The joy of reunion after a long absence made Wei Chengfeng very excited, and he kept wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes, choking up so much that he couldn't speak.

Zhao Bufan asked Ram and the others to go out first, waiting for Wei Chengfeng to calm down, and then slowly learned from him that they had not been easy in the past two years.

It turned out that as early as two years ago, Juxianzhuang, with the secret assistance of Li Ruopu and Xue Renfu of Dali Temple, paid a great price and finally investigated his whereabouts. Zhu Lian immediately made arrangements for Wei Chengfeng to personally form an ocean-going fleet to search for it along the Maritime Silk Road.

This time, they sailed to the Abel Empire, but after all, they found nothing, and because the assets they carried were about to run out, they had to choose to return.

After returning to the Great Song Dynasty, the people did not give up, and soon organized a stronger fleet and sailed west again with more gold and silver, this time they inquired more carefully than the last time, and were more willing to spend money, and as a result, they heard the news at the Puluo Harbor slave market in Srivijaya.

A small guard in charge of managing the slave market said that he had seen the Oriental in the portrait, and he was sure that the Oriental was taken to the West by a nobleman named Charlie, and this little guard was the person who had handled the slave entry registration for Zhao Bufan in the first place.

This news made Wei Chengfeng feel high, and the clues in his hand became more and more, and he came to the distant Abel Empire along the waterway, but no matter how they inquired, there was no more news, until one day the people of the fleet stumbled upon someone in the market who was selling fine paper at a high price.

As the Song people, they recognized at a glance that this kind of paper came from the relatively new papermaking process of the Great Song Dynasty, and it stands to reason that it should not appear in the Abel Empire, after all, except for the papermaking technology in the East, other places are very backward, even if the papermaking technology has spread, but the waste technology that has been circulated in the Great Song Dynasty has long been unused, and the difference between paper is very large.

This aroused Wei Chengfeng's suspicions.

They then began to inquire about the origin of the paper, and thus learned about Laordise, and that the lord of Laordisse was an upstart from the East.

Wei Chengfeng felt that the city lord of La Odisse was Zhao Bufan, and decisively decided to take someone to find it.

Unfortunately, the known sea routes could not go directly from the Abor Sea to the Mediterranean, so Wei Chengfeng could only let the fleet dock at the southern seaport of the Awa Empire, while he led dozens of people with good martial arts skills across the Awa Empire to La Audise in the Levant.

The people of the Abel Empire had business contacts with the Great Song Dynasty, and only stayed in their harbor cities, and the security was relatively high, but entering the inland was a completely different situation, Wei Chengfeng took dozens of people through hardships and twists and turns, and finally went north into the territory of the Seljuk Empire, and was attacked by a powerful horse thief group, and almost wiped out.

Fortunately, Wei Chengfeng was shrewd enough, so he was lucky enough to break through with a few people, and traveled through the kingdom of Yelu to Raidise, where he was secretly detained by Charlie.

The danger is life-or-death.

Zhao Bufan was silent for a long time and let out a heavy sigh.

"Ride the wind, thank you for your hard work. ”

"Hey!"

Wei Chengfeng shook his head, took a deep breath and asked, "Lord Wang, it doesn't matter if it's hard or not, how should we go back now?" When I left the fleet earlier, I told them that if they didn't return within half a year, they would return on their own. Now, if I want to go back, I'm afraid I can only serve as mercenaries for those ocean-going merchants for the time being, although it is a little more dangerous, but it is always a way home!"

Zhao Bufan was bored for a moment, and said with a wry smile: "You may be able to, I will definitely not be able to!"

"Why?" Wei Chengfeng asked strangely.

"You have all the customs clearance documents, trade permits, and identification documents of the Great Song Dynasty, but I don't have anything, and the merchants of the Abel Empire will not allow me to enter the country, let alone join their ocean-going fleet, and I must tell you, even you may not be able to successfully board the ship, in their eyes you have lost the caravan and the group, and you are just a bankrupt. In this foreign land, it's possible that they will sell you into slavery, who cares who you used to be?"

Zhao Bufan's words are the truth, ocean voyages are very dangerous, in addition to the need for a variety of clear identity documents, there must also be a strong strength as a guarantee, otherwise any accident may happen.

Wei Chengfeng had never left the caravan to act alone, and he didn't have a deep understanding of this, but Zhao Bufan mentioned it lightly, and he already understood.

It silenced him.

After a long time, he asked leisurely: "Lord Wang, is it because of this reason that you have not returned to the Great Song Dynasty?"

"Yes, I am lucky to be here, and I must thank Charlie for his kindness, but I definitely don't have the courage to try a second time, and my sanity tells me that blindly trying to get home will only make me a slave again, and the chances of dying or becoming a slave will be more than nine floors. ”

Zhao Bufan looked at Wei Chengfeng and said solemnly: "Now you are the same, even if you have a legal identity, you have no power without a caravan." ”

"Then what should we do? Won't we never go back? The ocean-going caravan in Juxianzhuang can only go to the Abel Empire at most, and it can't come to the Mediterranean at all, and it will never know that we are trapped in Ladisse!" Wei Chengfeng said worriedly.

"No, we have two ways!" Zhao Bufan shook his head lightly and said with a smile: "One way is to fight over, break the Seljuk Empire, hit the Persian Gulf, and seize the coastline of the Abor Sea, and the other way is to rely on Lapassee to build a powerful ocean-going caravan, and we will go back with our heads held high." ”

Wei Chengfeng frowned when he heard this: "The former method is feasible, but it is too difficult to do, the situation in this region is extremely complicated, can it really be done? As for the latter method, it is even more impossible, even if an ocean-going fleet is established, there is no shipping route to the east." ”

Zhao Bufan shook his head and said with certainty: "One of the ends of the Silk Road is Somalia, it is in ancient Egypt, that is, the south of the current Fatimid Dynasty, the Great Song Dynasty used to call it the Three Lan Kingdom, we know limited about this continent, but I have absolute reason to think that we can cross the Mediterranean Sea, and then go south along the west coast of this continent, until the southernmost point, and then go back to the east coast and reach Somalia, so as to achieve eastward travel." ”

"This is a new route, why haven't you heard from the people of the Abel Empire?" Wei Chengfeng was puzzled.

Zhao Bufan's eyes flashed with brilliance: "No, no one knows this route now, but I just know, I don't know why, but I'm right, from now on, you will temporarily serve as the commander of the fleet of La Audise, and start to form a fleet, I hope you will use your rich knowledge of ships to help those craftsmen in the shipyard, by borrowing from our advanced sand boats and Fu boats in the Great Song Dynasty, and then combining the characteristics of local ships to carry out a complete innovation in ship technology."

Although the ships of our Great Song Dynasty are advanced, but the technology is extremely conservative, the government and private shipyards are very strict about technology, and they cannot bring together the strengths of a hundred schools, but this side can, the prosperous trade in the Mediterranean has promoted the ship construction technology to be very popular, showing a situation of a hundred schools of thought, you provide the excellent characteristics of the Great Song Dynasty to those craftsmen, they can quickly carry out technical practice and innovation, and the cost of shipbuilding here is much lower, just bold practice. ”

Wei Chengfeng quietly listened to these words and gritted his teeth fiercely.

"Okay, whatever the prince says, I will do. ”

............

The two quickly agreed on building a fleet, Wei Chengfeng and the few surviving Yun Navy officers became fleet commanders, and Zhao Bufan also knew a lot of family affairs from them, and when he learned that everything was fine, his heart was also relieved.

Early the next morning, Zhao Bufan took them back to the port of La Operase, and announced that they had become fleet commanders at the town hall meeting.

It's a pity that Zhao Bufan didn't say a word to Rolf.

Although his anger had subsided, he wanted to tell Rolf how angry he was at what had happened earlier.

Rolf knew that he was angry, and he didn't provoke him, so he prepared for the battle with peace of mind.

This stalemate was not broken until the good news came from the Antioch Mountains to the east.

The defenders of the Holy Knights of the North and South Castles successfully attacked the precipitous fortresses west of the Principality of Antioch, completely controlling the precipitous terrain of the Antioch Mountains, retreating from the danger and attacking every territory of the Principality of Antioch at will.

When Rolf got the news, he was so shocked that he didn't care if Zhao Bufan was angry, and rushed to the government office of the city hall.

"Rilo, I know you're mad at me, but you should at least tell me what this report is?"

Zhao Bufan was burying his head in writing something on the parchment with a quill, and said without raising his head: "Didn't I tell you that day that the enemy's nightmare has begun?"

"But how did you do that? and take down two fortresses in the blink of an eye?" Rolf's eyes widened in disbelief.

"I found that your side did not despise the power of fire, and dared to set up a fortress in the depths of the dense forest, but did not clear the surrounding trees, is it to protect the environment?

.。 Writing Chinese Network M.