In the territory of Daqin, long-distance travel is not a simple matter, people travel from one place to another, the distance is long, the transportation is inconvenient, the weather is bad, sleeping in the mountains, and even robbers and robbers may be encountered...... All sorts of troubles are happening one after another.

Although Daqin's control over the people has been loosened a lot compared with the pre-Ming period, free travel is still subject to various restrictions and taboos.

Under normal circumstances, the people of Daqin travel are divided into study tours and travels, demotion and exile, rushing for exams, doing business, visiting relatives, and appreciating magnificent rivers and mountains.

As in previous dynasties, in the officialdom of Great Qin, it was a common thing to be demoted, and the losers of the power struggle were expelled from the center of power to the bitter cold land on the border, and the exile journey of hundreds or thousands of miles became a metamorphosis in the course of some people's lives.

The students who rushed to take the examination adhered to the principle of "it is better to travel thousands of miles than to read 10,000 books", and set off a year before the imperial examination.

For merchants, it is only by selling goods from the south to the north that they can make a profit, so buying the specialties of a certain region and transporting them to the other side of the country has become the key to making profits. As a result, these merchants walked on the road for many years and became travelers on the road.

The luggage carried by ordinary people adheres to the principle of "rather more than less", and they hate to tie all their belongings with ropes, wrap them in cloth, and take them away to rest assured.

The reasons for this are, first, the transportation in Daqin is not convenient, and sometimes the travel time can even be as long as several years, and if there are other opportunities in other places, if you want to dispose of other businesses, you only need to send someone back to deal with the ancestral house after settling down; Second, in the inns and B&Bs along the way, many things can not be prepared, some daily necessities, bedding, candles, tea, chess pieces, folding chessboards, pen, ink, paper, inkstone, tea cups, knives, etc., all need to be prepared by themselves.

In the luggage, travelers will also prepare fragrant and insecticidal effects of cooked wormwood, rhubarb, miscanthus salt, licorice, dried ginger, Shu pepper and other items.

In the territory of Daqin, the difficulty of roads is the biggest problem, if you can choose to take the waterway, even if you need to take a long detour.

Because many roads are not smooth, and there are no first-class national roads such as asphalt, cinder or cement in the territory of Qi. Even on major traffic arteries, many roads are potholed and muddy on rainy days, making it difficult for vehicles to pass.

Compared with other regions, people in Jiangnan are much more convenient to travel, and they often travel by boat. Travelers only need to spend tens or hundreds of dollars to the river ferry, and they can travel by boat. In some places, the ferry is more convenient, and you can rent a small boat for hundreds of dollars and go down the river to enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way.

As a member of the Daqi royal family's visit to Qin, in the middle of winter, when he went to Denglai to pay tribute to the ancestral tombs, he naturally chose to travel by boat.

From Jiangnan to Denglai, if you take the waterway, there are generally two choices: one is to walk slowly along the Grand Canal, go all the way slowly, take Yangzhou, pass through Huai'an, pass through Jining, arrive at Dongchangfu (now Liaocheng), and then abandon the boat and take the car, and turn to Denglai by land; The other is to take a boat directly down the Yangtze River, sail into the sea, turn around and go north, enter Jiaozhou (now Qingdao), and take a train here to arrive at Penglai, the place of Denglai governance.

In view of the fact that the water level of the Grand Canal is low in winter, the draft is shallow, and there are even congestion waiting in many sections, Qi Weining, the king of Dan, and the emperor's grandson Qi Zexuan decided to go by sea after a little discussion.

As early as more than two months ago, the "Great Eastern" iron ship returned to Hanzhou with passengers and goods, and it was no longer possible to "load it once" for this trip, but as a member of the royal family, the pomp and circumstance should still be talked about.

A sailing ship with a displacement of 1,500 tons belonging to the Jiangnan Trading Company of Qi was temporarily requisitioned and became the exclusive ship for the royal mission.

On the ship, in addition to several children of the Great Qin royal family and officials of Honglu Temple accompanying them all the way, dozens of merchants from Qi and Qin countries were also carried along the way to the northern region.

Out of the mouth of the Yangtze River, everywhere you look, there is endless sea water, under the strong northeast trade wind, "Fushun" will drop all the sails, turn on the steam engine, spit out billowing smoke, at a speed of 12-15 knots, sail to the north and west, galloping in the sea.

"One trembles and stands tall with a hard gun, and the other staggers with a steel sword. One sacrificed his life and forgot to drill in, and the other You Yun brought rain to do it. Plop through the skin drum urging, beep beep gun and sword. …… A purple horse is rampant and majestic, and a white-faced enchanting is subjected to horse battles. …… You live and die endlessly, and you are afraid to win thousands of battles. Calling for murder again and again, the spirit is high-spirited and untiring, and there is a wide range of disputes between ancient and modern times, which is not like this kind of water warfare. ……”

"Hey, hey, hey......"

"Hahaha......"

In a corner of the deck, several officers of the Royal Praetorian Guard of the Qi Kingdom put their heads together, staring at a script, and let out bursts of lewd laughter as they watched.

On the other side of the ship, some merchants were lying on the railing and gasping for air, and some of them made a flurry of retching sounds, obviously seasick.

After almost vomiting up the bitter gall in their stomachs, they leaned limply on the side of the gunwale, and secretly swore in their hearts that no matter how hard the land journey was, they would not take this Rausch ship.

Looking at the several Qi officers sitting around there, their eyebrows fluttering, as if they were formless, they were really fucking born maritime nationals.

“…… The man was so angry that he only went to the heart; The handsome woman was busy and opened her mouth to swallow her head. those who make double cannons attack the inner crotch soldiers; A round of cards, up and down to meet the umbilicus will be ......"

"Hahaha......"

Suddenly, the officers burst into laughter, drawing the attention of the airy passengers on deck.

In other words, this Qi country is really amazing, even a group of Qiu Ba can recognize words, read books, and understand.

"As a royal guard, you need to be cautious in your words and deeds, and pay attention to decency." A Praetorian General Mingwei (Brigadier General) walked over with a dignified expression and shouted loudly.

"Yes, General!"

Several Praetorian Guard officers who were looking through the scripts immediately stood up and gave a military salute to the general Mingwei.

"The Words of the Golden Vase Plum"?" The general Mingwei took the book, it was a widely circulated world situation, with a strange look on his face, he couldn't help shaking his head, and then threw it over, "Obscene and filthy works, looking at them in private, should be fine, but you are like this...... Such an indiscriminate noise only adds to the joke. …… Get back to the cabin! ”

"Yes, General."

Several Praetorian Guard officers put away their books and ran to the gangway as if they were fleeing, preparing to hide in the cabin and continue to enjoy this wonderful "strange book" of the world.

"I'm afraid this General Liu is a little too harsh." After Zhu Jiaxi saw that scene, he couldn't help but shake his head with a smile and said: "This has to be left on the Great Qin generals, maybe in this long journey, they would have already shouted five and six to get together to drink and gamble." ”

"What about your Ming Kingdom?" Yuan Zugeng, the owner of Futai Commercial Bank, heard this, and was a little unhappy in his heart. These are a few meanings, and if you open your mouth to praise the people of Qi Country, you won't demean me Daqin like this, so you asked rhetorically.

Don't look at the shopkeeper Zhu Da in front of him, who is engaged in the fur and timber business, with short hair, wearing a cardigan and straight trousers, looking like a Qi countryman. But after dealing with each other for a long time, the businessmen in the circle know that this Zhu Da shopkeeper is an authentic Beiming person, and he also has Zhu Ming's royal blood, so maybe the business he runs also belongs to the Beiming royal family.

In the territory of Daqin, there were not a few Northern Ming merchants like him who engaged in semi-open and semi-smuggling trade. It is said that these merchants only needed to pay a certain fee in the territory of the governor of Qingyuan of Qi (today's Hakodate City, Hokkaido) to receive a certificate issued by Qi State, so that they swaggered to the territory of Daqin to do business in the name of Qi merchants.

Of course, these Northern Ming businessmen who pretended to be Qi nationals, including a large number of meticulous works sent by the Northern Ming government, were used to spy on the intelligence of Great Qin, spread all kinds of rumors, abduct the people of Great Qin, and even secretly plotted against Great Qin officials and businessmen.

If the Beiming Dynasty was accidentally captured, the Great Qin court would severely punish him, and sentence him to punishments such as beheading, hanging, imprisonment, and exile depending on the severity of the crime.

However, for these half-concealed Northern Ming merchants, the government sometimes turned a blind eye and let them come and go. First, after all, the merchants of the Northern Ming Dynasty were in the name of the people of Qi on the surface, and they had a certificate issued by the local governor of Qi State, and they would deal with it rashly, which would inevitably lead to disputes with Qi State; Second, many of the commodities shipped by the Northern Ming Dynasty were really needed by Daqin.

Grain, timber, fur, ginseng, deer antler, Dongzhu ...... all have a strong market demand in Daqin, especially grain and timber, which can more or less reduce the dependence of merchants on the Qi country.

In Jiangnan, an area where nearly 40% of the population and 60% of the economic output of Daqin are concentrated, almost all peasant households no longer grow much grain, and have begun to cultivate crops such as cotton and linen with higher economic value, making the region extremely dependent on grain imports from outside areas.

Huguang, Annam, Cambodia, Siam, Yunzhou, Zhenzhou and other regions have continuously transported rice and wheat to various parts of the south of the Yangtze River through rivers and seas.

It can be seen that in the list of these grain supply areas, except for the Huguang region, which is still in the territory of Daqin and can be completely controlled, the grain producing areas in several other regions are all controlled by other countries, and once a regional conflict occurs, it is very likely to affect the stability of the grain supply in the entire Jiangnan region.

As for timber, after more than 2,000 years of continuous logging, the huge timber needed to build palaces and large ships on the mainland has almost disappeared. With its own resources, it is simply impossible to build large-scale buildings and ocean-going merchant ships on a large scale.

Although there are large areas of primeval forests in eastern Liaodong, they are all located in the deep mountains and dense forests, and they cannot be used at all due to the difficulties of land transportation.

The Zhenzhou and Kuye Islands of the Northern Ming Dynasty, and the Annan and Nanyang territories of the Qi State have a large number of timber resources, and they are not far from the seaside, with convenient transportation and absolute cost advantages.

Whether it was to expand the channels of grain and timber sources, or to balance the trade monopoly situation of Qi merchants, the Great Qin court had reason to adopt a tacit attitude towards the semi-open and half-smuggling trade behavior of the Northern Ming.

One more trading competitor can also slightly curb the price monopoly formed by Qi's increasingly powerful trading companies.

In terms of grain prices, the rice imported by Qi from Annam, Champong, Cambodia, and Siam has doubled from less than 6 cents per stone more than 50 years ago, to now, the price of rice per stone has slowly increased to 1 tael or 2 cents of silver!

Although there is an impact of inflation, the increase in food prices is also a little higher.

The land south of the Yangtze River is full of cotton and mulberry hemp, and the cultivation of rice and grain is less than 12/12 of the cultivated land, and the grain needed by tens of millions of people is imported from other places.

Through the extremely advantageous shipping method, Qi almost indirectly controlled the grain supply in the south of the Yangtze River, and the annual trade profits earned were not necessarily less than cotton fabrics, becoming one of the few "surplus" commodities in Qi State.

Therefore, in order to stabilize domestic grain prices and curb the expansion of Qi's commercial power, even if Beiming is a big trouble for my Great Qin to get rid of quickly, as long as it can be beneficial to Great Qin, it is not impossible to use one or two.

Although this kind of trade behavior is somewhat suspected of "financing the enemy" and "helping the enemy", the lesser of two evils is the lesser of two evils, and our Great Qin has also obtained cheap grain and timber supplies from it, which is greatly beneficial to the country and the people.

As a merchant of Great Qin, Yuan Zugeng may take a high look at the merchants of the Qi Kingdom, and even lower his posture a little, but you Beiming are just people who continue to survive in remote and wild places overseas, how can you put it in the eyes of my Great Qin!

"Well, it's pretty much the same." Zhu Jiaxi glanced at Yuan Zugeng, and said with a calm face: "But even if my Ming army is so absurd and playful, I still beat your Great Qin army on the battlefield. In the waters of Korea and Japan, do you Daqin sailors dare to send ships to compete with our Daming Navy? ”

"What? Do you Da Ming want to fight with me again? Yuan Zugeng asked: "This time is different from the past, I am in the northwest of Qinwei Town, and the destruction of the Dzungar Tatar chieftains is just around the corner." If you Ming Dynasty provoke again, I am afraid that in the end, you will face a catastrophe. ”

"Hehe...... huh?" Zhu Jiaxi sneered twice, shook his head and said: "The battle formation is not something that can be won by self-righteousness and lip service!" …… Let's see, who will face the catastrophe in the end, and see the real chapter on the battlefield. ”

As he spoke, Zhu Jiaxi tightened the coat on his body, held his head high, and turned to leave.

The situation in Korea suddenly became tense as the governor of the southeastern region of Korea, Li Linzuo, asked for the title of King of Silla for himself, and the Northern Ming Dynasty increased troops in Dongnae (present-day Busan, South Korea) and Cheongjin.

In order to deal with the threat of the Northern Ming, the Great Qin also fought-for-tat, in addition to transferring troops from Guannai to Liaodong, it also transferred more than 3,000 troops from Shandong to Hanyang, so as to deter the Northern Ming not to act rashly and break the existing balance of North Korea.

The two countries are so tense that there is a great danger of breaking out into the Third Qin-Ming War.

(End of chapter)