At the end of the Tang Dynasty, it was a feudal town, but in Western Europe

After autumn, there was a light rain, and the temperature in the whole of Saxony dropped. In Saxony, the transition between autumn and winter was so fast that Zinovac didn’t even feel the existence of autumn—he had already put on a beaver fur hooded cloak.

With four Byzantine mercenary guards and two business partners, Zinovac was accompanied by a Saxon banner family, driving slowly on the waterway of the Elbe in a boat.

Standing at the bow of the boat, Zinovac crossed a semi-finished wooden bridge and came to the mouth of the Alster River. A small river bend has been opened up, and a long wharf protrudes from the bank of the river bend. Straight to Zinovac's boat.

What surprised Zinovac was that in this small creek, there were actually 27 or eight ships with different flags, and small rafts came in and out from time to time. It was not a festival or a peak season. Although Hamburg was an important route by land and water, it was still fighting. Where did so many merchant ships come from?

"Who are these people? Why are there so many people today?"

"Some are Frisians, some are Norse, and there are Jutes and Danes. These people are all businessmen... Hey, it really shouldn't be. Usually they only come when they buy goods. Why are they all here today?"

"What are they doing here?" asked Zinovac.

"Hey, our Hamburg has a huge land and abundant resources, so I guess people are here to buy things, but I don't know why they are all crowded today."

The water was rippling, and under the command of several guides, Zinovac's merchant ship successfully docked. After being registered, Zinovac finally disembarked and stepped on the solid fir floor.

Looking up, there is a large rectangular square in front of him. Although it is not as crowded as he was in front of the Hagia Sophia, compared to other "cities" or settlements he saw in this era, the flow of people here is quite a lot.

There are also a few small vendors pushing carts and selling things.

On one side of the square, a few bricklayers are holding a turntable and cement to build the future goods exchange. This room is also a longhouse on the top of a hard hill. Three rooms with black tiles and white walls form a semi-open space. courtyard.

In the center of the yard, there is also an octagonal gazebo. On the tip of the gazebo stands a statue of an old man in strange clothes, with the face of Seris, holding a scroll of bamboo slips.

Zinovac pointed to the statue: "Who is that?"

The guide next to him replied: "That is a saint in the history of Seris, named Guan Zhong. It is said that he developed commerce, prospered the city, and repelled the invading barbarians. The local Han people hope to learn from his deeds. Wisdom and enlightenment, put his statue on the pavilion."

"Guan Zhong!" Zinovac repeated the awkward name.

"Mr. Zinovac, I have called the carriage. Do you want to take a short rest, or go directly to find Princess Lyudmila?"

"Let's go to Hamburg early."

After getting into the carriage and letting the guards follow on horseback, Zinovac and two business partners got into the carriage.

"I thought this place would be desolate, but now it seems that this place is much better than those 'cities' of the Slavs." Holding a hamburger, Bolenus said vaguely while chewing, "Although still Not as good as Constantinople."

"You can't compare them to the city that the whole world longs for." Carla is a Gaelic businessman from Ireland who is also a bard. "In my hometown of Cork, a group of local people have heard of the reputation of Constantinople, so they renamed their village Constantinople. It's ridiculous. There will be no second Constantinople in the world."

"I think I can import some of that kind of beer here and bring it to Constantinople to sell. They will definitely like this kind of Siris wine." Bolenus smiled with his big yellow teeth.

Carla laughed and said, "Wine? Can your eyes only see a finger's width in front of you? Isn't the most precious thing here is Roman cement?"

"Roman cement?!" Bolenus opened his eyes wide, "Where is Roman cement?"

"Isn't it right under our feet? It's a luxury to use this kind of cement to pave the road."

Bolenus poked his head out of the carriage, and sat back in the carriage after observing for a while: "Kara, if I can get the formula of Roman cement, I can definitely become a chief nobleman!"

"I think what they have is probably not the real Roman cement formula, but an improved version. Look at the volcano in this area, it must have been improved..."

Regardless of the excited discussion between the two companions, Zinovac lifted the curtain of the car and looked out, and he could basically see the outline of the castle named Han.

But as he got closer, an inexplicable feeling rose in his heart. Is this really a fort and not a real city?

After more than a year of development, Hamburg has long since become a city instead of a castle.

In the past year or so, Feng Sen has put a lot of effort into urban infrastructure and real estate in addition to the development of agriculture.

Due to the surge in population and various needs such as construction, the forest area of ​​Hamburg has been greatly reduced, so the outside of the city has become more spacious.

Therefore, Feng Sen doubled the size of the entire Zhongyongfang as the guard city of the general's mansion.

The thatched huts and tents under the walls of the various squares disappeared. These slaves were either enlisted in the banner or served as coats, and migrated to the original suburbs.

Dirt roads and dirt roads are also gone, replaced by flat cement stone roads, some places have not had time to pave cement roads, Feng Sen will lay fir planks to facilitate walking.

And the entire Hanyi also expanded with the expansion of the Acropolis. According to the design of Qili Guo, Feng Sen inserted a circle of wooden piles with a height of two people around the Hanyi. The several squares around the Acropolis will become the inner city squares in the future, and those around the walls will become the outer city squares.

Calculated based on Hamburg's current geographical location and topography, Hanyi can accommodate at most eight squares, with an urban population of about [-]. Currently, Hanyi's urban population is around [-]. Counting the surrounding countryside, the total population is about [-].

The 8000 population is nothing to Feng Sen, but in the eyes of the local aboriginals, it is already a big city at the Tieling level. When it comes to business opportunities, I found this all the way.

As a water and land hub, the advantages of Hamburg as a distribution center for goods gradually emerged. Many tribes and free folk in the south would collect beeswax and sell it in Hamburg, and those merchants from the North Sea were unwilling to continue going south because they were fighting after all.

Both the supplier and the marketer went to Hamburg, a city guarding the wide and narrow mouth of the Elbe River, to conduct transactions, and Feng Sen also thoughtfully prepared a market place and stalls for them, and sent special personnel to arbitrate.

As the war progressed, there were more and more refugees in exile. Feng Sen also sent their fellow villagers to resettle and search in time.

Some hundred households and ten households are finally no longer false seals, but real seals.

However, with the increase in the number of floating population, various service industries have emerged, such as taverns, brothels, casinos, and urban security have become problems again.

At least in Zinovac's eyes, he saw two fights, a theft and a duel on the road from the pier to Seoul.

"Mr. Zinovac, we are here." The Saxon family tightened his belt, "Let's go."

Chapter 116 Visiting the Princess

The outer city of Hanyi's new city is surrounded by a circle of rough wood. Most of the wood here is pine wood, and the more corrosion-resistant fir wood is used to make permanent piles. As for the harder oak wood, Feng Sen plans to use it to make warships.

The wooden city wall of the outer city is about three meters high, and the upper and lower ends have been sharpened. Compared with the square of the inner city of Jiangfu, the outer city formed spontaneously by the local area is a circle, looking down from the sky Go, it feels like a copper coin.

Zinovac and his team followed the guide and walked into the city of Hanyi through the gate. Basically, one-third of Hanyi is made of masonry buildings, some of which were built by Feng Sen himself, and some of which were lived in. It was built by the Frankish or Saxon nobles in the city.

In addition, all kinds of wooden houses are arranged neatly and neatly.

For the construction of these houses, Feng Sen sent a special person to manage the shape. In this way, one is convenient for transportation and future expansion, and the other is fireproof and anti-theft.

You know, in the real historical line, Hamburg was destroyed by a fire once, and a lot of materials for making Groot beer were burned, and then it was turned to develop hops to brew beer.

Walking through the gate of "HamTown" with Latin and Chinese bilingual plaques, the first thing Zinovac saw was rows of wooden houses with uniform height, uniform direction, and basically uniform size and shape. Live let out a surprise.

"Why are they arranged so neatly?" asked Bolenus. "It looks so strange."

"Strange?" Kara looked around, "Don't you think it's very clean? This city seems to be composed of a group of small towns. Have you seen that there is a fence between each block, which is more convenient for fire prevention?"

"You must be a scholar, and you can understand the layout of Seoul at a glance." The Saxon hundred households who led the way turned around and replied, "We call each place enclosed by a low fence a workshop, and each workshop has about 2000 to [-] people. There is an avenue between each workshop for four carriages to drive side by side. Every night after nine o'clock, only people are allowed to move inside the workshop.

On the avenue outside the square, there are special villains, archers and watchmen parading every day to catch thieves, and also to tell the time and remind fire prevention. "

"This is a good idea. I remember that when we were in Junbao, we were careful when we slept in the hotel, just to prevent thieves from stealing property. If night travel is prohibited, the thieves will not be able to escape. Don't worry, when you wake up, the thieves will run away." I’ve been out for dozens of miles...why can’t I see a shop here?” Looking around the streets of Seoul, Kara patted the guide on the shoulder in front of him.

"We are walking on the square road now. Shops are not allowed on both sides of the square road. If you want to find a shop, you have to go to the square."

"Then what about the market on weekdays?"

"There is a special place. There is a market outside the city for those bumpkins to exchange things. The city inside the city is much more organized. It sells goods from all over the place. There are fixed locations, sheds for shelter from the rain, soldiers to maintain order, priests and Confucian scholars to arbitrate disputes, and even Jews are responsible for currency exchange, but they have to collect commercial taxes and customs duties.

But even so, some made money. The things they sold were not for the poor ghosts in Stormain outside the city, but for the richer Han people and noble gentlemen. "

"What do you sell?"

"That depends on whether there is a caravan. They usually sell bricks, beer, clay pots and bowls, fruits, honey, and herbs. If there is a caravan, there will be an open market, so there will be more things. There are all kinds of livestock, and slaves, and woolen cloth, amber, emerald, iron ore..."

Walking on the avenue of Seoul, those Byzantine mercenaries from Anatolia also looked around.

It has to be said that Seoul, as a new city, is full of vigor and vitality everywhere. This is even more obvious after everyone enters a workshop and arrives at a post station to rest.

Putting down his sword and saluting, an Anatolian soldier opened the window and looked down from above. In his eyes, a hunter holding a rabbit skin and a swineherd were arguing violently. The two came back from work. The quarry miners headed towards a tavern with their tired bodies full of sludge.

A few soldiers with bows and crossbows and two attendant monks hurried across the street, not knowing what to deal with. A cobbler stood at the door of the shop, boasting loudly about his skills in sewing and mending shoes.

Listening to the lively noise in his ears, the Byzantine mercenary seemed to return to his hometown, Konya, where it was once so lively.

"Is the land here expensive?" A soldier asked the captain beside him.

The mercenary captain opened the window: "Do you want to live here? Forget it, it's too humid here, there are mosquitoes and swamps everywhere."

"But all the farmland in my hometown was occupied by the Saracens, and I couldn't afford to buy land elsewhere."

"There will be. When there is a chance, Basilius will definitely be able to drive those Saracens (desert herdsmen, referring to the Arabs). At that time, we will help Basilius fight and get back our land."

"Basilius is only one year old. When he can fight, we have to wait until some time. Anyway, I don't expect Irina's cousin to do anything good."

"Yes, let our children and grandchildren do the work of regaining the homeland."

While the Byzantine soldiers were arguing in the room, Zinovac, led by two Han soldiers, was already walking towards the inner city, that is, the Acropolis of Jiangfu.

Compared with the wooden walls outside, Zinovac was extremely impressed by the four-meter-high brick-clad city wall. At this time, at least dozens of coats and slaves were repairing various facilities on the city wall.

Looking up at the incomprehensible word 'Lin'an' on the wall of the inner city, Zinovac stepped into the inner city of Hanyi, while the two companions could only wait outside the inner city.

Although these two people are Zinovac's business partners, in fact, they are similar to followers in essence. They have too little capital, and they are just making small troubles. This time, they came here because they hoped that Zinovac would lead them to make a lot of money. From this point of view, the relationship between these two people and Zinovac is similar to that of Enbi.

Therefore, after Zinovac entered the general's mansion, they did not dare to run around, but wandered around the inner city gate.

As they walked, the two of them chatted one after another, discussing how to make money on this trip to Saxony—in the Middle Ages, long-distance travel was very dangerous, and wild animals, bandits, getting lost, and eating by mistake were all possible Occurrence, so, also for these reasons, the circulation of goods is also very difficult.

So for a medieval businessman, it is really uncomfortable to make sure that the business does not run out and does not resell something between destinations.

About an hour later, Zinovac's figure appeared at the gate of the inner city, and Carla and Bolenus immediately went up to meet him.

"How is it? Is Your Royal Highness okay?"

"It's going well." Zinovac's tense expression finally relaxed a little, "Compared to before, he's a bit fatter."

"Then we now?"

"Stay here for a day or two, and wait for His Excellency the Earl of Hamburg to mobilize soldiers for us, and then we will join the hundreds of Eastern Empire mercenaries. At that time, we will go north and recruit soldiers as we go, so that the number should be thousands. , is strong enough to protect itself."

"Great." Bolenus clapped his hands, "I heard that there will be a market in the next few days, and we just bought some local cement and beer, and I heard there are Scandinavian ones What about furs and amber."

Chapter 117 The Establishment of the West Britain Company

Fog and rain fell on the tiles of the hall, and the wind from the Elbe River blew the candles in the hall to flicker.

In the hall, Feng Sen was wearing a blue-blue wide-sleeved round-neck gown made of woolen cloth, a leather belt around his waist, and a Wubian on his head. The old god stood in front of many businessmen.

"Everyone, welcome to our goods exhibition in Hamburg!" Feng Sen said loudly when he saw that most of the people below were present. At the same time as his voice, there were interpreters beside the businessmen.

Some of these merchants came from Britain and North, and many of them could not speak the local Saxon language, let alone Frankish.

The reason for the gathering of these merchants is what Feng Sen said about the business alliance and the West Britain Company.

"Everyone, there is one thing in this world, it is round and golden, you can exchange it for almost anything you want, and it will never betray you." Feng Sen took out a newly minted Solidar gold coin from his pocket , "It's the one in my hand. I believe that you are here for him."

"I believe you all know that I came from the east, but when I arrived here, I was very disappointed. Why? Because in my opinion, these nobles are not noble.

You may not understand what I mean, but I want to tell you, to put it bluntly, I won’t pretend, the nobles here are too rustic. "

Yes, the aristocrats here are too rustic. This is Feng Sen’s sigh after seeing the so-called local “nobility”’s attire. Some clothing and textile techniques have been lost. Clothes that were once popular in Rome and Greece—white and clean Gone are the toga, replaced by endless hoods and gowns.

The so-called burqa is to cut three holes in the sack, and then cover the body. As for the long coat, it is just to add two sleeves on the basis of the former.

Then there is the smock, which is even more heavyweight, that is, cut a hole in the middle of a rectangular piece of cloth, then put your head in, and the two sides of the rectangular cloth hang down on the chest and behind the head respectively, and finally tie it with a belt.

There is almost no difference between ordinary nobles and commoners. As for the upper nobles and the royal family, there is no change in the shape of the clothes. The biggest difference is nothing more than better fabrics and more decorations.

Einhard once wrote in "The Biography of Charlemagne" that Charlemagne only wore traditional Frankish costumes throughout the year, often a corseted wool robe, and the clothes were simple, excluding those propaganda about religious awareness , It also expresses one point-the gap in clothing between the nobles and the common people in this era is not that big, but judging from the performance of these nobles later, they have been trying to widen the distance between themselves and the common people.

This gave Feng Sen an opportunity. The nobles hoped to put a distance between them and the common people, and let the common people realize that they and their descendants were able to rule these common people not because of the ancient tradition of putting talent first, but blood first.

How do you reflect the difference between my bloodline and yours?Apart from physical characteristics, the best way should be clothes and decorations.

"What do you mean by that?" A little British nobleman got angry, "I came here with the fleet for wealth and the glory of the heavenly Father, not to suffer insult."

"Is it very earthy?"

"I have always dressed like this, is there any other way to say it?"

"Everyone, my hometown, Seris in the east, is a golden land flowing with milk and honey, where there are countless spices, the people are rich, and most importantly - rebellion! Rebellion! Very! Few!

The reason for this is because His Majesty the Emperor has a group of loyalists!Heart!Geng!Geng!nobles to support. Feng Sen said sadly, "Nobles should be honored and honored. If he is the same as ordinary civilians, why can he be a noble?" "

As he spoke, Feng Sen beckoned, and soon four people walked up: a slave, a coat, a bannerman and a Han.

The slave was wearing an old hooded hoodie, with disheveled hair, cowering, bowing his head and not daring to speak, while Bao Yi was wearing a deep linen jacket with a cross collar on the left lapel, with a bun on his head, standing uneasily, As for the bannerman, he was wearing a deep woolen coat with a right lapel, and stood upright quietly, while the tall black-haired and black-eyed Han man was wearing a woolen round-neck gown, with a hooded head, his chin raised slightly, and his appearance was imposing.

"Who do you think is a nobleman and who is qualified to lead everyone?"

Looking at the distinctive face and temperament of that Han man, coupled with his slim and tall figure, and his clean and beautiful clothes...

Many businessmen and nobles lowered their heads, looked at their own clothes that were the same as the slave's except for the fabric, and looked at the clothes of the wrapped bannerman and the Han people. Many smart people have already reacted.

"Are you going to sell this kind of clothing?"

Feng Sen shook his head: "No, I am going to sell the method of making this kind of clothes."

"Are you willing to teach us how to make it? What is the price?" A clever Frisian businessman has already responded.

"The price is very simple. Let me ask you, how do you think you can make a lot of money selling pottery?"