In the spring of the third year of Taixing, the eldest princess of Linhai successfully gave birth to a pair of dragon and phoenix fetuses, and Wei Shuo was so busy that his feet did not touch the ground, and Wei Shuo stayed in the house for several days in a row to accompany Sima Yan and the child. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

To Wei Shuo's surprise, the Jiangdong Sima royal family seemed to be even more excited than himself. Originally, the Sima royal family was full of vigilance and helplessness against Liaodong's disobedience, but when the eldest princess of Linhai gave birth to a son and a daughter in the spring of this year, many royal children were secretly relieved.

Wei Shuo understood the thoughts of the Sima royal family, and he was nothing more than worried that he would take away the Jin family and endanger the Sima royal family in the future. Now that Sima Yan has given birth to a son for Wei Shuo, even if Wei Shuo really replaces Sima as the lord of the world in the future, then Wei Shuo will also see the two children and Sima Yan in front of the Sima royal family to have a way out.

Just when the people of Liaodong were rejoicing that they had added another piece to the Wei Mansion, a merchant from Rome was setting foot on the eastern land for the first time.

The Roman merchant named Antony, who was in his thirties, came from a noble family in the city of Rome. Anthony received a strict aristocratic education from an early age and was determined to revive the family.

But it was only when he grew up that Anthony realized that things were far more difficult than he had imagined, and after several setbacks, Anthony discovered that revitalizing the family first had enough wealth.

As a result, Anthony had to run a business in order to quickly build up the wealth he needed. This year, in order to compete with Licinius, the Western Emperor Constantine took the opportunity to establish normal trade with Liaodong and organized a large number of people to go to Liaodong.

Anthony sold some of his family property and raised a large sum of money to buy some goods to sell in the East. However, Anthony is still a bit business-minded, and the most important thing in trade between the two places is to communicate with each other. Therefore, he deliberately obtained a list of Liaodong merchants in Eastern Rome through his family connections.

Through the observation list, Antony found that the Liaodong people were most interested in Roman technical books, and every Liaodong merchant who came to Byzantium would selectively buy some books back to Liaodong, among which technical books were the most popular among Liaodong people.

Anthony was overjoyed to grasp the needs of the lord Liaodong, and instead of buying jade, jewelry, or other souvenirs like the others, he got thousands of books of all kinds to carry on the ship. For this reason, Anthony was ridiculed by his peers, but he was unmoved and still insisted on taking books to Liaodong.

I have to say that Anthony is very discerning, and the special goods he brought are really the most popular in Liaodong. Not only was he tax-free treatment by the Lushun City Shipping Division, but he was also personally received by Feng Xian, the director of the Municipal Shipping Division.

Feng Xian, as an old man in Liaodong, naturally knows what Liaodong needs, since Liaodong opened up the connection with Rome, every merchant in Liaodong who went to Rome shouldered the mission of collecting Rome's various technologies.

On the other hand, Roman merchants did not like to carry such heavy and featureless goods as books, and this time Feng Xian saw that some Romans took the initiative to bring books to their doors, and of course they had to vigorously encourage each other in order to seek greater benefits for the future.

After leaving the city, Anthony felt extremely excited, and felt that his hard work had not been in vain. This time there were many Roman nobles on the same ship, and he was the only one who was received by Feng Xian and a letter of introduction from the city's boss.

With this letter of introduction, Anthony can buy goods at will in Liaodong and enjoy certain price discounts.

Standing on the dock, Anthony was full of confidence in the future, and he raised his head and looked around eagerly, and was immediately shocked by the scale of Port Arthur, which was full of ships coming and going.

He also found that there are many specially cultivated landscaping belts such as willow and camphor trees around Port Arthur, and around the green belts are distributed concrete roads, residential areas, shops, workshops, factories, docks, warehouses and other areas, all of which are divided by a grid formed by trees.

This unique architectural style from Rome made Anthony look at it with relish, and the docks were still full of thousands of people in the port to expand the port. In the crowd, Anthony stepped on the smooth stone slab, walked to the seawall, and took a few deep breaths of the breeze sticking to the smell of the sea, which was indescribably comfortable.

The entire Port Arthur is really not small, and there are countless ships from all over the world on the turbulent harbor. Among them, Fukubunes of various tonnages are the mainstream, in addition to flat-bottomed ships from Koto and sailing ships from Rome. The largest number of them are small runabouts, which shuttle between major ships, either to transport people or goods.

Perhaps due to the arrival of the Roman fleet, Port Arthur seemed a little busier than usual. A large number of city officials are directing thousands of people to work busily, carrying goods from ships that have just entered the port, and piling them up in the harbor according to different classifications, like hills.

"It's so lively here! It's a completely different life from Rome! ”

"yes, yes, I really want to buy a house in this neighborhood and live for the rest of my life."

"Hahaha, it's so nice here, to be honest, I don't even want to go back!"

"You know how to enjoy it, but let's wait until you make money. However, it is not easy for everyone to obtain the right of residence in Liaodong, which is not a place to enter if you want to. ”

"Look, what's that?" While everyone was talking, suddenly a fleet of ships was slowly sailing into the port.

"I heard that it was the whaling fleet of the Seris who had returned, and everyone went to open their eyes." Some well-informed people suggested.

"A fleet of whale fishers? What's that? The Romans were puzzled.

The Romans are not to blame for their ignorance, and although there is evidence that ancient Eskimos and North American Indians used to hunt whales for large quantities of meat as early as 100 AD, it was not until the late Middle Ages that systematic whaling began in the West around the Bay of Biscay.

Since the development of the shipbuilding industry in Liaodong, the fishing industry has gradually developed greatly, among which whale fishing is the most important fishery in Liaodong at present.

Some merchants bought large ships and sailed to the Sea of Whales (present-day Benhai) to hunt whales, sometimes returning only once every few months, and each time they returned to the port to cause a great sensation.

The whaling activities of the Liaodong people were an eye-opener for the Romans, but they were also shocked by the huge profits of the whaling industry.

Before the fleet entered the port, the people on the dock cleaned up the reserved dock prepared in advance, and hundreds of butchers armed with knives and axes who were professional in dismantling whales cheered and rushed to the whale carcasses that had been lowered from the cranes.

Behind the scene of flesh and blood is the growth of a golden industrial chain, whale skin can be tanned, whale fins can be made into shark fins, whale meat can be made into pickled and smoked canned meat sausages, whale baleen can be used for musical instruments and bras, whale fat can be used for high-grade lubricating oil, candles, soap, whale offal can be used for medicine, whale bones can be used to make phosphate fertilizers and handicrafts.

The fishing fleet killed a total of three huge whales, and the meat obtained from the whales alone was sold for 30,000 yuan, and the bones were sold to the newly opened fertilizer factory on the island for 10,000 yuan, not to mention the expensive fish oil and fish fat, which were not sold to oil merchants from all over the country.

"Why did the Seris take even the whale liver? I wonder what fish offal is for? "The Romans were confused.

Of course, the Romans would not have known that whale entrails were the best raw materials for making medicinal materials, and they were a commodity that the major pharmaceutical factories in eastern Liaodong vied to buy. With the promotion of the medical plan, it has greatly promoted the development of Dajin pharmaceutical industry, and also promoted the development of related industries.

"I can't imagine that whaling is so profitable! I don't know if it will work in Rome? ”

Anthony's mind was spinning, as if he saw a yellow mountain of gold in front of him.

This visit to Liaodong really gave him hope for the revitalization of the family, and it also made him finally understand why the Romans who had been to Liaodong would call Lushun "the world's largest port", where thousands of ships would enter and leave every month, hundreds of huge booms were busy loading and unloading goods, and the dock was a warehouse with no end in sight.

Antony believed that even if all the wealth of Rome poured here, the docks and warehouses of Arthur would be able to swallow it with ease. (To be continued.) )