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Text Chapter 516 Arrival in Ceylon

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    Following Zhu Chong's order, the archers on the battleship immediately stepped forward, leaned down on the female wall, and then opened their bows and fired downwards. As a result, the pirates in the water were frightened and begged for mercy. Unfortunately, the soldiers did not listen at all.  They didn't understand, and even if they understood, no one would dare to disobey the military order, so as long arrows were shot down, the pirates screamed one after another, and soon, the entire sea calmed down.

    Zhao Qiu and others were all shocked. Just now, they were chased to the sky by these pirates, but in the blink of an eye, all the pirates were wiped out by the sudden appearance of the navy, and not even a single person was left alive. Such killings  Defeat decisively, indeed worthy of His Royal Highness King Qi's navy!

    In fact, this is not because Zhu Chong is bloodthirsty, mainly because Li Zhen and Li Yun's trip was kept secret, and this group of pirates didn't open their eyes and bumped into them, so they simply killed them and kept these pirates anyway.  It also causes trouble to businessmen coming and going.

    "Thank you, General, for saving your life!" Zhao Qiu asked someone to pull the ship under Zhu Chong's battleship, then raised his head and said loudly.

    Zhu Chong was also very polite. He leaned out and looked at Zhao Qiu and others, and said with a smile on his face: "Is anyone on your ship injured? Do you need our help?"

    Seeing that the general was so polite, Zhao Qiu was even more moved and immediately said: "Thank you for your concern, General. Two crew members on our ship were injured by arrows, but they are not serious. The doctors on the ship can handle it!"

    Hearing that the other party did not need help, Zhu Chong nodded. Just as he was about to bid farewell to the other party, suddenly the Yue Wang from the rear came up. Li Zhen stood on the bow and asked Zhao Qiu loudly: "I don't know what this brother is?"  What¡¯s your name, where do you live? Have you just come back from Tianzhu?¡±

    Although Zhao Qiu didn¡¯t know Li Zhen, he noticed that he was dressed luxuriously.  Even General Zhu showed respect, which he understood immediately.  The identity of the young man in front of him must be extraordinary.  So I saw Zhao Qiu also replied very respectfully: "Master Qi, my surname is Zhao Mingqiu. He is a businessman from Guangzhou. This time he was originally going to Ceylon Island in the south of Tianzhu, but as soon as he left the strait, he encountered  Pirates, that¡¯s why I ran back, but luckily I met the Young Master¡¯s fleet!¡±

    Li Zhen¡¯s eyes lit up when she heard that Zhao Qiu had the same destination as them.  He asked with great interest: "Brother Zhao, is he familiar with the situation in Ceylon Island?"

    "Haha, you don't know something. Every time I go to sea, I mostly ship goods to Ceylon. I have several regular cooperative merchants there, and I also lived on the island of Ceylon for a period of time, so I have no idea about the situation there.  It can be said that I am very familiar with it. I have also been to Tianzhu several times. Although I am not as familiar with the situation there as I am in Ceylon, I still have some understanding." Zhao Qiu answered honestly.

    "Hahahaha~, God help me!" After hearing this, Li Zhen looked up to the sky and laughed, while Zhu Chong was also secretly happy for Li Zhen and Li Yun, thinking that these two highnesses were really lucky.  Unexpectedly, I met a businessman on the sea who was familiar with the situation in Ceylon Island, and he was also a Han Chinese.  Zhao Qiu didn't know why the handsome young man was laughing, but his intuition told him.  It shouldn't be a bad thing.

    Li Zhen immediately invited Zhao Qiu onto his ship, and then called Li Yun over.  When Zhao Qiu learned the identities of Li Zhen and Li Yun, he was also shocked.  But then Li Zhen and Li Yun told Zhao Qiu the purpose of their trip and asked him to be their geographical consultant!

    "I feel honored to be able to serve your two highnesses. In addition, I am willing to send two shipments of my goods to your highnesses. Although it is not a valuable thing, it is still a small contribution for your highnesses!" Zhao Qiu  He agreed without even thinking about it, and even dedicated two shipments of his goods to Li Zhen and Li Yun.

    After hearing what Zhao Qiu said, Li Zhen and Li Yun were both a little surprised, and they also looked at Zhao Qiu with some special eyes.  It doesn't matter if they are willing to help themselves. After all, as long as they are businessmen from the Tang Dynasty, they will help them overseas after learning their identities. This is because they know that no matter whether Li Zhen and Li Yun succeed in their trip,  , they can all get generous rewards from Datang or Li Min.  But Zhao Qiu very charmingly sent the two ships of goods to Li Zhen and Li Yun. In this way, he simply placed a bet on them, as if he must believe that they can succeed. This is invisible.  , which brought them closer and made Li Zhen and Li Yun trust Zhao Qiu even more.

    "Okay, yes, I and my eighth brother have accepted your kindness. If we can capture Ceylon Island in the future, neither our sixth brother nor us will treat you badly!" Li Yun saw that Zhao Qiu was like this  If you have courage, you will naturally not refuse.

    Seeing that Li Zhen and Li Yun agreed, Zhao Qiu was also very excited, and immediately began to introduce the people and customs of Ceylon Island to the two, as well as the topography and environment of various places.  Although Li Zhen and Li Yun have seen a lot of information about Ceylon, this information was collected in a hurry by Li Min's people, so it is inevitable that there will be some confusion.Zhao Qiu's explanation made Li Zhen and Li Yun understand Ceylon to a higher level.

    After finishing the business talk, Li Zhen and Li Yun asked casually about the trade situation between Tianzhu and Datang. Finally, they talked about what kind of goods Zhao Qiu usually transported to Tianzhu?

    Regarding these questions, Zhao Qiu naturally spoke up. It is said that the trade volume between Datang and Tianzhu is very large. The silk and porcelain specialties of Datang are naturally extremely popular goods. In addition, in recent years, glass products and cotton cloth  Emerging industrial commodities such as cans and cans are also dumped in India in large quantities.  Tianzhu mainly exports some spices, gold and silver products, gems, carpets and other commodities. In recent years, some people have shipped some seeded cotton from Tianzhu back to Datang. However, the cotton takes up a lot of space. Although Datang is short of cotton, it will not  Some people offer too high prices, so the profit margin is very small. Generally, only when the goods cannot be found, someone will transport them.

    Zhao Qiu mainly took the route from Guangzhou to Ceylon. The goods he purchased from Datang were very miscellaneous. As long as they were materials allowed to be exported by Datang, he had shipped almost all of them. For example, this time, one of his ships shipped  They were all five-spice powder, Sichuan peppercorns, and various sauces, such as bean paste, noodle sauce, etc. As for the other ship, there was a whole shipload of white sugar, which also fell into the category of condiments.

    Speaking of which, Tianzhu was originally the origin of cane sugar. In the past, all the sucrose eaten by Datang was transported from Tianzhu. However, in recent years, Li Min has engaged in sugarcane planting and invested heavily in the sugar industry. Now Datang can produce  The white sugar as white as snow is produced, but the output is not large. It is mainly purchased by some wealthy people, and is also used for export. It is even very popular in Tianzhu, where sucrose is produced. It is very unusual for Zhao Qiu to get such a ship of white sugar.  Easy.

    "Hahaha~, Zhiye, the goods you transport are indeed miscellaneous, you can even sell condiments, but why don't you specialize in selling one kind of goods, such as silk or porcelain, these are all best-sellers?  You won¡¯t have to worry about not being able to sell it when you ship it out, and if you specialize in one kind of goods, it will be much easier to import and export?" Li Zhen asked with a smile after hearing this. Zhiye is Zhao Qiu's name, and now he has temporarily invested in Li Zhen  And Li Yun's subordinates, and Zhao Qiu is not too old, so Li Zhen will use each other's names to match each other.

    ¡°He really didn¡¯t know before that the goods exported by the Tang Dynasty were so rich that even very common condiments could be sold overseas as goods, but at the same time he also had doubts about Zhao Qiu¡¯s various ways of shipping goods.

    However, after hearing this, Zhao Qiu smiled bitterly and said: "Your Highness doesn't know. It's not that you don't want to specialize in selling one kind of goods, but that there are unspeakable difficulties in it. For example, taking silk and porcelain as an example, because the supply of goods is limited, these goods are controlled  In the hands of some large merchants, small merchants like us can only occasionally get a batch of goods, but usually we can't get the goods at all. As for other goods, it is because the prices of these goods overseas fluctuate from time to time. In order to make more money,  So we usually choose the most profitable goods to ship out at the time.¡±

    "That's it!" Li Zhen and Li Yun both nodded at the same time. It seems that there is knowledge in any profession. If they hadn't heard Zhao Qiu's explanation today, they would never understand these things in sea trade.  Dirty.

    With Zhao Qiu as their guide, Li Zhen and Li Yun's fleet moved forward more smoothly. Zhao Qiu even helped Zhu Chong and the others choose a safer channel and marked it on the military chart for future warships.  of dealings.

    After half a month of sailing, Li Zhen and Li Yun's fleet finally arrived at Ceylon Island in the south of Tianzhu.  From the map, Ceylon Island is a drop-shaped island, with a sharp north and a rounded south. It is only separated from Tianzhu by the Ceylon Strait, which is not very wide. There are also several small islands in the strait, and people who migrated from Tianzhu mainland live on them.  Tamil people coming over.

    The first stop when Li Zhen and Li Yun arrived in Ceylon was to enter the Strait of Ceylon and occupy several small islands in the strait, cutting off the connection between mainland Tianzhu and Ceylon.  Of course, this requires the cooperation of Zhu Chong and his navy. In fact, in addition to protecting the safety of the troop transport, the most important thing for the fleet brought by Zhu Chong is to cooperate with Li Zhen and Li Yun to control the entire Ceylon Island.

    Speaking of which, the shipbuilding industry in Tianzhu is also very developed. Like the Tang Dynasty, they can build large ships that can accommodate hundreds of people. However, the ships of the Tianzhu people have long and narrow hulls. Although this can make the ships faster, they are not resistant to wind and waves.  Moreover, the weapons equipped on the Tianzhu people's warships are even more incomparable to the warships in Li Min's hands. Especially after being equipped with artillery, the warships in Li Min's hands have become the most powerful warships in the world, with almost no opponents on the sea.

    Another point is that no matter in ancient times or modern times, the navy is an extremely expensive branch. Southern Tianzhu is now divided. Although the small countries with coastlines also have some warships, with their financial and material resources, they are also equipped with  Some small warships, such as those that can carry hundreds of people, can only be seen in the Harsha Dynasty in Northern India.

    It is also based onOn the above two points, although Zhu Chong and his group only have a dozen main warships, they are confident enough to block the Strait of Ceylon.  (To be continued)
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