In the afternoon, the Zhengshi Hall and Zhang Yu, who returned from the Eastern Region, introduced the situation of this mission to the Emperor and the Zhengshi Hall, as well as some customs and customs of the New World in the extreme east, and accepted questions and answered questions.

Especially the "suspected remnants of the Shang Dynasty" must be explained clearly.

As the envoy (the envoy), Zhang Yu had no contact with a tribe that could barely be regarded as a city-state in the extreme east, not to mention the country or city-state, even a tribe that could barely be regarded as a city-state. From this point of view, it can be said to be a dereliction of duty, but as the pioneer of the new route, it is reasonable to come back to report the situation.

As for "diplomacy failure", considering the premise of "remnants of the Shang Dynasty", everything seems to be able to explain:

The indigenous tribes encountered by the exploration team, did the other party treat the fleet from overseas as the fleet of the enemy "Zhou" who destroyed the country?

After all, the banner raised by Zhang Yu's fleet is also "Zhou" (not considering whether the other party recognizes this word or not), and it is understandable that the local tribes are unwilling to contact or even fight each other.

More than a thousand years ago, King Wu defeated Zhou. After the Battle of Muye, King Zhou of Shang was defeated and died. The Shang Dynasty was at its end. After the "Three Supervision Rebellion", the Yin people later died. Later, the Song State, one of the vassal states, was considered a survivor.

It would be reasonable to say that there were still people from Yin who fled east and ended up fleeing to the extreme east.

Zhang Yu was not in a hurry to explain this, but introduced the starting route first.

On the sketch that acts as a schematic diagram, there is a rectangular frame with a "mouth" character. Zhang Yu used a long pole to guide the picture and introduced the newly opened route to the emperor and the officials of the Zhengshitang:

The lower left corner of the box is the eastern waters of Luzhou, the upper left corner of the box is the southeast coastal waters of Japan, the upper right corner is the coast of the New World (west coast), the location of the new stronghold, and the lower right corner is the starting point for ships to set sail and return to the Central Plains.

From the eastern sea of ​​Luzhou to the southeastern sea of ​​Japan, there is a "black tide" that has been continuously running all year round, turning east in the southeastern sea of ​​Japan and flowing thousands of miles away to the coast of the New World.

There, another ocean current flows southward along the coast, flowing to the lower right corner of the upper box of the sketch.

In the lower right corner, there is a erratic current flowing westward, spanning thousands of miles, flowing to the waters east of Luzhou, and connecting with the "Black Tide".

Therefore, when a ship sails on this route, it can achieve a "voyage" of nearly 60,000 miles.

It takes more than two months to go, and more than one month to go back; it must be completed in early summer to avoid summer and autumn storms, otherwise the ships sailing on the vast oceans have no place to be berth and shelter from the wind. When encountering storms, they can only leave it to fate.

Zhang Yu's explanation gave everyone (except Yuwen Wen) a rough understanding of this ultra-long-distance route. Next, he introduced the New World.

According to the survey for more than half a year, the fleet found that the coastline of the New World was very long, which was necessarily larger than the right boundary of the box above the sketch. The coastline that had been initially walked through was arc-shaped, and it was initially estimated that its length was no less than eight thousand miles.

Moreover, there are many mountains and few plains along the coast, and the fleet sails along the coastline, and goes ashore from time to time to explore, but no cities have been discovered yet.

What is the concept of a coastline that is less than 8,000 miles long in the north and south?

Taking the Central Plains as an example, starting from Laizhou Port and heading south until Linyi State, the coastline is about 8,000 miles long.

The unknown coastline of the New World seems to be far from over at the southern end, which means that the entire New World is vast and may not be less than the size of the known world of the imperial court.

This inference made the three high-ranking officials present look cool, because this means that in the New World, there are probably many countries that are only inland or on the other side, so they have not been encountered by long-distance fleets for the time being.

So, have the remnants of the Shang Dynasty who "was moved east to this vast land" "then" have established a "Dong Shang" that is no less than that of the Central Plains countries?

In response, Zhang Yu pointed to the big arc on the sketch and said, "The coastline of the New World is mountainous and rarely has plains, unlike the southeastern coastal areas of the Central Plains... Xiaguan gave a metaphor."

"The New World is like a courtyard. The stretching mountains on its coastline that run north and south are like tall courtyard walls. The imperial ships arrived at the beach, as if visitors arrived outside the courtyard, but only saw the courtyard wall. I don't know anything about the situation in the courtyard, nor do I know where the gate was opened."

"Walking south along the courtyard wall, I finally saw an opening. It turned out to be the outer drainage outlet of the drainage ditch in the courtyard (the river flows into the sea estuary). So I sat down there (established a stronghold), rested for a while, walked inward along the drainage ditch (enter the bay and walked upstream along the river)."

"When I went through the courtyard wall, I found that there was an inner wall behind the wall (another mountain range). Between the two walls, there was a narrow open space (a basin between the two mountains), empty (no country), with only a few cats and dogs (some native tribes). "

"If you continue walking inward along the drainage ditch (continue to the upstream of the river), you may be able to pass through this inner wall and enter the yard, but when Xia Guan set sail and return, the exploration team still explored between the walls, and the situation after the inner wall is unknown."

"As for the courtyard wall, the fleet walked south, and some low gaps were found (scattered bays), as well as kittens and dogs (scattered tribes). No one was seen (country or city-state).

Zhang Yu's metaphor is very vivid, and the participants quickly figured out the situation on the coastline of the New World.

As for the "suspected remnants of the Shang Dynasty", the evidence given by Zhang Yu was to find some pottery and patterns on the pottery were similar to those on the pre-Qin antiquities (Taotie pattern).

Some natives died while attacking the exploration team and found jade pendants from their bodies. This custom of wearing jade pendants is similar to that of the Central Plains.

In comparison, the custom of wearing jade pendants in Southeast Asia is not very common.

But this may also be a coincidence, so Zhang Yu's judgment on these indigenous tribes was only "suspected remnants of the Shang Dynasty."

The origins of these indigenous tribes can only be judged by in-depth exchanges, reviewing the other party's classics as much as possible, or analyzing the legends and myths and stories passed down by their ancestors.

Zhang Yu's explanation was simple and clear, and he answered most of the previous questions from the participants, but he still needed to continue to answer the questions.

The most concerned thing for the three high officials is the strongholds opened by Zhang Yu's fleet in the New World. What is the development prospect? Or in the long run, what benefits can the discovery of the New World bring to the court.

Let’s talk about the long-term planning, the survival and development of the stronghold is an issue that must be considered.

The New World is tens of thousands of miles away from the Central Plains, and there are no islands to stop and replenish the route along most of the routes. Therefore, whether the strongholds can be self-sufficient in the New World is a critical issue.

For example, although Australia is desolate, the area where Kainan City is located in the north is flat. Therefore, after years of hard work, there are already considerable wheat fields around Kainan. Although the output is not very good, there is at least hope.

According to Zhang Yu's description, the three high-ranking officials felt that the development prospects were not optimistic.

First of all, this is a bay, surrounded by mountains, very desolate. If you walk upstream along the river entering the sea and enter the "walled" area (basin), it seems OK. You may be able to reclaim farmland and plant crops. After years of hard work, your output may be able to feed the garrisons and other personnel at the stronghold.

However, if there are still mountains behind the "club" (to the east) or desolate, except for nomadic or fishing and hunting tribes, there are no countries or city-states, then is this stronghold necessary to maintain?

It cannot be used as a trade base, bringing trade income to the court, nor as a "diplomatic" base, and it cannot carry out "diplomatic" countries and can't even cultivate land and self-sufficient. What is the difference between this and being useless?

That is the other side of the ocean tens of thousands of miles away. How much does the imperial court spend to maintain a useless overseas stronghold?

Take Vladivostok as an example. Although this place is isolated overseas, it can produce good benefits. Vladivostok's seafood and fur transactions have already made profits. The imperial court not only does not require filling in money and grain, but also makes profits.

What specialties can be sold and profitable around the New World stronghold?
Chapter completed!