Petrin originally carried a map, he felt that the Chinese had no talent in cartography, he had seen some maps of the Ming Kingdom, and felt very poor, but the one Zhang Han took out was far beyond Petrin's imagination, he did not ask people to take out his own map, but looked at Zhang Han's map and pondered.

Madoff said: "Continuing forward from the place that Master Zhang said, it is basically grassland, with only a few shrubs, a large area of Gobi in the east, and a mountainous and woodland desert in the west. ”

Zhang Han said: "The grassland is not so easy, in some places the grass is knee-deep, it is difficult for cars and horses to travel, there are a large number of snakes, wolves, more than 100 miles of uninhabited, supply is difficult, and there is no water source for 1200 miles in some places, which must be taken into account." Further north is a larger no-man's land, and of course the difficulties are greater. ”

At this time, the easternmost part of Mobei is the Chechen Khan, the middle is the Tushetu Khan, the so-called big monastery is the later Ulaanbaatar in the territory of the Tushetu Khan, to the west is the Zasaktu Khan, as well as the Saiyin Noyan Department, corresponding to the Mongol Department of Monan, and then to the west is the Oirat Department, which is the Qinghai and Xinjiang and other places in the later generations, including some Central Asian territories, at this time Central Asia is the territory of the Mongols and Kazakhs, and Russia has just penetrated in.

These places may add up to a million people of the Mongolian tribes, but they are too scattered, the entire territory has millions of square kilometers, the Ming Jingshi is only a big city with 1.5 million people, and the place that is a thousand times larger than the Beijing Division also lives about a million people, you can imagine how many places have no human traces at all, only wild beasts and a wilderness.

Petrin looked up and said, "Your lord's map seems to have been drawn by yourself?" ”

Zhang Han said: "It was indeed drawn by our map department. ”

"So......" Petrin smiled, "Your Excellency seems to be interested in the Far North, too?" ”

Zhang Han glanced at Petrin and said, "The drawing is because it is because it is considered that the trade route continues to the north, and there is not much intention. ”

Petrin also felt that the Ming people lacked ambition and did not have much interest in expanding their territory, and they still had a large number of Mongol territories in the north, so they should not covet further north.

"Lord Zhang, of course we came to trade, of course, with sincerity." Petrin pointed to a few fine lines on the map, which were several rivers flowing from north to south from the north, namely the Ob River, the Yenisei River, and the Lena River, these rivers were all extremely long rivers, and now the Russians were marching towards Siberia, and since they crossed the Ural Mountains, they relied on these rivers to penetrate deep into the hinterland and transport people and supplies, without these large rivers, their pace of expansion would undoubtedly have slowed down a lot.

Continuing east and south along the Lena River is the Amur River, or the Heilongjiang River basin, where the Russians arrived decades later to build forts and settlements, and to impose taxes and fur goods.

Patrin pointed to the map, "Our cargo can go south along the Lena River and the Yenisei River and eventually reach this place, which is a large settlement that we have just built. ”

Zhang Han looked at it, this settlement is at the lower end of the Lena River, on the west side of Lake Baikal, and also at the lower terminal of the Yenisei River, at the confluence of the two large rivers and the Great Lake, because it is a plateau area, not a steppe landform.

Zhang Han remembered that this was Irkutsk, which should have been named decades later, and after the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the city became a large industrial city in Siberia, as well as a tourist and leisure city, and at this time it was just a large settlement along the river that gathered all kinds of goods.

"Even here," Zhang Han said, "it's still far from the end of our northern freight, at least thousands of miles away." ”

Petrin said: "Our northern goods are exactly what the adults need, a large number of furs and all kinds of specialties, we are now along the Yenisei River upstream, and then through Tomsk and then west, over the Uzier Mountain, into the hinterland of our country, and then trade with the Dutch and the British, which greatly complements our country, but the transaction time is too long, which seriously reduces the profits, if we can trade with the Ming, we want to get the gold and silver we need and the wool of the Ming Dynasty, wool, and even the guns and artillery produced here by the adults. Such a trade would be of great benefit to both sides...... I know that the Dutch are buying all kinds of furs in large quantities and are in great demand. ”

Zhang Han said with a smile: "There are also a large number of deer skins in Liaodong and Taiwan in my country, and I can buy a large number of them from Mongolia, so why bother to go far?" ”

"Our furs come from the cold, in large quantities and of far better quality than the Mongols, and not only furs, but also quite a few specialties, such as a large amount of honey wax, and some specialties that can only be found in the far north," Petrin said. ”

Zhang Han knew that Petrin was not bragging...... In addition to the Arctic Circle, most of Siberia is a vast forest and river, containing a large number of minerals and various forest resources, and now Europe also needs a large number of furs and Siberian specialties, and Russia's trade volume is also increasing year by year, but Zhang Han is not very interested in what Petrin said, the current amount of fur is already sufficient, and there should be no possibility of a shortage of leather goods before the South Sea trade is carried out in large quantities.

In the end, Zhang Han did not promise anything to Petlin, but only promised to send a small mission to Tomsk and Irkutsk to observe, and not to conduct specific business negotiations.

Petrin had a look of disappointment on his face, but they also knew that it would be difficult to establish a trade route, and the Russians stood up and bowed in their leave.

Zhang Han said: "The mission is rare to come here, please visit here, of course, all the costs are counted on our heads." When you want to return, you can take our northbound carriage all the way, which is much more convenient and faster. ”

Petrin said: "We took the carriage of your merchant house halfway south, which really saved a lot of effort. ”

Zhang Han smiled slightly, he also admired the exploration and pioneering spirit of the Russians, including the entire Europeans, at this time. Later generations have some extreme accusations that the white skins are robbers, and there are accusations that they have the opportunity to succeed, but they don't think about why the countless nations on the entire earth, this group of white skins, can seize the opportunity and obtain global resources, until a few hundred years later, the main international rules of the game still follow the baton of these guys?

Sometimes, the enterprising and sacrificial efforts of the ancestors are to bless future generations, so what is there to disagree with?

……

At noon, Zhang Han and his two wives dined together.

Changning and Yu Niang get along quite well, of course, it is impossible to be truly harmonious, fortunately, Chang Ning is atmospheric, Yu Niang was finally able to enter the door, although she is a flat wife, she also has the name of a wife, not too aggrieved, and the back house is considered to maintain relative tranquility.

Yang Liu and a few other maids are waiting, Zhang Han is in front of him is a very clean vegetables, fragrant, color and aroma are very attractive, the tableware is also bought from the south, Jingdezhen produced high-grade porcelain, it looks very shiny, and it is also very comfortable to hold in your hand.

The maids walked around, exuding vitality in the house, most of them used rouge gouache, and their bodies exuded a fragrance that Zhang Han thought was very good.

Yang Liu was wearing a pink skirt, there was a stove in the house, the weather was not very cold, she was walking back and forth again, and she couldn't help but unbutton her neckline twice, revealing a touch of snow white under her neck.

With his tall figure and Ying Ying's slender waist, Zhang Han couldn't help but take a few more looks.

Chang Ning smiled without saying a word, and Yu Niang laughed in a low voice: "The big pervert with squinting eyes...... How about it, I'll take the willow into the room tonight, and it's her to eat, right? ”

Although the voice was soft, Yang Liu also heard it, and came over to pinch Yu Niang with a red face, Yu Niang smiled and dodged, and there was laughter in the room for a while.

Zhang Han smiled and ate, after marrying his wife, his life was much more moisturized than before, and the rice he ate was also japonica rice bought from the south, more than two taels of silver with one stone, and it was very sweet to eat, plus there were many kinds of vegetables in the cellar, and the two wives urged the kitchen to change the dishes every day, if he didn't have to boil up his body every day, I am afraid he would have gained weight two times a long time ago.

Zhang Han sighed every time after eating, no wonder people say that men are easy to get rich after getting married, which is indeed the case.

Zhang Han has no plans to take Yang Liu into the house for the time being, he is very busy with business, the inner house is simple, and the other is that Chang Ning and Yu Niang are not pregnant yet, and the rules at that time are still best to have a pregnancy in the main house first, and then it is better to take a concubine. Zhang Han himself has no distinction between descendants and concubines, but the habits of the entire era are like this, and there is no need to work against all the rules of the times.

Footsteps were heard, followed by someone pushing the door in.

Hearing people moving, Yang Liu and Yu Niang didn't make trouble, but there was still a smile on their faces, and their faces were also flushed, looking delicate.

Chang Ning said quietly: "He guesses that he wants to get down to business, let's step down first." ”

She didn't ask Yu Niang and Yang Liu to go down first, but got up and went first.

This flower hall is the back house, in addition to the main entrance there is also a side door, Chang Ning stood up, at this time saw Li Shenming and Sun Jingting two people coming in, Chang Ning smiled, and said: "Two sit, ask someone to add some cups and chopsticks." ”

Sun Jingting saw that Yu Niang looked like she had just finished playing, and unconsciously glared at her sister, and he said to Chang Ning: "Brother and sister, don't be polite, we have already deviated first." ”

Chang Ning smiled, didn't say much, and left with someone.

Li Shenming sat down, looked at Zhang Han and said with a smile: "With Empress E and Nuying company, I really envy others." ”

Zhang Han also finished eating, rinsed his mouth with warm water, and after spitting out the water, he said angrily to Li Shenming: "You have more than a dozen wives and concubines in your own house, which one is not stunning, and now you dare to make fun of me." ”

"I have a lot of people in my house." Li Shenming said: "Which one can match you here?" You guy, you look honest, in fact, you can't be the most treacherous, and what you look at is Tianxiang and the country. ”

This is also the good of the family and Li Shenming's personality can be said, Zhang Han is also slightly proud in his heart, but he has no intention of talking about this topic, and said to Li Shenming at the moment: "You don't come here to say these things." ”

Sun Jingting said at this time: "There are several things, but the most important thing is that the people of Datong Patrol have been selected. ”