The peninsula on the other side of the strait was the Malay Peninsula, but the area was the whole peninsula, bordering the Nakhon Pathom Kingdom to the north, and there were some natives living on the peninsula, most of them docile and simple, living by fishing and pearl diving, they were exploited by the Sriviya State, and the Song Dynasty freed them from the exploitation of the Sriwijaya State, which made them very grateful.

In addition, the Srivijaya Kingdom built a small city on the peninsula, called the Wolf's Tooth, with a population of only more than 1,000 people and 300 soldiers, and Fanning immediately arranged for ships for them to send back to the Sriwijaya Kingdom.

The main force of the Song army returned to Xingang, while Fanning left 2,000 soldiers to guard the peninsula, and a few days later, hundreds of merchants and a dozen officials arrived from Xingang.

Everyone knows in their hearts that although Xingang is developing rapidly, as a commercial port, its geographical location is not very good, not as good as the capital of Srivijaya Kingdom, but the geographical location of this peninsula is better than that of Mo Luo Yu, especially the southernmost point, which is just at the mouth of the strait.

Fanning's interest in the port was not what would become Singapore, but the port of Malacca, mainly because the island of Singapore was surrounded by the sea and had little fresh water, and he now controlled the entire peninsula, so it was not appropriate to place the state capital at the southernmost point.

Malacca is recorded in the history books of the Tang Dynasty, called Gorofusha, where the sun is abundant, the precipitation is abundant, the land is fertile, and the fertile land that can be cultivated is endless, which is not only suitable for making a port, but also can become a stronghold for the Great Song Dynasty to control the peninsula.

In the morning, Fanning came to the beach with hundreds of merchants, and he pointed to the promontory in the distance and said to everyone: "I have been looking for a suitable port on the peninsula for the past few days, and finally found that this place is the best, the water is deep, and it can dock a huge ship of 30,000 stones, and the sea is calm all year round, and there are few strong winds and waves, I plan to build this place as a second transit port." ”

"Fan Yuanjun, is there only a port here?" A businessman asked.

Fan Ning shook his head, "The entire peninsula already belongs to the Great Song Dynasty, I plan to name the peninsula Baozhou, the port is called Fusha Port, and then establish Xinquan County here, as the seat of Baozhou, the population should reach at least 100,000 people, everyone, Xingang will still be retained, biased towards spice business, but Baozhou's Fusha Port is biased towards trade with the West, its size will be at least twice that of Xingang, the area of the commercial bank will be expanded, and it will have its own warehouse, and in three years, it will become the largest trading port in Nanyang." ”

All the businessmen were very excited, and they all said that they wanted to invest in the construction of a commercial bank here, Fan Ning smiled: "Everyone go and see for themselves, and then we will discuss how to plan it!" ”

The merchants dispersed, and at this time, Akihito led two Genoese merchants forward and introduced Fanning, "These two men have come from the far west, they are brothers, the elder brother is called Pirowan, and the younger brother is called Pirod, and they want to follow the envoy's fleet to the Song Dynasty. ”

Fanning was a little surprised, now that the Suez Canal was not opened, most of the Genoese merchants preferred to travel by land, and he had rarely heard of European merchants who came by sea.

He crouched down on the beach, drew a map of the northern part of the Indian Ocean, and asked the two brothers, "Can you tell me about your routes?" ”

At this time, the Europeans were still confused about the outline of the map, they had no idea what Fanning was drawing? Still Akihito had a way, he immediately found a merchant who frequented the Great Eater, and when Fanning marked Mecca on the map, the merchant immediately understood and explained it to the two Genoese merchants.

Pointing north to the Red Sea, Pirod said in a rather clumsy Chinese: "Enter the bay, disembark, hire camels to carry the goods north, and board a ship in Alexandria to Genoa." ”

Fanning understood that they disembarked at the Gulf of Suez, the northernmost point of the Red Sea, and then hired a caravan of camels to travel for two or three days to Alexandria, and then crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Genoa.

His brother Pirovin understood Fanning's map, pointed to the Persian Gulf, and said: "From here to Baghdad, there are Genoese merchants there, and it is not very hard to sell their goods, but the profit is less than half." ”

"How much does it cost to sell a piece of silk to Genoa?" Fanning asked.

The two brothers glanced at each other, hesitated for a while, and said, "About thirty taels of silver." ”

Several businessmen around exclaimed, "This is more than ten times the profit!" ”

Fanning saw that the two brothers were not telling the truth, and lowered the price, at least fifty or sixty taels of silver.

He didn't say anything, and asked his subordinates to take them to the Song Dynasty, but Fanning still found an opportunity to tell Ming Ren: "Silk, porcelain and tea are the magic weapons we sell to the West, you have to be careful not to let them take away silkworm seeds and tea seeds, although the imperial court has already issued a ban on raising silkworms and growing tea overseas, but we still have to be careful." ”

Akihito nodded, "I'll arrange for someone to follow them and keep an eye on them." ”

At this time, a soldier ran to him and said, "Envoy Qiqi, the local chief asks to see you!" ”

Fanning nodded, "Bring them here!" ”

Previously, the officials of the Song Dynasty had reached a consensus with the local natives, the Song Dynasty would not interfere with the fishing and hunting of the local natives, and there were not many natives on the peninsula, only five or six thousand people, divided into two parts, one part hunted and gathered in the mountains for a living, and the other part was fishing and pearl diving for a living, basically there was no conflict with the activities of the Song Dynasty, and even their surplus products were sold.

After a short time, a chieftain in his forties was brought up, knelt down and saluted, "The little people Puwangda see the adults." ”

He spoke the language of Sriwijaya, which most merchants understood and was relatively easy to translate, so Akihito acted as an interpreter for them.

Fanning nodded and said to Akihito, "You ask him, what's the matter with me?" ”

The chief grunted, pointing to the two young girls behind him and a few gifts, and Akihito smiled, "He said that these two girls are the most beautiful women in their clan, and they are willing to give them to the envoy to serve by his side, as well as a few gifts." ”

Fanning is a little big, before King Bo Ni wanted to give him five beautiful girls, King Sriwijaya also said that he wanted to give his daughter to him, and now this chief also wants to give him women, wherever he goes, the other party wants to give women to himself.

Fan Ning had no choice but to say to Mingren: "You tell him that I can accept the gift, but the officials of the Song Dynasty do not accept women, and ask him to bring the girl back." ”

Akihito explained to the chief for a long time, and the chief saw that Fanning really refused to accept the girl, so he had to offer a gift.

The gift is two things, one of the boxes is pearls, there are about thirty of them, all the size of pigeon eggs, very rounded, very difficult to see in the market.

Another gift was a large jar that seemed to be liquid, Fanning was a little strange, he opened the lid, and there was a viscous white liquid inside, and a strong smell of rubber came to his face, and it was actually a large jar full of very fresh latex.

"It's latex!"

Fanning was surprised, he had been in Nanyang for several years, and he really ignored this thing.

"Is there a lot of production here?"

Akihito translated, and the chief nodded repeatedly, "The central part of the peninsula is full of this kind of tree, and the production is very large, and we hope to be able to collect it in exchange for items." ”

It turned out that the chief came today to fight this idea, and Fanning agreed without hesitation, he could sell it to the garrison, how much he wanted, and how much he received.

He had some groceries brought to the chief, and the chief thanked him and left.

Akihito smiled when he saw him walking away: "This local is called tree oil, and this kind of tree is distributed in many places in Srivijaya, Boni Country, and Luzon Island, and I see that the locals use them to brush their houses and prevent rain leakage." ”

Fanning looked at the latex and said to Mingren: "This is actually a treasure, it is very useful, you can call it latex, rubber, it is a specialty of the Nanyang area." ”

"I've seen it many times, but what exactly is it for?"

"You roast it with fire, it will solidify, use it as a mattress, cushion, pillow and the like, can isolate the water on the ground, it is very practical to use in the barracks, or use it to make a trebuchet bungee cord, which can double the range of the trebuchet, or make it into boots, it will not be afraid of water when it rains, or make it into a leather pipe, it is convenient to send water from a distance, but its biggest role should be to make wheels, so that the cart is no longer bumpy, and the speed is faster."

Akihito scratched his head and smiled, "Speaking of which, I'd be interested in giving it a try." ”

Fanning smiled: "It has one of its biggest weaknesses, that is, it is unstable, it is fine to make boots in winter, and it will be deformed in summer, but there is a secret recipe that can make it very stable." ”

Fanning simply asked people to take a pen and paper and write down a recipe: five catties of raw latex, fifty grams of sulfur powder, stir well, and bake at high temperature for a day.

Then he drew the pattern of the inner and outer tires of the car, wrote the inflatable principle on the side, handed it to Akihito, and said with a smile: "This is a business worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, you can find someone to study it well after you return to Quanzhou, and it will be easy to drive in the future." ”

Akihito looked at it carefully for a long time before carefully putting it away.

He asked again, "Do you want to go back to Quanzhou?" ”

Fanning shook his head, "I want to arrange Fusha Harbor, and then go to the east of the Srivijaya Kingdom, it is said that there is a large area of borderless land there, and there is even a wider world, I want to see it." ”

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