Almost on the same day that the emperor's envoy's ship arrived at the old port, two half-new fast sailing ships left Xin'an, the capital of the Qin state.

This is a peculiar treatment for explorers, and in the last few years, with the development of maritime trade, especially after the establishment of the Royal Geographical Society, the cause of maritime exploration has also emerged, encouraged by practical interests and reputation. Almost everyone aspires to make a name for themselves in this expedition.

"We will go further south than any navigator...... Ambition drives me to the end of the sea, to the farther afield......"

In the captain's room of the "Endeavour", Zhao Dengke wrote this in the logbook with a pencil.

As the captain of Zhao Dengke's background is extremely ordinary, he was originally born in the salt people, when he was 17 years old, he made a decision - to join the army, that is, this decision, changed his life, in fact, at that time, the fate of many salt Ding in the two Huai salt fields changed at that time, it was those who tried to exchange military merits for freedom of the salt Ding, with their blood laid the initial situation in Jiangbei, but also paved the way for the future Ming Zhongxing.

That is, in that battle, Zhao Dengke, as a soldier, lost a leg, if in the past, he lost a leg, it would be difficult for him to live a good life, but in the battle disabled he got a large area of Xuntian - a full 113 acres, originally this Xuntian was enough for him to eat and drink for the rest of his life.

But a year later, Zhao Yuming decisively made the second important decision in his life - he mortgaged all the harvest of Xuntian in the next 30 years to the bank, because Xuntian must not be sold, otherwise both parties to the seller will be fined heavily, this "mortgage" is actually equivalent to selling 30 years of land skin.

Later, with only one leg, he went to Haizhou, and then he bought a ship with the money obtained from the mortgage land, which was only a sloop, only twenty fathoms (meters) in length, with only one, and occasionally two masts mounted backwards, on which were hung one or two crosssails, and a large diagonal mainsail, on which the Loyal Navy's navy began with this nimble and fast sailing, and then he hired a captain to go out to sea and become a trainee sailor. Began to devote himself to trading.

During his five years as a trainee sailor, he learned algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation, and astronomy as a shipowner, and even joined the Loyal Army's naval fleet during the Northern Expedition, leading his own fast merchant ships and participating in the Northern Expedition.

Although Zhao Dengke had made a lot of money in many years of maritime trade, this time, in order to realize his dream, he could be said to have gone bankrupt, and even so, he was only able to make the trip after receiving funding from the bank and the Royal Geographical Society.

“…… Drive out from here and follow the ...... again It is possible to sail close to the coast...... Eventually, I will arrive at the "vast and unknown southern continent" ............

Searching for a "vast and unknown southern continent" in the vast South Pacific Ocean is the purpose of Zhao Dengke's trip.

In this era when the whole world is colonizing overseas, whoever can find more new territory will mean the grabbing of a large number of resources and the rapid increase of national strength. Since the discovery of the American continent, countless navigators have frantically searched for possible new continents, and a mysterious southern continent is the target of Zhao Dengke's trip.

In order to be able to achieve this goal, Zhao Dengke can be said to be bankrupt, in addition to buying two ships, he also paid all the crew members in advance for three years' salary, and even bought an insurance policy for them, if there is no news of them after three years, then the insurance company will pay death compensation.

In short, Zhao Dengke has made all the preparations, or give birth! Die or die!

Other than that, there is no other way!

"This is it......"

Drawing a circle in a blank space on the chart, Zhao Dengke's expression became more and more solemn, and his eyes became more and more fanatical.

The scorching sun of the South Pacific Ocean shines on the vast ocean. On the third day of the ninth month of the seventh year of Xingqian, under the clear sky of ten thousand miles, the sea water on the coast was as clear as jade. Not far away on the ocean, moored a three-masted sailing ship "Endeavour" and "Hope" with the flag of the sun and moon of the Ming Dynasty, both of which have a tonnage of less than 500 tons, are the most popular ocean-going fast merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty, and unlike other ships, these two ships carried an ocean-going expedition, although the four-month long voyage left their three companions to sleep forever under the sea due to illness, but on this paradise-like island for two weeks, These explorers have put the arduous journey behind them for the time being.

From the morning, the whole expedition was preparing for the upcoming voyage, and everyone seemed extremely excited, because they felt that they should be the farthest fleet to the south of all the fleets of the Ming Dynasty.

"Haven't been here before!"

As early as two weeks ago, after they came to this barren land, they immediately made this judgment, according to the rules of this era, they raised the national flag of the Ming Dynasty on land, and according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, they used local stone materials to make more than a dozen stone tablets, and engraved the "Land of the Ming Dynasty" and the time of the inscription on the stone tablet, of course, as well as the names of Zhao Dengke and the two fast merchant ships, which is not only to declare ownership, but also to leave a mark, if they are lost in the ocean, Then when the future navigators discover this place, they will at least know that they have been here before.

Behind the crowd of people who were working for the voyage, the thin and resolute face of the leader of this expedition, Zhao Dengke, showed a worried look, his eyes stared into the distance, staring at the land, and there was a hint of confusion in his seemingly resolute expression.

"Is this a continent or an island?"

As the first explorer to challenge the southern continent, Zhao Dengke once met an officer at the Admiralty before leaving, and the officer told him that there was indeed a land in the south.

"According to the Dutch archives we have seized in Batavia, there is a land south of the Timor Sea, but it is impossible to determine whether it is an island or a continent...... If possible, you can sail south......"

The purpose of this expedition is to find the "Southern Continent", but the legendary "Southern Continent", could it be here?

"Captain, everyone is ready."

After the last dinghy was hoisted onto the boat, the first mate's report made Zhao Dengke nod, and then he ordered.

"Lift anchor, drive along the coast, pay attention to the underwater situation, and avoid hitting the rocks."

When this order was given, Zhao Dengke's eyes once again turned to the stone tablet on the coast, which was a proof of the Ming Dynasty's ownership of this place, and also a proof of their voyage here. On the stone tablet is clearly engraved with two words "Chaotian", which is the name given by Zhao Dengke to this strange land, that is, the meaning of "Hajj to the Heavenly Dynasty".

Of course, he didn't know that in another time and space, this location was called "Cape Londonderry", located in the north of Australia, although the Spaniards and Dutch had found it, but none of them had landed here, and the landing of Zhao Dengke and his party two weeks ago was undoubtedly the first exploration of this continent by the civilized world, although their exploration stopped at the rainforest near the coast.

For the next month, Endeavour and Hope sailed along the coast, and to everyone's surprise, the coast became more and more desolate the further south they sailed, except for the various trees and a fairly dense rainforest growing in the Chaotian area.

In fact, it is not desolate, there are still a lot of mangrove forests on the coast, when Zhao Dengke was holding a telescope, looking for a suitable landing site, at this time the sailors on the lookout post suddenly pointed to the shore and shouted.

"There's someone on the shore!"

Someone!

This is the first time I saw people in the two months of sailing, and when Zhao Dengke and the sailors on the ship turned their eyes to the direction of the water that the sailors fingered, behind a small island not far away, several canoes sailed under the rowing of the natives, and on those canoes stood without exception some tall and burly natives, who were almost naked, and their black skin was covered with white lacquer.

“—*……—”

When the canoes approached, the people on board could even hear their strange shouts, because they saw that they were holding spears and bows and arrows in their hands, so the sailors drew their swords at the first time, and of course more sailors picked up firearms.

"Don't let it go!"

Seeing that the sailors were loading guns for the firecrackers, Zhao Dengke immediately shouted loudly.

"Don't let it go!"

This was the first time they had seen the natives since they left Timor and sailed along the large island, and although they had found traces of human activity on previous landings, they had waited for days without coming into contact with them, although they had always felt that there were people watching and watching them, and the presence of these natives was undoubtedly a good thing.

Staring at those natives who seemed to be fierce and vicious like yakshas, Zhao Dengke did not feel the slightest nervousness, although he couldn't understand what they were saying, he still made a decision immediately.

"No one is allowed to put the guns, they can't get up, open a few bottles of canned meat, bring a few wooden barrels, and pour the cans in!"

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