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The eldest princess Zhao Furong is already engaged. The wedding is in October. Her fiancé is Chen Zhiping, the son of a household doctor.

Chen Zhiping has many hobbies. He majored in arts and sciences. He knows a little bit about everything, but is not very proficient in everything. He loves to collect antique calligraphy and paintings, and sometimes studies mathematics and physics. Recently, he is also obsessed with stargazing at night. He is eloquent and can chat with the princess very well.

This man studied at Jinling University at his own expense and is about to drop out of college.

Why is it a dropout?

Because I can’t pass the university graduation exam!

Chen Zhiping didn't want to pursue an official career. Anyway, his father was an official, his grandfather was in business, and the family had enough money to satisfy his various hobbies.

Zhao Han and Fei Rulan agreed to the marriage because they thought the young man had good character. Although he seems a bit out of place and his personality has not been settled yet, he never goes to entertainment venues and immerses himself in various hobbies all day long. If a princess marries such a person, she will surely have a very interesting life.

"This is a letter from Li Quan." Zhao Han said to his daughter.

"Ah?" Zhao Furong blushed a little.

Zhao Han added: "He has already set sail across the ocean. Take it and see it for yourself."

Li Quan prepared for a year, but finally couldn't bear it anymore and set out in Shandong in the fifth lunar month. If you leave at this time, you can avoid summer storms and arrive at a Japanese port relatively safely.

In fact, the Spanish galleons route is the shortest route. Sail along the Kuroshio Current in southern Japan, then sail into the North Pacific Warm Current, and you can go directly to the west coast of North America.

However, Li Quan will not make too many detours when starting from Shandong. This route is mainly for the convenience of the northern provinces, taking goods from Shandong to northern Japan and conducting transactions at Sakata Port in Japan. Sakata is currently the largest port in northeastern Japan, and the safflower trade is beginning to rise. Li Quan established a trading company here. The excess money he earned stayed in the trading company, and he continued eastward after replenishing fresh water and food.

Zhao Furong took the letter back and felt a little annoyed after reading it.

Li Quan said in the letter that he had received the money sent by the princess. Thanks to the princess for her support, he would give her some shares.

Zhao Furong didn't want any shares, she just wanted to help, so she gave it away with the hundreds of taels of silver she had saved over the years. She knew she had no future with Li Quan, but she just liked this young man, who would be the eternal white moonlight in the princess's heart.

In anger, Zhao Furong wanted to burn the letter, but he was reluctant to part with it, so he stuck it in a book he rarely read.

Li Quan not only wrote a letter to the princess, but also wrote a letter to the emperor.

Since his five ships have been separated from the naval system, he does not know what their status is. Therefore, he registered a company and converted all the ships and the silver funded by Zhao Han into company shares.

The royal family holds 60% of the shares, the Navy Governor holds 10%, and the remaining shareholders jointly hold 30%.

All crew members were given shares, including the soldiers he recruited, to boost everyone's motivation. From now on, the company will be responsible for its own profits and losses. If it loses all its losses, it will seek additional investment from the royal family.

But it was said that Li Quan led the fleet to Japan and obviously found that there were more merchant ships in the northern Japanese waters.

Since he established a good relationship and dragged the shogun's uncle into smuggling, other coastal feudal lords also became bolder. Anyway, the shogun was still young, and the power fell into the hands of the old man, so he quickly took the opportunity to smuggle to make a few more. Otherwise, in a few years, when the shogun grows up, he will be able to tighten his power and impose a strict maritime ban.

Five large ships docked at Sakata Port, which is more prosperous than last year. As an important commodity, safflower can not only be sold to Kyoto and Osaka, but also purchased by Chinese businessmen.

After unloading most of the cotton cloth from Shandong, Li Quan only bought fresh water and food to ensure that he would not have to worry about food and drink during the ocean voyage. As for the cotton cloth, leave it all to the trading company and just store it there and sell it slowly.

Continue sailing to Hakodate, the city of Hakodate, Hokkaido.

There is a Japanese court here, which was established by the Matsumae domain to collect taxes. Although it is not a commercial port, some food can be supplied. Anyway, pack as much food as possible.

Sailing northeast along the Kuroshio, this branched off from the Spanish galleons route.

It needs to make a curve to the northeast and then to the south, and then it will coincide with the route of the large sailing ship. This bend of the Kuroshio River is where the world's largest fishing ground, Hokkaido Fishing Ground, is located!

At present, the fishing grounds in Hokkaido are still undeveloped. Only the Matsumae clan and the Ainu people use small fishing boats to fish offshore.

“So many fish!”

Li Quan was also shocked. Wherever the fleet passed, schools of fish could be seen swimming with the naked eye.

It can be developed here!

When I return from sailing, I will recruit some businessmen to join the team and bring large fishing boats over. I am sure that every fishing boat will return fully loaded.

You have to establish a stronghold nearby (Hokkaido) and recruit indigenous people to make salted fish, otherwise it will stink when shipped back to the country.

After more than half a month, the ordinary fresh water we carried was gone.

The sealed buckets were opened one after another.

Many difficulties in the Age of Discovery were not difficulties for Li Quan. First, advances in storage technology have extended the shelf life of fresh water; second, Li Quan was willing to spend money. There were no profitable products on the ship, but it was filled with all kinds of food.

Tea, pickles, and bean sprouts are all sources of vitamins.

In the Spanish galleons trade, the crews' greatest fear was scurvy. Although doctors said that lemon juice can cure diseases as early as decades ago, they were written in a navigation book. This book recorded anecdotes in a humorous manner, but no one believed it because the content was too out of the ordinary.

It would take another eighty years for Dutch writers and Austrian doctors to discover that vegetables and fruits could prevent and treat scurvy almost simultaneously.

Before Li Quan set sail, Zhao Han provided advice, asking the crew to eat more vegetables and fruits, and if vegetables and fruits were not available, they would eat tea and bean sprouts.

All the expired and spoiled fresh water is used to grow bean sprouts.

Along the way, they encountered only two minor storms. After more than five months of sailing, almost all of them saw land without any damage.

The only human losses were that one person died of illness and dozens of people were bedridden.

It would be truly unlucky if the ship was destroyed in a big storm and everyone died. Historically, the Spanish conducted 500 voyages to the Pacific Ocean in 250 years, and only more than 40 ships were sunk, including those sunk due to war.

"November 19, the 14th year of the Republic of China (Datong New Calendar)."

"It took 167 days to go offshore from Hakodate, Japan before we saw the mainland. There were no islands along the way, only some small reefs. Your Majesty's method is feasible, and no crew members have suffered from scurvy. However, it has been bumpy for several months, and although the drinking water has been sealed, There is still a small portion that has deteriorated, and coupled with climate change, 82 people have become ill, and one person died of the disease before landing..."

"Landing location, 120 degrees east longitude, 38 degrees north latitude."

The prime meridian is set in Nanjing!

Latitude calculation, slight error.

This is not San Francisco, but it is not far from San Francisco, about a few dozen miles north of Roseburg.

Historically, Fort Ross was the first colonial stronghold in California after Russia occupied Alaska. Using three blankets, three pairs of breeches, two axes, three hoes and some beads, a large piece of land was obtained from the natives. In order to prevent Russia from expanding southward, Spain established a settlement in San Francisco.

Since Fort Ross was unable to solve Alaska's food crisis and the furs it obtained were limited, the Russians sold the colony of Fort Ross to the Americans after occupying it for 29 years. The price was US$30,000, and the Americans refused to pay.

Li Quan sent an exploration team of dozens of people, divided into three groups and rowed boats to the shore.

Six people guarded the three landing sites and blew the trumpet every 15 minutes to prevent the exploration team from finding their way back.

Unfortunately, after searching for an hour, no larger river was found.

The expedition team returned to the ship for the night and continued south the next day. They passed Fort Ross without stopping, and not long after, they used a telescope to observe a river flowing into the sea.

That river was later to be known as the Russian River in the United States. Its mouth was the town of Jenner in the United States, which was still 90 kilometers away from San Francisco.

The exploration team did not land immediately. Instead, they paddled around in small boats near the mouth of the sea, tied iron blocks with ropes and threw them into the water to detect the specific depth of this sea area.

"Commander," Liu Ying came over quickly to report, "this can barely be used as a port, but it cannot dock large ships. Our ships may run aground."

"Get fresh water first."

"yes!"

Li Quan didn't know where he could encounter the river, so he sent a boat to bring back more fresh water first.

The emperor allowed him to recruit 1,000 soldiers, but Li Quan only recruited 350 people, all of whom were veterans or peasant soldiers. 50 of these soldiers still stayed in Sakata Port, Japan, to protect the business properties there.

These 300 people were fully armed, each carrying a flintlock gun, waist knives and spears, as well as chain armor and cotton armor.

Li Quan proclaimed himself the commander of Datong's sea exploration and asked his subordinates to call him "commander".

In addition to the 300 soldiers who went on the voyage, there were also more than 300 crew members, all of whom were discharged from the Navy in advance. In addition, more than a dozen adventurers were recruited, all of whom were young people who dreamed of traveling around the world.

In order to appease his subordinates, everyone was given a settlement allowance, and everyone had shares in the company, which could be inherited by their family members even if they died.

There is no other way. If you don't do this, it will be difficult to win over people. Who would be willing to go across the ocean with you?

Well, there are.

Li Quan begged the emperor for 30 felons, and bought Nanyang female slaves as wives for these felons. He planned to follow the example of the European colonists, choose an excellent place, and throw these people down to establish a colonial stronghold.

Small boats were lowered one after another, and hundreds of people rowed small boats into the river.

Afraid of being too salty at the estuary, I rowed a few miles upstream, then filled a wooden barrel with fresh water and brought it back.

"Someone!"

shouted a soldier.

But I saw a dozen canoes paddling upstream. These people were wearing animal skins, and one of them had colorful feathers on his head.

Kashaya tribe, a branch of the Pomo Indians.

He is short and stocky, with a reddish complexion and straight black hair. He is good at weaving reeds and his currency is beads (made of magnesite and shells).

The guy with two feathers on his head picked up a spear from the canoe, pointed it at the Chinese and started chattering.

"Captain, I'm going to deal with the natives!"

Ouyang Chun came forward. He was only 17 years old and had a high school diploma. The family was not short of money, but he took the initiative to sign up for a long voyage and even asked his parents to break off the engagement for him. He was obviously restless and desperate.

"Go ahead and be careful," the captain ordered.

Ouyang Chun asked his companions to row the small boat over. The Kashaya people were quite vigilant and surrounded the small boat with canoes.

Ouyang Chun took off his hat, pointed to his own head, and then pointed to the person wearing the feathers.

The man probably understood, so he paddled a canoe closer, took Ouyang Chun's hat, and put it on his head very happily.