Listening to the two people's genuine praise, no matter how thick-skinned Mr. Zhao was, he couldn't stay calm. He turned his head away, embarrassed to look at the expressions of his subordinates.

"Master said that this Jeonra Island was also formed by volcanic eruptions." Jin Ke suddenly remembered something and asked curiously, "Then why are there no minerals here?"

"Maybe, this is life..." Zhao Hao sighed and thought to himself, how do I know why they are so unlucky?

Science can indeed infer the location of mineral deposits, but Mr. Zhao's claim that he can use geology to find minerals is pure nonsense. What he used is naturally the most unscientific secret of science - the great prophecy.

According to another history, Sado Gold Mine was discovered in 1601, the 29th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty, by a prospector from Tsuruko Silver Mine on Sado Island.

In its heyday in the 17th century, the output here once ranked first in the world, with an annual output of 400 kilograms of gold and 40 tons of silver, which was the financial pillar of the Edo Shogunate that lasted for 300 years. The reason why Ieyasu had the confidence to close the country to the outside world was largely because of this additional source of income, so there was no need to rely on foreign trade to make money.

After the fall of the shogunate, Sado Gold Mine provided strong financial support for the Meiji Restoration. It was mined by the Japanese government with modern machinery for more than a hundred years until it was exhausted in the 1990s. During this period, a total of 78 tons of gold and 2,300 tons of silver were produced, equivalent to 74 million taels of silver. So it was worth it no matter how much it cost to occupy it!

Moreover, controlling the Sado Gold Mine and the Iwami Silver Mine is equivalent to holding the lifeline of Japan. All generals and common people in the world have to call Master Zhao daddy!

~~

"Establishing a squadron on Sado Island is not just to protect the gold mountain on the island." Young Master Zhao cast his gaze to the farther north and said, "We also need to control the Tsugaru Strait, 800 miles northeast of Sado Island."

"Tsugaru Strait, isn't that the northernmost part of Japan?" Jinke Wang Rulong was completely dumbfounded. Seeing how conservative the young master was in attacking Tamra Island, they thought that their young master was too cautious even though he was very strong. But after listening to his strategy for attacking Japan, they realized that Zhao Hao had gone too far.

But I'm not going to waste time, and I can't dream of building the Seven Seas Fleet...

Since Master Zhao intended to launch a punitive war against the Hirado clan, the two generals naturally had to collect intelligence in advance. Knowing the map of Japan and the distribution of various forces was the minimum. Of course, there were too many military leaders in Japan at that time, and Kyushu Island alone was enough for the two to be busy, so there was no time to learn about the situation in Honshu.

However, the two knew that Japan is divided into five prefectures and seven prefectures, and that the northernmost Tosando was bordered by the Tsugaru Strait.

The two thought to themselves, Master Zhao doesn't want to punish the Hirado clan at all, he wants to sweep Japan from south to north!

Wang Rulong's face was full of excitement. There is a lot of potential for him. There is a lot of potential for him!

Jin Ke was worried, fearing that the young master might take too big a step and pull his testicles.

Zhao Hao asked them in a relaxed manner: "Do you know what is the place north of the Tsugaru Strait?"

"It's the Ezo area." Jin Ke answered immediately: "I heard that the Japanese emperor does not hold power, and the Shogun is the regent. The so-called 'Shogun' refers to the Ezo people."

"That's right, but Ainu is a derogatory term used by the Japanese to refer to the indigenous people." Young Master Zhao said solemnly, "Their correct name is 'Ainu'. They originally lived on various islands in Japan, and half of Honshu belonged to them at that time. But over the past hundreds of years, the Ainu were cruelly persecuted and driven away by the Japanese, and were forced to move north across the Tsugaru Sea and move to the bitter and cold island where they live now."

"Yes..." Jin Ke nodded, knowing that Mr. Zhao must have a deeper meaning, so he listened quietly.

"But the Japanese still didn't give up and wanted to kill them all. They kept sending troops across the sea to attack the Ainu! Fortunately, the island is a little big and covered with virgin forests. The Ainu can rely on the protection of the forest to survive." Young Master Zhao said with a look of compassion:

"The Ainu people have been paying tribute to the Celestial Empire since the Han Dynasty and have always accepted the Celestial Empire's canonization. They have been an inseparable part of the Ming Empire since ancient times. How can we sit back and watch them being enslaved and oppressed by the Japanese pirates? We must uphold justice for them, free the Ainu Island from the clutches of the Japanese pirates, and let it bathe in the glory of the Ming Empire again!"

"Yeah." King Jin and the other man nodded continuously, but they became more and more confused in their hearts. They didn't know what the young master saw in the Ainu people that made him love them so much.

Mr. Zhao's words are actually well-founded. Ezo has indeed never been part of Japan's territory. It was only when the monkeys unified Japan that they conquered Ezo for the first time. But it was not until the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century that Japan finally annexed Ezo and renamed it Hokkaido.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty and even later generations, Japan only has three islands. Kaishen Gong also published an article entitled "Japan's sovereignty does not extend to Ezo Island", emphasizing that Japan's territory is limited to Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.

Regardless of how people argue in the future, at least in this era, Ezo was definitely not Japanese territory.

Actually, it is more closely related to the Ming Dynasty, because less than a hundred miles to the north of Ezo Island is the Ming Dynasty's territory, Sakhalin Island.

Sakhalin Island, called Kuyi Island by the Ming Dynasty, was under the jurisdiction of Nurgandusi, and there were three guards on the island. Among them, the Polo River Guard was mainly composed of the Hayi people.

Weiyi is the name given to the Ainu people by the Ming Dynasty...well, not very polite either.

The Ainu people on Sakhalin Island had very close ties with the Ainu people on Ezo Island. Later, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent people to attack Ezo Island, the upper Ainu people on Sakhalin Island crossed the sea to help, but were tragically wiped out.

So if Master Zhao wanted to help the Ainu people, he would have no problem finding an excuse.

~~

"Sir, what benefits can we get?" After listening to Master Zhao's story, the two finally couldn't help asking, "Why are we here?"

Although they firmly believed that the Young Master was a partner of justice, they were even more convinced that the Young Master would never do anything that had no benefits.

"Is it the Ezo land... Oh no, there are gold mines in Ainu Island?" Wang Rulong made a bold guess.

"Haha..." Zhao Hao said with a look that made you guess: "Of course, and it's not small."

Mr. Zhao certainly didn't lie. The Hongzhiwu gold mine in northeastern Hokkaido is the third largest gold mine in Japan. In the early 20th century, the Sumitomo Group mined 73 tons of gold and 1,200 tons of silver in 50 years, equivalent to about 44 million taels of silver.

The two gold mountains of Hongzhiwu and Sado can provide 118 million taels of silver to Master Zhao and the Jiangnan Group. It seems like a lot, but in fact it is only half of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

So it's still far from enough! Zhao Hao would feel a little better only if he dug up all the Iwami Silver Mine and the Hishikari Gold Mine.

Back then, the Japanese completed the modernization of their navy and army with the indemnity from the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

Now, it makes perfect sense for Master Zhao to rely on Japan's wealth to build his own Seven Seas Fleet.

It just seems like using the sword of the Qing Dynasty to kill the officials of the Ming Dynasty...

No, this is called the father pays the son’s debt, it’s only right, brother!

~~

"What I value most about Ainu Island is not the gold and silver, but their wood." Master Zhao sighed and said, "It takes ten years to build an army and a hundred years to build a navy. If you want to build an invincible fleet, money alone is not enough, you also need enough wood."

"Wood?" Wang Rulong was puzzled and said, "We in the Ming Dynasty have no shortage of this stuff. We can have as much as you want."

"Of course we have enough wood for building ordinary ships in the Ming Dynasty, but the wood for building giant ships is only available in the southwest and northeast." Zhao Hao explained calmly: "Building galleons and larger sailing battleships requires very strict requirements on wood. The pine and fir wood used in traditional shipbuilding are too soft, easily deformed by water absorption, and easily eaten by insects, so they cannot be used on large warships. As for wood that is too hard, it is not only difficult to process, but also after being bombarded, the flying sawdust can easily hurt people - don't underestimate the small sawdust, in future naval battles, the greatest casualties of officers and soldiers will come from this!"

"So our choices are actually very limited, there are only two kinds of wood: oak and teak." Zhao Hao said in a deep voice: "Teak is the best material, but it is only produced in Siam and Myanmar, which is too far away from us, and the quantity is relatively small. Only oak can meet our needs - a galleon needs to cut down 2,000 oak trees that are more than 100 years old. In the future, when we build larger sailing battleships, we may even need 5,000 to 7,000 century-old giant trees!"

"Hiss..." The two Kings sucked in a breath of cold air when they heard this. Only then did they understand why the cost of building a galleon was so high! Hundred-year-old giant trees are all pillars of society. What does it mean to use thousands of them at a time? Building the Forbidden City for the emperor!

Even the royal palace can't cost that much. The purchase and renovation of the British King's Buckingham Palace only cost 100,000 pounds, which is not enough to build a battleship...

But there was no other way. In this Age of Exploration, any country that aspired to compete on the sea would rather starve to death than fall behind in the naval arms race. Therefore, forests were a more precious strategic resource than gold, silver, copper, and iron.

For a country, having no forests means losing control of the sea. And it takes at least a hundred years to form a forest!

The so-called "century-old navy" comes from this.

One of the important reasons why countries like Portugal and Spain, which were once powerful and dominated the ocean, eventually declined and became victims of others was that all their trees were cut down.

Even if they didn't cut down all the trees, they would gradually fall behind. Because the quality of oak produced in temperate zones is very average, it's fine for furniture, but it's really not good enough for shipbuilding. If you want to build high-quality warships, you must use oak from high-latitude areas.

Therefore, the Baltic Sea was the key to the struggle for hegemony among European powers during the Age of Discovery. The reason was simple: whoever controlled the Baltic Sea could monopolize the timber trade with Nordic countries.

After the Netherlands defeated Spain and gained independence, Spain lost its access to oak from northern Europe and the empire fell into decline.

The Netherlands monopolized the timber trade in the Baltic Sea and became the sea coachman that ruled the ocean.