sweeping the world

Chapter 850

After several months of sea voyage, Fu Wei arrived in Constantinople with a fleet.

Fu Wei came because Wang Meng sent an official letter to Pingman's Captain's Department earlier, and it was not the first time he led the fleet to serve the mission. He had led the fleet to Persia and Sassan many times before, and each time he returned the quantity There are huge slaves, and they pretend to ship the purchased grain, but in fact the grain is directly stored in the system warehouse.

The Han Empire in the far east had a fleet coming to the Roman territory. It was discovered when the fleet was approaching the Strait of Gibraltar. Although the Spanish province had a bad relationship with Constantinople in advance, it urgently sent the news to Constantinople. Constantius II of Constantinople.

Originally, it should have waited for a reply from Constantinople, or asked the Spanish provinces to stop the Han fleet, or allowed the Han fleet to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, but the Han fleet only made a routine notification and directly After entering the Strait of Gibraltar, Fu Wei asked a boat to send gifts to the Spanish governor in Rome, but in return, the Spanish governor sent a boat to chase after him pretendingly.

When Fu Wei set off, the fleet was very large. There were 230 warships of various types and 180 transport ships of different types, making a total of 410 ships.

After more than four months of sailing, it was not a smooth journey. It should be said that it went through many dangers and difficulties. Some ships were lost in every adventure. When we arrived at the entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar, there were actually no more 410 ships. scale.

There are 340 ships that have safely arrived in the Strait of Gibraltar. Some ships even look a bit miserable from the outside, but overall the fleet still looks huge.

There is a fleet in the Spanish province, but there are only more than [-] pitiful ones, and they are basically small ships.This province is at the westernmost point of Rome, and further west is the Atlantic Ocean.

Since Rome wiped out Carthage, there has been no threat from the sea there. It can even be said that if there is no sudden appearance of the Han fleet, there will be no foreign fleets in the Atlantic Ocean for hundreds of years.

Then it can be understood that under the premise that there is no threat from the sea, the development of the Spanish province's navy is tantamount to eating enough to support it, and spending military expenditures in vain.This is also the reason why there are only more than [-] small ships stationed in such a strategic place.

Intuitive comparison, the ships brought by Fu Wei, no matter what type they are, are only a few sizes larger than the ships in the Spanish provinces, and the number also crushes the garrison of the Spanish provinces, even if the Spanish governor receives them and intercepts them. His orders will not be implemented, not to mention that the Spanish governor has been at odds with Constantinople.

The Han fleet entered the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar and headed towards Constantinople with a very clear goal.The appearance of this huge fleet shocked everyone who saw it along the way.

From west to east, wherever the Han fleet passed, the local responsible person learned that there was such a fleet of unknown ownership, and they reported to Constantinople as soon as possible. The same fell into the hands of Constantius II.

The appearance of the Han fleet has another effect, which is to scare the ships and coasts on the route.

No ship dared to block the route of the Han fleet, and the only option was to avoid it from a distance.The Roman navy along the way only dared to follow from a distance, saying that they were unwilling to rush up and launch a passionate attack.

The villages on the coastline fled wantonly, and the cities entered the defensive alert level.Tribunes from all over the world began to collect ships. They wanted to organize a fleet. Fighting with the fleet of an unknown force was not the first option, or they hoped to have more self-protection power when attacked.

The situation changed when the Han fleet approached the Italian Peninsula. The reason was that Constantinople had already made an announcement to notify various places that the fleet that appeared came from the distant Eastern Han Empire, so that there was no need to panic.

All the places in Rome who were notified were relieved, knowing that the fleet was not hostile and started their own abuse.

The fleet of the Han army did not carry out any attacks, but some people committed crimes in the panic of various cities and villages. Many people died frequently in various vicious cases, and a lot of property was destroyed in the chaos. Who should count those?
As long as the cities on the coastline basically developed navigation, they also developed maritime trade. Before the Han fleet was not hostile, ships in various cities did not dare to go to sea at all, which meant that trade came to a halt.

For businessmen, time is equal to money, delaying so many days is losing money every day, and some people will cause even greater losses because of the delay in delivery date.

No matter what happened on the road, or what impact it caused, the good and bad Fu Wei will not be a bird.When he arrived in Constantinople, the fleet was parked outside the pier, and it was time to meet Wang Meng when he went ashore by boat.

When he was still on the boat, Fu Wei saw the outline of Constantinople and also saw the dense crowd of onlookers.These are still not what he cares about. Only after handing over the official letter from Chang'an, he is interested in seeing those Roman nobles who are similar in appearance to the Han people but much shorter.

"The commotion caused by Junshan is a bit big." Dou'a waited for the handover of official affairs before going up to give Fu Wei a bear hug: "You don't know! Constantinople is very lively these days, and there are countless people every day." Ten or hundreds of people came to report with horror on their faces.”

Fu Wei smiled when he saw Dou'a's gloating.

The two were able to meet often when they were in China before, but the friendship was neither salty nor weak. When they met again in a place far away from their hometown, they looked at each other very pleasingly, and their relationship was miraculously sublimated.

"Seeing that you have gained a lot of weight, the reception of Daqin people is very considerate, right?" Fu Wei looked around and saw some acquaintances smiling, but then he said to Dou'a: "Look at me, yes Didn't you lose weight?"

Dou'a took a closer look at Fu Wei. In his impression, Fu Wei was a bit fatter, but he really lost a lot of weight today.

"We set off from Jitanado, took a route called the Cape of Good Hope in a big circle, and there were many adventures along the way." Fu Wei didn't know what he thought of, showing the expression of the rest of his life, and continued He went on to say: "Thanks to the fact that the soldiers have experienced the strong winds and waves in the Pacific Ocean and have sufficient experience in coping with them. They sailed along the coastline along the way, or else..."

After passing Malacca, the sea area belongs to the Atlantic Ocean, but the Han people generally only move in the Asan Ocean, and they really don’t pay much attention to the rest of the sea area.

There is also a small mistake by Liu Yan. He originally thought that the Suez Canal already existed, but the truth is that there is a Suez Canal. It was a canal dug by the Egyptians more than 3000 years ago, and it can go directly from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. , the problem was more than 3000 years ago, and it was blocked long ago in the following years.

"The canal definitely exists. It must be concealed deliberately by the local aborigines, and the exploration under his command is also ineffective." Fu Wei was talking about the exploration of the Suez Canal. He concealed it all the time, and he couldn't find it himself: "In order not to waste time, we had to change the route."

Dou'a was a little dazed, looked at Fu Wei and said strangely: "There really is such a canal. This is the news from the people of Daqin, but the river has been blocked for a long time without dredging, and some sections of the river have been filled up."

Fu Wei's face froze for a moment, he was just helping Liu Yan to blame, secretly cursing Dou Ah for being too frank, and felt that he couldn't chat happily anymore.

Wang Meng had already met and exchanged greetings with the senior management of the fleet, followed by Fu Wei to meet Julian who was in charge of welcoming them, and had to negotiate how to arrange the berthing of the fleet ships.

How to arrange the fleet of the Han army should be decided in advance. It is not that the docks in Constantinople cannot accommodate the fleet of the Han army. The problem is that one dock cannot accommodate all the ships. The fleet of the Han army needs To berth separately, Wang Meng still needs to get advice from Fu Wei.

"Separate berthing does not exist." Fu Wei directly rejected Julian's arrangement, thought for a while and said: "The entrance here is a narrow and long strait, and it is not so realistic to be blocked in the strait."

Julian had expected Fu Wei's refusal, not to mention that Rome has not formally established diplomatic relations with Han, even if the relationship is good after the establishment of diplomatic relations, as long as the IQ of the Han people is still online, the fleet will not be allowed to be split.He smiled wryly at Fu Wei's seemingly reasonable words behind him, isn't it just a trick to show off the size of the Han fleet!

"Is that so?" Fu Wei asked Wang Meng for advice: "Before coming here, I saw a suitable sea area for berthing. Most of the fleet's warships were berthed there, and the rest of the warships and transport ships went to various places to receive the supplies you purchased. ?”

Wang Meng smiled and looked at Julian.Another thing is that he has never left Constantinople since he came to Rome. Even if he purchased anything, it was stored in Constantinople. There is no purchase of materials in other places, but there is no need to say that.

"Where is it?" Julian subconsciously felt that something was wrong, and he needed to know where that piece of sea was.He listened to Fu Wei's detailed description, and after knowing where the location was, he stared at Fu Wei silently for a long time, and said without agreeing or refusing: "We need Augustus's permission."

The sea area Fu Wei mentioned is in the northeast of the Aegean Sea, and the anchorage area is chosen next to an island at the exit of the strait (Dardanelles), close to Thrace.

This location is fundamentally the throat of the strait. Locking it here is equivalent to cutting off the connection between the sea route and Constantinople. Once an attack is launched, it can also threaten the Greek Peninsula and Asia Minor. Being close to Thrace is more conducive to cutting off the king. The land line of communication between Constantinople and the Europa continent.

"Then as soon as possible." Fu Wei was surprised how Julian's Chinese was so standard, and said jokingly: "It's not good for the fleet to block here for a moment later."

When the Han fleet came over, it really blocked the channel. The resulting situation was that the ships outside could not enter and the ships inside could not get out. The longer the time, the more serious the congestion would be.

"It's blocked." Julian looked at it, frowned and said, "Can you let the fleet line up and get out of the channel?"

"Uh, Wei is not yet qualified to be called 'Your Excellency'." Fu Wei finished speaking to Julian first, and then asked Wang Meng for instructions: "Angel decision?"

Wang Meng smiled and said, "It's not good to be blocked."

Fu Wei also smiled. He heard what Wang Meng wanted to express. It was not all smooth sailing after the envoys arrived in Rome. Generally speaking, the Romans received them with courtesy and did not get into a tense situation.

Next, the surrounding Roman ships needed to retreat a certain distance to avoid it. The whole process took nearly five hours. They waited for the fleet to clear before the fleet received the order and began to make adjustments.

Julian didn't understand what a Han soldier was doing with a flag waving just now. He didn't hear what type of tools the Han army used to use sound to spread military orders. Only when he saw soldiers waving flags on the Han army ships did he realize that it was a kind of Communicate using flags.

The Han army had already had semaphore, and the army used it less often. The navy used semaphore to communicate as a regulation. At the same time, the navy also mastered the means of communication (Morse code) at night by using lights to flicker on and off.

Rome's military order transmission method is still quite primitive. In addition to relying on manpower to transmit, it is to use the agreed rhythm of sound. Julian discovered that the Han people can use flags to communicate, and instantly felt an extreme desire to find out.

"You guys came quite quickly." Wang Meng was indeed surprised, he thought he would have to wait several months or even longer.He lowered his voice and asked, "What's your impression of Daqin?"

Fu Wei knew what Wang Meng was asking, and also lowered his voice, and replied: "The territory of Daqin is quite vast. We came from the west, and the territory of Daqin is on both sides of the strait. The same is true for the places we go along the way. There are many cities on their coastline. , Ports can be seen everywhere, divided by His Majesty's civilization type, it seems to belong to the ocean civilization?"

Wang Meng was stunned. He really didn't know what Liu Yan was doing behind him. After a little thought, he could understand the meaning of "marine civilization": "Daqin's marine development has gone astray. ships on a long voyage.”

Fu Wei has some understanding of the development of the seas of the Romans. The Persians often ridiculed the Romans on this point. It is not one or two hundred years since the Persians laughed at the Romans as a sea-short-legged nation.

Speaking of the Persians, Fu Wei couldn't help laughing and said: "When we came, we followed nearly a hundred Persian ships, and we haven't rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Those guys are scared."

Wang Meng didn't ask how many ships Fu Wei took with him when he set off. Just now, he took a rough look and it should be about [-] ships. : "You are true warriors!"

(End of this chapter)