The eighth year of Zhengxing is the year of Dingwei Sheep.

The biggest event in the court after the beginning of the new year was that Yuan Jie, the envoy of the Changping Division of Jiangnan East Road, issued a memorial, pleading to send another fleet to the ocean.

Yuan Jie is the earliest party member of today's emperor and one of the five sons of Chunwei. In the years after the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, he did not participate too much in the struggle for power. Instead, he went out to important places such as Hedong and Jiangnan one after another. He was a minister of the practical group.

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The reason why he has not yet become prime minister is because his personal friendship with the emperor is too close and he does not want to make people criticize the emperor for nepotism. He has accumulated enough experience and qualifications over the years, and he will definitely join the central government once he returns to Beijing.

However, as a confidant of the emperor, he stayed in Jiangnan East Road, but he actually shouldered a huge mission. He decided to accomplish a major event that would have a profound impact on the Tang Dynasty, that is, the ocean.

Xue Bai started preparing for this matter long before he ascended the throne. In the past ten years, the court has invested countless financial and manpower in this matter, but it has never been able to see the results. More and more people began to doubt

Did the emperor make a mistake in this matter?

Yuan Jie's memorial was delivered to Zhengshitang, but it was met with opposition.

This time, Xue Bai was not too tough. After expressing his support for Yuan Jie, he left it to the prime minister to discuss with the ministers.

He is already a consummate emperor, has more means to achieve his goals, and will no longer confront his subordinates head-on.

And the ministers now respect him very much and will no longer oppose him for other purposes as before, but will consider him realistically.

After all, this kind of continuous huge investment without seeing results is also a heavy burden for the people.

In such an atmosphere, a very secret news quietly spread among the important ministers.

On the third day of March, Huangfu Ran, the censor Zhongcheng who was sent to Jiangnan East Road, returned to Chang'an.

Huangfu Ran was also a confidant of the emperor, one of the five sons of Chunwei, and a close friend of Yuan Jie.

After returning to the court, he wrote a memorial to support Yuan Jie's proposal, and firmly believed that going overseas would definitely bring huge rewards. He used the words "a fortune of one hundred thousand profits", but he did not mention the reason at all in the memorial.

There was already a lot of discussion about this matter. Although Huangfu Ran's memorial once again caused an uproar, some censors even accused him of being a sycophant in order to cater to the holy will and disregard the burden of the people.

For this reason, Cui Youfu met with Huangfu Ran in private.

"You have been in the officialdom for a long time, how can you make such a mistake? With your personal relationship with Yuan Jie, it is unfair to support him regardless of the reason, not to mention you are still the chief official of Yushitai."

"There is a reason." Huangfuran said, "But it is not convenient to disclose it for the time being."

Cui Youfu asked: "Why can't even the prime minister know about it?"

"Your Majesty will naturally inform the right minister."

Hearing this, Cui Youfu raised his eyebrows and felt that this matter was unusual.

If there is something secret that Li Mi knows, it should not be hidden from him, unless it is a particularly important matter.

"Maozheng, you and I have known each other for so many years, can't you trust my character?"

"It's not that I can't trust Brother Cui, it's just..."

Huangfuran looked very embarrassed.

He had studied in the Longmen area of ​​Luoyang before, and had received favors from the Cui family. They had a real friendship and mutual trust.

After much thought, he finally spoke.

"Actually, not mentioning this matter is not to keep it secret, but because we haven't investigated it clearly yet."

"What do you mean?" Cui Youfu became more and more curious.

Huangfu Ran said: "When I returned to Beijing this time, I gave Concubine Huangfu a gift, which was a string of jewelry made of emerald green gemstones. Concubine Huangfu thought it was too valuable and refused to accept it, but it is not valuable."

"Why?"

"Brother Cui, if you go to Youzangku, you will know it at a glance."

Cui Youfu still didn't understand what Huangfu Ran's words meant, so a few days later, he found a way to go to Youzangku in person.

He had been here before, but this time he found that a warehouse in the back was locked. After all, he was the prime minister. He found the envoy to open the heavy door and was stunned.

The scene inside is both rich and noble, yet frugal.

The first thing that caught the eye was a mountain of gold ore, with dirt still on it, like broken stones dug out of the ground and thrown there casually.

Turning around, there were huge emeralds. The jewelry Huangfu Ran mentioned must have been made by knocking a few pieces off from them.

As he glanced over, he saw red agate, white ivory, coral taller than a human, more than ten complete rhinoceros skins... The silver nuggets and copper stones spread all over the floor became the most worthless things here.

Cui Youfu looked at them and stood blankly for a long time. After leaving, he immediately went to find Li Mi.

Li Mi heard his hurried footsteps, raised his head and said, "It seems you already know."

"What's going on? The overseas treasure your Majesty mentioned has been found."

"There is no shortage of treasures at sea. What matters is whether they are worth the trouble to find."

"Don't let it slip." Cui Youfu said, "This is a fleet coming back? Why don't you tell the world?"

Li Mi looked thoughtful and did not answer immediately.

Cui Youfu strode forward and looked at his desk, only to see a large map on it.

The map was very shabby, the patterns and writing on it were very messy, and the ink colors were different shades. It must have been drawn bit by bit over several months to several years.

"Is this the map drawn by the fleet?"

"good."

Cui Youfu squinted his eyes, looked westward from the Tang Dynasty, pointed his finger, and said: "This is Dashi."

Of course he knew about Dashi, and he also knew that Dashi was now at its peak.

Because the imperial court had vindicated Gao Xianzhi's unjust case, and Gao Xianzhi had always been brooding over the defeat of the Talas War, he collected a large amount of intelligence and sent it back to Chang'an.

"The territory is really vast."

Cui Youfu's gaze continued to the west, and he saw another city marked with large characters like "Baghdad", named "Constantinople". He was slightly surprised, but did not pay too much attention.

Further west, two huge pieces of land were simply outlined on the map, with nothing written on them except "New World".

Finally, Cui Youfu frowned and said, "What's going on?"

"Round."

Li Mi spit out two words, picked up the map on the table, and rolled it together end to end, so that the lines overlapped.

He murmured: "The sky and the earth where we are are round, but my 'round sky and place' is wrong."

This was not the first time they had heard of this concept. Xue Bai had already tried to instill it into some people.

But in the past, Li Mi, Cui Youfu and others disapproved of this, thinking it was just the emperor's whim.

Until this time, the returning fleet confirmed it.

Li Mi's voice was very low, because he now felt like everything had collapsed, and everything he believed in in the past might be wrong.

"Impossible." Cui Youfu said, "How can the earth be round?"

He lowered his head and saw that the ground beneath his feet was so flat.

Li Mi took out a ball and said: "For an ant, this ball is pretty average. Just imagine, if the ball was bigger, it would be as big as you can see, and it would be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of miles in circumference." So what?”

Cui Youfu is also a very smart person, so he can understand it naturally, but he soon discovered something was wrong.

"If this is the case, how can the people below not fall?"

"We always feel like things fall 'downward'."

"Isn't it?"

Li Mi casually picked up an apple from the table, and when he let go, the apple fell to the floor tiles.

He asked: "Look, did he fall downwards?"

Cui Youfu said: "Yes, it fell down."

"Where did it fall?"

"Fall to the ground."

"Yeah, it fell to the ground."

Li Mi took out two more magnets, put one under his palm, held the other in his other hand, and approached it little by little from above.

There was a soft sound, and the magnet on the palm was instantly attracted upwards.

Cui Youfu was stunned for a moment and then understood. He slowly stretched out his hand, picked up the ball, and said, "You mean, this ball absorbs everything."

"Your Majesty said that this is called 'gravity'." Li Bi said, "I always thought he was just joking. If it is true, then..."

For him, if these were true, it would be terrible.

Cui Youfu could not digest such subversive knowledge for a while, so he shook his head and brought his thoughts back.

"Is this why the imperial court did not announce the news that the fleet has returned?"

"This is part of the reason." Li Mi nodded slowly and said, "The court is not ready to tell the world about this, but there are other reasons."

Cui Youfu thought for a while and asked: "Are you worried that people will go overseas without permission in order to make money and cause unnecessary trouble?"

"When the fleet left, there were 160 ships and more than 15,000 people. When it returned, there were less than 30 ships and more than 1,000 people. In addition to the strong wind and waves on the sea, it is easy to lose the direction. Food and drinking water
To be continued...