"Your Majesty, I, Xingba, have worked hard for the navy and have made great achievements, and I have opened up territory for the Chu Kingdom..."
"No." Bai Tu rolled his eyes at Gan Ning, and then added: "I don't use the word 'hard work makes me great' to describe myself."
"Why not? Or... let me go to Bajun instead? I'm familiar with it!" Gan Ning said impatiently.
Gan Ning has also been frustrated recently - this must be the first time in five or six years that Gan Ning has stayed in the Chu country for so long, and he is in a state of boredom.
Once people are bored, they tend to do unexpected things. For example... After Gan Ning heard that Old Man Lu was resigning, he actually came to Bai Tu and recommended himself to the cabinet until the next time he went to sea.
Of course Bai Tu ignored this!
"Why don't you consider making cold skin? I heard it can effectively relieve boredom at home." Bai Tu said seriously.
"No, I'm not that bored yet..." Gan Ning rolled his eyes.
Moreover, Gan Ning has always looked down on such "simple" food as Liangpi. Even if he really wanted to eat it, he would ask the cook to cut it into finger-sized pieces, then cover it on the small ice sculpture, and then pick it up and dip it in the sauce.
Eat juice.
"We won't be idle for long. When the iron-coated ships are built in the middle of the year, the new fleet will set off. By then... it will be good if we can come back within two years." Bai Tu said with some worry.
Because besides secretary Zhang Chunhua, only Gan Ning was present at this time, Bai Tu was not worried about affecting morale.
Directly relying on steamships to travel from the Chu State to the Golden State - which would become America in later generations - if the route was clear, it would logically only take less than a month.
The route Bai Tu chose for the navy was naturally to start eastward, pass through Danzhou, first stop at the Hawaiian Islands in later generations, and then continue eastward to reach Central and South America, that is, the route across the Pacific Ocean.
After all, if you go westward, because of the ocean currents and monsoons, you don't just go around Africa, but you have to go around Africa. In contrast, going eastward at least has the "assistance" of the North Pacific Warm Current, and because
With the discovery of Danzhou, the Chu navy had more experience in sailing eastward.
As for America on foot from the Bering Strait…
Baitu makes no expectations.
Theoretically, given the historically low temperatures in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, it is indeed possible to pass between Asia and America on foot in the Bailing Strait in the north.
In the Bering Strait, the shortest distance between Asia and America is only a few dozen kilometers. Because the ground is connected to the Arctic Ocean, the sea water will also freeze.
There was a walking traveler in modern Britain who once walked from America to Russia. Later... he was sent back because he did not have a visa.
If the Chu State forcibly landed in Liaodong and then went all the way north to the Bering Strait close to the Arctic Ocean, or if they set off from Danzhou and went all the way north to the Arctic Ocean, it would not be impossible. It does look closer, but it would be dangerous.
Definitely higher than the ocean.
The "coldness" is not just a sensory discomfort, but a physiological danger that the finger muscles will become necrotic as long as they are exposed for tens of seconds!
Even the operation of Zhenqi machines at such low temperatures is prone to malfunctions.
What’s more, reaching northern America makes little sense…
Columbus's discovery of the New World was a great discovery because he discovered Central and South America, which was rich and rich in gold, so it was taken seriously and praised.
If what he discovers is that even in modern times, industrial civilization cannot be spread across the northern frozen soil, he will probably turn around and leave with a curse, going to his "beep" new world...
Therefore, going from Danzhou to Hawaii and then to central and southern America is a more "practical" route, and it is also the first time the navy has sailed such a far distance.
Due to the exploration of new routes, and before returning, we must do preliminary environmental exploration in the Golden State, especially those crop seeds named...
Bai Tu estimated that if Gan Ning could come back in two years, it would be relatively smooth.
The new fleet is still a hybrid of Qi and sails, which is the same as modern steamships - when steamships were born, ships did not abandon sails immediately.
In contrast, modern merchant ships relied more on steam propulsion, while military ships relied more on sails.
From modern times to modern times, the speed of passenger ships has not improved much. In other words...that is, at the beginning of the stable civilian use of steamships, the speed was already close to the level of later generations!
It is still unclear how the Chi-ki ship will develop in the future, but its speed can already reach the speed of steam ships in the late 19th century, and is not much slower than modern passenger ships.
However, the modern one-month flight period refers to the situation when the "route is clear". The difference can be seen by looking at the current routes to and from Danzhou and Yizhou!
With the continuous optimization and determination of the route, the time is constantly shortened, and the first exploration... Even with the approximate direction provided by the white map, it takes ten times the time to explore, which is already considered fast.
Because it is a true ocean voyage, sails are still very important. After all, the Qi machine needs to be used sparingly.
The fleet must even ensure that after the reserves of the Qi machine are exhausted, they can abandon the ship and return with a light sailing ship.
"It's more than enough for a round trip, but how to explore the Golden State you mentioned is probably a big problem...if its area is really that big!" Gan Ning had already stopped asking or questioning why Bai Tu was there.
Know that the Golden State exists.
"So if you are in the mood to come to my place, why not go to the Etiquette Department to select someone." Bai Tu suggested.
Unlike Danzhou and Yizhou, the Golden State civilization is completely isolated from the Chinese civilization. There is not even an "intermediary". If you want to find some connections, you can only look for them from the perspective of ancient human archeology, which means that the exchanges between the two sides can only be through
Start from scratch!
I hope there is not much difference in body language between everyone...
I hope... there are also foreign concubines in the Golden State, so that at least after being "enlightened", as a city concubine, she can quickly master the Chinese Mandarin and later serve as a translator.
The Ministry of Rites has special training on "foreign exchanges" and "original exchanges", and Gan Ning obviously needs this part of the civil service staff.
Bai Tu had already checked the information on the hard drive. At this time, among the three ancient civilizations in the Golden State, the other two have not yet formed. The Mayan civilization has just passed the enlightenment stage and is heading towards its peak...
Of course, the so-called peak is still just the Neolithic civilization of slavery!
There are no large domesticated livestock, the only one that comes close to this standard is the alpaca, and... although gold production is abundant, copper and iron reserves are extremely small.
No matter how much gold there is, it cannot be used to promote agricultural tools.
This caused the Maya civilization to be "locked" in the early stages of its development from "fishing and hunting" to "farming" - there was no livestock farming, no copper and iron farm tools, the farming efficiency was very limited, and there were no livestock suitable for grazing, and the productivity was even slavery.
Can't even get through.
In its most heyday, only the major central city-states reached the level of farming.
If we arrive in the Golden State at this time, it is hard to say whether the Mayans had city-states that mainly focused on farming.
The environment determines its uneven development. In its heyday, the Maya's celestial observation, numerical calendar, and philosophical thinking far exceeded their productivity. Not only did they stand out among the Neolithic civilizations, but in some aspects, they were also outstanding in the steam age.
outstanding.
Of course, the so-called peak is still just the Neolithic civilization of slavery...
In the history without the White Rabbit Effect, archaeologists estimate that the Maya's peak period would be two to three hundred years later, with an estimated population of 5 million to 15 million.
To be able to reach this population under the productivity of the Neolithic Age is already very "expansion".
You must know that even in the late Neolithic period, the total population of Asia, Africa and Europe did not exceed five million.
Of course, from another perspective, it is also because the Golden State was locked in the Neolithic Age due to environmental reasons. After the population expanded, metal tools were never popularized to further enhance productivity.
The Asian, African and European civilizations had already begun to create metal civilizations when they had a population of several million, while the Golden State civilization, when it had a population of tens of millions, was still cultivating through slash-and-burn farming with wooden picks and stone axes, and was so suffocated that it could only look at the stars...
When people are bored, they just make cool skin. But when civilization reaches its limits, boredom becomes terrifying.
For example, the Amato civilization in Ganzhou, without the strong presence of the Chu State to bring enlightenment, would soon have fallen into a development bottleneck due to the "teacher" Chinese civilization's indulging in internal friction, and would have entered the Tumulus Age "boringly".
Build tombs...
In addition, at its peak, the Mayan civilization was composed of hundreds of city-states with similar cultures. Some of the central city-states could reach the level of nurturing the population through agriculture. There was no unified empire or even a "co-owner" in the true sense.
At the most "unified" time, there were also many city-states, each surrendering to two large city-states and fighting with each other until...the Mayan civilization declined.
That is to say, the humanistic situation is equivalent to the "Yanhuang vs. Dongyi" period of Chinese civilization, but the productivity is higher than the same level - in terms of the depth of the "Neolithic Civilization", the Maya has gone very far, after all, it has been stuck here.
.
"But are you sure that the situation here is similar to that of Danzhou, except that the population is larger? If there is a population of one state, even if it is only the level of a miscellaneous soldier, it is difficult for the navy to make any achievements... No matter how powerful the ships are, it will not be able to control it.
On land." Gan Ning heard Bai Tu mention the exchange and had to mention one more thing.
"Don't worry, the skills of the people of the Golden State are only sophisticated at best. Copper and iron are scarce, and they are still mainly stoneware and pottery. Even if the technology is better than that of the early Shang Dynasty, it is still limited. Just be careful about the 'generals' among them...
Moreover, when contacting the natives of the Golden State, it is also advisable to be friendly and help each other. They only occupy a small part of the Golden State. If they develop, the benefits will be much greater than those they occupy.
Now the natives of the Golden State should be similar to the various tribes in Danzhou. They should follow the example of Danzhou and suppress the arrogant thorns, and then spread Chu learning to them and gradually assimilate them."