Chapter 7 The Meaning of Navigation

At this time, it had been five days since Changsun Tang first saw the giant ship. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

After a few days of rest in Yuezhou, the ship set out on its way to Quanzhou again.

When Changsun Tang saw this ship, he had already thought of a resounding name for this ship: the Yellow Emperor.

Originally, Changsun Tang planned to name the ship "Datang". But thinking about the profound meaning behind the word "Datang" can only be stopped. If the name "Datang" is chosen, the ship will be full of political significance, which will make her future itinerary full of unknowable variables.

The name "Yellow Emperor" does not have these concerns. Moreover, the Yellow Emperor, as the "ancestor of humanity" of the Chinese nation, was obtained by overcoming many obstacles in the era of flood and famine, which is undoubtedly highly consistent with the indomitable spirit of the ship to prepare for the great geographical discovery.

This time, the Yellow Emperor was destined for Quanzhou, and then departed from Quanzhou, the most important seaport, to other places further afield.

At this time, the eldest grandson was standing on the wide deck of the Yellow Emperor, looking at the many weapons, including a trebuchet, twelve improved and then enlarged rectangular bed crossbows, and tall slapsticks.

Originally, in Changsun Tang's plan, the ship was supposed to be equipped with basically mature artillery. However, in a recent artillery test, the best performing gun had a service life of less than 50 rounds and a range of no more than 1,000 meters. The range of the improved bed crossbow has exceeded 1,500 meters, and the range of the trebuchet is as high as 3 kilometers.

However, Changsun Tang got the gunpowder weapon on the ship, whether it was a trebuchet or a bed crossbow, it could fire gunpowder packs, and the problem of power was solved.

Unconsciously, the Yellow Emperor is getting faster and faster. The eldest grandson found that there were two huge characters engraved on a towering cliff on the shore, but the reason for the distance was not recognizable.

So he summoned Wu Yuanqing, who was hiding aside and drinking, and asked, "What is that?" ”

Wu Yuanqing glanced at it and said, "Don't you even know about 'Chibi'?" ”

The eldest grandson was a little dumbfounded, and unconsciously came to this famous ancient battlefield of the Three Kingdoms - Chibi

In the thirteenth year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty (208 AD), the famous "Battle of Red Cliffs" in history took place here. At that time, Cao Cao pacified the north and personally led hundreds of thousands of troops to the south, directly approaching Eastern Wu. In the face of a powerful enemy, Sun Quan, the lord of Wu, adopted the advice of his advisers and united with Liu Bei to fight against Cao. At that time, Cao's army was stationed in the north of the Chibi River, and the Sun-Liu coalition army was stationed on the south bank. Zhou Yu, the governor of Sun Quan of Wu State, used the fire attack strategy of the general Huang Gai to burn the Cao army's serial ships and collapse. In the Battle of Chibi, the Sun-Liu coalition army defeated Cao Cao with a weak force, and since then has established the situation of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu.

When the eldest grandson heard the word Chibi, he undoubtedly remembered the famous sentence in Su Shi's famous poem "Nian Nujiao Chibi Nostalgia": The great river goes east, the waves are exhausted, and the characters of the ages are merry.

Originally, I wanted to take advantage of Su Shi's song as my own, but when I thought of the "early birth of Huafa" in the back, I immediately gave birth to Huafa.

However, when I saw such a famous place, I was really sorry for myself if I didn't make a poem, but I looked at the halberd that I couldn't pick up and break, and Du Mu's "broken halberd sinks into the sand and iron is not sold, and I will grind and wash to recognize the previous dynasty" There is no artistic conception.

Thinking about it, I can only be sorry for myself.

Wu Yuanqing drank wine while looking at the eldest grandson who had a lot of words, and felt that everything seemed to be a little abnormal today. If he understood what Changsun Tang said, then the problem would obviously be even more serious.

Since this can't be a poet, let's be an acquaintance, think about it, there don't seem to be a few famous poets who have a good end, such as: Li Bai Dufu; Another example is Haizi. This eldest grandson's mood immediately calmed down.

God is indeed fair, and with the level of poetry writing of the eldest grandson, the verses that can be written are nothing more than "O sea, you are all water; Horses, you're all legs", this kind of postmodern realist work without disease and screaming.

Cleaning up these messy moods, Changsun Tang's heart unconsciously arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River two thousand miles away, for people who have never seen the sea in two lifetimes, the impression of the sea for him is that there is endless water, endless blue.

However, this does not hinder Changsun Tang's understanding of the sea.

To understand the sea, it is necessary to understand the ocean-type neighbors.

For continental neighbors, because the border is fixed for a certain period of time, it is particularly clear whether yours or mine is extraordinarily clear, once someone does not follow the rules, this is undoubtedly a bandit, and if you go to a third country that is not directly adjacent, you will definitely pass through another country.

This is not the case at all with oceanic neighbors. Theoretically, as long as your country has access to the sea, you can go directly to any country that also has access to the sea without going through a third country. At the same time, in the vast sea, your identity is not so certain, and most of the pirates that flooded in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries were composed of the navies of various powers. Everything is based on strength.

This is the obvious difference between the mouths of continental thinking and oceanic thinking.

Therefore, as soon as possible, let the attention of the Chinese nation shift from the west and the north to the sea, which is also what Changsun Tang needs to do most urgently.

However, the development of the marine industry is far more difficult than imagined, first of all, the backward navigation technology, as well as people's psychological endurance, and the obstacles of traditional thought, these invisible obstacles are far greater than the tangible difficulties.

But the difficulties are about to begin, and Changsun Tang can only do this step at present.

There are big ships, sailors, and escorts, which is basically enough, which is much better than Columbus and Magellan, and what is there to dislike.

In fact, there is a more important reason for this, and that is profit. As the old saying goes, "The world is bustling, and everything is profitable." "If the eldest grandson could not find some way to get rich quickly through navigation in a short period of time, then it would be difficult for this great voyage to develop. Nothing will be difficult if there is an inducement to the advantage, and there is enough benefit.

And this road Changsun Tang has been planning for many years, and even in the fourth year of Zhenguan, when Changsun Tang crossed the Qinling Mountains in the name of a study tour, he had already thought of it. (To be continued.) )