It was almost noon, and the sun was scorching in the sky. On the edge of the endless desert, Ma Wu was enjoying the cool under the pergola. According to the Central Plains calendar, it should be winter now, but thousands of miles away, the desert in the extreme west is still hot.

It was the first time that Ma Wu went so far away and wanted to celebrate the New Year in this foreign country, which was very exciting.

At this moment, like the others under the pergola, he was wearing a long robe. Not only did he not feel hot, but he also felt a little cool. With the help of communication, he "talked" with the tribal chiefs in front of him while eating various delicacies.

The diet here is completely different from that in the Central Plains. Ma Wu was not used to it when he first arrived, and was not used to it, and he was exhausted from diarrhea and finally recovered.

Then I ate all kinds of local delicacies and had a lot of fun.

Today, several enthusiastic tribal chiefs set up tents and pergolas outside the city, discussed the purchase of stallions with him, and invited him to eat the most famous local delicacies, so Ma Wu was looking forward to it very much.

In the desert in the distance, there are many busy figures. They are sent by tribal chiefs to catch prey in the sand, and delicious food is made of prey.

Ma Wu was quite expecting this, but he was a little confused, because there seemed to be no decent wild animals in the desert, even if there were, they were probably snakes.

When he thought of eating snakes, Ma Wu became a little furry because he was afraid of snakes since he was a child. However, when he was in Lingbei, he ate snake soup several times, and at least he had learned the ability to not vomit after eating it.

If he had a choice, he would not want to eat snakes, but he was not easy to refuse when he saw the enthusiastic appearance of several tribal chiefs, because this would cause misunderstandings to the other party and think that he looked down on them.

If you want to make a business, you have to force yourself to smile. Ma Wu thinks that it is just a snake now, and it is no big deal.

After a while, all the hunters came back and began to deal with prey near the pergola. Ma Wu glanced inadvertently and was stunned: these preys were not snakes, but four-legged snakes.

To be precise, it is a four-legged snake living in the desert. It is a big head, like a puppy, with rough skin, ferocious appearance, and round belly.

Can this thing be eaten?

Ma Wu felt furious. Looking at the four-legged snakes that were being stripped of skin, the shopkeeper Wu next to him coughed dryly, awakening the distracted Ma Wu.

Manager Wu is the big shopkeeper of Nanyang Trading Company. He is now based here. As the shopkeeper of the branch, he handles maritime trade affairs for the company. Manager Wu is knowledgeable and has suffered a lot. Seeing that Ma Wu seemed a little embarrassed, he came over and whispered:

"Come on, even if a plate of shit is brought up now, we have to eat it..."

Ma Wu nodded: "Well...I know."

What Manager Wu said was rough and not rough. Ma Wu was promoted by Ma Zheng and came here from thousands of miles away, shouldering heavy responsibilities, and not messing up things.

Ma Wu put away his thoughts and started chatting and laughing with several chiefs again. For him, eating four-legged snakes was much better than eating shit.

After a while, a pot of fragrant delicacies were prepared and served. The cooking utensils used to cook the delicacies were the iron pots that Ma Wu and Manager Wu had given to the tribe chiefs before.

They looked at the cooked four-legged snake in the pot (which had been chopped into small pieces), and felt sad, but they had a smile on their face and started eating.

It’s better to eat four-legged snakes than to eat shit...

As he ate, Ma Wu realized that the four-legged snake was indeed delicious, but... he was still a little uncomfortable.

He came from the west by the order of the emperor, of course, for the sake of excellent horses. The desert where he is located is the territory of the "Oriental people". "If transliterated, it is "Saraxon".

This large desert is boundless and is said to be thousands of miles in radius, and there are many nomadic peoples in the oasis. For these nomadic peoples, there is a name for Roman, that is, "Saraxon", which means "Orients".

The reason for saying this is because for the Roman Kingdom, the Great Desert was located on the east side of its Afiliga region, and among the Saracens tribes, there were tribes who did not do animal husbandry and specialized in business.

From the perspective of Persian countries, this desert is located on the southwest side.

This large desert is now nominally under the jurisdiction of Persia. It is separated from the Afilica political region of Rome. There is a large port on the southeast edge of the desert, called the "Gate of the East". The sea ships heading to the far east set from here.

Two years ago, envoys sent by the dynasty followed Persian envoys to Persia on a sea route. After a lot of hard work, they arrived in Persia last year.

This year, Ma Wu was ordered by the emperor to take a sea boat from the Nanyang Trading Company to Persia, and came to the harbor called "Gate of the East", and then traded with the Saracen tribe outside the city to buy good horses.

The desert where the Saracens tribes live in, produces good horses, called "Sarracens Horses". This kind of good horse has been famous since ancient times. Before, Ma Wu heard overseas merchants talk about such good horses and was skeptical, thinking that it was over-reputable.

There were also Sogdian Hu merchants who traveled thousands of miles to sell Saracens horses to the Central Plains, or overseas merchants transported this horse to Guangzhou Fanyu by sea and then resold it to the Nanyang Trading Company. Therefore, Ma Wu had seen this horse in the Central Plains.

However, the goods that Ma Wu had turned a few hands on were not the best. The Saracens horses that Ma Wu had seen in the Central Plains were somewhat flawed. They were either older or had hidden diseases due to long journeys.

The emperor was very interested in the Saracens horses and hoped to introduce excellent stallions to improve the Central Plains horse breeds. Therefore, the horses crossed the ocean and went to the Saracens desert to select stallions.

At the same time, Nanyang Trading Company has set up a branch at the "Gate of the East" to officially launch a maritime trade business. Thanks to the matchmaking of Manager Wu, Ma Wu was able to quickly get in touch with the friendly Saracen tribe.

Last year, the envoy of the dynasty arrived in the Persian capital of Taixifeng and met with the "King of Kings" of Persia. Instead of determining the various matters of the two countries in carrying out maritime trade, it was precisely because of this "east wind" that the Nanyang Trading Company was able to establish its own trading point in the extreme west.

At this Eastern Gate, the various goods brought by the Central Plains sea merchants were very popular with the Saracens tribe, so the demand for Ma Wu to buy stallions was quickly responded.

He wanted to choose Saracens here, then load a ship and transport it back to the Central Plains by sea, and take care of it personally along the way to ensure that these horses can arrive in the Central Plains safely and reproduce in the Central Plains.

As the evening approached, the banquet ended. Ma Wu and Manager Wu returned to the port area, finished washing up, and got together to discuss the matter.

After the imperial envoy arrived at Taixifeng, he received warm hospitality from Persia, but stayed in Taixifeng until this year before he was able to set off for Rome.

There are many reasons, mainly because the relationship between Persia and Roman countries is subtle. These two countries have fought for hundreds of years and have deep grudges. Even if the Persian "King of Kings" is the son-in-law of the Roman emperor, the rift between the two countries cannot be compensated.

The envoys of the dynasty were going to Rome, and many of the nobles in Persia were unwilling to do so, so the Persian "Houzhonghou" (the daughter of the Roman emperor) needed time to straighten the relationship.

Fortunately, the envoy finally went to Rome as he wished. According to the news received by Manager Wu before, the envoys of the imperial dynasty were grandly welcomed in their countries.

The progress was going smoothly, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The emperor sent an envoy to contact Persia and Rome. In fact, there was no idea. He just wanted to express goodwill and then carry out maritime trade with these two countries.

Open up new markets for goods produced by Zhongyuan Factory and workshops.

Speaking of this, Ma Wu and Manager Wu are both full of hope for the future. Although there have been sea merchants in the Central Plains since ancient times, and this "Eastern Gate" was settled in the Jin Dynasty, no one expected that sea trade could be done in this way.

For hundreds of years, Zhongyuan Maritime Merchants have been doing maritime trade by fighting alone. Now it’s different. Everyone united under the organization of Maritime Trade and Nanyang Trading Company to form a fleet, caravans traveled across the ocean together, and went thousands of miles away to do “direct sales” to ensure maximum profits.

While the two were feeling, someone suddenly came to report the news he had just received, and the news said something happened in the Roman country.

The specific situation is probably at the end of this autumn, a military force stationed to the border mutiny, and the riots turned around and came to the capital. Somehow, the officials along the way were unable to intercept them.

This news first spread to the Afiliga government in Rome, and then to the place through the oral of the business travelers.

When Ma Wu heard this, he was a little surprised: The border army rebelled? It turned out that the Roman Kingdom also had the bad habit of drinking blood from soldiers?
Chapter completed!