In the Zhao Wang Mansion in Beijing, Zhou Chong set up a family banquet in a warm cabinet in the inner house to entertain Xie Da, who came from afar, Xie Lingyun's father. In recent years, Xie Da used Zhou Chong's support to bring the Xie Family Chamber of Commerce.

The business is very big. From the Ming Dynasty to the South China Sea, from the South China Sea to India and Africa, you can almost see the fleet of the Xie Family Chamber of Commerce.

What made Xie Da even more happy was that just two years ago, one of his concubines actually gave birth to a son for him, which made them finally have a descendant of the Xie family. In addition, Xie Lingyun was also Zhou Chong's concubine.

This was even more unexpected, so Xie Da has been very motivated in the past two years and has been running on the sea for almost all the years. Although Xie Lingyun wrote to him many times to ask him to pay attention to his health, Xie Da didn't care.

In fact, Zhou Chong can understand Xie Da’s thoughts. On the one hand, Xie Lingyun used to be his wife, but after he recovered his identity, he became a concubine, which is worse than Wang Jinxuan, who is the official concubine.

Wang Jinxuan's father was a senior official of the court. Especially after the power of the Censorate increased greatly, Wang Lun became a person who could be on par with the Prime Minister of the Cabinet. Therefore, Xie Lingyun could not compare with Wang Jinxuan in terms of family background or identity.

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 wealth and maintain a certain position.

There is also Xie Da got a son from old age. He naturally loved this son who cared about his hope of passing on his family. Moreover, the way he pampered his son is no different from that of ordinary people. He tried his best to leave his son.

A bigger family business can make his son lose for a few more years even if he becomes a prodigal son in the future.

It was precisely for his own children that Xie Da had almost discovered all his potential. In recent years, he has made the Xie Family Chamber of Commerce one of the largest chambers of commerce at sea after the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, and it is also the most famous in the Ming Dynasty.

One of the businessmen is very difficult.

Originally, Xie Da has been busy running a chamber of commerce overseas in recent years. Not to mention coming to Beijing, even Songjiang rarely returns. However, when winter just came this year, Xie Da suddenly came to Beijing and directly

When he came to the Zhao Palace to see his daughter and son-in-law, Zhou Chong did not dare to neglect Xie Da's father-in-law, so he summoned his family together and prepared a family dinner to welcome Xie Da.

Compared to a few years ago, Xie Da looked much older, especially his temples had a lot of white hair and a few fine lines on his forehead. Xie Lingyun couldn't help crying when she saw her father's old appearance.

As a result, Xie Da was moved and sad. The father and daughter said a lot, but finally finally stopped crying.

Everything next seemed very harmonious. Wang Jinxuan took Bai Mengwan and several children to salute Xie Da, which made Xie Da very happy, especially the three children born by Zhou Chong and Xie Lingyun, which made Xie Da laugh even more.

After getting started, Wang Jinxuan took the children back and Xie Lingyun and Zhou Chong accompanied Xie Da for dinner. However, when she was halfway through the meal, Xie Lingyun also left because she also saw that,

My father suddenly came to the capital and must have something important to discuss with Zhou Chong. Although she is Xie Da's daughter, she is in charge of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce now, so if Xie Da talks about the interests of the Chamber of Commerce, she will be her daughter.

It will be a little embarrassed, and it would be better to leave everything to Zhou Chong to handle.

After Xie Lingyun left, Zhou Chong accompanied Xie Da to drink a few glasses of wine and chatted for a few gossips, and then suddenly said, "My 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 this is being prepared. Is the fleet already set off now?"

Since Zhou Chong sent the god Zhou to drive Portugal from the west coast of India to the east coast of Africa, the entire South and Indian Ocean routes belonged to the Ming Dynasty. The maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty naturally dared to disturb the routes along the Indian Ocean, but the Ming Dynasty and Nanyang and other places were

If the goods want to make the most profit, they still have to ship them to Europe. However, now the routes in Europe are controlled by the Portuguese, and they can only sell the goods to the Portuguese in Africa, and then the Portuguese transport the goods back to Europe.

This made the greatest profit, which naturally made the merchants of the Ming Dynasty dissatisfied. So several maritime chambers led by Xie Da were preparing to organize a fleet to Europe. They had invited the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce to form a fleet together, but then there was no further article.

Now Zhou Chong thought of it by chance, so he asked.

When Zhou Chong asked about this, Xie Da smiled bitterly, "Don't mention it, we were too arrogant at the beginning. I thought that if we had money and ships, we could organize a fleet to Europe, but when we asked about it,

I found out that the Portuguese did not allow anyone to interfere in their interests, so as long as we dare to send a fleet, I am afraid that they will be ambushed by their army just after crossing Africa, and it is impossible to reach Europe. So the key to this matter

It is not about us, but about the Portuguese, but it is absolutely impossible for the Portuguese to agree to it, unless our Ming navy can drive the Portuguese back to their hometown in Europe!”

"Haha, I know it's the result. The Portuguese were originally a bunch of pirates. They asked them to give up their route to Europe, unless they were using force. However, the Ming Dynasty's troops are mainly used to clear the border troubles in the north, and the navy only

If you can slow down, it will probably be difficult to use troops against the Portuguese in recent years!" Zhou Chong smiled and shook his head. He knew that this was Xie Da's words, but he did not mind taking some movements from the court.

Leak it to Xie Da to prevent the big businessmen from thinking about it.

Sure enough, when he heard Zhou Chong's answer, Xie Da showed a slightly disappointed expression, but this disappointed expression just flashed by, and soon Xie Da returned to normal, and then smiled and said to Zhou Chong: "Wenda,

The Portuguese route will definitely not be able to pass in a short period of time, but we found out that a new route was just to pass this route, but the court needed to come forward, so I came to see you."

Hearing Xie Da directly expressed his intention, Zhou Chong also smiled and said, "I will not hide it from my father-in-law. I have received some news about your intention before, but the people who sent the news about the Red Sea and Africa.

I don’t know much about the situation on the side, so what I know is very limited. I also ask my father-in-law to tell the story of this to my son-in-law in detail.”

Zhou Chong actually knew Xie Da’s purpose for a long time. After all, Xie Da did not come alone this time, but came with a group of famous merchants from the Ming Dynasty. In addition, Zhou Chong also heard some from the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce.

The news, so I also know the reason why Xie Da came to find him. It was just inconvenient to say it out loud, so I could only deliberately raise the matter of going to Europe, which led to the following topic. Now that Xie Da has said it himself, Zhou Chong will no longer act.

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Xie Da also knew that Zhou Chong's identity is different. As the governor of the Ming Dynasty, if he didn't even know this, it would be a bit abnormal. So he did not show too much surprise, but instead pointed it out.

Nodded and told me about my purpose.

It turned out that Xie Da came to discuss with Zhou Chong this time. Although the Portuguese were driven out of India by the Ming Dynasty, they still firmly controlled the route from India to Europe, so that they could share the exchange of goods between East and West.

The maximum profit made the merchants of the Ming Dynasty both greedy and hated. So in this case, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty also began to look for a new route to Europe, and then used the new route to break the Portuguese monopoly.

However, as long as you have seen the world map, you can find that there are only two natural routes from India to Europe. One is to bypass Africa westward and then arrive in Europe. The route has the shortest distance, and the other is to pass eastward through

The South and Pacific Oceans, after arriving in the Americas, they will go around and pass through the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. However, this route is too far and too dangerous on the way, so it is not practical at all.

It was also because of the two routes above, one of which was not practical, and the other one was monopolized by the Portuguese. Therefore, although the Ming merchants spent a lot of financial and material resources to find a new route, they had no progress until

Once, after a Muslim businessman learned about this, he finally told them another route, but this route was not natural, but was dug by hand. This route is the famous Suez Canal that runs through the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

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The Suez Canal in later generations was built by the French in the 19th century, but in fact, as early as 200 BC, the Egyptians had already dug a canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. This canal was in the Roman period in 117 BC.

As well as the long-term opening of the four major caliphs in the seventh century AD, it made it easier to communicate maritime between Europe and Asia.

But in the eighth century AD, due to various reasons, the Arab Empire gave up the canal, and the canal was gradually abandoned due to its disrepair. Since then, the connection between Europe and Asia,

It is through difficult land transportation, or it can only bypass Africa to reach each other's ports.

After hearing about this, Xie Da and other Ming merchants immediately organized a batch of goods to Egypt, selling goods while inquiring about the authenticity of the matter. As a result, local residents and historical materials told them that this matter was indeed

Really, this made Xie Da and others ecstatic and immediately began to discuss the possibility of reopening the Suez Canal.

However, Xie Da and the others were obviously happy a little too early. When they found out the situation on both sides of the Suez Canal, they suddenly realized that they had no way to open the canal. Unless the Ming Dynasty court came forward, this matter could be successful.
Chapter completed!