"The Prime Minister of Serika stationed troops according to the size and specific circumstances of each town. Some places have a thousand troops, others have 10,000 or 20,000 troops, depending on the number of local populations. In order to confront the Great Khan of the north, the kingdom of Serika had a strong cavalry, which could only be stationed in strong, dry places in the various regions for proper drilling, and not in low, damp places. The garrisons sent from all over the country were all people who were supposed to serve in the military. For it was the habit of the Prime Minister Serika to select from among the people every year a group of men who were most suitable for serving as soldiers, but not to let them serve in their own cities, but to send them to garrisons twenty days apart, and after four or five years of service, they were demobilized and returned home, and then they were replaced by others. Serika also had a formidable navy, with tall and sturdy ships and small cannons, which often fought in conjunction with the cavalry, often winning victories. ”

"A large part of the money paid by the cities to the treasury of King Serika was spent on maintaining the garrison system in various places. In the event of a change in a city, the garrisons of neighboring cities immediately went to quell any unrest. For this reason, the Beijing division often garrisoned 30,000 soldiers, and other places had at least 1,000 soldiers. ”

"The maritime trade of the Serica was flourishing, and there were numerous ports along the coast, and the ships used were made of fir wood, most of them had only one deck, and the space below the deck was divided into sixty small cabins, some less and some more, depending on the size of the ship, and each cabin could accommodate a merchant. The rudder on board is very advanced. Each ship generally has four masts and four sails, and some have only two masts. These masts are movable, can be erected when needed, and lowered when not in use. Ships with large tonnage, with up to thirteen layers of cargo bulkheads, are made of thick plates, combined with each other with mortise and tenon. The purpose is to prevent accidents such as sudden landings or whale strikes. This is often the case during the voyage, because at night, the white foam of the ship's wind and waves is enough to attract hungry aquatic animals, which rush towards the ship in order to obtain food, often knocking large holes in the bottom of the boat. At this point, water immediately pours through the hole and into the clean and refreshing cabin. As soon as the crew notices a leak, they immediately remove the cargo from the tank. Because the ship is built with such precision, the flooding of one compartment does not affect the other cabins. The sailors, after repairing the damaged place, still moved the cargo back to its original place. ”

"All ships are made of two decks, which means that there is a layer of cladding covering on the bottom plate at all parts of the ship. The boards were caulked with hemp wool and asphalt inside and out, and nailed with iron nails. Where asphalt is not abundant, residents mix quicklime with finely cut hemp and add resin removed from a certain tree to make an ointment that is incredibly sticky, even more than asphalt. ”

"The largest tonnage of the Serika requires a crew of three hundred, two hundred for the second class, and one hundred and fifty for the second class. Each ship can carry five or six thousand quintals of pepper. The tonnage of some officially used special-purpose ships is even larger. However, in many places, especially in some major ports, the sediment on the seabed was thickened by storms at sea, making the water too deep to accommodate ships of such a deep draft, so the Serika had to build ships of smaller tonnage. The number of large ships is not much. ”

"There are also serika boats that are also rowed with oars or long oars, each oars requiring four people to row together, and the larger ships are always accompanied by two or three three-masted boats for each voyage. These three-masted ships could hold a thousand quintals of pepper and were manned by sixty, eighty, or a hundred sailors. These boats are rowed with oars, and their role is mainly to tow large boats. If the wind blows from the side, the big boats will still need to be towed by these boats, even if they have their sails hooked. It is only when the wind blows from behind and the big ships are able to rely on the wind to blow the canopy to move forward on their own, so they do not have to rely on these ships to tow them. Large ships often bring about a dozen small boats to transport the anchor out of the ship when the anchor is dropped, or for fishing and other work. They are hung on both sides of the boat and put on the water when in use. Those tugboats also carry small boats. ”

"When a ship has been sailing for a year or more and needs to be repaired, it is usually a second layer of slabs that is covered on top of the original bottom plate to form a third layer of slabs, and as mentioned earlier, caulked with hemp wool and dissolved asphalt, and oiled with ointment. If there is any need to repair it in the future, it will continue to be carried out until the accumulation of six layers of boards has been reached. At this point, the ship is considered to be scrapped and can no longer be used. ”

Although he had not finished reading the manuscript about the Silk Country, Serika, the Sultan sighed in his heart.

The country he ruled was the most powerful of the Turkic sultanates, but it was far from the Silk Country, Serika.

Iserika was so powerful that he could only avoid being conquered by the Tatars, and could his country do that?

Even if you can build a giant cannon of the Tatars, it will be difficult to restore the fate of destruction!

Perhaps, it is time to use the "weapons" left behind by the "ancestors......

"You said you worked for the Khan of the Tatars, didn't you? Venetian? The Sultan put down the manuscript and asked.

"Yes, the great Sultan." The other party cautiously replied, "I once went to the Ilkhanate as an envoy of the Great Khan. ”

He could not tell the Sultan that Kublai Khan had given him the task of going to the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus to retrieve the oil of the lamp, and that if the Sultan had known, he would probably have taken his life.

"Well, I have a task for you." The Sultan said to him with a pleasant face, "I want you to bring my gift to the Tatar Khan." ”

Koukou

Koukou

Koukou

Koukou

Koukou

Koukou

Koukou

Mouth mouth mouth