Autumn is the most sailing season on the Black Sea.

On the endless blue sea, snow-white waves bloom.

A huge fleet of thirty ships, with flaming flags fluttering on the mainmast, continued to move south along the west coast of the southern continent with the help of the Canarian cold current and the Beninese warm current.

Whew-

The snow-white sails bulged into a magnificent white cloud, and the mighty momentum seemed to be able to crush everything in front of it!

In the huge fleet, the lowest rank is at least a fifth-class cruiser, and even a third-class battleship that is rarely seen elsewhere is not unusual.

And the most eye-catching thing is that the first mast is covered with the general's flag, the noble flag, the fleet flag, and the commander's flag, and the fleet flagship that leads the entire fleet forward.

The brightly colored red sails on the battleship, like a blazing maple leaf, are none other than the quasi-legendary battle armor "Red Maple" of Syrius.

The shrewd and capable lieutenant pushed the door open and entered the captain's room.

"Report to Your Excellency Commander! The Navigator has just reported that the fleet is about to leave the forward Benin Warm Current and enter the retrograde Benguela Current, and it is estimated that it will take three days to reach its destination. ”

Lieutenant General Doyle Griffitz, who was maintaining his beloved long sword with sword oil and fine flannel, stared at the head of the long sword without raising it, and replied:

"I see. ”

Seeing the careless appearance of his boss, the loyal adjutant wanted to speak and stopped:

"Your Excellency, we..."

The worries in my heart are a little sensitive and difficult to express.

In this military operation on the southern continent, the original colonial garrison was not used at all, but all domestic troops were increased. The purpose is to take the other party by surprise and take advantage of the weak links within the other party to expel their forces from the Southern Continent in one fell swoop.

While diverting the focus of domestic contradictions, obtaining huge economic benefits to replenish the country's increasingly depleted body can give Hirlius a hard breath of relief.

Vice Admiral Griffitz, who was directly responsible for the loss of the entire Treasure Fleet not long ago, was the commander-in-chief of the fleet, which was an opportunity given by the kingdom to make meritorious contributions.

Even with the force majeure factor of the wild god of the sea's son 'The Great Vortex' Carybdis, Lieutenant General Griffiths, who caused heavy losses to the kingdom, has now been court-martialed.

Although there is no punishment for the time being, if this war is lost, it is conceivable what will happen to him after returning home. What's more, it can be seen from the personnel who participated in this war that there is another unknown war hidden in it.

For seventy percent of them were staunch ecclesiastical factions, and the deputy commander was another great knight of the royal party.

What is the idea of the kingdom's top brassives? Of course they know it? It would be more appropriate to say that it is an auxiliary team than a warlord.

Seeing the adjutant's concern, the Grand Knight smiled slightly:

"Don't worry? Blessed by the great 'Eternal Flame'? Victory will be ours in the end!

Moreover, enjoying the light given by God, the earthly kingdom is supposed to serve God.

At all costs? I will not let this fleet suffer unnecessary losses, because they are the most loyal warriors to the gods.

This is a promise made to His Majesty the Pope by a Knight of the Eternal Flame God!"

Raise the long sword in your hand? Griffith's eyes were fixed on the straight spine of the sword? The quality of "rather bending than bending" seems to be on display in him as well, and there is nothing that can shake his faith a little.

Even if it's a king's order on the other side of the scale, or... His own life!

.......

The source continent of the southern continent and the civilization countries stand side by side, and the sea of treasures is far away.

The overall shape resembles an animal tooth with a wide top and a pointed bottom? East to Cape Ha Fung? It is bounded by Cape Agulhas to the south, Cape Verde to the west, and Cape Gillan to the north.

Before the first adventurers crossed the Treasure Sea two hundred years ago, the Southern Continent was the home of the Anuma people.

However, with the arrival of the precursor Cyrius Kingdom, the desert kingdom of Heymar, and a number of colonists from large and small countries on the northern shore of the Treasure Sea. The Anuma natives gradually slipped uncontrollably into the abyss of second-class citizens and even slaves of blood and tears.

The mark was the collapse of the last empire of the Anuma near Cape Verde, the Songhai Empire!

But.

At that time, the main force that really destroyed the "Songhai Empire"? But it was not the forerunner Sylius, but the desert kingdom of Heymar.

The kingdom of Hoymar two hundred years ago? Because it has the only trade route with the Peacock Islands in the East, for tea, spices and other necessities? Many of the more western continental countries have to snort at it.

It was by virtue of this unique geographical advantage that they amassed huge wealth, and they were one of the richest and most powerful countries on the continent at that time.

As for Syrius, who had just begun to explore the sea? Was it a younger brother at all? And it is the younger brother of the younger brother who does not even have a unified Alfonso Peninsula.

But.

What time did it take two hundred years ago? The development of firearms is nowhere near what it is today. Although the original form of the arquebus smoothbore gun had been invented, it was still used as a mixture of muskets and spearmen, and the reliability, range, and power of the muskets needed to be improved.

Therefore, in the battle with the natives, the advantages of the so-called "civilized people" by relying on technology are not obvious.

And even if it's a younger brother, it's easy to make people bad.

Sylius, who arrived in the Southern Continent ahead of everyone, saw that he was not capable of eating the powerful "Songhai Empire", so he started a business with them, providing excellent swords, gunpowder, copper cannons and other war materials, desperately dragging Huymar back.

In this way, countless gold, diamonds, ivory... I tasted the sweetness of it deeply.

In the end, he even sent military advisers to instruct these natives who were backward in the art of war how to fight, so that the powerful Heimar also suffered several big losses.

But it was also after the end of this war, which was really a long one.

In view of the discord, the popes of the Church of Eternal Flame and the Church of the Starry Night came together to conclude a peace treaty between the nations and the major churches of the Seven Gods, known as the Papal Compact.

In the face of the immeasurable land overseas, let go of the contradictions between civilized countries, reduce internal friction and unite with the outside world, and the land of the believers of the other gods will be completely returned to the people of the seven gods.

It can be regarded as setting the necessary legal basis and rules of the game for the colonizer's aggressive behavior.

So we have ushered in the colonial frenzy of civilized countries, and the nightmare of colonized areas!

Until now, two hundred years later.

The southern continent has become an important producer and one of the main export areas of tropical cash crops, including cotton, sisal, peanuts, oil palm, cashew nuts, coffee, cocoa, tea, sugar cane, and also produces tobacco, rubber (for steam engines), pyrethrum, cloves, coconut, bananas, etc.

It is also a favorite source of rum for seafarers in the tulip countries.

Another thing that has to be mentioned is the current situation in the colonies of various countries.

Because most of the southern continent is in the tropics, it is very unfriendly to the Nemansters from the northern source continent. Unless a specific drug is available, tropical infectious diseases in these places are very deadly to the Nemanster people who have long lived in temperate regions.

For them, the environment is as harsh as hell, and it is difficult to just survive, let alone work and produce.

Even explorers of the transcendent rank are reluctant to venture deep into this terrifying continent in search of unknown treasures.

There were even pioneers among explorers who commented:

The Southern Continent is the main bastion of the true Demon King, the reactionary forces of nature against the prosperity of mankind. Here, the king of flies assembles a worm-like, beastly army of insects, ticks, and nematodes to transmit the disease to the skin, blood vessels, intestines, and spinal cord of humans and other vertebrates.

among the major powers.

In the northern part of the southern continent is the largest desert in the world, occupying 30% of the entire continent's land. A small number of these habitable areas have become the territory of Huymar, and even the faith is firmly controlled by the "Starry Night Order".

The true god "Bright Starry Night" is the only god here.

Further south is the continent's largest savannah climate, which is not conducive to farming, and the extremely divided rainy and dry seasons can make people go crazy.

After repeated weighing, the rest of the large and small countries have concentrated on dividing up the most suitable cash crops for cultivation like soft persimmons, which can be called the world's largest basin.

The remaining colonies were fragmented and scattered.

For them, only land that has proven its economic value makes sense to occupy.

After the discovery of the New World, they turned their spearheads to the vast areas of abundance on the other side of the Black Sea.

Far less than the climate of the New World, it became a natural barrier for the Anuma natives, and even now there are still a large number of powerful princely states living there in the vast inland areas.

Even along the western edge of the Zaire Basin, there are a number of indigenous countries, mainly the Kingdom of Dahomey in the Benin region.

And the Kingdom of Dahomey has also been stained with the light of the development of the New World, and is now the largest slave supplier to Slave Bay and a wealthy power.

Therefore, although Cylius has a first-mover advantage in the southern continent, there are not many solid occupation areas. Most of them exist in the form of independent mineral and cash crop resource points, and other vast wastelands are of no value to them at all.

In other words, in this era, a large area of the southern continent is still shrouded in the fog of war.

Having occupied some of the agricultural areas that produced cash crops and the minerals that could be easily mined, Sylius had turned east and crossed the Eritrean Sea again, to the Peacock Islands, which were even more affluent in those days.

It was there that Cylius really rose to become the hegemon of the sea.

As for Aiwen's class at the Naval Academy, the professor believed that after two hundred years of continuous development, the southern continent had been thoroughly developed and matured.

It has indeed been developed, but it has been developed based on the current level of science and technology and medical care.

When the drugs in Aiwen's hands are launched one after another, perhaps this situation will be completely reversed.