Tibet

A large island deep in the Southern Ocean, this is the South Island on the map, and later the North Island of New Zealand.

Ten days ago, the expedition fleet found Nanda Island. Compared with the southern continent, the freshwater resources here are more abundant, the climate is more humid, and there are large tracts of natural pastures and endless forests everywhere. All kinds of resources here are rich, especially Freshwater fish are abundant in the rivers and are easy to catch.

In fact, they entered the big island by going backwards from a large river that flows into the sea. On both sides of the river are endless fertile lands, which are simply fertile soil for agriculture and animal husbandry.

Everyone agreed to establish a settlement on Nanda Island first and name the settlement Xinjiangning because they had a peaceful river in front of them.

The fleet was about to carry more than 100 sheep and 20 cattle into the grassland. These were high-quality cattle and sheep that they carefully selected for breeding offspring. A total of two batches were prepared, and one batch was released in the southern continent. , this batch is specially prepared for Nanda Island.

The fleet was anchored by the river about thirty miles away from the mouth of the sea. People pitched hundreds of tents on the shore. In the distance, hundreds of soldiers were building a board-walled camp. They would build two camps. Before there was a county seat, board-walled camps were residential areas.

In a large tent, nearly two hundred men and women were sitting on the floor. They were all about thirty years old. These were death row prisoners selected from various places. They were supposed to be executed after the fall of last year, but the court gave them a chance.

If they are willing to settle overseas and help Datang start a new land, they will be exempted from crime. Almost all death row prisoners have signed an agreement and are willing to cooperate with the court.

Of course, these death row inmates are also selective. They are by no means the heinous and perverted villains. Most of them are death row inmates who sell private salt and privately mint coins. The women are killed because of conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, or they are killed due to abuse by their husbands or fathers. A female death row inmate whose husband killed her father is about thirty years old.

There were a total of one hundred and eighty-eight people, most of whom were adults, and there were forty or fifty children, with an equal proportion of men and women.

Almost all adult men are on death row, but not necessarily women. Most of them are their wives. There are only about 70 female death row inmates, and more than 20 of them are with their children.

The single men and women voluntarily became husband and wife before setting off. After several months of sea journey together, everyone lived on the same boat and became very familiar with each other.

The manager Yang Liangyao was kind. He did not force these people to be placed in the Southern Continent, but let them choose by themselves. As a result, everyone chose Nanda Island.

"You have also seen this uninhabited land. The area of ​​this island is equivalent to several Guanzhong. There may be a large island of similar size in the south. Both large islands are uninhabited. Our army has also explored it. There are no tigers or tigers. For beasts like lions, there are only some small animals as big as foxes. They will not hurt people, but they will threaten the sheep, so the role of dogs comes into play. "

Yang Liangyao continued with a smile: "According to the regulations of the imperial court, each household will be given a thousand acres of land, and no taxes will be levied for a hundred years. You can live a carefree life here, but many things can only be done slowly. I give you ten horses and eight donkeys, a dozen dogs, food and daily necessities, but you need to cultivate your own land to grow wheat. I found that the seasons here are opposite to those in the Tang Dynasty. In the summer of the Tang Dynasty, everything here is It is winter, and it is probably autumn now. You have to start preparing for the winter, cutting down wood and building houses. Next year, a second fleet will arrive to bring more supplies and people. "

"Mr. Yang, will there be a garrison?" a man asked, raising his hand.

"There will be a garrison of three hundred people, and three large ships will be left behind, which can be used as warehouses. If there is danger or something, you can hide in the ships, but there should be no such thing."

"What if there is not enough food?" someone worried.

Yang Liangyao smiled slightly, "Besides the seeds, the wheat I left is enough for everyone to eat for a year. There are many kinds of fish in the river, which will be everyone's main source of meat. There are also a lot of fruits in the forest, which you can pick as much as you like. If we can't keep it, we will use it to make wine or make jam. We also kept more than a hundred rabbits. Next year, everyone can kill rabbits in large numbers. The meat will be edible, and the fur will be used to make clothes and shoes, as well as cabbage seeds. Our soldiers have already After planting 500 acres, everyone will have vegetables to eat in the winter!”

Yang Liangyao gave each household two tents, one summer tent and one winter tent. The fuel in winter was cow dung cakes. This was a treasure of the grassland. It had an ugly name, but there was no smell.

After the arrangements were made, every household began to get busy.

A few days later, all the adult men spontaneously gathered together and held an important meeting.

They elected a leader who convinced most people. The leader was named Yang Jiqing. He was from Pu'an County, Langzhou. He was in his early thirties and came from a money-making family. Since several members of the family knew how to make money, Yang Jiqing led the family to start making money. The private money was quickly reported by the villagers, and the internal guards came to arrest the entire family. The clan members were exiled to Yunnan, and he was sentenced to death because he was the leader.

Originally, Yang Jiqing was going to be beheaded in public last October, but he was lucky. When he had the opportunity to go to sea to avoid death penalty, he decisively signed the sea-going agreement and went to sea with his wife and a pair of children.

Yang Jiqing has strong leadership skills and dares to take risks. More importantly, he is a kind and honest man. When the entire family was arrested, he took all the blame on himself, so that he was the only one in the family of more than 30 people who was sentenced to death.

Yang Liangyao saw that everyone agreed to choose Yang Jiqing as the leader, so he appointed Yang Jiqing as the master of the workshop, and left a team of ten technical craftsmen, all of whom were craftsmen from the ship's agency and shipbuilding department.

With them, many technical problems can be easily solved.

On the main ship, four officials are making a major decision.

There is a map on the table, the chief officer Yang Liangyao, the chief guard Wei Zhentao, the shipbuilding department director Wang Zhan, and the steam engine maintenance officer Yao Chunshan.

Yang Liangyao slowly said to the three people: "Based on our food supply and ship conditions, I consider continuing to sail east and carry out our mission this fall in advance. We will go to the New World."

Everyone unanimously agreed to continue eastward. Wang Zhan carefully checked the big ship and found no problems with the hull. Yao Chunshan also checked the steam engine and found that everything was running well. They dismantled the steam engines of the three large ships left behind as backup. As for fuel, it is not a problem. It does not necessarily have to use coal. Firewood can also be used. It can even be trampled or directly used by sails.

But the only worry is fresh water. Yang Liangyao pointed to the map and said, "This map is very accurate at present. We can go north first, and then turn east after encountering an island group. There are many islands along the way. There should be fresh water on the islands. As long as we reach the New World and go north along the coastline, we can find fresh water at any time."

"What is our mission to the New World?" Wei Zhentao asked.

"The main task assigned to me by the emperor is to exchange crops with local natives, exchange crops with the daily necessities of the Tang Dynasty, collect crop seeds, and of course the natives may be our distant relatives."

"Why?"

The other three were very surprised. They saw many natives along the way, and they had nothing to do with the people of the Tang Dynasty.

Yang Liangyao smiled, "It is possible that when the Shang Dynasty fell, many Shang Dynasty people fled there. Going north from Bohai Prefecture, there is a narrow strip of land connected to the northernmost part of the New World. We will also return along this narrow strip of land when we return to the Tang Dynasty."

The three looked at each other. The people who fled when the Shang Dynasty fell, weren't they fellow villagers from the Central Plains?

Of course, the Shang Dynasty was too far away from them, and they were more concerned about the present.

"When do we set off!"

The three of them looked at Yang Liangyao together, and Yang Liangyao pondered for a moment and said, "Set off in three days!"

Three days later, four large ships with a capacity of 10,000 stones continued to set off north with 500 soldiers. Fifteen days later, they arrived at Fiji Island. After replenishing fresh water, they turned east again, passed through the Tonga Islands, and entered the vast South Pacific Ocean.

After sailing for nearly two months, the fleet, which was about to run out of fresh water, arrived at the later St. Felix Island. The island was full of bare rocks and no fresh water, but they found a small freshwater pool in the cave under the rocks, thus saving the entire fleet. They named the island Yanshou Island.

After sailing for another ten days, the fleet finally saw a long coastline, and all the soldiers were jubilant. They arrived at the New World, which was Chile in later generations.