Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 356: Fate Destined
This is probably the Ming Dynasty version of "Robinson Crusoe"...and it's not a version with one person floating on the water, but a version with many people floating on the water.
Listening to Monk Zanghai's story, Zhang Shou couldn't help but have such a thought in his mind, and felt quite sad.
Countless people in later generations thought that America was a wonderful place - not to mention the free air, just the climate and environment were something that many people yearned for - most places were not too hot or too cold, the land was fertile and suitable for the growth of crops, there were seasides, waterfalls, the Great Lakes, and Yellowstone... It could be said that it was a place where development and scenery coexisted.
However, compared with the interconnected continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, the early American continent was completely isolated and had no cultural or economic exchanges. It could only work alone. Moreover, compared with wheat and rice, which were relatively easy to domesticate in Asia and Europe, it took many years for corn and sweet potatoes to be domesticated from their initial form to their later forms.
Moreover, in an era of complete isolation, no external enemies, and at most city-state wars, there are no natural enemies and no great motivation for development. Even if you develop to the extreme of slavery...years of natural disasters will bring you down.
Zhang Shou still remembers that until later generations, he often heard about various hurricanes and tornadoes in the United States in the news, which often blew down houses and caused urban flooding. From this, we can know that if we go back hundreds or thousands of years, the living environment there was definitely not good. In addition, people would sacrifice their heads to the gods and heaven for no reason. The so-called amazing civilization did not even enter the Iron Age...
Therefore, in that place, it would be really not easy for a small group of seafarers who had no strong ships, whose powerful cannons were probably sunk, and whose muskets were not sure whether they could be used, to guide the natives to climb the technology tree when their own technological level was not high enough. Moreover, the population and settlement of the natives, the resistance of the ruling class, the enemies of the external city-states, and various natural disasters were all big problems.
It is impossible to develop such a huge continent without the support of a strong country.
The Ming Dynasty was a powerful country, but how could a fleet that sailed across the ocean to America and then encountered a shipwreck receive strong assistance from the country? Moreover, based on the information he had obtained indirectly from Weinan Earl Zhang Kang, at least he had never heard of an official fleet going to the eastern continent according to the records on the globe, and merchant ships were probably even less interested in taking such a risk.
Whether it was because the Ming Dynasty already had enough land and was unwilling to waste money on ocean voyages, or for some other reason, is unknown.
Moreover, Zhang Shou couldn't help but think of another deeper question. Does the Buddhist name of Monk Canghai have any other meaning? This guy can tell the story so well. Is it true that he just heard it, or has he experienced it personally? These two people... and perhaps more crew members, can't they be so bored that they go to look for the new world?
This is not like Columbus, who was funded by the Queen. Who in the Ming Dynasty would fund such a meaningless move? Merchants were too busy doing business in the sea trade to have time! If someone funded it, then they must know exactly which continent it was, and that there were certain people living on that continent! And from what Lao Xianyu revealed yesterday, they had been there more than once!
Zhang Shou's thoughts were becoming more and more divergent. Just when he was about to discuss the possibility of Emperor Taizu being stranded in the American continent, Lao Xianyu spoke again: "In fact, those fragments of the stele that I gave you before were the stele carved by the first group of seafarers. I don't know if it was due to the material of the stele or some natural or man-made disaster that caused the stele to break. They took it with them when they migrated."
He looked at Zhang Shou with his eyes piercing. His usual slickness, cunningness and sophistication were no longer visible on his face. Instead, he had a very serious expression on his face. “If you, Dr. Zhang, say that those handwritings are very similar to those on Emperor Taizu’s manuscript, then I would boldly guess that those people who were stranded there might have been sent by Emperor Taizu back then, so they carved the stele to praise Emperor Taizu?”
If I hadn't heard Zhu Ying talk about some inside stories about how Taizu set sail after abdicating and then never heard from him again, and if I hadn't come across a lot of things later, I would have thought your bold speculation made sense...
Zhang Shou laughed secretly in his heart, and then said thoughtfully: "Maybe, what you said is very likely."
At this point, he turned his head to look at Zhu Ying, and saw that the eldest lady's face, which was always bright and beautiful, was now a little dazed, with an expression full of "I am in a daze". He thought she was a little dazed by the series of messages, so he simply stretched out his hand and shook it in front of her several times.
“Yingying, Yingying?”
"Ah!" Zhu Ying woke up with a start. Seeing that Lao Xianyu and Zang Hai were staring at her, she stared at them innocently and then yawned, "Hey, I just heard about offering sacrifices to the gods and heavens, and was thinking about the human skin thangka of the U-Tsang Xuanwei Office... I didn't expect there would be a place more barbaric than them."
"Old Salty Fish, I just blamed you wrongly. If you hadn't happened to be there, maybe that poor seafarer would have been buried in a foreign land for the rest of his life. By the way, did you bring back his and the others' remains? If you don't have the money to return them to their roots and bury them in their hometowns, I can help you with some money. It's a legend that he has been trapped overseas for so many years and finally met a compatriot."
Seeing her attitude of both caring and not caring, Lao Xianyu couldn't help but wonder if she had heard his speculation. However, he reacted quickly and said with a smile on his face, "Then I really want to thank you on their behalf, Miss."
Zhang Shou chuckled, but did not mention the so-called stone tablet with Taizu's handwriting. Instead, he looked up at the sky and said, "It's getting late. We can't finish looking at the vegetable garden in a short time. Since they have all had dinner, we should also have a good meal and rest for a night before we can talk about business."
"Ahem, look at my memory." Old Salty Fish patted his head quickly, and then said with a drooling face, "This vegetable garden has all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables. Only the tomatoes were grown in a greenhouse in another vegetable garden of mine. There are only a few in total, and there is not much stock here. Dr. Zhang, don't you want to show off your skills?"
Seeing Zhang Shou smiling and not making any comment, the thick-skinned Old Salted Fish added: "If you find it troublesome to do other things, why not teach me how to grill two fish? I don't have much pepper in stock in Cangzhou City, but I have a lot of dried peppers here, and there are many kinds..."
Before he finished speaking, Zhang Shou coughed and said, "Okay, find the kitchen, tableware, condiments, and ingredients for me. You clean up after you're done, but what you do depends on my mood."
"Okay, okay, I understand, I understand!"
Zang Hai originally despised Lao Xianyu for being so spineless in front of the children of the rich and powerful - even if it was just pretending. However, when he saw Zhang Shou and Ah Liu go to the kitchen with a basket of utensils he didn't know what they were, and then saw several large dishes made of fresh vegetables from their own vegetable garden, and finally two grilled fish, his eyes widened.
The future son-in-law of the Duke of Zhao's mansion... can actually cook? Isn't it said that a gentleman should stay away from the kitchen?
When the meal was over, it was Lao Xianyu's turn to carry Zang Hai to wash the plates and bowls with contempt. Facing the whole set of porcelain plates and bowls with exquisite patterns and beautiful glazes, seeing Zang Hai praising them and about to say something nonsense, Lao Xianyu elbowed him hard, stopped him with his eyes, and started to talk.
"I've already told you that Dr. Zhang is a very different person. From what I've seen, he can do anything except fighting... Even if he can't fight, the young man next to him is also a top-notch expert. Tsk tsk, no wonder he's worthy of the eldest lady of the Duke of Zhao's mansion..."
He kept muttering until he finished washing the whole set of tableware that looked very valuable. Then he watched Zhu Hong and Zhu Yi come to take them away. He also asked for hot water to wash them one by one before he finished. Only then did Lao Xianyu hurriedly leave with Monk Zanghai.
This lower house of Zang Hai is his own territory, and there are so many disciples with good martial arts skills keeping watch. Zang Hai does not understand why Lao Xianyu is so cautious. Seeing that he is getting further and further away, he can't help but stop in annoyance.
"Although my dozen disciples are not the best, they are not blind or deaf. Do you need to be so suspicious? In Cangzhou, even a dragon crossing the river has to give way to a tiger sitting on the ground."
"Stop talking about old stories! In front of us is the top dragon crossing the river, the eldest prince, and behind us is the powerful dragon crossing the river, General Zhu Tingfang. Where is the tiger sitting on the ground? Who has ever jumped? The knight-errant broke the law with force, who dares to really fight the government openly? Even that stupid boy Yunhe was forced into a desperate situation, so he did stupid things in a rage, but he didn't dare to rebel against his mother."
Lao Xianyu retorted a few times, and seeing that his good brother of many years still didn't take it seriously, he said unhappily, "It's better to be careful. Do you think I'm flattering you when I say that the guy next to Dr. Zhang is a master? That guy is amazing. He can easily carry away hundreds of pounds of stone fragments. And look at the capable guards around the young lady, they all keep a distance from him."
Zang Hai couldn't help but snorted coldly: "According to what you said, no matter who the court sends down, we have to kneel down to him?"
"If you send corrupt officials, they will of course give way, otherwise they might blackmail you; if you send honest officials, they will also give way, otherwise they might use the martial arts to establish their authority. Otherwise, why do you think Cangzhou City has been so dead these days? Yunhe is fine, but the eight people who were imprisoned in the palace with him all kowtowed to their masters and learned martial arts. Which master do you think will stand up for them?"
Seeing Zang Hai speechless, Lao Xianyu sighed and said, "For people like us, only in a place like Cangzhou where martial arts flourish, can we be like a drop of water falling into the sea and not be visible. Do you still want to jump around? Are you afraid that others will not know that we have returned home?"
"But now that I've fallen into the court's sights, there's no way I can get away. That's right, don't glare at me. How could I know that selling salted fish on Shuishi Street would be targeted? How could I know that Yunhe, that brat, would rebel? Anyway, since the ones who came to my door weren't enemies or government officials coming to call for punishment, I might as well give it a try..."
"Try what?"
Zang Hai's face was as black as a pot-bottomed helmet. "Do you want to tell people that we risked our lives to cross the ocean to the eastern continent because we were sponsored to find the whereabouts of Emperor Taizu? The young man and young lady outside are top dignitaries. If they report it to the current emperor, he will kill us who spread rumors and mislead the public!"
"My words and actions over the past two days have revealed a lot of my true colors. If they wanted to chop me, they would have just caught me and chopped me up because I'm Yunhe's uncle... I forgot to tell you that when I was being hunted down by Yunhe, I almost implicated the second son of the Duke of Zhao's mansion. In short, the Zhu family and I are doomed to be together!"
Seeing Zanghai's disgusted expression, thinking that it was because of you that I got dragged down, Laoxianyu sighed.
"I don't think about anything else. I just think about what the old man Mu said to us before he died. I feel that hiding in Cangzhou under an assumed name is not a good idea. Apart from other things, are we going to eat the fruits and vegetables grown from the seeds we brought back from such a faraway place forever by ourselves and never let outsiders know about it?"
"What those people did on that continent far to the east, will they be buried forever? Their ashes will be buried in your Canghai Lower Courtyard, and will never be able to return home? Don't glare at me. I know that as long as we split up and go to their hometowns quietly, it is not impossible to bury their ashes in the ancestral tombs, or in the mountains and rivers of their hometowns, but the descendants should not be unaware of the achievements of their ancestors."
Seeing that Monk Canghai was finally speechless, Lao Xianyu breathed a sigh of relief and said, "To be honest, I have never met so many rich and powerful children from the capital in my life as I have in the past few days. After meeting them, I found that even those who seem useless on the surface are not completely useless. So, I plan to give it a try. If I really lose my life, I deserve it."
"You deserve it. Why did you drag me into this..." Zang Hai glared at him unhappily, but finally said helplessly, "I know. If you want to try, go ahead. I have to be responsible for a lot of people who need to eat here. Anyway, I've already said that you brought the person back. I'm just helping you raise him. I don't acknowledge anything else!"
"Okay, it's settled then."
Lao Xianyu smiled and suddenly raised his head as if he realized something.
But there was no one on the wall not far away, only bright moonlight, as if what he initially felt was just an illusion.
Although there were vacant rooms in the Canghai Lower Courtyard, Miss Zhu still slept in her specially made carriage. As for Zhang Shou, he set up a specially made cowhide tent outside the carriage and sprinkled insect repellent on it. Although it was a bit cramped, it was not difficult for him to accept. After taking a walk in the evening to digest his food, he returned to the tent and was about to go to sleep when he heard the sound of someone tapping on the cowhide.
The next moment, Ah Liu poked his head in. Seeing Zhang Shou waving, he took off his shoes and went in, then sat cross-legged in front of Zhang Shou. Without Zhang Shou asking, he recounted everything he had overheard, and finally said, "Although I hid very quickly, I think that old salted fish has discovered me."
Zhang Shou has always trusted Ah Liu's judgment. He pondered silently for a while, and finally smiled: "Since he didn't say anything, you should just pretend it didn't happen. No problem, wait until the truth is revealed, then make a decision."
