Just two days before he left the port of Cape Town, Swann and Royoude also left the port with a dozen craftsmen in a whaling ship to build a supply depot on the island of Madagascar. However, after leaving the port of Cape Town, their ship did not sail eastward, but made a circle on the sea, avoiding the observation distance of the watchtower on Signal Hill, and hoisted its full sails towards the north.

At the end of July, Hong Tao's battleship arrived at Fort Carl, which looked like a large black tortoise shell lying lifeless on a cliff compared to the vibrant port of Cape Town. The bay below was smoky and smoky, and you could smell a foul smell from a distance, not to mention merchant ships, and even seabirds were reluctant to fly over.

In terms of ability to do business, Karl was eighteen streets short of Martini. He would catch the whales, boil them into whale oil, put them in barrels, and wait for the Saracens across the Channel to send boats to pull them away every other month. At most, the whale skins and baleen were disposed of, some of which were made into leather armor and crossbows to equip their own small army, and the rest were piled up in the castle's storeroom and moldy.

"You haven't thought about pulling these things to Re Na Ya and handing them over to Jiang Niangzi for some money to spend?" Hong Tao covered his nose and came out of the warehouse, which was full of big rats more than a foot long, and those bags of whale skin were a waste.

"I forgot......" Carl was blessed, not only did he have a big belly, but his spirit was still a little sluggish, and he was lazy to speak.

"Why don't you forget to sleep with these Saracen women? Are they people from across the Channel? "Hong Tao really wants to press this guy to the ground and beat him, he is as tired as his grandson all day, he will be quite happy here. On the large bed in the bedroom lay three young women with nice postures. This Nima is my own pursuit. How to let him live first. It's so annoying.

"No, no, no, they are my slaves in exchange for whale oil, and there is no danger!" Seeing Hong Tao's squinted triangular eyes, Carl finally lifted his spirits. He knows Hong Tao's bottom line very well, and once it is touched, it will be very troublesome.

"Looks like I'm going to have to send Mia back to you, this castle lacks a mistress. You also lack the motivation to move forward and have to find someone to watch you. For Carl's state, Hong Tao doesn't want to blame too much. He stayed here alone, he was not willing to continue to return to the circle of those European nobles, and he had no close friends to communicate with, and he was also very depressed, and it was not easy to persevere.

"My children can't come back, it's not for them." Carl has no objection to Hong Tao's suggestion, but he doesn't want the child to return to this place where birds don't poop together.

"Don't worry, even if you're willing, I'm not willing. How are the Saracens and Christians fighting in the north? Hong Tao waved his hand. Let the three slave girls out, then close the door and get down to business.

"It's still like that. No one could beat anyone, and the crossbows I sold them worked very well against the knights, and they wanted more, but I didn't agree. Carl had been secretly providing the Saracens with hand crossbows made of whale bones, but the number was not large, only a dozen per month, and the Saracen middlemen were still in charge of exchanging them at sea, so that they did not have to worry about being discovered by the Christians in a short time.

Hong Tao did not want the Iberian Peninsula to be completely occupied by Christians, which would put a lot of pressure on Karlburg. It is very good to let the Saracens and Christians fight for a few more years, but they cannot support the Saracens with great fanfare, but can only secretly make evil. It doesn't matter if it works or not, as long as it adds trouble to Christians.

"Mia can't come for the time being, I'll let Mrs. Jiang come over and help you take care of the housekeeper, you're about to become a rat's nest here!" Hong Tao was just about to sit down on the sofa when he saw a red-haired mouse lying on the armrest. Although his nickname is Hong Rat, he can't really dance with rats, these rats are easily contagious and must be eliminated.

"Oh God...... You can't make me comfortable for a few days, you might as well kill me if she comes!" As soon as Carl heard that Jiang Zhu wanted to come to the castle and manage it, he almost hit his head against the wall. If there is such an iron lady in the castle, he can only wash his face with tears all day long, it is estimated that these female slaves will all be damaged by Jiang Zhuyi, and it will be difficult to say who is the slave and who is the master at that time.

"I'm doing this for your good, I was almost bitten to death by a mosquito last time, do you still want to be bitten to death by a mouse?" Whether Carl wants it or not, Hong Tao can't tolerate the dirty and messy phenomenon in his territory, and the reason is still disease. Malaria wasn't too deadly, and if there was a plague in Karlburg, I would have to blow it up.

“…… Can rats make people sick? "It's the first time Carl has heard of rats being so bad, close to Zhu Zhechi, because of Hong Tao's existence, he has always regarded rats as cute animals.

"It's scary than mosquitoes, and I don't know how to treat it......" Hong Tao nodded solemnly.

"Okay then......" Carl was very brave in the war, but in the face of the disease, he still did not have the courage to ignore it, especially after experiencing that malaria, he was even more afraid of the disease, and gritted his teeth and agreed to Hong Tao's arrangement.

"Don't be depressed, Mrs. Jiang is not a devil, she is very cute. I'm not here to check your hygiene, I have something very important to do, and I need your cooperation in this matter. I won't talk nonsense, just two points, first, you have to do whatever I say, and don't ask why; Second, no third person is allowed to know about this matter except for you and Jiang Niangzi, including Mia, who can never be said! "In Hong Tao's dark Chen Cang plan, there is another key person, that is, Carl. Without his cooperation, the project would not have been able to go smoothly.

"......" Carl nodded, and sat down opposite Hong Tao, ready to listen to what Hong Tao had to say. Don't look at him as a raunchy lazy guy, but he can be trusted when it comes to serious things.

"Tomorrow I will go and pick up Mrs. Jiang, and when I return to Fort Karl, I will prepare forty of the best sailors, and I want them to sail with me instead of the sailors on the battleship, to the tribe of Tu. You can find a reason to change the sailors, go and get some medicine that makes people diarrhea but not fatal, put it in the sailors' food, and make them all sick for a few days. Then I said that I went to visit various European countries, and it took three or four months to go around more than 10 countries. Hong Tao held out a finger and began to arrange for Carl to help him cheat.

"Why can't you let others know about the New World?" Carl was the only one who knew about the Americas and had been there, and the other sailors on the ship were told that he was wandering around Northern Europe, and that all the navigation data was under the control of Hong Tao, and he didn't understand why Hong Tao was hiding it.

"Didn't I say it, don't ask why, just remember my arrangement. Find me thirty more of the most reliable slave soldiers to go with the ship, these soldiers will not come back, they will stay there, it is better not to explain to them in advance, just tell them to obey my orders, and I will arrange for them a new home much cleaner than here. Hong Tao did not answer Karl's question, and continued to arrange.

"I ...... Well, I won't ask, you always have a good reason to do it. What else do I need to do? Karl opened his mouth and swallowed the question back. He knew that even if he asked, Hong Tao would not tell him, this was not the first time, and it should not be the last.

Early the next morning, Hong Tao's battleship left Karl Fort and sailed for the northern Mediterranean, where it stopped three days later outside the port of Rena. This time, Hong Tao did not wait for Jiang Zhuyi to come to him, but took thirty slave soldiers and went ashore in full armament. Because he was under the banner of Karl, the soldiers defending the city did not dare to stop him, and could only watch the group swagger into the city.

Compared with the hot \ Na \ Ya port a few years ago, this small port town is obviously many times more prosperous today. From the city gate, there are shops on both sides of the stone road, selling everything. Europeans, Saracens, Byzantines, and North Africans dressed in a variety of national costumes weave through the streets. Some of them were nobles, and they all had servants with them; Some are merchants, carrying large bags of goods; There are also monks and farmers, who know what they come here to make a fuss about. (To be continued.) )