The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 854 North and South Yinzhou
On one side is the vast and boundless sea, and on the other side can be seen towering mountains. A fleet of thirty ships with a combined capacity of 20,000 shi (a unit of weight) is sailing along the coast, cutting through the waves. The wind is relatively light, so dozens of boatmen operate the oars, and the huge steel wheels roll on the sea, stirring up white waves.

Shen Guang stood on the deck, looking at the coast. After half a year of sailing, they had arrived at Beiyinzhou a month ago. This was the name given by the emperor. There were two continents on the other side of the distant ocean. The one to the north was called Beiyinzhou, and the one to the south was called Nanyinzhou.

They saw endless forests and herds of bison, which thrilled them so much that they even disembarked to hunt bison, obtaining plenty of fresh meat, as well as picking large quantities of edible fruits and vegetables.

The initial excitement has worn off, and now everyone hopes to see a shore where they can dock and explore.

Just then, a bell rang overhead, "Dong! Dong! Dong!" The lookout, wielding a telescope, pointed into the distance and shouted, "There's a bay entrance ahead!"

Shen Guang immediately ordered, "Signal with flags, prepare to dock and land!"

The fleet gradually sailed into the bay and anchored at the shore. This is an excellent natural harbor with no beach, no shallow water, no rocks, and deep water right next to the shore, making it very convenient for large ships to dock.

The ten hunting teams began to disembark. They were all experienced, each wearing leather boots, armor, and trousers made of oilcloth to protect against poisonous insect bites. Each person carried crossbows and grenades, as well as spears and sharp blades. Each person also carried five days' worth of rations and a compass. Each team was also equipped with arrow grenades, distress signals, and long-range eyes.

Shen Guang personally led a team of soldiers off the ship to carry out the mission. They also brought more than twenty donkeys. Donkeys are in good physical condition, adaptable, and not afraid of seasickness, so they can accompany them on their voyage and exploration.

After walking for a day, they came to a huge grassland with a dense forest in the distance. Shen Guang's mission was not to hunt, but to find humans.

At this moment, a large herd of deer, numbering over a thousand, came galloping from afar. These deer were all very large, like horses, and their running was a magnificent sight. The soldiers drew their bows and nocked their arrows, and as the deer passed by, they fired their arrows together, instantly killing more than a hundred fat deer.

The crowd cheered and rushed forward, shouting, "Wait a minute!"

Everyone stopped in their tracks. Shen Guang stepped forward and squatted down in front of a large, fat deer. Only then did they notice that there was an arrow stuck in the deer's back. It was completely different from their arrows; it had no arrowhead and was just a rough cut-off wooden shaft.

"There's someone here!"

The group looked around and suddenly discovered that hundreds of natives were secretly watching them from the edge of the forest.

Shen Guang was overjoyed and said to everyone, "Let's go up and take a look, but don't frighten them!"

Unexpectedly, the other party took the initiative to step forward and stopped a hundred paces away. Only then did everyone see clearly that they were dressed in coarse cloth or animal skin, holding crude stone spears, and each of them was barefoot, disheveled, and there were more than a hundred of them.

Shen Guangling said, "Give the deer to them!"

The soldiers carried the deer fifty paces away and then retreated.

The other party stepped forward and carried the deer back. One of them gave the Sui army's arrows to the old man in the lead. The old man looked at the arrows with surprise in his eyes. He dismounted from the deer, walked forward, pointed at the deer, mumbled a few words, clasped his hands together to express his gratitude, and then pointed behind the Sui army, tilting his head to look at them curiously.

Shen Guang roughly understood what the other party meant. He thanked the Sui army for sending them the game and seemed to ask them where they came from.
Shen Guang was overjoyed. He drew the shape of a boat on the ground with his spear and pointed to the distant west.

The old man smiled, pointed to the west of the forest, and made an inviting gesture. Shen Guang readily nodded in agreement.

The old man was overjoyed and led the way. After walking for two hours, they came to a small village by a river. The village consisted of thousands of houses built of mud, branches, and grass.

This was an Indian tribe located in what is now the San Francisco area of ​​central California.

The men brought back more than a hundred fat deer, which made the whole tribe excited. Men, women and children rushed out to greet them. When they saw the fifty Sui soldiers, they were a little scared.

The old man told everyone that the deer were gifts from the other side, hunted there, and that they would be leaving soon, so everyone shouldn't worry. Reassured, the crowd began to sing and dance to welcome their guests. Inside a large tent, a dozen elders were talking with Shen Guang, while young men surrounded the Sui soldiers, gazing enviously at their equipment.

Shen Guang chatted with the old man using gestures, and had found a way to communicate with him. By combining gestures with guessing and pictures, he could roughly understand what the other party meant.

Especially after Shen Guang displayed the pictures before everyone, they finally understood that they had come from the place where the sun sets, crossed the distant sea, and come here in search of edible plants.

Everyone immediately brought out various crops. Shen Guang was really excited. He saw several patterns given to him by the emperor: pumpkins, corn, sunflowers, and many thorny tubers, which he guessed were cacti from arid regions.

As for how the emperor drew these pictures of crops he had never seen before, Shen Guang didn't care.

At this moment, several elderly men pointed excitedly at the cotton in the picture, indicating that they had it there.

Shen Guang was overjoyed and asked the old man to take him to check. Unexpectedly, after the old man gave a few instructions, several women quickly brought over several large baskets of cotton bolls, which were picked last year and the women used to weave coarse cloth.

Shen Guang examined the cotton bolls closely and was overjoyed. The cotton fibers of this type of cotton were very long, exactly the long-staple cotton that the emperor had been longing for.

Shen Guang then took a stroll around the village and discovered that this tribe was somewhat like the barbarian tribes of Liaodong, living in a semi-fishing, semi-agricultural state. They could grow corn, pumpkins, sunflowers, and cotton, as well as weave coarse cloth and make pottery.

Shen Guang and his group did not linger, not even overnight, and returned directly to the fleet. The tribal chief also led a group of people to see them off at sea, but when they saw the thirty huge warships of the Sui army, they were all so shocked that they knelt down.

"Does General Shen think they are remnants of the Yin Dynasty?" He Man asked.

"Definitely not. The Yin Dynasty people at least knew how to grow wheat and beans and used bronze tools, but they didn't have any metal objects. I think they were more like the people we met on the road who lived in the snow and ice."

"At that time, the strait was frozen, and many people crossed it. Perhaps they were descendants of the Yin Dynasty or other indigenous people. If we continue south and find cities, they may be descendants of the Yin Shang people."

Shen Guang sighed, "Thousands of years have passed, and perhaps they themselves have forgotten the origins of their ancestors!"

Shen Guang gave the Native Americans a batch of pig iron farm tools, wheat seeds, and five donkeys. The Native Americans loved the Sui army's donkeys. Horses were not only docile but could also help them with many things, making them livestock that they desperately needed.

Horses originated in the Americas, but were consumed by ancient Native Americans as a source of meat. A small number of horses crossed the Bering Strait to Asia and eventually flourished in Eurasia.

Native Americans could only use alpacas and reindeer as livestock.

Having replenished their freshwater supply, the Sui army fleet set off early the next morning to continue south. They gradually arrived at Nanyin Prefecture, where ancient cities began to appear on the coast.

Here, the Sui army exchanged porcelain, silk, cloth and ironware for countless amounts of gold and silver, as well as a large number of various crop seeds, and even bought dozens of alpacas.

To Shen Guang's regret, he did not find any evidence that the people here came from the Yin-Shang Dynasty. Perhaps it was because of the long time that had passed and the countless wars and migrations they had experienced, the marks left by their ancestors had disappeared from them.

However, they themselves do not know the origins of their ancestors, and the records of their ancestral history disappeared long ago.

The Sui army's expedition fleet stayed in Nanyin Prefecture for a full month before turning back. Although they could return from the South Pacific, the Sui army needed to establish a navigation system, so they continued to return via the original route.

(End of this chapter)