Zhu Di's expression condensed, he stared at Guo An closely, and asked: "Guo An, do you know what you are talking about? Our Ming Dynasty is a kingdom of heaven, with a territory of tens of thousands of miles. How can it be possible that there is another country outside my Ming Dynasty?"
Are there twenty countries larger than my Ming territory?"
"Your Highness has misunderstood!"
Guo An smiled lightly and explained slowly: "What the official meant is that the land area outside our Ming Dynasty is twenty times the area of our Ming Dynasty.
As for the country, our country, the Ming Dynasty, should be the most powerful."
"Are you saying that the continent where those foreign countries are located is twenty times the size of our Ming Dynasty?"
Although he understood, Zhu Di's eyes were full of disbelief.
How could he believe that there was such a large land outside the Ming Dynasty?
Guo An was not prepared to argue with Zhu Di, but asked slowly: "Your Highness, I wonder if you have ever heard that some envoys from foreign countries came to our country by boat to the Ming Dynasty, and the journey actually took half a year?"
Zhu Di nodded slightly: "We heard about this when we were young."
"But those foreign countries all came from the west."
Guo An said: "It takes half a year for the Fan states in the west to come to our Ming Dynasty. How long does it take to travel? And to the east of our Ming Dynasty, there are Korea, Jurchen, and Japanese countries;
In the northern part of our Ming Dynasty, there is also a large grassland occupied by Beiyuan, as well as a vast desert, the far north!
What about the southern part of my Ming Dynasty?"
Zhu Di was startled and asked quickly: "Yes, where is the southern part of Ming Dynasty?"
Guo An replied: "Your Highness, the southern part of the Ming Dynasty is a group of small islands, such as Luzon Island, Brunei, and Sudan.
As for the area of these small islands, although each one is not large, their combined size is half of the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
To the south of these small islands, there is another large island with an area similar to the territory of our Ming Dynasty.
Further south is the land of the extreme south. The area of the extreme southern island is hundreds of times larger than the territory of our Ming Dynasty! It is covered with ice all year round and will not melt even in the middle of summer."
Zhu Di gradually opened his mouth, completely stunned by what Guo An described.
After a long while, he asked slowly: "Do you know these from ancient books?"
Guo Andao: "Your Highness is wise!"
"Xiaguan learned from ancient books that when the Yuan Dynasty's territory was the largest, it stretched beyond the Yin Mountains in the north, the quicksands in the west, the Liaozuo in the east, and the sea in the south.
His merchant ships even sailed thousands of miles and took a year to cross the Great Sea of Food.
As for our ancestor Guo Taishi, when he compiled the "Time Calendar", he also spent several months traveling to the far north to test it!"
Zhu Di opened his mouth and found that he was unable to refute. When he was studying in the main hall, he didn't read a book seriously for a day.
Moreover, no one had ever told him what Guo An said.
"What about the sea?"
Guo An sighed softly, "Your Highness, apart from these places, the rest is a vast ocean!"
Zhu Di: "..."
Guo An said again: "Your Highness, just the area of the sea outside the southeast of our Ming Dynasty territory is dozens of times larger than our Ming Dynasty territory.
If we could catch all the sea fish living in it, it would be enough for all the people of the Ming Dynasty to eat sea fish for hundreds of years, and maybe they wouldn’t be able to finish it all!”
"How can this be?"
Zhu Di murmured to himself.
Everything Guo An said impacted Zhu Di's inherent concepts at all times.
Suddenly, remembering something, Zhu Di perked up and retorted: "Since there are so many big fish in the sea, why has no dynasty ever organized an army to go fishing in the sea?"
Guo An replied: "Your Highness, the sea is very windy and dangerous, and there is no safety in farming.
Moreover, there are not that many big boats that can go fishing in the sea. In addition, the sea is extremely deep, ranging from tens of feet to thousands of feet deep. It is impossible to catch the big fish below.
Furthermore, the sea is so vast that if a ten-foot-long ship enters, it will be smaller than an ant. Before entering the deep sea area, the ship will get lost..."
Zhu Di was a little crazy thinking, "What if all the fleets of our Ming Navy went out to sea to fish?"
"Your Highness, first of all we need your Majesty's consent, and then we need the consent of our generals of the Ming Dynasty Navy, and we also need tens of thousands of navy officers..."
"It's a pity that in the vast sea, there are Japanese pirates and Zhang Shicheng, and Fang Guozhen's remaining party is causing trouble!"
"Yes, if all these people are eliminated, such a vast sea can be used by the Ming Dynasty!"
"Damn it, there are so many people in the Navy, why can't we find those Japanese pirates, Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen and others in the sea?"
"..."
Zhu Di stayed at Guo An's house all day and left when it was getting dark.
This matter naturally attracted the attention of some inspection censors and officials.
Guo An didn't know this, but he quickly took Guo Erniu to the county government office for a tour. After getting off work, he returned to his mansion with peace of mind.
The next day.
After rising to the morning hall, Guo An went to Yanwang Palace.
"I see you, Your Highness!"
"Why are you looking for us?"
Seeing Guo An with a respectful look on his face, Zhu Di had a flash of doubt in his heart.
Guo An was speechless, but this time he was asking for help, so he could only reply honestly: "Your Highness, I am here to take a look at the textile carts in your palace."
"Um?"
Hearing this, Zhu Di finally remembered.
However, he looked at Guo An with a strange look in his eyes.
"How can you, a noble county official, be interested in such a craftsmanship as a textile machine?"
Guo An smiled softly, "Your Highness, how many people have been saved since the invention of the textile machine? I wonder if you can count?"
Zhu Di rarely became angry, but looked solemn.
"Songjiang cotton is the most popular clothing and quilt in the world. The emergence of textile looms has allowed Songjiang Prefecture to weave tens of millions more pieces of cotton every year. All people in the north and south of the Ming Dynasty can wear cotton clothes. They no longer have to endure the cold in winter, and countless people are alive!"
"Then what does Your Highness think of Huang Daopo?"
"Teaching textile skills, inventing textile looms, countless people living there, becoming Vega, the first cotton god."
Guo An nodded slightly. Although Zhu Laosi sometimes likes to curse and is a little rough, he still has a positive outlook on life.
"So, how can the loom be just a craftsman?"
Zhu Di said impatiently: "What exactly do you want to say?"
Guo An quickly smiled and said: "Your Highness, this official is just complaining about the injustice of the people of Wanping County!"
"Unjust?"
Zhu Di's eyes widened, "What does the textile machine have to do with the people of Wanping County?"
Guo Andao said: "Your Highness, now in our Ming Dynasty, every citizen with five to ten acres of land must plant half an acre of cotton.
Although cotton is grown and taxes are paid, the people of Wanping County still have a large amount of cotton in their hands.
The cotton that the people of Wanping County worked so hard to grow was finally taken away by merchants at a low price and sold to Songjiang Prefecture. The weavers in Songjiang Prefecture spun it into cotton cloth or clothing, and then sold it to me, Wanping County, at a high price.
County people.
How much money will the people of Wanping County lose in this way?"