Qiming 1158

Chapter 1645 Native Americans

It was only later that Chen Zhenxian learned that the living environment of the Inuit people was too harsh, so many of the common living materials in Ming Dynasty were not available to them.

For example, they do not make salt, do not have vegetables and fruits, and have almost no food, so they are very difficult to survive. They rely on the custom of eating meat to meet the various nutrients the body needs.

Especially eating raw meat.

They have a long-standing habit of eating raw meat and animal livers. The extremely heavy food habit shocked Chen Zhenxian, who was used to eating the food of the Ming army.

When Chen Zhen first brought Bai Huahua's salt to them, they were surprised and were very interested in this salty seasoning.

Because of the extreme lack of fuel, they hardly use precious fuel to make food, and barbecue and other delicacies are not often eaten. The lack of fuel limits their cooking skills.

In addition to eating raw, they are more accustomed to pickling things that cannot be eaten.

The so-called pickling mainly uses animal carcasses as a way of pickling food. For example, the famous pickled puffins are pickled with seal carcasses.

Not only that, because they couldn't eat fruits and vegetables, they were extremely curious about the fruits and vegetables brought by the people of the Ming Dynasty. They were even more surprised when they tasted the sweet fruits. The crisp and sweet taste gave them a great shock. .

On the whole, Chen Zhenxian felt that this group of people who were very similar in appearance to the people of the Ming Dynasty was a group of primitive people who were bloody and bloody recorded in ancient history books.

This made Chen Zhenxian very curious and surprised.

The ancestors of the Han people got out of this state thousands of years ago, began to build houses and cities, entered the era of settlement, and developed a splendid civilization.

And this group of human beings who don't look too different from the Han people are so primitive, which makes Chen Zhen first think that maybe they can be used as living materials for studying the way of life of the ancestors.

Chen Zhenxian further confirmed that although they have a relatively strong physique and excellent hunting skills, in addition to this, material life is extremely scarce, and civilization is almost nonexistent.

They do not have the material conditions to establish a unified state, and do not have the possibility.

But they have a lot of meat and have good survivability and survival experience, so the area where they live can be used as a supply station to the new continent on the other side of the sea.

The Ming fleet can complete some supplies here, and even recruit some able-bodied people from among them to help as sailors.

Anyway, after a round of material exchange, everyone was very friendly to each other.

The Inuit tribes are willing to use the fresh meat they hunted to exchange salt, briquettes, iron pots, rice grains and certain fruits and vegetables with the Ming people. What about the way the Ming people taught them to cook meat in iron pots and then sprinkle with salt? Son liked it.

Even the chefs on the fleet made a stir-fry with the meat they provided and invited them to a running water feast.

However, because they have no way to continuously obtain fuel, they still regard the exchanged briquettes as treasures, and politely approve the suggestions of the Ming people to use briquettes to boil water for cooking, etc., but they do not intend to do so.

They very much hope that the Ming people can often travel to and fro here to start trade with them.

After leaving the supply station in Alaska, Chen Zhenxian's fleet continued along the coastline, stopped several times along the way, set up supply stations several times, and encountered Inuit people of different tribes several times.

Chen Zhenxian also gradually mastered the way of communicating with them, opened up the way of food diplomacy, and showed the strength of the fleet's force at an inopportune time, so they were very friendly.

And without exception, they all accepted the request of the Ming Kingdom to establish a supply station here, and also promised to help maintain the supply station when the Ming people were away.

At the time of parting, the Inuit of each tribe were all out, reluctant to bid farewell to the Ming fleet, hoping that they would return as soon as possible and bring them all kinds of materials they like.

After that, Chen Zhenxian felt that his direction was beginning to go south, and what he could see was no longer an endless ice field. Grass and green plants appeared, and the temperature of the coast seemed to gradually warm up.

But just after that, they encountered another sea storm and lost some ships and crew.

When forced to dock to rest, some crew members died of illness.

At this point, more than a year had passed since their departure, and Chen Zhen knew first that they should go back.

In the ten years of Hongwu, the second Beiyang Route expedition returned to Zhongdu, bringing back the friendship and materials of the Inuit, as well as the establishment of several new material supply stations, and explored a practical and reliable route.

But it did not bring back gold and silver.

Although the news of the Inuit filled the gap in Ming's nautical knowledge and made some scholars interested in it, the fact that there was no real benefit still made some officials very dissatisfied with it.

It's not good for Su Yonglin to start the next voyage immediately. He can only let them rest for a while to avoid the limelight, so as to avoid too much opposition.

It was not until the end of the 12th year of Hongwu that the preparations for the third Beiyang route expedition fleet were completed and the third expedition was ready to start.

This expedition was promoted by Su Yonglin alone, and many people were unwilling and objected, believing that it was a waste of money and labor.

But after the Shandong incident, Su Yonglin's prestige has been further enhanced, and the opposition seems pale.

At Su Yonglin's insistence, the third Beiyang route expedition fleet gathered 46 ships, with more than 2000 crew members of various positions, and then set off.

At the stall where Su Yonglin established the Democratic Republic, there was no news from the Beiyang Expedition Fleet.

And in the middle of [-], a year and a half after their departure, the Beiyang Expedition Fleet sent surprise news.

The returning fleet messengers were pleasantly surprised that they successfully crossed the Alaskan ice sheet, and with the help of some Inuits, they arrived in areas with a high probability of being the New World, completed the landing, and encountered a large number of human tribes.

The humans of this tribe wear clothes woven from strange feathers, furs and leaves, their faces are painted in strange colors, and they have primitive and crude weapons in their hands. They seem to be very vigilant and unfriendly to their arrival.

Chen Zhen first took out the same method of treating the Inuit. On the one hand, he made the soldiers on the ship line up, showing distinctive armor and sophisticated weapons and equipment to shock the other side.

Then, he used living materials such as salt, iron pot, honeycomb, cured meat, vegetables and fruits as a fulcrum to stir up the friendly feelings of the other party.

Chen Zhen first led his subordinates to make a fire to make food, and invited people from the tribe to come and eat together. A few bold people came forward to eat, and then greeted his companions with surprises to eat together.

By means of gourmet diplomacy, Chen Zhenxian successfully established a relationship with the first human tribe after arriving in the New World.

Then Chen Zhenxian was rewarded with kindness.

This tribe thanked them for the delicious food they provided with a considerable amount of rough gold products and animal bones and fur products, and made a request for trade.

Chen Zhen first expressed his wish to trade in gold, but the other party offered a larger amount of gold without hesitation, expressing his desire to trade commodities from the Ming Kingdom.

Chen Zhen was overjoyed and first sent the news back to Zhongdu, saying that he would exchange all the supplies on the ship for gold, and then go on a tour of the new continent and establish a supply station, and then he can return.

This news made Su Yonglin very happy.

He realized that Chen Zhenxian's fleet had successfully reached the North American continent, met the Native American tribes, and successfully gained their friendship.

(End of this chapter)