With a muffled sound of "bang", a sailboat leaned on the pier, and as the captain's cable was thrown to the shore, Li Shaojie and others on the boat jumped off the boat one after another.

This time, the four sailing ships of the Atlantic Fleet escorted the transport fleet of the Far East, and after many days of sailing, they finally arrived at the port of Hua Rong in South Africa, which is the Cape Town of modern society.

The people of the South African Garrison Command and the responsible persons of the Far East Company's working group in South Africa rushed to the dock to greet Li Shaojie and his party.

The captains of four other battleships of the Atlantic Fleet were also in the welcoming crowd. They are the most senior captains of the Admiralty of the Far East Company, and they have experienced several voyages and are very experienced.

Most of the crews of the fleet were pirates from the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty, and they had been floating on the sea all their lives, and after joining the Far East Company, they were all like fish in water, and many of them stood out in the Admiralty of the Far East Company.

The best people to mix are He Wu, who was in Manila back then, and Liu Shouyou, who was under Zheng Zhilong, both of whom are currently captains of the latest sailing ships of the Far East Admiralty, and their futures are limitless.

In addition to the eight sailing ships and the naval officers and sailors on board, the Atlantic Exploration Fleet is also accompanied by three battalions of daredevils

A number of combat logistical support detachments.

They are all carefully selected non-commissioned officers from various units of the Samurai Army, and have participated in almost all the battles of the Far Eastern Army, including the most difficult battle of the Indochina Peninsula, and have rich combat experience and the ability to survive in tropical jungles.

Li Shaojie summoned the captains of the ships of the fleet, as well as the chief general of the death army, to hold the first meeting of the Atlantic Fleet since its establishment in Huarong Port.

The fleet's recent missions have been deployed. The fleet will set sail next spring, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Brazil on the American continent. They would rest and resupply in the Portuguese colony before waiting for an opportunity to attack the Dutch stronghold entrenched in northeastern Brazil.

Then try to find a few places to stay there. Then gradually build a base and actively prepare for the future occupation of this area by the company.

Because next year, the company will launch two relatively large battles at the same time, namely the Western Advance Corps of the Northwest Field Army to attack the Kazakh Khanate, and the Samurai Army of the Southern Field Army to attack Persia.

In order to launch these two large-scale battles, the company has been preparing for a full year. No way, the scale of these two battles is too large. The number of officers and soldiers who participated in the war alone reached hundreds of thousands.

In particular, the westward advance corps of the Northwest Field Army started from the front line in the area east of Lake Balkhash in the outer northwest region. The front was thousands of kilometers long, posing extremely serious challenges to the logistical supply of the Far East.

Therefore, in order to ensure the smooth implementation of the campaign, the Military Commission postponed these two campaigns for a year, mobilized a large number of maritime forces and countless wagons in the Far East, and only then could it be regarded as transporting the materials needed for the campaign to the front line.

But it also consumed a lot of resources of the Far Eastern Company, and in the past two years, the company has not been able to invest most of its resources in the American continent. That's why the Atlantic Exploration Fleet was formed, which rushed to several important areas in the northeast of Brazil in the Americas to establish military colonies.

After all, the complete occupation of the Asian region is of even greater significance to the Far Eastern Company. Once the Northwest Field Army's Western Advance Corps and the Samurai Army joined forces in Persia and Afghanistan, the Far East Company basically completed its strategic task of completely occupying Asia.

Occupying the rich Persian region and the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, the problem of supply difficulties in the Great Northwest and Outer Northwest will also be solved, and it can be said that it will not be a problem at all in the future.

As for the American continent. Far Eastern companies are really not in a hurry, after all, this era. The Western colonizers did not develop the Americas on a large scale, and there was plenty of time.

The task of the Atlantic Fleet was to cooperate with the Portuguese colonizers in expelling the Dutch from the northeastern region of Brazil. And to establish a full-fledged military base there, and to lay a few nails in the northeastern coastal region of Brazil before the arrival of the company's main fleet.

Brazil is located in the southeastern part of South America. It is bordered by French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela and Colombia to the north and Peru and Bolivia to the west. It is bordered by Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The coastline is more than 7,400 kilometers long, with a territorial sea width of 12 nautical miles and an exclusive economic zone of 188 nautical miles outside the territorial zone. 80% of the country is in the tropics, with the southernmost part having a subtropical climate.

Brazil is a country rich in mineral resources. Many important minerals are in the forefront of the world, mainly including petroleum, iron ore, manganese ore, niobium-tantalum ore, nickel ore, tin ore, zinc ore, lithium ore, bauxite, graphite, kaolin, talc, vermiculite, magnesite, etc., and there are about 50 kinds of minerals with proven reserves.

Among them, the remaining proven recoverable reserves of oil are 1.67 billion tons. Iron ore resources are very abundant, with proven reserves of 16 billion tons, ranking fifth in the world. The proven reserves of manganese ore resources are 132 million tons, ranking fourth in the world. The proven reserves of bauxite resources are 2.70 billion tons, accounting for 8.4% of the world's bauxite resources, ranking third in the world.

Another important task of the fleet is to identify several coal fields for the company in the southwestern region of Brazil.

Although Brazil is rich in mineral resources, the quality of coal resources is very poor, with low carbon content and high ash content, which is not conducive to development and utilization. But for the steam units on the current Far Eastern sailing ships, it is basically enough, and it is better than nothing.

Brazil is blessed with abundant agricultural resources, such as land, biological and water resources. In modern society, Brazil ranks first in the world in the production of coffee, cane sugar and citrus, followed by cocoa and soybeans and corn in third place. This shows that Brazil's agricultural production has great potential, and some experts even believe that Brazil will be the "world's breadbasket in the 21st century".

After the Far Eastern Company completely occupied Asia, it would implement the colonial global plan, and the American continent was the top priority of the Far Eastern Company's colonial global plan. In the future, the Far East Army will drive out all the Western colonists in the Americas, and make the American continent the largest overseas colony of the Far East Company.

The temporary cooperation between the company and Portugal is only a stopgap measure, temporarily taking advantage of Portugal's maritime power in the Atlantic. Portugal will also be driven out of the Americas in the future.

The American continent is God's gift to Westerners, the mining industry in North America is large-scale, mainly mining coal, crude oil, natural gas, iron, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, sulfur, etc., and tin, manganese, chromium, drilling, bauxite, diamond, saltpeter, antimony, quintal, vanadium and natural rubber and other important strategic raw materials.

The Central Plains of North America is one of the world's famous agricultural regions, with corn, wheat, rice, cotton, soybeans and tobacco as the main crops, and its soybean, corn and wheat production occupies an important position in the world's agriculture.

The coastal fishing grounds of North America account for about 20% of the world's coastal fisheries, with the marginal sea areas of the west and eastern Canada as the main fishing grounds, rich in salmon, plaice, cod, mackerel, eel, herring, sardines, flounder, salmon and other fish and oysters, and whales in the eastern marginal waters of Canada. The northern coast is home to walruses, seals and polar bears.

South America is cocoa, sunflower, pineapple. Origin of cultivated plants such as potato, cassava, Brazilian rubber tree, tobacco, cinchona, corn, tomato, yerba mate, chili pepper, etc.

Countries such as Argentina in the southeast export large quantities of meat and grain. The total number of cattle and sheep occupies an important position in the world. Anchovy, sardines, eels, sea bass, tuna, etc. are abundant along the coast, and Peru and Chile are world-famous fishing countries. (To be continued.) )