Jingshi, Zhang Juzheng's mansion.

The large table could not hold the entire set of Chen's charts, and the four servants pulled the scrolls, and the outline of the picture from Japan to the Americas was displayed in front of the Imperial Vice-Auxiliary.

The Indian Ocean is a dividing line, with the coastal islands to the east being of varying degrees of finesse, and the western side being relatively coarse, but some distant places are also fine.

Zhao Shizhen just rightly presented a pair of exquisitely crafted magnifying glasses, and signaled to Zhang Juzheng how to use it, and said: "Ge Lao, Chen Shuai said that the mountains and rivers of the southern expedition overseas are all in this picture. ”

"Hmm."

Zhang Juzheng took the magnifying glass and looked at the chart.

The servant holding the chart was very good at reading words and colors, and as Zhang Juzheng's eyes went down, the four of them unanimously raised the scroll slightly to his chest, so that the master could see it clearly without having to bow down.

Zhang Ju had seen the charts, and the imperial court's control over the sea was decreasing year by year, but hundreds of years ago, the fleet of the Ming Empire had sailed as far as Africa. As a scholar of the palace, the archives of the Wenhua Palace can be flipped through at will, and this chart is not surprising to Zhang Gelao.

It is only a relative complement to the contours of his unknown geography in the West.

"Portugal is here, Lisbon."

Zhang Juzheng frowned from the sight of this chart, people with absolute power cannot tolerate the slightest unknown, the unknown means risk and threat, and this entire chart is full of unknowns, even if the city is very deep, he inadvertently showed irritability, pointed to the place where Lisbon was written on the chart and asked: "How far is it from Guangdong to here?" ”

Zhao Shizhen knew from the bottom of his heart that before he came, Chen Mu said that Zhang Juzheng would definitely ask this question, and he replied respectfully: "From Guangdong to Lisbon, it is 80,000 or 90,000 miles to the sea in the east and 780,000 miles to the west. ”

"Huh?"

Zhang Juzheng was a little confused, blurted out a sigh, looked carefully at both ends of the sea map, and then asked with relief: "You mean that you can really go back to Daming after walking all the way east, walking around?" ”

"Hui Ge Lao, it is like this, our enemy is the west, and their fleet set sail from Luzon to the east, through Japan, across the Mudai Gorge in Asia, to North Asia Melica, to the south around South Asia Melica, to Europa Franco and West Bania."

The Strait of Ameli was later known as the Bering Strait, and Amerika was the transliteration of America, as well as Spain in Ezebania, and as for Europa, it was because the Westerners claimed to be the descendants of Europa.

Zhao Shizhen looked at Zhang Juzheng, he was looking forward to seeing the shock on the face of such a high-ranking person, and said, "This route is the result of the translation and collation of the war booty books when Chen Shuai defeated the Xiyi Juship. ”

Zhang Juzheng's cold expression disappointed Zhao Shizhen, he just nodded indifferently, and then asked another question very precisely: "The ship of Portuguese Yi can sail 70,000 li, the ship of Xiyi can sail 80,000 li, and Chen Shuai's ship can also sail 780,000 li?" ”

Zhao Shizhen was asked, thinking about the pros and cons of truth and lies in his mind for a short time, and finally sighed and said to Zhang Juzheng: "Don't blame the old man, Chen Shuai's ship can't sail tens of thousands of miles away at the moment, and now the bottom of the gunboat built in the early years is eaten by maggots, and it is being sent to Nanyang Port for repair. ”

"Luzon is hotter, there are more maggots in the sea, and the ship is even less durable there, and the bottom of the captured Xiyi giant ship is covered with copper skin, which seems to kill the ship maggots when rusted; Or use lime and sulfur mixed with ship material to paint the bottom of the ship, which can also prevent damage, which is not a big deal, but just delays the voyage. ”

"The key is still the ports along the way, without port supplies, it will be difficult for my Ming fleet to bypass Malacca, let alone travel thousands of miles."

Zhang Juzheng didn't care how to repair the corrosion at the bottom of the ship, regardless of whether it was copper, iron, gold or silver, Chen Mu had his own way to solve it.

Although the imperial court lacks copper, iron, gold and silver, but this shortage is a 'relative' shortage, if others want to allocate gold, silver, copper and iron, it must be a shortage, but if Chen Mu needs gold, silver, copper and iron, then not only is there a shortage but also very rich.

"What Luzon needs to be adjusted, Chen Shuai can write a letter to the household department, except for grain."

Zhang Juzheng made a final decision, Zhao Shizhen hurriedly waved his hand, he didn't want Zhang Ge Lao to misunderstand what he meant, and said: "There is no shortage of gold and copper, there is no shortage of gold and copper in Luzon, Chen Shuai has transferred the southwest craftsmen to go to prospecting, and there will be good news soon." ”

"Hmm." Zhang Ge Lao nodded with satisfaction at this time, and said: "The Maritime Imperial Court has fully entrusted Chen Shuai, just do your best work, don't pay attention to the rumors of the government and the opposition, he is the white jade pillar of the country and the sea in the outer ocean, and there is no need to be swayed by other things." ”

"Chen Shuai is really working hard overseas, the servant has ordered someone to prepare some gifts for Chen Shuai, Zhao Sheng will bring them when he goes back, in addition, the servant still needs to ask Chen Shuai for something, and wait for the servant to write a letter."

Zhao Shizhen didn't even dare to say it, and obediently waited for Zhang Juzheng to finish writing the letter without squinting, and then bowed a few times and retreated with the etiquette of a junior.

He didn't have the right to open the letter, but he was very curious about it, it stands to reason that Zhang Juzheng should have written the letter earlier if there was anything, why did he write it now?

When he walked out of the study, Long Junxiong and You Qi had a very happy conversation in the outer hall, and the gifts had already been prepared and put aside, neither novel nor valuable, but they were all precious, such as the plaque written by Zhang Juzheng himself, a few pieces of medicine for incurable diseases and other fragmentary objects.

It is a private gift.

Long Junxiong used to follow Chen Mu to the gate of the important ministers in Beijing, and when Chen Mu entered the inner hall of the study, he always mingled with the cronies and housekeepers of the main family outside.

deliberately made good friends, coupled with Chen Mu's support, there was no household in the two streets outside Donghua Gate and Xihua Gate that he was not familiar with.

In terms of this relationship, to be honest, it is a delay to fight with Chen Mu, if you stay in Beijing, you can easily run out of a third-grade official. Even if you don't run for yourself, it is not difficult to earn 70,000 or 80,000 taels from being a donor all year round.

Seeing Zhao Shizhen come out, Long Junxiong smiled and said goodbye to Master You Qiyou.

Zhao Shizhen was a little absent-minded with Zhang Juzheng's letter, and he couldn't figure out why Zhang Juzheng wrote the letter in front of him; Long Junxiong also had a little secret in his heart, and You Qi told him that in the future, Zhang Juzheng and Chen Mu would exchange letters with a code.

He couldn't tell anyone about this code, he could only tell it after meeting Chen Mu, and he couldn't figure it out - why didn't Zhang Juzheng tell Zhao Shizhen directly?

Actually, there's not much to ponder.

After Zhao Shizhen left, Zhang Juzheng breathed a sigh of relief, this little thing made a lot of things from Nanyang that he couldn't understand and couldn't understand, which made Master Zhang, who had grown from a prodigy to a middle-aged god, a little unbearable.

There is no other meaning in writing a letter, just because of this, don't care if Chen Mu or Zhao Shizhen explains, Shen felt a little uncomfortable in middle age, so he simply found an excuse...... There are changes in the world, and the prince must not know about overseas affairs, Chen Shuai's compilation of "Dusi Manual", "Gun Shooting" and "New Book of Naval Warfare" are very effective, so he simply asked him to compile a set of foreign textbooks to teach the prince in the future.

Before the prince learns, the middle-aged teacher must learn it first, the best of both worlds!