Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 663 Overseas Situation

Sun Xiangfu's guess was correct. The fleet responsible for exploring South America had already landed on the South American continent several months ago. With many preparations, they didn't even take too many wrong roads. It took them less than five months to cross the Pacific Ocean. Among them, there were still nearly two months to explore whether the sea conditions along the route were suitable for sailing, although the sextant in their hands could not do very well. Accurately calculate the latitude and longitude, but the ocean is so big, they only need to know a rough idea.

Therefore, the fleet arrived at the South American continent in early March and began to sail along the periphery of the continent. Whenever they encountered a suitable place, they would go ashore to explore from time to time. The city-state made contact.

The Mayans of this period were in the classical period, the most prosperous period of Mayan civilization. Although they did not form a unified regime, they owned hundreds of city-states. Among them, a city like Tikal had a population of nearly 20. In terms of civilization, the degree of civilization in all aspects is no longer inferior to that of the pre-Qin period. In terms of architectural art and calendar calculation, it is even better than that of the Qin and Han dynasties, but it cannot be compared with the current Tang Dynasty.

The situation was the same as Zhao Long had imagined in advance. Everyone in this coastal city-state did not understand Chinese, and there was no one in Zhao Long's fleet who knew the local language. Communication became a big problem at first. After the big steel ship Zhao Long and the others rode and the excellent equipment they wore, it was impossible for the king who ruled the city-state to say that he had no hostility towards them.

The king in the city-state felt that he had more than [-] people, so he would definitely be able to keep these guys from overseas here for them to study slowly.

However, the reality gave him a slap in the face. After the twenty large Baotou Steel ships were divided into two teams, one team was led by Zhao Long and the other team was led by Zhao Gang. Each team had only ten ships and more than 1000 people. , but these more than 1000 people beat nearly [-] Mayans to death with almost no injuries.

When the hot air balloon that can fly in the sky was lifted into the sky, the local people thought that they had offended the gods, and they crawled on the ground and did not dare to look up. After that, the battle could not be fought.

Zhao Long successfully became the new ruler of the city-state, while the original king was driven by him like a dog, searching for anything he was interested in in the city-state.

Potatoes were the first thing they got in their pockets. This is the staple food here and can be seen everywhere, but it made Zhao He, a farm boy who came with the fleet, very excited.

It's a pity that the locals don't know much about other native species. They don't have many of the species designated by Sun Xiangfu. For example, peanuts native to Brazil can't be found in their city-state, like tomatoes. The locals only use it for ornamental purposes and do not eat it. There are peppers, but there are no corns. Rubber trees are even more impossible to see in the city-state.

Because of the language barrier, Zhao Long couldn't interrogate people in the city-state. According to his estimation, no one in this city-state had traveled three thousand miles away.

Therefore, many things still need to be done by themselves, and they need to search and explore more deeply.After all, even in Datang, the group of people who specialize in the study of plants and crops were cultivated by Sun Xiangfu after he traveled. The natives, like the previous people in Datang, did not care much about these plants and the trees growing in the deep forest. .

Not long after staying in this city-state, Zhao Long led the fleet to set sail again. Even Zhao Long didn't bother to ask for all kinds of exquisite utensils in the king's warehouse that were regarded as treasures by the locals, but there was absolutely no Datang in the city. A stele was erected in front of the luxurious royal palace of an ordinary wealthy family, and then, after beheading a few natives who dared to approach and touch the stele, they walked away.

There are words on the stele, but those Mayans can't understand it at all, and Zhao Long didn't bother to explain to them that the meaning of the words on it is "The first state city in South America of the Tang Dynasty, the territory of this stele is [-] miles away, all under the rule of this state, It is the inherent territory of the Tang Dynasty. In the eighth year of Zhenguan, on the eighth day of April, General Zhao Longli of Zhenhai of the Tang Dynasty. '

Thinking about it, those local people should not dare to touch this stele for a period of time. This habit of erecting a stele was developed under Sun Xiangfu's education in the early years. Now, when he goes overseas, he sees Where there is no sign, he will think of setting up one. There are special carving craftsmen on board. The tools in their hands can easily carve hard granite. When returning to the voyage, if Zhao Long passes by here, he will definitely come to see it. Look, if the stele is still there, then it is good to say that if the stele is moved, at least he will kill thousands of people to establish his prestige, and then erect the stele again.

The fleet sailed around the nearby coast for more than half a month and drew a lot of charts before leaving. Zhao Long is now very confident. If he returns, he only needs three or four months to return to the mainland of Datang.

So, they still have about a year to explore and search for species in South America and the adjacent North American continent.

Since then, there has been such a fleet of Baotou Steel sailing along the coastline of the South American continent. In the following eight months, they have launched many in-depth explorations of this continent and battles with the local city-states. Of course, a lot of steles have been erected, and the number of people has decreased from about 800 to 500. There are very few cases of direct deaths in battle. The number of dead is more.

In the twelfth lunar month, which is the current time, the fleet stopped in a bay in North America.

Due to the long-term voyage and several in-depth explorations on the shore, the supplies they originally brought on board have almost been consumed. Various weapons and arrows have also been fought many times, and there are not many left. As before, he blatantly went to various city-states to grab things. Of course, because of such a long time of exploration, Zhao Long has a lot of understanding of the local situation.

On board, there were more than 200 local aborigines captured by Zhao Long from various city-states. They could not communicate at all at the beginning, but now they have learned simple Chinese. It is already very good to be able to communicate with Zhao Long and the others. .

Through them, Zhao Long learned that there are hundreds of city-states in the South American continent alone, and there are at least tens of millions of Mayans living there. In North America where they are now, there are also various slavery regimes. Returning to the voyage, Zhao Long no longer dared to easily clash with them.

"How is it? Have you found out what the natives eat?"

Seeing Zhao He, who was sweating profusely, carrying a bag and kicking from the diving board to the deck angrily, Zhao Long asked.

Zhao He opened the bag a little excitedly, held a bright yellow thing, and said to Zhao Long, "Not only did I find out, but I brought it back directly. This should be the corn that the head said."

"It's corn, so why don't you get some more? Didn't you hear from the headmaster that this stuff has a high yield and is a staple food comparable to rice and wheat?" Zhao Long grabbed the bag and took out a dried corn The stretched corn on the cob looked at it carefully.

"You don't know this. The local people don't understand advanced agricultural technology, and they just barely know how to grow this corn. In terms of its current output, compared with the rice field planted by the master, it is not a big deal. High-yield, it belongs to the most basic original species that has not been optimized. We only need to bring some back for the head to study and improve the species. I have someone pack a bag for each ship, which weighs hundreds of catties! Seeds It’s enough to plant hundreds of acres of land, if there is more, I’m afraid the locals will be alarmed.”

Hearing this, Zhao Long nodded and said, "In this way, have the main tasks of our trip been completed?"

After Zhao He tied up the bag of corn, he shook his head and said, "Not yet! There is also something called sisal, I have to look for it."

"Sisal? Is it better than our Tang Dynasty's mulberry and flax?"

"It's natural, the head said, this thing is the best raw material for making hot air balloons, and we at Datang will use it in many ways in the future, such as our boats."

"What's the use of having that thing on board?"

"Sisal has great elasticity, strong tensile force, salt-alkali resistance, and wear resistance. It is much stronger and more durable than our current hemp ropes. It is said that the fishing nets he made can even be used all year round, unlike our red hemp ropes. If the net is fished for three days, it needs to be dried for two days, once it gets wet, it will not be used for long, and it will be damaged and unusable.”

"How do you know this? It seems that I didn't hear your grand master say this!"

"I asked here. People here are already using this kind of hemp widely. We only need to find a sisal plantation in a wild village, and we can get a lot of it."

"Then what are you waiting for, let's get it done quickly! After finishing it, we should also prepare the supplies for the return flight." The two agreed, and they began to gather people and went ashore to look for it.

In fact, the reason why sisal was deliberately listed by Sun Xiangfu is because it has many other functions. First of all, it is a natural ecological restorer. It has strong resistance to heavy metal pollution and is also resistant to pollution. The soil has a certain repairing effect.

In addition, its hemp dregs can be used to make alcohol, oxalic acid, pectin, anesthesia, and can also be used as medicine. Later generations of contraceptives are made of anesthesia. The most important thing is that it is combined with rubber , can greatly promote Datang's industrial progress, all kinds of machinery, tires, and conveyor belts need to be made of it. With these two things, Datang's development of steam engines has almost no difficulty in materials, even in later generations , my country has introduced a large number of sisal plantings, and is also increasing the import of sisal year by year. It can be seen that it has a wide range of uses in industrial society.

Sun Xiangfu naturally doesn't know the situation overseas. In his opinion, Zhao Long can complete more than 60.00% of the species collection that he explained this time, which is already a huge victory. Unexpectedly, they actually collected all The main species are all collected.

And after he sent off the guests of Changsun Wuji, Datang finally entered the holiday mode. Yu Xiuer, who had been busy in Jiangling City for several months, was able to return to Jiuyuan County to reunite with him, and then entered a doom Teach children a lesson, in an endless loop of persuasive persuasion by the side.

(End of this chapter)