Australia, the world's largest export of a variety of ores in later generations, is also the world's fourth largest agricultural exporter, especially in animal husbandry, is extremely developed, including the world's largest wool production, if it can occupy here, then for Li Su, especially for his hands of the wool industry, is undoubtedly a huge driving force.

Compared with the distant North and South America, Australia is undoubtedly closer to Datang, and from Taiwan Island to the south, this road is full of archipelagos, as long as you don't lose your way, then even if you touch it island by island, you will definitely be able to reach Australia in the end. When Li Su heard that Yanbei had sent people south to explore the route, he also thought that Lu Wan and they might reach Australia, but when he really saw Australia marked on the fleet chart, he couldn't help but be excited.

"Australia? Isn't Australia your son? Yan Bei heard Li Su's question about Lu Wan, and asked very puzzled. It is a big deal for Li Su to give birth to a son, as his friend and old subordinate, Yanbei naturally gave a big gift, and he also knows Li Qi's situation very well, and even knows Li Qi's name.

"Cut~, Australia is not only my son's milk name, but also the name of a continent, although the area of that continent is not as good as the continent where we are, but compared with the land of our Datang, it is not much different, Jinzhou and Borneo over there in the South Seas, together can not be compared with Australia!" Li Su said with a look of contempt.

At the beginning, Li Su set Li Qi's milk name as Australia, so he naturally had his plans, and even considered naming all the sons born in the future after place names, such as Nanyang, North America, South America, etc., which will be the alternate names of Li Su's sons. Of course, this is also Li Su's lazy approach. At least he doesn't have to worry about naming it anymore, and he has a deeper meaning. But he alone knows what this means.

"Your Highness is really knowledgeable, and you already know about this continent. When we first discovered it, because its area was too large, and our fleet had reached its limit, we only walked along its coastline for a while, and we didn't have time to complete the journey. At this time, Lu Wan was also very surprised, and finally lost no time in giving the name Australia.

Li Su was also very happy about this. At the same time, I also drank a few more glasses, and immediately began to talk to Lu Wan about the animals, plants and cultural customs of Australia. Although Li Su has not been to Australia in his later life, he has enough knowledge of Australia in all aspects, which is not comparable to even Lu Wan, who has been to Australia in person.

Originally, Li Su knew that Australia had already surprised Lu Wan and them, but what they didn't expect was that His Royal Highness King Qi, who was known for his intelligence and erudition, was far more knowledgeable than they imagined, and even knew the endemic animals in Australia very well, such as the animal with a bag head like a mouse, and the animal named by Lu Wan as a gray crane. There are also large lobsters they catch in the coral reefs of eastern Australia, and so on.

Especially when it comes to lobsters, Li Su is still drooling very unimaged, and regrets that this kind of lobster cannot be transported over long distances, at least not yet. If you want to eat, you can only go to Australia, but unfortunately, with his identity, in recent years, I am afraid that I don't want to go so far to Australia.

Li Su took the initiative to talk about the various customs in Australia. This makes Lu Wan feel like they have found a confidant, after all, for Australia. Except for the people in their fleet, only Li Su could talk to them very happily. And they also learned a lot of things from Li Su's mouth that they didn't know in Australia. For example, there are a lot of deserts in Australia, most of which are not suitable for human habitation, and only the coastal zone is more suitable for farming, especially in the east and west coastal areas that they almost reached, which is the essence of Australia, not only suitable for farming, but also very suitable for grazing. It's just that there are no sheep there, and if you bring sheep from the Central Plains, the yield of wool alone is extremely amazing.

With Australia as a topic, Lu Wan and the others slowly let go, and told all kinds of things they had encountered along the way, because their main purpose was to catch slaves, so they paid special attention to the natives they saw along the road. And from their mouths, Li Su, Yan Bei and others also learned about an overseas world with different customs, which can be regarded as a great gain.

In addition, for Lu Wan they discovered the copper ore and gold ore in Australia, Li Su is also very excited, Australia can not only be used as an agricultural product base, but also Li Su Xiangzhong mineral base, where iron, coal, gold and other minerals are very rich, in later generations is the world's first mineral exporter, in addition to Australia has huge reserves of bauxite, but unfortunately now there is no electricity, and there is no way to extract aluminum by electrolysis, so it can not be used for the time being, can only be left to future generations.

It is precisely knowing this, so in Li Su's heart, Australia has already been zoned under his rule, but if he wants to rule Australia, there are still two difficulties to solve, the first is the transportation problem, Australia is not close to Taiwan, if you take a boat, at least it will take more than a month. However, this problem is not impossible to solve, now a sail of steamships has been put into practice, as long as they establish a few supply points along the way, you can open up the route from Taiwan to Australia, and then you can quickly travel between the two places.

However, after solving the problem of transportation links between the two places, there is also a problem of population, if you want to rule Australia, you can't have enough population base, of course, this population refers to the Han people, and the native people of Australia are not counted. If you only rely on natural immigration, I am afraid that it will not be a hundred years, it will be difficult to establish a sufficient population base, but now there is a gold mine is different, as long as the news is announced, and then Li Su formulates some policies to encourage gold panning, it must be able to attract many people to pan for gold, and when the number of people is large, then the city will be slowly established, and San Francisco in the future is a good example.

Thinking of the next development of Australia, Li Su is excited, but he also knows that Australia is too far away from Taiwan, so even if he wants to develop, he must come step by step, and he must not be in a hurry. In addition, there are Jinzhou, Borneo and other places in the South Seas, these places are closer to Taiwan, and the products on the islands are also very rich, but unfortunately they are still in the hands of the natives, and the next focus is to shift to these South Sea islands, as for Australia, it can only be used as a secondary target.

After the reception banquet, Li Su arranged for Lu Wan and them to recuperate, and began to publicize the new route they had explored through the newspapers, but in order to get the details of this new route, they needed to pay an information fee from the slave hunting association, after all, they also paid a lot of price in order to explore this route. In addition, people who are not members of the slave hunting association are not allowed to engage in slave hunting activities after entering this route, otherwise they will be severely punished if they are discovered.

In addition, about the discovery of Australia, Li Su did not hide it from adults, although he will not take Australia as the focus of development for the time being, but it will not prevent the free development of the people, so the news about Australia has also been released, and the news that Australia is rich in gold and gemstones has also been spread, in order to stimulate the people's yearning for Australia.

In fact, for the maritime merchants of the Tang Dynasty, Lu Wan's greatest contribution was not the discovery of Australia, but the discovery of the spice islands rich in various spices, spices are extremely sought-after goods in both the East and the West, for example, incense is very popular in Datang, and the West regards spices as a necessity for cooking. Now Lüvan has explored this route, and the islands they pass through are rich in spices, which undoubtedly opens a huge treasure trove for maritime merchants.

It is precisely because of this that when Lu Wan and his family returned, the maritime merchants who got the news immediately gathered from all directions to Taiwan, and then paid a fee to the slave hunting association, and after obtaining the detailed nautical charts, they immediately organized a fleet to go south, hoping to get ahead of other merchants and buy spices that were still very cheap on the islands.

However, not everyone wants to make money honestly by doing sea trade, for example, there are a considerable number of people who have their eyes on Australia, where there is a gold mine of unknown scale, and a copper mine that has not yet been determined, these two precious metals are very valuable, as long as they can get a part of the profits, it is quite amazing.

It is precisely with this idea that many people contact the slave trapping association, hoping to get the location of the gold and copper mines, but this matter is not something that Yanbei can decide, because he has handed over the ownership of the two mines to Li Su, and Li Su needs to give 20% of the income of these two mines to the association as a reward.

Regarding the gold and copper mines that Lu Wan and the others found, Li Su looked at the places they marked and found that they were in the area of Darwin in the later generations, if he was not mistaken, Darwin seemed to have relied on gold mines to start developing, so the gold reserves there must be not small. It was in this way that he put a lot of effort into the development of that gold mine.

For those who applied to mine gold and copper, Li decided to adopt a form of cooperation between the government and the people, and Li agreed that these people would go to the mines, but half of the mined gold should be handed over to the government, and the remaining half would belong to individuals. Of course, Li Su wanted to set up a settlement there and send officials to monitor the matter.

Gold panning was originally a profiteering industry, so although Li Su's request to hand over half of the proceeds seemed to be a bit heavier, it was actually acceptable for the gold diggers, so they quickly reached an agreement with the official, and then took the officially organized fleet and followed Lu Wan's footsteps south again to start their gold panning journey. (To be continued.) )