Zheng He woke up from his sleep and picked up the steel knife beside him.
"it's me."
Mao Zhoutai shouted quickly.
Zheng He breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "What's the matter?"
Mao Zhoutai pointed outside the cabin: "The lookout sergeant found a fire in the mountains not far away, but I don't know whether it was our people or the indigenous people here."
Zheng He stood up and walked out of the cabin. On the deck, Wan Qinglin, Shen Wei and others were already there.
Wan Qinglin suggested: "The fire means there is someone, no matter who it is, we always need to go and take a look."
Zheng He did not hesitate and nodded: "Six hundred sergeants, highest alert, Wan Qinglin, you come to lead the team, leave traces along the way, I will lead the sergeants to follow."
Wan Qinglin immediately agreed and ordered the sergeant to prepare to set off.
Zheng He asked the lookout sergeant, his brows furrowed.
According to the information given by Emperor Jianwen, North America, like South America, has indigenous people, and they also have their own civilizations and ethnic groups. However, along the way, the navy only found some traces of indigenous life, but no indigenous people. They seemed to have migrated due to some disasters.
Now that there are discoveries, no one knows what is there unless they go there in person.
Wan Qinglin led his sergeants and cautiously advanced into the forest. After marching for half an hour, the front army suddenly stopped.
Soon, Wan Qinglin rushed to the front and frowned as he looked at the ashes in front of him: "The ashes here are very complete, which means that it hasn't rained since they were extinguished. I don't think it will last long."
The sergeant groped around and found some more animal bones.
Lu Zhanggong looked at it and said seriously: "Hunting! There are people living here. Judging from the size of the animal bones, they are enough to feed at least a dozen people."
Wan Qinglin looked up at the mountains in the distance and said in a deep voice: "Highest alert, cross and advance!"
The mountain is relatively gentle and shaded by trees.
This is just a small mountain. The mountains in the distance are higher and you can even see snow fields.
The sergeant carefully climbed up the mountain. The scouts were outside and found no trace of anyone. It was not until halfway up the mountain that they heard shouts.
"There is someone in the cave."
Scout announcement.
Wan Qinglin arranged for the sergeants to arrange the formation, occupy a favorable position, and aimed the crossbow at the cave.
There is a straw curtain hanging at the entrance of the cave, so the scene inside cannot be seen clearly.
Lu Zhanggong personally took two scout cats outside the entrance of the cave. Lu Zhanggong leaned against the rocks and listened to what was going on inside.
There seemed to be a lot of people inside, and I don't know what they were doing, but it was a bit noisy. But I couldn't understand what they were talking about. It was obvious that they were not from the Ming Dynasty, but the natives here.
Lu Zhanggong didn't know how to deal with it, so he arranged for someone to guard him and walked to Wanqing Forest to announce: "It's aboriginal."
Wan Qinglin's face looked a little ugly.
Our mission is not to find the natives, but to find the people of the Wuyi Fleet!
Wan Qinglin arranged: "I ordered the sergeants to guard. No action will be taken without orders. We will make a decision after Zheng Guogong arrives."
The curtain suddenly opened.
A thin and tall man walked out of the cave. The light inside appeared, and then was blocked by the curtain.
Scouts Rongzhen and Du Bao were obviously a little surprised. They didn't hear footsteps just now. Why did this person come out?
The man in front of him was wearing animal skins, covered entirely with fur, with red and green colors on his face, and a few hairs on his head. Most of the scouts had learned from the scouts and knew how to smear something on their faces to enhance their disguise, so they were not frightened by this appearance.
It's just that Rongzhen and Du Bao were a little at a loss because their superiors had told them not to kill anyone.
Just when the native was about to speak with big eyes staring at him, Du Bao stepped forward, turned his palm into a knife and struck his neck, then picked up the unconscious native and left.
Zheng He came, and the natives also arrived.
Seeing that they were indigenous people, Zheng He's heart became cold. He thought deeply and gave an order: "Create a momentum and capture all the indigenous people alive. No killing is allowed."
Wan Qinglin understood this and went outside the cave and shouted: "Everyone, come out!"
The cave became quiet for an instant, and then there were sounds of footsteps. Aboriginals holding long wooden sticks ran out one by one. Seeing so many people suddenly appearing, they were yelling and yelling. Some people directly threw the wooden sticks as javelins. Ming army.
Shield blocks!
More javelins were thrown over.
Lu Zhanggong saw that these people were dishonest and unceremonious. He took out a grenade from his waist, shouted, and then threw the grenade behind an uninhabited stone more than 20 steps away.
The appearance of huge explosions and fire, accompanied by the sound of cast iron and stone scraping together, made the natives quiet for an instant, and then they lay on the ground, seemingly praying and worshiping.
At this time, a strong native saw the appearance of the Ming army clearly, turned around and ran into the cave. Soon after, the native ran out with a child in his arms and pointed at the Ming army.
Zheng He and Wan Qinglin looked at each other.
Wan Qinglin was a little unsure: "Are they saying that the child is sick?"
Zheng He stared: "You are sick - why are you looking for us?"
Wan Qinglin's eyes lit up and he shouted quickly: "Quick, let the ship's doctor come!"
Not long after, Cui Da, the ship's doctor, rushed over with a medicine box and saw a group of natives lying on the ground, with a child crying.
Cui Da saw that there was no danger, so he stepped forward to check on the child. After checking, he found that the child's right arm was dislocated. This kind of pain was unbearable for adults, let alone children.
After some movements on the child's right arm, Cui Da took out a copper coin and handed it to the child. The child wanted to stretch out his left hand, Cui Da pointed to his right hand. The child tried hard to lift his right hand and found that it no longer hurt, so he took it. Copper Coin was so happy that he ran towards the strong man.
The strong man tried his best to express something, but Cui Da couldn't understand it. Even the people of Ming Dynasty couldn't understand it. The natives seemed to understand and ran into the cave again. When he ran out again, he was holding a piece of armor leaf in his hand. !
Wan Qinglin grabbed the armor leaf and looked at it carefully. Yes, this is the armor leaf of the Ming Dynasty sergeant. It is the armor leaf on the armor. It is the fish scale armor leaf of previous years!
Zheng He's hand that took the leaf was trembling. Obviously, these natives had seen the Ming people, and those people must be Wuyi's crew!
"Into the cave!"
Zheng He ordered Shen Wei and others to guard outside and made some gestures to ask the indigenous men to lead the way.
The indigenous man is walking in the cave. This is a natural cave. The entrance is relatively narrow, but the inside is quite wide. There were more than forty women and children and a small number of elderly people inside. They were extremely panicked when they saw the stranger who suddenly broke in.
After the natives who led the way explained, those people calmed down, and some children even ran deeper into the cave first.
When we arrived, there was no one in the cave.
There was only a stone tomb, with a pair of armor, a bow and arrows, a wild goose feather knife, and a wooden box hanging outside the tomb.
When the Ming army saw this, everyone became sad.
Obviously, they lived here for a period of time and dealt with the indigenous people here, but someone died here, and the remaining people built his grave and then left and moved on.
Wan Qinglin opened the wooden box, took out the book inside, and quickly shouted: "There is a logbook!"
Zheng He quickly stepped forward and took the logbook. He opened it and looked at it, his heart filled with sadness.
"In July of the seventh year of Jianwen, a storm came suddenly and the treasure ship was destroyed and could not be repaired. Captain Wu Yi ordered to wait for Zheng He, Luo Guanying and other troops, but the smoke billowed and no one came. We must shoulder the mission. We must abandon the treasure ship and save all the people. Reorganize and distribute supplies and go deep into South America..."
"In November of the seventh year of Jianwen, the rivers were different from those mentioned by the emperor, and the mountains and rivers were different. It was suspected that the landing place was not South America, but North America. Captain Wu Yi discussed countermeasures..."
"In February of the eighth year of Jianwen, everyone was pleasantly surprised by the chance to get corn. It was expected that there would be high-yielding crops here, so Wu Yi ordered to continue westward..."
"In May of the eighth year of Jianwen, a flood suddenly broke out, covering the sky and covering the earth, and more than 300 soldiers were killed. Captain Wu Yi was trying to save the soldiers from drowning in the flood. Vice-captain Luo Feng discussed the matter.
Finally, I decided to continue heading west to look for crops before returning to the voyage, so as not to miss out from the north and south and lose my life..."
"In October of the eighth year of Jianwen, the sergeants arrived at the plateau mountains. There were more than 1,200 remaining sergeants, who were divided into three groups to search for crops..."
"..."
Zheng He's heart was heavy and he quickly turned to the last page.
"In April of the thirteenth year of Jianwen, a hundred thousand households, together with Yu Zhengtu, Ma Jiu, Huang Yang, and Xu Sui, died of a python disaster. Xiaoqi Yaoshun led more than ten people to kill the python desperately, set up a tombstone, and discussed The next plan came to nothing. After three days of intense debate, it was finally decided. We will look for Luo Feng's troops to the north to reunite and make a decision."
"In August, I was seriously ill and could not travel for a long time. I took the initiative to leave the team so that I could not be a burden."
"In August and a half, I met the natives. They were not scary and had no intention of eating me. On the contrary, they gave me meat and water to survive."
"In September, wait to die and build a grave."
"In the middle of September, I have no strength and am about to die. I leave this diary here, hoping that our naval brothers will find crops, return to their homeland of the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible, eliminate the famine of all people, and create a prosperous world.
"I am a citizen of the Ming Dynasty - Navy Commander Zhou Shaoshan."
"Long live the Ming Dynasty, long live the Emperor!"
The last handwriting was twisted.
This tomb was built for himself.
Zheng He burst into tears and handed the diary to Wan Qinglin: "Reorganize the team and continue to the north. There are our people in the north!"
Zhou Shaoshan had only been gone for more than two months, and it had only been three or four months since he left Yao Shun and others!
The remaining people must still be alive!
Before leaving, Zheng He personally opened the grave and collected Zhou Shaoshan's body that had not yet completely decayed. Looking at the things buried with him, only pen and ink, plus a log, showed that he was a scribe on the ship.
north!
Zheng He thought of the possibility that the remaining people might have gone further north. Perhaps, some of them thought that they could go to the extreme north and then west, cross the strait, and then cross the vast snowfield. , heading to the northeastern part of the Ming Dynasty!
If so, they should be to the north!
In order to express his gratitude to the indigenous people, Zheng He gave them a batch of fine bows and sharp swords.
The sound of steam came out, and the fleet continued northward!
In the north, snow falls.
The man in animal skin stepped on the snow, bent down, pulled out the arrow, took out the knife, turned around and shouted: "Yao Shun, drag Guo Wenxing over and let the deer blood warm him up! This guy We can’t die, he is a living map, whether we can go back depends on him..."
