295: Chapter 295 Arrival in Japan!

The straight-line distance from Great Qin to Japan is between 800 and 900 kilometers.

Under perfect tailwind conditions, a sailing ship can reach speeds of around 25 kilometers per hour.

However, ships cannot always have a tailwind, so the average speed should only be about 15 kilometers per hour.

After Xu Fu returned to Langya Commandery and reunited with his family for a few days, he set off for Japan together with Xu Ning.

Xu Fu possessed extensive navigational knowledge.

He could determine their direction by the stars in the night sky, commanding a fleet of one hundred warships as they advanced.

The straight-line distance from Great Qin to Japan is about 1,000 kilometers, but Xu Fu did not take a direct route; he first headed to the Korean Peninsula and then traveled south along its coast.

Their wooden ships lacked the capability to withstand strong winds and waves; if they had taken a direct route, a single large wave could have resulted in either the destruction of their fleet or heavy losses.

The safest method was to sail along the coastline.

If the weather took an unexpected turn, they would be able to dock in time.

Under ideal conditions, it would take at least twenty days to reach Japan!

If the winds and waves were too strong, they would have to dock and wait for the weather to pass before continuing, which meant it could take one or two months to reach Japan.

One month later, the fleet finally arrived in Japan.

Xu Fu led the fleet to sail along the coastline of Japan, intending to first find the coastal region where the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine was located before landing to locate the mine itself.

Because there were few wild beasts in the mountains and forests of Japan, the coastal residents made their living by fishing and foraging along the shore.

Japanese fishermen could also be found venturing far from the land.

They usually rowed small sampans, three to four meters long and one to two meters wide.

This type of boat was made by joining three wooden planks together.

They ventured into the deep sea to catch large fish.

Aside from the fact that deep-sea fish were larger and catching one could provide food for a long time, their meat quality was also far superior.

Freshwater fish often had a distinct muddy smell, making them little different from eating dirt, whereas deep-sea fish meat had no such smell and could even be eaten raw!

The nobles of Japan loved eating sashimi and were willing to pay high prices for deep-sea fish.

This also attracted many of the common people, who risked danger to go deep-sea fishing.

Xu Fu regarded the people of Japan as savages, but this was not out of contempt.

The indigenous people living in Japan at that time were still in the Neolithic Age in terms of civilization, primarily using stone tools, and their productivity lagged far behind the agricultural civilization of Great Qin; it was not wrong to call them savages.

Japan was able to emerge from the Neolithic Age thanks to Xu Fu bringing boys, girls, and craftsmen from the Central Plains on two occasions, which allowed them to learn sericulture, weaving, rice cultivation, and more.

By the time of the Great Tang, they sent a large number of envoys to the Tang to learn.

During the Song Dynasty, in order to improve their race, Japan sent many women to the Great Song to seek one-night stands.

Women who could conceive children with men from the Great Song were treated like national heroes, and everyone scrambled to marry them.

Japan was too small a place; if it wanted to develop, it had to draw sustenance from other places.

History has proven that for Japan to develop well, it must be integrated into the territory of Great Qin.

If Great Qin did not want to be targeted by thieves, it also had to incorporate Japan into its territory.

The living conditions in Japan were too poor; for their population to continue, they had to find a safe continent to propagate.

The neighboring continent was rich in resources and the tectonic plates were far more stable than those of Japan; to the people of Japan, it was like a wolf seeing meat.

Wolves are cunning and patient animals; they can maintain their endurance for a long time, staring fixedly at their prey, waiting until they see the prey is exhausted, and once the opportunity arises, they will bite down viciously.