The wind and snow are howling and rushing towards you.

The cowhide straight-seam boots, which are more bulky than the military boots of the northern Xinjiang, stepped on the ice, and the bottom of the mille-feuille cloth had long been frozen by the melting ice and snow, and then froze and cracked during the march.

For the ordinary Ming army, such double-layer boots are against the law, less than 100 households, usually only when on duty can wear cowhide straight sewing boots, otherwise you can only wear leather ties, another kind of high-cut shoes without sewing, boots to be wrapped in the line of entanglement.

The owner of the boots was wrapped thickly from the inside out, with a cotton coat covered with cotton armor, a cotton jacket on the outside of the armor, a bow pinned to the back of the waist, a few long and thick feathered arrows inserted in the quiver, and a heavy felt cloth and backpack wrapped in a heavy felt cloth and backpack on his back, holding a bird gun as an ice staff and walking forward step by step along the queue.

On the endless glacier, like a colorful bear, it migrates slowly and slowly.

This post is only the head of the queue of more than 100 people, the flag officer holding the flagpole is struggling to walk forward, the exposed eyelashes and eyebrows have been frozen with a layer of frost, the eyes are deadly closed, the surrounding skin is frostbitten red, the helmet and the neck are wrapped around three layers of cotton cloth, at this time the face towel has been frozen and the ice ballast is falling downward, and with the breath from the gap spit out a very heavy ha.

What made it difficult for him to walk was the dragon-inlaid horn banner in his hand, which still kept fluttering and condensed into ice.

The wind and snow made the big dogs who dragged the sleigh on the side of the row all lifeless, and they arched their front shoulders high and dragged the heavy baggage on the sled step by step with the team.

In fact, this is a team composed of the vast majority of flag officers, and the lowest rank is led by the seventh-grade Yulu, but at this time, it appeared in the east of Wangxia Prefecture, in the endless land of heavenly jealousy.

Ma Jin raised his left hand and stopped, and an urn sound and an order came from under the face towel frozen into ice cubes, "Plant the flag, make water, how far is it?" ”

The team of more than 100 people gathered in one place, someone brought the sled dog over, put down the fire frame on the ice to make water on the spot, one by one the ice bags were placed on the fire frame and waited for warmth, and in a blink of an eye, seven or eight stoves rose on the ice, more than ten people gathered in one place, no one had the desire to talk about the world, marched for several days, even the god eyepiece was frozen out of the cracks, no one's brain is still good.

The well-planned flag officer took out the map, rules, and compass from his backpack with great difficulty, knelt on the ice and covered his hands for a long time to observe, and determined the direction according to the latitude and longitude of Zhou Tian, and then guided the flag bearer to plant the small flag indicating a thousand steps on the ice, and then clumsily went to the stove and hugged a sled dog to keep warm.

The baggage officer checked the rest of the baggage, squinted his eyes and flipped through his notes, and reported to Ma Jin: "As of yesterday, I have traveled forty-seven miles, the direction is correct, and it should not be far away." The baggage taken is still three days, rest for a while, and send someone to drive the dog to the back to get the baggage. ”

Ma Jin exhaled deeply, shivered, curled up hard, nodded and did not speak.

He just wants to shave himself now.

This journey has to start from last year, when they traveled to Wangxia Prefecture last year, but because the frozen coast could no longer travel, they formed a camp at the easternmost tip of the mainland and survived the long winter.

When the ice and snow melted, and the ship was roughly repaired, he sailed to the east, lost dozens of good men in a few months, sank three fortune ships and a warship, and poked out several islands in the east and south of the sea, relying on these large islands, ready to continue the exploration to the east, Ma Jin and Ma Gui both believed that they were getting closer and closer to America.

Maybe next year, it will be able to find the land that is not inferior to China as the Nanyang Minister Chen Mu said overseas for the imperial court.

Meritorious service, immortal achievement.

Within reach.

Even in June of this year, a letter from Gao Gong of the Nanyang Military Government included a chart of the route to Merica in South Asia to Spain, which the Emperor of Spain had sent to the south of the country in order to show his sincerity for the alliance, and that route was to the south of them, relying on ocean currents and islands, and crossing the ocean to Mexico.

They could have followed the charts of the route to the east, and the Ming people were close to setting foot in the New World.

It's just that Ma Jin and Ma Gui are not reconciled, just because of Chen Mu's words, they delayed between Kuwu Island and Wangxia Prefecture for two years, and when they were most prepared, it seemed that they would be able to reach Amerika with their courage and exploration the next time they set sail.

At this time, the Nanyang Military Government sent a nautical chart to assign another route from thousands of miles away, and they were not reconciled.

Impatience breeds risk-taking, and taking risks is taking the greatest risk.

Before the wind and snow arrived, they set off from the island two hundred miles east of Wangxia Prefecture, and originally planned to sail for only three days, although they brought enough water and food for the expedition of more than 1,000 people on board for three months, but it was all prepared for the real arrival in America, and they knew that this time, they would definitely find America!

In three days, at normal speed, they could sail hundreds of miles in three days, could America be farther than this?

Accidents come at times like these, when the cold night freezes the lookouts on the mast, and when most of them wake up in the morning, their ships are frozen at sea, and the waters under their feet have been frozen hard, and they are in a state of real isolation.

The long winter lasted seven or eight months, and they did not carry enough food and water to survive this time, and they knew the distance they could walk back to Wangxia Prefecture on foot, close to four hundred miles.

Continue east, looking for the mirage-like Amerika, no one knows how far away.

Everyone seems to have countless choices in front of them, but when things come to an end, they find that there is actually only one way, and there is no choice at all.

Risking his life, he continued eastward.

Some are dead, some are crazy, some are blind.

As for the loss of fingers, toes, ears, and so on.

After they had walked dozens of miles, there were only about 400 people left who could continue to move forward, and they marched back and forth in several teams, crossing the sea of ice with great difficulty, and walking to a place where they did not know if they could reach it.

There was no faith, no faith that kept them going until America, only one thing was clear in everyone's hearts, they couldn't go back to Gorge.

In the rear, the wounded Bannermen remained on the ship, ordered to slowly dismantle the ship to feed the Bannermen looking for Amerika to burn it out for warmth.

In the ice and snow that cut off hope, Ma Jin saw a figure carrying a flag and riding a sled in the wind and snow, four white dogs rushed with their tongues out, and the flag army on the sled shouted loudly that they had not heard for a long time: "General, the waves, there are frozen waves and mountains ahead, we see the land!" America! ”

The shouts poured into his ears with the cold wind, and at that moment Ma Jin thought that he had hallucinated after being cold for many days, and many flag officers also thought that they were frozen, and some even let out meaningless smirks.

It wasn't until the flag army shouted three times, the sled dog pounced on the fire to keep warm, and the dog's burning breath hit his face, that Ma Jin slowly stood up and asked a long question.

"This is here, so close?"

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