With the acceleration of construction, the two cities in the north and south of Panama initially have the functions of trade cities, mainly because their geographical location is too superior.

Zhu Hao saw the first batch of Native American ships in the northern city of Panama, which was later known as Cologne, and they came from the northeastern islands of the Caribbean Sea.

Zhu Hao did not communicate with this group of people very smoothly, and could only rely on the Aztecs to communicate with them, according to their description, this group of people probably had their own country on the island of Haiti or Cuba.

It can be said that they are emissaries sent by the Europeans to trade in Panama on behalf of the Europeans, and what they want is nothing more than gold and silver.

"They're here to negotiate with us...... The captain explained that if we left the silver mines in the north to them, they would pay us at least half of the silver every year, and that they would bring men to mine them themselves if they did not need us to send them...... The other is to give them the silver we get from all over the Americas, and they will give us all kinds of materials......" This group of people, Zhu Hao temporarily called the Caribbean middlemen.

This group of people came to be a mouthpiece for the Europeans, after the Europeans gradually lost control of Central America, there were many silver mines left, and they found out through some channels that Zhu Hao had no interest in mining silver mines, and directly ordered the sealing of many mines, which was heartbroken.

Since they knew that the Ming Dynasty did not focus on the mining of gold and silver in the Americas, and that Zhu Hao did not implement the silver standard system in South America, they had the idea of profiting through trade.

You must know that the amount of silver in circulation in Europe is very large nowadays, and most countries in Asia and Africa use silver as the main currency, which can be exchanged for real benefits for European colonizers.

Why not kill two birds with one stone? Zhu Hao's reply to this was very simple: "I also need silver, but I don't mine it for the time being, they want to trade, then bring what I need, that is, horses, cattle and sheep and other livestock, only this can be exchanged for gold and silver from me, otherwise there is no need to talk about it!" "The territory controlled by Zhu Hao does have some scarce materials now, that is, livestock.

Although he was ready to send a fleet across the Atlantic to trade with Europe and Africa, his focus for now was on how to consolidate his existing territory so that the Americas would not be reoccupied by the Europeans when he conquered the Ming Dynasty.

Under this premise, what Zhu Hao has to do is to use Europeans to complete trade. In other words, first ease relations with the Europeans, so that the Europeans have access to the silver produced in the Americas, and at the same time Zhu Hao gets what he wants.

………… After the Caribbean middlemen returned, in less than a month, they brought back the livestock that Zhu Hao needed.

It's a pity that because the Europeans never planned to vigorously develop animal husbandry in the Americas, Zhu Hao couldn't get more useful things from them, and the horses he brought over were only twenty, and there were slightly more cattle and sheep, but they were far from meeting Zhu Hao's requirements.

"Do they think it's some kind of rarity? With such a small thing, you want to exchange a large amount of gold and silver from me? Sure enough, it's a profiteer! Zhu Hao suddenly felt that this group of people was not a middleman, they were simply a group of profiteers, and they were the kind of profiteers with a lot of appetite.

Guan Jing, who was standing behind Zhu Hao, shouted loudly: "Why don't you send a few boats and destroy them all!" Zhu Hao was not interested in this, and said: "Set the price with them, two hundred taels of silver for a horse, one hundred taels for a cow, twenty taels for a sheep, and the rest ...... Let's see. "Zhu Hao's price is already very high.

It can be regarded as leaving a way for European colonists and middlemen to make money, the price of a horse in Europe will not exceed twenty taels of silver, and it can be exchanged for two hundred taels when it is shipped to the Americas, which is equivalent to ten times the profit, and Zhu Hao monopolized the silver output in Central America, and the Europeans are now in urgent need of a way to earn silver.

The price was set to facilitate the smuggling trade of the Europeans, who did not necessarily need to transport horses from Europe, and also produced horses in Africa and West and Central Asia.

In fact, only the Americas and Australia were cut off from several major continents in the past, and there was no trade, so they never had access to horses.

………… The price was set, and the Caribbean middleman replied to Zhu Hao, and they would actually make a counteroffer...... The price of a good war horse is three hundred taels of silver, while the price of cattle and sheep does not fluctuate much.

Zhu Hao maintained the price of cattle, sheep and other livestock, and appropriately raised the price of horses to two hundred and thirty taels of silver each, which was regarded as an additional freight.

After the Caribbean middlemen returned, they immediately discussed with the European colonists about transporting livestock to the Americas, which Guan Jing and others did not understand, because in their opinion, in fact, the Ming fleet could go to Europe and the African continent to plunder on its own, and there was no need to let the black-hearted middlemen make the difference.

At a military meeting, Zhu Hao explained the situation to these people: "At present, our top priority is to ensure the stability of our territory, send troops to the sea through the stormy Atlantic, and reach the European continent, the risk is greater than the harvest for us, and we will immediately break out a war with them after we pass, and we will not be able to directly obtain supplies before we subdue the opponent."

"The current situation in Europe is complicated, and various countries are fighting each other, and if we go, they will unite and work together against us. Sooner or later we will occupy all their countries and territories, but before that, we can exchange the silver, which is not very needed at the moment, for useful supplies to increase our strength and lay a solid foundation for winning future wars. "Zhu Hao has not actually expressed in the army that he will wave the idea of the Ming Dynasty, and still regards himself as the people of the Ming Dynasty, if he tells his subordinates at this time, he will turn back and send troops to the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Hao doesn't know what this group of people will think when they are not around at home.

Therefore, if Zhu Hao wants to attack the Ming Dynasty, he has to rely more on Indian recruits trained by his own hands. ………… The Europeans had to transport livestock from Europe and Africa to and from the American continent, but they were familiar with traveling back and forth between continents, and it didn't take much effort.

The city of Colón, north of Panama, will serve as the terminal for Zhu Hao to receive Atlantic trade materials in the future, and it will also be the only city on the entire continent that legally conducts ocean trade, and its status here is destined to be higher than that of SF City in South America.

But there are not many inhabitants here, and even if 600,000 people have migrated from all over the Panama region, there is not so much land to give to the people, after all, the terrain is long and narrow, and there are many rainforests that are not suitable for farming.

The population can only extend to the east and west wings, and there is not enough land to build large cities around it, so you can only build some small towns first, and let the residents living in them organize their own defenses, after all, there are still many scattered Europeans on the American continent, and even on the east coast of South America, there are still many towns and cities with Europeans.

Zhu Hao has not made any progress to the east coast of South America, nor has he attacked many islands in the Caribbean.

For Zhu Hao, these are all things that can be put in the future, and he is now trying to accumulate more strategic materials.

At this time, he had an obsession in his heart, and the significance of going back to take down the Ming Dynasty was far greater than attacking Europe.

As a Han Chinese, the current Zhu Hao left his hometown and completed the primitive accumulation in the Americas, and now it seems that he has used his ambition to benefit the indigenous people of the Americas, but the Chinese people are still in a feudal and backward state, suffering from natural and man-made disasters.

Zhu Hao didn't want to think of himself as a saint, but if he had the Ming Dynasty, he would only have those 60 million people, and he would be much more active than now.

………… The construction of Cologne City and Panama City is very smooth, with 600,000 people filling them, and Zhu Hao feels that in a few decades, this place will become the most prosperous place in the Americas.

The land issue is still holding Panama hosted. The population can no longer grow rapidly. Zhu Hao originally planned to build a railway, from SF City in South America, directly to Panama City, and then extend to Cologne City, as well as Xincheng and Chang'an City in the north...... This plan seems exaggerated.

Of course, Zhu Hao has a more ambitious plan, that is, to build the Panama Canal, but Zhu Hao knows that this plan is not feasible for the time being.

Building a canal, under today's scientific and technological conditions, hundreds of thousands of people may not be able to build it in ten or even twenty years, which is much more time-consuming and laborious than the Grand Canal in China, after all, in the tropical rainforest area, the canal built to meet the navigation of large ocean-going ships, but not casually can be built.

As for building the railway, Zhu Hao had done exploration before, because he wanted to accumulate steel to make a big iron wheel, so he could only temporarily postpone the plan to build the railway.

There was not enough steel, so they had to transport timber from the south and north, and the shipyards along the Atlantic coast were mainly wooden ships.

Pacific Coast ports are mostly used to receive goods and then deliver them overland from Panama City to Cologne.

In this way, Zhu Hao needs a short-distance railway, that is, the railway between Panama City and Cologne, after all, the minerals in SF City and other places can be easily transported to Panama by sea, so that the railway from Panama to SF City can be slowed down first, but the railway between Panama and Cologne cannot wait.

After careful exploration, Zhu Hao transferred more than 20,000 professional road builders from SF City, and cooperated with construction workers in the two cities of Colon City and Panama City to start building the railway connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

The total length of the railway is one hundred and fifty miles. The locomotives were made in Panama City, the rails were made in SF City, and the sleepers were completed in the new city, and then transported by boat, paving the road from south to north in one direction, and the length of the railway exceeded the length of the railway from SF City to the southern coal mining area.

Because this railway is of great significance, Zhu Hao attaches great importance to it. Mainly because of the special terrain here, we have to prepare for the construction of the Panama Canal in the future, the location of the railway is very important, fortunately, the terrain here is relatively flat compared to the South American continent, and the only thing that needs to be crossed is the Chagres River, which is equivalent to building a railway parallel to the canal.

Zhu Hao set a deadline of three months for the construction of the railway. But in the end, the railway was completed in less than two months.