"Of course, Portugal has gained a foothold in these places, not only soldiers, but also officials, priests, merchants, craftsmen, and most importantly, crew members and sailors who have strayed over the ocean and connected this chain of strongholds into chains."

No matter when, you must unify your thinking before doing something big. Especially for the senior management in front of you, once there is a deviation in cognition, it will be difficult to form a joint force in execution. At this stage, the group is indeed too big and the fault tolerance space is too small, so Zhao Hao must explain his long-term layout to these people so that they can understand what the focus of their next efforts is.

Zhao Hao asked the secretary to send the meeting information and said: "According to the information we have collected before, there are about 50,000 or 60,000 Portuguese public officials overseas, and those equally important non-staff members who are used to maintain the operation of all overseas strongholds, and the total number must exceed 100,000."

"It's really a lot..." The senior executives whispered.

But when they looked through the conference materials and saw a brief introduction to the Portuguese stronghold, they listed more than ten pages, and they felt that this was a drop in the bucket.

"In fact, these 100,000 Portuguese act as managers and technicians, as well as necessary deterrent forces. Most of the troops and labor can only be employed by a large number of indigenous people to make up for the vacancies." Zhao Hao continued.

"So these 100,000 people are the minimum required to maintain the Portuguese Maritime Empire?" Jiang Xueying asked softly.

"This is hard to say." Zhao Hao said, looking at Pingto and said, "Portugal has only a population of hundreds of millions, and there are strong neighbors in the country. One hundred thousand adult men should be able to be sent overseas at home, not necessarily only 100,000 people. What do you think, Mr. Ping?"

"The commander-in-chief is right." Pingtu hurriedly wanted to get up, Zhao Hao raised his hand and pressed it softly. Then he sat down and sighed:

"The first sea empire in human history, listening to the scenery, but the price paid behind this has long exceeded the scope of Portugal's endurance. Going to the distant colonies, you have to venture on the dangerous sea. After you arrive, you have to endure the hot, humid, drought and unacceptable land and endless attacks from the natives..."

"I have served in Sao Tome, Goa, Malacca and Macau. Apart from Macau, the Portuguese mortality rate is very, very high. Every time the Governor and the Chief Executive send Lisbon, they always ask for additional personnel. And as the Commander-in-Chief said, maintaining a scale of 100,000 people is already the limit of Portugal."

After a pause, he defended his motherland: "There are few men in Portugal and the widows are crowded, which is an important reason why they cannot resist the Spanish invasion."

"Ahem." Seeing the generals showing excited eyes, Zhao Hao coughed lightly, preventing them from thinking about it: "So to really make this sea empire run healthy, the manpower needed may be doubled, or even several times."

"The current employees of the group are at least graduated from junior high school, and the management and technical personnel all have high school or secondary school diplomas. Under the scientific management system of the group, one should be more useful, right?" said President Jiang.

"That cannot be less than 100,000 people. In addition to quality, quantity is equally important." Zhao Hao said in a deep voice.

Everyone nodded, they were all managers, so they naturally knew that if there were fewer people, they wouldn't fart even loudly.

"Then the question is, how can we have so many people?" Jiang Xueying spread his hands and said: "The century-old immigrant is a bottomless pit. The cadres trained by the group itself and the graduates of the education group every year are not enough to fill this hole, so how can there be any man to sprinkle it out?"

"Grand immigration is the number one task that remains unchanged for a hundred years." Zhao Hao waved his hand and said, "As the number one destination for large immigration, Nanyang will be the focus of the group for at least 20 or 30 years. There is nothing to say."

As he said that, he smiled and said, "We can make Nanyang return to the king forever and become the paradise of life and people in China. The contributions of us are far beyond those emperors and generals in history books."

"Haha..." Everyone also laughed. They are now in high positions, gaining both fame and fortune, and the motivation to follow Zhao Hao to Malacca is mainly due to this unprecedented career.

"It's true that those ancient emperors competed for China at most, but we wanted to dominate the world." Tang Youde smiled meaningfully: "I think the young master may not be able to surpass Tang Zong Song Zu in the future."

"Go away, don't talk nonsense." Zhao Hao glanced at him, waved his hands at the people who were looking at him, and said, "We want to break out of the rut of emperors and generals, that is not suitable for our great cause."

Regardless of whether they understood it or not, Zhao Hao continued: "We have the ideal of dominating the world, but the earth is too big, and it takes two years to circle it. Time flies, life is short, and our generation will probably not see that day."

The conference room became very quiet. Everyone looked at Zhao Hao under the sunshine and listened to his slow sermon:

"A truly great cause cannot be accomplished by a generation. Our generation lays a solid foundation and paves the way for those who come later, and will be worthy of being upright." Zhao Hao said in a deep voice:

"Success does not have to be with me, success must be with me. Everyone encourages it."

"Let's remember." Everyone responded in unison.

"Go back to the point." Zhao Hao picked up the teacup and sipped: "I have thought carefully that Nanyang can squeeze out some people. First of all, after taking over the entire Nanyang and India and Africa, we can push the defense line outward."

"In fact, the sea is vast and boundless, but there are only a few routes that can be taken. Blocking a few important maritime passages will block the entire area. Otherwise, the Portuguese would not be able to dominate the entire West with their mere forces."

In the Ming Dynasty, the West refers to all sea areas west of Malacca. Zhao Hao refers only to the Indian Ocean.

As he said that, he stood up and pointed to the large Asian-Africa map behind him, with several key areas marked with red pens:

"What are the important maritime roads in the entire West? Cape of Good Hope, Mande Strait, Hormuz Strait, Ceylon, Malacca Strait and Sunda Strait. As long as you control these six places, you can completely dominate the West and ensure that the South Ocean is not threatened by enemies from the west."

He paused and said with a smile: "As for the enemy coming to the east, I believe Philip II has already understood how foolish the cross-oceanic expedition is. And there is enough trouble for him to be in a hurry next. I will definitely not have such a good thing to come to the door and give everyone a meritorious service."

The generals burst into laughter, it was a pity.

"So we will find that these six maritime channels, the Sunda Strait is already in our hands, and the Strait of Malacca will be soon obtained. Ceylon, the Strait of Hormuz and the Cape of Good Hope are also in the hands of our Portuguese friends, and will be transferred to us soon." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "There will be five of our six major roads, and there is only one Mande Strait, or the Gulf of Aden has not yet been settled. This is also the biggest flaw in the so-called "Portuguese Chains".

At the gesture of Mr. Zhao, Pinto explained: "For decades, Portugal has wanted to take Aden into his pocket to block the Mande Strait of the Red Sea, so that he can completely monopolize the trade of pepper and spices. For this reason, a fierce battle with the Ottoman Empire was launched. In the end, the Turks got the first to join Aden into Ottoman territory."

"Later, Portugal briefly occupied the Pilgrim Island at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden as a substitute, but the island was dry and lacking in water, and the environment was very harsh. It was a bit remote, so it was difficult to block the Strait of Mande. It was very difficult for them to set up a net in the Gulf of Aden, which was 500 miles wide. The ships that Arab merchants transported spices could easily get rid of their surveillance and sail into the Red Sea. The spices were ashore in Suez, transported from land to Alexander, and then resold by Venetian merchants in Europe."

Pinto shrugged and said, "Therefore, the dream of the King of Portugal to change to the Venetian merchants' fishing has not been realized."

Zhao Hao nodded and turned to Liu Zhengqi, a plenipotentiary representative in Cairo, and said: "Representative Liu seems to have brought us good news."

I don’t know whether it was because of excessive labor or the bumpy sea, but Liu Zhengqi looked a lot clearer, but his spirit was surprisingly strong. Hearing Zhao Hao clicked his name, he immediately stood up and bowed to show off.

"The mere achievements made by my subordinates are inseparable from the wise leadership of the prince and the strong support of the group. As the saying goes, a weak country has no diplomacy, I can..."

"Okay, just talk about the serious business." Zhao Hao interrupted him with a smile, letting this guy brag, and half an hour was not enough.

"It is after several years of hard work that my subordinates finally convinced the Queen Mother of Ottoman that she had issued an order to approve the excavation of the 'Suez Canal'. All construction matters will be left to our group to be fully responsible!" Liu Zhengqi smiled and said:

"In reward, we can preside over the operation for 99 years since the canal was opened. In addition, the Mamluk nobles gave us a place called Djibouti as a reward for their gratitude."

"Where is Djibouti?" Everyone looked at the map.

A group of coast guard generals showed ecstasy.

Then Zhao Hao's finger fell on the narrowest turning point of the Red Sea - Mande Strait.

Djibouti is right next to the strait, and is an excellent natural port, leading the Red Sea to enter the Indian Ocean. Its strategic significance is everywhere in the future... There is the largest military base of Hawk Sauce in Africa, the largest overseas military base for French chickens, and the first overseas base for rabbits... How can a harmless little white rabbit have a military base? We call it a security base.

"So, we have made up for the Portuguese flaws?!" Everyone was overjoyed now.

"Yes, all the six important places are in my hands! The forces to protect the South China Sea and control the West can be combined into one, and the troops required will naturally be greatly reduced!" Zhao Hao punched the map with a punch, suppressing his excitement.
Chapter completed!