The Rise of the European Emperor

On the coast of Mozambique in southeastern Africa, at the mouth of the Save River, a group of strong white men are building a castle shirtless. They are the Spanish colonists who were fooled by Marin.

Since he was crippled by Marin in Rome the previous year, Ferdinand II was not at ease after returning to his country, so he sent a fleet to go to the coast of Mozambique in southeastern Africa to scout out according to Marin's instructions.

As a result, the Spaniards found Arab traders active on the coast of Mozambique. Seeing this, the Spanish fleet sent translators who knew Arabic, deliberately approached the Arab merchants, and peeked at their goods... Sure enough, the Spaniards discovered that the Arabs were here to exchange gold...

These Arab merchants are mainly from the emirate of Oman, which is good at sailing. The commodities they bring are common materials such as cloth and glass, as well as some iron tools (mainly weapons such as swords). But what they brought back were expensive materials such as golden sand, ivory, and copper mines...

Gold is one of the most stable metals and does not easily oxidize. Therefore, in the gold mines of nature, there is a lot of natural gold. Among them, the most natural gold is Jinsha, and dog head gold...

Although the ancient Zimbabwe Empire was considered a powerful civilization in southern Africa, they were still in the Stone Age and did not understand metallurgy. Therefore, although the local gold is produced, it is only the sands obtained from the gold ore. As for copper mines, there are many locals, but Zimbabweans do not know how to smelt, so they directly trade copper mines with Arab merchants. Ivory is the best solution. The living elephants dare not offend them. The dead elephants are always easy to deal with, right? Find an elephant cemetery and break the ivory off the dead elephant carcass...

After learning that Arab merchants had indeed traded a lot of gold, ivory and copper from the Zimbabwe Empire, the Spanish colonists were excited to report back to Ferdinand II.

This time, Ferdinand II completely believed Marin's judgment. Of course, Marin did not lie. So, according to the agreement signed with Portugal, Ferdinand II publicly announced that the land between the Limpopo River and the Zambezi River in southeastern Africa belongs to Spain.

Then, Ferdinand II organized thousands of colonists to board ships and set out for the mouth of the Save River between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers. Because the upper reaches of the Save River is very close to the Stone Town of Great Zimbabwe that Marin said. Moreover, the ships sent by Spain did indeed find the ships of Arab merchants at the mouth of the Save River.

But unfortunately, the first expedition failed...

Why? Because the first Spanish expeditionary force was ravaged by tropical diseases. Well, to be more specific, there is malaria in the military...

Then, more than a thousand soldiers of the Spanish Expeditionary Force fell directly in half. The other half were also apprehensive.

at the same time,

For the Spaniards who came to steal business, the Arab merchants from Oman hated them very much. As a result, Arab merchants gathered and hired many black tribes on the coast of Mozambique... More than 2,000 people, including Arab sailors and black tribe warriors, launched an attack on the demoralized Spanish colonists...

Under normal circumstances, the Spanish colonists would not be able to defeat their opponents, but at least they would not be defeated. why? Because the Spaniards had a lot of arquebuses, and the Spanish phalanx learned from Marin. Under normal circumstances, it is certain to be able to defeat the opponent's more than 2,000 miscellaneous troops.

It is a pity that the Spaniards lost the will to fight because of malaria. As a result, the originally superior Spanish colonial army was defeated, and only a small number of people fled back to the ship in embarrassment. Most of the bodies were left on the shore. Moreover, most of those corpses were directly roasted and eaten by some black uncles who like to eat people...

The news came back to Spain, and Ferdinand II was furious. However, he also knew that malaria was rampant in the tropics. So, he thought of a good way - to let the soldiers who had not died after contracting mild malaria form a new colonial army to go to the mouth of the Save River in Mozambique and establish a new colony again. Moreover, in order to defend against the enemy, Ferdinand II ordered the construction of a military fortress directly at the mouth of the Save River to resist the attacks of Arab pirates and local natives. The name of this coastal castle is Ferdinand Castle...

Malaria is one of the terminal diseases in this era. Although the mortality rate is high, it is not 100% fatal. There are also a very small number of people, because of their mild illness and good physical fitness, they survived directly, and then they have antibodies in their bodies. Sending such people to colonize Africa is indeed a good idea.

It's just that in the huge Spain, people who did not die after contracting malaria, after over and over again, only found 800 young adults. Most of these young men were people who survived after colonizing Hispaniola (Haiti) with Columbus.

Although there were few people, Ferdinand II reckoned that as long as there was enough ammunition and building a castle first, it would be enough. Moreover, the sparse Spanish phalanx composed of 800 people should be enough to bully those African blacks. Because, according to the last intelligence, the weapons of Africans are basically stone tools. Only those Arab sailors used iron machetes. But in front of the mighty Marin phalanx (Spanish phalanx), no matter how good the swordsmanship of the Arab sailors is, they will be blasted into slag by the Mushkert arquebus...

As for those black uncles, as long as the Spaniards are in good condition, there is no negotiation with them. It is said that during the last war, some black soldiers heard the gunshots and were so frightened that they dropped their weapons and fled...

The second Spanish expedition to the coast of Mozambique included more than 2,000 slaves in addition to the 800 soldiers who were not afraid of malaria. These slaves were all captured from Granada, Spain.

Since the conquest of the last kingdom of Allah on the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, the Kingdom of Granada, as devout Christians, Ferdinand II and Isabella I, to the Allah of Granada persecuted. The Inquisition they established was full of Allah followers and Jews. This time, in order to build a castle at the mouth of the Save River, Ferdinand II specially ordered that more than 2,000 Granadas of the religion of Allah were proposed from the Inquisition to be responsible for building the castle. As for the 800 fighters with malaria antibodies, they oversaw the construction of castles by the Granadas while guarding against attacks by Arab merchants and black tribes.

In this way, the castle was built day by day. During this period, Arab merchants also organized several sneak attacks, and local black tribes also launched several attacks.

However, after the lessons learned last time, the Spaniards were very vigilant, and even brought a lot of dogs to night watch and sentry.

It stands to reason that the night attack of black people is very scary. Because, as long as they don't wear clothes (and most black people in this era really don't wear clothes), you can only see their eyes light up.

It's just that the Spaniards actually brought a lot of dogs to watch the night. Therefore, several night raids by the local black tribe failed because they were seen through by dogs. Although the Spaniards can't see the black people hiding in the dark, the guns are fired wherever the dog bites...

With the basic completion of the castle, especially the completion of the outer wall and the city gate, now, neither Arabs nor blacks can pose a threat to the small castle at the mouth of the Save River, Ferdinand Castle. The next step for the Spaniards is to rely on the castle to clean up the nearby black villages. Then, travel up the Save River until you find Stone Town, the capital of the gold-rich Great Zimbabwe Empire...