Li Ji stared at Wang Ji for a long time, and finally couldn't help but said: "Young... Young Master, how about we go back in a few days."
Wang Ji was confused and asked: "Where to go back?"
Li Ji said: "Great Ming Dynasty."
"Aren't you the captain under Commander Chen (Chen Li)?" Wang Ji frowned.
Li Ji smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, Li Ji, named Peizhi, graduated from Tianjin Industrial and Commercial School and is a disciple of your father. Only because I was worried about the safety of the young master, I escorted the young master all the way to Yinzhou with the fleet commanded by Chen. Young Master, Yinzhou
You have come and seen Zhouzhou, but you should set a return date, otherwise you may not be able to go back in time to celebrate the New Year."
"It turns out to be Brother Li. Thank you for keeping an eye on me all the way," Wang Ji said, clasping his fists. "But, I haven't met the King Su Long yet. I'll talk about it after I meet the King."
"I don't dare to be called 'brother'. In terms of seniority, I will treat you as the master's nephew," Li Ji advised, "Sir, smallpox is rampant in Sulong's country, so it is best not to go see the king."
Wang Ji laughed: "I have been vaccinated against cowpox as early as in Beijing. Do you think you have been sailing for a long time without vaccination?"
Li Ji said: "I have sown, I am just afraid of any accidents."
Wang Ji asked: "How many people are on your boat?"
Li Ji said: "There are 418 Han crew members in total, of which more than a hundred are capable of fighting. Afraid of an accident in Yinzhou, we temporarily recruited 50 Japanese ronin. These ronin were all recruited by the Guangyuan Society, and they have always done things with money.
Be ethical."
Wang Ji said happily: "Well, when I come back from the capital of Bei Sulong Kingdom, we can sail around together."
Driving around in a boat...
Li Ji hesitated to speak, with a bitter look on his face. He had already understood what he meant.
Wang Ji took the book boy Zhou Fei, accompanied by the colonial guide, and immediately headed to the northern Inca city. The primitive and rough painting style made Wang Ji more knowledgeable and interested in the colorful civilizations on the earth.
After playing in the northern Inca city for a month, Wang Ji returned to Mazu Port and immediately sailed south along the coastline.
The development situation of Poyang Port in the south is very embarrassing.
Mainly in the coastal areas there, there is very little land suitable for farming. As far as the eye can see, it is all arid plains. Lin Shiyi spent a lot of effort to find a river delta, but the agricultural output here can only sustain hundreds of thousands of people at most.
human scale.
Now, while Lin Shiyi was sucking blood in southern Inca, he sent ships to continue exploring south, and finally discovered a rich land.
Specific location: central part of the Republic of Chile.
The annual average temperature here is more than ten degrees Celsius, and it has a Mediterranean climate. In later generations, 80% of the population of Chile gathered here.
After three years of immigration and development, Lin Shiyi announced a new town, named "Longhu Town". To put it more clearly, the town is located in Santiago, the capital of Chile. This is not a coincidence of providence, but a well-thought-out necessity.
result.
The climate there is pleasant and suitable for farming, and there is a hill that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Building a castle on the hill can monitor and protect the nearby indigenous people and protect the farmers scattered around the hill.
Longhu Town is no longer within the Inca Empire. It is separated by mountains and desert climate zones. It is impossible for the Southern Inca King to expand here. But there are still many indigenous people here, and they are large tribes with thousands of people at every turn, because the natural environment is so good
, countless people can be fed by fishing, hunting and primitive agriculture.
Wang Ji first went to Poyang Port to visit Lin Shiyi, and then continued south along the coastline, stopping at Longhu Port for food supplies on the way.
Longhu Town is not close to the sea, Longhu Port is a transit point, and the distance between the two is less than 200 miles.
Continuing further south, there is a place that no one has ever explored.
As a living ancestor, Li Ji could only sell all his valuable goods at Poyang Port and exchange them for food and drinking water. He could also bring enough tea, salt and rum.
"Master, why does it get colder as we go south?" Zhou Fei said while standing on the deck.
Wang Ji said with a smile: "According to Qintianjian's astronomical research, the earth is a sphere, rotating around the sun, and the earth itself is also rotating. The earth has an axis of rotation, and it is tilted. The central location where the sun shines is the hottest.
.The hottest middle line, called the 'Earth's Equator', corresponds to the 'Celestial Equator'. Starting from the Earth's Equator, the farther north you go, the colder it gets, and the further south you go, the colder it gets."
Zhou Fei scratched his head and didn't understand what it meant. As a book boy, he studied mathematics and physics with Wang Ji, but he had no knowledge of astronomy at all.
The word "equator" specifically refers to the "celestial equator" in ancient Chinese astronomy, and the celestial equator is used as a reference to observe the movement of the sun and the moon. Officials of the Qin Tianjian of the Ming Dynasty naturally borrowed the word "equator" when studying "new astronomy"
.That is, the middle of the sky is the celestial equator, and the middle of the earth is the terrestrial equator.
Li Ji said: "Fortunately, I brought enough cotton-padded clothes, otherwise I would not be able to carry it further south."
On the observation deck, the watchman shouted: "Captain, Master, there seems to be an outlying island ahead. Do you want to go and have a look?"
They sailed along the coast, recording charts all the way, and occasionally landing ashore to observe the situation.
There is a large island ahead, not far from the coast.
Zhou Fei held up the telescope and exclaimed: "I saw a big bird, standing on the reef looking very silly."
When the boat gradually approached, the big bird could be seen with the naked eye. Wang Ji observed it with a telescope for a moment and said with a smile: "Draw a pattern and this bird can be called a 'big bird'."
The "Great Sparrow" named by Wang Ji is not afraid when seeing ships, but just stands there in groups.
Li Ji ordered: "This bird is quite silly. It's fat and big. It probably can't fly. Row a few sea boats over to see if you can catch it. It will give the crew some fresh meat."
A few small boats moved forward leisurely, but the silly birds were still watching. When they were only a few meters away, they jumped into the sea.
Zhou Fei laughed heartily: "Though these silly birds can't fly, they can swim, and they swim very neatly."
Zhang Fang, the onmyoji who was responsible for drawing the sea chart, said: "Sir, this bird likes to stand on its feet and look forward, and it is good at swimming. It is as fat as a goose, so it is better to call it 'penguin'."
Wang Ji tasted it carefully, nodded and praised: "It's wonderful. It's called Penguin, and its common name is Great Sparrow."
It was evening at this time, the sun was about to set, and the afterglow made the sea surface float with golden scales. The ship sailed into the strait between the mainland and the island, and the setting sun was immediately blocked, and the water vapor enveloped the woods, like a hazy oil painting.
Zhou Fei sighed: "So beautiful."
It is indeed beautiful, so beautiful that it is a bit magical. Later it was known as the "South American Fairy Tale Island".
That night, the ship anchored in the deep water area, and everyone stayed on the ship to rest. The next day, they carefully selected a suitable place to dock. Wang Ji led 30 Han musketeers and 20 Japanese ronin to land on this huge island to explore.
As for Li Ji, he ordered the crew to open a camp, and they are expected to live here for a while.
Ten Japanese ronin walked in the front, using iron axes and machetes to cut through the thorns. Wang Ji was surrounded by Han musketeers in front and behind him, and Zhou Fei also walked beside him with weapons. Fang Zheng could not let any accident happen to the son of the Taifu family.
Soon, they found a small river, and there were animals drinking water by the river, which meant that fresh water could be replenished.
"Is this a fox? It's quite ugly." Wang Ji looked at the beast drinking water from a distance.
Darwin's fox is an endangered animal in the 21st century. There are only more than 300 animals left in the world, and most of them are on this island.
But in the 16th century, there were so many of these guys that they often broke into indigenous settlements to steal food.
The ugly fox seemed to hear the noise, turned around and ran away, and then suddenly heard a shrill cry.
Wang Ji took people over to take a look and found that the fox had been caught in a simple trap, and its hind legs were caught and hung in the air.
"There's someone on the island!"
Without Wang Ji giving an order, the Han musketeers and Japanese ronin each formed a simple formation.
We continued to move forward cautiously, when suddenly a few natives jumped out from the woods. They were all wrapped in fur clothes, their faces were painted colorfully, and they were chattering to Wang Ji and others.
Both sides stared at each other for a moment.
A native stepped forward and said, "Jili Gua La..."
Wang Ji also wanted to walk over, but Zhou Fei stopped him and said, "Sir, be careful of fraud."
"What a lie." Wang Ji pushed his book boy away and took a few steps forward to hand over to the natives. "We don't mean any harm... Hey, I don't understand. Who can bring an axe?"
A Japanese ronin handed over the axe. Wang Ji picked up the ax and aimed it at a nearby tree to chop down the tree.
"Snapped!"
The tree snapped in response, frightening the natives to quickly retreat and raise their weapons, ready to fight.
Wang Ji held the iron ax in both hands, stretched it out, smiled and continued to move forward.
A native also walked back, hesitating whether he should take the iron axe. After all, he could not resist the temptation and accepted the iron ax as a treasure, and took off the dagger from his waist and gave it back to Wang Ji.
The stone dagger is quite original.
These indigenous people, according to Western classification, are the Huyches among the Indians.
The first exchange between the two parties was very friendly. The natives invited Wang Ji to visit the tribe and treated them to a barbecue. The next day, Wang Ji invited the natives to visit the boat, and the natives even brought some gifts.
The gifts were carried on the backs of a very small animal - the llama, a cousin of the alpaca, which can be understood as the donkey of South America.
When the natives saw the big ship, they were stunned for a moment, and then they all knelt down and regarded Wang Ji and others as gods.
A few cotton-padded jackets, a large amount of fruits were exchanged with the natives, and a few camels and horses were kept on the boat.
After resting on the island for more than half a month, Wang Ji led his team south again.
Next, there are so many various islands that people lose interest in landing on the islands. Only when there is a shortage of water, they find an island to replenish fresh water.
It's getting colder and colder, there are icebergs on some islands, and cute penguins appear more frequently.
Finally arriving at the southernmost tip of the New World, the first armed conflict occurred in Tierra del Fuego.
The mess left by Magellan, I don’t know what he did to the natives on the island. Anyway, as soon as the natives saw the outsiders, and they were equipped with muskets, they immediately attacked them. A Japanese ronin in front was directly smashed by flying rocks.
head, fainted and fell unconscious on the spot.
The Han musketeers immediately fought back, causing the natives to instantly disperse. The Japanese ronin pursued them wildly with samurai swords in hand, seemingly wanting to avenge their companions.
The Strait of Magellan gave Wang Ji a lot of trouble, not to mention the cold, and it happened to be the foggiest month.
The wind was strong, the current was very fast, there were many whirlpools against the current, and ice floes were encountered from time to time. As we walked, the current suddenly changed direction. Halfway through, the captain Li Ji did not dare to move. He just looked for a suitable island and stayed on the island for two days.
Month, wait until the fog subsides before setting sail.
After bypassing the southern tip of the New World, we sailed north and saw the port after more than a month.
It has nothing to do with Spain. It is Portugal's only colonial stronghold in Brazil, and there are only a hundred or so colonists. The port is not as good as a small fishing village along the coast of Ming Dynasty.