The fleet led by Zhu Hao successfully arrived on the west coast of Central America in early October.

When they saw the land patches, everyone on the ship was very excited, dancing, shouting, or hugging and crying to each other, and after a long voyage of eighty days, they finally arrived at their destination, so excited that they forgot that this was just a place to go to sea to work, and their ultimate goal was to return to Daming.

"The fleet is not busy docking, first send two large boats to approach the shore, and then send small boats to find a suitable berthing place to prepare for the landing."

When Zhu Hao discovered the land, he had already made arrangements, with Guan Jing and Lu Bing, two young generals with colonial experience in the American continent, as the vanguard, and each led 500 soldiers ashore to observe the surrounding environment.

When a suitable place is found and a bridgehead is established, the large forces will go ashore.

Once he had set up camp, the next step was to find food, explore for iron and coal, make bricks, glass, and cement, and then start building the Fortress and gradually subduing the nearby Native Americans to join him in the colonization process.

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Ships docked.

Unsurprisingly, there was no resistance.

Although there were indigenous inhabitants on the American continent at this time, the tribes were in a loose state, and the battles between the city-states usually took place on some territory worth fighting, and the wooded places were not suitable for growing food and living. The indigenous peoples of Central America, in particular, were not accustomed to fishing for a living, so that there were few city-states and tribes along the coast.

Without any incident, a convoy of 10,000 men disembarked from the ship that night and began to camp on land.

Lu Bing led 500 cavalry to explore the surrounding area and guard the road.

Guan Jing came back early and explained to Zhu Hao what he had found here.

"Last time we should have been here, but we didn't dock here, there are a lot of trees here, according to the previous records, about fifty miles south from here, there is a wide river flowing inland, and there are a large number of wild people on both sides ......of the river, it is not an exaggeration to say that they drink blood, even women, they are basically only thatched and fur, more primitive than the Tatars, and have no fighting power at all, and there is no livestock in farming."

Guan Jing's words are very contemptuous of the indigenous people of Central America.

The Ming civilization continued to progress, while Central America was completely isolated from the Eurasian continent as the center of the world because of the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west.

It can even be said that ......

Those tribes don't like to resist, they seem to be used to it, and they probably know that fighting against a powerful opponent will only bring ruin to the tribe, and taking the initiative to take refuge and fully integrate into the other tribe is the way to survive.

Zhu Hao observed the map drawn by Guan Jing, but unfortunately it was too backward to judge where this was directly from the topography, but from the hot climate, it can be concluded that it is closer to the equator, and the difference between the rainy season and the dry season is obvious, and it should be in the dry season at this time.

This is probably an important reason why the surrounding tribes like to gather in the river.

Fight inland along the river, and many tribes can be incorporated along the way.

"Don't rush to the south, let's set up an outpost here first, and send out people to explore the surrounding area!"

Zhu Hao is very clear about his task.

This time they went to sea, and the purpose of Guan Jing and Lu Bing was completely different from the last time, last time Guan Jing and they left with one shot, and they could plunder as many resources as they could.

And this time he came to colonize, this period is even five to ten years possible, to take root in a strange place, first of all, to establish a strong fortress that "can be attacked, retreated, and defended", and it is good to build a fortress at the mouth of the great river, but the impact is too great, and it is likely to attract attacks.

It is better to build a castle in this place surrounded by winding streams and dense forests, and at the same time to ensure the water source and carry out various constructions.

According to the report of Tanma, there is a large lake three miles into the land through the dense forest in front, and as long as the water supply is dug and drained, and at the same time, the water supply is guaranteed before the rainy season arrives, etc., which can ensure the operation of a city.

"Is it right here? It doesn't look very good, isn't it better to have a place with mountains? ”

Guan Jing looked very assertive.

After the last operation at sea, he felt that he was experienced in marching and arranging, and wanted to fly with Zhu Hao.

Zhu Hao didn't think it was angry, and pointed to Lou Suzhen on the side with a smile: "Regarding the establishment of the camp, listen to her instructions, early tomorrow morning, let the people on the boat take turns to go ashore, build the dock first, and make full use of the trees here." I'm going to have someone check the quality of the trees tonight. ”

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With the landing of a large number of personnel, Zhu Hao must guard against mutiny in the army, there were actually soldiers restless at sea before, but they did not dare to attack at sea, once they found land, Zhu Hao must reiterate military regulations and military discipline, and give clear instructions to let them put into production.

"Childe, is this really suitable place to build a city?"

Even Lou Suzhen seems to have objections to this.

Zhu Hao said: "I only said to build an outpost here, our biggest resource now is actually our ships, in a strange place, we must first establish that the enemy is not a threat to us." If it was just for the natives, they would not be able to hinder us, but if it was a Francophone who could take out artillery and firearms, then the situation would not be easy to say! ”

That night, Zhu Hao patiently waited for Lu Bing to send back the news.

Lu Bing took the cavalry to go a little deeper into the land, in addition to exploring the terrain, he also had a purpose, that is, to catch live people and come back as guides.

Among the people who were arrested by Lu Bing and them before to return to Daming, some of them learned Chinese faster and were already able to do basic communication, and Zhu Hao basically understood the other party's language through communication with them, so he didn't have to worry about being deceived.

"We ...... Don't come here...... It's too far away......"

The man who was summoned for questioning was a man in his early twenties, but he looked old. In this era, it is not easy for even the people of the Ming Dynasty to live to be fifty years old, let alone this group of native Americans, it would be good to live to be about thirty years old, for them, the annexation between tribes and the war between city-states are very cruel, and survival is extremely difficult.

Zhu Hao asked, "Why don't you come here?" Just because it's a long way to go? ”

The man couldn't understand Zhu Hao's words, and then the person who specialized in teaching his Chinese explained, and the man said: "It's very bad here, it's windy, and there is a curse ......."

It probably means that the consciousness instilled by the sorcerers of their tribe is that the wind and waves are strong here, and the products are not abundant, it is really an ominous place, and they usually do not come near this place at all. So this is actually telling Zhu Hao in disguise that no one is disturbing in the nearby area, which is quite good in terms of stability.

The surrounding terrain had been surveyed that night, and the report was that there was no sign of human activity here, and then the soldiers had already brought back a large amount of water from a nearby lake in wooden barrels.

Although the water source problem has been solved, it is obviously unrealistic to develop a city of about 40,000 people, so after the "bridgehead" is built, it is necessary to find a new place to build the city.

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"Do you have any silver here? Is that the kind of thing? ”

Zhu Hao kept the native in his tent and inquired about the situation here.

Zhu Hao named this person "Ah Da", which means the vanguard of the natives, and this person will be responsible for communicating with the surrounding tribes in the future......

One of the important purposes why he sent people to the New World in advance and captured them back to the Ming Dynasty was to teach these captive indigenous Ming languages, and at the same time to allow some Ming people to communicate with the local natives without hindrance.

Otherwise...... Both sides rely on gestures to express their ...... That would be too much work.

"Not much here. Go south. ”

Ah Da is a know-it-all in the tribe, and even learns Chinese faster than others.

Zhu Hao felt that he could promote this person to be an official in the future.

Silver ore is of little significance to Zhu Hao's colonial career at the moment, after all, this thing cannot be exchanged for something valuable in the Americas, but it is more effective than anything else to calm the morale of the army.

Once the silver was discovered and mined, the soldiers and the craftsmen, farmers and even fishermen who came with it felt that the trip was well worth it.

But it is also necessary to prevent those who come with them from forgetting their righteousness.

Therefore, the best way is not to go directly to open a silver mine, but to get a batch of finished products back first, distribute and reward, and let everyone have a head.

"Coal mines, and iron mines...... Show it to him......"

Zhu Hao asked people to bring iron ore, copper ore and coal, and handed them over to this native.

In addition to knowing copper ore, Ah Da said that he had never seen the other two.

Originally, Zhu Hao thought that this product was very useful, but now it seems that his knowledge is still too shallow, and it is embarrassing to be useful.

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There was no dispatch of the fleet that night.

It was not until dawn that the ships of the fleet came to shore in large areas and moved all the people from the sea to land.

And Lu Bing's team finally came back after going out for a night, and captured less than twenty indigenous ...... It is said that in the woods near the mountains, there was a valley where four or five families lived, and the simple houses were built together, surrounded by wooden fences, and the surrounding area was all cultivated farmland.

"What do they eat...... It's all the kind I said before...... It's called Baogu. ”

Lu Bing took the corn and gave it to Zhu Hao.

Corn seeds, Zhu Hao had sent them back to Daming before, which was regarded as his gift to Zhu Si.

As for whether corn can be successfully promoted in China in the next few years, it depends on whether Zhu Si has the heart to seek benefits for the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Hao said: "It's good, we want to live here for a long time, we need a lot of food, with the food we bring, we can only last seven or eight months at most." ”

As he was talking, Su Xigui finally landed on the shore, he was a little jealous, before he hid on the boat for fear that there would be any beasts and savage natives after landing, and when he saw that the Ming landing army had used trees to set up a fence within a few miles of the landing site, and began to build wooden houses, Su Xigui was relieved to come over to Zhu Hao to discuss the matter of setting up camp.

"It's just a temporary stopover."

Zhu Hao said to Su Xiguiming, "After exploring the surrounding terrain, in the next few days, we will go east and sweep away the nearby tribes." ”