There is a mountain on Yuzhou Island, called Yuntai Mountain, and it is said that the Huaguo Mountain of the Monkey King was on Yuntai Mountain.

As for whether this mountain is Huaguo Mountain, where the Monkey King was the king of the mountain, the myths and stories are naturally difficult to verify. But for many, the junction of the mountains and the sea has a very special significance.

At least for the crew's families.

The east side of Yuntai Mountain faces the sea, and there is a cliff below, and there is a lighthouse on the top of the mountain, because Haizhou is the most important seaport in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and even the largest seaport, so the sailors who come and go here, when they see this lighthouse, they know that they have arrived home safely.

In the same way, near the lighthouse, there will always be some women standing there, staring at the sea like that, waiting for the return of their loved ones.

On the morning of February in the 27th year of Xingqian, the sea was rough and the wind was biting.

The weather was gloomy, and there was still a lot of snow on the mountain, but even so, there was still a woman in a thick coat who came here, and she held the child beside her, and the two of them came to the mountain with such difficulty.

Finally, they reached the top of the hill and looked into the distance from the position of the lighthouse, but they were greeted by a busy scene. On the other side of the hill in the bay, hundreds of ships were moored, and in a shipyard on the coast, the chimney spewed smoke, and the skeletons of several ships stood on the shipyard.

However, the woman did not seem to have any interest in all this, she just stood there, staring at the sea, staring into the distance.

The little girl next to her looked at the sea, her face was red from the cold, and she only heard her ask in a delicate voice.

"Mother, when will Dad come back......

The little girl didn't notice that her question brought tears to the woman's eyes, but she just stood there silently.

The wind blowing from the sea blew her clothes, and although she was wearing a woolen coat outside, the hem of her skirt was still blowing, and she stood there, standing still, looking out to sea, as if she were a monument to the shipwrecked......

The little girl saw that her mother ignored herself, and said again.

"Mother, my father said that he would come back when I went to school......"

The daughter's words made the woman stand still, staring at the sea with her eyes, and after a while, she spoke slowly.

"Xiaoyuan, your father will come back, he will definitely come back......"

She paused deliberately.

"Because he promised his mother, he will definitely come back......"

When she said this, she herself didn't quite believe all this, after all, five years had passed, and in the past five years, she had only received a few letters, and five years ago, her father-in-law left Haizhou with two ships to look for new land on the sea, and since then she has never returned. The last time I got news of him, it was a bag of letters I received last year, there were dozens of them, it was the letter he sent back from Xinxia, it was the letter he wrote on the ship, and then there was no news of him, every time, once he went to sea, he lost his news, life and death, there is no way to know.

Why do you have to go to the sea?

Looking at the sea, the woman could not understand Xianggong's actions.

In fact, compared to the vast majority of people, Zhang Yuchuan's life is undoubtedly smooth sailing, he has found a suitable career for himself when he was a teenager, sailing on the sea as a sailor, and he soon became a helmsman, in those days of drifting at sea, he made unremitting efforts, studied hard, and soon mastered navigation and geometry

With a wealth of knowledge in astronomy, geography, etc., he became not only an excellent helmsman, but also a captain. In fact, he can be a captain and sail on a fixed route, and in that profession, he can get enough money and status to match.

But then, he chose a different path—he wanted to become an explorer, and he gave up the fortune he brought with being a captain in favor of another path full of risks, even if that path did not bring him much wealth.

As a woman, the only thing she can do is silent support, when Xianggong sails and explores, she will devote herself to raising her children, even if Xianggong is not at home, she will be strict with her sons, in anticipation that they can grow up and become talents.

When all this was pressed on her, while feeling tired, she was more worried about Xianggong, thinking that she hadn't heard from Xianggong for a full year and a half.

She stared at the sea, tears streaming down her face again......

But there was a very determined gaze in her eyes staring at the sea, and she believed that Xianggong must be alive, and now he was sailing on a corner of the sea, looking for the land he dreamed of.

……

For Zhang Yuchuan, who is in the depths of the ocean, even if he doesn't know how much his wife misses him, he still misses his family in his heart, especially in the middle of the night, he will dream of his family in his dreams, and dream of his little daughter who has never met.

But even so, Zhang Yuchuan, who has been sailing on the sea for a year and a half, still has no idea of returning.

There must be a big island in the heart of the Pacific Ocean!

In the past five years, he has been sailing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and has successfully found several small islands, especially during this voyage, he has found many small islands inhabited by natives, although the discovery of several small islands has made him happy, but these small islands are not the purpose of his trip.

After all, those small islands are either too small to build ports, and of course, more importantly, those islands are not on the Pacific shipping route, and are not suitable for supply points in the shipping route.

Sailing on the seas, most of the time, is extremely boring and tedious. Especially for those who have been on the sea for a year and a half, both the captain and the sailors on board, the will has reached its limit, and although they have had a short rest on several small islands in the past few months, for them, the hearts of all are eager to return. Zhang Yuchuan is of course very clear about the emotional changes of the crew.

"When this voyage is over, we'll go back!"

In order to appease the morale of the army, Zhang Yuchuan promised the sailors that although he knew that he would not become a hero in such a return voyage, he knew very well that a long voyage at sea was enough for the sailors to make wrong decisions, and the captain may have absolute authority, but the authority was not enough to quell the riots of the sailors, and once the riot occurred, the sailors would become pirates, as for the captain...... will be thrown into the sea.

"It seems that there is really no hope......"

All night, Zhang Yuchuan struggled with the thought of his family and the regret that the voyage was about to end, and of course, the guilt of Chongmingbo, after all, in the past five years, it was Chongmingbo's funding that supported his voyage, but what did he find?

"Is there really no big island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?"

From the iceberg-strewn polar regions of the north to the south, he sailed almost all over the Pacific Ocean, but he found nothing, and now, deep down, Zhang Yuchuan has even decided to accept the reality - the reality of failure.

At the dawn of the third day of the second month of the 27th year of Xingqian, when the sun had not yet jumped out of the horizon, as usual, Zhang Bochuan, who had just gotten up, stood on the stern of the ship, his eyes staring at the sea, the vast sea was very calm, and it was a good day without wind and waves.

"Captain, when are we going home?"

Again, facing the helmsman's question, feeling the longing for home in the eyes of the sailors on the deck, Zhang Bochuan grinned.

"Just today......"

When he said this, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh in his heart. Listening to the cheers of the sailors, his whole heart was enveloped in melancholy.

There are some things that need to be faced.

It's like failure......

Ay...... Just when Zhang Yuchuan let out a long sigh in his heart, suddenly, the lookout hand at the top of the mast pointed to the south and shouted.

"Look, there's land over there!"

Land!

The sailors who were cheering were all stunned, as for Zhang Yuchuan, he was also stunned, he immediately picked up the monoculars and looked in the direction of the land, although the distance was very far away and extremely blurry, but he still clearly saw a land composed of 5 islands.

"It's a newly discovered island!"

Zhang Yuchuan subconsciously shouted.

"Captain, maybe this is the land ...... we're looking for"

The sailors, who were still there cheering for their return home, had mixed expressions, and some of them were even a little disappointed, because they knew that the discovery of land might mean that their return home would be postponed.

"Brethren, what's the matter?"

Noticing the expressions of the sailors, Zhang Yuchuan, who had just measured the latitude, said with a smile.

"Do you know what this place is? This is near the 20th parallel, and this is the first land found in this vicinity! If we return to Daming with this discovery, we will definitely succeed heroes! A hero in the eyes of all! ”

When encouraging the sailors, Zhang Yuchuan said again.

"Because our voyage was financed by Chongmingbo, according to the powers granted to me by the "Daming Navigation Law", in order to show my respect for Chongmingbo, I now declare that these islands are "Chongming Islands"! ”

Although there is a "Chongming Island" at the mouth of the Yangtze River, in order to pay tribute to Chongming Bo, Zhang Yuchuan, as the captain of the ship, can't wait to name this archipelago "Chongming Island" on the ship.

Unbeknownst to Zhang Yuchuan, this is an archipelago called the "Hawaiian Islands" in the secret map of the Ming Dynasty, and the Chongming Islands are the islands in the middle of it, including Oahu.

It's just that for the outside world, they don't know the information marked in the secret map, in fact, as the emperor, Zhu Mingzhong also struggled for a long time on the issue of whether to display the map, and finally because of the enthusiasm of the people and officials of the Ming Dynasty for ocean exploration, he made a secret choice.

After all, the unknown has always aroused people's desire to explore, and every year the navy and civilians send hundreds of expedition ships, which always bring him some surprises, and tell the secrets of the "Hawaiian Islands" to the outside world, which is not conducive to encouraging people's enthusiasm for maritime exploration.

Zhang Yuchuan, of course, did not know the emperor's good intentions, and immersed in the discovery of a new island, ordered the fleet to sail around the island in a clockwise direction, and as in the past, carefully sailed around the island before sending people to land. And they sailed around the island, unbeknownst to them, their appearance caused a sensation on the island.

"It's God! It's God coming! ”

For the priests who were performing the ritual of sacrificing Lord Rono, when the two large ships suddenly broke into their sight, the indigenous priests almost subconsciously thought that the fleet was from another god's world, and that the huge ships sailing on the sea were moving temples.

"You see, his direction is the same as God's direction!"

When the priest saw that the "palace" of the gods sailed in the same direction as the legend, he was even more convinced that it must be the palace of the gods.

The priest's words immediately plunged the natives of the island into an unprecedented excitement, and King Amiyo was even more excited to order the people to welcome the arrival of the god Rono.

Hundreds of canoes sailed towards the sea, and the naked natives, rowing excitedly, carrying the fruits and other supplies that were abundant on the island, in order to pay tribute to the gods.

"Turen!"

Seeing thousands of natives rowing a large number of canoes towards the fleet, Zhang Yuchuan immediately ordered the sailors to prepare for battle.

The guns and artillery were aimed at the natives.

"Captain, these natives seem to have some resemblance to Polynesians."

The first mate pointed to the tattooed natives and said to the captain that after discovering Xinxia, both they and previous expeditions found many islands inhabited by natives in the northeastern waters of Xinxia, and those islands lived Polynesians with similar languages but most of them had no connection with each other.

"Here they are......"

Looking at the more and more natives, Zhang Yuchuan's mood seemed a little excited, when he and the sailors looked at the natives, the natives also looked at them intently, looking at everything on the ship, they never thought that the ship could be so big.

"This must be the palace of the gods!"

The natives looked at the "gods" on the ship with awe.

Obviously, they had never seen outsiders, nor did they know anything used by the Celestial Empire. Everything was new and mysterious to them, and even the clothes worn by the sailors were godly in the eyes of these natives.

Just as they were helping each other, Zhang Yuchuan felt their kindness from the actions of these natives, especially his language, which seemed to be understandable.

"The language they speak is somewhat similar to that of the Polynesians...... It seems like...... They treat us like gods! ”

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