Li Su decided to go to Taiwan again, this time to take the whole family to Taiwan Island for a vacation, by the way, to meet the fleet of ships exploring the route, to inquire about where the other party has been, what strange species and customs have they seen?

However, Li Su did not take the Qi Wang on this voyage, but took a steamship newly built by Yifan's steam shipyard, named Tainan, which is the third steamship on the route of Dengzhou, Shanghai, and Taiwan, and the first two steamships were named Keelung and Penghu, both named after the cities on the island of Taiwan, and this time it was also its maiden voyage, and it was wrapped up by Li Su.

The size of the Tainan is much smaller than that of the Qi Wang, but the speed is much faster than that of the Qi Wang, and if you take this ship to Taiwan, it will only take a few days to arrive, and it will take more than a month to go back and forth as before. Originally, Li Su also wanted to transform the Qi Wang into a steam ship, but due to some technical limitations, the steamer could not drive a large ship like the Qi Wang, and even the steam ships produced by Yifan were some small and medium-sized ships.

It is precisely because the size of the steamship is a little small, although the speed is very fast, but when it encounters wind and waves, it is much more dangerous than other large ships, so Li Su did not let Yifan build a special steamship for himself, and even if it is not necessary, Li Su will not take a steamship when he goes to sea, after all, everything is safety first, and he has always been a very life-sparing person.

However, this time Li Su had to take a steamship, because Lu Wan's fleet was about to arrive in Taiwan, and only the speed of the steamship allowed him to catch up with the fleet. However, Wen Xin and the others did not think about any safety issues like Li Su. They only thought that the steamship, like the train, was driven by a steam engine. And it's amazingly fast, much faster than the boats they've been on before. So they all urged Li Su to buy one for the palace, so that it would be convenient to travel in the future. The result naturally made Li Su smile bitterly.

The entire Tainan was wrapped up by Li Su, so there was no need to go to Shanghai at all, and it went directly to Taiwan Island, but this time the destination was not in Keelung City, but in Tainan City, although it was later than Keelung City, it was developing very fast. In addition, Tainan is facing the South Seas, and its geographical location is better than Keelung, so there is a trend of latecomers taking over, and now it has become another major port city on Taiwan Island.

Li Su and their luck is good, in the summer season of high typhoons, they did not encounter too much wind and waves along the way, but when they were about to reach the island of Taiwan, they encountered a Taiwanese tail, and as a result, the whole steamship was very bumpy. This made Wen Xin and others, who had long been accustomed to the stability of the Qi Wang, cry out for a while. However, the two children, Chouchou and Li Qi, were not affected, but the more the boat rocked, the happier they became, in Chouchou's words. It's like sitting on a rocking bed, and it's so much fun. As a result, Li Su was completely speechless after hearing this.

After passing through the wind and wave area, the Tainan soon arrived in Tainan City. Coincidentally, this is the maiden voyage of the Tainan. And the first stop is also to Tainan City, it seems that this ship is very close to this place in Tainan.

When Li Su arrived in Tainan. Lu Wan's exploration fleet is still on the way, after all, they have to rest for a few days in Manila, so they have delayed the time, otherwise they will definitely not arrive in Taiwan later than Li Su. And when Li Su arrived in Tainan, Yanbei, Wang Kuang, and Cui Yu also rushed back from Linyi, preparing for the grand ceremony of the return of the fleet.

On the morning of the third day after Li Su's arrival in Tainan City, Lu Wan's fleet finally arrived outside the port of Tainan City.

Li Su and Yan Bei attach great importance to this fleet to explore the route, especially when Lu Wan told them that the fleet had made a big discovery through the official Manila before, which made the two even more excited. In order to show the solemnity, this time they also specially took a boat outside the port to welcome the return of the fleet.

Lu Wan and the others were also excited when they saw Tainan City, especially those crew members whose families were in Taiwan, and they were even more heartfelt, but when they saw His Royal Highness King Qi outside the port, he greeted them in person, and it was so grand, which made them even more excited, and even their homesickness was much lighter.

"Boom~Boom~Boom......"

When Li Su and Yan Bei's ship entered the port with Lu Wan and their fleet, the salute that had been prepared on the dock immediately sounded, and then in the passionate music, in the cheers of the merchants who spontaneously came to greet them, Li Su and Yan Bei welcomed Lu Wan off the ship. Although Lu Wan did everything possible to refuse, he didn't dare to accept such a heavy courtesy, but Li Su insisted on doing so, so Lu Wan had no choice.

When Lu Wan and all the crew members disembarked, on this pier, under the gaze of the surrounding people, Li Su personally hung a gold pioneer medal on Lu Wan's chest, and several silver pioneer medals were awarded to Feng Shijie, Liu Kata and other important people in the fleet, as for the ordinary crew, each of them also had a bronze medal.

This is something that the entire fleet did not expect in advance, after all, this operation to open up the route was only a private action organized by the slave hunting association at the beginning, and it was not officially passed, so Lu Wan did not expect to get the pioneer medal, especially the gold medal on his chest, it is said that in addition to Vice Admiral Lu Qing, only a few people got it, it can be said that this medal not only represents courage and wisdom, but also represents the contribution made by the owner of the medal to the Age of Discovery.

Li Su naturally knew that Lu Wan and their voyage was only to open up slave hunting grounds, but as soon as this route was opened, in addition to bringing a large number of slaves, it would also attract other merchants to go south along this trade route, thus bringing endless goods and money, so he awarded the Pioneer Medal to the people of the fleet.

After the welcoming ceremony on the wharf was completed, Li Su set up a banquet in the newly built Qi Wang Courtyard in Tainan City to entertain all the crew members, and Li Su and Yan Bei also put down the shelves and toasted the crew in person, which made all the crew members surprised and delighted, and respected the famous King Qi all over the world in their hearts.

After greeting the crew outside, Li Su and Yan Bei came to the main hall of the other courtyard, where the more important people in the fleet were sitting, such as Lu Wan, Feng Shijie, etc., and even Erhanzi and Curly Hair who picked up the dog's head gold were also here, although Curly Hair was not an important person, but his luck was too rebellious, just that piece of dog's head gold was enough to make him a little rich, and after Li Su heard his deeds, he invited him in to drink together.

At the beginning of the banquet, the people sitting in the main hall were still a little restrained, even Lu Wan, after all, he was only a small pirate on the island of Taiwan before, and now he is only a member of the slave hunting association.

Li Su naturally saw the restraint of the people sitting there, and at that moment he glanced at Yanbei, but the other party immediately understood, and began to make some small jokes with Li Su, and the tone of his speech was also extremely casual. And Wang Guo and Cui Yu next to him also felt the restraint on the scene, and began to laugh with Li Su like Yanbei.

With the drive of the three of them, coupled with Li Su's talking, laughing and laughing at all, this made Lu Wan and them relax, coupled with Li Su's deliberate guidance, Lu Wan and their words began to increase, and the scene began to be lively. Among them, Feng Shijie had an intersection with Li Su before, and now his sister Feng Shuyu is still in Li Su's palace, waiting for him to take the money to redeem it, but now the occasion is not right, and Feng Shijie is not easy to speak.

After the three rounds of drinking, everyone had almost eaten, and Li Su began to ask where Lu Wan had passed along the way, what kind of dangers he encountered on the way, and so on?

Lu Wan was also prepared for Li Su's inquiry, only to see him nod at Feng Shijie, but the other party immediately picked up a box from his side, opened it gently, took out a chart made of white silk from it, and then presented it to Li Su with both hands.

Li Su asked people to take it, and then opened the chart, and found that this white silk was one meter square, marking Taiwan Island as the starting point, recording the route of Lu Wan and their southward journey, and all the islands encountered on the road were marked on it, and around the white silk, the latitude and longitude were also marked, which can be said to be a very accurate chart.

"Your Highness, the islands marked on this chart are all the islands we passed, but in the course of our voyage, we found that there are many islands on this route, and the islands we encountered are only a very small part of them, but it doesn't matter, with the development of this route in the future, more and more islands will be discovered, and they can be slowly replenished at that time, in addition to the text and graphic data that record the topography, vegetation, and natives of these islands, but because there are too many of these materials, they have not yet come and moved down from the ship, If Your Highness wants to see it, I'll have someone send it tomorrow!" Lu Wan opened his mouth to explain.

After hearing this, Li Su nodded, and began to lower his head to carefully look at this chart that cost a lot of lives. Yan Bei was the initiator of this matter, and naturally he was also very concerned about the content on the chart, so he also put down his wine glass and came over to read it with Li Yu. And Wang Kuang and Cui Yu, as maritime merchants, naturally understood the value of the new route, so they all came to watch it together.

And Li Su's eyes began to look down from Keelung Harbor on Taiwan Island, then passed through Manila, and then went southeast around Borneo, and finally entered the Spice Islands, along the archipelago all the way to the south, until the bottom, the end of the route pointed to a large island that only drew one-third of the coastline, although it was only one-third, but when Li Su saw this unknown island, he was shocked, and blurted out to Lu Wan in shock: "You actually went to Australia?" (To be continued.) )