Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 247 Novice Mission
"Commander-in-chief, there is a coastline ahead! I can see the coastline! It's the direction where the sun rises!"
On the main ship of the Fuchuan fleet, a naval soldier stood in the watchtower on the mast and shouted excitedly.
Upon hearing this, "Gan Dudu" immediately put on his armor and flew into the air, looking far away towards the east where the sun had just risen...
Before setting sail, Gan Ning not only retained his position as the prefect, symbolizing waiting for his return, but Bai Tu also appointed him as the commander-in-chief of the navy.
It represents that Gan Ning has supreme command over the naval fleet, and can avoid to the greatest extent possible disagreements and division of power after going to sea, ensuring that Gan Ning has the highest authority!
It can be said that if Gan Ning wanted to be "Xu Fu", he just had to go with the flow...
Of course, Bai Tu knew very well that Gan Ning would never become the king of the wild people - to have supreme power, but to work hard, away from prosperity and enjoyment, and even away from aesthetics? Bai Tu didn't know how others would choose, but Bai Tu believed that Gan Ning would definitely make the same choice as himself!
Going to sea is different from being on land, especially when it is the first time to explore the route. No one knows how long they will drift on the sea. At this time, any slight constraint may lead to the annihilation of the navy.
Giving Gan Ning the maximum authority is a sign of trust in Gan Ning and a responsibility for the safety of this navy!
Gan Ning was now flying into the air and looking into the distance. The helmet of his armor had "farsighted lenses" extending from the eye sockets - this was the function after the telescope was loaded.
Sure enough, it was the coastline that he had longed for. Although it was not like the land of China, it was also covered with mountains and forests, and seemed to be connected by several islands, unlike ordinary small islands. It had been three months since he set out to sea, and even Gan Ning felt a little excited when he saw this coastline.
After all, it has been two months since we left the last land port. In the past sixty days or so, all we saw was the boundless ocean. The occasional islands we found were all miserable and dead places, which would make anyone feel psychologically disturbed.
Fortunately, we had prepared thoroughly. Not only was there enough fresh water, but we also brought a lot of blended light wine to prevent it from spoiling, beans for sprouting to prevent scurvy, tea leaves for making tea, and even equipment for entertainment. We were well prepared in every aspect...
This also strengthened the confidence of the navy soldiers. Otherwise, if there was a shortage of water during the journey, their morale would quickly drop in this place where there was no village in front and no shop behind, and they would easily become restless.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were already the terms Yizhou and Danzhou.
Although some folk rumors say that this is the name of the "overseas fairy mountain", in fact, some people among the Jiangdong gentry vaguely know that there are two such islands overseas.
Because natives from the two states could occasionally be seen trading in the coastal areas of Wu and Yue, in the middle and late Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan sent Zhuge Zhi and Wei Wen out to sea to find Yizhou and Danzhou, hoping to plunder the overseas barbarians to enrich the Wu Kingdom.
It was not that Sun Quan had a sudden idea to go overseas to look for the "fairy mountain". At least at that time, Yizhou and Danzhou had sporadic exchanges with the Wuyue area.
Even Sun Quan believed it, based on common sense gathered from "hearsay and speculation", for example... he believed that Yizhou had more than 100,000 households, and that Danzhou was farther away and had a larger population...
The scholar-Confucianists of the time also inherited Confucius's teachings and relied on their imagination to fill in the gaps about things they did not know.
They swore that Yizhou was two thousand miles southeast of Linhai County...
Well, Linhai County is a county east of Jiaozhou, roughly the location of Fujian in later times. The general direction of southeast is correct, but... two thousand miles? This number is three or four times too much!
Although many Wu officials at the time thought that this was unreliable, Sun Quan still insisted on sending Zhuge Zhi and Wei Wen to sea - it also showed how desperate Sun Quan was about the Northern Expedition and he would rather seek help from overseas barbarians.
In history, Zhuge Zhi and Wei Wen were even more miserable than Gan Ning. They sailed for more than a year, following the sea charts made up by those people. Ninety percent of the tens of thousands of soldiers they brought with them died, and the number of ships in the fleet was greatly reduced. Finally, a year later, they arrived at Yizhou, which is the treasure island in later generations...
This was also the first time that Chinese civilization began to have a cultural influence on Taiwan!
Unfortunately, after Zhuge Zhi and Wei Wen, with the remaining soldiers, sent back several thousand barbarians by deceiving and robbing, they were charged with "disobeying the imperial edict" and executed by Sun Quan - after all, the losses were too heavy and the gains did not outweigh the losses. There was already a group of ministers who opposed it, and Sun Quan did not want to take the blame!
In comparison, Gan Ning is much luckier now. Not only is he better prepared, but the route is clearer, and the Fuchuan fleet is larger and more technologically advanced. It only took him three months to set sail from Wujun. The last time he set sail at a coastal port was two months ago. Now he has seen "Yizhou"...
This is also why Bai Tu made "Searching for Yizhou" a novice mission for the navy instead of heading north to Liaodong.
Based on the historical experience of the Eastern Wu, it takes longer to go to Liaodong from Jiangdong than to find Yizhou, but it is much safer because you can stop along the coast, and more importantly... you won't get lost.
Judging from the actual distance and location, going to Yizhou is much easier than going north to Liaodong.
However, the "Yizhou" that Gan Ning saw at this time was not Treasure Island, but the Penghu Islands not far from Treasure Island!
But in the eyes of the people of the Eastern Han Dynasty, all of these belonged to the category of "Yizhou".
Because the Fu ship is a single-keel pointed-bottom ship in structure, it has higher requirements for the port depth and water conditions when docking. Therefore, Gan Ning went around half a circle before finding a good position. After getting as close to the island as possible, he dropped anchor, took a small boat, and headed for "Yizhou"!
Such a swagger around the island naturally attracted the attention of some "natives". When landing, some people had already gathered on the shore...
However, Gan Ning was not worried - he had elite soldiers on his side, and some of the metal spearheads of these natives were considered "divine weapons", so what was there to be afraid of?
This means that I don't have any bad intentions, otherwise the other party should be afraid!
And in fact, in the Penghu Islands, the two sides can still communicate simply...
The Formosa Boulevard itself has been influenced by Chinese civilization since the Three Kingdoms period, but... the Penghu Islands were populated by refugees from various countries who fled here to avoid disaster as early as the pre-Qin period.
As for why the Penghu Islands are so close to Formosa, but Chinese civilization failed to be brought to Formosa?
The main reason is that these people came to avoid disaster, and most of them were survivors of a fallen country who could not make a living. Although the indigenous people on the treasure island were still very primitive, they had already grown to a large scale and could not be influenced by these refugees.
For primitive civilizations, it is not necessarily the case that "advanced" can spread to "backward". If the fist is not big enough, the opposite is possible!
Moreover, the Penghu Islands have a very low livability index, which is far from the result of later development and improvement. The remnants of the ancient Chinese who came here to escape disasters during the pre-Qin period have not made any progress, and their civilization index is even gradually degenerating. It is too much to expect them to be able to export culture...
But it was better than landing directly on the Formosa Island and facing the local natives. At least the navy brought by Gan Ning had the same origin as the people of the Penghu Islands. Although the two sides had an 80% language barrier, they could still communicate in a simple way through speaking and gestures.
Moreover, as immigrants from the pre-Qin period, although they had lived and multiplied for hundreds of years under such harsh conditions, many of their living habits had long been very different from those of the Han Dynasty, and the conditions did not allow them to strictly abide by the cumbersome etiquette of the pre-Qin period, but... at least they would not be as barbaric as primitive tribes. Even if they would fight with each other, there would be no cruel religious rituals or mutual massacres.
They even preserved some of the bamboo slips and utensils brought by their ancestors.
The people of Penghu...or the Yizhou people as Gan Ning's navy called them, were still very enthusiastic at this time.
Although they were frightened and wary at first by the large ship that Gan Ning and his companions were on, they quickly took out food and water to entertain these guests from afar after realizing that Gan Ning and his companions had no ill intentions.
At this time, Gan Ning specifically brought only dozens of human warriors. In order not to arouse the opponent's vigilance and tension, he did not bring too many people and did not bring Ji-made soldiers.
The leader was a man in his thirties who looked like he was already middle-aged. He seemed to be familiar with Gan Ning. The two of them talked and gestured, but it was unclear whether their meanings were really communicated to each other...
Gan Ning also ordered the crew to bring some wine, pickled meat, tea, silk and linen as a return gift to these "Yizhou people".
Of course, the heaviest gift was what Bai Tu reminded him to bring in advance - boxes of hoes and the iron heads of rakes!
Gan Ning even took off his sword and gave it to the man who was chatting and laughing with him.
After seeing Gan Ning's kindness, these remnants of the pre-Qin dynasty also took them to their own settlements.
These metal farm tools allowed them to welcome guests from afar in the most grand way possible...
They are the remnants of the pre-Qin period, when there were not as many rules as there are today.
Zhou Li? Zhou Li was for the upper class and scholars, and had nothing to do with these "refugees".
Especially since they have been thriving in this environment for hundreds of years, their customs... well, in Gan Ning's opinion, everyone starts to dress a little "sexily".
After both sides gradually let down their guard, Gan Ning pulled the middle-aged man who was in the lead back to the beach, and gestured to him that there were many companions.
Afterwards, the entire fleet, three thousand humans and more than ten thousand Ji-made soldiers, began to land one after another.
After reading the first half, the middle-aged man looked at Gan Ning excitedly, pointing and shaking his head.
Gan Ning also understood that this was telling him that there was not so much food!
Gan Ning indicated that they all brought food with them and were not fleeing, and the middle-aged man felt relieved.
However... Gan Ning was really a little worried - if the so-called "Yizhou" was only of this size, then they would really be at a loss on this trip.
Although he was not worried that Bai Tu would blame him, Gan Ning himself was unwilling to accept it...
Fortunately, there are still twenty scholars in the fleet - when they were selected, they were like selecting death warriors!
Because the discovery of "Yizhou" was not the main point, and Bai Tu's intention was not to plunder the population and resources, but to immigrate and control, so he specially recruited a group of scholars - all of whom were "new school" scholars trained by the General's Mansion itself.
They may have been able to recognize words before, but what they really went into for further study were the "new studies" they learned in the county school.
Moreover... most of them come from poor families, otherwise they would not bother to start new studies, let alone sign up to go to sea.
Three days later, these scholars finally figured out the situation here from the ancient artifacts and the difficult communication with the natives. It also made Gan Ning realize that this was not the real "Yizhou"...
