On the second day, after breakfast of goat's milk naan at the inn, Gurandot and Langton stayed in the store to look after the money bags and horses.

The rest of us walked along the golden sands of the Gulf of Seleucia in search of a merchant ship that had recently left for Rome.

These ships came from various city-states along the Mediterranean coast, Alexandria, Rome, Carthage, Constantinople, etc., and the farthest one came from Marcelia, in the province of Catalonia on the western coast of the Mediterranean. When Yamika was in the clear wind, she told me that her mother had eloped with a Gallic merchant and went to distant Provence when her father, Alexander, was on a merchant's journey to the East.

Therefore, I suspect that the middle-aged shipowner, who is slender, shirtless, with a linen striped scarf around his waist, may be the Gallic merchant that Gulandou is talking about.

But reason tells me not to ask strangers I don't know about such old things, there will be no answers, only self-deprecation.

We spent the whole morning wandering around the bay, and almost all of the replies we received were that there was no possibility of returning home in the near future.

Because their positions had long been booked out by merchants from all over the world, the goods from the East had not yet arrived in Antioch.

Finally, in a fishing village on the shore, I finally found a local boatman who was willing to go to sea, and the round-trip fare was 300 Roman gold coins.

And the merchant ship is undergoing overhaul and will not be able to sail until twenty days later.

At this price, in the shipyard outside the city, you can already customize a good three-masted sea ship.

Unfortunately, it will take half a year to complete the project, and we can't find a skilled shipwright who can handle the seagoing ship for a while, let alone wait that long.

Therefore, without hesitation, I made an advance deposit of thirty gold coins, and set sail in the Gulf of Seleucia in about twenty days.

In this case, we will have to spend some time in this city-state of Antioch.

Hesrul's Canaanite hometown was just over a thousand miles away, and twenty days was enough time to travel along the seaside from Antioch to the holy city of Jerusalem.

So he made a reluctant request to me to take this opportunity to return to my hometown and see if there were any relatives living in my hometown.

With the half-witted Roman translator of Gulandot by our side, the temporary departure of Brother Ruhr does not have much impact on us.

Moreover, at the beginning of the westward journey, it was agreed that when we returned from Rome in the future, we must accompany him back to his hometown under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and helped him to overcome the homesickness of the past 20 years.

So I readily agreed to Brother Ruer's request to return home, and specially prepared for him to return to his hometown for five hundred gold coins, the only regret is that we can't travel together because of the long distance.

"Young master, five hundred gold is too much! My annual salary in the old caravan is only ten gold, and I can't afford to pay so much for Ruhr! ”

Seeing that I had given him so much at once, Hesrul bowed gratefully.

"Dude, you can take it with confidence! Ten gold in the east of the city of Cannes is 20 brocades, and this is the price for which these silks arrived in the city-state of Antioch! Hehe, I didn't give more, this is all you deserve! Hehe, I finally have to be relieved when I go back to my hometown! ”

I smiled generously and picked up Brother Ruhr.

"Don't be blushing yet, the annual income of this trip to Rome is all five hundred gold! When I return to Khotan safely, I won't give my brother a few less coppers! ”

Looking at the envious looks on the faces of Qin Chong, Liu Zhen'er, Sha Mihan, and Langton, I held up Luer's money bag and cheered.

With my birth and death, I opened up unknown trade routes in this foreign land, how could I have treated my brothers badly.

"Thank you, young master! The young master's great kindness and great virtue are grateful! ”

After listening to my words, several old guys knelt down and kowtowed to me, and I quickly helped them up one by one, and I should be grateful for their loyalty and responsibility.

"Qin Chong, Liu Zhen'er! I have written down all the expenses of the two of you who bewitched my brother on the way to the wine shop, and these expenses will definitely be deducted from your salary in the future! ”

Gu Landuo and Qin Chong and Guo Helmet were half-truths and half-truths.

"The villain will never dare to do it again in the future, everything is based on the young lady!" Qin Chong hurriedly bowed to Gu Landuo and begged for mercy.

Five hundred gold! The belongings of the little rich family in the royal city of Khotan are nothing more than that!

In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there are five willow monks who do not bend their waists for five buckets of rice and send their love to the mountains, if it is five hundred gold, let him be as noble as Tao Gong, he will also fall for it.

Therefore, it is understandable that Qin Chong and Liu Zhen'er showed weakness to Gu Landuo.

After seeing Hesrul off, the six of us lived a fairy-like life in the city of Antioch.

Every morning, when the morning prayer bells of Christ churches and seminaries ring, we will join tens of thousands of monks in carrying the New Testament written on parchment, and rush from all over the city to sit cross-legged in the wide square of the seminary to listen to the teachings of the cardinals from the Holy See about the Passion of Jesus Christ, the revelation of God, and the gospel of God.

Although I don't understand the meaning of a word, it's purely to participate in the sacred ritual of the Romans and talk about self-cultivation.

But the general doctrine is much the same as the Buddhism that is prevalent in the East, the Fire Zoroastrianism in Persia.

After a two-hour lunch break, Gulandot's barbecue feast by the Sands Baths was ready.

Take a bath in the sea, then go ashore to drink a refreshing wine and nibble on a few pieces of lamb chops grilled by the Grulands.

The tinkling of Roman gold coins is just that! It can buy anything you want in this world.

It is no wonder that devout Christians regard it as Satan's tears, which can corrupt the soul and keep the gulf of desire forever.

After settling down the Gulanduo in the evening, Qin Chong, Guo Helmet, and Sha Mihan and I, carrying bags full of gold coins, shuttled through all the green mansions and restaurants in the streets and alleys of Antioch.

Perhaps it is this indulgence that deepens our sins.

In the next two years, the Almighty God Christ, the Buddha of the Western Heavens, and the God Mazda gave me, Qin Chong, and Liu Zhen'er hellish punishments, even the price of their lives, with the help of the hand of Hesrul, the "Judas".

St. Herodotus of Western Turkus said, "If God wants to destroy man, he must first make him mad."

Dongtu Mengsheng also said: the poor and the lowly, the mighty and unyielding, the rich and the rich are not lewd. Its so-called big husband.

We have a little money in our hands and are arrogant and do whatever we want, which is really the root cause of trouble.

Ten days later, the eldest brother of Hesrul suddenly returned from a dusty horse in Canaan.

He didn't return to his homeland in Canaan, but brought me great good news and bad news.

I'm going to look for Alexander. Amika, an old friend, is now in the Knight's Castle, five hundred miles south of the city-state of Antioch, and we don't need to go to Rome.

The bad news is that this Yamica was married three years ago, and her current husband is the Roman general Antonio of the Knight's Castle, and she has two sons and is happy at home.

It was bad news for me to hear the message, and all the dreams of the past years for the Roman beauty of Amica and her about the future were dashed in an instant.

These good memories are also the biggest motivation for me to travel all the way west, but unfortunately now the beautiful woman has become her wife!

For example, Liu Nan'er, a Jiangnan beauty in Dunhuang County, Dongtu Hexi, and Bai Xuan's painters got married, which made me full of heartfelt feelings like water.

And Miss Shangguan Yanxi, there is only one sigh!

This young master must have offended the old man in the sky in his last life, so he would tease me like this.

"Brother, since that Miss Yamika is now the general's wife, and you also have a sister-in-law Kuzhina, your marriage has been broken, so it's better not to meet, so as not to trouble yourself when you get it!"

Seeing me sitting there in misery, Duo'er hurried over to comfort me.

"Miss Doll is right! The route of the trade route from the east to Rome has been drawn, the silk goods have been sold, and all the purposes of our westward journey have been achieved! Young master, you can't hesitate any longer, let's choose a day to return to the east! ”

As the elder of the team, Brother Langton echoed in earnest.

Qin Chong and Liu Zhen'er are still a little unfinished with the Roman beauty, leaning on the side of the manger and looking at me noncommittal, continue to move forward or go back, but it is up to me to decide.

Shamihan, who had a delicate wife, didn't say anything, and simply went back to the house to pack his bags.

"Young master, this Madame Antonio specially asked me to bring a message, she misses your old friend very much, and kindly invites our caravan to the knight's castle as a guest, so that she can also pay homage to the landlord!"

Brother Ruhr may have returned in a hurry, and he was already sweating profusely between his words.

"Did you see Amika?" I looked up in surprise and asked.

"Yes, I happened to pass by the Knight's Castle that day, and I happened to meet the Antonio and his wife's horse team coming out of the castle. He asked the spectators curiously, and they told us that the general's wife was named Alexander. Amica, the daughter of a wealthy merchant in the city of Rome, had been married to the general for three years. ”

Ruel took the linen towel from Gulando, wiped the sweat from his head, and continued.

"This lady and the young lord you are looking for the same name as the Yamika, and both are from the merchant family of the city of Rome. So I had a little more heart and bribed the officials of the General's Mansion to ask him if this lady had been to the East when she was young, and if there was an old man named Yi Jincheng in the East. Madame Antonio summoned me that day, hehe! Let me come back and ask you to meet her at the Knight's Castle. ”

Hessrul managed to recount what had happened, and sat there panting for a long time