It is impossible to know when maritime trade between China and the West first originated, but it seems that maritime merchants between the East and the West have never been cut off, at least from the time of the Han Dynasty to the present day.

Benefiting from the biannual monsoon exchange in the Western Ocean, the merchant ships traveling to and from the Western Ocean all traveled by the monsoon season, which is why there were so many Tianzhu merchants stationed in Funan for a long time, and in the next few hundred years, they were stationed in the capital of Zhenla, which replaced Funan.

Because most of these Tianzhu merchants embraced Brahmanism, they began to bring a large number of craftsmen and literati in their spare time, and created a Angkor miracle in the Chenla Dynasty, until these Tianzhu merchants were replaced by Arab merchants, they were the largest force on the Western east-west sea route.

At this time, it is the spring of March and April, at this time in the Western Ocean, which is the most suitable period for navigation with the least wind and waves of the year, a huge fleet of more than 20 large sea ships sailing on this blue sea, each big ship is full of sails.

When the fleet gradually approached, you can find that there is a huge flag hanging on the big ship headed by the leader, and a huge 'Xia' character is written on the flag, it turns out that this is the fleet led by He Liang, who loves adventure all these years between the Western Ocean and the East China Sea.

This time He Liang is the first time to officially open up the transaction between the East China Sea and the Persian Empire, and He Liang is very satisfied with the results of this transaction, as long as it can be maintained, it is enough to obtain a long-term profiteering channel for the East China Sea.

Therefore, after setting off from the Persian Gulf, he walked for seven or eight days, He Liang's face was full of smiles, his tanned face had become much more mature and stable, and the smile on his face made the sailors around him feel much better, and some people even dared to joke with him.

"Brother He, the silk we brought this time can obviously be bought at such a good price in Persia, but why are you holding the price so low?" As the captain of the fleet's guards, Gu Kai was puzzled that this man with the same name as Huang Rui's brother was a native of Changguang County.

Although it is not Wang Ze's grandfather's old department, Gu Kai has been following Wang Yong since he was young, so he dares to ask this kind of topic that is difficult to talk about.

In his opinion, the merchants of Persia today have to purchase a large amount of military supplies for the Persian Empire in the past two years because of the Persian alliance with the Turks against the Huns, so they do not have so much energy to go back and forth between the East China Sea and Persia to sell luxury goods, so that their side can obtain higher profits by virtue of the scarcity of goods.

He Liang smiled and looked at Gu Kai who looked puzzled in front of him, because he was only responsible for the safety of the fleet, and he didn't know much about business matters, so he didn't think it was angry, and patiently explained: "Captain Gu, you have to know, do you think we can make money from a person's pocket all year round when we do business?" Or is it better to earn only once and people will never buy your stuff again? ”

Gu Kai said without hesitation: "Of course, it is good to let people buy their own things all year round!" But what does this have to do with our dealings with the Persians? ”

"Hehe, this has a lot to do with it!" He Liang said with a smile, "We went to Persia this time, why is their silk so expensive this year?" There are two main factors, one is that the Persians don't know how to raise silkworms at all, so they have to buy them from us, and the other is that the number of Persian traders traveling between the east and west routes has decreased this year! ”

Seeing that Gu Kai was still a little puzzled, He Liang continued: "You must know that the price we give is only a little low this year, but it is not much worse than the price in previous years, and it will not be a big deal for them to buy these silks from us every year in the future?" ”

Now Gu Kai understood, and he suddenly realized: "Yes, yes, yes, let's give them a favor this year, and we can have a fixed harvest every year in the future, but in this way, we must protect the mulberry trees and silkworm seeds well, and we can't be stolen!" ”

"And, you still need to say it!" He Liang glanced at Gu Kai angrily and said, "As early as when Steward Yan opened up the mulberry field in Xia County, His Majesty had already arranged all the preparations, and all overseas merchants were not allowed to enter those places, and the management of these merchants was very strict!" They don't want to take a little silkworm seed, a craftsman! ”

For silk, porcelain and glass, which can make a lot of money, Wang Ze is very well protected, not to mention silk and porcelain, although because Persia also has glass technology, the Northern and Southern Dynasties actually have a certain technology to make glass, but the East China Sea can now make high-purity glass for telescopes, as well as glass technology that can make glass mirrors, which is very valuable.

Over the years, all parts of the East China Sea have really caught a lot of spies from various countries who covet these technologies, and even some craftsmen in the East China Sea have almost had several leaks under the temptation of high salaries in other countries, until now Wang Ze has moved all these workshops to an isolated island in the inland sea near Xia County, which has stopped.

He Liang leaned on the side of the boat and looked at the sea in the distance, and continued in his mouth: "In the past two years, the Persians have seen that the war with the Huns is about to end, and they will inevitably be a participant in maritime trade in the future, so that we can have some friendship with them, and we can join forces to deal with the Tianzhu people in the future, and the strength of the Tianzhu people on this sea is the strongest!" "Okay

As soon as he mentioned the Tianzhu people, Gu Kai said indignantly: "These shitty things raised by bitches, sooner or later they will want to look good in the future, aren't they just relying on us to pass by their doors?" Ask us for so much tax, and next time we will stop the ship directly at the Pearl Port in the Pearl Islands, and then bypass from Nantianzhu and stop the ship at them! ”

In the past two years, because the scale of He Liang's fleet has been expanding, and most of the goods transported in He Liang's fleet are produced in the East China Sea, the quality is better than that purchased by Tianzhu merchants from Nan Chen, and the cost is much lower than that of Nan Chen, so He Liang's fleet has become more and more trade pressure on Tianzhu merchants.

Because the plate of overseas trade is so big, the more you earn, the more you earn, naturally some people earn less, in the past two years, He Liang has squeezed the trade share of many Tianzhu people by virtue of the trade advantages of the East China Sea.

At this time, the Tianzhu merchants in the mouth of the Chinese not only included the four major Tianzhu countries in the east, west, south and north, but also included the lion country Ceylon in a broad sense, among which the merchants of the southern Tianzhu country were the most powerful, and the lion country Ceylon basically relied on port transit to make profits because it was sitting on the ground and dividing gold, and the sea trade ran slightly less, and the contradictions were slightly smaller.

In previous years, the main opponents of the Tianzhu merchants were Persian merchants, and since ten years ago, He Liang began to intervene in this competition between the east and the west with the support of Wang Ze, and a few years ago, the Persians had a lot fewer merchant ships going to the sea because of the war with the Huns.

This once surprised the Tianzhu merchants, thinking that they could raise the price of goods in Persia, but they didn't want He Liang to suddenly increase the export of goods to Persia, so that the Tianzhu merchants thought that the price would rise sharply fell short, so these Tianzhu merchants began to resent He Liang.

Because He Liang traveled between the east and west sea routes, he would inevitably stop in Ceylon, the Lion Country, and the South Tianzhu Kingdom for replenishment, so these South Tianzhu merchants began to take the opportunity to make trouble and instigate the government of the South Tianzhu State to raise the transit tax of He Liang's fleet, which caused great dissatisfaction among He Liang's subordinates.

He Liang is also beginning to be vigilant about this situation, he has increased the construction of the Pearl Port since last year, and when he goes to the West again next time, He Liang is ready to dock directly at the Pearl Islands, which can not only save a lot of docking and replenishment costs, but also greatly promote the development of the Pearl Islands.

He Liang thought while looking at the vast ocean, there were many more clouds under the clear sky than last month, and in another month it was the rainy season here in Tianzhu, but the blue sky and the blue waves intersected with the water and the sky, and the white sails of the big ship set off by this monotonous and extraordinarily beautiful blue were even more beautiful and white.

Although there is such a beautiful scenery on the sea, it will still form visual fatigue after a long time, and if you don't have a good attitude, you can't adapt to this kind of voyage.

Sailing on this vast ocean, you can see a big whale jumping in the blue sea from time to time, and there are also elf-like dolphins passing by from time to time behind or on the sides of the fleet.

The sailors of the fleet have always been protective of these friendly elves of the sea, and these dolphins may well have saved your life when some ships are shipwrecked.

Looking at this beautiful ocean, He Liang's originally depressed mood suddenly got better again, he knew the importance of Persia, and in the mouth of His Majesty Wang Ze, he once told that this is a key node connecting the Silk Road between the East and the West.

After a large number of oriental fleets entered the Persian Gulf, these silks from the Orient would be bought by the Persians at a not very high price, and then traced up the Euphrates River to the Eastern Roman Empire on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, which at this time was called the Fulin Kingdom by the Chinese, and was called Great Qin during the Han Dynasty.

At this time, after the Persians changed hands, the silk, which was originally not very high, suddenly became comparable to gold, and even other porcelain and glass were sold at a very high price, which made He Liang and others envious and jealous, and they were also thinking about how to establish a direct connection with the Fulin people.

He Liang once heard Wang Ze say that there is a very narrow sea thousands of miles south of the Persian Gulf, and the sea is often red, so it is called the Red Sea, and from here after a long voyage, it will reach an ancient civilization that has disappeared, called Egypt.

This Egypt used to be the land of the Fulin Kingdom, and there should be no accidents until now, Wang Ze estimated that before the rise of Mulie Khan, this was still the territory of the Fula Kingdom, and He Liang could trade with the merchants of the Fulin Kingdom when he arrived there.

Although He Liang didn't go this time because of the journey, he sent a small fleet to explore the way, after all, eggs can't be put in one basket, although there is no sentence at this time, but the reason is clear.

"Big brother, there are pirates! A horde of pirates! Just when He Liang was thinking about these things, Gu Kai, who was fiddling with a telescope on the mast on the side, suddenly found that a large number of ships were rushing towards him!