On 15 August, Li Guoyong's fleet was slowly moving north along the coast of West Africa, and at this time he was at the bow of the ship, surrounded by several people, all of whom were looking at the nautical charts given by Suzhou Jinyiwei.

"It's about to be Angola, it is said that there is a tree in that place, and his bark can be used to make tea or wine to relieve physical fatigue, increase body energy, improve body immunity, and also help us men, hehe."

It turned out that before Li Guoyong set off, Jin Yiwei not only had various instructions to send the sea map, but also specially taught him the previous experience of the imperial court.

Zheng He found a kind of bark in Angola, which was later called Cabinda bark, and the most famous thing about this bark is that it does not need any additives, and it can increase the function of men by soaking it in wine or water.

This will be used by the local natives to improve their physical strength and restore their energy, which is very useful.

Li Guoyong thought about it before, and felt that the temperature in Malacca was barely similar to that here, and he wanted to move, but he didn't know if he could survive at sea.

But Li Guoyong didn't plan to get trees now, and his fleet found a place to dock along the coast of Angola to replenish supplies.

More than 50 years later, the Portuguese Diogo Kang came to Angola by mistake in order to explore the sea route to India, captured many black slaves there, brought them back to Portugal, and began their colonization there.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has come here first, Li Guoyong has almost landed at the place where Zheng He originally docked, according to the sea chart given by the imperial court and Liu Baihu's experience.

Not long after going ashore, he found traces of the previous Ming army resting here, and the last time Zheng He came should have been more than two years ago, when he stayed for many days, mainly to communicate with the local Congo kingdom.

The Kingdom of Kongo (1400–1885) was a tribal confederation state in south-central Africa, founded by the Bantu-speaking Ba-Kongo people in the lower reaches of the Congo River. Its territory extends to the Congo River basin in the north, the Loja River in the south, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and the Kuango River basin in the east. It corresponds to the northern part of present-day Angola and southwestern Zaire, with its capital in Mbanza, in present-day northern Angola.

Zheng He did not find anyone from the Kingdom of Kongo, so Li Guoyong rebuilt the place where Zheng He and them had rested, lived there for five days, provided fresh water and food, and also hunted a lot of local endemic black antelopes.

Angola used to be known as the breadbasket of southern Africa, in addition to its fertile land, dense rivers, fisheries and wildlife, before independence, known as the breadbasket of Africa, not only self-sufficient, but also exported.

But after independence, it didn't take long for it to become one of the poorest countries in Africa.

Therefore, sometimes the colonization of these backward places by developed places is not necessarily a bad thing.

Li Guoyong was a businessman, and after only a few days of working in the local area, he felt that this place was very suitable for colonization.

One day, he gathered everyone around him, looked at the fertile land around him, and at a glance, thousands of black antelope flocks, and said: "The imperial court encouraged everyone to come out to colonize in the ninth year of Hongxi, but most of the people of the Ming Dynasty put their hometown first, and for so many years, I have not heard anyone go out to colonize one side." ”

At this time, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, under the call of the imperial court, came out to pan for gold, but almost none were willing to colonize.

Colonization meant staying somewhere for a long time, which was diametrically opposed to the custom of the Ming people at this time.

The Han people pay attention to the fallen leaves and return to their roots, if it is not for the war and other reasons, they are easily reluctant to go out, especially now that the Ming Dynasty is coercing the four seas and is rich and developed, the Ming people are even more reluctant to come out for long-term colonization.

Liu Baihu immediately smiled and said: "If it weren't for the owner's family, you would have made such a big investment, I wouldn't want to come overseas, it's really boring." The key is still dangerous, he didn't say this sentence in his heart.

Some time ago, in the Cape of Good Hope and Marga Island, the strong wind and waves scared all of them half to death, and there were thousands of people on board whose crew were thrown into the sea and were not rescued, which was the first time they lost their team members since they went out.

Li Guo looked at the others quietly, most of them had the same look on their faces, if it weren't for Li Guo's blood to spend a lot of money, no one would really want to come out so far.

Now the Ming Dynasty will basically have nothing to do with running Nanyang, and the Ming army controls the territory along the way, but when it comes to Africa and the Americas, everyone is unwilling, maybe it's better to go to Europe.

But there were also adventurers among the onlookers, like Li Guoyong, a son of the clan, Li Liang, who said excitedly: "I'm not bored, except for the top waves, overseas is quite interesting." He looked at Li Guoyong excitedly, and his expression seemed to remind Li Guoyong, if you want to colonize, you can take me with you, I am willing.

As soon as the two of them spoke, the crowd was chattering, some people said it was good, some people said it was too far away, and they missed their hometown a little.

Li Guoyong secretly kept in mind those who were more courageous and willing to take risks.

When he slept at night, Li Guoyong was thinking about colonization, thinking about it, this side was too far away from the Ming Dynasty, and if there was not enough population in the early stage, he would encounter challenges from Europeans in the future.

Now even the Ming Dynasty has not established a stronghold here, so it can be seen that the long distance is the biggest obstacle.

Just as he was dazed and thinking that he was about to fall asleep.

"Ahh

"Tick, tick, tick." The chirp roared wildly in the night sky.

Li Guoyong woke up in an instant, swished up, turned around and touched the crossbow in his hand from behind.

"Enemy attack." Liu Baihu's voice was quite loud in the night.

"Wow wow, wow, wow" At this time, there was a sound of waw wah screaming in the night far away, and it sounded like voices came and went, everywhere.

Li Guoyong's people got up one after another and gathered around Li Guoyong.

They are in a good place, in a high place, where the Ming army used to stay, and there are still basic traces of a camp.

Because it was dark, I don't know how many people came, everyone came to Li Guoyong's side, and the guards on the periphery also retreated.

Of the more than 200 of them, only forty or fifty went ashore, and Li Guoyong originally wanted to walk on land for a long time to see if he could find that kind of bark could be used on the boat, but he knew that there were natives there, so they slept on the boat at night.

Of course, he was not afraid, knowing that these natives were usually not civilized enough, and there was nothing to fear.

After a while, everyone retracted back to Li Guoyong's side, some people proposed to retreat to the ship, and some people said that they didn't need to be afraid, let's take a look first.

Liu Baihu said loudly: "Count the number of people." ”

He counted the number of people first, and found that there were a lot of people who had just screamed and who were sneak attackers.

Because before they went to bed, they placed traps in several directions, and they should have stepped on the traps by the natives who were sneaking up.

After a while, people appeared one after another under the moonlight, and this side was all Bantu blacks, and the black Ming people were not easy to see them in the night, but fortunately, their teeth were relatively white, and they could usually see clearly as soon as they opened their mouths.

There were hundreds of natives from the east, but fortunately, Li Guoyong's chosen position was better, and they failed to sneak attack and turned into a strong attack.

After coming out of the forest, Li Guoyong and the others could see that they were basically animal skins and leaves, but they actually had iron weapons in their hands.

At this time, Nimi Lukki had just unified the tribes more than ten years ago and established the Kingdom of Kongo, which had the ability to forge iron tools, which was also a rare force in Africa at this time.

But it's a pity that they met Li Guoyong.

Li Guoyong got 20 crossbows and 30 bows from the Ming army in Suzhou, and he also prepared 30 bows himself.

Those who disembarked from the ship, either with bows or crossbows.

"Ready, shoot." Liu Baihu looked at the black man and rushed up with a shout, and gave an order.

Whoosh, these Ming people are not a professional army, and they shoot indiscriminately at the front.

"Ahh

It was just a volley, and the Bantu people of the Congo Dynasty who rushed over turned their heads and ran away, which was simply vulnerable.

The Ming army did not sleep well that night, but the Bantu did not attack again.

When it was almost dawn, there was a Bantu man holding a white flag, with two followers, holding a bunch of things, and came to Li Guoyong's side.