My Daming New Empire

Page 735

Dozens of aborigines brought from the north have different languages, so they can’t be used as informants. We have no choice but to continue to use the most primitive way to get in touch with them bit by bit.

These people make a living by fishing and farming, and alpacas provide them with food and clothing.They know how to make pottery, but they can only burn the crudest pottery. They know how to dry salt, but they only have bitter coarse salt.They don't know how to weave, only a kind of sackcloth that is woven by hand from bark and hemp bark, which is unbearably rough.

Facing the fine linen of Daming, even if it is that kind of fine linen, they regard it as a treasure and are very willing to trade with us.

The eunuchs in the inner prison have learned to be profiteers, and all the goods they shipped have almost increased by a hundredfold, but these natives still can't put it down.

Their life is very hard, but there is no shortage of gold, and even the child's neck is hung with a collar made of gold.

They are willing to exchange gold of the same weight for a piece of muslin, and the ceramic bowls we usually use for eating are treasures in their eyes.

It's a pity that he doesn't know the function of tea, so he has no preference for tea. As for the most expensive silk, because it can't protect against cold, they don't like it very much.

When we took out the solid ironware, this made these natives go crazy. They didn't have ironware, and they even used fire to burn stones to roast meat, and then used clay pots to cook soup.

But we don't sell ironware, as long as they work for us in exchange.

Without too much hesitation, they were willing to work for us. When they used their iron picks to dig up the rocks and exposed the peat underneath, they all knelt down and kowtowed to us.

I don't know what the reason is, until our boats are filled with peat, and those generals can communicate with them briefly. They regard us as gods. "

"October 28. Strong wind. In just eight days, we sailed more than 2000 kilometers. On our left side, there is a large snow-capped mountain that can't be seen.

This is the first time I have seen snow-capped mountains. Except for a few general officers who have been to the Western Regions, most of the entire fleet has never seen snow-capped mountains.

For this strange scenery, we stayed here for two days, and then as soon as we landed, we saw the stunning glacier.

I have never seen such a beautiful scenery, and I never thought that the glacier is not white, but a sapphire-like light blue, which is extremely charming under the sun.

It is a pity that we have not found traces of human existence here, and it seems that no one has ever been here except us. "

"The sixth day of November. Rain. On this day there was a thin mist on the sea, which came from between the countless mountains and valleys of the mainland on the left. The messenger ship responsible for measuring the coastline has been sailing along the coast.

They told me that this is not a whole continent, but a group of islands composed of islands.

In order to record the terrain here, our speed has been reduced a lot, but the time is limited, we only recorded the general terrain of the seaside, and did not go deep. "

"November 25, sunny. After seeing more than two hundred islands and endless snow-capped mountains, everyone has become numb to this magnificent scenery. The fleet is close to 57 degrees south latitude, and we have shifted eastward by about Two longitudes, which also means that we have finally reached the top of the southern continent of Dongzhou."

"November 27. It's sunny. Although the weather these days is good, the strong wind makes people feel uncomfortable. It's still summer. If winter passes here, it must be extremely difficult.

This is already 57 degrees south latitude. According to the globe marked by His Highness, this is the southernmost point of the entire earth, and the entire earth is exactly separated from the distant Ming Dynasty.

At this time, I really miss Zhenfang who is far away on the other side of the earth, [-] miles away, but the distance can't stop me from missing Zhenfang.

Other soldiers like to find local aboriginal girls to solve their needs after experiencing the monotonous and difficult years at sea, but I prefer to dilute my impulse with my longing for Zhenfang.

Humans are different from animals because they have deeper morality and self-control. I want to see what level of extremes I have.

Recently, the atmosphere on the ship has become more and more depressing. Every day, the sun sets at midnight, but comes out again in less than two hours.There is almost no night here, it is all day, which makes everyone's spirit exhausted.

As the former army of the fleet, I finally heard the traces of people from the messenger ship.

The continent here is no longer a mountain range, and has become flatter.But such terrain also increases the difficulty for ships to dock.A second-tier warship ran too close to the shore and ran aground.

Although there is a watertight cabin, the ship will not sink, but half of the peat has to be unloaded to maintain balance.

These days, the natives who traveled with the fleet talked better and better. They volunteered to land and began to communicate with the natives on the island. "

"November 29. Sunny. The contact with the aborigines here is very smooth. The aborigines here are very friendly. They lit a bonfire on the ground to welcome us.

But compared to the aborigines in the north, they are poorer.

Although the terrain here is vast, it is not suitable for farming. There are only pastures everywhere.

The people here fished, herded sheep, hunted for a living, they had no gold, they wore furs, they didn't have anything we wanted.

But there are many strong native girls here, people here can't raise too many children, and they are willing to sell girls to us.

Many people have exchanged cloth and long knives for pretty girls. These are only kept by the internal supervisor and deducted from their salary at that time.According to the inner prison's internal pricing, half a month's salary can buy a young girl.

This made many people very happy, and some didn't even think about taking them back, just wanted to try something new. "

"The third day of December. Overcast. Just as we were about to leave, the commander of the fleet, Commander Liao, caught an unknown cold.

His illness caused everyone to panic, and the fleet started a blockade, not daring to drop by at random, and not daring to go to sea. "

"December 31th. Light rain. Two things happened on this day, which made me sad and happy. The sad thing is that Commander Liao did not survive this sudden illness, and even the commander and Zhi Fangtong died with him. The entire fleet lost [-] people. But everyone else was safe.

The good news is that this temporary fleet is drawn from various armies, and most of them are from Habayashi Eyaku.Because only we can skillfully control the steam sailboat.

Without a leader, we, the chief executives of Habayashi School of Health, organized a meeting.Thanks to the reputation left by my father, the others looked at me highly and chose me as the commander of this fleet.

Although this is only a temporary position, being the commander of a fleet of 5000 ships and nearly [-] people is still something I never dared to expect. "

"December [-]th. Clear. We cremated the dead soldiers and collected their ashes. The damaged ship has been repaired, and I have sent an order to set off early tomorrow morning. All the native girls bought by the soldiers are still here for the time being." it's here.

On the return trip, if they are still willing to go back to Daming with us, we can bring them with us. "

"December [-]. Overcast. After bypassing the top of the southern continent, the fleet turned into a headwind. However, this did not affect us much, but the speed of the ship was slower, and the consumption of peat was also greater. .

The sea area we are walking now is the west side of the Atlantic Ocean that we have traveled through, facing Xizhou across the sea.This is also the dividing line between East and West.

The terrain on the mainland is flat, and there is an endless prairie. However, after experienced farmers go ashore, they find that the land here can only be used for grazing and cannot grow food. "

"Dec. 23. Heavy rain. We got caught in a big storm and were forced to sail back to a bay we found the day before to get out of the big storm.

But no one thought that there was an open-pit peat mine right by the river in this wasteland.

This day is already a new year, and the soldiers are inevitably homesick.We decided to rest here for a period of time, and then continue north after the new year. "

"December 29. Sunny. There are so many wild animals in this wasteland, bears, foxes, and many strange-looking monsters that cannot be named.

After a few days, we hunted a large number of animals. Although some of these prey were delicious, we couldn't finish them. We could only burn salt on the spot, marinate the meat with salt and then air-dry it.

I also counted the wine stored on the ship. Except for the high-grade wine reserved for disinfection, I allocated [-] catties of the remaining wine to make all the soldiers have a good year. "

At this time, Yang Dao was still a young man who had just married, and his heart was full of longing for the future.However, he didn't realize that he would face an extremely cruel journey next.

The main reason why the Atlantic Ocean became the natural barrier between Europe and America during the great voyages was the unpredictable weather here.

Although it is much smaller than the Pacific Ocean, the height of the waves, changes in currents, and erratic weather here far exceed that of the Pacific Ocean.

What is more terrifying than the weather is the terrifying poison in South America.

Let's turn our attention to the base camp of the expedition team again. After the first expedition failed, Hou Xian no longer had too high aspirations, but made down-to-earth preparations.

He no longer uses the distance on the map as a standard, because many seemingly short distances are actually impossible to pass.