Stationed outside Suzhou that night, the next morning after sunrise, the river was congested, and some small boats even surrounded the steamer. Oriental Reading Network

"How come there are so many boats in the river today?" The captain was in a hurry, and at the same time ordered the sailors to drive away the ships that stood in front of the ship.

Standing on the bow of the boat, Lotte also looked displeased.

Hearing the captain complaining and driving away the people, the person from the ship next to him smiled and said, "This guest officer thinks he is from out of town?" ”

"Exactly!" Lotte nodded, smiled and asked, "With so many ships in the canal today, what accident happened in Suzhou City?" ”

The person on the boat next to him said: "Ruiguang Pagoda has been rebuilt recently, and these ships are here to worship the Buddha!" ”

"Zhu Mian is the victim of the party, and I am afraid that this is the only good thing!" Some people who heard the conversation between the two snorted disdainfully.

There are many boats in the river, and they can't pass for a while, and they are idle, so Lotte asked, "What does this Ruiguang Tower have to say?" ”

The guest said: "This Ruiguang Pagoda was originally the mother of Sun Quan at the end of the Han Dynasty, and a thirteen-story pagoda was built in Puji Monastery. It is said that when the tower was repaired in the second year of Tianfu in the Later Jin Dynasty, the top of the tower emitted Ruiguang, and the emperor gave Ruiguang Pagoda. After being destroyed in the war, the current tower is built in the first year of Jingde in the Northern Song Dynasty to the eighth year of Tiansheng, the more and more dilapidated in the previous years, Zhu Mian funded the rebuilding of this tower, but Zhu Mian thought that the original tower was too high, and changed it to seven floors. ”

Someone heard the conversation between the two and scolded: "I have done too much evil, I must always bribe the gods under the heavens and the earth, so as not to die and fall into the eighteenth layer of hell and be tortured by ten thousand ships!" ”

In this regard, Lotte just smiled, but Zhu Mian's sin is enough to see the general, over the years, Zhu Mian has relied on Zhao Ji's favor and arrogance, not only through the Ying Ying Bureau and Hua Shigang to loot the people in Jiangnan, but also rampant in the chao gang, left and right officials are promoted, and even Liang Shicheng and others can't help him, Wang Hao and Cai Jing's Zhishi are also inseparable from his small actions.

After a whole afternoon, the boat went out of the Suzhou River, originally thought that it could reach Hangzhou in one day, so it was delayed and had to spend the night in Chongde, and arrived in Hangzhou at noon on the third day.

The city wall of Hangzhou still retains the traces left by the soldiers three years ago, but the city of Hangzhou has completely recovered its former prosperity, and because of the development of maritime trade, Hangzhou was much more prosperous before.

"I've seen Master Hou!"

As soon as Lotte's ship arrived in Beiguan, Hangzhou, Wang Yuanwai, Bai Yuanwai and others had already come to the dock to greet them, and Chen Hoop and Lu Jiang, who were entrenched on overseas islands, also knew the news of Lotte's arrival early and came to greet them in disguise.

Hearing a few people called him like this, Lotte waved his hand while getting off the boat and said: "Don't call Le Moumou any marquis, Le's title has already been taken away by the Son of Heaven!" ”

"The court is unfair, the marquis has made such a great contribution to the court, not only did he not confer the title of the marquis, but also took the title of the marquis, which is really infuriating!"

"The king is faint, and the Great Song Dynasty will die!"

"It is said that there are many changes in the north, and the imperial court is also in turmoil!"

……

Lotte's voice fell, and everyone shouted dissatisfied.

Bai Yuanwai smiled: "Everyone, don't be noisy, Hou Ye has been tired all the way, so please ask Hou Ye to go to the other courtyard to rest!" ”

After meeting the ceremony, Lotte didn't ask about Luzon and Dongying, looked around and asked directly, "Is Flood Wang coming?" ”

"Thank you Lord Hou for your concern, the little one is here!"

Without waiting for Bai Yuanwai and others to speak, Flood Wang came to Lotte to bow and say.

"You've traveled half the world in the past four years, and you've worked hard!" Patting Hung Wang's shoulder, Lotte said.

"The villain lives up to the trust of the Hou Ye, and it is also a loss to the sea chart given by the Hou Ye, otherwise he can't sail that far!" Hong Shui Wang hurriedly said and continued: "Master Hou, the villain has sent someone to find out, that land is vast, according to small estimates, the land in the north of the continent is the size of several Great Song Dynasty, and the land in the south is also several Song Dynasty sizes, adding up to at least ten Great Song Dynasty area. ”

In addition to the crew of the ship, only a few people except the king and the white staff know, and the things that know about the American continent are limited to a limited number of people, Lu Jiang and others are the first time to hear about the American continent, and the shock on the faces of these people can be imagined.

"You are in the same car with me, and tell me about the American continent!" Lotte said.

Hung Wang was flattered, and everyone was also surprised, to say that Lotte was most likely to ask about Dongying and Luzon, but he didn't expect Lotte to pay more attention to Hung Wang, and immediately made everyone feel that the news brought by Hung Wang was more important to Dongying and Luzon.

After getting out of the car, Lotte and Flood Wang said, "Tell me what you have seen and heard along the way?" ”

Flood Wang and Lotte saluted again, and then said: "Hou Ye, the little one went north along the chart given by Hou Ye, originally thought that the north was extremely cold and bitter and would not be inhabited, but I didn't expect that in the cold place of the boat in the north, there are still people living in the cold place, those who live in the extreme north are somewhat similar to the appearance of our Han people, because of the cold climate, those natives do not work and cultivate, and they have many dogs different from my Great Song Dynasty to hunt, and generally make a living from fishing and hunting.

Then the small ships crossed the strait that led to the north......"

"The strait that goes north, you can call it the Bering Strait, and those natives who live in the bitter cold of the far north and live by fishing and hunting, you can call them Eskimos!" Lotte said.

Hearing Lotte's words, Flood Wang immediately exclaimed: "Master Hou, you haven't been there!" ”

"Haven't been!" Lotte shook his head and said with a smile: "If I have free time in the future, I would like to take a look." ”

Flood Wang exclaimed: "Hou Ye has never been to the bitter cold land of the extreme north, why do you know the Eskimos, those natives of the bitter cold land in the extreme north also call themselves Eskimos." ”

"Le Mou just saw it from some idle books." Lotte could only prevaricate, and said with a smile: "At first, Le Mou was also surprised and couldn't believe this kind of sea theory, so he sent you to investigate, but I didn't expect that what the book said was true!" ”

"Master Hou is really knowledgeable!" Hearing Lotte say this, Flood Wang gave his hand again.

Signaling to Flood Wang not to be polite: "Let's talk about it, what else has been found on the American continent?" ”

The reason why Lotte is called America is because when he gave the map he drew to Flood Wang, he marked the American continent on the surface with the words "American continent".

"On the American continent, the little ones thought that the land was uninhabited, but they did not want to see there the natives who wore feathers as headdresses and only covered their fur with their fur, and these natives were very similar to our Song people in appearance, and those natives were gentle in temperament and had no malice.

Although these natives may seem to have a mild-mannered temperament, they are natural cavalrymen, and they basically hunt large animals for a living. In the plains of the Americas, there are tens of millions of irascible bison, almost unstoppable, and the indigenous people living there survive by their heroic victory over the herd. They built houses out of cowhides and tendons, and made clothes and shoes; using cow dung as fuel; Use cows' bladders to make kettles and drinking utensils......"

Flood Wang introduced what he had seen and heard on the American continent for Lotte, and then asked: "Master Hou, I wonder what kind of race these natives can be recorded in the ancient books you read, and what kind of race are they called?" ”

"The ancient books call these people Indians!" Lotte said.

Hung Wang continued: "The interpreter who accompanied the small boat tried very hard to learn the language of these Indians, and it took him half a year to learn some of them, and to communicate with these Indians, who said that their earliest ancestors did not produce in this land, but migrated from other places......"

For the history of the Indians, Lotte also knows a little bit in his previous life, although the Indians are the aborigines of the Americas, but not the natives, according to historians, they first arrived on the American continent 40,000 years ago, and their ancestors were indigenous people living in Asia, and they crossed the Bering Strait from Asia to the Americas about 10,000 years ago, or during the small cold period at the time, the Bering Strait was frozen over.

Lotte also knows that there is a saying in later generations that the Indians and the Chinese people are involved in blood, but there is no complete scientific basis, but it is believed that there were Chinese people who went to the United States before the Ming Dynasty, and even in the Qing Dynasty, there was an Indian who said to the Qing Dynasty that they were descendants of China, but the Qing government at that time ignored it.

Even Westerners have suggested that Columbus was not the first to discover the New World at that time, because the Vikings of the previous Vikings had already been to the Americas, and that Zheng He's fleet also sent a fleet to the Americas, as evidenced by the charts left by Zheng He at that time, which clearly marked the places where North and South America were located.

"Master Hou, while trading with the Indians, the small ones sent people to carefully survey the territory of the Indians, these Indians do not have the concept of a state, and no one collects taxes on them, and the social structure is like a barbarian tribe, and it is impossible to form an effective power organization, and the small ones have also found out that there are still gold, silver, copper and other minerals in some places in the Americas." Hung Wang continued.

Before sailing to the Americas, Hung Wang was the boss of the ship under Wang Yuanwai, and he followed Wang Yuanwai for many years, often going back and forth between the Great Song Dynasty and Dongying, as Wang Yuanwai's henchman, he naturally knew about Dongying's silver mining, and he knew that Lotte sent himself to travel to the Americas, not only to see that simple, not only to draw a map of the place he traveled, but also to explore the local mineral resources.

The American continent is obviously a treasure land, and Lotte asked with a smile: "Now that there are steamships, it can travel at least more than 450 miles in a day and night, do you calculate how long it will take to reach the American continent from my Great Song Dynasty all the way east?" ”

Flood Wang calculated a little, and said: "The small estimate of the distance from the Americas to my Great Song Dynasty is about 15,000 miles, according to the small calculation, take a steam engine ship along the tropical road to the east, the long is two friends, and the short is one and a half months to reach the American continent!" ”

Hearing the steamer, Flood Wang's eyes lit up, and his eyes were full of adoration when he looked at Lotte. Said excitedly: "The little one has been living in the sea for almost 30 years, but he has never seen a ship that does not need manpower and wind power, this time it has opened his eyes, and I heard that this ship is made for Hou Ye, Hou Ye is really a great sage in the world!" ”

Flood Wang went to sea for four years, sailed back from the turbulent ocean currents to the west along the part of the Americas, sailed to Luzon, and then planned to return to Hangzhou from Luzon, but did not expect to meet the fleet led by Wang Zhe in Luzon.

During the period of recuperation in Luzon, I learned that there were nearly 100,000 Great Song immigrants in Luzon, and the number was still increasing.

Of course, as his own person, Wang Zhe did not hide it, and he knew about the complete layout of Luzon and Hongshuiwang, Hongshuiwang was also surprised, he didn't expect Lotte to have such great courage to include Luzon, Dongying and Jinzhou into the territory of the Great Song Dynasty.

In this regard, Flood Wangxin admires and fears Lotte.

"On this trip to the Americas, did Le specifically order you to bring back the crops you brought back?" Lotte asked again.

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Source of this book: Oriental Reading Network

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