According to Hong Tao's estimates, if there is no extreme weather on the way, the average speed of the Jinhe can reach 11 knots, and it is no problem to run 500 kilometers a day. Hit a margin of fifty percent, and twenty days can also arrive. The voyage back was slightly slower, after all, it was a side headwind, and there was wealth in that month and a half. In this case, the round-trip travel time is about 60 to 70 days, and the remaining two months are spent exploring the American continent.

Is two months enough to explore the Americas? This sentence is a problematic question. If it is taken literally, it is definitely not enough, let alone two months, even if Hong Tao is given two years, it is still not enough. Without the help of modern means of transport, such as roads, railways, and cars and trains, it would take years for horses to travel from southern Chile to Canada, and it may not be possible to make it alive, let alone explore.

But Hong Tao didn't plan to explore all the Americas, not even North and South America, he wanted to go to Central America, that is, the western part of the Gulf of Mexico, and the south-central part of Mexico in the future. Exploring this plain area of less than 1,000 kilometers along the coastline, Hong Tao felt that two months was enough, and maybe he would be rich. Because he has a purposeful exploration, as long as he finds the things he is looking for, he can immediately return to the voyage, even if he only finds one.

Tobacco, potatoes, corn, these three crops only need to find one to make a fortune! Rubber trees, peppers, cocoa, coffee, tomatoes, and quinine are all good potential stocks.

These are all cash crops and medicines that Hong Tao can think of and are native to the Americas, mainly Central and South America. What he wanted most was not potatoes, not corn, not quinine, but tobacco.

Hong Tao was a smoker in his last life and in his previous life, and his addiction to smoking was not too big. A pack of cigarettes or three cigars a day is sufficient. In this life, he doesn't want to quit. But reality made him passively quit smoking. Because you can't find tobacco at all, let alone smoke it. A few years ago, he heard that the Li people in Hainan also smoked, so he urged Langya to return to Hainan Island to get some for himself, and he only took a puff and threw it away. This Nima is not tobacco, it is dried and crushed mint leaves, and it is mixed with other Chinese herbs and other things, and the taste is far from tobacco.

Tobacco is produced in Central America, this Hongtao knows. But after enduring it for more than ten years, he was not embarrassed to run so far to find it in order to take a sip, mainly not because he was embarrassed, but because he didn't spare his time. A philosopher once said that time is like a ditch, you can squeeze as much as you want! This sentence is indeed very philosophical, and this time Carl squeezed it like this, Hong Tao felt that he was really a bit of a ditch.

In fact, he can't really resist this smoking, isn't he still alive if he doesn't smoke for ten years. He is looking for tobacco not only for himself, but also for the sake of hundreds of millions of smokers around the world, and this thing will not disappear because he is not looking for it anyway. So why not let yourself use it for the benefit first?

Saying that tobacco can benefit the people, many people who don't smoke will definitely scoff at it! This thing is poison. How can something that is harmful to people benefit the people?

The reason why the world does not have a clear ban on smoking is not that there are too many people who smoke and governments cannot ban it, but that they do not want to ban it at all. Why? Because the tobacco industry is a very large tax for many countries. To put it bluntly, it's money, and governments can put up with limited poisoning in exchange for greater good. Growing tobacco can benefit many farmers, making cigarettes can feed many workers, and selling tobacco can make more people earn, but once this thing is banned, why should these people go?

From an economic point of view, tobacco is one of the few good things, and it is a big killer for accumulating money! In the hundreds of years since its discovery, tobacco has been a major tax generator and has customers all over the world. You just plant, anyway, according to the level of agricultural production in the Middle Ages, it is far from meeting the demand, how much is sold, and what is not sold cheaply, it must be a huge profit!

Compared with potatoes and corn, Hong Tao believes that tobacco is the real agricultural killer, as long as it is used well, the economic benefits it produces will far exceed those of potatoes and corn in the next few hundred years, and it is cost-effective to use the money it earns to buy grain or directly exchange it for food. Of course, the big killer weapon has to be put in the hands of someone who can play to be useful, let someone who doesn't understand play it, and if you don't get it right, you won't hurt others, so you can play yourself to death first.

So why did Hong Tao choose to go to Mexico in Central America to find these things? It is said that these crops are more likely to be encountered in South America, and most of them are of origin in the South American generation, such as Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, etc.

Hong Tao's choice was well thought out, first of all on the issue of geography. Ecuador and Peru are both on the west coast of South America, and they cannot be reached directly by boat from the European side, so they have to trek ashore on foot. You let a guy like Hong Tao go on a hike through the tropical jungle? Even if there is a cash cow over there, he won't go if he plants it in the ground and directly produces gold ingots.

Brazil is even more incapable of going there, a place that was inhabited by rainforests and uncivilized natives before being colonized by Spain, Portugal, and the French, and Hong Tao did not have the time to assimilate them for hundreds of years. Mexico is different, it is the homeland of the Maya, although the Maya are still indigenous in the eyes of modern people, but compared to the level of development at that time, they were already very civilized. Hong Tao thinks that it is much easier to associate with civilized people, at least they will not rush up with a big stick and kill you just because they don't like you.

The second is the question of how much information to know, Hong Tao has been in Central America in his previous life, Belize is next to Mexico, and he almost got a small country, so he knows a little bit about the local culture. This area is the birthplace of the Maya, and it is said that they began to grow crops on this land in BC, and as a branch of the Indians, they had contacts with the Indian tribes of North, South and Central America. Later generations of Belize did grow corn, and there was also the Mayan Corn Festival, which commemorated the corn planted by the ancestors of the Mayans.

Last but not least, this area is small and close to the coastline, so it's easier to explore by boat. If you want Hong Tao and Carl to land on the North American continent with the number 100 people, it is the same concept as throwing a handful of sand into the sea, and whether you can meet the Indian tribe in two months is a question.

To sum up, Hong Tao feels that going to the east coast of Mexico is the safest and has the greatest chance of success!

"How big is that continent?" Carl didn't know what Hong Tao was thinking, he naively thought that Hong Tao was only going to the American continent on a whim to take him out on an expedition and make him happy, and his heart was full of gratitude, and he didn't mention anything he didn't do anymore. It's just that his mouth is not idle, there are countless questions to torture Hong Tao every day, there is no way, he is too curious. It is not surprising that there were many kingdoms in the East, and the Romans knew about it at that time, and there were many legends; Although the Europeans in the south of the African continent did not know how big it was, they also knew about this part of Africa for a long time, and it is not surprising that there are Saracens to explore; Only the America that Hong Tao said, Carl had never heard of it at all, so it would be inappropriate not to be surprised.

"It's about the size of the whole of Italy...... There are also many small islands around, just like Corsica and Sardinia. Hong Tao was caught, who was lying to whom, and he now doubted whether he would tell the truth, so in order not to let others know the real situation in the Americas too early, he casually made up a nonsense.

"Is there anyone up there?" Carl believed it, but if he didn't believe it, no one knew it except Hong Tao.

"Yes! There is also a national ...... "This time Hong Tao did not lie to Carl, originally, the Mayans established the country very early."

"What do they look like?" Carl has become a curious baby, biting his fingernails with only two words in his eyes: curious!

"Black hair, dark eyes, brown skin...... Actually, I haven't really seen it, I've only seen their portraits. Hong Tao also wrote two words in his eyes: annoying you!

"Can we understand what they are saying? Will it be the same as the Javanese, who will fight with us? Karl probably didn't see the words in Hong Tao's eyes, or pretended not to see them, and pointed to the slave soldiers on the deck who were breathing.

"I don't understand...... I think that no matter whether they are friendly to us or not, we still have to have the necessary force, and this is called dependence. We didn't go to war in the past, and we didn't plan to grab their territory, just look at it and leave, it shouldn't arouse their hatred, right? Karl was really asking this question, and Hong Tao was also thinking about how to get along with the Indians. If you look at it from the movie, the Indians on Lao Mei's side seem to be gentle and murderous, and whether they can get along well depends on luck. If you look at the historical documents, the Indians don't seem to be very aggressive, as long as you don't offend their interests, they are also happy to contact other ethnic groups. After the new immigrants on the Mayflower landed on the North American continent, the Indians taught them to grow corn, or they would have frozen to death and starved to death, and there was a fart America.

"I see, is it the same as when I first arrived at Cape Town? The blacks didn't understand our language, but Martini convinced them with a small jar of sugar...... If only I could bring Martini here, and let him use a jar of sugar to turn this place into Imperial territory, and then I will be the governor of Cape Town!" Karl was quite able to draw inferences, Hong Tao's description reminded him of the scene when he came to the South African mainland at the beginning of the year, and then he played again, and in general, he wanted to pick up ready-made, and did not want to develop himself from scratch. (To be continued.) )