Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 554 Eastern Expedition to Goguryeo

The day after Xiang Zhuang rushed to the Dantu naval camp, Jiang Ji also returned from Panyu.

Hearing that Jiang Ji's navy had arrived in the open sea, Xiang Zhuang went to meet him at the pier in person. After waiting for half an hour on the pier, a black spot finally appeared on the vast river in the east. As the distance approached, a ship The broken ship with broken masts, broken sails, and even several large holes in the sides finally appeared in the field of vision.

Looking at this dilapidated "Chu boat", Xiang Zhuang couldn't help feeling a little sad.

When Jiang Ji set off from the Dantu navy camp two years ago, Jiang Ji's naval fleet had a total of one hundred "Chu ships", and they were all large ships with pointed bottoms and warped bows. Ten ships form a team, and they are divided into ten teams to explore the South American continent. Xiang Zhuang is forced to do so because of his limited navigation skills at this time.

Although there is a Pacific Ocean chart that he falsely claimed to be drawn by Tuo Meng, the chart is very general after all. How many islands there are in the South Pacific Ocean and the exact location of these islands, Xiang Zhuang can never draw them, and Sinan's accuracy is also not enough. It is not high, and there is a big problem in the accuracy of the pointing. As a last resort, Xiang Zhuang can only divide the fleet into ten groups. What he thinks is to plant a wide range of crops and get a small harvest.

This is a very simple probability arithmetic problem.

Due to the limitation of navigation technology, the survival probability of a hundred Chu ships traveling in a group will never be much higher than that of ten Chu ships going out to sea. Xiang Zhuang estimates that a half chance of survival is very good, but if If the fleet is divided into ten teams, then the probability of the successful return of the fleet will immediately increase to [-]%!

Fifty percent, this is already a very high probability!
Xiang Zhuang has never expected the sailors to return in one piece. All he needs is a few ships or one ship to return. As long as the sailors can bring back sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn, this great sailing adventure will be completed.

However, when Xiang Zhuang saw that there was really only one road and only one sea-going ship returning home, he still couldn't help feeling sorry for him. As an emperor, Xiang Zhuang had already seen life and death, but he couldn't help feeling sad about what happened to the navy. I still feel a little guilty. If I wait a few more decades to sail, most of this loss can be avoided.

But to be honest, Xiang Zhuang can't wait any longer. He is eager to introduce the three crops of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn to China in the shortest possible time. He is eager to see the population of the Huaxia people explode. He would like to see the Huaxia tribe achieve effective rule over the Far East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia in his lifetime!

The broken boat slowly approached the pier, and Jiang Ji hurriedly stepped down the gangway, only to see that he was dressed in rags, unkempt, his eyes were sunken deeply, and the pupils were even more bloodshot.

Xiang Zhuang almost didn't recognize him at first glance. This is... Jiang Ji? !

"My lord, Jiang Ji, the commander of the navy, kowtows to His Majesty!" Jiang Ji fell to his knees.

"Kowtow to Your Majesty, long live..." The sailors behind Jiang Ji also knelt on the ground.

"Jiang Aiqing is dead." Xiang Zhuang hurriedly stepped forward to help Jiang Ji up, and said to the rest of the soldiers, "All soldiers, hurry up and get flattened..."

After a few hasty condolences, Xiang Zhuang asked eagerly: "Jiang Aiqing, have you ever been to the Far Eastern Continent?"

Jiang Jichang sighed, and replied with a gloomy expression: "I don't know if it is the Far Eastern Continent, but I have indeed been sailing southeast according to the navigation chart given by the king. After sailing for nine months, I finally arrived at a new continent, and found the things that the king said."

There were a lot of difficulties during the period. At this time, Jiang Ji seemed to be speaking lightly and delicately, but Xiang Zhuang could fully imagine how thrilling these nine months were, the huge storm in the Pacific Ocean, the wild men and beasts on the desolate island, and The panic caused by the lack of supplies in the vast ocean is fatal for everything.

But Xiang Zhuang obviously couldn't care less about comforting Jiang Ji, and asked eagerly, "Where's the stuff?"

Jiang Ji turned around and waved, and six sailors lifted three rattan baskets from the boat. Xiang Zhuang looked intently, and found that the baskets were indeed the things he had dreamed of, half baskets of potatoes, half baskets of potatoes. There were still half a basket of corn kernels in the potatoes. Xiang Zhuang grabbed a handful of potatoes and a handful of corn kernels, looked at them, smelled them, and finally couldn't help laughing.

Jiang Ji didn't know why, so he said cautiously: "My lord, I originally brought a full hundred baskets, but a few months before Panyu, there is really no food on board, so..."

"It's okay, it's enough, it's enough." Xiang Zhuang waved his hand nonchalantly, then turned his head and told Danyang County Sheriff standing behind him, "Zhou County Sheriff, you go back and make arrangements immediately, I need the most fertile land in a hundred acres , we need a hundred of the most experienced old peasants, and send another thousand government soldiers to listen!"

"Here!" Danyang County Sheriff took orders and hurried away.

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Two months later, until the field grew seedlings and potato sprouts, and then moved the sweet potato seedlings to the ground, and arranged for Danyang County Sheriff to take good care of the ten mu of fertile land, Xiang Zhuang returned to Luoyang full of enthusiasm, but four months later , Xiangzhuang will come again, and the sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn sown at that time are almost ripe.

Back in Luoyang, Xiang Zhuang began to arrange for the use of troops against Goguryeo.

At this time, although it has only been two years since the unification of the world, places like Guanzhong, Yandi, Qidi, and Huainan have not even fully recovered from the trauma of the war, but the new Chinese Empire can't wait to launch a large-scale war. Goguryeo was the first target of the Huaxia Empire in the foreign war.

In the same period of history, the Han Empire took nearly a hundred years of recuperation before finally accumulating enough national strength, and then began a 50-year war against Hungary. However, the Chinese Empire in this time and space has advanced this process by half a century. Even though the struggle between Chu and Han in this time and space lasted longer, the national power of the Huaxia Empire was far beyond that of the Han Empire.

This is due to Xiang Zhuang's national policy of encouraging scholars, farmers, and businessmen. After 30 years of development, the original Chu State and the current Huaxia Empire have a large-scale industry and commerce. Thanks to the back-feeding of agricultural technology, the counties under the original Chu State had bumper harvests year after year, and the grain stored in the two warehouses was piled up like mountains.

As for why the handicraft industry will feed back agricultural technology, the reason is very simple, because the handicraft industry will absorb a large number of middle-aged laborers, and these middle-aged laborers will inevitably have an impact on agriculture if they join the handicraft industry. Find ways to produce tools, which gave birth to the development of agricultural technology.

For example, deep cultivation technology based on iron rake, such as water wheel, well irrigation technology based on water wheel, intercropping technology, crop rotation technology, etc. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the scientific research institution that Che is in charge of, the agricultural technology has developed by leaps and bounds.

There is sufficient money and food in the treasury, coupled with the reward mechanism for military exploits, the newborn Chinese Empire has a strong willingness to use troops abroad from the emperor to the common people. A military general wants to make military exploits and get the rewards he deserves. As a commoner, he also hopes that his children can obtain military exploits.

The Great Qin Empire in history, under the encouragement of the farming and warfare system, was a deformed and huge war machine. The new Chinese Empire developed more comprehensively in various levels such as soldiers, agriculture, industry and commerce, and its war mobilization ability was definitely not inferior to that of the Great Qin Empire. The empire's farming and warfare system, the ability to continue the war is much stronger.

Therefore, large-scale external expansion is inevitable.

As for why Goguryeo was chosen as the first target of the crusade, it was also carefully considered.

First of all, Goguryeo is close to Liaodong, and the distance is not too far. Secondly, Goguryeo is a farming civilization, unlike nomadic peoples such as the Huns and Yuezhi. The most important point is that Goguryeo is in a period of expansion and rise.

As long as Goguryeo is destroyed, the remaining enemies in the Far East, whether they are the Wuhuan people, Xianbei people, Fuyu people or Jizi North Korea, will no longer be able to challenge the Chinese Empire. Of course, at this stage, it is only possible to conquer. It will take some time to realize effective rule over the Far East in the true sense.

Today coincides with the Great Dynasty of the beginning of the month, and hundreds of officials gather in the Fengtian Hall of the newly completed Dahua Palace.

On the magnificent hall, Xiang Zhuang, the first emperor of the Chinese Empire, sits on the throne, and under the jade steps is the imperial case of Prince Xiang Zheng. Xiang Zheng is wearing a five-clawed dragon robe, which is exactly the same as the dragon robe worn by Xiang Zhuang. The crowns on the heads of the father and son are the same, they are all twelve.

Xiang Zhuang is making rules in this way, and this is the real prince of the country.

The reason why Xiang Zhuang did this was not only to establish the authority of the prince, but he also had far-reaching considerations, because Xiang Zhuang felt that the historical succession system to the throne had great flaws, and the prince could only be selected from among the heirs of the current emperor. , the choice is small, it is difficult to guarantee the quality of the next emperor, not to mention, sometimes there will be gaps in the gap!

If the current emperor dies violently and the young prince ascends the throne in a hurry, the problem will be even more serious, and it is possible that the imperial power will be interrupted. There are countless precedents in history where turmoil occurred because of the young prince, such as Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, for example, Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty Xiandi, and the most notorious one is probably the one who listened to politics behind the curtain in the late Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, Xiang Zhuang was determined to abolish this unreasonable system of succession to the throne. In any case, there should be no emperor who was not yet full and had no experience in participating in politics. The great right to speak is Xiang Zhuang's first step.

Xiang Zhuang's eyes swept across the faces of the officials, and finally fixed on Xiang Zheng's face, and asked: "Prince, do you have a suitable candidate for the general who will command the army to conquer Goguryeo?"

(End of this chapter)