North and South groceries

In the late summer of the 23rd year of Zhenguan, in the sea to the east of Datang, a wooden boat was slowly approaching the coastline.

"Where is this? Is it Jiangnan or Jiangbei?" Several people on the ship were standing on the deck talking.

They passed through an island country earlier, and stayed there for a few days to rectify, and also clarified the next route, so at this time, they can be sure that behind the coastline in front of them should be the boundary of Datang.

It's just that I don't know where it is in Datang. After all, there is no satellite positioning system in this era, and the group of them is obviously not familiar with this coastline.

"Let's go north first." One of the young people said: "If you go to the south, then you have to go north again, going against the current, slow and laborious."

"If you go too far north, don't go to Goguryeo." Another young man who is slightly shorter said.

The rest of the people also chattered:

"Even if you go to Goguryeo, you don't have to be afraid. Didn't the Japanese say that in recent years, Goguryeo and Tang Dynasty often have business contacts, and they have stopped fighting for a long time."

"Then you have to be more careful. We're already at the door of our house, so we don't want to make any further incidents."

"In my opinion, this place should be Jiangnan."

"Look how green the trees on that mountain are."

"It's August at this time, and the trees are naturally green."

"..."

The young people who spoke looked like they should be Tang people, but they only wore the clothes of Fanke.

In addition, there are some people of other skin colors on board, including white, brown, and even a few black-skinned sailors. This ship is not big or small, but there are quite a lot of people.

"Joe! Look over there!" At this moment, a teenage brown-skinned sailor pointed to the south and yelled.

"!" The young man called Qiao, whoever it was, was Qiao Junlin. At this moment, he was walking to a high place, and after watching for a while, he said to the others, "It should be a merchant ship, not a bandit."

In fact, the people on the opposite ship were also observing them at this time, and both sides were worried about encountering pirates.

After making some observations and greetings, Qiao Junlin asked someone to release a small boat, and boarded the cargo ship together with another young man.

The owner of this cargo ship was a merchant from Chang'an, and the person who led the team out to run the ship this time was his eldest son, who was also a young man in his thirties. He had heard about Qiao Junlin's deeds in Chang'an City earlier.

After confirming the identities of Qiao Junlin and the others, the other party immediately put on an expression of picking up a treasure and received them very warmly.

Not to mention what kind of rewards Qiao Junlin and the others can get from the court this time when they return from the Western Regions, just based on the relationship between Qiao Junlin and the Luo family, there is no firm that does not want to befriend them.

With the development of the textile industry in the past two years, the status of their Luo family has also increased.In the city of Chang'an, there is a Luo's Machine Workshop and a Chang'an Women's Textile College, which have always mastered the most advanced new textile technology. Even the weaving workshops set up by princes and nobles have to buy equipment from them and hire female workers.

Their firm also plans to open a new type of weaving workshop recently, but they can't buy equipment. The orders for Luo's Machine Workshop are two or three years later.

If they can connect with Luo Da through Qiao Junlin, maybe the equipment of their workshop will be available.

So the young master treated Qiao Junlin and the others very friendly, and told them a lot about what had happened in Chang'an City in the past few years along the way.

A few days later, the two ships arrived in Suzhou and docked at Songjiang Estuary. There is a port here, and there are also many restaurants. It is said that it used to be desolate, but it has just developed in the past few years.

A group of people went ashore to eat and walked on the street next to the port. Apart from Nilv Food Shop, there are mostly cloth workshops on this street. Things like blankets and towels.

Those who buy and sell goods, there are Han people and Fanke, all kinds of clothes and all kinds of languages.The environment on the street is relatively simple, but there are a lot of goods coming in and out. When a deal is negotiated, it is often hundreds of thousands of pieces of goods.

The Chang'an caravan that was traveling with Qiao Junlin and the others before wanted to sell goods here. It is said that most of their shipments were canned fruits. Merchants from the Northland often came to buy from this street. Prices are often higher.

Selling it on the spot saves a lot of time and effort to transport it to Chang'an City. The price of this kind of canned fruit from the south in Chang'an City in the past two years is not very satisfactory.

The two parties ate a hot meal together, and made an appointment to meet again in Chang'an City, so they bid farewell.

Qiao Junlin and the others parked their big boat at the harbor and hired another smaller boat to enter the river with money. As long as the money is in place, they can tell the boatmen where they are going, and they don't have to worry about the rest.

They first traveled upstream along the Songjiang River by boat, then entered the canal, and then boarded the railroad tracks in Xuzhou.

The horse-drawn carriage ran fast on the railroad tracks, passed through large areas of mountains and fields, and passed several bridges after driving for several days. When sailing, the mast of the big ship is as high as five or six feet, and it can pass safely.

What I saw and heard along the way was really quite different from before.

If it weren't for finding some familiar things, I would almost think that I went to another world, and it was really like changing the world.

Especially those cities that are brightly lit every night, and the groups of women in colorful clothes riding Yan Erfei to and from work, always make people feel as if they are in a dream.

In September of that year, Qiao Junlin and his party arrived in Chang'an.

The return of their group did not cause much shock at the beginning. The main reason is that with the development of shipping in the past few years, people in the Central Plains have learned a lot more about the Western Regions than before. It doesn't seem so strange anymore.

Some people even joked, Qiao Junlin and the others got lost in the Western Regions, why did they come back after all these years?

Qiao Junlin didn't talk much with others, but just arranged for the people in his team to go home. If there is no place to stay in Chang'an City, he will live with him in the county lord's mansion of the Luo family for a while.

There were also visitors from the palace, who said that the sage had set up a banquet. At noon tomorrow, Qiao Junlin and the rest of the westbound people were invited to the palace for a banquet.

At the county lord's mansion, Luo Yong also ordered people to prepare meals for them. Almost all the famous delicacies in Chang'an City were sent to buy.

After Qiao Junlin washed, he ate some food, and then sat in the main room with Luo Yong and talked.

He said that he traveled from the south of the Yangtze River and saw many new things. The atmosphere in Chang'an City is also quite different from before.

"Is this what you said the world looked like?" Qiao Junlin asked him.

"This is just the beginning." Luo Yong replied.

Qiao Junlin laughed, so he stopped talking.

I heard that Luo Yong was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Industry in the first month of last year. Qiao Junlin also lived in Chang'an City for many years before, and he also wanted to become an official. Qiao Junlin knows how it is not easy for a young man with no roots to get to where he is today.

"This journey must be very difficult and dangerous." After a while, Luo Yong asked, looking at the long scar on Qiao Junlin's neck.

The scar should be extremely long, with only a short section exposed outside, and the one hidden under the clothes, I don't know what kind of hideous appearance it is.Looking at his hands again, there are also scars on the back of the hands, and some small scars on the fingers.

"There is no danger." Qiao Junlin said with a smile.

He took eleven people out at the beginning, and when he came back, there were eleven people neatly, which was enough. If there were fewer people, he didn't know how to explain this matter to their families.

If you say that when they were traveling, Qiao Junlin was able to become the leader of their group mainly because of Luo Yong's relationship.

Then, when he returned here a few years later, he was already a well-deserved leader among this group of people.

This is not only because of Qiao Junlin's high martial arts skills and courage, but also because he is kind, righteous and responsible.

Several people in the team had to be rescued by him to complete the journey of these years without any danger, and survived. Now they can return to Chang'an City as a living person and enjoy the glory of the saint's award .

"Is there any gain?" Luo Yong asked him.

"It's a good harvest." Qiao Junlin replied.

"That's good." Luo Yong said.If the harvest is not rich enough, how can it be worth the hard journey of these people for many years, fighting with their lives.

Others might not be able to see the clues of the aliens brought back by Qiao Junlin, but Luo Yong only took one look, and already had a guess in his heart.

Those brown-skinned men, neither European nor African, were most likely Native Americans.

The next day, Qiao Junlin and others entered the palace for a banquet. The saint rewarded them first, and then asked them what they had seen and heard along the way.

Especially during the return journey, the sage and the courtiers were very concerned about how their group returned to the Tang Dynasty from the Western Regions along the sea trade route.

In the past few years, the sea transportation in Datang has also developed, but most of them are Hu merchants and tourists who come to Tang for business. People in Tang rarely go abroad to do business, and most of them only engage in short-sea transportation. Tang Ren also wanted to know very much.

Qiao Junlin said, "We didn't come back from the west, but from the east."

As soon as he said this, many people present couldn't understand. At the beginning, their group set off from Changle County and went to the Western Regions. How could they return from the east after a few years? How big a turn is it?

"Come back from the east? I don't know what you mean?" The sage asked Qiao Junlin while holding the wine cup.

"I and a few Persian warriors set off from the coastline to the west of the Persian country, and want to explore the world further west to see if there are other countries there."

"On the way, we first passed through several small countries, and after several months of sailing, we arrived at a piece of land that was several times the size of the Great Tang Dynasty. There were many indigenous peoples living there, and there seemed to be no big or small countries."

"I waited for a long time to sail along the coastline of that piece of land, from their east coast to the west coast, and then went west from that west coast for a few months, and then returned to the east coast of Datang."

As soon as Qiao Junlin said this, there was a commotion in the hall!

The Persian Kingdom is to the west of the Great Tang, and if you go further west from the west of the Persian Kingdom, you will return to the Great Tang!How can this be possible?

"Ai Qing said that there is no land without a country, but is it true?" Li Shimin stared at Qiao Junlin quietly, and asked word by word.

"Qiao is willing to guarantee the head of the project." Qiao Junlin said firmly.

There was another commotion in the hall!

A piece of land without a country, the area is several times the size of Datang!What does that mean?

Afterwards, Qiao Junlin and the others showed the people and things they brought back from that land to everyone in the hall one by one.

Those tall men with brown skin had spent several months at sea with Qiao Junlin and the others, during which time they also learned some Chinese. Once said.

This meal was originally a banquet for rewards, but in the end it turned into a very serious discussion.

The sage and the ministers asked a lot of questions, every detail, and asked Qiao Junlin and others to answer them one by one, and the doctors who accompanied Qiao Junlin and the others also added evidence.

By the time the group of them left the palace, it was already the next afternoon.

I didn't sleep all night, and I was actually a little tired.

Qiao Junlin sat in the carriage, opened the window and looked at the pedestrians and vehicles on the street outside, a scene of prosperity.

Luo Yong said that all this is just the beginning.

In Qiao Junlin's view, the same is true, all of this is just the beginning.