Just as Shao Shude entered the city of Jinan with pride, two east-coast expedition ships were also anchored at the docks of Bandar Abbas, a new port city on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The port city, which flourished in 1623, is now thriving as trade continues to expand.

Although the Dutch East India Company had ended the trade in raw silk, cotton and spices in Bandar Abbas a few years earlier, this did not affect the city's prosperity. The British East India Company quickly took over the role of the Dutch, and then launched a lucrative short-distance trade between Surat and Abbas.

It is fair to say that Persia today is still of considerable value in the eyes of the Western world, especially the Habsburgs, Venice, Poland, and Moscow. Ever since Timur, the Western world, under military pressure from the Ottoman Empire, has been looking for a ruler to rise behind enemy lines. Initially, they took a fancy to Wuzong of the Aries Dynasty? Hassan, after the rise of the Safavid dynasty of Persia, they sent people here to form an alliance with the Persians, who had been repeatedly bullied by the Ottomans, against the Turks.

In 1569, the Russian mission arrived in Persia to discuss a common struggle against the Turks. This mission brought the Persians powerful weapons from the West for the first time, and this was the secret of the Turks' repeated victories over the Persians: 30 artillery pieces and 4,000 arquebuses.

After this, the Persians also took the initiative to contact the Western world on several occasions, mainly the Venetians and Russians, hoping to launch an offensive against the Ottoman Empire with these countries in order to improve the Persian passive strategic posture, but always failed due to communication difficulties or other reasons. The most famous of these was the arrival of Persian envoys in Moscow in 1586. Offering to the tsar Darbanda and Baku as a reward. In exchange for the Russians attacking the Turks from the north. But at that time there was a rebellion in Russia, and the matter was stopped.

In general, the Western countries have been intermittently engaged with the Safavid dynasty of Persia for more than 100 years, and have signed many agreements in the nature of offensive and defensive alliances, but they have always been limited by various difficulties and have not been able to achieve the strategic goal of pinning the Turks.

On the contrary, the Turks relied on their army, honed in years of war with the West, as well as advanced weaponry and tactical concepts, to repeatedly win victories on the western borders of Persia. Having seized the two river valleys of present-day Iraq (the area where the Persians lived at the time) and forced Persia to move its capital again and again, the wolf was already at the extreme.

Of course, the above is the old yellow calendar. With the advent of the Age of Discovery, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British came to the Persian Gulf, among which the Portuguese brazenly occupied the emirate of Hormuz, which was originally subject to the Persian kingdom, for a hundred years, and then they also controlled other surrounding areas including Bahrain and Muscat, expelled Persian and Arab merchants, monopolized the trade in the Arabian Sea, and were arrogant.

The arrival of Western ships opened a brand new window for the Persians. The Persians were especially interested in the muskets and cannons they brought with them, as they provided a bonus to the combat effectiveness of their army. The Persians never got rid of the shadow of the Ottomans. The Turkmen and Uzbeks in the northeast have never given up their territory to harass the Safavids, and they are also in dispute with the Mughals over Kandahar. As a result, the Persians were always very interested in strengthening the fighting power of their army, and tied the number of weapons brought by foreigners to the most important Persian commodity they could take with them: raw silk.

Naturally, the people on the east coast had prepared a batch of sophisticated weapons and equipment early on, including 2,000 muskets, 500 sabers, 100 sets of full-body armor, 30 guns of various types, and a small amount of gunpowder and shells. These weapons were supplied to the Persian elite army "Gehulan", which was similar to the Turkish army of Ganishari, mainly Georgian and Armenian slave soldiers, armed with muskets and cannons, and became the most important armed force of the Safavid Dynasty.

Captain Given, as a special envoy on the East Coast, was led by his intermediary, Mr. Smith, a merchant of the British East India Company, and went straight to the British East India Company trading station in Bandar Abbas. They did not wait long in the caracher's station, and soon the servant in the caravan station received news that their request to go to the capital city of Isfahan had been granted, and that someone would soon accompany them on their journey. In addition, the weapons brought were of good quality, and the chief of Ghulan was satisfied, and gave a price of five thousand tomans (a Persian currency unit, five thousand tomans equivalent to about 45,000 silver dollars on the eastern coast). According to the rules, these expenses will be deducted from the raw silk, and when they leave, they can go to the dock to pick up about 70 quintals (about 100 kilograms) of raw silk.

"The price is so fair." Mr. Smith, who heard the news, was so surprised that even the corners of his mouth curled up his beard, "The Dutch have been doing business here for so many years, and the price of raw silk costs 1,920 dong per load, otherwise they wouldn't want to take any raw silk from here." God, 5,000 tumans, 70 quintals of raw silk, this price is so fair, to be honest, we in the East India Company could not get the goods at such a low price. It seems that the quality of the weapons you have provided is not something to brag about, and the red-turbaned Ghurlans must be very satisfied, which is really enviable, and you are clearly off to a good start. ”

"Thank you Tianzun, our efforts across the ocean have not been in vain." Captain Given's mouth muttered, then he turned to Mr. Smith and said, "Of course, thanks to Mr. Smith, it is you and your sailors who have helped us to come to this amazing place in Bandar Abbas. Now it seems that we are one step closer to our dream. Rest assured, honorable Mr. Smith, whether this event is successful or not, you will be a guest of the East Coast in the future, and the benefits we have promised you will be fulfilled one by one. ”

"I have never doubted your character." Mr. Smith smiled, and then said, "So, shall we go now?" ”

"Of course, I can't wait."

Bandar Abbas, formerly known as Gumbolon, was originally a Portuguese colony. In 1613, the Safavid governor of Fars led an army to destroy the Portuguese fortress and capture the port city, on which a larger fortress was built. In 1623, Abbas I ordered the expansion of the fortress and upgraded it to a city, renamed Bandar Abbas because he had captured the island of Hormuz with the help of the English fleet.

As a result, Bandar Abbas is not so much a commercial city as it is also quite military. A considerable number of troops were stationed in and around the city, including both the "old army" (tribal soldiers, mainly cavalry) of the Turkmen military aristocracy, and the "Gehulan" troops (mainly infantry and artillery) equivalent to the central army of the Safavid dynasty. However, none of this had much to do with the Easterners, who had no territorial ambitions for Persia, only commercial schemes. To be precise, it was intended to export goods from the East Coast to Persia, and then bring raw Persian silk back to the East Coast mainland to support the production of the Rocha Textile Mill.

Persia is a vast country, a large population, and a typical feudal dynasty, making it a good trading partner for the Eastern Republic. The vast surplus of textiles, munitions, and metal utensils on the East Coast could be dumped here in large quantities - although it was difficult, because no normal country would allow its own silver to flow out in large quantities, but how could we know without a try, but at the same time Persia could provide the East Coast with a vital textile raw material: raw silk.

Raw silk is very important on the East Coast today. In the middle of the 17th century, when mercantilist ideas were prevalent, trade frictions between countries began to intensify with the end of the Thirty Years' War. This is not really aimed at a particular country, but the main reason is that the habits of the monarchs of Europe are miser, and the impulse of the national capital of various countries to expel foreign goods after the restoration of industry and commerce, which will make the business of the Eastern Republic not as good as before.

Especially at a time when all countries are engaged in their own textile industries, the East Coast textiles, which are as dazzling as fireflies in the night, will surely become the target of public criticism, and will be the first to be rejected by the governments of various countries and national capitalists. The pace of the trade war is actually not too far from the East Coast.

In order to cope with this possible situation, the Government Council of the Republic of the East Coast and the General Administration of Textile Industry have adopted a variety of positive policies in the past two years. Among them, the launch of silk fabrics (including pure silk fabrics, as well as various silk cotton, silk and linen blended series) is a major killer move for East Coast Textiles to expand the market and consolidate its advantages.

This commodity has no similar competition in the market, and is the darling of the market just like the British when they launched new products such as Kerser, especially its silk gimmick and relatively low price, which can most of them provide higher profits for the East Coast people, and will also be an important weapon for the textile industry of the East Coast Republic to withstand the long suffocating trade competition. And this, in fact, is the reason why the ships of the people on the eastern coast came to the Persian kingdom thousands of miles away.

On 17 June, Captain Gilvin appointed Sergeant Esposito to take temporary charge of the two expedition ships, and then with several retinues and credentials issued by the Executive Committee, accompanied by Mr. Smith and the Turkmen cavalry, to Isfahan, the capital of the Safavid dynasty in Persia. There, on behalf of the East Coast Republic of China, he would request a full-fledged trade with the Kingdom of Persia. (To be continued......)