unclear

Chapter 780 Nicobar Islands 2
The former Zhunian Kingdom was located in the southern part of the Indian Peninsula. Why did Hong Tao know about it? Because he had had many dealings with this country when he traveled through the Song Dynasty, or in other words, he bullied it a lot with his strong ships and powerful guns.

The military strength of the Zhunian Kingdom was not very strong, but it had a very strong skill, the navy! In the heyday of the Zhunian Kingdom, its maritime territory was very large, reaching the Maldives in the south and occupying part of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula in the east. The Nicobar Islands and the Andaman Islands were the naval bases of the Zhunian Kingdom at that time.

Yes, that's right, it's a naval base. Hong Tao led the fleet on this trip just for this word. There is a deep-water port on the Nicobar Islands. As long as it is occupied, it is equivalent to controlling the gate of the Strait of Malacca. Entry and exit must be approved by him.

What? Singapore and Malacca Port... No, no, no, in the future, the reason why the United States stationed a fleet in Singapore was not because of its particularly good geographical location, but because it could not find a better place. It wanted to build a naval base on the Nicobar Islands, but India did not allow it.

Although Malacca Port seems to be located at the narrowest throat of the Strait of Malacca, it is not suitable as a fleet base. First, the port area is too small, and second, the strategic depth is too small. Once blocked by the enemy at both ends, it will become a turtle in a jar.

The best ports to guard the Strait of Malacca are the Nicobar Islands and the Andaman Islands. You don't have to occupy them all. Just pick one to build a port and a shipyard, arrange a fleet to garrison, and then add a suitable number of artillery and troops, and the entire strait will be yours. Who doesn't want to pay the toll?

In addition to being a robber and collecting tolls, the naval base in the Nicobar Islands can also deter many surrounding countries. Siam in the north, Sumatra in the east, and the Indian Peninsula in the west are all within the attack range.

Why didn't the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch occupy such a good location? Did they not think of it, and was Hong Papi the smartest?
The answer must be no. There is no shortage of smart people, but there are too few people who are smart, capable, and clever. This is why the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch are called colonizers rather than pioneers.

They did not have the strength to build a new city or a new country from scratch. They were too far away from the main base and lacked manpower. They could only conquer existing countries and forces and then enslave the locals for plunder.

Hong Tao is different. He is the emperor of the Ming Empire, with a huge country and population behind him. As long as the navy can reach and has the ability to deliver, it can be built from scratch.

However, this time he was only here to explore the route and mark the correct route on the nautical chart. The construction of the naval base would be handed over to the Naval General Staff for planning. He also had to rush back to govern the country and had no time to be a contractor.

The expedition fleet took a total of 3000 days to cover the -kilometer sea route, which was a bit slow overall. But we did our best. We didn’t have a ready-made sea chart and couldn’t plan the route in advance. It was easier during the day, but we didn’t dare to go full speed at night. Sometimes when we reached an area with many islands, we had to stop and rest at night.

"This should be it! Rodri, send a team of 100 men to the island to scout. Don't go too far and return within a day."

After circling the Nicobar Islands twice, Hong Tao finally found a harbor on the east side of the Nicobar Island that was suitable for the fleet base. It looked like it should be a deserted place, but to be on the safe side, he still had to send the Marines to search.

"Notify ships 7 and 8 to transfer the cargo to other cargo ships and then return. Go over and remind them in person that before I return to Da Nang, no one on these two ships is allowed to leave the base, and they are not allowed to discuss the details of the voyage with outsiders. Remember, everyone!"

The Marine Corps was sent out, and the fleet could not be idle. There were a total of 3 Qin-class warships and 8 Guangzhou-class armed cargo ships accompanying the expedition fleet. Two of them were used as supply ships, and they did not need to complete the journey and could return home.

"Commander, aren't we here to build a port on the island?" What Huang Nanping wanted to know most these days was what the emperor was going to do. The construction of the port was no longer a secret. Every day, the craftsmen on the armed cargo ships were summoned to the flagship, together with Rodry, to discuss with the emperor how to build the port and fortress as quickly as possible. Not only drawing pictures, but also making sand tables, anyone who was not deaf or blind could hear and see it.

It was originally thought that a port was to be built on this island, which the emperor called Little Nicobar. To be honest, the emperor had a sharp eye. Just counting the number of ships going east and west in the strait, one could tell that it was a place of strategic importance.

But after guessing for a long time, even the naval staff and the captains of each ship seemed to have guessed wrong again. None of the craftsmen had left the ship to explore, and there was no intention of unloading the construction materials. Instead, they were replenishing supplies. Judging from the quantity, the next journey was not short.

"It's not that I don't want to inform you in advance, but you don't know the route either. What's the point of knowing it? Be prepared. The next voyage will be very difficult and dangerous.

Open your eyes and ears and learn well. I will only teach you once. Next time you come, you can only follow the sea chart. Whether you can see your family safely or not depends on a single thought. "

In fact, there was no need to hide the secret from the senior military officers at this point, but Hong Tao was too lazy to explain to them where the Cape of Good Hope was, why they had to go there, what the equatorial doldrums were, what the Indian Ocean storms were, and where the other side of Africa was.

It's no use talking about these problems in advance. Only when they are really immersed in them, every word you explain will be firmly engraved in their hearts and they will never forget it for the rest of their lives.

I don’t know if the Indian Ocean was more tolerant of new guests, but two days later when the fleet continued to sail and turned southwest, not only was the sky clear, but there was also a moderate tailwind, which greatly relieved the naval officers and soldiers who were originally a little nervous.

"Commander, the Indian Ocean doesn't seem to be as terrible as you say. It's not even as rough as the Sea of ​​Japan."

The first to challenge Hong Tao was the navigator on Han 001. This young man from the Haihu Division was only 22 years old, but he had been a navigator for 7 years, which was not the longest, but was still very long.

The more years he served, the more ports he visited, and the more time he spent at sea, the more he flirted with everyone. Not only did he compete with the emperor in the speed of using a sextant, he also complained after winning.

This can't be entirely blamed on the young man's complacency, mainly because Hong Tao himself is not used to always carrying the aura of a superior. He took off all his clothes more than a day's sail away from Nicobar.

He put on a pair of big shorts, a big wicker hat, and a cigar. He sat on a strange foldable chair with a backrest, used canned whale meat as bait, and a finger-thick hemp rope as fishing line, and threw it into the sea to fish for fun.

Apart from giving a navigation lesson in the morning, he suddenly stopped preparing for war and making emergency turns, without any dignity of an emperor. If even the leader behaves like this, it would be strange if the subordinates could get nervous.

(End of this chapter)