Marin began to change his mind and prepared to buy land from the east coast of South Africa, which is closer to Johannesburg, and then expand inland.

But after drawing on the picture with a pencil, he found that Johannesburg was indeed much closer to the east coast than to Cape Town. But the question is, how did he explain the land he purchased needs to cross the Drakens Mountains across eastern South Africa?

You should know that from the perspective of this agricultural era, the east coast of South Africa, east of the Drakens Mountains, is indeed a good place, with abundant rainfall and suitable for agriculture. However, what is the reason for crossing the Drakens Mountains? If such a requirement is not aroused the Portuguese's alertness and curiosity, it would be strange.

Marin wanted to be unaware of the gods and did not want to spend too much money, so he scratched his head. After all, he just sold cannons to the Ming Dynasty and did not admit that he taught the Ming Dynasty to cast cannons. If he spent money to buy such a big place, even if the Portuguese did not suspect that South Africa had gold, he would probably suspect that he really provided the art of casting cannons to the Ming Dynasty.

In a state of worries, Marin simply called Kohler, Schall and Schwartz's three most direct confidants to see if these three cobblers could get together.

After the three of them arrived, Marin pointed to the map and told the three of them that they wanted to buy this piece of land, but they were not in a hurry to develop it. The reason... My dead teacher Einstein, once passed by there and seemed to have discovered a "small" gold mine...

Now, I will take advantage of the "great opportunity" of offending Portugal to spend money to buy a piece of land including that piece of land. However, I cannot spend too much money, and the territory I bought should not be too large, so as not to let the Portuguese see the problem. Moreover, I will make the Portuguese feel that they have taken advantage of it...

With so many requests, the three of them suddenly went down...

It took them a while before they realized that this was the devil's difficulty...

They discussed for a long time, but they didn't even come up with a solution when it was dark.

Seeing that he had no idea, Schwartz stood up and came to the outline of Eurasia and Africa hanging on the wall. Looking at the outline of South Africa, Schwartz suddenly pointed to the line representing the Orange River and its tributary Fal River (Johannesburg is not far north of the Fal River) and asked:

"On the Lord, does this line represent a big river? The land you are going to buy is on the edge of the river?"

"Yes, it's a big river!" Marin nodded. The reason he remembered these two rivers was because they had a certain relationship with gold mines. In addition, there is another line on the map, the Limpopo River, which is also very close to Johannesburg. In other words, Johannesburg is very close to the upper reaches of the Fal River and the upper reaches of the Limpopo River, and belongs to the area adjacent to the two rivers.

Thinking of this, Marin suddenly stood up:

"Schwartz, I've figured out a solution!"

The solution is very simple - I don’t buy a large area of ​​land, so I keep a low profile, just buy a river and the land on both sides of the river. If I buy a river, I ask for a gift of land on both sides of the river. Isn’t it too much?

Afterwards, Marin hesitated for a long time between buying the Orange River or the Limpopo River. Logically speaking, the conditions of the Limpopo River are better, and the estuary is closer to Johannesburg. But the problem is that the exit of the Limpopo River is in Mozambique. Now, Spanish and Portugal colonists have begun to move along the coast of Mozambique. If you arrive at Johannesburg upstream along the Limpopo River, it is easy to expose gold mines. Even if gold is dug and exported from the Limpopo River to the sea, it is easy to be peeped, resulting in leaks.

However, going upstream along the Limpopo River is much closer than going upstream along the Orange River and the Farr River. Moreover, the natural conditions in the Limpopo River basin are much stronger than those of the Orange River. After all, the lower reaches of the Orange River are actually an ecological division line. The area south of the river is a place with good natural conditions and the climate is OK. The north of the river is a tropical desert area, which is very desolate. This river has long been the boundary line of the British Cape colony. It is too difficult to find gold mines from this river, and the conditions are relatively harsh. However, its advantage is that the price will definitely not be too high. After all, Portuguese ships can see the natural conditions at the mouth of the Orange River.

Marin was a little confused. In the end, he decided to leave this choice to the Portuguese. All he had to do was to give this multiple-choice question... Of course, he stated in advance - don't ask for the price too high, otherwise he wouldn't buy it...

In addition, Marin repeatedly emphasized that he did not send technical information on casting cannons to the Ming Dynasty (he just sent casting cannon craftsmen to guide him personally, which is not considered a lie), but only gave the finished product. In addition, the Ming Dynasty itself could cast cannons and had long been equipped with small cannons such as bowl guns. Therefore, it is not uncommon for people to have the ability to imitate. Moreover, he didn't know that Portugal was going to fight the Ming Dynasty, so you didn't say hello in advance...

...

When the news reached Lisbon, Manuel I and the Portuguese ministers were a little shocked. After thinking about it carefully, it was right. We did not inform the Beihai Kingdom in advance that we would use force against the Ming Kingdom...

As for whether there were artillery artillery in the Ming Dynasty before, I will tell you if I send someone to inquire, but I am not in a hurry to make a judgment.

However, Marin's multiple-choice question to buy one of these two rivers made Manuel I a little confused - what, is this apology and compensation? This can be done!

Then, the Portuguese monarch and ministers recruited several captains who often traveled to India and officials who had mingled along the coast of Mozambique to learn about the situation of the two rivers.

The experienced captain pointed out that this so-called "Orange River" (Marin did not change its name, but directly quoted the name of later generations) is worthy of its name. At first glance, it does look like an orange sand river. Moreover, this river seems to sometimes cut off in winter in the southern hemisphere. If you want to do agricultural planting in this river, when the dry season is broken, the crops will probably die. The only useful thing about this river is probably to grazing on the south bank and hunt some rhinos and elephants. Due to poor natural conditions, there are almost no indigenous people near the estuary of this river.

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! As for the Limpopo River, it is the land dividing line between Spain and Portugal in Southwest Africa. The natural conditions along the river are very good, and many black indigenous people live in, which is a good trade area. If the North Sea Kingdom gets it, the riverside area will be used for farming, which is a very good place...

The Portuguese monarch and ministers discussed for a few days, and finally agreed that the Limpopo River basin has many indigenous people and greater trade benefits. Moreover, selling them to the North Sea country, which is good at farming, may be used. Therefore, it is better to sell the Orange River, which has worse natural conditions to Marin. In addition, Marin is allowed to own land within a range of 30 gigabytes (equivalent to 90 miles or 144.8 kilometers) on both sides of the Orange River. As for the price, the Portuguese monarch and ministers offer 100,000 Ducat gold coins...

After receiving the Portuguese offer, Marin almost agreed immediately. After all, the 144.8 kilometers distance definitely included the Rand Gold Mine Area.

However, in order not to let the Portuguese see their happiness and excitement, Marin pretended to reply unhappily and wanted to cut the price to 50,000 gold coins.

Then, both sides bargained back and forth with letters, but they were pitiful to the messengers who passed the letters and the horses riding by the messengers. Especially the horses, several of them were exhausted...

In the end, the Portuguese monarch and minister agreed to Marin's bid of 50,000 gold coins. However, the price was that Marin ordered more than 100 Calavere sailboats from Portugal, regardless of the new or old, and the price was as follows...

The Portuguese are now happy and feel that they have made a lot of money. After all, more than 100 new and old Calaville sailboats, although the profits are added up by market price. If you earn hundreds of gold coins per boat, more than 100 will make tens of thousands of gold coins. Marin has given him a blood supply.

But they didn't know that the order for these more than 100 Calavere sailboats was planned by Marin long ago. This time it happened to be the right time and was used as a condition for negotiation...

Moreover, the most serious thing is that the Portuguese didn't know that the world's largest gold mining area, the Rand Gold Mining Area with a metal reserve of more than 50,000 tons, was sold by them at the price of 50,000 gold coins... Well, after all, Marin bought more than one ton of gold metal reserves with one gold coin...

"This fool spent so much money to buy a water-deficient river that would stop flowing!" This is the evaluation of the Portuguese monarch and minister at the banquet.
Chapter completed!