The bow of the "God of Light" ploughed a snow-white wave and headed northwest along the wide Shatt al-Arab. The sailors on the deck were practicing the operation of the eight-bull crossbow, and with the command of the deputy bow Deng Ken, the sailors nervously adjusted the eight-bull crossbow, and repeatedly loaded and fired the training giant arrows.

Ji Yi and Li Gang stood on the aft deck, observing their training movements with great interest. Deng Ken was the first graduate of the Naval Ship Department of the Harbour Master School (which has now been spun off into the Naval Academy), and all he learned was standardized combat and ship skills. To be honest, the boat management skills taught in the Harbour Master School are not very good, and even Ji Yi, a semi-expert, can't look down on him. However, Deng Ken's mastery of standardized methods of training sailors and surface warfare was an eye-opener.

Don't look at the countless merchant ships active along the coast of the Great Song Dynasty, all of them are armed to a certain extent, and there are often naval battles. However, this kind of engagement between merchant ships or merchant ships was very casual, there were no strict rules, and it was often carried out by the bravery of sailors. Compared with the Pujia Fleet defeated by the fleet of the Nanyang Inspection Division, it is much inferior - they are the sailors of the Srivijaya Kingdom! After decades of crisscrossing the Sriwijaya Strait, he also figured out a set of tactics, and he also had his own water warfare Gulam system, how can the merchants of the Song Dynasty compare? If you really can compare, the Sriwijaya Strait will be controlled by the Pu family for many years?

And the Ship Master School Warfare Department, which was presided over and built by serious military experts such as Hu Yanqing, Zhou Gao, and Murong Wangwu, is a step up from the Pu family's water warfare. On the one hand, they had the combat experience and methods accumulated by the Ping Navy (the naval army of the Song Dynasty); On the one hand, there is also a military science system to support it. The training and combat methods of many infantry troops can be applied to water warfare, forming a set of water warfare tactics with "firearms" as the core of long-distance engagement and ironclad soldiers as the core of hand-to-hand combat on the deck. Moreover, through high-intensity repeated drills, the naval soldiers can master various combat skills.

Therefore, although the naval army of the coastal city ship control division was pieced together by Zhao'an, its combat effectiveness is still very reliable.

In front of Li Gang, the academic boss of the Yuntai Department, Ji Yi naturally would not be stingy with beautiful words: "The knowledge of Yuntai Palace is really both civil and military, and even the art of water warfare is so good. If the caliphs and sultans of the Celestial Sect had seen that our warships were so well organized, this trip would have been much easier. ”

Li Gang smiled, and did not take Ji Yi's words, but just set his eyes on the huge city that had appeared on the skyline. He has now adapted to the bumps on the water, and although he is thin and dark, he is in very good spirits. And thanks to and Said. Wansi Sheng's contact and exchanges, he also has more and more longing for this task of "learning scriptures from the west".

In the West, there is a higher level of knowledge than the Buddhist scriptures!

Moreover, these learnings also coincide with the principles of the empirical school founded by Wu Haogu. I heard Wan Sisheng say that there was an Aristotle ancient Westerner, a figure about 1,300 years ago, who once opened a school palace called Lycion in a place called Athens, and the research things are similar to the Yuntai School Palace!

This school and the Aristotelian school founded by Aristotle existed for more than 800 years, until it was banned by the Roman general (emperor) Eustle more than 500 years ago. The reason for this school is said to be "ungodly...... It's a shame and stupid.

The Central Plains Confucianism has been searching for the method of asking the Tao for more than a thousand years, but it was actually defeated by such a stupid general. However, such a thing could not have happened in the Central Plains, because the generals after the Central Plains must have been disciples of the positivist school.

This is where Mr. Yuntai (the honorific title for Wu Haogu) is more clever than Aristotle, and he closely linked positivism and military education from the beginning. He also taught his disciples to keep their swords on their bodies...... What a foresight!

Thinking of this, Li Gang suddenly turned his head to Ji Yi and said: "Remember, after we have met the Khalifa in Baghdad and obtained the collection of books from Niezemia University, we will go west to Rome and see Aristotle's hometown." ”

"Aristotle's homeland?"

Because the days at sea were too boring, Ji Yi also listened to the discussions between Li Gang and Wan Sisheng, and learned about the knowledge of Western scholars such as Aristotle, Plato, Eumedes, and Pythagoras. I also had the idea of traveling to Western countries to collect the writings left behind by these scholars.

"Good!" Ji Yi smiled, "Let's go together, and then go and meet the great general of the Roman Kingdom and the great king of Rome (referring to the Pope)...... I took the blank preparation of the Si Wen and many copies of the national gift, and went back to write a few more national letters. It is said that he followed the decree of the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty and went to the West to seek the true scriptures! ”

……

Port of Basra.

This port city is located on the western bank of the Shatt al-Arab. It has always been at the heart of exchanges between the Arab world and the East.

A large city with hundreds of thousands of people spreads out along a wide river, and the white and gray houses are densely packed with white and gray houses, and the sun looks quiet and melodious. In the port area, it is a noisy appearance of businessmen gathering. Arabian merchant ships lined up densely in the river near the port wharf. Wrapped in a white cloth on his head, wearing tattered shorts and shorts, and a dark-skinned coolie, he was shuttling back and forth carrying large and small goods.

Not far from the port, seven towering minarets stand out, and beneath the minarets is the main building of the massive Tianfang Temple. White facades, golden domes, wide squares. Everywhere it shows the inviolable and inviolable status of the Celestial Sect in Basra. It also tells all the travelers who come here that they have arrived in the world of the Heavenly Sect.

Looking at the port city in front of them, which was no less than any city of the Song Dynasty, and thinking about the Tianfang Sect's school palace and academic achievements after listening to Sisheng's introduction along the way, Ji Yi and Li Gang's hearts felt an irrepressible excitement.

Of course, they don't believe in religion, but they also have to admit that the Tianfang Sect has in their hands the knowledge that is very crucial for the Great Song Dynasty and for Confucianism.

As long as the positivist school can obtain this knowledge, Confucianism will usher in a prosperous era unseen in a thousand years!

Like the large ports of the Song Dynasty, there were many small ships in Basra that specialized in merchant shipping, all of which were clustered on the water near the port. Seeing the fleet of the Great Song Mission consisting of eight more large galleys approaching, they all surrounded them. Most of these boats belonged to the citizens of Basra, who carried baskets of dates, eggs, beef and mutton, and shouted and sold them at the merchant ships from a distance. It was all Arabic and Persian, and it rang out in a ball.

In addition to these water vendors, there were also some large boats rowed by black slaves, all of which were seven or eight feet long, narrow and deep, a bit like canoes. The bow and stern of the ship were upturned like a crescent moon hanging in the sky. There is also a sunshaded canopy on the boat, which is very beautifully decorated. Beneath the canopy sat cross-legged a man in a rich silk robe, one of which approached the "God of Light".

The man on this crescent-shaped boat was named Aaron. Root. Elijah, in his early Chinese New Year's Eve, had black hair, a very neatly trimmed beard, a large, tall, pointed nose, and brown eyes. According to the aesthetics of the 12th-century Arab world, he was a good-looking man. He was not an Arab, nor did he believe in Celestialism, but a Jew.

More than 900 years later, people will certainly not believe that in 1107 there was religious freedom and tolerance at the center of the Celestial Sect. Both Baghdad and Basra have large Jewish residents, with about 10 to 20 percent of the inhabitants being Jewish. They were descendants of the Jews who were captured by the Babylonian king in 597 B.C. and were freed but did not leave the rich land.

In present-day Basra, there are many ancient and wealthy Jewish communities, whom the Celestial Church was far more tolerant than the Christians of its time.

And Aaron. Root. Elijah was a member of the wealthy Jewish community of Basra, trading brokers in the port of Basra, specializing in the provision of services to merchant ships from afar.

In addition to the Jews, the cities of Basra and Baghdad under the rule of the Celestial Sect were inhabited by many Christians and Damanites (a heresy of Christianity) who did not tolerate Western Christians. They are now at peace with the Celestials and the Jews...... There are no saints here, and there are no serious religious conflicts.

In addition, Basra is also the stronghold and birthplace of the "Sincere Brotherhood" that belongs to the Celestial Rational School. This is a social reform group composed of a group of free-thinking Tianfang teachers. They claim that the Celestial Religion has been tainted by ignorance and ignorance, that it has gone astray and must be cleansed and healed with philosophical and scientific knowledge. He also declared that he would not hold factional prejudices, and advocated the study and absorption of all religious and philosophical ideas and scientific knowledge that are beneficial to mankind, and the establishment of a philosophy that encompasses all the knowledge and wisdom of mankind, so as to enlighten people's reason...... There is such a Heavenly Sect!

This was the center of the Celestial Sect and the Arab world in the 12th century, before the Mongol Conquest!

It is unbelievable to people after 900 years, but it did exist, and it is also worth Ji Yi and Li Gang to come from distant China.

"Distinguished guests, where are you from? Will I, an honest businessman, be allowed to serve you? "Aaron. Root. Elijah was already on the bow of the crescent boat and was questioning the sailors of the "God of Light" in Arabic.

"We are from Peach Blossom Stone," replied to him, "this is a fleet of missions sent by the Peach Blossom Stone Emperor to meet the Caliph of the Celestial Sect and the Sultan of the Seljuks!" ”

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