As soon as the words of destroying the world came out, the Lu Lijing in some people's hands couldn't help but fall to the ground. They saw that the queen had three eyes, two eyes of a normal person, and a glance drawn in the middle of her forehead. This kind of costume is not available in the world, and everyone is still wondering, but they didn't expect that the one in the middle could destroy the world.

While waiting in Alakankulan, Lu Zhuo met with the Queen of Pandia, and on the way north from the port of Alakankulan, he met with the king of Choluo. The kings of both countries were hostile to the Peacock King, but that didn't stop Lu Zhuo from heading to Fahrenheit. When Yi looked at Kaja, Kaja made a gesture of bowing to the sky with both hands, indicating that he swore in the name of God, and his words were true.

"This Indian state affair has nothing to do with us." The surprise on Lu Zhuo's face dissipated after a while, and it wasn't a big deal. It's just that the crown prince imprisoned his grandfather, obviously because the political situation in India is unstable, and there will be a battle for the throne after the death of the Peacock King.

During his time in Pandia, Lu Zhuo was courteous to the Queen of Pandia. Queen Pandia once suggested that the merchant ships of Chu could call at the port of Arakan Kuran in the future and trade here. The Chula merchant ships and the Pandia merchant ships could help the Chu merchant ships transport rice, wheat, cotton cloth, cotton, sesame oil, and all the commodities needed by the Chu state.

Under normal circumstances, long-distance trade is all about precious stones, such as land and large value goods, but because the west coast of India has always been foreign to the Persian Gulf, Lu Zhuo's request to buy rice, wheat, cotton cloth, and cotton did not surprise the Pandians. Because of this trade in low-value goods, they have been doing it for hundreds of years. Since the merchants of the Chu State did not dislike such low-value goods, and were not afraid that they would occupy the valuable tonnage of merchant ships, they certainly would not dislike them.

The merchants of Pandia tried their best to make Lu Zhuo understand that although rice, wheat, cotton cloth, and cotton were all produced in India, the cost of buying these goods directly from India and adding customs duties was much higher than that of purchasing them in the port of Alakankuran. The same is true for selling goods, with goods entering the Mauryan Empire paying a toll of one-third of the value of the goods (i.e., customs duties, but only one-tenth of the value of silk), and one-quarter to one-fifth of the value of goods for export.

The vast majority of goods in Arakan Kuram are smuggled in, not only smuggling, but also a quarter of the domestic transaction tax. Lu Zhuo didn't believe it when he heard it, but according to Xiong Jing's arrangement, he had to go to Fahrenheit City to meet the Peacock King. If, as the Pandian merchant said, the price of direct purchase in India is higher than that of the port of Alakankuran, then after he returns to China, he will naturally suggest that domestic merchant ships dock at the port of Arakan Kuram for purchase.

Price is one consideration, and the political stability of the Peacock Empire is another. Once there is a struggle for the throne of a country, even if it does not weaken, it is very likely to lead to chaos. The state of Chu is preparing for war, and preparing for war requires a large amount of grain, and if India is really involved in the war, it will not be good news for the state of Chu.

The Mountain Ghost was slowly moving forward under the tow of the Indian ship, and by this time the lookout on the mast had seen the narrow city of Fahrenheit on the riverside. Lu Zhuo also held up Lu Lijing, and a small city within the horizon stood on the west bank of the Ganges. Seeing that the height of the city was only three zhang, he immediately felt that this capital city was too small and too short. When the Mountain Ghost turned a corner and saw the side of Fahrenheit, it realized that the city was not small, it was just too narrow.

"India has arrived, India has arrived." The sailors on deck were cheering, and after six months of sailing, the Mountain Ghost finally arrived at its destination.

As Fahrenheit drew closer, an Indian ship covered in gold leaf came out to greet the dock, and when the Mountain Ghost dropped anchor and threw the cable, Prince Ermati suddenly appeared on the dock, which immediately caused a wave of fluctuations in the crowd. Although Ermati was the crown prince, he had actually ruled on behalf of the Peacock King, and his personal appearance to greet him showed the importance that the empire attached to the envoys of the Chuni Kingdom.

Li's drums sounded, several gold plates were offered, flowers, Lu Lijing, there were gold boxes, gold bottles, and neatly folded white cotton cloth, and the accompanying Indian minister used actions to indicate that this was a bath, and Lu Zhuo happily accepted it. When he finished washing up and was about to get off the boat, another person came up on the dock, and after two translations, the document was easy to say: "Prince Ermo asked to board the boat for a look." ”

The Mountain Ghost was the third ship of the Shao Si Ming class, and it was the smallest among the sea boats of the Chu State, but it was such a small ship, and Ermoti was still shocked by its size and sturdiness. Indian ships were rudimentary, with hulls either glued together by sugar fibers or tied with ropes, and according to the Roman historian Pliny, the largest Indian ship was no more than 75 tons. Although this is not true, the tenon (joining) and twisting processes determine that it is very difficult to build Indian ships.

The Indian ships were like that, and the Persian ships were all stitched ships. Until the Arabs in the Middle Ages, Sinbad's voyages in the One Thousand and One Nights were still stitched boats (the whole ship was sewn together by a 640-kilometer-long coconut rope without the use of a single iron nail).

Compared with the traditional seafaring kingdoms of Kalinga, Chola, Zheluo, and Pandia in the south, although the Mauryan Empire had a decent navy, the actual ships were only some weakened versions of the old large-winged warships. With the combat effectiveness of these warships, the merchant fleet of the Chu State could completely rampage off the coast of India.

"Please step down the prince." Xiong Jing explained in detail to Lu Zhuo the technical value of the sea boat in Chu State: one is in navigation technology, the second is sail cable technology, and the third is the construction technology of the sea boat itself. The Indian prince wanted to board the boat to take a look, and he could only accept it.

The trestle bridge had already been built, and when Ermoti came up, Lu Zhuo led everyone to salute him. By Chinese standards, the crown prince is a standard barbarian. He was about thirty years of age, and wore a knee-length bodice made of cotton cloth commonly worn by Indians, and a piece of delicate embroidered brocade draped diagonally over his shoulders, which, according to the judgment of the silk merchants under the city order, was a piece of embroidery from the state of Chu, and at his feet was a white deerskin shoe.

These are what Lu Zhuo and the others can understand, but what they can't understand are the earrings on Ermoti's ears, the mark on the center of his eyebrows, the ointmented eye sockets, the vermilion lips, and the white lead powder on his face. Short hair is loose and beard is not messy. The make-up made the prince look like a temple man, and the Chinese nobles liked their male pets to dress like women, but the dense beard showed that this person was not a temple man.

Smelling the smell of perfume on Ermoti's body, Lu Zhuo and the others' first reaction was weird. However, in the eyes of Ermati and his entourage, the envoys of the Chuni Kingdom were a little disappointed. Chuni is a huge kingdom, but why are the country's envoys not fair-skinned? Isn't it only white people who can build great nations?

In India's diplomatic relations with foreign countries, the caste system cannot help but bring the caste system into its own perception. For Persia, Egypt, and Seleucid, where the West was already ruled by white men, human history was heavily influenced by the Proto-Indo-Europeans near the Caspian Sea (the Aryans were renamed Proto-Indo-Europeans after World War II because of the Führer's pot).

Proto-Indo-Europeans entered Europe and were called Greeks in southeastern Europe, Latins in Italy (the Romans belonged to one branch), Celts in Western Europe, and Germanic people in northern Europe (the ancestors of modern Westerners); Proto-Indo-Europeans entered Asia, known as the Hittites and the Lydians in Asia Minor, the Medes and Persians in the Iranian Plateau, and the caste system in India because of racial differences. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas were all proto-Indo-Europeans, and the Shudras (local natives) may have been Tamils or Sinhalese (both may have the same origin).

Just as the Zhou people replaced the Yin Shang as the rulers of China, the Shang and Zhou cultures (the writing of the merchants, the rituals and music of the Zhou people) influenced the Chinese nations, and the various civilizations developed by the primitive Indo-Europeans who entered Eurasia from the steppe have certain similarities, such as the resemblance of gods and the worship of cattle.

These descendants of the primitive Indo-Europeans, who claimed to be Indians, naturally did not feel the cordiality of facing the Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Seleucid envoys when they saw the Chinese. And Lu Zhuo was still a Yue person, the Yue people south of the Yangtze River, the Dongyi (Yin Shang) north of the Yangtze River, and the Zhou people in the northwest (including the Chu people before the southward migration), these three kinds of people occupied the East Asian world. Among them, the number of Zhou people is the smallest, the number of Dongyi people who occupy the fertile Central Plains and the Bohai Sea is the largest, and the number of Yue people in the southern mountainous areas is only more than that of the Zhou people.

If we take India to understand East Asia, the Zhou people are the primitive Indo-Europeans, the Dongyi are the Indian Tu people, and the Yue people are the Sinhalese people. Lu Zhuo, a swarthy-faced Sinhalese envoy, made the crown prince Nemothi uneasy, and he feared that he was meeting a Shudra.

After two translations, the clerk said: "The prince said, is the doctor a nobleman?" Is there a noble person in the Chu State? ”

"Huh." Lu Zhuo couldn't help laughing, "Noble people and ordinary people, don't be confused. The ancestor of the thriving is the general of the Yue country, how can he be a common man? The ancestor of the king of Chu in Yiyi, starting from Emperor Yan, is the descendant of Zhu Rong, Shang once married the daughter of Shang King Pangeng, and the Zhou people are the same noble, the bloodline has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, how can there be no nobleman? ”

Lu Zhuo tied his hair with a high crown, a plain robe, and a sword hanging from his waist. Although the skin is dark, his demeanor is completely aristocratic. When he smiled, his neat white teeth exposed, Demoti was convinced that he was a nobleman. When the interpreter translated Chu into Greek, and then from Greek to Sanskrit, he immediately smiled at Lu Zhuo and began to visit the Mountain Ghost.

From Panyu sailing, only through the Strait of Malacca is the most arduous and long, Panyu to the mouth of the strait, out of the strait to Sinhala is only a few days of sailing. In addition, it was a new ship, and the mountain ghost did not have the usual dampness and stench of sea ships, and the sailors were in a very good state of mind.

After walking around the deck and taking a look at the lower deck, when he returned to the main deck, he looked at the rigging that was dense like a spider's web above his head and asked, "There are so many sails, how can I use them?" ”