In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 434: You can try it out

The Imperial City Department of the Capital.

In the hands of Zhao Yurui, the Imperial City Division was changed into two divisions and one guard, including the Jinyi Guards and the Intelligence Division.

Among them, the Intelligence Department was rebuilt on the original address of the Southern Song Dynasty Zongxue.

The Intelligence Department leader is currently Shi Gouer, and the deputy leader is Tan Hai. Tan Hai's other identity is Xiao Kaifeng, a slave merchant in Lin'an City.

The Intelligence Department has a domestic division and an overseas division. The domestic division is divided into domestic and peripheral divisions, and the overseas division is divided into Japan, Korea, Nanyang and even the Holy Roman Empire.

In recent years, as the Song Dynasty has become more and more distant from diplomatic relations with the outside world, there have been more and more branches and characters.

At this time, in a house, the four walls are covered with maps of the world, but most of them are from overseas.

Seven or eight young men were busy in the room, sorting out news and intelligence from everywhere.

Suddenly someone came in from outside.

"Tan, please point it out." Everyone stood up straight and looked at Tan Hai.

Tan Hai walked in the door with a serious face, looked around and said solemnly: "The court wants to choose three people to go to America with a maritime merchant to find rubber trees."

"Has anyone signed up automatically?"

Seven or eight people in the room looked at each other.

The court's search for rubber trees began in the first year of Yuanzhen. Five or six years have passed and there has been no news.

The Overseas Division of the Intelligence Department is also paying attention to these matters. Many businessmen from overseas countries have also been asked for help, but no news has been heard.

There was a sudden silence.

"Ti Dian (referring to Shi Gou'er) has an order. If no one signs up, members of our Overseas Department in Beijing will draw lots. Whoever is drawn will go."

"It would be best if someone takes the initiative to sign up."

Someone in the crowd soon asked: "What if I die outside and never come back."

"Whoever is willing to go to America, the court will support his family, and his son will inherit your position hereditary."

"How to provide support?" someone asked again.

"After signing up, you will be given a one-time living allowance of 2,000 guan. Then, according to the population of the family, each person will be given 20 guan each year and five dan for food." Assuming there are five people in the family, there will be 100 guan each year, plus two Fifteen stones of grain.

"In addition, you will give a penny of your annual salary to your family members until your sons inherit their hereditary positions."

"What if we come back successfully?" someone asked again.

"Promoted to two levels, rewarded with 50,000 yuan, 100 acres of grain fields, tax-free for 100 years, your highest official position will be inherited by your descendants for five generations."

"If you don't want to work in the Intelligence Department, future generations can also become civil servants or military generals."

After finishing speaking, Tan Hai smiled evilly: "I forgot to tell you that there are only two places now, and my son Tan Cong has already taken one."

This Tan Hai is indeed a ruthless person, he helped his son sign up first.

Tan Hai has three sons, and his second son, Tan Cong, followed him in the Intelligence Department. After hearing the conditions, he signed up for his son without saying anything.

This condition from the court is quite generous, because the Song Dynasty has now canceled the Yinbu in the hands of Zhao Yurui, and the descendants of civil servants and military officers are not necessarily officials. Of course, the batch that started with Zhao Yurui does not count. After all, our own people are still own people.

Some policies are aimed at people who are not your own.

Now as long as you succeed and get promoted by two levels, your descendants will be hereditary for five generations. This can be a fight, let alone 50,000 guan of money and a hundred acres of land.

"Fight it up, I'll sign up."

"I'm going."

The scene suddenly exploded. Five out of eight people wanted to sign up.

Tan Hai chuckled and said there was no rush. There were more than just these people in the Intelligence Department. All the people in the capital had to ask. If too many people signed up, they would obviously have to draw lots and screen.

For example, it is required to be able to swim, preferably to have been to the sea, and to be able to read and draw is even more preferred.

When selecting people for the Intelligence Department, they are basically required to be literate and learn to draw, which are not difficult.

On the third day of September, the Intelligence Department selected Tan Cong, Peng Yun, and Zhang Tietou.

The three of them returned to Quanzhou with Pu Shougeng and will travel to America with Pu Shougeng on behalf of the imperial court.

Tan Cong is only eighteen years old now and has only been in the Intelligence Department for more than a year.

He also did not participate in the imperial examination or martial arts examination, because his father Tan Hai had known Emperor Zhao Yurui in his early years, and because of his father's favor, he was selected as an exception.

Therefore, Zhao Yurui's cancellation of Yinbu was also aimed at other people, but he was still tolerant of his own people.

Of course, the Intelligence Department is also a special department and requires people who are extremely trustworthy. Many of its members have family members who are military generals or sergeants in the imperial court, and some have been transferred from the former Imperial City Department.

The reason why Tan Hai helped his son sign up was because he believed that Emperor Zhao Yurui rarely did anything he was unsure about.

In the past five or six years, no one from the imperial court had sent anyone to America, but this time they were actually willing to send someone. This proved that Zhao Yurui had great trust in Pu Shougeng, so Tan Hai also decided to take a gamble. Anyway, he had three sons.

I have to say that Tan Hai is a ruthless person.

But among the three, only Tan Cong has never been to the sea. Peng Yun and Zhang Tietou grew up by the sea. Their fathers were both naval officers. One was stationed in Jeju and the other was stationed as a senior officer. It was rare for them to return home.

On the way from Lin'an to Quanzhou, Pu Shougeng often explained to them things at sea and things to pay attention to.

Of course, some of the experience was heard from Emperor Zhao Yurui.

For example, Europeans at sea at this time were prone to scurvy, but it was relatively rare among Chinese sailors.

The reason is the lack of vitamin C, that is, the lack of fruits and vegetables on the ship, preferably citrus. However, citrus did not spread to Europe until the Ming Dynasty more than two hundred years later.

When Zheng He went to the West, he brought a lot of potatoes and tea, which could be a good supplement for vitamins.

But it’s not enough to bring these. You also have to bring some soybeans to soak the bean sprouts.

Bean sprouts began in the Song Dynasty and are becoming popular now.

Then try to bring as much dried vegetables and orange peels as possible. Dried vegetables are easy to preserve and contain vitamins. The peels of citrus can be used to make tea.

Of course, when Emperor Zhao Yurui and Pu Shougeng talked about it, they didn't say anything about vitamins. They only said that they need to supplement vegetables and soak more citrus peels at sea to prevent scurvy.

A few days later, everyone returned to Quanzhou, and Tan Cong and the others saw the ship Mulan Boat for the first time. The Pu Shougeng family's sea-going Mulan boat was purchased more than ten years ago, before Zhao Yurui ascended the throne, so it was already relatively old.

The whole ship can carry six to seven hundred people and has a solid structure. When he was sailing in the Persian Gulf, because the ship was too big, it could only be anchored at the Shiraf Port at the mouth of the Mante River in southern Iran. The cargo had to be changed to a smaller boat before he could sail west to Euphrates. estuary.

Due to the safety of traveling on the Mulan Boat, many Arab merchants who went to China would rather stock up their goods and wait for the ship to be transferred. When returning home, they often took the Mulan Boat to South India, and then transferred to Arab wooden ships.

But now it also has disadvantages. It is very slow against the wind, so if you want to cross the Atlantic, you must add a jib.

Pu Shougeng ordered the latest large-scale ship made of three thousand materials with a sharp bottom from the Quanzhou Shipping Department, and at the same time asked him to help modify his Mulan boat.

The Quanzhou Shipping Department also gave priority to selling two of the newly built new sea-going ships to Pu Shougeng in accordance with the emperor's decree.

Pu Shougeng's fleet consisted of three ships, two new ships and an old Mulan boat.

Historically, Pu Shougeng's family had thousands of children, but this time it was definitely not thousands, and he did not plan to bring so many people.

The more people on board, the greater the food consumption.

He only took a hundred people with him on the Mulan boat, and the other two ships had 3,000 men overseas. In addition to more than thirty sailors, he also took more than 20 people.

At the same time, according to the emperor's suggestion, he was allowed to bring women from his family members on the ship. If there were no women from his family members, he found a way to buy a dozen women and bring them on board.

Adding up the three ships, there were a total of 120 men and 86 women, about 200 people.

For his big ship, with fewer people, the cargo capacity can be increased. He does not need to carry cargo, that is, he needs to carry enough fresh water and grain, as well as potatoes, soybeans, tea, and dried vegetables.

Ten days before departure, Pu Shougeng took Tan Cong and others to study the route every day. According to Emperor Zhao Yurui's suggestion, the first two-thirds of the trip was quite safe and could be walked along the coastline. Later, Zheng He made seven voyages to the West. It's along the coastline, so there won't be any problems.

What was difficult was the final crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to America. During this period, the narrowest stretch was seven to eight thousand miles, and the widest stretch was more than ten thousand miles.

At this time, except for the multi-masted two-sail pointed-bottomed ships of the Song Dynasty, which had triangular sails and complete longitudinal and horizontal sails, it was very difficult for ships from other countries to cross. First, they were not fast enough, and second, they were unable to withstand huge winds and waves.

Before the two sharp-bottomed sailing ships of the Song Dynasty came out, the fastest sea-going ships were only between eight and ten miles per hour when the wind was downwind.

It would take nearly two months to drive for more than 10,000 miles with a favorable wind.

Once you encounter headwinds, you may not be able to see any land for half a year.

It can be said that except for the Mulan boat, which can hold a year's worth of food, all other ships will only die when they get here.

But the Mulan boat is notoriously slow. If Pu Shougeng had not modified the upper mast, it would have taken three or four months to sail with a full tailwind, and a year if the wind was against it.

If there are a few big storms and heavy rains in the meantime, it will be really dangerous.

Therefore, Pu Shougeng had to minimize the time it took to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The faster the better during this period. He had to count the time and cross the Atlantic Ocean when the wind was mostly favorable.

He also thought of many ways. The Mulan boat was too slow, but its load was heavy and could carry a lot of food. Other boats were fast, but their load was far inferior to the Mulan boat.

In order to solve the weakness of the Mulan boat being too slow, he asked the imperial government shipyard to help transform it into a multi-masted double sail. Then he cut out some unnecessary parts, reduced the weight of the hull itself, and added cargo to increase the total weight, which could also be maintained. stability.

He also added hooks to the Mulan boat, intending to connect the three ships together when crossing the Atlantic.

It is pulled by the faster boat in front. Once it encounters stormy weather, the rope can be cut or broken according to the situation.

Because sometimes in a storm, it is safer for you to huddle together, but sometimes if you cannot huddle together in a storm, you will sink together.

This needs to be determined based on the situation at the time.

Pu Shougeng made various budgets, but the most important thing was to shorten the distance across the Atlantic Ocean.

Zhao Yurui definitely didn't know which side was wider and which was narrower. The map he drew himself also had a large error. Pu Shougeng could only choose a random place to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and he had to try to go northwest.

Because Brazil is in the upper right corner of South America, rubber trees are also concentrated in the Amazon River area.

Pu Shougeng was still very serious, studying how to walk, how to replenish fresh water, and where to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the end. If he went wrong, he just had to go north, and then he had to look for the Amazon River, but how to find this river?

It was so difficult, even Tan Cong and the others thought it was difficult. They had to travel tens of thousands of miles to another strange continent, then find a river with a rubber tree on the riverside, and then take out the seeds and bring them back.

It was difficult to listen to it, but Pu Shougeng was actually very excited and didn't find it difficult at all.

In January of the seventh year of Yuanzhen, after preparing for a long time and celebrating the New Year in Quanzhou, Pu Shougeng took a fleet of more than 200 people, filled with supplies that could last for more than a year, and sailed from Quanzhou rushed into the South China Sea.

Traveling with him was Alidai, a merchant from Persia.

Alidai will send someone to take him all the way to Persia, but the speed of their fleets will not be the same, so they may not arrive together later.

After they set out from Quanzhou, according to the itinerary of ordinary merchants, they either walked along the coast of Fuguang or from Dayuan.

But this time they deliberately wanted to try a long-distance sea route, so they sailed non-stop all the way to Hanzhou without any stops in between, and sailed for more than two thousand miles.

There were tailwinds and headwinds in between. It took less than ten days for their fleet to appear in Hanzhou Bay near Hanzhou City (Manila City).

Alidai who was accompanying him was very shocked because his ship was slower and could not keep up.

Pu Shougeng's three ships were named Quanzhou, America, and Rubber (Mulan Boat).

When leaving Quanzhou, Ali Daiyi was in front. On the first day, he was overtaken by Pu Shougeng's boat. Ali Daiyi chased all the way behind, but Pu Shougeng asked the rubber boat to slowly lead Ali Daiyi's fleet behind.

Three days after the Quanzhou and the America arrived in Manila, the Rubber and Alidai's fleet arrived.

Persian businessmen Alidai and Pu Shougeng had been doing business for several years, and now they discovered that Pu Shougeng's sail was different.

In fact, in the past few years, the official fleet of the Song Dynasty has been running routes from Persia to Japan and Korea.

The ships of the Song Dynasty were relatively fast, as many merchants had discovered.

However, in the Song Dynasty, civilians were not allowed to build triangular sails, and the triangular sails had to be matched with masts and square sails. There are also opinions on how to match them. The court had gone through countless tests, so even if some small private shipyards dared to build them secretly, it would be difficult. Trial flight matching, if caught halfway, everyone will be punished.

The reason why it did not become popular among the people was not only to prevent it from being copied by overseas countries such as Persia, but also because the imperial ships were fast and could maintain an advantage on the trade route, and they were far ahead in the navy.

Pu Shougeng was not as prosperous as in history because a lot of business was done by the imperial fleet. The imperial fleet was fast, heavy-carrying, and very safe, so he could not do much business and could only rely on this desperate effort to survive. Get ahead.

After arriving in Hanzhou City with Ali Daiyi this time, Ali Daiyi asked to see the jib on his boat.

After thinking for a while, Pu Shougeng agreed.

Before he left the palace, Emperor Zhao Yurui also discussed this matter with him. The jib had been out for almost eight years, and the court had been using it for six or seven years.

Many people among the people know it, but they just don't dare to use it, but some people overseas are already imitating it. It won't take long before more and more overseas barbarian ships will learn it.

This thing cannot be kept, so Pu Shougeng no longer kept it secret and asked Alidai to get on the boat to see his sails.

(End of this chapter)