Zhu Hai was escorted by several brocade guards, followed by the Grand Canal to Tianjin, and from the port of Tianjin, which had already opened the sea, he took a sea ship carrying cotton cloth to Hangzhou.

Hangzhou is now one of the distribution centers for maritime trade in Asia, where many maritime merchants can load goods and even buy silk and paper from Sichuan. Cotton cloth is the largest cargo, and Wang Yuan's textile factory in Tianjin, as well as the textile factory in cooperation with Jiangyin Xu's, have been gradually replaced with steam engines.

The promotion of the steam engine led to a decline in domestic cotton cloth prices, and also squeezed a bunch of Jiangnan textile workshops to death. At the same time, the price of cotton has risen sharply, and many farmers in Shandong and Jiangnan have changed a large amount of grain fields to cotton fields, which in turn has led to an increase in the price of rice in these places.

Those cotton spinning merchants who had not yet been crushed to death poured into the Beijing Institute of Physics to buy the mysterious steam engine.

The steam engine was not Wang Yuan's exclusive property, but as an investor, he held the largest shares. The students involved in the development of the steam engine were all shareholders of the steam engine company, and they also wanted to build a few more and sell them all over the country.

However, the manufacturing speed of steam engines is slow, and Wang Yuan's factories in Tianjin and Jiangyin have not yet completed the replacement of machines.

When they met the merchants who came to buy the machine, the students could only answer routinely: "The steam engine can be sold, but there are too many orders, and you need to queue up slowly." You can pay a part of the deposit first, and according to the time of paying the deposit, you can send someone to tell you as soon as the goods are available. As for how long you have to wait in line, sorry, maybe a year or two. ”

With such a domineering approach, there are actually many businessmen who give money, for fear that the deposit will be paid more slowly than their peers.

By selling steam engines, many physics students became wealthy. Some guys, feeling that the imperial examination is hopeless, simply concentrate on studying the machine, thinking about how to improve it all day long.

And those businessmen who went to Beijing to buy steam engines, after returning to their hometowns, sent people to study in the School of Physics. Some send literate domestic servants, some send collateral children, and some simply let their descendants learn physics. Their plan is very clear, they want to learn physics, and then steal the teacher and go back to build their own steam engine!

For a time, the School of Physics had thousands of new and old students, and the old school site in the south of the city was no longer enough, so he bought a piece of land in the west of the city to build a branch.

……

However, it was said that Zhu Hai came to Hangzhou, stayed for a few days, and then took a merchant ship to Nanyang.

The spinnaker technique is also becoming popular, and large boats still use crosssails because they run fast with a tailwind offshore. However, those small and medium-sized ships, if they only do short-distance trade between China and Japan and China and North Korea, have switched to spinnakers, which can run a few more times against the wind.

Zhu Hai met Zhu Ying in Singapore, and the two eunuchs had an exchange, and the emperor's admonition scared Zhu Ying enough.

What has Zhu Ying been doing lately?

Fight with your troops!

This eunuch still didn't know how to fight, so he actually formed a fire gun army and ran to occupy Johor. It was the territory of the king of Malacca, and Johor City was similar to the capital of Malacca, and Zhu Ying led the troops to occupy it, just for the Johor gold mine there.

No one can monopolize the gold mine, not Zhu Ying, and he also gave it to Man Zheng, Ning Botao, and a large number of officers of Jinyi Haiwei.

At the same time, some must be set aside for the gold diggers, otherwise the gold mines will be occupied, and those gold diggers will riot. People abandon their families and businesses and go to sea to play for their lives to pan for gold, which is not as easy to bully as the people who stay in the country.

The king of Malacca was very aggrieved, but he did not dare and could not resist, so he could only acquiesce to the occupation of Johor by Jinyi Haiwei.

After occupying Johor, Zhu Ying continued to lead troops to fight against the Bumiera in Johor. The male aborigines were captured to mine the gold mines, and the female aborigines were married to the Ming soldiers and overseas Han people, a practice that made Zhu Ying very popular among the overseas Han people.

Zhu Ying herself is also fat now, and even wrote back to her hometown to get her children and nephews to develop in Nanyang.

With soldiers, power, money and land, Zhu Ying gradually became happy, and he almost forgot about the emperor and Wang Yuan. The emperor brought a message to admonish, and Zhu Yingcai suddenly woke up, he can have the current situation, all because of the identity of the admiral of Jinyi Haiwei, once he is removed, he is nothing.

Facing the admiral sent by the emperor to explore the sea, Zhu Ying naturally tried his best to cooperate, he said: "Brother Zhu Hai, I don't know anything about navigation, you can only ask the two generals Man and Ning for help." ”

"Where are the two generals now?" Zhu Hai asked.

Zhu Ying said: "There is a small country called Danmu who is disobedient, gathering four or five small countries to cut off the spice waterway, and the two generals are going to conquest. ”

Zhu Hai could only stay in Singapore and wait, and after more than half a month, he finally waited for Man Zheng and Ning Botao to come back.

The naval battle was a great victory, and more than 100 enemy ships were sunk and captured, all of which were small and medium-sized galleys, which were not worth writing about, and several Portuguese ships could make such a record.

As soon as Zhu Hai told the emperor's order, Man Zheng and Ning Botao immediately cooperated.

They selected six medium-sized carrak galleons, all of which had been captured from the Portuguese. I went to recruit dead soldiers as crew members, but there were only a few applicants, and everyone was very nourished in the South Seas, so why risk their lives to cross the ocean?

This thing is a bit difficult, it's not that the dead man can do it, but you have to control the ship and sail!

Fortunately, Zhu Hai also brought a secret weapon. As long as he is willing to go to sea with him, he can choose a relative to be an official, although he is only an idle official with no real power, but after all, he is also an official - this kind of official is mostly eight or nine grades, mainly used to reward meritorious heroes.

The blank official documents were scattered, and the crew of the sea exploration fleet was ready. There are even physicians and onmyoji, who are willing to go to sea with the ship, just to exchange their father and brother for the nine grades of medicine and yin-yang orthodoxy (the principal of the first-level yin-yang school of the prefecture, who observes astronomical phenomena part-time and assists the prefect in sacrifices).

You must have an onmyoji when you go to sea, otherwise you can't understand the charts and stars, so Zheng He brought a large number of onmyoji with him when he went to the West.

In the autumn of the seventeenth year of Zhengde, Zhu Hai, the admiral of the Ming Dynasty, led six ships and more than 500 crew members to follow Magellan's navigation chart towards the Pacific Ocean.

Walking and walking, it doesn't feel right, why is it all countercurrent?

Magellan's crossing of the Pacific Ocean was carried along the North Equatorial Current, and the journey was smooth sailing. But if Zhu Hai wanted to retake this channel to the Americas, he encountered a countercurrent throughout the whole process, which was simply impossible.

As a nautical idiot, Zhu Hai's ability to overcome seasickness is considered the limit. The first time he led a team to sea, he crossed the Pacific Ocean, and he was confused. Hearing from the captain and the onmyoji that he couldn't go, he could only withdraw and go to Singapore for the winter.

The first voyage to explore the sea, declared a failure!

After discussing in Singapore for a winter, Zhu Hai followed the advice of the Onmyoji and set off north through Japan instead, and he could also replenish supplies in Japan.

So, in the spring of the eighteenth year of Zhengde, the fleet followed the trade winds, went north along the coastline of China, and turned around to Japan halfway.

The Ouchi clan received them warmly, and when they heard that this fleet was not here to do business, but to find the continent of the extreme east, they thought that Emperor Zhengde was going to the sea to look for an elixir.

As a result, the exploratory fleet sailed along the northern coastline of Japan and finally sailed into the Pacific Ocean with supplies.

After a few days of walking, they were pleasantly surprised to find that their trip to the east was all smooth sailing - they encountered the North Pacific Warm Current and the westerly drift.

However, with a black eye ahead, Magellan's nautical charts were completely useless.

The three Onmyoji on the ship had a very difficult time, and they had to calculate the latitude and longitude along the way, even though they had no concept of latitude and longitude at all. The tool they use is neither an octave nor a sextant, but a simple cross.

This thing is similar to the European rectangular instrument, which is not currently used for navigation.

And in China, it is recorded in Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan" that the onmyoji learned this from an early age because they needed to measure the star map at any time. It is not that the central Qin Tianjian needs to observe the stars, but the onmyoji in various places also have to observe the stars, and once they encounter an abnormality, they must report to the chief official, and then the local chief official will report to the imperial court.

After leaving Japan, I was caught in a storm, but the farther away from Japan, the calmer the sea seemed to be.

Even if you go along the current, you have to check all kinds of situations, and all the crew members have no bottom in their hearts, and they have to grope for everything slowly.

There are no big islands along the way, and this route is unlikely to meet Hawaii. The occasional discovery of small islands and small reefs is enough for the crew to be excited, and the endless sea surface is always frightening.

As long as there was fresh water on the island, Zhu Hai asked the crew to drive the boat and take turns rowing over to land and get water. The crew assigned to the task of fetching water, instead of complaining, set off happily, just to be able to step on the ground.

After a month away from Japan, the fleet finally fell ill, and it had nothing to do with scurvy.

After leaving Japan for two months, some crew members began to go crazy. I'm not really crazy, I'm just nervous, and my behavior is a little abnormal.

After three months away from Japan, most of the crew became agitated and irritable, and often got into fights over trivial matters. Zhu Hai had read Magellan's logbook, and for fear of infighting, he could only ask his respective captains to appease him.

In addition, they began to encounter a major storm, and all six sailing ships were damaged to varying degrees. Two unlucky people unfortunately fell into the sea, and they didn't know where to go in the wind and waves, and dozens of crew members were hit and bruised.

Food and fresh water, which was sufficient at this time. Except for weapons, the ship was full of food and drink, and they were afraid to gnaw on their belts like Magellan to get by.

In the fourth month after leaving Japan, everyone, including Zhu Hai, began to panic.

Because, there is still food left, but there is not enough water, and it has been a long time since we have encountered an island with fresh water.

Everyone is looking forward to the storm, at least some rain, but the storm just doesn't come!

Moreover, the direction of the ocean currents is also changing, and it is not taking them eastward.

Zhu Hai received a reminder from the Onmyoji and gritted his teeth to make a decision. Regardless of how the sea flowed, he only sailed eastward, because the emperor asked him to find the Far East continent.

"There's an island ahead!"

On the 113th day after leaving Japan, the observer with a clairvoyant in his hand shouted.

The fleet sped along, and in front of the small island, a large island was seen.

No, not the big island, but the mainland!

According to the name of the place in later generations, it should be called San Francisco.