Farewell to Luzon, Zhu Cijiu led the joint fleet to continue to go west. The next stop will be Ceylon, covered with rubber trees. Manila is about 8,000 miles away from Ceylon. At the current speed of the fleet, it will take about seven days to sail. Of course, before that, they have to pass through a very important place, which is the Strait of Malacca.

The Strait of Malacca is a key point connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It was extremely prosperous in later generations. There were no more than a thousand ships passing through it every day. However, it is still desolate now. The great powers seem to have not discovered the importance of this place yet, and have never fought for it.

The current Strait of Malacca is nominally owned by Portugal. The Portuguese Governor in Goa sent troops to defeat a small indigenous kingdom called Malacca in the middle of the Strait more than a hundred years ago, and stationed a squad of 100 people in the local area. Therefore, this place is temporarily considered a stronghold in Portugal, and a small stronghold like this Portugal has developed more than a dozen in the Nanyang region.

Malacca is still just a fishing village-sized stronghold, and there is nothing good to look at, so Zhu Cijiu did not arrange to stay here during his itinerary, but Zhu Cijiu still checked it carefully with a telescope when passing the strait.

It is indeed the key to the throat. The narrowest place is less than a hundred miles. As long as you build a bastion and a turret on both sides of the strait, and then send a fleet to stalk in the middle. With the current naval strength of the great powers, it will be impossible to break through. Zhu Cijiong decided that you must get this place!

He pretended to randomly ask Schvira on the side, saying, "Is it suitable for planting rubber trees here? Why not plant rubber saplings here?"

Upon hearing this, Schvira said awkwardly: "Your Majesty, you don't know. The natives here are so annoying. They always like to attack. The rubber saplings will probably be destroyed by them in a few days after planting them. Moreover, the Dutch seem to have taken a fancy to this place and may send troops to attack. It is too unsafe, so Weichen did not arrange for anyone to plant rubber trees here."

When Zhu Cijiu heard this, his eyes turned and pretended to be upset: "This Dutchman is too arrogant. They are obviously robbed by you who occupied it first!"

Schvira said helplessly: "Oh, there is no way. They have many ships and their navy is stronger than Spain. Now Portugal cannot compete with them."

Zhu Cijiu pretended to be disdainful and said, "Hmph, there are many ships, can I have many ships in the Ming Dynasty? When I come back from the continent this time, I will send a fleet to station here to see if the Dutch dares to come and rob them."

Schvira was overjoyed when she heard this, "Thank you, the emperor. Kong Dede was really worthless because of this headache. This stronghold was really worthless. If it weren't for the convenience of going to and from the Ming Dynasty, Kong Dede would have withdrawn this stronghold long ago. It would be better if the emperor was willing to send troops to garrison. After all, we don't have many soldiers under our command, and these hundred people are a considerable force. It would be too wasteful to garrison here every day. It would be better to go to Mysore to help guard the territory."

Zhu Cijiu couldn't help but laugh in his heart, it was worthless? For Portugal, it might be really worthless now, but it would be different for the Ming Dynasty. If troops were sent to defend this, the navy of the great powers would have to circle most of the earth to reach the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty. This place was simply too valuable to the Ming Dynasty!

Of course, he could not be too impatient. This was not good for Schvelake to see the clues. He pretended not to care and said, "Then let it be, wait until I come back from the continent."

Zhu Cijing was in a bad mood. In the next few days, he even took Qin Mingyue to close the door and learn Spanish from Princess Anna. Of course, I don’t know if I am really studying. The Buddha said: You can’t speak, you can’t speak.

After passing the Strait of Malacca, Ceylon is not far away. After the joint fleet continued to sail for about three days, Ceylon Island was already in sight.

Ceylon is the largest island in the southern end of the South Asian subcontinent. Since the Three Kingdoms period, two indigenous kingdoms have appeared on the island. These two indigenous kingdoms have fought each other for more than a thousand years, and were finally conquered by Portuguese adventurers more than a hundred years ago.

This place is less than three thousand miles away from Goa, so it is naturally the jurisdiction of the Governor of Goa in Portugal. However, due to the limited military force, Portugal has never occupied the entire territory of Ceylon. It is just a small number of troops stationed here. Strictly speaking, this place can only be regarded as a stronghold in Portugal and cannot be regarded as a colony in Portugal.

Of course, this situation has completely changed since the arrival of the Second Legion of the Ming Expeditionary Force. The Second Legion of the Expeditionary Force is a regular legion of the Ming Dynasty. The indigenous armed forces are naturally vulnerable in front of them. Now the entire Ceylon Island has been completely occupied by the Second Legion of the Ming Expeditionary Force. Of course, in name, it is still the territory of the allied Portugal.

When Qin Yiming heard that the emperor was coming to inspect Ceylon, he naturally started preparing early. Not only did he let his soldiers clean up, but he even escorted all the rubber forests to the natives to clean up. He was the elder brother of the queen Qin Mingyue, and it didn't matter if he lost his face. If his sister was criticized for this, it would be a big trouble. His aunt Qin Liangyu had to peel off his skin.

Another 100,000 troops lined up to greet him. The sound of shouting long live on the mountain was also deafening. The European embassy did not show much surprise this time because they were all numb. They already believed that the rumor that the Ming Dynasty had more than two million troops, which was definitely true!

Zhu Cijing naturally would not show off in front of his elder brother-in-law. He just arranged for the Wanjin Yiwei to take the shore to take charge of the alert, so he took Qin Mingyue and Princess Anna to get off the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Cijing now has a lot of experience in boosting morale, so he naturally has some encouragement to the soldiers of the Second Army of the Imperial Guard. After the encouragement and reward, Qin Mingyue pulled Qin Yiming while talking. Seeing that the brother and sister seemed to have endless things to say, Zhu Cijing simply pulled Princess Anna and led Schvira and others to walk towards the rubber forest not far away.

This rubber tree has been planted for almost three years, and now it has grown taller than adults. Zhu Cijing looked at the beautifully growing rubber tree and asked enthusiastically: "When can these trees harvest rubber?"

This is his money tree, and Schvira is naturally very familiar with it. He replied without hesitation: "Return to the emperor, according to the Indians invited by Weichen, these trees will be able to start harvesting raw rubber in three years."

In three years, I am afraid I will not be able to catch up with the laying of the Ming Dynasty's telegraph network. Now the telegraph lines leading to the prefectures are almost finished. At most two years to the county towns, it should be almost done. But it doesn't matter. After the Ming Dynasty, there are also vassal states and colonies. Even if the great powers pay money, they can help them lay the telegraph network. A single business is the most profitable. According to the current speed of technological development, they have to understand that the principle of electromagnetics is impossible for decades, and by then the Ming Dynasty will have made a lot of money.

Besides, this rubber is not only used as cable insulation layer, but also has great uses. With the gradual application of the Ming Dynasty's military and civilian technology, it will surely reach a new level!
Chapter completed!