Sun Xiangfu's guess was not wrong, the fleet responsible for exploring in the direction of South America had landed on the South American continent several months ago, and under many preparations, they didn't even take too many unjust roads, crossing the Pacific Ocean, they only took less than five months, of which, there were nearly two months, was to explore whether the sea conditions along the perception line were suitable for navigation, although the sextant in their hands could not accurately calculate the latitude and longitude, but, the ocean was so big, they only needed to know a rough idea.

So, the fleets that arrived on the South American continent in early March began to sail along the perimeter of the continent, and whenever they came across a suitable place, they would go ashore from time to time to explore, and by April, they finally came into contact with a larger city-state ruled by the Maya.

The Maya in this period, in the classical period, is the most prosperous period of Mayan civilization, although they did not form a unified regime, but have hundreds of city-states, including cities like Tikal, with a population of nearly 200,000, in a way, the degree of civilization in all aspects, has not lost to the pre-Qin period, in terms of architectural art, and calendar, even better than the Qin and Han dynasties, but with the current Tang Dynasty, can not be compared.

The situation was the same as Zhao Long had imagined in advance, everyone in this coastal city-state did not understand Chinese, and there was no one in Zhao Long's fleet who knew the local language, so communication became a big problem in the first place, and after seeing the steel ship that Zhao Long and they were wearing, and the sophisticated equipment they were wearing, it was impossible for the king who ruled the city-state to say that there was no hostility towards them.

The king of the city-state felt that he had more than 100,000 people, and he would definitely be able to leave these guys from overseas here for them to study slowly.

However, the reality slapped him hard, after the twenty Baotou steel ships were divided into two teams, one team was led by Zhao Long, and the other team was led by Zhao Gang, each team only had ten boats, more than 1,000 people, but it was these more than 1,000 people, almost 100,000 Mayans were beaten to the ground without injury.

When the hot air balloon that could fly in the sky was lifted into the sky, the local people thought that they had offended the gods, and they crawled on the ground and did not dare to raise their heads, and then the battle could not be fought.

Zhao Long smoothly became the new ruler of the city-state, and the original king was driven by him like a dog, searching for anything he was interested in in the city-state.

Potatoes were the first thing they pocketed, and they were the staple food here, and they could be found everywhere, but it was Zhao He, a farmer who came with the fleet, who was excited.

It's a pity that the local people don't have a very strong understanding of other native species, and most of them don't have many species designated by Sun Xiangfu, such as peanuts native to Brazil, which can't be found in their city-state, and crops like tomatoes, which are only used by the locals for ornamental purposes and are not eaten, but peppers are available, but corn is not, and rubber trees, in the city-state, it is impossible to see.

Due to the language barrier, Zhao Long could not interrogate the people in the city-state at all, and according to his estimates, no one in this city-state had been to three thousand miles away.

Therefore, many things still need to be explored by themselves. After all, even in the Tang Dynasty, the group of people who specialize in plant crops were cultivated by Sun Xiangfu after he crossed over, and the locals, like the previous Datang people, did not care too much about these plants and the trees that grew in the deep forest.

He didn't stay long in this city-state, Zhao Long led the fleet to set sail again, and even the various exquisite utensils in the king's treasury that were regarded as treasures by the locals, Zhao Long didn't bother to ask for them, but he erected a stone monument in front of the palace in front of the palace of an ordinary big family in the city, which was absolutely not as luxurious as an ordinary big family in the Tang Dynasty, and then, after beheading a few natives who dared to approach and touch the stone tablet, he walked away.

There are words on the stele, but those Mayans can't understand it at all, and Zhao Long doesn't bother to explain to them that what it says means 'The first state city in South America in the Tang Dynasty, this stele has a territory of 3,000 miles, all under the rule of this state, which is the inherent territory of the Tang Dynasty. ’

Come to think of it, those locals should not dare to touch this stele for a period of time, the habit of erecting a stele is in the early years he developed under the education of Sun Xiangfu, now, as soon as he goes overseas, he sees a place without a mark, he will think of setting up one, there are special carving craftsmen on the ship, the tools in their hands, can easily carve hard granite, and when returning, Zhao Long passing by here, will definitely come to see, if the stele is still there, then it is good to say, if the stele is moved, then, At least he would kill a few thousand people to establish his power, and then erect the stele again.

The fleet went around the nearby coast for more than half a month, drawing a lot of charts before leaving, Zhao Long is now very confident that if he returns, he will only need three or four months to return to Datang mainland.

So, they still have a year or so to explore South America and the adjacent North American continent in search of species.

Since then, the South American continent along the coastline, there is such a steel-clad fleet sailing, in the following eight months, they have repeatedly launched an in-depth exploration of this continent, and battles with the native city-states, of course, the stone monument has also erected a lot, the number of people, from about 1,800 people, reduced to 1,500 people, in the battle directly killed in the case of very rare, and in the two months of exploration in the Amazon jungle, the number of people who died of injuries and diseases, but more.

At this time, the fleet stopped in a bay in North America.

Due to the long voyage before, and several in-depth explorations ashore, the materials they originally brought on the ship have been almost consumed, and all kinds of weapons and arrows have also been in many battles, and there is not much left, so they dare not go to various city-states to grab things blatantly like before, of course, because of such a long time of exploration, Zhao Long has a lot of understanding of the local situation.

On the ship, there are more than 200 local natives captured by Zhao Long from various city-states, they have been completely unable to communicate at the beginning, and now, they have learned simple Chinese, and it is very good to be able to communicate with Zhao Long and them.

Through them, Zhao Long knew that on the South American continent alone, there were hundreds of city-states, at least tens of millions of Mayans lived, and in North America, where they are now, there are also various slave regimes, in order to ensure a smooth return, Zhao Long no longer dares to easily conflict with them.

"How? Have you figured out which indigenous people eat what? ”

Seeing Zhao He, who was sweating profusely, carrying a bag on his back, and walking from the gangplank to the deck angrily, Zhao Long asked.

Zhao He opened the bag with some excitement, took a yellow cancan thing, and said to Zhao Long, "Not only did I find it out, but I brought it back directly, this should be the corn that the head of the family said." ”

"It's corn, so why don't you get more, didn't you hear the boss say that this thing has a high yield, and it is a staple food comparable to rice and wheat?" Zhao Long grabbed the bag, took out a dried and taut corn cob, and looked at it carefully.

"You don't know this, the local people don't know advanced agricultural technology, and they only barely know how to grow this corn, and in terms of its current yield, it is not a high yield compared to the rice fields planted by the master, and it belongs to the most rudimentary original seeds that have not been optimized for varieties. We just need to bring some back for the head to study the improved varieties, and I have people fill a bag for each boat, hundreds of catties! There are enough seeds to plant hundreds of acres of land, and if you get more, I am afraid that it will alarm the locals. ”

Hearing this, Zhao Long nodded and said, "In this way, have the main tasks of our trip been completed?" ”

After Zhao He tied up the bag of corn, he shook his head and said, "Not yet!" There's also something called sisal, and I'm going to have to look for it. ”

"Sisal? Is it better than our Datang's mulberry and flax? ”

"This is natural, the head said, this thing is the best raw material for making hot air balloons, and our Datang will apply it in many aspects in the future, such as our ship."

"What's the use of asking for that on the ship?"

"Sisal elasticity, strong tensile force, salt and alkali resistance, wear resistance, do the cable is more durable than our current hemp rope, it is said that the fishing net he made, can even be used all year round, unlike our red hemp rope woven net, three days of fish, but also two days of drying nets, once the tide does not dry, it will not take long, it will be bad and can not be used."

"How do you know that? It seems that I didn't hear you Sun say this! ”

"I'm inquiring here, the people here are already widely using this kind of hemp, we just need to find a sisal planting site in a wild village, and we can get a lot of it."

"Then what are you waiting for, hurry up and get it! After getting it, it's time for us to prepare the supplies for the return flight. The two men had made up their minds, and they began to gather their men and go ashore to look for them.

In fact, the reason why sisal was listed by Sun Xiangfu is because it has many other functions, first of all, it is a natural ecological restorer, it has strong resistance to heavy metal pollution, and also has a certain remediation effect on contaminated soil.

In addition, its hemp residue can be used to make alcohol, oxalic acid, pectin, hemp liquid, can also be used as medicine, the contraceptive pill of later generations, is made of hemp liquid as raw materials, the most important thing is that it is combined with rubber, can greatly promote the industrial progress of Datang, all kinds of machinery and tires, conveyor belts, need to be made with it, with these two things, Datang developed a steam engine, there is almost no difficulty in terms of materials, even in later generations, China has introduced a large number of sisal planting, It is also increasing the import of sisal year by year, which shows that it is widely used in industrial society.

Sun Xiangfu naturally didn't know about the overseas situation, in his opinion, Zhao Long this time, it was already a huge victory to be able to complete the collection of more than 60% of the species he explained.

And after he sent away the guests of the eldest grandson Wuji, Datang finally entered the festival mode, and Yu Xiu'er, who had been busy in Jiangling City for a few months, was able to return to Jiuyuan County to reunite with him, and then entered a dead cycle of desperate lessons to teach children and a bitter persuasion next to him.