Zhao Qi studied very carefully, and he didn't know until his wife and concubine came back, and he probably circled three places through the map, but whether these three places were possible to be implemented was not possible for the time being.

Two of these three places are two islands, one is located on a small island at the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, from the map, this small island is about sixty kilometers long and more than ten kilometers wide, the island is not big, it should be inhabited on it, it should be inhabited, then there should be fresh water on the island.

And because it's an island, there are definitely not too many people here, so it's very easy for them to control it, but they don't know if this place has been beaten down by the Arabs.

The other island, which continues to the west, is located on the eastern tip coast of a country called Egypt, and the area of this island is larger, but this island is said to be very important, so it is estimated that it will be difficult for them to control this place in a short time, but this can be used as a target for the next step.

In addition, the third location, Zhao Qi chose to be located opposite the first island across the strait, where there should be villages or cities, in this way, they can attack and retreat, and everything can be said to be very smooth.

They have enough room to move, but this still needs the support of Minister Mingyue, and even the support of the leader.

To be honest, Zhao Qi never thought that he would ponder these things one day, although he considered these things for the sake of making it more convenient for him to trade, but he felt that fighting a war should be similar to doing business, at least, a war needs supplies, right? And isn't replenishment the equivalent of a transit warehouse for doing business?

And from the land, the route is too long, but from the sea, it is more convenient, and it should be transported more than on land. The more Zhao Qi thought about it, the more he felt that his idea was right, but he still had a long time to report, so Zhao Qi endured his excitement and began to think about it himself.

He took out all the thinking of his former shopkeeper of a trading house, and as a caravan shopkeeper across countries, he actually had a lot to consider, such as security issues, logistics issues, profitability issues, and so on.

Now he is constantly amplifying these thoughts, and then thinking of similar problems, listing them one by one on the paper next to him, and then seeing if he can find a suitable solution.

Although these questions may not be suitable for him to do, as long as they are useful to Dahan, he is not thinking in vain, at least he is also a member of Dahan's security department now, isn't he?!

Half a month passed in a flash, and in this half month, Zhao Qi did not have too much contact with the outside world, of course, what he didn't know was that the Han business community in the outside world could be said to be boiling and lively in the past half a month.

Because the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry of Dahan conducted an auction and auctioned 12 merchant ships at one time, of which the largest displacement is 2,230 tons, a total of six, and the remaining six have a displacement of 1,780 tons, these 12 merchant ships are expected to be completed next month.

At present, it has been built for more than two months, and it has to be said that this all-wooden boat, with the wrapped iron sheet and the wood prepared in advance, and with the modern construction tools of the Han Dynasty, the construction speed is too fast, and it is estimated that it is at least twice as fast as the Datang.

Datang takes a lot of time just to polish the wood, and in Dahan, almost all of them have been replaced by machines.

However, what really excited these merchants was not these 12 merchant ships, the 12 merchant ships were officially kept by themselves, and all the rest were auctioned, and a total of 22 private commercial houses auctioned the remaining 11 merchant ships.

There are many merchant ships that were bought by several merchant houses directly together.

Part of the reason is that they can't afford it, and part of it is because they want to unite other business houses and unite some forces.

The average price of the 12 merchant ships is 250,000 yuan, and the starting price of the implied bid is 150,000 yuan and 180,000 yuan. This price basically didn't make any money, mainly because the costs attached to these merchant ships in the early stage were relatively large, such as the cost of simple docks.

The R&D funds are not counted, mainly because the R&D funds are relatively small, so forget it.

And this price was discussed by Huo Gang and them, if it is really priced according to the technology and technology of this era, it will be at least more than one million yuan, and it will be at least hundreds of thousands of yuan when converted into the currency of Datang.

Datang is also building such warships, and some of them have already been built, but the cost of Datang is as high as 150,000 yuan.

This is the cost, not the selling price, and the displacement of Datang's warships is about 1,800 tons, which is not as big as the Han.

In terms of docks, these merchant ships are all simple docks, which basically will not take a few years, and the construction of real docks is estimated to take at least a year to complete, because those docks are basically very close to modern docks, and the production of them is no longer such wooden merchant ships, but real steel ships.

This group of merchant ships, even if there are more merchant ships in the back, is actually just to train shipyard workers, not to let them idle, to let them familiarize themselves with their own business, although there is a big difference between timber merchant ships and steel ships, but there are also commonalities.

And it is estimated that timber merchant ships will not shrink in the next many years, because not only merchant ships, but also some wooden fishing boats and so on will need to continue to be produced and built.

Speaking of which, many of the people here are some fishermen and workers from the original Yanqi Kingdom and several countries in the Western Regions, because these fishermen have built some wooden fishing boats and have some experience.

It's okay to be a worker.

These are not the point, what makes these merchants a little amazed is that there is a Blackwater Trading House that actually auctioned the two largest merchant ships by itself, which makes all the merchants a little dumbfounded, because they have never heard of this Blackwater Trading House before, and they don't know which family is behind it, and the price given by the other party is also the highest price.

Moreover, they don't know who the other party is bidding for, and none of them here know anyone, but they all want to get to know each other, because such a powerful firm must be doing a very wide range of business in Dahan, and the reputation of the Dahan government in this regard is still very high.

Therefore, these businessmen are naturally not so suspicious.

But in the end, they were disappointed, and in the following half a month, this matter was basically the main object of discussion between these merchants, and the other was that the Dahan Commercial Bank would continue to auction merchant ships in the future, and for these merchants, they were naturally very excited to discuss these things.

Because it meant that the Han began to encourage them to go to sea, and even if they wanted to, the main trade channel in the future could even be placed on the sea. And the Han government has also given new incentives to explore the sea and explore new land.

The Han government has already told them that if they explore a new land, or other territories, the Han government will have rewards.

Although the risks at sea are great, for the owners of these trading houses, they do not need to take risks, so they are all acceptable, of course, the loss of such a ship is a huge loss for them, but it is acceptable.

After all, if they get a merchant ship, at the beginning, they will definitely trade first, and all of them will receive a notice from the Ministry of Security of Dahan, hoping that each of their ships will be equipped with at least one sailor who has studied the subject of oceanography, and then draw all the charts, especially some routes.

And if you submit a chart on a regular basis, the official will back up a new chart for everyone on a regular basis. For this, all the trading houses naturally agreed directly, because for them, the charts they held in their hands were all officially handed over to them.

I can't say nautical charts, to be precise, maps, at most ocean maps, there are some nautical charts, but there are too few. This part of the charts is mainly from the port of Zizhulin to Persia and other countries, and this part of the charts was purchased by the Han and Persia.

And some of it was taken from the library of the Ring Sun Dynasty.

There is a big difference between the nautical chart and the map, not to mention the modern nautical chart, Huo Gang didn't understand, because he had never been to the ocean, but the ancient nautical chart, not only marked certain islands, land, distance, and some supply ports, etc., but also marked how the ocean current flowed, where the area is a reef, especially a reef, reef in ancient times was the biggest threat to the ocean fleet.

Therefore, the registration of the reef is very important, and it is also an important secret for many caravans in the sea.

Of course, Dahan's merchant ships also have advantages, first of all, they have added watertight cabins, and if the ship is not very damaged, the possibility of rescue is very high. The second is that the ships of the Great Han can sail directly in the deep sea, and the sail battleships have very good deep-sea navigation capabilities.

Therefore, in order to avoid reefs, you can sail in the deep sea.

The real need for ideas is when it's close to where they need to anchor, or some ports, etc., but most of these areas have already been explored by local ships.

However, Zhao Qi didn't care about the discussion in the outside world at all, he had been a little stunned for a while, or he had fallen into a strange circle, thinking about more and more problems, and many issues were obviously beyond the scope of what he needed to consider.

But this thing is like a poison, and I didn't think about it when I didn't think about it before, but now when I think about it suddenly, it's a bit addictive.