After opening a trade route from Axum to the Roman Empire bypassing Yemen, He Liang bought a large area of wasteland by the Red Sea from the Aksumites to build a huge trading post.

This trading station will be a trading base of the Xia Kingdom in the internal waters of the Red Sea in the future, because this trading station may also become the military base of the Xia Kingdom in the Red Sea in the future, so several barren islands in the Red Sea near the trading station were also bought by He Liang by the way.

The original owners of these islands --- the Aksumites, although they felt a little strange that He Liang bought these barren islands that did not even have fresh water, but since he could exchange a few barren islands for a large amount of money, after all, it was also a good thing, so he immediately agreed.

After completing the trade agreement with the Aksumes, He Liang crossed the Red Sea to South Arabia on the eastern shore of the Red Sea, and continued north along the eastern coast of the Red Sea, this time in the Hejaz region!

The city, which came to be known as the holy city of Mecca, is now an independent Bedouin city-state, which is currently ruled by the Gulai people, and many city-states in the Hejaz region, including Yabrit, are mostly Christians or primitive polytheistic religions.

For centuries, the people of this barren land bordering the Red Sea have made their living mainly by participating in commercial trade from Yemen to the Roman Empire, forming an important trade route along the eastern coast of the Red Sea.

As a result, the Hejaz region became the only land in South Arabia that could be called rich, and the only city that could rival this city-state, and it was only compared to Yabrit, which was rich in wool and later became known as Medina.

The Bedouins who have lived in this barren land for generations have a strong preference for sweets because they eat camel milk and dates and other sugary foods all year round, so the cane sugar produced in large quantities by the Xia Kingdom on plantations in Yizhou and Nanyang is sought after by them.

In particular, the snow sugar, which the Hejaz people had never seen, and the honey cut from the bees raised in the counties of Beji, were highly praised by them, especially the cane sugar, which was called "the honey that can flow without bees."

After successfully signing trade agreements with the city-states of the Hejaz, Yabrit, and other Hejaz regions, He Liang continued north along the coastline and finally arrived in Egypt under the leadership of Wu Meng.

Because He Liang and the others stopped and stopped all the way, the Egyptian governor Humouf obviously knew He Liang's itinerary for a long time, and when He Liang arrived at the coast near Egypt, a ship sent by Humuf began to come to greet him, and a grand greeting ceremony was organized on the shore.

The Egyptians not only welcomed He Liang's visit, but also because He Liang's commercial transit in the kingdom of Axum allowed the Romans to avoid the Persian blockade and truly conduct direct trade with the eastern kingdom.

This is undoubtedly a great good news for the Roman merchants in Egypt, and many of the previous investments made for maritime trade finally do not have to be wasted!

After He Liang arrived in Egypt, there were bound to be countless local businessmen who tried to get in touch with him, but of course these businessmen would be in charge of He Liang's shopkeepers, and He Liang had more important things, that is, to meet with the Egyptian governor Humouf.

This kind of general reception is roughly no different from Wang Ze's reception of Belsalika, who was still active here in Zhenhai at this time, so Humuv has not yet learned of Wang Ze's contradictory attitude towards the Egyptian Governorate and the Church of Constantinople.

Humuv didn't know whether Wang Ze valued the geographical advantage of Egypt or paid more attention to the development of the relationship between the Xia Kingdom and the Roman Empire.

However, it is clear that Ho Liang's answer during the meeting satisfied Humuf, and after receiving his satisfactory answer, he seems to have inadvertently mentioned that the same fleet from Xia has now appeared in the Mediterranean region west of Egypt.

He Liang was surprised to learn from Humouf that this Xia fleet, which was almost the same as himself, entered the Mediterranean Sea from Andalusia in the western part of the Roman Empire.

After passing through southern Italy, the fleet had already visited Constantinople and was said to have come in the direction of Greece, where they were supposed to be on their way to the mouth of the Nile in Egypt, according to Khumouf's speculation.

According to Humufu's account, He Liang immediately judged that this fleet should be a long-distance fleet led by Chen Duan, but Chen Duan sailed all the way to the east, and now it has appeared in the hinterland of Daqin further west in the Western Ocean.

In the past, although He Liang also believed that Wang Ze said that the earth was a sphere, after all, no one had ever been able to prove that people could indeed circle the earth in one direction and return to the place where they started, so everyone was a little drumming in their hearts.

But this time, Chen Duan proved through his own personal practice that everyone has always thought that the square earth is indeed a round sphere, and He Liang believes that the significance of this huge discovery is far more than anything in the past dynasties, even if it is Zhang Qian's 'trip to the sky' in the Han Dynasty, it cannot be compared with it at all.

After determining in his heart that this fleet was Chen Duan and the others, He Liang decided to stay in Cairo for a while and wait for Chen Duan's whereabouts here! Jing Ai Books

After almost ten days of waiting, He Liang really saw Chen Duan, a bearded Taoist priest he hadn't seen for many years.

I haven't seen him for many years, Chen Duan is much tanned than in the past, and he looks stronger than in the past, but the handful of beautiful hair on his face still hasn't changed.

The crown on his head and the dust in his hands are much worn, but the robes on his body have all been replaced by robes made from the clothes of Christian priests in the Roman Empire.

And the five ships that followed him from Fusang to the east at the beginning are now only three, but when He Liang saw them, these people were all in good spirits and looked extremely energetic.

"I haven't seen Daochang Chen for many years, but his spirit is still bright!" Seeing Chen Duan's extremely disproportionate dress, He Liang, who was relatively familiar with them, inevitably laughed.

As soon as Chen Duan landed on the shore, he unexpectedly saw He Liang and others coming to greet everyone, and he couldn't help but be surprised, after all, it was in Taixi Daqin, which was thousands of miles away in the East China Sea, and in the face of He Liang's ridicule, he couldn't help but smile and replied: "After several years of sailing, he actually broke all the clothes of several clothes, if he hadn't gotten a piece of clothing here in Daqin, he would almost have become a savage!" ”

After that, Chen Duan laughed.

Chen Duan, who was relatively calm, the sailors and military personnel on the three ships immediately cheered when they learned that He Liang and others had come to greet them, and after they parked the ship, only dozens of people were left behind in turn, and the others got off the ship one after another.

Although Egypt is the land of the Roman Empire, because of the cultural accumulation of Egypt for thousands of years, the Romans did not try their best to destroy it, but well integrated Roman culture and Egyptian culture, and the food habits here are also self-contained.

So that night, the representatives of the caravan brought by He Liang, as well as the fleet led by Chen Duan and Mi Ke, all came to the banquet held in the garden of the governor's palace, during which of course some other local merchants with connections were indispensable.

Of course, Humuv will not miss such a good opportunity, he can see that He Liang and Chen Duan are both big names in the Xia Kingdom, as long as he and He Liang have a good relationship, then no matter what happens in the future, the Egyptian Governorate can get the greatest benefits in the sea trade with the Xia Kingdom.

He Liang and Chen Duan also knew Hu Mufu's plans, and He Liang handed over all these things to his shopkeepers to conduct preliminary negotiations first, and then negotiated by himself after he had a preliminary intention, and now he had to talk to Chen Duan about this voyage.

It turned out that after Chen Duan sent several of his disciples back to the East China Sea, he left two or three hundred people in Xihai City to garrison, and also left them a ship to ensure the necessary connection between Xihai City and Guiyi City.

At the same time, Chen Duan also selected some of the more well-behaved slaves from the slaves who built Guiyi City, and transferred them to Xihai City and Donghai City after some sermons, to build a road connecting the two cities, and this will definitely be an important stronghold for Xia Guo to operate here in the future.

While building a road between Donghai City and Xihai City, Chen Duan also began to build new ships in the newly built shipyard in Donghai City, and also continued to explore a large area of the coast further southeast, while Mi Ke led the remaining five ships around the entire South American continent named Yingzhou.

When Chen Duan traveled all the way through the entire northern coast of Yingzhou and explored this place roughly, Mi Ke finally overcame all kinds of trials and tribulations to lead the fleet to Donghai City, and the two sides met victoriously, so they decided not to return to the eastern part of the sea area named Qingyuan Islands (West Indies), but to continue to sail due east along the ocean current.

Chen Duan said here and sighed to He Liang: "You don't know how difficult it was for me to make this decision at that time! Although I have always believed that the earth is round, and after receiving His Majesty's guidance in the past, I am even more convinced of this concept, but the unknown future still makes many people's hearts full of doubts! ”

Chen Duan stared at He Liang and said: "Although I also have a high prestige, everyone is still too scared in the face of the vast and unknown future, even if the whole earth is really round, but how far is this distance before I can return home?" What if, after crossing this ocean, there is still a continent in front of you, which has never been heard of? ”

Although Chen Duan personally led the team, but before the fleet set off, there were still some sailors who were afraid, and in the unknown future, they finally decided not to follow the fleet to continue to move forward, but to stay in Donghai City for the time being, but there were still more than 300 people who were willing to follow Chen Duan and Mi Ke to set off.

The wind and waves in the Atlantic Ocean are really not small, fortunately, Chen Duan's ship is one of the five big ships that they took when they set off from Xia Guozhenhai, and the performance of the ships is relatively reliable, but when they crossed the ocean, they still lost two ships due to strong winds and waves, and lost nearly 100 people.

Thanks to the influence of the warm current of the North Atlantic, Chen Duan and Mi Ke finally successfully crossed the entire ocean, and after they crossed this ocean, they found themselves in the Roman Empire, which was called the Great Qin by the Xia Kingdom.

Immediately, Chen Duan believed that since this ocean was located to the west of the Taixi countries further west of the Western Ocean, it was called the Taixi Ocean, and some people would call it the Atlantic Ocean in the future.