Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 540 Wang Dayuan's Successor

The Yuanwang ship returned from Xiangxun Port at noon on the first day of September. Since there was no need to explore along the way on the return journey, and the ship had ample supplies, there was no need to stop frequently for resupply, so the return journey was relatively fast.

Although they were traveling against the California cold front all the way from Mexico to San Francisco, they still managed to reach the Port of King in just eight and a half days without stopping their ships.

Before the Yuanwang ships even entered the San Francisco Bay Area, they saw the Ming Dynasty flag that they had given to the local natives on a mountain near the bay entrance. It was also a signal that the natives were seeking trade.

Wang Dayuan put down his binoculars and said, "We haven't been here for a year. That red flag looks a bit faded. I wonder how long it's been there. It seems that the local people in Jinchuan Port have collected a lot of gold dust and are waiting to trade with us. Turn right and go straight in."

"Yes."

As the tide rose, the captain immediately instructed the helmsman to adjust the course, guiding the Yuanwang into Jinchuan Port. In the open bay, the sudden appearance of this giant white ship immediately attracted the attention of the natives on the shore. Before the Yuanwang even reached the shore, some natives waved to them, while others ran off to who-knows-where, presumably to call their tribal chief.

Chen Youliang stood on the deck, pipe in mouth, puffing out smoke as he said to Wang Dayuan, "Mr. Wang, how much gold dust do you think they can collect this time?"

Wang Dayuan thought for a moment before saying, “Last time we collected more than 700 catties and more than 10,000 taels of gold from here. We almost took all the gold stored in the hands of the natives. In a year, how much can they pan for gold in the river with those pottery bowls? I estimate it’s only a few hundred catties.”

Chen Youliang nodded, which was about what he had expected. However, he still said, "This business seems very profitable, but I'm afraid it won't last long. The amount of gold in the river is finite. After we've collected it a few times, there will definitely be less and less left."

"However, this place is really nice. It is surrounded by mountains, with several large rivers, forests full of giant trees, and a natural harbor that can accommodate thousands of ships. It really has the feel of the Sichuan Land of Abundance. It is a waste to let these natives who don't even know how to farm occupy this place."

"If immigrants from China were to settle and cultivate this land, given the development speed of Hong Kong, I think it wouldn't take more than three generations to completely transform this place into fertile land. Tsk tsk, Lizhou is indeed a paradise on earth, full of treasures. How come no one has discovered this place before?"

This guy was, after all, a rebel leader, and he still had ambitions. Seeing such a vast territory that could be so easily occupied, he was always somewhat unwilling to give up without taking it over.

Having spent so much time with him, how could Wang Dayuan not know who Chen Youliang was? Upon hearing this, he subtly offered a reminder.

"Whether or not to migrate and cultivate this area and incorporate it into Han territory is a matter for His Majesty to consider, not for us to decide."

“Transoceanic immigration is so difficult. We have made full preparations this time, and we can only bring over three hundred people at a time. If we were to carry out large-scale immigration as the general said, it would require the entire nation’s resources. Now that the country has just been stabilized and everything is in need of rebuilding, the imperial court would not agree to it.”

"Furthermore, regarding things that no one had discovered before, according to His Majesty, the first person to discover Lizhou, the senior Gongshu Ling, traveled overland across the Bering Strait. Before His Majesty built ships like the Yuanwang and had treasures like the Four Seas Monsoon and Ocean Current Chart, how many people could cross tens of thousands of miles to reach the other side of the Pacific Ocean? It was common for no one to have discovered it."

Chen Youliang nodded upon hearing this and did not reply. He naturally understood what Wang Dayuan meant.

First of all, if the imperial court hadn't mobilized the entire nation to carry out large-scale transoceanic emigration, it would have been impossible for you to rebel privately and establish a country overseas. At the very least, shipbuilding and nautical charts are not things that individuals can accomplish on their own. Without ships and nautical charts, how could you possibly emigrate across the ocean?
Secondly, there is the immigrant population. Population means soldiers, land, food, and tax revenue. It is the lifeblood of the imperial court. If it weren't for the support of the entire country, you alone could not have brought in so many Han people. The imperial court would not release people easily.

If there aren't enough Han Chinese, is the country you've built still the country you want? What's the difference between it and a tribal chief of the local people?

So you should give up that idea as soon as possible. Don't covet what isn't yours. This kind of thing can't be accomplished by just a few people. It was only during the early Western Zhou Dynasty, when King Wu of Zhou was conquering King Zhou of Shang, and the time when the Duke of Zhou was alive, that the royal family was enfeoffed and the people of the country were relocated to the surrounding areas to establish new states.
As the two were talking, the Yuanwang had already entered the San Francisco Bay Area and arrived at the same anchorage as before. Captain Zhang Chao immediately asked Wang Dayuan, "Sir, shall we rest here for a few days?"

"Of course we need to rest. The main thing is to melt down the gold dust into blocks here, otherwise it will be difficult to transport. We also need to replenish our firewood and water supplies. We should bring more this time. We're leaving from here, and our next stop is Tanzhou Island. If we don't find it, we'll have to be prepared to cross the Pacific Ocean back using the supplies on the ship. So we need to bring plenty of firewood and water."

Zhang Chao nodded upon hearing this, "Understood, then I'll have them anchor and stop the ship."

"Ah."

Just then, Qin Ke, the Ainu boy whom Wang Dayuan had bought from Sapporo, Hokkaido, heard the two talking and immediately asked, "Sir, aren't we going back to Sapporo?"

Wang Dayuan immediately shook his head, "No, we won't go. This time we won't pass through Sapporo on our way back. Instead, we'll go to Tanzhou first, then to Nanyang, and finally back to the Ming Dynasty."

"Oh, I understand." Qin Ke felt a little disappointed upon hearing this, but also a mix of anticipation and excitement.

This 14-year-old Ainu boy spent more than a year with them on the ship and in Xiangxun Port. He has already learned some Mandarin. After all, everyone around him is Han Chinese, so if he wants to speak, he has to learn from them. He can't speak Ainu, and no one can understand him. The environment has a great influence on language learning. Now he can have simple daily conversations in Mandarin.

The educated immigrants on the ship taught the children they had bought the Thousand Character Classic, the Three Character Classic, and the Hundred Family Surnames. Qin Ke had already learned over a hundred Chinese characters and even how to write his own name. After all, they had nothing to do on the ship all day, so what else could they do but study?

After arriving at Xiangxun Port, he didn't need to run around much. Although he would occasionally help out with the work, he spent most of his time directing the native slaves. Therefore, even in Xiangxun Port, he had a lot of time to study. However, pen, ink, and paper were precious on the ship. Although he did recognize many characters, he practiced too little. There were some characters he recognized, but he couldn't write them.
Over the past year, his knowledge has indeed increased considerably, and he has gone from being almost completely blind to being able to open one eye. However, he has not grown taller. This is mainly due to the Ainu race, where adult males are rarely even 1.5 meters tall. Even though the food he eats on the boat is much better than what his tribe eats, he is only a little over 14 meters tall at the age of 14.

On the other hand, the two Aleutians who boarded the ship halfway through, named Xiwa and Luochen, were only 12 years old when they boarded. However, in the past year, they had grown taller as if they had been given fertilizer. Now, at just 13 years old, they were already over 1.5 meters tall, more than half a head taller than Qin Ke, which made him feel somewhat inferior.

When a person feels inferior, he will miss home, especially when surrounded by a group of giant Han Chinese, which makes him feel even more pressured. In his hometown of Sapporo, where everyone is so tall, he doesn't feel that pressure.

Moreover, he was only 14 years old and had been away from home for more than a year, so it was normal for him to miss home. That's why he asked Wang Dayuan if he was going to pass through Sapporo this time. When he got the answer no, he was a little disappointed.

However, after spending more than a year together, he has gained a better understanding of the Ming Dynasty.

In his simple understanding, the elders of his tribe told him that the Ainu people originally lived on the large island in the south, but the Japanese on the island were very powerful and gradually drove them to the northern island. Compared with the powerful Japan and the neighboring mainland countries, they became a small shrimp.

China was originally the territory of the Han people. Later, the barbarian Tartars from the northern grasslands invaded. This Tartar regime, called the Yuan Dynasty, had previously fought against Japan, but failed twice. Later, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty raised an army, drove out the Tartars, restored the Han people's state, and established a new country called the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Dayuan and his men were all subjects of the Ming Dynasty, sent by the emperor to Lizhou to search for seeds. Just as they departed from the Ming, His Majesty the Emperor was preparing for the final battle against the Yuan invaders. Qin Ke was completely bewildered, wondering why Wang Dayuan and his men, so powerful, and the Han people, who occupied such a vast and resource-rich land, would be attacked by the barbarians of the northern grasslands. He couldn't understand it at all.

Wang Dayuan explained that several hundred years ago, a scoundrel named Shi Jingtang handed over a piece of ancestral land of the Han people in the north to the barbarians, leaving the Central Plains without a barrier. This is why the barbarians were able to take advantage of the situation. The decisive battle that their emperor is preparing to launch is to reclaim this land that has been lost for hundreds of years.

So Qin Ke foolishly asked again, "Can the Ming emperor drive out the Tartars and reclaim this lost ancestral land?"

Wang Dayuan's answer was of course yes. The Ming Dynasty had nearly a million elite armored soldiers and powerful weapons like cannons, while the Yuan Dynasty had neglected its virtuous governance and was already on its last legs. When it would take its last breath depended on when the Ming Dynasty would make its move.

Qin Ke could roughly understand that the Ming Dynasty was very powerful, but he still couldn't quite grasp the concept of a million-strong army. So he asked how many a million-strong army was. Wang Dayuan replied that it was far, far more than all the Ainu people, men, women, and children combined, and that they were all giants, seven feet tall, wearing iron armor that could not be pierced by arrows.

Qin Ke was shocked upon hearing this, but he still couldn't comprehend the number of a million-strong army, since he had never studied such a large number before. Wang Dayuan could only give him an example of Japan, which he was familiar with. The Ming Dynasty had a population of more than a dozen Japans, a land area of ​​dozens of Japans, and its military strength was naturally more than ten times that of Japan.

Qin Ke finally gained an impression of the power of the Ming Dynasty and was very excited and looking forward to going there. However, he asked a crucial question: since China was so powerful, why did the Yuan invaders, who occupied China, fail to succeed in their two attacks on Japan? Wang Dayuan replied that the Tartars were born on the grasslands, were not good at naval warfare, and did not know how to fight, which was why they failed twice.

After thinking for a long time, Qin Ke asked again, "Will the Ming Dynasty fight Japan in the future? If the Ming Dynasty fights Japan, the Ainu people can also help the Ming Dynasty. After all, the Ainu people are quite familiar with the northern part of Honshu Island."

Wang Dayuan did not answer him at the time, only saying that he should ask His Majesty when he returned to the Ming Dynasty and met him.

Apart from the Ainu man named Qin Ke, who had many problems, the other children bought by Wang Dayuan did not have as many issues.

The main problem is that those Aleuts, Chinooks from the Vancouver area, Chuma people from the Los Angeles area, Aztecs and Mayans from Central America—these people don't even know what the Ming Dynasty is. They've just been indoctrinated with the idea that the Ming Dynasty is extremely powerful and that their ancestors migrated from China, unlike Qin Ke, who at least knows about Japan and that the Ming Dynasty is right next to it.

On the other side, as soon as the Yuanwang ship anchored in the harbor of San Francisco and sent small boats ashore, local natives immediately came to trade with them, bringing gold dust they had panned. Wang Dayuan, of course, accepted all offers and had his men unload ironware, cloth and other goods from the ship to exchange with these natives.

The first time the Yuanwang ship came here, it didn't stay in San Francisco for very long. Most of the natives who traded gold with them were from nearby tribes. Some tribes that were far away had gold, but before they could trade, the Yuanwang ship left.

This time was different. After more than a year of news spreading, some tribes that were a little further away and wanted ironware had already left people here to wait, or those who couldn't wait used their gold to trade for ironware with the local tribes in San Francisco. A gold-for-iron trade chain had been initially formed.

Adding in the gold dust collected by the natives of San Francisco over the past year, the total amount is indeed more than the last transaction.

This time, they stayed at Jinchuan (San Francisco) for a full five days, and the total amount of gold they collected was more than double that of the last time, reaching more than 23,000 taels, or about 1500 catties.

Seeing the dozen or so golden melons, each weighing over a hundred pounds, that had finally been melted down, Wang Dayuan said with satisfaction, "Not bad, barely a ton, but still more than last time. I wonder if we can make this many next time."

Upon hearing this, Captain Zhang Chao immediately retorted, "Less than a ton? That's over 20,000 taels of gold! I've never seen anything like it in my life. No, compared to the natives here, the Aztecs have more money. We collected over 200 tons over there."

Wang Dayuan immediately said, "This is normal. The natives here in Jinchuan are still just family tribes. Even if they have been collecting gold dust for generations, and it's not something they've been doing intentionally, how much can they possibly accumulate?"

"It's different in A-country. They've already established a country and have a large population. They've accumulated wealth over thousands of years, but they don't know how to use gold and silver as currency. That's why we can take advantage of them. But if we keep exchanging like this, their gold and silver will probably run out soon. Then we'll have to find a way to get new gold and silver ourselves."

Zhang Chao nodded, then realized what he meant and asked, "Sir, are you referring to the Inca Empire, which is further south than the Maya?"

“Indeed, Lizhou has been hidden from the world for thousands of years, just like the Peach Blossom Spring, and it is full of all kinds of treasures. We have only been here once, and we have already made such a harvest.”

"Now that the Great Ming Dynasty has just been established, everything is in need of rebuilding and money is needed. Given His Majesty's nature, he will surely continue to send people to visit Lizhou."

"However, I am now past forty, and how many more times can I continue to travel? Each voyage takes at least one or two years, so I am afraid I am no longer able to do many errands for His Majesty. You all must grow up as soon as possible, because the affairs of Lizhou will depend on you in the future."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chao's heart stirred, and he immediately smiled and said, "What are you saying, sir? You've only just passed the age of forty. This business of traveling back and forth to Lizhou only takes a little time the first time to lay the foundation. Once you have a base and figure out the route, it will be much faster to travel back and forth every few months. If you ask me, sir, you can come to Lizhou at least twenty more times, no, thirty more times."

Upon hearing this, Wang Dayuan immediately glared at him. "What? Can't I go home and hold my grandson? Do you want me to work myself to death on the ship?"
"Thirty more times? Let me put it this way: I might come to Lizhou once or twice in the end. Next time, His Majesty will definitely send me to other directions, such as the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, to Persia, Africa, or from the Atlantic Ocean to the east coast of Lizhou, to do a round-the-world voyage or something."

"If His Majesty specifically requests you to lead the team to Lizhou next time you return to the country, don't blame me for not telling you in advance."

"Huh?" Zhang Chao exclaimed in surprise.

"What do you mean 'huh'? Since you've come with me once, you're naturally the best candidates to lead the team next time. Don't tell me you're not mentally prepared for this."

"But I haven't learned those things yet, like precision, coordinates and stuff, what should I do?" Zhang Chao asked, looking troubled.

"Then learn. On the way back this time, I will teach you more. Ask me if you don't understand anything. Otherwise, even if I lead the team again next time, it may be a fleet of two or even three ships."

“One ship will go directly to Xiangxun Port, and the other two ships will go to Inca or Tanzhou. It’s all possible. Next time, you should at least be able to lead a ship on your own. Then, the third time, you will be in command of the entire fleet,” Wang Dayuan said seriously.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chao immediately nodded solemnly, then cupped his hands and said, "Yes, I understand. Thank you for your guidance, sir."

Wang Dayuan shook his head slightly. "It's better to hand this over as soon as possible. Otherwise, His Majesty might think I'm being too controlling. My mission is to open up sea routes for the Ming Dynasty. After that, the rest should naturally be left to you young people."

(End of this chapter)