"What do the envoys of the two countries think about the train?"

"When you go back to your Majesty, I saw that the envoys of the two countries were as white as paper. They looked at the trains that sprayed smoke and fire and would roar, and they couldn't stand firmly."

"Isn't it scared to be wrong?"

"Don't worry, your Majesty, the envoys of the two countries are safe and sound, but they can't believe what they see and hear. They keep asking questions along the way, making the Wei-Minist and others feel dry and dry."

"If you are used to it, you can't live without it."

"Your Majesty said that Weichen and others have been promoting tea in Taisifon and Constantinople, and the effect is still good."

"Have the emperor of the Roman Kingdom stabilized the domestic situation now?"

"Stayed, after all, the two countries have a ceasefire, and Rome has a chance to breathe. Now it is going to trade with the dynasty again, so its domestic aristocrats are naturally happy."

In the palace, Wang Shichong, who returned from the Western Regions, was reporting to the emperor the national conditions of the Roman and Persia in the extreme west. At the same time, he also introduced the situation of envoys from the two countries on their way to Beijing.

Persia and Roman countries have had a feud for hundreds of years. The two countries fought and stopped, and basically they shook hands and made peace when they were tired of fighting. After they had enough rest, they felt that they were strong and started fighting again.

More than 20 years ago, Persia changed, and Persian prince Kusa and Persia were in exile. He was attracted by the Roman emperor and became the son-in-law of the Roman emperor. Then he was restored with the help of his father-in-law, and then the two countries achieved peace.

But this peace lasted for only about ten years, and a rebellion occurred in Rome, causing the emperor to be killed. As his son-in-law, the Persian monarch, the king of kings, Kusahe, naturally would not stand by, so the war between the two countries rose again.

Under the banner of avenging his father-in-law, Kusa and his support for the prince who was in troubled Rome, who was not sure whether it was true or not, raised an army. At the beginning, they didn't think so much, just wanted to take back the territory that had been cedeed to the Roman Kingdom as a remuneration for restoration.

As a result, the chaos in Rome became more and more intense, and Persia saw that there was an opportunity to take advantage of the situation and had the idea of ​​taking advantage of the situation.

Later, his ambitions expanded and he even wanted to take the opportunity to destroy the Roman Kingdom.

The Roman Kingdom itself was in civil strife. Faced with the fierce attack of Persia, he could only resist it and gradually could not resist it.

As a result, Zhou State intervened at this time and sold "hard explosives" to the new king of Rome, helping him win a key decisive battle. Now he is still mediating strongly, and a large number of nobles in Persia are dissatisfied.

So what if you don’t agree?

In front of Persian monarchs and ministers, the envoy of Zhou demonstrated the power of violent explosives. With obvious intimidation, the Persian monarchs and ministers calmed down a little, so there was a ceasefire and a handshake.

But how long can peace obtained by intimidation last?

It won't last long.

Wang Shichong drank a cup of tea and continued talking.

Roman countries urgently needed peace. Of course, they hoped to have a long-term truce to cultivate and maintain health and takeout and carry out maritime trade with Zhou countries, but Persia countries were different.

Zhou State was too far from Persia, and many nobles in Persia had a demand for war on Rome to obtain land, slaves and wealth. This demand was very strong. Even the king of kings could not ignore it, otherwise they would die sooner or later in the palace.

The profits obtained from maritime trade with Zhou State could not meet the needs of the great nobles in Persia. The aristocrats' dissatisfaction was increasing day by day, and sooner or later they would overwhelm the fear of fierce explosives, and then everyone forced the monarch to start a war again.

In this regard, Zhou State's strategy is to use both soft and hard, and to intimidate and give sweetness to the other party.

What is the sweetness?

Expanding the maritime trade volume and allowing the maritime trade to Persia to be great enough to block the mouths of major nobles in China.

The idea is good, but it is difficult to realize, because in general, Persia is the buyer and Zhou State is the seller.

The silk, porcelain, tea and various handicraft products of the Zhou State were all commodities needed by the Persian State, and the output of the Persian State was less needed by the Zhou State.

In this way, even if the trade volume between the two countries increases tenfold, the Zhou State will benefit the most, and it will still empty the Persian nobles' wallets.

Therefore, it is necessary to find a hot-selling commodity for Persia to equilibrium the "trade deficit" between the trade between the two countries. This hot-selling commodity did not before, but now it has it.

That is oil.

Of course, Yuwen Wen knew the famous Persian Gulf Oil in later generations. Although there was no technology to exploit offshore oil in this era, the "gulf area" in which Taixifeng is located is rich in oil resources.

In Persia, the merchants of Zhou State also heard that the surrounding areas of Taixifeng (especially coastal areas) have had "black springs" since ancient times. The black water that emerges is very viscous and can be ignited with fire, so it can be used as lamp oil.

This viscous black water is what the Central Plains calls oil.

During the period when Wang Shichong and his colleagues were in the Taixi Fencing, they persuaded the Persian monarch Kusahe to send troops to follow Zhou's technicians to "dig wells" everywhere in the coastal areas.

The equipment used for drilling wells was of course brought from the Central Plains, but the result was that it was a knives: when drilling wells in coastal areas, it was not necessary to drill too deep, and even only relying on local well drilling technology, the oil wells were drilled.

It took half a year to drill the first oil well, and then in less than three months, more than a dozen oil wells were drilled.

These oil wells are not deep, and after the "oil veins" are immersed, the oil continues to surge outwards and even "spray" out.

The Persian monarchs and ministers did not have any joy in this regard, because these "black waters" were just lamp oil to them.

It still smells bad when burned and cannot reach the level. It is better to burn candles mixed with spices.

However, when the Persian monarch and ministers heard the Zhou envoy's offer of oil, they were so shocked that they couldn't even close their mouths: the Zhou State was willing to exchange silk, porcelain, tea, paper and various handicraft products for these oil.

This means that Persia does nothing, and only needs to make a large number of wooden barrels, fill the oil flowing from each oil well, and seal it, and rely on this oil to exchange for various commodities from Zhou State.

Can there be such a good thing in the world?

Of course, there is, because oil is very valuable and was looked down upon by people in the past, it is simply that people do not know the value of oil.

Petroleum can be fractionated through fractionation technology to distillate wax oil, lubricating oil and fine gua oil.

The technicians who followed the Zhou Dynasty's envoys to Taixifeng used the equipment and technology they brought to show the "magic powers" to Persian monarchs and ministers. Through simple fractionation, the black oil was "turned into treasure" and extracted wax, lubricating oil, and high-quality essential turbid oil.

These fractionated products can be exchanged for money as commodities, and Zhou Guo urgently needs such commodities.

These petroleum products do not have to be transported back to the Central Plains thousands of miles away. After receiving the goods, the Nanyang Trading Company can sell them to India and various countries in Southeast Asia, and the profits are enough to make people dizzy.

At the same time, such products are also needed in Persia, because its national religion, Zoroastrianism, also known as "Zoroastrianism", is almost crazy about the eternal "holy fire" on the altar.

With the essential turbid oil distilled from oil, altars in various parts of Persia can easily achieve the eternal brightness of the holy fire. The people's demand for lighting determines that the sales of candles and the essence turbid oil will not be bad.

Therefore, the oil well that produces oil is the "money well" that sprays money. With such a "money well", you can make money without fighting. Persian monarchs and ministers are so happy that they are so bright that they are full of money.

Therefore, Persian monarchs and ministers were full of confidence in carrying out new forms of trade cooperation with Zhou, and were also tolerant of their old enemy, Roman.

Zhou Guo (Nanyang Trading Company) and the Persian court "cooperated", Zhou Guo produced technology, Persia produced manpower and material resources, built several refining factories, "dispersed" oil, produced candles, lubricating oil, refined tin oil and other products, and made a fortune together.

Part of its products is used as money to purchase goods transported by the Zhouguo (Nanyang Trading Company) fleet, and part of them are exported to other countries. The operating income is "divided" by the two parties according to the agreed proportion.

Because the oil output of these wells is amazing and the demand of the Zhou State is also amazing, the trade income brought to the Persian court in the first year (a ten-year period) signed by the Zhou State delegation and the Persian court was at least 80% of the annual income.

When Wang Shichong said this, he took out a few sketches and presented them respectfully: "Your Majesty, this is a long-term sketch of the first oil well in Persia this time, as well as a scene sketch of the two countries' trade agreements."

Yuwen Wen looked at the sketch and felt better and more happy. When Wang Shichong saw this, he flattered him appropriately:

"I heard that 'It is better to teach people how to fish than to teach people how to fish'. Your Majesty is wise and can actually come up with a way to exchange oil for peace, so that a century-old enemy can shake hands and make peace. The wise rulers in ancient times are not as good as Your Majesty."

"This is over, it's over," Yuwen Wen smiled and Wang Shichong stopped at the right time: "Your Majesty, the Persian state has huge oil benefits, coupled with the deterrence of the dynasty, there should be no idea of ​​tearing up the peace treaty with the Roman state in the short term."

"The king of Persia has great means and takes the initiative to distribute many oil wells to some great nobles, greatly alleviating the dissatisfaction of the nobles. Now, when the Persian king and ministers saw that they could make a lot of profits by relying on oil wells, they put out large orders and ordered goods from Nansi."

"Silk, tea, cotton, porcelain, paper, soap, glass mirror, etc., they want everything, the more the better, so their envoys kept reminding the ministers along the way, reminding the ministers not to forget to urge the Nansi to prepare the goods."
Chapter completed!