The day after the fleet arrived in Tuliala, Zhang Yufei and several special combat team members formed an exploration team and led several experts and technicians from the Civilian Affairs Committee of the fleet to go deep into the interior of Tuliala.

The Tropic of Capricorn coast crosses Tuliara, which is dry and hot all year round, and the landscape of Tuliara is truly in line with the world's imagination of Africa, with endless grasslands, sparse shrubs or tall baobab trees standing alone, giant cacti and many more strange needle-like plants.

And, of course, there are the dark-skinned, curly-haired, white-toothed aborigines who have long relied on traditional farming, animal husbandry, and fishing for their livelihoods. The waters around Tuliara are home to the world's second largest coral reef after Australia, and are naturally huge aquariums with diverse marine life. Surrounded by a magical and rich ocean, it is surrounded by pristine landscapes, a variety of plants, strange natural landscapes, and an incomparably rich natural resource.

It didn't take much effort for the exploration team to find a small open-pit coal mine near Tuliara. Although the reserves of this coal mine are not large, the coal quality is very good, and it is an open-pit coal mine that is very easy to mine.

Next to the coal mine is on the south bank of the Fihrana River, and the mined coal is more convenient to transport. The thermal coal required by the sailing ship has relatively high requirements for coal quality, and the river can rely on the river water of the Herana River to establish a local coal washing and preparation equipment to provide qualified refined coal for the sailing ship =.

Ding Xinghao led two companies of the Mad Dog Brigade to recruit hundreds of local natives in several villages near Tuliara. What people didn't expect was that the natives here were very gentle and even welcomed the arrival of the Far East Fleet.

Because many of the inhabitants of Madagascar were Indonesians and Arabs from the 1st to 10th centuries AD. One after another, they moved to the island of Madagascar, and they intermarried with the locals to form the Malagasy people. Moreover, there were often merchants from Arabia who settled here, and after the opening of new shipping routes, merchants from the West also increased, so they did not have much resistance to the arrival of the Far Eastern Fleet. Just treat the Far East as a foreign businessman.

Ding Xinghao and Song Tao sensed the mild attitude of the local aborigines. Several employees of the Propaganda and Education Department of the Ethnic Affairs Committee had a simple exchange with the local indigenous people through various ways. When the natives in the vicinity learned that they could be paid with black stones, they all rejoiced. Because it was on the edge of the famous Sakoua coalfield in the south of the island of Madagascar, it was so rich that it could be picked up near many villages.

Liu Handong once again took the initiative to ask Ying, and after the fleet left, he would lead a platoon of the Mad Dog Brigade to mingle among the local natives and be responsible for staying on the island of Madagascar. He personally mingled with the natives and learned the local language from them. It is estimated that Song Tao will come back with the fleet. Liu Handong will master another language.

The local natives are very satisfied with the remuneration offered by the Far East, as long as they work in the coal mine for ten days and complete the required amount of work, they will get some mellow bottles of spirits provided by the Far East, or a delicate disposable lighter, and of course they can also choose Far Eastern foods such as whale meat, canned fish and jerky, anyway, whether it is the Far East or the local natives. All are happy with this deal.

For the natives, they gave nothing. Just a few days of work can be exchanged for such a good commodity, this transaction is simply a pie-in-the-world thing. For the Far East, it is very cost-effective to be able to recruit so many laborers with insignificant commodities and dig coal for them.

Song Tao simply took out some small hardware items such as hammers, axes, scissors and other small hardware produced in the Far East, and traded them with the natives on the island. The climate of Madagascar is suitable for the growth of a variety of tropical and temperate food and cash crops. The main crops grown are cassava, sweet potatoes and corn.

The island of Madagasagaga is also rich in beryl (emeralds and aquamarines), corundum (rubies and sapphires), tourmaline, crystal, amethyst, citrine, szuprene, garnet, apatite, cocoonite, citrine, diopside, kyanite, amazite, opal, molyte, file, scapolite, stone, spinel, sonorite, chrysoberyl, topaz, inscription, etc.

The most common in the market are beryl, ruby sapphire, tourmaline, crystal, and garnet, among others. Good quality emerald gemstones are quite famous in the world market of modern society. Red tourmaline, various colors of apatite, bright yellow moonstone, blue yellow crystal are all unique, and they are also rare gemstone species in modern society.

If you see a local bear kid holding a few colored stones, don't be surprised at all, this thing isn't worth much here. Maybe the employees of the Far East can exchange a handful of candy for a few pieces, which are just picked up by these bear children when they usually play in the river valley. The indigenous people use these colourful stones as their toys or ornaments.

And it is also rich in something called vanilla vanilla, which is a famous perfume ingredient in modern society. Animal husbandry is also well developed on the island, and there are more hump cattle raised than the island's natives, so Falklands is also known as "Cow Island".

At this time, the indigenous population of Madagascar was not large, and the people did not worry about food and clothing, so the people here were relatively gentle and very hospitable. Faced with all kinds of exquisite goods in the Far East, the local natives came from all over the country with their own specialties to trade with the Far East.

Song Tao led the officers and men of the fleet to build a relative settlement in Tuliala, where Liu Handong would lead a platoon of soldiers and several employees of the Ethnic Affairs Committee. Madagascar and South Africa will be an important part of the company's global strategy in the future.

The fleet stayed in Madagascar for a few days, and after receiving sufficient supplies, it set sail and left. They will skirt the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and enter the choppy Atlantic Ocean and head north to the European continent.

Song Tao had no idea that there were now countless British, Dutch, and Portuguese merchant ships looking for them on this route. But finding a few sailboats in the vast sea is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The best way to do this is to besiege the other side while they are resupplying at a certain port.

However, instead of supplying in the traditional ports on the route, the ocean-going exploration fleet chose the islands of the Arabian pirates in the Maldives archipelago and opened a foothold on the island of Madagascar for replenishment, so that a large number of merchant ships of the three countries did not find the Far East Fleet.

After entering the Atlantic, the ocean-going exploration fleet led by Song Tao no longer replenished, but advanced all the way north to Europe. The whole voyage was unbelievably smooth, and there were not even a few decent storms, let alone other fleets from other European countries. They went all the way around the Cape Verde Islands and the Azores and directly into the English Channel, and came to the French port of Le Havre. (To be continued......)

PS: Thanks to (Scarecrow) and Spethu for their monthly ticket support, and thanks to Ali and Spethu for their tipping support. R1292