After hearing Yunxi's words, Fang Mingqian stopped talking about Fuso and continued: "After I led the fleet to leave Fuso, I continued to sail north along the eastern coastline of the island that Fuso calls Honshu Island."
"I led the fleet to sail for about ten days and arrived at the northernmost part of Honshu Island, a place called Mutsu."
"Originally, my fleet was resting, but one night I suddenly heard shouts of killing outside, and the noise was quite loud."
"I immediately put the soldiers on alert. It took a long time until dawn to stop the shouting of killing. Then the local daimyo from Fuso came to see me and said that the Ezo people from the north came to harass me, and now they have been beaten away.
"
"I didn't take it seriously at the time and continued traveling northward to leave Honshu Island."
"After leaving Honshu Island, there is a large island to the north, and there are some Fuso villages on the seaside. I learned from these villages that they call this island Hokkaido Island."
"But the further north I lead the fleet, the fewer Fuso people there are; on the contrary, the more people Fuso calls Ezo people."
"I inquired about them carefully and found out that the Hokkaido Island that the Fuso people called was actually their place, but Fuso kept invading them to seize it, and demoted all the Ezo people they captured into slaves."
"I then led the fleet back to Honshu Island to explore the truth of the matter. In the end, I determined that not only Hokkaido, but also the northern part of Honshu Island was originally a place where these self-proclaimed Ainu people lived, but Fuso continued to invade them.
, seize their place.”
"Then what did you do in the end?" Yunxi asked excitedly.
Of course, Yunxi was not excited because he knew about the Fuso people's invasion of the Ainu people. He had known about it in his previous life, so there was nothing surprising about it. The reason why he was excited was because he knew from Fang Mingqian's words just now that Hokkaido was at this time.
It is not yet the territory of the Fuso people.
That is Hokkaido, the best horse breeding base in East Asia in later generations. Hokkaido is geographically far north and isolated overseas, which is very suitable for large-scale horse breeding. If Hokkaido can be controlled, all horse breeding places in the mainland can be abolished.
.
Fang Mingqian said uneasily: "Your Majesty, I made a decision without authorization at that time: to mediate the war between the Fuso people and the Ainu people."
"I said to them: 'Don't mention the rights and wrongs of the past. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty sent me out to patrol the world, just to make all the countries live and work in peace and contentment and eliminate the possibility of war. The three Ryukyu Kingdoms stopped the war after the late emperor's decree.
end.'"
"'Now the two of you, use the sea water in the middle of the island as the boundary, and stop your troops. From now on, the Ainu people are not allowed to go south, and the Fuso people are not allowed to invade the north.'"
"Both the Fuso people and the Ainu people agreed at that time, and each called back all the men on the opposite side. They stopped fighting. Afterwards, the Ainu people said they wanted to thank His Majesty for his kindness, so I had no choice but to take a few people with me.
Its leaders. Now these people are also placed in the Fanguan of the Ministry of Rites."
Yunxi suddenly realized: "It turns out that the leader of the northern barbarians mentioned by those people from the Ministry of Rites is the Ainu."
Fang Mingqian knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me."
Yunxi asked in confusion: "What's your crime?"
Fang Mingqian said: "I accept tribute from foreign countries without permission, please punish me."
It was only after Fang Mingqian finished mediating their war that he realized that this was tantamount to admitting that they were both countries of the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, how would you have the position to mediate?
However, he accepted tribute from foreign countries without authorization, and Fusang was fine. Yunxi had already confessed to it, but Yunxi, an Ainu, had not. If he did something that was not in line with Yunxi's wishes, he would soon be in trouble. Fang Mingqian simply confessed directly.
easy to understand.
Yunxi understood Fang Mingqian's thoughts and said with a smile, "What's your crime?"
Although this sentence was exactly the same as the previous sentence, Fang Mingqian immediately understood that Yunxi was showing that he would not punish him. He felt relieved, but he still knelt for a while before standing up.
Yunxi asked: "Do these Ainu people have a king?"
Fang Mingqian said: "Your Majesty, these Ainu people are just like the Jurchens in the northeast. They are just tribes with no country and no king. If they had not faced the invasion of the Fuso people, they probably would not be what they are now.
Such unity.”
"In addition, the Ainu people live on two islands in total. The Hokkaido Ainu people just mentioned by the Fuso people call it Minami Ainu Land. The other island is still north of Minami Ainu Land, which they call
For the North Ainu land."
Yunxi thought for a while and just said: "In that case, it doesn't matter." Then Fang Mingqian said: "Let's talk about the future exploration."
Since Yunxi didn't punish him, he didn't care about the meaning of the last sentence Yunxi just said. Anyway, there will definitely be a result when Yunxi meets these foreign envoys in a few days. He continued
Talk about your own exploration.
"After mediating with them, I continued to lead the fleet and set off. Then I came to the northeast of the Minami Ainu land. There are some small islands there. After I asked the local Ainu people, they called them the four northern islands.
There are four larger islands in total, and there are also some smaller islands.”
"I originally wanted to continue my northern tour along the route taken by my uncle, but after seeing these islands, I changed my mind and decided to continue northward along these islands."
"I hired several guides to lead me north along these islands. After more than ten days, I came to the coast of a very large land. The Ainu guide said that this was a very large island.
It is thousands of miles long from north to south."
Yunxi thought: ‘There is such a big island in the north of the Thousand Islands? Why don’t I remember it?’ (Actually, this is the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the Ainu people thought it was an island)
"I continued to go north along the east side of the island. Then it got colder as I went north. Around late August, I arrived at about 60 degrees north latitude. Although it should be early autumn, it was extremely cold and I had to wear thick leather clothes.
Only then can you move around outside the cabin.”
"There were still ice floes floating on the sea. A thousand-stone ship was hit by ice floes and sank. Because it was night and there was no way to rescue, many crew members had already frozen to death by the time other ships went to rescue them."
"I didn't dare to go further north. I carved a stone tablet on the west side to record it and then returned the same way."
"On the way back, we encountered an island. Half of the island was completely covered with ice and snow, and the other half was covered with lush vegetation and a very high mountain."
"I rested on this island for a few days and saw this wonderful scene, so I named it Ice and Fire Island."
Then Fang Mingqian said to Yunxi: "I just drafted a name and asked your Majesty to give it a name."
Yunxi said: "This name is very good. Let's call it Binghuo Island. There is no need to change it. Just talk about the next thing."
