Chapter 443 Extra 2 (3) (Update 1)
It was a piece of land that was definitely not like the island they had seen before, but stretched as far as the eye could see!
After five months of drifting on the sea, Gan Ning was so familiar with the line where the sea and the sky met that he could recognize it with his eyes closed. Now, the appearance of this coastline was a signal that instantly refreshed him.
There is a high possibility that they will reach their destination soon!
Gan Ning was not Qiao Yan. Although he believed what His Majesty said, that there might be land at the end of the ocean, he did not have such a clear understanding and was not sure that he would be able to reach a sufficiently vast land after such a long voyage.
This confidence in His Majesty's judgment would not be wrong had already been gradually eroded during the five months of sailing.
He even thought that when they arrived at an island next time, as long as they could find enough food on the island and repair the ship, they would set off back.
During these five months, no matter how smooth the voyage is, we are bound to face the attacks of sea waves and whirlpools, as well as the attacks of ferocious marine creatures.
Diseases caused by the inability to adapt to life at sea accounted for more than one-tenth of the casualties.
If they continue sailing, no one can guarantee whether they can return to the Central Plains.
But now, when this piece of land appeared in the sea, all the hardships they had experienced before seemed no longer so important.
He had to climb onto this land and see what it was!
After confirming that what he saw was not a dream, Gan Ning quickly jumped off the mast and saw that the ship that Lu Meng was on was approaching him on the other side.
The connecting bridge between the two ships was quickly built, allowing the two to gather together.
"Finally we see land!" Gan Ning couldn't help cursing, "Five months! I feel like vomiting when I smell the persimmon leaves now. God knows if I have to endure another month, I will go crazy and pour all the persimmon leaf tea on the boat into the sea."
"You won't." Lu Meng replied firmly.
The two looked at each other and laughed, and they both saw a tacit understanding of sharing hardships hidden in their smiles.
Yeah... no matter how much you curse, he really won't do that.
The theory of food supplementation clarified by Hua Tuo and Zhang Zhongjing clearly stipulated that they must eat enough vegetables, but in an environment like the sea, it would be impossible for them to have the conditions to eat such luxurious food. According to what Your Majesty said, even the method of pickling vegetables would not be enough to make up for this shortfall.
In order to prevent them from getting angry and suffering from anemia, the navy's supplies also included a considerable amount of dried persimmon leaves for use in making tea.
This amount of persimmon leaves, enough to cover the entire fleet for nearly two years, was a daily necessity issued in the form of a military order.
No matter what happened during the sea voyage, they had to drink it.
Although no one knew why they chose persimmon leaves, it at least allowed them to maintain a relatively strong physique after experiencing such a bumpy sea ride.
And now, it can support them to explore their destination!
However, as the fleet continued to sail eastward, the exploration ships spread out in the north and south to observe the coastline. They discovered that the vastness of this land might be far beyond their imagination.
Which direction to go after arriving at this area seems to be a big problem.
Five months had passed from the time they set sail to the time they arrived here, and they had to consider that the return trip would require at least the same amount of time. In order to prevent such a large fleet from disappearing in the minds of the people of Dayong, they had only half a year to a year at most to explore.
If they go in one direction and fail to obtain enough harvest to make up for the expenses of this long voyage, they will not be able to explain to His Majesty.
Gan Ning looked at the remaining fleet and the number of people, and said to Lu Meng: "After we land, we will explore the danger level of this place. If our weapons and equipment can still cope with it, we will split the team in half. I will lead the people to the north, and you will lead the people to the south. At the latest, we must turn back half a year after departure."
"If one of them is..."
Gan Ning glanced at the board on the ship that recorded the date.
It was not until June of the fourth year of Yuan Zhao that they returned to the port via Yizhou and Xuzhou, and it was the end of July when they set out again.
I don’t know if it was God’s will, but when they arrived at this land, it was around the New Year of the fifth year of Yuanzhao.
He gritted his teeth and made a decision, "If they don't return here before the last day of the fifth year of Yuan Zhao, the other group doesn't need to wait any longer and can go back to Dayong directly."
Given that their weapons are already so sophisticated, if they still cannot successfully return here, they will most likely face some insurmountable trouble.
Rather than searching for the whereabouts of the other party and causing both the northern and southern routes to be destroyed here at the same time, it is better to ensure that one of the routes can return to their homeland.
"Weapons, medicinal materials, doctors, food, and the fresh water that we received after the rain a few days ago, we will divide them equally into two parts. Who will get the greater reward in this trip will be left to fate."
Lu Meng understood the significance of Gan Ning's decision, nodded heavily at him, and replied, "Okay, let's do it this way!"
The land before them was extremely unfamiliar to them, just like the hot and rainy climate and the island landscapes along the way, which they had never experienced before. So no one could guarantee whether it was safer to go south or north.
As the commander-in-chief, Gan Ning has already given up his only advantage. Why should he, as the deputy commander, drag his feet?
After naming the port where the ocean current carried the ships ashore as Victory Port, the two teams quickly completed the division and rest, and immediately went their separate ways.
Gan Ning, who was heading north, originally thought that this area of island jungle that looked particularly dense should be uninhabited. However, when his men walked through this relatively narrow and long island area and continued forward for half a month, the soldiers who were scattered to explore between the mountains in front of him actually found traces of people walking.
These traces that can form a road do not seem to be formed by a few people, but rather the marks left by a large enough ethnic group that opened up this place.
Even in an abandoned valley in the mountains, Gan Ning discovered a place that might have been an altar, with two inscriptions remaining in the surrounding weeds.
No matter how crude the marks on it are, they still look like a special kind of text.
There is no way this could have been created by some uncivilized animal, but rather a relic left behind by humans!
Soon after he continued north, his soldiers captured two humans who were secretly watching their actions from the jungle.
In order to solve the language barrier, Gan Ning, a bandit, could only try his best to show a friendly attitude and let the most friendly-looking soldiers among his own side make gestures to the other side. But even so, it took the two unlucky guys who were caught half a month to realize that these strange tribal groups who detained them here and temporarily stopped their march north did not seem to have any hostility towards them.
In return for the jerky and dry biscuits they presented, one of them returned first after conferring with the other.
When he came back again, in addition to two more people following him, Gan Ning also saw that they were holding a bunch of small balls in their hands... probably food?
After the brown skin of these small balls is peeled off, the yellow-white "flesh" underneath is revealed.
But what puzzled Gan Ning was that the other party did not give it to him directly to eat, but smashed it with a stone. Then, as Gan Ning watched with an effort to keep a straight expression, he mixed the clay he brought with him into it, stirred it into a mixture of soil and food, put it in a stone pot and cooked it for a while, and then handed it to Gan Ning.
"General!" The soldiers looked at the bowl vigilantly, fearing that the other party was going to hand Gan Ning some poison.
But Gan Ning just waved at him and took it.
The lack of verbal communication allowed him to see the other person's attitude more clearly than in any other situation.
It didn't look like he was going to be killed.
The other party's series of cooking processes seemed to have been rehearsed thousands of times. It should be the method they use most often in their daily lives and there was no malicious intent at all.
That is... when has Gan Ning ever eaten dirt?
He didn't know that it was precisely because of the addition of soil that the toxicity of the biota in the wild potatoes grown here was weakened to the point where they could be eaten.
All he could be sure of was that when he ate the food prepared by the locals and gave the other party his dagger as a gift, this guy who had originally been wary of them quickly treated him as a confidant.
With this man leading the team, they continued to head north, passing through the road between the hills. From afar, they could see a corner of the valley ahead revealed between the separated trees. At the end, there was a large and simple village made of piled stones.
Beyond the boundary of the stone, a large field of disc-shaped bright yellow flowers grew towards the sun, making one seem as if they saw a golden glow of the sun falling between the mountains.
Gan Ning stared blankly at this place which was different from the prosperous place of Dayong. He felt that this place seemed to still retain some of the cultural budding state of the remote areas of Yizhou.
He raised his hand to signal the soldiers to set up camp on the spot, and continued to move forward with a dozen people following the leader.
He muttered to his subordinates, "They can't all eat mud, right?"
Seeing his subordinates looking at him helplessly, Gan Ning continued to talk to himself: "If they really do that, I will tear up the flowers in front of their door and eat them. I don't believe that this thing can be more unpalatable than soil!"
Fortunately, it turned out that his worries might be unnecessary.
After he arrived here, he found that the lumps of earth mixed with clay were only one of their staple foods. A stick-like object full of yellow and white particles and something that looked a bit like yam were the other two staple foods here.
The seeds of the yellow flowers in front of the door can actually be used to extract oil.
Isn't this exactly the new species he has been dreaming of?
At the same time, on the other side, Lu Meng was still heading south.
Compared to Gan Ning, who was able to discover the indigenous people here at a fairly fast speed and even deal with these simple people with the help of sophisticated weapons, his journey of exploration seemed much more difficult.
After the land he passed through changed from a narrow island to a continent, the difficulty of exploration increased several times due to the mountains that appeared in front of him.
Fortunately, when their carpet search on the coast was fruitless and they moved towards the mountains, some traces left by human passage gradually appeared before him.
Lu Meng was immediately cheered up. He set up camp in the mountains as quickly as possible and continued his search.
When he suddenly saw a dark shadow flash through the forest, he rushed forward first. The next moment, he faced a child with a frightened look on his face.
Seeing the sudden appearance of the man with a knife, the child subconsciously loosened his hand and a ball fell from his hand.
The ball, which did not look like it was made of leather and did not seem hollow, did not fall straight to the ground, but bounced up again the moment it hit the ground.
Then after several ups and downs, it rolled in front of Lu Meng.
The author has something to say:
Here comes the rubber.
Gan Ning is the most miserable. The potatoes he eats are not the same as those of Lu Meng. They are not the same species (dog head)
Gan Ning and Lu Meng's route was actually to go southeast first, using the equatorial countercurrent to travel from west to east, which would save them some effort in sailing. Moreover, it is hot and rainy, and rainwater can be drunk.
So Gan Ning was heading towards Mexico and Guatemala (the Mayan culture at that time)
Lumena headed towards Peru (at that time, it was the border between the Tiwanaku culture and the Chavin culture)
See you at nine o'clock in the evening.
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