"Zheng He is a great pioneer, and every cell of his is eager to explore the unknown, the mysterious

The Atlantic Ocean drew him intensely, and that's it, Dad. Now China has half of the navigators

It's good to have the spirit!"

"Young people nowadays think so."

"Is there something wrong?"

"There are some aspects of Zheng He that you may not know, first of all, as a man he is crippled, he is

A eunuch. "

The son and Amy's eyes widened in shock, "You talk nonsense!" said the son. But soon, he seemed to remember

He had read some hint from a book, and turned to look at the Colossus and fell silent.

"The day after the Battle of Paris, Zheng He led 8,000 cavalry into Paris, with the European monarchs and Rome

The Pope signed that epoch-making agreement. Riding a horse through the streets of Paris, Zheng He and his companions

One time they saw those ancient Greek sculptures, they saw Poseidon, Apollo, Athena, Athena

Flodete...... These men and women, who could not have been seen in the land of the Ming Dynasty, were sturdy and beautiful

It was so perfectly shaped, and this was the first time that Western culture had a strong shock to them. For Zheng He,

This shock went deep into the soul, and he had never been so deeply aware of his own shortcomings, his own

Not perfect. Later, he fell into a deep confusion and melancholy, which made him feel this

The world became stranger and stranger, and finally, a strong desire arose in the hearts of him and all those who accompanied him......"

"What?"

"Go home."

"Go home?!"

"Go home. The desire was so strong that they wanted to take a closer path. And they learned from European geography the shape of the earth, and they learned that if they kept going west, they could go home just as much as they went back east.

So, shortly after the conquest of Europe, the Ming fleet headed west, into the depths of the Atlantic. They're leaving

Walk, walk, walk, In the two months of difficult voyage, A pair of eyes look at the distance where the Atlantic Ocean is connected by sky and water,

Looking forward to the shore of my hometown floating there...... Finally, the land appeared, but it was not the land of dreams,

It's a strange world with agaves and cacti, infested with red tribes. When they set foot on the new

On the mainland, instead of cheering as those shallow historical writers described, they hugged their heads and cried...... Zheng He fell ill and ended his life in the New World. Many of the ships in the fleet still sailed along the coast, and it wasn't until five years later that they found their way through the Bering Strait to the Pacific Ocean, and it was another five years before they returned to their homeland, where the sun never set, and the world of the Ming Dynasty's empire never set. "

The son contemplated for a long time in front of the Colossus, probably the longest contemplation of his life,

I feel more relieved than I have ever been.

"Kid, history and life are not the simple conquests and pioneers you always think you are, there are many of them

There are many things that cannot be explained, and many things that need to be matured to understand. "

"Yes," said Amy, "think of it, if Zheng He, according to his original plan, sailed as far as Soma at the earliest

The coast returns, what will it look like in the future? Perhaps it was a European flotilla that later bypassed first

The Cape of Good Hope, and perhaps another European fleet has discovered America!"

"Alas, history, the fate of the same man is very similar." I sighed.

"So, Daddy," the son awoke from his musings, pointing to Amy, "is she your new world?"

Amy and I looked at each other and smiled, and neither of us denied that.

Behind us, the lights of Manhattan are even brighter, and the water of New York Harbor is a sea of light.

It was another dreamy night in the New World.

Postscript: If Zheng He had been sailing forward, what would have happened to his future history? This is a question that haunts countless Chinese. Historians believe that the purpose of Zheng He's voyage was backward, just to "spread the emperor's grace to the world" (in search of Emperor Jianwen?). ), and not for trade and conquest. Under such a guiding ideology, even if the Ming Dynasty fleet sailed to Western Europe or even the Americas, it would not do much. However, the author's view is that people's thinking will change in the new environment, and if Zheng He really sails to Western Europe, he will inevitably come into contact with Western thought and science, which is the collision of Eastern culture with Western culture, which is completely different from the impact of other people's culture on us in the future, and will inevitably bear unexpected fruits. In addition, in real history, Zheng He used troops twice during his expedition, at least one of which was against a country.

In the world described in this science fiction novel, Chinese culture has a greater influence and geographical scope, but it is not an ideal society, it faces more problems, greater crises and dangers than our reality. Now when I reread it, I find that the world is very clumsy, and at the same time, I don't like the heavy colonialism and hegemonism in the novel.

1999.2.1 Yu Niangzi Pass