Chapter 1284 The Messenger Goes South, the Ship Goes West

"Escort out of the city! Send a message to the south..."

"Let go!"

After the messenger in the cloud delivered the letter, in the evening of the same day, another group of messengers ran out of the craftsman camp and rushed south along the straight and wide stone road.

Going south from the capital of Qincongcan, more than a hundred miles along the way, is the heart of Gyeonggi Province, full of rich farmland, manors, villages and market towns. Thousands of military nobles and senior warriors, or emerging military landowners, serve as the basic foundation of the kingdom's rule, and are concentrated and enfeoffed here, constantly cultivating a large number of new fields.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! The Kingdom's transport team!..."

The roads in Gyeonggi are well maintained and there are a lot of business trips. Among the teams along the way, the most special one is the transportation team from the Black Rock City Mining Area.

A squadron of hundreds of warriors, each fully armed, led several times the number of cargo transporters and marched towards the capital. The peasants were panting, pushing rows of loaded wheelbarrows. Most of the cars in the front row were covered with waterproof straw mats, but from the faint golden luster and heavy wheel marks, it could be judged that these cars were full of valuables, equivalent to one-third. Weight of gold...bronze!

Yes, after several years of copper mining and bronze smelting, the price of bronzes in Gyeonggi has finally dropped to one-third of gold, which is significantly lower than that of the surrounding states and ministries, but it is enough to drive countries in the Old Continent crazy. The price of bronze throughout Central America, although also slowly declining, is still almost two-thirds of gold.

Therefore, before Mexico's southern expedition to Yunzhong, many long-distance merchants from Yunzhong would come with gold to buy bronzes, and then transport them back to Yunzhong to sell them in exchange for twice the gold...

"In all parts of the world, golden and durable bronze vessels are more sought after by nobles than heavy and soft gold vessels!..."

Through the trade of bronzes, copper ware, lake gems and Mayan turquoise, the gold reserves of the entire Mesoamerican world are constantly tilting towards the Kingdom of the Lake. Under Shulot's instructions, the Institute of Divine Inspiration also began coinage research, trying to mint a standard gold equivalent, the so-called "gold coin."

As for the specifications of the "gold coins", Shenqi's skills are limited and it is difficult to make them too thin. Therefore, there are only two types of "gold coins" initially decided. One is a square gold talisman weighing one pound, with the hummingbird emblem of the main god engraved on it, which is used for the purchase and sale of bulk commodities. There is also one tael (50g) of golden cocoa from the Kingdom, which is in the shape of a sacred oval and is used for daily consumption by nobles...

Well, the weight of a kingdom's golden cocoa, in general, is fourteen Venetian gold ducats. As for a gold talisman, it is even more rare. According to the exchange ratio of one gold and fifteen silver at this time, it is only 240 taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty...

"Lord God! What are those black stones? They look very evil..."

"Ha, are you from a foreign country? That is the burning underground black stone, which has the evil power of the dead, but has been purified by the priests in the mining area of ​​Black Rock City through rituals... The old priest in the village quietly told me that these The black stones are actually unbelievers who fell into the abyss of the earth, turned into solidified sculptures, and then were dyed black by the underworld...and then, they will be made into honeycombs, burned and dedicated to the Lord God, and also make those unbelievers The soul is given a chance to be saved and converted!…”

"Hiss! It's terrible, it's really terrible! God bless you! I am your most devout believer. Please guide my soul after death and don't fall into the abyss..."

The uncovered wheelbarrows in the back were filled with dark coal and rocks, which made the villagers who saw them very uneasy. Soon, low sounds of prayer began to sound from the mouths of passing villagers, spreading fear and fear-driven beliefs.

In fact, these black fuels must be supplied to the nearby Black Rock City mining area for smelting, and then transported to the craftsman camp in the royal capital. Only a small amount of coal will flow into the market and be made into honeycomb-like briquettes, which will be used by warriors and nobles...

"The Blackstone City mining area has been expanded again, and more and more mine slaves are needed!... I don't know where to replenish a batch..."

"Last year, the commander of the Monkey Army attacked the Northern Tekos people and sent thousands of mining slaves, which should be able to last for two or three years... and now the commander of the Purple Grass Army is attacking the Mixtec seaside, and he should also bring back a lot of mines in the clouds. slave…"

"Don't mention it! The Black Rock Mountain Iron Mine on the seaside is also expanding... The mining slaves captured by the Lithospermum Corps are all sent there first... You haven't seen the iron farm tools from the South. Now they are shipped in baskets and then sent to Are there various manors and villages?…”

"Ha! That kind of useless iron tool will break after just two swings. How can it be compared with the bronze produced in our mining area..."

"Witness the Lord God! Things are different now! The iron tools shipped from the south are very durable now, at least they are easy to use as farm tools. The key is that they produce so much, so fast... Who knows when they will be replaced The bronze produced in our mining area is..."

"Haha! Hard-to-use iron will replace easy-to-use bronze? You are really like a parrot, talking nonsense..."

"You blind rat fish..."

"Hush! A messenger from the royal capital is coming! Quick! Let the civilians make way and let the king's messenger go first!..."

"Praise the Lord God! Praise Your Majesty!..."

Amid the prayers of the transport team, messengers rushed past. He ran through the villages in the Lake District, across the flat county roads, and reached the border of Zicao County. Then, entering the rugged mountains, the second-level county road turned into a first-level dirt road, and both sides turned into dense mountain forests. In the mountains and forests, you can often see tribal flag teams hunting, and villages where the flag teams hunt, gather, farm and log trees.

"Hey! A group of travelers is coming! Quick, gather the flag team, bring goods and weapons, and trade with them!..."

"Fool! Open your eyes!... That is the messenger of the great chief, carrying the most honorable flag! Those elite warriors are all directly under the great chief, and must not be offended... Get out of the way, get out of the way! Prepare water and offer it to the messenger and warriors... Don't add any messy things!..."

"Ah! Yes, the flag head!..."

The messenger only stopped for a while, drank some water, and continued to run south. This mountain road continued for another one or two hundred miles, until the terrain became lower and flatter. The streams in the mountains gradually gathered into rivers in the valley. And the canals began to appear in the south, along with the increasingly dense villages, and finally connected to a sparkling lake...

"We have finally arrived at the Atoyak Lake in Zicao County!"

The messenger took a long breath. The continuous running almost exhausted his strength, and even the warriors who were guarding him were all exhausted. Soon, they found a post station by the lake, recruited three canoes and sailors, and began to row along the lake to Zicao City in the east.

"Huh? Those strange big ships actually have such big sails? They have no oars, no rowers, and they are carrying so much wood, how can they sail so fast?"

"Ah, those are the new ships of the Shipbuilding Company! What are they called... Oh... Water God Sand Ships!... They can carry a lot of weight, ten times that of canoes, and are also very stable. They are very good cargo ships... But in fact, they are not fast!... There are only two really fast big ships in the Shipbuilding Company! I have seen them sailing, and they are as fast as arrows with the wind! I heard that they are blessed by the God of Wind, and the divinity of the wind is bound in the ship..."

The post station sailor on the small boat was in awe, and pointed to the Shipbuilding Company outside Zicao City, which was not far away. He looked at it from afar and prayed yearningly.

"The Lord God is witness! That is a wind-like speedboat, with high sails and deep bottoms, like a pointed shuttle for weaving, and like long beans in the field..."

"Look, those two are right there! Their name is the Wind God's Shuttle Bean Ship!..."

The messenger widened his eyes, and saw two tall multi-masted ocean-covering ships at a glance from the many sand ships and paddle boats coming in and out. One of them is old and slightly smaller, while the other is obviously larger and the hull is much newer. Some sailors are busy on the ship, skillfully operating the ropes and sails...

"Ah! This is the wind god ship mentioned by the director, with a stable speed three times that of the paddle sail long ship! And this unprecedented speedboat was actually built under the guidance of the craftsmen of the West Sea Tribe! For this, the Shenqi Institute directly appointed two master craftsmen and sent warriors to escort them..."

The messenger blinked his eyes, and looked at it with awe for a moment, then tightened the Shenqi Institute letter around his waist, and said with pious emotion.

"May the Lord bless you! Only such a ship of the God of Wind can be valued by His Majesty and the Director, and sail to the end of the Endless West Sea to support the brave and fearless Chief Priest Zuvaro!..."

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