Royal Gold Medal County Magistrate

With an indifferent expression, Fang Zheng looked at Prince Wu: "Your Highness, there's no need to pressure me. The only thing soft about me is... my bones are hard... my corpus cavernosum is hard too."

Realizing his wording was problematic, Fang Zheng quickly added a sentence.

Prudence has always been one of his strengths.

Prince Wu frowned: "I have dined with you several times, trying to recruit you, but your words have always been rejections. Now that you have been captured by me, you still don't know how to appreciate favors. Do you really think I wouldn't dare to kill you?"

"Then kill me."

Prince Wu laughed in anger: "Fine, I'll kill your subordinate first! Someone!"

"Wait! Your Highness, even if you want me to acknowledge you as emperor, you have to give me some time to accept it, right? I've only been here for a day! This is like forcing a cow to drink!"

"Besides, even if I go overseas with you, you have to leave one or two people by my side, right!"

Fang Zheng hurriedly interjected, afraid that Zhou Tie would die here.

People like Prince Wu are likely to kill those who are useless to him.

Seeing Fang Zheng's attitude soften, Prince Wu pondered for a moment and said, "Not bad, what you said makes some sense."

"Indeed, I was too hasty. Once we get overseas, we will have plenty of time to establish our relationship as ruler and subject."

Heh, Mr. Know-It-All! What ruler and subject?

He's far worse than my prospective father-in-law, a completely unsentimental thing.

Fang Zheng secretly despised him in his heart, but said aloud: "Your Highness, according to what you said before, only two of the five fleets have returned. Doesn't that mean our trip is extremely risky? What if we die halfway?"

Prince Wu replied: "That's right, the risk of going to sea is indeed extremely high. Each of my fleets has more than forty ships. Even the two fleets that successfully returned only have twenty or so ships left."

"Since those merchant ships came back, I have been investing a lot of money, recruiting skilled craftsmen to improve them. The ship we are standing on is the new ship after the improvement."

"It is twenty-four and a half zhang long and ten and three zhang wide! Such a giant ship is unique in Da Jing! I believe it is the best merchant ship in the world, and it is perfectly fine to use it as a warship. So the crisis at sea is not to be feared, you can rest assured about safety!"

Prince Wu looked proud, obviously full of confidence in this giant ship.

Fang Zheng didn't think so, and even sneered at it.

Twenty-four zhang is indeed not small! But to say that it can withstand the storms that may occur in the ocean is too arrogant, and it greatly underestimates the dangers at sea.

This ship is still some distance away from Zheng He's treasure ship in Ming Dynasty history.

In his memory, the last one who dared to brag like this was the Titanic...

What was the configuration of the Titanic? That was pure modern technology, nearly 300 meters long, with a body of steel, advanced structure, and steam-powered.

So what? It still sank, although it hit an iceberg, but in the vast sea, who knows how many dangers there are?

This is not Earth, it would not be surprising if a sea monster or Cthulhu emerged from the sea halfway...

Speaking of sea ships, Prince Wu began to talk endlessly again: "I spent countless money, ordering people to search for the top shipbuilding craftsmen from all over the country, with a scale of thousands of people! The cost of this ship alone is more than seven thousand taels."

"It's a pity that I can't operate in the open, and everything I do is more expensive than others. If the imperial court were to build it, four to five thousand taels would be enough."

"There are two more identical ships outside now, and a slightly smaller fleet is waiting for us at the next location. With so many ships escorting us along the way, are you still worried about safety?"

Fang Zheng asked: "Hasn't Your Highness's large-scale shipbuilding been discovered all the time?"

Prince Wu smiled when he heard the words: "I didn't come forward in person. As long as I give enough money, who would care about these things?"

"Eighty miles east of here is a prefecture city called Yuding City. There is a family in the city that has been engaged in shipbuilding for generations. I entrusted them with their identity, and then used money to dredge the government, so things went smoothly."

"Okay, Your Highness's preparations are indeed thorough, but even so, what about overseas? Where are we going? And how do we settle down?"

Prince Wu suddenly stood up and beckoned to Fang Zheng: "Come with me, I'll show you something."

Fang Zheng didn't know why, he hadn't eaten a few bites after chatting for so long!

He quickly grabbed a piece of meat and followed.

Following Prince Wu, he turned to a new room again.

As soon as the door opened, you could see all kinds of items piled up inside. Fang Zheng carefully looked at it. There were candlesticks, tableware, oil paintings... It had a bit of the flavor of Western artworks from his previous life, but it wasn't exactly like them. What was certain was that these things were definitely not items from Da Jing.

Prince Wu strode into the room, walking and saying: "These are the items I have collected from overseas. These things have many differences from the unique things of Da Jing. You can take a closer look."

Not far into the room, Prince Wu walked to a shelf, picked up a parchment scroll, and handed it to Fang Zheng.

"This thing was also found from overseas. It is said to be a map of the world. Although the things inside are painted messily, some parts should be fairly accurate."

Fang Zheng suddenly felt a faint expectation in his heart at this time.

A world map of this world? He hasn't seen the whole picture of this world! Does any country have the ability to draw a world map now!?

He quickly reached out and took it, but he was quickly disappointed when he unfolded it.

This picture is really messy and doesn't make sense!

Judging from the map, the Westerners are obviously very ignorant now. It may also be that the version collected by Prince Wu is too old and too bad. The overall boundary of this map is actually square. The drawing is very detailed and is drawn with sketches.

It's just that there is no mark about Da Jing. The east and south only have large areas of misty areas, as well as portraits of sea monsters, gods and ghosts. Some places are marked with symbols that are very similar to English letters. Although they are very similar, Fang Zheng can be sure that it is not English.

Although he was a scum in English in his previous life, he had a deep research on a certain foreign learning website when he was in school for the sake of his physical and mental health.

In those years, he learned rope rescue technology and fire protection knowledge on the website, such as how to hang up the rescued person without hurting them, and how to correctly rescue a girl stuck in the washing machine.

English subtitles are often seen! You can tell at a glance whether it is English or not.

Judging from the map, although Western navigation is relatively developed, the exploration of the world is far from enough in its current state.

Even this map is far worse than Da Jing's map. There are too many superstitious and fantasy elements in it...

Fang Zheng was looking at it when Prince Wu stretched out his hand and pointed to the upper left corner of the map: "There are many small countries in the West. This place is called Sangjak, an inconspicuous small country. I ordered people to spend a lot of money to buy a large area of land and castles here. Now the second largest lord of Sangjak is me!"

"Thousands of miles away, isn't Your Highness afraid that the money will be wasted?"

"No, I left hundreds of people in Sangjak." A trace of disdain appeared on Prince Wu's face: "Sangjak only has tens of thousands of people, and they dare to call themselves a country. A械斗 of hundreds of people can be called a war. Such a small country is simply ridiculous. When I arrive in person, I will let those barbarians understand what war is."

Prince Wu changed the subject and asked: "I have always had a question in my mind. When Chen Jian and Taoyuan County did business, you left a portrait of him. According to Chen Jian's later report, the painting technique you used at that time was the technique on this map."

"Da Jing has never had such a painting. Where did your people learn it from? Could it be that you have also met these overseas people?"

Da Jing really doesn't have sketches, and it is impossible for Fang Zheng to say that he created it himself.

He can only make up: "That's right, to be honest, I also accidentally met a foreigner and brought him back to the county. This painting method was taught by the foreigner."

Prince Wu's eyes narrowed: "Who is this person? Where did he come from? Are there any other gains?"

Fang Zheng said with a little regret: "There is nothing special to gain. This person's name is Goblin. We only learned after interrogating him that he was being chased by the warriors of that country after he defiled the Holy Maiden of this country. He escaped from abroad with pirates. He also accidentally drifted to Da Jing because of a sea storm."

.....