King of German Mercenaries

Gonzalo de Córdoba came to East Friesland this time, not just to learn the "Marin Phalanx" with Marin. At the same time, he also asked that Marin be ready to let Columbus lead the fleet south. Because the Spaniards have prepared ships and manpower, ready to open up the Indian route under the leadership of Columbus.

This time the Spaniards had a big battle. In order to prevent the Portuguese from finding fault, Spain directly discharged a luxurious lineup of 10 warships above 200 tons.

Moreover, the person leading the team turned out to be the famous Spanish native navigator Alonso de Ovida. Alonso de Ovida once served as Columbus's deputy and participated in the voyage to explore the Americas, and was the most outstanding navigator in Spain.

When he heard the news, Marin frowned - history really changed...

Originally, in May 1499, Alonso de Ovida should have taken Amerigo and Fonseca to explore the American continent and discovered Venezuela in South America. The name of Venezuela was named by Alenso de Ovida himself.

In fact, this is the problem that Marin created himself. Through the emperor and the pope, Marin let all Europe know that the "India" discovered by Columbus was actually a wild area. So, the Spaniards quickly lost interest in America. As a result, Alonso de Ovida's exploration of the Americas in 1499 did not exist.

It just so happened that Marin gave the interests of the Indian route to Spain, and Spain directly appointed Alonso de Ovida as the fleet commander, led by Columbus, to buy spices in India.

Shortly after Gonzalo de Córdoba left, Columbus was forced to leave his wife and children, and came to Emden to prepare and set foot on the voyage again.

For a navigator, the life of "wife and children on the kang head" at home is very luxurious. As long as the employer gives an order, they need to board the ship, say goodbye to their families, and chop the waves on the ocean...

In order to reassure Columbus on the road, Marin announced the appointment of Columbus' eldest son Diego as his guard before Columbus left. Also, Marin told Columbus that Diego would be trained as a fleet commander when he arrived in the new fleet town in East Friesland.

Not only that, but Marin also gave Columbus the two 250-class warships that he had taken to the Canary Islands. These two ships are currently ahead of their time, traveling faster than today's ships and having more firepower.

Moreover, before Columbus set off, Marin prepared more than a dozen sacks of lemon leaf powder for Columbus and his men to make tea.

Before, Marin asked Kohler to buy several lemon-producing estates in Genoa, Italy, specializing in providing lemon leaves for the big voyage. Years ago, a batch of powdered lemon leaves was sent. As it happened, Columbus used it when he was sailing, and it was directly loaded on the ship.

Columbus was also very tight about this, because he personally confirmed that drinking water infused with this unknown plant powder every day can indeed prevent scurvy.

However, before Columbus set off, Malin repeatedly told Columbus to keep it secret and not to tell the Spaniards this secret. For those sailors, Columbus only had to force them to drink water infused with lemon leaf powder every day, and there was no need to explain anything to them. Besides, even Columbus himself only knew that it was a powder of a plant, but he didn't know what it was...

In order to train more sailors, Marin carried out a large-scale rotation of the sailors under Columbus. Many young Frisian sailors who had not been on the last Indian voyage were placed in Columbus' fleet.

This time, because of the protection of the Spanish fleet, Columbus did not need to bring any soldiers, but directly brought all sailors, plus translators and Draka, who was in charge of trade.

...

In fact, for giving away the huge profits of the spice trade,

Marlin is very unwilling. However, he did not have the strength to confront the Portuguese at sea. Therefore, he can only choose to cede his interests to the Spaniards.

However, giving up the benefits does not mean that Marin will just give up. Before Columbus set off, Marin suddenly thought of a good solution...

It is true that Marin ceded the right to buy spices in India to the Spaniards, but this does not mean that Marin can only accept the reality of buying 50,000 pounds each time.

Because Marin can't buy more spices, but he can grow his own...

Marin thought of Grenada, the famous Caribbean country. Marin first knew about Grenada because the country had been invaded by U.S. troops in the 1980s.

Later, through Wikipedia, Marin knew that Grenada is a very rare tropical island without poisonous snakes and poisonous insects. There are no poisonous snakes and poisonous insects, which means that the island is relatively safe, and it is not easy for people to be infected by poisonous insects.

Also, Grenada is the second largest producer of nutmeg, an important spice, in the world. Of course, that is the afterlife. However, this provided Marlin with inspiration...

"Since I can't buy spices in large quantities in India, why can't I grow and sell them myself?" This idea suddenly popped into Marin's mind...

The island of Grenada is not big, but it can also grow a lot of spices. You know, in later generations, Grenada has only 344 square kilometers, and the total production of nutmeg accounts for one-third of the world's total production of nutmeg, second only to Indonesia, reaching more than 30,000 tons.

Of course, that is because of the extensive use of chemical fertilizers in later generations, and the per-mu yield of nutmeg is naturally high. But even without chemical fertilizers, the output is only a few thousand tons, which is very scary. You know, a thousand tons is 2.2 million pounds. And now a pound of nutmeg in Europe costs 10 shillings, which is equivalent to 2 gp.... Drunk just thinking about Marlin...

Of course, Grenada may not only grow nutmeg, but also sugar cane, as well as spices such as pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger.

So, on the night before Columbus set off, Marin called Draka over and told him to buy seeds of spices such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger in large quantities when he arrived in India, save them and bring them back...

Cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon are not native to India though. However, buying whole nutmeg and clove seeds can also be planted. As for cinnamon, although cinnamon is purchased, cinnamon is produced in Sri Lanka, which is also very close to Calicut in the south of India, and cinnamon seeds can be purchased. It's really not possible, you can also let Columbus's fleet turn to Sri Lanka to buy cinnamon seeds...

In short, Marin intends to make Grenada a base for the production of various spices...

However, considering that Marin did not know how to grow spices. Therefore, he ordered Draka to buy some untouchable slaves who knew how to grow spices in India when buying spice seeds, and bring them back to be responsible for spice planting. Of course, this is all hidden from the Spaniards...

In this way, Draka took Marin's request and, together with Columbus, boarded the fleet to Spain. In addition to buying spice seeds and Indian slaves who knew how to grow spices, Draka was also responsible for purchasing 50,000 pounds of spices, as well as supplies such as saltpeter and copper ingots...

After Columbus's fleet set off, Marin called Kohler and asked him to go to Genoa or Spain to find Amerigo, the navigator.

The reason for looking for this man was because Marin knew he was such a famous navigator. Also, Amerigo was not recruited by the Spaniards because Spain had suspended voyages to the Americas. According to the information that Columbus knew, Amerigo seems to be still the captain of Genoa. When Columbus returned to Genoa from Spain, he saw this person once...

Now, Marin has the complete voyage data of Columbus's exploration of the West Indies. As long as you find Amerigo, give him a few ships, and give him a copy of Columbus' voyage data, you can explore Grenada. Although Columbus did not explore Grenada, Marin knew that Grenada was the southernmost of the Windward Islands. Just follow Columbus's nautical chart, first arrive at the Windward Islands, and then sail to the southernmost point close to the South American mainland...

Because Grenada is free of venomous snakes and venomous insects, it is very suitable as the first settlement for the Marin to colonize the Americas. Colonists in Grenada don't have to worry about dying because of poisonous insects, suffering from common tropical "terminal diseases" such as malaria, as they do in other tropical regions.

Once the colonists had adapted to Grenada's tropical climate, they could move on to other tropical regions. Therefore, in Marin's heart, Grenada Island, which has good natural conditions and is not prone to death, is very suitable as a base camp for training colonists to adapt to the tropical climate.

Then, Marin can use Grenada as a springboard to covet important regions such as Brazil and Panama... At the same time, it is also suitable for the cultivation of various tropical spices and for the production of cane sugar - colonizing Grenada can be described as serving multiple purposes...