Chapter 1283 Erecting a monument and conferring a title
Seeing that Zhu Biao had never heard of the Ancient Tea-Horse Road, Han Du patiently explained to him: "Since ancient times, the most famous thing out of the Central Plains is the Silk Road. The yellow sand in the desert and the long camel bells have been sung for thousands of years. But
In fact, there is also a trade road in the Bashu and Yunnan areas, the Ancient Tea Horse Road."
Zhu Biao nodded slightly and looked sideways at Han Du.
Han Du smiled casually and said: "It is only a thousand miles from Yunnan to Shendu via the Ancient Tea Horse Road."
"So close?" Zhu Biao was surprised, "If it's so close, then why are we going through so much trouble and traveling thousands of miles? Wouldn't it be better to come directly from Yunnan?"
Han Du sneered twice, "How can it be so easy? The Ancient Tea Horse Road is very close, but it is not without its shortcomings. First of all, this road is very narrow. In many places, only one person or one horse can pass. Such a road
We can't walk fast at all. Although a thousand miles is a short journey, it can't be completed in less than three to five months. And even though we sailed tens of thousands of miles from the capital, the time it took was only three to five months.
?" .??.
This is why Zhu Biao nodded. Since it takes about the same amount of time, there is really no need to take the Ancient Tea Horse Road.
"Also, the ancient Tea Horse Road can only be carried by people carrying horses and camels. How much cargo can be carried? But a large ship can easily transport hundreds of thousands of kilograms of goods, which is infinitely more convenient than people carrying horses and camels.
Twice as much.”
While the two were talking, they walked into the city of Guli. It was said to be a city, but in fact it was completely different from the city in Han Du's eyes. It didn't even have city walls, and it just looked like a settlement. But there were quite a lot of people here, so I'm afraid there weren't any.
How much worse than Horumos.
The arrival of Han Du and others immediately attracted the attention of the locals. Just as Han Du and Zhu Biao were walking on the street, a man who was obviously an official here, with some entourage behind him, strode to stop Han Du and others.
before.
Shi Si stepped forward to negotiate and let these people know that Han Du and others came from the Ming Empire in the far east.
When the other party heard that they were coming from the Eastern Empire, their expression immediately became respectful. Not only did they warmly invite Han Du and others to stay temporarily in Tongwen Hall, which was similar to the Ming Dynasty, but they also reported the arrival of Han Du and others to King Guli.
Although Guli is a small kingdom on the peninsula, they are still no strangers to the Eastern Empire. Since the Silk Road was cut off, the Ancient Tea Horse Road has become uncharacteristically prosperous, with a lot of porcelain, tea, and silk flowing into the peninsula from the Ming Dynasty every year.
Through mutual exchanges, King Guli naturally knew the reputation of the Ming Empire.
When he heard about the arrival of the Ming Empire, King Guli immediately threw
He left everything behind and ran to see Han Du and others without touching the ground. Not only did he order the officials to take care of Han Du and others' daily life, but he also sat down and had a cordial conversation with Han Du.
Anyway, Han Du was quite confused when he looked at King Guli who was crying with snot and tears in front of him. According to King Guli, Guli was not strong and was bullied among the kingdoms on the peninsula. And he knew that the Ming Empire
He also knew that after recognizing the Ming Dynasty as the suzerain state, the Ming Dynasty would take care of the vassal states, so he wanted to request Han Du, hoping to send envoys to Beijing to pay tribute and request the Ming Empire to be canonized.
Being able to rely on his own reputation to have other countries proactively request canonization was an extremely face-raising event for Lao Zhu, and Han Du had no reason to refuse.
Speaking of which, almost all the vassal states surrounding the Ming Dynasty did not actively recognize the Ming Dynasty and voluntarily became vassal states. Instead, after Lao Zhu established the country, he directly issued decrees to the surrounding countries and asked them to come to pay tribute. Korea, Siam and other countries
The small countries bordering the Ming Dynasty did not dare to disobey Lao Zhu's will, so they had to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty.
But a powerful country like the Timurid Empire didn't like the Ming Dynasty at all. When they were happy, they would pay tribute, and they would secretly stumble the Ming Dynasty. When they were unhappy, they would even be exempted from paying tribute. The Ming Dynasty couldn't do anything to them.
Sample.
What's even more outrageous is that the Japanese country not only refused to pay tribute, but even killed the envoys sent by the Ming Dynasty. Lao Zhu was so angry that his lungs were about to explode. If it weren't for the remnants of the former Yuan Dynasty that had not been wiped out, he would have been killed long ago.
After ordering an expedition against the Japanese country, how could anyone still swallow this sigh of relief? In recent years, with the collapse of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty has gradually been able to spare its energy to deal with the Japanese country. Coupled with the rise of the navy, Lao Zhu even regarded the Japanese country as
As the target of the next conquest. As for some civil servants who wanted Lao Zhu to issue a decree to list the Japanese country as a country not to be conquered, Lao Zhu pretended not to have seen such a memorial and did not even mention the Japanese country.
In the eyes of some civil servants, the emperor's lack of clear expression means that he has acquiesced to their opinions. But only those who are familiar with Lao Zhu will know that the more silent he is at this time, the more unwilling he is to give up. When the time is right,
, the rage that Lao Zhu burst out was enough to burn the entire Japanese country to ashes.
Seeing King Guli's kindness, Han Du disclosed his identity to him after getting Zhu Biao's instruction. And as the Marquis of Zhenhai, he signed a treaty with him directly.
He wrote a letter on behalf of the emperor and conferred him the title of King of Guli. He also set up a stone tablet three feet wide and one foot high in Guli to record and inscribe this incident on the stone tablet.
The reason why Zhu Biao did not come forward directly was because his identity was too special. Even if the Guri Kingdom was very weak, it was almost impossible to pose a threat to Han Du and others. Just in case, Zhu Biao's identity could not be revealed.
Finally, Handu also visited the local Buddhist temple and donated gold, silver, silk, sesame oil, etc. to the Buddhist temple.
When Han Du said goodbye and left, King Guli also sent a team of envoys carrying a large number of treasures to follow the fleet to pay tribute to the capital.
The fleet headed east along the coastline and soon returned to Ceylon. The Governor's Palace of Ceylon was very calm. After the King of Ceylon was defeated, although there was a brief chaos, it soon became clear under the suppression of the Ming Navy.
It has calmed down. Now that Ceylon has returned to normal order, the Governor's Office is preparing to start organizing people to start mining gemstones.
Since nothing happened in Ceylon, Handu and his fleet did not stop and continued sailing back to Beijing. However, this time Handu did not choose to cross the sea directly, but slowly went north along the coastline.
The last storm almost scared Han Du out of his soul, and Han Du has not recovered yet. If Zhu Biao had exposed the incident, how should he explain it to Lao Zhu?
Therefore, Han Du ignored Zhu Biao's objection and insisted on returning slowly along the coastline. He also said euphemistically, "Your Highness, we are here to open a waterway. What if we don't explore the waterway along the coast and set up a governor's palace to provide convenience at sea?"
Open the channel?”
The fleet sailed all the way. Whenever it encountered a suitable place to establish a seaport, Handu set up a governor's palace and left people to guard it. Just like this, the fleet came to a huge bay. ??
After communicating with the local people, we learned that this is Bangge La Sa Di. After Han Du's investigation, although there are people living here, they are just some scattered tribes, not even a decent country. Han Du didn't know anything about it.
He did not hesitate to set up a governor's palace here and ordered them to build a seaport.
Just when Han Du was about to set sail again, Fu Yong hurriedly ran to find Han Du.
"Why are you in such a hurry? Have you lost your gold?" Han Du said with a smile.
Originally it was just a joke from Han Du, but after hearing this Fu Yong looked bitter and sighed: "If Lord Marquis leaves like this, it will really be as good as losing gold."
"Is there any treasure here?" Han Du reacted instantly.
.
Fu Yong nodded and said directly: "The people have been wandering around outside these two days. Guess what the people found?"
"What was discovered? A gold mine was discovered, right?" Han Du looked at Fu Yong with some disbelief.
If there really is a gold mine here, how can we wait until Fu Yong comes to discover it? Human beings have a special talent for gold. If there is a gold mine here, then the locals will definitely discover it before Fu Yong. I am afraid it has been mined and refined long ago. Where?
Are you still waiting for Fu Yong to find out?
Fu Yong smiled and said: "Although it is not a gold mine, it is no different from a gold mine. It may even be more valuable than a gold mine."
Fu Yong approached Han Du, fearing that his words would be overheard, and whispered in his ear: "The grassroots discovered red sandalwood not far away."
Rosewood Han Du's heart tightened upon hearing this, and he quickly asked: "Is it rosewood, or is it?"
If it is red sandalwood, there is not much surprise. Although red sandalwood is expensive, it does not mean that it is completely impossible to find. Han Du found a lot of it on Nanyang Island. A little bit of red sandalwood is precious enough.
, but the value is definitely not as good as a gold mine. If it is just for a little wood, it is not worth Fu Yong running to Han Du with such a big fanfare to make a mysterious report.
"It's not a piece of wood, but a forest of red sandalwood." Sure enough, as Fu Yong finished speaking, a cold wind was violently sucked into his lungs by Han Du.
"A forest of red sandalwood? How big is it?" Han Du asked hurriedly, subconsciously reaching out to Fu Yong with his palm and pinching his chest.
Fu Yong opened his mouth, but found it difficult to breathe. How could he still speak?
Han Du reacted immediately, quickly let go, and asked again: "Where is the red sandalwood forest you mentioned?"
"Master Marquis, please come with the grassroots." Fu Yong took a few breaths, recovered a little, and spoke directly to Han Du.
Han Du nodded without hesitation and immediately asked Wang Heng to take others with him.
Before leaving the station, he met Zhu Biao who had just walked out of the door.
When Zhu Biao saw that Han Du was about to move out, he asked in surprise: "What happened? Where are you going?"
Han Du thought for a moment and simply motioned to Zhu Biao to follow him, explaining to him as he walked.
The place where Fu Yong discovered the red sandalwood was not far from here, and the group quickly arrived at their destination.