The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 817
"Open the sea?"

Zhen Yan looked surprised, he didn't understand what Xu An meant by opening the sea.

The sea is vast and boundless, no matter where it is placed, there is no ban, why do we say "open the sea".

Xu An didn't even need to look at Zhen Yan's expression to know that Zhen Yan absolutely didn't understand Kai Hai's meaning.

"You always talk about the world, but do you know how big the world is? What is the world?"

How big is the world, what is the world?

Zhen Yan's eyes were serious, and she didn't know how to answer Xu An's question.

Xu An did not expect to get an answer to the question from Zhen Yan's mouth.

"There are nine fields in the sky, and nine states in the earth."

"Beyond Kyushu, there are eight chus, and outside of eight chus, there are eight chus."

Zhen Yan raised her head and looked up at Xu An.

He knew the source of what Xu An said, the first sentence came from "Lushi Chunqiu", and the second sentence came from "Huainanzi".

"Within Liuhe, between the universe, it is for the world."

Xu An raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist.

"Actually, there's nothing wrong with that."

Xu An looked down at Zhen Yan and said in a deep voice.

"It's just that this statement is too general and too vague."

"Where is the eighth? Where is the eighth? Where is the nine fields? Where is the four seas?"

Xu An asked four questions in a row, and Zhen Yan knew one answer to these four questions, that is, where is the world.

To the east of the Bohai Sea and to the east of Qingzhou is the East China Sea. The East China Sea is vast and boundless, and there are fairy mountains overseas.

Xu Fu wrote a letter saying that there are three fairy mountains in the sea, Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou, where gods live.

So Qin Shihuang sent Xu Fu to lead thousands of boys and girls, as well as the food, clothing, medicine and farm tools that had been prepared, to go to the sea to seek immortality by boat, which cost a lot of money.

It is recorded in "Liezi·Tang Wen".

To the east of the Bohai Sea, I don't know how many millions of miles, there is a big ravine, which is actually a bottomless valley, and there is no bottom below it, which is called Guixu.

The waters of the eight corners and the nine fields, the streams of the heaven and the Han, all flow into it, without increasing or decreasing.

In addition to the East China Sea, there are three seas, the South China Sea, the West Sea, and the North Sea, which together with the East China Sea envelop the world.

The South China Sea is the south of Jiaozhou, stretching as far as the eye can see, with choppy waves.

The West Sea is in the west of the Western Regions, and the Silk Road runs through it. It is said that there are many countries further west, and there is also an ocean there.

As for Beihai, according to records, Su Wu used to herd sheep in Beihai, probably in the north of Mobei.

But when Xu An asked, he was not sure about his answer.

He always felt that what Xu An asked was not that simple, and the answer he thought of must be wrong.

Xu An stepped aside, allowing the map to reappear in front of Zhen Yan.

"The map in front of you depicts the true appearance of this world."

Zhen Yan stared at the map in front of him. He had seen this map before, but he didn't know what was painted on it, and he didn't dare to look at it carefully. His mind was on Xu An, wanting to know whether he could become an official businessman. Worried about Zhen's fate.

"This is where our Huaxia is."

Zhen Yan looked towards the center of the map in the direction Xu An pointed, and he noticed from the very beginning that there were only areas with two colors.

One area was painted dark yellow, and the other area was fiery red. The dark yellow area was obviously much larger, covering the fiery red from the north and west.

Looking at it now, then this should be the territory map of Hamming today.

Zhen Yan looked at the map in front of her, feeling a little lost for a moment.

"I'm a big man... No, my Huaxia only occupies such a small place?"

Zhen Yan originally wanted to question the authenticity of this map, but then he remembered all kinds of rumors about Xu An.

Xu An has always been shrouded in a fog, his rise was too sudden and too strange.

Just like a sage who is born with knowledge, he not only knows soldiers and governs, but also knows many other aspects of knowledge.

Since Taipingdao rose, defeated Dong Zhuo, and occupied Zhongzhou.

Everyone found something wrong with Taipingdao, and also discovered the amazing combat power of the Yellow Turban Army, so the Embroidered Clothes Messenger and the Charm continued to infiltrate, wanting to understand what happened inside Taipingdao.

The two courts of the Han and Wei Dynasties officially began to study the Taiping Tao in an all-round way after Xu An founded the country.

In addition to the fact that the political system cannot be changed, the Han and Wei courts are learning from the Ming Dynasty in various systems.

Military, equipment, health, even law and education.

Xu An participated in the writing of many books in Taipingdao, and was even the editor.

For example, "Hygiene Manual", "Da Ming Law", "Infantry Exercise Code", "Enlightenment Mathematics", "Enlightenment Physics" and so on.

There is no way to steal books with strict confidentiality such as "Infantry Exercise Code", but widely popular books such as "Health Manual" and "Enlightenment Physics" inevitably flowed into the Han and Wei countries.

After all, almost every student in the Meng School has a copy of the textbooks, as well as the books and periodicals distributed to Ting Township, no matter what they can't keep it secret, even some of the training methods of the Yellow Turban Army have been known.

As one of Wei Ting's top masters at that time, Zhen's naturally obtained many rubbings of books.

Zhen Yan learned to read and write at home since she was a child, and was exposed to various ancient books. Zhen also invited famous teachers to teach them knowledge.

But the things recorded in the books that leaked from the Ming court were things he had never seen or known, and the practice also proved their authenticity.

Xu An is really like a saint who was born with knowledge, and only Huang Tian's incarnation can explain it. How can a mortal body know such a thing?
Open a military academy, set up a workshop, and build a hospital.

And those unheard-of new equipment even surpassed the original Mohism.

Zhen Yan put away all doubts, he already believed that this is the real world.

Reopen the Western Regions and deter Xi Rong.

Conquer the Three Koreas and subdue Dongyi.

Nanding Baiman is considered a barrier.

The Northern Expedition Xianbei, divided into three provinces.

Classifying Monan and Mobei as provinces and directly under the central government is something that no one has ever been able to do, but now the flag of Ming Dynasty is indeed flying in northern Xinjiang.

Although the Ming Dynasty has not yet unified the world, Xu An has already accomplished achievements surpassing most of the monarchs of the past.

As long as the world is unified, then Xu An can definitely become the monarch with the highest achievements in the history of China, even the achievements of Emperor Qin and Han Wu will be inferior.

Using the contradictions and divisions within Xianbei to make them fight against each other, and sending troops to Xianbei at the most critical time, they completed their efforts in one battle, completely wiped out the remaining forces in Mobei, and completely included Mobei in their territory.

Set up provinces, move the tribes of Xianbei to the south to weaken the people, and move the people of China to the north to strengthen the territory.

I heard that the captured males of the Xianbei tribes were either sentenced to labor camps or incorporated into the army.

The name of its army is "Beifu", and there are a total of [-] people newly recruited into the army.

However, even though it was an army, it was not equipped with weapons, and it seemed that Ming Ting did not plan to place the Beifu Army in the northern border.

"Hahahahaha."

Xu An couldn't help laughing at Zhen Yan's question.

When Yan Zhong saw the world map, the first sentence he asked was whether they only occupied such a small place.

What the generals and officials of the old Taipingdao line sought was to liberate the world, unify the thirteen prefectures of the Han Dynasty, establish the world of Huangtian, and make the world peaceful.

But the Liangzhou faction was not satisfied with this. The wars in Monan and the Western Regions brought them benefits.

At the same time, their consistent thinking also affects them.

There is a saying in "Historical Records: The Chronicle of Qin Shihuang": "Within Liuhe, the emperor's land."

During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, under the Putian, could it be the king's land; on the shore of the land, could it be the king's ministers.

During the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty held prestige and led all the nations. Under the sun and the moon, they were all courtiers and concubines.

Everything seems to be taken for granted, China should be the center of the world, it should be the most powerful country in the world, almost no one has the slightest doubt about this.

Under Pu Tian, ​​could it be the land of the king?

It means that every inch of land in the world, there is no land that is not the king's land.

No matter whether it is a powerful family or an ordinary person, they all have a certain sense of superiority. In their view, the surrounding countries are just barbarians, without their own civilization, and not yet fully civilized.

The aristocratic family was deeply influenced by Confucian culture because of their education, and this aspect was even more serious.

So Zhen Yan's first reaction when he saw the map was why they only occupied such a small land, and he couldn't believe it.

The Liangzhou faction in Taipingdao is the most radical faction in the Ming court, and their proposition can be summed up in two words—expansion.

Thinking of this, Xu An's mouth twitched involuntarily.

Those generals and officials of the Liangzhou faction in Taipingdao are all hawks among the hawks, and they can't rub the sand in their eyes.

Not long ago, Xu An received news from Guo Tai from the Western Regions that the war with Dawan had officially broken out, and Jia Xu also led the Liangzhou Army into the Western Regions.

Because of the war in Jizhou before, Xu An considered that once he led his troops into Jizhou, what would happen in the Western Regions, and he would not receive the news in time, which delayed the opportunity of the war.

So Xu An authorized Jia Xu to act cheaply, and to lead troops into the Western Regions to cooperate with the Western Regions to fight when necessary.

The letter Guo Tai sent was very simple, and the reason for the war was also very simple. On the border between Dawan Kingdom and the Western Regions, a settlement was plundered, which proved to be the work of Dawan soldiers.

This kind of thing was very common before the Ming army arrived in the Western Regions. After all, Dawan Kingdom was so powerful that the Western Regions dared not speak out.

But after the Ming army took control of the Western Regions, the direction of the wind changed, and the plundered country immediately reported to Guo Tai, requesting to deal with it.

Guo Tai was also unambiguous. He sent envoys to Dawan Kingdom to ask him to hand over the murderer and return the property.

The ruler of Dawan Kingdom naturally refused, and drove the envoys sent by Guo Tai out of Dawan Kingdom.

After Guo Tai and Jia Xu had a brief discussion, they decided to directly attack Dawan Kingdom.

Xu An is very clear about Guo Tai's character. He also asked Guo Tai to focus on maintaining stability and not to provoke Dawan Kingdom for the time being.

Without the help of Jia Xu and the Liangzhou faction, Xu An would never believe it.

But it's too late to say anything now, the war in the Western Regions has already started, so we can only beat these militants in the future.

With Jia Xu here, plus five thousand elite cavalry from the Wuxiang Battalion, a group of Liangzhou cavalry, and fierce generals like Zhang Liao, Yan Liang, and Wen Chou, there is not much suspense about the war in the Western Regions.

According to the battle report sent from the Western Regions, the strength of Dawan Kingdom is much weaker than expected.

Zhang Liao led the [-] Wuxiang Battalion into the northern border of Dawan Kingdom, almost as if there was no one in it, and even defeated the main force of the Dawan Army in one fell swoop, beheading its leader and general.

When Guo Tai subsequently led the Allied Forces of the Western Regions into the Dawan Kingdom, he did not even encounter any decent resistance.

If the reinforcements from the Guishuang Empire hadn't arrived in time to support them, the Dawan Kingdom would have been destroyed by now.

"There are many places in the world that are still uninhabited, let alone countries."

"Today, there is no country with a wider and richer territory than ours."

Xu An didn't give up any more, and said straight to the point.

"I am going to set up ports along the coast of Youzhou and Jizhou to open up trade."

"I know that your Zhen family has a lot of sea-going ships, so I want your Zhen family to operate the maritime trade from the Bohai Sea to Haidong Province."

"As for the caravan on land, it will temporarily supply the three provinces of northern Xinjiang. I will leave some places for you on the Silk Road in the Western Regions. You can make preparations for these matters now. The Zhongshu Office will contact you for specific matters."

"In the future, your Zhen family must focus on shipping."

Zhen Yan looked at the territory of Mingting on the map, the place Xu An just pointed to was the original Sanhan, but it has been liberated by the Ming army now, and now it has become the Haidong province of Mingting.

"Sea freight..."

Zhen Yan's face changed slightly.

"Reporting to Daojun, although my Zhen family has a lot of seagoing ships, most of them are sailing in the near sea, and the far sea is huge..."

"I know."

Xu An already knew what Zhen Yan was going to say.

"I, Taiping, have already produced seagoing ships that can sail in the ocean. You don't need to worry about these small things. I, Taiping Road, have three shipyards in Liaozhou Province. When the time comes, your ships can be sent to the shipyard first. At the same time, you can also buy sea-going ships in the shipyard.”

"Another advantage of government and businessmen is that you can get the ship first and then pay at the shipyard. Of course, you will be charged a certain amount of interest. The money will be allocated for you by the Ministry of Accounts, but there are conditions. When the time comes, you will go to the officials of the Ministry of Accounts. Negotiations, I won’t talk about it.”

"promise."

Zhen Yan couldn't get in the conversation at all, so she could only promise in the end.

"By the end of next year, I hope you will have at least fifty ships at sea."

"because……"

Xu An walked up to Zhen Yan and knocked on the table next to Zhen Yan.

"At the end of next year, I need you to deliver food and armor for the army."

Xu An's eyes fell on Qingzhou.

The Han army is now deploying heavy defenses along the Yellow River, using the method of wrapping bricks to reinforce the city walls, so that the role of counterweight catapults will gradually become smaller. It has been in operation for a long time, and if it is forced to attack, it may cause many casualties.

So this time, Xu An wasn't going to follow the rules.

(End of this chapter)