"This is not a bird man, it is a religious symbol of Zoroastrianism, similar to the spiritual position of the ancestors. If you dare to say in person, this symbol is a bird man, those devout believers are afraid that they will turn against each other on the spot."

"oh..."

"Also, Zoroastrians do not avoid close relatives and marriages. Brothers and sisters, sisters, uncles and nieces can all get married. Don't make a fuss when you see such a couple in the future."

Yuezhou Prefecture is in Yueyang, and it is temporarily in the inn that is in the palace. Yuwen Wen, who has been parading here, was chatting with Wanyi and Chen Xian, and Concubine De Xiao Jiuniang is also present.

In the past few days, it has rained heavily, and Yuwen Wen can't go anywhere, so he can only stay in the palace. He has become more and more busy during the day and is easily ridiculed as "promoting lust in the day", so he chose to chat with his beloved concubines.

In order to cultivate more common language.

At this time, he pointed to the Zoroastrian sign on the picture album and briefly explained some Zoroastrian knowledge to Chen.

Chen Meng grew up in Jiangnan since childhood and did not know much about Zoroastrianism. She couldn't help but feel silent when she heard Yuwen Wen say that Zoroastrians do not avoid close relatives and marriages.

Of course, the topic of Zoroastrianism will not be discussed for no reason. The cause of the incident was news from Guangling, which just arrived in Yueyang yesterday.

Officials from the Maritime Bureau came to report that Persia, in the extreme west, sent envoys to Guangzhou by sea, and the envoys wanted to meet the Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty and submit letters and gifts.

Speaking of Persia, it is about its national religion. Persian state religion is called "Zoroastrianism" in the Central Plains. Although it was introduced to the Central Plains, it was mostly believed by the Hu people. Sogdians, who were famous for their good at doing business, believed in Zoroastrianism.

Persia had long been in contact with the Central Plains, so it was nothing strange to send envoys to the court, but after Yuwen Wen learned the news, his first reaction was to doubt, doubt the other party's identity.

In "historically", many of the so-called foreign envoys who paid tribute were faked by foreign merchants, which catered to the Central Plains court's need to "all nations come to court" scenes. The tribute trade, which was the best in the face, urgently needed a large number of foreign envoys to fill the scenes.

Yuwen Wen did not have the habit of pretending to be fat, nor did he want to do a face-saving project of "all nations come to pay tribute". He wanted to confirm whether Persian envoys were true or false.

If it is true, then follow the rules and let the other party eat, drink and live well. The Ministry of Rites will handle the hospitality.

If it's fake, hehe...

Yuwen Wen doesn't want to be a sucker, and he doesn't want to slap the swollen face and make him fat, so whoever dares to lie to him will never let him go if he finds out.

Regarding the uninvited guests, the Maritime Service and Nanyang Trading Company were also worried about being deceived, so they were very cautious in handling the matter. They asked these Persians who claimed to be Persian envoys to temporarily live in Panyu, Guangzhou, and asked the other party to send a few capable people to arrive in Guangling, Yangzhou in advance and accept the inquiries of the people.

What these people said about the situation in Persia made Yuwen very interested.

Just as many things have happened in the Central Plains over the past decade, many things have also happened in Persia.

About twelve or thirteen years ago, the Turks attacked Persia, but in the decisive battle, the Turkic army was defeated and the Turkic Khan was killed.

The Turks were defeated very badly in this battle, which led to the disappearance of the Turks at that time, and later returned to the Central Plains. Of course, this is a later story.

The Persian commander who led his army to win a decisive victory was named Baihelan Chubin (transliteration). He did not receive the glory for granted, but was humiliated by the Persian king (called the King of Kings). Therefore, the heroes of the country rebelled and were unstoppable, resulting in the king being overthrown by the nobles in a coup.

Prince Kusahe (transliteration, or Kuss-Lao) was supported by the nobles as the new king, but could not stop the attack of Baihelan Chubin. In the end, he could only flee in panic and flee to his old enemy Rome (called Fuqi as the Central Plains, and later called the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire) for asylum.

The Roman emperor Morris (transliteration, or Morris), not only married his daughter to the other party, but also sent troops to assist Cusa and restore the country.

But Kusa and his father-in-law defeated Baihelan Chubin and successfully restored their country.

As agreed, he ceded part of the territory to the Kingdom of Rome, but then he was stern.

Kusahe, who regained the throne with the Roman army, did not become his father-in-law's puppet. Persia and Rome's old enemies are still old enemies.

Yuwen Wen, who learned the news, couldn't help but remember the stories of Duke Mu of Qin and Duke Wen of Jin (Chong'er) in the Spring and Autumn Period.

When Chong'er was the son of Jin, he went into exile everywhere. Later, he was taken in by Duke Mu of Qin. Chong'er not only married Duke Mu of Qin, but also had his father-in-law send troops to help and seize the position of king of Jin.

Even if you have such a great kindness, Chong'er should turn against you or turn against you, and his personal favors must be taken aside in the face of national interests.

The news that the Maritime Division learned from these people who called themselves Persian envoys made Yuwen interested in the current Persian king Kusahe.

He felt that judging from the other party's legendary experience of being promoted, lost, and restored, the young King of Kings would probably be a master who was unwilling to be lonely and would inevitably pursue great achievements.

The emperor's grand career is of course to expand territory. The enemy of Persia and Rome, who have been fighting for many years, have been promoted to the throne by their father-in-law for the sake of national interests and to hold the throne, will sooner or later go to war against their father-in-law and their country.

This "characteristic" of specifically cheating the father-in-law (wife's family) made Yuwen feel inexplicably kind, so he decided that once he confirmed that these Persians who arrived in Panyu were all real Persian envoys, it would be profitable to take the opportunity to expand the exchanges and ties between the two countries.

When fighting, you have to rely on the army, and when raising soldiers, you have to rely on money and food. In order to boost morale, rewards must be reduced, which also requires money.

Where does money come from? Snatch it, that is the fastest way to make money, and the more serious way is to do business.

Therefore, Yuwen Wen felt that if the King of Kings in Persia was really ambitious, he would definitely not refuse the suggestions for strengthening trade (maritime trade) between the two countries.

Of course, if the other party disdains to do business, it is just going to fight, which is easy to do.

Because both countries have one common enemy, that is, the Turks.

Previously, Rome and the Turks joined forces to attack Persia from the east and west. Now, don’t the Turks, which are sandwiched between Persia and Zhou, deserve to be unlucky?

Yuwen Wen believed that if Persia wanted to deal with Rome in the west, it had to stabilize or defeat the Turks on its back (east). If Zhou wanted to solve the Turks, it needed an allies to attack them, so that the Turks could lose sight of one thing.

Once such a situation is formed, even if the armies of the East and West countries cannot fight together, it can make the Turkic army run away. In other words, the difficulty of Persia against the Western Turks and Zhou against the Eastern Turks is always much lower.

Yuwen Wen became happier the more he thought about it. He got up and walked back and forth in the room. After thinking about it, he asked Xiao Jiuniang and Chen Xian to prepare pens, ink, paper and inkstone.

Seeing Yuwen Wen writing quickly in front of a map, Chen Za asked curiously: "Does Erlang want to write a Chinese book?"

"Scholars of the country? I don't know how to speak Persian."

"Then you can write it first and then let someone copy it in Persian words?" Chen Yao's thinking was still very flexible, but Yuwen Wen shook his head: "Idiot, the identities of these so-called messengers have not been verified, so it's too early to prepare the letter of the country."

"Then?" Chen Xian couldn't guess what Yuwen Wen was going to do. Xiao Jiuniang looked at the map and asked tentatively: "Is this schematic diagram... a road to Haiyi?"

"That's right, the Haiyi Road is the starting port of Guangzhou Fanyu. It goes south through the South Ocean countries, turns west, passes through the Lion Kingdom and the coastal countries of Tianzhu to reach the Persian Kingdom. But in fact, Persia is not the extreme west. Going west, there are many foreign countries outside the territory, which also have abundant resources."

"There are real black-skinned people there, giraffes with long necks, zebras with black and white stripes, hippos in the river with honest appearance and extremely ferocious appearance, and all kinds of animals, which are all things that have not been seen in the Central Plains."

As he was talking, a scene of dusk appeared in Yuwen Wen's mind, which was a fragment of memory from another era. Although he was in the Central Plains, he seemed to be on the African prairie.

The classic melody sounded, and the magical voiceover echoed.

Spring is here, and it is the season for animal mating again...

Yuwen Wen coughed dryly, retracted his thoughts, and looked at the schematic diagram of "Tonghaiyi Dao" in front of him, and he had an idea.

Whether the Persians who came to the Central Plains by sea this time were birdmen (scammers) or real gods incarnations (envoys), the Maritime Silk Road really needs to be strengthened. Yuwen Wen believes that only by relying on strong export demand can another strong support for the development of domestic industry and commerce.

This is not his whimsical idea. The Maritime Silk Road had already taken shape in the Han Dynasty. After hundreds of years of development, Zhongyuan Maritime Merchants are no strangers to this route. What they lack now is a backbone, and someone needs to organize the Maritime Merchants who fight alone to achieve a qualitative breakthrough.
Chapter completed!