Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 238 The World is So Big (Part )
Lu Jin nodded affirmatively, "Of course it is made."

Wang Dayuan was so shocked that he didn't know what to say, "How is this possible?"

He thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't believe it was true.

Yu Tonghai had seen Lu Jin's car, so he believed what Lu Jin said without a doubt and asked, "Did the ancestor Gongshu go to heaven later? Are there any gods in heaven?"

Lu Jin shook his head and said the same thing, "How can there be gods in this world? Can you see gods just because you can fly? Can't birds fly too? But wild geese can still be shot down and eaten as food."

Meng Zhifang also asked, "What does the plane that Master built look like?"

Lu Jin then said, "This thing is called an airplane. It is a flying machine. It has a fish body, more than two feet long and two feet wide. There is a hole on the back with a cross-legged chair inside that can carry one person. It has three pairs of wings that can be spread out for more than three feet. There is a pair of propellers on the fish head, which are driven by fuel. There is a pair of fish tails and a pair of bird tails. There are no claws on the bottom, but there is a pair of wheels. The whole body is made of bamboo and wood, covered with cloth and silk. It can carry one person and fly up to a height of no more than a few dozen feet, and can only fly two or three hundred miles at a time."

Wang Dayuan still felt it was too far-fetched and must be fake, but Lu Jin described it in detail, even going so far as to describe the specific shape, size and materials, which made it seem real.
Yu Tonghai continued to ask, "Then what happened after our ancestor Gongshu could fly?"

Lu Jin recalled, "After that, of course I went to seek revenge on Mozi. In the past, he mocked my ancestor for not being able to carry things with his wooden kite. Today, my ancestor personally flew a kite to seek revenge on Mozi. I want to see what he has to say.

"Unfortunately, when my ancestor found Mozi again, he had already passed away. My ancestor was heartbroken, as if he had lost a close friend. He returned home and compiled his lifelong learning into a book, which became Gongshu Suanjing, Physics, and Scientific Views and Methodology. He passed it on to future generations, asking them to follow these four chapters to study things and gain knowledge, which led to the later Gongshu Secret Classic."

Meng Zhifang asked again, "What happened to our master later? What happened to the airplane that could carry people into the sky?"

Lu Jin then said, "After our ancestor wrote the book, he was already old. One day, he suddenly felt something and informed his wife, Yun, and flew away. He has never been seen since then. Descendants have searched for him several times, but to no avail. Some in the clan say that our ancestor became an immortal and ascended to heaven, while others say that he died in a plane crash. No matter what, he was never found alive or dead."

"Just gone like that?" Yu Tongyuan was just getting excited, but suddenly he was told that both the person and the machine were gone. How could he not feel regret and shock?

Lu Jin shook his head and continued.

"Many descendants of Gongshu wanted to find their ancestors. Even if they couldn't find them, they wanted to find their relics, so many of them traveled far away. Although they didn't find their ancestors, they learned a lot during their trips abroad, and added a lot of foreign knowledge to the Gongshu Secret Canon, such as the Arab numbers in the Mathematical Classics, the Western alphabet, and Persian alchemy, etc."

Meng Zhifang suddenly realized, "So this is how all the knowledge in the secret book was obtained!"

"That's right." Lu Jin nodded, turned around and knocked on the blackboard behind him, and the topic returned to the world map.

"About eight hundred years ago, there was an elder of the Gongshu clan named Gongshu Ling who traveled to the extreme north of China. This place was called the Dog-Envoy Tribe and the Deer-Envoy Tribe in the Tang Dynasty. The local natives made a living by raising dogs, herding deer, hunting and fishing. They called themselves Chukchi people, and the dogs they raised looked like wild wolves, so they were called Aisiqi dogs.

"The Chukchi people have very different customs from our Chinese people. They use ice and snow as bricks to build snow houses, wear animal skins, eat raw meat and drink blood, and never bathe or light a fire.

"They traveled without carriages or horses, but with sleds. A sled is a sled with slides under a Hu bed, pulled by animals, and can slide quickly on ice and snow, covering a distance of a hundred miles a day. It is also used in places like the Jurchens, and is called a sled.

"However, the Chukchi tribe does not raise cattle or horses, but uses domestic dogs as laborers. Whenever they travel, they must use 10 to 20 wolfhounds, two by two, to travel in a team. A dozen wolfhounds pull a sled that can carry several people."

Yu Tongyuan, a young man who had never traveled far, was not very knowledgeable. He was very surprised to hear Lu Jin talking about such a strange thing. He said, "There is such a strange tribe in the world. They are really barbarians. They eat raw meat and drink blood. They never bathe or live. How dirty must these people be? Aren't they afraid of getting sick by eating raw meat?"

Lu Jin immediately said, "Hey, you are right, they live like this just to avoid getting sick."

"Ah?" Yu Tongyuan was a little dumbfounded.

Lu Jin explained, "It's icy and snowy there. It's winter for 12 out of 10 months a year. There's thick snow and ice everywhere. Not to mention food, even grass can't grow. When it's coldest, it can reach minus degrees Celsius, and your breath turns to ice.

“If people don’t eat grains, vegetables and fruits, they will develop septicemia. In mild cases, they will suffer from night blindness, chills, vomiting and diarrhea. In severe cases, they will die from festering ulcers and pus. But there is neither food nor vegetables and fruits there. If you want to survive, you can only eat raw meat and blood, and eat the five organs of sea beasts to stay healthy. If you don’t eat, you will die. If you go there, you must adapt to the local customs.

"As for bathing and making fire, it is icy and snowy there, with no grass growing. It would be even more difficult for them to cut wood and burn firewood. Since there is no firewood to boil hot water, are you going to let them bathe in ice and snow? It would be better to kill them with a knife. How is this different from torture?

"Do they not like to eat cooked meat, roast over charcoal fires, or bathe in hot water? It's not that they don't like it, but they just can't. People are shaped by the land and water they live in. Snakes, insects, rats, and ants all have their own ways of survival. They are all just trying to survive. There is no need to look down on them.

"When our predecessor Gongshu Ling first arrived here, he would rather die than eat raw meat. However, he soon fell ill and had to eat with the natives in order to survive. He also mocked himself and said, 'China has had fish sashimi since ancient times and it is considered a delicacy. Why do we despise others eating raw meat when we are in a foreign land?'"

Yu Tongyuan scratched his head and said embarrassedly, "I know, I'm just surprised."

"What's so surprising about this? The world is so vast, and there are many surprising places. If you don't believe me, ask Mr. Wang. He must have seen black people on both sides of the Persian Strait. Their whole bodies are as black as ink. Isn't that even more surprising?" Lu Jin said again.

"Is there really someone as black as ink? Is he still a human being?" Yu Tongyuan's curiosity was aroused again.

Wang Dayuan glanced at Lu Jin and thought that Lu Jin was a strange man, with more knowledge than himself. He nodded immediately and said, "There are black people, of course they are human beings. When I was in Persia and other places, Persian merchants often captured these black people and sold them as slaves. Only a blue-white porcelain bowl could be exchanged for several black slaves, and the price was very cheap."

"Tsk tsk tsk" Yu Tongyuan was immediately amazed.

Meng Zhifang, who was standing next to him, said, "The commander just said that there is Lizhou across the East China Sea, which is tens of thousands of miles wide. Then he mentioned Senior Gongshu Ling. Could it be that he crossed the sea to Lizhou?"

"That's right." Lu Jin nodded. As soon as he said this, the three people's attention was immediately drawn to Li Zhou.

Lu Jin said again at this time.

"Gongshu Ling had two purposes for his trip north this time. One was to find out where the northern end of Shenzhou was. The other was that he was attracted by the wonderful celestial phenomena in this place, so he kept going north."

Lu Jin pointed to Chukotka and said, "This place is located within the Arctic Circle. The astronomical phenomena are extremely special. There are polar day and polar night phenomena that are hard to see in the Central Plains." "What are polar day and polar night?" Wang Dayuan also became curious.

"Polar day means six months of the year, 180 days without sunset. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It rises again in the east just after it sets in the west, before it gets dark. This is polar day. Polar night is just the opposite. There is no sunrise for half a year, and it is dark for several months.

"During the polar night, there are gorgeous auroras floating in the sky, like green clouds and silk flowing water, floating in the sky, fantastic and dazzling, charming and beautiful, and people are very obsessed with it."

The three people were stunned. The sun sets and the moon rises, and day and night rotate. This is common sense to them. But now Lu Jin told them that there is such a place in the world where it is daytime for half a year and darkness for half a year. It is really amazing.

"How can there be such a magical place in the world?" Wang Dayuan was also surprised this time.

Lu Jin nodded, "Yes, Gongshu Ling followed the aurora all the way north and finally arrived at the Chukchi tribe. He lived with the local people there for three years, married and had children, recorded the astronomical phenomena, and finally figured out the rules of polar day and polar night, as well as the local climate, customs and people, and wrote them down in books. He guessed that if the North Pole was like this, the South Pole must be like this too.

"During the three years he lived here, he heard his wife talk about local legends. The natives said that a long time ago, a tribe crossed the sea from here to the east and arrived on the other side, which was also a piece of land. Later, many natives from the other side also came over and called themselves Inuit. They were similar to the Chukchi tribe, but they were not of the same ethnic group. So they decided to cross the sea to the east."

"Is there really a Lizhou across the East China Sea?" Wang Dayuan became even more curious.

"It's true." Lu Jin nodded and continued to make up a story.

"Later, Gongshu Ling recorded this place and called it the Bering Strait. The name "Bering" comes from it, and "Bai" means snow-covered. The narrowest part of this strait is only 70 miles, and the widest part is less than 170 miles. It is called a sea, but in fact it is not as big as Chaohu Lake.

"However, the Bering Sea is frozen in October every year, and the ice and snow only melt in a little over a month. If you want to reach the other side, there are only two ways: either walk on the ice in winter, or use animal skins to make a raft and row across the sea in summer."

While Lu Jin was making up stories, he kept writing with chalk in his hand. Finally, he drew the North and South American continents and marked the word "Pacific Ocean" between China and America.

"This is Lizhou, which is divided into two islands, the north and south, connected by a land bridge. Gongshu Ling lived in the Chukchi tribe for three years, then he built a raft, carried a sword, and crossed the Bering Sea with his wife and son to the other side. He then went south again, spending more than 20 years searching for Lizhou and recording it in a book. He eventually died of old age in Lizhou and asked his son to carry the book across the sea to send it back home."

The three were all shocked when they heard this. Meng Zhifang even said with emotion, "What a brave man! I wish I could go with him."

Lu Jin continued to introduce.

"Lizhou spans more than 22,000 miles from north to south and more than 1200 miles from east to west. The narrowest part in the middle is less than 100 miles. It borders the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Southern Ocean to the south. It is surrounded by the sea on all sides, so it has been unknown to outsiders for thousands of years.

"China, Persia, India, the West and other countries are all unaware of this place, just like Tao Yuanming's Peach Blossom Spring. They don't know about Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, the Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period, and even less about the Qin, Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties. The area is tens of thousands of miles long and is inhabited by tribes and barbarians. There are only a few small states in the middle. They are called states, but they are just city-states with one city in each country."

The three of them were stunned. The Peach Blossom Spring written by Tao Yuanming was just a secluded village, but what Lu Jin was talking about was a secluded continent tens of thousands of miles wide. How could this not be shocking?

Wang Dayuan was puzzled and asked, "How did Senior Gongshu Ling know that the people there migrated from China?"

Lu Jin replied, "The barbarians there are neither colored nor black, and they don't look like Persians or Indians. They look exactly like Chinese people, but they have black hair and black pupils. How do you explain that?"

"But it doesn't make sense just based on their looks. Do they have Chinese characters?" Wang Dayuan asked again.

Lu Jin rolled his eyes at him and asked, "Who created Chinese characters and when did they do so?" without explaining.

Wang Dayuan immediately replied, "It was created by Cangjie at the order of Emperor Huangdi."

"That's incredible. They are the descendants of Chiyou, the mortal enemy of Emperor Xuanyuan Huangdi. How could they have characters from Huangdi's side?"

"." The three of them were suddenly speechless.

"But since there is no written language, how can Senior Gongshu Ling be sure that they are the descendants of Jiuli?" Yu Tongyuan also asked curiously.

Lu Jin explained further.

"First of all, people at that time certainly didn't know how to build boats to cross the sea, so could they migrate to Lizhou by land? Gongshu Ling had already tried it himself, heading northeast, walking on ice and crossing the sea for 70 miles, and then he could reach Lizhou.

"Secondly, although these city-states in the central part of Lizhou do not know Chinese characters, they have a calendar, know how to farm, and worship Nuwa, and have built Nuwa temples.

"Nuwa is an ancient god in China. According to legend, she has a human head and a snake body. She made humans out of clay. She is the wife of Fuxi. Fuxi observed the laws of heaven and earth, created the Tai Chi Bagua, and formulated the calendar. They are all ancient gods, older than Emperor Xuanyuan and Emperor Shennong. If the countries of Lizhou did not originate from China, how could these things be passed down?"

The three of them were even more stunned after hearing this. There actually was a country that retained such ancient beliefs. They really had to doubt whether they were from China. In addition, Lu Jin had said before that the people of Lizhou looked the same as the Chinese. The three of them had already believed it for the most part.

It took Wang Dayuan a long time to digest this huge amount of information. He looked at the map for a while before asking Lu Jin.

"The commander-in-chief asked me to come here and wanted me to do Zhang Qian's work. He also said that the matter he entrusted me with was related to Lizhou in the East China Sea. Could it be that he wanted me to be an envoy to these countries? But what is there that made the commander-in-chief so worried?"

Lu Jin said immediately.

"There is food. The products of Lizhou are quite unique. There is a Maya country here. Its people can farm. The things they grow are called Maya by the locals, so the country is named after the things they grow. The predecessor Gongshu Ling called it corn, or corn. This corn can produce 1,000 kilograms per mu.

"We also have potatoes, which can produce thousands of kilograms per mu. They are suitable for both vegetable and grain, and can replace rice and wheat as the staple food. They can be harvested in two months, are cold-resistant and drought-resistant, and are not picky about soil. They can be grown in Mobei. Do you know what this means?"

(End of this chapter)