In the Kaifeng City, Zhuang Wudi, who had not read the news, listened to Xiong Jing talk about things 100,000 miles away. M. The pigeon news was incomplete, and Xiong Jing did not know what had happened to the fleet, so he could only summon the shogunate advisers to deduce. When he said that Rome decided to form an alliance with the Chu State, Zhuang Wudi couldn't help but say: "If it is an alliance, Red can be worry-free." ”

"Not yet." Xiong Jing has read the following and knows the final outcome of this matter.

"Why not?" Zhuang Wudi asked urgently. "If you are not allied with the Roman state, how can you return to the country through the stone pillar?"

"Red confessed that the fleet was at war with the Carthaginians, so the Roman state was not aligned." The news ended here, and Xiong Jing didn't know what happened later. He could probably guess why the Romans had formed an alliance, but he could not guess why they had not formed an alliance at all.

The Jujia brought by the Red Belt is enough to make any country have the idea of forming an alliance with the Chu State, but only if the Chu State does not sell the Jujia to the enemies and potential enemies of this country. Without this premise, what's the point of forming an alliance?

From the point of view of later generations and from the point of view of reality, he was inclined to make friends with the Carthaginians. Unfortunately, the Carthaginians and the Chu people could not become friends, but Rome, a land power, was likely to become Chu's allies in the Mediterranean, but why didn't the Romans ally again?

Rome won the First Punic War, and no one could have imagined that this land power would be able to defeat Carthage, a maritime power, which in itself was a bit of luck. However, now before the end of the First Punic War and the Second Punic War, the Romans seem to have won the Second War, except for the great victory of Hannibal Cannae and the rush of the Romans into Rome.

"These two countries want to fight, and when I hear that I am fighting with Jiaguo, Luo is cowardly." Peng Zong voiced his guess.

"Timid?" Xiong Jingqi said. The Romans who killed everywhere would be timid, and he wanted to laugh a little.

"If it's not cowardice, I have a huge armor, why don't I make an alliance?" Peng Zong asked rhetorically. "If you are not cowardly, but also worried, you will not be aligned."

"So red and dangerous!" Zhuang Wudi sighed, he felt that Peng Zong's judgment was right, and the Green Ocean Fleet might never come back.

Xiong Jing glared at him when he heard this, four gunboats, two new flying scissors, several gluttonous-class cargo ships, and more importantly, the people of the fleet. However, 100,000 miles away, the message received was also a message from a few months ago, and Xiong Jing couldn't do anything at all. The only consolation is that, at least in Ostia, Red and others are safe. As long as they do not return and do not pass through the Strait of Gibraltar......

Xiong Jing comforted himself like this, but the next second he told himself that it was impossible. Spices are very important commodities, and the merchants have always been well-informed, and the Chu army withdrew from the Red Sea, and Egypt was bound to regain control of the spice production area, and once the spice production area was controlled, the spices would continue to enter the Mediterranean.

The fluctuation of the price of spices alone was enough for Red to discover the anomaly in the Red Sea, and when he knew that the Red Sea Fleet had all been evacuated, he could naturally guess that the situation in his home country was critical. Will he stay in Ostia and not return? How can it be! As long as he hears the news, he will inevitably return to the ship as soon as possible.

Opening the shogunate, Xiong Jing thought about Rome 100,000 miles away, inside the city of Rome, and Hong felt that this city was an extremely strange existence. It was a country with a mix of nobles and commoners, and even the country's official dynasty had a large number of commoners. Based on this alone, he is proud of the Chu State, expensive is expensive, cheap is cheap, and the two can never be blended.

Since the noble and the lowly can be mixed, then everything else is well explained, although the capital is vast, it was built in a place where it should not be built, and the flooding of the Tiber River in summer caused flooding in the city. Some parts of the city are clean and tidy, while others are so chaotic that there is no way to bury the corpses, so that people can't look at them directly.

Of course, there are good points. The national capital has a racing field, which can be raced or horse racing, and every time the race is held, the stadium is always crowded with people and thunderous cheers. At this time, no matter whether you are high or low, everyone's eyes are on the two-wheeled car in the field. Then there is the drama, Rome has dramas that the Chu State does not have, and the Chu State only has amusing advocacy excellence. And, despite the language barrier, you can understand what Rome is doing. They don't speak at all, they rely on their movements to lead to laughter.

The Green Ocean fleet sailed to the port of Ostia in December, and even if the Romans were not allied with the Chu state, the fleet was the most popular in the entire city, especially among Roman women. The silk was snatched up by the Romans, so much so that whenever they saw a Chuni, the Roman woman would politely ask if there was any silk left.

Maybe there is, maybe not. Although the silk shipped was sold short, a noble person like Hong would always carry a few silk brocade clothes. If he wished, he could have spent the night with a Roman woman with a silk robe.

Silk was so, and spices were rampant in the city of Rome. Cheaper prices than before allowed the common people to buy spices in large quantities, and merchants from the Eastern Mediterranean who heard the news filled the port of Ostia with their boats, even if there was a headwind.

As Xiong imagined, the merchants of the Eastern Mediterranean brought all sorts of news. One of the most surprising things for the Red was that the Egyptians regained control of the production area and brought a steady stream of spices from the Red Sea coast into the Mediterranean. It was heard that the Chuni Sea Boat docked at Ostia, probably to suppress it, and ** plummeted by at least half.

The Egyptians regained control of the spice producing areas, so where did the Red Sea Fleet go? Could it be an emergency recall in the home country?

In the middle of summer in July, near the main hall of the Palatine Hill Villa, Red was chatting with the visiting Fabius Ferrianpicto and others. This patriarch, who later became a Roman historian, was very interested in everything in the Chu State and even in the Eastern Continent. In his view, Red's transoceanic voyage was a greater event than the Phoenicians had circumnavigated the southern continent four hundred years earlier.

Merchants were people whom the Romans despised so much, because their activities were often associated with lies and cunning, but they were noble in the eyes of the Romans for those who did large business and 'brought goods from all over the world', especially from the sea.

The sea is just, and the dangers and calamities experienced by the navigator at sea substitute for the judgment of nature: if he returns unharmed, then it can be said that his morals are acquitted, and his business is reasonable and legitimate; If he blasphemes, soon the storm at sea will give him the punishment he deserves. What's more, such a person can keep in touch with the barbarian chieftains, bring large quantities of goods to the people, and are already ambassadors of civilization.

Fabius's Red was a nobleman of high morals, and he often had to talk to Red about the world of the Mediterranean every few days, but today, the conversation between the two is no longer the same.

"I've heard that the mission has returned." Fabius suppressed his voice and said something unknown. "They made an agreement with the Punics."

"Oh?" Fabius spoke Greek instead of Latin, and Red was able to converse with him with just one thing.

"The Senate feared a sudden attack by the Punics and had to compromise with the Punics." Fabius explained. "They promised not to cross a single river on the Iberian Peninsula and recognized the Punic rule over the peninsula. The war of the Punics against you is also mentioned. The mission did not think that the Punics should intervene in the dispute between Egypt and Chuni, especially now that you are guests of Rome. ”

"What?" Hearing that the mission specifically mentioned himself, Red couldn't help but be moved, and the person also stood up from his chair.

"The Punics say that they have promised Tomil III that they will never let the Chuni merchant ship sail into our seas. Hamilcar Baca instead advised Rome not to intervene in the Punic-Chuni dispute. Fabius turned half around and said as he looked at his increasingly red face. The mission could only express its silence on the matter. ”

"It's a shame for Rome not to be able to protect even its own guests." Red was silent, and Fabius complained resentfully. Centius Alimentus, who came with him, said: "In view of the imminent war with the Gauls, the Senate ......"

"A bunch of cowards! This will only make the Punics more rampant. "The young Jeancius was a student of Fabius, and since the teacher had made such a conclusion, Chinchius did not dare to object." I have decided that I will travel with you to Chuni. ”

"Together?" Hong was thinking about how to pass the Hera Pillar before the monsoon came, and he didn't understand why Fabius was going to Chu.

"As a senator of the Senate, I believe the Punics would not dare to sink the ship I am on." Fabius was sure.

"No, no." Red shook his head repeatedly. "On the sea, who knows if it was suddenly stormy and sunk, or sunk by a war boat? If you go, you will never return. ”

"In the name of God, I have resolved to go to the easternmost part of the continent." Fabius was so sure that there was no doubt about it.

Hong looked at him speechlessly, but Tian Gao and Bing Le on the side winked at Hong. The patriarch is the minister of the dynasty, and since Carthage was defeated in the last battle, he did not dare to kill the minister of the Roman dynasty easily.

"Tell me that the year before the great king had sent his ministers to the sea of the earth," said Red, of a very secret matter, "and the ministers disappeared as far as Carthage, and then to Egypt." Last month, it was said that Carthage was the work of Carthage, and that the retinue of the surviving envoys had been sold into slavery. ”

"Punic credit!" Fabius was first surprised, then threw his fist at the same time, uttering the long-standing ridicule of the Carthaginians in the Mediterranean. "As long as it is a slave, it can be ransomed, if it is ......"

"The cheater has sent people to the Eastern Mediterranean to redeem them." Red stopped Fabius. "Because of this, the Carthaginians have regarded the city as a mortal enemy, and if you go with me, you may not return."

Red loyalty's advice, the strait is too narrow, even if the wind is downwind the sea boat will be very slow. He could not guarantee that the fleet would be able to pass through the straits.

"They didn't dare kill a Senate senator." Fabius puffed out his chest and emphasized this point again. "Even if you dare to kill a patriarch, you will definitely be afraid of the Fabius clan."