Chapter 1189 The First Great Geographical Discovery - Discovering a New World
The sun rises high, the water vapor lingering on the coast gradually disperses, and the scenery in the distance gradually becomes clear. The vast sea has reached the end, showing a vast coastline, extending from one side of the sky to the other,
There seemed to be no end. A continent, a continent that had never communicated with other countries before, suddenly appeared in front of the Ming Dynasty's fleet, quietly showing its grandeur and vastness. Even though it was separated by dozens of miles.
Even from a distance, you can still feel its amazing momentum.
"Your Highness, the latitude is 37 degrees 48 minutes." said a crew member who specializes in measuring latitude.
"Stop here." Zhu Bai stood on the bow of the boat, looked at it with clairvoyance for a long time, and whispered.
It was already July of the fourth year of Jianye in the Ming Dynasty. The place where they were at this time was the outer sea where San Francisco would later be located, and the continent in front of them was the North American continent.
After the fleet set off from Yokohama in late March, they went all the way north, passed through the Japanese feudal lords, collected hundreds of women and dozens of samurai, and continued northward after resupplying in Aomori.
They quickly passed the Thousand Islands and came to Kinning (Kamchatka Peninsula). Here they picked some wild vegetables and hunted some game, marinated the meat, and then set off eastward toward an unknown destination.
In April and May, spring has begun in most places in the northern hemisphere. Even the glaciers in the Northern Sea of ​​Tranquility (Bering Sea) have thawed. Fish and shrimps in the ocean can breathe fresh air through the sea surface. However, this makes sailing more dangerous, and must
Avoiding glaciers that may drift in at any time, the crew members on duty cannot relax for a moment. Part of the crew of the fleet led by Fang Mingqian has come here twice, but there are still a few ships that hit the glaciers and sank to the bottom of the sea, quietly
They have to wait for archaeologists to salvage them several years later.
Finally, they crossed the North Tranquility Sea along the Corridor Islands and saw a vast continent.
When they saw this continent, everyone was stunned. The vast expanse in front of them, even if they used clairvoyance and sailed along the coastline for several days, they would not be able to see the land border, which was enough to reveal that this is a very vast land.
A place at least as large as Japan's Honshu Island.
Fang Mingqian immediately cheered, especially when he noticed that there were no traces of human activity on the land, not even polished stones, which proved that he had discovered a land that had never been set foot on. How could he not be happy?
At that time, he ordered the boat to stop, grabbed a handful of soil and put it into an iron box as his collection.
Zhu Bai was also very excited. This is a large piece of land, and it will be his fiefdom in the future! He can't wait to build a settlement here as the center of his rule.
But he then gave up the idea. The latitude here is too high, the weather is too cold, and it is too difficult to settle here; of course, more importantly, there is endless land in the south, where
There should be places more suitable for settlements on the side.
After that, they went all the way south along the west coast of North America, passing one place after another. They sent crews to collect some plants on the land and then returned to the ship. They continued south and arrived off the coast of San Francisco in July.
Zhu Bai had someone measure the latitude. Although it was equivalent to the latitude of Baoding Prefecture and higher than the latitude of Jingzhou, his former fiefdom, he felt that the weather here was almost the same as that of Jingzhou, so he decided to stop here temporarily.
After hearing Zhu Bai's order, the captain immediately gave an order, and all the crew members prepared for the ship to dock in an orderly manner; dozens of selected soldiers put on armor, held long knives in their hands, and carried bows and arrows and quivers on their backs, preparing to
Set foot on land as soon as the ship docks.
"Your Highness, we have never found traces of human life on land before. It can be seen that this is a deserted land. Why should the soldiers prepare like this." Fang Mingqian walked to Zhu Bai and said.
"There are no people in the places I passed before, so there may not be no people here. Just like Jinning is deserted, but south of Jinning there are people living in the deep mountains and old forests. Although they are just some barbarians who grind their teeth and accept blood, there are also people living here.
The weather is much better than in the north, and it is possible that someone can live there. It is better to be safe," Zhu Bai said.
What he said made sense, and Fang Mingqian stopped talking about it, and instead said: "Your Highness, we have sailed all the way from the north, at least tens of thousands of miles away, and we have sent soldiers to land several times, but they have not found the eastern border.
It can be seen that this is an extremely vast continent; if the east-west width is equal to the Ming Dynasty, then this is a land even wider than the Ming Dynasty! And there is land to the south, which shows that this continent is really too vast.
"
"This land, which is wider than the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, will be the fiefdom of His Highness King Xiang from now on. I congratulate His Highness." Fang Mingqian said finally.
Zhu Bai's face showed a hint of joy at first, but then he immediately said: "Such a large piece of land is sealed to me. The officials will not do this. When he knows that the land here is so vast, he will definitely seal other vassals."
When the king comes, the land that Gu can control will not be very large."
"Now I just hope that the land here is more fertile and can support a large number of people, so that the people who migrate from the Central Plains in the future can have enough food to eat."
Fang Mingqian was about to speak when he heard a "dong" sound and the ship docked in a small harbor. The captain immediately commanded to lower the anchor and hang dozens of ropes from the deck. The soldiers who had been prepared lined up to disembark.
.
Cao Guangxiao was the first to rush off the boat, took a few steps forward, and began to carefully observe the surrounding environment.
The first is whether there are any traces of ship activity. The so-called "eating from the sea" means that if there is a relatively advanced civilization on this continent, then there will be merchant ships, fishing boats or warships on the sea. He looked around carefully and stood on the bow of the ship.
The crew also looked around with clairvoyance in their hands, but saw no other ship except their own, not even a small sampan.
After confirming this, all the selected soldiers had climbed off the ship. Cao Guangxiao greeted him, holding a knife in his hand, and walked slowly inland.
In front of him was a forest that also had no end. Cao Guangxiao carefully observed every plant and tree in the forest and found no footprints or handprints, nor any man-made objects. However, there were traces of fruit picking, which worried them.
It took a while until I discovered that the monkey on the tree had picked the fruit.
Cao Guangxiao carefully observed the tree trunk again and found no traces of felling. After confirming this, he turned his head and ordered the flag soldiers to tell the ship: "No human habitation was found!"