"Of course, Portugal's foothold in these places was not only based on soldiers, but also on officials, priests, merchants, craftsmen, and most importantly, the crew and sailors who patrolled the ocean and connected this series of strongholds and routes into a chain."

No matter when, you must unify your thoughts before doing big things. Especially for the top executives 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 has too little room for error, so Zhao Hao must explain his vision to these people so that they can understand where the focus of the next effort is.

Zhao Hao asked his secretary to distribute the meeting materials and said, "According to the intelligence we have collected before, there are about 50,000 to 60,000 Portuguese public servants overseas, and there are also those equally important non-staff personnel who are used to maintain the operation of all overseas bases. The total number must be more than 100,000."

“That’s quite a lot…” The senior executives whispered to each other.

But when they looked through the conference materials distributed to them and saw that the brief introduction of the Portuguese base alone was more than ten pages long, they felt that this number of people was really a drop in the bucket.

"In fact, these 100,000 Portuguese serve as management and technical personnel, as well as necessary deterrent force. Most of the troops and labor force can only be filled by hiring a large number of natives." Zhao Hao continued.

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

"It's hard to say." Zhao Hao glanced at Pinto and said, "Portugal has only a few hundred thousand people, and there are powerful neighbors on the mainland. One hundred thousand adult men should be the limit of what the country can send overseas, not necessarily only one hundred thousand. What do you think, Mr. Ping?"

"The commander-in-chief is absolutely right." Pinto was about to stand up, but Zhao Hao raised his hand and pressed him. He then sat down and sighed:

"The first maritime empire in human history sounds glorious, but the price paid behind it has long been beyond Portugal's ability to bear. To reach a distant colony, one must take risks on the dangerous sea. Once there, one must endure the heat, humidity, drought, and the inability to adapt to the local climate, as well as the endless attacks of the natives..."

"I have served in Sao Tome, Goa, Malacca and Macau. Except for Macau, the death rate of Portuguese is very, very high. The governors and chief executives always ask for additional manpower in every official document sent to Lisbon. And as the commander-in-chief said, being able to maintain a scale of 100,000 is already the limit for Portugal."

After a pause, he defended his country: "The scarcity of men and the large number of widows in Portugal are the main reasons why it could not resist the Spanish invasion."

"Ahem." Seeing the excited looks in the generals' eyes, Zhao Hao coughed lightly to stop them from thinking too much and said, "So if we really want to make this maritime empire run smoothly, we may need to double or even multiply the number of people."

"All the current employees of the group have at least graduated from junior high school, and the management and technical personnel all have high school or technical secondary school diplomas. And under the group's scientific management system, one should be able to do the work of several, right?" said President Jiang.

"It 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 and naturally knew that without enough manpower, even a fart would not make a sound.

"Then the question is, where do we get so many people?" Jiang Xueying spread her hands and said, "The century-long immigration itself 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. Where can we get more manpower?"

"The large-scale immigration has been the top priority for a hundred years." Zhao Hao waved his hand and said, "And Nanyang, as the top destination for large-scale immigration, will be the focus of the group for at least the next 20 to 30 years. There is nothing much to say about this."

As he said this, he smiled and said, "We can make Nanyang return to the rule of the king forever and make it a paradise for the people of China. Our contribution far exceeds that of the emperors and generals in history books."

"Hehe..." Everyone also laughed. They are now in high positions and have both fame and fortune. The motivation for following Zhao Hao to Malacca mainly comes from this unprecedented career.

"That's true. Those ancient emperors could only compete for the throne of China, but we want to dominate the world." Tang Youde smiled meaningfully: "I think you may surpass Emperor Tang and Emperor Song in the future."

"Go away, stop talking nonsense." Zhao Hao rolled his eyes at him, waved his hand at the people who were staring at him, and said, "We must break away from the rut of emperors and generals. That doesn't match our great cause."

Regardless of whether they understood or not, Zhao Hao continued, "Our ideal is to dominate the world, but the earth is too big, and it takes two years to go around it. Time flies, life is short, and my generation may not see that day."

The meeting room became extremely quiet. Everyone stared at Zhao Hao in the sunlight and listened to his slow sermon:

"A truly great cause cannot be accomplished by one generation. Our generation will lay a solid foundation and pave the way for those who come after us, and we will have nothing to be ashamed of." Zhao Hao said in a deep voice:

"It doesn't matter if I succeed or not, but I must be part of the success. Let's work hard together."

"We will keep it in mind." Everyone responded in unison.

"Let's get back to the point." Zhao Hao took a sip of tea and said, "I've thought about it carefully. We can squeeze out some manpower in Nanyang. First of all, in terms of the coast guard, after taking over the entire Nanyang, India and Africa, we can greatly push the defense line outward."

"In fact, the sea is vast and boundless, but there are only a few routes. Blocking a few important sea routes means blocking the entire area. Otherwise, the Portuguese would not be able to dominate the entire Western Ocean with just a few troops."

In the Ming Dynasty, the Western Ocean refers to all the seas west of Malacca, while Zhao Hao refers only to the Indian Ocean.

As he spoke, he stood up and pointed to the large map of Asia and Africa behind him, on which several key areas were marked with red pen:

"What are the important sea routes in the entire Western Ocean? The Cape of Good Hope, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Strait of Hormuz, Ceylon, the Strait of Malacca, and the Sunda Strait. As long as we control these six places, we can completely dominate the Western Ocean and ensure that the South China Sea is not threatened by enemies from the west."

After a pause, he smiled and said, "As for the enemy coming from the east, I believe Philip II has already understood how foolish it is to launch an expedition across the ocean. Besides, he will be in a lot of trouble in the future. I am sure that there will be no more good things like this that will come to our doorstep and bring us merits."

The generals burst into laughter, what a pity.

"Then we will find that of these six sea routes, the Sunda Strait is already in our hands, and the Malacca Strait will soon be in our hands. Ceylon, the Strait of Hormuz and the Cape of Good Hope are also in the hands of our Portuguese friends, and will soon be transferred to us." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "We will have five of the six major routes, leaving only the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, or the Gulf of Aden, which is also the biggest flaw in the so-called 'Portuguese chain'."

At the signal of Mr. Zhao, Pinto began to explain: "For decades, Portugal has been trying to take Aden into its possession in order to block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the throat of the Red Sea, so that it can completely monopolize the trade of pepper and spices. For this reason, it launched a fierce competition with the Ottoman Empire. In the end, the Turks took advantage of their proximity and took advantage of it first, and Aden was incorporated into the Ottoman territory."

"Later, Portugal briefly occupied the Paradise Island at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden as a substitute, but the island was dry and water-deficient, and the environment was very harsh. In addition, the location was a bit remote, and it was difficult to block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It was very difficult for them to set up a net in the 500-mile-wide Gulf of Aden, and the ships carrying spices by Arab merchants could easily escape their surveillance and sail into the Red Sea. The spices landed in Suez, were transported to Alexandria by land, and then resold to Europe by Venetian merchants."

Pinto shrugged and said, "So the Portuguese king's dream of converting Venetian merchants to fishing has never been realized."

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

Perhaps it was due to overwork or the rough seas, but Liu Zhengqi looked much thinner and surprisingly energetic. When Zhao Hao called his name, he immediately stood up and bowed in a show-off manner.

"The little achievements I have made are inseparable from your wise leadership and the strong support of the group. As the saying goes, a weak country has no diplomacy. I can..."

"Okay, let's talk about business." Zhao Hao interrupted him with a smile. It would take even half an hour for this guy to keep bragging.

"After several years of hard work, I finally convinced the Queen Mother of Ottoman Empire. She has issued an edict approving the construction of the Suez Canal. All construction matters will be fully responsible for our group!" Liu Zhengqi said with a smile:

"As a reward, we can operate the canal for 99 years from the time it is opened to navigation. In addition, the Mamluk nobles gave us a place called Djibouti as a reward to express their gratitude."

"Djibouti, where is it?" Everyone looked at the map.

A group of coast guard commanders showed expressions of ecstasy.

Then Zhao Hao's finger fell on the narrowest bend of the Red Sea - the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Djibouti is right next to the Strait, and is an excellent natural port, a key point for the Red Sea to enter the Indian Ocean. Its strategic significance is well known to all generations... There is the largest military base of the Eagle Sauce in Africa, the largest overseas military base of the French Chicken, and the first overseas base of the Rabbit... How can a harmless little white rabbit have a military base? We call it a support base.

"So, we have made up for the Portuguese's weakness?!" Everyone was overjoyed.

"Yes, the six important locations are all in my hands! The forces to protect the South Seas and control the West Seas can be combined into one, and the required manpower will naturally be greatly reduced!" Zhao Hao punched the map, suppressing his excitement.

ps. I have been running around the hospital for another whole day. I really don’t have enough energy. I feel better after a good sleep. I will continue to sleep after writing this chapter.