In mid-February of the 30th year of Hongwu's reign, spring was already blooming in the south of the Yangtze River, but the Shuntianfu area in Beijing was still shrouded in a harsh spring cold, and there was also a steady spring rain. Inside the entrance of Yong'an Gate in the south of Shuntian Prefecture's Grand Bastion City, there were two carriages with a somewhat "fashionable" style parked. They are all four-wheeled and two-horse vehicles, with spacious carriages, and the windows on both sides of the carriages are also equipped with muddy but light-transmitting plate glass windows!
Two carriages were parked on the roadside, one behind the other. The grooms were sitting in the front row with their necks curled up and their sleeves rolled up, waiting for the owners of the two carriages to speak. In front of and behind the carriage, there were more than ten horseback warriors wearing raincoats waiting carefully.
Obviously, the identities of the owners of these two carriages are unusual!
Now these two unusual owners were sitting in the four-wheeled carriage in front, talking animatedly.
"I really didn't expect that after ten years of separation, I returned to China. Even the carriage had two extra wheels, and this glass... something that was so precious at the time, was now installed on the windows to block the wind. It’s raining!”
The person who spoke was clearly Wei Sheng, who discovered the New World while standing in the observation basket of the Ping'an expedition ship that day. Now he was the Zhaozhou military envoy under Dongzhou Jieduzhilu, and was already on Dongzhou Continent, that is, the New World. After serving as an official for ten years, I got the opportunity to return to China to report on my work in the Song Dynasty. I took a boat ride for several months and just returned to Nanjing in October of the 29th year of Hongwu. Then we spent more than a month on the road and finally arrived at Shuntian Mansion before the 30th New Year.
"There are not many novelty gadgets like this in Beijing's Shuntian Prefecture. Nanjing is full of wonders, with all kinds of strange and cunning tricks emerging one after another. Yanwei (Wei Sheng's trade name), you must have passed through Nanjing in a hurry and didn't pay attention. to those things.”
His old boss who was talking to Wei Sheng was Sheng Xin, the current Tongzhi Privy Councilor and Tongzhi Navy Commander. He was also the beneficiary of the adventure eastward to explore Europe. Although Europe was not discovered during that operation, and an expedition ship was lost - the Fuan, which returned 40 days after leaving Japan, was missing and disappeared forever. In the vast ocean!
But two years later, Sheng Xin led two ships, Ping'an and Yong'an, and returned to Nanjing carrying dozens of "Frankish savages". After reporting the astonishing discovery, he still received an unexpected reward - he was sealed by Zhao Kai. "Marquis Frank", and Yang Qin, the bow of the Yong'an who returned with him, were named "Yingjiliber".
The more than 100 crew members who returned with them, as well as the crew members who stayed in the New World to guard the "Frankburg", were all promoted to positions.
Because of this large reward, the Song Dynasty navy's enthusiasm for exploring the "New World of Dongzhou" suddenly increased. In the following ten years or so, almost every year, several expedition ships would depart from the ports of Nanjing or Tianjin and cross the ocean to explore the unknown and wild continent on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The navy's promotion of officers and knights quickly attracted the army's attention.
How can such a good thing be allowed to be monopolized by the Navy?
Therefore, in the 19th year of Hongwu, two years after the news of the discovery of the New World reached the Song Dynasty, Yue Fei, the Privy Council envoy on the left, and Li Fuchen, the right Privy Council envoy, suggested to Zhao Kai that they send out an army composed of army chiefs, criminals and An expeditionary force composed of prisoners of war will conduct a thorough exploration of the East Continent in order to understand the area of the continent and find a route to Europe - the gold thieves who stole Rome must be eliminated!
The King of Romans is still waiting in Guangzhou to become the "Emperor Impadola" of the Song Dynasty!
Of course Zhao Kai will support the Army's exploration...because he also wants to find out how big this continent is?
Well, he can no longer remember anything about the American continent, nor does he remember the existence of the United States... He is old and his memory is failing!
And through this exploration, I discovered that this new continent is actually vast and boundless! This continent is unexpectedly big, probably even bigger than the Song Dynasty in the Middle Earth (originally the Song Dynasty in the East, now the new continent of Dongzhou has been discovered)... Just how big it is depends on an army of more than a thousand people The expedition team couldn't figure it out at all!
Moreover, the New World of Dongzhou is not completely barbaric. In the southern part of the New World (not South America), there are still some "Frankish savages" who have mastered farming techniques and begun to build cities. Some of them are quite warlike!
The army's exploration team soon clashed with these militant "Franks", and after capturing a "Franks" city, the Song Army's expedition team also made an even more amazing discovery-the southern The "Frankish Savages" have a lot of gold!
The story that follows the discovery of gold...is certainly heartwarming!
Dongzhou Continent has changed from a topic that people in China and Song Dynasty talked about after dinner to a land of wealth that everyone is eyeing.
Although it is thousands of miles away from the mainland of the Song Dynasty, it takes more than half a year to travel there, and there is also the risk of being engulfed by the waves of the sea.
But the temptation of gold is too great...even Zhao Kai's sons and brothers can't resist. So Zhao Kai granted the land on the east coast of Dongzhou Continent, where gold might be found, to his own sons Zhao Lun, Zhao Ping and others, as well as a group of his brothers and brothers.
Under the organization of these people, a gold rush and a craze to open up the New World began twenty-five years after Hongwu.
From the 25th year of Hongwu to the present, more than 5,000 Song people cross the ocean to make fortunes in the New World every year, and thousands of criminals are exiled to the New World.
After the total number of Song people who immigrated to the New World exceeded 40,000, Zhao Kai established "Zhao", "Qin", "Wei", "Chu", "Yan", "Han", and "Zheng" on the west coast of Dongzhou Continent. ", "Qi", "Lu", "Wu", "Yue", "Jin", "Liang" and other thirteen states in the New World.
And Wei Sheng is the military envoy of Zhaozhou, one of the thirteen states... Although he doesn't have many soldiers and horses, he can't hold back the Jinshan Mountains in his jurisdiction!
Although his official position is not very big, his wealth has attracted everyone's attention.
And he was able to make such a fortune, of course, he had a backing... Zhaozhou in the New World was the fiefdom of Zhao Wang, Zhao Lun, and Wei Sheng could serve as Zhaozhou's military envoy, so he was promoted by Zhao Lun.
He traveled thousands of miles this time and came back from the New World to report on his duties... Of course, it was not because he really had anything important to say to the emperor Zhao Kai, but because he wanted to send gold to his benefactor Zhao Lun.
Now is the critical moment for the brothers Zhao Lun, King of Zhao, and Zhao Ping, King of Qin, to fight for the throne... These two princes are both princes, but Zhao Kai has never been crowned prince.
And these two princes know that it is not simple when they look at their titles...one is named King of Zhao, and Zhao is the surname of the country! What does it mean to be granted the title of King of Zhao?
And Zhao Ping's King of Qin seems to be not bad either. Qin defeated the six countries and unified China. King Qin is naturally the leader of all kings!
Moreover, Zhao Kai highly respected Li Shimin, who was the second son and the king of Qin. And Zhao Ping is also the second son and King of Qin...
Therefore, the officials in the Song Dynasty are still confused about what Zhao Kai means. Does he want to establish Zhao Lun or Zhao Ping?
The two brothers Zhao Lun and Zhao Ping both felt that they had something to do, so they worked hard to form cliques and formed the Zhao Wang Party and the Qin Wang Party.
This matter of the prince forming a clique...should be a taboo for the king!
But Zhao Kai turned a blind eye. Not only did he not ask, he seemed to encourage his two sons to form parties and compete. He also sent his two sons as military envoys to Longyou and Liaodong, allowing them to lead troops to conquer Tubo and Jurchen (savage Jurchens) and open up territory for the country.
After the two sons returned to the court in victory, Zhao Kai allowed them to hold important positions in the East and West mansions, and also let them make friends with the kings...
"Chongde," Wei Sheng and Sheng Xin have a good relationship. They are both members of King Zhao's party. They are naturally close to each other, so they call each other by their names. "When do you think our king can get the crown prince's position?"
"Haha... Isn't that a matter of time? King Qin is the legitimate son, and the official and the queen are deeply married, and the eldest concubine has passed away several years ago. If King Qin can't become a prince, what hope is there? ? I think the reason why the officials didn’t finalize this matter is because of the queen’s face.”
Wei Sheng laughed, "Hehe, this is great... Your Majesty is so wise and has done so much, so he deserves to be the crown prince!"
Sheng Xin also laughed, "Of course!"
Zhao Lun did have two skills, and the credit for discovering the New World was also attributed to him. Therefore, everyone in King Zhao's party had the same opinion as Sheng and Wei, and they all felt that this prince must belong to Zhao Lun.
...
In a large house somewhere in Shuntianfu City, at this time, two people were watching the hazy rain outside through a newly installed glass window.
"I didn't expect that the Wu family's Liulichang is quite capable! It can make such smooth and translucent colored glaze... If we continue like this, it won't be long before we can polish telescopes with colored glaze, right?"
In the room, an old man in civilian clothes with a white face and beardless eyes, pointing to the blurry glass window, spoke to a middle-aged man next to him who was somewhat similar to him.
This old man is none other than Yue Fei, the king of Zhongshan County in the Song Dynasty!
And that middle-aged man is his son Yue Yun.
Yue Yun frowned, "Dad, these pieces of colored glaze are the top quality that King Qin asked King Zheng (son of Wu Meiniang)... Even the windows in the palace cannot be inlaid with such good colored glaze." He After a pause, "Should you give King Qin an accurate letter?"
Needless to say, Yue Yun is a member of King Qin's party! Now he is trying to win over Yue Fei for Zhao Ping! Yue Fei is a big boss. If he supports Zhao Ping, Zhao Ping is more likely to win.
He didn't want Yue Fei to help launch a coup, but he wanted Yue Fei to help speak up... Everyone knew that Zhao Kai trusted Yue Fei. If he clearly supported Zhao Ping, Zhao Ping's chance of becoming the prince would be half done.
But Yue Fei waved his hand and said: "Yun'er, go back and tell King Qin clearly... The prince must be him! But it is not convenient for me to express my stance now, and there is no need to express my stance."
