However, the difficulty of trying to invade the Portuguese this time is completely different from the last time. The last time I sent guns and cannons to the Kingdom of Malacca was an unintentional mistake. If Marin directly sent someone to warn the Kingdom of Malacca and the Portuguese knew about it, it would be a breakup.

If there was a land showdown, Marin would be confident to beat two Portugals. But at sea, Marin could not fight against Portugal yet. After all, he had been voyage for decades since Prince Enrique. The entire Portugal became a sailing country. Marin now has limited warships, so he still could not fight against Portugal at sea.

Although Marin's main fleet's gun caliber is larger. Although it is small in number, its combat effectiveness is very strong. However, Marin's warships have a huge disadvantage, which is that they are seriously lacking gunpowder and cannot be released to fire. If the shelling is released, the reserves of the Beihai Kingdom's gunpowder will not last long. The reason for the shortage of gunpowder is mainly caused by the shortage of saltpeter.

Originally, Indian saltpeter is a good source. But the problem is that now that the world has just entered the artillery era, the production capacity of Indian saltpeter has not yet expanded due to strong demand, and it only produces hundreds of tons of saltpeter per year on average. What's more, these 100 tons of saltpeter are not for Marin's family. Because of the promotion of gunboats, Spain and Portugal are now purchasing a large amount of saltpeter in India. Even Turkey sometimes purchases some saltpeter in India. Therefore, it is good that Marin can get a share of 20 tons of saltpeter in India every year.

What can 20 tons of saltpeter do? 20 tons of saltpeter can produce about 26.7 tons of gunpowder, equivalent to 58,000 pounds. Marin's 500-ton warship's one-sided cannon consumes dozens of pounds of gunpowder in one round of volleys. The Beihai Kingdom currently has 20 warships, and one round of volleys is more than one thousand pounds of gunpowder... 58,000 pounds of gunpowder, which is only the consumption of dozens of volleys of volleys of Marin's fleet...

Therefore, even if Marin developed advanced warships and artillery, he did not dare to rogue. Because there was really not enough gunpowder. Think about the later British Empire, in order to maintain maritime hegemony, the British King often bought saltpeter from the British East India Company, which controlled India, for hundreds of tons at a time. Otherwise, Britain would not be able to maintain the huge demand for the Royal Navy gunpowder at all.

In addition to the shortage of gunpowder, Marin is actually short of warships now. Although the level 250 armed merchant ships are also equipped with artillery, they are too cost-effective. Because the side side of those armed merchant ships is not thickened and cannot withstand the shelling of enemy ships. Therefore, if you want to fight naval battles, you have to rely on professional warships.

Marin currently does not lack shipbuilders, nor does he lacks wood for shipbuilding. What he lacks is only materials such as tung oil and paint for sea-making ships. Of course, there is also sisal that has not been harvested. Although the seeds of tung and sumac have been ordered to be planted in Savannah, sisal has been planted in Cuba for a long time. However, it will take several years to wait until harvest.

Therefore, Marin planned to go to the Ming Dynasty this time to buy tung oil for shipbuilding (Europeans mainly used dry oil such as linseed oil to apply waterproofing, which is extremely expensive), raw paint and copper nails and other materials necessary to make sea ships. Just pull one or two ships back to China, you can explode dozens of warships. At least, this saves time than the rebuilding of tung and sapphire trees in the American colonies in a few years.

...

Before the Beihai Navy could beat Portugal, Marin did not want to publicly offend Portugal. So, this time he did not intend to send people directly to remind the Kingdom of Malacca, but instead planned to circle around to remind the people of Malacca...

The specific approach is - Marin plans to send a boat to India and secretly find the prince who has a grudge against the Portuguese. Then, using their mouths to use them to warn the people of Malacca...

Even, Marin did not intend to use the name of the North Sea Kingdom, but to use the name of the Venetians...

The Venetians were originally hostile to the Portuguese, and disguised as Venetians, and it was difficult for the Portuguese to verify. Even if someone in the Kingdom of Malacca leaked the news, the final result was that the Venetians instructed a prince of India to remind the Kingdom of Malacca... Both families are enemies, and it is reasonable to find fault for Portugal... With their relationship with Portugal, even if they were not done by them, they would smile and admit that they did it themselves. In this way, they would anger the enemy Portugal to death and at the same time strengthen their own momentum...

...

Before leaving, Marin finally made up his mind to develop the saltpeter mine in Chile. Previously, Marin sent merchants from the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt had already purchased a batch of slaves and camels there.

These slaves were all Bedouin prisoners of war captured by Egyptian Mamluk cavalry on the Arabian Peninsula, and were very adapted to the tropical desert climate. Not to mention camels, desert boats...

Marin planned to send all the Egyptian slaves and camels bought to Iquique, a coastal city in the desert in northern Chile. Of course, there is no city there yet. However, Marin had a night rumor in his previous life that "the remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom participated in the Saltpeter War" and remembered its coordinates. Therefore, now Marin only needs his subordinates to find this place according to the coordinates and then build a port.

Then, when the Bedouin and Egyptian camels who adapted to the desert climate arrived, they could use Iquik as the starting point to find saltpeter in the desert.

However, the northern desert of Chile is the driest desert in the world. Sending people over will also help them solve the problem of freshwater supply.

Originally, Marin planned to send a fleet to the water area to fill fresh water and then send oak barrels filled with fresh water to Iquique. If the method of high-temperature steaming and rapid mud sealing is used, it can meet the standard of the original can and will not be damaged for at least a few months.

However, the labor cost is too high, so we have to divide a boat into tamsui...

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! Thinking of the seawater desalination project in later generations, Marin suddenly came up with a wonderful idea...

...

What is this idea? Marin's idea is to use the sun stove to transform a very economical desalination system...

The principle of this system is very simple - first use tin to make dozens or even hundreds of sun stoves, and then use these sun stoves to boil sea water on the beach in Iquik...

At the same time, the above of the black-bottomed iron pot is made of white iron sheet, and the steam boiled sea water is passed into the pool to cool down...

After the pool cools down, the water vapor in the white iron pipe condenses into water droplets, and is finally exported, and then encapsulated. Of course, the canned packaging method of a large pot is used to ensure that the fresh water does not break for several months. Finally, the camel is carried to the mining area in the desert...

...

The most deficient thing in the northern desert of Chile is sunshine, which has not rained for hundreds of years. Using a sun stove there is absolutely powerful. Without using a sun stove to steam sea water, you can continuously obtain fresh water through vaporization and condensation. If dozens or even hundreds of sun stoves start at the same time, it is effortless to process hundreds of barrels of fresh water a day.

Perhaps, boiling seawater with a sun stove in other areas may encounter cloudy days, resulting in the inability to produce fresh water smoothly. However, the desert in northern Chile is the driest area in the world that has not rained for hundreds of years. It is absolutely suitable to boil seawater with a sun stove there.
Chapter completed!