In the early morning, strong winds blow from the Sinai Peninsula, turning the sky into a dusk. The wind howled and swept through the sand, and nothing could be seen clearly in front of him, only a yellow cloud between the sky and the earth. In this dim world, gray figures moved there, their clothes were stained with little soil and blended with the surrounding environment, not in front of them, they couldn't see the difference between these people and the surrounding environment at all.

Although the sand obscured their view, they still worked there digging through the sand with tools and carrying it to the distant embankment by wheelbarrow.

Occasionally, in the wild sand, the sound of whipping reverberated in the air. No one was idle on this construction site, and such a large wind and sand, even if people could be blown away by the strong wind, did not stop people's labor.

"Such a big wind and sand, they are still working there?"

Sitting on a camel, Liang Huali looked at the figures moving on the construction site, although the wind was blowing, he could still see the appearance of the construction site clearly wearing goggles. Many people were working there half-crouched. Despite the sandstorm raging between heaven and earth, the construction site did not stop, he asked with a frown.

"Aren't you afraid that something will happen?"

As he spoke, fine sand kept burrowing through the gaps in his scarf to his face, and he covered his face with a layer of sand, and his clothes and face were covered with yellow sand, and now he looked like a complete native man.

"Something? No one will care if something happens, the Egyptians don't care, those "outsiders", they are second-class people in Egypt, no one cares about them, so the company doesn't care, the company cares more about the construction period than they live or die, ten years ......"

Wrapping his scarf again, Wang Xingye pointed to the busy canal construction site and continued.

"Ten years of construction, the company wants to build such a canal within ten years, and if it wants to be completed on schedule, it must seize the time as much as possible, let them work overtime, and ......."

Wang Xingye deliberately lowered his voice and said.

"Cairo also wants us to squeeze them as much as possible, many people in Cairo feel that in the past nearly a thousand years, those "outsiders" have done everything possible to oppress them, and now, they want to use their own way, and they want to control their bodies, and they feel that the more work we let them do here, the more likely they are to change back to their original beliefs, in fact, that's it, I heard that Cairo has counted that the number of Copts in recent years has increased from barely more than 50% in the past to 7%, and in a few more years, I guess it's basically Copts here. ”

Hearing Wang Xingye's question, Liang Huali was silent, and his eyes were on the laborers who were working.

Why are you here?

For business, of course.

For the tooth business!

Although it was a capital offense to transport tooth pieces to the mainland, Zhuxia and the colonies according to the "Great Ming Law", the law did not prohibit merchant ships from transporting tooth pieces to other regions, so there have always been merchant ships of the Ming or Zhuxia involved in this trade. Compared with the Ming Dynasty's strict prohibition of dental tablets, European dental tablets have been flooded. Thousands of Europeans live on tooth tablets, and hungry people indulge in the illusion of tooth tablets.

However, Europe does not produce tooth tablets, their tooth tablets come from Ottomans, and merchants from various countries ship a large number of Ottoman tooth tablets to Europe through various channels for Europeans to smoke. Because of the tension between the Ming and the Ottomans, in recent years, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty have faded out of this trade. However, even after fading out, the huge profits of the tooth chip trade still make many people excited.

But Wang Xingye found another trade route. This is also the reason why Liang Huali was explained by him, after all, the profits of the tooth chip trade are extremely considerable.

"Hussein ......"

Looking at a local man who came over, Wang Xingye turned his head and said to Liang Huali.

"It was he who told me that in the Ottoman territory there was a very wide range of dental implants, and it was not just Is...... In fact, the tooth tablets of Constantinople were also transported by merchants from all over the country, and then sold there to merchants from various countries, in fact, in many places, especially in some arid places, the tooth tablets are even the only crops produced in the local area, after all, it can adapt to many extremely harsh environments, not to mention ......"

Deliberately lowered his voice, Wang Xingye said again.

"The Ottomans themselves felt that dental implants were a good business, and they could get back a lot of gold and silver from Europe, and even slaves, so their government has been encouraging planting, but now in many parts of the Ottomans, it is also starting to flood, and I dare say that in a few years, they will definitely be flooded there, but it has nothing to do with us......"

It really doesn't matter, for Liang Huali, the only thing he cares about is whether it is really like Wang Xingye said, less than 200 miles away from here, there are people who implant dental tablets, they can buy dental tablets from there, and then transfer them to Europe.

"Hello, distinguished sir......"

Suddenly, his greeting interrupted Liang Huali's thoughts, he looked at the person in front of him, and then nodded, when Wang Xingye was talking to this person in the local dialect, he suddenly had some expectations for the next trip - perhaps, this is the opportunity he has been waiting for for a long time!

……

With the clanging of camel bells, a caravan walked among the dunes, the number of the team was small, but there were only a dozen, but there were many camels, one person had to take care of four or five camels, each camel also carried a few boxes, and the mighty caravan slowly marched towards the east.

"Tell the back to hurry up! Everyone picked up speed, and soon there was a market ahead. Let's get there and get some rest, or we'll have to spend the night in the desert tonight! ”

Riding on a camel wrapped in a white Bedouin robe and with a turban on his head, Liang Huali looked ahead, squinting and looking up at the sky, where the sun was still hanging high in the sky.

It's so hot!

Licking his lips, Liang Huali reached out and touched the water bag that he put in front of him, the water bag is now very light, and the water in it is almost finished, this water bag made of sheepskin can hold a lot of water, but at the beginning, he felt that the smell was not good, and resisted the taste, but now, he can't wait to drink all the water in one sip, there will be no drop left, but he doesn't dare to drink it all, water is life in the desert.

Of course, the feeling of riding a camel is also very uncomfortable, although the speed of the camel is not fast, but as the captain, Liang Huali has long been accustomed to the bumps on the sea, but the bumps on the camel make him uncomfortable up and down.

But camels are the best choice here, because there is no official road, so there are few horse-drawn carriages to transport goods, the most commonly used means of transportation, is camels, which can camel hundreds of pounds of goods. Now these camels are hunched on the backlog of his ship—there are cotton cloth from the Ming Dynasty, tea, and many summer goods. According to Hussein, here, the goods of the Ming Dynasty are more effective than the silver, and those people prefer to ask for the goods of the Ming Dynasty rather than the silver taels.

It's been six days since they left Suez, and in the last six days they've walked hundreds of miles, maybe more, who knows? Everyone has changed, Liang Huali himself is also unkempt, the beard and dark face on his face make it impossible to tell that he is not yet twenty years old, his dry skin seems to be covered with dust, and the clothes on his body are also dirty, and even exude a strong smell, the conditions in the desert are very difficult, so he can't wash his clothes.

According to Hussein, if they had come ashore from the Mediterranean, it would have taken only one day to reach their destination, but it was far from Suez, and it took six or seven days to ride a camel.

"Next time, we should land on the other side of the Mediterranean."

Liang Huali thought to himself, but he didn't want to take the risk, not because of the rampant Barbary pirates on the shore of the Mediterranean, but because he didn't want to sail a sailboat for a few months to cross the Cape of Good Hope and cross the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea because of someone else's words. Even the Barbary pirates couldn't stop him.

At that time, it only takes one day to reach the destination, and there is no need to ride on a camel to the destination in such a place that is either the desert or the Gobi.

The camel bell echoed in the desert, this bell accompanied Liang Huali all the way, in the desert, this seems to be the only sound, according to the history books, in the Tang Dynasty, such a bell echoed for hundreds of years on the Silk Road in the Western Regions.

A few years ago, with the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, some people even proposed to build a railway all the way to the Mediterranean coast, through Persia, Baghdad, and to Beirut in the Mediterranean, reopening an overland Silk Road.

However, everyone knows how unrealistic this plan is, after all, many of the areas through which the railway will pass are under the control of the Ottoman Empire, and the locals are also very hostile to the Ming, who made the Ming side with the Coptic and those Christians?

If it weren't for his thirst for wealth, Liang Huali believed that he would not have been able to ride his camel deep into some desert oasis in the West Bank to conduct such trade in this hostile place.

It's a risk!

But wealth is always stored in risk.

"This trip, if everything goes well, at most ten years, the Liang family will be able to prosper again in the Lu country......

Licking his chapped lips, Liang Huali pondered silently in his heart, he looked at the endless golden sand dunes around him, and then leaned over again to ask the guide beside him.

"Hussein, how far are we from there?"

Hussein was originally riding on a camel and was napping with his head bowed, but when he heard the shouts of his master, he quickly raised his head, rode the camel to the front, looked at it and ran back again, and then spoke in a broken official dialect.

"It's coming, it's coming...... Dear sir, most, in half a day at most, we will be able to get there. ”

Many of them are called Hussein here, but this Hussein is a smart man, in order to please the people in the company, he even taught himself Mandarin, which is why he can become an overseer, and of course, another reason is that he had baptized his children back to the Coptic Church two years ago, but he did not baptize himself.

Liang Huali doesn't care about these things, the only thing he cares about is whether Hussein is reliable, after all, the materials carried in this camel team are worth tens of thousands of taels, which makes Liang Huali often worry about whether he will collude with others and rob him as a fat sheep.

However, he is not an unarmed fat sheep, and the sailors he carries are all equipped with six-shot revolvers, and they will never be caught when they encounter bandits, sailors...... Sometimes, too, they play another role, and these well-informed sailors are no worse than the bandits.

And Hussein's family is also in Suez, Liang Huali has discussed with his first mate in advance, if there is any accident, he will definitely not let go of Hussein's family, for these natives, Liang Huali does not believe in them at all, "If you are not of my race, your heart will be different" The same words have been instilled by his parents again and again since he was very young, even if the Liang family had tens of thousands of slaves in the past, the trust in those natives is extremely limited. can't trust their own house slaves, let alone Hussein, these "treacherous" lustful people.

Quite a while!

I hope so!

With the scorching sun on his head, perhaps because he was getting closer and closer to his destination, Liang Huali felt more and more irritated, and even faintly worried, although he had made many arrangements, but when he thought that he might lose his life, he would still regret it.

Is it worth taking such a big risk for money?

Also, should I marry a wife and have children first, so that my mother will have another to rely on in the future......

Thoughts like these were churning in Liang Huali's heart, and just as his heart was getting more and more agitated, he suddenly heard Hussein pointing ahead and shouting excitedly.

"Honorable sir, the front is here, the front is here, turn that hill ......"

Soon, as Hussein said, after Liang Huali and his party turned a hill, the originally bare land suddenly turned green, no, into a colorful sea, and a beautiful sea of flowers appeared in front of their eyes, this flower sponge stretched for miles, and the colors of the flowers were colorful red, purple, and white...... The colorful flowers were blooming, and it made people wonder if all this was real, after all, just a few minutes ago, they were presented with a desolate desert.

"Sir, look ......"

Hussein pointed to the sea of colorful flowers and said to Liang Huali.

"You see I'm not lying to you, it's all ivory tablets here, all these flowers, you see, aren't they beautiful......"

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