Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 504: Contingency Plan for the Golden State People
"Your Majesty, I, Gan Xingba, have made great contributions to the navy and expanded the territory for the State of Chu..."
"No." Bai Tu rolled his eyes at Gan Ning, and then added: "I have never used the phrase 'hard work and great contributions' to describe myself."
"Why not? Or... let me go to Ba County instead? I'm familiar with that place!" Gan Ning said impatiently.
Gan Ning has been feeling very bored recently - this is probably the first time in five or six years that Gan Ning has stayed in the Chu state for such a long time, and he is completely bored.
When people are bored, they tend to do unexpected things, such as... After Gan Ning heard that Old Man Lu was going to resign, he actually came to Bai Tu to recommend himself to join the cabinet until the next time he went to sea.
Of course Bai Tu ignored this!
"Why don't you consider making cold noodles? I heard it can effectively relieve boredom at home." Bai Tu said seriously.
"No, I'm not that bored..." Gan Ning rolled his eyes.
Moreover, Gan Ning has always looked down upon such a "simple" food as cold noodles. Even if he really wanted to eat it, he would ask the chef to slice it into finger-sized pieces, and then cover them on the small ice sculptures. When eating, he would pick them up and dip them in the sauce.
"We won't be idle for long. Once the batch of iron-clad and coated ships are completed in the middle of the year, the new fleet will set sail. By then... it will be good enough if we can come back within two years." Bai Tu said with some concern.
Because apart from secretary Zhang Chunhua, only Gan Ning was present at the moment, Bai Tu was not worried about affecting morale.
If we travel directly from Chu to the Golden State—which is America in later times—by steamship, it should only take less than a month if the route is clear.
The route Bai Tu chose for the navy was naturally to set out eastward, pass through Danzhou, first settle in the Hawaiian Islands in later generations, and then continue eastward to Central and South America, which is the route across the Pacific Ocean.
After all, if sailing westward, due to ocean currents and monsoons, it is not possible to simply bypass Africa, but it is necessary to go around Africa. In comparison, sailing eastward at least has the "assistance" of the North Pacific warm current, and because of the discovery of Tanzhou, the Chu Navy has more experience in sailing eastward.
As for America on foot from the Bering Strait…
Don't expect .
Theoretically, given the relatively low temperature in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, it was indeed possible to walk between Asia and America through the White Collar Strait in the north.
At the Bering Strait, the shortest distance between Asia and America is only a few dozen kilometers. Because it is connected to the Arctic Ocean, the sea water will also freeze.
In later modern Britain, there was a walking traveler who once walked from America to Russia, but then... was sent back because he did not have a visa.
If the State of Chu had forced a landing in Liaodong and then headed north to the Bering Strait close to the Arctic Ocean, or if it had set out from Tanzhou and headed north to the Arctic Ocean, it would not have been impossible, and it did seem to be closer, but the danger would definitely be higher than the ocean.
The "coldness" is not just a sensory discomfort, but a physiological danger that may cause finger muscle necrosis if exposed for just a few dozen seconds!
Even the Qi machine is prone to malfunctioning at such low temperatures.
More importantly, reaching North America meant little…
The reason why Columbus' discovery of the New World was a great discovery was that he discovered the rich and gold-rich Central and South America, which is why it was valued and praised.
If he discovered that even in modern times, it is impossible to spread industrial civilization on the frozen northern soil, he would probably turn around and leave with a curse, and go to his "beep beep" new world...
Therefore, the route from Danzhou to Hawaii and then to Central and South America is a more "practical" route, and it is also the first time that the navy has sailed so far.
Because of the exploration of new routes, and before returning, we must do preliminary environmental exploration in the Golden State, especially the seeds of the crops mentioned...
Bai Tu estimated that Gan Ning would be able to come back in two years, which would be considered relatively smooth.
The new fleet is still a hybrid of Qi and sails, just like modern steamships - when steamships were first invented, ships did not immediately abandon sails.
In contrast, modern merchant ships rely more on steam propulsion, while military ships rely more on sails.
From modern times to the present, the speed of passenger ships has not increased much. In other words...when steamships were first put into stable civilian use, their speed was already close to the level of later generations!
Bai Tu doesn't know how the Qi ship will develop in the future, but its speed can already reach that of a steamship in the late 19th century, which is not much slower than a modern passenger ship.
However, the modern one-month sailing period refers to the situation where the "route is clear". The difference can be seen by looking at the current routes between Danzhou and Yizhou!
With the continuous optimization and confirmation of the route, the time is constantly shortened, and the first exploration... even with the approximate direction provided by the white map, it takes ten times the time to explore, which is already fast.
Because it is a true ocean voyage, sails are still very important. After all, the Qi machine needs to be used sparingly.
The fleet even had to ensure that after the reserves of the Qi machine were exhausted, they could abandon the ship and return in a light sailing vessel.
"If it's just a round trip, it's more than enough. But how to explore the Golden State you mentioned may be a big problem...if its area is really that big!" Gan Ning had long stopped asking or questioning why Bai Tu knew of the existence of the Golden State.
“So if you are in the mood to come to me, why don’t you go to the Ministry of Rites to choose someone,” Bai Tu suggested.
Unlike Danzhou and Yizhou, the Huangjinzhou civilization is completely isolated from the Chinese civilization, without even a "mediator". If one wants to find some connections, they can only look for them from the perspective of ancient human archaeology, which means that the communication between the two sides can only start from scratch!
I hope your body language is not too different...
I hope...there are foreign concubines in the Golden State as well, so that at least after being "civilized", they can quickly master the official Chinese language as city concubines and then serve as translators.
The Ministry of Rites has special training for "foreign exchanges" and "primitive exchanges", and Gan Ning obviously needs these clerks.
Bai Tu had already checked the data in the hard drive. At this time, among the three ancient civilizations in the Golden State, the other two had not yet formed. The Mayan civilization had just passed the enlightenment stage and was heading towards its peak...
Of course, the so-called heyday was still just a slave-based Neolithic civilization!
There are no large domesticated livestock, the only ones that come close to this standard are alpacas, and... Although gold production is abundant, copper and iron reserves are extremely small.
No matter how much gold there is, it is not enough to promote agricultural tools.
This caused the Mayan civilization to be "locked" in the early stages of its development from "fishing and hunting" to "farming" - there were no livestock for farming, no copper and iron farm tools, the farming efficiency was very limited, and there were no livestock suitable for grazing, so the productivity could not even overcome slavery.
During its most prosperous period, only the major central city-states reached the level of being dominated by agriculture.
If we arrive at the Golden State at this time, it is hard to say whether the Mayans have city-states based on agriculture.
The environment determined that their development was unbalanced. In its heyday, the Mayans' observation of celestial bodies, numerical calendars, and philosophical thinking far exceeded their productivity. Not only did they stand out in the Neolithic civilization, but in some aspects they were also very outstanding in the Steam Age.
Of course, the so-called heyday was still just a slave-based Neolithic civilization...
In history without the white rabbit effect, archaeologists estimate that the Maya's heyday would be two or three hundred years later, with an estimated population of five to fifteen million.
To be able to reach this population under the productivity of the Neolithic Age was already quite "expansive".
You should know that in the late Neolithic period, the total population of Asia, Africa and Europe would not exceed five million.
Of course, from another perspective, it is also because the Golden State was locked in the Neolithic Age due to environmental reasons. After the population expanded, metal tools were never popularized and productivity was never further enhanced.
When the Asian, African and European civilizations had a population of several million, they had already begun to create metal civilizations. However, when the Golden State civilization had a population of tens of millions, it was still using wooden pickaxes and stone axes, slashing and burning crops, and could only look at the stars...
When people are bored, they just make cold noodles, but when civilization reaches its limits, boredom becomes terrible.
For example, if the Yamato civilization in Tanzhou had not been strongly settled and civilized by the Chu State, it would not have taken long for it to fall into a development bottleneck because its "teacher" Huaxia civilization was obsessed with internal friction, and it would have "bored"ly entered the ancient tomb era and built a large number of tombs...
Moreover, during its heyday, the Mayan civilization was composed of hundreds of city-states with similar cultures. Some of the large central city-states were able to feed their populations with agriculture. There was no unified empire, or even a "common ruler" in the true sense.
When it was most "unified", many city-states were subject to two large city-states and fought against each other until... the Mayan civilization declined.
In other words, in terms of the humanistic situation, it is equivalent to the "Yanhuang VS Dongyi" period of Chinese civilization, but the productivity is higher than the same level - in terms of the depth of "Neolithic Civilization", Maya has gone a long way, after all, it has been stuck here.
"But are you sure that the situation there is similar to that of Tanzhou, but with a larger population? If the population of a state is really as high as it is, even if it is just at the level of miscellaneous soldiers, the navy will probably have difficulty making any achievements... No matter how strong the ships are and how powerful the guns are, they can't control the land." Gan Ning had to say a few more words when he heard Bai Tu mention the exchange.
"Don't worry, the skills of the people in the Golden State are only more sophisticated at best. They lack copper and iron, and mainly use stone tools and pottery. Even if they are stronger than the technology in the early Shang Dynasty, it is only slightly stronger. Just be careful of the 'generals' among them...
Moreover, when contacting the natives of the Golden State, it is advisable to be friendly and help each other. They only occupy a very small part of the Golden State. If they develop it, the benefits will be far greater than those they occupy.
The natives of Golden State should now be separated in a similar way to the various tribes of Danzhou. They should follow Danzhou's practice and suppress the arrogant troublemakers, and then spread Chu learning to them and gradually assimilate them. "
