The name Mingyue knew naturally came from the map inside the Ministry of Security, which was more accurate than the maps on the market, and it had very rich and detailed place names.

Mingyue doesn't know how these place names came about, of course, Huo Gang knows, because many place names are place names more than a thousand years later, unless Huo Gang is willing to change it, otherwise these places are expected to continue to use this place name in the future.

"Why here?"

"This is supposed to be a natural harbor, and I have researched and asked people about it, and they all say that harbors or fishing villages are often built in such natural harbors, because such places can withstand storms at sea and avoid problems with ships parked in the harbor."

"Then this place should have a fishing village, it has a very complete natural harbor foundation, of course, this also needs to look at the local hydrological conditions, and secondly, it is next to here, this location is too close to the Arabian Peninsula."

"If we control here, it means that we can go back and forth between the two continents at any time, I think our fleet of ships must have an advantage, as long as we have an advantage in the ocean, then between the two continents, there is our invincible existence, and if the enemy wants to attack us, we can attack and retreat." Zhao Qi said.

"Oh, why is that?" Mingyue nodded to the next place with a strange face.

The place where Mingyue pointed is where the Suez Canal in later generations is located, and Zhao Qi also drew circles here.

"This is actually like this, here I know it is unlikely, mainly this is an important location connecting the two continents, and this is the territory of the Byzantine Empire, which originally belonged to Byzantium and Persia. In fact, I wondered if this place could dig a river to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, and wouldn't it be possible for our ships to transport it directly to the hinterland of the Byzantine Empire. ”

"Then it will be a huge help for our trade, or we can build a port in this place, and then we will build a port in the Mediterranean next door, and it is okay to connect the two by train, but I think it is better to dig a river, because the volume of shipping is greater than that of trains, and it is more important to save money." Zhao Qi said embarrassedly.

"But what I didn't expect was that when I went to the library to inquire about this, a gentleman told me that in fact, the country originally called Egypt here has tried to dig a river here thousands of years ago, and it has been successful in history, but it has been blocked again, so I am a little naïve in this idea." Zhao Qi is a little embarrassed here.

But after reading the map, Mingyue nodded, and said very seriously: "Shopkeeper Zhao, you don't have to be embarrassed, what you said is very strategic, I have studied this place, to be precise, the people in our strategic department have studied, the reason why their canals in Egypt in history will fail is because their canals are to communicate the Nile, as well as this bitter lake, plus the Strait of Suez." ”

"But the problem between the three is that on both sides of the canal, the lake of Bitter and Suez, especially on both sides of the excavated channel, there is a large amount of desert that makes it easy for the river to clog the river."

"What's more, there is a huge impact delta near the mouth of the Nile, and there is a problem of sea level rise, which is full of swamps, and the main waterways are not deep enough to dredge them."

"Because the upstream river water continues to bring a huge amount of sediment, there is a huge problem here, because our ships are currently building a draft of about 7 meters, and the draft may reach 10 meters, or even more than 10 meters in the future, this river cannot withstand such cargo ships, so it is very possible to dig a new river directly in this line."

Mingyue was not very surprised by Zhao Qi's words, the main reason was because she didn't know the future, but Mingyue and their security department did study this, and the security department had a strategic development department, which mainly studied the future development direction of Dahan.

Naturally, the things that this strategic development department is studying have a lot to do with the strategic focus of the Han Dynasty, and they are now studying the Mediterranean Sea and Central Asia, naturally because the main strategic goal of the Han is here.

If the main strategic goal of the Han was Datang, they would have already begun to study Datang.

So the strategic development department has really considered these, Dahan has begun to build steel warships, this they naturally know, considering the various ships in the world they have collected, steel warships are naturally invincible, so their own ships have an absolute advantage, they naturally have to consider shipping.

Because according to the information they obtained, not to mention how fast the future steam engine can make the ship run, let's say that with the speed of the sail is about eight or nine knots, that is, about 15 kilometers per hour, it is about 5,000 kilometers from Zizhulin Port to Suez, that is, thirteen days.

This may seem like a long time, but don't forget that the ocean can travel day and night, but not on land, and if there is no train on land, it will take at least two or three months to arrive, and the consumption on the way is a huge number, because there are so few things that can be transported at one time.

As for the ships currently built by Dahan, the amount of cargo that can be pulled by one ship is not less than one train. If the Han built larger ships, they would have shipped more at once, and if the speed had been increased even more with the help of the steam engine, it would mean that they would be faster.

And if the railway wants to be built in the past, it will take a long time, at least five or six years to be able to build the past, and how much can the ships transport in these five or six years?

So all things considered, the ocean is the most critical, which is why they are considering digging canals here. Of course, if the excavation really begins, it will definitely be a project of the century, and the number of personnel required will definitely be a huge number.

"It's my team that got the axe." Zhao Qi smiled a little embarrassed and said.

"No, you have broadened our horizons, which is of great help to our future strategic priorities, and these things you said before are likely to be implemented, in this way, I will sort out today's things later and report to the leader in person, if you get the leader's affirmation, I think you will get the resources tilted, but before that, you have to leave Zizhulin Port immediately."

"Yes." Zhao Qi's face immediately turned pale and he spoke seriously.

"Well, you go home and clean up, and set off directly from the train station the morning after tomorrow, by the way, I forgot to introduce you, this one is called Wu Minmin, Wu Min This is Zhao Qi Zhao shopkeeper, the two of you know each other, from today on, Wu Min is Zhao Shopkeeper and your deputy."

"Wu Min is proficient in arithmetic, he is in charge of all the finances of your trading house, and he is fluent in Persian, Arabic, and Greek, so he can be your most important assistant." Mingyue said seriously.

"I've seen Mr. Wu." Zhao Qi hurriedly saluted, now the Han Dynasty has gradually begun to become popular to call some learned people Mr., and this popularity has an expanding trend, such as Zhao Qi They used to see some more respectable shopkeepers also call each other Mr.

This title is also said to come from the leader, and Zhao Qi and they don't know either, but they always feel that this gentleman sounds better than Lang Jun. After all, Mr. used to be called some scholars who read poetry and books, and he was called everyone who taught and educated people, but now he is called Mr., and naturally everyone is happier in their hearts.

Zhao Qi's title is very serious, because he knows very well how high the status of a person who knows three Chinese foreign languages and is also proficient in arithmetic and other aspects is in the Han Dynasty, and such a person is willing to follow him out on these black roads, you can imagine how determined the Ministry of Security is.

So of course Zhao Qi had to be polite.

Besides, although Minister Mingyue said that he was the leader, and Wu Min assisted him, he had just joined the Ministry of Security, and Wu Min was trained by the Ministry of Security, how could he not understand this point of sophistication.

"Don't dare to be, I've seen Shopkeeper Zhao." Wu Min also hurriedly saluted.

"Okay, the two of you don't want to greet each other, you will meet and get along for a long time in the future, the day after tomorrow, you will contact and set off by yourself, I will not care about you here, after arriving at Zizhulin Port, Wu Min knows who to go to, Zhao Qi, your most important task during this period is to study." Mingyue interrupted their greetings.

"Yes." Both of them said with serious expressions.

Mingyue shook her head and quickly left here, and after Mingyue left, Wu Min simply pulled Zhao Qi to sit down, and said with an interested face: "Shopkeeper Zhao, what you just said, I admire it very much, you tell me in detail, I think this thing has a strong operability." ”

"Okay." Zhao Qi immediately smiled, he was not polite, he simply sat down and talked carefully to Wu Min, there were some details, such as how to secretly control a city, he had some ideas, but Zhao Qi didn't tell Mingyue, because Mingyue definitely didn't want to hear these details.

He only needs to say his general thoughts, but Wu Min is different, Wu Min will work with him in the future, and the two of them are obviously partners, so this is the process of getting to know each other, and these things may be what they will implement next, so the two of them can discuss it with each other.

Zhao Qi and Wu Min discussed for an afternoon, and it was not until the evening that the two had a meal together, and Zhao Qi returned home.