Extraordinary Sailing

Autumn is crisp, and it is the most favorable season for sailing on the Black Sea.

On the endless blue sea, white waves are blooming.

A total of thirty-one fleets, with a flaming long flag flying on the main mast, successively took advantage of the Canary cold current and the Benin warm current to drive southward along the west coast of the Southern Continent.

call--

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

In the huge fleet, the lowest rank is at least a rank five cruiser, and even rank three battleships, which are rarely seen elsewhere, are not uncommon among them.

The most eye-catching thing is that the flag of the general, the flag of the nobility, the flag of the fleet, and the flag of the commander are hung on the bowsprit, and it is the flagship of the fleet that leads the entire fleet forward.

The brightly colored red sails on the battleship look like flaming maple leaves. It is the quasi-legendary battleship "Red Maple" of Sirius.

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

"Report to Your Excellency Commander! The navigator just reported that the fleet is about to leave the Benin warm current that is going forward and enter the cold Benguela current that is going retrograde. It is estimated that it will take three days to reach the destination."

Lieutenant General Doyle Griffiths, the pinnacle great knight who was maintaining his beloved long sword with sword oil and fine flannel, stared at the shining long sword without lifting his head, and replied:

"I see."

Seeing the casual look of his immediate superior, the loyal adjutant hesitated to speak:

"Your Excellency, we"

The worries in my heart are a little sensitive, and it is difficult to express them.

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

While shifting the focus of domestic conflicts, gaining huge economic benefits to supplement the country's increasingly depleted body can give Cyrus a deep breath of relief.

However, Lieutenant General Griffiths, who was directly responsible for the loss of the entire Treasure Fleet not long ago, is the commander-in-chief of this fleet.

Even with the force majeure factor of encountering the son of the wild sea god, the 'Great Vortex' Charybdis, Lieutenant General Griffiths, who caused heavy losses to the kingdom, has already passed the court-martial.

Even if there is no punishment for the time being, if he loses this war, one can imagine what will happen to him after returning to China. What's more, from the personnel who participated in the war this time, it can be seen that there is another unknown war hidden in it.

Because 70% of the fleet is a firm church faction, and the deputy commander is another great knight of the royal party.

Of course, they knew what the kingdom's top executives were thinking, and it would be more appropriate to say it was supporting rather than supervising the team.

Seeing the worry of the adjutant, the big knight smiled slightly:

"Don't worry, with the protection of the great 'Eternal Flame', victory will eventually belong to us!

Moreover, enjoying the light bestowed by God, the secular kingdom should serve God.

In any case, I will not let this fleet suffer unnecessary losses, because they are the most loyal fighters of God.

This is a promise made by a divine knight of the 'Eternal Flame' to His Majesty the Pope! "

Raising the long sword in his hand, Griffiths stared at the straight spine of the sword. The quality of "rather bending than bending" seemed to be displayed in him, and nothing could shake his faith slightly.

Even if the other end of the balance is the king's order, it is still his own life!

Across the turbulent and treacherous Sea of ​​Treasures, the Southern Continent and the Yuan Continent, where all civilizations stand side by side, face each other far away.

The overall shape is like an animal tooth with a wide top and a pointed bottom, extending from Cape Hafon in the east, Cape Agulhas in the south, Cape Verde in the west, and Cape Gilan in the north.

Before the first adventurers crossed the Treasure Sea and arrived here two hundred years ago, the Southern Continent was the homeland of the Anuma.

However, with the arrival of the forerunner Cyrus Kingdom, the desert kingdom Heimar, and a host of colonists from countries large and small on the northern shore of the Treasure Sea. The Anuma natives gradually slipped down into the abyss of second-class citizens and even slaves of blood and tears, slowly and uncontrollably.

The sign is the disintegration of the "Songhai Empire", the last empire of the Anuma located near Cape Verde!

but.

At that time, the main force that really destroyed the "Songhai Empire" was not the forerunner Sirius, but the desert kingdom Heimar.

Two hundred years ago, the Kingdom of Heimar, because it held the only road trade route with the Eastern Peacock Islands, for tea, spices and other daily necessities, many western continental countries have to rely on it.

They accumulated huge wealth by relying on this unique geographical advantage, and they were one of the richest and most powerful countries on the mainland at that time.

As for Sirius, who had just started ocean exploration, he was basically a younger brother at that time, and he was a younger brother who was not even unified in the Alfonso Peninsula.

but.

In the era two hundred years ago, the development of firearms was far from the current level. Although the prototype of the arquebus musket had been invented, it was still mixed with muskets and spearmen, and the reliability, range, and power of muskets were lacklustre.

Therefore, in the battle with the aborigines, the advantage of the so-called "civilized people" relying on technology is not obvious.

And it is very easy for younger brothers and younger brothers to play tricks on others.

Sirius, who arrived in the Southern Continent ahead of everyone else, saw that he was unable to take over the powerful "Songhai Empire", so he started a business with them instead, providing excellent swords, gunpowder, copper cannons and other war materials, desperately Hold Heimar back.

It also exchanged countless gold, diamonds, and ivory. I deeply tasted the sweetness of it.

In the end, they even sent military advisors to guide the natives who were backward in war art how to fight, which made Heimar, who was as powerful as him, suffer a few times.

But it was also after the end of this really long war.

In view of the disharmonious situation, the Popes of the "Eternal Flame" Church and the "Bright Starry Night" Church jointly came forward, and several major churches with interests in the nations and the Seven Gods finally concluded what is known in history as the "Pope's Contract" peace treaty.

When faced with the vast and unfathomable land overseas, let go of the contradictions between civilized countries, reduce internal friction and unify the outside world, and the land of the believers of the alien gods will all belong to the people of the seven gods.

It can be regarded as establishing the necessary legal basis and rules of the game for the aggression of the colonists.

So far, 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 is already an important production area and one of the main export areas of tropical cash crops, including cotton, sisal hemp, peanuts, oil palm, cashew nuts, coffee, cocoa, tea, sugar cane, tobacco leaves, rubber (for steam engines), pyrethrum, Cloves, coconuts, bananas and more.

This is also the source of rum ingredients that sailors from the tulip countries love most.

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

Because most of the entire southern continent is in the tropics, they are very unfriendly to the Nemanster people from the northern source continent. Tropical infectious diseases in these places would be very deadly to the Nemanster people who lived in temperate regions unless there was a special medicine.

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

Even explorers with extraordinary ranks are reluctant to go deep into this terrifying continent to search for unknown treasures.

Even a pioneer among explorers commented:

The Southern Continent is the main bastion of the real Demon Lords - the reactionary forces of nature against human prosperity. Here, the Lord of the Flies assembles wormlike, bestial armies of insects, ticks, and nematodes to transmit nasty diseases into the skin, blood vessels, intestines, and spinal cords of humans and other vertebrates.

Among the major powers.

The northern part of the Southern Continent is the largest desert in the world, occupying 30% of the entire continent. And a small number of livable areas have completely become Heimar's territory, and even the belief is firmly controlled by the "Starry Night Cult".

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

Further south is the continent with the largest area. The tropical grassland climate is not conducive to farming. The extremely differentiated rainy season and dry season can make people crazy.

After repeated weighings, the rest of the countries, large and small, concentrated on picking the most suitable economic crops for cultivation, the Zaire Basin, which can be called the largest basin in the world.

Other colonies were fragmented and scattered.

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

After discovering the New World, they turned their spearheads to the large and fertile land on the other side of the Black Sea.

The climatic factors that are far inferior to those of the New World have instead become a natural barrier for the Anuma natives. Even now, there are still a large number of powerful natives living there in the vast inland areas.

Even in the coastal area on the western edge of the Zaire Basin, there are many indigenous countries dominated by the Dahomey Kingdom in Benin.

The Kingdom of Dahomey has also benefited from the development of the New World, and is now the largest slave supplier in the Slave Bay, and it is also a wealthy and powerful country.

Therefore, although Cyrus has a first-mover advantage in the southern continent, there are not many stable occupied areas. Most of them exist in the form of independent mineral and economic 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 the "Dark Continent" that is still shrouded in the fog of war.

After occupying some agricultural areas capable of producing cash crops and easy-to-mine minerals, Sirius has turned eastward and crossed the Eritrean Sea again, heading towards the more prosperous Peacock Islands in this era.

That is the opportunity for Sirius to truly rise to become the overlord of sea power.

As for Ai Wen's class at the Naval Academy, the professor believed that after two hundred years of continuous development, the Southern Continent had been fully developed and matured.

It has indeed been developed, but it is based on the current scientific technology and medical level.

When the drugs in Ivan's hands are on the market one after another, perhaps this situation will be completely overturned.