"Oh? Brother He is finally back! Wang Ze was pleasantly surprised when he heard the news of He Liang's return, and said that He Liang's voyage was really not short.

After careful calculation, it has been ten months since He Liang led the fleet to follow Wang Ze's fleet south in Tanegashima just after the beginning of the first month of this year.

"Mr. Yang, let's go to the dock to greet He Liang, let's talk about the affairs of Qinjin and Changzhou while walking!" Wang Ze couldn't wait and immediately wanted to go to the port to greet him, and as he spoke, Wang Ze greeted Cao An, Zheng Kui and others, "Let's go, let's all go over, and I don't know where He Liang has been going for so long this time!" ”

Except for Zhuo Ran and Yang Ku, most of the people in the hall have a close relationship with He Liang, either He Liang's elders or He Liang's brothers, and when they heard the news that He Liang returned to the air, they couldn't bear it for a long time, and as soon as Wang Ze spoke, they all promised to rush out.

Zheng Kui followed everyone's footsteps and said to Wang Ze with a smile: "In the past, in Jeju Island and Qinjin Port, I always heard those maritime merchants in the past say that there are many treasures in the Western Ocean, but this time He Liang has been gone for so long and I don't know what good things he brought back!" ”

Everyone walked out while talking, because the Qinjin County Shoufu was also seven or eight miles away from the port, so everyone still had to ride over, but even if it was the time to lead the horse, Yang Ku was not idle, and followed Wang Ze's footsteps while Wang Ze told his plan for the future development of Changzhou.

"Little Marquis, after our many attacks on the Changzhou side, the land occupied by our side is not much smaller than Qinjin, and the total number of ordinary people who have moved over so far is nearly seventy or eighty thousand, so I think it is better to set up a county in Changzhou as soon as possible!"

"Since Mr. has been in charge of civil affairs in Changzhou before, then Mr. will recommend a reliable candidate!" Wang Ze took out the jujube red horse he had ridden after his return, and replied that the soldier in charge of the horse had already tied the saddle of the war horse.

Seeing Wang Ze's neat flash, Yang Ku hurriedly rode on the horse, and continued to talk about Wang Ze's speed: "I have a specific candidate here!" This person's surname is Guan Yu, is a native of Dongnae County, since the year before last he came to Jeju Island with the fleet, at the beginning because of a good handwriting in my account to make a clerical, and then I saw that he was quite literate and gradually promoted him, this nearly half a year was he to assist me in dealing with the affairs of Changju! ”

Wang Ze turned his head and glanced at Yang Ku and smiled: "Since it is a candidate who has been tested by Mr., let him serve as the county guard of Changzhou for the time being, and then officially appoint him when he makes achievements in the future, and let him come to me another day, I will also see what kind of talent he is!" ”

Yang Ku saw that Wang Ze had a positive attitude towards the person he chose, and he was also quite happy in his heart, and he also sped up his horse speed and followed Wang Ze to Qinjin Port not far away, and Cao An, Zheng Kui, Zhuo Ran, Yan Boss and other civil and military officials followed closely behind with hundreds of guards on horseback.

It didn't take much time to ride to the port, and at this time, the wharf was already full of people who rushed to hear the news, some people who came to catch the excitement, friends and even relatives who were familiar with the crew of He Liang's fleet came to visit, and of course, there were also soldiers who maintained order in the port.

There were more than 30 ships parked in the port, which was about the same number as the fleet He Liang took with him when he set off, and it seemed that the road was safe and there were no major problems, but when Wang Ze got closer, he found that almost every ship's side and other positions were covered with a lot of scars, and there were even traces of repair.

When Wang Ze arrived, the fleet was carrying things down, most of them were precious affairs brought back from the South Seas, the West and other places, and under the escort of the soldiers at the dock, these precious goods packed in boxes were quickly loaded into carriages, and they were to be transported to the headquarters of the Nanyang Commercial Company in Qinjin City.

When Wang Ze saw He Liang again, He Liang was directing the crew to unload from the ship shirtless, he couldn't believe that the person in front of him was the sunny and amiable Brother He in his impression, his once fair skin had become much darker, it seemed that he was too sunburned by the hot sun on the tropical ocean, but He Liang's teeth looked much whiter than before.

"Big brother! You've suffered this time! Wang Ze took He Liang's hand a little excitedly, it seems that the place where He Liang went is definitely not close, if he just goes to Nanyang, it will only take a few months, and it will never take more than half a year.

Seeing that Wang Ze and Yang Ku, Cao An, Zheng Kui and others all came to greet him, He Liang's heart was also warm, he grinned and showed a mouth full of white teeth and smiled: "Haha, everyone came to pick us up, it seems that our face is really big!" Thank you so much! ”

Seeing He Liang joking, Wang Ze also smiled: "Big brother still likes to joke so much, I have already prepared a good fragrant soup and banquet in the city for you to catch the wind and wash the dust!" Big brother, hurry up and go back with us, and let the brothers who have been wandering away for a long time enjoy the taste of home! ”

"No hurry, no hurry! Xiao Langjun, guess what I brought back this trip! He Liang looked mysterious, but because he didn't know what happened this year, he still called Wang Ze Xiaolangjun.

Wang Ze thought for a while before saying, "Big brother, how do I know where you've been in the past year!" I can only guess if you tell me where you went! ”

He Liang smiled and said: "It seems that you can guess that I not only went to Nanyang, but I later followed a merchant fleet of Nanchen to the hometown of the Buddha in the West!" At this time, the Chinese all called the Indian Ocean in later generations the Western Ocean, and the Buddha's hometown is now in the inland Nibora (Nepal) region, could it be that He Liang went there?

While guessing, Wang Ze had some doubts in his heart, it shouldn't be! What is He Liang doing there? The key is that you have to go to Nibora by land, and there is no need for He Liang to go there!

Thinking of this, Wang Ze was puzzled: "Could it be that the eldest brother went to Nibora, but what can attract you there?" In addition, I have also heard of some treasures from the West, in the past, the merchant ships that Nan Chen returned from the West generally brought back nothing more than ivory, rhinoceros horn, spices, these things are the mainstay, in addition, I heard that all parts of the West are also rich in gemstones, is it these things that the eldest brother brought back? But there are a lot of these things in the South Seas! ”120

It's not just that there are ivory rhinoceros horns in Nanyang, even at this time there are many rhinoceros living in Lingnan, and there are also many elephants in the west of Guangnan, so although the price of ivory rhinoceros horns is relatively high at this time, it is not a very precious thing compared to later generations.

After He Liang elaborated on it, Wang Ze learned that He Liang did not go to Nibra, but to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), since the Qin and Han dynasties, Ceylon has been a large-scale envelope of Futu Sect, plus since the Liu Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty, there have been continuous exchanges between Ceylon monks and monks of the Southern Dynasty, so Ceylon is often called the Buddha by the people of the Southern Dynasty at that time.

In addition, because Ceylon is located in the middle of the Western Ocean, connecting the east-west sea route and Tianzhu in the north, an important commercial node, a large number of merchant ships sail here every year to trade, so Ceylon's wealth is unimaginable to outsiders.

From the Han Dynasty to the Han Dynasty Emperor Wu Emperor had a maritime Silk Road to Ceylon, to the Northern and Southern Dynasties period of the Southern Dynasties and Ceylon every year there was a lot of trade, He Liang with the Nanchen merchant ship arrived in Ceylon is not very unexpected, but He Liang brought back what he can't guess.

Seeing that Wang Ze couldn't guess what he brought back, He Liang didn't sell it anymore, he asked people to take out a small box from the box on the side, open it and hand it to Wang Ze, Wang Ze curiously stretched out his head to see that there were some seeds inside!

'Cut, I thought it was a good thing, what is so rare about seeds!' Wang Ze didn't care a little in his heart, he said to He Liang: "I thought it was something, big brother, what is so mysterious about you taking these seeds!" ”

Seeing that Wang Ze didn't care about these things, He Liang hurriedly said: "Xiao Langjun, you don't know, these seeds were specially asked by Zhang Wu, a professor of agronomy with the fleet, to bring them back, you see these are flax seeds, I heard that the climate of Yizhou can also be planted, and the cable woven by this thing is not easy to rot after being soaked in seawater!" Very useful! ”

Then He Liang put away the flax seeds and took out another box of seeds and said to Wang Ze: "This is the seed of the oil palm tree, and the palm oil produced by this thing is also very useful!" Oh, and there's another seed that's very important! ”

Saying that, He Liang took out this wooden box with a length and width of about 20 centimeters and opened it, Wang Ze was surprised when he saw it: "Cotton? This is the seed of cotton! "In the past, Wang Ze did not do much farm work before the crossing, and he still knew this common cotton seed in later generations.

Seeing that Wang Ze recognized this seed, He Liang was also surprised: "We didn't have these things here before, how did Xiao Langjun know that this is a cotton seed?" Of course, Wang Ze yawned and said that he knew about it from the Immortal Master before, and He Liang really believed this excuse.

He Liang didn't notice these when he first went to Ceylon, and only cared about buying and selling local precious goods, but Zhang Wu, a professor of agriculture who accompanied the fleet, saw that there was a thick cloth for sale on the island, so he felt that this kind of cloth was very suitable for Qinjin, Changzhou and other places where the weather was relatively cool, so he immediately purchased some.

And then Zhang Wu is with the sense of smell of agricultural experts to discover the preciousness of this plant, although Wang Ze is now vigorously promoting the wool textile industry, but to meet the future needs are still poor, in addition to the winter night in Changzhou you cover a pair of sheepskin quilt is not convenient to change.

And if you use the fabric and cotton wool spun from this cotton to make a cover, it is much more comfortable, and it is more breathable than a sheepskin quilt, and it is more comfortable to cover.

However, there were really no cotton seeds for sale on Ceylon Island, and later Zhang Wu found He Liang in desperation, and after knowing the importance of cotton, He Liang spent a lot of money to get this cotton seed from a Tianzhu merchant.

Although He Liang was very distressed that he had spent a lot of money to buy such a little seed, Wang Ze felt that it was worth it, not to mention that Indian long-staple cotton is a very good and excellent variety, which is better than Hainan short-staple cotton, but I don't know how many times.

It's just that these seeds can't just be planted now, and they need to be further domesticated and cultivated to adapt them to the climate of the East China Sea, which will take time.

Needless to say, the task of further cultivating and localizing cotton was handed over to Boss Yan, of course, Zhang Wu was specifically responsible, after all, it was found that these cotton were still the credit of Zhang Wu.

"Big brother, what are you doing here?" When the valuable things on the ship were almost unloaded, He Liang asked the deck at the bottom of the ship to be opened, where the space was not used to put the cargo but the ballast stone.

Seeing Wang Ze asking himself, He Liang smiled and said: "When I came back from Ceylon and Nanyang, I saw that the wood there was quite good, so I simply got some stronger wood instead of ballast stone!" Luckily, the wood was still quite heavy, and the boats were relatively stable along the way! ”

When the first log was laboriously lifted from the boat by the gantry crane, Wang Ze took a closer look and turned out to be red sandalwood, although it was not very professional, but he still knew some characteristics of red sandalwood.

In the past, Wang Ze heard that when Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty went to the Western Ocean, in order to increase the profits of the fleet, he used the red sandalwood of the South Sea to replace the ballast stone, and as a result, the red sandalwood of the entire South Sea Islands was cut down, and even the sandalwood of India was almost swept away.

Wang Ze was stunned to see the piles of wood that gradually piled up on the dock, there were piles of wood like a hill, most of the red sandalwood logs in front of him were more than the thickness of an arm, and the thickest ones were even the size of a person hugging each other, just finding these red sandalwood from the South Seas took a lot of effort!