Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 444 438. First Contact

"General, look quickly, that must be Izu Island!"

Pang Lin, Zhuge Zhi and Ding Feng each led dozens of ships and set out from Zhoushan Island, heading south. After only a few days, they saw the huge island isolated in the sea.

After more than a year of preparation, the shipbuilders in the Jiangdong area were organized and gathered together by the government to discuss, modify and test the performance of seagoing ships. Following some ideas given by Feng Xi, they finally succeeded in converting the tower ship into a seagoing ship.

First of all, the biggest problem with the tower ship is that the upper and lower centers of gravity are extremely unstable, and it is easy to capsize when encountering wind and waves. Jiangdong General Dong Xi has demonstrated this with his own life.

Therefore, Feng Xi's suggestion was very simple. He simply deleted several layers of the huge bridge of the building ship, leaving only one layer, and then expanded the area below, turning the originally towering building ship into a sturdy turtle.

But the advantage is that the center of gravity is lowered and the hull is wider, so there is no possibility of it capsizing directly due to wind and waves.

After all, the tower ship travels between the Yangtze River and various lakes, so the width of the river, the draft depth, and the problem of running aground on reefs have to be considered. However, there is almost no need to consider these when sailing on the sea, so stability is naturally the main focus.

After all, there were no pirates in this era pushing cannons to fight the Han army, so what the Han army needed was a troop transport ship, a sea ship that could carry a large number of people. As for the ships used for exploration, they were designed by Feng Xi according to the requirements of the clipper ship.

This type of ship has a small hull and many sails. With the help of wind, it can travel at extremely high speeds, even up to more than ten knots. It is truly perfect for exploration.

This type of ship was originally used to transport small and light items such as tea. However, there are few civilizations in the world today and there is no need for trade. Therefore, when designing the cabin, only a small number of warehouses are needed to store some rare items, and the rest of the space can be used to store water and food.

This kind of ship is perfect for long-distance exploration.

"Is this Izu Island? It does look like a place with lush forests and mountains, and it's quite a fairyland."

Pang Lin raised the telescope in his hand and looked at the distant Izu Island. Although there was civilization on Izu Island at that time, it was still a tribal culture, basically equivalent to savages who ate raw meat and drank blood, so the scene of building a city that the few people imagined was naturally not seen.

As the large ship docked, the Han soldiers took small boats to travel back and forth between the shore and the large ship, and landed on Izu Island, which had never been visited by anyone before.

It must be said that the islands of this period were full of natural beauty that had not been touched by humans. Locals? Wild people were also part of nature. They did not even know how to burn forests and open fields. They were still in the stage of utilizing nature.

"Explore around and keep a distance between each team. According to the Grand Commander, there should be native savages on this island. Be careful of their sneak attacks."

General Panglin III commanded his sailors to start exploring carefully. Their primary goal was to find a suitable place to build a city and a good port for docking ships.

Although Izu Island is worth developing, the Han Dynasty's shipping technology has not yet been popularized for civilian use. Moreover, even in Jiangdong, which is excellent in water skills, there are few people who are proficient in maritime affairs. Therefore, the development of Izu Island can only be discussed in the future. At present, the task that Feng Xi has assigned to Ding Feng and the other two is actually to declare the core.

As long as we build a simple base and then slowly migrate here, wouldn't it be a paradise isolated in the sea? Although there will be no obvious returns in the short term, it will definitely be a good thing in the long run. At the very least, it will help the Han Dynasty expand its territory.

The three generals naturally didn't have to do it themselves. They brought more than 3,000 people with them. According to Feng Xi, if the 3,000 people could be beaten and fled by the natives, they would just find a place to cook pasta and eat it. Although the three didn't know what pasta was, they knew that if they couldn't beat the natives, they would probably become a laughing stock when they returned. So they were very careful since they landed on the island, and even gave each team of soldiers a wooden whistle. If there was an unexpected situation, they would blow the wooden whistle to facilitate the support of the teammates around them.

"Beep beep beep!"

Not long after, a whistle sounded. The three generals looked at each other, and immediately agreed to take 500 people to support at the same time, leaving the remaining 1,000 people to protect the ship.

"What happened?"

By the time the three generals arrived at the sound of the whistle, the surrounding Han troops had already been attracted. Needless to say, the Han army naturally trained just like they did in daily life, with swords and shields in front and bows and crossbows in the back.

Although the three generals led sailors, the Han sailors were well-known for their excellent armor and good surface combat rather than naked underwater combat. Moreover, they were at sea, the sea was ruthless, and there were countless unknown dangers underwater. The Han army even ordered that it was forbidden to go to sea to fight easily, so even the former Wu surrendered soldiers who were incorporated into the Han army learned from the Han army and began to wear leather armor on the deck and use swords, shields and bows and crossbows.

"General, look! These are the native savages!"

After a few soldiers pointed, the three men saw what was happening. A dozen savages holding spears and wearing "clothes" woven from leaves and vines to cover their bodies were shouting at the Han army in an unknown language.

"What were they talking about?"

As Pang Lin was from Jingzhou, he naturally didn't understand a word the other party said. What the other party said didn't seem to be human language, but meaningless roars.

Several people looked at each other, no one could understand what the other party said, so the two sides were deadlocked. It's not that the Han army can't deal with them, there are only a dozen natives, three or five Han soldiers can kill them all, but Feng Xi said before they came that if possible, it would be best to educate them to become Han people.

Therefore, the three of them hoped to communicate with them before being attacked.

These natives saw that they had been shouting for a long time, and the other party also said something they couldn't understand, and the two sides were like talking at cross purposes, so they couldn't help but feel discouraged.

The natives seemed to be gathering more and more, and now there were more than fifty of them. It seemed that before the three men arrived, someone from the other side had gone back to their settlement to tip them off, and those who came now were support.

However, among the hundreds of Han troops present, there were nearly a thousand Han troops scattered throughout the entire Izu Island. The "spears" of these natives were nothing more than sharpened stone pieces stuck on wooden sticks and wrapped with vines. They were obviously not very strong or powerful, so although the Han army was alert, they did not act rashly.

The two sides stared at each other for a while before a voice was heard.

"People, are you guys?"

(End of this chapter)