C300

Inside Guest House, a group of Dianke officials had already arrived. When they saw this scene, although their faces were pale, they did not feel too shocked.

After all, before they arrived, someone had already told them everything. Although the death of the Large Order had dealt them a great blow, many people's faces did not have the slightest trace of blood on them. Furthermore, when they looked at Xiao Wen, their expressions were not very good either.

After all, he was someone who dared to personally poison his superior to death. Was there anything he didn't dare to do with such a person?

Filled with the fear that Xiao Wen might not do well at any time, these subordinate officers fearfully ordered the foreign mercenaries in Guest House to return to their own rooms to wait for news. You are not allowed to come out without an order.

And only Anthony, who had defected to Xiao Wen's side earlier, did not need to be restricted.

But in the corner of Guest House, Xiao Wen and Wang Ce Xuan were completely indifferent to what was happening around them. They were only concerned about one thing, and that was the Great Tang Dynasty and the big sized man's foreign policy.

At this moment, Wang Ce Xuan looked at the cups and asked, "Brother Xiao, what do you want to say?"

Xiao Wen laughed, then took out a teapot and placed it beside the wine cup that represented Tang Xiu. After that, he took out two cups and arranged them vertically into a single cup. Wang Xuance understood, these two blankets represented Ming and Song respectively.

This made Wang Xuance even more confused.

But just then, Xiao Wen suddenly spoke out. He said, "Brother Wang, please look. This is the Great Tang Dynasty, this is the Great Song, this is the Great Ming. Great Tang Dynasty, Da Song and Da Ming wanted to communicate with each other. I want to know, what should we do? "

Hearing that, Wang Xuance was startled. He looked at the teapot on the table and said, "Is this the Crosscut Mountain Range?"

"Smart!" Xiao Wen clapped his hands, and said: "Because of the obstruction from the mountain range, in the past, it was difficult for Song Ming and Tang Kingdom to directly communicate with each other. "Thus, your caravan and Song Ming's caravan, if they want to enter each other's land, they will have to rely on the Han way."

As he spoke, he made some wine in his hand and then placed it on Tang's cup. With the teapot as the center, he drew an incomplete circle.

As for the trajectory of the circle, it happened to pass by Han's wine cup.

Looking at the circle, Wang Xuance revealed a look of understanding. He asked, "Does Brother Xiao want to bring in Song Ming and his sister?"

"Exactly." Xiao Wen nodded his head and said: "As far as I know, every year, the people of the Western Regions would pass through the Great Tang Dynasty and the ocean to the south of Tuo Fan, travel a few thousand miles, and head towards Song Ming. They would import a large amount of silk and porcelain and sell it to the west to earn more wealth. Some of these people came from the far west. But most of the food came from the food that came from the Anxi Capital Residence. Am I right? "

"That's right." Wang Xuance nodded.

Xiao Wen then continued, "Although these people are thousands of miles away from Song Ming, they can use nautical arts to travel all the way to Song Ming's land, buying silk and porcelain ware to return. But why is it that even though I am closer to the Great Tang Dynasty, I am unable to be as rich as Song Ming? "

Xiao Wen knew that the history of the Great Tang Dynasty was one of the most prosperous places in the world. The size of the Tang Chang'an City was more than five times that of the Eastern Roman Empire's capital, Constantinople, and the Arab Empire's capital, Baghdad.

Yet this country had not created as much economic wealth as the Arab Empire.

In fact, not to mention the Great Tang Dynasty, even if we were to count the entire world, we would find that, until recently, the Darchu Empire was the richest country in the world. However, the second place belonged to no power that belonged to the same land.

The name of second place belonged to the same era as the Great Tang Dynasty, namely the Arab Empire.

Historically, the Arab Empire occupied "granary" areas such as the rich two river basins and the Nile basin, which provided abundant products for the empire.

The main crops include wheat, barley, rice, dates and olives, and the horticultural crops are quite abundant, with dates, olives, plums, peaches, apricots, oranges, apples, watermelons, grapes and various vegetables.

During the Artaxis dynasty, the area and output of cultivated land were greatly increased due to the development of irrigation works.

In the south of the Arabian Peninsula, because of its oasis, date, grain and vegetables abound.

The Arab nation itself is a nomadic people, the Arabian Peninsula and other desert and semi-desert areas abound in sheep, horses and camels.

In addition, the provinces provided abundant mineral resources: gold from Nubia, silver from the Hindu Kush, copper from Isfahan, iron from Central Asia and Sicily, and the wealth of precious stones in the Empire.

On the industrial side, products such as linen, cotton, wool blankets, pottery (and sometimes silk) produced everywhere are both good for local consumption and good for export.

The Arabs also learned paper-making from Chinese prisoners captured in the Battle of Tarus in 751.

However, the most important point was still business.

Historically, commerce has occupied an important place in the economy of the Arab Empire.

Baghdad, the capital, was not only the political center of the Arab Empire, but also a commercial quay.

In addition, Basra, Antioch, Cairo, Alexandria, Kairouan, Samarkand and other cities are also important commercial ports for the trade between East and West.

As early as the founding of Islam, Muhammad believed that "the merchants were the messengers of the world and the faithful servants of Allah on the earth," and concluded that the faithful Muslim merchants would be "in the shadow of Allah's throne" on the day of their rebirth.

The Koran also clearly states that the encouragement and protection of commerce is an essential obligation and morality for all Muslims. Following the formation of the empire, the business aristocrats also became an important part of the upper echelons of the ruling class.

Cultural tradition, geographical location, the social status of merchants and the huge profits of commerce made the Arab Empire have a different prosperity from the feudal civilization of the East and West at that time.

Many Muslim merchants are active in the three continents of Asia and Africa, engaging in commercial activities dominated by intermediary trade.

Arab merchants range from Sumatra in South-East Asia, Malaya to India in South Asia, to Spain in South-West Europe, Morocco in North Africa, and even the Nordic Baltic and Scandinavian Peninsula.

At that time, China's Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Yangzhou and other places are also a large number of Muslim businessmen.

These Arab merchants became one of the provenance of the Chinese Hui nationality.

Chinese silk, porcelain, Indian and Malay spices, minerals, dyes, sugar, Central Asian precious stones, East African ivory, gold and sand, Nordic and Ross honey, yellow wax, fur and wood are all commodities run by Arab merchants.

Large scale Arab commercial trade promoted the economic and cultural interaction among the feudal civilizations of the Eurasian continent and promoted the prosperity and development of maritime trade in the Indian Ocean region of the Middle Ages.

The Arabian conquest of the eastern Mediterranean broke the Mediterranean trade circle since the Roman era, leading to the cutting off of the western Europe's dependent Eastern Mercantile Road, which indirectly led to the decline of the European economic culture, and the constant maritime strife with Byzantium led to the development of the Italian merchant as a third party.

Arab maritime navigation plays an important role in the development of navigation, shipbuilding and sailing techniques, facilitating the accumulation of geographical and other knowledge necessary for navigation.

During their long voyage, the Arabian Sea crew studied and detailed the monsoon in the Indian Ocean and used it cleverly in the voyage, thus greatly shortening the time needed for the voyage.

A great deal of oceanographic information is also recorded in ancient Arab geography books.

In the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Arabian navigation technology has made new development.

Even at the beginning of the fifteenth century, when Zheng He's fleet arrived in India, Zheng He hired Arab guides to continue his voyage to East Africa.

A century later, the Arab navigator, ibn Mejid (who called himself the Lion of the Angry Sea), became known for his knowledge of how to sail in the stormy seas of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and was later worshipped as a "patron saint" by the Arabian Sea.

It was under his guidance that the fleet of the Portuguese navigator da Gama successfully crossed the Indian Ocean and opened up a new route to India.

During this period, the equipment on the Arabian Sea ships was more advanced. The vessels engaged in ocean-going navigation already had a complete set of navigational instruments, such as compass, altimeter for measuring the direction of the coast markers, goniometer for measuring the height of the sun and the stars, water dam, etc., and also drew a chart of the sea with coordinates of the objects on the shore, the depth of the water and the wind direction, as well as a map of the scenery.

The scope of activities of Arab navigators has also expanded. On the coasts of Western Europe, the eastern, northern, and north-western shores of Africa, the southern and south-eastern seas of Asia, including the Philippines, the Malugu Peninsula, and the Malugu Islands, have left the footprints of Arabian seamen and merchants.