With the end of the 'Flying Divine Wings' and the end of the airborne, the time gradually arrived in late December, and the New Year was getting closer and closer, and the atmosphere of the New Year in Dasui began to be thick.

Originally, it was not a good thing that the snow was so heavy that it crossed the road, which meant that the winter was too cold, but the old farmers were smiling, because the heavy snow meant that the coming year would be a good year.

Ruixue Zhaofeng year is the experience of farmers summed up from generation to generation, although Yang Tong does not understand agriculture, but he knows that whether it is business or industry, the premise is that everyone will not be hungry, agriculture has been the foundation of all industries since ancient times, agriculture is prosperous, agriculture is declining, all industries wither, this is the past dynasties can not get around, which is also more determined to support Zhou Shaozu to go to the Americas to find high-yield crops of the navigation business, if you find a few, it is a supplement to traditional crops, especially sweet potatoes are extremely vigorous, Simply cut off the branches and insert them into the soil to survive, and the spreading vine leaves can be fed to the livestock, and the stubble can be cut and grown.

In the Qianqiu Hall on the west side of the Liangyi Hall, Yang Tong and the Chinese military minister of the dynasty were receiving the nautical 'core team' headed by Zhou Shaozu, a dusty servant, and this team consisted of fifteen generals.

"General Zhou, why do you suddenly want to sail?" Yang Tong asked with a smile.

"Initiation of the Holy One." Zhou Shaozu arched his hand and said: "The last general will sail out to sea from time to time to train, and all strange things will be encountered, such as the dragon that meets the sky and water to absorb water, for example, the bottom of the sea sometimes rolls like boiling water, and the waves as high as the city wall are commonplace...... Over time, the last general and others thought about sailing the ocean, to see those strange things, even if they died under the monstrous waves, they would feel very happy......"

Yang Tong understood that this group of people was really bored on the island, and when they were idle, they were full of curiosity about the vast sea, and slowly had a consensus on sailing. But that's a good thing.

"In addition, from time to time, we see peaks, boulders, palaces, and even people and animals appearing in the vast sea, and overseas fairy mountains and Penglai fairy islands may really exist in the sea." Zhou Shaozu said again.

When the people heard this, they were broken.

The emperors of all dynasties had a crazy obsession with immortality, not to mention Qin Shi Huang, who built his mausoleum into mountains, rivers and lakes, and the appearance of the earth and stars, or Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty who was destroyed under the desire for "immortality"... It can be said that the more wise the emperor, the greater the obsession with seeking immortals, not that they want to be emperors all the time, but they are all people who pursue perfection, and feel that in addition to themselves, the descendants are not as good as themselves at all, so they hope that the empire will be perfect in their own hands, and then hand it over to the descendants, but life is limited, so they hope to get the immortal art to continue their lives, so that the empire will be perfect step by step according to their own ideas.

Yang Tong, the emperor, is also a wise and martial emperor, in case he is bewitched by Zhou Shaozu and commits the obstacle of going to the sea to find immortals and demons, it will be a big trouble.

It's scary to think about it......

"It's a mirage, don't believe that." Yang Tong, who didn't know what the minister was worried about, shook his head, "In fact, the illusory scene of mirage is not only unique to the sea, snow fields, deserts, and lakes will appear from time to time, and the mirages that Hu merchants have seen in the desert abound, they walk on the desert, and from time to time they find that the oasis seems to be close in front of them, but it is far away in the sky, and many hungry and thirsty Hu merchants will go in the direction of the oasis, and they will get lost in the desert." These oases appear to be hope for survival, but they are in fact death traps. ”

Speaking of this, Yang Tong said solemnly: "There is no immortal island sacred mountain on the sea, and as for the elixir of life, it is even more useless. Let's just say Xu Fu, when people didn't know about the Wa Kingdom, they thought that he really went to Xianshan Xiandao, but as the Wa Kingdom became known, Xu Fu's whereabouts were no longer a secret. If you find a new island or a country in the middle of the sea and are regarded as immortal mountains, a hundred years later, with the development of seafaring, you must be in the same mood as we who are familiar with the Wa Kingdom. ”

It's not impossible to go to sea, but there is no fairy island in the sea at all, and there is no elixir! If Zhou Shaozu and the others were stupid to find immortals, the high-yield crops would be gone. Therefore, Yang Tong emphasized that in order to completely dispel their desire to seek immortals, he not only corrected his erroneous views, but also asked people to take out a few large mirrors and conduct a light refraction experiment, which cracked the secret of the mirage on the spot.

"The last will be ashamed." Zhou Shaozu and the others looked ashamed, but when they looked at Yang Tong's eyes, they no longer had the previous suspicions.

"The way of light and shadow seems to be very magical, but once we understand its principle, we will not be confused by some illusions."

"Whoa."

"When you go sailing, I strongly support you, but I don't want you to go to the immortal mountain that has nothing to offer. Rather, it is to draw nautical charts, explore unknown areas on the sea, and establish contact with unknown countries. ”

"Holy Lord, you will understand when you draw a nautical chart, but what is the understanding of establishing diplomatic relations with an unknown country?" Zhou Shaozu was a little confused.

"The Unknown Realm is a vast territory beyond our knowledge. Take the Great Sui West as an example. Everyone knows about the Western Regions west of the Great Sui, and everyone knows about Persia west of the Western Regions, but there is a powerful Byzantium west of Persia, but we don't know what kind of country is west of Byzantium. This is true in the West, but what about the East? Yang Tong paused and said, "We know that there are Japanese slaves in the East China Sea, and what country is east of the Japanese slaves?" This is the existence that we don't know, there may not be no more developed and powerful countries than the Great Sui in this sea, if we find these unknown countries one by one, then we can open up the Maritime Silk Road, open up new trade channels for our Great Sui, and contribute to the prosperity and strength of the Great Sui. ”

"The minister seconded the proposal!" Yang Gongren has been pondering the pros and cons, and after making up his mind, he said: "The biggest feature of the Maritime Silk Road is that it has convenient transportation, large ship capacity, and can sail day and night, and there is no treacherous terrain to obstruct it. ”

Luo Shixin hesitated for a moment and said: "Our navy will not play much role in the country, or we will go to the sea to declare the prestige of the Great Sui." ”

"That's not going to work." Yang Tong categorically objected, if he listened to Luo Shixin's advice, the Great Sui would definitely make the mistake of the Ming Dynasty.

The most famous diplomatic event of the Ming Dynasty was Zheng He's seven voyages to the West.

Zheng He's length of time, large scale, and wide scope of his voyage to the West were unprecedented in the feudal dynasty. Zheng He went to the West with more than 27,000 naval soldiers each time, and if you add the crew and various logistics personnel, the vast fleet has 50,000 people, at least.

Later generations have given countless words of praise to the feat of seven voyages to the West, what to promote the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty, what has made great contributions to the political, economic and cultural friendly relations of Southeast Asian countries, and some people say that it has strengthened the ties between the Ming Dynasty and overseas countries, which is a great event of navigation.

But Yang Tong thinks that it is the nouveau riche behavior of showing off their wealth, and there are countless surnames in the country waiting to be fed, but the people in power have rewarded the people of the Ming Dynasty to the Western countries, bringing economic benefits to the Western countries, while the Ming Dynasty, a boy who scattered wealth, did not gain anything, except for dumping the national strength, there was no benefit, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it was a defeat of the country.

Compared with Zheng He's seven voyages to the West, Yang Tong admired Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan, who discovered the American continent with a fleet of less than 300 people, opened up new shipping routes, and stimulated the ocean-going craze in Europa, bringing great benefits to his country.

"If they don't let other countries see the power of my Great Sui, how can they have the confidence to come to my Great Sui to trade?" Luo Shixin said puzzled.

"The opening of maritime trade routes is to consolidate the Great Sui River, if the voyage is a labor and loss of money, then what is the significance of this voyage? Moreover, we can attract so many kings and envoys from other countries to come to Daxing, relying on the overall strength of our Great Sui, not just making people blush with honor guards. Yang Tong shook his head and said.

"The Holy One is right." Li Jing agreed: "I don't know if there is a country in the vast sea east of the Japanese slaves, so I rashly drove the navy over and demonstrated to whom? Sea fish? ”

Everyone burst into laughter.

Luo Shixin scratched his head and stopped talking, he felt that he was really not the material for politics.

"Shengshang, Wechen also supports navigation and hopes to open up the Maritime Silk Road, but Wechen has a problem." Yang Shanhui got up and saluted Yang Tong.

"But it doesn't hurt to say it." Yang Tong said.

"Whoa." Yang Shanhui bowed his hand and said in a deep voice: "The Silk Road developed by the Han Dynasty has gone through a lot of hardships, and after nearly a thousand years of improvement, it has reached today's scale, and countless lives and costs have been paid during this period. And now we don't know anything about the vast sea, and there is no reference at sea, if the fleet is blown off course by strong winds and waves, how can we ensure the accuracy of the course? All Wechen believe that ensuring that the fleet does not get lost at sea is a top priority. If this problem is not solved, the risk of navigation is too great. ”

As a famous general of the Great Sui generation, Yang Shanhui was very sensitive to the direction of the terrain and realized the huge problems in navigation at the first time.

As soon as these words came out, even Zhou Shaozu and the others frowned, if this problem was not solved, their sailing move would be a death move.

"When General Zhou submitted their navigation request, I had already asked the Ministry of Industry to further improve the compass and use the wisp suspension method to invent a compass needle suitable for navigation."

Shen Kuo, a famous scientist and reformer in the Southern Song Dynasty, recorded four methods for making the compass, namely the water float method, the bowl lip rotation method, the nail rotation method, and the wisp suspension method.

The water floatation method is to wear a few rushes on a magnetic needle and float on the surface of the water, which can indicate the direction. The bowl lip rotation method and nail rotation method are to rest the magnetic needle on the edge of the bowl mouth and rest on the nail cover to indicate the direction. As for the wisp suspension method, it is to apply some wax in the middle of the magnetic needle, stick a silk, and hang it in a windless place to indicate the direction.

Disadvantages: The water surface shakes slightly, which can affect the measurement results. Although the bowl lip rotation method and the nail rotation method are flexible, they are easy to fall, and they are also not suitable for sailing in the wind and waves, and the compass made of the wisp suspension method is undoubtedly the safest method.

Although these methods are simple, they all embody the supreme wisdom and painstaking efforts of the ancients, and even the compasses in later generations are made according to these principles.

The compass with only eight rough directions, the new generation of compass made of the sexagenary branch not only adopts a more secure hanging method, but also indicates a more accurate direction, perhaps not as good as the compass of later generations, but it is more than enough to identify the correct course direction.

When the compass was taken and beaten, the position of the ministers remained the same, and they were all relieved.

Yang Tong asked people to take out the world map he had drawn, as well as dozens of hand-drawn books of crops that had been treated with moisture, and handed them to Zhou Shaozu, "Your mission this time is not to trade, let alone to conquer foreign countries, but to train a fleet of ships suitable for ocean-going navigation, and draw a detailed sea chart. ”

"The plants on this booklet are drawn by me according to Hu Shang's description, these things are non-poisonous and edible, if you encounter them, you can pick them for supplies... These are high-yield crops, and if I get some seeds back, then I will not have to worry about food shortage..."

Before the meeting ended, Zhou Shaozu and others listened to Yang Tong's tireless advice and teachings, and their hearts were extremely moved.

"Rest assured, the last general and others will definitely go all the way, learn all the way, carefully explore this vast sea, and open up the maritime Silk Road channel for the saint and my Great Sui Dynasty, even if there is only one person left, they must bring back these crop seeds." Zhou Shaozu took a stack of maps and hand-drawn books with both hands.

"Hugh said these unlucky words! Remember to me, everything is based on safety, no matter what happens, you must bring me back alive with the soldiers and crew! As long as you return safely, your feat will be engraved in the annals of history, no less than Zhang Qian of the Han Dynasty. ”

"I will live up to the trust of God."

Zhou Shaozu should be loud, full of pride and ambition!