In the eyes of ordinary Europeans, Ethiopia is a legend.

Alexandria and Egypt fell, and Ethiopia became an enclave of Christendom, cut off from the mainstream of Europe.

In the fantasy of Europeans, Ethiopia was a powerful country full of gold and cavalry warfare.

The search for Ethiopia, which is trapped behind the Celestial Cult front, is one of the themes of the Great Voyage. The ambitious Manuel I ordered Albuquerque and Ethiopia to attack the Egyptian Mamluks, crushing the Celestial Front from behind, and retaking the Holy Land of Jerusalem.

Almeida annihilated the Egyptian Mamluk fleet in Diu, and Manuel's plan was a possibility. The Battle of Diu shocked the Celestial Cult world, and they completely lost their control of the Indian Ocean. Over the past millennium or so, the Celestial Cult has gained untold wealth from maritime trade in the Indian Ocean, lost the Indian Ocean, and many countries, including Egypt, quickly declined.

With Almeida stepping down as vice-king of India and Portugal, Albuquerque turned his attention to Malacca and Goa, consolidating his position in India, and then led his fleet into the Red Sea.

The collapse of the Egyptian fleet exposed the port of Jeddah in the Red Sea to the guns of the Frankish fleet. Jeddah is close to Mecca, and the overland route from Jeddah to Medina takes only 9 days, and the holy sites of the Celestial Cult are seriously threatened. The defenders of Mecca and Medina rushed to reinforce Jeddah, and the Arabs prepared to fight to the last man.

The Red Sea was not friendly to sailing ships, the conditions were harsh and notorious. It is shallow, lacks fresh water along the way, has numerous coral reefs and hidden shoals, and can only be navigated during the day and anchored at night. It is very dangerous to use a plumb hammer to probe the depth of the water while walking.

Hot winds from the desert sweep across the sea, and it is only during certain seasons that you can sail into the Red Sea. The monsoon prevented Albuquerque from attacking Jeddah, and the Portuguese retreated to Camalan, the only island in the Red Sea with fresh water. Albuquerque habitually built fortresses, and he chose the Eritrean port of Massawa on the western coast of the Red Sea. If the fort were to be built and the passage to Ethiopia was opened, Manuel's fanatical dream of jihad might come true, and at least the Portuguese could burn Mecca and Medina.

A plague claimed more than a quarter of the lives of the Portuguese fleet, and Albuquerque was forced to withdraw to India.

The Portuguese marched to the Red Sea, leaving the Celestial Sect stunned. Desperate needs led them to abandon the weak Mamluk Sultan of Egypt at once, and the Ottoman Turks, the pillars of the Celestial Sect, took over Egypt with little bloodshed. Turkey reorganizes the defense of the port of Jeddah and occupies Eritrea.

After Albuquerque's death, the Portuguese failed to attack Jeddah again, and the king's vision became a mirror and a castle in the sky.

The Portuguese then found the legendary sacrificial king John in the Ethiopian highlands. At this time, Ethiopia lost the port of Zela and became a landlocked country. It was already very difficult for an isolated Christian kingdom to hold out under the onslaught of the Heavenly Religion for nearly a thousand years. The loss of access to the sea is even worse.

The slightest farsighted person in the Celestial Sect can see the dire prospect of Ethiopia's union with Portugal, Turkey's limited resources are not likely to invest much in the Red Sea, and the Turkish governor in Massawa, Eritrea, instigates the Somali *** nomadic tribes to supply the Somalis with weapons and encourage them to attack Ethiopia from the south.

The Somalis launched Jihad, fanatical jihadists into the heart of Ethiopia, and the Egyptian army collapsed. Fortunately, Ethiopia has been oppressed by the Heavenly Sect in the north for many years, and successive monarchs have expanded their strategic depth into the plateaus to the south and west. 400 Portuguese launched a heroic expedition at a critical moment, and Ethiopia survived the crisis.

The religion of Ethiopia is a heresy of Christian monophylism, and there is a deep rift between it and Roman Catholicism. The successive kings of Ethiopia secretly converted to Catholicism, but the inertia of the people was strong, and the introduction of Catholicism caused many contradictions and controversies in Ethiopia. The Portuguese established several Catholic churches in Ethiopia, which were formerly the diocese of the Society of Jesus until 1632, when King Fasiladas expelled the Jesuits.

After the enthusiasm of the early religious jihad had passed, the Portuguese became intoxicated by Indian trade and gradually lost interest in Ethiopia. The Dutch and the British, who later entered the East, were even less concerned about the Red Sea. The war between Ethiopia and African tribes from southern Somalia*** and Kenya continues.

Mingus: "Archon, do you really have our kindred in Ethiopia?" ”

Shou Xuan picked up the teacup and said, "The country established by the Queen of Sheba and the descendants of King Solomon, you may wish to send someone to investigate, if you don't care about the color of your skin, you may be able to gain something." ”

The state has rulers, and there must also be people to be ruled. Ethiopia is poor, and there are people who want to change their fate.

Several representatives of the Jewish family exchanged glances and nodded secretly.

Mingus: "Then how do we get into the kingdom of the Sacrifice King?" ”

Order looked at Scarfield.

The pirate captain smiled, "Although Ethiopia is a landlocked country, their personnel exchanges with the outside world have never stopped. Between Turkish-controlled Eritrea and southern Somalia, there are several semi-independent Saracen ports near the port of Zela on the Gulf of Aden, where rulers only recognize money. ”

The Turks' rule over Egypt was not precarious, and the governor of Cairo ruled Egypt with numerous Mamluk warlords, and the state was decentralized and fragmented. There's a lot of room for maneuvering.

Minguez turned his head sideways and asked Abravanel: "Do you think the Republic of Ragusa has a chance?" ”

"Good choice, you can give it a try."

The Republic of Ragusa is a Catholic republic located in Croatia. From the 16th century onwards, the Republic of Ragusa paid tribute to the Ottoman Turks, received trade privileges granted by Turkey, and had a deep influence in the trade circles on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Their merchant ships carried Egyptian and Asian specialties throughout Europe.

Ragusa is now in decline, and they have also expelled Jews, and several wealthy Jewish merchants have united to cut off food imports and force the Republic of Ragusa to withdraw the deportation order.

In the 17th century, the situation of foreign colonization in European countries was varied. Of course, it is the mainstream for the government to send troops to directly attack the city and destroy the country. Outside the mainstream, there were numerous private and semi-official colonies. Pirates were also pioneers of colonization, and several islands in Belize and the West Indies were pirate dens, which were later recruited by the British and French governments and became national colonies.

Mingus: "Flying the flag of the Republic of Ragusa, if possible, in the name of Ethiopia, there is hope for the establishment of a colony." Constantinople I went to operate. ”

Abravanel: "The Republic of Ragusa is handed over to me. ”

Jimenez and the others looked at each other, "Lisbon, let's do it." ”

Shou Xuan was a little surprised, "Gentlemen, you already have a plan?" ”

Mingus smiled: "On the way to the East, we found a bay on the coast of the Indian Ocean in Africa in very good condition. We did some preliminary research, and it was a good place to establish a colony. Since there is a future for trade in the East, we may be able to try. ”

"Oh, where is the place?"

"Southern Mozambique (Maputo)"

Mozambique was a Portuguese colony, but the Portuguese had little control over the continent at this time, and their rule was on the northern island of Mozambique. Maputo Bay was a virgin land at this time. Caught between the Dutch and the Omanis, the Portuguese were unable to pay attention to a small bay on the African continent.

Without gold and silver mines, the initial stage of colonial development was entirely capital, and it would take many years to break even on the output of land. Europe used the myth of wealth to fool many people into investing their money in the Americas, and colonial companies went bankrupt one after another. This was in fact a bubble of capital speculation, which lasted for many years, and when the bubble burst, the colonies had taken shape, and it was found that farming yielded more reliable and lasting income than gold mines.

The development of human history has always been accompanied by bubbles, railways, electricity, and the Internet. Whenever capital is needed, it will launch a propaganda machine to fool ignorant people into investing their wealth in companies with outrageous valuations. Some people get rich and achieve small goals in life, many more lose their money, and the capitalists and the state at the top of the food chain achieve their goals. History repeats itself, reinforcing the old adage that the only lesson people learn from history is that they learn nothing.

The Jews were shrewd, and they chose a location where they could obtain ivory and black slaves. Invest money in the Federation, run sea trade in the Indian Ocean, and the construction of colonies will take its course.

Lynch sent the Jews away.

The rapid expansion of seafaring nations was a gift, and Portugal, a small country with a population of more than 1 million, conquered the entire Indian Ocean in ten years. Several Arab nomadic tribes in Oman defeated Portugal in two or three years and conquered the entire east coast of Africa.

For the Federation, the initial stage of Australia's development only has input, no output, and can only be strongly promoted by the power of the state. Not so much in the Indian Ocean, where the Federation invests very few resources, does not prevent India from making a modest layout on several islands. Sailing is a business, and as long as you can make money or reduce the cost of certain raw materials, profitable expansion is a natural behavior.

Shou Xuan convened a meeting of the headquarters at the official residence, and he will once again go north to China, which is the largest assembly of merchant ships since the founding of the Union, and all the transport ships that can be dispatched, regardless of size, nearly 500 ships are assembled in various ports.

Ministers and generals gathered in front of a large South China Sea sand table in the conference room.

Shou Xiang pulled out a horizontal line at the mouth of the Gulf of Siam, "220 nautical miles, with a chain of cruisers with notification ships, as long as the weather permits, to ensure uninterrupted monitoring of the sea surface."

Raheem Sterling: "We did the fleet marshalling and sailing scheduling plan. ”

Collingwood: "Where are our capital ships?" ”

The main force of the local navy includes 3 Goddess-class, 2 old ships of Nanhai and Raphael. The Spanish fleet could only go south during the northerly wind period, and the main ships of the navy could not shrink to the port, so the coverage would be too small.

After thinking about it for a while, he picked up the model representing the capital ship and placed it at the mouth of the Houjiang River.

"Put it in Houjiang Province to cover some of the migration routes, and if the Spaniards break into the Gulf of Siam, they can quickly move south with a tailwind."