Raymond, who was full of ambition, quickly met with the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty under Wang Yue's arrangement, and even received a reward from His Majesty the Emperor.

In fact, he also brought a lot of gifts.

One of the most important gifts was, of course, the main companion of the Crusader Knights at this time.

Steed.

But what kind of breed it is, Wang Yue actually doesn't know.

At this time, the iconic Andalusian horse production area of the European cavalry was actually under the control of the Moors, and the main companion of the other knights, the Friesian horse, was actually German, but participated in the crusade as a companion of the Teutonic knights. But at this time, the Teutonic knights were still early, they were the Third Crusade, the first Teutonic knights were more than half a century, and the current Crusaders are French......

Or the people of that part of modern France.

Franks, Normans, Anjoins, Toulouse......

Who said that the Normans were French, beware of the anger of the king of England......

What French?

Who are the French?

Your whole family is French!

He has always been sensitive to this issue.

Even the Bretons did not consider themselves French, nor were they, the descendants of these Vikings, who did not consider themselves French, although they were indeed vassals of the French king, but the vassals were just to save face.

In short, the core of the crusaders at this time was this place, plus Flanders, and Italy, a mess of poor people, excluded aristocrats, fanatics, or a bunch of scum squeezed out of crowded Europe. The current royal family of Jerusalem is actually born as the lords of Lower Lorraine in modern northern France, but they are vassals of the HRE Emperor, they have nothing to do with the French king, and the HRE Emperor wants to get rid of them.

So the HRE Emperor supported them in the Crusades, and in exchange they ceded Lower Lorraine to someone the HRE Emperor liked, and they were given the throne of Jerusalem.

In fact, it is equivalent to being squeezed out.

Now Lower Lorraine has fallen into the hands of the Duke of Limburg, whom the HRE Emperor liked.

And the Principality of Antioch, another important crusader state, too.

Its founder, Bohemond I, was the son of the Duke of Capria in southern Italy, but his uncle, the King of Sicily, and his brother teamed up to exclude him, giving him only a big Taranto as a count, because his uncle was so powerful that he was sure that he could not defeat him, and he did not want to be killed by his uncle one day, so he had to join the crusade. His uncle happily supported him on his crusades, and eventually he established the Duchy of Antioch in Syria, where he finally annexed his father's domain and established the Kingdom of Sicily.

And then there is the Count of Tripoli.

This was founded by Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, and was not initially squeezed out.

This was ambitious to go east, leaving his son behind, and then besieging Tripoli and dying in battle, and his nephew seized Tripoli as lord, but he did not expect his niece-in-law, Duke of Aquitaine, to see that the old thing was dead, and there was nothing to fear, so he happily raided his house, and his son had to run to the east, relying on Baldwin I to help drive out his nephew's inheritance of Tripoli.

As for Count Edessa originally Baldwin I.

He was the younger brother of Duke Godfrey, who had no inheritance rights and followed his brother in search of opportunities.

Baldwin II sent a total of twenty war horses to the Great Song Emperor, plus the purchase of merchant ships, a total of fifty war horses, and only five arrived alive.

"It's not easy!"

Wang Yue looked at the five horses in front of him and sighed.

"Prime Minister, three horses and two stallions, but their horses are actually no better than sweat horses, especially this kind of stout and tall body, it looks really majestic, but the consumption of forage is also large, and the endurance of running is not too long, if you really go deep into the grassland to fight, I am afraid that you will not be able to hold it by eating grass, it is suitable for fighting in small places."

Gao Jie said.

In the imperial court after the reorganization of Prime Minister Wang, the army was governed by the Dadu Governor's Office, and the cavalry director was set up separately under the Dadu Governor's Office, he is now the cavalry director, in charge of the national cavalry training and military horse breeding, at this time has been set up in Xuanda, Xi State, Ming State, Hebei and other places to set up military horse farms. As for the original mess, basically the official horse farms that raised sheep should be abolished, the original official horse farms in the Great Song Dynasty were there, whether they were Kaifeng or around the daimyo.

It's all sheep!

"You must know that we actually have no shortage of war horses, and to really use them for long-distance battles, we really have to rely on our own horses, as for these ......"

Wang Yue said as he stroked the two tall and stout war horses in front of him.

Although they have lost a lot of weight along the way, the thick skeletons of these two horses still look likeable.

However, he really didn't know what kind of horse it was, and Raymond only said that it was called a big horse, which was ridden by Flanders knights, mainly from the forests of Flanders, and should be in the Ardennes area, stout and stocky, although it was not as tall as the Shire horse, but the shoulder height was close to one meter seven.

Taller than a sweaty horse.

The sweat horse is actually also a medium war horse.

Now because I have lost a lot of weight, so I look slim, if I feed well, eat enough to gain weight, it is estimated that I will have to become fat, I look at it is strong, I can do heavy work, it is a pity not to pull the car with such a good body.

"Let the merchant ship on the next trip tell Baldwin II that if they can get me more of these horses, then I may consider selling them a cannon, one of these horses for a big gun and twenty cannonballs. If they can get bigger horses than these, then I can consider selling them better firearms, such as grenades, shoulder-fired bazookas, or even 10,000 enemies, and by the way, let the merchant ship bring a 10,000 enemy to demonstrate. ”

Wang Yue told the attendants behind him.

"King, it's just that this mortality rate is too high, and you have to find a way to reduce it, otherwise this kind of trade will be useless after all."

Yang An reminded him.

Fifty horses survived five, and such a trade would certainly be of little use.

Of course, if it is from the point of view of introduction, it is still possible, after all, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used force to go on an expedition.

Compared with such costs, the mortality rate of ninety percent of the current shipping is still not worth mentioning, and the merchant ships of the Great Song Dynasty returned there empty, and there was nothing to load, that is, they returned with the gold and silver of the trade and then went to the South Seas to load spices.

"That's because there was too much delay on the road, and we needed a new type of clipper, as fast as a centipede boat, but without human paddling, and without waiting for the wind, so that we could sail in the wind and return from Aqaba in the shortest possible time."

Wang Yue said.

He needed a North American schooner.

The first North American schooner to arrive in Guangzhou set sail from New York, a total of less than fifteen months round trip, including four months in Guangzhou.

Of course, it must be fast to go back with an empty boat.

But even then, it took only five months to sail from New York to Java with a full load of cargo.

And this voyage is equivalent to more than twice the distance from Aqaba to Guangzhou, that is to say, this kind of merchant ship is really loaded with goods from Aqaba to Guangzhou, that is, two and a half months, but in fact, the merchant ship transporting war horses will definitely not be fully loaded. This would almost shorten the voyage to two months, which would be enough to ensure that the mortality rate of the horses would be reduced to a tolerable ratio, and even half of the dead in such a transport would be acceptable.

And the next trade to Aqaba will definitely be blocked by the big food merchants along the way.

This is robbing them of their jobs.

It is very likely that even the Egyptian navy will join the interception, but they have a navy, and they can fight with the Venetian navy, and the Crusaders can be sent to Jerusalem in a steady stream, because the Venetian navy defeated the Egyptian Fatimid navy in a decisive battle at sea, although it was in the Mediterranean, but the transfer to the Red Sea was nothing more than shipbuilding.

So this route can only be smuggling.

The Great Song would not have recognized the legitimate merchant ships of the Great Song Dynasty sailing to Aqaba and the Crusader trade.

Egypt must also agree to this.

Otherwise, everyone will tear their faces, the Great Song Dynasty will expel all the Great Food Merchants, and prohibit the subject countries along the way to accommodate the Great Food Merchants, and the Ming Navy and the Chola Navy will attack Aden together, and even establish a base in Aden to protect the Great Song merchant ships. If Egypt agrees that these are smuggling, and even if they are caught, they must be handed over to the Great Song Dynasty for disposal, then everyone will continue to be confused.

In fact, it is also very difficult for them to intercept, one is that the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba is desert on both sides, and it is very difficult to station a fleet, although there is a resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, but at this time it is no man's land, and there is no surface water, and there is actually no groundwater. Even in modern times, the city is watered by desalination, and the establishment of a naval base in the city in this era is a joke, and all the Egyptians can do is send warships to patrol the Red Sea, but patrols are of little use, because these schooners are so fast that they can even outperform the rows.

The top speed that the centipede ship can get by consuming the human flesh engine is actually only a pitiful seven knots, and it is a sprint speed not a cruising speed, the cruising speed is only four knots, and the North American schooner can easily exceed ten knots, in fact, these ghosts can be at sea at will in the early steam ship era. At least the steamships weren't enough to play with them during the American Civil War, or a whole bunch of pirates, or better of all, privateer captains loved it.

Of course, the smugglers also like it.

At the time of the crow, the American "tobacco merchants" relied on this to tease my master Shimizu.

Then these high-speed schooners continued to carry cargo into Aqaba.

Sold to the Crusaders weapons.

Boatloads of war horses were brought back from them.

Of course, if the Egyptians felt that this was very unfair, then the Great Song could also sell them weapons and buy war horses from them, and their Arab horses there were good anyway. In fact, the Arabian horse is the most suitable for war horses, medium size, although not to say majestic but enough, the key is that it does not need to be carefully raised, although it is worse than the Mongolian horse, but it can already be ridden deep into the steppe. European horses really can't do this job, these high-headed horses are suitable for their small castle fights, and the terrain of Europe does not require them to continue to advance for three days and five hundred miles.

Five hundred miles in three days!

From Paris to Lorraine......

The Count of Champagne raised his hand and said, "Although you are the king, you cannot fly over my head!"

And then a bunch of princes in the current HRE system said that we are also innocent, and the HRE Emperor is even more angry, at this time Lorraine is still his vassal!

Pity this is the king of France, his territory is really not enough for cavalry to assault for three days.

But these heavy horses are the best horses, are good materials for pulling carts, you must know that the next most important construction project of Wang Yue is a road across the country, he has designed a national highway system of three vertical and three horizontal for this empire.

National Highway No. 1 starts from Liaoyang, goes east through the West Liaoning Corridor, then goes south to Yanshan, and continues south through Yanshan until Kaifeng, and then continues from Kaifeng through Haozhou to Chuzhou, so as to ensure the maximum north-south transportation in winter. However, this road has two branches in Yanshan, one is to the north to Daning, the capital of Xi State, of course, this road is definitely much lower, and the other is Xuanhua and then to Zhangjiakou.

In addition, it had to continue south across the Yangtze River and finally reach Guangzhou.

National Highway No. 2 is from Datong to the south through Taiyuan, through the Shangdang Basin, through Zezhou out of Tianjingguan, take the Heyang pontoon bridge to Luoyang, and then turn to Xiangyang, and finally this road ends in Jiangling, and there are also branch lines to northern Shaanxi and Chang'an in Taiyuan.

The northern section of National Highway No. 3 is Qinzhi Road, which goes south into Sichuan after passing through Chang'an.

This is longitudinal.

Of course, the horizontal No. 1 National Highway starts from the end of the Qin Straight Road, which belongs to the Yunnei Prefecture of the Liao State, but because the Great Liao Emperor has decided to sell the country, it will soon become the Great Song Dynasty, but in order to take care of the feelings of the Liao people, the Liao State is still established. The Great Liao Emperor was demoted to the King of Liao, but with the King of Wei and the Minister of Liao, he was in charge of the military and political affairs of the Liao State, and the King of Liao only needed to be happy in the Great Song Dynasty, and the King of Wei was ready to build a new city there, because this new city was the starting point of two national highways, so it was called Baotou.

Then from Baotou to the east, through Datong, Xuanhua, Zhangjiakou through the grassland to Daning, then north to Linhuang, the capital of Liao, and then from Linhuang to Liaoyang, the capital of the Ming State, connecting the three national capitals.

Heng No. 2 is simple, that is, starting from Xining and going east to Haizhou.

Heng 3 is relatively complex, and it is also the most difficult, almost a difficult project......

Because Wang Yue wanted to start from Chengdu to the east, cross the central part of Sichuan all the way to Gongzhou, that is, Chongqing, and then cross the Yangtze River from Gongzhou to start into the mountains and mountains in eastern Sichuan, and finally pass through Banzhou, Juzhou is Guiyang, Yuanzhou continues to go east to Changsha, and the rest is from Changsha to the east to Zhejiang.

Absolutely difficult engineering.

Not only is it difficult to build roads, but more importantly, there is a large area of toast in the middle.

It depends on whether people are willing to let the court repair, but they don't have a choice, if they don't want to, they don't need to be willing.