However, this time if you want to yin the Portuguese, the difficulty is completely different from the last time. The last time I sent guns to the Kingdom of Malacca, it can be said that it was an unintentional mistake. This time, if Marin directly sent someone to warn the Kingdom of Malacca, and the Portuguese knew about it, it would be tantamount to tearing his face.

If it were a land-based duel, Marin would be confident of beating two Portugals. At sea, however, Marin was not yet able to confront Portugal. After all, people started with Prince Enrique and engaged in decades of great voyages. The whole of Portugal has become a seafaring nation. And Marin now has a limited number of warships, and he still can't fight the Portuguese at sea.

Although, the guns of the main fleet of Marin were of a larger caliber. Although the number is small, the combat effectiveness is very strong. However, Marin's battleship had a huge shortcoming, that is, it was seriously lacking gunpowder and could not be let go to open fire. If the artillery bombardment is released, with the little gunpowder reserves of the North Sea Country, it will not last long. And the shortage of gunpowder is mainly due to the shortage of saltpeter.

Originally, Indian saltpeter was a good source. But the problem is that now that the world has just entered the era of artillery, India's saltpeter production capacity has not yet expanded due to strong demand, and only produces hundreds of tons of saltpeter per year on average. What's more, these hundred tons of saltpeter are not for the Marin family. Because of the promotion of gunboats, both Spain and Portugal now purchased saltpeter in large quantities in India. Even, Turkey sometimes buys some saltpeter in India. Therefore, it would be nice for Marin to get a share of 20 tonnes of saltpeter in India every year.

And what can 20 tons of saltpeter do? 20 tons of saltpeter can make about 26.7 tons of gunpowder, which is equivalent to 58,000 pounds. And the guns of Marin's 500-ton battleships on one side cost dozens of pounds of gunpowder in a single salvo. There are currently 20 warships in the North Sea Country, and a salvo is more than a thousand pounds of gunpowder...... 58,000 pounds of gunpowder was only consumed by dozens of salvos of one-sided artillery of Marin's fleet......

Therefore, even if Marin came up with advanced warships and artillery, he did not dare to make waves. Because, gunpowder is really not enough. Think of the later British Empire, in order to maintain maritime supremacy, the British king often bought saltpeter from the British East India Company, which controlled India, for hundreds of tons at a time. Otherwise, Britain would not have been able to sustain the huge demand for gunpowder in the Royal Navy.

In addition to the shortage of gunpowder, Marin is actually short of warships now. Although those Class 250 armed merchant ships were also equipped with artillery, they were too cost-effective. Because, the side of those armed merchant ships was not thickened, and it could not withstand the shelling of enemy ships. Therefore, if you want to fight a naval battle, you have to rely on professional warships.

At present, Marin has no shortage of shipbuilders, let alone timber for shipbuilding. All he lacked was tung oil and paint for building ships. And, of course, there is sisal that has not yet been harvested. Although tung oil and sumac seeds have been ordered to be planted in Savannah, sisal has also been cultivated in Cuba for a long time. But it will be several years before the harvest.

Therefore, Ma Lin planned to go to Daming this time, and wanted to buy tung oil for shipbuilding (the Europeans mainly used dry oil such as linseed oil to coat ships with waterproofing in this era, which was extremely expensive), raw lacquer and copper nails and other materials necessary for making sea ships. As long as one or two ships are pulled back home, dozens more battleships can be exploded. At the very least, it would save time than waiting a few years later for the American colonies to produce tung oil and sumac trees before rebuilding ships.

……

Before the North Sea Navy could beat Portugal, Marin did not want to offend Portugal publicly. Therefore, this time he did not plan to send someone directly to remind the Malacca Kingdom, but planned to go around in a circle to remind the Malacca people......

Here's how it was done - Marin planned to send a ship to India and quietly find the prince who had a grudge against the Portuguese. Then, under their pretenses, he used them to warn the Malaccadians......

Even, the ships sent to India this time, Marin did not intend to use the name of the North Sea State, but the name of the Venetians......

The Venetians were originally hostile to the Portuguese, disguised as Venetians, and the Portuguese were not easy to verify. Even if someone in the Kingdom of Malacca leaked the news, the final result of the investigation was that the Venetian instructed a certain prince of India to remind the Kingdom of Malacca...... Both are enemies, and it makes sense to find fault with Portugal...... With their relationship with Portugal, even if they didn't do it, they would laugh and admit that they did it. In this way, you can also kill your enemy Portugal in anger, and at the same time strengthen your own momentum......

……

Before leaving, Marin finally made up his mind to develop the saltpeter mines in Chile. Previously, the merchants sent by Marin to Egypt to the Mamluk dynasty had already bought a batch of slaves and camels there.

These slaves, all Bedouin prisoners of war captured by Egyptian Mamluk cavalry on the Arabian Peninsula, were well adapted to the tropical desert climate. And camels, not to mention the ships of the desert......

Marin planned to send all the Egyptian slaves and camels he had bought to the coastal city of Iquique, a desert in northern Chile. Of course, there is no city over there yet. However, in his previous life, because of a rumor on the night that "the remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom participated in the saltpeter war", he specially learned about the city of Iquique and remembered its coordinates. So, now Marin only needs his men to find this place according to the coordinates and then build a port.

Then, when the Bedouins and Egyptian camels who have adapted to the desert climate arrive, they can use Iquique as a starting point to search for saltpeter in the desert.

However, the northern desert of Chile is the driest desert in the world. Send people over, and also solve the problem of fresh water supply for them.

Originally, Marin had planned to send a fleet of ships to the watery areas to fill fresh water and then deliver fresh water barrels to Iquique. If you use the method of high-temperature cooking and rapid mud sealing, it can reach the standard of the original canned food, at least for a few months.

However, the labor cost is too high, and a special ship is assigned to get fresh water......

Thinking of the desalination project in later generations, Marin suddenly thought of a brilliant idea......

……

What's the idea? Marin's idea was to use solar cookers to create a very economical desalination system......

The principle of this system is simple - dozens or even hundreds of solar cookers are made out of white iron sheets, and then these solar cookers are used to boil seawater on the seaside of Iquique......

At the same time, the top of the black-bottomed iron pot is piped with white iron sheets to guide the water vapor after boiling seawater, and pass it into the pool to cool down......

After the pool is cooled, the water vapor in the white iron pipe condenses into water droplets, which are finally exported and then encapsulated. Of course, when encapsulation, the canned food sealing method of steaming in a large pot is used again to ensure that the fresh water will not be bad for several months. Finally, the camels are carried to the mines in the desert......

……

The most important thing in the desert of northern Chile is sunshine, which has not rained for hundreds of years. Using a solar cooker there is absolutely powerful. Instead of using a solar stove to cook seawater, fresh water can be obtained through vaporization and condensation. If dozens or even hundreds of solar cookers are operated at the same time, it is effortless to process hundreds of barrels of fresh water a day.

Perhaps, in other areas, desalination by boiling with solar stoves may encounter cloudy days, resulting in the inability to produce fresh water smoothly. But the desert in northern Chile is the driest region in the world that hasn't rained for hundreds of years. Desalination by boiling with a solar stove is definitely perfect there.

A few hundred barrels of fresh water per day may be small, but in the early days, Marin only planned to send a few hundred people to explore the way, first looking for saltpeter mines. A few hundred people plus dozens of camels, and a few hundred buckets of fresh water a day, is definitely enough to drink. When saltpeter is discovered and large-scale mining begins, it is time to find a way to transport fresh water from elsewhere......