Cao Li, the captain of the Yue Fei, was promoted to commander of the American Fleet.

On this trip to South America, Cao Li took the F001 flying clipper ship as a pioneer to set up a base in the Americas, and at the same time brought two general officials who were proficient in Spanish.

On the sixteenth day of the first month, Cao Li followed the global map drawn by Zhao Yan, first walked to the southeast, and arrived at Ryukyu on the 29th, at this moment Ryukyu was still a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, Wen Bangliang carried out a small-scale trade in Ryukyu, and exchanged some local products with the Ryukyu Kingdom, and then you began to drive all the way east.

After driving eastward for nearly half a month, Wen Bangliang used a sextant and successfully discovered the Hawaiian Islands on the latitude and longitude of the map.

It is a very beautiful archipelago with clear blue waters and turquoise islands. The seaside is covered with coconut palms, and the land is covered with forests and lush vegetation.

Cao Li boarded the island marked 'Honolulu' on the map and made contact with the island's natives that day. Cao Li took the initiative to take out the goods and exchange special products with the natives of the island, which made the natives of the island very happy and warmly welcomed their arrival.

However, Cao Li rented a piece of land on the island, left behind more than 100 marines, and opened a merchant house on the island to purchase local specialties and supplies for a long time.

The journey from China to the Americas was long, and even clippers had to sail for more than a month, so a supply depot was needed on the way.

Hawaii is undoubtedly an ideal supply depot, but they don't have the energy to clean up the natives on the islands yet, and they don't know much about the situation of these natives, so the soldiers left behind will mainly investigate the natives on the islands.

When there is energy in the future, they will increase their troops and occupy the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii can vigorously develop the sugar industry and whaling industry, and can grow tropical cash crops, and it is also a tourist mecca, so Zhao Yan will naturally not let it go.

At present, the indigenous forces of the islands are very weak, and the islands are still divided and not united, and a hundred marines and twenty artillery pieces are enough to deal with it.

The navy has a sextant positioning tool, and there is a global map drawn by Zhao Yan, although the map has some deviations, but the deviation is not large, there is no need to worry about getting lost at sea, and can accurately find the destination.

After leaving the Hawaiian Islands, Cao Li sailed the sea for sixteen days with two clippers, and finally came to the Isthmus of Panama.

Opposite Panama City is Puerto Dios, where the Spaniards transported gold and silver.

"My lord said that the Franciscans first transported the gold and silver of South America to that city, and then transported them to the port by mule and horse teams, and then brought back to their own country by the ships of the port, where the gold and silver mined all year round were gathered, but unfortunately we did not have warships, otherwise we would have robbed the damn of it." Cao Li regretfully observed Panama City with a telescope.

"According to the plan, as long as we build a stronghold in South America, the fleet will arrive in the Americas before the end of the year, with the important surname of Panama, we should not set up a stronghold there, otherwise it will cause a strong reaction from the Francois people, and at the same time, there may be no rubber here, and then finding rubber is our primary goal, and it is not appropriate to quarrel with the Francois people." Yang Yichuan, the education commissioner, also looked at Panama City in the distance with a telescope and said.

"Let's take a look further south!" Cao Li nodded and said.

When Cao Li drove south along the coast, he encountered several gold ships along the way, but the clippers were not warships and could not fight at sea, so they all passed directly and did not pay attention to those ships, and the Spanish ships could only look at the speed and sigh after encountering the two sailing ships led by Cao Li.

Three days later, Cao Li arrived at Paita Port, which was still undeveloped, and they observed from latitude and longitude that it was just the right place to set up a base.

Cao Li then let the ship drop anchor, and more than 600 soldiers landed in the port of Paita that afternoon, and began to make contact with the Incas on the island.

It is part of the Spanish administrative region of Peru, where Spain has established the Viceroy of Peru and its administrative center is located in the southern part of the city of Lima.

The Inca civilization perished in the 16th century and was conquered by the Spaniards, who are now under Spanish rule.

After Cao Li came ashore, he immediately traded with the local Incas, who were under Spanish rule and could already understand Spanish, so there was no problem in communication.

Paita was a place that was not taken seriously by the Spaniards, it was somewhat arid, there was not much annual precipitation, and it was only suitable for the development of animal husbandry, so its influence on the area was very weak.

After inspecting Paita, the crew of the fleet decided that it was a very suitable place to be used as a base.

"It's dry all year round, and there isn't much rainfall, so if you set up a stronghold here, you won't be affected by the rainy season, and you won't have a plague outbreak because of the rainy season." Yang Yichuan concluded after conducting an investigation of the geographical environment.

"Then let's build a fort here!" Cao Li nodded.

The next day, they made in-depth contact with the local Incas and made a request to rent the land, which was offered a good rent.

The local Inca tribe was overjoyed, agreed to their request, and leased the port and nearby lots to them.

Cao Li immediately began to purchase reserves on a large scale, and hired local Incas to build bastions on rented land.

The soldiers brought the artillery ashore and began to build fortifications to protect against the Spaniards.

In the last century, Spain and Portugal, under the auspices of the Pope, signed the Treaty of Todshira, which stipulated that the Americas west of the Pacific center line were Spain's sphere of influence, and the west of the center line was Portugal's sphere of influence.

This time, Cao Li came to the Americas, bringing 300 artillery pieces and 700 personnel, in addition to the 100 soldiers and 20 artillery pieces who stayed in Hawaii, there were 600 personnel who came to South America, and there were 280 artillery pieces, light and heavy artillery, half of which were city defense artillery and half were field artillery.

"We have a lot of artillery shells, enough to last a year and a half, as long as the fortress is built, our stronghold can be impregnable, but in case the Fran machine people besiege our fortress, there is a big problem with food reserves, so our next main task is to store more food."

They were still very confident in the defensive capabilities of the fortress, after all, their artillery could form a dense network of lethal fire, and could effectively return fire on enemy artillery, which was almost impossible for the Spaniards to attack head-on.

The only thing that could lead to defeat was the problem of food reserves, and in the event that the Spaniards besieged the city with more than a dozen times the number of troops, they would have to wait for the follow-up support of the fleet.

Therefore, while Cao Li was building fortresses and temporary fortifications, he began to buy grain and livestock from the surrounding Inca tribes.

At the same time, five squads, each of 20 people, led by Inca guides, traveled east through the Andes and into the rainforest area to find the 'tree of tears' in the Inca population.

However, before Cao Li left, Zhao Yan explained very clearly that the Americas were too far away from Denglai, and with the current strength of the navy, it was impossible to project much power to the Americas.

Moreover, the core interests of the Denglai Army are not currently in the Americas, and they only came to the Americas to find rubber and establish a stable rubber trade point.

The rubber trade also had to rely on the power of the Spaniards, so it was not advisable to clash with the Spaniards, and it would be easy to find rubber trees with the help of the Spaniards.

Therefore, Cao Li also sent a team to Lima to make contact with the Peruvian governor.

…… Viceroy of Peru, Carlos. Pillais. Gonzalez recently heard a report that a group of Orientals had arrived in the semi-desert region to the north, apparently from the Empire of Light, a region full of unlimited interests, but unfortunately the Emperor of the Empire of Light did not allow his subjects to trade with the Empire.

These men landed at Paita and built a bastion there, which immediately alarmed the Peruvian governor. But within a few days, the group of people from the Empire of Light sent an emissary and asked for a meeting with him.

The Peruvian governor then met with the envoy, another Spanish envoy brought out by Wen Bangliang, who had been recruited from Manila.

"Hello, Lord Governor, I am the general officer sent by the General Army of Denglai of the Ming Empire, and I am very happy to meet you." When the general officer met, he first declared his identity.

"I heard that you are building a fortress in Paita, I don't know what your country is doing in the Americas?" The Governor of Peru asked warily.

"Our general sent us to the Americas to trade with you Francis, and it is a very large trade, which can bring a lot of treasure to both sides." The general officer said with a smile.

"Oh!" The Viceroy of Peru was amazed, the Empire had been unable to open trade with the Empire of Light in the Far East, and the Empire had tried to invade the Empire of Light, only to find out that it was a complete behemoth, and it was not something that the Empire could swallow at all. Then the governor of Peru asked in confusion: "We also have territory in the Far East, why did you come to the Americas?" ”

"Because the Americas have what we need." The commissioner replied.

"Silver?" The Peruvian governor was once again wary that the Empire of Light had sent people to inspect the Philippines, and they seemed to be interested in silver.

In order to defend the Philippines, the Far East branch has carried out a massacre of local Chinese. However, the Empire of Light is very indifferent to this.

"No, we want a white liquid from the Americas, a white liquid that flows from a tree, and that's what we need, and the natives of the Americas call that kind of tree 'the tree of tears.'" The general officer shook his head and said.

"What do you want that liquid for?" The Governor of the Philippines asked.

"We need that liquid to make porcelain. As long as you provide us with 10,000 pounds of that liquid free of charge every year, our general will allow you to trade with us in the Far East. The general officer said.

"We can buy the goods of your empire in the Far East." When the governor of Peru heard that he was going to provide the other party with that liquid for free, he immediately frowned and said.

"Yes, you can buy goods, but you can't buy much, and your goods have to be resold by Zheng Yiguan to make a comparison, and our general can provide more and cheaper goods." The general officer seduced.

"I don't know what position your general holds in the Empire of Light?" The Governor of Peru was very moved, and if the Governor of the Philippines could not do something, if he was allowed to do it, it would definitely be a great achievement.

"Our general is the commander-in-chief of the empire, and in the north of our empire, our general controls the coastline of this province." The general officer took out the land and pointed to the location of Denglai, Shandong.

"If you are willing to agree to our general's conditions, we can export our empire's goods to you alone, and we can assist you in suppressing the Dutch in the Far East, and at the same time we can also export glass mirrors to you, I heard that in the West, only one country can make glass mirrors, we have seen their glass mirrors, not only not as big as ours, but also very bright, our generals specially sent you a gift as a greeting gift." As he spoke, the officer opened the box he had brought, and took out a glass mirror the size of a basin.

"Oh my God! So big. The Governor of Peru excitedly took the glass mirror, which was so delicate and beautiful that he couldn't put it down and grasped it in his hand.

Mirrors have always been a taboo for Italians, and last year the French stole the manufacturing process and began to produce glass mirrors, but so far only those two countries have been able to produce glass mirrors.

At the same time, their glass mirrors are at most the size of a palm, no matter how big they are, it is impossible, and they don't look as bright as the one in front of them.

"If this kind of mirror is shipped back to Europe, it will definitely make those nobles crazy." The Governor of Peru exclaimed.

"Your terms are indeed very attractive, and if there is a lot of liquid, I think we will have a good time working together. But it's just pure trade, and I don't think you need to establish a foothold in the Americas. "The governor of Peru is still a little uneasy about the establishment of a stronghold.

"We're going to send a lot of ships to trade in the Americas, and we're going to need not only the liquid of those trees, but also the cotton of the Americas. So we have to have the strength to protect our merchant ships in the Americas, and we don't like to give security to others, and there are many pirates in the Americas. ”

"That's the Caribbean, it's perfectly safe on the West Coast!" The governor of Peru shook his head repeatedly.

"As long as there are a large number of merchant ships on the west coast, it is inevitable that those pirates will come to hear that your ports on the west coast have been plundered by the British. If we don't have a base to protect our merchant ships, our merchant ships will be dangerous. ”

"Alright! I'll report that to you. The Governor of Peru no longer dwelled on this issue, and at the moment his mind was occupied by the thought of trading with the Empire of Light.

The Empire of Light is an immensely wealthy empire, and the goods of that empire are very cheap, and as long as they are shipped to Europe, there will be crazy profits.

As long as the empire can open trade with the Bright Empire, the empire's finances will inevitably increase dramatically.

(To be continued)