Eunuch Bao made his first voyage to the Western Ocean. The fleet departed from Liujiagang, Nanjing (today's Liuhe, Taicang, Jiangsu) to Fuzhou (today's Fuzhou, Fujian), then crossed the South China Sea and arrived at Nanyang (today's Southeast Asia), Champa (today's central and southern Vietnam)
), sailed on the Indian Ocean for many days, arrived at Java New Village (today's Gracie, Java Island), then to the Old Port of Sumatra (today's Old Port of Sumatra Island), then passed through today's Malacca Strait, entered the Indian Ocean again, and arrived at Tin
Lanshan (about today near Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka), and then to Kochi and Guli. It started in the third year of Yongle and ended in the fifth year of Yongle, which lasted more than a year.
If you think about it carefully, Zheng He actually didn't go very far on his first voyage to the West. If you really want to put it into perspective, Zheng He's first voyage to the West only reached five countries in Asia (today's Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia).
, Sri Lanka, India) and eight regions (Champa, New Village, Java, Old Port, Malacca (ancient Manchuria), present-day Colombo, Kochi, Sri Lanka).
However, even if it is not far away, this was a grand occasion decades ago. After Renxuan, except for the occasional merchants arriving in Annan Champa, most maritime trade routes were still between Goryeo, Ryukyu, Fusang, and Grisa.
Therefore, following the Li people all the way from the Silk Road to the Ming Dynasty, this proves that the Ming Empire's maritime tentacles did not reach too far.
Between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ming Dynasty, what blocked them on land was not only thousands of mountains and rivers, but also the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which did not want to see the east-west connection. The east and west were both connected. They stood in the middle and ate up both sides.
What kind of drama? On the sea, there is no need for humans. Just the boundless ocean, bad weather, unknown navigation, and the diseases caused by the long route are enough to shatter most Europeans' dreams of getting rich.
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If possible, Qian Wubing still hopes to extend Ming Dynasty's tentacles to Europe, but at present, it seems that this is a bit too ambitious. Therefore, he has to be cautious, the road must be taken step by step, and the food must be eaten bite by bite.
After all, he is still young.
There is another one. The fleet he has put together now is far incomparable to Sanbao Eunuch's fleet in terms of strength and scale. Sanbao Eunuch's fleet has more than 200 large and small ships.
There are nearly 30,000 personnel, and the pioneer pathfinder ship, main ship, relief ship, and escort ship all perform their own duties. More importantly, Zheng He’s fleet has navigation charts in its hands! What does the Sihai fleet have? It’s amazing.
On the route to Annan, if you go further, you have to rely on the compass and explore all the way. The dangers involved can be imagined.
News of the fleet's voyage slowly spread, and an inexplicable excitement surged in the city of Nanjing. As a Nanjing native who witnessed the eunuch Sanbao's voyage to the West, after so many years, few people who met him at the time are now rare.
However, the grand occasion of that day has been passed down among the people. This kind of legendary experience can be used as a brag to future generations. The old people who have witnessed the grand occasion will not let it go. Now, their descendants will not let it go.
Let go.
The ships from all over the world slowly gathered towards the Longjiang Pier. Every day, new ships could be seen entering the port. For a time, the masts were like a forest and the white sails were like clouds. In addition to the ships arriving far away from the riverside every day,
In addition to the people of Nanjing who come to see this grand occasion, you can also see the purchase of fleets appearing in shops all over Nanjing every day. They are all sailors and boatmen who are old sailors. Naturally, they know what to prepare for a long voyage. This matter
No one would be lazy and perfunctory about their own safety. For a time, the prices in various stores in Nanjing city actually increased by a few points, which shows that the quantities of these purchased things were huge.
There were also those maritime merchants who were driven into the inn by the Jinyiwei that day. Although he did not know what agreement was reached between the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River and the Jinyiwei, they also knew that, as before, a ship loaded with goods would be enough.
The days of going to sea and making a lot of money will no longer exist. Although Jinyiwei did not post the notice clearly, it was related to their survival, so they had to try their best to find out.
Either rely on the fleet of the Jiangnan family, which is now a powerful family, or rely on the Sihai fleet. It seems that these are the only two options they can choose. What is interesting is that after asking about the rules, they sent representatives,
They walked up to Qian Wubing's door with generous gifts. Since the imperial court allowed the Seven Families (now Six Families) to build momentum for the Sihai Fleet, it seemed that an opening could be opened for them. Yes, they did not want to rely on anyone.
Although their strength is incomparable to that of the six Jiangnan families, together they are not necessarily much worse than any of the six Jiangnan families.
Qian Wubing readily agreed to the requests of these businessmen. As long as he followed his rules, was supervised by the court, and paid taxes to the court, this was of course a good thing!
As a result, more than ten sea-going ships joined the queue waiting to go to sea. These were small ships with a size of less than 500 in the fleet. They were not needed at all. Otherwise, they could all make up 30 or 20 ships. Suddenly, this happened.
This is already the strongest lineup they can put together. It can be seen that in the past one or two years, Longjiang Shipyard's business will definitely become more and more prosperous.
The merchants are not stupid. The larger the fleet, the less risk they will encounter on this voyage. They understand this truth without being taught. It is just to pay taxes. Wherever you go, you are not paying. Maybe, this time it will be new.
The air routes were opened up, and in the future, those who were qualified to run on these air routes became a rule. It is only right to take one step too late, and to start early.
Ordinarily, for such a big news, no matter how slow the court's response is, someone will know about it after ten days or so, and even some self-proclaimed officials will jump out and criticize it. But the problem is, it's all about money.
During the period of time when Wu Bing was waiting for Beijing's decree, no one in the court even mentioned this matter, let alone anyone in the court. It was as if the court could not see such a big movement in Nanjing.
Of course, it can't be said that it didn't happen completely. The Ministry of Household Affairs connected a group of people in the matter and prepared to severely impeach Qian Wubing on this matter. However, as soon as this matter started, it was quietly dismissed.
After suppressing it, not to mention the Qingliu he connected with, even he himself reported illness at home and stopped seeing visitors for several days. The reason for this is not known to outsiders. By the way, this is the surname in the matter.
Xu, and brother Xu Zihou who committed suicide in the Nanjing "Fornication Against Thieves Case", are brothers within the fifth server.
Seeing the days passing by, the Sihai fleet has no plans to go to sea. Qian is not in a hurry, but those businessmen are starting to get anxious. If they can't go to sea before this year, after the New Year, it will have to be after the 15th
Yes, people can wait, but the wind that God blows cannot wait! With such a large fleet, if it doesn’t rely on the monsoon, can’t everyone paddle to those small foreign countries with one oar?