he knew better than Wang Shanxi what kind of place Australia was.

In such a huge place as Australia, although it is said that all kinds of mineral resources are very rich, but the place suitable for human habitation and rich land is only the southeast region, and the rest of the country is a wilderness.

Of course, in these wilderness areas, although most of them are not suitable for human settlement, there will be a few places suitable for human settlement, such as the place in the northwest corner of Australia that Wang Shanxi found, that is, the place where they found gold mines.

After comparing the map, Li Xuan guessed that this place should be the Darwin of the later generations.

Rumor has it that Darwin started as a small port with few immigrants, but it developed rapidly after the discovery of gold and then became an important city in the northern part of Australia.

Geographically, the city is closer to the Indonesian archipelago and closer to the Chinese mainland, making it an outpost for the Chinese colonization of Australia.

Of course, the same effect is also played by the islands of Java and New Guinea, but there are too many indigenous people on these islands, and some of them are cannibalistic.

At the same time, these areas have many rainforests, and they are also tropical areas, which are too difficult to colonize, and it is estimated that more than half of the 100 immigrants will die of disease in a year and a half.

Not to mention these places, even the place in Luzon is not friendly to the current immigrants of the Tang Dynasty, and the natives inside are still often harassing the trading stations on Mian Lao Island, and the immigrants who immigrated in the early stage, even when they were working outside the castle, they needed to carry guns and swords with them, and they could effectively resist when the natives attacked.

Even though the more than 1,000 company troops of the Tang Western Company arrived in Luzon, they had already organized three large-scale clean-up activities before and after, basically fighting around Mian Lao Island and defeating many indigenous troops, but they still could not fundamentally wipe them out.

On the one hand, there is too little time, and it is difficult to completely defeat the local natives by relying on a few simple military strikes.

In addition, there is a more important reason that Datang Western Company is not interested in carrying out large-scale colonization and armed operations in Nanyang.

These military operations were carried out at the request of the land and sea sides.

Although Datang Western Company established a colony on Mian Lao Island, according to the Western trade license obtained by Datang Western Company, although Datang Western Company was allowed to own the company's territory, at the end of last year, after a liaison meeting between the cabinet and the military, the license of Datang Western Company was renewed.

The licence still allows DTX to own the company's territory and to assist in administrative and armed operations in some of the company's territory, but this authority is limited to the area west of Malacca and does not include the Americas.

In the Nanyang region, although Datang Western Company can still own the company's territory, these territories are only simple company property, and Datang Western Company does not have the right to directly set up officials here to assist the government in administrative rule, and the authority to use the armed forces privately.

To put it bluntly, the territory of Datang Western Company in the Nanyang region only owns land property rights, just like a big landlord.

The reason why these restrictions are formulated is to prevent Datang Western Company from focusing mainly on Nanyang or Australia, and the mission of Datang Western Company is to colonize India, West Asia, Africa, Europe, and conduct monopolistic trade in these regions!

In the Nanyang region, the military will be personally responsible for colonization, and all kinds of trade will be participated by private merchants, and the official company of Datang Nanyang Company will also participate.

In this way, the Datang Western Company is not so enthusiastic about the colonial construction in the Nanyang region, as long as it can ensure the safe supply of shipping routes, trade and supply, and at the same time can make accidents, other Datang Western companies do not care so much.

After the establishment of the Merlao Island Trading Post and the Banten Trading Post, and the establishment of several small supply depots in the northern waters of Myanmar by Ying Zihua's exploration fleet, the strategic focus of Datang Western Company has begun to move westward, and in the next few years, the focus of business will be on the Indian side!

Of course, before the military officially takes over the affairs of the Nanyang colonies from the Datang Western Company, the Datang Western Company will continue to undertake the maintenance and expansion of multiple Nanyang colonies, but it is certainly impossible to say how attentive it is.

Now that the Datang Western Company is organizing a large-scale fleet of ships to set sail south in the winter and then go all the way to India, they are not very concerned about the affairs of the South Seas.

At the same time, the army and navy are also negotiating and preparing to transfer troops, and it is from the Tang Western Company that they will take over the garrison of several colonies in Nanyang.

When the army and navy of the Tang Dynasty went south, it was the official beginning of the wave of colonization in the South Seas!

Wang Shanxi didn't know this, and he didn't need to know, and this was not the reason why Li Xuan called him.

Li Xuan called him because he felt that this person's seafaring ability was really good, and it was not easy to lead the Jinyuan to find Australia.

Later, Li Xuan planned to give him a more important task!

On the one hand, we will continue to explore Australia, and on the other hand, we will explore safe routes to the Americas.

Although the navy can also do this kind of thing of exploring shipping routes, to be honest, the fleet operations that the navy is good at, and the exploration of shipping routes is still needed by professional navigators.

In addition to Wang Shanxi, Li Xuan also asked the navy to find several experienced captains to prepare for the next round of large-scale route exploration operations.

Among them, the Americas is the most important!

The meeting with Wang Shanxi lasted about half an hour, and after half an hour, Wang Shanxi retired, but Li Xuan was still busy, and another naval colonel walked in behind.

This man was about forty years old, wearing a naval cadet's uniform, this man's name was Su Jiade, and he was the most experienced navigation expert selected by the navy, and he also had rich experience in naval combat and land warfare.

Before he came, Li Xuan looked at this person's resume, and found that this person had a lot of experience in all aspects, in his early years, he was a captain of a merchant ship, and then he was a pirate leader, and then he took refuge in the Datang Navy early, at first he was only a civilian captain, recruited to become the captain of the Navy transport ship, but he was soon promoted exceptionally, and at the age of thirty-six, he enrolled in the first phase of the Navy Maritime Academy and became one of the earliest students of the Naval Academy of the Tang Navy.

After graduating, he was awarded the rank of captain, first as a captain on an offshore patrol ship, and then quickly transferred to a frigate as a captain, experiencing many naval battles since the formation of the Tang Navy.

This was followed by a promotion to the rank of cruiser captain!

He once personally went ashore to lead the Marine Corps in battle in the Ryukyus!

This man is a generalist, able to fight at sea, able to lead the Marine Corps in battle, and has excellent seafaring skills.

In this case, it is not surprising that the navy recommended him to Li Xuan.

After this person came in, Li Xuan and he talked a little bit about it, and soon got to the point!

"I heard Vice Admiral Bao say that among the many captains of the Navy, Su Aiqing has the most experience in sailing, and Su Aiqing must also know, what is your next mission, so tell me, how are you going to explore the route to the Americas?" Li Xuan asked directly.

Su Jiade said: "Your Majesty, the minister has recently studied many nautical charts, and also collected some information in the hands of some Spaniards, and made a plan based on this!" ”

"The minister intends to set out along the north first, then pass through Fuso, and then cross the Pacific Ocean to the western coast of North America!"

The existence of the Americas, even rough maps, is no longer a problem, the Europeans have long explored the Americas, of course, the detailed maps are not accurate enough.

At present, the map used by the Tang Dynasty is that Li Xuan compared the map of the Europeans in this era, and then modified it according to his own memory, I dare not say that it is 100% accurate, but eight or nine are not far from ten, and the approximate direction is still accurate.

The biggest obstacle to the Americas is the Pacific Ocean!

There are few islands in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and there are often windless zones, so if you enter the windless zone and there are no nearby islands, you will die in the sea.

At this time, Su Jiade showed his route on the map, and at the same time continued: "According to the information we have obtained so far, although the islands in the Pacific Ocean are scarce, there are still some of them, and we plan to go here to find some of the islands first, especially the Hawaiian Islands on the chart!" ”

The map in Sujiade's hand is also a top-secret map, which shows many areas that have not yet been discovered by Europeans in this era, such as Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

But although Li Xuan can remember the approximate location of these places, he doesn't know the detailed coordinates!

At the same time, the sea is vast, even if you know the approximate location, but it is very difficult to find it accurately, and the route is slightly off, and it is possible to miss it.

Especially those small and medium-sized islands, in the large Pacific Ocean, are actually just a small black dot.

But looking at Su Jiade's confident appearance, Li Xuan is not ready to say too much, Su Jiade is just one of the many captains who are exploring new routes, he wants to go to Hawaii first, and then use Hawaii as a transit station, and then further establish a route to the Americas, let them do it!

Su Jiade left, and then a few people came one after another, without exception, all the shipyards, a few were admirals, and a few were simply civilian captains, all of whom were captains from the navy who had found out to explore new routes.

Li Xuan, without exception, gave them generous treatment and support!

Every captain can get a merchant ship with the most advanced performance in this era as an exploration ship, which is the 680 merchant ship, and the sailors let them choose by themselves, and promise that in the process of exploration, any loot they get can be distributed by themselves, and they do not need to hand it in!

At the same time, during the exploration of the sea, the salary is several times that of ordinary sailors, and there will be a corresponding reward for each successful island found, and if you can explore a safe route, the reward will be even more!

Li Xuan even took out the noble title on the spot, these captains who explored the route, if they could successfully explore the route, then they would get a noble title!

All this is to be able to explore the route, with the route, there is colonization, there is maritime trade, there is a future!

Compared to the new route, a few ships, as well as gold and silver rewards and even knighthoods, are not worth mentioning!