As for the information about the Tang Empire that came from outside the Tang Army, its channels and content were of course inseparable from the word trade.
The reason is very simple. The Tang Dynasty launched a great trade trend and continued to collect precious metals from all over the world... at least in the current sense of the world. At the same time, the merchants who were born and raised here naturally also collected precious metals created by the Tang Dynasty.
Countless novel products with powerful performance or exquisite and attractive features have been brought to the world.
The final result of this process is that China is no longer a closed state that has been busy with civil strife for hundreds of years. Everyone from top to bottom, from the top decision-maker Li Er to the sailors and craftsmen at the grassroots level, has begun to understand the world.
It's very simple to think about it. Li Er needs to know where the precious metal reserves are the richest, where the local chiefs and kings are the stupidest, and where the money is best. And the sailors, craftsmen... and merchants, of course, also need to obtain this information.
, after all, you have to make money.
In Li Sheng's previous life, ancient China was composed of a group of proud and arrogant people, with a condescending contempt for everything outside. But in fact, ancient China was also constantly exploring the outside world. From the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty
We had already exchanged envoys with the Romans, and the establishment of the Silk Road did not appear out of thin air.
It's just that this side of China has gradually become an "unknown side" due to various historical reasons.
In short, with the passage of time, this aspect of the current Tang Dynasty has not only been preserved and inherited, but also carried forward.
Today's Tang Dynasty has far less understanding of the outside world than before...even if the merchants of the Tang Dynasty have not yet been able to sail ships to the Atlantic Ocean.
When he first encountered the Roman legion, Li Er was naturally very nervous. After this news came out, it aroused various discussions in the streets of Chang'an and even among the people of the entire Tang Dynasty.
But soon, new information was collected about the location of Rome, what products it had, and the approximate size of its population...
Although Han merchants and bureaucrats were unable to directly investigate this information, they still obtained it through channels such as foreign nobles, merchants, and even some chiefs and princes who came to the Tang Dynasty or had dealings with merchants of the Tang Dynasty.
And accordingly...
This kind of indirect investigation is not unique to Datang.
Since Hannibal is a young British master who rose to prominence, and now faces military challenges, of course he will also investigate his opponents...
And soon the news appeared.
Since we are investigating, we must first look at the other party's population, land, size, and how many troops it currently has...
And besides these, what else should we watch? Of course... it’s to see if the news is true. Don’t be deceived by these businessmen. After all, Mephisto is the god of business and the god of deception.
To know whether the other party's words are true, of course you have to ask some other questions - any questions will do, as long as they are relevant. By the way, compare them with the information from other businessmen.
And after such an investigation, I naturally found out... Regardless of the size of the land, it is larger than Rome... This is doubtful, but... well, the population is larger than Rome... I can believe it.
The thing that concerned Hannibal the most was that the "Tang Empire" was very fond of trade recently - anyway, all the merchants mentioned it here.
And Hannibal also tended to believe that this was true. The reason was very simple... because when these merchants reported "how they knew so much", they also said they heard it from the people of Tang Dynasty merchants who came to trade.
In this case, Hannibal had to believe it. After all, these businessmen said so. And the key is that the profession of businessmen determines that these people like to brag by nature, and since it is bragging, then they will definitely brag about themselves.
I have been to countless places, met countless races, and even fought against dragons and magicians.
Now since it is said that the news was brought by businessmen from the Tang Dynasty rather than being discovered by oneself, then... it is probably true.
The land of Tang State was extremely vast.
The Tang Dynasty had a prosperous population.
The Tang army was well-trained.
These things are the core elements for measuring national strength, but if they are only these, they are not enough to scare Hannibal VII. When he counterattacked Rome and wiped out the heroes to rebuild the situation, there were many more powerful lords than him.
, warlords, not just three or five, they are everywhere, and they were not taken down directly by themselves...
But what made Hannibal a little concerned was that Tang State also liked trade.
I can't see any reason for this... maybe it's customs and preferences, I don't know, I can't summarize anything.
But what people have to pay attention to is that I solicited information myself and collected many businessmen.
Some of these merchants came from Arabia in the south, some from Persia further south, and then from the east, and even set foot in some places in Africa...
The range is very wide!
In such a large area, it is certainly impossible for merchants to move around everywhere, they must be fixed in certain areas.
what does that mean?
This clearly means that the Tang Dynasty definitely not only likes the ocean and trade, but their trade tentacles extend very wide!
This cannot be explained by ordinary "preferences", because it is so large...
Whether those merchants were sent out by the emperor of the Tang Dynasty or acted on their own initiative, one problem is at least certain and must exist.
——So many businessmen...or are they going overseas?
...Then you have to bring extra crew members.
The captain, the crew... these are all unemployed people who are not engaged in agriculture.
And...since it's trade, you have to bring goods with you.
There is a high probability that this cargo cannot be food, because the sea is rough and the risk is too high.
It is common knowledge all over the world that going to sea is risky.
So based on this calculation, the size of the unemployed population in Tang State is very high...
If such a large-scale unemployed population is not organized into an army, how can it exist in the form of merchants and sailors?...
Looking at the troops sent by the Tang State this time, without any interaction, Hannibal could be sure that the Emperor of the Tang State was definitely a powerful figure, and the generals in his hands must also be outstanding.
...Since a group of talented people rule, how can so many unemployed people be allowed to engage in trade without control?
Trade is nothing more than exchange.
What use can this have to improving national strength?
Hannibal feels very strange!
However, it felt strange, that is, it was just strange, and I couldn't find out any information for a while.
And compared with this suspicious thing, there are tens of thousands of Tang army in front of them, confronting themselves on this peninsula in southern Eastern Europe...