In the second year of the regency, in the summer and April.

While Fusu was still forging ahead in North Korea, Liu Ji was already standing at the southernmost tip of the peninsula.

When he fled Liaodong with people at that time, Liu Ji's idea was very simple: the farther away from Heifu, the better.

Nearly fifty years old, Liu Ji, whose beard has gradually turned gray, was ordered by Fusu to guard in Liaodong to confront Wei Man and Zang Di, he recalled the past, and only felt that the reason why he had been stumbling for half his life, and he had not been able to make contributions in troubled times, was not because of himself, but because of Heifu!

The dragon leaves the water for the shrimp play, the tiger leaves the mountain for the dog bullying, or a black dog that kills the sky!

The township party of Pei County is his water, his mountain, once he detaches, he only relies on himself, at most he has achieved the position of "Du Lieutenant" under Fusu, second only to Gao Cheng. But before Liu Ji could make the next move, his dream of doing something big was awakened by the bad news of Fusu and Heifu's reconciliation.

"If he catches Naigong, he doesn't know how he will toss, Naigong would rather go by himself!"

So there was this escape, the Central Plains could not go back, the Northeast was too cold, Liu Ji could only take more than 1,000 people who coaxed and coaxed to follow, passed through North Korea, and went to Haidong.

He didn't dare to stay in Hancheng and Seoul, where there were already cities, because he always felt unsafe, and Liu Ji hoped to go to a place where the black man would never be able to catch him.

So, they came to the extreme south of Haedong, the territory of the Benhan people among the three Koreans, and the area around Busan, South Korea in later generations......

Liu Ji was stationed in Lintun on the east coast of Haidong, and was later renamed Seoul by Heifu, and had dealings with the natives, and even understood their words a little, knowing that Donghao in the northeast of Haidong and Sanhan in the south were completely different races.

And the three Hans are not the same, for example, the people of Benhan and Chenhan are not similar to the Mahan people near "Hancheng": Mahan are both short and haired, while Benjin is slightly taller, with good tattoos, and his head is very different. Benchen is also good at farming, the land here is more fertile than Mahan, good at growing rice, making cloth, there are towns to gather, each has a king, and can smelt copper......

After Benchen's child was born, he made the child's head rest on a stone all day long, hoping that the back of the child's head would be flattened, probably because he thought it would live a long life. Therefore, everyone who sees it is a head.

What's also funny is that Benchen's residential buildings are a kind of well-dry wooden houses, like prisons in the Central Plains.

Although it is a barbarian land, at least the climate is good enough for farming, and many people hope to stay in the land of Benchen, such is the case with Liu Ji's wife Lu Zhi - she is pregnant again, and Liu Ji is really old and strong.

It seemed to be safe, but Liu Ji was paranoid that he should run farther.

His gaze has been staring at the southern part of Benchen, the sea area covered with archipelagos.

Liu Ji remembered that in the early years, when Heifu and Fusu went on an expedition to Haidong, he had heard people say that this was actually a strait, and in the southeast, there was a land covered with mountains and forests, perhaps another state outside Kyushu, but in the end, it became a large island, larger than Haidong, and it is said that Heifu himself appointed and named Fusang......

"Fuso." Liu Ji sat on the beach and read the name for a long time.

He wanted to cross over, but the embarrassment was that they didn't have a big boat, and Liu Ji led people to try to enter the sea in a small boat, but they were quickly overturned by the wind and waves.

It was also sleepy to come to the pillow, after Liu Ji and they arrived at the seashore and used the enslaved Benhan people to establish a camp for a month, three stranded ships stopped in the open sea, and some people came by boats, this posture was to treat them as local indigenous tribes, wanting to exchange for fresh water......

Liu Ji was still the person sent by Heifu to capture him, and he immediately felt like a great enemy, but in the end he stabilized his mind, led people to ambush this group of people on the beach, and captured the first magician who called himself "Xu Ning".

After the first trial, I learned that Xu Ning was a disciple of Xu Fu of the Great Qin Taibu who stayed in Jiaodong, and he specialized in learning the art of pulling stars to the sea.

"What are you doing here, saying, are you here to catch Naigong and go back?"

Liu Ji raised his slap viciously, but Xu Ning didn't fight: "The world is decided, the regent ordered Jiaodong to open up a trade route with Haidong, and we sent grain to Hancheng and handed it over to the Marquis of Haidong, and then came here to survey and reopen the sea ......route."

After learning that the three ships represent the most advanced technology in Jiaodong and are suitable for navigation, Liu Ji was overjoyed, he took his little Lu Juan and his cousin Liu Jia to kidnap Xu Ning, returned to the sea in a small boat, boarded the big ship, and successfully captured two of them by relying on the outlaws in his hands, and only one escaped and headed northwest to the coast.

What is strange is that there are very few soldiers on the ship, almost no resistance, and the subordinates who paddle in the bilge are mostly Chudi, who speak the same language, and under the flickering of Lao Liu to "restore their freedom" to them and send one person and a Benhan woman, they shouted that they were willing to take refuge in Liu Duwei......

And at this time, Liu Ji announced his ambitious plan:

"We are going to leave Haidong by boat and cross east to Fuso!"

……

Because a ship escaped, Liu Ji thought that there was not much time left for him, and they spent another half a month by plundering the surrounding Ben and Chen tribes, stockpiling enough meat, vegetables and fruits, and pressing them on the bottom of the cabin, ready to cross east.

But the two ships can only carry more than 200 people, and the fugitives who followed Liu Ji here are enough seven or eight hundred, so someone has to stay.

This is not difficult, most people are reluctant to go to the sea, they are not used to water, and they have a deep-rooted fear of the sea, Liu Ji decided to let Fa Xiao Lu Juan lead this group of people and take them to live in Ben and Chen.

And cousin Liu Jia and two hundred people who hope to break through are willing to follow Liu Ji to the end.

But what Liu Ji didn't expect was that in the past few years, Lu Zhi, who had been working hard, did not plan to go with Liu Ji, her reason was that the sea was stormy, and Fusang was a route that no one had explored in the past, even if Xu Ning was a good sailor, there would still be risks.

"If the concubine stays here and raises children for the beloved, if the beloved unfortunately dies in the wind and waves, at least she can leave some bones, blood and incense......"

Didn't this woman curse him? Liu Ji was so angry that he wanted to commit domestic violence, but looking at Lu Zhi's big belly, it was not unreasonable to think about it.

So on the first day of the fifth month, when the two ships left the land, as the coastline of Benhan gradually faded away, among those who waved goodbye to them were Liu Ji's wife and children......

Although the Tsushima Strait is only 200 miles away, and it can be reached in a few days if it goes well, Liu Ji's voyage is still extremely difficult, and during the day, when the wind and waves are not strong, they can still blow the sea breeze on the deck, and when it is night, the ships that cannot see the shore clearly appear to be alone, and their fate is uncertain.

More than 200 people were accommodated in the unlit long cabins below the main deck, each sleeping in a cramped space, with a foul stench emitted from the bilge upwards, coupled with the cries and moans of fellow passengers due to seasickness, the strange movements of the ship shaking, the stench of vomit and feces and urine from the overturned night pot, the quarrels, brawls, bed bugs and fleas, which were tireless.

Liu Ji tossed and turned, he staggered, avoiding the stinking cabin, ascended to the deck, and sat on the wood on the side of the ship, facing the sea, holding the rope tightly in his hand.

Although there is the danger of storms on the sea, there are also moments of joy and beauty, the sea ripples like silk, undulating and undulating, and the moon is bright and clear on the water.

Under the coercion of Liu Jia's blade, Xu Ning, who was in charge of piloting, looked at the stars and the compass, and let the ship go all the way to the southeast.

Liu Jia is a landlubber, bumpy all the way, he has already vomited all the things in his stomach, and sat on the deck with a sour face.

No matter how brave a man is on the shore, when he reaches the sea, he still has to slip on the soles of his feet.

In this dangerous night, he couldn't help but ask Xu Ning: "Fusang, can you really go?" ”

"Maybe someone has already been."

Xu Ning looked at the compass in his hand and said with a smile: "In the early years, my master sent someone to ask in Haidong, and the Koreans in Ben and Chen used to go to Fusang in small boats, of course, the people who went never came back, I don't know if it's true or not." ”

"And in the Central Plains, someone has already tried it."

Xu Ning made an analogy: "My master has calculated the ocean currents and monsoons, and if you want to go to Fusang, the most convenient way is not to go from Jiaodong, but from Wuyue and the East China Sea." ”

"It is said that when the Kingdom of Wu and the Kingdom of Yue perished, there were quite a few people from Wu and Yue who tried to cross to the east, and there was also a ...... recently"

Xu Ning talked about an incident that happened after Xia Gong destroyed Chu last year, when the ships of the thirteen merchants in Jiaodong were ordered to blockade the East China Sea, but in the area of Qu County, there was a large merchant ship docked, which was held hostage by the Chu people's Yu Party, and hundreds of Chu people boarded the ship.

"Then the ship was pursued by the boat master, so it sailed east along the monsoon, but the boat master couldn't catch up, and the group of Chu people was never seen again......

"Some people say that those Chu people have arrived in Fusang."

"But from there to Fusang, thousands of miles away, at least half a month to arrive, they are more likely to have encountered wind and waves in the open sea and died in the belly of the fish."

When he said these words, Xu Ning's eyes were full of longing for the unknown world, and their disciples were accepted by Xu Fu after he took refuge in Heifu, and they had their own strengths, or mysterious alchemy, or plotting to attract stars, and navigation.

He is one of Xu Fu's disciples who is most enthusiastic about exploring the open sea and looking for the mysterious worlds in the "Sea Classic" and "Mountain Classic".

Liu Ji listened on the sidelines, curious, and asked about Fusang.

"Supposedly the land of the rising sun?"

Xu Ning said: "Master and others said this, in the sea, there is a mountain called the evil shake barrage, there is a Fusang tree, the pillar is three hundred miles, and its leaves are like mustard. There is a valley called Wenyuan Valley. There is a buttress in the soup valley, one day to come, one day to come out, all contained in Wu. ”

"But Shaofu Zhang Cang does not agree, he thinks that the earth is round, and it revolves around the sun, traveling 90,000 miles a day, so there is no place in the world where the sun rises and sets, it is the case everywhere, only the difference between morning and evening."

"I still believe that there is a place for the sunrise."

Liu Ji is not interested in these too grand and nihilistic knowledge, the only thing he cares about is that after arriving in Fusang, even if Heifu has the ability to reach the sky, it will be difficult to catch him?

"In that place of sunrise, under the Fuso tree, I probably don't have to be afraid of the dark shadow after nightfall......"

So Liu Ji took a sip of wine, pointed to the east, and said firmly:

"At sunrise, we will be able to reach Fuso!"

But his words became a crow's mouth.

Xu Ning didn't answer, he stared at the stars in the sky shrouded in clouds, as well as the fast-rotating trade wind birds, and said solemnly:

"The storm is coming!"

……

Although Tsushima is only a strait, when the storm comes, it is still very sudden and earth-shattering.

In the pitch-black compartment, Liu Ji was flung from side to side, and he could feel the ship twisted by the furious sea.

In the midst of a storm, there is no sound more frightening than the crunch of a ship, the planks moaning so loudly that it seems to be ready to disintegrate at any moment. The sea poured in through the hatches, soaking the poor people all over, and the screams were terrible: as if all the souls who had died in the troubled times were here.

Another great wave struck, with a terrifying force, and at that moment everyone seemed to be about to be buried at the bottom of the sea, and every one shouted in the name of the gods:

Dongjun is useless, there is no sun at night, although Yun Zhongjun is in charge of rainfall, can he stretch his hand to the sea? Mrs. Xiang and Xiang Jun are too far away from here, they can manage the rivers and lakes, but they can't control the sea, mountain ghosts? If only there was a mountain here.

can only hope that the great priest will not accept their small lives.

In this fright, even if he was as experienced as Xu Ning at sea, his face was already pale.

He scanned everyone in the cabin and found that the only one who could keep his composure was Liu Ji, who tethered himself firmly to the pillar and held back, his eyes full of tenacity hidden under the frivolous surface.

Liu Ji didn't shout, but asked Xu Ning loudly:

"Can your boat withstand this wave?"

Xu Ning shook his head: "I don't know." ”

Liu Ji couldn't help laughing: "I didn't expect that my old Liu, after eating fish for decades, would also die in the belly of the fish one day, what a wreck!" ”

The words were full of unwillingness and regrettable, and after getting along these days, Xu Ning was also infected by Liu Ji's bold and righteous spirit, and after hesitating for a moment, he responded:

"Liu Jun!"

"We don't know whether we are alive or dead, and there is one thing that I won't hide from you!"

"What?" There was another wave, and Liu Ji hugged the pillar tighter, tighter than any woman in the past fifty years.

Xu Ning leaned into his ear and said loudly: "I came to Haidong not to reopen any route at all, but to have a mission. ”

"I was ordered by the regent Xia Gong of Great Qin to find Liu Jun, pretend to be captured, and send you to Fusang!"