It turned out that the people of the town were not dead, but drunk.

As the largest military region in the Northern Ming Dynasty, the Northern Group Army started by Mao Jue not only needs to shoulder the heavy responsibility of defending the Liaodong border, but also needs to support the emperor's global exploration mission.

On both sides of the big courtyard, the war horses are snorting and chewing soybean meal, indifferent to human beings, the two-story big wooden barracks, one by one the soldiers are also lazily nesting in front of the table, some small mouths are poured with spirits to keep warm, and some are by the faint light of the oil lamp, looking at the newspaper that I don't know what year, the top of the barracks, these soldiers also built a three-story watchtower, a big bell was hung on the top of the pointed tower, the big bell seemed to be frozen by the cold wind and couldn't stand it, and from time to time a few weak ringing of the big bell could be heard.

Even if it is more than ten meters high, but the sky is full of wind and snow, and you can't see far from standing on the bell tower, you can barely see the edge of the town, the cold wind blows Han Xiaomo's neck like a little quail, but the waist is straight, and Mao Xingjian's eyes are staring at the center of the town in the face of the cold wind.

There is also a three-story regular house, which is the only brightly lit place in the town, faintly, the sound of shouting and shouting constantly comes from that side, and the sound of drunks smashing dishes and smashing plates, the whole town has more than 5,000 people, almost 2,000 people are crowded there, and it is also the only entertainment facility in the town, the tavern!

Following his gaze and looking there, Song Yongzhong's dark face couldn't help but show a look of disdain.

"The gold mines near the fishy Haizi Port in the north have been occupied by the Liaodi wealthy merchants who went south to Beijing, the year before last year, the empire sent more than two or three thousand Spanish slave laborers, and this year it is the continuous import of Tianzhu slave labor, these guys don't have to pay wages, the mine owners have invested money to buy them, but let the later Ming people have no job opportunities, I don't know who said that there are mines in the mountains on the south of this gem sea, and a group of people who are unwilling to fish and farm the fields will carry the guys to the south."

Shrugging his shoulders, he sighed helplessly again.

"I've been here for more than half a year, not to mention the gold mine, I didn't even dig out a bunch of unmotivated guys who didn't dig out a gold slag, and they all became drunkards, and they nested in Han Fatty's tavern every day and poured cat urine, and Han Fatzi, the Hui merchant who opened the tavern, was also unlucky, originally wanted to open a mine to make a windfall, but as a result, hundreds of thousands of taels of capital were folded in."

"Now that he is staying here, he is purely relying on a title, to meet His Majesty's pioneering law for more than a year, it is estimated that he will have to pat his ass and go back to Daming, and then this group of wastes will probably starve to death, and the town will be finished!"

After saying it with emotion, he turned around, and Song Yongzhong looked at Mao Xingjian helplessly: "Prince, if you want to make some achievements, this is really not the place, you better hurry back to Daming, Nanyang, even Tianzhu, anywhere is better than here!"

Listening to Song Yongzhong's persuasion, Mao Xingjian finally withdrew his gaze, but just looked at him and nodded, without saying a word, Mao Xingjian turned around and went down the tower again.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Just like a fart, in the sound of footsteps, Han Xiaomo also ran down in a hurry, as for Song Yongzhong, he sighed again and shook his head, and then looked down against the cold north wind.

…………

To tell the truth, the accommodation here is not as good as the Black Pearl, but in order to cope with the long-term northern voyage, the entire ship's accommodation area is heated with cast iron, but here is a cool breeze poured into the wooden board, and the barracks are not big enough, and more than half of the hundred sailors and sailors who disembarked with Mao Xingjian were sent back.

Originally, Han Xiaomo also wanted to pull Mao Xingjian back, but I don't know why, this prince's bad temper was committed, but he didn't leave, in desperation, Song Yongzhong had to let his commander's room out, which was regarded as the prince's temporary stay, and he went to squeeze the plank bed with his soldiers.

The night is getting darker and darker, and the rich snoring sound comes out of the dormitory opposite, the people who listen are upset, the cold wind is like a ghost's scream, and the sharp drill comes in through the gap, and the oil lamp is blowing and swaying, sitting at the table and looking at the noisy tavern outside the window, Mao Xingjian is really upset as if he has entered a nest of hornets.

A large wasteland, a large group of drunkards, a Black Pearl, 200 sailors, 200 sailors, and finally before leaving, his mother Chen Jiao exchanged the 400,000 taels of money saved by thrift into cash and gave it to him, which was the only resource he had at hand.

Mao Jue sent him to definitely not accompany this group of drunks for a few years, but how to bring these unmotivated bastards to make a brilliant appearance, Mao Xingjian is really at a loss now.

Just when he was worried, the door creaked open, and he didn't know where to smear a layer of dust on his little face, but Han Xiaomo came in excitedly with a wooden tray, and a fragrance also entered the prince's nose head-on.

"Big nephew, supper is coming!"

A big bowl of white flowers, slimy rice porridge, mixed with small pickles and oily duck egg yolk, the fragrance even if he Mao Xingjian couldn't help but speak, he didn't eat much at night, and he didn't be polite to Han Xiaomo, picked up the bowl, he swallowed it directly, and then hurriedly pulled the spoon.

Grunt~

Seeing how fragrant he ate, Han Xiaomo couldn't help but swallow his saliva secretly.

Coincidentally, this scene was seen by Mao Xingjian, who raised his head in surprise and asked, "Didn't you eat?" ”

"No, no, I'm already full when I boil the porridge! Hurry up and drink quickly, I'll have to wash the dishes in a while! Waving his little hand and forcing a smile, Han Xiaomo urged angrily.

Mao Xingjian was very lonely when he was a child! As a hostage, he was imprisoned in Jingshi, and he couldn't go out of the house on weekdays, and he didn't have any peers to play with him, so he developed an extremely withdrawn character, but a withdrawn person is extremely sensitive to the reactions of others!

Not to mention that a person like Han Xiaomo, who is not good at lying, is already very happy that she can coax herself to eat every day, this is the first time she has opened her mouth to urge!

However, this does not mean that Mao Xingjian pushed the bowl very gentlemanly, in this girl's greed, he hurriedly pulled the bowl and drank the bowl cleanly, and then pushed the bowl back without saying anything.

Picking up the bowl, Han Xiaomo also left the room in a hurry.

The problem must be out, but he was upset, Mao Xingjian didn't have the heart to go out with him for a while, and when he closed the door behind his back, he sat at the table in a dull manner, thinking hard about the way, and even at one point, he also had the idea of simply taking a boat back to Daming, and it was a big deal that this prince was not right.

But as long as he thought of his mother's disappointed face, as well as Mao Jue's annoyed and disdainful look, and shook his head, Mao Xingjian threw this idea directly out of his mind.

The sound of major events in history always has such and such coincidences, just when Mao Xingjian was meditating, a gust of cold wind blew into the room again, and in the sound of a bang, Song Yongzhong's big notebook on the table was blown open at once, and the next second, Mao Xingjian's eyes were straight.

The main task of the New World Expedition is to explore all the situations on the North American continent, Mao Jue, who has studied geography in high school, has roughly drawn the outline map of the New World, and some small lines on it are the results of Song Yongzhong's expedition in the past two years, and they are filled with dense content.

The Victoria Bay where they are located is now named the Sea of Jewels, and on the side is the Rocky Mountain directly named by Mao Jue, the towering Rim Coast Mountains, Mao Xingjian has also seen it today, but behind the long mountain range, several large rivers are revealed, and further east, in addition to the river, there are no more ups and downs on the map, indicating that here is the beginning, all of them are endless plains!

And on the gentle slopes and plains, Song Yongzhong also used sharp strokes to densely mark piles of small character annotations.

Sioux! Apache Ministry! Slave branch cadres! Quarktels!

The names marked one by one draw huge arcs on the map in a strange swirl.

For a long time, Mao Xingjian's impression of the New World is that it is an eternal wilderness, a desolate and primitive Gobi Desert, and there is no life, but looking at the records of the expedition, this continent is not only lifeless, there are aborigines, and there are many people!

And it's not just the aborigines, but also the plains, the vast plains on both sides of the river, which represents agriculture! And Mao Xingjian's most ideal way of governing the country is none other than the Confucian rule of inaction, persuading farmers and merchants, and casting an idyllic empire, which can be cultivated on the plain, in his opinion, is much more important than Mao Jue's treasures of sea navigation, trade, and gold mines!

Shortness of breath, his eyes were straight for a long time, he grabbed the notebook suddenly, and Mao Xingjian flipped back in a hurry!

It is worthy of the imperial expedition, even in such a difficult environment, it can do everything in detail, the locations found everywhere, and the resources that may be contained everywhere are all recorded clearly, especially the records left by contact with those aborigines, so that Mao Xingjian was completely fascinated at a glance, and with the dim oil lamp, he actually flipped through these expedition information for the whole night.

Just as the last shred of grease from the oil lamp turned into light as the flame was sucked, a bright ray of sunlight finally crept out from behind the towering peaks of Mount Rocky, sweeping away the obscene light snow that had been hazy for several days, and smearing a layer of golden light on the thick snow.

The sky finally cleared.

Many years of military career have developed a habit, this day was just dawn, and all of a sudden, on the more than 50 beds in the dormitory on the second floor, those members of the expedition team of the Third Corps of Lushun sat up from the bed almost neatly like a corpse.

Looking at the bright sunshine outside the window, he stretched his waist heavily, and the cavalry captain Song Yongzhong couldn't help but tap his mouth twice.

"Alas! At this time, there is a bowl of rice from Liaodong, how nice it would be!"