In the summer of the same year, Wu Gongzheng led 10,000 soldiers and horses on a voyage across the Atlantic!

Last winter, Wu Gong was appointed as a vice minister by the Ministry of Oceans! The Ministry of Oceans and the Ministry of Military Affairs jointly issued an order for Wu Gong to lead 10,000 navies to continue exploring the world and find new territories.

In the first half of the year, Wu Gong was still on the American continent, and he felt more and more that the American continent was huge, much larger than the current Great Song Dynasty Central Plains! With the American continent, the territory of the Great Song Dynasty can be doubled! In Wu Gong's view, the biggest problem in the Great Song Dynasty now is also the population problem! The population of the Great Song Dynasty is already the largest in the world, but it is still unable to meet the needs of the expanding territory.

In July, Wu Gong came out of Hudson's Bay and went all the way into the Atlantic, preparing to go all the way east.

Originally, it took the Portuguese Magellan three years to complete the circumnavigation of the world, but Magellan spent half of his time on the American continent, in fact, he only sailed for a year and a half! Now the fleet led by Wu Gong is even more advanced than Magellan at that time, and he leads a fleet composed of one treasure ship, three lucky ships, and thirty medium warships, and the speed will never be slower than Magellan! The treasure ship carries a lot of supplies, enough to supply the entire fleet for half a year!

The fleet has been moving towards the east on the vast sea, and they are still above the sea!

By this time, there was a feeling of horror in the hearts of all the people of the fleet, and they did not know when such a voyage would end! Although they are both navy, they have never experienced such a rambling voyage!

Fifty days later, they still haven't seen the end of the ocean.

That night, they were hit by a terrible storm, three medium ships were destroyed by the storm, and the crews of the rest of the ships rushed to help, but dozens of people were still missing.

"My lord, keep going like this, I don't know when it will end?" On the treasure ship, a captain came to Wu Gong's side and said with some concern.

"I am the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of the Sea, and my mission is to explore the world, and this is the instruction given to me by Your Majesty and the Government Council! We have enough supplies on board to survive for half a year, and in another month, if we still can't find the mainland, we'll start sailing back! Wu Gong was silent for a while and said.

"Good!" The lieutenant nodded.

The storm gradually stopped, the sky was drizzling, Wu Gong stood at the bow of the boat, his heart was also a little apprehensive, he didn't know when he would be able to see the new continent, even if it was a larger island!

At this moment, he suddenly missed life on land, his family, the military camp, and Dengzhou Tianjin Wei Gaoli, and his eyes were a little moist.

But soon, he burst out laughing.

"Haha, a storm scared me Wu Gong like this, it's ridiculous! When I was on the battlefield back then, I didn't flinch in the face of the enemy's rain of swords and arrows! I decided, in another month, I will let the rest of the soldiers go back, and I will continue to move forward even if I am rowing a small boat alone! I must go to the end of heaven and earth! My Great Song Dynasty is strong, far away from the Han and Tang Dynasties, whether it is agriculture, commerce, military, education has reached the unprecedented apex of China, but we still have not found the end of heaven and earth, I Wu Gong want to find the end of heaven and earth for the Great Song Dynasty and China! Wu Gong's face showed a determined look, and he said secretly in his heart.

By October, the fleet had already discussed returning home, and Wu Gong ordered to continue to go forward for another three days.

On the third day, when the sun was setting, everyone had disappointed expressions on their faces, but Wu Gong pointed forward sharply and said, "Look, what is that?" ”

The countless soldiers on the treasure ship looked ahead, only to see a faint black line in front of them, if there was nothing!

"Quick! Keep going! Wu Gong ordered loudly and said.

The soldiers on the treasure ship also showed curious expressions at this moment, and the fleet continued to move forward.

A quarter of an hour later, everyone in the fleet cheered!

There is land ahead!

******

On the ninth day of October in the 17th year of Xuanwu, a fleet of 10,000 people led by Wu Gong came to the area of Cap Barres in the northwest of France.

They had not yet approached the shore, and the fleet had already been spotted by countless fishing boats on the seashore.

When they came to the shore, they immediately caused a sensation.

Countless yellow-haired, blue-eyed Frenchmen scrambled from the shore to watch these unprecedented ships!

In particular, the size of the treasure ships amazed the French.

All the ships had Song Army soldiers, and these Song Army soldiers held in their hands the most advanced killing weapon of this era - Song crossbows! They are armed with sharp knives at their waists!

Wu Gong had an expression of surprise on his face, and he led dozens of people to walk down from the treasure ship, and soon someone surrounded him.

The people here not only look weird, but also dress unusually weirdly, Wu Gong has never seen these people! He had seen Indians and Arabs before, but they were dressed differently from the people here.

A local, who appeared to be an official, approached and asked.

"What did he say?" Wu Gongdao.

The soldiers around shook their heads, and no one could understand.

The official on the other side was also stunned, not knowing what to do.

"Let the sailors come down!" Wu Gongdao.

After a while, dozens of sailors stepped down from the treasure ship! The treasure ship was the most advanced ship of the Great Song Dynasty, and such ships were now only equipped in the army, and the sailors on board were also carefully selected by the Government Council, and many sailors had experience in ocean voyages.

Many of these sailors spoke Arabic or Hindi, but they still couldn't understand the local officials on the other side.

Only one sailor, after listening for a while, suddenly asked in another strange language, and the French official opposite immediately asked with a happy expression on his face.

"My lord, the language they speak is somewhat similar to the language west of the Great Food, and the villain can understand it." This karate.

It turned out that the French official spoke French, and the sailors responded in Latin, and the officials also spoke Latin! The big food is Arabia, which is the ancient name of Arabia by the Chinese.

"Tell me, what is this place?" Wu Gong said happily.

The sailor began to ask, and after a while, the sailor said, "My lord, this is just west of the Great Eclipse!" ”

Wu Gong's face showed a surprised expression, and he said, "West of the Great Food? Is this in the western part of my country? But we've all the way east to get here! Wrong! ”

The rest of the soldiers also had puzzled expressions on their faces, including the sailors.

"My lord, they welcome us!" After a while, the sailor said again.

"Come, give us our gifts." Wu Gong said with a smile.

Soon someone brought in fine porcelain, silk, books, etc., and the French people around were amazed again at the sight of these gifts. In this era, Chinese porcelain and embroidery have been transmitted to Europe through Indian and Arab merchants, but the price in Europe is extremely expensive, and there are hundreds of porcelain presented by Wu Gong, and each piece is carefully prepared by the Government Council, which is much more exquisite than the porcelain brought here by Indian and Arab merchants! As for the silk, it was also carefully selected, far better than they had seen before! The books were scented with pen and ink, printed with the latest movable type, but the words were not readable here.

******

After that, Wu Gong and the others stayed here.

When they came out, they carried with them enough silver and gold, which was precious everywhere in ancient times.

Wu Gong came into contact with the French here and learned the language here, and at the same time sent people to investigate the situation on this continent.

It wasn't until the first month of the seventeenth year of Xuanwu that he had a general understanding of this place.

The country they live in is called France, and it is a famous country on this continent.

But there is no emperor in this country, only a king, and the king's name is Henry IV! However, the king of this country cannot manage every part of the country at all, there are dukes, marquis and other nobles in the country, many nobles have their own fiefs, and the nobles are almost equal to the emperor in the fief! Even some high-ranking knights, they all have their own fiefdoms!

There is a huge island in the north, and there are three countries on that island, England, Scotland, and Wales! The country there is the same as France, they have dukes, marquises, knights, etc., in addition to kings.

But the most powerful country on this road was neither England nor France, but a country called the Holy Roman Empire.

The emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire" has just signed an agreement with the pope, the emperor recognizes the divine right of kings, and the emperor must be canonized by the pope when he ascends the throne!

All the people on this continent have one religion, and they go to church every seven days! The status of the pope is supreme, and in addition to the pope, there are several cardinals, and those cardinals have more power than the king!

For the information collected, Wu Gong felt incredible! Why is this continent so chaotic? Why is the power of the pope greater than that of the emperor and the king?

He didn't know that it was the most chaotic and darkest Middle Ages in European history!

The power of the Holy See reached its zenith in this era, the pope and bishops were the real rulers of this continent, and the Inquisition was all over Europe, whether it was a nobleman, a commoner, or even a king, as long as he violated the teachings of the Holy See, the Inquisition could convict! The Holy See opposes all new things, new technologies, and strictly controls the spread of scientific ideas! There were also schools in Europe in this era, but all of them were seminaries! The famous library of ancient Rome was burned down by the Holy See, various books of the ancient Greeks were also burned by the Holy See, and the Italian astronomer Dasco was burned alive as a heretic, and he was accused of violating the biblical teachings by arguing that the earth is spherical and that there are humans in the other hemisphere!

The whole of Europe is highly hierarchical, and at the top of the pyramid is undoubtedly the pope, then the Holy Roman Emperor of Germany, then the cardinal, then the kings of various countries, dukes, marquises, counts, viscounts, knights, etc., almost all nobles have their own territories, and the king actually only rules his own territory, not the whole country. The Holy Roman Empire was actually a loose body of numerous duchies, noble domains, and city-states, and the Holy Roman Emperors were selected from among the eight "Grand Dukes" and then accepted the papal canonization.

"My lord, we have asked carefully, from here all the way to the east, we can indeed go to the Great Food, and further east is Tianzhu, and then we are the Great Song! We came out of the Great Song Dynasty and went east, why did we go back to the Great Song Dynasty? Several of the sailing boats who accompanied the ship said.

These sailors are people who specialize in determining sea lanes and sea lines, and they have a lot of seafaring experience.

"Are you sure we're not on the wrong track?" Wu Gong frowned and said

"Your Excellency, there can be no mistake! We are indeed heading all the way east! You can't go wrong with the direction of the compass! The shipmaster said.

"Strange, so strange! Incredible! Wu Gongdao.