Chapter 179 "Basic Common Knowledge of Navigation"

There is no doubt that Zhang Zhun's words shocked everyone present. Well, to be precise, everyone except Xue Zhidie. Before this, Zhang Zhun had already mentioned to Xue Zhidie that the earth was round. Their eyes were all subconsciously looking at Zhang Zhun. The reason was very simple. Everyone had always thought that China was the center of the world, the sky was round, and China was the center of the world. However, from the map Zhang Zhu gave them, China only occupied a very small part.

“Is there anything to ask?”

Zhang Zhun looked at them with glittering eyes and asked slowly.

"Sir, is the world really that big?"

Zhou Zhengyu asked a question carefully.

Zhang Zhun nodded heavily and said deeply: "Yes, the world is really that big. Although our country is already very big, with thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, vast plains, stretching mountains, boundless deserts, winding Yangtze River and Yellow River, I must tell you that compared with the whole world, our country is still very small."

After a slight pause, Zhang Zhun said slowly: "Unless it is, expand our country to areas of the world. Let our nation live on all the lands of the world. If we do this, we are qualified to say that our country is the world, and the world is our country."

Fang He asked, "Sir, are there any Han people in other parts of the world?"

Zhang Zhun replied: "It should be none, unless we have controlled there and then immigrated from the Central Plains. In other parts of the world, there are other ethnic groups. They are completely different from us Han people. Some people's skin is completely white, while others' skin is completely black..."

Liu Dong couldn't help but raise his hand.

Zhang Zhun nodded, indicating that he could speak.

Liu Dong said incredibly: "People with black skin all over their bodies? Are they sick?"

Zhang Zhun shook his head and said in an orderly manner: "They were not sick. They were born with black all over their bodies... Well, their teeth were white. They lived in distant Africa. If I remember correctly, when Mr. Zheng went to the East Coast of Africa, he had visited the East Coast of Africa and saw black people there. At that time, Mr. Zheng also said that they were cursed people, and God made their whole bodies turn black all over. In fact, no, they were born."

Fang He said curiously: "So, are the red-haired ghosts from the West born with red hair?"

Zhang Zhun nodded and said slowly: "To be precise, their hair is not red, but brown. They are actually Dutch people, from a country called Jutland Alliance. Later, this country was renamed the Netherlands. The Dutch people also had a unique nickname called the sea coachman. The Florence people we often mention actually came from two countries, Portugal and Spain. They were the initiators of the great voyage, and the world of the sea was the first to explore."

"But, the meaning of Florence actually refers to the French. France is another country. In the future, there may be another country called Britain, which will appear in the South China Sea. The countries mentioned just now belong to Europe. The areas of these countries are not large, which is about the same as one of our provinces, or they are only equivalent to a few of our provinces. The area of ​​the entire Europe is not as large as our country."

"Europe is also in a war-torn period. The relationship between Spain and Portugal has never been good. Britain and Spain have just fought a war at sea, and Spain was completely defeated. The Dutch rose very quickly and accumulated strong economic strength. However, their military strength, such as the British who rose at the same time. The French are the overlords of the European continent and try every means to ensure their dominance. France and Britain often fight wars."

Everyone looked at each other and felt that the world was really wonderful.

Of course they would not doubt Zhang Zhun's statement. In fact, they actually vaguely guessed something about the earth being round. Only Zhang Zhun's statement can perfectly explain the strange phenomenon of the sea and sky line. At the same time, the explanations of the Red-haired Ghost and Folang Ji are quite professional, and there is absolutely no possibility of fraud. Even if it is fake, it requires extremely professional knowledge!

Suddenly, Xue Zhidie asked: "There are other countries outside our country... Then, are there other worlds outside our world?"

Zhang Zhun was slightly stunned.

This woman’s thinking is really incredible! She can actually think of it outside the world!

Looking at Xue Zhidie's gaze of seeking knowledge, Zhang Zhun nodded gently and said with certainty: "Yes, there are other worlds outside our world. Our world is a ball. Outside this ball, there are more balls. Some balls are not as big as the earth, but some balls are thousands or thousands of times larger than the earth..."

Xue Zhidie frowned and said, "How did you know?"

Zhang Zhun shook his head and said slowly: "I won't tell you how I know. I only know that this world is like this. If you don't believe it, you can slowly verify my statement."

Xue Zhidie pondered for a moment without saying anything.

The others naturally became even less speechless.

After a slight pause, Zhang Zhun slowly talked about the world geography based on the map.

The first part of "Basic Common Knowledge of Navigation" is a general description of world geography. Here, the concepts of the seven continents and four oceans are mentioned in detail, and a brief introduction is also included. The characteristics of each continent and the characteristics of each ocean are also recorded in this book. These are all from Zhang Zhun's knowledge, which is at least four hundred years ahead of this era.

It was the first time that Yang Guohua and others learned that Westerners came to East Asia through such a distant ocean. Speaking of which, I really admire these crazy Westerners, especially those Flangji and the red-haired ghosts, who were so brave. Looking at the outlined long route, according to their estimates, it would be impossible to complete the voyage from Europe to East Asia in less than a year. Thinking about the farthest place Zheng Gong (Zheng He) who set out from East Asia and reached only the farthest place he reached was only to the African coast, and it was still a distance from the Cape of Good Hope. If you have to cross the Cape of Good Hope and go north along the west coast of Africa, the journey is even further away.

It was the first time they learned about the South Ocean that they once thought they were familiar with. It turned out that in addition to the Manila ports, there are also ports such as Jiading, Brunei, Jakarta, Malacca, Surabaya, Ambona. In East Asia, in addition to Naha in Ryukyu, there is an island called Jeju Island. A little further apart, there is Guam. As for the Indian Ocean, there are important ports such as Ceylon, Kalilhit, Kolkata, and Oman. Compared with the information on the map, what they knew before was actually a drop in the bucket.

"This world is so big!"

Fang He couldn't help but say with emotion.

From Yuegang in Fujian to Manila in South China, they seemed to be a very distant route, and it took about a month and a half to travel. However, from the map, the journey of this period was less than a finger. Similarly, the route from Hangzhou to Japan seemed to be quite far away, but from the map, it was simply unremarkable. Not to mention, just crossing the vast Pacific Ocean, it would take a whole year.

"In the past hundred years, the ocean has been a paradise for Europeans. Under the leadership of navigators such as Columbus and Magellan, they have carried out a large voyage around the world. They have seized a lot of places, seized a lot of resources, and controlled a lot of Feng Shui treasures. The rich America has been seized by them. Similarly, the rich Southeast Asia and the South Ocean have also been seized by them. Unfortunately, we do not have such a navigator. We have been behind for a hundred years. If we don't catch up, we will be abandoned by the world. There will be no Chinese in the vast ocean."

"In fact, our country has never lacked warriors for navigating. However, due to the national strategy, the implementation of the forbidden sea for decades has led to the fact that our navigation level is getting farther and farther away from the world's advanced level. I wonder if you feel that our warships are already quite different from the warships of the Red-Haired Ghost in terms of combat effectiveness. However, the warships that appear in East Asia are just their second-rate warships. The largest displacement is only six or seven hundred tons. The artillery loaded on the ship, which is thirty or forty, will not exceed fifty at most."

"But in Europe, in the next few decades, whether it is the Netherlands, Britain, Spain, or France, there will be a large number of large warships appearing on the ocean. The largest warship will have a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, and the artillery loaded on the ship will have more than 100 sailors. Such warships are all moving battle fortresses. If we do not chase them up, we will be defeated in such a powerful opponent."

Xue Zhidie said a little dissatisfied: "Our treasure ship is not small, we have a big ship of two thousand materials."

Zhang Zhun shook his head gently and said slowly: "Do you have drawings of the treasure ship?"

Xue Zhidie was speechless.

Due to the sea ban policy, the construction information about the treasure ship has been ordered to be destroyed by the court. She doesn't know whether there are any survivors. In short, the real treasure ship is definitely gone. After the Zheng He fleet returned for the seventh time, all the ships were idle on the beach, slowly enduring wind and rain, sun and rain, and finally all decayed. Even there was no large lucky ship. The largest ship she could build was the No. 2 Fu Ship, which was about 250 materials. According to Zhang Zhun's estimate, the displacement of the No. 2 Fu Ship should be about 250 tons. The distance from the treasure ship with a displacement of thousands of tons is too far away.

"Since we don't have drawings of treasure ships, we can only redesign and manufacture other warships. The treasure ship may not be the best. Only by inclusive and learning from other people's advanced technologies can we improve our shipbuilding level faster."

Zhang Zhun said with a serious expression.

Xue Zhidie nodded to indicate that she was taught.

She is absolutely calm on professional issues.

After a while, Zhang Zhun continued his teaching.

"Everyone knows that cargo from Jiangnan can be transported to Manila, and it can be exchanged for a large amount of silver. Especially the best-selling is raw silk. There has always been a saying that a ship of raw silk can be exchanged for half a ship of silver. But do you know where this silver comes from? What do Folang Jiren do for these raw silks?"

"Maybe you don't know that Manila itself does not produce silver. Some of Manila are gold. However, what we shipped back from Manila is all silver, without gold. So, where did these gold go? Where did those silver come from? Could it be that Westerners transported gold back to Europe and then shipped silver from Europe? Of course not!"

"In fact, the silver we exchanged in Manila was shipped back from Mexico by Westerners. Look at the map. In the northeast corner of the Pacific Ocean, the standard place with silver is Mexico. Mexico is a large silver producer, with a large amount of silver produced, and the silver produced every year is million taels. After our goods were shipped to Manila, foreigners selected a part of these goods, mainly raw silk, and transported to Mexico through the Pacific Ocean. Then they exchanged for a large amount of silver from there."

"You may have noticed that from Manila to Mexico and then back from Mexico, it just forms a cycle. The raw silk is transported over and the silver is pulled back. The Florians use our raw silk to exchange for silver from the local natives of Mexico. Then, these silver flows into our country from Manila. As for gold, the gold mined in Manila is transported back to China by the Florians. They value gold more than silver."

"In our neighboring country, Japan, there are also good silver mines. The annual mining volume is hundreds of thousands of taels. Therefore, if our goods can be sold in Japan, we should be able to obtain a considerable amount of silver. However, intelligence shows that Japan's maritime trade is under the control of Zheng Zhilong. If we want to intervene, there will definitely be a fire. Therefore, until our strength is strong enough, we cannot get involved in Japan's business for the time being."

After saying so much in one breath, Zhang Zhun stopped and drank water.

Fang Heyi asked in a daze: "Sir, since Mexico has so much silver, can we ship raw silk directly to Mexico? As long as we don't pass through the hands of others, will our profit be higher?"

Zhang Zhun nodded and said regretfully: "In fact, I believe everyone here has such an idea. Yes, Fang He's idea is indeed very profitable. However, one thing I did not mention is that the local indigenous people in Mexico have been controlled by the Spanish. Except for the Portuguese, no one else can do business with the Spanish. Unless we have strong enough force to expel the Spanish and occupy the local silver mines."

Fang He looked at the map and said regretfully: "It's too far, I can't do it!"

Liu Dong also licked his lips and said regretfully: "Yes! It's too far! It's going to span the entire Pacific Ocean!"

Zhang Zhun said: "In fact, the Pacific Ocean is not a problem, but combat is the problem. With the development of the Age of Discovery, each country began to divide its own sphere of influence around the world. If you want to occupy other people's spheres of influence, you must use force. In other words, only through combat can you seize other regions. It is not difficult for our army to reach Mexico. It is really difficult to gain a foothold there and persist in fighting."

Everyone looked at me, and I looked at you, and they all shook their heads gently.

At this moment, it is so dreamy to imagine such a distant thing.

Zhang Zhun did not continue to talk about this issue. It was useless to say that it was not until that time. If there was really a day in the future, it would not be too late to say that. Finally, he reminded: "This is a relatively complete chart. You must keep it well, so it is not easy to reveal it."

"clear!"

"Don't worry, sir, we will never reveal it!"

Yang Guohua, Zhou Zhengyu, Fang He, Liu Dong and others naturally understood the value of the chart and expressed their opinions.

In this era, perfect charts did not appear at all, and even more prototype charts were not available. Most of the time, they rely on the captain's own experience and passed on from generation to generation. Many sailing experiences, even dictated. The choice of captains is a very important matter. Many people want to be captains, but few people can really be captains.

For example, not everyone can be the captain of the "Manila Sailing Boat" starting from Manila and following the Kuroshio to the West Coast of Mexico. Basically, the people who drive this route are all very special people. They have their own strict organization, and only people within the organization can share their experiences about navigation. They will not easily impart experience and knowledge about Kuroshio to others.

Yang Guohua and others did not ask where Zhang Zhun's nautical chart came from. They were already used to Zhang Zhun's omnipotent ability. If Zhang Zhun was just an ordinary person, they would definitely think that Zhang Zhun was a monster and might throw it into the fire to burn it to death. However, Zhang Zhun was their boss. The greater Zhang Zhun's ability, they all took it for granted.

"Next, let's focus on monsoons, trade winds, ocean currents, tides..."

After lunch, I took a break and Zhang Zhun continued to speak.
Chapter completed!