Chapter 1011 The extra man is here to bring advanced productivity to the barbarians

Above the vast South China Sea, a huge fleet of more than 300 large sea ships, led by the compass, rushed straight towards the south.

The sails are full of wind, and they are rolling forward day and night.

In history, until the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He's fleet was only 20,000 to 30,000 people and more than 200 sea ships. Liu Bei's fleet size this time was similar to Zheng He's, but the number of people was half higher.

The main reason is that you don’t have to sail too far, so you can carry more people and bring less supplies. On the other hand, it is also because most of Liu Bei’s ships are generally larger than the ordinary lucky ships in Zheng He’s fleet. Of course, they are incomparable to the “treasure ship”.

Liu Bei's largest ship has a displacement of only 2,000 tons. If the size of the "treasure ship" is as recorded, it is 44 meters long (140 meters), it will definitely exceed 10,000 tons. It is probably a flat-bottomed sand ship.

The sea boats used by Liu Bei were all pointed-bottomed ships. In the era of wooden ships, it was impossible for lucky ships to be built so large, otherwise how deep the draft would be.

In the flagship mast with a small glass round window with an eight-inch diameter, Liu Bei was in the lookout position with no one at all, and looked around with a telescope.

The height of his flagship is about the same height as that of Li Su who sat ten years ago. Although the tonnage of the hull was one-third larger, the stern building was cancelled and the superstructure was leveled, so the view on the deck was not very good.

But the height of the mast is several feet higher than that of Li Su's ship ten years ago. In addition, the sail itself is a source of force. Once the wind speed increases, the mast is easy to tilt forward and shake. The stimulation is similar to the pirate ship project in the playground in later generations.

Seeing Liu Bei like this, the accompanying general was also worried and came to report again: "Your Majesty, please bear with it, you should be able to see the land today."

Liu Bei was stunned: "So quickly? I have only left the Zhuya coast for three days? I haven't gotten tired of seeing it yet, so I'm here to Linyi? Let's go to the dock, I want to see with my own eyes what kind of customs and customs the origin of the Linyi rice produced."

This time, the entire trip from Panyu to Linyi was 3,000 miles, or more than ten days. However, at least 60% of the journey did not have to leave the coast too far.

You can go to Zhuya Island (Hainan) first, and rest for two days in the middle to eat coconut and learn about Li Liao's lifestyle.

Then, from the "End of the World" ruins left by Zhao Yun's Nanzheng 18 years ago, follow the mature route to the south. Take a 1,200-mile long sea voyage and you can reach the protruding position on the easternmost side of the Indochina Peninsula.

It is approximately equivalent to later generations of Jinlan Bay and Nha Trang. After the Han Dynasty destroyed Linyi, a new harbor was built at this location.

Walking like this is the most cost-effective way to avoid going deeper to the Vietnamese coast in later generations, and then turning back east.

Originally, the naval generals were afraid that Liu Bei would be the emperor's honor and would be worried that he would not see the land for three or four consecutive days, and would be afraid that he would lose contact with the Central Plains, and there would be no time to deal with any emergencies.

It is also because of this that when he arrived at Zhuya, Liu Bei transferred a small number of ships to Panyu to ensure that he maintained contact with the Central Plains in order to deal with emergencies of national affairs.

He also sent Zhuge Liang to take that small group of officials to finish the tour ahead of schedule and take the sea to Yangzhou to the front station. After a while, after Liu Bei finished the inspection in Yangzhou, Zhuge Liang did not have to go to Sanhan to continue his inspection. He directly asked Zhuge Liang to go back to Luoyang to assist the prince in charge of the country.

Liu Bei's arrangement is already very obvious: the Prime Minister is his generation, so just assist him. Zhuge Liang is assisting the prince in charge of the country.

Now it seems that these concerns are completely over-concerned. The fleet sails rapidly, more than 400 miles a day, and 1,200 miles a day is just three days, and there is no delay.

After reporting on the itinerary, the accompanying guard advised: "Your Majesty, the wind is shaking hard on the mast, so go down and rest."

Liu Bei waved his hand: "No! Since we are docking today, we have to see enough. I really only realized that marching at sea is much faster than the land cavalry in the long run.

Although the war horses are very fast when they are galloping, they have to rest for a long distance marching, and most of the time they have to take a car. As long as the sails are adjusted, the wind direction will remain unchanged for one or two thousand miles in the vast sea. There is no need to make any more trouble, and they will travel day and night.

The vast ocean can only be understood by seeing it in person. Today I know what the Prime Minister said, "If the sun and the moon move out of it, the stars and the Han will be brilliant, as if they are out of it."

There is no doubt that those few words written in history should have been written after Cao Cao conquered the Wuhuan, but now they are gone because Cao Cao is no longer qualified to conquer the Wuhuan in this life.

Li Su didn't want to be a copywriter, but just "rescue-discovery" the disappearing things, so he picked up a few sentences when he was watching the sea. Otherwise, it was purely for displaying literary talent, and later generations still have so many poems describing the sea, so who can't copy Li Su?

Liu Bei sighed for a while, and soon he heard another exclamation from the mast top, as if he had seen the land and was about to approach the port.

After all, the observation deck that Liu Bei was waiting for was not at the top of the mast. It was too dangerous to stand under the dangerous wall. Therefore, Liu Bei's vision was a little worse. He glanced forward for half a quarter of an hour before he saw the land appearing on the sea level.

Liu Bei was also relieved and happy when he saw this scene of land appearing again on the water and sky line for the first time.

After landing, Liu Bei saw that the gap between the local buildings and the Central Plains was not too big. The local governments and dock buildings were all ordinary wooden and stone houses, but the houses that the poor lived in looked different from those of the Central Plains.

The extremely poor people in the Central Plains lived in wooden beams and columns, and thatched huts made of earth. When they arrived in Linyi, the mud walls were almost invisible, either stone walls or pure wood walls.

In order to avoid the humidity in the low-lying areas, many wooden houses also use wooden piles to fill a little height, so the ground has to be covered with wood, which is more plentiful than the extremely poor homes in the Central Plains.

After all, the earthen houses in the Central Plains have no floors, so it would be nice to raft the earth on the ground in the house.

"The people's livelihood in Linyi County is not worse than that in the Central Plains. Buzishan has done well in recent years. Today, it's finally true."

Liu Bei nodded in praise, although he was just an understatement, the officials accompanying him knew that Bu Zhi would definitely be rewarded for his good governance.

The emperor's commendation is not casual, it is all legally effective.

The local receptionist quickly explained: "This place is more humid, bitter and hot than Dianzhou in the central central area, so the soil is used as the wall to absorb too much moisture. People live in it not only heat up, but also increase humidity.

Fortunately, the wood grows very fast in hot places. Although it is too bad and not straight, it cannot be used for use. It is also a place to build a house. There are also many dewormed fragrant woods, which can be used for the government and officials. Now, tens of thousands of them are transported to the Central Plains every year, and they are carried by sea ships."

Liu Bei nodded and asked a few more questions, mainly to understand the local trade exchanges with the Central Plains. He learned that in addition to a large amount of tropical wood, the main plant spices in the local area are cardamom somum.

There are not many other rare things, such as rhinoceros horns and ivory peacocks, because they cannot expand production on a large scale. It is impossible to breed those animals in this era.

The only exception is corals. There are already a large number of seabed corals near Cam Ranh Bay. Even later generations of Li Su went to Nha Trang, Vietnam to visit local corals, which are similar to those in the Coral Bay in Pattaya, Thailand.

When Liu Bei's fleet arrived this time, he actually saw many buoy wooden towers fixed with huge anchor stones and anchor chains outside the harbor.

At that time, Liu Bei also asked Li Su what they were, and later he learned that it was used to mark the location of the coral reefs to prevent fishermen who were picking corals from returning in the vast sea and coming back, they would not be able to find the place next time.

Of course, these buoys in later generations were all made of plastic, but the Han Dynasty obviously used it was wood, with iron chains in the water and large stones at the bottom.

During the picking, the indigenous fishermen dived down with a wooden barrel covering the opening with a leather bag. A raw painted cow intestine was used as a breathing tube. The air in the barrel could maintain breathing for several minutes.

This airtight technology was invented more than 20 years ago when Zigong Well salt was mined in Yizhou, and it was invented for the sake of natural gas. It was nothing more than used for the transmission of natural gas at that time, and now it is used to scuba for diving operations and breathing.

The local coral beds are not too deep, at most seven or eight feet, and the shallow ones are only three or four feet. This little oxygen is enough. It is not enough to use force under the water. It is still inefficient to cut corals with a small crane-mouth shovel and shovel.

However, even such a craft is still the Han colonists. It is not until the government comes that they teach the locals how to produce.

Not to mention the retreat for twenty years, even ten years, when a large number of Han people from northern Jiaozhou had just settled here, the local natives did not have any advanced production technology, and they relied on their lungs to hold their breath and pick corals.

Basically, corals with water depths exceeding three meters can only be watched, and they float up and down dozens of times before cutting down a little coral branches. This has led to corals being very expensive in the Central Plains, and later became the target of Shi Chong and Wang Kai’s fight for wealth in history.

In the past decade, corals have been sold at a price almost a year, and corals in the Central Plains have dropped by two-thirds, and the level of luxury goods has also been greatly reduced, which is the result of Linyi's production capacity upgrade.

Liu Bei had never seen any of these tropical industries and was in great interest. He temporarily asked to live ashore that night.

However, this request scared the accompanying officials, and even Li Su personally persuaded him: "Your Majesty, Linyi County is hot and humid, and poisonous insects and miasma are rampant. It may be inappropriate to go ashore. Your Majesty, as a northerner, is afraid that he will not adapt to the local conditions."

But Liu Bei insisted repeatedly, but finally made a compromise under Li Su's persuasion: this time, he would not stay on the shore for the time being, and would linger on the boat for one or two nights, but he would go ashore during the day to inspect.

On the other hand, a Clipper was sent to inform the next stop of Chameng and Funan was temporarily changed. At the same time, Linyi also stepped up construction, using 100% deworming incense wood to build several houses, and it was to be built on a high platform to avoid ground moisture.

Li Su dared to agree so because he was considering that it was the end of the first lunar month, even the tropics were not very hot, and the insects were not at the most rampant season. If it were after the third lunar month, he would never dare to let Liu Bei take this risk.

After the arrangement, Li Su shook his head secretly: Liu Bei was considered a person who could play among the emperors. As the emperor of the Central Plains dynasty, it was a big eye to see the tropical scenery of Nanyang in this life. There are still things that have never been eaten, used or played.

No other emperors in ancient and modern times could have achieved this kind of enjoyment. Qin Shihuang, Emperor Yang of Sui was extravagant, but he had never seen these things.

Liu Bei knew that it was for his own good, so he agreed.

For nearly a month after that, the fleet's itinerary was also very fast, because the Prime Minister ordered that the Chameng, Funan and Langya repair areas must be completed within one month of February, and the journey must be returned. After the end of February, before returning to Panyu Port in Nanhai County, Nanhai County, which was in the Central Plains, it is absolutely not allowed to approach the port on the shore.

Liu Bei hurriedly inspected the remaining three newly conquered areas. Among them, Chameng was considered part of the original territory of the pseudo-Linyi Kingdom, which was handled by Zhao Yun twenty years ago.

Funan and Langya Xiu are theoretically still independent countries, but before Taishi Ci died, he occupied territories in Bangkok, the later generations of the Gulf of Siam, and built ports in Peking University. Funan and Langya Xiu also obediently surrendered to the Han Dynasty and temporarily served as vassals.

The local countries are still in a relatively primitive state, so there is no clear land boundary, which is similar to the situation from the Shang Dynasty in the Central Plains to the early Western Zhou Dynasty - that is, the country does not care much about the clear possession of territory, but is more concerned about the possession of population.

Isn’t this the case in the early Western Zhou Dynasty? The emperor’s feudalization was mainly roughly defined. The key to the founding of a country was the population, and it was necessary to gather a large group of people. The best proof was that Zheng State could move the people to establish a country in another place at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

The people of Funan today are the same. They do not have the developed ability to navigate and shipbuild, and even if they go to sea, they are still small wooden boats and do not require port conditions. When the Han people came, Taishici said that they wanted to occupy a deep-water port, so the locals sent it directly and traded with the Han people.

When Liu Bei saw these results, he didn't feel anything. However, after witnessing them with his own eyes, Li Su thought to himself: Isn't this the same as the Portuguese established the Port of Goa there after Da Gama arrived in India.

After the nautical and trade civilization arrives in a new region, it is enough to establish ownership of a trading port, and it is not pursuing a large number of occupation of inland territory for the time being. Climate differences and the horror of tropical rainforests, before adapting to medical conditions, going deep into the inland is seeking death.

In Funan and other places, Liu Bei finally lived in a temporary palace on the shore as he wished, which was able to relieve the fatigue of taking a boat for several days and relax.

All palaces made of incense wood were built on the soil platform of a five-meter-high foundation. There was also a radius of incense barrier of dozens of meters away from the outside. It was neither too close nor too far. The smell of fireworks scented the emperor. It was not too far away. It put the insects in one sparse.

Living in the Xiangmu Palace of Gaotai, you can also look out to see the locals of Funan and Langya Xiu pick coconuts there, plant pepper and cardamom, and then load them on Han merchant ships and transport them back to the Central Plains.

It was the first time that Liu Bei knew that the spices such as pepper and cardamom needed to be very "labor-intensive" during the harvesting stage, which was similar to growing cotton. So Li Sucai suggested promoting them locally and letting barbarians grow them to avoid the hard work of the Han people.

The common characteristic of these crops is that in the same field, the difference between fruits and flowers is relatively large during the ripening period, so during the harvest period, you have to go around the fields every day and pick the newly ripe ones.

Unlike growing cereals and vegetables, basically a batch is cooked almost at the same time, or the harvest is not sensitive to the maturity period, and it is okay to pick it a few days later.

After these spices are mature, they will stay on the branches for a few more days. They will either rot or the fragrance seeds will fall off. A bunch of cardamom pods can only be picked three or five of them that have just been ripe every day, and I will pick a few more tomorrow.

In comparison, pepper is slightly easier than cardamom, because pepper is ripe or slightly undercooked, at least it can be eaten. The cooked ones are white pepper, and the uncooked ones are black pepper.

(Note: Black and white pepper is the same variety, but it is in different maturity stages)

This kind of harvesting stage is very labor-intensive, but the sowing stage is relatively easy. Crops that only need to be stocked naturally in tropical rainy environments are indeed very suitable for barbarians. The Han people should plant things that require careful cultivation in the early stage but are easy to harvest.

"It seems that Ziyi's legacy is quite large. For these places, we should indeed slowly conquer them, and we should not just use martial arts to conquer them."

After Liu Bei's inspection, he also expressed his sincere feelings.

Finally, he had only a little doubt, so he came to Li Su to discuss.

This problem is actually nothing. Liu Bei found that in recent years, the growth rate of spice trade has been a bit exaggerated, with a rise of several percent every year. In the past ten years, the amount of spice used in the Central Plains has increased by ten times.

However, the decline in spice prices is not as obvious as those of coral pearls, which can be sold out. Could it be that the people of the Central Plains have really become extravagant because of peace for a long time? How many such luxury goods can be sold out as much as they are.

Li Su didn't care and signaled Liu Bei to take action: "Your Majesty, every time you sell a stone of spice, the imperial court's tax on maritime merchants is no less than thousands of coins. More than a decade ago, the largest spices were transported back from Southeast Asia, only a few thousand stones to ten or twenty thousand stones a year.

Now it has generally increased to 50,000 to 100,000 shi. The court has drawn nearly 2 billion commercial taxes on this alone, which is ten times higher than a decade ago. When Cao Cao was first destroyed, the national commercial tax was only 60,000 to 70 billion yuan in one year, and after integrating Kanto, it rose to nearly 9 billion yuan.

Nowadays, the commercial tax is 14 billion. Among the increase, spices contribute one-third. Is it better for your Majesty to see that it is successful? As for the huge increase in usage, this should also be related to the more developed trade.

More than ten years ago, only farmers around Luoyang, Chang'an dared to grow all vegetables without food, sell vegetables and buy grain to make a living. Now, all the big counties with more than 500,000 people in each state dared to do this.

After the convenience of interoperability, wealthy households among the people naturally need to try specialties from farther places. Decades ago, perhaps a powerful county could only eat meat and vegetables produced in the county. Now Yangzhou people can try the specialties of Yizhou, so naturally they need spices to cover the flavor and keep fresh and anti-corrosion.

Those who use these spices are rich families who are willing to spend money to open their eyes and try them out, which just happens to equalize the rich and poor for the court and alleviate the differentiation of the people. Even if you are encouraged, just."

Liu Bei thought about it and it would be better not to crack down on luxury consumption. It would be more beneficial to the country to let rich people spend money instead of buying more land and profits.

This spice trade can still be encouraged, and the complete erosion of Funan Kingdom and Langya Xiu can also be used as a long-term national policy to gradually strengthen operations.

After setting this tone, Liu Bei had basically had enough fun in the local area, and the weather was also changing, so he had to return to the north.
Chapter completed!