"Is this Datang?"

Looking at Mingzhou City in the distance, Sugawara Michizan couldn't help but be a little curious.

He had never been to Datang, and if it weren't for the pirates, he was forced by his political rival Fujiwara Tohei to lead an envoy to Datang, and he might never have set foot on the territory of Datang in his life.

However, since he came, he also had to investigate the current situation of the Tang Dynasty to see if the civil strife had ended, as Fujiwara Tokihei said, and had destroyed the two Uighurs of Nanzhao and Xizhou.

There is also a reason why their fleet will appear off the coast of Minnesotah.

In the early days of the Tang Dynasty, the envoys sent by the Wa Kingdom generally boarded ships in Namba (present-day Osaka) and sailed from Hakata (present-day Fukuoka) through the Seto Inland Sea.

From the 30s to the 70s of the 7th century, during these 40 years, the northern route taken by the Tang Dynasty mission was to travel north along the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, then west along the south bank of the Liaodong Peninsula, cross the Bohai Sea, land on the Shandong Peninsula, and then go west by land through Luoyang, and finally to Chang'an.

Most of the northern route sailed along the coast, which was relatively safe, and ships were less shipwrecked.

However, after Silla destroyed Baekje, Goguryeo, and unified the peninsula, the relationship with the Wa Kingdom was not very good for a long time, so the northern line was abandoned.

Therefore, in the 70s of the 7th century to the 60s of the 8th century, the ships of the Tang mission changed to the Nandao Road, that is, from Kyushu to the south, along the south of Tanegashima, Yakushima, and Amami Islands in the south, to the northwest across the Tang East China Sea, landed at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and then went north by the canal.

This route is called the middle line, which mainly sails in the boundless East China Sea, which is difficult to dock and is prone to sea storms and accidents, which is more dangerous.

Both the northern and central routes take about a month to sail, and if you are unlucky, you may encounter storms or deviate from the course, or even longer.

After the 70s of the 8th century, until the last time the Tang envoy was sent to the Tang Dynasty (that is, in 838 AD), the route was changed again, that is, the southern route. That is, from the Goto Islands in the west of Kyushu to the southwest, across the East China Sea, in the Yangtze River estuary of Suzhou, Mingzhou area, and then by the canal to the north.

The southern route takes a shorter time, usually about ten days, and can even be reached in three days during the tailwind period, but the danger is comparable to that of the central route, and it has to cross the vast East China Sea.

The main reason for the southern route led by Sugawara Michizane to send the Tang mission was that the northern and central routes were not safe, and there were a large number of Silla pirate activities, so the only way to take the southern route was to take the southern route.

This is also the reason why Sugawara Michizane and his entourage appeared in the sea off the coast of Mingshu.

The scale of the mission led by Sugawara Michizane was not large, mainly because it was in a hurry, and the preparation time was not sufficient, only the scale of three ships and more than 300 people.

In 838 A.D., there were more than 600 people on four ships, which was also the largest of all the Tang missions sent by the Japanese state.

"Minister Qiqi, there is a warship heading towards us in the distance." Just when Sugawara Michizane was longing, two Datang warships came towards the fleet in the distance.

It's not a Ning ship, it's a sea falcon ship.

In the open ocean, most of the Datang warships that can be seen are naturally Ning ships, but there are still other warships in Datang, but most of them are in the offshore and inland rivers.

Like the sea falcon, it is a light warship and is not suitable for ocean voyages, but there are many of them in the near sea.

However, the Sea Falcons are not equipped with artillery, and their ranged weapons are mainly bows and crossbows.

Perhaps it was because they saw that the three ships that suddenly appeared did not fly the flags that could identify them, and this place was close to the Mingzhou Navy Division's station, so two sea falcon ships came to inspect it so as not to be pirates.

After approaching the ships of the Japanese Mission, someone on the Datang Haigu ship signaled the three ships to stop and inspect.

Sugawara Michizane came to envoy Datang this time, so naturally he would not have a bad relationship with the sailors of Datang, so he asked his subordinates to stop.

After a quarter of an hour, the soldiers of the Tang Navy Division boarded the ships of the division of the Japanese Kingdom, and they were also a little surprised to see that the people on the boat were all short Japanese people.

"What are you here for? If it's a merchant ship, you should go to the port! ”

An officer of the Tang Army's naval division looked at the Japanese on the boat and commanded lightly.

The station of the Mingzhou Navy Division and the civilian dock in Mingzhou are not in the same place, so this officer asked such a question.

"We are a mission from the Wa Kingdom, ready to go to Chang'an to pay tribute!" Sugawara replied.

"The mission of the Wa Kingdom?" The officer of the sailor division was a little puzzled and asked his subordinates next to him, "Do you know what's going on?" ”

"It seems to be a Tang envoy, but the last time the Wa Kingdom sent a Tang envoy seems to be more than 60 years ago, and I don't know if these people are true or not." There were soldiers next to him who knew what was going on, but they didn't dare to confirm it.

"Send Tang envoys?"

The officer looked at the 'missions' in front of him who were dressed differently and had various identities, and he was also a little unsure.

Among these people were officials, literati, soldiers, and even monks, and it looked like that.

However, the officers were still not sure of their identities, so they could only take these people to the naval division station and let the people above verify their identities.

Soon, Wang Shimiao, the governor of the Mingzhou Naval Division, learned that the Wa State had sent a Tang delegation to the Tang Dynasty, and he was also shocked.

He was not surprised by the arrival of this Japanese mission, but wondered if it was because of the Silla pirates and the mines of Iwami and Sado.

After all, not long ago, it was his Mingzhou Navy Division that wiped out the Japanese Navy Division, and also beat the Japanese rebel pirate army and fled in embarrassment.

Now that the Japanese envoy has arrived, no matter how he looks at it, it has something to do with the things of his sailors in the Japanese country.

He confirmed the identity of the mission, and at the same time that the big camp sent ships to escort the Japanese mission to Luoyang, he also sent people to Shengzhou by land to report to Shi Ling about the Japanese mission.

。。。。。。

"Deputy Envoy Li, why do I think something bad will happen when I go to Luoyang this time?"

A building ship with the Huainan logo sailed on the Tongji Canal River, which connects the Yellow River and the Huaihe River, and it was the Huainan mission ship that departed from Yangzhou.

The ship had just sailed through Bianzhou and headed for Luoyang.

From Bianzhou to Luoyang's Grand Canal, you have to walk a section of the Yellow River, and then take a section of the canal to Luoyang.

It is precisely because Luoyang is the intersection of the north-south canal and the eastern capital that after the situation in the world stabilized, there was an endless stream of business travelers, which created the prosperity of Luoyang.

However, because Huainan is temporarily in a state of separation, the official ships from Jiangnan to Chang'an are all on the Yangtze River.

"What are you worried about?" Li Shenfu looked at Liu Wei and couldn't help asking.

"I don't know, I always feel wrong." Liu Wei shook his head, not knowing what he was worried about.

"If you are worried about those two, they will also go to Luoyang with us. These two people are not there, the festival marshal has the tooth soldiers, and it is impossible for others to turn over the wind and waves. The two people Li Shenfu said were naturally Zhu Yanshou and An Renyi.

Subconsciously, Li Shenfu forgot about the tooth soldiers.

Because compared to Zhu Yanshou and the others, Zhang Hao and Xu Wen look like loyal people.