Zhang Shou was only slightly stunned by the Queen Mother's sudden question, and then he said frankly: "Old Salted Fish came to Beijing from Cangzhou before, and sent a lot of overseas crops that Cangzhou Canghai Xiayuan used to grow. He looked at the small peanuts he fostered in my house, and then went to Tianjin to prepare for going to sea. The cinchona tree was discovered by him overseas, and if it is to be planted in Qiongzhou, he needs to drive a boat to take a look in person."
The Queen Mother gently turned the Buddhist beads in her hand, then looked at Zhang Shou for a long while, then smiled and said, "Of course what you said is one of the reasons, but I guess he is also worried about his nephew Xian Yunhe who was exiled to Qiongzhou to plant trees, right?"
"That should be the case." Zhang Shou said without hesitation, "Qiongzhou has always been a remote place with a hot and humid climate. Every year for a few months there are often storms from the sea, and it rains heavily for several days. So when northerners first go to this extreme south, it is easy for them to get sick from the climate and water. It is inevitable that he is worried."
"For this purpose, I also bought prescriptions and a batch of medicinal materials in the capital. Ah Liu even found two doctors who were slandered and suppressed by their peers and could not continue to practice medicine in the capital and took them away for him..."
Zhu Ying was very confused as to why the Queen Mother suddenly asked Zhang Shou this question. She wanted to interrupt several times, but when she saw Ah Liu shaking his head behind Zhang Shou, she held back again and again, and simply observed the Emperor who had been angry just now. She found that when the Emperor was talking to Zhang Shou, his face looked as if he was not interested, but his eyes clearly betrayed him.
As she was most familiar with the emperor, she could tell at a glance that the emperor was clearly listening attentively.
Zhang Shou told Lao Xianyu whereabouts now, and then recounted the sailing experience that Lao Xianyu claimed to have had before. Although he had mentioned these things before in his memorials, he naturally described them in more detail this time, and did not bother to embellish them - because he understood that Lao Xianyu had already done the corresponding artistic processing when he told him what needed to be embellished.
The Queen Mother listened carefully and then turned her head to ask Zhu Ying: "Yingying, weren't you also in Cangzhou at that time? Is there anything else you want to add?"
"Me?" Zhu Ying blinked in confusion, then laughed dryly, "I went to Cangzhou to look for Ah Shou, and I'm not familiar with that old, wrinkled salted fish. My second brother and him were the ones who shared life and death and were in the same boat together, so he should know more than me."
The Empress Dowager always loved Zhu Tingfang and Zhu Ying, but naturally treated the incompetent Zhu Er much less well. However, they were her grandsons and nephews after all, so she would see them several times a year.
At this moment, she remembered what the Madam had said before, that Zhu Er seemed to have changed his ways and had made great changes. She nodded happily and said, "In that case, the next time your second brother comes, I will ask him carefully..."
However, before she finished her words, the emperor suddenly asked, "Zhang Shou, have you ever asked that old salted fish how he ended up in the East Sea? You know, if it was maritime trade, it would either go to Japan and Korea, or to the countries in Southeast Asia. If it was further away, it would at most go to those small countries in the West."
"If it was for the purpose of making money, there would be no way to cross the vast ocean, pass through North Korea and Japan, and continue eastward."
Without waiting for Zhang Shou to answer, he said calmly: "You have been to the Military Equipment Bureau to see the globes and maps made by Emperor Taizu Meng Tiandi, so you should know how big the ocean is. Moreover, such maps have not been circulated among the people. It is not normal for a civilian like Lao Xianyu to travel across the ocean to Haidong. Don't tell me about the shipwreck..."