Liu Wu didn’t know that as his troops occupied Jiangdong, he almost caused Sun Quan to lose the foundation of his hegemony. His prestige in the world skyrocketed and Cao Cao’s fear of him deepened.

Liu Wu didn’t care too much about these.

On the contrary, with the capture of Jiangdong, Sun Quan’s navy on the Yangtze River almost disappeared, and Jiangdong and the Yangtze River completely became the territory of the Chu State.

Liu Wu couldn’t wait to organize dozens of talents of various types.

Among these talents, there are those who are well versed in the seasonal changes of monsoons and those who are well versed in celestial navigation knowledge.

There are even many sea people living on the coast of the southeast. They mostly fish near the coast and have a deeper understanding of the ocean. They can be said to be the earliest sea people in ancient times.

The Royal Academy of Chu is a large building located not far from the Chu Palace.

A room with the words “Ocean Major” written on it.

Liu Wu sat in the main seat, with a large map behind him, which roughly showed a simple map of the world.

The seven continents and four oceans in later generations are Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Oceania and Antarctica, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.

However, although Liu Wu drew a rough map, he did not mark any strange words such as Asia and Europe that were used in later generations.

In the room, Zhuge Liang, Huang Yueying, Pang Tong, Cai Mao, Mi Zhu, Kuai Yue, Kuai Liang, Dong Zhao, Gan Ning, Huang Zu and dozens of students from the first batch of marine majors gathered.

At this moment, everyone was staring at the large hanging map in a daze.

Don’t blame them for being dazed.

In fact, this map is too incredible.

Can you imagine that the vast territory of the Han Dynasty, the Celestial Empire, only occupied that small area, while the Roman Empire, Parthian Empire, Kushan Empire, and Sassanid Empire outside the Han Dynasty were not smaller than the Han Dynasty.

What shocked them even more was that, on this map, there was a vast expanse of land to the west of the Han Dynasty, there were vast grasslands to the north of the Han Dynasty, and there was even a larger continent called “Golden Continent” on the other side of the ocean to the east of the Han Dynasty.

Everyone in the room was shocked when they saw the map Liu Wu took out. Then they all looked at Liu Wu, wanting to ask what the map said.

“I think you all have seen clearly that this map is very large, or rather, the world is very vast.”

“And what I want to tell you is that this map is real.”

“The area of ​​the country on the map is roughly the same. It is drawn with the Han Dynasty as a comparison.”

Seeing that everyone was looking at him in shock, Liu Wu did not hesitate and directly told them the truth which was enough to shock the world.

When Liu Wu knew that he had conquered the land of Jiangdong and suppressed the Jiangdong navy, he realized that his forces could intervene in the vast world outside the Han Dynasty and take out the world map. Involving in the vast world outside the Han Dynasty, Liu Wu did not want to immediately send troops to fight this and that, but Liu Wu wanted to take good things from other continents to enhance the foundation of his Chu State in the Han Dynasty. For example, in America, he urgently needed high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn on the American continent to increase food production, so that the people under his rule would no longer starve to death due to lack of food, and more food could be grown to support him to lead the defeat of Cao Cao and sweep across the world.

Otherwise, this would be the world situation today.

Cao Cao occupied Guanzhong, secretly controlled Hanzhong, and also won over Sun Quan and Sun Shao. In fact, in terms of strength, they were no worse than himself.

In order to break the situation, we must first have a large amount of food.

As long as we have high-yield crops, we can save millions of people and lend him a helping hand.

“What? This map is actually real! There is such a big world outside of our Han Dynasty?”

“This Roman Empire and the Golden Continent are actually larger than the Thirteen States of the Han Dynasty. How is this possible!”

Exclamations rang out one after another. Cai Mao, Kuai Yue, Pang Tong and others who were sitting in the front were all shocked. The first batch of students of the ocean major who were sitting in the back were all getting agitated.

“Your Majesty, I know that there are many countries outside of the Han Dynasty, but our Han Dynasty has never had a map that can record them so clearly. How did Your Majesty know about the other country’s national strength and the so-called Golden Continent?”

Zhuge Liang was also extremely shocked and bowed to Liu Wu and asked.

After listening to Zhuge Liang’s words, everyone slowly calmed down and looked at Liu Wu.

Liu Wu had already expected someone to ask this question, and he was well prepared for it.

If we want to open up the vast ocean and help the Han Dynasty, the key is to make people have concepts, interests and fun in the world.

This is also the reason why Liu Wu took out the world map.

Otherwise, even great talents like Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Dong Zhao, and Xu Shu would not be interested in the unknown and dangerous ocean.

This is the limitation of the times.

Liu Wu came from later times and knew the earth and what the world was like, so he took out a world map and boasted about it with sweet words, which made the people in the Han Dynasty understand the whole world and arouse their interest and curiosity.

Although he only said a few words, they saved the Han Dynasty ten or twenty years of development.

Of course, as for the excuse, just find any excuse. Who can really hold Liu Wu hostage to check whether he is lying?

Facing everyone’s gaze, Liu Wu shook his head and said:
“When I was traveling, I met a ship from overseas on the beach. There were white-skinned, blue-eyed adventurers on the ship. They told me all this, but unfortunately, they were not used to the climate of the Han Dynasty and died.”

“A person with white skin and blue eyes?” Everyone was shocked. They looked at each other in amazement, obviously.

“I established the Ocean major because there is so much to be done in the ocean!”

Liu Wu stood up and pointed to the other side of the ocean east of the Han Dynasty, a place he marked as “Golden Continent”, and said:
“This continent is very large. It was named “Golden Continent” by those white-skinned, blue-eyed adventurers. Why did they give such an order? It’s because on this continent, gold is everywhere. Everywhere you look, you can see golden light.”

Liu Wu’s words caused a huge uproar. Zhuge Liang, Huang Yueying, Pang Tong, Cai Mao, Mi Zhu, Kuai Yue, Kuai Liang, Dong Zhao, Gan Ning, Huang Zu and others were all dumbfounded.

There is gold everywhere, and even everywhere you look, there is shining golden light?

What kind of scene is this on this continent which is no smaller than the Han Dynasty?
“My king, is this true? How can there be so much gold?” Huang Zu asked with his eyes wide open and his breathing heavy.

“I once found seven or eight boxes of gold on their ship, worth 200 million coins. They also said that these two boxes of gold were already very heavy. They couldn’t carry so many Yellow Turbans on their ship, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to carry food and drinking water.”

“Food and fresh water are very important at sea. The students sitting behind and living by the sea should understand the importance of fresh water at sea.”

“At the beginning, after they died, the seven or eight boxes of gold were all given to me. It was with these seven or eight boxes of gold that I spent a lot of resources to build elite loyal and brave guards. It can be said that if I didn’t have this money, I wouldn’t be where I am today, and the Loyal and Brave Guards wouldn’t be so strong. To this day, the Loyal and Brave Guards are still training.”

Liu Wu spoke fluently, and all the students as well as Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Mi Zhu, Cai Mao and others suddenly felt as if they had suddenly realized something.

The origins of Liu Wu’s Loyal and Brave Guards have always been a mystery. They were extremely powerful and loyal, but when asked, the answer they got was that they had been funded by Liu Wu.

Even though Liu Wu made money by selling soap in Hefei in his early years, over the years, the number of Loyal and Brave Guards continued to increase and they filled various armies, with a strong military strength. These could not be explained by the money Liu Wu earned at the beginning.

However, Liu Wu was in a high position of power and had countless loyal followers. Although many people were puzzled, they did not dare to delve too much into it.

However, today Liu Wu said that he got the large amount of gold from the group of white-skinned, blue-eyed adventurers from overseas, and that it was the source for forging the Loyal Guards. Suddenly, they felt that the explanation made sense.

And this is true. Is it also true that the ground is covered with gold, and even the Golden Island shining with golden light is everywhere as far as the eye can see?

“Your Majesty, this matter is of great importance. If there really is such a blessed land, wouldn’t our Chu State no longer be short of money?”

Zhuge Liang immediately realized the seriousness of the matter and said with a bow.

“Haha, it is indeed a matter of great importance. However, no matter how much gold and wealth there is on the Golden Continent, it is thousands of miles away from the Han Dynasty. There are still strong winds and huge waves in between, so it is not so easy to reach.”

“That’s why I set up a marine major in the newly established Royal Academy of Chu to train specialized navigators. With all kinds of knowledge, they can lead our fleet of Chu to the other side of the ocean.”

Liu Wu said.

After hearing this, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong and others immediately understood why Liu Wu recruited so many people.

“Now, our ships are ready, and we just need professional sailors. To train professional sailors, they must be able to master the wind direction of the eastern ocean and use it for ocean voyages. They must also have knowledge of astronomy and geography to determine direction and position. Now we have astrology books such as “Ocean Star Divination”. Sailors need to confirm the route by observing the positions of constellations and planets, as well as knowledge of the direction of the current.”

“I once heard from those adventurers that when sailing on the sea, one may not see land for months, so food and clothing on the ship are particularly important. One even needs to prevent illness on the ship.”

“Kong Ming, Shi Yuan, Yue Ying, you are knowledgeable about astronomy and geography, and are proficient in everything from astrology to positioning. I need you to work with the sea dwellers living by the sea to develop a proper method of navigation.”

Liu Wu first lured them with benefits, then gave them a professional indoctrination of navigation knowledge and reminded them of various precautions. Then he decided to hand it over to Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong and Huang Yueying.

That’s all he knows, and the professional matters should be left to professionals.

Zhuge Liang was not stupid. In fact, just from what Liu Wu said, he understood the vastness of the world outside the Han Dynasty.

“Don’t worry, my king. We will do our best to train the crew.”

Zhuge Liang and others hurriedly bowed and said.

At this time, Mi Zhu, Cai Mao and Kuai Yue became extremely interested and were even blinded by the scene of gold everywhere on the Golden Continent described by Liu Wu.

Liu Wu left the room, but Zhuge Liang followed him out.

Zhuge Liang invited Liu Wu to a secluded place, then he bowed respectfully to Liu Wu and said:

“Your Majesty, the Yellow Turban Continent you described is full of gold and wealth, but is that enough to make Your Majesty mobilize so many troops and travel thousands of miles to bring back a few ships of gold?”

“If there is too much gold, it will no longer be valuable. In fact, it will just be a golden decoration. Liang is puzzled.”

Zhuge Liang asked Liu Wu.

From the fact that Liu Wu attached great importance to the construction of sea vessels since the previous year, and even let his wife personally serve as the director of the shipyard, Zhuge Liang knew that Liu Wu’s real purpose was not just to deal with Sun Quan’s navy, but the ocean.

Liu Wu listened to Zhuge Liang’s question, looked at Zhuge Liang approvingly, and said with a smile:

“Kong Ming, I still can’t hide it from you. Yes, in fact, my goal is not the gold. Although there is indeed a lot of gold in Huangjinzhou, in my opinion, the greatest value lies in the high-yield crops!”

“High-yield crops?” Zhuge Liang’s eyes narrowed.

“Yes, they are high-yield crops. There are three high-yield crops in Golden Continent that the Han people don’t have. They are sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes.”

“The main crops in various parts of our Han Dynasty are millet and rice. Generally speaking, when the weather is good and there are no disasters, the average yield of millet per mu is 3 dan.”

“However, if you plant sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes, especially sweet potatoes, as long as you take good care of them, you can even achieve a yield of more than ten dan per mu.”

“The yield per mu is more than ten dan. If this high-yield crop is transplanted to our Han Dynasty, no one in Chu or even Han will starve to death.”

Liu Wu spoke with some excitement.

It’s no wonder that Liu Wu was so excited. The truth is, the people in the late Eastern Han Dynasty were so miserable.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the number of people who starved to death each year was difficult to accurately count.

However, we can make a rough estimate based on historical records and the social conditions at the time:
Famine and population decline: In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, due to frequent wars and natural disasters (such as droughts and locust plagues), food shortages and famine spread. According to historical records, the population in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty was about 6000 million, but in the early years of the Three Kingdoms, the population dropped sharply to more than 2000 million. In just a few decades, the Han Dynasty lost nearly 60% of its population, as many as more than 4000 million. Although this number includes deaths caused by wars, plagues and other factors, famine is undoubtedly one of the important factors.

“Cannibalism”: During the famine at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, people even ate each other, apparently because of the severity of the food shortage. For example, in June of the first year of Xingping (194 AD), after the drought and locust plague, food prices soared, and people had to eat each other in order to survive.

Although the famine in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was very serious, due to the lack of historical records, it is impossible to know how many people starved to death each year. However, from the sharp decline in population and the phenomenon of “cannibalism”, it is enough to infer that the number of people who starved to death at that time must have been a huge number.

Even though Liu Wu reduced taxes by 20%, the people in Chu were still having a hard time. This was because the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was a small ice age in history, and only by introducing high-yield crops could the situation be broken.

This is why Liu Wu is so impatient and excited. (End of this chapter)