The most unlucky crossing in history

After Xie Wenyuan left, the rainy season in the south of the Yangtze River came. Naturally, it was impossible to go to sea in the season of heavy rain and strong wind. Zhong Qiyun took the opportunity to build a fleet, recruit long-term workers, buy land, buy pavements, and train boatmen... .. Vigorously expand the fleet size.

Although I have not gone to sea, I am still surrounded by miscellaneous affairs. The rainy season has passed for nearly one month, and the fleet has expanded from the original [-] long-term workers to more than [-]. They have purchased nearly [-] boats from several shipyards in Hangzhou. ship.

In addition, Zhong Qiyun ordered Liu Wangcai to go to several major states in the south of the Yangtze River, and hired well-known shipbuilders in each state with high salaries, and jointly designed a huge ship that could accommodate at least a hundred people and carry two thousand materials. Both sails and sculls were used. There is wind to make the sail, but there is no wind to swing the scull, which is very suitable for driving under the condition of no wind in the harbor.It is matched with eight scull ships with different functions, which are used as warships, passenger ships, grain ships, water ships, etc., and are specially used for oceangoing overseas.

Tasting the sweetness once, Zhong Qiyun certainly cannot let go of such a huge market.

"I know that no one has ever made a boat of this size in the world, and I also know that it is extremely difficult, but this group of boats is not needed right away." In the house, Zhong Qiyun personally talked to the six craftsmen: "Old gentlemen, you can think about it carefully, but please give me a letter every month. What have you guys thought about, let me have a clear idea, and..." Zhong Qiyun paused, Then he said seriously: "I hired you guys to design ships. Please keep it a secret. Money is not a problem. I, Zhong Qiyun, will not treat you gentlemen badly, but I will also say some ugly things first. If this matter is leaked, let me Outsiders know... our contract is written in black and white, then gentlemen, don't blame Zhong for turning his face and denying him."

"Of course."

"My boss, don't worry, we have been in this industry for many years, and we know all these things."

After Zhong Qiyun said this, he didn't ask any more questions, but after the discussion was over, he asked a few people he knew well if any of them knew how to build a nautical compass.

Zhong Qiyun needs a more accurate compass.

In this question, there is indeed one person who knows that there is an old Mr. Cai who is nearly seventy years old in Jinling City. He has studied the compass, but he stopped doing it a few years ago.

Zhong Qiyun nodded, making a note of it.

After tens of thousands of taels of silver were thrown down, Zhong Qiyun's fleet had just begun to see its scale.

In the middle of the year, the land deeds between Songjiang Mansion and Yuhuan County were obtained, and Zhong Qiyun asked Guanshi Sun to bring people to Songjiang Mansion to finalize some complicated and trivial matters.he took

The caravan transported the goods from Zhancheng to Jinling.

Jinling Mansion is worthy of being a major city in the south of the Yangtze River, with prosperous commerce and vast land. Silk is not the main business, but land and water routes extend in all directions. It is a distribution port where traders from all walks of life come and go from north to south, and it is very lively.

Compared with Hangzhou City, although the ink and wash is a little less light, it is also a third more dreamlike and magnificent.

For example, Zijin Mountain and Jinling Yuxiu.Sanskrit sounds from the ancient temple above the distant mountains curled up.The misty waves on the banks of the Qinhuai River are vast.

What is "Wang Xietang Qianyan in the old days", what is "smoke cage, cold water and moon cage sand", what is "Six Dynasties like a dream and birds singing in the sky".The Jinling Mansion is loaded with the kind of grand historical picture that the poets of the Tang Dynasty said lightly and slowly.

Whether it is modern Nanjing or today's Jinling, it is the first time for Zhong Qiyun to visit, and he really feels the magnificent aura contained in this land covered by the drizzle in the south of the Yangtze River.

The goods that Zhong Qiyun brought were all sold at a high price two days earlier than the expected five days.

During the busy months, Zhong Qiyun rarely had leisure time, so he went to find Mr. Cai while visiting Jinling City.

Although the old man is old, his health is good, but he never agrees to make a compass for him.

Zhong Qiyun was not in a hurry. In the next few days, he accompanied the old man to sip some tea and chat with the old man about the sea. His youngest grandson.

Zhong Qiyun thought about it even if it was this old gentleman, but the compass that can be made with skill now is probably just that, but he didn't expect it to be so detailed. To be honest, the compass brought by Mr. Cai is the one that Zhong Qiyun has seen since he came here. The thinnest and most compass.

The compass is composed of 24 Chinese character rings, representing 24 directions, with a total of 48 directions.Each character in the heavenly stems and earthly branches occupies 15 degrees, and each direction is 7.5 degrees. The pointing is precise and the scale is meticulous.

And this compass looks like something that has been made a long time ago, I am afraid that Mr. Cai himself only has this one.

"When I was young, because my family knew how to build a compass, and I also knew how to make a compass, I went to the sea with my master, went to Qiongyang, and went to Zhancheng..."

This was the first time Zhong Qiyun had heard of it.

"When you encounter thick fog on the sea and you can't see the coast clearly, you rely on this thing... Later, when you didn't sail the sea, Cheng Jiaye continued to think about this small plate and came up with this. It has been a few years, but Still very accurate, the needle is stuck on the rush grass and floats on the water inside the compass, even if there are winds and waves, it is not easy to lose the needle, and it can guarantee the normal pointing.”

After all, the old man raised his hand and pushed Yiyi beside him

The reluctant grandson, "There is also my incompetent grandson, who has been with me since he was a child without his parents, but has not yet entered the school after studying for many years. I want to leave this thought to Mr. Zhong to take care of you. How can a person with a compass have never seen the sea?"

Earlier, Zhong Qiyun knew that there were only his grandfather and grandson left in Cai's old family. Now that he entrusted his grandson to him, the old man probably thought that he would have no support for his grandson in a hundred years.

Thinking in this way, Zhong Qiyun solemnly replied: "Mr. Cai, don't worry."

Seeing Elder Cai nod his head, Zhong Qiyun thought about it and asked, "I don't know if I should say something or not."

"Master Zhong, please tell me."

"I heard that Mr. Cai has entered the sea many times with the former fleet, but I don't know where you have been?"

"Speaking of which, I have traveled all over the central coast of this country, and even went to foreign countries several times, such as Zhan Cheng, Buck, and Shen Du."

"Can the fleet leave charts?"

Elder Cai looked at Zhong Qiyun, and he understood his thoughts like this: "Do you want a sea chart?"

Zhong Qiyun didn't hide it, nodded: "Yes."

Cai Lao looked deeply at Zhong Qiyun for a long time, and finally he got up slowly and went back to the room to take a wooden box. "The people who travel the sea are gone now, so it's useless for me to keep this picture. If you want it, I'll give it to you."

Zhong Qiyun hurriedly stood up when he heard the sound, bowed to Elder Cai and said, "Thank you, senior."

It was already June when we returned to Hangzhou, the plum blossoms had already bloomed in Hangzhou, and the sky was clear and bright, especially when it was sweltering in the south of the Yangtze River, it was very uncomfortable.

Zhong Qiyun rested in the newly purchased house for two days. While waiting for the southeast monsoon to blow, he thought about some cold fruit drinks when he was bored. It was a success, and he thought about asking someone to mix a few things with the recipe Sent to Jingzhao.

It's just that before he delivered the things, the news of Jingzhaocheng reached Hangzhou first.

Said it was first, but it was almost a month ago.

The Uyghurs invaded the northwestern frontier Alhe Prefecture in April, and the Northwest army resisted a few times but they were safe.But in May, the Uyghur king led ten thousand people to attack the city suddenly. The army did not investigate and lost its defense. The Uyghur army burned, killed, looted and tortured all the way, doing everything.

Since the Taizu spent five years repelling the Uyghurs, the Uyghurs have been quiet for a hundred years, and now they suddenly come to attack, it seems that they have seen the infighting in the dynasty and have no time to take care of it, so they act recklessly.

In the cool place of the best tea house in Hangzhou, Zhong Qiyun exchanged pleasantries with He Minqing who came to Hangzhou, while students from Jiangnan Academy discussed politics loudly in the private room.

"How could you miss it? There are hundreds of thousands of troops in the northwest! General Xie is guarding, and the Uighurs can't handle it?"

"I heard that General Xie came to Jianzhou to clean up the

After the pirates, he never returned to the northwest, and now the one guarding the northwest is the current prince's uncle--Lieutenant General Shi. "

"Shi Qingnan?"

"Yes!"

"Isn't he a civil servant? How can he become that general?"

"That... I don't know."

"Why don't you know?" One person snorted, "It's just that Concubine Shi Gui found such an errand because she saw that the Northwest was profitable."

"Then what is the court's plan now? Is it going to attack or negotiate peace?"

"It is said that it is the middle of the court, and General Xie will lead the battle, and Prime Minister Wei and his party will talk about peace."

The people nearby also sighed: "If Prime Minister Wei agrees, then there is nothing else to say..."

"You can't say that. Wei Xiang's claim is correct. After all, the two lakes were hit by disasters last year, and there were no crops. There were already countless refugees. The country's food stocks were in an emergency. If there was a fight, the people would be in dire straits."

"Brother Chen is right, it is really inappropriate to fight at this time."

"What about Xie Shangshu? When he returned to Beijing, the Holy Majesty ordered him to be the Minister's Minister. As the eldest son of General Xie, what did he say?"

"It is said that... is also the Lord's Harmony."

"Hey, it's no wonder that General Xie doesn't like him..."

"But General Xie is also thinking less."

There was a lot of talk about the peace talks over there, but Zhong Qiyun frowned because of this sentence.

He Minqing didn't know that Zhong Qiyun and Xie Wenyuan were acquainted, and thought that Zhong Qiyun's ugly face was because of the thought of the war, so he said: "This world has never been peaceful."

Talking about filling tea for Zhong Qiyun, seeing Zhong Qiyun looking over, he said: "The sound of war started, that means endless amounts of silver were thrown to the frontier fortress, and now the power of several princes in the country is becoming more and more prominent, I'm afraid It is inappropriate to fight that Uyghur again, since the first battle will lead to conscription, this war will ultimately be a waste of money and people, and the gain outweighs the loss."

Zhong Qiyun heard the words and said: "After listening to Brother He, you also feel that peace should be negotiated?"

He Minqing thought for a while, neither nodded nor shook his head, only said: "At least that's how it looks now."

"Brother He said that the loss outweighs the gain by laboring the people, but the Taizu spent five years of hard work to suppress the Uyghur, and it also brought about a hundred years of peace? How do you calculate the loss and gain?"

"There are different strategies in prosperous times and troubled times."

Zhong Qiyun didn't speak, and then asked: "Now the words of Wei Hechao and Prime Minister Wei can decide whether to attack or defend? General Xie's words are useless?"

"The power of the Weihe Dynasty was too great. After the Taizu, several emperors and even now this one all attached great importance to literati and the imperial examinations. The civil officials are in power, and the generals are in decline. It is said that the military power is now divided into two halves, the three provinces hold half, and the other half is controlled by

The generals from all walks of life are scattered, so there are some things that I can't listen to General Xie. "

Zhong Qiyun frowned. According to this, is it a literati commanding a general now?How do literati command generals?It means that Zhe Ye and going to battle to kill the enemy are fundamentally two different things. Talking about soldiers on paper and accumulating experience with real swords and guns are even more different.How can you not hear the general?

Although not all literati are cowardly, in the final analysis, most of them do not have the blood of those real generals. Facing this kind of battlefield, I am afraid that few people see long-term benefits.

For example, the students from the academy next to them and the head of the civil servant in the imperial court are all from the Lord's Harmony faction, which can be seen.

But now...

If you don't have the right, you can't even take charge of offense and defense.Zhong Qiyun was startled, and suddenly thought of Xie Wenyuan.

Maybe that person didn't want to be a general as rumored...

If he didn't want to be a general, why did he spend these many years practicing martial arts?He only needs to read and write, and be a scheming literati.

I'm afraid, that person has known for a long time that the current situation in the Great Dawn Dynasty is such that it is useless to become that great general...

A thought flashed through Zhong Qiyun's mind, and Zhong Qiyun's heart tightened suddenly.

He seemed to understand Xie Wenyuan a little bit.

If...if he is the No.1 player today, I don't know if Xie Wenyuan will make peace...

The author has something to say: continue tomorrow!