The deep blue water reflects the sunlight, not the same blue, but the overlap of deep blue and waves. On the yellow coastline, you can see patches of dappled green, which is a seemingly barren but quite rich land.

On the deck, the sailors were scrubbing the deck with gravel and sea water, and on the aft bridge, the captain was chatting with a man whose appearance was completely different from that of the Han Chinese, with raised eyebrows, thick lips, wavy hair, and a complexion that was almost black and dark brown.

This is one of the natives who was attracted by canned meat and voluntarily left the tribe to come to the ship during their previous contact with the natives.

"Meadow ......"

Oka with a charcoal in his hand said as he drew on the paper.

"Twenty moons and twenty sun......s to go"

Although they could not communicate smoothly because of the language, Zhao Dengke still learned some local language after learning from each other for more than a month.

"In other words, it takes twenty days to get out of the meadow, twenty days, right?"

Zhao Dengke looked at Oka and asked, and even pointed to the sun and moon on the paper.

"Twenty suns, twenty moons, twenty days."

After receiving an affirmative answer, Zhao Dengke's heart jumped sharply, he had sent an expedition ashore to explore the grasslands of Jinwan, perhaps the land there was relatively barren, but the grassland was quite fertile and suitable for raising horses.

"Twenty days...... Sand, a lot of fools ......"

Oka said in stiff Chinese.

"Twenty days later, the meadow disappeared and became a desert."

Fang Cailiang said on the side.

"Owner, if it takes twenty days to get to the end, isn't it, isn't it, it's a prairie? If you raise horses there, they can be shipped directly to the countries of the South Seas......"

As Zhao Dengke's "shopkeeper", with Zhao Dengke's Fang Cailiang, who has been operating at sea for many years, he saw the benefits of that prairie at a glance. Actually, no, that meadow is the Kimberley Plateau near Golden Bay in northeastern Australia in another time and space, and hundreds of miles on both sides of the Fitzroy River are a savannah, which is the most famous beef cattle breeding area in Australia. It is suitable for cattle and, of course, horses, which were indeed exported in large quantities in the mid-to-late 19th century, at least the early 20th century.

"Owner, now a horse in Nanyang costs 36 taels, and it is definitely more cost-effective to raise horses here and then transport them to Nanyang than to transport horses from the Northeast......"

In many cases, Zhao Dengke was more like an explorer, while Fang Cailiang was more like a businessman, and he saw the business opportunities almost immediately, compared to Zhao Dengke, who cared more about how big the island really was.

"It's going to be twenty days away, and then there's the desert ......"

Looking at the nautical chart drawn along the coastline, Zhao Dengke couldn't help but press the map with his hand, and then muttered to himself.

"How big is this island?"

Very big!

In the following voyage, although they had been walking along the coast for more than two months, they still had not seen the end of the coastline, and even the direction had not changed much, but the further south, the coastline looked more and more desolate, and even after two and a half months of sailing, they found that the green on the coast had almost disappeared, and the coastline was just a barren red, and there was only a glimpse of sand and gravel on the red land.

"It's a place where birds don't!"

In the midst of the murmurs of the sailors, the coastline of the desolate red continent began to change and began to drift westward, but the originally desolate coast began to show some green, and from the telescope, you could see that the land was producing lush weeds, and even a few tall trees could be seen, but on the whole, the "island" was desolate, and the sparse trees clearly showed this, and after driving along the coastline for another ten days, it turned south again.

"We've crossed the Tropic of Capricorn!"

After putting down the sextant, Zhao Dengke left the deck, he didn't even look at the crowd cheering there for crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, he just silently walked back to the cabin, then sat down in the chair, took out a box from the table, and opened the documents that had been sealed for half a year, which were handed to him by the naval officer when he left the Admiralty. Of course, the officer told him that he could only open it after crossing the Tropic of Capricorn.

In the past six months, Zhao Dengke has been curious about the contents of the document, and now that he opened the document, he saw that it was a letter, and the clear small words on the letter came into view.

"Your team should now continue to sail south, referring to the climate near Africa and the Tropic of Cancer in South America, if you have reached the "southern continent", then the land should be inhospitable, continue to drive south, as the rainfall increases, the coastline will become richer and richer, I hope you can go as far as you can into the coast, especially when you find the river, you should send boats and expeditions into the river to find out if the inland areas are suitable for cultivation and migration...... Good luck. ”

Looking at the final payment of the letter, Zhao Dengke's eyes widened instantly, no matter what, he didn't expect that the letter was actually ...... A handwritten letter from His Majesty the Emperor himself.

"It's His Majesty's Imperial Pen!"

Looking at this piece of paper, Fang Cailiang muttered to himself, looking in disbelief, and even when he looked at Zhao Dengke, his gaze changed.

"Boss, you can be developed this time, your name, that's the heavens to hear......"

Fang Cailiang swallowed, and his tone became excited.

"If we can return to China smoothly this time, I am sure that when the time comes, the emperor will definitely see you in person, which is a great thing for the glory of the ancestors......"

Holding the thin paper with both hands, Fang Cailiang carefully put the letter on the table, then shook his head and sighed.

"This majesty is really the Son of Heaven, he didn't come to this place, so he knew that the further south we go now, the more green there is on this shore, and you see, there are more trees on that shore......"

When Fang Cailiang pointed to the occasional trees on the shore outside the window and sighed, Zhao Dengke looked at the letter, and then said to him.

"Found the river? If you find a river, you must send someone to see it, this is a holy decree! ”

Soon, the news that the captain had a holy decree spread among the expedition team, which made the mentality of the expedition members who were originally worried about their own safety every time they went on an expedition immediately changed, and they took the initiative to sign up for the expedition, after all, this is a holy decree, and ordinary people can "receive" the holy decree several times in their lives.

After each landing, they were no longer confined to the coast as in the past, but rode horses deep into the interior, ranging from a dozen miles to dozens of miles, and each expedition brought with them some fresh plants and even animals that they had never seen before. Of course, before they caught those animals, they always observed what they ate, and to their surprise, many animals they had never seen before, and even some animals, it took a lot of effort to catch them, but more often than not, they could only catch some dead objects.

Animals that looked like mice, but were not much smaller than a calf, and had a bag on their stomachs, were common, and the doctor who accompanied the ship was even more adept at painting, going ashore with the expedition, and then drawing the animals, and of course, more often than not, he made those animals into specimens.

According to the regulations of the Royal Geographical Society, if a new special is discovered, they can capture a small amount of specimens and then ship them back to China as a specimen, which is not only a proof of the voyage, but also can enrich the collection of the Royal Geographical Society, so that the Chinese people can understand the world more directly.

Because each time they went ashore they had to devote time to inland exploration, the voyage became longer and longer, and the expedition team became more and more familiar with the land, which was not only vast beyond their imagination, but also the local indigenous people were scarce and in a primitive nomadic state.

In the face of these primitive natives, despite the contact, the expedition would certainly not agree that they were the owners of the land. Therefore, they carved a mark on the stone wall of the coast, declaring that this place belonged to the Ming Dynasty, and naturally obtained the sovereignty and use right of this land.

On the eighth day of the seventh lunar month of Xingqian, when the crew was enjoying Laba porridge made of kangaroo meat, Zhao Dengke, as the leader of the expedition, looked at the land with a solemn expression, and he occasionally looked inland with a telescope. The fleet has been waiting for them here, but today has come to the appointed day, why have they still not returned?

15 days!

Riding a horse is enough to travel a thousand miles, and the reason why they go deep into the interior is to obtain information about the interior, and of course to fulfill His Majesty's will.

Just as the sun was setting, some shadows appeared on the coastline.

"The expedition is back!"

In the shouts of the lookouts, Zhao Dengke nervously looked at the returning expedition with a telescope.

A total of 16 rides!

One no less!

However, it seems that there are a few more natives.

The natives looked similar to Okka, with black skin and white paint, and after the expedition returned to the ship, the expedition leader Sun Ke excitedly shouted to the captain.

"Captain, there is no need to go any further, I dare to say, this must be a continent, we have walked almost two thousand miles, there are trees and grasslands everywhere, there are really few people here, I dare to say, even the northeast is not as good as this place, there is no snow here, the four seasons are like spring, captain, as long as we go back, the emperor will definitely reward ......us for finding this good place."

Go home and reward ...... The words of the crew reached Zhao Dengke's ears, his eyes were fixed on this continent, and there was only one thought in his heart.

Do you go back, or do you want to continue?

If you go back now, will you disappoint Your Majesty?