Chapter 166: Military Intelligence Agency and R&D Cooperation (Ten-Thousand-Word Chapter)

In early June 1874, Expedition Leader Meitino stepped onto a Spanish port, feeling a multitude of emotions.

Although he was Italian, having spent nearly four years exploring Africa, he found himself quite longing for his residence in Spain.

After arriving in Madrid by train, Meitino did not have much time to return to his own house, nor did he have time to catch up with his younger brother Qiaodi.

He went straight into the Madrid Royal Palace to report to Wang Gong the harvests and various discoveries made throughout the four years of exploration.

Seeing Meitino after four years, Wang Gong was quite happy. "Meitino, welcome back to Spain. You have worked hard on these years of exploration. I will not forget your contributions; both you and Antoni are heroes in the discovery of these new lands."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Meitino nodded respectfully and reported all the exploration data, detailed topographical maps, and everything he had seen, heard, and obtained over the past four years to Wang Gong.

Data delivered personally by Meitino was certainly more detailed and accurate. This was unavoidable; after all, only by delivering it directly into Wang Gong's hands could he ensure that the information would not be leaked on the way back to Spain.

Although the previous data was also correct, certain parts had been blurred to ensure they were not entirely accurate, the purpose being to stall other countries and cities for a longer time when they discovered this information.

"Your Majesty, while traveling upstream along the Congo River, we discovered many mineral deposits. However, to prevent suspicion and hostility from the local African natives, we did not conduct detailed investigations.

But it is certain that the Congo River basin possesses relatively rich mineral resources. We found quite a few copper mines, iron mines, and there may even be diamond mines," Meitino continued to report.

The exploration of Africa was certainly not just to determine if the Congo River basin had fertile land, but also to determine if the region had rich mineral resources.

According to the results explored so far, the Congo River basin definitely possesses relatively rich mineral resources. Although it is not yet certain if there are precious minerals like gold and silver, the value of copper and iron mines is also not low.

Wang Gong nodded. Although he knew how rich the mineral resources of the Congo River basin were, such things obviously could not be spoken aloud.

That Meitino could understand the mineral resources of the Congo River basin proved that he had done real work during the exploration, rather than just completing the purpose of the exploration while ignoring its utility.

Looking at Meitino, who was noticeably much thinner, Wang Gong stepped forward, patted his shoulder, and said with a smile: "Alright, matters regarding the Congo River basin have already been handed over to the government, and colonial development will begin immediately.

Your most important task now is to rest well and enjoy life. The four years in Africa must not have been easy, right? Rest assured, once the colonial development of the Congo River basin is on the right track, I will commend you and all members of the expedition team one by one.

This time, you deserve the top credit, and I have decided to grant you the title of Count. The mission of the expedition team has ended; what plans do you have for your future work?"

Meitino was the eldest son of Garibaldi, and being able to come to Spain with Wang Gong clearly showed he was prepared to be a loyal follower.

Wang Gong already felt guilty enough for sending Meitino to explore Africa; now that the exploration mission was successfully completed, it was time to reuse Meitino and commend his contributions.

Hearing the news that he was about to be enfeoffed as a Count, Meitino wore a respectful smile but did not show the slightest bit of false modesty.

He also knew how great his contribution to this exploration was, and excessive modesty was unnecessary. More importantly, his status was that of Wang Gong's confidant, and it would be strange if he were not reused and heavily rewarded.

But when it came to his future plans, Meitino did not have many. In the four-plus years he had been in Africa, Spain had undergone significant changes. He was not yet familiar with the current situation in Spain, so naturally, he did not know which department he should go to or what position he should hold.

"Your Majesty, I have not yet considered future plans. If Your Majesty has instructions, I am willing to take any position, as long as I can serve Your Majesty," Meitino said with an indifferent expression.

Having successfully completed such a dangerous task as the African exploration, Meitino really had nothing to worry about regarding other positions.

One must know that African exploration in this era was fraught with danger. The danger did not just refer to the native tribes in the African interior, but also to the unknown diseases and viruses within the primeval forests of Africa.

The biggest reason why European powers' colonial development of Africa remained on the coast was because of the various terrifying diseases in the primeval forests of the African interior.

This African exploration required deep penetration into the Congo River basin, facing unknown African natives and unknown diseases. That Meitino could discover the plains of the Congo River basin, besides ability, certainly involved a lot of luck, because those who lacked luck had long since died on the road of exploration.

Hearing Meitino say this, Wang Gong nodded with a smile, having his own plans: "Since you have no plans, then go to the Royal Security Intelligence Agency to serve.

You will temporarily serve as the Deputy Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency; I will have other plans for your work in the future. I have only one requirement for you: during your tenure at the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, learn the intelligence work capabilities of the agency and become as familiar as possible with and master all departments of the agency."

Although the Royal Security Intelligence Agency was not a formal organization, it held an irreplaceable position in Wang Gong's heart.

Meitino serving as the Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency was not to succeed Kadier, but to create a new intelligence department independently after becoming familiar with the specific work processes of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency.

Yes, Wang Gong had plans to establish a new intelligence department.

It was not that Wang Gong did not trust the Royal Security Intelligence Agency and Kadier. Kadier's work ability and loyalty were guaranteed, and Wang Gong was quite at ease with the Royal Security Intelligence Agency under his leadership.

But there could not be only one such important intelligence department, as this would make the Royal Security Intelligence Agency overly redundant and would also cause some errors and arbitrariness in intelligence.

Although such problems would not occur now, who could guarantee that the loyalty of the Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency to the royal family would remain reliable decades later?

Establishing another intelligence department was intended to allow the two major intelligence departments to supervise each other and play a complementary role.

Wang Gong had already thought of the name for the other major intelligence department: the Spanish Military Intelligence Agency. The main area of responsibility for the Military Intelligence Agency was also simple: military-related foreign intelligence, dispatching spies abroad, arresting spies internally, and so on.

Once the Military Intelligence Agency was established, the organizations within the Royal Security Intelligence Agency regarding military intelligence could be transferred to the Military Intelligence Agency.

The Royal Security Intelligence Agency would then be responsible for comprehensive domestic and foreign intelligence exploration, the supervision and review of officials and legislators, the surveillance of nobles and the parliament, and so on.

Hearing Wang Gong's appointment, Meitino nodded without the slightest hesitation and said very respectfully: "As you command, Your Majesty."

Not many days later, news of the rebellion in the Philippines colony quickly spread back to Spain. Because the specific actions were top-secret intelligence, many people were completely unprepared for the rebellion in the Philippines colony.

Under the indulgence of Prime Minister Primo and Wang Gong, a certain panic even formed within Spain, and legislators successively demanded that the government quickly dispatch troops to quell the rebellion in the Philippines.

Why the panic? Naturally, it was the fear that the Philippines would evolve into a large-scale rebellion like the one in Cuba.

Quelling the rebellion in Cuba had taken more than half a year and had caused unimaginable economic losses to the Cuba colony. Although the economic value of the Philippines colony was not as great as that of Cuba, it was, at any rate, the largest colony of Spain's current scale, and its importance was still very great.

After waiting for the news of the rebellion in the Philippines to ferment for a period of time, the Spanish government officially issued an order to urgently dispatch a colonial garrison regiment from the South Morocco colony to the Philippines to quell the rebellion and stabilize the situation in the Philippines.

The Spanish government did not hide the news of the rebellion in the Philippines; as a neighboring country of Spain, the Portugal government naturally also learned the news of the rebellion in the Philippines.

Upon learning this news, the Portugal government instead breathed a sigh of relief. At least it could be ensured that in the short term, the gaze of the Spanish government would be on the Philippines, not Portugal.

After loading thousands of soldiers, the Spanish transport fleet sailed openly and majestically south along the African coast.

In fact, there was a shortcut from Spain to the Philippines: passing through the Mediterranean and the Suyishiyunhe to reach the Indian Ocean directly, and then passing through the Strait of Malacca to reach the Philippines.

But such a route obviously would not pass through Guinea, so it was abandoned from the beginning.

To make the choice of the route look reasonable, the place where the troops from the South Morocco colony landed was chosen at the port of Ifni.

This was already close to Spain's Canary Islands, and continuing to sail south did not seem abrupt. After all, this had already entered the Atlantic Ocean and was a long distance from the Mediterranean.

The troops had set off, but the colonial development of the Congo River basin had only just begun. Whether building railways or constructing more and larger colonial strongholds, it was necessary to use Guinea as a transit point.

This also resulted in Spain having to increase its development efforts in Guinea to avoid arousing the suspicion of others.

The Spanish government also attached great importance to the land in the Congo River basin. Because this land was not far from Spain, it was much closer than the Philippines.

As long as sovereignty over such land could be successfully obtained, future control would be much smoother. Although there were many natives on these lands, Spain's colonial policy would not care about these natives at all.

In the past, Cuba, Argentina, Chile, and other places also had large numbers of natives. But now, looking at these countries and regions, the majority of the population was Spanish or Spanish-descended mixed-race; the local native population was already very small, or had even disappeared.

Such a policy was also the colonial policy of other European countries, and it was the policy of the entire colonial era.

Why was Wang Gong not worried that colonizing Africa would lead to the possibility of Spain being "blackened"? Because such a possibility basically would not happen.

The reason why the United States and France were "blackened" was because they relied too heavily on black labor and allowed these black laborers to become one of the main populations within their own countries.

Once the black population increased, they would naturally gather to fight for more power; as long as this could be avoided, Spain could ensure it would not be "blackened."

How to do it? Naturally, it was to keep these black populations forever imprisoned within the colonies, killing those who should be killed, exploiting those who should be exploited, and reducing the reproduction of the black population.

Those that could not be dealt with would be driven out of the colonies, letting other colonial countries have the headache. And in Spain's homeland and regions like Morocco that were to be localized in the future, black people were strictly forbidden from appearing.

Kill one if one comes, deal with one if one sneaks in; the method was just that simple.

Wang Gong was quite glad that he was reborn in this era, rather than in the First World War 40 years later. If he had been reborn in the First World War 40 years later, even if he wanted to massacre and relocate these black populations on a large scale, it probably would not have been such an easy thing.

Because by that time, the European powers had wiped their own backsides very well, and they would even turn around to question and condemn those countries that abused natives.

But in reality, the native massacres they caused were even more cruel. The American Indians were the most obvious example, but whether it was Americans or Europeans, they would cover up this example and desperately claim that they were civilized countries.

Although the main force in colonizing the Congo River basin was the Spanish government, Wang Gong certainly could not rely entirely on the power of the government.

After all, this land would establish royal territory in the future; if the royal family did not contribute much, how could they control this land in the future?

At the same time that the colonial garrison regiment set off for Guinea, Wang Gong also gave an order to Butler Luo Lun: to order royal enterprises to invest in the construction of railways in the Congo River basin and to lead the government in forming a mining company to develop the mineral resources there.

The benefit of colonizing a new piece of land was that the mineral resources on this land could be developed at will. The opinions of these natives were not important at all; natives who dared to resist could be killed directly, and one could even establish authority by eliminating a few native tribes to ensure that these natives would not make trouble during the process of mineral excavation.

But if one were to cooperate in developing mineral resources within the sphere of influence of other countries, there would be quite a few problems and troubles.

First, the extraction of mineral resources would not be so willful, and one would even have to consider the opinions of the local people.

Of course, the mining company established by the royal family also needed a suitable name to enter Africa. Wang Gong had already thought of the name for this soon-to-be-established mining company: the African United Mining Company, whose business was to prospect for and excavate mineral resources within Africa.

Of course, because it was a Spanish company, it was also very reasonable for the company's main exploration area to be located in Spain's colonies.

The good news at present was that this land in the Congo River basin had not yet received the attention of other countries. Although Portugal had colonies in the vicinity, their colonies were located on the coast of the Kingdom of Congo, already south of the Congo River.

Moreover, Portugal was not a major threat to Spain. If Portugal and Spain were to engage in colonial competition in the Congo River basin, he believed the British would not have much objection.

After all, the Portuguese holding back the Spanish was a good thing, as this could ensure that Spain would not set its sights on Gibraltar.

Although the British were not too afraid of Spain, considering the importance of Gibraltar, it was better to appropriately find something for Spain to do.

As for how much value the land in the Congo River basin had, the British actually did not care. Because British colonies were already spread all over the world, was the land in the Congo River basin more important than India?

Besides, Britain was not without corresponding colonial layouts on the African continent. And what the British valued more was the vertical connection from Egypt to South Africa; whether the Congo River basin was in such a vertical layout, and what the situation inside the African continent was, were all questions worth thinking about.

Besides the start of colonization in the Congo River basin plains, there was another piece of major good news for Wang Gong: the British private shipyard he had been eyeing had successfully completed the acquisition process, and the first batch of equipment, important production materials, and ship design blueprints dismantled from the shipyard were already in transit.

This shipyard might not count for much to the British, and among private shipyards, it could only be considered relatively large, but not that large.

However, for Spain, receiving such a large shipyard was still very beneficial. Because it was a shipyard purchased by the royal family, this shipyard would eventually be received by the Royal Guanizo Shipyard.

After the Royal Guanizo Shipyard received this equipment and related materials, its foundation in shipbuilding would also be greatly strengthened.

At the same time, it could absorb some of the British's advanced understanding and experience in shipbuilding. Although Spain's history in the shipbuilding industry was also not bad, it was undeniable that the current Britain was the country with the most powerful navy, and Britain's shipbuilding industry was also the most powerful in the world at present.

Absorbing the British's experience in shipbuilding had no downsides; on the contrary, it could allow Spain to make some progress.

The value of this British private shipyard before the economic crisis was as high as 1. million pounds, but the cost for the royal family to purchase this shipyard was only 11 million pesetas, even lower than the expected 13 million pesetas.

The value of 11 million pesetas was only about 420, 00 pounds, which was only about a quarter of the shipyard's original value.

This also proved the cruelty that the economic crisis brought to these private enterprises; a large enterprise that had been painstakingly managed was very likely to have nothing left in the economic crisis.

It was already very good that the shipyard could finally be sold for 420, 00 pounds. There were many enterprises that, because they could not withstand this economic pressure, could only be resold at a low price of one-tenth or even one-fiftieth of their value.

The money from the sale still had to be used to repay the large amount of debt caused by the economic crisis; in reality, it was no exaggeration to describe it as losing everything.

Speaking of the development of industrial technology, in fact, relying solely on Spain's power to catch up with the pace of the great powers, or wanting to bridge the gap, was still very difficult.

It was precisely because of this that Wang Gong had long since found a partner for Spain: Italy, which shared the same royal family with the two countries.

Although Italy was also considered a great power, its comprehensive strength was actually not much different from Spain's. Spain was even stronger than Italy in some aspects of foundation and technical level; after all, it was once a sun-never-sets empire.

As a country that had not been independent for long, Italy also did not have many colonies. Moreover, Italy was located in the Mediterranean, and wanting to get out of the Mediterranean meant being restricted by other countries.

Under such circumstances, Italy could not become more powerful by relying solely on its own strength. The union of Spain and Italy was possible; the reason was not only that the royal families of the two countries were one, but another reason was that both Spain and Italy had a competitor: France.

For Italy, the regions that were close to the mainland and had hope of becoming colonies were Tunisia and Libya.

But the French were also eyeing this region; it was not that easy for Italy to get Tunisia, and it could even be said that the probability was very low.

Although Spain did not participate in the colonization of the Tunisia region, the figure of the French was also present in the colonization of the Morocco region.

For Spain to colonize Morocco, besides facing opposition from the British, the opinions of the French are also a very important factor.

Under such circumstances, Italy and Spain do indeed have the possibility of drawing closer. The combined scientific research strength of the two countries might barely be comparable to that of the Great Powers.

It is precisely because of this that in Gao Da's plan, cooperation with Italy in certain scientific research fields is necessary so that they can advance hand in hand.

Of course, even with cooperation with Italy, research collaboration in certain aspects certainly cannot be completely intimate.

However, as long as they can combine the scientific research strengths of the two countries to catch up with the pace of the Great Powers, it will already satisfy Gao Da's original goal.

The cooperation with Italy is also destined to be short-term; once the scientific research projects the two countries are collaborating on have made some progress, perhaps that will be the time for the cooperation to end.

However, the prerequisite for ending the cooperation must be that the collaboration between the two sides has achieved certain results. As long as there are certain research outcomes, this cooperation is actually not a loss for either Italy or Spain.

Prime Minister Primo also highly approves of the attitude toward cooperating with Italy. If Spain wants to achieve the goal of being strong, it must unite all friends that can be united.

At the very least, the current Italy is still a friend of Spain and naturally falls within the scope of Spain's efforts to win over allies.

After Gao Da and Prime Minister Primo established the tone, Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some enterprises acted quickly, heading to Italy and other countries to seek friendly cooperation.

Close cooperation at the national level is unlikely, but friendly cooperation between these private enterprises still has a great hope of being achieved.

Besides Italy being the main target for cooperation, small countries like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Belgium are also on the list.

The scientific research capabilities of these small countries are certainly not as good as Spain's or those of the Great Powers, but their combined capability is also quite excellent.

If they can utilize the scientific research capabilities of these countries to provide help for the research in certain industries in Spain, then such an action will not be a loss.

Under the coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spanish enterprises have one after another stepped out of the country to find partners for cooperation among European nations.

Such cooperation will, of course, not involve some more important industries and research directions, but those more popular directions can still be collaborated on, such as steel smelting, oil extraction, and so on.

Of course, cooperation with these countries and these enterprises cannot all be successful, and even more than half will fail.

But it does not matter; as long as a portion can succeed, it proves that such an action was not in vain. Moreover, research in these fields is not just a change in a certain area; it is possible that it will also cause a qualitative change in the entire industry.

Whether it is the Spanish government or various private enterprises, they all attach great importance to such cooperation, and even the governments of other countries, including Italy, are happy to see such cooperation.

Both sides have patent usage rights for the collaborative research projects; this point takes care of the interests of both sides, which is also the reason why other countries are willing to cooperate.

If it were not for the impact of the economic crisis, perhaps such cooperation could have achieved even better results. However, it is precisely because the economic crisis has kept the attention of other Great Powers away from Spain that Spain's high-profile cooperation with the enterprises of other countries has not attracted any attention.

Once the land in the Congo River basin was discovered, the pressure it brought to the Spanish government was great. Of course, it was not pressure regarding colonial competition.

In the land of the Congo River basin, the only Europeans who have set foot there at present are the Spanish, and this point is still worth affirming and feeling relieved about.

The reason the Spanish government felt pressure was because the government had to take into account the development of the colony while completing the original Five-Year Development Plan.

Especially the transportation department, which not only needs to be responsible for building railways within Spain but also needs to be responsible for building railways in the Congo River basin.

Domestic railways concern the smooth completion of the Five-Year Development Plan, and the railways in the Congo River basin concern the smooth development of the colony; neither can be delayed.

The industrial department is the same. Although there is no need to build any large factories in the colony, the industrial department still needs to be responsible for the mining and transportation of minerals.

The agricultural department goes without saying. The plains in the Congo River basin possess hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land; if all this land is fertile land suitable for farming, it would be a huge boost for Spain in terms of agriculture.

Moreover, Africa has a large number of indigenous people who can serve as labor. Forcing these African indigenous people to farm on the plantations and farms built by Spain can not only ensure the production of agricultural products but also reduce labor costs.

Think about it carefully, isn't this another Americas? Although the area of this "Americas" is very small, currently only one country, Spain, is carving it up.

If they can completely occupy this land, the boost it brings to Spain will be no less than discovering a New World. Spain can also rely on reforms and the discovery of this "New Americas" to become a powerful Great Power again, jumping out of the big chessboard of Europe to become a chess player, rather than a chess piece.

Yes, the current European continent is like a huge chessboard. The only chess players are the five Great Powers—Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia; even Italy has not yet shaken off the status of a chess piece.

The remaining secondary powers and small and medium-sized countries are all chess pieces, and their interests are only at the whim of the chess players.

Whether Spain is strong or not depends on whether Spain is a chess player. And the sign of whether Spain is a chess player is whether Spain can take back Gibraltar, letting other people playing chess see Spain's strength.

About half a month passed, and news finally came from Guinea that the army had successfully landed. This also allowed the Spanish government and Gao Da to breathe a sigh of relief, because this meant that the current plan was very successful, and the colonial development of the Congo River basin was about to get on the right track.

Before developing the colony in the Congo River basin, Gao Da had already selected the candidate for the future Viceroy of this land.

Manuel Macias y Casado, a young military officer under 30 years old.

There are many reasons for choosing Manuel. First, Manuel is a pure-blooded Spaniard; Gao Da currently needs to reuse Spaniards to express his attitude of trust toward the Spanish people.

Secondly, Manuel was born into a military family and entered the army at 17, with quite excellent military capabilities.

His father was a staunch Conservative Party member and was once a local councilor in Ma Deli. Ever since Gao Da became the King of Spain, Manuel's father had repeatedly made remarks supporting the monarchy and Gao Da, and he also entered Gao Da's list of people to watch.

However, Manuel's father was already nearly 60 years old, and his ability was not particularly outstanding. His highest position was merely a local councilor in Ma Deli, and he retired with the rank of Army Major.

Fortunately, he attached great importance to the cultivation of his son. Manuel followed in his father's footsteps and entered the army at 17; currently, at only 29 years old, he has already surpassed his father's highest rank and is currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the Spanish Army.

Regarding Manuel, Gao Da had already had the Royal Security Intelligence Agency investigate him several times. In the process of suppressing the rebellion in Cuba, Manuel also established no small amount of merit and fought quite bravely.

After returning to Spain, he was also very supportive of the reform of the army and successfully served as one of the regimental commanders of the South Morocco colony garrison.

After the plan to colonize the land in the Congo River basin was established, Manuel was recommended by Gao Da as the person in charge of the garrison army in the Congo River basin.

The garrison regiment he led had already set off with the transport fleet and had successfully arrived at the Guinea colony, and was preparing to enter the upper reaches of the Congo River without attracting the attention of the Portuguese.

Prime Minister Primo naturally would not oppose Manuel, who was recommended by Gao Da. After all, since it had been decided that this land would be built into a royal territory, the government naturally had no power to refute it.

Prime Minister Primo still had this bit of self-awareness; he was also unwilling to have a conflict with Gao Da over such matters. After all, Spain's reform was on the verge of success, and if it were to be abandoned halfway because of some accidents, Prime Minister Primo's hard work over these years would be in vain.

Shifting the perspective to the Spanish Guinea colony, Manuel had just landed with his troops.

Although Manuel was under 30 years old, his military career had already exceeded 12 years, and he could be considered an experienced commander.

His rank of Lieutenant Colonel was not gained by accumulating seniority, but by participating in one battle after another and earning it through military merit.

A Lieutenant Colonel is not considered a high-ranking officer in Spain, but a 29-year-old Lieutenant Colonel is still very rare.

Manuel still had a long time in the future to accumulate seniority and establish merit. As long as his military career did not commit any major mistakes and he continued smoothly, it would not be a difficult thing to become a General in the future.

The rank of General can be considered a high-ranking officer in any country, and it is the same in Spain.

Manuel was born into an ordinary military family; he had already achieved quite well to have such accomplishments, and he was definitely a standout among Spain's more than 10 million civilians.

After stepping onto the land of Africa, Manuel also understood the arduousness of his task.

The garrison regiment he led had to enter the upper reaches of the Congo River under absolute secrecy, protect the Spanish colonial outposts established there, and help the teams arriving later to build railways, maintain order, and so on.

At the very least, they had to wait until the Spanish colonial outposts formed a scale in this region before the Spanish army could be exposed to the eyes of other countries.

Their enemies, besides the local African indigenous tribes, also included the armies of other countries' colonies in the surrounding areas. Even the viruses and poisonous insects native to Africa were their enemies; one careless move could lead to death in Africa.

Before coming to Guinea, Manuel had already had people carry enough medicine, including quinine for treating malaria.

The various types of malaria in the African primeval forests were countless; it was not until the discovery of quinine in 1820 that Europeans were freed from the trouble of African malaria.

Of course, compared to the more mature medical systems of later generations, the drugs for treating malaria in this era were still relatively simple and inefficient.

Quinine was indeed discovered in 1820, but although this substance extracted from cinchona bark could effectively treat African malaria, the side effects were also very large.

It was even possible that a malaria patient was not killed by malaria, but instead killed by the side effects of quinine.

But in any case, quinine was indeed the only and most effective means of treating African malaria at present, and it was also one of the must-have medicines for exploration teams and other colonists before entering Africa.

The good news was that although the amount of quinine Manuel carried was limited, they could be resupplied through the Guinea colony.

As a colony located in Africa, it was very normal for the Guinea colony to have quinine in circulation. It was also very normal for Spain to transport quinine to Guinea, which also gave this army about to penetrate deep into the upper reaches of the Congo River a certain guarantee in terms of medicine.

After landing from Guinea, Manuel led the army eastward, and within a few days, they arrived at the sphere of influence of the Baka people in the east.

This place was already far away from the colonies of the Portuguese and the British, and there was no need to worry about being discovered by other colonists. However, the disadvantage was that they had already penetrated deep into the scope of the African continent, and Manuel and his soldiers were facing an unknown environment and enemies.

According to the topographic map provided by the exploration team, south of the Baka people's sphere of influence was the settlement of the Bantu people.

And the vast plain discovered by the exploration team was precisely located within the sphere of influence of the Bantu people.

Naturally, the army could not all go to the upper reaches of the Congo River; after all, it was an army of more than 2, 00 people, and the logistics management alone was enough to give Manuel a headache.

After careful consideration, Manuel's decision was to station the army's main base at the border between the Guinea colony and the Baka people, which would also be convenient for the army to obtain supplies from Guinea.

A small number of troops would penetrate deep into the hinterland of the Baka people and station at the connection point between the Baka people and the Bantu people. To the south of that place was the upper reaches of the Congo River, and it was not far from that plain area.

Only after the colonial development of that area was carried out with great success would the army consider stationing in the plains.

After all, if the army's logistical support could not be provided, stationing the army there would instead become a burden.

The reason the exploration team was able to persist for four years relied on the burning, killing, and looting of the local indigenous people. Coupled with the fact that the number of people in the exploration team was small to begin with, this ensured the logistical supply problem of the exploration team.

The number of people in the army was several times that of the exploration team, so naturally, they could not use such methods. Even if they could obtain the army's food through robbery, the supply of weapons and ammunition would always be a problem.

Before establishing a perfect supply system and supply lines, it was best for the main force to be located around the Guinea colony to ensure the safety of supplies.

Although the main base of the garrison regiment was chosen at a place close to Guinea, Manuel himself did not intend to stay around the Guinea colony.

Although entering the sphere of influence of the Baka people to the east would be more dangerous, it was also his responsibility as the army commander.

Moreover, greater danger also represented greater opportunity. Manuel's task was to protect the colonial outposts just established in the upper reaches of the Congo River, help the exploration team maintain local order, and establish extensive contacts with more local indigenous tribes.

Although the subsequent colonial development would certainly exploit these indigenous people, there was no need to wipe out these indigenous people in the early stage of establishing the colonial outposts.

The most important thing at present was to extensively establish colonial outposts and, based on the colonial outposts, announce the establishment of the entire Congo River basin colony.

Before this step was completed, Spain would not consider carrying out a massacre of the local indigenous people. After all, these newly established colonial outposts still needed to conduct certain trade with the local indigenous tribes to solve the supply problem.

Although the technological level and culture of the local tribes were relatively backward, their hunting methods were still quite powerful. The trading outposts could purchase the prey hunted by these tribes, which was also one of the sources of food.

If they really could not buy it, they would then consider forcibly seizing it from nearby indigenous tribes. After all, the safety of these indigenous people was certainly not more important than the safety of the Spanish in the colonial outposts, not to mention that there were many indigenous people on this land; simply put, they could not be killed off.

The government's actions were very fast. Only a few days after Manuel led the army to land in the Guinea colony, the first team sent by the government had already arrived at the Guinea colony.

The task of this team was to expand the population of the Congo River basin outposts and at the same time find a way to build a simple railway to connect the two regions of Guinea and the Congo River basin.

Only by connecting these two regions could the logistical supply problem of the Congo River basin outposts be thoroughly solved. And only by solving the logistical supply problem of the Congo River basin outposts could the army be stationed on this land with peace of mind to protect these Spanish people in carrying out the next step of colonial development.

If you want to be rich, build roads first; this is an eternal truth in any region, even in colonization.

As for the problem of whether the railway passing through the Baka people's territory would cause their opposition, no one would care.

If the Baka people opposed it, at worst, they would let this land become ownerless land. As for the Baka people living on this land, actually, the underground was more suitable for them to sleep forever.

10, 00-character long chapter, seeking support! Second day of 10, 00 words a day, and there is still the last day tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)