The Li family has occupied this place for almost half a month. The entire relocated Li family, from Li Zhaofan and Li Zhaochun to the ordinary Li family members, are very busy.
Build ports and docks that can berth ships, build a place to live, explore the geography of Chaling, and find out everything here so that you can carry out colonial activities.
"Brother, the original tribes in the area have expressed their willingness to submit to our Li family, but these Arabs must be dissatisfied. It is not easy to make them truly surrender to our Li family."
"We suddenly occupied this place with force and killed many of their people. They must have a grudge against us."
"And they regard us as heretics and are cursing us to go to hell. There will definitely be many troubles in the future."
Li Zhaochun came to Li Zhaofan's room, drank some water, and felt extremely comfortable.
The weather here is hot and fresh water is very scarce. It is absolutely comfortable to have a sip of sweet fresh water.
"It doesn't matter if we hold grudges. As long as we have swords in our hands, I don't believe there are people who are not afraid of death."
"Now we still need to use them to help us build ports and cities. When we stabilize, a large number of immigrants will come from our Ming Dynasty. Then we will find a way to sweep them out."
Li Zhaofan smiled and didn't care about these things.
There are not many locals here. There are less than 30,000 locals on the entire peninsula. They are also divided into different tribes. They used to be enemies of each other and competed for pearl fishing, arable land, and fresh water resources.
Kill each other.
Li Zhaofan didn't take them seriously at all. What he really cared about was the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire.
The Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire are the behemoths in this place that can really threaten the Li family Chaling Mausoleum. Of course, behind the Li family is the Ming Empire. If they touch the Li family, they have to consider whether they will suffer retaliation from the Ming Empire.
"What do the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire say?"
Thinking of this, Li Zhaofan also asked.
"Neither the Ottoman Empire nor the Persian Empire has made any statements yet, but they have always not cared about the area we occupy, and they will probably acquiesce to our colonial activities here."
Li Zhaochun replied.
"Ryo and the others don't dare to do anything to us."
Li Zhaofan nodded slightly and said confidently.
The powerful deterrent power of the Ming Empire is no joke.
The Persian Gulf is not far from Nanyun Province and Hezhong Province of the Ming Empire. The Ming Empire has troops stationed here. If necessary, the Ming Empire's army can fight all the way to the Persian Gulf at any time.
In the Red Sea in the south, the Ming Empire also had a Red Navy. The warships of the Red Navy not only patrolled the Red Sea, but also often patrolled the Persian Gulf, and they could also provide support.
In addition, in the Aegean Sea of the Mediterranean, the Ming Empire also has colonies and a Mediterranean fleet stationed there, which can fight all the way from the west.
To the east, the entire Tianzhu was divided up by the vassal states and colonies of the Ming Dynasty. As long as the Li family spoke, they would be happy to help.
This is the reason why Li Zhaofan was confident, because he had a powerful Ming Empire behind him. Therefore, as soon as he occupied this place, he immediately sent people to notify the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire, announcing to them the Li family's colony here.
"I have basically figured out the situation here."
"There is not much arable land here, but there is enough arable land for our Li family to live. We don't have to worry about food, and we can also buy it from Tianzhu."
"The only thing we need to worry about is fresh water. There is really too little water here. There are 20,000 of us here, and the population will definitely continue to grow in the future. If the water problem is not solved, it will be difficult for us to develop.
"
Li Zhaochun took the map and began to talk in detail.
"According to what we have obtained from the locals, fresh water is mainly obtained from springs in the oasis, and the amount is very limited. In addition, they also obtain fresh water from the sea."
"Sea water gets fresh water?"
When Li Zhaofan heard this, he immediately asked in surprise.
"Yes, it does get fresh water from the sea."
"There is a very peculiar phenomenon in the Persian Gulf, which is the phenomenon of sea within a sea. The seawater from the Arabian Sea wraps up a large amount of fresh water emerging from the bottom of the Persian Gulf. The local people can get some fresh water from the sea by taking boats and using bamboo poles.
"
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it."
Li Zhaochun nodded and said: "It is precisely because of the intersection of salt and fresh water that the pearls, corals, and fishery resources here are very rich."
"As for pearls, there are a large number of natural mother oysters in our Chaling and surrounding islands and reefs. There are several types. The quality of the pearls produced is very high. There are two collecting seasons every year. In the future, we
If the Li family wants to gain profits from the colony, the pearl mining industry must be monopolized in our hands."
"In this way, we can rely on our monopoly advantage to control quantity, raise prices, and obtain greater profits, just like Nanyang United Trading Company and the Zhang Brothers."
Li Zhaofan listened carefully. Now the Li family was extremely poor and owed a lot of debt. They urgently needed resources that could bring a steady stream of wealth to the Li family.
Pearls seem to be the only thing here that can hope to bring wealth to the Li family.
"However, the scale of pearl collecting here is limited, and the quantity collected each time is not large. Moreover, pearl collecting is also very dangerous. Someone will die every time during the pearl fishing season."
"Our Li family wants to monopolize the pearl trade here. On the one hand, we want to control the source. Next, we want to annex the Bahrain Islands to the west and monopolize all pearl sources."
"The second aspect is to find ways to increase the production of pearls. It is best to try to see if artificial cultivation can be carried out. The price of natural pearls is high, but the output is too small, not much in a year."
Li Zhaochun shook his head as he spoke.
Even if there are resources like pearls, the output is too low, and it is still difficult for the Li family to satisfy their huge appetite.
"Let's try to see if we can breed them artificially first."
Li Zhaofan nodded slightly. To be honest, he didn't really expect this pearl. The output was too low, and there were many pearl-producing places around the world.
Nanyang, Japan, Australia, and Ceylon Island all have natural pearl production. In addition, Hepu County in Guangxi Province during the Ming Dynasty has a long history of pearl cultivation.
Before the Ming Dynasty had large-scale overseas colonization, pearls were relatively valuable. At that time, both princes and nobles, wealthy gentry, and landowners all liked pearl jewelry.
It is relatively expensive to make hairpins, necklaces, bracelets, etc. out of pearls. Pearls are even one of the important tributes. All the vassal countries in the four directions offered pearls as tribute to the Emperor of Heaven.
However, since the Ming Dynasty expanded and traded overseas, a large amount of pearls began to pour into the Ming Dynasty. Although they are still very popular, the price has dropped a lot.
In general, although this pearl is also a project to make a fortune, it does not satisfy Li Zhaofan's appetite.
"Have there been any gold or silver mines found here?"
Li Zhaofan thought for a while and asked.
"No, if there were gold or silver mines here, they would have been exhausted long ago."
"This Persian Gulf is different from the Golden Continent. It has a very long history, which is no different from the history of our Ming Dynasty. Many powerful empires were born here in history, such as the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Arab Empire, etc."
Li Zhaochun shook his head slightly. Can the gold and silver mines here be mined by his own Li family?
I'm overthinking it. If it existed, it would have been discovered and dug up long ago.
"Oh, I really chose the wrong place."
"If you want water but don't have water, and if you want arable land but don't have arable land, it's a desert, and it doesn't even have any resources."
Li Zhaofan sighed, he really had no choice now.
"If I had known earlier, it would be better to go to West Africa. I heard that the colonies built by the Koreans and Japanese in West Africa are very fertile, and everything they plant grows well."
"I have also heard that at this time, Africa was very big, with a lot of land and resources. However, if you go a little deeper into the inland areas, there are many kinds of diseases, and many people died in Africa."
"Although this place is not good in all aspects, it is also our Li family's colony now. We should try our best to find ways to solve many problems first."
Li Zhaochun also nodded. He has already reached this point, so what can he do if he is envious?
The main reason is that the Li family acted too late.
If you had followed Liu Jin, Zhang Mao and others to establish colonies in the sea in the early years, you would not have had all the good places in the world to choose from.
"It's good that our Li family can occupy this place now. If it takes a few more years, there will be even less space. There are too many people going out to sea to grab colonies."
"That's true~"
"You said that there is a shortage of water here, but there is a lot of sea water. When I was on the boat, I saw the distiller for sea water desalination. You said that we can find a way to desalinate sea water into fresh water on a large scale."
"If this can be achieved, then you don't have to worry about running out of water in the future. There is still a lot of sea water."
“Desalination of sea water into fresh water?”
"I'm afraid this won't work, but it's hard to say. It can be studied and researched."
"Well, one of the things we want to do now is to monopolize the pearl trade here, and the other is to see if we can do the slave trade. The profit of the slave trade is extremely high. The people here are all white and they are very popular with us. If
If this business can be done, the money will come much faster."
"It's not that easy to get involved in the slave trading business. Ningguo and the big merchant houses have almost divided it."
"That's true. Everything is difficult. We came out too late."