Rebirth: Overthrow Song Dynasty

Wu Gong originally planned to stay in the Barres Point area, but in the first month, they were expelled!

The gifts they gave to local officials were reported layer by layer to the hands of the bishop of France. The bishop believed that these were corrupting things 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 continent to agree to trade, but who would have thought that they would expel us, my lord, where are we going now?" said a lieutenant 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 obtained many maps of this continent. You see, this is also an ocean. From here, you can go directly to Rome! Let's go to see the Pope, and then ask the Pope to agree to trade." Wu Gong said.

The fleet led by Wu Gong headed south along the sea. At the end of the first month, they arrived at the Strait of Gibraltar, through which they could enter the Mediterranean Sea!

The treasure ship went all the way in the Strait of Gibraltar. Wu Gong looked at the surrounding scenery curiously, and said: "The terrain here is extremely important! Once we master this, we will master the passages of the two oceans! Let's write this down, and 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 Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is called the lifeline of the Mediterranean Sea in later generations! Its north was occupied by the British, and the Spaniards tried to gain control of the Strait of Gibraltar from the British until Zhao Chen passed through it!

In mid-February, the Da Song fleet came to the waters west of Rome.

The whole of Rome was in turmoil, and countless Holy See knights came to the shore. They did not allow the ships of the Song Dynasty to dock at all. In the end, Wu Gong had no choice but to send more than ten envoys ashore to ask for trade. Do not agree!

They stayed in the waters west of Rome for three days. Wu Gong even went ashore to see the Pope himself. Unfortunately, he didn't even see the Pope. Three days later, Wu Gong led the fleet and left Rome.

They continued along the Mediterranean, and in March they reached the waters north of Egypt and finally Cairo.

Here they are very welcome!

Egypt in this era has already been Arabized, and here is an Arab empire. The local people promised to do business, and said that they have been doing business with the Chinese for hundreds of years, and now there are Chinese businessmen in Egypt.

After hearing the news, Wu Gong and his soldiers were very surprised.

Not long after, they met a businessman of the Han nationality, who was indeed from the Song Dynasty!

"Where did you come from?" In Cairo City, Wu Gong couldn't help asking.

"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 went west to come here." The businessman said.

"Sure enough, is the ground under our feet actually a sphere?" Wu Gong murmured.

"My lord, the sea line along the way is now under my Great Song's control, and all merchants obey my Great Song's laws. Now no one dares to bully my Great Song merchants anymore!" the merchant said excitedly.

"Very well, I know about this! If you return to Guli or Song Dynasty, you will tell the local generals about me." Wu Gong said.

In May, Wu Gong's fleet left Egypt, and 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 extremely backward, 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 here is too poor, there is no production, so 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 that of Asia. Now there is a fertile new continent waiting to be reclaimed in Song Dynasty, so there is no need to rush to occupy it now Here, but it is necessary to build several ports and wharves here.

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

When he was in America, Wu Gong discovered many strange crops, which were later transported to China, including corn and peppers of later generations. He had hoped to find some crops in Africa, but unfortunately the results disappointed him.

Here, he just discovered many strange animals, such as giraffes and so on! They drove several giraffes onto the treasure ship, ready to be transported back to their hometown.

Until October, they came to the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost tip of Africa. The wind and waves here were extremely strong. Fortunately, the Song Army warships were strong, otherwise they would not be able to pass there.

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

This is another long voyage, and they hope to find land before the food and water on board run out!

All the soldiers have to drink a cup of green tea every day, this is something Zhao Chen personally asked Wu Gong to do!

The most terrifying thing about ocean voyages is not the storm, but the disease, especially the famous "scurvy" in history! In the 16th and 17th centuries, many European sailors died of scurvy. The root cause was the 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 did not understand it. The principle of it! During the Song Dynasty in China, there were also people who sailed far away, but very few people got scurvy. The main reason was because of tea! Chinese people 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 suffer from 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, where Indonesia of later generations is located!

In February, they made a detour to Malacca, where they met Wu Lin!

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

"Didn't you go all the way east, why did you come here?" Wu Lin was very surprised!

He looked at Wu Gong carefully, and found that Wu Gong was black and thin now, and the clothes on Wu Gong were extremely worn out, and he was extremely embarrassed, but Wu Gong was in good spirits, which made Wu Lin very relieved.

"We did go all the way east, passed two huge oceans, and finally came back here! Second Uncle, there is a big ball under our feet! Now only this can explain why we came here!" Wu Gong said excitedly.

Wu Lin couldn't believe it, and said, "Did you go the wrong way?"

"There will be no mistakes! We can ask people to try it again to see what is going all the way to the east or all the way to the west? There should be no mistakes! Second uncle, we also went to a new continent, There are many countries and many people on that continent, we can go there to do business!" Wu Gong said.

"Where is it?" Wu Lin asked.

"That is the continent ruled by the Pope, we call it the Papal State! However, it cannot be regarded as a 'country', it is very chaotic, and the population may be tens of millions! When I was on the boat, I was thinking, what if there Everyone can wear the silk of my Da Song, use the porcelain and tea of ​​my Da Song, how much money can my Da Song make? It is simply endless! Countless goods of my Da Song can be shipped there and sold there People!" Wu Gong said.

He excitedly talked about the things there, and gradually Wu Lin's eyes showed excitement.

"There are some important strongholds there, we must occupy them! But it's too far to go there, no matter going east or west, it will take more than half a year!" Wu Gong said again.