In 3985, on September 12, the third year of Hongwu, the long-distance expedition fleet led by Zheng He finally returned to the Tang Dynasty after two years of hardships.

In order to escape from the Haisong Navy, he went around a big circle when he arrived in Nanyang and walked nearly a thousand miles more.

The moment the withered fleet sailors stepped onto the land with tears in their eyes, they suddenly burst into screams.

"We're back!"

"I'm back to the Tang Dynasty! I'm back to the Tang Dynasty!"

When they set off, they were bright and energetic, but now they were all dressed in rags and haggard.

No matter what kind of man you are, you will not be fully impressed after taking a boat for half a year.

Zheng He, who had already developed a beard, opened his arms and shouted, "Your Majesty! I am back! I am back!"

Before the speech was finished, tears flowed down his face.

When we arrived, there were nearly 1,600 warships, 1,000 sailors, 500 musketeers, and doctors and other personnel.

But now, there are only three warships led by the Luoyang, with only more than 700 people left, and half of them have not come back. They are lucky and have left their ashes. They are unlucky and have no bones left.

With His Majesty’s great blessing, the empress’s chart, and the Tang Dynasty’s leading shipbuilding, star-shaping techniques, compass, navigators, as well as the incredible sailors and sharp firearms, we completed this extremely difficult voyage!

Fighting with the sea, fighting with diseases, fighting with pirates, fighting with storm reefs, fighting with indigenous people…

It's really not easy.

Now that he is back, Zheng He and others are both happy and sad.

"Send the order, fire the artillery! Tell the dead soldiers that we will bring them back!" Zheng He ordered.

"promise!"

In a moment, the ten-pound cannon of the Luoyang roared three times in a row.

The Tang army's Songjiang Army Port Navy, who was alarmed, rushed to greet him immediately, and then the Songjiang County Magistrate...

On September 18th, Zheng He and his group of more than 700 people finally returned to the Tang Dynasty to travel in Jiangling!

The whole line was in full bloom.

The emperor's Dharma Gakuen went out of the city to greet him in person, and the Ministry of Rites also blocked the grand welcome ceremony with the etiquette of the general's triumphant etiquette.

"Have fun!"

The majestic and mighty "General's Victory Order" suddenly rang out loud, without silk and bamboo, only bells, drums, horns, and golden bells.

Amid the loud drums and music, more than 700 people including Zheng He were guided by officials of the Ministry of Rites and walked to Jiangling City Gate under the melody of "General's Desheng Order".

A man in a sky crown dress and a woman in a phoenix crown were surrounded by a group of brilliant ministers like stars and moons, and greeted Zheng He and others with a smile.

The music at this time suddenly changed to the melodious and soul-stirring "The Emperor of the Emperor". The grand bells and drums stopped, and only the loud and quiet orchestral sounds came, accompanied by the distant humming of more than a hundred musicians.

Zheng He and others who had changed their new clothes and had taken a bath and tidyed up immediately pushed the golden mountain and bowed together like a jade pillar, "I... I pay homage to His Majesty the Emperor! Long live long live long live long!"

"Long live long!"

Li Luo did not immediately let them flat, but stood there with a smile, as if waiting for something.

Suddenly, a quiet whip sounded, and the ritual singer of the Ministry of Rites shouted: "Who is the one who triumphant?"

Zheng He replied loudly: "My deputy general of the Great Tang Dynasty, Zheng He!"

The ritual official sang again: "What's wrong with Zheng He's long voyage?"

Officials from the Ministry of War replied loudly: "In 3983, on the eighth day of the first year of Hongwu in the Tang Dynasty, Zheng He was ordered to sail far away, and there are cases to be investigated!"

The ritual officer sang again: "Look carefully, but Zheng He, the governor of Yang Yuanhang, the Great Tang Dynasty, China?"

Officials from the Ministry of War replied: "It's true that it's Zheng He!"

The ritual officer sang again: "The soldiers who participated in the Triumph Ceremony, but have they all gone to sea to be verified? How many people went to sea to be? How many people came back?"

Officials from the Ministry of War replied: "They have been confirmed and registered. There were 1,561 people who went to sea and 769 people who returned!"

The ritual officer sang again: "Can there be a gift?"

"Yes!" Zheng He replied loudly, then took a tray from the deputy general behind him and raised it high: "My minister Zheng He went on a long journey to offer corn, pepper, sweet potato, potato, tomato, peanut, pumpkin and other twelve categories, including corn, pepper, and sweet potato, and tomato, peanut, and pumpkin. I wish my Emperor a good harvest! May my Tang Dynasty have a good harvest and the people have enough food and clothing!"

All of this is of course just a form.

Li Luo and Cui Xiuning looked over excitedly and found that there were small pitiful corn cobs in the tray, sprouted small potatoes, sweet potatoes as big as goose eggs, golden pepper seeds, tomato seeds as big as sesame, and peanuts! Pumpkin seeds!

I actually found it. It's just... it's too small.

The ministers had never heard of these new terms, but they also knew that it was named by His Majesty before, and drew pictures to ask Zheng He to go out to sea to find something.

Zheng He continued to proclaim: "There are still gold objects... without weighing, it is estimated that at least 500,000 taels will be given to His Majesty and the Empress!"

What? There are more than 500,000 taels of gold?

All the ministers were a little dry.

This is gold, not silver!

"Okay!" It was not until this time that Li Luo came forward in person and happily helped Zheng He up, "Zheng He, thank you for your hard work! Let's all be calm!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" More than 700 people stood up in tears, and many of them were holding urns.

Li Luo clapped Zheng He's hand, "It's good to come back, it's good to come back. Alas, it's a pity that there are more than 700 people, and I can never come back again. I... are happy and sad!"

Zheng He burst into tears and bowed: "Your Majesty will live and die, and he will never let down your Majesty's entrustedness! These seeds can survive after trial planting. I will bring back tens of thousands of pounds!"

The ministers in the court were both happy and sad. There were more than 700 people who could never come back.

"You guys! Don't look at the five things that are ordinary, but they are related to the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty and the welfare of the people. They are the things that Laojun pointed out in his dreams! Zheng He and others will find them for a lifetime of death, and they will be of great success!" Li Luo said loudly.

The civil and military ministers put on their clothes and bowed and danced, "Your Majesty is blessed, God helps you, my prosperous Tang Dynasty is not far away!"

"Let's go! Go back to the court! I want to reward the heroes!" Li Luo raised a small dried corn cob, and the dragon's face was very happy. Cui Xiuning was holding a sprouted little potato, radiant.

The strength of these crops is not in terms of yield, but in terms of the requirements for the planting environment are much lower than those for paddy fields and can be planted in barren mountains and wilderness, which can greatly increase the use rate of land and is not as difficult as rice and wheat.

Even if there is no improvement, it can greatly increase the private grain reserves, and at least feed hundreds of millions of people.

In addition, it can also drive the development of side businesses such as fish raising, pig raising, chickens and duck raising, as well as manufacturing industries such as papermaking, sugar making, and wine making. Not to mention other things, corn plants alone are better papermaking raw materials than bamboo.

There are so many benefits to it.

On that day, Li Luo promoted to Guangzheng Hall and issued an imperial edict to grant Zheng He the Duke of Anqing County, and to grant the crown prince Shaobao and the Grand Marshal of the West Pavilion of the Military Advisor.

As a result, Zheng He not only made him appointed Duke of County, but became the second general besides Wen Tianxiang to be named Duke of County for his military merits. He also represented the Navy in the cabinet and entered the military advisor's mansion.

From then on, representatives of the navy also occupied the position of Taiwei in the Military Advisor's Office.

This Xige Taiwei was originally left by Li Luo for the navy and Zheng He.

In addition to Zheng He, all the surviving generals were promoted to two-level military positions in succession, while soldiers without ranks were promoted to three-level military ranks and military positions in succession, and were awarded warriors and were rewarded with money and silver dollars.

Even the soldiers with the lowest rank were promoted to officers of the head level at this time. Most of the soldiers became the chiefs and deputy teams.

In Li Luo's words, all of them will be lifted!

The dead soldiers must also reward their families according to their merits. Those who can have titles and children will follow their children and daughters, and those who have no children will follow their nephews and nieces will follow their nephews and nieces.

If the posthumous title is still not enough, the family will be rewarded with silver dollars ranging from 300 to 1,000 yuan, and the immediate family will be exempted from tax for 20 years. If there are orphans, they can be sent to the Yizhong Courtyard specially set up by the imperial court for upbringing.

Of course, family members can also choose to raise themselves and do not forcefully send them to Yizhongyuan.

The Yizhong Academy is different from the Ci'en Academy. It is an institution dedicated to raising and educating the orphans of loyal martyrs and ministers. It was set up as early as the Haidong era. The earliest group of orphans of martyrs are about to join the Yulin Guard.

This is a way out for Li Luo to imitate Emperor Wu of Yulinlang, specially prepared for the orphans of martyrs and loyal ministers. The orphans of martyrs and loyal ministers, as long as they are young people over the fifteenth year of health, they can join the Yulin Guard.

The Yulin Guard has not been officially established yet, but its setting is not only a youth guard institution, but also a place for further education and one of the channels for official careers.

The young guards of the Yulin Guard belong to both the royal guards and the students trained by the royal family. They must learn literature and martial arts, defend the emperor, and accompany the prince to study and practice martial arts.

The daughter left by the loyal martyrs and loyal ministers left Yizhongyuan at the age of fifteen and entered the palace to be close to the royal family members, which was also a good way out.

It seems to be a preferential treatment. But Li Luo also has a strong selfish intention when doing this. He wants to cultivate a basic foundation that is loyal to the Li family and consolidate the Li family's rule.

Therefore, the orphans have good food and clothing and education. Of course, they have to pay more attention to their loyalty to the emperor and patriotism.

But in fact, since the Tang soldiers who died in battle over the years were very young, most of them had no descendants or even had no family members. Very few could leave behind descendants. The entire Yizhongyuan, the men and women, raised more than a thousand people, were still young.

The soldiers who did not come back were properly handed over the ashes to their families for burial, and the spirit card was placed in the Zhongwu Temple.

Then the Ministry of Revenue issued an edict to properly keep the things Zheng He brought back, select agricultural officials to breed, and plant nurseries.

…………

"Your Majesty, we will walk and stop along the islands of all sizes and sizes according to the island chain chart. We wandered on the sea for seven months, and traveled nearly 30,000 miles before we arrived at that big island! Sure enough, that big island is really big, thousands of miles from south to north, but I am afraid it is not smaller than the Tang Dynasty..."

In Longzhang Palace, Zheng He was talking nonsense, and the only people who listened to Li Luo and Cui Xiuning.

The emperor and the queen smiled, "Where is a big island?" It's just a continent."

"There is a great country on the island. The local natives called their king Yingjia. King Yingjia learned that we were coming and sent troops to the beach to guard, but was scared away by our few guns..."

"Their generals wore golden headbands, had gorgeous bird feathers on their heads, and even their swords were gold. The soldiers used copper weapons... Their face was brown and yellow, with slightly similar facial features to Han people, not like Semi-men..."

Li Luo and Cui Xiuning all knew when they heard this, and this must be the Inca Empire.

In the Middle Ages, the northern and southern prefectures had good civilizations, with more than one kingdom of all sizes. The most powerful Inca Empire was not as backward as the West slandered. At least it would build beautiful large buildings and smelte various metals, medicine, astronomy and calendar, handicrafts, agriculture, music, etc., and it had great achievements, and some aspects were even advanced.

How could a continent with Mayan civilization really be ignorant? This is just an excuse for later Western colonists.

此时的印加帝国,其实已经是比较成熟的奴隶制国家.最大的短板,就是没有文字.可诡异的是,偏偏医学尤其是外科手术医学高度发达.

It's like a serious child.

When Zheng He was happy when he saw His Majesty and the Empress, he said even more vigorously: "Soon after, King Yingjia sent an envoy to welcome us to land with a flag woven by feathers."

"We were worried about ambushing. Seeing that they were numerous and armored, we did not dare to land and take risks. We were afraid of misleading His Majesty's major affairs, so we only took out the things on the painting and asked them to hand them over."

"It turns out that those crops are not wild and wild. They are all grown in large quantities, and they are their main food. So we got something without any effort."

"The king sent people to invite him several times, probably because he was scared by the Tang Dynasty firearms. After repeated attempts, in order to inquire about the situation in this country, I sent two people to follow them. Unexpectedly, there was no news after leaving."

"I can only lead five hundred musketeers to land directly, and arrest a few guides, asking them to take us to the capital of King Yingjia."

"Along the way, many local soldiers holding bows, arrows, swords and guns gathered to surround me. But as soon as I fired the gun, they were shocked and did not dare to resist at all. It seemed that we had the blessing of gods."

When Li Luo heard this, he finally understood why the Spanish colonists could sweep the Inca Empire with just a few hundred musketeers. Because the Incas were very afraid of firearms.

They worship the sun, moon, and stars, especially the sun, and call themselves descendants of the sun. Such nations have instinctive fears of the incomprehensible power of firearms.

"As long as one person was killed by a musket, they would be scattered and shouted, and the morale of the army collapsed. I was relieved and led five hundred soldiers and horses to advance in a swaggering manner to their royal city. King Yingjia performed a grand welcome ceremony to welcome us, for fear of offending."

"They also handed over the two people who were detained. It turned out that they wanted to get a secret of firearms from them. But they couldn't speak, and they kept their mouths tight, and they had no way to do it."

"Good guy, these royal cities are all built with stones, and they are very tall and elegant. There are also various temples with sun, moon, stars and the sun is the most."

"There is a large population in the city, probably less than 100,000 people. I never expected that they would have such a large city."

Li Luo smiled and said nothing. The Inca Empire was at the end of the slave society. According to later archaeology, the population was at least 10 million and the tribes were hundreds of, which was definitely a big country. It is not surprising that the royal city had a population of 100,000.

"What surprised me even more was that they had a lot of gold, and even a child in the city had a gold necklace!"

Li Luo's eyes lit up. No wonder Zheng He brought back so much gold. It's true that the Inca Empire produces a lot of gold.
Chapter completed!