Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 249 Yi Ji
Jiangdong, Jinling.
The new Chief Minister of Works took office three days ago.
Because the matter concerned the most confidential matters of the Ministry of Works, it did not require any discussion. Even other departments only learned about the Ministry of Works’s addition of a high-ranking official through non-official channels.
While the uproar caused by the special identity of the High Priest was still brewing, Gan Ning, who had been away from Jiangdong for more than half a year, finally re-landed from Wujun - in fact, he had also landed on the coast of Kuaiji for supplies before, but the news was not as fast as Gan Ning's continued journey by sea!
Half a year at sea...
In the eyes of many people, Gan Ning and others were in great danger, and Hua Xin even ate an extra bowl of rice every now and then because of this.
However, it is "regrettable" that while people lament that "good people don't live long, evil deeds last for thousands of years", Gan Xingba is back again!
There were no goods, just some small items that could barely be considered souvenirs, as well as several immigrants from Zhuxia, representatives of the Yizhou natives, and... a few special "guests" who returned with Gan Ning.
The size of the fleet was only one-third of what it was when it left. The remaining two-thirds...most of them were left behind by Gan Ning to guard Yizhou, and a small part...remained in the sea forever.
Although casualties have been reduced to "negligible" compared with the same period in history due to , they are still not "none".
After all, it is the first time to sail far away. No matter how much you have learned before, it is still the first time. While gaining experience, you must also make sacrifices to learn lessons. What Bai Tu can do in advance is to make the lessons "cheaper".
The news that Gan Ning had found Yizhou and returned immediately snatched the popularity of the position of the female chief priest of the Ministry of Works, and her popularity spread from Wujun to Jiangdong and Yangzhou...
Even the staff of the six ministries focused their attention on Gan Ning.
They were not like the foolish men and women in the folks who thought that Gan Ning was looking for elixirs - in fact, in the Central Plains and Jingzhou, this was really the case. It was said that after he was granted the Nine Gifts, he began to dream of immortality like Qin Shihuang!
With their knowledge, they actually knew that Yizhou and Danzhou should be two large overseas islands, and there might be a lot of people living there. After all, there were records of several overseas alien races landing and trading.
Some even swore that they had verified that Yizhou was 2,000 miles away from Jiaozhou and had tens of thousands of households, and that Danzhou was even farther away and had even more people…
Of course, these investigations had no basis, but... a new population settlement had been discovered, and it was overseas, so how could the officials of the six ministries not be concerned?
In a broader sense, this is "expanding territory", and in a narrower sense... In fact, there were once some aristocratic families who, when foreign races landed overseas, did things that were completely contrary to the morality they usually advocated, such as suddenly having more free slaves.
If they were to take the initiative to organize a "patrol" at sea, it would be completely counterproductive for them and any investment would be wasted.
However, the only thing Gan Ning revealed was that his trip was not in vain and he had indeed found Yizhou. As for what he encountered and experienced in Yizhou, not only did Gan Ning not reveal it, but he also issued a gag order to other soldiers, and only waited until he returned to Jinling to report on his work before reporting to Bai Tu.
But from what we can understand now, the road to Yizhou may have been completely opened!
Others could also understand that the situation in Yizhou would now be a "secret" of the General's Mansion, so they could only wait and hope patiently that Bai Tu would discuss it with them later.
Gan Ning landed at the seaport near Piling, then changed to a river boat, went upstream, and finally landed at the port outside Gongkou City.
Bai Tu, who learned the news in advance, went to Jingkou in person to welcome Gan Ning's triumphant return - after drifting on the sea for more than half a year, this was truly a "gamble on life"!
Although the actual casualties were not large, when they went out to sea, they were prepared to make more sacrifices than the soldiers on the front line on the battlefield .
"Admiral Gan Ning, the Navy Commander, greets the lord!" Gan Ning had changed into new clothes when passing by the port of Kuaiji.
As for the idea of deliberately wearing older clothes to better reflect the hardships along the way, and thus psychologically gain more "care" from Bai Tu and get more rewards, this idea did not appear in Gan Ning's brain circuit at all.
Including his soldiers, each of them had already changed into brand new, shiny armor, with Shu brocade tied on the outside, and the characteristic brocade sails were indispensable...
Just by looking at their appearance, you can't tell what kind of suffering they have endured. At most... you'll find that they have indeed lost weight!
"Thank you for your hard work! Everyone has worked hard too!" Bai Tu said as he helped Gan Ning up.
Helping Gan Ning is a skillful job, because every time Gan Ning bends down, he will wait a beat longer for you to help him, and he will be unhappy if you are slow to help him...
"Let's go. Wine and meat are already prepared for everyone at home. Everyone get in the car!" Bai Tu called to the returning soldiers.
In the world of Castle Princess, this is still very convenient - you just need to take care of the generals, which means the scale is "only" a few thousand people.
When Bai Tu arrived, he had already requisitioned a large number of hundreds of horse-drawn carriages.
Although they were not far away, Bai Tu was very "superficial" or "ritualistic" and asked all the generals to follow Bai Tu's carriage and ride back to Jinling together.
When the returning generals heard Bai Tu talk about "home", their eyes turned red. When he mentioned that everyone should follow behind in the car, they shouted allegiance and thanks.
"Xingba, come ride with me." Bai Tu pulled Gan Ning and got into his carriage together.
Bai Tu was also eager to know what Gan Ning encountered and experienced in Yizhou.
Gan Ning did not keep Bai Tu in suspense and talked about his three months in Yizhou...
It took three months to reach Yizhou, but on the return journey, because I was more familiar with the route and the ocean currents, it only took me one month to land in Kuaiji. The other three or four months were spent in Yizhou!
When Bai Tu heard that when Gan Ning met the first indigenous tribe in Yizhou, he put a brocade robe on the woman who was presented to them, and that woman became an "Yi Ji", he couldn't help but widen his eyes.
Just at this time, a thin-looking foreign concubine appeared beside Gan Ning. Fortunately, Bai Tu's carriage was big enough. In addition to Lü Lingqi, the chief guard who was always protecting Bai Tu, there was still enough space for Gan Ning and the little foreign concubine. There was even plenty of room.
After transforming into a foreign girl, this barbarian girl looked fair and clean, and it was easier to tell her age. She should be... around thirteen or fourteen years old!
Before Yu Ji was transformed into "Yi Ji", we only heard it from her own narration, and Yu Ji herself was also confused.
And now... an example of a human being transformed into a foreign concubine was right in front of Bai Tu.
I was also quite touched by Bai Tu's speculation on the birth principles of Yiji and Chengji.
This is not the point!
Gan Ning didn't even give Bai Tu a chance to ask further questions, and continued to talk about his subsequent experiences...
At this time in the land of Yizhou, there were probably hundreds or even thousands of tribes, large and small, but the most "powerful" ones were only about twenty or so - or the most stable. The other small tribes could be said to be born and died at will.
Although the languages of the two sides were completely different, the scholars who brought the messages, after referring to the books and records of the immigrants from the Xia Dynasty, found that it should be translated as "Dongyu" based on the name given by the ancestors of the Xia Dynasty. In fact, in the Han Dynasty, there was indeed a custom of calling people coming from the sea outside Kuaiji "Dongyu people."
Therefore, Gan Ning is temporarily called this.
The so-called powerful tribes of the Dongyu people were also vulnerable in Gan Ning's eyes. In fact, the tribe he encountered at the beginning was already a "winner". It was one of the twenty-two "powerful" tribes and it also enslaved several smaller tribes. That's why it was so confident in fighting against Gan Ning, an outsider, at the beginning.
Gan Ning remembered Bai Tu's instructions and was very restrained when attacking the local natives - no matter how backward they were, he needed to remember that they were also human beings, his own kind.
After the initial shock, the other side surrendered quickly and spinelessly, and handed over the most beautiful girl in the tribe.
However, Gan Ning ignored such a backward way of surrender, but by accident, a strange girl was born in Yizhou!
Upon seeing the unusual birth of Yi Ji, the people in the tribe immediately rushed out of the cave, knelt down to Gan Ning and the new Yi Ji, and made sounds of respect and submission that although they could not be understood, they could be recognized.
It was at this time that Gan Ning discovered... this Yi Ji could serve as the best "translator"!
By using Yi Ji to communicate, Gan Ning can ignore the characteristics of the language and communicate with the local natives through her.
Thanks to this, Gan Ning was able to grasp the situation in Yizhou more quickly.
The Yi Ji "inspired" by Gan Ning was not the first Yi Ji in Yizhou. At that time, there were already five Yi Ji in Yizhou, or should I say... Yi Ji?
At the other party's request, Gan Ning gave her a new name - Kaihua Ji.
Civilization was Gan Ning’s goal towards the indigenous people.
Although Bai Tu repeatedly told him not to rely on his strength and treat the natives as livestock, but... civilizing, or spreading civilization, was something that he had to do.
It sounds a bit brutal, but...
Don’t ask, if you ask, it’s just to attack the weak and ignorant!
Before Kaihua Ji, there were actually Yi Ji in Yizhou, but... Kaihua Ji felt that she was a little different from them.
The five most powerful tribes all had Yi Ji, and they were respectively in the northern hills, western plains, southern mountains, and east and west coasts of Yizhou. They were the leaders of the other surrounding tribes in each of the five places.
The place where Gan Ning landed belongs to the west coast. This tribe is already the largest tribe on the west coast except for the Shi tribe which has Yiji.
Normally, if a new Yi Ji appears, it should be "connected" to other Yi Ji in real time, but Kaihua Ji is not connected to any Yi Ji...
And in terms of function, Kaihua Ji also discovered that her abilities were completely different from those of Yi Ji whom she had heard of before!
Other Yi princesses usually wore fearsome beast masks, hair accessories made of Yizhou's specialty nephrite jade, and their clothes were also in the Dongyu style, unlike Kaihua princess who was "flashy".
More importantly, in terms of ability...
The other abilities of Yi Ji are purely for killing. For example, they can give tribal warriors who have passed the trial the power to tear tigers and leopards apart alive, and they can stimulate the fighting power of tribal warriors through screaming.
Kaihua Ji has none of these abilities, but can draw manpower, train warriors, and click on the technology tree...
