Chapter 27 Objectives: The Luzon Islands (Part 3) In the seventh century, who would have thought that in the far east, in the South China Sea, there would be such a huge fleet cleaving the waves?
Today's Europe is still very ignorant, the Western Roman Empire exists in name only, and the Eastern Roman Empire is surviving under the blows of the Great Food Empire and the Sassanid Empire, and it is also in turmoil.
The empire on which the sun never sets in later generations is still a desert island, although it has won independence, but after a short period of independence, it is followed by a series of indecisive wars, on that desert island, there are many large and small states, and they have never stopped for a moment - just like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the wars of the countries are endless.
Of course, unlike the conquests of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the scale of the war in Europe was far less than that of the East, and it was even a little petty, and the pattern was too small.
There are many countries in the west, and all races are competing, but the east is already the dominant family of the Tang Dynasty, standing at the peak.
Liu Renliang is in the cabin at the moment to record some information, since the day he went to sea, he began to record the logbook, every day of the hydrological meteorology to record one by one, this is a very precious navigation information, not only for their future adventures have great reference significance, more importantly, it can be included in the Tang Dynasty Royal Library, as a later learning material - this is also the most attractive to him, ancient times are not better than later generations, in ancient times to come up with a book is very difficult, in addition to the difficulty of printing and dissemination, More importantly, since you dare to publish a book, you must be prepared to be picked on by your peers.
Therefore, in ancient times, people were generally not qualified to publish books, and only some well-educated Confucians dared to write books, because they were rich in knowledge, and they could take into account all aspects when writing a book, and they were not afraid of being found wrong.
Ordinary people can't do it, but if you dare to use a wrong word, a large number of people will come up to you and debate with you, and you will be annoyed.
But the logbook is different, this is a technical book, and Liu Renliang should be the first time in the world, no one before him should have written a logbook and passed it down.
That is to say, if Liu Renliang's logbook is really compiled into a book one day, those who are full and idle will not be qualified to trouble him - because he is the founder of this industry, he is a professional, and some scholars have never even seen the sea, so how can they be qualified to comment on his books?
Liu Renliang's ship is naturally the largest merchant ship in the fleet, named Chi Cheng, which belongs to the second ship of the vertical and horizontal class merchant ships, and is also the best performance among all the vertical and horizontal class merchant ships produced at present.
"Tuk!
Sincere!
Sincere!
” There was a knock on the door.
Liu Renliang stopped his pen and said, "Come in." ” It was Luo Hansheng who walked in, this is an old seaman, very experienced, and the navigator of the entire fleet, leading hundreds of disciples, which can be described as highly respected.
Even Liu Renliang didn't dare to give Luo Han a little face, but asked politely: "Old Luo, why are you here?"
What's the matter?
” Luo Hansheng said: "Lord Liu, I came here to tell you!"
If you go all the way, you'll be able to reach the Dongsha Islands on the chart this evening!
By the time we arrived at the Dongsha Islands, we had already covered almost a quarter of the way. ” Liu Renliang was overjoyed: "Really?
It's so good, I didn't expect this trip to be so smooth!
” Dongsha Islands is the northernmost group of islands in the South China Sea, with three coral atolls: Dongsha Atoll (Dongsha Island and Dongsha Reef), Nanweitan Atoll (reef) and Beiweitan Atoll (reef).
It is the closest group of islands to the mainland and the fewest islands in the South China Sea.
The geographical location of the Dongsha Islands is very important, it is bordered by the mainland to the north, 170 nautical miles from the Xiangjiang River, and only 140 nautical miles from Shantou.
To the west is Hainan Island, 360 nautical miles away.
To the northeast are the island of Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, which are one hundred and forty nautical miles away from the island and only one hundred and thirty nautical miles from the Penghu Islands.
To the northeast is the Luzon Islands, which are only 420 nautical miles away.
The geographical location of the Dadongsha Islands can be said to be very important, it is an important transportation hub connecting the Quartet, as long as the card owner is here, you can hold more than half of the South China Sea shipping throat, especially in ancient times, shipbuilding technology is not developed, sea ships want to reach farther places, they must look for islands, step by step jump over, there is no other way.
However, Liu Renliang's destination is the Luzon Islands, and the status of the Dongsha Islands is even more important to him, because this is the only stopping point within a radius of a few hundred nautical miles - unless you don't start from Yuezhou, you should start from Quanzhou, otherwise you can only pass through here to go to Luzon.
"God bless, Sea Dragon King bless, bless us to go to Luzon smoothly."
Luo Hansheng prayed.
The Luzon Islands, also known as the Philippine Islands, are the ultimate goal of Liu Renliang this time.
In fact, when choosing the first target to conquer, Li Zhen was also entangled for a long time.
Because at this time, the Tang Dynasty has conquered the entire Indochina Peninsula, and if you want to explore, you can take the Malay Peninsula as a starting point, and you can completely conquer most of the surrounding seas and islands, such as Borneo, where there is a lot of oil.
But after thinking about it carefully, after all, the place in the Indochina Peninsula has just been conquered, and it is too far away from the center of Datang, in case something goes wrong, when Datang receives the news and reacts, I am afraid that the raw rice has already been cooked and cooked over there, which is not what Li Zhen wants.
Therefore, it is better to let the mineral deposits there be buried in the ground for a while, and then talk about it when the South Seas are completely in your hands.
Luzon is different, the Luzon Islands is not only closer to the Tang Dynasty (only separated from Taiwan Island by a Bass Strait, even if it is from Yuezhou, it only takes 600 nautical miles, converted into kilometers is only a little more than 1,000 kilometers), and the mineral resources are extremely rich, especially metal minerals, of which iron ore resources are as high as 140 million tons, enough for Datang to mine for hundreds of years without worrying about depletion.
In addition to iron ore, the precious metal deposits of the Luzon Islands are even more abundant and maddening, with copper ore resources reaching 40.2 million tons, Datang is a copper-poor country, and the economic development of the Song Dynasty was too fast, so that the copper money was not enough, and even began to mint iron money in places that had to be made.
Similarly, the price of copper in Datang is also very expensive, otherwise there would not be a few copper coins that can buy a bucket of rice.