"Your Majesty, Li Chongwen, the tribute envoy of the Tang Dynasty, has a script to report!"
Natalie had just translated into Chinese the words that King Alexius of Rome was forced to say asking for help from the Song Dynasty. Before Zhao Kai could reluctantly agree, Li Chongwen, the tribute envoy of the Western Tang Dynasty, suddenly took out a Scroll, get up and play.
How can you still jump in line?
Zhao Kai glanced at the Hu man surnamed Li, and without waiting for the imperial censor to come out to maintain order (he was a tribute envoy after all, so he always had to give him some face), he smiled and nodded and said, "Li Qing, what do you want to discuss with me?" explain?"
Li Chongwen walked directly in front of Zhao Kai, then bowed and raised the scroll high with both hands, "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the King of Tang asked someone to draw a geographical map of all countries, including the Celestial Dynasty and the Western countries. I brought Jinling to present to Your Majesty for a visit."
It turned out that I was going to present a map of the world. Although Zhao Kai had already drawn a map of the world, his drawing was just a sketch and it was not very accurate. Now it would be good to see the map drawn by others.
Zhao Kai nodded and said with a smile: "Bring it to me for a look."
A chamberlain immediately stepped forward, took the scroll handed by Li Chongwen, checked it, and found no sharp weapon that could be used for assassination. Then he placed the scroll on the table in front of Zhao Kai and slowly unfolded it. Only halfway through unfolding it, Zhao Kai realized something was wrong. This world map is too long. It is a six-foot couplet, which means it is six feet long and one foot six or seven inches wide. On such a long map, the terrain from the Hexi Corridor to Constantinople was drawn... Although Zhao Kai looked nothing like it, he wrote this in the blank space of the map. With.
As for what's wrong with the picture, it's that it's too "long". It’s not that everything is “long”. The Hexi Corridor in the picture up to Gaochang is relatively normal. The distance from Gaochang to the west to Constantine has been at least doubled! The most exaggerated one is the section from West Chang'an Prefecture to the west coast of the Caspian Sea, where a large desert Gobi appeared out of thin air.
At the same time, Caspian Sea has also "gained weight". What should have been a long and thin sea has now turned into a round "fat sea".
After looking at this severely distorted map, Zhao Kai smiled softly and asked Li Chongwen: "Li Qing, how many miles is it from the west of Junshibao to Liangzhou? How long does it take to get there?"
Li Chongwen replied: "Your Majesty, the journey from Junshibao to Liangzhou is about 20,000 miles. The road is difficult and dangerous, especially the stretch from the Chu River to the west to the West Sea. There are 2,000 miles of vast desert. There is no rain all year round, making it difficult for humans and animals to travel. Although there are several oases in the desert, they are not large enough to supply an army. When the remnants of the gold thieves entered this desert, they brought a lot of drinking water with them, but many people still died of thirst. .
In addition, to the west of Juemo is the vast West Sea. Although the West Sea is the sea at the center of the earth, it is also two thousand miles wide from east to west. The east coast of the West Sea is a desert, so there are no trees that can be cut down for shipbuilding. Therefore, the ships sailing in the West Sea are all from Persia on the south coast of the West Sea and Georgia in Xi'an on the West Sea. The north coast of the West Sea is the Kipchak grassland. Since there are no big trees to cut down, it is impossible to build a ferry.
Therefore, if the army wanted to conquer Rome westward, it would be almost impossible to cross the West Sea. The only choice was to march north along the West Sea into the Kipchak grassland. But in this case, we have to go around thousands of miles. And all the tribes in the Kipchak grassland have been won over by Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Xiebao, and the leaders of each tribe have surrendered to the gold thief and even married the gold thief..."
His words stopped abruptly here, because he had already seen the serious faces of the officials of the Song Dynasty - of course he knew that he was deceiving the emperor! But the man he bullied was Li Renxiao's man, not his Li Chongwen man. He, Li Chongwen, came to Jinling City on behalf of his emperor Li Renxiao to deceive Zhao Kai, the leader of the world. Although he was ordered to deceive the emperor, his life would still be in danger if he was exposed.
So it’s better to stop in moderation...if you bully less, you will be less guilty.
Zhao Kai is so wise! Of course he knew that Li Chongwen was deceiving him, but he, a little tribute envoy, would not take it upon himself to fool him. This must be Cao Mian and Li Renli's idea.
What do they want to do?
Thinking of this, Zhao Kai smiled coldly: "The thief can go, so can I!"
"Your Majesty is wise..." Li Chongwen said, "My king, regent and prime minister also know that your majesty will not let the gold thief go just because of the long distance. But it is not easy to travel 20,000 miles to beg a thief, so we have to invite the heavenly soldiers. Be fully prepared.
In addition, Rome, where the remnants of the Golden Thief were based, was located in a vast and fertile land in the far west. There was a large population and fertile land. Although the countries are now divided and divided, in the past they were unified by the Roman state, which was also the Qin state mentioned in our history books. Now the remnants of the gold thieves have seized the Roman inheritance of the Comnenus dynasty with the power of firearms. And the power of firearms is unparalleled in the extreme west... Maybe the golden thief can use the power of gunpowder to strengthen the Roman family in the East, and then unify the extreme west, and then open up the prosperous age of Rome, and conquer the land of thousands of miles and thousands of people. If people are united and united, their power will be unstoppable! "
What? Can the thief Wanyan Xiebao still unify Europe? Zhao Kaixin said: Could it be that he is also the chosen one? Unifying Europe was something that not even the French magistrates and the German Greeks were able to accomplish. Why should Xiebao protect an outsider? With his little gunpowder? Dream on!
So what Li Chongwen said still sounds wrong!
"Oh," Zhao Kai smiled, "Then speaking, once this Xiebao unites the Far West Continent and gains tens of thousands of Western barbarians, he might even counterattack the Central Plains in the future, right?"
"You should not dare to counterattack the Central Plains," Li Chongwen said worriedly, "but the land of the Western Tang Dynasty will inevitably be invaded by them! The king of the Western Tang Dynasty sent his ministers to Jinling, not only to escort the King of Rome, but also to conquer the great empire. The officials are begging for help to strengthen their power against the invaders!"
Oh, this is to support the bandits, no, it is to flatter the bandits to respect themselves!
Zhao Kai had already guessed the thoughts of the people in the Western Tang Dynasty... However, he would not be angry at a small envoy. Instead, he looked at the ministers in the hall with a smile and asked: "Your Majesty, What do you think?"
"Guan family," Li Xiaozhong, the right privy envoy, had served as the governor of Hexi for a long time and was quite familiar with the situation in Hexi and Anxi. He immediately went out to report, "I have also heard people say that the road from Suiye to Rome is long... ....However, there is not just one road to Rome. I once asked Hu merchants who traveled to Hexi about things in the West, and learned that there is a proverb in the West that says there are thousands of roads, all of which lead to Rome."
Zhao Kai asked Li Chongwen again, "Li Qing, can we take a shortcut to Rome?"
"Your Majesty," Li Chongwen said, "I have lived in the Western Regions for my whole life and have been engaged in business for five generations. I still know the road to Rome from the west... I have also heard the proverb that all roads lead to Rome. However, I have heard it said. There are only two or three roads that can be taken from West Chang'an Prefecture to Rome. The first is to cross the West Sea to the west; the second is to go north to Qinchak and Rakshasa; and the third is to go south to Dashi. But these three roads are not What a shortcut!”
Zhao Kai smiled and said: "But I know there is a shortcut that I can take... I can take the sea route to Rome!"
"Sea route?" Li Chongwen had seen the real sea in his life, so naturally he did not dare to comment on whether the sea route was near or far, so he could only say, "I don't know about the sea."
Zhao Kai looked at Natalie again, "Bome, would you like to ask the king of Rome if you know the shortcut to Rome by sea?"
Natalie received the order and asked for directions in Greek.
"Dear Your Majesty the Emperor, I don't know that there is a sea route from Jinling to Rome."
Of course Alexios shook his head. He didn't know of any shortcuts by sea... It was impossible to take the sea route! At most, they would be detained as soon as they reached the Red Sea, and then they would have to take the land route to the Mediterranean coast. This is not a shortcut at all, but a long way!
By the way, this is not yet the Age of Discovery, and the sea route around Africa has not yet been opened up.
Zhao Kai also remembered it, so he smiled and said to Alexius I: "King Yizi, don't worry, I will find a shortcut to transport troops to Rome. Just wait patiently, don't count. There will be good news in the new year.”
After saying this, Zhao Kai sent Alexios, Bagration, Li Chongwen and Marihasiya to leave. Zhao Kai also ordered Hu Yin to arrange for the four people to stay at the Guest House under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites, so that they could wait for the good news there.
After the four of them left, Zhao Kai glanced at the Chongzheng Palace and asked, "Do you know where the shortcut to Rome is from the west?"
The ministers looked at each other, but no one said anything.
There seems to be no shortcut to this matter!
Zhao Kai smiled: "Do you still remember the theory of a round earth?"
As he spoke, Zhao Kai stood up, then reached out to pick up the map on the desk, and put the two ends of the map scroll together to form a cylinder.
The ministers below were a little unbelievable when they looked at the tube-shaped map that was presented to them - how could the earth be a tube? People standing under the tube are not allowed to fall?
This "ground tube theory" is definitely false!
Zhao Kai didn't care what the people below thought, he just said to himself: "In fact, the reason why we climb high and look far away in daily life is because the earth is a sphere... If the earth is a sphere, then as long as we cross If you cross east of Japan, you can reach the west coast of the former land of Western Rome. It is now owned by Western countries such as France, France, and England. From there, it is not too far to reach Eastern Rome!"
Zhao Kai's statement... seems to be missing something? To the east of Asia and to the west of Europe is the New World of America!
But Zhao Kai doesn't mention it now... Talking about it now looks like making it up, no one will believe it!
So Zhao Kai played a clever trick and "hided" America, turning Asia and Europe into two continents facing each other across the sea.
He looked at the stunned ministers again, and then continued: "Of course, this is just a hypothesis. We should send an expedition fleet to look for it. If we can find it, we won't be afraid that Rome will be far away!"
