My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 811 Return

Zhu Zhantan stayed in the military camp for most of the day. Finally, he wanted to ask Zhu Yong for a rifled gun for his collection, but Zhu Yong refused. After all, weapons cannot be given to others privately. If Zhu Zhantan wanted it, , he should go directly to Zhu Zhanhe to ask for it.

Zhu Zhantan was unwilling to get a rifled gun, so as soon as he returned to the Governor's Mansion, he immediately came to the study and planned to write a letter to Zhu Zhanhe. He had to ask for a rifled gun anyway. With this kind of gun, he can practice his marksmanship, and he will definitely gain a lot from hunting in the future.

But just when Zhu Zhantan was writing a letter, someone suddenly knocked on the door and said, "Your Highness, the people from Jin Yiwei are here!"

"Let him in!"

Zhu Zhantan replied without raising his head.

As the governor, the Jin Yiwei in Egypt are also at his disposal. Many situations need to be collected through the Jin Yiwei, especially the movements of the Ottomans on the opposite side, which are the focus of Jin Yiwei's attention. Therefore, Jin Yiwei often comes to see Zhu Zhantan.

Soon I saw Qianhu, a guard in Jinyi, walking in quickly. He immediately saluted and said: "Qianhu Ma Rong pays homage to the prince!"

"No need to be polite, what's going on with you Jin Yiwei?"

Zhu Zhantan asked without raising his head.

"Your Majesty, the capital sent someone here to escort a person through the Port of Suez and let us work together to protect him secretly. I think this matter is of great importance, so I reported it to you, Your Majesty!"

Ma Rong bowed and replied.

"The person you Jin Yiwei is escorting? What is his identity?"

Zhu Zhantan finally put down the brush in his hand, then raised his head and asked.

The Jin Yiwei are the royal personal guards. Generally, the people who can be asked to come out to escort are at least members of the royal family. But besides myself, how could anyone from the royal family come here in Egypt?

"The other party is a Venetian businessman. It is said that His Highness the Crown Prince personally ordered us to escort him."

Ma Rong replied again.

"A mere Venetian businessman actually wants you to escort him, and it was ordered by my eldest brother himself. What is his identity?"

Zhu Zhantan was shocked when he heard this. Even if he thought with his toes, he could guess that the identity of this businessman must be unusual.

"This subordinate doesn't know. People from the capital are very tight. I guess they may not know, and they even asked us to escort them secretly. On the surface, the Venetian merchant is just an ordinary businessman. He will arrive by steamer tomorrow. Port Suez.”

Ma Rong replied again.

The information he got was also very limited. The people from the capital only asked them to cooperate in secret protection and said nothing else.

"So mysterious, it seems that this person is really extraordinary!"

After hearing this, Zhu Zhantan couldn't help but frown, showing a thoughtful expression. After a while, he gave instructions to Ma Rong.

"In this case, you don't need to ask any more questions. You just need to fully cooperate with what the capital tells you!"

"Yes, I am resigning!"

Ma Rong immediately agreed, then turned and left the study.

After Ma Rong left, Zhu Zhantan looked at the letter he had already written, and then added another paragraph at the end, asking about the identity of the Venetian businessman. Although this matter may have nothing to do with him, he This person is very curious, so if you meet him, you must inquire about him.

On the afternoon of the next day, a steamship with black smoke entered the Port of Suez. After parking at a special pier, people got off the ship along the steps. Most of them were dressed in gorgeous clothes. After all, the price of a steamship was Not everyone can afford it.

Barcelona was not conspicuous among the guests. After all, among the guests who disembarked, there were more than a dozen Hu merchants. For business people, time is money.

After getting off the ship, Barcelona looked around at this bustling port. Although the people around him looked normal, Barcelona knew that there must be people from the Han Dynasty secretly protecting him. This was also the person when he left the Han Dynasty. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince promised him.

Originally, Zhu Zhanhe wanted to send someone to escort Barcelona directly to the Port of Suez and then send him out of the country. However, Barcelona was worried that doing so would attract the attention of the Ottomans, so he finally persuaded Zhu Zhanhe to use his original After all, he has been living in the Ottomans for many years, and he is sure to pass through the Ottoman territory safely.

Of course, in the Han Dynasty, Barcelona would be protected secretly by Jin Yiwei, but what shocked him was that during this period, although Barcelona felt that there was someone protecting him around him, he could not determine the identity of the other party. From this point alone, Barcelona I am more in awe of the strength of the big man.

Thinking of this, Barcelona reached out and touched the two letters sewn inside the clothes. One of them was a letter written by Helen to her parents, and the other was dictated by Zhu Zhanhe and written by Helen herself. The letter mainly expressed The friendliness of the big man suggests that the two sides can cooperate in many aspects. Bassa knew very well that these two letters were related to the future of the entire Venice, so he now had a very heavy burden and had to take the letters back no matter what.

However, even with the heavy responsibility, Barcelona was still very calm. According to his previous habit, he first found an inn to stay, then went to have dinner. After resting for a day in Suez Port, he headed north along the canal.

Barca did not set out alone, but joined a caravan heading to the border market in the middle of the river. Since the opening of the border market, commercial exchanges between the Han and Ottoman people have become more frequent. The cargo throughput of a border market alone is very high. It was so amazing that caravans also gathered on the official road from Suez to the border city.

Basa added some money to the caravan, and it was very easy to mix among the caravans. In addition, all the sand bandits in Dahan territory had been wiped out, so the journey was very safe, and they arrived at the border market half a month later.

When Barcelona first came to the border market, it had just opened and there were almost no buildings. But when he came to the border market again half a year later, he only saw that there were many shops here and all kinds of goods were constantly coming in and out.

When Basa entered the border market, he left the caravan and walked around by himself. He even bought some cloth samples. He seemed to be an ordinary businessman.

Barça stayed in the border city for one night, and then left the border city of Dahan the next day and returned to Ottoman control of the border city.

However, compared to the Dahan side, the border market on the Ottoman side is obviously much more depressed. Although some shops have been built, there is not much business. These shops mainly purchase goods from Dahan and do some resale business.

Barcelona did not stop at the Ottoman border market, but after paying the tax, he successfully left the border market, continued to find a caravan, and headed north along the canal.

Along the way, you can see that the canal is full of slaves digging, which is similar to that of the big man.

However, the number of slaves digging the canal on the Han side was smaller, but their tools were sophisticated, and new technologies such as steam engines were used, which made the excavation progress faster.

Although there were more slaves on the Ottoman side, the conditions were so bad that they didn't even have the tools. In some places, several slaves shared one tool, and the food conditions were extremely poor. In some river sections, infectious diseases even broke out, causing Countless slaves died tragically, which slowed down the progress of canal excavation.

Barcelona was also collecting information about this canal along the way, because he knew very well that when this canal was opened, it would be the day when the war broke out between the Han Dynasty and the Ottomans, and Venice would also play one of the two powerful countries. A very important role, and even became an ally of the Han in the Mediterranean.

Of course, the premise is that the big man can successfully defeat the Ottomans and enter the Mediterranean. Before that, Venice must ensure that the island of Cyprus is not taken away by the Ottomans.

However, after leaving the border market, Barcelona and the others did not have a smooth journey. The main reason was that there were checkpoints on the road from time to time, requiring the passing caravans to pay taxes. In addition, when they were in the wild, they were harassed by sand pirates from time to time. Fortunately, the caravans spent money. Two teams were hired to ensure the safety of the caravan.

Barcelona was on tenterhooks all the way, not because they were afraid of their identity being exposed, but because they were afraid of dying inexplicably on the way.

Fortunately, there was no danger in the end. Barcelona followed the caravan and successfully arrived at Port Mufas at the northern end of the canal. This port was newly built and named after Governor Mufas. The entire port has not yet been built, but Part of the pier has been built and is barely usable.

Arriving at Port Mufas, Barcelona finally felt relieved. He did not find an inn to stay in as before. Instead, after entering the port, he walked through several streets under construction and finally came to an inconspicuous place. In front of the yard, he knocked gently on the door.

Soon there was a sound of footsteps inside, and then the door opened, and a gray-haired man-eater poked his head out. When he saw Barcelona outside, the man-eater was also very surprised and said: "Master, you are finally back. !”

"Go in and say something!"

Basa signaled with his eyes, and the big eater immediately welcomed him into the yard, and then carefully closed the door.

"Is there anything unusual here recently?"

After Basa entered the courtyard, he immediately asked the big eater.

This big man-eater is named Mance. He used to be a slave, but was later bought by Barcelona and followed him around. Because Mance was a stable man and capable of doing things, he became Barcelona's most effective helper.

"Master, there is nothing too unusual here at the port. It's just that the Ottomans have become more aggressive in collecting taxes. If this continues, our business will lose money!"

Mance replied immediately.

"Money is a trivial matter. Can the smuggling ship leave the port and go to Venice now?"

Barca asked again.

The Ottomans prohibited commercial dealings with Venice and even blocked Venice's maritime transactions. However, this was all official. Privately, there were still many businessmen secretly trading with Venice, that is, smuggling fleets. After all, as long as they could make money, even if Someone would do it even at the risk of beheading, and Barcelona planned to take these smuggling boats back to Venice.

(End of this chapter)