Chapter 860 Setting Sail

"Xiuniang, take good care of the children. Third and fourth brothers, take good care of your parents. Father, mother, I'm leaving."

It was just dawn and they had already eaten breakfast. The well-equipped Li He looked at the three sleeping children, went out to the yard, knelt down and kowtowed to his parents, looked at his reluctant parents, his wife with tears streaming down her face and gritting her teeth, and his two brothers who nodded hard. He didn't say another word, jumped on his warhorse and went south.

The relatives left the yard, stood at the door, and looked at the figure in the distance for a long time without saying a word. The wife named Xiuniang finally burst into tears. Because they all knew that this departure might be a farewell forever...

Liu Bo rode his warhorse, followed the small road in the village, and got on the wide and hard road, which they had built together in the past.

There are four brothers and two sisters in his family. They were swept to the grassland during the rebellion of Zhang Chun. Later, they were rescued by the general and moved to Changchun, where they were divided into lands and settled down. His elder brother was quite strong. After a year of militia training, he was gloriously recruited into the army and served in Xingwuwei stationed in Changchun, which was very close.

He was two years younger at the time. Because of his good health, he was selected into the navy and has been training for more than four years. This time, 2,500 people were drawn out of 5,000 people for the ocean voyage, and he was selected.

After the warship was built, it was time to set sail and head for the unknown overseas. The general did not hide it from them, saying that this trip was a life-threatening one, and many people might not come back, or even all of them. So before leaving, the general asked them to rest for half a month and return home to spend the possible last time with their families.

He didn't know how others felt. In the past, he didn't have any special feelings. But until today, until today when he was going south to the sea, his heart was inexplicably tightened.

He stopped his horse on the slope of the hill, looking back at the small village in the distance, vaguely looking at his relatives at the doorstep, and the endless fields, with wisps of cooking smoke rising. At this moment, he realized that perhaps this was the last scene of his hometown and family in his life, and his eyes were wet.

He stopped his horse for a while, greedily looking at every corner of his hometown, until a breeze blew from nowhere. The wind and tears on his face made him uncomfortable, but it also woke him up. He wiped the tears from his face fiercely, and he rode south with his excited heart.

He must come back alive. Even if he doesn't come back, if he can find the good seeds given by the general in his dream and let them bloom all over China, then he will come back...

Along the way, he met up with his brothers in the army heading south. Everyone laughed and pretended to be free and easy, and went straight to the naval barracks in Tuhe. After the inspection, it was confirmed that the whole army had returned to the team, and they trained for another week.

The high-intensity training restored their physical condition. Two thousand five hundred soldiers went to the sea and sailed towards the unknown fearless blood, eliminating the laziness of resting at home and the homesickness.

The food for this week was even better. Except for the relatively vegetarian breakfast, lunch and dinner were all meat. Every meal was full. Eating like this for a week was like the last meal of the year.

Finally, the supplies were loaded on the ship. There was a large amount of food, beans for sprouting, modular soil for growing vegetables, various vegetables and grain seeds, equipment for distilling seawater and collecting fresh water, coal for heating, spare weapons and armor, stored crossbows, various tools, spare clothes, cloth, medicinal materials, and everything else. Considering various situations, everything was ready.

That morning, the people of Tuhe, the celebrities and scholars of Wenchang Pavilion, the doctors and students of medicine, and the merchants from all over the country gathered near the dock. There were three layers inside and three layers outside. It was really crowded.

At the dock, five huge warships were moored.

On the dock, by the Bohai Sea, a huge altar was set up, surrounded by flags, including the Five Elements Flag, the Navy Flag, the Tianwu General Flag, and the territory flag with the golden dragon going out to sea and the sun rising in the east. Large flags were erected high, fluttering in the wind.

Under the altar, 2,500 fully armed naval officers and soldiers stood majestically. On the altar, there was a long table with three animal heads and five grains of rice, and eighteen Taoists were holding a ceremony to pray for blessings.

General Wang, wearing a pure gold armor and holding an eight-sided Han sword, walked in all directions with the Taoists, pointing his sword in all directions. Then he recited the sacrificial text, burned it to the sky, and threw three animal heads into the sea to calm the waves.

After a set of rituals, General Wang stood on the altar and said loudly: "From ancient times to the present, the people have not had enough food and clothing, and the products are not rich and the land is not abundant. Today, my 2,500 warriors, ahead of China for 3,000 years, traveled far to the sea, risked their lives, and sought the future of China. How brave and magnificent! You left your parents and wives behind, and your life and death are unknown. It is all the fault of Wang Yan alone.

You are brave and glorious, and I will send historians to compile history and list them in a separate book. Your names and lives are all clearly recorded. You have not returned for 15 years. The Martyrs' Cemetery will build tombs for you, and there will be tomb keepers to protect you. Now, I kowtow to you for myself, for Liao, You, and for the Chinese people."

After speaking, Wang Yan lifted up his skirt armor, knelt on his knees with a clang, and kowtowed three times.

The dock was very quiet at this moment, with only the flags fluttering in the sea breeze. The onlookers, including the common people, scholars, merchants, schoolchildren, and the 2,500 navy soldiers under the altar, were all stunned.

Although kneeling was not a special etiquette, it was absolutely unheard of for a person of General Wang's status to kneel down and kowtow to the soldiers in front of so many people.

The next moment, the sound of fluttering armor leaves was heard, and 2,500 naval soldiers knelt down in unison, kowtowing. Then, the onlookers all knelt on the ground, and no one stood.

The voices of 2,500 naval soldiers rang out: "We have no regrets! We vow to return to China with better seeds!"

This scene is foolish, because everyone kneels down and kowtows. Among the spectators, there must be many people who don't want to kneel down, but when they see others kneeling down and kowtow, he has to kneel down and kowtow. Of course, this scene is also sincere, passionate, and worth remembering, also because of the kneeling and kowtow.

General Wang is indeed trying to win people's hearts. The kneeling now is not a sign of ceremony. It's just that these people kneeling know that they are going to die, but there is not a single deserter.

He stood up with his sword in hand and called for everyone to get up. Without any more nonsense, Cang Lang drew his sword and pointed to the east: "Get on the ship! Set sail!"

As his words fell, two sergeants took a deep breath and blew the desolate horns.

Immediately afterwards, bursts of drums sounded, and the musicians played sonorous music. Zhendao led a group of male and female dancers to dance to the music.

Whoever plays it will be victorious. The dancers dance in triumph.

Departure is victory!

Amidst the farewell songs and dances, Wang Yan watched 2,500 sergeants boarding four large ships, and as the horns sounded louder, they slowly sailed away from the port toward the unknown sea.

The first test warship did not set off together. That ship was used to train the navy. It would go out to sea from time to time to fish. The income from fishing was considered to be the navy's, so that their conditions could be better. At the same time, this ship will also be responsible for some subsequent modification tests of the new ship.

Research on sea vessels has been ongoing, and various materials have been prepared. Including the four ships this time, they are all more or less different. Because inspiration breaks out at any time, if you have the opportunity, just implement it.

There are still sea ships under construction in the dock, and the next batch of voyages will set off in one and a half to two years, with still 2,500 people. New naval soldiers have also been recruited, and this time they are all people from Youzhou, all children aged sixteen or seventeen. They would train for many years, and after marrying wives and having children, they would go on long voyages.

Each batch consists of four ships and 2,500 naval soldiers. The interval between each batch is one and a half to two years. This process will continue until a ship comes back and gets what it wants.

They wanted to draw sea charts, find out the patterns of ocean currents and monsoons, and look for new crops. Once these are completed, the route will be stabilized, and then we will study the issue of how to obtain resources.

If China is unified, overseas territories will not be used for a long time, and only resources will be used. After all, there are only 50 million people in Han Dynasty now, and the war has begun in the past two years, and droughts, locust plagues, floods, and plagues are also happening continuously. When he unifies, the population should not be too large, there is no way to avoid this.

Although during peacetime, he vigorously promoted the construction of sanitation and medical systems, he also brought back potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and other seeds. Maybe they had been cultivated and improved several times, so people had no worries about eating and drinking. The population will grow very fast, every 20 years, exponential growth, but it will take time.

On the other hand, if you don’t sweep one house, how can you sweep the world? The land under our feet must be developed before we can think of conquering other territories and settling our own people.

This is not a problem that can be solved in a short time. Anyway, he has a lot of trouble in his life. It is estimated that he can reach Central Asia in the northwest, Siberia in the northeast, and Indochina in the south. At this point, he will live to be 120 or 30 years old. The limit of control is reached, time is the biggest opponent...

The sergeants on the deck were all waving. They were extremely silent, and some of them choked up. No one looked at the road ahead, everyone was looking in the direction of the dock.

The same was true for Liu Bo. There had never been a moment when his heart was so empty. He did not have a high level of education, but he was forced to read in the army. He knew how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. He could read books alone and understand the meaning with only a smattering of knowledge. He couldn't use some sentences to express his mood at the moment. He only knew that he was reluctant to give up.

Leaving the village in Changchun, he knew that he might never be able to go back. After leaving Tuhe Pier, he realized that this was really leaving.

He just watched like this until the river became a little bit, until he couldn't see it anymore, then he sat dejectedly on the deck. When he turned around, he saw that the brothers were all of the same virtue.

They looked at each other, but suddenly laughed, laughing at everyone's lack of success. On weekdays, everyone is clamoring loudly, but now that they are really gone, the one who clamored the loudest is in tears...

When the people on the voyage left, people were still talking about and looking forward to it at first. But as time went on, except for those whose families had sailed, they no longer talked about it. They just thought they were dead, but they looked forward to being alive.

The departure of the voyage navy had no impact other than adding some talk to the people in Liao and You and adding some jokes to other people who had heard about it.

Liao and You continue to operate. After spring plowing, there are still other works in the fields, road construction hired by the government, construction of water conservancy facilities in progress, and things produced by brick kilns and glass kilns for Youzhou. The people built houses, had all kinds of goods, and were constantly moving around within their own territory. They also needed militia and military training, so they had no time to spare.

Similarly, other places were not idle. The latest news is that after Yuan Shu fought two battles, he led his troops to withdraw. Dong Zhuo, the Han emperor, and the court officials can do whatever they want. Let them fight on their own. He doesn't care. Yuan Shao, Han Fu, Gongsun Zan, who were looking forward to it, did not fight with Wang Yan's father-in-law. Gongsun Zan was even made into a skeleton for people to play with. They all had their own thoughts and kept developing. Of course, they couldn't fall behind.

Liu Bei took his two good brothers to Xuzhou for a temporary stay. Tao Qian welcomed them very much. Mi Shi may have a close relationship. It doesn't matter whether it is the original Mrs. Mi, because whoever marries here is Mrs. Mi. Wang Yan's fourth room was sent by Mi Shi, and a son was born at the beginning of this year. In this way, he and Liu Bei have become a bridge.

Liu Guan Zhang were not surprised by Gongsun Zan's death. No one knew Wang Yan's desperate strength better than them, because they knew the accurate situation of Liaodong in all aspects, and they were not opponents of the same level. However, it is inevitable that there is still a bit of sighing. The days when classmates slept side by side are still vivid in my mind. The care of Zhuo County in the past and the support later are also in sight.

A good person was turned into a skeleton. They all went to the medical school, where there are many skeletons, and even processed corpses with exposed muscle tissue. Each person has a name and a detailed description of the past. They are all powerful people, and most of them were processed after they died of starvation and freezing in the winter.

In Wang Yan's words, that is to contribute to the people, and they must be used after death, and they cannot be wasted. Liu Bei believes that no one likes to contribute in this way...

Cao Cao returned to Chenliu again. The team he had previously raised was defeated. This time he spent a lot of family wealth and found support from the powerful families. The next step is to clear out the surrounding Yellow Turbans and strengthen himself. If nothing unexpected happens, his initial trajectory will not change much. He will still be welcomed into Yanzhou and have to fight Tao Qian.

In general, it is quite peaceful, and no major wars have broken out.

Only here in Jizhou is not so peaceful. Because Wang Yan forwarded the letter Yuan Shao wrote to him to Han Fu. Anyone who sees such a letter will have some reaction, not to mention that Han Fu was already very wary of Yuan Shao.

But he still didn't know what to do, because Yuan Shao was not given for nothing, and he didn't dare to kill Yuan Shao...

Daily thanks to the good brothers who voted for the monthly ticket,

Thank you for the support of the brothers who voted for the recommendation,

Thank you for the support of the big brothers who read the book silently.