At the beginning, Li Su had a shortage of available manpower, so he migrated a group of Hu people from the northern grasslands, and formed an army of young and strong among them, becoming a sharp sword in his hands.

These migrated Hu people were originally only 170,000 people, but after nearly ten years of fertility and reproduction, the total population of the grassland people on Ezo Island has reached 350,000, including the Hu people who later migrated over, and the most are a large number of children, especially after Li Su implemented sinicization among the Hu people, he strengthened the medical conditions on the island, which made the birth rate of the grassland people increase greatly, coupled with sufficient food, so the population has a peak area of growth.

It's just that the increase in population has also overwhelmed the land of Ezo Island, especially since some children have gradually grown up, but there is no more grassland for them to graze, this situation has attracted Li Su's attention, and he even considered increasing the number of grassland people's army to reduce the population pressure on Ezo Island.

However, when Li Su arrived in Australia, he found that although Australia's agriculture was developing well, animal husbandry was inevitably a little backward, which made him think that if the grassland people of Ezo Island were moved here, it would not only eliminate the pressure caused by the increase in population on the island, but also raise Australia's animal husbandry to a higher level, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

Tang Yizhi and Li Ke also praised Li Su's idea after hearing this, but they were worried that if too many grassland people migrated, it would cause Australia's grassland people to become more powerful in the future. This is not conducive to the rule of the Qi Palace.

For this, Li Su felt that it was not a big problem. Now those grassland people have passed the sinicization, especially those grassland youths who have just grown up in the past ten years. They are far more loyal to themselves than to their tribes, and there will be no problem if they move these reliable people and then strengthen their rule over them.

After careful consideration of this, Tang Yizhi also agreed with Li Su's opinion, so he was preparing to recruit local natives at the same time, but also preparing to accept grassland immigrants, and he was busy for a while.

As for Li Su and Li Ke, they left South Australia three days later. Because the outbreak of smallpox among the indigenous tribes has become more and more serious, the death toll has skyrocketed. Nanao City also reacted immediately, and nearly 20,000 natives in the city were also urgently relocated to an island outside the port, and then after selection, they began to be vaccinated with cowpox in batches.

In addition, through these natives, Tang Yizhi also released information about recruiting natives, and also announced the two major benefits of the natives after they were converted, which made most of the natives very excited, especially those who were deeply afflicted by smallpox. Regardless of the harm of smallpox, they sent people to contact the Han people one after another, striving to get rid of the pain of the disease as soon as possible.

However, not all natives will be recruited, and in fact, Tang Yizhi did not plan to recruit too many natives. First, he was also wary of the local natives, and secondly, he did not have the power to control too many natives, so in the first batch. He only recruited a few tribes that were usually friendly to the Han Chinese, and they were also numerous. There are only more than 50,000 people, which is enough for his needs at this stage.

South Australia City was the last stop on their trip to Australia. Originally, they planned to stay in Nanao for a while, but unfortunately because of this sudden smallpox, they had to leave early, but when passing by Rainbow Harbor, Li Su and they stayed here for a while, after all, this place is far away from the smallpox epidemic area, and Qinghe and Gao Yang and other women also like the lobsters and manatees here very much, and they want to eat enough to go back.

However, in addition to tasting the food, Li Su also turned around the Rainbow Harbor, and also went out by boat, visited the nearby Great Barrier Reef, and even found a shallow place to swim in the water, which was really comfortable, until the end of the reluctance to leave the Rainbow Harbor, and at the same time there was some regret in their hearts, because of the relationship of time, they could not see the wonder of the sea outside the Rainbow Harbor becoming colorful.

Then Li Su returned the same way, and did not stop again until Mo Li City, at this time it had been nearly two months since they first arrived in Mo Li City, and the steel plant was also under construction, so Li Su went to the steel factory to check it out, and by the way, he comforted the workers who came with him at the beginning.

However, just when Li Su and the others were about to return home, they received a message, and Li Su, who saw the news, sighed, thinking that the sentence "Misfortune is not a single line" is really reasonable.

It turned out that just a few months ago, there was an epidemic of smallpox in the Americas, and it was more serious than that of Australia, the first area where smallpox appeared was the city of Mansa where Luvan and they first arrived, thousands of people in the city had the most contact with the Han people, God knows which Han people had the smallpox virus on their bodies, and the result broke out all of a sudden, although the Han doctors in the port of Luvin next tried their best to treat them, but by the time the letter was sent, more than half of the Mayans in Mansa City had died of illness.

In addition, what is even more terrifying is that smallpox began to spread to the surrounding areas around Mansa City, and the speed of transmission was extremely fast, and half a month later, smallpox patients also appeared in Maya cities hundreds of miles away from Mansa City.

Moreover, the Maya, like the Australian natives, obviously did not have any resistance to smallpox. People who have just got sick first have a high fever that does not go away, then headache, sore throat and sore limbs, and then begin to have symptoms such as swinging, vomiting, diarrhea, etc., and after two or three days, they will have a rash all over the body, and finally it will cause complications such as sepsis, most people will die under complications, only a very small number of people who are born with strong resistance may survive, and the symptoms disappear after more than a month, but even if they are cured, the patient's face will leave large and small pockmarks, and a few people will lose their sight because of this, which can be said to be very terrible.

The immune system of the Maya body has no memory of the smallpox virus at all, so their body is simply an unguarded delicious meal for smallpox, as long as one person has symptoms of smallpox, then the vast majority of people around will also be infected, and the Maya have no experience with this large-scale plague, and they do not know how to prevent the spread of smallpox, so this has led to the spread of smallpox throughout Central and South America in less than a month.

What's worse is that the political and economic center of the Maya, that is, the Yucatan Peninsula, was also attacked by the menacing smallpox, in this relatively densely populated area, the spread of smallpox increased exponentially, the Maya wailed under the ravages of illness, the number of deaths has been incalculable, all the Han people in the Americas only know that the Mayan civilization is rapidly disappearing, the land is full of dead Maya corpses, and one city after another has become a ghost town without people.

Although Li Su, who received the news, did not see the tragic situation in the Americas with his own eyes, he could imagine that just like the smallpox virus brought by the Spaniards when they invaded the Americas in later generations, the relatively fragile immune system of the native people in the Americas could not withstand this kind of test at all, and it was reasonable for this situation to occur.

And Li Yu also knew that this smallpox was just the beginning, and the Maya located in Central America connected the two major Americas, so the smallpox virus would definitely spread to North and South America with this as the center, and this situation could last for many years, and countless American natives would die because of it, and the number could be millions or tens of millions. Considering the one-third mortality rate from smallpox, I am afraid that the final death toll is definitely much higher than the plague on the island of Java.

Speaking of this year, it is really peculiar, first the outbreak of smallpox in Australia, followed by the Americas, it can be said that this year can be called the "year of smallpox".

Moreover, the outbreak of smallpox on these two continents is different from the plague in Java, which is confined to a single island, and although the mortality rate is higher than that of smallpox, it is not very harmful. And to some extent, the plague was man-made. In addition, the Javanese riots came first, and if the plague could eliminate most of the natives, it would be beneficial and harmless to Li Su.

However, the smallpox in the Americas is completely uncontrollable, and it can even be said to be a natural disaster, and the area of these two continents is vast, and the local natives are also a resource that can be used for Li Su, especially now that the Han population in his hands is insufficient, these natives are more important, but unfortunately the smallpox that has broken out in these two places has undoubtedly caused a great loss of this resource, and may even slow down the pace of Li Su's overseas development.

In addition, the news of the outbreak of smallpox in the Americas also disrupted Li Ke's plan to personally visit the three places, and he originally planned to go to the Americas immediately after going to Australia. His trip to Australia was interrupted by smallpox, but he barely understood Australia, but the Americas had not yet started, but he was interrupted by the outbreak of smallpox. This made Li Ke very depressed, and he was also wondering if he was in conflict with smallpox, otherwise why would he let himself be involved in all this kind of thing?

It is precisely because of this that Li Ke had to change his itinerary, and after returning to Taiwan from Australia, he went to Ceylon by boat, and then went to visit Li Zhen and Li Yun's two younger brothers, and finally took a boat to Africa to investigate the local situation. But this time he was the only one who went, and Yang and his children were waiting for him in Taiwan, after all, Africa is not like Australia, and there is still a certain risk to go there.

However, Li Ke didn't expect that his trip to Africa did not go according to the original plan at all, but there was a small accident halfway, and it was this expectation that made Li Ke achieve a legend of his own! (To be continued......)