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Text Chapter 516 Reopening the Suez Canal

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    In Prince Zhao's Mansion in Beijing, today Zhou Zhong held a family banquet in a warm pavilion in the inner house to entertain Xie Da, Xie Lingyun's father, who came from afar.  The business is huge. From the Ming Dynasty to Nanyang, and from Nanyang to India and the coast of Africa, the fleet of the Xie Family Chamber of Commerce can be seen almost everywhere.  In addition, what makes Xie Da even more happy is that just two years ago, one of his concubines gave birth to a son for him. This made the Xie family finally have a child. In addition, Xie Lingyun was also Zhou Chong's concubine.  This was an unexpected surprise, so Xie Da was very motivated in the past two years and ran at sea almost all year round. Although Xie Lingyun wrote to him many times asking him to take care of his health, Xie Da didn't care.  In fact, Zhou Zhong can understand Xie Da's thoughts. On the one hand, Xie Lingyun used to be his common wife, but after he regained his identity, he became a side concubine. This is worse than Wang Jinxuan, who was the main concubine, and  Wang Jinxuan's father was a high official in the imperial court. Especially after the power of the Metropolitan Procuratorate increased greatly, Wang Lun became a figure who could be equal to the Prime Minister of the Cabinet. Therefore, Xie Lingyun could not compare with Wang Jinxuan in terms of family background and status.  The reason why Xie Da worked so hard to develop his own chamber of commerce was to allow Xie Lingyun to overwhelm Wang Jinxuan in terms of financial status, so as to maintain a certain status.  There is also the fact that Xie Da got a son when he was old. He naturally dotes on this son who carries his hope of passing on the family. Moreover, the way he dotes on his son is no different from ordinary people. He desperately wants to leave something for his son.  A bigger family fortune will make his son loser for a few more years even if he becomes a prodigal in the future.  It is for the sake of his two children that Xie Da has tapped into almost all his potential. In the past few years, he has managed the Xie Family Chamber of Commerce into one of the largest chambers of commerce in the sea, second only to the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, and is also the most prestigious in the Ming Dynasty.  Being one of the businessmen can be said to be very difficult.  Originally, Xie Da has been busy running a chamber of commerce overseas in the past few years. Let alone coming to the capital, he rarely even goes back to Songjiang.  But just as winter was about to enter this year, Xie Da suddenly came to the capital, and went directly to Prince Zhao's Mansion to meet his daughter and son-in-law. Zhou Chong did not dare to neglect Xie Da, his father-in-law, so he called his family together.  Together, we prepared a family dinner to welcome Xie Da.  Compared to a few years ago.  Xie Da looked a lot older, especially a lot of gray hair had appeared on his temples, and there were a few fine lines on his forehead. When Xie Lingyun saw her father's old appearance, she couldn't help but cry. As a result, Xie Da was offended.  Da was moved and sad at the same time.  The father and daughter talked a lot at that moment, and finally stopped crying with great difficulty.  Everything next seemed very harmonious. Wang Jinxuan, Bai Mengwan and several children also saluted Xie Da, which made Xie Da very happy, especially the three children born to Zhou Zhong and Xie Lingyun, which made Xie Da smile happily.  Don't open your mouth from ear to ear until you finish distributing gifts to the children.  Wang Jinxuan left with her children. Xie Lingyun and Zhou Zhong accompanied Xie Da to eat. However, during the middle of the meal, Xie Lingyun also left with an excuse because she also saw that her father suddenly came to the capital and must have something important to ask for.  Zhou Zhong discussed it, although she is Xie Da's daughter.  But now she is in charge of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, so if Xie Da talks about matters related to the interests of the chamber of commerce, she, the daughter, will be a little embarrassed, so she might as well leave everything to Zhou Zhong.  After Xie Lingyun left, Zhou Zhong drank a few glasses of wine with Xie Da and chatted for a while, and then suddenly said: "Father-in-law, I heard that you and several chambers of commerce were planning to organize a fleet to go there some time ago.  Europe, I wonder how the preparations for this matter are going. Has the fleet set off now? "Since Zhou Zhong sent Shen Zhou to drive Portugal from the west coast of India to the east coast of Africa, the entire routes in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean belong to the Ming Dynasty.  The maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty naturally dared to disturb the people's routes to the Indian Ocean. However, if the goods from the Ming Dynasty and Nanyang and other places want to obtain the maximum profit, they still have to be transported to Europe. However, the European routes are now controlled by the Portuguese.  They could only sell the goods to the Portuguese in Africa, and then the Portuguese would transport the goods back to Europe to obtain the maximum profit. This naturally made the merchants of the Ming Dynasty dissatisfied, so several maritime chambers of commerce headed by Xieda prepared to organize ships  The Nanyang Chamber of Commerce had previously invited the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce to form a fleet to Europe, but nothing happened. Now Zhou Zhong thought of it accidentally, so he asked.  When Zhou Zhong asked about this matter, Xie Da smiled bitterly and said, "Don't mention it. We were too arrogant at first and thought that we could organize a fleet to go to Europe if we had money and ships. But when we inquired about it,  I discovered that the Portuguese do not allow anyone to interfere with their interests, so as long as we dare to send a fleet, I am afraid that we will be ambushed by their army just after crossing Africa, and it will be impossible to reach Europe. So the key to this matter  It does not depend on us, but on the Portuguese. But when it comes to their own interests, it is absolutely impossible for the Portuguese to agree, unless it is our Ming Dynasty.?Can drive the Portuguese back to their hometown in Europe!  " "Haha, I knew this was the result. The Portuguese were originally a group of pirates. Let them give up the route to Europe, unless they use force. But now the Ming Dynasty's troops are mainly used to clean up the border troubles in the north. The navy  We can only slow down for a while. I am afraid that in recent years, it will be difficult to use troops against the Portuguese!  Zhou Chong smiled and shook his head. He knew that this was Xie Da trying to trick him, but he didn't mind leaking some of the court's developments to Xie Da to prevent those big businessmen from thinking about it. As expected, after hearing Zhou Zhong's words  Answering, Xie Da obviously showed a bit of disappointment, but this disappointed look just passed by for a moment. Soon Xie Da returned to normal, and then smiled and said to Zhou Zhong: "Wenda, the Portuguese side has a shorter route.  There is definitely no way to pass within the time, but we have found out about a new route. If we want to pass this route, we need the court to come forward, so I came to see you.  " Hearing Xie Da directly express his intention of coming, Zhou Zhong also smiled and said: "To be honest with my father-in-law, I have received some news about your intention of coming before, but the person who sent the news has some concerns about the Red Sea and Africa.  I don't know much about the situation there, so what I know is very limited. I also asked my father-in-law to tell my son-in-law about this matter in detail.  ¡± Zhou Zhong had actually known Xie Da¡¯s purpose for a long time. After all, Xie Da did not come alone this time, but with a group of famous businessmen from the Ming Dynasty. In addition, Zhou Zhong also heard from the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce  Some news, so I also know the reason why Xie Da came to see me, but it was not convenient to tell him just now, so he could only deliberately bring up the matter of going to Europe, which led to the following topic. Now that Xie Da has said it himself, Zhou Zhong will no longer act.  Xie Da also knew that Zhou Zhong had a different status now. As the supervisor of the Ming Dynasty, it would be really abnormal if he didn't know this, so he didn't act too surprised.  He nodded and explained his purpose of coming. It turned out that Xie Da came to discuss a big matter with Zhou Zhong this time. Although the Portuguese were driven out of India by the Ming Dynasty, they still firmly controlled the flow of goods from India to Europe.  Routes, so that they can share the maximum profits from the exchange of goods between the East and the West. This made the merchants of the Ming Dynasty both greedy and resentful. So in this case, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty also began to prepare to find a new route to Europe, and then use the new route to Europe.  The route broke the Portuguese monopoly. However, anyone who has looked at a world map can find that there are only two natural routes from India to Europe. One is to go west around Africa and then reach Europe. This route is also the shortest.  The other way is to go east through the South Ocean and the Pacific, reach the Americas, then go around and reach Europe through the Atlantic. However, this route is too far and too dangerous on the way, so it is not practical at all.  Of the two routes, one was not practical, and the other practical one was monopolized by the Portuguese. Therefore, although merchants from the Ming Dynasty spent a lot of financial and material resources to find new routes, there was no progress until a Muslim businessman found one.  After learning about this, they finally told them about another route, but this route was not natural, but was dug artificially. This route was later to be famous as the Suez Canal, which connected the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.  The French built it in the 19th century, but in fact, as early as 200 BC, the Egyptians had dug a canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. This canal was used in the Roman period in 117 BC and in the 7th century AD.  The long-term openness during the Four Caliphates made maritime communication between Europe and Asia easier. However, in the eighth century AD, due to various reasons, the Arab Empire abandoned the canal. As a result, the canal fell into disrepair.  It was slowly abandoned. From then on, the connection between Europe and Asia was either through difficult land transportation or could only reach each other's ports by going around Africa. Xieda and other Ming merchants were there.  After hearing about this incident, they immediately organized a batch of goods to be sent to Egypt. While selling the goods, they inquired about the authenticity of this incident. As a result, local residents and historical data told them that this incident was indeed true, which made Sheida  The others were ecstatic and immediately began to discuss the possibility of reopening the Suez Canal.  However, Xie Da and the others were obviously happy too early. When they inquired about the situation on both sides of the Suez Canal, they suddenly discovered that they had no way to open the canal. Unless the Ming Dynasty came forward, this matter could be successful.  .
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