Chapter 87 The Legendary Treasure of the Gentleman's Country (Part 1)

What kind of wealth?

Zhao Xing did not tell them directly. After two or three days of preparation, Zhao Xing took the "tongue man" provided by the Chen brothers and sisters, and Wang Yuanyu, a Huzhou immigrant who Zhao Xing met on the dock, and drove a boat to sea together.

Although the Chen brothers and sisters are descendants of Fujian's sea-breaking people, the Chinese are ashamed of exploring the sea as soon as they read, because the education at that time believed that only farming and reading were the highest. The "great wealth" mentioned by Zhao Xing did not prompt them to go to sea with the ship. They just sent a few sailors and several "tongue men" boarded the two ships that Zhao Xing belonged to as a helper.

The so-called "tongue man" is now called "translator".

In addition, Pu Yian did not go out to sea with Zhao Xing. He was busy sorting out his business and had no time to play with Zhao Xing. Only on the two ships led by Zhao Xing, the sailors followed him unremittingly.

The sea was vast and it was difficult to determine the direction on the sea surface. But after walking for a day, the oarist Liu San had already guessed the place where Zhao Xing was going. He hurriedly broke into Zhao Xing's cabin and asked anxiously: "Gangshou, are we going to Ma Yi?"

Zhao Xing was in the cabin, drawing patterns on a large piece of parchment paper. Liu San glanced at him and found that the other party seemed to be drawing a navigation chart. He hurriedly turned around and confessed, "Master Zhao, I didn't see anything."

In this era, nautical charts meant treasure charts, and they were passed down from generation to generation by the family. Because snatching a nautical chart often had many bloody cases, it is not uncommon for Liu San to be so sensitive.

However, Zhao Xing did not mean to avoid him. He knocked on the table, pointed to the picture and said, "It's nothing, look at it. This picture is the treasure I promised you."

Liu San turned his face to look at the chart. With his knowledge, he still couldn't see clearly what the vertical and horizontal lines were drawn on the picture. Since Zhao Xing said that this picture was a treasure promised to them, he no longer avoided it and pointed to the lines on the picture and asked Zhao Xing: "Master, what are the lines drawn?"

"This is the navigation drawing method I learned from Guan Ren Pu," Zhao Xing patiently pointed out the content on the picture and explained: "You said we are going to Ma Yi, it's good, your sense of direction is very correct.

Look, when we leave the port from Guangzhou Maritime Service, we should walk in this direction before we can reach Mayi, but when we walk from Chai stick, we should walk in this direction. Look, this cross line is the north pointing to the compass, and this diagonal line is the angle formed during the sailing and the north pointing to the compass... Do you understand?"

Zhao Xing explained the lines on the picture in a few words. Liu San looked at the picture and was stunned for a long time. He asked Zhao Xing again: "Master, we Song people all know how to sail from Guangzhou to Mayi, but we don't know the route from Dayue to Mayi. How do you use a pen to draw and know what path we should take?"

When Liu San said this, his face was full of incredible respect. Now he believed why the book often said: "A scholar can understand the world if he doesn't go out." Zhao Xing first went to Southeast Asia, but he knew the way better than his old sailing, and he actually used his pen to calculate the exact direction of Mayi Island.

In fact, his respect was wrong. Zhao Xing was an exception in this era. Zhao Xing told him that "a scholar can know the world's affairs if he doesn't go out", which is actually a misleading for him. Because under the education system of ignorant people, scholars will not know the "world affairs" except for the books of sages when they go out.

"Sage Book" believes that if scholars know the people's farming and farming issues, they are "villain" - more than a thousand years ago, the sage's disciples asked Master Jiarong farming and farming issues, and the Master answered this way.

"It is not very difficult to calculate Ma Yi's position," Zhao Xing replied disapprovingly: "This technology was already available 1,500 years ago. The black-clothed cannibal called it the 'trigonometric function', which originated from a country called 'Greece'."

This was too profound and Liu San had no way to understand it. He pointed to the drawings and focused on the specific questions: "Master, I will go to Japan, Goryeo, and Liao. At that time, we sometimes had ships, and sometimes the places we went to were different from the destinations we were on the ships... Let's not talk about these, Daguan, we went to the East China Sea with you, you once said: I promise to give us a rich man, but what's the matter with Ma Yi?

I have heard maritime merchants say that Ma Yi. Legend has it that it was a "country of thousands of households". The natives on the island were poor and could not even afford to wear clothes, so they used tattoos as clothes. When my merchants from the Song Dynasty sailed there, they could not afford to buy goods at all, so they could only borrow money... However, I heard that Ma Yi Islanders had good credit, and they all said that it was a "gentleman country".

I heard that whenever the Song boats approached Ma Yiguo, Ma Yiren would row a canoe to the boat, first borrowed goods from the Song merchants, and then rowed a small boat to a nearby island to trade with local natives. Afterwards, Ma Yiren would definitely drive a boat back to the Song merchants and pay the Song merchants a lot of money at the price agreed in advance.

I heard that Ma Yiren has been trading with my Song merchants for more than a hundred years, but there is no case that he has not paid back his debts - but this does not mean anything. Ma Yi Island, a ship of goods is enough for them to eat for several years. Song merchants are generally unwilling to trade with them, fearing that they can't eat a ship of goods. If they hadn't encountered a storm and the cargo ship drifted nearby, the Song people would never dock at Ma Yi.

If the great official promises us wealth and honor is Mayi Island... I advise the great official to think about how to appease the crew now."

"You don't understand," Zhao Xing asked calmly: "Do you know Nanzhu?"

"Of course I know, isn't it just a pearl produced in the South China Sea... Ma Yi has Nanzhu. I have heard of the 'storm of wealth' that the high official said before. If it was a single guide to Nanzhu, it would be a little short of it."

"You are wrong," Zhao Xing rolled up a sheepskin chart and patiently told Liu San about some modern pearls. His tone was like a father who taught his children: "What you just said about 'Nanzhu' refers to the pearl of the South China Sea silver-lipped oyster or golden-lipped oyster. Strictly speaking, it should be called 'Nanhai Oyster Bead' - some people call it 'Nanzhu' abbreviated 'Nanzhu'.

The real "Nanzhu" refers to the pearls contained in the white saucepan. The white saucepan pearl shell is very large and is the largest of all pearl shells. The pearls it produces can be the size of broad beans, and the largest "Nanhai Oyster Bead" is just like a pea. Only larger than broad beans are the real "Nanzhu".

And the most precious thing among the 'Nanzhu' is the 'Golden Bead'... Have you ever heard of the 'Golden Bead'? You're ignorant, 'Golden Bead' does not refer to beads made of gold, it refers to a kind of golden pearl, a treasure among the 'Nanzhu'. Think about it, the golden light shines like the size of a broad bean, how much can a pearl worth? Isn't this a 'sky wealth'?"

Liu San was directly knocked down by Zhao Xing's words. He drooled and thought for a long time before he came to his senses. He questioned: "'Nanzhu' is on Mayi Island? Grand Officials, we have been to Japan. How do you think Japan's 'Dongzhu' is better than 'Nanzhu'? Pearls in my country have only about ten thousand yuan in business every year, so Grand Officials are not allowed to sell..."

Zhao Xing shook his head: "You are wrong again. The Japanese domestically produced ones are not called "Dongzhu". The "Dongzhu" is only produced in the Persian Gulf. Only pearls produced by the mollusk unique to the Persian Gulf are called "Dongzhu". However, because the Black-Clothed Food is in the west of us, we mistakenly call "Dongzhu" "Xizhu". But I tell you, the real "Dongzhu" is as big as a pea - a large pea.

The real "Xizhu" is still further west. That place is called Beihai, and the pearls produced there are called "Xizhu". As for the "Dongzhu" we mistakenly think, its correct name should be "Waizhu", which is also an oyster bead, called the pearl contained in akoya oysters, which is only the size of mung beans."

Liu San's mouth was wet on the deck and still didn't notice it. He asked in awe: "Master, you also wrote these things in the book... I mean, do you read these things from the book?"

"There is a golden house in the book, and the beautiful woman in the book is a beautiful woman." Zhao Xing sang meaningfully.
Chapter completed!