sweeping the world

Chapter 656 Peace or War?

The Silk Road is the longest-lasting and most wealth-creating business route in the world, and there is no need to add "one of them".It is divided into the Land Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road. The Silk Road is the longest and most wealth-creating business route in the world, and there is no need to add a "one".It is divided into the Land Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road.

The starting point of the Silk Road on the road is naturally in the Central Plains Dynasty. Generally, it takes the Hexi Corridor to enter the Western Regions. It can be out of Yangguan or Yumen Pass. Merchants from the Central Plains generally go to Wusun in the Western Regions, even if it is far away, they will send their goods here. It was sold and resold by people from the Western Regions to some countries in Central Asia.

The countries in Central Asia have been playing the role of "hands-off" for a long time. They obtained high-quality goods from the Central Plains dynasty, some of which were digested locally, and more valuable goods, such as silk, which is unique to the East. Some products are resold at prices several times or even tens or hundreds of times and sold to some countries farther west.

The former Parthian Empire lived very well just by reselling them. They increased the price of silk by a lot and kept selling it to the Romans. They waited for the Romans to know that Parthia could not produce silk, and those who could produce silk were from the East. An empire (they call it Seris) required the Parthians to lower the price of silk.

The profits of the Parthians from reselling are extremely high. What they hope is to increase the price instead of lowering it. The Romans started a war when they were unhappy. The two sides initially fought for silk, which was also called the "Silk War". , a dozen is more than a hundred years.

The Romans won the final victory in the Parthian War, but in fact, the Silk Road of the Central Plains Dynasty was broken because of the war of more than a hundred years. In the end, no one actually forgot what the reason for the Hundred Years War was, the Romans I haven't forgotten the cool, thin, slippery silk, and I have always been so fond of it.

The war for silk was not limited to the one between Parthia and Rome. After Parthia was destroyed, Ardashir, who was once a general of the Parthian Empire, returned to the country not long after, until 571 A.D. In 20, in order to get rid of the high-priced monopoly of Chinese silk by the Persians between the East and the West, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian united with the Turkic Khans to attack Persia. The war lasted for [-] years without a winner.This is the famous "Silk War" in history.

The farthest merchants from the Central Plains took the Silk Road on land was the Tang Dynasty, but that was also because the Tang army marched close to Central Asia (actually during Wu Zetian’s Wu Zhou period), and many merchants arrived in Constantinople (for Eastern Rome. All) and write a biography, more is to stay in the later Iraqi territory (owned by the Arab Empire) and not move forward.

In history, the land Silk Road has been broken many times, all because of wars between Western countries and Central Asian countries over the price of silk.It can be defined as a "war", the longest period can be as long as a hundred years, and the shortest period can be no less than 20 years.To say that the land Silk Road has been broken for the longest time is the Song Dynasty, that is because neither the Northern Song Dynasty nor the Southern Song Dynasty has mastered the Hexi Corridor.

It is said that the Maritime Silk Road existed in the Western Han Dynasty, but there are no relevant documents or physical relics. The only official records are from the Tang Dynasty, when the official name of the route was "Guangzhou Tonghai Yi Road".

The Maritime Silk Road really flourished during the Song Dynasty. At that time, the Song Dynasty set up three main trade ports along the coast. They were modern Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Ningbo. Among them, the throughput of Quanzhou was The largest amount.

Because the throughput of Quanzhou is too large, the officials sent by the imperial court are not low-level, and a large number of Arabs have settled in Quanzhou as "bad lords". In order to make their residence more Arabic, Arabs, Not only did the mosques be built extensively, but also many sycamore trees were introduced, which gave Quanzhou the title of "the hometown of sycamore trees".

It must be said that the Song Dynasty treated the Arabs really well. Not only did they not make things difficult, but the second-generation Arabs could also participate in the imperial examination, and even the Song Dynasty court had records of appointing Arabs as officials.But what the Arabs gave Song was in return. When the Mongolian Yuan invaded, a rebellion broke out, and there were countless people who directly took refuge in the Mongolian Yuan. Kaesong, an official, ushered in the Mongolian Yuan army to massacre more Song people.

The Zhuxia people are not a nation that holds grudges, and there is almost no accounting for their enemies afterwards.After the Ming Dynasty expelled the Mongolian Yuan, the Arabs were not liquidated in Quanzhou, and even the mosques they built were preserved. Among them, the Qilin Temple (also known as the Aisuhab Mosque) was founded in the Northern Song Dynasty The second year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1) - the 1th year of the Islamic calendar, it is the oldest existing Islamic temple founded by Arab Muslims in China.In 1, it was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units and one of the "Top Ten Famous Temples in China".

In fact, the Maritime Silk Road has been broken many times, because of the war between the Central Asian countries and the western countries to compete for the silk trade route.

The first war to compete for the Maritime Silk Road was actually part of the "Hundred Years War" between Rome and Parthia. At that time, the Roman fleet set out from Egypt and went out of the Gulf of Aden to fight the Parthian fleet in the Arabian Sea.Because the Roman fleet set out from Egypt, waiting for the battle site was actually an expedition. Roman warships were really inferior to Parthian warships. The Roman fleet was often taught by the Parthian fleet.

There were quite a few battles for the Maritime Silk Road in the follow-up, and the most intense battles were undoubtedly during the period of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Arab Empire.Even after hundreds of years, the Romans still had no innovations in warships, but the Arabs used oil in naval warfare.

The investment of fire-breathing ships allowed the Arabs to completely suppress the Romans on the sea battlefield. Even if the Eastern Roman Empire and the Tulun Dynasty united, they were still no match for the Arabs. However, the war between them was most affected by the Song Dynasty in the east.The Song Dynasty also fell into a financial crisis due to the financial severance of the Maritime Silk Road. Otherwise, even if it still lost to Yuan and Meng in the end, it would have been able to survive longer.

Fu Wei looked at the scenery on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Although he didn't know what would happen before or in the future, it did not affect his understanding of the importance of this route.

"You don't know when you don't know, but you can't help but feel emotional when you know." Si Hongzhuang was talking about the Maritime Silk Road: "To say that those aristocratic families are really nothing, they must have known about the existence of such a route a long time ago. But I kept covering it.”

In the current era, with the collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the land Silk Road was discontinued early, but the Maritime Silk Road maintained a small silk trade.

Fu Wei knew a little bit, so he said: "Those extinct families are facing the suppression of General Zhengnan. It is impossible to say that the rest of the families either don't take it seriously, or they want to continue to control it."

It is estimated that there are more elements that did not take it seriously. When Yu Yi was asked about it afterwards, he replied that he knew that there was such a sea trade route, but in fact the trade share was pitifully small, and the trade existed in the form of tribute. The countries reported by the merchants from the sea do not exist at all.

"This is very important, extremely important!" No matter where Fu Wei is sitting on his butt, his thoughts must keep up: "Whether it is to fight out or to prevent being beaten in, this is very important."

The Central Plains dynasties in the past dynasties did not have a deep understanding of the ocean at all. Maybe it can’t be said that, after all, the greatest threat to the Central Plains dynasties in the past dynasties came from the north, and the ruling class of the country put more energy on the threat of the north. Is it normal?

When Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty came to power, he fully realized the importance of the ocean, provided that the Ming army was already attacking the north at that time.There was no threat from the north, so he became curious about the south, and then his nephew heard that he had fled to the south, so he used the name of his nephew to find a large fleet.

To say that Zhu Di had no need to build a large fleet in order to find his nephew and kill them all, it was more to show his power.

One thing that must be made clear is that the so-called tribute of the Central Plains Dynasty is actually an official trading system, which is often a loss-making business.

Zhu Di asked Zheng He to sail to the Western Seas. In addition to the political influence brought by Xuan Wei, he always brought back huge profits, which means that those profits would not cause anything to the common people and officials.During Zhu Gaochi's reign, when he was deceived by Confucianism and "lamed", all the officials hated the maritime trade and the royal family was monopolized. However, it was still the kind of monopoly where the state paid money but went into the emperor's private treasury. The officials who were favored by Zhu Gaochi in every possible way did so. He found a reason to destroy the fleet that sailed to the West.

By the time Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, he had also been "lamed" by Confucian deception since he was a child. He did not realize how shameless those officials he had a great crush on would be. Not only did he destroy the fleet in the Western Ocean, he also Stupidly and happily, Zheng He was sent to lead a fleet to the Western Ocean for the last time.

Zheng He's voyage to the Western Sea this time was to tell the Southeast Asian countries not to come again in the future, and our fleet will not sail to the Western Sea again in the future.

After that, the Ming Dynasty's national power never went to Nanyang again. The ships were destroyed, the shipbuilding blueprints were destroyed, everything was destroyed, and they had to write a book about what was wrong with Zhu Di's voyages to the West. On the other hand, hundreds of officials were raised The agent (who usually doubles as a pirate) is having a great time.

Fu Wei is currently serving in the Nanyang Fleet and has the right to view information about the Malacca Strait. In the future, the Nanyang Fleet will gradually tilt towards this area. The first step is to establish a military port at the strait pass and move some people to build towns.

At present, there are no countries in Nanyang, and they are all uncivilized savages. The source of labor in the Han Dynasty is to capture savages everywhere and use their bones to build related facilities.

The Strait of Malacca looks very narrow from the map, but it doesn't feel narrow when you see it on the spot.The reason why it has become the busiest waterway on earth is naturally because it connects the east and west from the sea. Another reason is that the natural sea conditions here are not bad.

"There are savages on almost every island." Lin Xuan is the navigator. He will inevitably get tanned when he often drifts on the sea. There are many fierce savages. They have the custom of headhunting. Each tribe will go out to hunt for heads once a year. Quite a few savages have the habit of cannibalism."

Headhunting is just an abbreviation. In fact, each tribe will kill and reduce enemy tribes in certain quarters of the year. The food source of primitive tribes who cannot cultivate is nature.Each tribe will have its own hunting area. Generally speaking, the hunting area is a forbidden area for a tribe. In order to compete for the hunting area, there will naturally be wars. If the enemy tribe does not want to be too strong, it must be attacked from time to time.

"We don't have too many people here, and it's too inefficient to just rely on our own people to catch slaves." Lin Xuan showed a very meaningful smile when he said this: "We will find some worthless gadgets later. Can buy a tribe and let them hunt slaves for us."

Fu Wei is quite clear about this. From the Han Dynasty to Nanyang, most of them are troops, and a small part are slave hunting teams from various families in the Indochina Peninsula to join in the fun. There are really few serious people.

For these uncivilized tribes in Nanyang, the arrival of the Han people is like a tiger plunging into a flock of sheep. Regardless of the strength of each tribe before, the primitive savages who have not even developed a bronze civilization, faced with entering the Iron Age and Soldiers who do not lack killing and fighting skills, in addition to being able to use complex environments to avoid, are taught how to behave in a head-on confrontation every minute.

"There will be a lot of people." Fu Wei pointed to the fleet, and then pointed to the area under construction: "Your Majesty attaches great importance to this place."

Lin Xuan nodded in agreement: "It can be seen. You have to cross the strait to the western coast of Indochina Peninsula and build a base there."

Chinese civilization is about not only having a stable rear, but also everything must be done step by step. It is inevitable to repeatedly stabilize and build the forward line, so Malacca will definitely develop as soon as it comes.

Seeing that Lin Xuan, the navigator, knew the news, Fu Wei was shocked and said, "Isn't it a secret?"

Lin Xuan, however, understood and said directly: "Don't worry, our local people don't have boats to run this way, and outsiders can't leave even if they come here."

This is the benefit of controlling the portal, coupled with enough ships, unless the other party senses something is wrong before entering, otherwise it is not like the Strait of Malacca. As long as they come in and block the head and tail, they will not be able to escape.

Fu Wei’s fleet took two days to enter the Asan Sea. Because he was worried about getting lost, he tried his best to sail on the continental shelf. It was amazing to find that the dense forest on the land would be covered with fog every morning, and the thick fog would sometimes float out. The coast is hundreds of meters away. At this time, they will come out of the dense fog area, otherwise they can easily see the sea surface and hit the rocks.

"Did a fleet come before us?" Si Hongzhuang would ask this because he saw a ship on the rocks while sailing.

"Yes." Fu Wei nodded and said: "It's not a large-scale fleet, it's just disguised as a merchant to go to Asan's place to investigate first."

In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there were also ships that would go to Asan's territory, but the number was very small.The two places are so far apart, Ah San probably didn't know that the small imperial court was over, and Ah San would never have imagined that someone would travel tens of thousands of miles to invade by sea, and would just treat it as an ordinary maritime merchant.

Si Hongzhuang said gruffly, "I have never figured it out, even if there are really inexhaustible grains over there, how should I transport them back?"

Fu Wei has thought about this, and he thinks even more. Since Ah San has a lot of food, it means that it is worthless, and it does not necessarily have to be paid by force. Doing business is also a way, but it is just a thought, it is time to make up your mind It is the king and the center.

(End of this chapter)