This time, the fleet of the Tang Western Company and the Guedes Trading Company had a total of eight ships, and the fleet had a total of more than 1,600 people, excluding the sailors and gunners who had to stay behind to control the ships and artillery, and there were at least 1,000 armed men who could pull out the landing operations.

The Guedes Trading Company is all armed merchant ships, with a smaller number of people, and each ship is used to control the crews of the ships and guns, miscellaneous servants, and marines who specialize in defending against pirate attacks and fighting against broadside battles, of course, although these civilian company ships are also equipped with these personnel like army ships, but people naturally do not call them marines, most of them are still called sailors, and each ship has a hundred to one hundred and fifty people, and the total number is about six hundred.

In the four ships of Datang Western Company, there are many people, and the total number of people has reached thousands.

On the two cruisers, there were more than 300 people on each ship, and even if it was two armed merchant ships of the 680 type, there were more than 200 people on each ship.

The reason why there are so many people, even if I think that in addition to the necessary crew, Datang Western Company also brought four marines, with a total of more than 500 people, well, they are all directly retired from the Marine Corps, and then collectively join Datang Western Company.

The hundreds of artillery pieces in the fleet, plus the thousands of people that can be pulled out to land and fight, to put it mildly, are enough to directly destroy the port of Banten!

The indigenous officials of Banten are not stupid, and they have all seen the world, and they know that this fleet is not easy to mess with when they see this posture, no matter which country it is, but since they proposed to build a merchant hall on a piece of land, they have no opinion.

Therefore, the indigenous officials on the Banten side happily took the money to buy the land, which was to grant Ying Zihua's request to open a commercial hall!

After negotiating preliminary matters, signing agreements, and making some small deals, the fleet will begin to carry out a large number of supplies, and later, the fleet will pass through the Sunda Strait, then enter the Indian Ocean, continue along the coastline of Sumatra in a northwesterly direction, prepare to go to the Burma region of the Bay of Bengal region, and then continue along the Indian coast to bypass the Indian Peninsula, to the Persian Gulf, then south to the east coast of Africa, then around the Cape of Good Hope to the west coast of Africa, and finally to Europe.

The main purpose of this route is to avoid the blockade of the Strait of Malacca by the Portuguese, and the other routes are not new, they are all long-established sea routes in the maritime trade between the East and the West.

And this time, whether it is the Datang Western Company or the Guedes Trading Company, although their purposes are not very different, one thing is very clear, that is, to go to Europe, avoid the blockade of the Grape People and go to Europe.

In addition, Datang Western Company also has a very important goal, that is, for the follow-up expansion of Datang Western Company to the west, to build a front station, which is why Ying Zihua will stop every time he goes to a suitable place, especially a strategic area, or a place suitable for being a supply station or an important trading station, and then use various methods, well, in most cases, to open a trading station by force.

Its main purpose is to provide a stable supply point for the fleet of the later Datang Western Company!

Now behind this fleet, there is also a fleet of the Tang Western Company's own, the number is not much, only two 600 merchant ships, which are now sailing in the South China Sea, and will reach Luzon Island in the future, not to say to trade, but to transport the company's armed personnel and materials in the past, and stabilize the trading station on Luzon Island.

It's not so easy to establish a perfect route these days, because ships need to be replenished when they sail, and basically they can't sail into the depths of the ocean, which is too dangerous, and basically no one does it except for adventurers who explore routes.

Therefore, it is necessary to establish enough supply stations along the routes, such as the merchant houses on Luzon Island and the merchant houses in Banten in western Java, all of which are positioned like this, at least in the early stage, and in the future, whether they will develop into colonies, we will have to see later, but according to the history of world colonization, they will basically follow the routine of colonies.

And to build a trading post, it is not so easy, your ships to trade, many indigenous countries are actually welcome, but you want to occupy a piece of land, and then build a fortress on it, stationed armed men, people are not happy.

The Portuguese wanted to do this in Haojing before, but they were killed by the Tang Dynasty!

After Banten replenished a large number of supplies, and at the same time simply repaired the ships, the fleet of the two companies set sail again.

But after setting sail, the fleet was divided into two, and a 680-type merchant ship in the Datang Western Company, the Jinyuan, broke away from the fleet!

Ying Zihua told Guedes that the Jinyuan would carry the spices and other goods purchased on Java Island and return to Luzon Island first.

And in fact, even Ying Zihua didn't know where Jinyuan was going!

After the flotilla separated, the seven ships in the flotilla began to cross the Sunda Strait and prepare to enter the Indian Ocean, while the Jinyuan began to sail westward!

At this time, although many of the staff on the ship were employees of Datang Western Company, in fact, all of them were people from the Military Intelligence Department!

Their purpose is simple and clear, first sail west, and after reaching the east of Java Island, they will turn south to find what His Majesty calls Australia!

Because the road ahead was unknown, no other navigator had explored what was in the sea south of Java, so the preparation on board the Jinyuan was very adequate.

First of all, there were not many people, only a hundred people, but the ship was not more than other merchant ships, carrying a lot of goods for trade, except for a few bits and pieces, the rest were all kinds of supplies.

Not only the supplies of daily life, but even the spare canvas and ropes, they carried several times more than the usual sailing, just to prevent the journey south for a long time without encountering land, or encountering storms and the like.

The Jinyuan went to explore the new world, but Ying Zihua's fleet continued to move forward, continuing to sail towards Europe.

At the same time, in Jinling City, Li Xuan also began to refocus on military affairs, because the Huguang Battle prepared by the Privy Council was also similar, and it was expected to be launched in November.

However, just when Li Xuan was busy preparing for the Battle of Huguang, the Tatars on the grassland in the north were coming!