Chapter 656

The silk road is the longest lasting and most wealth creating trade 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 silk road is the longest lasting and most wealth creating trade 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.

Naturally, the starting point of the Silk Road on the road is the Central Plains Dynasty. Generally, it takes the Hexi corridor to enter the western regions, either out of Yangguan or Yumen pass. Businessmen from the Central Plains generally go to Wusun in the western regions, even if it is far away. They will sell goods here and sell them to some countries in Central Asia.

For a long time, those countries in Central Asia have been playing the role of "turnover". They have obtained high-quality goods of the Central Plains Dynasty, some of which are digested locally and more valuable goods. For example, silk, a unique product of the East, is sold to some countries further west at several times or even tens of hundreds of times the price.

Once the Parthian Empire lived very well just by reselling. They raised the price of silk very much and sold it to the Romans. Waiting for the Romans to know that Parthia could not produce silk, it was an empire in the East (they called cyris) that could produce silk, so they asked the Parthians to reduce the price of silk.

The profits of the Parthians from reselling are extremely high. What they want is to increase the price rather than reduce it. The Romans started a war when they were unhappy. At the beginning, the two sides were for silk, also known as the "Silk war", which lasted for more than a hundred years.

The Romans won the final victory in the war with Parthia, but in fact, the Silk Road of the Central Plains Dynasty was cut off because of the more than 100 year war. In the end, no one forgot the reason for the hundred year war, that is, the Romans did not forget that they were wearing cool, thin and slippery silk, and they never forgot it.

The war for silk was not just between Parthia and Rome. Shortly after Parthia was destroyed, aldasher, who was once a general of the Parthian Empire, resumed his country. Until 571, the Emperor Justinian of Eastern Rome, in order to get rid of the Persian monopoly of Chinese silk at high prices between the East and the West, The United Turkic Khan and the attack on Persia lasted for 20 years, and there was no victory or defeat. This is the famous "battle of silk" in history.

Central Plains merchants took the land Silk Road farthest to the Tang Dynasty, but that was also because the Tang army entered central Asia (actually the Wu Zhou period of Wu Zetian). Many merchants went to Constantinople (owned by Eastern Rome) and wrote biographies. They mostly stayed in Iraq (owned by the Arab Empire) and did not move forward.

In history, the land silk road was broken many times, all because of the war between western countries and Central Asian countries for the price of silk. It can be defined as a "war", as long as a hundred years, and as short as no less than twenty years. The longest time that the land silk road was broken was in the Song Dynasty, because neither the Northern Song Dynasty nor the Southern Song Dynasty mastered the Hexi corridor.

It is said that the maritime Silk Road existed in the Western Han Dynasty, but there are no relevant documents and relics. It is officially recorded that in the Tang Dynasty, the officials at that time called the route "Guangzhou Tonghai Yi Road".

The maritime silk road really flourished in the Song Dynasty. At that time, the Song court set up three main trade ports along the coast. They are modern guang1 Prefecture, quan1 Prefecture and ning1 wave, of which Quan1 prefecture has the largest throughput.

Because the Wutong 1 states have a very large throughput, the officials sent to the court are not low, and there are a large number of Arabs settling in Quanzhou as "Wutong". In order to make their residence more Arabia flavor, the Arabs not only built the Qing 1 real 1 temple but also introduced many Indus trees, so that 1 states in spring had the title of "Indus".

It must be said that the state of song treated Arabs really well. Not only did it not create any difficulties, the second generation of Arabs could also take part in the imperial examination. Even the court of the state of song had a record of appointing Arabs as officials. However, the Arab reward to the state of song was that a rebellion broke out during the invasion of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, and many directly took refuge in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. Kaicheng, an official, welcomed more massacres of the song people by the Mongol Yuan army.

Zhuxia is not a nation that bears grudges, and there is almost no afterwards liquidation of the enemy. After the expulsion of the Mongols and the Yuan Dynasty in the Ming Dynasty, the Arabs were not liquidated in Quanzhou. Even the mosque they built was retained. Qilin Temple (also known as aisuhab mosque) was founded in the second year of Dazhong Xiangfu of the Northern Song Dynasty (2009) - the 40th year of the Yisi lanli calendar. It is the oldest existing Yisi Lanjiao Temple founded by the Arab muslin in China. In 1961, it was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units and the "top ten famous temples in China".

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

The first war to compete for the maritime silk road was actually part of the "Centennial war" between Rome and Parthia. At that time, the Roman fleet set out from Egypt, went out of the Gulf of Aden and fought with Parthia's fleet in the Arabian Sea. Because the Roman fleet started from Egypt and waited for the battle site, it was actually a labor expedition. It was also a Roman warship. It really couldn't compare with the Parthian warship. The Roman fleet was often taught to be a man by the Parthian fleet.

There were quite a number of battles for the maritime Silk Road, the most intense of which was in the period of Eastern Rome and the Arab Empire. Even after hundreds of years, the Romans still had no innovation in warships, but the Arabs used oil in naval warfare.

The investment of the Spitfire ship made the Arabs completely suppress the Romans on the sea battlefield. Even if the eastern Rome and the Tulun Dynasty were united, they were still not the opponents of the Arabs, but the war between them was most affected by the eastern Song state. Song also fell into a financial crisis because of the financial severance of the maritime Silk Road. Otherwise, even if it was still defeated by Yuan and Mongolia, how could it last longer.

Fu Wei looked at the scenery on both sides of the Strait. Although he didn't know what would happen before or in the future, it didn't affect him to realize the importance of this route.

"I don't know when I don't know, but I have to sigh when I know." Si Hongzhuang said about the maritime Silk Road: "if you want to say that those aristocratic families are really not things, you must have known the existence of such a route early, but you have been covering it all the time."

In the current era, with the collapse of the Eastern Han regime, the land silk road was cut off early, but the maritime Silk Road maintained a small silk trade.

Knowing more or less, Fu Wei said, "those families that have died out are facing the suppression of the general who conquered the south. It's impossible to say that the rest of the families either don't take it seriously or just want to continue to control."

It is estimated that there are more elements that are not serious. When Yu Yi was asked afterwards, he replied that he knew there was such a sea trade route, but in fact, the trade share was so small that it existed in the form of tribute. Many businessmen from the sea reported that the country did not exist at all.

"This is very important, extremely important!" Fu Wei's thought must keep up with where his ass is sitting: "it's very important to fight out or prevent being hit in."

After all, the greatest threat to the Central Plains dynasties came from the north. Is it normal for the ruling class to focus more on the north?

When Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty came to power, he fully realized the importance of the sea, on the premise that the Ming army was already hanging the north. There was no threat from the north. He was curious about the south. Then, it was said that his nephew fled to the south, so he made a large fleet by looking for his nephew's name.

In order to find his nephew, Zhu Di didn't need to build a large fleet. It was more for the sake of prestige.

It must be made clear that the so-called tribute of the Central Plains Dynasty is actually an official trade system, which is often doing business at a loss.

Zhu Di sent Zheng He to the West. In addition to the political influence brought by Xuanwei, he brought back huge profits every time, that is, those profits were right without the people and officials. When Zhu gaochi was "lame" by the Confucianists, all the officials hated that the sea trade was eaten by the royal family. It was only the kind of food that the State paid but went into the emperor's private Treasury. The officials favored by Zhu gaochi made a pretext to abolish the fleet going to the West.

When Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, he was also "lame" by Confucianism since he was a child. He completely did not realize how shameless those officials he liked very much. It was not enough to abolish the fleet going to the West. He foolishly sent Zheng He to lead the fleet to the West for the last time.

Zheng He went to the west this time to tell Nanyang countries not to come again in the future, and our fleet will not go to the west again in the future.

Since then, the national forces of the Ming Dynasty did not go to Nanyang. The ships, shipbuilding drawings and all were destroyed. They had to write a book about how Zhu Di's voyages were wrong. On the other hand, the agents raised by hundreds of officials (usually concurrently Pirates) ran very happily.

At present, Fu Wei works in the Nanyang fleet and has the right to watch 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 some people will be relocated to establish towns.

At present, there is no country in Nanyang. They are all uncivilized savages. The source of labor in the Han country is to catch savages everywhere and build relevant facilities with their bones.

The Strait of Malacca is very narrow on the map, but it won't feel narrow on the spot. The reason why it has become the busiest waterway on earth is that it connects the East and the West from the sea. Another is that the natural sea condition here is not bad.

"There are savages on almost every island." Lin Xuan is a navigator. He often floats on the sea. It is inevitable that he will be tanned. His clothes are casual. He introduces to the public: "the savages on some islands are very gentle, and more are fierce savages. They have the custom of headhunting. All tribes go out to hunt their heads once a year, and a considerable number of savages have the habit of eating people."

Headhunting is just an abbreviation. In fact, each tribe will kill and reduce the number of hostile tribes in some quarters of the year. The food source of primitive tribes that can't cultivate is nature. Each tribe will have its own hunting area. Generally, the hunting area is the forbidden area of a tribe. In order to compete for the hunting area, it will naturally start a war. If you don't want the hostile tribe to be too strong, you must attack it from time to time.

"We don't have many people here. It's too inefficient to capture slaves just by ourselves." When Lin Xuan said this, he showed a deep smile: "we found some worthless gadgets behind, so we can buy a tribe and let them capture slaves for us."

Fu Wei is quite clear. Most of the troops from the Han Dynasty to Nanyang are troops, and a few are slave teams from various families on the Indochina Peninsula. There are really few serious people.

For these uncivilized tribes in Nanyang, the arrival of the Han people is like a fierce tiger rushing into the sheep. Regardless of the strength of each tribe before, even the primitive savages who did not develop the bronze civilization. Facing the soldiers who entered the iron age and did not lack cutting skills, in addition to taking advantage of the complex environment to avoid, the frontal confrontation is taught to be a man every minute.

"There will be more people." Fu Wei pointed to the fleet and the area under construction: "the king attaches great importance to this place."

Lin Xuan nodded approvingly, "you can see. You want to cross the Strait to the west coast of Indochina Peninsula and build a base there."

Chinese civilization is not only about having a stable rear, but also doing everything step by step. It is inevitable to stabilize and build the forward line again and again. Then, Malacca must develop.

When Fu Wei saw that Lin Xuan, the navigator, knew the news, he was stunned and said, "it's not a secret?"

Lin Xuan was understanding and said directly, "don't worry, our local people don't have a boat to run here, and foreigners can't come here."

This is the advantage of mastering the portal. In addition, there are enough ships. Unless the other party detects something wrong before entering, it can't escape as long as it comes in and stops the head and tail in a place like the Strait of Malacca.

Fu Wei's fleet took two days to enter the a'san sea. Because he was worried about losing his way, he tried to sail against the continental shelf. It was amazing to find that every morning, the dense forest on the land would be foggy, and the thick fog would sometimes float hundreds of meters out of the coast. At this time, they would get the dense fog area, otherwise they could not see the sea clearly, and it was very easy to hit the reef.

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

"Yes." Fu Weixian said, "it's not a large-scale fleet. It's disguised as a merchant and went to ah San to explore first."

In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there were also ships that would come to a San territory, but the number was very small. The two places are so far apart that ah San should not know that the small court is finished. Ah San also did not expect that someone would invade by sea across tens of thousands of miles. He would only regard it as an ordinary marine merchant.

Si Hongzhuang said, "I haven't understood. Even if there are countless grains over there, how can I transport them back?"

Fu Wei thought about this. He thought even more. Since ah San has more food, it means it's worthless. It's not necessarily force to pay. Doing business is also a way, but he just thought that it's the king and the center who should make up his mind.