Why open a new route from the sea?

First of all, it must be clear that the history of sea lanes is longer than that of land transportation. Before the Silk Road on land in the morning, the sea passage was very developed.

In addition, the traffic on land is subject to many restrictions, such as the obstruction and consumption of countries along the way. And it's very dangerous and takes a long time. At that time, the Ottoman Empire cut off land traffic and prevented free trade between East and West. Moreover, the Central Plains Dynasty could not get through at that time, which made the environment along the way very bad and the natural environment was not good. Compared with the wind and waves at sea, the desert on land is equally terrible.

The first thing about freight is that the cost will be much lower. How many animals can a ship hold? These animals have to be well kept along the way. In addition, the sea, especially Nanyang, is still very safe in some seasons.

In addition, when land transportation was developed, the center of gravity of the Central Plains Dynasty was often in Shaanxi, such as Han and Tang Dynasties. However, in the later period, when maritime traffic was sent, it was generally in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the political and economic focus of the country was shifting.