My son A Fei has the appearance of a sword master

Chapter 145: Arriving in the American continent and meeting the indigenous people for the first time

During Zheng He's fifth voyage to the West, he visited several city-states in Somalia, including "Mugudushu", which later became the capital of Somalia "Mogadishu".

But at that time, no one in the Ming Dynasty knew Somali, and communication with the locals became a problem.

Zheng He's solution was to find some Da Shi people who knew Somali, and then let Ming people who knew Da Shi language relay translation with each other.

That is to say, the Somalis spoke to the Da Shi people, and the Da Shi people translated it to the Ming linguists in Da Shi language. The Ming linguists then translated it into Ming Mandarin and spoke it to Zheng He.

It was a bit troublesome, but at least the problem was solved.

In Li Tianxin's fleet, some of the accompanying linguists knew the language of Dashi, but this time they did not take Zheng He's route, and they had never been to Dashi Country, so naturally they could not find a Dashi translator.

I originally thought that the language problem would be a big problem, but when I arrived in Somalia, I found that there are a lot of people in Somalia who know the language of the food, and there are also many people in the country.

Now the problem no longer exists and they can communicate with the locals normally.

Somalia in this era is naturally not the pirate den that the world will talk about in later generations. It is just a normal country in eastern Africa.

Somalia is also a coastal country with an extremely long coastline, only [-] kilometers shorter than Annan, making it very convenient for trade with countries around the world.

But similarly, if colonists come, they are often the first to suffer.

Fortunately, the purpose of Li Tianxin's visit this time was not to colonize, but to replenish fuel and food supplies.

However, due to environmental characteristics, Somalia itself is severely short of food, and the people are on the verge of famine at any time.

In this way, the fleet's fuel and fresh water are not a problem, but food is still difficult to replenish.

The Somalis even hoped that they could exchange coal with Li Tianxin and others for food, which made Li Tianxin and others quite helpless.

Li Tianxin called Baihu, who was in charge of logistics, and asked, "How long will our food supply be enough?"

Baihu reported: "If you bring all your own food along the way, it can last for two months. If you can supplement it by fishing or hunting meat along the way, it will not be a problem for three or four months."

Li Tianxin felt relieved and nodded: "That's good. As long as we cross the border of Africa, there will be enough food. Two months will be more than enough."

Africa is the full name of "Africa", which means the land of scorching sunshine.

In 146 BC, after the Roman Empire destroyed the Kingdom of Carthage in the Third Punic War, it established the province of Africa here, and it was named after that.

The American continent is rich in products and food resources are very sufficient. It takes two months to get from here to South America.

Li Tianxin thought for a while and then said to Baihu: "Let Zhang Qianhu take people to hunt on the nearby grasslands, get more fresh meat to store, take out three days' worth of food, and exchange it with the locals for coal."

"Yes."

With the Ice and Fire Palm, they can make ice chambers at any time, which is very convenient for preserving meat and will not spoil.

There is nothing else on the African savanna. All kinds of wild animals gather in groups and can easily hunt hundreds of thousands of kilograms of meat.

Now the fleet, including the Portuguese, has a total of 600 people. It consumes about 1 kilograms of food every day, and three days of food is [-] kilograms.

Considering the scarcity of food in the local area, it is no problem to exchange these 1 kilograms of grain for several hundred tons of coal.

After staying in Somalia for four days and collecting a large amount of meat, the fleet continued to pull anchor and set sail.

They sailed along the coastline of the African continent, all the way south, passing through Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and other places, and finally bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and headed straight to Guinea.

Because this is the closest place to the American continent, the distance is less than [-] kilometers. At the speed of a treasure ship, it can be crossed in one week.

Sailing southwest from Guinea, you can reach Brazil in later generations.

Naturally, the country Brazil does not exist today. It is now the home of Native Americans.

The name Indian originated from a misunderstanding.

Columbus, who first discovered the American continent, thought he had arrived at the Indian Peninsula, so he called the indigenous people here Indians.

The journey across the Atlantic Ocean was far from smooth, but it was full of surprises.

Once the treasure ship is large enough, its resistance to wind and waves is not weak.

Furthermore, with Li Tianxin's current level of cultivation, although he cannot directly compete with the power of nature, he can still mediate between it.

For example, if he encounters a big wave, he can directly split the wave in front of the fleet, causing huge waves on both sides, but the fleet will have a smooth path.

If there is a storm, he can also use his own cultivation to guide the wind direction within an area so that the storm cannot attack the fleet.

And everything he did gave Shen Lang and others a clearer understanding of his realm.

As for the Ming Dynasty soldiers and those Portuguese followers, Li Tianxin was no longer in the category of mortals.

The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty regarded him as an immortal, and the Portuguese regarded him as a god, and they called themselves the servants of gods from then on.

……

It has taken a total of two months and 20 days since the departure from Daming Haikou Port.

It was a sunny day and the sea was calm. Li Tianxin and others were practicing in the cabin when they suddenly heard a commotion outside.

Everyone's hearts moved, and they all collected their power and got up to leave the cabin.

As soon as they got out of the cabin door, they saw Zhang Qianhu walking forward quickly and saying happily: "Master, we have found seabirds in the sky. We are about to reach land."

Li Tianxin felt refreshed and said happily: "Okay, let's get everyone ready for landing."

"Yes."

Li Tianxin smiled at Shen Lang and others: "Since ancient times, the farthest place that I, a native of the East, and other countries in the West have visited, is the continent of Africa."

"This is a new continent that has never been discovered by outsiders. We have to explore it carefully and find high-yielding food that we don't have in the east."

They had communicated with Paul and others before and knew that their western countries had only gone as far as Africa, and they mostly explored eastward along the coastline when going to sea.

After all, the dangers of the Atlantic Ocean are not something that the conditions of this era can easily cope with. Columbus was just lucky.

Not to mention the problem of wind and waves at sea, the most important problem is that sailing in the Atlantic Ocean has no clear goal and no idea where to replenish fresh water food.

In addition, ancient sailing ships were not very fast and required more time. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean was a complete gamble.

Columbus sailed westward for the first time, starting from Spain and crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the Bahamas, covering a total of more than 400 kilometers.

To be able to reach the American continent alive can only be said that he was indeed destined.

Li Tianxin was different. He clearly knew the existence of the American continent, and he also knew where to start with the shortest distance. There were also large sea ships such as treasure ships and battleships, and he had the ability to deal with the power of heaven and earth.

With all the conditions combined, it became inevitable to successfully reach the American continent.

When they came to the deck, everyone looked at the seagulls flying in the sky and listened to the chirping of birds. They suddenly felt relaxed.Bai Feifei curiously asked Li Tianxin: "Tianxin, why are you so sure that there must be food here? What if this place is as barren as Africa?"

Li Tianxin smiled and shook his head and said: "This is something at the scientific level. Based on the trajectory of the stars in the sky, coupled with wind direction flow and other factors, we can deduce what kind of climate environment there will be in certain places under the sky."

"Whether it is a place rich in natural resources or not, you can draw a rough conclusion just by looking at the climate and environment."

After living with Li Tianxin for so many years, they are no longer strangers to the word "science", and they even know some scientific knowledge.

But Li Tianxin has not yet taught the subject of "geography", so they don't understand this aspect. After all, even the fact that the world is round has not been confirmed yet.

Panda'er scratched his head and said: "Hey, you also know that we don't understand any science, can't you just tell us what's going on?"

Shen Lang said: "Why don't you tell us why Africa is so hot and dry?"

Li Tianxin shrugged and said helplessly: "Okay, then I'll keep it simple."

After speaking, he spread his right hand, and the water molecules in the air quickly gathered above his palm. As a burst of cold air burst out from his palm, an ice cube was immediately created out of thin air.

Li Tianxin pointed to the piece of ice and said, "Let's assume that this is the earth."

After speaking, he placed his left hand over the ice, and flames emerged from his palm. The flames gathered into a small fireball floating above the ice.

Then he controlled the fireball to fly to the right side of the ice and slowly moved to the left.

Li Tianxin continued: "This means that the sun passes across the sky every day. Can you understand it?"

Everyone nodded, and Shen Lang said: "Of course we can understand this, so what?"

Li Tianxin drew a circle on the ice and said, "For example, Daming is here."

Then he drew a circle at another location and continued: "Africa is here. Look again and see what the difference is."

Everyone watched the fireball slowly float across the ice. Bai Feifei's eyes lit up and he said, "I understand. Africa is located right below where the sun passes, but Daming has to be a little to the side."

Li Tianxin said happily: "Yes, according to the location of the earth, it can be roughly divided into three zones, namely the tropical zone, the temperate zone, and the cold zone."

"The place directly below where the sun passes is naturally the place closest to the sun, so it is the hottest. The area along this line is called the tropics."

"Countries like the Ming Dynasty, Korea, Japan, and Folangji are located a little further to the side, which is the so-called temperate zone."

"And the places farthest from the sun at the north and south ends are naturally the cold zone, so the farther north you go, the colder it gets, and the farther south you go, the colder it gets."

Li Tianxin put aside the real theoretical knowledge and explained this truth completely in the way of teaching children. Shen Lang and others understood it instantly, and they all looked astonished and exclaimed that they had learned a lot.

Just listen to Li Tianxin continue: "Africa is a typical tropical area, and its location is different from ordinary tropical areas."

"It is just in the northeast trade wind belt, and the wind moisture from the interior is very low and cannot form abundant rainfall."

"The ocean winds with high humidity are downwind, and the moisture cannot flow back to Africa, so it becomes a year-round drought and the land is severely desertified, making it naturally unsuitable for growing food."

Everyone present was smart, and after listening to his words, they knew how to draw inferences.

Shen Lang said: "We sailed south from Bipaluo for half a month, then sailed north from the Cape of Good Hope you mentioned for half a month, and then walked southwest for six days."

"So, the location we are in at this time is still tropical, but because of the moist sea breeze, there is plenty of rain."

"So the land we are about to reach, although it is also tropical, is not arid."

Li Tianxin nodded appreciatively and said, "Communicating with smart people is so relaxing and pleasant. What you said is absolutely correct. That's exactly what it is."

Not to be outdone, Bai Feifei continued again: "According to this, the Kingdom of Malacca is also in the tropics and is rich in food. So the continent we are now visiting must also be rich in food?"

Li Tianxin gave a thumbs up and said with a smile: "That's all right."

Panda'er laughed and said, "That's really great. It's so obvious."

After speaking, he took off the wine gourd and took a big sip. The surrounding officers, soldiers, linguists, and the stall workers in the factory all heard what they said, and they couldn't help but cheer.

After drifting on the sea for more than two months, everyone was naturally very happy when they finally had something to gain.

After a while, a black line indeed appeared on the distant sea level, which was the coastline of the American continent.

Everyone took out monocular binoculars and looked towards the coast.

"Huh? Someone."

"I also saw it. It was a group of people wearing only underpants."

"How come these people have no shame?"

"Didn't you see people fishing? Who wears clothes while fishing?"

"No, it's fine if men don't wear underwear, but why don't women wear them either? It's just that little bit of fabric, not even a bellyband."

"Oh, you're not allowed to look."

Shen Lang and Panda'er put down their monoculars in embarrassment and looked at Li Tianxin with a wry smile.

Those officers and soldiers who had no women in charge watched it with gusto.

Li Tianxin laughed when he saw this and said: "Don't be surprised, they should be local natives. Judging from the situation, the social development here is not high. Maybe there is no such thing as courtesy, justice and shame."

"In addition, the climate is relatively hot, so it is normal for them to wear less clothing. When everyone goes ashore, remember to live in peace with the natives. After all, we still have many places to rely on them."

The officers and soldiers who heard his words responded accordingly.

They set out in June, and now it's only the end of August, and they're in the tropics again, with the temperature still at 27 degrees Celsius.

Native Indians are not the same thing as primitive African tribes. They also have their own civilization. They don't wear animal skin grass skirts like primitive African tribes, or simply run around shirtless.

The Indians of this era had three major civilizations, namely the Aztec civilization, the Inca civilization, and the world-famous Mayan civilization.

The seat of the Aztec civilization was mainly concentrated in central and southern Mexico.

The Mayan civilization is distributed in the rainforest areas of southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize.

This civilization has made extremely high achievements in astronomy, mathematics, agriculture, art, calendar, etc.

After solving the food problem, Li Tianxin plans to see the Mayan civilization in the future.

The habitat range of the Inca civilization was the largest among the three major civilizations.

It is centered on Peru and Bolivia, reaching Colombia and Ecuador in the north, and reaching central Chile and northern Argentina in the south. The scope is very vast.

(End of this chapter)