My Daming New Empire

Zhu Zhanji once ordered that paper and craftsmen are the goods that Daming prioritizes for exchange. If you can recruit craftsmen who can produce hard paper, you will be credited with credit.

Ma Huan is not an uninformed person. He was also fortunate to see the globe and world map in Zhu Zhanji's place.

He is from the Hui nationality, but he is also from the Ming Dynasty.He knows that his advantage is proficiency in Arabic and Turkic, so the opportunity for him to develop is naturally where his advantage can be played the most.

When he saw the map of West Asia, he noticed the strait north of the holy city.

Today's Ming Dynasty needs to sail tens of thousands of miles to reach the Western Ocean, but if an opening can be made here, the Ming Dynasty fleet can save half a year's voyage.

For more than half a year, he has been secretly planning this matter, and he came to Mamluk this time at his own request.

His goal is those who can persuade the Mamluk king to let Da Ming dig a canal in this strait that is less than a hundred miles long.

If he accomplished this, Ma Huan must have made a great contribution.

Thank you for seeing people with lights, Da Sui Zhang Degong, I spit on you, bamboo stick, 7lx reward, thank you everyone

Chapter 57 Bravery

Starting from late September, more and more countries have become more and more welcoming of the sudden appearance of Ming Dynasty from the initial precautions and fears.

The battle between Daming and Portugal in Ceuta, although it showed the powerful fighting power of Ming, but Ming did not bully the weak because of this, instead, it has always used an equal attitude to face these weaker countries than them, showing a way to let Europe The oriental civilization that everyone envies.

This civilization is more advanced than the Europeans themselves, so they even come into contact with Ming with an attitude of admiration.

Besides the Battle of Ceuta, although Daming's sea power is very strong, they also regard the Mediterranean Sea as their living room and walk freely.

However, no matter whether they faced the fleet of any country, they did not show hostility, and even provided assistance when the ship in Sardinia hit the rocks.

Because of their appearance, the pirate ships that have been wandering the Mediterranean Sea have also disappeared recently.

Daming's friendly attitude gradually spread, and more and more national missions were attracted. They showed fanatical interest in various commodities whose prices were nearly half lower than in previous years.

More and more contracts were concluded, and more and more buyers were found for Daming's goods.

But to Zhu Zhanji's surprise, the first items sold out were not silk, porcelain, or spices, but iron pots.

The sale of ironware is strictly controlled by Daming. This time when he came to Europe, Daming's ironware mainly consisted of shovels, sickles, and iron pots.

The shovel and sickle brought very little because of the low added value, but the iron pot filled a whole boat, tens of thousands of mouthfuls.

There are no iron pots in Europe, and their iron pots are mainly made of iron tripods, which are made of very thick iron sheets, and the cost is astonishingly high.

An iron pot is not only unaffordable for commoners, even the little nobles can't afford it.If any nobleman has an iron pot, after his death, even if his children do not want gold and silver, they must fight for the inheritance right of the iron pot.

The iron pots brought by Daming are all cast iron thin-skinned pots. This kind of iron pot has been used in the East for thousands of years. Although it looks simple, it has very high technology.

Europeans became crazy when they saw these iron pots. The price of an iron pot was dozens of times the profit, but they still flocked to it.

Little by little, Daming's goods became owners, but more than half of them still haven't found their owners.

This is not because these things are not good, nor is it because they think they are too expensive, but more importantly, because they don't have the goods that Daming wants.

In addition to a small amount of gold and silver in Europe today, the main products are horses, wool, and sisal.

The Arabs are a little richer. They still have cotton, paper, and copper mines.

But Zhu Zhanji is not afraid that his goods will not be sold, because there are still many countries that have not reached trade intentions with Daming.

Like the wealthiest Venice, Ottoman, and Mamluk dynasties have not reached a trade cooperation with Ming Dynasty.

What's more, even if they can't be sold out, Zhu Zhanji will keep these goods in Europe and sell them slowly.

In mid-October, the Ming Fleet defeated the Ottoman Empire and the Byzantine Empire's navy in the Aegean Sea. Ottoman and Byzantium immediately started trade negotiations with the Ming Mission.

The news that Ma Huan came back from the Mamluk Dynasty made Zhu Zhanji very happy.

I don't know how Ma Huan negotiated with the other party, but the Mamluk King Faraji has now sent a waiter to submit a letter of credence willing to establish a closer relationship with Daming.

There are two main contents of this letter of credence. The first is that the Mamluk Dynasty invited the Ming Fleet to garrison in Suez to establish a military alliance, and was willing to cede [-] square kilometers of farmland north of Suez as a food supply base for the Ming garrison.

Suez is an ancient city, and 2000 years ago, it was an important market for trade between the East and the West.Although this place is located on the edge of the desert, the land [-] kilometers north to south and [-] kilometers east to west between Suez and the Great Bitter Lake is a fertile oasis.

Even though the land here is not as fertile as the Nile Delta, if it is used well, it can produce a lot of food every year.

But for the Mamluks, it was a land of chaos.

The trade between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea has begun since BC. Before the Suez Canal was built, the Egyptians transported the fleet from the Mediterranean Sea to the Great Bitter Lake through the ancient canal, and then transported it by land for [-] kilometers. The cargo was transshipped to the Red Sea.

The Mamluk system is the same as that in the East 2000 years ago, and it belongs to the country of the Iqta feudal system.The so-called Ikta is actually a vassal system. Although the king has nominal management power, he has very little restraint on the local area.

Suez, an important trading city, has always been a cash cow for the major tribes nearby. They occupy most of the interests here. Even the king can only get limited benefits from here.

16 years ago, when Timur invaded, Faraji called on the major tribes to send troops to fight against Timur in Syria, but they were defeated.

The power of the Mamluks has been greatly damaged, and the major tribes have turned their backs on the central government.

The environment here in Suez is complicated, and Faraj has almost lost his prestige here.

However, he was still a king after all. Through various means, although he lost most of the trade tariffs, he controlled a large area of ​​land there.

At least nominally, these lands belong to him.

But now, he wants to use these lands to win over the people of Daming, making Daming their eastern screen domain, and helping them deal with threats from the east.

Although he knew that the situation there was chaotic, but the bait was too fat, Zhu Zhanji was willing to accept the condition without any hesitation.

A land of 10 square kilometers can support at least a few hundred thousand people, or several million people, and the importance of the dividing line between Africa and Asia is more important than Gibraltar in terms of geographical location.

As long as Daming defends this place and builds a canal in the future, the sea transportation from Asia to Europe can save [-] kilometers.

The second is that on the basis of this cooperation, the Mamluk dynasty needs to become an important business partner of Ming Dynasty, forming a dual cooperation and alliance of military and economy.

Zhu Zhanji has no opinion on this point.

There is the Mamluk Dynasty in the east and the Marin Dynasty in the west. With the support of the Mamluk Dynasty, the Ming Fleet guards Suez and can directly protect the trade center in Crete.

In the west, there is the support of the Marin Dynasty, and the Ming Fleet guards the Strait of Gibraltar.All these things directly included the Mediterranean Sea under Daming's protection.

So seeing the news, Zhu Zhanji was already planning in his heart how to reward Ma Huan, a meritorious official.

Time has entered late October, and the busyness of Ceuta has come to an end.The envoys of various countries have obtained satisfactory results, and now they all return to their own countries and start to collect various goods.

At the invitation of various countries, Zhu Zhanji is also preparing to leave Ceuta to visit various countries and sign formal trade contracts at the same time.

This trip, most of the fleet will not be accompanying, and most of the trade team will stay in Ceuta except for high-level figures.And almost all the cargo ships are still in Ceuta, waiting for the later transaction.

At the same time, a large number of navies will stay in Ceuta. Those who accompany Zhu Zhanji are mainly diplomatic missions and the naval fleet to protect him.