The imperial court's policy of encouraging the private sector to explore the sea is still being updated.

Su Yan knew that letting people go to sea aimlessly would only harm them, so after a meeting with the people of the Naval Governor's Mansion, Su Yan decided to issue an exploration mission to the civilian fleet - that is, completing the expedition mission can get a reward from the imperial court, and the reward depends on the contribution, and the highest one can be awarded a knighthood or military rank.

The titles here are not some high-ranking titles such as the Duke of Earl, but the barons and viscounts who have been reinstated by the Ming Prince, and these two low-level titles will not be awarded to the fiefdom, they will be regarded as honorary titles, and the successor will be downgraded by one level.

Although it is only an honorary title, it can still attract a large number of civilians to compete one after another, and the same is true for military ranks, awarding military ranks is equivalent to becoming a supernumerary member of the Great Xia Naval Division, and can get a certain percentage of free supplies from the ports controlled by the Xia army, but when the two countries go to war, they also need to cooperate with the Xia army to fight together.

The first quest was simple, with many options – whether it was exploring around the island, drawing up topographic and nautical charts around the island, or crossing the Strait of Malacca and exploring the Indian Ocean and beyond.

In addition to exploration missions, there are also some tasks responsible for transportation, such as transporting supplies to Jedi Island, etc., and successfully transporting them to the Imperial Court can be rewarded.

To this end, the imperial court also set up a new yamen under the Naval Governor's Mansion, called the Ocean Division, which was located in Quanzhou Prefecture and was responsible for private ocean exploration, including the sale of ships, the provision of charts for private expeditions, the training of expeditions, the issuance of missions, and so on.

With the establishment of the Ocean Division, the court took this opportunity to get a glimpse of the emperor's thoughts, and they understood that the emperor was preparing to develop into the ocean, and the first assistant of the cabinet, Xu He, immediately took the lead in funding the formation of a fleet, and took over the first batch of tasks issued by the Ocean Division in his private name to go to sea to explore.

With Xu He taking the lead, many ministers of the DPRK and China also took action, and for a time the shipyards on the southeast coast were full of orders, and some who were unwilling to wait directly bought the Chinese warships that were eliminated by the sailors and set sail first.

Su Yan was naturally happy to see this scene, he listened to the prosperous scene of Quanzhou Port reported by Li Yuanyin, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, and couldn't stop nodding his head in praise, he said to the crown prince Su Weize, who was standing beside him and listening: "My Great Xia has attached great importance to land expansion in the past thirteen years, and now it is finally the turn of the sea, you have to remember that the sea power is related to my Great Xia country, and I can't relax."

"Son, remember." Su Weize replied with a salute.

……

On the third day of September in the 14th year of Wu'an, Quanzhou Port.

"Set sail, set sail!"

At the shouts of the sailors, the five ships raised their sails and slowly sailed out of the harbor, heading down the southern seas along the waterways through which many ships had traveled.

This fleet consisted of a sixth-rank ship, three brigs and a brig cruiser, and although the five ships all carried the dragon flag of the Xia Dynasty, it could be seen from the various sailors on the deck that they were not the regular army of the Xia Dynasty's naval division.

It was true that this fleet was not a regular army, but a cooperative fleet of several families who decided to go to sea to explore, and they accepted the task of transporting a consignment of goods to the port of Makassar issued by the Ocean Division, and after completing this task, they could receive a bounty of five hundred taels of silver directly from the local government in Makassar with a paperwork. ….

The fleet had already planned before departure, and after sending the cargo to Makassar, they were ready to go directly to Jakarta, where they would get enough supplies and buy a batch of weapons, and then cross the Strait of Malacca and enter the strange and dangerous Indian Ocean.

The Indian Ocean, a vast sea area that was strange and dangerous for the Han Chinese, had only been visited by Zheng He's fleet during the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years, and according to the Xiyi merchants who came from the west, piracy was rampant in the Indian Ocean, and the sea conditions were so bad that only strong-minded people could pass through.

Although I don't know if the latter sentence was used by them to boast about themselves, it still made the Han people full of fear of this unfamiliar sea area before they reached the Indian Ocean.

Lai Zhihao stood on the deck of the "Grass Carp", looking at the bustling Quanzhou Port that was gradually moving away, and took a long breath, he knew that after leaving this time, it was very likely that he would never be able to return to his hometown in the future, so he ventured to the South Seas with his memory

has not been heard from so far.

This fleet, like most of the ships, sailed south from the Taiwan Strait after departing from the port of Quanzhou, and after anchoring at the port of Guangzhou to replenish supplies, it continued southward and sailed into the Nanyang territory.

On the way, they arrived at Tungning Province, the capital of the Luzon Diplomatic Mission, where they saw the largest overseas territory of Bactria and enjoyed the tropical fruits of Luzon, and finally sailed out of Tungning Province and headed for Manado.

Manado, the Sultanate of Gova, after succumbing to the Xia artillery, effectively became the de facto control of the Xia Dynasty, where the Xia Dynasty built a larger port to give caravans traveling north and south enough places to dock their ships.

After the construction of the new port, Manado's economic center of gravity also shifted uncontrollably to the new port, and small traders and vendors flocked to the new port to sell their goods, and some supporting service industries also moved here.

As time passed, more and more people settled in the new port, and the population of the capital of the Sultanate of Gowa was much smaller, much to the dissatisfaction of the Sultan of Gowa and some of the nobles.

They looked at the merchant ships coming in and out, and the large amount of silver that flowed into the pockets of the merchants, and they only felt very red, but they could only watch, the majesty of the Xia Dynasty made them dare not act rashly, if they offended the Celestial Empire and made the Son of Heaven angry, the Sultanate of Gowa would cease to exist.

After more than two months of sailing, the fleet finally arrived in Makassar as scheduled, and under the curious scrutiny of the sailors, the ships slowly sailed into the harbor and docked on the shore.

The ship's principals shouted loudly for the sailors to work together to carry the cargo in the cabin to shore, and Lai Zhihao also took the handle, and only after placing the heavy boxes on the ground did he take the time to observe the port more closely.

The port of Makassar was properly developed after it was incorporated into the territory of the Xia Dynasty, and the imperial court allocated funds for the construction of a new port on a larger scale than before, and also erected a tall stone wall around the port and residential areas.

In the city of Makassar, there are not only Han Chinese who went to the South Seas, but also local aborigines and Portuguese people who stayed on the island of Sulawesi.

It can be said that in the attitude towards Western European countries, the attitude of the Xia Dynasty towards the Portuguese was the most friendly, not only because the Portuguese took the initiative to withdraw from Macao and the Nanyang region, but also because they did not go to war with the Xia Dynasty. ….

Therefore, under the friendly attitude of the imperial court towards the Portuguese, many Portuguese chose to stay and settle in Nanyang, and some of them were summoned by the emperor to the palace because of their knowledge of astronomy, mathematics and other knowledge, and became science teachers to teach the prince.

Under the introduction and invitation of these missionaries, more missionaries with advanced knowledge came to the East by ship to become guests of the emperor, or were sent to Jiangning University to teach students one after another.

Straight to the point.

After Lai Zhihao's fleet arrived in Makassar, he quickly received the reward for their mission from the local government with the help of documents, and the five hundred taels of silver in each family were divided equally, and the Lai family also received one hundred taels in their hands, which replenished some of their somewhat barren money bags.

After completing a mission, the fleet took on a new task - to complete the voyage around the Indian Ocean, to explore the customs and power distribution of the countries around the Indian Ocean, and to find the unoccupied borderlands.

It is worth mentioning that at this time, there were many areas on the east coast of Africa that had not been set foot by Europeans, and this task of the imperial court was also to encourage private expedition fleets to establish bases on the East African coast one step ahead of Western colonists.

In addition to the eighteen men of their own family, the Lai family's "grass carp" also recruited fifteen local sailors from Quanzhou, and they did not follow the advice of the officials to have at least forty sailors, so there were only thirty-three sailors on board, except for their families.

However, the Lai family is not ready to let the family follow the whole adventure to the sea, they are ready to stay in Jakarta after arriving in Jakarta, they will stay there to settle down, first, Jakarta as the capital of Java, it is the time when the Han immigrants are urgently needed, and secondly, it is also an important place for the imperial court to communicate with the West, and the family will stay here to wait for them to return to Nanyang, and they can also get together soon.

After departing from Makassar, the flotilla passed through calm Java

The sea has finally arrived in Jakarta City, where the fleet will rest for a few days and then continue its departure after a few days.

In the past few days, Lai's family has also begun to look for a new place to live in the city, Jakarta has not yet fully recovered from the haze of war, and there are still many empty houses in the city that no one lives in.

According to the locals, these houses were left behind by residents who died in the war and foreigners who fled Jakarta, and many locals felt unlucky, so they had no intention of buying them, and were ready to leave them for immigrants to live in.

Although the Lai family also felt that the houses of the dead were a bit unlucky, the prices of these houses were too low, so they calculated it and decided to buy it first, and then invite a few goddesses to come in and worship it.

Therefore, they spent dozens of taels to buy one of the two-story houses with a courtyard from the local government, and then used this to get a new household registration and settle down.

Lai's family's new home is located in the north of the city, and from here you can directly see the tall Batavia Castle.

After the signing of the Sino-Dutch "Jiangning Treaty", the defenders of Batavia Castle voluntarily surrendered, left the castle, and let the Xia army take over, after the Xia army took over Batavia Castle, they did not demolish the castle, but set it up as the garrison of the Second Marine Brigade of the Second Navy and the prison of Jakarta City. ….

The reason why the Xia army did not demolish this castle was mainly to prevent the threat from the west, the Banten Sultanate in the west is only half a day's journey from Jakarta City, if the Banten Sultan has the brains to attack Jakarta one day, Batavia Castle will be an important barrier to protect the city.

Moreover, the presence of Batavia Castle can also effectively deter other countries on the island of Java, so that other countries do not dare to think about this bustling city.

In December of the 14th year of Wu'an, the Central Plains was already covered with snow, but the climate in Jakarta, which is close to the equator, was still warm, and the four seasons were like spring.

After leaving Jakarta, the fleet sailed west into the Strait of Malacca, where Lai Zhihao stood on the deck and watched the customs and customs on both sides of the strait, which he had never seen before, even in the sages he had read before.

This reminded him of a sentence he once read - reading 10,000 books, traveling 10,000 miles, although this is not a book, what can be brought to him is not something that can be obtained by dead reading.

The fleet received its last supplies in Malacca before entering the Indian Ocean, and the Xia army here was very kind to these brave warriors who were willing to venture into the ocean, and the soldiers of the 1st Marine Brigade not only provided them with free supplies, but also gave them some extra ammunition and charts of the Indian Ocean drawn by Xiyi merchants, wishing them a safe return.

The Indian Ocean charts not only depict the shipping lanes taken by Western traders when entering the South Seas, but also draw the general outline of the coastline including the Indian Peninsula and Sri Lanka, and mark some major ports and which areas of the sea are infested with pirates.

Of course, this chart is not the original, but was translated and copied by Xia Jun, so the annotations on it are all described in Chinese characters, so that the fleet can understand the text on it.

When they were about to sail into the Indian Ocean, Chen Yongan, the leader of the fleet selected by the sixth-class ships, gathered the principals of each ship, showed them the charts, and told them in a serious tone:

"The rest of the journey will be very dangerous, and all ships will have to be prepared for pirates and storms, and if something happens, the vast sea will be our place of death."

Lai Zhihao, the representative of the grass carp who was pushed out, and the other principals of the three ships all nodded heavily when they heard this, indicating that they understood.

"Where are we going next?" The principal of the brig cruiser asked.

"Go here." The leader, Chen Yongan, pointed to the location of Sri Lanka and said, "Let's go to the territory of Heyi first to see if we can buy updated charts from Heyi, our goal is to find the borderland."

As soon as they heard about Borderlands, everyone immediately brought up the essence

God, they sold their family's inheritance and came to this place not to earn the court's bounty, but to find a borderless land and become a nobleman canonized by the court!

And before they left Makassar, the officials there warned them that there were likely to be many borderlands west of the Indian Ocean, and the thought of that made them feel like they had been beaten with blood.

Tears.