The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, the good news this time was not just a pair, but three happy arrivals - Tara's messenger, not only brought back the good news of obtaining the sisal seeds, but also brought back the good news that Marin's fleet sent to Savannah had already Good news for a foothold in Tybee Island. It is said that the local Indians are relatively friendly to them.

At the beginning of the year, Marin sent five ships to find and occupy the Savannah area. According to Marin's instructions, the leader of the fleet, led by Kovok, quickly arrived in America. After Amerigo Island was replenished with fresh water and food, Kovock continued to lead the fleet south to find the fabled Savannah and Tybee Island at the mouth of the Savannah River.

After two or three months of searching, they finally found Tybee Island in the mouth of the Savannah River in May. Then, Korwalk carefully built a dock and built a house on the small island of Taibee in the estuary...

Because Tybee Island is separated from the land, there are no Indians here. Therefore, after a period of operation, a small dock base was built here.

However, Marin had once instructed - not to build permanent structures on Tybee Island. Therefore, the buildings on Taibei Island have no stone buildings, only wooden temporary buildings.

The reason for this is that Marin intends to start building the city directly at the location of the later Savannah City. After all, the location of Savannah City is an excellent deep-water inland port and convenient for navigation. In addition, Taibe Island is on the seaside, and it is easy to be seen by adventurers from other countries.

The Americas are so big, Marin doesn't believe that other countries are not interested. Moreover, this era is the era of Italian navigators. Whether it is Columbus or Amerigo, or John Capote, who served for Henry VII and is now imprisoned on Cape Breton Island, they are all famous navigators produced in Italy. Columbus was the discoverer of America, while Amerigo and John Capote were both Italian navigators who went to America to explore. Therefore, in this era, there are too many Italian navigators who like to explore the New World.

Marin was worried that the base by the sea was discovered by unknown Italian navigators. If they were discovered, they would land again and take a look, and the true situation of America would be exposed.

So, Marin's instructions were to abandon this temporary stronghold on Tybee Island as soon as it gained a firm foothold in Savannah. Moreover, all houses should be demolished and taken away without leaving any traces, so as to avoid being discovered by savage navigators passing by the local coast...

Marin's concerns are very reasonable. For example, in Tara, Havana, Cuba, after sending people to Mexico to trade sisal seeds, they sent ships back to Europe to report the good news. When the ship passed the coast near Savannah, it saw the temporary port on Tybee Island at a glance...

Then, Tara's ship docked for supplies and helped Korwalk bring the good news back to the mainland...

...

After Marin got the sisal seeds,

I took a look - it's sisal seeds, yes, the classic triangular shape of black melon seeds. The leaves of sisal itself are shaped like a sword, and even the seeds are angular. The unit where Marin worked in his previous life was right next to a botanical garden. Sometimes after lunch, Marin will go for a walk in the botanical garden to digest food, and watch all kinds of wonderful plants by the way. For example, this sisal, Marin saw the girl in the botanical garden planted it. At that time, Marin was still talking to the girl in the botanical garden for a while, and watched the girl plant the black triangle-shaped sisal seeds into the medium. After planting sisal, the girl told Marin with a smile - I'm married...

Marin was injured that time, but he also remembered the shape of sisal seeds by the way - black triangle...

So, the sisal seeds that Tara sent to Mexico this time were fine. Since there is nothing wrong, the next step is to promote planting.

As for the location of planting, Marin has long thought about it - Cuba...

In a previous life, Marin remembered that the Philippines was an important sisal producing area in the world, and also cultivated the famous Canterlot sisal. Cuba and the Philippines have the same latitude and climate, and are naturally suitable for sisal cultivation.

However, Marin remembers that sisal seems to be intolerant of waterlogging, that is, water immersion, so although sisal likes heat and humidity, it cannot be grown in low-lying areas. Therefore, half of the sisal is planted on high ground in the tropics to avoid the sisal from being soaked in stagnant water.

Although the terrain in Cuba is flat, there are also many hilly areas. Marin's plan is to grow crops such as sugar cane and rice on the flat land. As for the hills, sisal and tea are grown.

In addition to the area of ​​Havana occupied by Tara, Marin planned to send people to grow sisal in the Moa area controlled by Wiltz. Because, near the Moa region is a rare mountainous area in Cuba, and there are more slopes there. Although the mining of nickel sulfide in laterite nickel ore has caused some pollution there, Marin has already moved the nickel sulfide processing site to Great Inagua Island, and the local pollution is not too serious now. Besides, sisal is a used item, not a food, and does not require such high health requirements.

Marin is now in desperate need of large quantities of sisal to make rope for steering wheels, as well as processing super-strength large-area sails (for gaff sails). Therefore, the cultivation of sisal is urgent.

It's just that Marin remembered the content of the chat with the married girl in his previous life. The girl said that after sisal is planted, it will take 2 to 2.5 years to grow, and there are about 90 to 100 sword leaves before it can be cut. Moreover, to select dry weather for harvesting, half of the sword leaves must be kept every time...

In other words, even if you plant sisal now, it will take more than two years to harvest...

"It's so depressing... It's going to take so long... So, let's just make do with the flax rope now..." Marin said with a bit of frustration.

Fortunately, Da Vinci came up with a way to replace the part that is easily corroded by seawater with a rope made of copper wire drawn from naval copper, so that the corrosion problem of seawater on the flax rope can be solved. Otherwise, every time you sail, you need to save a lot of rope for replacement.

Of course, even if this problem is solved, the durability of flax rope is certainly far less than that of sisal. Therefore, every time you sail, you still have to prepare a lot of spare linen ropes. Moreover, the naval shelling has to break a lot of flax ropes every time...

In his reply to Tara, Marin ordered to quickly open up sisal plantations on a large scale, planting as many seeds as there are. As for the sisal seeds, Malinte told Tara to exchange locally produced cane sugar with the Mexicans for more sisal seeds. Of course, it seems that you can also exchange sisal fibers with them...

Thinking of this, Marin got excited and emphasized in the letter that he must send someone to Mexico to buy the sisal leaves of sisal, and it is okay to buy them together with the sisal seeds. After getting the sword leaves, Marin will send some old craftsmen who make ropes to Cuba to extract the fibers from the sword leaves and weave them into sisal ropes. Such high-strength ropes, Marin intends to provide limited use of the steering wheel system. After all, in the process of sailing, the steering wheel cannot easily go wrong, otherwise the ship will not turn well, and it will be miserable when it encounters a reef...

After writing the reply, Marin urged the messenger sent by Tara:

"Come back to Cuba with this reply and these sisal seeds! Tell Tara to plant these seeds as soon as possible! The sooner the better!" Cuba is tropical and can be planted and harvested all year round, regardless of the seasons of spring and autumn ...