Sunday, December 23, 6th year of China.

Sunday is a holiday for major factories, schools and the government, and on this day, most of the people who have worked hard for six days can have a good rest, and most of them say that it is because there are always people who work overtime, are on duty or are not on this day on this day.

Among these unlucky eggs, there are a group of high-level people, including Li Kang.

Today's Qihuan Town, just like the seventeenth four months ago, gathered on the dock a large number of people who were bored on vacation, but the Qihuan Town Government would not let them run around casually, there were military police on the side early to maintain order, everyone must stay in the specified area, some specially arranged groups, standing in the front of the crowd, pulling banners, holding small flags and flowers, with smiles on their faces, looking forward to it.

At the forefront of the crowd, the central position had been encircled by heavily armed troops and personal guards, and Li Kang and the others were standing here waiting.

One look at this stance, and you can guess that this is welcoming someone.

Two days ago, a clipper came from Han Fei Town and reported a major incident to Qi Huan Town, and the pathfinder team successfully returned.

The new mayor of Qihuan Town, Huang Yuan (the former director of the First Shipyard), did not dare to slack off, and sent someone to report to Xin'an Town as soon as possible, and he convened people to discuss the next reception, which led to today's grand scene.

Although when the pathfinder team successfully arrived in Lin Guo, Jinyiwei had already sent the news back from the land, but when the pathfinder team really completed the mission and came back, Li Kang found that he still couldn't suppress his excitement.

It's been four months, and it's not too short!

"Your Majesty!" Guan Zhong reminded in a low voice.

"I'm fine..."Li Kang smiled, took a deep breath, and calmed himself down, in front of everyone, he couldn't lose his temper.

"It's coming!" shouted to someone else, and the dock immediately burst into jubilation.

At this time, a total of thirteen boats at the time of departure - leaving two in Qinhuang Town - only eight were left, and three were lost, on the flagship Qi Jia, Zhang Qian and others had changed into brand new official uniforms, standing in a row on the deck, excitedly looking at the crowd on the Qihuan pier not far away, not only them, but also the other seven boats, as long as there is no one who has a task, they are all neatly dressed, straighten their waists, and their faces are flushed to welcome the moment of glory that is about to belong to them.

"Singing!" After the fleet approached, Dou Song, the director of ceremonies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was temporarily acting as the celebrant officer, hurriedly greeted.

As soon as the band received the order, it acted in an orderly manner under the command of the regiment leader, and next to it, a group of elementary school students, middle school students, and college students wearing school uniforms stood neatly in three columns, and as the music gradually rose, the nerves began to tense, although there had been rehearsals in advance, but the time was too tight, but the mind was good, and not many people cared.

"The five-star red flag flutters in the wind, and the victory song is so loud..."

"Sing about our dear motherland, and from now on to prosperity and strength..."

......

This group of students sang "Singing the Motherland", this song is currently the "national anthem" of China, the kind that is generally sung on large-scale occasions, the reason why this song was chosen at the beginning, mainly because Li Kang was lazy, "Singing the Motherland" is suitable for the occasion, the lyrics are simple, and there is no need to change even a word, anyway, the five-star red flag is also the "national flag", well, this is another lazy achievement.

At first, only these arranged students were singing, and when they entered the state, their voices became more and more neat and more intense, and with the current occasion, gradually the people who were close also sang along, and then this kind of singing was like a plague, constantly spreading everywhere, and it didn't take long for it to reach Li Kang.

"Eh, what's going on? Who of you arranged it?" There was such a big movement next to him, Li Kang didn't know that there was still this link, and asked with some surprise.

But the people who were with him, you look at me, I look at you, and they all shake their heads, indicating that they don't know.

"No matter, sing along! It's rare that everyone's emotions are up!" Since it wasn't someone who deliberately surprised him, it was the spontaneous behavior of the masses, which made Li Kang very happy, and unconsciously he was brought into the atmosphere and took the lead in singing.

Li Kang has sung it, what else can others do, sing it!

So, when the fleet was completely docked, they saw the scene in front of them, thousands of people sang "Singing the Motherland", magnificent and full of enthusiasm, and they even found that some people even sang tears.

The members of the fleet were immediately infected by this emotion, and sang along, no one knew the meaning of the motherland better than those who had gone out to wander, so they were more deeply emotionally engaged, and only a few of the people on the shore shed tears, while most of the people on the ship cried, and those who did not cry also had red and swollen eyes.

“...... Prosperity and Prosperity ......"

At the end of the song, the aftermath lingers!

Long...

"Smack... Li Kang applauded gently, and slowly the applause changed from small to large, and finally became thunderous.

The applause diluted the solemnity, and the atmosphere became relaxed again.

The dragon and lion dances stepped forward one after another, with gongs and drums and salutes.

I can only say that everything we have done is worth it, and we have lived up to your expectations!

"No!"

"Welcome home!" This was the first sentence Li Kang said after the two sides met, and this sentence made some tears well.

"You are the heroes of China!" this is the second sentence Li Kang said.

"You have made history, and all of us are witnesses!" is the third sentence.

Li Kang said a total of three sentences, it was just a ceremony on the dock, and it was naturally impossible to say important things in that environment, after the ceremony, Li Kang asked them to rest, and they would talk about it after three days, and instructed that no one should disturb these heroes within three days!

In the three days that Zhang Qian and his entourage rested, the front page headlines of the only three newspapers in China were occupied by the safe return of the pathfinder team, and almost all the streets and alleys could hear about the pathfinder team.

Because Li Kang didn't intend to block the news at all - and couldn't block it - so "Su Wu Bao" It was reported for several days, causing the news to spread to the people of the Atonement Wilderness and the countries east of the river, but the repercussions were not much, after all, for most of the small people, at most it was fun to listen to, a lot of talk, they didn't think it had anything to do with them, the high-level people should have known for a long time, and the reaction that should have been done had already been done, and now there was naturally no reaction, but the biggest reaction was the middle-level businessmen and small nobles.

Without mentioning the reactions of these people, let's first say that Zhang Qian and others came to see Li Kang as soon as possible after resting for three days.

"Hurry up!" Li Kangxi said, then he stood up from his chair, waved his hand, and said, "Take them to the conference room next door, and then go and recruit the cabinet members and generals Qi Jiguang, Yue Fei, Kaifeng, and Zhou Yu together!"

"No!" Fang Yizhi's heart was slightly cold, and he hurriedly responded.

Half an hour later, except for Li Bing, the chief of water conservancy who was outside, all the people Li Kang was looking for had arrived.

The representatives of the pathfinder team were the first four deputies and five captains headed by Zhang Qian, and at this time they were lined up and sat directly opposite Li Kang, while cabinet members and several generals sat on either side.

After the ceremony, everyone sat down, no one spoke first, Li Kang just looked at the five people with a smile and curiosity, and for a while, more than a dozen pairs of eyes were staring at Zhang Qian and the other five people, and they were uncomfortable.

Finally, Li Kang also felt that what he did was a little inappropriate, touched his chin, and said: "Qing and others have chopped through the waves for more than 10,000 miles all the way, and they have suffered a lot all the way to come, but I am very relieved that you can come back safely, but what makes me even more relieved is that you can still successfully complete the tasks I have assigned, which is very good... You know, I was so happy when the brocade guard brought back the news that you had arrived at the Storm Sea, and I didn't even sleep all night... Haha, let's not talk about it, let's talk about you, we're waiting to hear the birth of a legend!"

After Li Kang finished speaking, he glanced left and right, and the left and right also cooperated with a smile.

"No!" Zhang Qian stood up, forcibly suppressed the emotion in his heart, and said, "Your Majesty, please allow me to present the sketches drawn by us." ”

"Illustrated and illustrated, more intuitive! Accurate!" Li Kang waved his hand and said with a smile.

"Xie Junshang!" Zhang Qian made a color behind him, he was not allowed to bring his entourage in here, so the task of exhibiting the map was done by Zhang Qian's two deputies.

Liban Sauma and Chi Jin got up willingly, took a scroll from Pei Xiu's hand, and the two of them pulled one by one, and soon opened the entire map and presented it all in front of everyone.

Li Kang got up from his seat, walked a few steps to the map, stared at it with bright eyes, as if he was looking at a priceless treasure, even though it was still very simple, but Li Kang did not dislike it at all.

"Your Majesty, please see, after bypassing the Qinhuang Peninsula, if everything goes well, drive west for another six days, and we will arrive here, here, Bowang Island, we found a bay in the west of the island that can be used as a port, when we arrived at Bowang Island, the ministers happened to encounter a storm, so we stayed here for some time, and during this time, a simple pier and camp were built on it, and on the way back, we passed through here again, although these remaining facilities were somewhat damaged, but they could still be used after cleaning up, which really helped us a lotZhang Qian smiled and introduced, although he was a little embarrassed when he talked about Bowang Island, after all, "Bowang" was a title he had in history.

"But Bowang Island further west, into a super large bay, we didn't know at the time, still advanced west, the result can also be guessed..." Zhang Qian stepped forward, his right index finger drew a large arc counterclockwise at the target position, and said with a wry smile, "We went around in a big circle and took a lot of detours... Moreover, because we were in a hurry to come back and report to you, we didn't venture to explore direct shipping when we returned, and we still came back along the coastline... So, what is in the sea between this corner and Bowang Island, we don't know for the time being..."

"Well, next time, this area will be a key area to explore. Li Kang nodded, detouring along the coastline, although it was safe, but it did waste a lot of time, "The end of this peninsula is called 'Dingyuan Corner'?

"Yes, Jun Sensitive!"

"Well, good name!" Li Kang nodded with satisfaction, "You go on!"

"It's... After bypassing the far corner, in about three or four days, you can see another continent, which is this one, which Your Majesty will call 'Southern Continent' for the time being..."Speaking of this, Zhang Qian was a little emotional, "Your Majesty once sent people to land for a short time to collect animals, plants, soil and ores, because there was a conflict with the main task, they did not go deeper, so there is no way to estimate how different it is from the northern continent where we and Hedong are located..."

"Enough, enough, that's enough!" Li Kang's heart was almost about to have a party carnival, tropical, tropical, he was now full of these two words, this southern continent, he must send people to explore, go south to south, all the way to the south, as long as the southern continent really extends to the tropics, then, sugarcane, rubber...... There were dozens of things he had been thinking about for a long time.

"Well, you go on!" Taking a deep breath and temporarily putting aside the restlessness in his heart, Li Kang motioned for Zhang Qian to continue.

"After the appearance of the southern continent, as the fleet continued to sail, the distance between the north and the south became smaller and smaller, so we entered a strait as long as seven or eight hundred miles, tentatively called the 'Thousand Islands Strait', as the name suggests, in this strait, there are many islands and reefs, and the reefs are clustered, and if you don't pay attention to it, you will be destroyed and killed.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the navigation situation in the Thousand Islands Strait is quite favorable to our side, as long as the bunkers and batteries are built on both sides of the strait in the narrowest place, and a fleet and thousands of army units are stationed, this main road can be locked to the death, which is equivalent to choking the necks of the countries east of the river on the sea, on the contrary, if they occupy it first, it means that our neck is choked by the east of the river. On the side, Qi Jiguang couldn't help but say.

"That's right, this Thousand Islands Strait is equivalent to the Taihang Eight Mountains of Zhao State, the Hanguan Ancient Road of Qin State, the Hexi Corridor of the Western Regions and the Liaoxi Corridor of Liaodong, and its importance is self-evident!" said the commander of the navy, if a pass is built here, it will inevitably be dominated by the navy, and he does not want to let go of any opportunity to increase the influence of the navy.

This place is indeed important, but Li Kang knows that its importance in the short term has not yet reached the level of opening the wind, after all, Huaxia has always been a mainland country, and the idea of land power is deep-rooted, not to mention, with the current geographical location of Huaxia, it must also be that the mainland is heavier than the ocean, and for a long time, the sea is only a vassal of the mainland, even if Li Kang has a dream of a big navy in his heart, and he has also come up with a "double-headed eagle plan" that advances both sea and land , but even so, most of Huaxia's current energy is still on land, which can be seen from the fact that there is only one Hanfei Town and Qinhuang Town in the south, and five new towns have been added in one breath in the west, which does not include the three new towns in Hejian District in the east of Fuxi County, which is determined by reality, and Li Kang must also give in to reality.

However, in the long run, when Huaxia has gained a firm foothold on land, then ......

"This is a Malacca, Suez," Li Kang said secretly.