As the sun rises high, the moisture that lingers on the shore gradually disperses, and the distant scenery gradually becomes clear. The vast expanse of the sea has come to an end, revealing a vast coastline that stretches from one side of the sky to the other, as if there is no end. A continent, a continent that had never communicated with other countries before, suddenly appeared in front of the Ming fleet, quietly revealing its grandeur and vastness. Even if it is dozens of miles away, you can still feel its amazing momentum.

"Your Highness, the latitude is 37 degrees 48 minutes." Said a crew member who specializes in latitude measurement.

"Just stop here." Zhu Bai stood at the bow of the boat, looked at it with clairvoyance for a long time, and commanded in a low voice.

At this time, it was July of the fourth year of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and the place where they were at this time was the open sea where San Francisco was located in the future, and the continent in front of them was the North American continent.

After departing from Yokohama in late March, they headed north, passing through the Japanese domain, collecting hundreds of women and dozens of samurai, and continuing north after replenishing in Aomori.

They soon passed through the Kuril Islands and came to the Jinning region (Kamchatka Peninsula), where they picked some wild vegetables, hunted some prey, marinated the meat, and set off east, heading for an unknown destination.

Spring has already begun in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere in April and May, and even the glaciers in the North Pacific Sea (Bering Sea) have thawed, allowing fish and shrimp to breathe fresh air through the surface. However, this makes the boat more dangerous, and the crew on duty must not relax for a moment when they must avoid the glacier that may drift in at all times. Some of the crews of Fang Mingqian's fleet have been here twice, but a few of them have touched the glacier and sunk to the bottom of the sea, waiting quietly for archaeologists to salvage them years later.

Finally, they crossed the Beijing Sea along the corridor archipelago and saw a vast continent.

When they saw this continent, everyone was stunned. The vast expanse of land, which you can't see even if you use clairvoyance and sail along the coastline for several days, is enough to reveal that this is a very vast land, at least no less than the size of Japan's main island of Honshu.

Fang Mingqian immediately cheered, especially when he noticed that there was no trace of human activity on the land, not even polished stones, which was enough to prove that he had found a land that had never been set foot on before, how could he not be happy? He ordered the ship to stop, grabbed a handful of dirt and put it in an iron box as his collection.

Zhu Bai was also very excited. This is a large piece of land, and it will be its own fiefdom in the future! He couldn't wait to establish a settlement here as his center of rule.

But he then abandoned the idea. The latitude here is too high, the weather is too cold, and it is too difficult to settle here; More importantly, of course, there is still land in sight to the south, where there should be more suitable places for settlement.

They then traveled south along the west coast of North America, passing through one place after another, sending their crew to land to collect some plants and returning to the ship, continuing south to the sea off San Francisco in July.

Zhu Bai made people measure the latitude, although it was equivalent to the latitude of Baoding Mansion, which was higher than the latitude of Jingzhou, his former fiefdom, but he felt that the weather here was not much different from Jingzhou, so he decided to stop here for the time being.

Hearing Zhu Bai's order, the captain immediately gave an order, and all the crew members prepared for the ship to dock in an orderly manner; Dozens of selected soldiers donned their armor, long knives in their hands, and bows and arrows and quivers on their backs, ready to set foot on land as soon as the ship docked.

"Your Highness, I have never found any traces of human life on land before, it can be seen that it is a land of no man, why let the soldiers prepare like this." Fang Mingqian walked up to Zhu Bai and said.

"There was no one in the places I passed before, and there may not be no one here. It's like Jinning is deserted, but there are people living in the deep mountains and old forests south of Jinning. Although they are just some barbarians who grind their teeth and allow blood, there are also people who live. The weather here is much better than in the north, and there is a lot of possibility that people will live. It's better to be on the safe side. Zhu Bai said.

What he said was also reasonable, and Fang Mingqian no longer spoke about it, but said again: "Your Highness, it has been at least tens of thousands of miles since you sailed all the way from the north, and you have sent soldiers to land several times, but you have not found the eastern border, which shows that this is an extremely vast continent; If the east-west width is equivalent to the land of the Ming Dynasty, then this is a land that is even more vast than the Ming Dynasty! And there is land to the south, which shows that this continent is really too vast. ”

"This is a broader land than the Ming Dynasty itself, and it will be the fief of His Royal Highness the King of Xiang in the future, congratulations to His Royal Highness." Fang Mingqian finally said.

Zhu Bai's face first showed a hint of joy, but then immediately said: "Such a large piece of land, all of them are sealed to me, and the official family will not be like this." When he knew that the land here was so vast, he would definitely seal other vassal kings to come, and the land that Gu could control would not be very large. ”

"I only hope that the land here will be more fertile and able to feed many people, so that the people who migrate from the Central Plains in the future will have enough food to eat."

Fang Mingqian was about to speak, when he heard the sound of "dong", and the ship docked in a small harbor. The captain immediately commanded the anchor to be lowered, and dozens of ropes were lowered from the deck, and the soldiers who had already been prepared lined up to disembark.

Cao Guangxiao was the first to rush down from the boat, took a few steps forward, and began to carefully observe the surrounding environment.

The first is whether there are any traces of ship activity. If there is a relatively advanced civilization on this continent, then there will be merchant ships, fishing boats or warships on the sea. He looked around closely, and the crew standing at the bow of the ship also looked around with clairvoyance in their hands, and there was not a single ship except their ship, not even the small sampan.

At the same time as this was confirmed, all the selected soldiers had already climbed off the ship. Cao Guangxiao greeted, held a knife in his hand, and slowly walked inland.

In front of him was a forest that was also endless. Cao Guangxiao carefully observed the grass and trees in the forest, and found no footprints or handprints, nor did he find any man-made objects. There were traces of fruit picking, and they worried for a while, until they found out that the fruit had been picked by a monkey on the tree.

Cao Guangxiao carefully observed the trunk again and found no traces of felling. After confirming this, he turned his head and ordered the flag commander to tell the ship: "No human presence was found!" ”