The New Year of Zhenguan 22 years has just passed, the pungent smell of gunpowder released by the burning of fireworks has not yet dissipated, the whole Keelung city is still immersed in the joy of the New Year, and even the busy port on weekdays has stopped the hustle and bustle, because the staff in the port are not willing to be on duty during the New Year, so they can only take a holiday, and the port is temporarily closed, and it will generally be opened again on the fifth day of the new year, and not only Keelung, but also all the ports managed by the Han people, generally formed this practice.

However, this year, Keelung broke this convention, and on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, all the staff of Keelung Port returned to the port from their homes, and then began to be busy with intense work, not only to debug the various facilities of the port, but also to dress up all over the port, because today the port will welcome a group of warriors returning from afar.

Before noon, the people in Keelung City who received the news had already rushed spontaneously, groups of people stood on the dock, waiting eagerly for the return of the American exploration fleet, all this looked a little familiar, when Lu Wan set sail, there were also many people spontaneously came to see them off, and today is to welcome them back victoriously.

The loud chatter and laughter of friends, the cries of food vendors, the greetings of acquaintances, etc., filled the entire port, and among these sounds, the loudest was undoubtedly the discussion of the American exploration fleet.

"Brother Zhou, I heard that among the American species that have been passed down from His Royal Highness King Qi, there is a plant called rubber tree, which can produce rubber with a wide range of uses, such as bicycle tires, which are now made of gum from the fig tree. If there is rubber, the performance is better than that of fig trees. How's that, are you interested in bringing in a batch? "One was dressed in a big red silk suit. The fat businessman said to his friend.

After hearing this, the friend surnamed Zhou shook his head and said: "Although rubber is a good thing, I remember that rubber trees need to be planted for at least a few years to produce rubber, and this time Captain Lu brought back from the Americas will not have too many seeds or seedlings of various crops, so in comparison, it is still cost-effective for those plants with a shorter planting cycle, such as corn or pepper, if you can get some seeds, you can get a lot of seeds in less than a year." Then start planting on a large scale, so that the cost can be recovered faster. ”

This businessman surnamed Zhou is obviously a very shrewd person, and even calculates the growth cycle of crops, which makes the fat businessman also very admired, and now asked the other party about the advantages and disadvantages of several other crops, and the other party analyzed the head of the way.

The fat merchant and the merchant surnamed Zhou were just a microcosm on the dock, and around them, there were countless merchants discussing what kind of benefits the return of the American fleet could bring to them? In particular, some large plantation owners have made a profit by growing various cash crops. Naturally, I am more concerned about this.

At noon, Li Su came to the port with the princess Wenxin, as well as the three sons and daughters of Chouchou, Li Qi and Li Mian, and with their arrival. The noise of the entire port was much quieter, and some of the big businessmen with status and status came forward to pay their respects. If this had been the case a few years ago. I don't dare to imagine it at all, but now the status of Taiwanese businessmen has greatly improved. So even on these occasions, these businessmen dare to come forward.

For these merchants. Li Su was also cordially received, and occasionally met one or two acquaintances, and he also deliberately laughed with the other party, which made the other party feel more face-saving, and his whole face was about to shine.

However, this situation did not last long, and soon the figure of the American exploration fleet appeared outside the port, and this also made the whole port silent, and everyone stood on their toes and craned their necks to wait for the return of these warriors.

"Boom ~ Boom ~ Boom ......" As soon as the American exploration fleet docked, a deafening salute immediately sounded in the port, and then the band that had already been prepared also began to play, and then Li Su and Wen Xin personally came to the bow of the Americas No. 1 to welcome Lu Wan and others off the ship.

Lu Wan and the others on the boat also had a sense of flattery, at the moment Lu Wan took the lead, Feng Shijie and others followed, a team of thin but extremely energetic crew members disembarked in turn, among which Lu Wan, who was in the front, held a tray with both hands, and the plate was placed with corn, peanuts, peppers and other crop seeds, as well as seedlings of crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes, and then presented to Li Su with both hands.

Li Su looked at the various crops he had been looking forward to for a long time in front of him, and his face also showed an excited look, and even when he took the small tray with both hands, his arms trembled a little uncontrollably. Others may not know the value of these things, but Li Su, who came from later generations, knew that several high-yielding crops on the pallet could save countless people from starvation.

At the moment when Li Su took over the tray, a tsunami-like cheer from the crowd in the port was intertwined with the sound of music playing, as if to announce that a prosperous era was coming.

In the grand welcome ceremony, Lu Wan and the crew behind him entered Keelung City like heroes returning from victory, and when they arrived at the large square in front of the palace in the city, Li Su stood on the high platform that had already been set up and delivered a speech called "Maritime Declaration".

In this speech, Li Su first summarized the achievements of mankind in navigation, and then talked about the distribution of the world's continents and their specialties, and finally began to talk about the positive significance and far-reaching impact of Luvin's trip to the Americas.

This maritime declaration of Li Su is very famous in history, because it not only marked the discovery of the American continent, but also marked the beginning of the Chinese nation's exploration of the Americas, laying a solid foundation for the great migration of the Americas in the future.

Next, Li Su held a grand welcome banquet for the American fleet, and it was held for three consecutive days, during which all the residents of Keelung could apply to enter the banquet and talk face-to-face with the crew, and the crew would also answer all kinds of difficulties encountered in the voyage, and of course, the situation in the Americas.

However, at the same time as the banquet, gentlemen from various newspapers in Taiwan also flocked to the party, and they gathered around one or several crew members, competing to ask about topics of interest to them, and then wrote articles on the spot, which were published in various newspapers the next day, and as a result, the people who could not make it to Keelung had a deeper understanding of the voyage.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that just after the banquet, Li Su held a small distribution meeting in the palace, and the participants in the meeting were the sponsors who contributed money and efforts, according to the original agreement, the income from the voyage will be distributed according to the amount of capital or effort, among which Li Su is naturally the one who contributed the most money and efforts, so he also has the right of first choice.

Speaking of Lu Wan, the things they collected this time are really complete, not only collected all the crops such as peppers, corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and other crops that Li Su requested, but also collected some things that Li Su did not expect, such as the seeds of the cocoa tree, cocoa beans are the key raw materials for the production of chocolate, and chocolate not only tastes sweet, but also can quickly replenish physical strength, whether it is civilian or military, there is a huge market.

In addition, in addition to the cocoa tree, there are pineapples, sunflowers, etc., and even Lu Wan They also brought back tobacco seeds, mainly because some people in the crew saw that the Mayan sacrifices liked to smoke this thing, so they got some back.

The seeds and seedlings of these various crops were well cared for, and although quite a few of the seeds were eaten by the crew, the rest was enough to breed. In addition, when the fleet left the Americas, it also brought a lot of live animals, such as turkeys, grizzly bears and the like, but unfortunately because of the lack of food on the road, these animals that consumed food were naturally slaughtered first, so Li Su and they only saw a bunch of turkey feathers and bear skins in the end, which made many people secretly cry out that it was a pity.

In addition to the above flora and fauna, the fleet also brought a lot of gold, which was enshrined in the temple of Mansa City, and later the old priest was killed, and the Mayans found that Luvan liked gold very much, so the Lord of Mansa City gave them these gold, which weighed a ton, after all, these gold were brought out from the original Mansa City, and after many generations of accumulation, they had these.

The distribution of seeds for plants is presided over by Li Su, and high-yield crops such as corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes naturally have to be completely promoted, so they are all owned by the Taiwan government, and as for these cash crops such as peppers, tomatoes, and pineapples, they will be divided between Li Su and other sponsors, and they will enjoy the exclusive right to plant these cash crops for three years, that is to say, within three years, these cash crops can only be planted by them, the sponsors, and it is illegal for others to plant them.

In fact, this exclusive planting right looks very domineering, but in fact, Li Su has already calculated, because the seeds of these cash crops are not very many, so it takes at least one to two years of breeding to plant on a large scale, that is to say, the three-year exclusive planting right, and finally fall into everyone's hands, in fact, there is only one or two years of privilege. After three years, there are enough seeds for cash crops, and the market for new cash crops has been opened, and it will be much easier to promote them again.

Of course, those sponsors did not suffer a loss, even if it was one to two years of exclusive planting rights, it was enough for them to seize the opportunity market, and when others wanted to compete with them in the future, they would suffer a loss congenitally.

As for the feathers and furs of those animals, they were taken away by various sponsors as a souvenir, and that ton of gold seemed to be a lot, but the people who could fund the fleet, which one was not very rich, and so many people were not enough, so in the end, everyone carried forward the style and distributed this batch of gold to the crew of the fleet as an additional reward for the voyage.

However, after dealing with the Perfect Island exploration fleet, Li Su finally had to face the problem of Java Island, which gave him a headache. (To be continued......)