open sea

Chapter 539
The cold in North America seemed endless.

Ma Gui felt that his heart must have been frozen, otherwise how could he have listened to what Chen Mu said and brought the medicine and doctor to treat smallpox here.

smallpox?

All flowers froze to death here!

At the end of the second year of Wanli, Ma Gui, the commander-in-chief of the expedition to America, lost all hope.

His people were pulled back to Wangxia Prefecture by dog ​​sled along the Aleutian Islands. Ni Shangzhong was no longer there. They had prepared an expeditionary force and a convoy for more than a year. Going back to North America, where the New Year is coming, the news that the army withdrew into Japan to join the war gave the Banner Army a head-on blow.

"Doctor Ronglu..."

If they were not careful, the two brothers would be first rank. They would be very happy if this official position wasn't obtained 'after death'.

The loyalty of their brothers to the empire is worthy of this official position, but Ma Gui does not think that their contributions are worthy of this official position.

Loyalty is priceless, but merit is priceless.

It is loyalty for them to climb the ice, lie on the snow, endure hunger and cold, but this is not meritorious. In fact, they did not find an inch of land that could be used, which was far from their purpose when they went to sea.

Who would not be shaken?

If it wasn't for a illusory possibility, and the honor that this might bring them, what else would make the generals who should have enjoyed the glory and wealth under the Great Wall of the Empire live in the ice and snow, curl up in a strange igloo to drink deer? broth?
Over the past few months, after trekking across the glaciers and arriving in North America, they faced unbearable hunger and cold, making every soldier of the Ming army a philosopher. Hunger and cold made their bodies unwilling to make any more movements, but their minds were unprecedented. divergence.

The way forward and the way home are also covered in dust under the nine-foot ice sheet, and there is nothing but whiteness in sight. They have no choice but to think about the meaning of life and the meaning of survival.

Including but not limited to who am I?where am I?How did I get here?What am I doing here?Why am I here?Where should I go?
Philosophy originated from doubts, and this remnant soldier of the Ming Dynasty has too many fucking questions.

Even Ma Gui began to suspect that in the native igloo, the generals of the Ming Dynasty danced incoherently: "Going forward, there is endless snow and ice. It has been seven months. I asked when the ice in the north of Guda will melt. , He told me that the ice on the northern mountain has not melted since he was born, he is already fucking 54! In 54 years, the ice in the north has not melted!"

Guda’s name was given by Magui. He is the oldest old man among the thousands of “Jurchens” living here. There are 33 people in the family, the least being only two people, living on the vast archipelago, enduring the cold without contending with the world.

Ma Gui guessed that the reason they didn't live in groups was that they didn't have much food and there was no farming, so they couldn't live in groups. Just like his subordinates here, they had to divide into small flags and hunt on the large ice field to find enough food.

Guda is the most experienced hunter among hundreds of families, and he has been as far as six hundred miles to the north when he got lost.

The ice on the high mountains in the north is impossible to melt. Any Ming Banner army knows this. Compared with the natives, they are more recent and knowledgeable. The higher the mountain, the colder it is. The snow on the top of the mountain will not melt. Know.

He didn't lose his composure because of this incident, it was just an excuse to break him down, and it was even possible that Magui himself wanted to use this breakdown to yell and release the pressure in his heart.

After scolding, Ma Gui waved his fists to vent his strength for no reason, and finally sat down on the deerskin blanket as if he had exhausted all his strength, and said helplessly to his brother: "Do you know what is the most ironic thing? These people born in the world of ice and snow The people here respect us very much, not because of Daming, not because of official positions, not because of weapons, but because we came from the north."

"Among all of them, 20 or 30 years, except for Guda, no one can come back from the north alive in the snowstorm. We took a road that the locals would not take, and we survived."

When Ma Gui said this, his face that had been frostbitten by the cold wind showed no pride at all. No one knew better than himself that they were able to survive not only a little luck, but more because of more than a year of preparation before. Crossing a glacier is a funeral journey of nothing but stupidity.

"Now, what should we do now?"

Ma Jin spread his hands, wrapped in thick deerskin, he could no longer find the slightest appearance of a Ming general on his body, just like the local Jurchens, with his palms curled up in the thick deerskin jacket, said: "The imperial court thinks that we Death is a trivial matter, and a letter of return can explain it clearly, but Wangxiazhou's troops have already withdrawn to Japan, and the imperial court's next order may be to let us go back too."

"That's it? There are two roads. There is a boundless ice field in the north of America. One road is full of winter clothes, food and grass when it is frozen. You can reach it by sledding with dead dogs. The other road is across the sea and on the island, and you can ride six thousand miles by boat." , is it safe or sound?"

"I don't think it's good to go back. Even if the Sanbao eunuch goes to sea, there are times when nothing is found, but I don't want us to be the seventh time." Ma Jin is so capricious, and Ma Gui is used to it. The mind is broken, especially when people don't think that the brain is controlling everything. Ma Jin continued: "The officials in the court don't understand anything. We disappeared, so they withdrew the fleet to Japan."

"Brother didn't seem to say that yesterday."

Yesterday Ma Jin was still persuading Ma Gui to go back. Finally, Ma Gui accepted the plan to go back. After hearing Ma Jin’s intention, he changed his mind again. He couldn’t help but sneered and said: "The court officials don’t understand, brother, you understand, you understand you and me Tell me, of course we can continue to go south, what is the purpose?"

"I don't understand either. I'm not saying I can't go back, but I have to find something before going back."

Ma Jin didn't even know what he should find. He stretched out his hand and hopped out one finger at a time, saying, "Find tens of thousands of people? Find a mountain of gold or silver? Or find tens of thousands of hectares of land that can be planted?" ? It doesn’t matter what you find, you can’t return without success.”

"Chen Shuai went to Nanyang. He found people in Luzon, found gold mines, and traded a lot of things; let's not talk about finding things that make a lot of money, but we must find something, otherwise it will be our problem."

To be honest, Ming people sailed and explored, it's too weird.

What bothered Ma Gui the most was not what they hadn't found, but what Chen Mu wanted them to find.

What is Daming missing?
When it comes to individuals, everything is lacking; but at the national level, this empire lacks nothing; even Chen Mu's impression in his previous life that Daming lacks iron and good iron is actually not lacking at all.

He felt that there was a shortage, because in the era before he came, a mere Baosteel produced 7000 million tons of crude steel a year. Of course, there was a shortage of such a large output and demand, but now the raw materials for that year were enough for the Ming Empire to smelt 300 million tons of crude steel. year.

It's a pity that this is the biggest gap between Chen Mu's cognition and other people's. He wants this strong and aging empire to complete the leap of the times. Decided to swallow the world, but also decided that in his eyes everything was missing.

But when it comes to the people who carry out the mission, they can't help but wonder - obviously, there is nothing missing.

"The Lantern Festival is over." Ma Gui gritted his teeth and made up his mind, and said, "For logging and building ships, the coast here is about to thaw. By then, we will go east, and the south has come to an end."

(End of this chapter)