sweeping the world

Chapter 854

Although there is no major risk for the fleet to come along, the situation is still constant. Damaged ships are abandoned almost along the way, and personnel are repeatedly lost.

The slaves who died the most were the slaves. Many slaves had no experience of going to sea at all. Their bodies were already weak, coupled with the discomfort caused by the bumps, and their nutrition could not keep up. It was inevitable that they would die.

Although there are reasonable packages for going to sea, Han people actually died of illness, but the number is very small.

The so-called sea-going package is a necessary supplement for nutrition, especially some vitamin supplements.These things are complementary to the Han people, but they are only provided to the aristocratic class of Rome and Persian Sasan, so don’t even think about it.

When it was provided to Rome and Persian Sassan, it would not directly take out the whole object such as bean sprouts and oranges, but actually it would be processed by grinding.They will also play tricks on the sense of taste, in short, to prevent them from knowing what they are eating.

The most dead were the captured black slaves. They were a group of severely malnourished people. The first time they went to sea was a long voyage, and their positions on the ship were too poor.

Many Romans also died, which frightened the nobles, but they later wondered why they didn't have those problems.

"Food." Julian said with extreme certainty, "It must be the difference in food!"

There are smart people and idiots in the world. Smart people are able to observe the unusual from unobvious details, while idiots are clues that are clearly laid out in front of them but still don't know.

"We can drink at will, but those people can't." Julian only noticed some obvious clues, and it was difficult to guess all: "There are many types of wine prepared by the Seris people, including traditional grain brewing and fruit brewing in Seris. In addition, , we can eat meat off land! The meat is fresh, and the Serisians have storage methods we need to understand."

In general, I guessed it right, that is, the human body needs multi-vitamin supplements to maintain health, but I didn't guess the core.

It is true that Yuanhang will store a large amount of wine instead of clear water. It does not mean that there is no need to store clear water. It is because clear water will have problems even if it is stored properly, while water wine will not cause problems when stored.During long voyages, drinking is far more common than drinking water, so that people who often voyage often become alcoholics.

"On top of the recipes..." Helena was a little disappointed but excited: "The Serisians have much richer recipes than ours."

After boarding the ship, although the conditions were not comparable to those on land, the Roman nobles were really pleasantly surprised. They tasted the food cooked by the Han people. The variety was beyond imagination, and the rich taste was also jaw-dropping.

What they don’t know is that if Liu Yan hadn’t “invented” the way of cooking, unlocked the use of various condiments, and introduced the application of spices to ingredients, in fact, the Han people used to treat food with barbecue or water Cooking, the novelty is to eat raw (chicken), which is basically not much different from the cooking methods of most ethnic groups.

It is also processed by grilling. After adding spices, there are two different foods. At the same time, whether or not pepper is added will become a different dividing line.For many people, eating barbecue with or without spiciness is a battle of who is heretic besides the dispute between salty and sweet tofu.

Romans and Persians love stir-frying and all kinds of stewing. With the blessing of spices, even grass can cook a full fragrance. Although the dish of chili fried lean meat is simple, it is a tried and tested dish. It has always existed on the dining table.

The Romans and Persians already knew enough about spices. They were able to buy spices from Asan before, but the types were far less than those provided by the Han people.

The Chinese envoys sent some spices as gifts to Persia, Sasan and Rome, and sold more spices.

At present, it is not only the Han people who have mastered spices. The three major origins of spices in the world are Southeast Asia, India and South America.

The Romans and Persians didn't even know where Nanyang was, and it was absolutely impossible to get spices from Nanyang.

No one from any country or nation in the World Island has set foot on the South American continent, it is still a virgin land "isolated".

Most countries can obtain spices from India. For example, the Gupta Dynasty will be very rich, that is, they provide spices to many countries, including more than 20 kinds of fennel and cumin. Other relatively few species.

Spices first appeared in Zhuxia in the Western Han Dynasty. After returning from his mission to the Western Regions, Zhang Qian not only took out various vegetable seeds he had collected, but also several kinds of spices.Those spices are not local specialties in the Western Regions. In fact, the reason why people in the Western Regions have spices is from Bactria-Greek Kingdom (the first generation of Daxia), and the spices of Bactria-Greece come from Asan trade.

The Gupta Dynasty set the price of spices extremely high, and they sold them as luxury goods among luxury goods. A catty of spices was at least the price of ten catties of gold.

The Indian mainland has its own varieties of spices, such as turmeric, which is indispensable for making curry. Most of the spices are transplanted from the Southeast Asian islands.

The Romans and Persians were able to buy spices from the Gupta Dynasty. In terms of their status as envoys, it does not mean that Julian and others have not tasted spices before. The key issue lies in the way the Han people use spices in cooking. Properly prepared, more delicious food can be prepared.

Zhuxia's "big foodie empire" was really established in the Song Dynasty, and the cooking method also originated from the Song Dynasty.There are quite a few reasons for this. In addition to the social atmosphere in the Song Dynasty tending to be drunk and dreamy, it is also the development of smelting technology and production technology. Iron pots began to be widely used, especially the first frying pan.

With Julian coming to solve the mystery, the Romans thought they had mastered the secrets of ocean voyages. If they were not still on board the Han Chinese ships, they really wanted to cheer and sing so many songs.They tried their best to endure and cover up, and at first they would look at the Persians on the same boat with eyes full of superiority, which made the Persians both confused and secretly angry.

"What we need now is to spy on the manufacturing methods of ocean-going ships." Flavis has tried to figure out the structure of the Han people's ships more than once. In the bottom warehouse, the isolation boards of the Serisians are too tight, and nothing can be seen."

The members of the Valentinian family, where Flavius ​​belongs, have not yet had the idea of ​​"I can replace" the Constantine family. They are all thinking about getting rich, getting rich, getting rich...

The shipbuilding industry of the Valentinianus family occupies three to four out of ten ships in Rome (including the sphere of influence) in the sale (lease) share, resulting in a monstrous wealth.

However, the background of the Valentinianus family is still a bit poor. Most of the money is used to open up relationships and win over allies. Under the premise that they dare not be too arrogant, it is clear that the Roman nobles can arm themselves as long as they have money. The private army or bought the regular Roman legion, they only established two private legions, and they bought two legion commanders in the open, and how many legion leaders they bought privately is a secret that no one except the patriarch knows.

"I have tried again and again, and the Serisians did not refuse to sell ships." Flavis said with a wry smile: "It's just too expensive, and they don't sell them in small quantities."

Even if there is no such thing as "backward reasoning" when you buy it and disassemble it, the similar practice of dismantling a thing to try to figure out its structure has been around since ancient times.

Copycats are a virtue, especially when there are no relevant supervisory agencies and laws, it depends on whether you have the ability to go to copycats.

Han was willing to sell long-distance ships to the Romans because he knew very well that today's technological creations cannot achieve absolute technological blockade, and he would never naively think that creating an item can achieve the ultimate technology.

Moreover, any creation actually needs to obtain profits, and using those profits to carry out deeper research will cost a lot of money but will not yield results, or the harvest will not meet expectations, but anyone who understands business science knows that sooner or later they will have Consumed.

"The cheapest type also needs at least [-] gold coins. Every time you buy a ship, you must buy no less than twenty ships of the same type." Flavis couldn't help twitching his cheeks while talking: "The last time I went to Seris fleet, the most expensive one is only three thousand gold coins."

"But those ships set out from Egypt and kept stopping for repairs along the way. The furthest they could reach was Pingman Commandery Department in Seris." When Helena said Pingman Commandery Department, she read the Chinese pronunciation, even if it was a few I have worked hard to learn Chinese over the past month, but it is still hard to pronounce and has a strong accent: "We took the Seris ship from Constantinople and are about to arrive in Sindu. We have seen with our own eyes the reliability of the Seris ships. It's not ?"

Although unwilling to admit it, the rest of the Romans were irrefutable.What they find depressing is that as Helena gets closer to the Han Kingdom, her thinking angles and perspectives are constantly changing, and she is moving towards her husband's family before she is married.

A purchase at the lowest price requires 16 gold coins, which is equivalent to the assets of a middle-class Roman nobleman. There is no after-sales service, and there is no such thing as the Han people sending people to teach them how to use it.

"No matter what..." Julian said dullly, "You need to buy it."

In fact, before they opened their mouths, the Romans were already well prepared to be rejected, and the asking price of the Han people was a bit higher. It is better to be willing to sell ocean-going ships than not to be willing to sell them.Thinking about it again, as long as there are ships, you can go to ocean trade. If you work hard to buy goods from the Han people and resell them, you can get back your money no matter what, and you can even make a lot of money by doing reselling business.

Look at the thinking of the Romans, that's why Liu Yan finally decided to sell ships that can sail the ocean.

The shipbuilding technology, which is destined to be cracked and imitated sooner or later, should make a lot of money by selling ships first, not even just for a while. The funds from selling ships will be invested in research, making more advanced and more useful ships and continuing to make money. A long-term deal.

The Han people are now ahead of all nations in the world in terms of craftsmanship and innovation. Whether it is the Romans or someone else, if their products want to be competitive, the first choice is to buy from the Han people.The more they buy, the more wealth they create for the Han people.

Flavis is now very fortunate that he has the foresight, that is, he has attracted enough partners and has a great advantage in terms of funds.He would even think that it would be nice if the prices of the Han people were higher, so that some guys with insufficient funds would be eliminated first in this era of great voyages.

"Did the people of Siris make a plan from the beginning?" Julian thought deeply: "The people of Xindu do not have ships to go directly to Constantinople, and the ships of the people of Xindu are not as good as those of Siris in terms of quality." man, reliability Man-made ships can go on long voyages..."

It is a very frightening thing to think about. The countries and nations they know are not half-baked Persians. It is the Gupta Dynasty and the Han Kingdom that can build ocean-going ships. Then, on the premise that the Gupta Dynasty did not provoke the Han Kingdom , the Han people casually found a reason and went up to it, and even made it clear that they must fight to death with ferocity.

Flavis said in a daze, "For the sake of technological monopoly?"

Julian nodded silently, thinking that must be the case!
It seems that someone said an argument that no country can completely control the ocean, no matter how much sea power it has, or even how technologically advanced it is, once it wants to completely control the ocean, it must Will face the situation of the world's enemies.

Since if you want to completely control the ocean, you must first hold more sea power than the combined tonnage of all countries' ships. Then just maintaining sea power is an unimaginable cost of money, and you must ensure that new ships are constantly available. Put into service and ensure its leading position in scientific research.

Having a large enough fleet does not mean that you can completely control the ocean. After all, not only one country has a coastline. If one catches one, the cost of maintaining the patrol will be astronomical.

Going to sea for the purpose of smuggling is just a matter of arrest. There must be countries that repeatedly challenge, or even multiple countries unite to challenge. Being able to survive once does not mean that it can last forever, and wars will not only occur on the sea. , It must be a super war combining land and sea.

The scholar's argument is based on the history that happened. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain... None of the countries have completely controlled the sea in the true sense. Years, up to 18 three years.

For these countries, the loss of their maritime hegemony is not the loss of one or several naval battles.The war that combined land warfare and naval warfare was triggered by sea dominance. Even if he won repeated victories, he could not sustain it.

Julian has no history to learn from, and after entering the Asanyang named by the Han people, he has no time to think about it.

(End of this chapter)