Puluo Zhongcheng is now the most prosperous city in Southeast Asia.

After several years of construction, it is now quite large-scale.

Since the East China Sea fishery encouraged the maritime merchants of the Tang Dynasty to go to Puluo Zhong to carry out maritime trade, Puluo Zhong City, which had a good geographical location, gradually became the trade center of Southeast Asia.

Whether they are merchants from Dashi or Tianzhu, or maritime merchants from Champa and Linyi, they all like to transport goods to Puluo Zhongcheng for sale, or buy the items they want there.

For businessmen, no matter what they need to buy, they can basically buy it in Puluo.

Although the price of some things may be slightly higher than that of the country of origin, that cost difference is nothing compared to the huge profits of sea trade.

Besides, purchasing supplies in one place in Puluo reduces a lot of risks and time. This benefit is priceless.

"Brother Yuchi, His Royal Highness the King of Chu means that the merchant navy in Puluo Zhongcheng needs to continue to expand its scale. Nowadays, large food merchants can be found almost everywhere in the West and Southeast Asia, and from time to time there will be some conflicts with us Tang people. I don't know when.

, the man-eating navy appeared in Puluo."

Li Geng and his party headed south with a large number of craftsmen and mining equipment. Now they have more than doubled the size of Yongping Port in Australia before returning to Puluo Zhong.

However, considering Datang's growing interests in Nanyang and Australia, he could not help but once again put forward the suggestion to Yuchi Huan to expand the city's navy.

"The shipbuilding workshops of Donghai Fisheries in Quanzhou and Guangzhou have been built, and new warships designed based on clipper ships are now being launched one after another. Mr. Yuchi, I think some of the money for the construction of Puluozhong wharf and city should be transferred to

The expansion of the Navy is also very necessary."

As a senior captain of Donghai Fisheries, Zhou Fook now stays in Puluo Zhong all year round and personally helps train the crew of the municipal navy.

"Of course I know the significance of building a city navy, but this navy is too expensive. We in Puluo are still in the process of development. If we invest money in the construction of the city, the benefits will be too

It’s very obvious. Besides, the current navy team has no rivals in Southeast Asia. Even pirates from all over the country don’t dare to go out in the waters near Puluo Zhong.”

Yuchihuan personally participated in the construction of Puluo Zhongcheng, and he has extremely deep feelings for it.

In addition, he did not fully understand the dangers of cannibalism and thought that the Tang Dynasty was the most powerful country in the world, so he was not very in favor of continuing to expand naval investment.

"Brother Yuchi, do you know how much the shipping tax is now? How much profit does sea trade bring to Datang? Let me tell you, this is definitely a scary number, it may be more than the imperial court's annual revenue.

Tax revenue is even higher. Do you think these barbarians in the Nanyang and those in the West are not jealous? I heard that many caravans tried to enter the West this year to start trade, but some ships never came back after going out.

, at this time, should our naval forces consider extending their influence to the West?"

Li Geng and Yuchi Huan were both noble sons, and they were not so polite to each other.

"Sail to the West?"

Yuchi Huan thought for a while and felt that the time was almost ripe.

It is not surprising that those large food merchants controlled the Western trade, and the profits therein were no less than what the Tang Dynasty merchants gained from the Southeast Asian trade.

Businessmen from all over the country come to Puluozhong all the year round, and Yuchihuan is not ignorant of this world.

I heard that silk worth more than ten guan a piece in Puluo can be exchanged for the same weight of gold in the far west. What a huge profit this must be.

"Yes, sailing to the West! This is what His Royal Highness the King of Chu mentioned in a speech at Guanshishan Academy. The reason why Puluo Zhong was built so powerfully is that we hope it can become a powerful fortress for our Tang Dynasty to enter the West.

, playing the role of being able to advance and attack, and retreat and defend. In addition, our "Gewu Academy" will prepare to explore America next year. By then, Commander Puluo will be an important transit point for us. The final supplies and training will be

Do it here.”

Li Geng has been at sea for two years, and his navigation experience has improved rapidly. Now he finally wants to consider exploring America, and he can't help but feel a little excited.

"Are you really going to explore the Americas? That's even more risky than going to the Western Ocean."

Yuchi Huan felt a little itchy after hearing this. He felt that it would be a pity if his shadow was not involved in such a great thing.

"The more risks, the higher the returns. Not to mention other things, as long as we can find the high-yielding crop seeds that His Highness King Chu mentioned, no matter how high the risk is in exploring the Americas, it will still be worth it. Even if we are unfortunately killed, it will still be worth it."

There will be successors who will continue to move forward.”

In the past, Li Geng basically didn't believe Li Kuan's statement about how many kilograms of grain could be produced per mu.

However, in the past two years, I have been hit too hard.

After a few days, he became convinced of the existence of this high-yielding grain.

For the sake of the people of the Tang Dynasty and for leaving his name in history, he was ready to go to America.

"Okay! You actually regard Puluo Zhong as an important springboard to the Americas, so Puluo Zhong must not be lost. Although the Navy's investment is large, there is no doubt that it plays a role at critical moments. Let's give it to the Navy first and then

Let’s add some new warships.”

Pu Luozhong was not a city under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. Li Kuan trusted Yuchi Huan and almost entrusted Yuchi Huan to handle everything here.

To a certain extent, Yuchi Huan is the dominant figure in Nanyang, and everyone must respect him and fear him.

"By the way, General Yuchi also said before that you must return to Chang'an City to get married this year, otherwise he will personally come and take you back."

Yuchi Huan had already reached the age of getting married, but he had been staying in Puluo Zhong, and the marriage that had been planned had not been held. Yuchi Gong was also full of opinions.

"Aren't you planning to go to America next year? Then I will start leading the navy and caravans to march to the West next year. According to His Highness the King of Chu, whether you go west or east, you can eventually reach America.

I hope that one day we can start in different directions and eventually meet in America."

This was not the first time that Li Geng persuaded him to return to Chang'an. It was only at this moment that Yuchi Huan made up his mind to go back to Chang'an.

On the one hand, it was to explain the situation in Puluozhong to Li Kuan, and on the other hand, it was to prepare for next year's voyage to the West.
Chapter completed!