Chapter 347: Discovered a New Continent

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After Zhao Yu ascended the throne, he continuously developed maritime trade, shipbuilding technology, and navigation techniques, while also recruiting civilian navigators and explorers to explore the oceans.

Because Zhao Yu and Wu Nü were well aware that Europe had not yet begun its Age of Exploration; if the Song could act first, it could monopolize global sea routes.

Accordingly, Zhao Yu, following Zhang Chun’s advice, proposed the slogan “Ten Thousand Li of Sea Borders, Riches Hidden in the Oceans,” and unusually elevated the functions of the Ministry of Works and the Imperial Workshops, openly declaring, “Ships are the foundation of national prosperity; navigation is the path to opening the world.”

Regarding ship development, Zhao Yu and Wu Nü provided constructive guidance based on their knowledge:

Abandon the traditional flat-bottom design of inland canal barges; adopt a sharp keel to withstand wind and waves;

Add watertight bulkheads, dividing the hull into twelve to fifteen independent compartments, so that damage to one compartment would not sink the entire vessel;

Reinforce the hull with transverse ribs, and cover the outer layer with bamboo strips soaked in tung oil and iron sheets to resist marine organism erosion;

And later, develop toward steam-powered ships.

“Navigation relies on sight; long-distance voyages rely on instruments,” Zhao Yu and Wu Nü knew that to initiate the Age of Exploration, they must develop navigational technology.

First came the improvement of the compass. Ma Xiao Jiao upgraded the traditional “floating method” compass into a “dry compass”: using a copper circular base with a central pivot, the magnetic needle fixed to the pivot, the dial marked with the Twenty-Eight Mansions and Twelve Earthly Branches, allowing rapid directional orientation by rotating the disk. More crucially, she introduced the concept of “magnetic declination,” marking on the compass edge the “difference between magnetic north and true north,” enabling sailors to calibrate their course with far greater precision during ocean voyages—this innovation predates Europe by nearly two centuries.

Next, Ma Xiao Jiao invented the “sextant.”

Ma Xiao Jiao sketched the instrument from memory: a circular arc representing one-sixth of a circle as the base, fitted with a movable sighting tube and mirror, allowing measurement of the angle between the sun or stars and the horizon to calculate latitude.

Later, Wu Nü gathered collective wisdom, and Ye Shi Yun compiled the “Maritime Arithmetic Classic,” training sailors in the method of “measuring the sun at noon to determine latitude.”

Additionally, Wu Nü promoted “hourglass timing,” “sounding lead” (a lead weight coated with beef tallow to collect seabed sediment and judge terrain), and refined the “terrestrial maps” from the “Compendium of Military Classics” into “sea route charts,” marking islands, reefs, and monsoon patterns along the way.

Zhao Yu, drawing lessons from the Ming Dynasty’s experience—where imperial funding of Zheng He’s voyages eventually led to maritime prohibition—shifted to funding everything himself, recruiting civilian navigators and explorers through a shareholding system.

Specifically, Zhao Yu provided ships, money, supplies, and goods such as silk, porcelain, glass, soap, and light industrial products; navigators and explorers contributed personnel and their lives; both parties partnered to explore the oceans.

Any goods sold, cargo brought back, and profits earned—after deducting costs—were split fifty-fifty between Zhao Yu and the navigators and explorers.

All newly discovered lands belonged exclusively to Zhao Yu, who rewarded navigators and explorers according to their discoveries, even granting them honorary official titles.

Of course, Zhao Yu could not ignore the risk that these navigators and explorers might abandon exploration and simply sell the ships and goods he provided them.

The “Langya List” contains this dialogue: Mei Changsu tells Prince Jing about strategy, saying, “Look at this man in my courtyard, named Tong Lu. I entrust him with all my external communications. I trust him utterly—but his mother remains under my care in Langzhou. Thus, two sides: I entrust him with great responsibility, showing sincerity by trusting him; yet I keep his family in my hands, as a safeguard against betrayal—that is my method.”

In truth, the underlying logic of human and state relationships is often this way.

Why was Qin Shi Huang born in Handan, Zhao? Was it not because he had once been a hostage?

Carrot and stick together—no contradiction.

Don’t forget: when the Bodhisattva lowers her gaze, beside her stands the Vajrapani in wrathful fury.

Political masters understand the complexity of human nature; many factors can cause a person to change their mind and act unexpectedly.

Therefore, political masters always prepare two strategies:

First, I treat you with sincerity and goodwill.

Second, if you act against our original agreement, I still hold leverage and means to restrain you.

Some might think: isn’t this too cunning?

If one truly holds such a thought, they are likely still immature.

Zhao Yu can believe in a person’s goodness, yet never underestimate the evil in human nature.

Otherwise, why does the old saying go: “Do not harbor ill will toward others, but never let your guard down against them”?

Objectively speaking, this is human nature.

Thus, while Zhao Yu heavily relied on these navigators and explorers, he also relocated their families—including crew members’ families—to the capital region, placing them under supervision.

Zhao Yu ordered Huang Jingchen to tell these navigators and explorers: if they diligently expanded the empire’s maritime frontiers, he would never neglect their families; if they died abroad, their families would be honored as fallen soldiers; but if they stole his ships and goods and fled, their men would be exiled to the harshest frontier posts, and their women would be sent to the Imperial Music Bureau to become public prostitutes.

Over these decades, Zhao Yu dispatched over a hundred fleets to sea.

Countless navigators and explorers prospered both in fame and fortune through cooperation with Zhao Yu.

For instance, the group that sailed south to the Nanyang region had already discovered Australia a decade earlier, returning with news of vast gold, silver, and gemstone deposits there.

Zhao Yu promptly named Australia “Huazhu.”

“Hua” means Huaxia, implying sovereignty over Australia; “Zhu” originally referred to a small island in water, extended to mean a large distant island, softening the heaviness of “zhou” with a touch of elegance. The two characters are concise and refined, combining cultural identity with geographic description.

At the time, Zhao Yu specially dispatched officials, accompanied by laborers recruited by the Ministry of Revenue at high wages, to Huazhu; he even exiled convicts to Huazhu to mine gold and silver, as well as opals and sapphires.

Simultaneously, Zhao Yu’s propaganda department spread word that Huazhu was covered in gold, attracting civilian adventurers and navigators to rush there in search of fortune.

Notably, Zhao Yu sent officials—and even troops—to seize all critical transit points along the way, especially strategic locations under control of local states, then built ports, docks, banks, supply stations, inns, and even brothels and gambling dens.

This was not merely official action.

Gentry families also followed to feast: they organized fleets, recruited laborers, and sailed to Huazhu to grow rich.

Displaced peasants and the poor followed to sip the broth: some boarded official ships to sail south in search of gold; others answered the gentry’s recruitment to embark on the journey to that mysterious continent.

For a time, the coastal ports of the Song Dynasty buzzed with activity; ships came and went like weaving threads, laden with hope and dreams, sailing toward the unknown land of gold.