Spring returns to the earth and everything is renewed.
A few days later, Qizhou, Yongming County.
Harbor pier.
Qizhou is located due east of Daxuan, and Yongming is located in the easternmost part of Qizhou. Going to the sea from here is the closest place to the ten countries in the East China Sea.
The previous Daxuan envoy also set out to sea from here.
Daxuan's Shipbuilding Department and shipbuilding office are also located here.
Xu Zun is now a fourth-rank official in the imperial court. Naturally, the local officials such as the governor, chief historian, and county governor of Qizhou have to come to greet him from far away and treat him well.
However, among all the accompanying officials, Xu Zun can only be regarded as the commander of this trip, but he is not the one with the highest official rank.
As the prince's young master, Li Gui held a third-rank official position, which was one level higher than Xu Zun, so he was naturally the highest official.
In terms of seniority in the Prince's Mansion, the first-ranked ones are the "Three Young Masters", namely the Prince's Young Master, the Prince's Young Master and the Prince's Young Master.
According to Daxuan practice, the prince's junior master is usually held by cabinet members, who are the kind of people who are more knowledgeable and more prestigious.
Because the prince's young master Su Qian was old and sick, the Queen Mother did not send him to participate in this trip to the East China Sea.
The prince Shaobao died in the assassination of the Heavenly Tribulation Incident, so among the "three young masters", only the prince's young master came.
However, Li Gui is already in his sixties this year and is equally resourceful but lacking in energy.
When Xu Zun and his party arrived in Yongming, he became bedridden and never came out again.
Now, the only people left to discuss with Xu Zun about going to sea are the prince Zhan Shi Zhang Yao and the prince's guest Shan Peng.
These two people were obviously here to make soy sauce. Their biggest task on this trip was to identify the prince's identity after they found him.
Therefore, Xu Zun basically decides on all overseas travel matters now.
"We have seen the auspicious days of the zodiac," said the director of the Shipping Department. "The day after tomorrow will be an auspicious day. Good winds and smooth sailing will bring good luck! Mr. Xu... you see..."
"..."
Xu Zun was speechless and said in his heart, I haven't figured out anything here yet, are you so anxious to send me away?
but……
Xu Zun glanced out the window and saw the three ocean-going ships outside the water gate. There were four-story buildings on the ships and the masts stood tall, which was a spectacular sight.
Moreover, this kind of ship is also a veritable warship, equipped with bows, arrows and artillery. The bow is also equipped with a strong metal impact device, which can also impact enemy ships at critical moments.
With these three giant warships, it is enough to sail across the East China Sea.
For this trip, each ship was equipped with as many as a hundred sailors, helmsmen, polemen, sailors, sailors and soldiers, all of whom were skilled sailors who often went to sea.
It can be said that their safety is basically no problem and they are fully equipped to set sail.
only……
Xu Zun’s biggest question now is where to go?
Where can we go to find the prince?
"Everyone," Xu Zun asked in front of many local officials, "I have a question that I haven't figured out yet. Didn't it say that the survivors were burned to death by the fire?
"Then how did the news about the prince's attack in the East China Sea come back?"
"Well..." Mingzhou County Sheriff first glanced at Qizhou Governor, and then introduced, "It was all passed down by merchants traveling to and from the East China Sea."
Gu Yan
"What?" Xu Zun frowned, "It means there is no definite news?"
"It's like this," the governor of Qizhou explained, "the prince went on a mission to the ten countries in the East China Sea, and the original plan was to return in five months or half a year.
"Now, just after five months, we got the unfortunate news that some merchant ships returning from the East China Sea said that Prince Daxuan was attacked somewhere in the East China Sea, and that the whereabouts of the prince himself was unknown.
“This matter is not trivial,” the Qizhou prefect said, “After we learned the news, we immediately sent people to find those in the caravan to verify.
“However, they all came here through hearsay, and they don’t know exactly which country or area of the East China Sea the prince was in when he was attacked.
"So," the prefect continued, "we quickly sent out ships to explore the nearby islands.
"More than ten days later, news finally came from the sea that they had found the prince's entourage and were on their way back.
"However, within a few days, we received bad news again, saying that the speedboat returning the survivors had encountered a fire and had sunk into the sea. Everyone on the ship had suffered. Alas..."
The governor of Qizhou lamented and regretted, but it could be seen from his expression that he also had deep doubts about this matter.
Needless to say, anyone can see the problem. It is obvious that someone does not want the news of the attack on the prince to be passed back to Daxuan.
In other words, the attack on the prince may have been a long-planned ambush!
Just think about it, anyone who dares to ambush the prince must be no ordinary person.
Nowadays, Daxuan's court is turbulent and full of variables. For these local officials, no one wants to get into trouble.
Therefore, Xu Zun could also feel that they all hoped that he would set sail as soon as possible. As for whether they could find the prince, no one cared at all.
"So..." Xu Zun realized the difficulty, "No one knows what happened to the prince in the East China Sea?"
"Master Xu," at this time, the director of the Shipping Department pointed to a chart on the wall and said, "According to the prince's original plan, in five months, he should have visited the ten countries and started to return.
!
"Look..." He gestured with the map with his hand and said, "This is the order of the prince's mission to the ten countries. It starts from the nearest Izumo country, goes around the East China Sea, and finally passes through the southwest of the Tangmen country.
return.
"So, if something happens, it should be in the southwest area of the East China Sea!"
"That's not necessarily true," Shan Peng, the prince's guest, couldn't help but interject, "God knows when the prince was attacked?
"The East China Sea is a big place. If we find the wrong place, our safety will be small. But if we delay in rescuing the prince, who can bear this responsibility?"
"Yes, yes," Zhao Yu said, "If we can't get specific information, isn't it the same as finding a needle in a haystack?"
"It's really interesting," Prince Zhang Yao said angrily, "The ships are waiting to go to sea, but we don't know where we are going? Isn't this a joke?"
"It seems..." the secretary said, "we can only go to the nearest country first to find out the news?"
Xu Zun did not speak, but stood up and walked to the sea chart.
It is indeed a new world!
Xu Zun looked at the map and fell into imagination. Although there was also a vast sea to the east of the Daxuan Dynasty, there was no huge island in the sea as he thought.
It's a completely unfamiliar chart...
There are only a few relatively large islands in the sea, and the rest are scattered archipelagos like an astrolabe.
Xu Zun already knows that there are tens of thousands of islands in the East China Sea, and only Izumo and Ryoka have larger islands. The other nine countries are basically archipelago countries, and their areas are not very large.
However, these ten countries have their own unique characteristics and have their own mineral deposits and treasures. Therefore, they have been doing business with Daxuan all year round and have always had good relations with them.
Although there was an assassination incident involving Japanese assassins entering the imperial palace fifteen years ago, it did not affect the relationship between Daxuan and the Ten Kingdoms of the East China Sea at all.
Xu Zun knew even more that the real sea was far more blurry than what this chart showed. If he didn’t have a clear goal, it would be really difficult to find the prince...