"Templars?"

Wang Yue looked with interest at the white robe saluting in front of him.

This is a guest brought back by Yang An.

A convoy sailed to Besri......

That is, Egypt.

This name should have been distorted from generation to generation, the earliest should have been Mixier, but because of the different pronunciations of various local dialects, it was distorted from the Tang Dynasty to the present Besli, but by the time of Hu Yuan, he reclaimed himself to return to Mixir through Arabic Egypt, and the Ming Dynasty also used this name.

Of course, it was Egypt for sure.

Because the records of the Song Dynasty are very clear, the country of Besri is dry and rarely rains, and everyone relies on a large river, so they can only grow wheat on both sides of the river, but if it rains, it will cause disasters.

So it's almost certain that it's Egypt.

In fact, it has been recorded in the Ming Dynasty that this river is called Ludnil.

The records of these countries in the Middle East and Africa in ancient Chinese books are usually transliterated by Arabic, but with the arrival of missionaries in the late Ming Dynasty, they began to be transliterated according to Latin, and then in the late Qing Dynasty, they began to be transliterated according to English, and finally formed a chaotic record. However, it is correct that Besli was Egyptian at this time, and the historical records of the Song Dynasty also record several states in North Africa, and it is estimated that they traded with merchants from these places in Egypt, and then recorded their names.

The overseas trade of my Great Song Dynasty is still very prosperous.

A convoy of merchant ships bound for Besri sailed south of Sinai to the Gulf of Aqaba in two for the purpose of returning for merit, and reached Crusader-controlled Aqaba, which had a purpose-built fort in the port of Aqaba. In fact, the Crusaders welcomed Arab merchants, and they were not stupid, and they occupied Jerusalem in order to control the choke point of trade, profiting from the transit of trade between the East and the West, and the maritime trade to the east was almost exclusively controlled by the Arabs.

Of course welcome.

In fact, they even formed an alliance with the Arabs against the Seljuks, but in recent years relations with the Byzantine brothers have been strained.

Magical place.

And the arrival of the Great Song merchant ships was simply a surprise for them.

Although the two sides did not understand each other's languages, fortunately they could speak in the language of the Arabs, and after confirming that the two merchant ships came from that legendary dream country in the East, the sailors on the two merchant ships were warmly welcomed, and even escorted to Jerusalem, where they were welcomed by King Baldwin II at this time, and it was inevitable that they would bring an envoy from the Kingdom of Jerusalem when they returned.

However, the envoy's journey was also difficult, as he had to pass through several ports controlled by Arab merchants along the way, so he had not set foot on land once before reaching the Dragon's Tooth Gate.

Of course, Wang Yue is not interested in this.

What surprised him was the identity of the man.

O white robe!

However, it is also normal to believe, this era spans tens of thousands of miles, and it is basically a life of death, except for such fanatics, it is difficult for others to have such courage, and Baldwin II was originally the main supporter of the Templars. The origin of the name is that he gave the Templar to the Order's headquarters, so it was only natural to choose a Templar for this dangerous but important mission.

"Your Royal Highness, you actually know our language and know the identity of the contemptible person?"

The guy named Raymond exclaimed.

He instinctively took a step back, as if under a big shock.

"I know everything, I know everything about this world, you should be a Frank, I also know your fat Louie, you see, no one knows the world better than me."

Wang Yue said reservedly.

The latter continued to look at him in shock.

"But I still admire you, after all, those who give their lives for the faith are worthy of respect, but I am a little strange, I thought you were at war with the Saracens, but my merchant told me that you get along well with them, I am strange, why is that?

Didn't you go and purify the land?

Aren't the Templars the most devout of monks? Why do you live with them instead of raising your sword against them? Don't you feel that your sword is being stained with dirt so that your gods don't want to bless you, but let you fail? Duke Godfrey is dead! His cousin was so much worse than him in the purity of his faith! ”

Wang Yue said.

Raymond was slightly embarrassed.

In fact, under Baldwin II, Jerusalem was peaceful and prosperous.

It was true that the conquered people were subject to a lot of discrimination, especially in law, but the problem was that the Crusaders had too few immigrants, and almost all of them were concentrated in a few major cities, and it would be difficult for him to maintain the kingdom if he had studied with his cousins, so the local indigenous elders or Rice ruled outside these cities.

"You don't have to explain, I'm just wondering as an outsider, after all, how you get along with the Saracens is none of my business, that's your business. Next, I will arrange for you to go to meet our Emperor Majesty, as for the future trade, there is nothing to say, and you are not able to come here, so our merchant ships can only go to you. But our merchant ships don't have to come to you, after all, there are ports on the Red Sea coast, and our merchant ships are more familiar with going there. ”

Wang Yue said.

"Your Royal Highness, we can give your merchants a higher price than all Saracens."

Raymond said quickly.

Of course, they have the ability, and all their goods are still being transported to Jerusalem through the Saracen merchants.

They then resold to the merchants of Venice.

Although it was no longer possible for those Saracen merchants to slaughter them as fat sheep as in the past, the price was still several times that of the Great Song merchant ships that sold them directly, and after arriving in the Great Song Dynasty and witnessing the prosperity and richness of the country along the way, he already knew that the things that were luxury goods in them were cheap enough for any commoner to enjoy.

"This has to be decided by those merchant ships themselves, I will not interfere, not to mention that in this case, the Saracens will definitely block our merchant ships from entering the Gulf of Aqaba, we are going to do business, and we will not be involved in the war between you, unless you have the ability to control the Red Sea, our merchant ships will still go to the Saracens after all.

They also want to give us money.

The price doesn't really matter to us, after all, as you can see, those things are not worth anything to us.

But safety is the most important thing to us.

Our merchants have traveled tens of thousands of miles, not to take risks, and to make less money, but not to take care of your business and lead to conflict with the Saracens, who in the end control of the Red Sea, we will trade. ”

Wang Yue said.

Raymond was visibly disappointed.

Although they occupied Jerusalem, they could only say that they controlled the trade in the Mediterranean, and they were still the weakest in this trade chain, but they were not as weak as before, if they could strive to make all the Great Song merchant ships that entered the Red Sea in the future become Aqaba, then they would really turn over and become masters, otherwise they would still have to tolerate those Saracen merchants living happily in Jerusalem.

This is not right.

As a Templar, he also knew that it was a shame to let these bastards get away with it in front of them.

It wasn't even the Prince of the East who didn't understand, the new knights who came to Jerusalem for the first time were also full of anger, but they couldn't help it, without these bastards, they wouldn't be able to get the goods of the East, so Baldwin II had high hopes for this mission.

But what they said is right.

People travel thousands of miles to make money, not to take risks, and trade with the Saracens is nothing more than to make less money, but it is also to make a lot of money, nothing more than to earn a hundred and ninety, but to trade with them is to risk your life, maybe you have to be empty of people and money!.

"But I still prefer to do business with you, I don't like the Saracens, they make too much, in fact we all understand that we are sellers, you are buyers, and for us, there is nothing more beneficial than to get from our hands to your hands, without nasty middlemen. And now I am gradually moving to the South Seas to wrest control of this section from the Saracens, but there is nothing I can do on the Red Sea, it is too far away to be protected by my navy, unless you can defeat the Saracens once and for all.

I'm curious, why did you stop in the first place?

Why don't you keep fighting?

You have fought to Jerusalem, and you have even built a fortress at Aqaba, and you are only a hundred fats from Cairo and two hundred fats from Medina, and if you can fight all the way to Yemen, there will not be so much to do? ”

Wang Yue said.

"Your Royal Highness, we will do our best."

Raymond said quickly.

"You see, you don't have the confidence to say it yourself, you think I don't know where you are now? Now that you have been effectively overwhelmed by the Seljuks, and even your king has been captured, why can you fight Yemen if you can't even beat the Seljuks? It's not that I look down on your king, he is really too far behind his cousin, when will you be able to regain the glory of his recovery of Jerusalem? ”

Wang Yue said.

Of course, it goes without saying what Duke Godfrey did after taking Jerusalem.

"His Royal Highness ...... Prince"

Raymond said anxiously.

"No need to explain, I said, I know everything."

Wang Yue stopped him.

"However, I can help you defeat the Seljuks."

He went on to say.

"Your Royal Highness can sell us that magical weapon?"

Raymond said in surprise.

Apparently he had seen the power of artillery,

In fact, the merchant ships of the Great Song Dynasty were also equipped with this, and Wang Yue didn't care about the outflow of firearms, it was common for merchant ships to carry firearms, otherwise how to deal with pirates?

And he was supposed to sell firearms to the Crusaders in due course.

The Great Song Dynasty has reached the era of arquebuses, and even in the foreseeable future, flintlock pistols will not be far away, and there is no need to care about them getting three-eyed guns and the like.

Not to mention the technology of making gunpowder certainly cannot be told to them.

Even if they steal it, it will take a long time, and it is impossible to obtain real military gunpowder, which is still only made by Wang Yue's factory.

"Of course not, even if I sell it to you, how will I deliver it to you? Will the Saracens allow my merchant ships to carry these things to Aqaba? That's certainly not going to work, I said, we won't intervene in your war, but I can introduce you to an ally who is also at war with the Seljuks.

His name was Jerodashi. ”

Wang Yue said with a smile.

But apparently Raymond hadn't heard of the name at this time.

Jerod was fancied by the Crusaders as a sacrifice to King John after he had defeated the Seljuks, before the decisive battle between them had begun.

Of course, now he knows.

"Bring me the map!"

Wang Yue got up and said.

The attendant beside him hurriedly unfolded the map.

"Knight Raymond, you don't need to go to sea when you go back to Jerusalem, I will send someone to escort you to the territory of Jerodashi, the distance between him and you is not far, roughly equivalent to going from Gibraltar to Crete. As far as I know, you are allies with the Venetians, and for the time being you are honored with the crown of House Komnenos, and the area of Jerodashi is in the middle of the river. My men will escort you to the river, and for the rest you talk to Jerodashi, and he will send you a detour through Kipchak, and then to the port on the Black Sea coast, and you will return to Jerusalem by boat if you wish.

He was at war with the Qarakhanids, the vassals of the Seljuks, who had already appealed to the Seljuks for help, so he and the Seljuks would have a decisive battle.

Then you can join forces. ”

Wang Yue said.

It's actually far from that simple.

At this time, the main enemies of the Crusaders were not necessarily the Seljuks, but their brothers, the Byzantine Empire of the Komnenians, although the latter invited the Crusaders to help him, but when the Crusaders came, it was not only to help him.

The First Crusade did defeat the Seljuks and defeat the Saracens, but they didn't leave and began to think about Byzantium.

But, for the kingdom of Jerusalem, they will love Jerod Stone.

Because the main targets of the Seljuk attack were the Crusader states of Edessa and Antioch, and the king of Jerusalem was actually the boss of these guys, Baldwin II was captured by the Seljuks during the rescue of Edessa and was later ransomed. However, he still relied on the support of the Venetian navy to quickly stabilize the controlled areas of Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Tripoli.

But the Seljuks continued to attack Edessa.

Eventually, they captured Edessa, which then led to the Second Crusade.

It can be said that Jerodashi, who was constantly attacking on the other side of the Seljuks, was the dream ally of the Crusaders at this time.

"Your Highness, Your kindness and greatness, we will remember it for generations to come!"

Raymond looked at the distance between them and Yelu Dashi on the map, and said excitedly.

Judging from the map, the distance between them is really close!