Xiong Jing had seen the Han envoy go west many times, but he didn't know where the strange country names and place names represented. He has never seen a silver bowl with garlic clove pattern in Persia, but among the tributes of Yue Yue and South Vietnam, there is no lack of Lu Li, sea shells and other things, these are not things that should be in the South China Sea.

A canoe is a canoe, which may be a monohull or a catamaran. That's why they had to change trains in Dunxun, and it was not surprising that these boats could only row along the coast, and it was not surprising that it took two years for the Han envoys to make a round trip.

It is a pity that the Han envoy stopped at the southern branch and did not continue westward; It is even more regrettable that 90 years later, in order to maintain the smooth flow of the land Silk Road, the Eastern Han Dynasty used hundreds of thousands of troops and more than 8 billion yuan in salaries year after year.

At that time, Ban Chao was old (66 years old), so he sent his deputy envoy Gan Ying. When Gan Ying finally reached Tiaozhi (the northern port of the Persian Gulf), the rest of the ship's men told him the truth of his voyage at sea: 'The sea is vast, and those who come and go are blessed with a good wind in March, and if there is a late wind, there are also those who are two years old, so those who enter the sea are given three years of food. The good in the sea makes people think of the land, and there are many dead. ’

Waiting for the monsoon, two years of sailing, three years of food, and several deaths are actually the reality of navigation.

When everyone dispersed, Xiong Jing couldn't help but think of the regrettable incident of going west twice during the Han Dynasty, especially regretting Gan Ying's time, if Ban Chao was younger at that time, he would personally go to the west, with his character, he would inevitably go to the west, enter the Red Sea from the Persian Gulf, and finally arrive in the Mediterranean. But there is nothing to regret about this, Wugou Chang and others, who have the same blood as Ban Chao, will definitely be able to reach the Gulf of Suez.

The monsoon was still turning, and Xiong Jing, who had put aside the voyage for the time being, began to work on a few other things:

The first is port construction. Panyu City in the city on Wednesday could not support the increasingly large ocean trade in the future, so Panyu City should be expanded, and Panyu Wharf should also be expanded; There is also Panyu Bay, a large lighthouse will be built outside the bay where it is suspected to be Tuen Mun Island in Hong Kong; There is also a dock, Panyu will be the main construction site of the sea boat in the future, and more than 20 docks must be built.

The second is iron smelting. Whether it's for trade or shipbuilding, you need a lot of iron. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Foshan's iron smelting industry was developed, but there was no iron ore in Foshan, and the iron ore in Foshan came from Yunfu, Guangdong and other places.

This time it is not a shit luck, based on the experience of magnetite smelting in Liuyi, Ji Yin came to a conclusion: that is, the ore that can be refined by the converter must be magnetic. His summary is absolutely correct. The Swedish iron ore that can be refined by Besmarck converter is also magnetite, and only magnetite can meet the requirements of converter blowing.

Tiandu Iron Mine is less than six kilometers away from Yulin Bay, and Xiong Jing still remembers that the place where the iron mine is located is called Huangniling. In fact, it doesn't matter if he doesn't remember Huangniling, magnetite will inevitably strongly affect the earth's magnetic field, as long as he finds a bunch of people walking back and forth with a compass within more than ten kilometers of Yulin Bay, he can naturally find Tiandu iron ore.

It's one thing to just look for iron ore, it's another thing to set up a factory to smelt. If you set up a factory in Panyu, it is of course the most convenient, but iron ore needs to be transported from hundreds of kilometers, which is not only extremely troublesome, but also occupies the already tight transportation tonnage; However, Yutian set up a factory in the local area, and it was not easy to cut down the local forests, and charcoal and coke had to be transported from Guangzhou.

The last thing is wood for shipbuilding. Zhuyue must start cutting camphor wood for ships now, and if there are not enough or difficult to cut down, then go to Thailand to cut teak. This does not cost much to transport tonnage, and after the spring monsoon changes, the teak can be nailed into a raft, then hung on the sails, and towed directly from the sea.

All three things require labor, and the landlord's master is naturally welcome. He was like this, but the two of them were reluctant to build an iron-smelting workshop in Panyu, which would be the beginning of South Vietnam's growth. Fu Shan believes that since the sea boat is full of rice from India when it returns home, but it leaves empty-boat when it goes, then the smelter is set up in Yulin Bay, and the transportation tonnage is negligible.

In order to produce the converter in batches, it is impossible to pour molten iron directly from the blast furnace like Yingdu, but to smelt the charcoal pig iron first, and then use coke to melt the pig iron in the iron furnace, so as to maintain the continuous production of the converter. Tiandu iron mine is easy to find, but Jiazi coal mine is not easy to find, and the current plan of the government is to use Yingdu coking coal to turn iron. This, of course, will increase the tonnage of transport, which would have been planned in the absence of other coking coal.

In the plan, the coking coal produced in Quyangyi will be transported to Hangzhou and stored in case the coal is cut off in the later stages of the war. Since there is coal in Hangzhou, the cargo ship transports grain to Hangzhou, loads the coal and then transports it to Yulin Bay, except for the loading and unloading of coal and the loss of cargo ships, there is no additional cost. Even if there are loading and unloading costs, Luoyue, Minyue, and Ouyue can contribute to the loading and unloading of about 10,000 tons of coking coal a year.

Zhuyue likes to fight, and the location of the iron-smelting workshop involves the distribution of huge iron, pig iron and profits in the future, so the donkey and the husband do not want to benefit from the teacher. Xiong Jing is also not decisive about this. Tiandu ore is only a few million tons, and after these ores are smelted, they can only purchase iron ore; And during the war it was necessary to transport grain from India, to spaceships, and after the war it was the same. If coking coal has not been found, it will be transported from Yingdu by ship. With such a high cost, the iron-smelting yard in Hangying and the iron-smelting yard in Quyang will bring the Tiandu iron-smelting yard to the ground.

"What do you think?" Zhu Yue's dispute Xiong Jing did not mediate, and the matter would be handed over to the Zheng Dynasty for decision, but before the Zheng Dynasty made a decision, Xiong Jing wanted to ask Gong Yin Dao's opinion. He has learned a lot about the situation in the past few days, and he should have a spectrum in his heart.

"I don't know if there are enough boats." Gong Yin Dao is not used to the climate of Yuedi, but fortunately, it is already autumn.

"Oh." Xiong Jing nodded. Just like a bucket, how much water can hold depends on the shortest board. The shortest board in the Chu State now is probably the ship. "Are there enough boats?" Xiong Jing was puzzled.

"I don't know when I moved to Jiangdong, and I don't know how much the sea boat can have when I move to Jiangdong?" Gong Yin Daodao.

"How about ten years?" Xiong Jing roughly estimated the time. "Ten years later, there will be 200 boats."

"Dare to ask the king what the sea boat will be in five years?" Gong Yindao asked again.

"Five years?" Xiong Jing estimated it and said, "Fifty or sixty." ”

"Not enough." Gong Yindao hurriedly shook his head when he heard this number. "The tonnage of the national boat in Chu is only more than 10,000 tons......"

"Twelve thousand tons." Xiong Jing remembered this number very well, and it was precisely because of the lack of tonnage of Zhou Ji that he asked Zhao Qi and the two countries to support Zhou Ji, so that they could take advantage of it, especially Qi State.

"Yes. The boat is 12,000 tons, because it is necessary to transport iron ore in Yingdu, so there are few people who transport iron ore and coking coal to Hangzhou. "Gongyin Daodao." Sixty sea boats, but 24,000 tons. I don't think that's enough. ”

"Just using charcoal to smelt pig iron, there is not much coking coal needed." Xiong Jing Road. Gong Yin Dao mentioned the coal and iron storage plan that had been formulated before, to ensure that after retreating to Jiangdong, Hangying would produce 5,000 tons of iron every year. This would require about 15,000 tonnes of iron ore and 10,000 tonnes of coking coal (pig iron is not smelted from coke). If the war lasts for 10 years, then 105,000 tons of iron ore and 100,000 tons of coking coal will be needed.

"Tiandu already has an iron mine, and what is needed is coking coal from the iron furnace, 10,000 tons a year, and 20,000 tons a year is enough." Xiong Jing said again.

"However, there are too few iron ore trials in the South China Sea, if the iron ore can't be used, what can I do?" Gong Yin Dao asked. "Ju iron is smelted with charcoal, and if pig iron is made of charcoal, it will be expensive."

"How many trials have the South China Sea Iron Mine tried?" Xiong Jing asked, and before he could wait for Gong Yindao's answer, he heard someone outside exclaiming: "The wind has changed!" The wind has turned! ”

It's almost October, and it's really a windy day. Xiong Jing came out of the hall to take a look, only to see that the three-headed phoenix flag hanging outside was no longer blown to the northeast by the wind, but to the southwest by the wind.

"Tell the king, the wind has turned. It was a northeasterly wind with a direction of 53 degrees. "The man is in charge of navigation, and the others don't care about the direction of the wind, and he and Si Ji watch day and night, looking forward to the monsoon. As soon as the wind turned in the afternoon, they found out.

"Good! Great goodness! Xiong Jing clenched his fists and shouted two good shouts. With winds of fifty-three degrees, it doesn't seem so difficult to pass through the Strait of Malacca, which runs southeast to northwest. With the passage through the Strait of Malacca safely, the fleet could reach Sri Lanka or the east coast of India safely.

"Please choose a date, the king." Wu Gou Chang also ran over, and as soon as the northeast wind turned, he wanted to ride the wind as soon as possible.

"Why don't you choose a date, choose a date." Xiong Jing looked at the young witch with infinite hope in his eyes.

"Congratulations to the king." The shouting of Mu Zhi and the others was too loud, and Lu Zhuo, Gongshisi, Wu Zhu, and Fu Shan, who ran out later, learned that the monsoon had arrived, and they all congratulated Xiong Jing.

"He Buyu should also congratulate himself." Xiong Jing smiled and excused them. It's a pity that he didn't stop smiling, and Chang Jiang came over with a calm face with a report. After the things were all arranged, he whispered in Xiong Jing's ear: "King Yu: Qi people to Yingdu retreated, saying that he had already promised Princess Kejia and the eldest son of Qin to help Su, Zhu Ao was furious and wanted to kill him. ”

"Huh?!" Xiong Jing was taken aback. It was his decision to retreat, but the marriage of Chuqi was related to diplomatic relations, and the courtiers did not agree, so the matter was temporarily shelved. Who would have thought that before he retreated here, the Qi people couldn't wait to give the princess to ......

"Fusu?" Xiong Jing remembered the name, it was the first time he had heard it.

"This is the eldest son of the Qin State." Chang Jiang said. "Born last year, it is said that the King of Qin loves it."

"No, before he retreats, the Qi people are going to marry the Qin State?" Xiong Jing became more and more dissatisfied with Qi Guo, even if he didn't want to marry the princess of Qi Guo, he couldn't accept Qi Ren to cut first and then play like this. Zhu Ao's decision is right, the Qi State is indeed going to be destroyed.