"Jingle Bell ......"

"Bell ......"

The sixth year of the Apocalypse, the thirtieth month of the lunar month......

When the people of Daming have begun to prepare for tomorrow's New Year's Day, tens of thousands of miles away in the middle and lower reaches of the Nile River in Africa, a 100-ton boat with strong Turkish characteristics went south.

On the ship, the flag of the Ottoman Sultan, Murad IV and the Ming Dynasty was blown by the Nile wind, and the hunting sounded.

Many black tribes along the Nile saw the Ottoman banner and bowed their heads and did not dare to look at it.

Africa, it's a magical continent, and its history has always been full of mysteries.

Even in the information age, anyone who reads a little bit can know about the three emperors, five emperors, and the change of dynasties.

Many history buffs can tell the anecdotes of ancient Greece, ancient Rome, including the European Middle Ages, and even the Mayans of the distant American continent, you can read about their "advanced civilization".

But when people talk about Africa, most people look at each other, not knowing the history of Africa or what Africans have been doing for nearly 10,000 years.

What was the living condition of the indigenous people in Africa before the Age of Discovery? It's actually a very interesting thing.

As for the historical data on Africa, it can be said that there is an extreme lack of it, almost none.

The sporadic records of the continent's history are largely by Arab traders.

Since Roman times, Arab traders have been engaged in long-distance trade, traveling the trade routes between the East and the West, exploring every inch of land they can reach.

An early and complete travelogue about Africa was also written by an Arab general named Ubak in the Tang Dynasty.

While conquering the major cities of North Africa, Ubuck wanted to explore the lands further south, so when he captured the last city he knew, he asked the local residents:

"Further from where you are, are there any more people?"

Locals told him that a fifteen-day walk south from here would lead him to the territory of the Kawar people (present-day northern Nigeria).

So, Ukba went to the Kaval village again and asked the local residents:

"Further from where you are, are there any more people?"

Locals say they don't know what else lies ahead......

So Ukba turned his horse and went back. He believes that he has explored the end of the world.

However, after his travelogue was brought back to Arabia, Arab merchants not only sailed to the east coast of Africa and established a series of commercial centers, but also crossed the Sahara and went deep into the African continent.

Arab merchants began to establish trading hubs throughout Africa to do business with the locals.

Some Arab explorers also documented the lives of black Africans.

The Ottomans conquered the vast territory of what was once Arabia, so they were also very familiar with many situations in Africa, and this familiar information became an important chapter in Xu Xiake's travels......

Wind chimes rang in the Nile, and Xu Xiake, who was about to be forty years old, stood on the bow of the Osman's boat, holding a knot.

The festival is made of gold and copper leaves, and the flag is made of nine pieces of red silk, which is equipped with a copper dragon head coated with gold and shaped like a wooden plate, and in the mouth of the dragon head of the festival plate, a scroll of documents is placed.

If you look closely, you can see a row of dossier fonts painted with iron hooks and silver.

"The order of the Ming Dynasty's five armies, the governor of Qi Wang"

Behind the simple dozen words, there is the military prestige of the 800,000 Ming army, the warships of the Ming Navy that are rampant across the ocean with a total tonnage of more than 400,000 tons, and the muzzles of tens of thousands of artillery......

When Huang Fei and the others were recovering the island of Ceylon, Xu Xiake only followed one second-class warship, three C-class warships, nine D-class warships, and twelve supply ships, and continued to embark on a journey to the west.

They arrived in the Safavid Empire (Persia), landed in the port of Abbas, and after a brief confirmation of their identity, successfully arrived at the capital of the Safavid Empire, Yin Sfahan, on the second day of the seventh month.

Here, Xu Xiake was received by Abbas, who was hailed by the Persians as the Great, and Abbas's enthusiasm for the Ming mission was not simply hospitality, but trade and allies.

Porcelain, brown sugar, cloth......

Daming's various commodities are commodities that are needed by all countries in the world except Daming.

Except for the Ming Dynasty, there is no place where you can find cheap brown and white sugar, as well as tea porcelain.

Xu Xiake had already talked to Li Dan about trade when he arrived at the Old Port, so his response to Abbas was:

"The Ming Dynasty will establish some vassal states and supervision divisions on the island of Ceylon and the southern part of Tianzhu, and when the time comes, a steady stream of Ming merchants will come to Persia to do business through sea trade."

This answer was different from the seclusion of the Qing Dynasty and the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and it was very open, much to Abbas's delight, when he decided to charge only a symbolic 10% tariff on Ming merchant ships.

Such a tax item is already very conscientious for a tax rate of more than a dozen or dozens at every turn.

However, this is not all Abbas's purpose.

What he wanted was to form an alliance with the Ming Dynasty and let the Ming Dynasty contain the Mughal Empire, so that the Safavid Empire would not fall into a war between the east and the west.

In this regard, Xu Xiake could only respond to this matter, he couldn't call the shots, and when he said this, Abbas's attitude towards Daming was much colder.

He ended the conversation hastily after that, and did nothing other than send a thousand-strong guard to protect Xu Xiake's safety.

Xu Xiake also knew that the Safavid would not be too enthusiastic about them if they did not form an alliance, so instead of continuing his tour of Persia, he returned to the port of Abbas and sent a document to the Rumi Kingdom (Ottoman) stating that his fleet would go to Cairo.

He then sailed across the Arabian Strait, passing through the Arabian Peninsula and arriving in Cairo on the third day of November.

At this time, the Ottomans were in chaos, and in six years, five sultans were replaced.

Murad IV, who succeeded to the throne three years earlier, was only 14 years old, and because of his age, he was controlled by his family, and the then Empress Dowager listened to the government and ruled through eunuchs.

The Ottomans were in a state of anarchy, political and financial disarray, a country full of rebels, and a war with the Safavid Empire.

As an Ottoman sultan, Murad himself devoted himself to learning all kinds of knowledge during this period, and keenly observed the progress of events within the empire, and the arrival of Xu Xiake made him aware of an opportunity.

He ordered the generals in Cairo to properly receive Xu Xiake, and expressed his regret that he was too far away to meet Xu Xiake in person.

He had his own list of gifts delivered, and also promised that if Xu Xiake was to travel through the Ottoman Empire, he would send a guard of 3,000 men to protect him.

Xu Xiake also knew that what Murad wanted was actually the same thing that Abbas wanted.

After being snubbed by Abbas, Xu Xiake took the lead in answering that the matter of the alliance could be considered for the time being, and he could return to the Ming Dynasty and report to the emperor and the king of Qi to fully support the maritime trade between the Ming and the Ottomans.

Sure enough, when he replied like this, Murad informed the generals in Egypt and asked him to send people to protect Xu Xiake and do his best to meet Xu Xiake's needs.

In this way, Xu Xiake spent a month in Cairo, and during that month, he was reading many books on Africa and the travelogues of ancient Arabs.

Finally, on the 10th day of the twelfth month, he resolutely embarked on a journey south.

At this moment, they have traveled thousands of kilometers south to the Aswan region in the southernmost part of the Nile River in the Ottoman Empire.

Xu Xiake looked at the two sides of the strait with great interest, and at this time there was a footstep behind him, and a high-eyed and deep-nosed Ottoman appeared, and when Xu Xiake saw him, he smiled and said in Ottoman who was not very fluent:

"Pasha, why don't you develop the banks of the Niluo River when they look very suitable for farming?"

"Farming?" The Ottoman general, known as the Pasha, laughed when he heard this:

"The nobles of Yin Stanbul have enough food to eat, how can they care about Egypt, which is not a threat?"

"Now their eyes are on the Holy Roman Empire of the Germans in the west and the Safavid Empire of the Persians in the east."

"It's as if His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty doesn't care about the Japanese in the east of the Ming Dynasty."

"It's ......," Xu Xiake smiled.

Due to the distance, Pasha and Xu Xiake did not know that Da Ming had already begun to act against the shogunate.

However, some news can also be heard from the mouth of the Pasha, that is, their intelligence on the Far East is also good, and at least they can figure out what countries are around the Ming Dynasty.

"Xu, I don't know why your emperor would let you explore the interior of the Nile, you must know that there is nothing good in this place except for the slave trade."

"The slave trade?" Xu Xiake showed a curious expression, and Pasha also thought that this might be an opportunity to introduce goods, and immediately pointed to the black men on both sides of the Nile and said:

"These people are good slaves, and if you need them, I can catch a thousand slaves for you in a day."

"Won't they resist?" Xu Xiake frowned slightly, while Pasha smiled heartily:

"Their resistance is no match for ...... scimitars and muskets"

With that, Pasha began to introduce the Ottoman slave trade.

In fact, the slave trade was already very common on the African continent long before the famous "triangular trade".

Everywhere tribal chiefs or kings were "suppliers," Arabs were transit traders, and black slaves were sold to the Middle East and throughout Europe.

For a long time, countries wanted to buy castrated slaves, and these castrated slaves were well received in the market......

For such a thing as a slave, Xu Xiake did not resist or accept it.

He is not a virgin, to put it bluntly, he is also a child of the gentry and eunuchs, although he hates politics and likes to talk to the people, but that is only limited to the "common people".

For him, the human race on the continent of Levia is just Kunlun slaves.

He has no interest in learning their language, nor in communicating with them on topics other than his own.

However, when it came to topics of interest, Xu Xiake was puzzled:

"When I was in Cairo, I heard a lot of businessmen say that there was gold in the lower reaches of the Nilo River and a large number of Kunlun slaves who used gold for business, is this true?"

"This ...... Xu, you must have been deceived by someone else, how can there be gold in such a place? Pasha responded with a smile, but the dodge in his eyes made Xu Xiake sure.

Apparently, both the Ottomans and the Arabs kept the secret that Levia had a lot of gold.

"It's almost there!"

As Xu Xiake pondered, the Ottoman sailors on the ship shouted, and Pasha and Xu Xiake also looked at the banks of the Nile.

On the horizon, a town that was not bustling was slowly revealed, hundreds of ships docked on its docks, and a large number of blacks who came and went were chained to their necks and ankles and engaged in manual labor on the docks.

Like the one Xu Xiake saw in Cairo, they were asked by the slave owners to strip naked and wrap their nakedness around them for labor.

Obviously, the slave owners were afraid that this group of slaves was hiding something, and Xu Xiake didn't say anything when he saw it, but just said:

"I need to ask some of the local natives about arable land."

"It's not a problem, I'll find enough people for you." Pasha said, and the ship landed successfully.

All the merchants and slaves on the docks who saw the banner of Murad IV knelt down and set foot on this somewhat shabby-looking civil and wooden town.

Xu Xiake didn't come here with much expectation, he came to the continent of Levia, and more importantly, to complete the investigation that Zhu Youzhen needed, and his desire to travel all over the place.

Following Pasha, he met the lord of Aswan, and the lord's mansion built for himself by the lord of the city was also very much in line with the arrogance and lasciviousness of the nobility.

The transparent white stone palace is not large, but it can be seen that it has consumed a lot of manpower and material resources.

Walking into the courtyard, a man who was a little fat, not very tall, and had some gems hanging on his body walked out with a smile on his face:

"Hafez, Aswan City, I have seen the Ming envoy, the general of the Pasha."

"Hafez, we're here to ask you about some of the things in the south."

In the face of Hafez's politeness, Xu Xia returned the salute, while Pasha opened his mouth very unceremoniously.

However, Hafez did not dare to be angry, and hurriedly invited the two into the palace, and after having people bring tables and chairs, they served some local fruits and vegetables, and then began to speak:

"Customs? What does the envoy want to ask? ”

"Agriculture, species, terrain, and so on." Xu Xiake asked subconsciously, and Hafiz also looked at Pasha when he heard it, and only when he saw Pasha nodding did he speak:

"The land in the south is pitifully barren and of poor quality." Hafez replied subconsciously, and said a moment later:

"The land in the south, as I used to look at when I was on a safari, is that the land in the southeast is a large and hard lump of earth in the dry season and a pile of mud in the rainy season."

"Although the southwest is jungle, they have about this thick topsoil and humus." Hafez made a three-inch size by hand, which is enough to show how thick the topsoil is.

"Can't you plough this topsoil after you lift it?" Xu Xiake frowned slightly and continued to ask.

In this regard, Hafez smiled awkwardly and said: "It's not that you can't farm, in fact, you can get a certain harvest." ”

"But the local people basically start farming by lighting a fire during the dry season, and the fire burns wherever it goes."

"After the land has been burned, if there are tree roots that cannot be burned or cannot be cleaned up, the local people will cultivate it naturally, and few people will do hard work to level the land."

"They plant things, they plant wherever they want, and many times they just dig a pit, throw a few seeds down, and wait for the harvest."

"Doesn't that mean the land is fertile?" Xu Xiake was a little puzzled, if the land was like this, it should mean that the land was very fertile.

"I think so too, so I also sent people to try to farm locally, but no matter how we farm, often after harvesting one season's grain, the next season's grain production starts to decrease."

"After four or five rounds of tidying up, then I gave up reclaiming the land in the south and concentrated on the two banks of the Niluo River."

Hafez's words made Xu Xiake silent for a moment, and then continued to discuss other issues.

The discussion between the two lasted from noon to dusk, and Pasha next to him was not interested in these things, and listened sleepily, but the more Xu Xiake listened, the more wrong he became.

In general, the banks of the Nile in Levia are not bad, but the further south you go, the less developed agriculture becomes.

The reason for the underdevelopment of agriculture is also very simple, Xu Xiake has seen some geographical and agricultural knowledge given by Zhu Youzhen to Yanshan students, although he does not know much, but it is enough to explain the local situation.

In the final analysis, it is the leaching of tropical soils.

If it is to be precise, it should be that the traditional food cultivation industry is underdeveloped in the tropics.

In the tropics, due to high temperatures and heavy rainfall, rainwater leaching is obvious.

Nutrients in the soil are washed deeper into the ground, and the salinity of the soil increases under the action of tropical heat.

Therefore, the soil in the tropical and subtropical areas of the Levian continent is generally red, and the soil is easy to compact, with poor air permeability, and even the grass does not grow luxuriantly.

As for what Hafez said, the first season was a good harvest, and then it became worse and worse, until the end there was no harvest, and it was likely that the surface of the land was barren, and the nutrients sank deeper into the ground.

Rainforests are not as fertile as people think, but in areas with high temperatures and rainfall throughout the year, the land is often very barren.

Xu Xiake has also seen this situation in some ancient books, after all, during the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the tropical rainforest in the Central Plains was much northerly.

As for how to reclaim these places, Qin Shi Huang's relocation of his apprentices to Baiyue left Xu Xiake with a valuable experience.

In the final analysis, it is to improve the local soil quality before planting, and Xu Xiake also knows the method of improvement.

Although he had never been to Yunnan during this period, when he went south, he saw many processes of tropical rainforest reclamation in southern Luzon and the interior of Borneo and the old port.

In order to cultivate tropical rainforests, the land must first be improved with slaked lime and other things, the soil must be made more alkaline, or large-scale burning.

The rice, wheat, soybeans and other crops eaten by the people of the Ming Dynasty are not adapted to acidic soil, nor are they suitable for the tropical rainforest climate with less sunshine during the rainy day, only Yumai is slightly better.

However, although the tropics can theoretically be harvested three times a year, in fact, the yield of three seasons of rice in Hainan Island, Leizhou Peninsula, Jiugang and other places is not as good as the yield of one season in Huguang or Ningxia.

In many areas of the old port, the rice yield is not as good as that of the barley in the Duogan area, and there is no winter in the tropics, and all kinds of pests live carefree all year round, eating all kinds of crops, and weeds are also growing wildly all year round.

Therefore, after understanding the environment in the northeastern and northern regions of Levivia, Xu Xiake had an idea of how to return to Zhu Youzhen.

"There is still some malaria in the jungle to the south, especially in the rainforest area, if Xu Envoy wants to go, it is best to prepare enough medicinal herbs."

Hafiz cautiously reminded Xu Xiake, and Pasha next to him didn't want Xu Xiake to continue south, so he took the initiative to dissuade him:

"The situation in the interior is actually more or less the same, except for the western part of the continent, where there are more suitable places for farming, and there are not many places in the whole of Leviia that can be cultivated."

The times and medical treatment limited the development of Africa by the Ming Dynasty, but even if Xu Xiake heard so much dissuasion, he still smiled and said:

"I came to Levia not only to complete the tasks of the imperial court, but also to see the scenery of Levia myself."

"It's dangerous inland, but I can walk the coastline around Levia."

Xu Xiake's inner spirit of exploration made Pasha and Hafez speechless, and the three of them continued to talk about some of the customs of the Ming Dynasty and the customs of Levia, and finally ended the conversation.

In the evening, Hafez prepared a bonfire banquet for Xu Xiake and the accompanying 500 Ming soldiers, and at the same time sent some Arab beauties.

Obviously, Hafez knows very well that the Han people regard white as beauty, and they still have to rely on Arab beauties to reward them.

At the banquet, Pasha also said to Xu Xiake:

"My lord has said that if you continue south, we can send someone to escort you south to Maga (Somalia)."

"In addition, we will replenish your fleet and army docked in the Red Sea."

"Thank you for your hospitality, the king, and I will send a ship back to the old port for the matter of trade." Xu Xiake is not an ungrateful person either.

Since Ottoman invested so much in the fleet, it was only his act of reciprocating that he promoted trade.

What's more, there is nothing wrong with the trade between the two sides for Daming.

If Levia is really not suitable for vassalization, then perhaps His Royal Highness the King of Qi will turn his attention to North Asia Melica and South Asia Melica (North and South America) further east.

However, hearing is false after all, and seeing is believing.

Xu Xiake is still ready to take a look for himself, even if not for the court, but for himself.

From Daming to eastern Levia, the voyage was a year, and he didn't know how many times he would come in his life.

If he could, Xu Xiake would like to be able to go through all the places in one go.

Thinking of this, he raised his glass and took a sip of wine, and an Arab dancer with long legs and a thin waist also took the opportunity to put his shoulder on his shoulder......