Rome, north side of the Capitoline Hill. In the Embassy of the Republic of Venice, in the living room, there were already a few people sitting in a staggered manner. Ambassador of the Republic of Venice Pieto. Godenigo and his former nemesis, the ambassador of the Republic of Genoa, Clement. Doria is now sitting together in a harmonious atmosphere, as if they are a pair of good friends for many years.

Of course, these two young politicians of the same age, from the same background, and both talented and both civil and military, do not appreciate each other in their hearts.

Not at all! There is no such thing as sympathy.

Pieto in Venice. In Godenigo's view, the Doria family in Genoa were thieves who illegally appropriated the country for themselves, and carried out the duties of the monarch under the sign of consuls. Most likely, when will he become king in the future. These people have stolen even their own country, what else can't be done?

And in the eyes of Clemente, the talented son of the Doria family and the favorite of the Italian noblewomen, the Venetian merchants were a group of mercenary villains who betrayed God! The Crusaders were tricked into destroying the shield wall of Christendom, the Eastern Roman Empire (the Eastern Romans were a long-time ally of Genoa), and dismantling Europa's barrier against the invasion of the barbarians from the East - just for less than 100,000 silver marks!

If it weren't for these damned Venetians, the Europa people wouldn't have to worry all day long about the Mongols from the East rushing to Europa to kill people and set fire! Maybe even the Rus' kingdoms won't fall - what a huge market the Rus' are! If Kievan Rus' still existed, neither the Venetian nor the Genoese would have earned more than 100,000 marks of silver from them in a year!

These are short-sighted and rebel against God. Every Venetian who sold his soul to the devil deserves hell!

Clement. Doria thought to herself, but the smile on her face became a little more enthusiastic. Although he hated Pieto very much in his heart. Godenigo. But that's a personal emotion. And he is now the ambassador of the Republic of Genoa to Rome, representing the national interests of Genoa.

National interests, of course, take precedence over personal emotions (for ambassadors). Doria wouldn't mind sacrificing hue and this abominable Pieto if necessary. Godenigo!

It's a pity that the problems facing the Republic of Genoa now are not at all solvable by going to bed.

Clement. Doria sighed softly, and turned her gaze to a pesky Venetian wearing a green silk robe without any patterns, with a bald head and no hat, but with a strange bun on the top of his head, Niccolò, the interpreter of the Ming Mission. Polo.

Niccolò. Polo was talking about what he had seen and heard over the years in Italian with a strong Venetian accent.

“…… The people living in the Italian city-states could not have imagined the grandeur and immensity of the New World. It is home to some of the most magnificent mountains and rivers in the world, and it is almost endless! There is not a place full of gold, nor a mountain of silver. Like Europe, the gold and silver of the New World were buried in the earth. It takes people to mine with their labor. Although there are many easily mined gold and silver deposits in the New World, the annual production is now very high. But it seems to me that the real wealth of this continent is not gold and silver, but land...... The fertile, vast, flat, boundless plains are the real wealth. If it is cultivated, it will be enough to feed an untold number of people, and an untold number of people will create unimaginable wealth. ”

"Niccolò, are you talking about plains as big as all of Italy?" Clement. Doria interrupted Niccolò. Polo.

For Doria, who only owns one city. Italy is already huge. Of course, Pietto. Godenigo's vision was similar.

Venice was a republic built on a few small islands and a few rocks, and although it was very wealthy (in terms of GDP per capita, it was certainly more than the Ming Dynasty at this time), the eyes of Venetian merchants were influenced by the environment in which they were raised. Saying that they are city-states and states means that they put gold on their faces. They're really a street nation.

The "streets of Venice", famous for their scheming, could not even accommodate an Italy, let alone a world empire...... Right now, Venice and Genoa have the military power and financial resources. It was enough for them to dominate Italy. They are invincible at sea, and on land they are willing to spend money. You can hire the bravest and most professional mercenaries, and those poor knights can't beat professional mercenaries at all.

As a matter of fact. Mercenaries were also one of the trades carried out by Venetian and Genoese merchants. But these two republics, which have both financial resources and military power, and whose system is far ahead of a bunch of Europa knights and the Pope's Europa Divine Stick country, do not have the ambition to unify Italy.

Although Venice is, to some extent, the ancestor of the British Empire and the United States, the open-mindedness of this city-state limits the future of the country, and the thousand-year-old republic has not become a great world empire after all.

Niccolò, who had already seen the vastness of the world, looked at Doria with some sympathy, shook his head, and said, "Mr. Doria, I think Italy and the big ones cannot be equated. In this world, there are now only two real powers, the Ming Empire and the Great Mongolia. If one day you step out of this little pool of the Mediterranean Sea and go around the world, you will know what big is! You'll know what a world empire is! ”

"How big is Mingzhou?" Doria asked, "Is it as big as the Roman Empire?" ”

In the minds of the natives of Europa, the Roman Empire in its heyday was the world, as if it were boundless.

"Maybe that's the equivalent of ten heyday Romes?" Niccolò. Polo shook his head, "Maybe it's not that big, but it's about the same......" he looked at Doria, "Mr. Doria, you should go and see for yourself, only by seeing it with your own eyes can you truly understand the concept of grandeur and vastness." In tiny Genoa and crowded Italy, you can't imagine a vast expanse of land that is so vast that there is no sign of such activity. ”

"No humans?" Doria frowned, a thoughtful expression on her handsome face, "How so?" Those Aztecs weren't indigenous to Mingzhou? ”

Spies from the Republic of Genoa had also infiltrated the western market of Macau (where the doors were originally opened to merchants to trade), and there was a lot of news.

"Yes, there are people on the continent of Mingzhou, and their level of development is about the same as that of humans in black Africa. And the number is very small, and the activity area is also very small, only concentrated in a small piece of territory in the middle of the Mingzhou continent...... This Mingzhou continent is actually divided into two large blocks, north and south, and is connected by a narrow and long land like a corridor. Most of the indigenous people on the continent of Mingzhou live there. They were too backward to be conquered by the very few Seris. ”

"There are very few Seris?"

"There are about 100 million Seris."

"100 million!!"

The merchants of the two city-states exclaimed at the same time - the number of citizens of both countries was about 100,000. Certainly can't imagine what an empire with a population of 100 million looks like?

"But there are only tens of thousands of people at most on the Mingzhou Continent...... I probably left with just over 10,000 men, including the crew of the Atlantic Fleet. Now a thousand people arrive every month, mostly gold diggers, and a few military and military families. But that number is growing rapidly, and by this time next year, there could be 3,000 or 4,000 people arriving in the New World every month...... It could even be ten thousand, depending on the determination of Emperor Seris. Now the construction speed of the 'New World' class galleons of the Seris is getting faster and faster, and they have a very strong shipbuilding capacity, and if they go all out, it will not be difficult to launch 100 'New World' class ships every year. However, Emperor Seris wanted to be the king of the world, and the New World was only a part of his world empire. Now he is still planning to conquer India, which will also require a large number of 'New World' classes. ”

Even India to conquer? Clement. Doria and Pietto. Godenigo looked at each other, both a little surprised.

Pietto. Godenigo asked, "Is the New World far from Europe?" ”

"It's not very far," Niccolò shook his head, "and it's a month to reach the New World from Europe on a galleon of the Seris." ”

"A month?" Clement. Doria said, "What if you use a Kirk ship?" ”

Unlike the Republic of Venice, which was mainly armed with galleons, Genoa, the overlord of the Western Mediterranean, had a large number of Kirk-style galleons because the sea in the western Mediterranean was relatively wide, the sea breeze was stronger, and Genoese merchant ships sometimes sailed out of the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean to trade with the Hanseatic League.

This Doria has clearly moved the idea of sending someone to the New World to find out!

Niccolò shook his head and said, "I don't know, the Kirk ship is probably not enough to undertake the voyage across the Atlantic, this kind of ship can only sail along the coastline, and the sailing ships used by the Seris to cross the ocean are all multi-masted. ”

It seems that a few multi-masted galleons need to be built - at least they should go out and have a look. Doria and Godenigo thought to themselves at the same time.

Both Genoa and Venice had a well-developed shipbuilding industry. It can build galleys with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons. Although no large multi-masted sailing ships have been built, as long as the two countries make up their minds, it is not difficult to overcome the technical difficulties -- the Venetian State Construction Shipyard and the Genoese State Construction Shipyard are the largest and most powerful shipyards in Europe today, and it is natural to build a multi-masted sailing ship with a few more experiments and a little more money.

And these two trading countries are not short of money, hundreds of years of maritime trade, allowing them to accumulate a lot of wealth.

For them, money was not an issue, ships were not a problem, and there was certainly no shortage of sailors capable of sailing long distances - Columbus was Genoese - but Genoa and Venice lacked an ambition to conquer the world. (To be continued......)