As the governor of the Americas of the China America Company, Zhu Min was very drunk at the cocktail party hosted by the Spaniards, and after being drunk, he kept clamoring to return to China to meet the generalissimo.

This trade is not worth his drunkenness, and the profits obtained are not worth Zhu Li's gaffe, but the news of Zhou Langlai heard at the drinking party made it difficult for Zhu Li to hold himself.

Fortunately, Xie Qinggao, who was in charge of the development with him, remained calm and did not order the ship to sail overnight, otherwise with the situation of this fleet, it is very likely that it will sink in a small pond in the South China Sea after crossing the waves of the Pacific Ocean, and the fleet must be maintained.

To be honest, Zhu Lian was not very reluctant to go to the Americas this time, although he was a maritime merchant and a pirate, crisscrossing Fujian, Guangdong and the South Seas, but after all, he was a Chinese, and he was more homesick when he was Chinese, and no Chinese pirate had ever acted more than the Nanyang line, not that they couldn't run Nanyang, but that they always wanted to go home.

But Zhou Lang, who had been cooperating with Zhu Li, tried his best to persuade Zhu Mian to explore the Americas, and promised a high position as a governor, telling him that he was analogous to the governor of Liangguang. If it was before, Zhu Lian didn't have any interest in this position, and Chen Zhouquan also named him the king of Zhenhai, what is the point. If Zhou Lang was just a small warlord in Fengshan County, he would be crowned Zhu Li as the Jade Emperor, and Zhu Hui would not be interested. But Zhou Lang not only walked out of Fengshan County and occupied the whole of Fujian at that time, but also captured Guangdong. In the year when Zhou Lang stabilized Guangdong, Zhu Li agreed. He felt that Zhou Lang really had the potential to achieve great things, maybe it was too early to unify China, and he might not be able to see it in his life, but the strength of the separatist side was definitely there.

But that's all, at that time there was Chen Zhouquan in Zhejiang, and there was the White Lotus Sect in Sichuan and Chu, Zhu Li, like most Chinese scholars, felt that China was about to enter the troubled times, and felt that Zhou Lang would be a prince, because since ancient times, no one has been able to successfully rise from Fujian and Guangdong, and then dominate the world. However, there are many regimes that have been separating Fujian and Guangdong for a long time, not to mention Zhao Tuo in ancient times, there is also a Southern Han Dynasty in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

So Zhu Lian went, but he didn't expect that as soon as he came back from the Americas, he heard in Manila that Zhou Lang had captured the entire Jiangnan, this was not Zhao Tuo, the Southern Han Dynasty was partial to Lingnan, but Zhu Yuanzhang's situation of separating Jiangnan, and the situation was very good when he dominated the world!

If Zhou Lang divides Fujian and Guangdong, he will only be the territory of two provinces, saying that Zhu Li's governorship of the Americas is lighter than that of the governor of Liangguang, but now Zhou Lang has occupied Jiangnan and has six or seven provinces in his hands.

This makes Zhu Lian a maritime merchant in such an era, how can a person with money but no status not be excited, his Zhu family has finally soared to his generation, and he can still achieve the level of a feudal official at sea, what more can a husband ask for.

After sobering up the next day, although Zhu Lian did not shout that he was going to return to China immediately, he insisted on writing a letter and sending his cronies to Nanjing, one is to report to work, and the other is to say hello to Zhou Lang, in fact, the real purpose is to express his loyalty, so he has to report as soon as he returns to China.

Since Zhu Lian insisted on playing, Xie Qinggao fortunately also sent his report back, saying that Zhu Mian was responsible for developing the colony, but in fact, the most important work was done by Xie Qinggao.

The ship departed from Manila in June and arrived in Mexico in November, and then Zhu Lian began to contact the Spaniards on the ship for trade, first wholesale in the market of Acapulco, Mexico adopted a total price limit system, and the best-selling goods such as raw silk and silk fabrics from China were monopolized by the Spanish government and managed by the Governor of Mexico. But he was not a galleon under the control of the Spanish government, he was a merchant ship of another country, even though Spain forbade other countries to trade directly with their colonies. However, in recent years, American and British merchant ships have often trespassed into the Spanish colonies to trade, and the Spanish royal family has also turned a blind eye.

There were a large number of merchants engaged in this gray trade in the market, and they had a great appetite, and there was not much else, but more than silver, and the annual production of silver in the Americas exceeded twenty million silver dollars, and they had enough power to eat all the Chinese goods. In order to ship the goods as soon as possible, Zhu Li underwrote the goods in batches to several of the most powerful and well-educated Spanish businessmen in the local area. Cooperate with powerful people, this is the principle set by Zhou Lang for him, even if he cooperates with powerful people, the bargaining power will be reduced, and the profit will suffer a little loss, Zhou Lang doesn't care. Because these powerful people can often provide help that small businessmen can't.

At least Zhu Li cooperated with these people, and the trade went smoothly. Then Zhu Li went south to Peru, not entirely to trade, because the goods he brought with him could be sold out in Mexico, mainly to establish trade channels there. This trade route, bought with a lot of money from the Filipino Spaniards, is worth digging into.

When Zhu Li opened up trade, Xie Qinggao traveled north from the coast of Mexico to North America in search of good land for cultivation and immigration. This is what Xie Qinggao likes to do and is good at doing. He had already learned the Western charting method from the draftsman he hired back then, and only he knew the hardships of it, but whenever he was adrift on the ship, the expectation of a distant land would make him dismiss the hard work of learning and continue to devote himself to it. Life at sea is boring most of the time, in the past, when Xie Qinggao was fine, he would choose to use reading to pass the time, and in the past few years, he has studied and studied various nautical charts every day.

Heading north from Mexico, Xie Qinggao took three warships and a simple map in the hands of the Spaniards, and he found that the best part of the North American coast had been occupied by the Spaniards, with closed bays and wide rivers deep inland, and this area called San Francisco (San Francisco) was indeed blessed.

Xie Qinggao could only continue to the north, the situation in the area north of San Francisco, the Spaniards' chart was blank, which showed that the Spaniards had not conducted a detailed survey of the north, where was still a virgin land. But the Russians and the British claimed power over the American Northwest, but neither country actually exercised little control over anywhere. For Russia, the northwestern part of the Americas is separated from the Russian mainland by the Bering Strait, but Russia has almost no people in its eastern territory, which is empty Siberia. For the British, Captain Cook had made a survey of the American Northwest many years earlier, but the purpose was not to establish a colony, but to open up the Northwest American Route, believing that if the American Northwest could be navigated, the distance from England to China would become closer than to India.

Xie Qinggao went all the way north, looking for large rivers that could go deep inland, there were many rivers, but the results of the expedition were not ideal, he drew charts one by one as an alternative. It wasn't until he found a large estuary near 46 degrees north latitude that he could still be navigable after traveling hundreds of miles along the river, and Xie Qinggao knew that he didn't need those alternatives.

There were no traces of being occupied by others along the way, not even a city was found, only some local feudal societies were seen, but these feudal societies were not as good as the feudal societies in Taiwan, they didn't know how to farm, and they drank blood, but they were very curious, and ran back and forth with their boats, at first Xie Qinggao thought that these people were going to attack them, but after they landed, the other party slowly came up and sent some fresh fish, Xie Qinggao knew that the other party was expressing goodwill. I also gave some gifts from the ship, and neither of them understood the meaning of the two sides by gesturing with their hands, but they laughed out loud, and they didn't know what they were laughing at.

Xie Qinggao didn't have time to stay here and get in touch with Shengfan, because when he came next year, he would have time. After drawing a chart of hundreds of miles, he sailed away.

Xie Qinggao's priceless information, along with Zhu Li's trade report, was sent out in mid-June and not sent to Nanjing until August, where it was handed over to Zhou Lang.

Zhou Lang carefully studied these charts, especially the map of the large river basin drawn by Xie Qing, Zhou Lang carefully recalled that the big river north of San Francisco, and no matter how you look at it, it should be the Columbia River on the border between Oregon and Washington in the future.

Zhou Lang traced the river along Xie Qinggao's chart, and he felt that Xie Qinggao had arrived in the famous big city on the west coast of the United States, Portland.

The Americans have not yet occupied this place, which is a good thing, otherwise they will face fierce competition from the United States, a Native American power.

Zhou Lang is not afraid of competition, but he can't draw his strength now, so he chooses the northwest of the Americas, the last piece of land in the world that has not been divided by a colonial country, mainly to avoid the edge of the British, the northwest of the Americas, is the farthest region from the UK in the world.

There are often only two ways to get here from the British mainland, one is to cross the entire North American continent from the Canadian colonies or the east coast of the United States, and it is almost impossible to take the land route at this time.

It is only possible to reach it by land and sea, but by land and sea, you need to go around the whole of America, and the British have worked tirelessly for the Northwest Passage, which has been explored by famous navigators such as Cartier, Drake, Flobisier, Cook, etc. The greatest achievement was none other than Sir Gilbert, who recorded a shipping course that he might have discovered, but which was later proved by his son to be an ice-covered bay and not a waterway, and the bay was named Hudson, after which Hudson's Bay was called.

It is not feasible to go to the north of Canada, and if the British want to go to the northwest of America, they can only go south along the coast of North America, then go around the southernmost point of South America, and then go north, which is equivalent to crossing two American coastlines, and the journey is not thousands of miles. It was even farther than the British had bypassed Africa to reach India, then crossed the Strait of Malacca, and then crossed the entire Pacific Ocean.

So the Chinese went here closer than the British, and there was a whole sailing route from Europe to Asia.

Therefore, it has been 20 years since Captain Cook went to the northwestern part of the Americas, and even the Russian Empress Catherine II has drawn a sea chart that he has asked for a lot of money, but the British have not established a single stronghold here, because the cost is too high, and they can only use Cook's sea charts to fight for the territory of the map.

In fact, the entire west coast of North America north of Mexico, there are only Spain and Russia, Russian fur traders all the way south to hunt beavers, almost to the Mexican seas, so the Spaniards panicked, so they went to San Francisco Bay to establish the city of San Francisco, at this time this city is just a fortress, almost no residents, no industry, otherwise as long as there is human life, they explore the nearby waterways a little, it is not difficult to find where there will be a large amount of gold mines.

The Spaniards established a stronghold in San Francisco Bay to block the Russians from moving south, and the Russians established a stronghold not far from the northern part of the bay, and built a castle out of wood, called Fort Rose, because of this stronghold, and later the Tsar declared that from Alaska to San Francisco Bay was the territory of Russian America.

But at that time, neither Britain nor the United States recognized it.

Now that Zhou Lang has broken in, of course, he will not admit that the Russians, who are backward in navigation technology and too far from the Americas, do not have the strength to compete with Zhou Lang in the northwest of the Americas, of course, friction will definitely exist in the future, but if you want to eat meat, don't be afraid of being beaten, for the sake of that vast land, Zhou Lang feels that it is worth the Chinese to shed blood.

"Great!"

After reading the chart, Zhou Lang was rarely excited and slapped the table.

"Please Zhu Da go to sea to Nanjing to participate in the enthronement ceremony! Also, invite the Emperor of Great Fortune to come! ”

Zhou Lang felt that these two people could be sent away at one time.