Chapter 163

Under his obsession.

The long-voyage fleet continued to sail.

In the boundless ocean, they traveled further and further.

The fourteenth year of the Great Yan Calendar.

The long-voyage fleet set the highest record in years.

They discovered a full one thousand eight hundred islands.

The territory on the world map...

Had already become fifteen times that of the Great Yan Kingdom!

Yan also named these islands one by one, carved names on stone, and recorded them as belonging to the Great Yan Kingdom.

The fifteenth year of the Great Yan Calendar.

The long-voyage fleet discovered nine hundred and thirty islands.

The sixteenth year of the Great Yan Calendar.

The long-voyage fleet discovered eight hundred and seventy-one islands.

The seventeenth year of the Great Yan Calendar.

The long-voyage fleet discovered five hundred and thirty-eight islands.

The eighteenth year of the Great Yan Calendar.

The long-voyage fleet discovered three hundred and ninety-two islands.

The nineteenth year of the Great Yan Calendar.

The long-voyage fleet discovered one hundred and twenty-three islands.

The twentieth year of the Great Yan Calendar.

The long-voyage fleet discovered thirty-six islands.

The news was sent back to the Great Yan Kingdom's imperial palace.

Yan, however, no longer had the ecstatic joy he once had.

He was now over forty years old.

His passion gradually faded.

Replaced by calmness and wisdom.

Over these years.

He had been reading the contents of the Divine Book.

From political systems, agriculture, economy, and military strategy to various strange object inventions, he had studied them all one by one.

Regarding the chapter on strange objects...

He even had the Ministry of Works study them one by one, using the strength of the whole world to manufacture all the strange objects in that chapter.

Horseshoes, cement, crossbows.

Compass, printing, papermaking, gunpowder.

Steamships, sails.

Iron smelting, copper refining.

Things like these, he, with his extremely strong thirst for knowledge, already understood them by heart.

"The islands discovered overseas are fewer year by year."

Yan ordered people to draw these thirty-six islands on the world map and analyzed in a deep voice: "This shows that the overseas areas, the boundaries of the world... are almost explored."

Every island the Great Yan Kingdom's fleet had visited had a stone tablet left behind.

And the discovery of new islands...

Was becoming fewer and fewer.

"Soon, soon, the distance to where everything the sun shines upon is my Great Yan territory... is not far off."

He looked at the map, thinking silently.

The twenty-first year of the Great Yan Calendar.

The long-voyage fleet sent back news.

This year...

They did not find a single island!

The islands they landed on were all islands where tablets had been carved and names inscribed before!

After hearing this news.

Yan, who had not had ripples for a long time, was extremely excited.

Finally...

No new islands were discovered!

But he was worried that the long-voyage fleets had missed some islands due to negligence.

Therefore.

He ordered again, letting the long-voyage fleets continue to search.

On his world map, no territory was allowed to be missed!

The twenty-second year of the Great Yan Calendar.

The long-voyage fleet sent back news again.

After a year, the islands they discovered...

Were still zero!

In the imperial palace.

After listening to the report, Yan took a deep breath.

He had been on the throne for twenty-two years and was now fifty years old.

For these twenty-two years, he had been diligent and conscientious.

Implementing various policies.

Encouraging childbirth.

Making the population of the Great Yan Kingdom reach two hundred million!

Building cement roads.

Now, within the Great Yan Kingdom, from the plains to the wilderness, it has become a smooth path!

Developing the wilderness.

The originally uninhabited areas are now brightly lit, with one large city after another established.

Implementing printing and papermaking.

Knowledge in the world has been greatly popularized, and more and more people can read and write.

Establishing the Great Yan Army and the Imperial Guard.

Manufacturing new weapons, crossbows, armor, siege engines, etc., appeared one after another, and the combat effectiveness of the army was unprecedentedly enhanced.

Organizing navigation.

Exploring thousands of islands, the area of the Great Yan Kingdom increased by more than thirty times!

All these things.

He boasted that he had completely surpassed Ji!

The ambitions he spoke of before the deity twenty-two years ago...

Have all been realized now!