The territory of the Xiliang Empire is vaguely triangular, and the three sharp corners point to the east, northwest, and southwest respectively, and Ganzhou is located in the northwest corner of this triangle.

Xiao Ziyang once read the geographical chronicles of Xiliang, in which he said that the Xiliang Empire was thousands of miles wide from east to west, north and south. It is one of the three major empires in the Taixi region.

The three major empires of Taixi, except for the Xiliang Empire, the other two countries are full of princes, and the imperial decree does not even leave the imperial capital.

The Xiliang Empire has such a large territory, but it can achieve government decree passage, which is really thanks to the Jiuqu River within its borders.

The Jiuqu River originates from the eastern end of the triangular territory of the Xiliang Kingdom, the Taichu Mountains, and after passing through the Helian Mountains, it enters the hinterland of the Xiliang Kingdom.

The topography of Xiliang country is high and mountainous all around, low-lying and flat in the middle, and the rivers originating from the bottom of the surrounding mountains converge in the middle, and nine lakes of all sizes are gathered in this central plain. Therefore, the richest central plain of the Western Liang Kingdom is also called the Nine Lakes Plain

After the Jiuqu River enters the Nine Lakes Plain in the central part of Xiliang, it connects the nine lakes in series. Its course turns back and forth, sometimes to the west, sometimes to the south, sometimes to the north. Therefore, the people of Xiliang are named after the Jiuqu River.

Before the Jiuqu River entered the Jiuhu Plain, the water volume was not abundant, and the river surface was only hundreds of zhang wide, but when it passed through the Dongyu Lake, the easternmost of the nine lakes in the Central Plains, the water volume increased sharply, and the river surface was as wide as ten miles.

This is because, in the eastern part of the Xiliang Kingdom, there are at least seven or eight rivers that flow into Dongyu Lake, but when they leave, they all converge into the Jiuqu River.

Due to the lake as a buffer, the Jiuhu Plain is flat, so the flow rate of the Jiuqu River is very gentle after leaving Dongyu Lake.

Every time the Jiuqu River passes through a lake, it will gather all the rivers that flow into the lake, and the volume of water will surge.

By the time it emptied itself into the bitter sea, its river was hundreds of miles wide!

The unique conditions of the Jiuqu River have created a developed shipping industry in the Xiliang Empire, and convenient water transportation has allowed the government decrees of the Xiliang Kingdom to pass quickly. At the same time, the Xiliang Empire firmly controlled the richest Nine Lakes Plain in its hands with its powerful naval army. This created the only centralized Wanli Empire in the Taixi region.

The Ganluo River in Ganzhou is also one of the tributaries of the Jiuqu River, in fact, in the entire Xiliang country, except for a few small rivers along the coast of Kuhai in the west that directly flow into the Kuhai Sea, most of the rivers are tributaries of the Jiuqu River.

Xiao Ziyang's destination is Chuzhou, if he guessed correctly, eighty percent of his ancestral hometown is Chuzhou. He thought that maybe there would be clues to his father's origins.

There are two ways to go from Shannei County of Ganzhou to Chuzhou, one is to take the southwest direction after leaving Taifu Mountain, to Ji'ancheng, the second largest city in Ganzhou.

Ji'an Fortress is a port city located on the shore of the Kuhai Sea. Although the bitter sea is large, it is not really an ocean, but a huge saltwater lake, which has the breadth of the sea, but does not have the fury of the sea, and is very suitable for navigation.

From Ji'an City, go south to the mouth of the Jiuqu River, and enter the Jiuqu River to the west to go upstream, and you can reach Chuzhou, the land of fish and rice, which is located in the south of the Central Plain.

The second road takes Shuo'an City, the capital of Ganzhou, and then takes a boat down the Ganluo River, enters the Jiuqu River, and heads east to Chuzhou.

Take Shuo'an, go south along the Ganluo River, it is very fast, and the road is several times shorter, people will choose this road to leave Ganzhou.

The Ganluo River flows very fast, and it is naturally pleasant to go downstream, but if you want to go upstream, it is extremely laborious, so when merchants enter Ganzhou, they will choose to go to the bitter sea to Ji'ancheng.

The cargo ship went all the way to the east, and in the early morning of the fifth day, it arrived at Jiangancheng, the capital of Qingzhou. Jiang'an is located on the shore of Baiyuan Lake in the northwest corner of the Nine Lakes Plain, which is one of the two smallest lakes in a radius of more than 600 miles.

The cargo ship sailed into Lake Kashiwabara in the early morning fog and slowly approached the south of Gangan Castle. As the ship approached the dock near the mouth of the Ganluo River, he was stunned by a huge ship.

A huge mountain sailboat is moored at the pier. Compared with this giant ship, the cargo ship that Xiao Ziyang was riding on at this time was like a stone at the feet of a giant!

According to his visual observations, this huge boat was at least 100 zhang long and more than 20 zhang wide, the exposed part of the water was 78 zhang high, and nearly 100 sails were tied to seven masts more than 30 zhang high. On both sides of the giant boat, there are also two rows of dozens of oars!

The giant ship is moored at a special berth. The berth is a huge platform made of giant logs. The top of the platform is level with the side of the ship, and behind the platform is a gentle slope made of earth and rocks to facilitate the transportation of goods.

Xiao Ziyang guessed in his heart that this giant ship was probably the legendary Great Dragon Ship! Although he had been to this Jiang'an Wharf before and had seen the peculiar berth, he had never seen the Great Dragon Ship with his own eyes.

Seeing Xiao Ziyang's stunned appearance, a crew member came up to him and said, "This is the first time the guest officer has seen this big dragon ship, right?"

Seeing Xiao Ziyang nodded. He added: "This big dragon ship is indeed terrifying. Our Shunfeng cargo ship, eighteen feet from head to tail, is also a first-class ship in the Ganluo River, but it is comparable to this big dragon ship...... Not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning!" he said, shaking his head.

Xiao Ziyang sighed half inquiring and half talking to himself: "How can such a big ship be built by manpower?"

The crew member sighed: "I have a distant relative, who is a fellow of the Longjiang Shipyard in the capital, which is an official shipyard under the Ministry of Industry of the Imperial Court, and is also the only shipyard in our Xiliang Kingdom that can build this big dragon ship." It is said that the keel and seven main masts of this great dragon ship are made of black dragon wood for thousands of years, and the hull is made of cold iron wood that is more than 100 years old. These two kinds of wood only grow in the depths of the Tai'an Mountains and the Miluo Mountains, and it is said that in order to harvest these two kinds of wood in the depths of the mountains where monsters are rampant, the imperial court has invited the immortal master to protect them!"

Xiao Ziyang was shocked when he heard this: "Worship the Immortal Master, how do you know the Dao?"

The crew member smiled: "I have been traveling from south to north for decades, and I have nothing to do, but I have seen and heard a lot, and these are all small guests who have come and gone from the south to the north." ”

Xiao Ziyang asked again, "Are there a lot of such big dragon ships?"

The crew said: "How is that possible, not to mention anything else, the thousand-year-old black dragon wood alone is extremely rare, I heard that the Longjiang Shipyard has not built a big dragon ship for more than ten years, just because it can't find a suitable black dragon wood." We only have a total of 28 Great Dragon Ships in Xiliang Kingdom! Fifteen of them are warships of the Xiliang Water Army, and the remaining 13 belong to the ten largest trading houses in Xiliang Kingdom. ”

Speaking of this, he pointed to the giant boat and said: "This big dragon ship is named Heshun, which belongs to the capital Heshun Commercial Bank, and I heard that the owner behind this Heshun Commercial Company is the Weiguo Mansion!"