"The commercial port of Japan, Hakata in the west, and Namba in Kinai."

It was a chubby little old man who spoke, with a fat face like dough, wearing a Confucian cardigan, shaking a fan in his hand, walking beside the Heavenly Dao envoy Ren Daoxing and the nuns of Juexin. He was followed by several men carrying burdens and samurai carrying swords.

Ren Daoxing and his entourage have arrived in Japan, first stopped at Hakata, and then took Huang Zhishen's famous post and handwritten letter to meet Hakata's wealthy businessman, Xie Guoming from the Southern Song Dynasty. is the fat old man who is now accompanying Ren Daoxing and Jue Xinni. This boss Xie is not only a businessman, he is also a samurai...... A samurai who doesn't know martial arts!

However, his status as a samurai was genuine, and he was a samurai on a small island near Hakata called Koroshima - which sounds like a snake on the ground, but theoretically a petty official in charge of collecting manors and annual tribute and managing local security, seemingly at the bottom of the shogunate's bureaucracy. However, at this time, Japan's feudal system was not mature, and it seemed that it was impossible to distinguish the difference between feudal lords and bureaucrats. There is nothing hereditary in the feudal monarchy, but the bureaucrats are also hereditary, and the samurai are also hereditary, and as a result, small lords have developed over time. Some lands with strong financial resources can still raise a few ronins as retainers, as if they are also the emperor of the soil!

And Boss Xie didn't know what path to take, and he actually mixed up the identity of the Kamakura Shogunate's royal family. also raised a few samurai who were born, but there was no place to go out of the ronin to become retainers, in fact, they were thugs. swaggered to protect Ren Daoxing and Jue Xinni to Namba together. He also paid for Ren Daoxing's expenses in Japan, and also acted as a tour guide for free.

Boss Xie said: "This Namba Port is located in an inland sea in Japan, surrounded by islands and land. Therefore, the wind and waves are not prosperous, and it is the most ideal place to open a port and build a port. In addition, Namba is close to Japan's most prosperous province in Kinai. It is more than 100 miles away from Heiankyo, the residence of the emperor, and is connected by an inland river. The transportation is very convenient. Since ancient times, it has been an important center of Japan's foreign trade. Taira Kiyomori, who was in charge of Japan in the past, moved the capital from Heiankyo to Namba for a time, and spent a lot of money to build a port and a commercial port. Although the Taira clan later perished, the capital was moved back to Heiankyo. But this Namba commercial port is still thriving for a long time! ”

Ren Daoxing coughed twice and said, "This Namba City looks quite lively, and the style of the houses in the city is somewhat similar to Lin'an City." ”

Xie Guoming said with a smile on his face: "The era of Pingqingsheng's cultivation of Nanbo City is probably the Shaoxing period here in our place, right?" The whole thing is to prevent Lin'an City from coming. This country of Japan has been learning China since the time of our Tang Dynasty. Most of the houses in Heiankyo are Tang style, and here in Namba they are imitations of the Great Song Dynasty. ”

"Next, they should imitate our Da Ming!" Ren Daoye touched his beard proudly, and when he spoke, he didn't forget to sweep the nun with the corner of his eye.

Jue Xinni said with a pleasant expression: "Japan has always learned from the mainland's strengths, and it seems that it has become a little China. ”

At this time, Japan did not say anything about breaking away from Asia and joining Europe -- Europe did not know where Europe was! Even if you know it, you're not interested in entering. It's all a bunch of barbarians!

And the Japanese, of course, don't look down on barbarians, and they don't want to be barbarians. Therefore, since the Tang Dynasty, they have been going to "get rid of China and enter China", and now they have begun to feel a little bit and call themselves "Little China". Therefore, the Japanese also called the Japanese archipelago "Shenzhou", and the boss of the Kamakura shogunate was called "the general of the expedition", and the expedition was "Yi", and of course they themselves were "Hua".

What a good student of China!

And the same "good students", there are two families, Goryeo and Annam. Japan after the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty. He thought that he could replace China as the leader of the civilized world in East Asia. Goryeo, on the other hand, thought it was China after defeating the Mongol invasion. As for Goryeo, it regarded itself as China after the death of the Ming Dynasty and the revival of the Qing Dynasty.

In fact, there were several copycats in East Asia before modern times......

In a sense, though. Japan, Goryeo, and Annam are indeed branches of Chinese civilization. However, due to the weakening of the main body of Chinese civilization from the Song Dynasty, and it no longer adhered to the development route of the gradual spread of "Xia Jun Yimin". It was only then that these three copycat China did not integrate into China in the end, and even became China's mortal enemies.

Chen Dexing has now abandoned the unification model of excessive pursuit of centralized power since the Qin Dynasty. Naturally, it can also break through the limits of the centralized empire and extend the tentacles of expansion to farther places.

And China is a strip of water. Located on the edge of the western Pacific Ocean, Japan, which is the springboard for China to move towards a new road, is naturally the object that Chen Dexing must control -- Chen Dexing, who was born as a senior seaman, naturally knows about ocean currents and something. So he also knew that the transpacific route was not as far out of reach as he thought. If you can use Japan as a www.biquge.info, you can go east along the Japanese Warm Current and the North Pacific Warm Current. A smooth journey to the east coast of Canada, which is about 10,000 kilometers and 5,400 nautical miles, even under the influence of the warm current of the North Pacific, the speed of the sailing ship is only 5 knots, and the new continent can be discovered in 45 days! Even if you discount it again, according to the average speed of 2.5 knots, it is only a 3-month voyage.

On the return journey from the New World, you can take advantage of the east wind of the warm current of the North Equator to travel all the way west. After a three- or four-month voyage, you will be able to return to the southeast coast of China, where the Spanish galleon trade has historically traveled through the North Equatorial Warm Current.

If a regular transpacific route could be established with the help of ocean currents, the travel time between the two shores of the Pacific could be shortened and could be developed into an economically valuable route - California on the other side of the Pacific was rich in gold and was the world's largest gold producer in the mid-19th century, while Mexico was a silver empire!

Although the population of China in the 13th century is compared with the vastness of the American continent, it will take at least hundreds of years to fill the Americas with Chinese! But not filling it up doesn't mean you can't take possession first! Even if it takes hundreds of years to complete, there is always a moment to start.

And the moment Ren Daoxing set foot on Japanese soil, it was the beginning of this time and space Age of Discovery!

Of course, Ren Daoxing himself did not know at this time that his trip to Japan would eventually lead to an unprecedented geographical discovery.

As they walked along the streets leading to Heiankyo, they saw many markets, villages, and temples. But they did not see any tall walls.

Ren Dao Xingxin said that if a foreign enemy came from the sea, went straight to Namba and landed, and then killed Heiankyo, it would be almost overwhelming!

He wondered, "I heard that there is a lot of chaos in Japan, why are there so many markets along the way, including Namba, there are no city walls?" ”

Xie Guoming explained with a smile: "There is chaos here in Japan, but it is all a fight between samurai, and it does not involve civilians. They are fighting back and forth, all for the territory, if there are no civilians to farm and work, what is the use of this territory?

Therefore, the samurai's mansions were built to look like fortresses, but the commoners rarely lived within the city walls, and at most they were just wooden fences to prevent bandits. However, their Heiankyo was built with a walled city, and it was built in imitation of Chang'an of the Tang Dynasty after being reduced to a reduced scale. It is divided into two halves by a long street running north-south, half of which is called Chang'an and the other half is called Luoyang. ”

"Chang'an Luoyang?" Ren Daoxing sneered, "This name is imposing!" So where are we going to Chang'an or Luoyang? ”

"It's Luoyang!" Nun Juexin interjected, "Envoy Ren, you are going to the North Six Polo Residence Pavilion, and the Mao Guild will personally meet you when the North Six Polo explores the problem. ”

The journey of more than 100 miles took the four-wheeled carriage brought by Ren Daoxing from Mingdu and walked for about 5 hours. The carriage and the horses pulling the carriage were extremely eye-catching, and I don't know how many eyeballs were attracted along the way - there were almost no carriages in Japan at this time, and even the ministers rode in ox carts. High-ranking samurai generally rode horses or sat in sedan chairs.

However, when they saw the Hojo Three-Scale Banner (carried by Satoru Shinni) on the carriage and the horseback guards sent by Namba Sho, no one dared to bother to think about it, after all, this is the most prosperous ground in Japan......

It was about dusk that the group arrived at Heiankyo, a city enclosed by a closing-earth enclosure. The city defense is not at all, and there is no one to guard it, and the gates of the city wall are wide open, and it is estimated that they will not be closed at night. In addition, the inside and outside of the city gate are almost as prosperous, with rows of shops, restaurants, brothels, and many Buddhist temples and shrines - Japan's gods and Buddhas are prosperous, and there are temples everywhere, and Heiankyo is a place where temples gather.

At this time, Japan was also prosperous in Hakata, Namba and Heiankyo. Kamakura, as far away as the Kanto region, had many samurai residences and temples, but commerce was not prosperous. In the eyes of the people of Heiankyo, Kanto was nothing more than a place where hillbilly samurai lived.

There were already people waiting at the gate of the city, all of them were samurai with three-scale banners, about forty or fifty people, surrounded by a little old man in his fifties. The little old man was not standing, but sitting on Zhang Mazha, still holding a small fan in his hand, and seemed to be a little anxious. Seeing a huge carriage being watched by four big horses, my eyes were about to fall off in surprise. In fact, it is just an ordinary Mongolian horse, and in Liaodong it is the work of pulling carts and cultivating the land, but when it comes to Japan, it is stronger than the horses ridden by the Northern Six Polo Exploration Questions.

"Ren Dao Envoy, this is the Northern Six Polo Exploration Topic, Hojo from the fifth left horse power head Shi Mao - this is the Heavenly Dao Envoy Ren Daoxing under the command of King Ming."

At this time, at the gate of Heian Capital, it was Jue Xinni who opened his mouth to introduce the two sides, which may not be in line with etiquette in China, but in Japan, monks often participate in "internal sex activities", so it is not worth making a fuss. (To be continued......)