June and July of the second year of Xianchun in the Great Song Dynasty seemed to be a period of preparation before the Great War for the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. After the vigorous Putuo Mountain dialectic, the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties have been divided into two opposing camps.

The Eastern Tang and Northern Ming had already come together and were ready to launch an attack on the Western Yuan (Mongolia) in the autumn of this year! The reason why it is autumn is because both the Tang and Ming countries need the grain harvested in the autumn to eat—the current Eastern Tang is a country with a population of only 3 million, and the population of the Northern Ming is less than 800,000 after seizing the Zhoushan Islands. Large-scale military mobilization requires the mobilization of a large number of soldiers and civilians, which will have a great impact on agricultural production in these two countries. Therefore, troops can only be sent after the autumn harvest, so that at least a good harvest can be guaranteed this autumn.

And the Southern Song Dynasty and the Western Yuan Dynasty are obviously also linked. The Southern Song Dynasty court ruled by Jia Yidao began to secretly provide H medicine weapons to the Western Yuan - the Western Yuan did not have the ability to produce H medicine, although they and the Southern Song Dynasty and the Eastern Tang Dynasty could not figure out what was going on with granular H medicine, but ordinary H medicine was difficult for them. In the process of expansion and conquest, the Mongols collected many of the world's first-class craftsmen, and there were thousands of skilled craftsmen in Yanjing, Kaiping, Helin and Jingzhaofu. But in Lin'an, Mingzhou, and Quanzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, the number of craftsmen was 100,000!

The Southern Song Dynasty in this era is the world's factory! And the value of industrial (handicraft) output is certainly much greater than the value of industrial (handicraft) output in the rest of the world combined! In addition, the Southern Song Dynasty also linked international trade with Tianzhu, Japan, Goryeo, Nanyang, Dashi and even Europe. All the commodities stored in the old continent could be bought in large quantities in the land of the Southern Song Dynasty. It also includes saltpeter and sulfur, two important raw materials for the production of H drugs. The former is mainly imported from Tianzhu, and the latter is produced in Japan.

So the Mongols before they got the H medicine supplied by the Southern Song Dynasty. H medicine weapons were quite valuable in the Mongol army - this is why Guo Shoujing did not do enough to shoot Chen Dexing with flying rockets.

Now with the H medicine provided by the Great Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan's army can finally enter the era of hot weapons! And in return. The Western Yuan also provided war horses to the Great Song Dynasty. In June and July of the second year of Xianchun, the Mongols had not yet accumulated enough H medicine to deal with a war. The same. The regimental training of the Southern Song Dynasty was also in the process of being created, far from reaching the point where it could start a war in the Northern Ming or Eastern Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming Quartets all chose to wait in these two months. Time seems to pass quietly in a boring waiting.

However, in the history books of later generations, June and July of the second year of Xianchun were quite colorful two months. Because the famous "Wen Tianxiang's discovery of the New World" happened in these two months.

……

'Okay, great, my feet are finally on the ground......

Muddleheaded. Wen Tianxiang's feet, whose stomach was still sour, finally stepped on the solid earth—but not the land of the Mingzhou Continent. It is the land outside the castle of Kamakura, Japan.

Kamakura was the first stop on Wen Tianxiang's journey to discover the New World. In the last few days, the great geo-discoverer has been dizzy for a few days on the ship, and he can't eat anything but undrinkable shochu. In fact, there is nothing good to eat on board. The staple food is a kind of baked dough, a bit like the naan of the Uyghurs in later generations. It is baked with flour, water and lard. Roasted very dry, it can be stored for a long time, making it the best dry food for long trips. Chen Dexing's army also used it as marching food. The dry rations for the Mingzhou are also this thing.

In addition to naan, the ship also served very salty and hard cured meat, Wen Tianxiang was so seasick that he had no appetite and did not eat at all. The nine-lamp monk who was in the same cabin as him did not eat meat. So I didn't eat it, it was all wine and meat through the intestines, and the great monk of Yongxin remembered in the heart of the Buddha - according to the great monk, this cured meat tasted good. It's better than what you eat in Henan......

In addition to naan and cured meats, tea and lemon are also served on board – the tea leaves are dried and soaked in boiling water, as fresh water on board is precious. Therefore, tea is not served openly, but more alcohol instead of water. And Wen Tianxiang gave his share of tea to the Nine Lights monk. He's a monk, he doesn't drink. As for the Yongxin monk, that's a lot!

Whereas, lemon is a very sour fruit. Each person gets a small piece every day, and it's hard to swallow. But according to the Beiming Navy navigation regulations, this must be eaten! It is said that if you don't eat it, you will get scurvy, which is terrible to hear! So Wen Tianxiang could only grit his teeth and eat every day......

After standing on the long-lost earth for a while, Wen Da Zhuangyuan began to observe the situation around him.

It's a deserted dock, with no cargo stacks in sight and no decent defenses - it's a port right next to Kamakura, the old home of the Kamakura shogunate! As soon as Wen Tianxiang raised his eyes, he could see Kamakura Castle built on the seaside, and there were many deep mansions and temples around it.

On the way to Japan, he once heard Zhou Xiaoqi, a fellow traveler, tell him some inside things about Japan, and knew that the system implemented in Japan was similar to China's Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and it was also slightly similar to the Northern Ming Dynasty. It was a feudal system, and their emperor had no power, and the country was controlled by a yamen called the Kamakura Shogunate, which was not in Heiankyo, but in the Kanto Plain in eastern Japan......

That's the castle in front of you! The most powerful yamen in Japan was there, but the port next to it was undefended, and four Northern Ming warships equipped with cannons swaggered in!

There were no Japanese warships on the pier, except for the four "Meishu" class. There are some fishing boats on the sea, all of which are small like sampans.

The Mingzhou class, which is considered a small and medium-sized ship in the Beiming Navy, is definitely a giant here. The tall masts and the odd spinnakers that have been put away attract many onlookers, and the pier is facing a splendid temple. Standing on the pier, you can see a Buddhist hall five or six feet high. The style is simple, like the style of the Tang Dynasty, but it looks brand new.

Along with the monks, women and children came out of the temple...... It is estimated that incense was burned here. They all ran to the dock and looked curiously at the four Mingzhou-class ships and the passengers and crew members who were getting off the ship.

The Nine Lights Monk and the Yongxin Great Monk had already stepped forward to talk to the Japanese monk. Wen Tianxiang also staggered over, wanting to hear what the monks said again - the monks were talking in Chinese, and at this time, Japanese people could speak Chinese at a relatively high level, so the monks would.

The person who was talking to Master Nine Lights and Master Yongxin was the presiding monk of the Gaode Temple, Master Jingguang, who was the great monk of the Eastern Secret Shingon Sect. He is very short, with beautiful eyebrows, and looks like he is in his fifties. Wearing a black robe, he speaks in a very soft voice, and if you don't listen carefully, you may miss words.

However, when Wen Tianxiang approached, the monk suddenly shouted: "Nani? Nani? 12,000 miles east of Japan!? Isn't that to the edge of the sky? ”

"No, it's not the ...... of the sky," and he heard the great monk Yongxin say, "Because the earth is round......

"Nani? Nani!? Is the earth round? No horizon? How is this possible? Don't all the ancient books of your Song Kingdom say that the land is square? ”

"Ah, that's the latest way to put it." The great monk Yongxin said, "This voyage in which the poor monk and the master of the nine lights participated is to confirm this. We will continue to travel east until we return to Shenjiamen Port from the west......"

"How is this possible? Heading east to the port to the west? Who said this? ”

"His Royal Highness King Ming, is the King of Heaven and Taoism...... "Yongxin Great Monk Dao."

"Heavenly ...... What does the Heavenly Daoist Sect say? Are you a monk of the Heavenly Daoist Sect? ”

When Monk Jingguang heard the three words of Heavenly Taoism, the expression on his face suddenly became complicated, and he raised his hand and pointed to a construction site in the northeast of Gaode Temple: "There is the Kamakura Heavenly Taoist Temple...... It was built at the expense of Musashi Moricho Tokiko. ”

Musashi Morichotoki is the current Kamakura shogunate ruling Hojo Chotoki. In order to buy the Heavenly Thunder of the Northern Ming Dynasty, he agreed to the entry of the Heavenly Taoist Sect into Japan, and also funded the construction of the Kamakura Heavenly Taoist Temple, and also promised to officially convert to the Heavenly Taoist Sect after the completion of the Kamakura Heavenly Taoist Temple. And in order to show sincerity, he also let his main room Ma Yu take the first step to convert to the way of heaven.

However, such a move caused a lot of controversy among the Kamakura shogunate and the Hojo family. Because it's one thing to allow Tentoism to spread in Japan, it's another thing for the Kamakura shogunate, who holds the power of Japan, to convert to Tendo – which means that Tentoism may replace Buddhism and Shintoism as the state religion of Japan, rather than more Tendo shrines in Shinto!

This possibility naturally made Japanese monks and shrine witches and shrines nervous. And the Japanese monks and witches and witches are inextricably linked with the samurai in power, and in fact, the three are fundamentally one. For example, the Hojo family has its own temples and shrines. People of the Hojo family often became monks or nuns in their homes.

For example, the former ruler who still holds considerable real power, Hojo Tokiyori, who is still the Hojo family's Tokumune, is now a monk at the most Meiji Temple, with the monk Michitaka of the Song Dynasty as his teacher, and the power structure of the Kamakura shogunate, the law name Dochong, has shifted from the dictatorship to the dictatorship of Tokumune under the rule of Hojo Tokiyori.

Although Hojo Tokiyori gave up his position in power, the power of the shogunate was still in his hands! And he also planned to hand over the power and the position of Dezong to his son Hojo Tokimune.

Although Hojo Tokiyoshi did not openly oppose it—he had seen the power of the Heavenly Thunder with his own eyes, so he naturally had to buy it, otherwise the enemies of the Hojo family might take the lead—but it still prevented Hojo Nagasaki from taking refuge immediately...... (To be continued......)