Valley Emperor

The return of the sage to the court is naturally a major event. Jinling City has already begun to prepare for the pick-up, but after the sage left Shanghai to return to the court, Gerdes, who had just returned to Shanghai, was quite disappointed. I stayed in Huzhou, Zhejiang for some time, in order to establish a local branch, mainly to purchase local silkworm cocoons, cooperate with local silkworm farmers, and provide long-term and stable production raw materials for the raw silk factory he plans to open in Shanghai Industrial Zone.

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On the way back to Shanghai, he still wondered if there would be a chance to take a look at the Eternal Sage from a distance.

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However, his action was still a bit late. When he returned to Shanghai, the Holy Monarch of the Ancients had already left for several days.

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Although I was a little disappointed, I didn't say that I couldn't eat. After all, the sage of the ancient world is not gold and silver. If he can't see it, it will make him lose his mind. Recently, Geddes' business is getting bigger and bigger. In the past, he basically did not dare to go to other inland cities, but now, with guards, he dared to take people directly to Huzhou.

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Today, the business scale of Guedes is also getting bigger and bigger. There is a trading company engaged in resale trade, and a shipping company specializing in Nanyang Sea Trade. Now, he has established a raw silk company and is preparing to build a raw silk factory.

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However, although there is a trading company and he is also preparing to engage in raw silk, his main business is still sea trade. The profits of sea trade these years are really too great, even the net worth of Guedes is not small, but he still has a lot of money every year. Will regularly lead the fleet to run to the South China Sea.

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And this year, he is even planning to take his merchant fleet to run further, not only in the South China Sea, not only in India, he is planning to run a trip to Europe!

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Today, although the sea trade is very profitable, with the support of the Tang Dynasty, a large number of businessmen have devoted themselves to overseas trade. Nima, now even pirates have changed their careers to do business. !

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There are too many people doing maritime trade now, and the scale is getting bigger and bigger, especially the Datang Western Ocean Company, which is owned by the royal family, has already opened a fixed route to Nanyang in a frenzy, and has organized several or even a dozen ships. The merchant fleet, and their ships are all galleons of five or six hundred tons, or the kind of armed merchant ships.

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And sometimes they are escorted by the Tang Navy!

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It can also be seen from the Datang Western Company that there are too many people running the Nanyang route, and the profits will inevitably be diluted due to the many people who run this route.

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Nowadays, many maritime merchants have already set their sights on North Korea and Fusang, but Gerdes is not familiar with these places, and he can't even understand the route.

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Seeing that the profits of the Nanyang trade are gradually decreasing, Guedes will definitely use his advantages and return to the European route!

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He has been a pirate for decades, and has traveled all over the world. He is also very familiar with the route from East Asia to Europe, and he is sure to lead the fleet to run the European route to earn huge profits.

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Nowadays, the route from East Asia to Europe is very profitable. When silk, porcelain and other oriental specialties arrive in Europe, the price is going up by dozens of times.

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The huge profits also lead to the fact that although many merchant ships go to sea every year, they never look back. No one knows where they sank or were looted by pirates, but they still cannot stop people from setting foot in the sea. The point of no return for trade.

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However, although the route from East Asia to Europe is very profitable, most of the profits are actually earned by European merchants, or more accurately, by the merchants who traveled the long route from Malacca to Europe. Although the profits of the Southeast Asia route are quite large, compared with the European route, it is really insignificant and incomparable.

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Today, this part of the profit is mainly earned by the Portuguese, and even the Spaniards of the Empire who never set in the sun are unable to get involved in the trade on the Indian Ocean!

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There is a concept that needs to be perfected here. In the maritime trade in a sea area, not everyone can run. For example, in the Indian Ocean, it is basically the world of the Portuguese, because only the Portuguese have established a relatively complete system on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Port supply station.

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At the same time, the Portuguese warships will also blockade in this sea area, strangling any non-Portuguese merchant ships who dare to pass through this sea area. Today, the Portuguese almost completely monopolize the trade in the Indian Ocean. Well, even the now very strong Spaniards, in the Indian Ocean, you have to be obedient!

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Relying on the many supply stations in Malacca and the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese launched large-scale trade, especially after the Tang Dynasty opened the port, the Asian trade of the Portuguese almost opened a new high dynasty!

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Its huge profits are enough to stimulate anyone!

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In the past two years, the Spaniards have been fighting chicken blood. They want to gain a foothold in the Southeast Asian region. Isn’t it just for better trade with China? For this reason, they have already played several games with the Portuguese in the Southeast Asian waters. naval battle.

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Last winter, the Spaniards organized a colonial fleet of six armed merchant ships to try to land on Mindanao and establish a stronghold. The result was not only the resistance of the local indigenous people, but also a sneak attack by the Portuguese. , It is said that this colonial fleet was almost wiped out, and only one ship was left to escape all the way north, and fled to Guangzhou Port to seek shelter, which was a lucky escape!

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At that time, several warships of the Portuguese chased all the way to the coast of Guangzhou. The Datang Navy was frightened and thought that the Portuguese would go to war without a declaration. Unexpectedly, a very harshly worded protest was issued to the Portuguese:

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Your armed fleet has entered our Datang waters, please explain your intention immediately, and lower your sails to close the gun doors, otherwise we will fire for war!

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And this protest made the chasing Portuguese vomit blood. Nima, we know that Guangzhou is ahead, but now they are still more than 30 nautical miles away from the coastline. This violates your territorial waters?

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Could it be that your Tang Dynasty really regarded the entire South China Sea as an inland sea? In this case, why don't you go straight to the sea off Malacca and tell us that we intruded into your territorial waters.

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And your official territory is just a few sketches, who knows where your territorial waters are.

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That map barely includes Europe, let alone the surrounding countries. For example, in the south of Guangxi Province, that is Vietnam, but where the two places meet, people do not say that this is a national border, but a provincial border. It is said that Vietnam is a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty and an inseparable territory of the Tang Dynasty.

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That's fine. In the north, you have directly assigned your territory to the Arctic Ocean. To the north of Hebei Province, it is called Mongolia. To the north of Mongolia, it is called Bili, and then north to the North Pole. It's just entered, you Datang do this, have you asked the polar bear's opinion?

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The same goes to the west. It doesn’t matter if you include the area of ​​Waza. You also turned the Aral Sea west of Bukhara and Kiva into an inner lake. Have you asked the Central Asian countries for their opinions?

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And what's even more ridiculous is that the entire territory map of Nima has no clear boundaries at all!

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Yes, the territory officially announced by the Tang Dynasty is very vague, with almost no clear borders, only the borders of provinces and regions, and the edges of the borders are often left blank...

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The official saying is: There is no king in the world!

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To put it bluntly, people regard the whole world and even the entire universe as the territory of the Tang Dynasty. Now those blank places are just not under actual control. Let the local indigenous people take care of them first, and we will take over when we have time in the Tang Dynasty. !

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And what's interesting is that this is not the creation of Li Xuan's map, but something made by those civil servants. Li Xuan asked them to make a national map at first, but they directly took the globe made by the Royal Institute of Technology. He showed it to Li Xuan, and looked like he was taking credit: Your Majesty, this is your empire!

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No way, I can't blame the civil servants for this, because this kind of thing is more sensitive. If it's wrong, it would be disrespectful. The place is not for the emperor, Nima, this is courting death!

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Could it be that under the whole world, Wang Tu knows, do you understand?

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In this world, it doesn't matter whether it is land or sea, it doesn't matter where it is, even if it is in another universe, it belongs to the emperor. You write other regions as the territory of other countries. What are you doing, doubting the sanctity of the emperor? Behead you on the spot, believe it or not!

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So at first, the Ministry of Rites showed the globe directly to Li Xuan. Li Xuan was a little speechless when faced with this kind of thing, and then asked them to make a map realistically, and don't use globes to fool people.

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So the officials of the Ministry of Rites carefully considered and held dozens of meetings in a row. After some fierce debates, they finally found a compromise solution for them: that is, the Tang Dynasty has no borders!

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Some are just provincial boundaries, regional boundaries, and the surrounding areas are all left blank, ignoring many surrounding countries...

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Therefore, in theory, let alone dozens of nautical miles off the coast of Guangzhou, even the entire South China Sea and the entire Pacific Ocean are the inland sea of ​​the Tang Dynasty!

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Of course, this kind of thing is just a politically correct argument. It is possible to say it is possible, but it still needs to be considered carefully. At least before it controls the entire South China Sea, the Tang Dynasty has no way to prevent the free flow of ships from other countries to the South China Sea.

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It's just that although they were dissatisfied with the Datang Navy's request for territorial waters, they still left obediently. Anyway, the Spaniards were left with only one ship, and the armed forces of other countries entered the Datang port in order to seek shelter. The relevant regulations of the Tang Dynasty ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ will detain ships and repatriate personnel.

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Those Spaniards were able to survive, but basically they were unable to colonize the South China Sea any more. For the Portuguese, the threat was gone, so there was no reason for them to fall out with the Tang Dynasty because of the Spaniard's ship.

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Although the Datang Dynasty was arrogant and unreasonable in many aspects, this trade was really profitable. For the sake of money, they endured the Datang Dynasty to call Nanyang an inland sea.

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And the huge profits from maritime trade made them endure the arrogance and unreasonableness of the Tang Dynasty, and they also wanted to further block the routes from Asia to Europe.

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In recent years, the Portuguese have spared no effort in preventing other European countries from intervening in East Asian trade, especially with the Huaxia region. The fleet directly acts as a maritime trade, looting all other non-Portuguese nationals who travel to and from the Indian Ocean. European merchant ships!

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And this move by the Portuguese made Tang Dynasty deeply dissatisfied! Ps: Book friends, I am raining when it rains. I recommend a free novel app that supports novel downloads, listening to books, zero ads, and multiple reading modes. Please pay attention to the WeChat public account: dazhuzaiyuedu (long press for three seconds to copy) Book lovers, please pay attention!