People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 389 Development

Zhou Liang was excited. His long-cherished ideal had finally come to the point of being put into practice. Although it was a pity that he could not go across the ocean to search for new crops in unknown continents, it was not because the court was conservative, but because the conditions were not yet in place to do so.

Ocean sailing is actually not an easy thing. Xuan Xia and his team do not have mature sailing experience, and the development of sea vessels has only recently achieved results. There are only a few huge ships like this one.

Even if the fleet is of considerable size with the addition of other small and medium-sized ships, it is still far from being stable enough for ocean voyages.

For the sake of safety and security, it is undoubtedly a better choice to first sail in the waters around China to accumulate experience.

This voyage included a large number of academy students and doctors, as well as some court officials, and countless crew members and supplies. The fleet had nearly a thousand people. At least for the world at that time, this might be the largest fleet in human history.

However, this is not the limit. The current voyage is just an attempt to accumulate experience for future ocean voyages.

Zhou Liang knew the court's plan. During this voyage, the court would put a lot of effort into building a larger fleet. As long as this voyage was successful, the next one might be an ocean-going fleet with tens of thousands of people.

Just as he was excitedly imagining the future, he saw several soldiers hurriedly coming towards him carrying something.

When this thing was fully unfolded, what appeared before them was a huge map. Zhou Liang recognized it at a glance. This was the world map drawn by the leader.

Although according to the leader's own words, this map was inspired by heaven, human memory is not precise and therefore cannot be completely correct. Therefore, we should not be superstitious about the details of this map and can only use it as a general reference for direction and shape.

Even so, this thing is still very precious. After all, it is better to have it than not to have it. If they don’t have it, the outside world will be basically in the dark for them.

Then Zhou Liang saw the leader standing at the bow turn around and walk to the huge spread-out map.

He first glanced at the crowd where he was standing and nodded, then used a thin stick to draw a circle on the map. There was a long and narrow island across the sea from the Chinese land.

"This is the first place we will explore. This is the land of Fusang. Most of the people there are uncivilized. There are a few small countries coexisting, especially the Yamatai Kingdom. If you go here, you can hear their customs, understand their people, explore their geography, establish contact with them, and spread the prestige of my Xuanxia doctrine."

As soon as Xu Chen spoke, everyone perked up. Although they had never heard of the Yamatai Kingdom, this did not prevent them from believing what Xu Chen said.

No matter what, naturalism still has the attributes of theism. When Xu Chen, the Pope, started out, he even claimed to be in communication with the way of heaven and to respond to divine revelation. This gave Xu Chen a lot of conveniences. Many things that could not be explained were naturally reasonable when he said them, and no one would doubt it.

At least until now, nothing the leader said was wrong.

Without waiting for everyone to answer, Xu Chen slashed the wooden stick downwards again. There were some small archipelagos here, and there was a relatively large island at the lower left of the archipelago.

"I have named these two places Little Ryukyu and Great Ryukyu. After you arrive, you will also explore the customs and geography of the people."

Everyone nodded again, and the two names were immediately remembered by them. They were not too worried about these routes, because it was obvious that these places were not particularly far away. As long as they followed them carefully, with the current size of the fleet, there would not be any major problems.

At this time, Xu Chen pointed his stick downward again: "I named these islands the Luzon Islands. The people here are still uncivilized, but there are rich varieties of crops. If you investigate carefully, you may find new spices and medicinal materials."

When he said this, Zhou Liang suddenly became energetic. He was no longer sleepy when talking about crops.

There are many meanings to sailing out to sea to explore the outside world. Discovering the products can prepare for future immigration and development, and searching for crops can enrich the species categories of the Ming Dynasty. For example, various spices, sugarcane, minerals, and trees are all things that can generate economic value and are completely worthy of the Ming Dynasty's development.

For an agricultural civilization, if a piece of land cannot generate enough value, or the area is too far away and exceeds the boundaries of the agricultural civilization's rule, then even if the territory is expanded, it will not have much meaning and will only be a burden to the empire.

But now Xuanxia has begun to move towards industrial civilization. Even though this process is just in its early stages, its thirst for raw materials has begun to grow, which will drive Xuanxia to expand outward.

In this era, most of the people outside Xuanxia are actually in a barbaric and primitive state of eating raw meat and drinking blood. As long as Xuanxia is willing, it is not difficult to occupy other lands.

It can be said that Zhou Liang and his people are the pioneers of Xuanxia's future external expansion, and the starting point of this expansion is the places referred to by Xu Chen.

Xu Chen is still steady. He believes that external expansion should be done from near to far. If he can develop places like Fuso, Luzon, and Ryukyu Islands to maturity in his lifetime, it will be a great success.

As for the more distant America and Oceania, it would be satisfying to be able to make a start before dying.

By completing all these tasks, we have left enough foundation for the Chinese civilization to develop for a thousand years. If future generations do not live up to their expectations, we cannot blame anyone else.

"You are the Zhang Qian of Xuanxia. The cause you have pioneered is a great achievement that benefits the entire Chinese civilization. When you return, I will come to greet you personally and give you the highest honor!"

Xu Chen's words made the people on the deck excited. At this moment, their hearts were filled with endless passion and motivation.

In comparison, the great emperors and saint kings of the past were too narrow-minded. Even the Qin Shi Huang and Han Wudi pursued only their own rule. Only the prime minister of today is looking at the entire macro-civilization and the infinitely vast world outside.

"So, go explore. Our Chinese civilization is destined to move towards the stars and the sea, and it all starts with you now!"

After hearing Xu Chen's last encouraging words, Zhou Liang felt his blood boiling and he wished he could travel around the world immediately.

When Xu Chen got off the boat, the fleet soon began the final preparations. As each ship communicated with telescopes and flags, the sails were raised on the masts of each ship.

This was the beginning of the Chinese civilization’s first exploration of the ocean.

(End of this chapter)