In the late summer of the 23rd year of Zhenguan, in a sea east of the Tang Dynasty, a wooden boat was slowly sailing towards the coastline.

Where is this? I don’t know if it is in Jiangnan or Jiangbei? Several people on the boat were standing on the deck and talking.

They passed by an island country earlier and stayed there for several days to rectify, and also clarified the next route, so they could be sure that behind the coastline in front of them should be the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

I just don’t know where it was in the Tang Dynasty. After all, there was no satellite positioning system in this era. They are obviously not familiar with this coastline.

He walked north first. One of the young men said: If you go to the south, you will have to go north and go against the current, slow and laborious.

If you go to Taibei, don’t go to Goguryeo. Another shorter young man said.

The rest of the people were talking:

Even if I go to Goguryeo, I am not afraid. Didn’t the Japanese say that they have traded merchants with Tang Chang in recent years, and they have long stopped fighting.

Then you have to be careful, it’s all at the doorstep, I don’t want to have any more troubles.

In my opinion, this place should be Jiangnan.

Look at the trees on the mountain so green.

It was August this time, and the trees were naturally green.

These young men who spoke should look like Tang people, but they only dressed in a foreigner.

In addition, there are some people of other skin colors on the ship, including white and brown, and there are even several black-skinned sailors. The ship is not big or small, but there are quite a lot of people.

Joe! Look over there! At this time, a teenage brown-skinned crew member pointed to the south and shouted.

!The young man called Qiao, who was not Qiao Junlin, was there? At this time, he saw him walking to a high place, watching for a while, and said to others: It should be a merchant ship, not a thief.

In fact, at this time, the people on the ship opposite were also observing them, and both sides were worried about meeting pirates.

After some observation and greetings, Qiao Junlin asked someone to put a small boat on board the other party's cargo ship with another young man.

The owner of this cargo ship is a Chang'an merchant. This time he led the team out to run the boat, his eldest son and a young man under thirty. He had heard of Qiao Junlin and the others in Chang'an City earlier.

After confirming the identities of Qiao Junlin and others, the other party immediately showed off his expression of picking up the treasure and welcomed them very enthusiastically.

Not to mention what kind of rewards Qiao Junlin and his friends can get from the court this time, just because of the relationship between Qiao Junlin and the Luo family, there is no business that doesn’t want to be close to him.

In the past two years, with the development of the textile industry, the status of their Luo family has also risen. In the Chang'an City, a Luo Family Machinery Workshop and a Chang'an Women's Textile College have always mastered the most advanced new textile technology. Even the weaving workshops established by princes and nobles have to buy equipment from them to hire female workers.

Their business has also planned to set up new weaving workshops recently, but they can't buy equipment. The orders for Luoche Machinery Factory have been scheduled for two or three years later, and the engineering and technology have become even more advanced. I heard that the Ministry of Industry can also build such equipment, but it is not sold.

If Qiao Junlin can get online with Luo Da, perhaps the equipment in their workshop will be available.

So the young master was very friendly to Qiao Junlin and others, and along the way he told them a lot about what happened in Chang'an City in the past few years.

A few days later, the two ships arrived in Suzhou and docked at Songjiangkou. There was a port here and many food shops traveled against each other. I heard that they were desolate in the past, but it was only in recent years that they had just developed.

The group went ashore to have a meal and walked on the street next to the port. In addition to the reverse food shops, there are mostly cloth shops, and the most are white stacks of cloth and silk, mostly made of machinery, and there are also cashmere products, blankets, towels and other items.

The goods were bought and sold by Han people, and there were all kinds of clothes and languages. The environment on the street was relatively simple, but there were a lot of goods coming in and out. After a transaction was settled, it was often hundreds or thousands of pieces of goods sold.

The Chang'an caravan that had traveled with Qiao Junlin and others before was going to sell goods here, saying that most of the ships they transported were canned fruits, and merchants from the north often came to buy them on this street, and the prices they gave were often relatively high.

Selling it on the spot saves so much effort to transport it to Chang'an City. In the past two years, the price of canned fruits from the south from the south is not very ideal.

The two sides had a hot meal together and made an appointment to renew Chang'an City in the future, so they parted.

Qiao Junlin and the others parked their big ship in the harbor and hired another smaller ship into the river. As long as the money was in place, they would tell the boaters where they were going, and they would not have to worry about the rest.

They first took a boat to roam up the Songjiang River, then entered the canal, and then boarded the railway tracks in Xuzhou.

The carriage ran fast on the railway tracks, crossing the large mountains and fields, and after driving for a few days, it passed several bridges. The bridge was so high that it could make people dizzy if they looked down. The boat was sailing under the bridge, and the mast of the big ship was as high as five or six feet high, and could pass through safely.

What I saw and heard along the way was really different from before.

If you weren't able to find some familiar things, you would almost think that you had gone to another world, and it would be like another world.

Especially those cities where lights are brightly lit every night, and those women who ride swallows flying on and off work in colorful clothes always make people feel as if they are in a dream.

In September of that year, Qiao Junlin and his party arrived in Chang'an.

The return of their group did not cause much shock at the beginning. It was mainly because with the development of shipping in recent years, people in the Central Plains have already learned a lot more about the Western Regions than before, and those who returned from the Western Regions seem to be less strange.

Some people even joked that Qiao Junlin and the others were lost in the Western Regions, so why did they go out and return after returning over the years?

Qiao Junlin did not talk much to others, but just arranged for the people in his team to return home. If he had no place to stay in Chang'an City, he would live with him in the Luo family's county lord's mansion.

There were also people in the palace who said that it was a saint who held a banquet. At noon tomorrow, Qiao Junlin and other people who traveled west would go to the palace to attend the banquet.

Luo Yong also asked people to prepare meals for them at the county lord's mansion. Almost all the famous delicious food in Chang'an City were bought.

After Qiao Junlin washed up, he used some food and then sat in the main hall with Luo Yong and talked.

He saw many fresh things along the way, and the weather in Chang'an City was also quite different from before.

This is what you are talking about in that world? Qiao Junlin asked him.

This is just the beginning. Luo Yong replied.

Qiao Junlin smiled, so he stopped talking.

I heard that Luo Yong was promoted to Minister of Works in the first month of last year. Qiao Junlin also lived in Chang'an City for many years and was determined to become an official. In this era of aristocratic politics, in which he paid attention to his origins, Luo Yong, a young man with no foundation from a farmer, can get to this point today? Qiao Junlin knows it is not easy.

The journey must be very difficult. After a while, Luo Yong asked at the long scar on Qiao Junlin's neck.

The scar should be extremely long, and it was only a small piece of it exposed outside. It was hidden under the clothes. I don’t know what kind of hideous appearance it looked like. Looking at his hands, there were scars on the back of his hands and some small scars on his fingers.

There was no danger. Qiao Junlin smiled.

He brought eleven people out, and when he came back, there were also eleven people in a neat way, which was enough. If there were fewer people, he would not know how to explain this to their family.

If we were traveling, Qiao Junlin was mainly because of Luo's relationship that he became the leader of their group.

Then a few years later, when he returned here, he was already a well-deserved leader among the people.

This is not only because Qiao Junlin is very skilled in martial arts, but also because he is kind and loyal and responsible.

There were several people in the team who had to save him, so that they could complete the journey of these years without any danger and stay alive. Now they could return to Chang'an City as a living person and enjoy the glory of the saints rewarded by the saints.

Is there any gain? Luo Yong asked him.

Reaped a lot. Qiao Junlin replied.

That's good. Luo Yongdao. If the harvest is not abundant enough, how can they fight with their lives when they have been working hard for several years?

Others may not be able to see any clues about the people Qiao Junlin brought back. Luo Yong only took a look and had a guess in his heart.

Those men with brown skin are not like Europeans or Africans, and are likely to be Native Americans.

The next day, Qiao Junlin and others entered the palace to attend a banquet. The saint first rewarded them, and then asked them about their experiences along the way.

Especially during the journey back, how did their group return to the Tang Dynasty along the maritime business road from the Western Regions? The saints and the ministers in the court were very concerned about it.

In recent years, the Tang Dynasty's shipping has also developed, but most of them were Hu merchants coming to Tang for transactions. Tang people rarely went abroad to do business, so they mostly just engaged in offshore transportation. Tang people also wanted to know about the sea routes.

Qiao Junlin said: We did not return from the west, but from the east.

As soon as he said this, many people present could not understand it. At that time, their group started from Changle County and headed for the Western Regions. After a few years, how could they return from the east? How big a turn would they take?

Returning from the east? I wonder what this meant? The saint held a wine cup and looked at Qiao Junlin and asked.

I and several Persian warriors set out from the coastline west of the Persian country, wanting to explore the world further west and see if there are other countries there.

Along the way, I first passed several small countries and then sailed for several months to arrive on a land. The land was several times larger than the Tang Dynasty. There were many indigenous people living there, and there seemed to be no country of big or small.

I waited to sail along the coastline of that land for a long time, and from their east coast to the west coast, and then traveled west for several months, then returned to the coast east of the Tang Dynasty.

As soon as Qiao Junlin said this, there was a noise in the hall!

The Persian Kingdom was on the west side of the Tang Dynasty, and when we walked west from the west side of the Persian Kingdom, we would return to the Tang Dynasty! How could this be done?

My dear said, is it true that land without a country? Li Shimin stared at Qiao Junlin quietly and asked word by word.

Qiao was willing to use his head to guarantee the guarantee. Qiao Junlin said confidently.

There was another noise in the hall!

A land without a country is several times larger than the size of the Tang Dynasty! What does that mean?

Afterwards, Qiao Junlin and the others showed everyone in the hall one by one the people and things they brought back from that land.

The tall men with brown skin had been together with Qiao Junlin and others on the sea for several months, and also learned some Chinese during this period. At this time, everyone in the hall asked about them and they told them about their hometown.

This meal was originally a banquet for the honor, but it eventually turned into a very serious discussion.

The saint asked many questions with the ministers, and asked Qiao Junlin and others to come one by one, and the doctors who were walking with Qiao Junlin and others also added evidence.

When their group left the palace, it was already the next afternoon.

I haven't slept all night, and I'm really tired.

Qiao Junlin sat in the carriage, opened the window and looked at the pedestrians and vehicles on the street outside, looking at the thriving scene.

Luo Yong said that all this is just the beginning.
Chapter completed!