The Persian Gulf is called the Persian Gulf by the Persians in the north and the Arabian Gulf by the Arabs in the south. It starts from the two river basins in the west and connects to the Arabian Sea through the Strait of Hormuz in the southeast.
There are more than a dozen large ships on the bay heading east to west. The dragon flags of the Ming Empire are hoisted on these dozens of large ships. People can tell at a glance that they are ships from the Ming Empire.
Under the highest dragon flag, there is a large flag embroidered with the word "李", fluttering in the wind and making a hunting sound.
The surname Li has been a popular surname since ancient times. Famous families and talented people have emerged in large numbers. Not only are there many famous families surnamed Li in the Ming Dynasty, but there are also many famous families surnamed Li in North Korea.
Therefore, when ordinary people see flags with the surname Li hanging on them, they will carefully identify the flags and see where the prominent family with the surname Li belongs.
If anyone who is familiar with the situation in the Ming Dynasty takes a closer look at this flag, they will immediately know that it is the flag of the Chaling Li family, the Li family where the current Ming Dynasty cabinet minister Li Dongyang is located.
When you see this flag, you should at least give it some face.
On the deck of the Chaling, Li Zhaofan was standing with his hands behind his hands, enjoying the view of the Persian Gulf in front of him.
Compared with the beautiful scenery we have seen along the way, the scenery here is really ordinary. A hot breath comes with the sea breeze. When I pick up the telescope and look around, I can see the desolate scenery on the land.
To be honest, Li Zhaofan really regretted it.
When he made a hasty decision to develop colonies overseas, East Africa had already been divided up in various ways. After much deliberation, he chose the Persian Gulf and planned to open a colony for the Li family here.
Originally, he had heard about the situation in the Persian Gulf. Except for the two river basins in the west, which are relatively rich, most of the other places in the Persian Gulf are very barren desert lands. There are only a few nomadic tribes in the desert oases.
Life here, other than that, is extremely barren and has no value at all.
If it was valuable, it would be Li Zhaofan's turn. Those vassal kings and large colonial trading houses had already occupied this place.
The Mesopotamia River Basin is indeed very good, but it is controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The neighboring Persian Empire is also eyeing this treasure land.
What can the Li family do to fight for this land?
In the end, we could only choose some relatively acceptable places in other desert areas to establish a colony.
"I should have gone to West Africa. At least the natural conditions there would be better."
Li Zhaofan regretted it endlessly, but he no longer regretted eating it.
He gathered all the financial and material resources of the Li family, and used Li Dongyang's connections to finally build the colonial fleet in front of him.
There were more than a dozen large ships, all of which were filled with the Li family and some fellow villagers recruited from Chaling area, Huguang's hometown. Everyone followed Li Zhaofan here with unlimited expectations of a better life.
There are more than 20,000 people in total. Along the way, eating, drinking and sleeping, plus purchasing weapons and equipment, construction materials, renting boats, etc. have already spent all the money of the Li family, and even returned
A lot of it is owed.
Among these dozens of large ships, there are five that truly belong to the Li family. The others are rented and the rent is owed. It is because of the face of Mr. Li Dongyang and Li Ge that everyone is willing to help the Li family.
Of course, the Li family has also opened many textile factories in the Beijing-Tianjin area and their hometown in Huguang over the years, and has earned a lot of money. Otherwise, there is no way to support the team of 20,000 people traveling thousands of miles to come to the Persian Gulf.
To be able to get here means that all the savings of the Li family have been spent and all the contacts and resources available have been used.
Even if he regrets it, it is already too late now. No matter how desolate this place is, he, Li Zhaofan, still needs to take root here.
"I really don't know what's good about this place. It's too late to regret it now."
Next to Li Zhaofan, Li Zhaofan's younger brother Li Zhaochun was looking around with a telescope and shaking his head.
Li Zhaofan and Li Zhaochun are biological brothers, both were born to Li Dongyang's fourth brother Li Dongming, but Li Zhaofan was adopted to Li Dongyang.
"It's meaningless to say all this now. It's better to study where to start first."
Li Zhaofan took out a map, studied it carefully, and then said to the people around him: "Where is the Persian guide~"
Soon, a Persian came to Li Zhaofan.
"Besides the Mesopotamia and Mesopotamia, what other places in the Persian Gulf are better?"
Li Zhaofan looked at the Persian guide beside him and asked.
"Sir, there is actually nothing valuable in this Persian Gulf, except of course the two river basins, but these two river basins have always been coveted by the Ottoman Empire and our Persian Empire. With your strength, Sir
, not enough to win the Mesopotamia."
"Except for the Mesopotamia and Mesopotamia, there are only a few oasis areas that are pretty good, and the best of them should be the Qatar Peninsula."
"There is a lot of arable land here on the Qatar Peninsula. At the same time, the pearl farming industry and fishery here are pretty good. It is also considered one of the few places worthy of colonization by you Ming people."
Parr looked at Li Zhaofan and Li Zhaochun in front of him and replied in fluent Ming dialect.
Pal was a Persian sailor who traveled around with Persian merchants and spoke many languages. He was hired by Li Zhaofan as a guide on the island of Ceylon and accompanied him to the Persian Gulf.
A large number of vassals and colonies in the Ming Empire flourished all over the Indian Ocean, so Pal also knew that the Ming people liked to seize colonies overseas.
Once you occupy a colony, you can become the king of the land and become the emperor of the country overseas.
"Peninsula of Qatar?"
Li Zhaofan looked at where Pal was pointing.
“Pearls and fisheries?”
"Pearls are a good way to make a fortune. As for fishing, you won't even have enough to eat."
When Li Zhaochun heard this, he couldn't help but shake his head.
The value of a colony mainly depends on its output.
For example, the island of Ceylon is rich in gems, so the Western United Trading Company has a monopoly on the overseas gem business; Myanmar is rich in jade, and the Zhang brothers who occupied Myanmar monopolized the jade business in Myanmar; large gold mines and a large number of diamonds were discovered in South Africa.
The Associated Commercial Bank of South Africa also made huge profits as a result.
Minerals such as gems, jade, gold, silver, copper, etc. are resources that can provide huge returns to colonial activities in a short period of time.
In addition, there is a large amount of fertile land and a large population. Tianzhu is the best example. The land is fertile, there is a lot of arable land, and the population is large. Not to mention other things, just growing food, cotton, sugar cane, spices, etc. every year.
The income is also considerable.
But here, there is nothing, only pearls and fisheries, and my intestines suddenly turned green with regret.
"It's good to have farmland, at least you won't be hungry in the future."
Li Zhaofan said helplessly, giving himself some comfort.
I didn’t do enough homework beforehand and knew too little about the situation here. Otherwise, it would really be better to go to West Africa. At least West Africa has a lot of fertile land and sufficient water resources. As long as you work hard, you can do it when the time comes.
A nice little kingdom has been established.
There is no regret medicine in the world, so we can only follow the instructions of our guide Pal and head towards the Qatar Peninsula.
Two days later, the fleet successfully arrived at the Qatar Peninsula.
After finding a place and anchoring the ship, Li Zhaofan led five thousand colonial troops to land on the Qatar Peninsula first.
Find a slightly higher hill and look up with a telescope.
What you see is a desolate desert, hot and dry. Only in a few places can you see a little bit of greenery and some farmland surrounding oases. At the same time, in the Bay Area, you can see some small ships shuttling between islands and reefs.
, engaged in pearl fishing or fishing.
The pearl farming and pearl mining industry in the Persian Gulf has a very ancient history. People here have been cultivating and collecting pearls a long time ago.
The Persian Gulf region has a unique climate. The weather here is hot and there are few freshwater rivers. Therefore, the seawater in the Persian Gulf evaporates a lot. The seawater here has high salinity and high water temperature. The adjacent Arabian Sea has low salinity, low density, and water surface.
high, so the surface water flows from the higher Arabian Sea into the Persian Gulf.
The bottom seawater flows from the Persian Gulf into the Arabian Sea, forming ocean currents that can drive nutrient circulation. In addition, the seawater here is not deep and there are many islands, so it is very suitable for the growth of corals and pearls. It is also extremely rich in
fishery resources.
There is an extremely ancient natural pearl collecting industry and pearl breeding industry here. The pearls produced are of very high quality and are very popular all over the world.
But it's obvious that the Li family is not satisfied with this place right now.
Although pearls are quite valuable, the output is not large, and there are many places where pearls are produced. Boni Island in Nanyang also produces pearls, and the output is not small.
If we only rely on pearls, it may be difficult to satisfy the Li family's appetite. It may be difficult to recover the huge amount of money invested.
But now that we have come, we can make peace with it. After all, it is still a piece of land. As long as it is occupied, it will be the Li family's colony from now on, land that can be passed down from generation to generation.
"From today on, this place will be renamed Chaling, and it belongs to the colony of our Chaling Li family!"
Li Zhaofan took a deep breath. Since he didn't regret taking the medicine, he could settle down here with peace of mind. He announced loudly to the colonial army behind him.
Immediately, the five thousand colonial army began to move quickly, attacking many tribes on the Qatar Peninsula.
The many tribes on the Qatar Peninsula were divided among themselves because of the pearl fishing industry. They were no match for the Li family's colonial army, which was armed to the teeth. They took over the entire Qatar Peninsula with almost no effort.
