Update early in the morning, fight for a recommendation vote, do you have a vote to vote for Rolls-Royce?

The new continent must be seen, and the new route must be found, as for whether to open up a new route and compete for the new continent, then we have to settle the account...... After all, it takes a lot of money and determination to fight for a new continent and open up a new route.

Not to mention the risk of war with the Ming Dynasty, but the investment required to set up a trading post and build a trade market in the New World is an astronomical amount, and how can the merchants of Venice and Genoa rashly throw money into it - Queen Isabella of Spain in history will not settle accounts at all, so Columbus was fooled into investing in the exploration of the New World, and as a result, the poor Spain became a tyrant Spain. In Venice at the same time, the accountants played and beat the small abacus, and in the end they still felt that it was not worth it, and it was more prudent to cooperate with the Sultans of the Heavenly Sect to reduce the cost of the old shipping routes......

Well, this is a matter of accounting and parliament, and two young ambassadors can't manage it. Today they will be Niccolò. Polo came and had something else to ask.

"What's going on with the Mongol invasion?" Clement. Doria changed his tone and asked about the Mongol invasion of the west.

It turned out that just before Pope Clement IV was appointed, King Alfonso X of Castile, King Alfonso III of Portugal and Archbishop Ataleón of Lisbon jointly wrote to the Holy See, reporting that the Great Mongolia had suffered a crushing defeat in the East, and was now planning an all-out expedition to the west to invade Europa.

But by the time the letter arrived in Rome, Pope Clement IV was dying. I can't do that. He only instructed the Holy See to copy dozens of copies of the letter and send it to the monarchs of the countries of Europa. Venice and Genoa did not have a monarch though. But he was also a very important player in the European political scene today, and naturally got a copy of this "Letter to the Ecumenical Church".

And the reaction of the top leaders of Venice and Genoa. It's ...... Be tickled pink!

Glad?

Yes, the Mongols are coming, and the merchants are happy! Their reaction was much more than Liang Chongru expected.

Of course, the Venetians and Genoese were not in a hurry to become a fourth-class European, but realized the huge business opportunities that the Mongol invasion would bring!

War is always inseparable from money.

The prosperity of Venice and Genoa is actually due to the Crusades.

The Crusaders were mainly transported to the East by the ships of these two countries. Lending money to the crusaders, buying their booty and slaves, providing weapons and even mercenaries was a big deal.

Other than that. The troubles caused by the Crusades also helped city-states such as Venice and Genoa to block many rivals - the Pope banned trade with the Celestial Cults, which was not binding on trading republics such as Venice and Genoa.

And now, an unprecedented world war is about to spread to Europe! And an unprecedented war may well mean an unprecedented opportunity to make a fortune!

If the Mongol invasion was real, then all of Europe would have been mobilized for war. What a huge demand that means! And now that the country of Seris in the East has also arrived in Europa, it is attracting Europeans to board their warships, so there are many opportunities here, right?

"The Mongol invasion of the west is definitely real. Even if the Mongol Great Khan had no intention of invading westward, the emperor of the Seris would have launched a westward expedition to drive the Mongols to Europa! ”

Niccolò. Polo told the truth, he always considered himself an honest businessman...... Honest as most Venetian merchants.

"Great Khan of the Mongols...... Can't beat the Seris? Doria asked. I seem to have heard that the Mongols almost conquered Seris. ”

"Yes, just a little bit." Niccolò. Polo nodded, "It's like the Crusaders almost liberated the Holy Land...... The Seris also produced a hero like Saladin. His name is Chen Dexing! Now the emperor of the Ming Empire. The leader of the Heavenly Dao Sect! ”

"Heavenly Dao...... Teach? "Clement. Doria frowned, "What kind of teaching?" ”

"Worship the One God. Believing in Science ......"

"Science?"

"It's mathematics, chemistry, biology, geometry, whatever...... The Celestial Daoists of Seris believe that the truths of the universe are contained in them, as long as they can be fully grasped. Mankind will open the door to heaven, and humanity will become omnipotent like God, and the earth will be like heaven. ”

"It's a bit blasphemous." Doria shook her head. He believed in God more than the Venetians...... The kind of coaxing the Crusaders into attacking fellow Christians was something devout Genoese Christians could not do. At most, they sold 1,000 or hundreds of child crusaders into slavery in Egypt.

"It's okay," Pieto. Godenigo had already read the translation of the Three Classics of the Heavenly Taoism, and he said, "It's just that the ambition is too great, and he wants to conquer the world, which is a bit like the Heavenly Sect ......."

"Heavenly Sect......" Doria furrowed her brow, "almost forgot about the Mamluks." He looked at Pietto. Godenigo, "Do you know any news from Egypt?" ”

Pietto. Godenigo nodded, "The Mamluks have declared themselves vassals to the Mongols, and the Hakim Caliph has declared war on the Ming Empire by issuing a religious decree on holy warfare. However, this is just an attitude, and it is impossible for Sultan Baibers to actually wage war against Macau...... There were 12,000 Swiss and Black Forest mercenaries, as well as at least 5,000 Aztec musketeers. And it will also have the support of Castile and Portugal. ”

"That's a good thing!" Doria Road.

Pietto. Godenigo nodded, "That's right, it's a good thing for Venice and Genoa, for the time being......"

"Yes, only temporarily."

The words of the two profiteers were vague, but Niccolò. Polo can still understand it, and he is more of a Venetian.

The Mamluks were vassals to the Mongols, meaning that their war with the Ilkhanate was over. In the eyes of merchants, it also meant that trade routes from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean could become safer. Venice and Genoa could have obtained security guarantees and relatively low tariffs through secret negotiations with the Mamluk Sultan. Venice and Genoa have always maintained considerable ties with the Ayyubids and the Mamluks.

In this way, spices, silks, and porcelain from the East could reach the Mediterranean at a lower cost - so that they could compete with the galleons of the Ming Empire and maintain their market share as much as possible.

Even Venice and Genoa were able to trade with the Mongols through the Mamluks, and trade with Rus' and Persia.

For Venice and Genoa, the "money road" still seems to be bright, at least for now!

……

"This house is more than a thousand years old?"

"Yes, it was built 27 years before Christ was born during the Roman Republic, under the name of the Pantheon. It was only converted into a church in 609 years after the birth of Christ, and its current name is 'Church of the Virgin and the Martyrs'. ”

"Oh, that's almost 1,300 years!"

"Not to mention, this stone house is solid, and it won't fall in 1300...... We were in the Han Dynasty at that time, where are the houses of the Han Dynasty left now? ”

While the Venetians and Genoese were making their calculations, Liang Chongru was traveling with Wen Tianxiang, the Nine Lights Monk and the Grand Monk Yongxin, accompanied by the Archbishop of Pontaleon. I just went to see the Arch of Constantine in the morning, and I went to see the Pantheon in the afternoon. After reading it, there was also a dinner, which was held in the Lateran Palace, where several cardinal archbishops who presided over the daily affairs of the Holy See came forward to feast.

At the dinner, Liang Chongru also discussed with the cardinal archbishops of the Holy See about opening an embassy in Rome.

The concept of an embassy did not exist in the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was also introduced to China by Chen Dexing. Now the Ming Empire and Japan, Goryeo, Annam and other three countries have set up embassies for each other. However, not all names are embassies. Because Goryeo and Annam were subject states of the Ming Dynasty, their embassies in the Ming Dynasty were called the "Gong Embassy", and the Ming embassies in these two countries were the "Xuanfu Embassy". In the civil war, Japan did not pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, so the two embassies of the Ming Dynasty in Japan (now there are two Japans) and the two Japanese embassies in the Ming Dynasty are called embassies.

With regard to European diplomacy, of course, at present, it is also based on equal diplomatic relations -- although Chen Dexing has the ambition of building a Chinese world, he is still pragmatic on diplomatic issues. Diplomacy should still serve national interests, not exchange national interests for worthless suzerainty.

However, it is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to establish ambassadorial-level diplomatic relations with any European country now. First, opening too many embassies tens of thousands of miles away is a huge expense, and it is not worth it; Second, there are too many and too many European countries now, not only empires, kingdoms, principalities, republics, but also a large number of princely states and counties, and in many places, the territory of the fart is also a country. Of course, Da Ming has no interest in establishing diplomatic relations with all of them.

Therefore, the objects that need to establish diplomatic relations are the Holy See (the current Holy See is not the Vatican), the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Castile, the Kingdom of France, the Eastern Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Serbia, and the Kingdom of England. There was also a Kingdom of Poland that was also going to establish diplomatic relations - this was Tran's instruction, because Poland was the first line of defense against the Mongol invasion. However, when Liang Chongru arrived in Europa, he found that there was no such country - the country had broken up into a bunch of principalities, and it was estimated that it would soon become a fourth-class Europe, and there was no need to establish diplomatic relations!

Of course, now it is only the Ming Dynasty that unilaterally opened embassies in Europe and other countries, and it is not that the two sides set up ambassadors for each other. After all, not every native of Europa has the money to afford an embassy tens of thousands of miles away. (To be continued......)