jdhmnovel Chapter 1243 Is now the time to study which side is cold and which side is hot?
Chapter 1243 Is now the time to study which side is cold and which side is hot?
Yang Shaofeng followed Liao Yongzhong and Yu Tongyuan to scare the Western fleet, which was mostly equipped with warships capable of fighting, followed by horse boats carrying poultry and livestock, and then cargo ships carrying goods. There were not many grain ships and water ships that were actually responsible for resupply.
The reason is simple—from the Ming Dynasty to the Pegu area, it was either the Ming Dynasty's mainland or a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. The entire fleet only needed to carry enough water, and food and other supplies could be replenished at the shore.
Even if the fleet's destination for resupply wasn't a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty...
Either allow the fleet to trade and replenish supplies fairly, or go talk to the large-caliber cannons on the treasure ship. Anyway, Yang Shaofeng can't understand those gibberish foreign languages, and Liao Yongzhong and Yu Tongyuan are just tough guys who can't read many characters.
As for why someone who is illiterate can still understand "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber", and even wants to urge the author to update the novel like Zhu Laosi, and even created a book club, discussing how many childhood sweethearts Emperor Zhu had and how much of a storm this novel would cause after it was published in the Ming Dynasty.
Don't worry about that. Anyway, when you don't need to be literate, you're not literate. You wouldn't even recognize a single character if a carrying pole fell over.
Even more critically, as the female official from the Imperial Observatory said, the entire fleet did not have much winter supplies, because the Central Plains Hall did not have many records of Xinming Island. The only record mentioned in the Old Book of Tang was "Beijing, a county in the Han Dynasty, belonging to Rinan Commandery, three thousand li south of Annam Prefecture... all the households face north towards the sun."
It just so happens that the Imperial Observatory of the Ming Dynasty had only been established for a few years. It was a large, makeshift organization that was slightly better than a makeshift one. It had the means to conduct astronomical observations and the level of calendar revision was guaranteed, but it was not enough to deduce the extent to which the climate of Xinming Island was completely opposite to that of the Ming Dynasty based solely on the existing data.
The fact that we were able to stockpile some supplies for winter was due to the fleet's logistical regulations.
Therefore, when Yang Shaofeng, Liao Yongzhong, and Yu Tongyuan saw the snow-covered landscape in the distance, the three of them were completely dumbfounded.
"If I remember correctly, isn't it the time of year in our Great Ming Dynasty when it's so hot that people are going shirtless?"
Liao Yongzhong muttered under his breath, looking completely bewildered, while Yu Tongyuan replied with equal bewilderment, "Pretty much, except maybe it's cooler in Liaodong."
Yang Shaofeng glanced at Liao Yongzhong, then at Yu Tongyuan.
Is now the time to study which side is cold and which side is hot?
Now, the worst that can happen is that they either brave the wind and snow to land on Xinming Island, and then rely on the fleet's own reserves to build a small dock or settlement, or at least settle down the cattle, sheep, dogs, donkeys, chickens, ducks and other poultry and livestock on board.
Or, they could just turn back and run away to the Ming Dynasty before the fleet's supplies were depleted, then set off from Pegu next winter to develop Xinming Island during the summer.
Seeing Yang Shaofeng looking at the two of them, Liao Yongzhong immediately shrank back and said with an awkward laugh, "Your Highness, um... um, how about we go back first and talk about it later?"
Yu Tongyuan gritted his teeth and said, "Go back? If we go back now, how will you explain it to the Emperor and His Highness the Crown Prince?"
"They say the prince consort boarded our ship, and we took him to Xinming Island, only to find it was winter there, so we had to turn back?"
"Even if the Emperor and His Highness the Crown Prince don't come to hold us accountable, how are we supposed to face the faces of those people in the Grand Commandant's Office?"
"Especially those infantry brothers on land, won't we be laughed to death by them?"
As soon as Yu Tongyuan finished speaking, Liao Yongzhong's expression changed.
Those guys in the infantry... damn it, they might be very helpful when you really need their assistance, but when they don't need it, they'll make fun of this incident for the rest of their lives, and they might even be talking about it as a joke before they die.
"Then let's not go back."
Liao Yongzhong said through gritted teeth, "Let's circle around Xinming Island first, and at the very least find a convenient place to dock and build a small pier."
At this point, Liao Yongzhong turned to look at the warships not far away and said, "Let those shorty lads go ashore first to scout ahead. Once they're sure there's no danger, then let our men disembark."
Yu Tongyuan nodded and said, "Alright, damn it, I'm not exactly confident either, it's better to let the short guys scout ahead first."
Yang Shaofeng nodded, and then had someone summon the female official from the Imperial Observatory to the command cabin.
"The current situation is obvious. Apart from the few records in historical books, we know almost nothing about Xinming Island."
"And as you in the Imperial Observatory have probably seen, the climate on Xinming Island is completely opposite to that of our mainland Ming Dynasty."
"If it's like this on Xinming Island, then it's probably the same in other places far from the Ming mainland."
"Therefore, your Imperial Observatory needs to find a way to solve the problems of calendar and solar terms."
"After all, people will be migrating to Xinming Island in the future. If the calendar and solar terms are not followed, farming will be greatly affected."
The female official from the Imperial Observatory nodded, then bowed to Yang Shaofeng and said, "Your Highness, we have discussed and decided to build more observatories in the future, both within and outside the Great Ming Dynasty."
"The determination of solar terms is still mainly based on the Central Plains."
"However, for places like Xinming Island, where the climate and seasons are completely opposite to those of the Ming Dynasty, a separate new calendar is adopted."
“In places like Liaodong and the Western Regions, which are far from the capital in our Ming Dynasty, the solar terms are different from those in the Central Plains, but they are not too different. Therefore, we no longer set up a new calendar, but added a time zone so that people know that the time zone of their place is different from that of the Central Plains, and it is also convenient for them to determine the local solar terms according to the calendar and time difference.”
"..."
Yang Shaofeng didn't understand how to deduce the calendar based on celestial phenomena, let alone how the solar terms were calculated.
It seems that their Imperial Observatory can calculate the changes in the solar terms over several years, decades, or even hundreds of years in one go, and there is basically no major error.
However, Yang Shaofeng understood one thing: the people of the Ming Dynasty were going to suffer in the future. Was the concept of time zones something that ordinary people could understand? What about the East Eight Zone and the West Four Zone? If they added Daylight Saving Time, wouldn't the people of the Ming Dynasty be driven crazy by them?
Anyway, I don't know much about these things.
Yang Shaofeng carefully considered his words and said, "This is what your Imperial Observatory does. You can decide for yourselves."
"But I have only one request—whether it's setting up a new calendar, adding time zones, or any other method, it must be for the convenience of the people, so that even those who are illiterate can understand it."