Australia, the world's largest ore exporter in the future, is also the world's fourth agricultural exporter. Especially in the animal husbandry industry, it is extremely developed. Among them, the world's first wool production. If it can occupy it here, it will be the world's largest.

, So for Li Yan, especially the wool textile industry in his hands, it is undoubtedly a huge driving force.

Compared with the far away North and South America, Australia is undoubtedly closer to the Tang Dynasty. And from Taiwan Island, it is full of archipelagos. As long as you don’t lose your direction, even if you touch one island by one, you will definitely reach Australia in the end.

When Li Yan heard Yanbei sending people to explore the route, he thought that Lu Wan and the others might arrive in Australia, but when he really saw the Australia marked on the fleet chart, he couldn't help but be excited

extremely.

"Australia? Isn't Australia your son?" Yan Bei asked in confusion when he heard Li Yan's question to Lu Wan. It was a big deal for Li Yan to have a son. As his friend and old subordinate, Yan Bei naturally sent him there.

A big gift, and he also knew Li Qi very well, even knew Li Qi's nickname.

"Tsk~ Australia is not only my son's nickname, but also the name of a continent. Although the area of ​​that continent is not as good as the continent we are in, it is almost the same as that of our Tang Dynasty.

Jinzhou and Borneo in the South China Sea can't compare with Australia together!" Li Yan said with contempt.

When Li Yan first named Li Qi's nickname as Australia, he naturally had his plans. He even considered naming all his sons born in the future after place names, such as Nanyang, North America, South America, etc. These will be the backup for Li Yan's son

Name. Of course, this is also Li Yan's lazy approach. At least he will no longer have to worry about naming a name in the future. In addition, he also has a deeper meaning. However, only he knows this meaning.

"Your Highness is indeed knowledgeable. He had known this continent for a long time. When we discovered it, because its area was too large and our fleet had reached its limit, we only walked along its coastline for a while and did not come at all.

After walking the entire journey, I didn't expect that Your Highness had known it, and there was another name called Australia. I will mark its name!" At this time, Lu Wan was also very surprised and finally he missed the opportunity.

Give the name Australia.

Li Yan was also very happy about this. At the same time, he drank a few more drinks and began to talk to Lu Wan about the animals, plants and humanistic customs in Australia. Although Li Yan had never been to Australia in later generations, he had in all aspects.

He has enough knowledge of Australia, even those who have been to Australia in person are not as good as those of Lu Wan.

Originally, Li Yan had already surprised Lu Wan and the others when he knew Australia, but what they didn't expect was that the King of Qi, who was famous for his intelligence and knowledge, was far more knowledgeable than they thought, and was even more unique to Australia.

All animals know very well, such as animals with bags on their bodies, as well as animals named Gray Crane by Lu Wan, and also the lobsters they caught in the coral reefs in the east of Australia, etc.

Especially when talking about the big lobster, Li Yan drooled without any image, and regretted that this lobster could not be transported for a long distance, at least it is not possible yet. If you want to eat it, you can only go to Australia, but unfortunately he

I am afraid that I will never run to such a faraway place in Australia in recent years.

Li Yan took the initiative to talk about the various styles in Australia. This made Lu Wan and the others feel like they found a close friend. After all, for Australia. Apart from the people in their fleet, only Li Yan could have a great conversation with them.

.And they also learned a lot from Li Yan that they didn't know about Australia. For example, there are many deserts above Australia, most of which are not suitable for people to live in. Only in coastal areas are more suitable for farming, especially when they almost do.

The east-west coastal areas we arrived in are the essence of Australia. They are not only suitable for farming, but also very suitable for grazing. However, there are no sheep there. If the sheep from the Central Plains are brought with them, the yield of wool alone will be extremely amazing.

With Australia as a topic, Lu Wan and the others slowly let go and talked about all the experiences they encountered along the way. Because their main purpose was to capture slaves, they saw them along the way.

The locals paid special attention. From their mouths, Li Yan, Yan Bei and others also learned about an overseas world with different styles, which was a great reward.

In addition, Li Yan was also very excited about the copper and gold mines discovered by Lu Wan and others in Australia. Australia can not only be used as an agricultural product base, but also a mineral base that Li Yan has included. The iron, coal, gold and other minerals there are very many.

Rich, it was the world's largest mineral exporter in later generations. In addition, Australia also has a huge bauxite reserve. Unfortunately, there is no electricity now, and there is no way to extract aluminum by electrolysis, so it is not available for the time being, so it can only be kept.

For future generations.

It is precisely because of this that Li Yan's mind has long ruled Australia under his own rule. However, if you want to rule Australia, there are still two difficulties to solve. The first is the transportation problem. Australia is not close to Taiwan.

If you take a boat, it will take at least more than a month. However, this problem is not impossible to solve. Now Yifan’s steamship has been put into practical use. As long as you set up a few supply points along the way, you can open up the route from Taiwan to Australia.

You can travel between the two places quickly.

However, after solving the problem of transportation links between the two places, there is another problem of population. If you want to rule Australia, you cannot do without a sufficient population base. Of course, this population refers to the Han people, and the native Australians are the ones.

If we rely solely on natural immigration, it would be difficult to establish a sufficient population base within a hundred years, but now it is different with gold mines. As long as the news is announced, Li Yan will be released again

Formulating some policies to encourage gold digging will surely attract many people to go to gold digging. Once the number of people is larger, the city will be gradually established. San Francisco in later generations is a good example.

Li Yan was excited when he thought about the next development of Australia, but he also knew that Australia was a little far from Taiwan, so even if he wanted to develop, he had to do it step by step and never rush it. In addition, there is Nanyang

Jinzhou, Borneo and other places are closer to Taiwan, and the island's products are also very rich. Unfortunately, they are still in the hands of natives, and their focus will be shifted to these Nanyang islands.

As for Australia, it can only be used as a secondary target.

After the reception banquet, Li Yan arranged for Lu Wan and the others to take a rest. The new route they explored also began to be publicized through newspapers. However, in order to obtain detailed information on this new route, the slave hunting association needs to pay an information fee.

After all, they have paid a considerable price to explore this route. In addition, people from non-slave hunting associations are not allowed to engage in slave hunting activities after entering this route, otherwise once discovered, they will be severely punished.

In addition, Li Yan did not hide the discovery about Australia from the general public. Although he will not use Australia as the focus of development for the time being, he will not prevent the free development of the people. Therefore, the news about Australia was also released together.

In addition, news of gold and gems in Australia were also spread to stimulate the people's yearning for Australia.

In fact, for the marine merchants of the Tang Dynasty, Lu Wan and his greatest contribution was not to discover Australia, but to discover the spice archipelago that produces various spices. Spices are extremely in short supply, both in the East and the West.

For example, incense was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, and the West even regarded spices as a must-have for cooking. Now Lu Wan and his friends have explored this route. The islands passed along the way are rich in various spices, which is for the merchants.

In other words, it is undoubtedly opening up a huge treasure house.

It is also because of this that when Lu Wan and his friends came back, the sea merchants who received the news immediately gathered from all directions to Taiwan, then paid the fee to the slave hunting association, and after getting the detailed chart, they immediately organized the fleet to go south.

, I hope to be ahead of other merchants and acquire spices that are still very cheap on the archipelago.

However, not everyone wants to make money honestly by doing maritime trade. For example, a considerable number of people have focused on Australia, where there is an unknown gold mine and a copper mine that has not yet been determined.

No matter which of these two precious metals are, they are very valuable. As long as they can make a part of the profits from them, it will be quite amazing.

It was precisely with this idea that many people came into contact with the slave hunting association, hoping to get the location of the gold and copper mines, but this matter was not something that Yanbei could do, because he had already put these two mines in it.

The ownership of the two mines is handed over to Li Yan, and Li Yan needs to give 20% of the income from these two mines to the association as compensation.

Regarding the gold and copper mines found by Lu Wan and the others, Li Yan looked at the place they marked and found that it was in the area of ​​Darwin in later generations. If he remembered correctly, Darwin seemed to have started to develop through the gold mines.

So the gold reserves there must be quite a small amount. It is precisely because of this that he put some effort into the development of that gold mine.

For those who applied to mine gold and copper mines, Li Yan decided to adopt an official and private cooperation method. Li Yan agreed to these people to mine, but half of the gold mined must be paid to the official, and the remaining half belongs to the

Personally, of course, Li Yan would set up a settlement there and send officials to monitor the matter.

Gold digging is a profit-making industry, so although Li Yan’s request to hand over half of the income seems to be a bit heavy, it is still acceptable for gold diggers, so they quickly reached an agreement with the official and then took advantage of it.
Chapter completed!