When the eastern sky has just turned white, Niutou Port has already begun a busy day, the ships in the port are in and out, the wharf is full of people, and the city next to the port is extremely busy, a scene of busy traffic.

Zhao Yan walked out of the cabin and stretched a long lazy waist, and then looked at the busy port, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face, yesterday afternoon their fleet arrived here in Niutou Port, because his trip to Europe was not publicized, and the officials here did not know in advance, so it was not until he came here that the officials here hurriedly came to meet him, and wanted to arrange accommodation for him, but Zhao Yan didn't want to trouble the local officials, and secondly, the Europe under his feet was originally a luxurious and comfortable ferry, The accommodation prepared on the shore was not necessarily more comfortable than the ferry's room, so the local officials refused their offer.

"I didn't expect that in Africa, which is thousands of miles away from Tokyo City, our Great Song Dynasty also has such a prosperous port!" At this moment, Zhao Yan only heard Yuan's voice behind him, and then Yuan's fat figure slowly walked over, not only did he arrive at Niutou Port for the first time, but he had not even heard of it in advance, until yesterday when the ship entered the port, he knew that Da Song actually had such a prosperous port thousands of miles away.

"Hehe, the port over there in the South Seas is already very young, but the Niutou Port in front of us is even younger, when they went to Europe, this Niutou Port has just been established, and it has only been a few years, Niutou Port has been so prosperous, which also shows how prosperous the trade between our Great Song Dynasty and Europe is." Zhao Yan also smiled at this time and said, from the Great Song Dynasty to the ports on the European route almost all planned by him, Niutou Port was selected by him, now seeing that this is so prosperous, he also feels very pleased, and with the frequent exchanges between the Central Plains and Europe. In the future, Niutou Port will only be more prosperous, unless the Suez Canal is opened, the shipping here will be affected, but in the next few decades, Zhao Yan does not see the hope of Suez opening up for the time being.

"Your Highness, you said earlier that there was an opportunity for me to see Catholicism with my own eyes. It can't be right here, right? At this time, Yuan suddenly asked again, before he asked Zhao Yan about some information about Catholicism, but Zhao Yan smiled and told him that there was an opportunity to see Catholicism with his own eyes, but he was unwilling to say what opportunity it was, which made Yuan also very helpless, so he brought it up again today.

"Hahahaha~, you finally can't help but speak, but you guessed it right, there is indeed an opportunity for you to see Catholicism. Just now the fleet is going to resupply in the port, and the crew is going to go ashore to relax, so let's take this opportunity to go ashore together! Zhao Yan laughed when he heard Yuan's words, he deliberately didn't say it just to try Yuan's concentration, but he didn't expect that the other party finally couldn't help but take the initiative to ask.

"Hehe, the poor monk is an impatient person, especially for new things always a little curious, for which he has also suffered a lot. It's a pity that I haven't been able to get rid of this problem, and at my current age. I'm afraid I can't change it for the rest of my life. At this time, Liao Yuan smiled freely and said that although he was close to his sixtieth birthday, he still maintained a strong curiosity and desire for knowledge, which was the main reason why he traveled thousands of miles to Europe.

At that moment, Zhao Yan asked people to prepare, and then got off the ship with Yuan, and the officials in the port had long been paying attention to Zhao Yan's every move. As soon as he saw him get off the boat, he immediately brought someone to meet him, but Zhao Yan didn't let them follow him, just asked them a few words, and then let them go to work. Then he left the harbor with his escort and went southeast.

Cow Island is actually the island of Madagascar in the later generations, known as the fourth largest island in the world, Zhao Yan once let people roughly calculate, and finally came to a conclusion, that is, the area of Cow Island is almost as large as the original land area of Western Xia. In fact, the Great Song Dynasty only controls the area of Niutou Port, that is, the northernmost corner of Niudao, which is less than one percent of Niudao, and the rest is a vast uninhabited area, of course, there are natives on the island, but the number is relatively small, and it is generally not close to Niutou Port.

There is a small river entering the sea in the southeast of Niutougang, and not far from the north bank of the river, there is a very special village, the village is not inhabited by local natives, but it is not a Song people, and the people in the village rarely contact Niutougang, and even they enter Niutougang must be strictly interrogated by the officials of the Great Song Dynasty, because they are the Catholic nobles exiled here by the Great Song Dynasty, including Pope Pascal II.

In order to ensure safety, Zhao Yan led a five-hundred-man escort to this small village established by Catholic nobles, the Song people of Niutougang generally called this prison village, because in their eyes, Pascal II and others were originally prisoners, although Pascal II and others were very dissatisfied with this name, but unfortunately they were powerless to resist.

The prison village is only ten miles away from Niutou Port, almost in the blink of an eye, plus Zhao Yan got up early today, so when they came to the prison village, the morning sun in the east had just risen. In order to ensure Zhao Yan's safety, his guards rushed into the village as soon as they arrived here, ready to order everyone to drop any weapons that might threaten Zhao Yan's safety.

It's just that what everyone didn't expect was that the guards had just rushed in, but soon someone ran out and reported loudly to Zhao Yan: "Your Highness, the houses in the village are all empty, but the rooms are full of traces of human life, it seems that there were still people in the room just now, but now the people in the entire village are all gone!" ”

"The whole village is gone, how is that possible?" Li Yuan, who was following Zhao Yan, shouted in shock when he heard this, because he could clearly see that some courtyards in the village were still smoking, obviously someone was cooking, but why was there no one now?

Compared with Yuan's surprise, Zhao Yan squinted at a building in the middle of the village at this time, compared to the low houses in the village, this wooden building is taller, and the cross on the roof of the building is also very conspicuous, which makes him seem to understand something for a while, and then said with a smile: "The people are still in the village, but you haven't found it." (To be continued.) )