Rebirth: Overthrow Song Dynasty - Chapter 630

Wu Gong was originally going to continue staying in Cape Valles, but in the first month of the year, they were actually expelled!

The gifts they gave to local officials were reported to the bishops of France. The bishop believed that these were corrupting people’s hearts and believed that Wu Gong and others were heretics who did not believe in God, so he ordered the local officials to expel Wu Gong.

“We originally wanted the officials of this mainland to agree to trade. Who knew they had expelled us, sir, where are we going now?” a lieutenant said on the treasure ship.

“The highest status on this continent is the Pope. The Pope lives in a city called Rome! These days, I have gotten many maps of this continent. You see, this is also an ocean. You can go directly from here. Rome! Let’s meet the Pope, and then ask the Pope to agree to trade.” Wu Gongdao.

The fleet led by Wu Gong went south along the sea. At the end of the first month, they came to the Strait of Gibraltar, and they could enter the Mediterranean after passing through it!

The treasure ship was going all the way in the Strait of Gibraltar. Wu Gong looked at the surrounding scenery curiously and said: “The terrain here is extremely important! If we master this, we will have the two ocean passages! Let’s write down here, in the future The imperial court may send troops here!”

The Strait of Gibraltar is indeed extremely important. It is the only passage from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. It is called the lifeline of the Mediterranean in later generations! Its north was occupied by the British, and until the later generations of Zhao Chen crossed it, the Spaniards tried to gain control of the Strait of Gibraltar from the British!

In mid-February, the Song Dynasty fleet came to the sea west of Rome.

There was a great chaos throughout Rome. Countless knights of the Holy See came to the shore. They did not allow Da Song’s ships to dock at all. In the end, Wu Gong had no choice but to send more than a dozen envoys ashore to request trade, but the Pope simply Don’t agree!

They spent three days in the waters west of Rome. Wu Gong even went ashore to see the Pope in person. Unfortunately, he did not even see the shadow of the Pope. Three days later, Wu Gong led the fleet and left Rome.

They continued along the Mediterranean. In March, they came to the sea north of Egypt and finally to Cairo.

Here they have received a great welcome!

Egypt in this era has long been Arabized. This is an Arab empire. The locals agreed to trade and said that they had traded with the Chinese for hundreds of years. Now there are Chinese businessmen in Egypt.

After hearing this news, Wu Gong and his soldiers were all surprised.

Soon after, they saw a Han merchant, who really came from the Song Dynasty!

“Where did you come from?” Wu Gong couldn’t help asking in the city of Cairo.

“My lord, we entered the Western Ocean along the South China Sea, and finally came to Guli. After staying in Guli for a while, we came here again to the west.” The merchant said.

“Sure enough, is the earth under our feet a sphere?” Wu Gong muttered.

“My lord, now the sea lines along the way are under my Da Song’s control. All merchants obey my Da Song laws. Now no one dares to bully my Da Song merchants anymore!” The businessman said excitedly.

“Very well, I know about this! If you return to Guli or Dasong, you will tell the local generals about me.” Wu Gongdao.

In May, Wu Gong’s fleet left Egypt. In late May, they came to the Strait of Gibraltar again, and then they headed east along the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean!

In June, they entered the African continent!

This is an extremely hot, barren, and dry continent. There are many extremely dark-skinned people on this continent. They are far behind, almost like savages!

Wu Gong led the soldiers to inspect the African continent and finally came to the conclusion that there is no need for trade here! Because it is really poor here, there is no production, and it doesn’t make much sense to travel tens of thousands of miles to do business! The territory here is very vast, but it is almost impossible to grow crops. Later generations have already proved that the average crop yield of African land is only one-fifteenth of Asia. Now there is a fertile new continent waiting to be cultivated in the Song Dynasty. There is no need to rush to occupy it. Here, but it is necessary to build several ports and docks here.

Along the way, Wu Gong’s vision became wider and wider, and he deeply felt that the sea power theory that Zhao Chen said was very correct! If you control the ocean, you can launch an active attack on any enemy country from the sea, and the enemy can only passively defend! Only by controlling the ocean can the normal operation of commerce and trade be guaranteed and the country can be prosperous and strong!

When he was in the Americas, Wu Gong once found many strange crops, which were later shipped to China, including corn and peppers for later generations. He originally hoped to find some crops in Africa, but he was disappointed.

Here, he just found many strange animals, such as giraffes and so on! They drove several giraffes onto the treasure ship, ready to transport them back home.

Until October, they arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost tip of Africa.

After leaving the Cape of Good Hope, they entered the Indian Ocean and then began to head northeast!

This is another long voyage. They hope to find land before the food and water on the boat run out!

All the soldiers drink a cup of green tea every day. This is what Zhao Chen personally asked Wu Gong!

The most terrifying thing about ocean voyages is not the storm, but the disease, especially the famous “scurvy” in history! In the 16th and 7th centuries, many European sailors died of scurvy. The root cause was a lack of vitamin C. It was not until the end of the 18th century that Europeans discovered that lemon juice could cure scurvy, but they didn’t understand. The principle! During the Song Dynasty in China, there were people who sailed oceans, but scurvy was rarely the cause. The main reason was tea! The Chinese have a tradition of drinking tea. Tea, especially green tea, has a very high vitamin C content. This is the main reason why ancient Chinese did not get scurvy in large quantities.

After three full months, a continent appeared in front of them.

In fact, this is not a mainland, but a big island. This is where Indonesia will be for later generations!

In February, they detoured to Malacca, where they met Wu Lin!

“Second Uncle!” Seeing Wu Lin, Wu Gong was extremely happy.

“You didn’t go all the way east, why did you come here?” Wu Lin was surprised!

He looked at Wu Gong carefully and found that Wu Gong is now black and thin, and the clothes on Wu Gong are extremely worn out. He is very embarrassed, but Wu Gong is in good spirits, which makes Wu Lin very pleased.

“We did go all the way east, after two huge oceans, we finally came back here! Uncle, there is a big ball under our feet! Only this way can explain why we came here!” Wu Gong said excitedly.

Wu Lin was unbelievable, and said, “Are you on the wrong path?”

“It can’t be wrong! We can let people try again to see what place is going all the way east or all the way west? There should be nothing wrong! Uncle, we also went to a new continent, There are many countries and many people on that continent, so we can go there to do business!” Wu Gongdao.

“Where is it?” Wu Lin said.

“There is a continent ruled by the Pope, and we call it the Papal State! However, it cannot be regarded as a’state’, it is very chaotic, and the population may be tens of millions! When I was on the ship, I was thinking, if it was there Everyone can put on the silk of my Song, use the porcelain and tea of ​​my Song, how much money can I make? It is endless! I can ship countless goods there and sell it there. People!” Wu Archway.

He was talking about things there excitedly, and gradually Wu Lin’s eyes also showed excitement.

“There are some important strongholds there, which must be occupied! But it is too far to get there. It will take more than half a year to go east or west!” Wu Gong said again.