Tens of thousands of people living in Tamsui seem to have crowded into the pier, surrounding the originally spacious pier square.

Li Rui panted and squeezed through the crowd, anxiously looking for his target in the crowd, he stepped on the feet of at least five or six people along the way, and every time he had to say "I'm sorry". When the people who were trampled on saw him dressed in school boy clothes, most of them just laughed and scolded him, and did not pursue him.

He finally squeezed into the innermost part of the crowd, among the large number of people who saw off relatives and friends, Yu Zhu was more conspicuous, because he had no relatives and friends around him, only him. He whistled nonchalantly, scanning the send-off man with a half-playing, half-contemptuous gaze.

"Old bamboo!" Li Rui shouted.

The voice was noisy, and Yu Zhu couldn't hear his voice at all. Li Rui was a little anxious, he squeezed a few steps forward, only more than ten steps away from Li Rui, he shouted again: "Lao Zhu!"

Yu Zhu heard his voice at this time, he turned his face, and when he found out that it was him, his eyes suddenly turned red, but Yu Zhu still held back, he raised his chin proudly: "Why are you here?"

"I'm here to see you off!" Since Yu Zhu was punished by Li Ye for trying to calculate Li Rui, the two have not spoken again, including Yu Zhu who chose to go out of the school because he was over seventeen, and Li Rui has never talked to him for half a sentence. But today, Li Rui's heart was beating suddenly, and his heart, which had been frozen for the sake of the young man's face for several years, melted in an instant. "I don't want to send it!" Yu Zhu raised his chin again.

"What nonsense, you are my friend, who will I send you?" Li Rui's eyes were also red. He jumped up and grabbed Yu Zhu's arm: "Lao Zhu, why did you secretly sign up, this is ...... This is ......"

"I know that it will take two years to come back at the earliest." Yu Zhuman said indifferently: "If you are in distress on the way, I don't know if you can come back alive."

"Then you still sign up!" Li Rui was anxious: "I also said that after two years of study, I will go to Dajin with you to help my uncle work hard, why did you run out to sea by yourself?"

"I have no relatives and no reason, no worries, and it is no longer suitable." Yu Zhu sneered: "It's you." I'm still dreaming of helping your uncle. In the days of elementary school, I learned all about pigs and dogs!"

Li Rui was stunned, and before he could come back to his senses, he heard a low shout: "Yu Zhu!"

Yu Zhu stood up straight almost as if by reflex. Hang your hands down and place them on the sides of your legs. Hold your head high and look at eye level: "Arrived!"

Li Ye strode over. Seeing Li Rui, he ignored it, but went straight to Yu Zhu.

The two looked at each other at eye level, and Yu Zhu's eyes widened, but his eyes moistened unconsciously, and then the tears of the bean size crackled down. Li Ye scolded, and then gave him a slap: "Don't lose Lao Tzu's face, do a good job on the boat." After coming back. Lao Tzu will find you a daughter-in-law to manage you, and see if you dare to sign up behind Lao Tzu's back!"

"Captain!" Listen to his old-fashioned words. Yu Zhu screamed, couldn't hold back any longer, hugged Li Ye's arm and began to cry.

"Don't shed tears, everyone laughs at you!" Li Ye's own eyes were also a little red, and he suddenly remembered the look on his face when Zhao Heju sent him and others to beg, although his face was full of indifference, he still felt his strangeness.

Yu Zhu is the first batch of guards really brought out by him, although he has only been in the escort team for more than a year, but in the Tamsui Primary School, he has been under him for four years, from the naughty and disgusting boy at the beginning, to this young man now, how much effort has he spent. originally wanted to be of great use, but I didn't expect this guy to secretly sign up......

What Yu Zhu is about to embark on will be an extremely difficult and long journey.

"Hugh cried, you kid don't think it's ugly, I still think it's ugly...... Don't wipe my tears and snot from my sleeve! Believe it or not, Lao Tzu kicked you into the sea!" Li Ye scolded twice, and after putting aside the panic in his heart, he corrected Yu Zhu, and then nodded vigorously: "This list of people on the boat is Lao Tzu's land grant, when he saw your land, Lao Tzu was still frightened!"

In front of the group of guards brought by his own family, Li Ye has always been speechless, although he is "Lao Tzu" long and "Lao Tzu" is short, but these guards still eat him, and they only feel that Captain Li is close to him and does not shy away from it, on the contrary, it is the deputy captain Li Yunrui, who is not looking at him with a smile, but it always makes people wonder if he is playing with some bad ideas.

"At first, Lao Tzu was very angry, and he dared to do this behind Lao Tzu's back! But think about it, you kid is kind, you dare to sign up for this matter, what else don't you dare to do?" Li Ye patted Yu Zhu's shoulder again: "Do a good job on the ship, don't lose the ground of our escort team!"

"Yes!" Yu Zhu stroked his tears and said loudly.

"I'm going to send them off, so you can talk to Li Rui here." Li Ye rubbed Yu Zhudi's short hair, the guards did not comb their hair in a bun, shaved their monk-like bald heads, this is the rule of the land, at first there were still people fighting to the death, but the righteous young man took the lead, and severely punished a few stubborn, it took a full year to get them used to it. Therefore, Yu Zhu also got a bald head, but now the stubble is coming.

Looking at Qiu Shuang, who was striding towards Li Ye in the distance, Yu Zhu's eyes turned red again, because the moment Li Ye turned around, he found that something had fallen from his eyes.

This is gone...... It is very likely that life and death will be separated forever.

"Han Fan, you're here to see me off too?" Looking at Li Ye who came over, Qiu Shuang greeted him first.

"You're going to travel far away, how can I not come and see you off?" Li Ye smiled bitterly: "Fengqing, if you leave, the pressure on our escort team will be great."

"What do you mean by that?" Qiu Shuang was a little curious.

"For those natives, an autumn breeze can be worth a thousand guards, and in Yilan, those natives who don't bow down to you are those Atayal people, all of whom have received your medicine. Respect you as a god. Li Ye couldn't help but scold when he said this: "I knew that you were so beautiful, I should have studied medicine in the first place!"

"Haha, you can't learn to come to medicine." Qiu Shuang laughed, and he was a little conceited in his heart, the great plague that swept the natives last year relied on him to run among the natives, which only settled down, Rao is so, and the natives of Yilan still died one-tenth. However, after his campaign, not only did the natives become hostile to immigrants. also slowly accepted Qiu Shuang's advice. Send the children of the clan into the cities of Yilan to learn the Han language and medical skills. Even the Atayal people in the mountains have also come into contact with the immigrants, rather than fighting when they meet at the beginning.

The two talked for a moment. I saw Hu You appear at the bow of the boat, and he was holding a big straw hat in one hand. In the other hand, he holds a monocular clairvoyant. Shouting out to this side, "It's on board!"

Immediately afterwards, on the bell tower in the middle of the dock square, a bronze bell was struck. When the voice sounded, everyone was silent for a moment, and then the noise was heard again. It was also mixed with the cries of the send-offs, which were soon drowned out by the sound of firecrackers.

In the fourteenth year of Jiading in the Great Song Dynasty, one hundred and twenty-one years in the Western calendar. Freshwater Port of Liuqiu Island. Four 8,000-hundred-year-old ships went to sea with the bells and tens of thousands of people. Among them were the three expedition ships "Zhang Qian", "Ban Chao", and "Gan Ying" and the supply ship "Fa Xian", which carried a total of 800 sailors and escorts on board. It was equipped with a compass, a sextant, an elevator, a clairvoyant and other nautical equipment, and was equipped with eighteen bed crossbows and a number of artillery pieces. The governor of the fleet was Lin Xi, the former leader of the Great Song Dynasty's coastal control envoys, and he was also the captain of the "Zhang Qian". The deputy governor is Qiu Shuang, and he also serves as the chief doctor of the entire fleet. The captain of the "Ban Chao" is Deng Zhen, the former head of the coastal control envoy, who was relieved of his military status from the coastal control envoy at the same time as Lin Xi, and has been Lin Xi's deputy all these years. The captain of the "Gan Ying" is Hu You, who became the captain of this 8,000-year-old ship at the age of nineteen, and is also the leader of the entire fleet, not only because he has almost been at sea in the past few years, sharpening his navigation skills, but also because he has been educated in Zhao and Ju, Zhao and Ju not only taught him the navigation knowledge and shipbuilding skills summarized by his descendants, but also taught him all the information about the latitude and longitude, wind belt, and ocean currents. Therefore, Duncan Polo, who has a lot of experience in sailing, is his assistant. These three ships are not only expedition ships, but also armed merchant ships, and the weapons on board are not weaker than those of the Great Song Dynasty naval army. Lu Shuanghe, the captain of the supply ship "Fa Xian", is a big fat man, with excellent water nature, and has the nickname of "head fish".

Ouyang Yingfeng was also among the sailors, the former leader of the pirates who roamed the South China Sea, was only a small boatswain in this huge fleet. He originally took refuge in Huo Chongcheng, but Huo Chongcheng wanted him to be a pirate useless, and gave him to Zhao and Ju, Zhao and Ju changed hands and stuffed him into Liuqiu, he knew that if he wanted to get ahead in Liuqiu, he couldn't do something wrong, so as soon as he learned that he was going to go to the sea this time, it might take two or three years to return, so he immediately signed up.

There was also a noteworthy piece of equipment in the fleet, two of which were on each ship, huge wooden balls from the Freshwater Manufacturing Bureau on a carpentry lathe, each half a meter in diameter, with clear maps drawn on them, indicating wind bands, ocean currents, and longitude and latitude lines. These globes far surpassed this era, and were drawn by Zhao Youju after a month of hard work. His own mapping skills have improved a lot over the years, so although the accuracy of this map is far from that of later generations, the outline of the land and the location of the islands around the Pacific are basically marked. The most important thing is that he remembered the blessings of the "Age of Discovery" series, and the longitude and latitude of those important ports.

This is the secret weapon of this voyage.

Over the years, with the good relationship with the coastal production envoys, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has scavenged the timber stored in the shipyards belonging to several sailors of the Great Song Dynasty, and even the timber stored in the private shipyards has been purchased with a small amount of money. Coupled with the use of measures such as baking and drying, the shipbuilding speed of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has not slowed down due to the constraints of materials. If all the ships owned by Liuqiu are gathered in one place, it will definitely be a fleet of considerable size, but I am afraid that except for the Great Song Naval Division, there is no other fleet in this East Asian sea that can be compared.

The boats carried a large number of arrows, various fishing gear, and two small sampans on each boat. In addition to the necessary food and fresh water, the fleet carried a large amount of silk and a small amount of porcelain, glass and other goods, in order to prevent the porcelain and glass from being broken in the sea, the glass was fixed and packed in a standard wooden box, leaving no gap, and between the porcelain, many mung beans soaked in water were sprinkled, and the mung beans sprouted in the past few days, and these porcelains were firmly wrapped together.

In order to prevent all kinds of nautical diseases at sea, Qiu Shuang stores a large amount of orange peel on each boat, as well as some fruits, dried vegetables, and mushrooms that are easy to preserve. They even carried some rapeseed with them, which they could sow when they anchored in some ports and harvested when they set sail.

Following the pre-set route of Zhao and Ju, they set out from Tamsui, passed through the Ryukyu Islands in later generations, entered the Pacific Ocean, and traveled northward with the help of the southwest monsoon that began in late June until between 37 and 39 degrees north latitude to replenish the coast of the Wa Kingdom. At this time, the wind direction will change to a northwesterly wind, and with this wind, it will cross the North Pacific Ocean and turn south about 300 to 400 kilometers from the middle of the West Coast of the United States, at which point the west-to-east current "Kuroshio" between Japan and the Americas can accelerate the fleet. Then, with the help of the northwest and north winds that prevailed on the coast, it reached Acapulco, a natural harbor in western Mexico. Zhao Heju estimated that the entire voyage would take nearly half a year, but this was still relatively smooth.

Yang Miaozhen came to the dock for Zhao and Ju to see them off, and the four big ships she was currently leaving the port, and suddenly she felt her blood boiling, almost making her want to look up to the sky and howl. When you are in the world, you are not a hero, when you are like this, or galloping on the battlefield, or crisscrossing the sea, cowering in the house and waiting for death.

"The official, he went to be the heir of the king of Yi who was Laoshizi, where is there to be free, if it weren't for the people of the Great Song Dynasty, if it weren't for the ...... of the people of the Great Song Dynasty" Thinking of this, she shook her head and threw the thoughts in her heart far away.

"Han Fan, come here!" Seeing that Li Ye was still waving at the shadow of the boat, Yang Miaozhen shouted.

Li Ye glanced over here, then walked over quickly, and Yang Miaozhen asked, "How is the manpower transferred?"

"It will take five days to gather, but I have to ask the interrogator how the supplies are on his side."

"There is no problem with the supply of hanging islands." Meng Xisheng didn't come out at any time, startling both of them, and he grinned: "Han Fan, you really personally led the team this time?"

"Naturally, it's me, and Wang Donglu." Li Ye said.

"Wang Donglu?" Meng Xisheng was stunned, this Wang Donglu was named Qinian, and he was originally one of the six personal servants around Zhao Heju, because Zhao Heju sent them away before, except for Long Twelve guarding Yuzhang Villa and waiting for Zhao Heju to summon him, and Qin Dashi had other arrangements, the other four were all sent to Liuqiu.

"He and the fourth lady learned a good riding skill, just went to manage the horses, after the defeat of Tamna, I still have to go back to beg, so I left him in Tamna to practice cavalry." Li Ye said with a smile.

"In that case, you should also go to Laos." Meng Xisheng shrugged: "He also stayed moldy on the hanging island, and he always said that he wanted to enlarge the blasting rod."

"If he goes, we'll have nothing to do!" Li Ye shook his head and said, "Hugh wants him to go!"

"You go to the hanging island and talk to him." Meng Xisheng laughed and said, "It's strange if he doesn't stuff you into his big explosion and let you out!"

"There are only so many people in total, he will release two more explosions, what else are we going to fight?" Li Ye complained and looked at Yang Miaozhen, after all, in the absence of Zhao and Ju, Yang Miaozhen has the greatest decision-making power because of his identity.

"I'm going too." Yang Miaozhen said amazingly: "It hasn't opened for six or seven years, if I don't move my body and bones, I'm afraid it's going to rust!"

Note 1: Legend has it that the monks of the Eastern Jin Dynasty arrived in the Americas 1,000 years before Columbus. Of course, this is just a legend, but he actually went to Tianzhu and Ceylon.

Note 2: This route is the trade route from Guangzhou to Mexico during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and a large amount of Chinese silk entered Central and South America through this route in exchange for huge amounts of silver, which enabled the adoption of the silver standard currency system during the Ming and Qing dynasties.