"Is this what you call Africa?"

On the deck, Chen Yongan looked at the horizon in the distance, which was almost the color of the sea and the sky, and asked the Portuguese Divar.

After more than half a year's voyage, they successfully crossed the vast sea from Colombo in Dutch Ceylon to the Somali region later known as the Horn of Africa.

There are obvious traces of repairs on the hull of the five ships, as well as the foreign captives in the cabin who have been tied up with flowers, all of which invisibly indicate what kind of danger they encountered on the way here.

Somalia, before the discovery of precious mineral deposits such as oil, was a barren land of interest to outsiders, but it was the "ancestral treasure" of Somalis for generations.

Somalia today is far from being as chaotic as it was in later generations, and although wars still break out between the various city-states and clans, the intensity of their wars seems to outsiders to be like playing at home because of the population constraints.

And the reason for the outbreak of war, in addition to the inevitable snatching of water, is some trivial things, among these uncivilized beast-like natives, war is commonplace, a few quarrels, a game of prey can be a reason to go to war.

When the Xia people's fleet appeared off the coast of Somalia, they could see many small boats made by Somali natives sailing on the sea, and dark-skinned natives drove the boats to fish on the sea, and the sweat on their bodies also reflected the dazzling light in the sunlight along with the sea.

The natives seemed to be accustomed to the large ships that often appeared on the sea, and they only looked at them with wary eyes, and only after making sure that they had no ill will towards them did they let down their guard and continue with the work at hand.

According to Duvar, the Somali natives were also part of the slave trade, with Europeans from the West exchanging relatively cheap industrial products or guns for slaves from princes and nobles, and then sending slaves to the South Seas to sell to overseas Han Chinese landlords who were in desperate need of labor.

However, in recent years, as the Han people gradually competed with the Europeans for the market for the slave trade, some bold Han Chinese drove their fleets through the Strait of Malacca to this distant Africa, where they were directly exchanged for slaves.

Compared with the cheap industrial products of the Europeans, the products such as silk and cloth brought by the Han people were also very popular with the princes and nobles of Africa, so they were very happy to buy and sell with the Han people.

For them, the white-skinned ones were able to bring them weapons, and the well-mannered-looking Han Chinese, dressed in robes, were able to bring them "luxuries" to enjoy, and they were all guests, and they were not rejected.

Chen Yong'an's fleet did not dock, but continued south along the coast, and when they sailed to a port town called Meleg, a small kingdom known to the locals as Hobio, they were surprised to find a small settlement outside the city, and the buildings in the settlement were obviously only found in Han land.

Driven by curiosity, Chen Yongan ordered the fleet to sail into the harbor and dock, and there was actually a ship moored with the flag of the Xia Dynasty in this small port. ….

The arrival of Chen's fleet quickly caused a small stir in the small town, and the dark-skinned, coal-skinned locals flocked to the harbor, looking curiously at the new arrivals and wondering if they could get some benefit from the yellow-skinned, black-haired, and brown-eyed outsiders.

However, the sheriff of the port quickly dispersed the men, and the sheriff, who was obviously much more luxuriously dressed than the locals, walked over with a few soldiers armed with spears and long shields, looked at Chen Yongan and the others who had disembarked from the ship, and then muttered a lot of words.

Chen Yongan looked at the grunting sheriff with a blank face, touched him with the deputy behind him, and said in a low voice, "What is this black guy muttering, is he looking for us for money?"

Chen Yongan glanced at him, ignoring his inquiry, but looked at the Portuguese Duvar and asked, "Divar, what is he talking about?"

Unexpectedly, Divar was also dazed, and he shook

He shook his head, waved his hand, and said, "I don't understand what he's saying, my fleet hasn't stopped in this hellish place."

The sheriff muttered a lot, and when he saw that the outsiders in front of him were indifferent, but whispered over there, he immediately felt that he was a little unbearable in front of his subordinates, he muttered a few words angrily, and the soldiers behind him immediately set up their spears and aimed the sharp spear tip directly at Chen Yongan and them.

Where would the Han people who were pointed at the spears endure it, and the sailors also picked up their weapons, and the saber rattling in the harbor suddenly became tense, and just when the two sides were about to fight, a few Han people in short robes and strong clothes suddenly ran not far away.

The Han man in the lead ran and shouted the local language, and the sheriff looked at the Han man, and then at Chen Yongan and the others, although his face was still a little dissatisfied, he still waved his hand and asked his soldiers to put away their weapons.

Immediately, the Han people finally ran over, and the leading Han people first said a few words to the sheriff, and then looked at Chen Yongan and them, and said, "Put down your arms, they have no malicious intentions, they are just asking you for berthing fees to enter the port."

When Chen Yongan heard this, he saw that the other party had put down his weapons, so he asked his sailors to put away their weapons, and then bowed to the Han man, saying, "Under Chen Yongan, dare to ask the name of the brother?"

"Under the name Zhang Chuyong, the word Jinxian, Brother Chen can call me the word of the table." Zhang Chu replied with an arched hand.

"How does Brother Jinxian know the language of the locals? And what is the berthing fee he is asking for?" Chen Yongan asked.

"That's a long story, I've been here for a while, and the settlement outside the city was built by me and my companions." Zhang Chuyong patiently explained to him: "As for the berthing fee, after entering the port and berthing here, you have to pay the goods to the government before you can be allowed to continue berthing, and if you don't have goods on your ship, food is fine."

"Boss, that's not going to happen." Chen Yongan's deputy touched him again and persuaded, "We don't have much food on our ship, if we give these black guys some more, what will the brothers eat?" ….

Chen Yongan nodded, he remembered the pirate captives in the cabin who could only waste food, and asked, "Brother Jinxian, is it okay for the captured pirates?"

Zhang Chuyong was obviously stopped by his question, he was stunned for a few seconds, asked him to wait, and then said a few words to the sheriff in the local language, and after the sheriff answered him, he looked at Chen Yongan, nodded, and said, "He agreed, but you have five ships, and he wants five prisoners."

"Give it to him." As soon as Chen Yongan heard that there were only five people, he immediately ordered someone to drag five prisoners out of the cabin with a wave of his hand, except for five prisoners, he was not prepared to keep the others, and it would be a waste of food to keep them, so it was better to sell them here.

After the captive arrived, the sheriff muttered for a while, although he couldn't understand what he was saying, Chen Yongan and the others could still hear a bit of warning in his tone.

Later, he asked Zhang Chuyong, and sure enough, he warned them not to use weapons at will in the town, otherwise they would bear the consequences.

However, they were not prepared to stay in the town, except for a little fresh water and supplies, their greatest purpose was the Han Chinese settlement outside the city, and since they left Malacca, they rarely saw their compatriots who spoke the same language again.

In the vast sea, everywhere the eye looked, there were European ships flying the tricolor or the cross flag, and the ships of the Xia people were very few.

Some of the people were left to purchase supplies, while Chen Yongan and some of them followed Zhang Chu to the Han settlements outside the city.

While walking, Chen Yongan also chatted with Zhang Chuyong, and he jokingly said to Zhang Chuyong: "After coming here, it is the first time that I have been pointed at by local soldiers with weapons, which of those countries I have been to before is not afraid of my Tianwei of Great Xia, and only this remote and small country does not know Tianwei, so it dares to use swords and guns against us people of the Heavenly Dynasty."

"Just get used to it." Zhang Chu comforted: "The natives of Africa are not well known, and they only know about Heyi, Fulangji, and Yingyi, and they don't know anything about the world east of Malacca, even the eunuchs of the Three Treasures

The deeds that have visited here have long been forgotten by them, and when the army of the imperial court comes to fight in the future, they will be afraid of my great summer might."

"Oh?" Chen Yongan captured a certain keyword: "Will the imperial court really mobilize the people and come to this barren place? It seems to me that there is nothing of value here."

"The Son of Heaven is a pioneering and enterprising Divine King, and I think he will definitely lead the imperial army to this expedition." Zhang Chuyong is convinced of this.

Although Chen Yongan also knew that today's son was full of desire for foreign expansion, he still didn't believe that the imperial court would send troops to this place.

In his opinion, if the imperial army marches westward, it will only start a war with the defeated Rakshasa Kingdom again, completely subdue the Rakshasa Kingdom, force the monarch of the Rakshasa Kingdom to pay tribute, and send more Rakshasa women over.

Speaking of which, the beauty of the Rakshasa woman is already a little famous in Daxia, and His Majesty's Rakshasa concubine is the object of folk talk, and it is said that the exotic Rakshasa woman looks like a fairy, and also has the magic that can bewitch men. ….

But what is she facing is the legendary Son of Heaven, who is the Son of Heaven? Even the gods in the sky have to salute him when they see him, and how much of a storm can the little demon girl set off, so this Rakshasa concubine was conquered by the Son of Heaven after entering the palace and became a weaker concubine under the crotch of the Son of Heaven.

This is the content of the story that the people talk about after tea and dinner, and I don't know who started it first, and the folk soon spread this small story with a little yellow content, which once attracted the attention of the government.

But His Majesty the Emperor didn't care about this, it is said that after hearing this story, his old man laughed, so that the local government did not need to take care of this matter, this is something that the people like to see, stop what to do, anyway, it did not damage his image, on the contrary, this is a manifestation of the people's love for him and support him.

Far from it.

I don't know who started first, now there are many dignitaries and nobles in the Xia Dynasty who have begun to be interested in Rakshasa women, they directly buy young and beautiful foreign women from the Rakshasa country through various channels, the strength and richness of the East have long spread throughout Tsarist Russia, so there is no need to even kidnap them, there are many Rakshasa girls who rush to hope to go to the East, to see the legend of the East full of gold.

Although the Xia people were full of interest in Rakshasa women and those exotic foreign women, if they chose to marry, Han women would always come first.

In the eyes of the men of the Xia Dynasty, no matter how many women there are, Han women can only be wives forever, and those foreign women are only worthy of being concubines.

If he is still an official in the court, he will not only be alienated and excluded by his colleagues, but even directly demoted - of course, this is only the core status east of Jiayu Pass, west of Jiayu Pass, the court encourages Han people to marry with local foreign races, if anyone will lose their official position because of this, then his boss will definitely be strictly investigated.

To get back to the point, in Chen Yongan's view, in addition to attacking the Rakshasa Kingdom in the west, it is also possible to attack the black-clothed food (the folk name for the Persian Safavid Dynasty), but it is impossible to hit this barren African.

Seeing that Chen Yongan insisted on his opinion, Zhang Chuyong only smiled slightly, and did not continue to argue with him, and the group finally came to the Han settlement outside the city.

There were eight families living in this Han settlement, and it can be seen that the houses inhabited by the eight families were all enclosed, and the houses on the outside were also fenced off to resist the invasion of wild beasts.

For Chen Yong'an's arrival, the residents maintained a very welcoming attitude and came out to welcome them, but Chen Yongan noticed that only the husband and wife of the two families were Han Chinese, and the rest were basically a combination of Han men and black women, and the children they gave birth to were dark-skinned and not very in line with the aesthetics of the Han people.

Perhaps seeing Chen Yongan's doubts, Zhang Chuyong took the initiative to explain to him that these residents were rescued from the sea by their ships, and these people also wanted to come overseas to explore and find a borderless land, but their ships were attacked by East African pirates, lost to pirates, and then became miserable slaves.

After being rescued by Zhang Chu with them, this

Some Han Chinese did not want to stay at sea and did not have the face to return to their hometowns, so they begged Zhang Chuyong to send them to nearby land and settle down in this foreign land.

Zhang Chu couldn't rest assured with them, so he also stayed, and helped these Han people in distress to get the permission of the bureaucrats here to establish a small Han settlement outside the city.

After listening to Zhang Chuyong's explanation, Chen Yongan and the others only felt that the man in front of them was really a good person with noble character and helpful help, and they couldn't help but have a strong admiration for him in their hearts.

Tears.