To build a big iron ship, in terms of technology, it is not difficult for Zhu Hao at all.

The iron ship can better adapt to the turbine of the steam engine, has high stability, is more suitable for the ocean, and is also the inevitable trend of the future voyage, which is the reason why Zhu Hao cast the big iron ship.

But the problem is that when he was in the Ming Dynasty, it was impossible for him to build a huge ship, and others would also question that the Daming Sea Disaster was just caused by a group of robbers who drove small boats, and it was enough for you to use a wooden boat to meet the battle, why do you have to build an extremely expensive iron ship? Is there some ulterior motive?

Therefore, at that time, Zhu Hao still devoted more of his mind to building wooden ships, reinforcing key parts with iron sheets, so as to ensure the stability of ocean navigation, and at the same time, it was also necessary to adopt tactics such as fire attack against the enemy, which was conducive to naval warfare.

Now Zhu Hao has opened up a lot of iron mines in the New World, and the coal is also guaranteed, so the steel smelting has achieved results in a short time, and the supply of materials has been guaranteed, he has begun to build railways in the Inca Empire, and he is also worried about building large iron ships in his own territory?

However, it may take half a year or even more than a year to build an all-steel ship, and he needs to guide him in terms of technology.

This is also another reason why he did not strongly advocate building a large iron ship when he was in the Ming Dynasty, and the technology must be in his own hands, judging from the experience of the great voyage to open the European migration to the American continent, there is no need to use an iron ship, only when fighting for hegemony.

That being the case, why leave advanced technology in the ultra-conservative Daming?

……

……

Zhu Hao returned to Xincheng and lived in the shipyard for more than half a month, solving the doubts of many craftsmen about using steel to build ships, and then left temporarily.

The soldiers brought from the Inca Empire could not be perfectly integrated into the northern society, and they would be brought back by Zhu Hao, but before returning, Zhu Hao ordered Lu Bing to march to the north and conquer the vast North American continent.

"I will allocate 10,000 soldiers and horses to you, of which only 1,000 are Ming officers and soldiers, can you complete this arduous and glorious task?"

Zhu Hao has high hopes for Lu Bing.

This kid has been traveling between Xincheng and Chang'an City recently, and even if he has the opportunity to fight, he can't earn performance, because the Europeans are almost always at the touch of a button, and now Zhu Hao has asked him to expand his territory and conquer the land in the north, and his whole person is like a chicken blood, and he is extremely excited.

"There is no problem!"

Lu Bing patted his chest to make a guarantee, and then asked the doubts in his heart: "But I heard that if you walk a few hundred miles to the north, it may be the sea, what if there is no way?" ”

Zhu Hao glared at him angrily: "You relax, go north from here, you can go all the way to a perennial icy and snowy place, and you can even cross a perennial frozen strait and return to Daming, which will definitely not leave you with no way out."

"But you have to keep in mind that you must come back before the winter, and the cities of the natives you take along the way, you try to arrange the aborigines you bring to garrison, you only need to bring yourself and a thousand Ming officers and soldiers back."

"Oh."

Lu Bing seems to understand whether he understands or not.

In the eyes of a native Ming like Lu Bing, only the land of China is orthodox, and the concept of dividing the world into Kyushu is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

After coming to the American continent, the scene he saw was similar to Lu Bing's cognition, and now he had to rely on himself to break this deep-rooted obsession.

……

……

The shipbuilding began to advance, and Lu Bing led his troops on the road to the north.

At the same time, Zhu Hao led his troops to Chang'an City, where he wanted to have a head-to-head battle with the European colonists in Central America.

Among the soldiers and horses brought by Zhu Hao, there were 2,000 Ming soldiers, in addition to the Inca Empire soldiers, plus the local natives who transported the supplies, about more than 20,000 soldiers and horses, all the way through the valley where Chang'an City was located, and advanced in the direction of the east coast of Mexico.

After passing Chang'an City, after only two days of walking, you can clearly feel a kind of desolation of "white bones are exposed in the wilderness, and there are no people for thousands of miles".

As far as Zhu Hao knows, this was once the area of activity of the Aztecs, and after the European colonizers arrived in Central America, they adopted a cruel and inhumane scorched earth policy, so that the native-born Aztecs suffered heavy casualties, and the more fertile the land on the east coast, the worse the situation.

After the first round of sweeps, the European colonizers began to implement a long-term business strategy, but they only chose to open plantations near the coast, and in addition to that, they vigorously exploited the gold and silver mines of Central America, so that much of the fertile land near the interior was abandoned for a long time.

The Aztecs who survived had to flee as far as North America or the West Coast as far as they could, and even if there was land that had been cultivated for generations, they did not dare to come and farm, knowing full well that the European colonizers were still plundering everywhere, and if they were captured, they would be used as slaves and thrown into plantations until they died.

Zhu Hao led his troops through the central region of Mexico in later generations, and before arriving on the east coast, he encountered only three walled cities, in which there were only a small number of European colonists, but he obtained a large silver mine, and at the same time seized more than three million taels of silver, which would have been used as war trophies, sent back to Europe by the colonists and handed over to the Spanish royal family, that is to say, this silver mine is actually a royal property.

"Wait for death!"

A Francophone man actually knew Chinese and yelled at Zhu Hao.

This is the first person Zhu Hao met who understood the Chinese language after setting foot on the American continent.

It is said that this person has been to the Ming Dynasty, and it is not clear who he learned Chinese from, but as far as Zhu Hao knows, in fact, European colonists, especially those officially certified pirates, have a relatively mature training system for language in this era, which is convenient for them to deal with different people around the world.

It is not necessarily that this person has really been to the Ming Dynasty, but it is also possible that those pirate organizations taught him the language of the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty, trained him to prepare to deal with the Ming Dynasty, but was sent to the Americas to see the mines.

This person's name is Hurley, and his words are very rampant, if he didn't know Chinese, Zhu Hao might have slaughtered him directly.

"You Orientals, arrogant, rat-eyed, don't know how to use firearms, but unfortunately the distance is too far, it will take more than half a year to go there, otherwise we would have conquered it long ago...... Wait and see, sooner or later we will destroy the civilization you are so proud of! ”

This person's words aroused the disgust of the Ming officers and soldiers.

If it weren't for the strict military discipline under Zhu Hao's command, everyone would want to kill this person alive.

Zhu Hao smiled coldly and responded, "Really? Then when I lead the army to destroy your country, you will know who is more backward! Hold on! ”

……

……

While Zhu Hao obtained a large silver mine, he also obtained more than 10,000 natives, including more than 9,000 men and less than 1,000 women.

The fact that there were very few women and children shows that the European colonizers did not intend to run Central America properly, and did not think about the reproduction of their own slaves in captivity.

Zhu Hao ordered to divide a hundred soldiers, take this batch of natives, transport the silver back to Chang'an City, and then arrange the work in a unified manner, and wait for a year and a half, after the completion of the inspection, to give the status of a free man.

Zhu Hao then continued to lead troops to the east coast of Central America to sweep the area, and soon he came to the base camp of European colonists in Central America.

On the map, the city did not exist in later generations.

It was not like a large city, but more like a temporary settlement, not protected by walls, fortresses, and fortresses, but with a large number of dwellings and warehouses, but a well-built port, with five large docks, and probably a deep-water port, where the wealth plundered by the colonists from Central America was loaded on ships and shipped back to Europe.

Zhu Hao led his troops and encountered the fiercest resistance since he commanded the Northern Expedition.

The European colonists stationed more than 500 troops in this port, and everyone had firearms in their hands, and there were also artillery, but unfortunately the range was far less than that of the Ming Dynasty.

In terms of the level of preparedness here, it may not be as good as Panama City.

But the problem is that this time it was a land confrontation, Zhu Hao could not suppress it with the dense artillery fire on the sea ships, and the port covered a vast area, and the soldiers stationed inside were on guard, relying on various buildings to resist one by one.

The two sides exchanged ideas all morning.

First the firepower density of the firearms, and then the range, the soldiers in the city did not dare to rush out, and the Ming side was not in a hurry to rush in, the two sides shot each other in the air, and slowly the European colonists found that the range of their firearms was far inferior to that of the Ming Dynasty.

The shells or bullets fired by their firearms could not hurt a single soldier of the Ming Dynasty, but they were always under the cover of the Ming firepower.

In the end, the European colonists withdrew from the building and wanted to board the ship to escape, but it turned out that the enslaved Aztecs launched an uprising, first in close combat with the Franc machine man in one building after another, the Franc machine man could not play the advantage of firearms, so he could only retreat, and the Aztecs chased after him all the way to the port.

Zhu Hao sent his own men and horses at the right time, and successfully took the port before noon, and none of the more than a dozen ships of the Francophile ran away.

"The storehouse was full of gold and silver."

When the soldiers learned of the results, they were not very interested.

When the Ming people first came to the American continent, seeing gold and silver was like seeing relatives, and that feeling of excitement had always inspired them, and they followed Zhu Hao with indomitable progress.

But as time passed, they discovered that the most important thing on the American continent was gold and silver, and everyone had a large amount of gold and silver in their hands, and they felt that it did not matter whether gold and silver were captured on the battlefield or not, anyway, even if they could not get it here, they would get it elsewhere.

The most important thing is that now that Zhu Hao has begun to implement a new monetary policy in Central America, gold and silver will not be able to buy items directly, and as the ruler of the Celestial Empire, the Ming people do not have to worry about food and clothing in the territory, and even women can get it, although it is just a group of natives, but the feeling of being a master is still quite good.

Of course, there are also people who want to take the gold and silver back to Daming to enjoy life, but the people sent by Zhu Hao began to consciously instill a sense of crisis in them - in Daming, it does not mean that if you have gold and silver, you will definitely be able to enjoy a good life, others will be worried about it, and there are ways to target you, unless you have the ability to ensure that your wealth is not plundered.

The Ming people have a lot of experience in protecting their wealth, and the people sent by Zhu Hao are reasonable, so in the end, they decided to follow Zhu Hao first, and Zhu Hao said that he would take them back in the next year or two, so let it go.

……

……

The port was occupied by the Ming army.

More than half of the 500 European soldiers were killed or wounded, and the rest were imprisoned, and in addition to this, more than 1,000 merchants and their families who had come from Europe to pan for gold in the New World were captured, and there were more than 200 blond European women alone, in addition to more than 100 children.

Here, there are black people from Africa.

Then there were the Aztecs who had revolted before, and there were more than 6,000 Aztecs in the port, so they suddenly attacked, and the Francs had almost no resistance under the outnumbering of the people, and fled in embarrassment, and were finally killed by the Ming army. However, there was not even a single indigenous woman in this port city, and then Zhu Hao learned that in order to threaten the Aztecs to work for them, the Aztec family scrolls were placed in a town more than twenty miles south of the port.

Later, led by the Aztec guides, Zhu Hao divided 200 cavalry and quickly occupied the town.

More than 8,000 Aztec women and children were rescued from the interior......

This is the first time Zhu Hao has seen so many indigenous old and weak women and children, and it can be seen that the Aztecs in the port have received the best treatment from the European colonists, but they still rebelled against the rule of the European colonists at a critical time.