"Alas, ploughing cattle is a big problem!" Stopping to write the plan, Marin sighed deeply.

The Philippines has no shortage of population. Not to mention the 10,000 or 20,000 Chinese immigrants, that is, the indigenous people, it is estimated that there are 560,000. And most of them, are concentrated on the island of Luzon. When the time comes, as long as the aboriginal warriors of Taiwan Island are dispatched with sophisticated weapons and armor, it will still be easy to capture.

But it's useless for some people, and you have to rely on cattle to cultivate the land. Don't look at the fact that people can plow the land, but how many farmers can really plow the land through hardship? Even if it is the most hard-working Chinese farmer, if a family does not plough cattle, it will weigh more than ten acres of land at most. No matter how much it is, it will be unbearable.

In tropical rainforest areas, it is not only necessary to cultivate cattle, but also to cultivate water buffalo......

If you just need cattle, it's too easy for Marin, go to Eastern Europe and buy it! Today, the Crimean Khanate has been lured by Marin to become a professional cattle breeder, supplying tens of thousands of cattle every year. At the same time, in the steppes of Ukraine, which is currently part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the locals also raise cattle and sheep on a large scale, and can also provide tens of thousands of cattle every year.

Unfortunately, these cattle are cattle, not tolerant of heat and humidity, unable to adapt to the tropical rainforest climate, let alone ploughing paddy fields......

Therefore, what Marin lacks now is not ordinary cattle, but buffaloes that can adapt to the climate of the tropical rainforest and can cultivate paddy fields. Or, the Indian zebu kind.

However, it is very difficult to get a buffalo or zebu. Buffalo are relatively scarce, and most of the buffaloes in East and Southeast Asia were captured and domesticated by the locals under the influence of the Chinese agricultural civilization. It is only on overseas islands such as Mindoro, which is full of miasma and prone to malaria, that there are large-scale bison.

As for the Indian zebu cow, if it grows whiter, it is especially the holy cow of India, and it cannot be easily moved, let alone bought. Therefore, Marin can only find a way to buy or exchange Persian cattle for zebu cattle whose coat color is not white, and it is more troublesome. Marin reckoned that even if it could be done, it would be scary that he could get thousands of zebu cattle from India every year. Moreover, it is estimated that it is still a few thousand heads smaller, not a few thousand heads.

How do you get a large number of cattle suitable for the tropics? Marin thought about it......

He thought of Madagascar, which was later known as the "Kingdom of Cows", but, according to the reports of spies passing through Madagascar, the local cattle were indeed zebu cattle. However, it seems that the number is not very large. At least, there are not many along the coast.

In fact, Madagascar at this time was not a small number of cattle, but the main part was not on the coast. During this era, Madagascar was mainly in the central plateau and the southeastern coastal areas of Madagascar, and the rudiments of the state appeared. The development of agriculture is also mostly in the central plateau and the southeast coastal plain.

Marin's subordinates, however, reconnoitred the west and northern coasts of the island of Madagascar when they passed through the Strait of Madagascar, and did not go to the southeast coast to see, let alone go to the inland mountains to reconnoitre. Therefore, Marin did not know that there were already many cattle in the central highlands of Madagascar at this time.

The Malagasy people have Indonesian ancestry, and their ancestors probably came from Indonesians in canoes, and combined with the native Africans, they formed the Malagasy nation with not too dark skin.

And the zebu cattle on the island were probably brought by Arab merchants from the Indian side. After all, Arab merchant ships have been coming and going to India for a long time, and it is normal to get some zebu cattle to come over. Moreover, Arab traders also brought rice from India.

However, the island of Madagascar is a tropical island, and the northern coast is relatively hot and humid, and the environment is not very good. The western coast is not only hot, but also a bit arid.

Only the middle part of the island, and the southeast coastal part, have a slightly better climate. After all, the middle part is a plateau, and the climate is a little cooler. The southeast coastal part is more suitable for survival because of the higher latitude.

In later generations, Madagascar was known as the kingdom of cattle, with an average of one cow for every two people, and the total number reached more than 12 million, which is very scary.

However, in this era, the western coast of Madagascar was largely undeveloped, and the northern coast was less developed. So, the number of cattle doesn't seem like much. However, the inland plateau area, because of the cool and pleasant climate, the population is concentrated, and the scale of cattle breeding is also large, with an estimated number of hundreds of thousands of zebu cattle.

However, Marin doesn't know. After all, his fleet could only stop along the west and north coasts of Madagascar, not knowing what was going on inland.

Without knowing it, Marin was left with one choice - the buffalo of West Africa!

Specifically, West African buffalo were imported from the Mali and Songhai Empires in West Africa for farming in the tropics.

Domesticated from the African buffalo, the cattle in West Africa are smaller than the Asian buffalo but well adapted to the tropical climate. West Africa, on the other hand, is desert in the north, but humid in the south. Cattle in West Africa were domesticated from buffaloes, so they were well suited to the tropics.

Once, Marin bought a lot of local cattle from West Africa through the Portuguese. However, the price given is high. There was no way, at that time, it happened that a large number of steppe cattle in Eastern Europe died of heat because they were not adapted to the Cuban climate, and Marin could only buy African cattle from the Portuguese at a high price.

Now, the Laayoune colony under Marin has established a solid trade relationship with the Songhai Empire, and it is still easy to buy cattle from the Songhai Empire. But it's not easy – how to get the purchased cattle out......

You must know that the trade route between the Ayoune colony and the Songhai Empire followed the route of the Sahara wells in Algeria in later times. It's okay to walk a camel, take a buffalo...... The problem is very, very big......

This Sahara route, camels are definitely adaptable. If you put on a white robe and a water bladder, you will naturally be able to survive. And the buffalo can't get through. After all, buffaloes love water and are afraid of dryness and are not adapted to tropical desert climates. In addition, the African buffalo coat color is black and very absorbent of sunlight...... Straddling the Sahara Desert, the black ox is easily exposed to the scorching sun and dies of thirst......

Therefore, the most troublesome thing for Marin at the moment is how to transport the African cattle purchased from the Songhai Empire to the sea......

The Songhai Empire is obviously not short of cattle, and in the late 16th century in the big war with the Moroccan mercenaries, the Songhai Empire once wanted to use 1,000 cattle as a vanguard to attack the Moroccan front, which is a bit similar to the meaning of "Fire Bull Array". But the Songhai people did not expect that there were musketeers on the opposite side, and as soon as the muskets rang out, these cattle actually ran back in fear and disrupted their own front......

This can also prove from the side that there are a lot of cattle in the Songhai Empire. If you fight a random battle, you can drive 1,000 cattle to be cannon fodder......

It's just that the Songhai Empire doesn't rely on the sea. Its transit was mainly in the territory of the later Niger, a properly landlocked country. Between the Songhai Empire and the sea, there is also a declining Mali Empire......

And the Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire are mortal enemies, after all, the Songhai Empire is established by defeating the Mali Empire and grabbing Timbuktu, and the two are mortal enemies. Even if enough African buffalo could be bought from the Songhai Empire, the Mali Empire would not let it go. What's more, the climate there is also very complicated. The rainforests of Guinea, in particular, are very difficult to walk and dangerous in the forest......

So, Marin is worried—he can buy cattle, but it is difficult to transport them to the sea...... Therefore, the problem of transporting cattle is the biggest problem for Marin to obtain enough tropical cattle......