On the coast of Mozambique in southeastern Africa, at the mouth of the River Save, a group of strong white men are building castles shirtless. They were the Spanish colonizers who had been fooled by Marin.

Since he was fooled and lame by Marin in Rome the year before last, Ferdinand II was not very relieved after returning home, so he sent a fleet to reconnoiter the Mozambique coast in southeast Africa according to Marin's instructions.

As a result, the Spaniards discovered Arab traders active on the Mozambican coast. Seeing this, the Spanish fleet sent interpreters who knew Arabic to deliberately get close to the Arab merchants and peek at their cargo...... Sure enough, the Spaniards found out that the Arabs had come to exchange for gold......

These Arab merchants, mainly from the seafaring Emirate of Oman, brought with them common goods such as cloth and glass, as well as some iron tools (mainly swords and other weapons). What they brought back were expensive supplies such as sand, ivory and copper......

Gold is one of the most stable metals and does not oxidize easily. So, in the gold mine of nature, there is a lot of natural gold. Among them, the most natural gold is golden sand, and there is also dog's head gold......

Although the ancient Zimbabwean Empire was considered a powerful civilization in southern Africa, they were still in the Stone Age and did not understand metallurgy. Therefore, although gold is produced locally, it is only produced from gold ore. As for copper mines, there are also many mines, but Zimbabweans do not know how to smelt, so they directly trade copper mines with Arab merchants. Ivory is the best, they don't dare to offend the living elephant herd, and the dead elephant is always easy to solve, right? Find an elephant cemetery and break off the tusks from the dead elephant carcass......

After learning that Arab traders had indeed traded much of the gold, ivory, and copper ore from the Zimbabwean Empire, the Spanish colonists excitedly returned to report to Ferdinand II.

At this time, Ferdinand II completely believed Marin's judgment. Of course, Marin wasn't lying. Thus, according to the agreement signed with Portugal, Ferdinand II publicly declared that the land between the Limpopo River and the Zambezi River in southeastern Africa was owned by Spain.

Ferdinand II then organized thousands of colonists, boarded ships, and headed for the mouth of the Sawe between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers. Because, the upper reaches of the Savi River, it is very close to the stone town of Great Zimbabwe, which Marin said. Moreover, the ships sent by the Spanish did indeed find the ships of Arab merchants at the mouth of the Savi.

But alas, the first expeditionary forces failed......

Why? Because the first Spanish expeditionary force was ravaged by tropical diseases. Well, to be more specific, there was malaria in the army......

Then, thousands of fighters of the Spanish Expeditionary Force fell directly. The other half of the people are also panicked.

At the same time, Arab merchants from Oman were very hostile to the Spaniards who came to steal business. As a result, Arab merchants gathered and paid to hire a number of black tribes on the Mozambican coast...... More than 2,000 people, including Arab sailors and black tribal warriors, launched an assault on the demoralized Spanish colonists......

Under normal circumstances, the Spanish colonists would not be able to defeat their opponents, but at least they would not be defeated. Why? Because the Spaniards had a large number of arquebuses, as well as Spanish phalanxes that they had learned from Marin. Under normal circumstances, it is certain that they will be able to defeat the more than 2,000 miscellaneous armies of the other side.

It is a pity that the Spaniards fell because of malaria, and the people were panicked and lost the will to fight. As a result, the Spanish colonial army, which had an advantage, was defeated, and only a small number of people fled back to the ship in embarrassment. Most of the bodies were left on the shore. Moreover, most of those corpses were directly roasted and eaten by some black uncles who like to eat people......

When the news reached Spain, Ferdinand II was furious. However, he also knows that malaria is rampant in the tropics. So, he came up with a good idea - let the soldiers who had not died after a mild malaria infection form a new colonial army to go to the mouth of the Sabe River in Mozambique and establish a new colony. Moreover, in order to defend against the enemy, Ferdinand II ordered the construction of a military fortress directly at the mouth of the Savi River to defend against the attacks of Arab pirates and local natives. This coastal castle is named Fort Ferdinand......

Malaria was one of the terminal diseases in this era, and although the mortality rate was high, it was not 100% dead. There are also a very small number of people, because of the mild illness and their own good physical fitness, go through it directly, and then, there are antibodies in the body. It is indeed a good idea to send such people to colonize Africa.

It's just that in the huge Spain, people who didn't die after suffering from malaria turned over and over, and only found 800 young people. Most of these young men survived the colonization of Hispaniola (Haiti Island) with Columbus.

Although there were few people, Ferdinand II estimated that as long as there was enough ammunition and a castle was built first, it would be enough. Moreover, the loose Spanish phalanx of 800 people should be enough to bully those black Africans. Because, according to the last intelligence, the weapons of Africans are basically stone tools. Only the Arab sailors used iron scimitars. But in front of the mighty Marin phalanx (Spanish phalanx), no matter how good the knife skills of the Arab sailors were, they would be smashed to slag by Mushkert arquebuses......

As for those black uncles, as long as the Spaniards are in good shape, there is no discussion about abusing them. It is said that during the last war, some black soldiers heard the gunshots and were so frightened that they dropped their weapons and fled......

The second group of the Spanish expeditionary force to the coast of Mozambique included more than 2,000 slaves, in addition to the 800 soldiers who were not afraid of malaria. These slaves were taken from Granada, Spain.

After conquering the Kingdom of Granada, the last Allahist kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, Ferdinand II and Isabella I, devout Christians, persecuted the Allahists of Granada. The Inquisition they had set up was full of Allahites and Jews. In order to build a castle at the mouth of the Savi, Ferdinand II ordered more than 2,000 Allah-based Granadians from the Inquisition to be responsible for the construction of the castle. The 800 soldiers with antibodies to malaria supervised the construction of castles by the Granadans and guarded against attacks by Arab traders and black tribes.

In this way, the castle was built day by day. During this period, Arab traders also organized several sneak attacks, and the local black tribes also launched several attacks.

However, after the lessons learned last time, the Spaniards were very vigilant, and even brought a lot of dogs to watch the night and keep watch.

It stands to reason that the night attack of the black people is very terrible. Because, as long as they don't wear clothes (and most blacks in this era do), you can only see that their eyes are a little bright.

It's just that the Spaniards actually brought a lot of dogs to watch the night. Therefore, several night raids by the local black tribes, because they were detected by dogs, failed. Although the Spaniards could not see the black man hidden in the night, they could put the gun in the direction in which the dog bites......

And with the completion of the castle, especially the outer walls and gates, neither the Arabs nor the blacks could now pose a threat to Ferdinandand, a small castle at the mouth of the Savie. The next move of the Spaniards was to rely on the castle to clean up the nearby black villages. Then, travel up the Savi River until you find Stone Town, the capital of the gold-rich Great Zimbabwe Empire......