Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1118 1113 [Arrogant]

Coconut City.

The new capital of Sunda Kingdom has been built, and King Maharaja officially moved here three years ago.

The old capital is in Banten, called Baguang Pajadjaran, or Pajadjaran for short, and is now ruled by the prince.

Standing on the city wall, court official Zeng Bofa pointed outside the city and suggested: "Your Majesty, the moat should be further widened."

"I'll leave this matter to you." Maharajah readily agreed.

"Maharaja" means Brahman lord, and has now become the surname of the Sundanese royal family. The king's name is too long, so we will use his surname as a shortened name.

As early as the period when Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were co-rulers, the Sunda Kingdom on the island of Java already existed.

At its peak, Sunda Empire ruled two-thirds of the island of Java.

It was conquered by other powers many times, but it always retained the power of the nobles. Historically, it was not until the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty that it was completely destroyed by the Banten Kingdom.

In the past few years, Sunda Kingdom was a princely state that was subject to Srivijaya, but had always tried to break away from Srivijaya's control.

Upon hearing that the Srivijaya navy was defeated by the Ming Dynasty, Maharaja immediately responded by raising an army, killing the officials sent by Srivijaya, taking the opportunity to expand his territory to the surrounding areas, and at the same time sending people to request the Ming Dynasty to confer him an imperial title.

In recent years, relying on maritime trade, the strength of Sunda Kingdom has skyrocketed. From time to time, it invades Central Java and tries to swallow up the Kingdom of Mataram there.

The Mataram Kingdom was beaten so badly that it could not withstand it and repeatedly asked the Ming Dynasty father to intervene.

The Ming court sent envoys to sea twice to rebuke the King of Sunda for attacking Ming vassal states without reason. After each rebuke, the King of Sunda sent people to Luoyang to plead guilty, offering a large amount of tribute and asking Emperor Zhu for forgiveness.

Then, he never changes his bad habits!
Maharaja said: "You have always said that the firearms of the Ming Dynasty are powerful. Can we recruit some Ming Dynasty craftsmen to imitate them?"

Zeng Bofa quickly dissuaded him: "Your Majesty, absolutely not!"

"Why?" asked Maharaja.

Zeng Bofa said: "Once we have firearms and use them to attack Mataram, the Ming emperor will soon know. At that time, the Ming army will definitely be dispatched, and the destruction of Sunda will be just around the corner."

Maharaja smiled and said, "I admit that the navy of the Ming Dynasty is powerful, much more powerful than the navy of Srivijaya. But as long as we fight on land, I will not be afraid of anyone. I was not afraid of Srivijaya before, and of course I am not afraid of the Ming Dynasty now."

Zeng Bofa was speechless after hearing this and cursed inwardly, "How arrogant you are."

But his whole family had already moved here, so he had to help the King of Sunda consider the situation and quickly advised: "Your Majesty, compared with the Ming navy, the Ming cavalry and infantry are more powerful. Many countries in the north have been destroyed by the Ming. It is impossible for us to win."

"Haha," Maharaja laughed, "If I can't win on the seashore, won't I retreat to the mountains? My father, grandfather and I have experienced this more than once. Each time, we defeated the powerful enemy in the mountains and forced them to sit down and negotiate withdrawal."

Zeng Bofa said: "The cavalry and infantry of the Ming Dynasty are equally fierce when fighting in mountainous areas."

Maharaja curled his lips and didn't take this statement seriously.

In his early years, he was a vassal of Srivijaya, but he would go to war with his suzerain every now and then. He also violated the orders of his suzerain, engaged in smuggling year after year, and traded with other countries without Srivijaya.

They even relied on the mountainous areas of West Java Island to repel Srivijaya's attacks time and time again, forcing Srivijaya to recognize the independence of Sunda Kingdom (actually semi-independence).

In Maharaja's view, whether it was Srivijaya or Ming, only the navy was particularly strong. When it came to the army, he was still the best, and he was invincible in the mountainous areas.

"The trade winds are coming soon, and the port of Galapa (meaning Coconut City) will be busy again," Maharaja said, looking at the harbor in the distance, "The Ming treasure notes can actually be printed in larger denominations, and we can make more money."

Zeng Bofa felt even more tired after hearing this, and explained again: "Your Majesty, the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes are different from the former Song Dynasty's Jiaozi. The treasure notes were made for easy carrying and trading, and the smallest denomination is already very valuable. It is difficult to cheat people with the larger denominations of treasure notes, and they will be more careful when checking the money."

The counterfeit Ming Dynasty treasure notes are really not meant to deceive the poor.

Because a piece of the smallest denomination of treasure note could be equivalent to all the assets of the lower-class people.

The counterfeit bills printed in Coconut City cannot even be traded individually because they are very easy to recognize. It is necessary to mix one or two counterfeit bills with a pile of real bills during large transactions, relying on the other party's negligence in checking the bills to get away with it.

Even if they are discovered, they can say that they had no idea where the counterfeit money came from.

Maharaja asked, "Can't it be done more authentically?"

Zeng Bofa said: "This needs further research. The steel seal has been developed, but there is no progress in the anti-counterfeiting dark pattern. For the time being, we can only make the dark pattern like that."

"Speed ​​up," Maharaja urged.

Some people are just greedy.

If the Ming Dynasty had not destroyed Srivijaya, Maharaja would not even have been able to own Coconut City and could only shrink into the Banten Mountains to grow his own business.

Now he not only owns the entire West Java, but also makes a fortune from the Coconut City Port.

But Maharaja wanted more. He wanted to make more money, build bigger cities, train more troops, and swallow up the Kingdom of Mataram in Central Java and then the Kingdom of Kediri in East Java.

He wants to unify the entire island of Java!
By the way, King Kediri also thought so and continued to invade Mataram.

However, the Konigiri Kingdom was relatively weak, and after being reprimanded twice by the Ming envoy, it has now obediently engaged in business. By the way, it bullied the natives of Bali and has brought the entire island of Bali under its rule.

After a while, Zeng Bofa left Coconut City.

This newly built royal city is actually just a castle, with the streets and port all outside the castle. The Zeng family's mansion is located between the castle and the forest.

They were granted thousands of acres of land by the king, including large tracts of forest and swamp. Part of the forest and swamp had been reclaimed and cultivated by the Mataram prisoners of war granted by the king, who became serfs of the Zeng family.

The printing factory is right in his own estate.

Near the port, the Zeng family also built a large warehouse to buy, sell and store various goods. His legitimate business was small in scale, and he was afraid that if he expanded too much all of a sudden, it would arouse suspicion from other Chinese merchants in Coconut City.

Zeng's external identity was just a favorite of the King of Sunda, who gained favor by presenting beautiful women to the king.

"Brother is back?"

Zeng Boda took a counterfeit note and a genuine note and walked quickly to Zeng Bofa. "Brother, don't look at the dark pattern first. Just compare the steel seals of the two notes. Can you tell which one is real and which one is fake?"

Zeng Bofa compared them carefully and said with a smile: "There is not much difference. Xiaolang's banknote making skills have improved again."

“But those anti-counterfeiting patterns are still not made properly. There are three layers of patterns alternating, and each layer is very clear. I don’t know how the court made them.” Zeng Boda couldn’t help but sigh.

"Take it easy." Zeng Bofa encouraged.

Zeng Boda asked, "What did the fool king say today?"

Zeng Bofa repeated the story in detail, shook his head and said, "He is a useless person. He is a foreign chieftain who only knows the world from a narrow perspective, yet he thinks he is wise and brave, and even wants to fight the heavenly soldiers on land."

"How arrogant!" Zeng Boda complained.

Zeng Bofa sighed, "Isn't it better to make money honestly? He has to think about annexing Mataram all day long. If he continues like this, the court will send troops to punish him sooner or later. I don't know if we can escape the disaster."

Zeng Boda was silent and worried.

They are in the business of exterminating a clan. It would be a lie to say that they are not afraid, otherwise they would not have gone out to sea with their whole family.

But even after the whole family moved to Coconut City, with more and more counterfeit banknotes, Zeng Boda always felt that something would happen one day.

Washing hands in a golden basin?

There's no way to stop now.

……

Maharaja is already in his fifties, but he is in very good health and had a son last year.

She was born to a young Han Chinese concubine, whom he particularly favored. Not to mention her beauty, her Chinese identity alone was enough to restore Maharaja's power.

It seemed as if by sleeping with a Han woman, he had slept with the entire Ming Dynasty.

This Han Chinese concubine was kidnapped by the Zeng brothers from Fujian. She came from a poor merchant family and was given a betrothal gift of 500 strings of cash, saying that they were taking her as a concubine to live in Coconut City.

The Han Chinese merchants in Coconut City all thought that the Zeng family rose to power in this way, so they were very disgusted with them - they actually offered their concubines to the local chieftain!
He called his beloved concubine to drink with him. After a few drinks, the concubine danced for him, and Maharaja liked her more and more.

He suddenly had an idea and wanted to make his youngest son the crown prince.

Now the eldest son is the crown prince. Ever since he moved to the new capital and left the old capital to his eldest son to govern, the eldest son has become increasingly disobedient. He often makes small moves and even replaces the officials he appointed without authorization.

If this goes on, the eldest son will definitely rebel, and we must find an excuse to kill him!

"Boom boom boom!"

A series of loud noises like thunder were heard.

The Maharaja stood up suddenly in shock, walked quickly outside, and hurried to the city wall.

An inner court official came over with officers.

Maharaja asked, “What happened?”

The officials in the inner court panicked and said, "The Ming fleet is coming! There are dozens of warships (mostly troop and grain transport ships). At first we thought they were merchant ships, but they fired at the ships in the harbor before they even entered the port."

Maharaja was not a foolish ruler. He forced himself to remain calm and said, "Quickly gather all the troops to defend the city, and send people to contact the local nobles to send troops. Also, send envoys out to negotiate with the Ming army!"

"Boom!"

The city walls seemed to be shaking, as the Ming army's artillery was firing at the castle.

The streets outside the castle were in chaos, and people on the dock were fleeing in panic.

Maharaja personally climbed up the city wall and observed the situation outside with his head down.

When he saw the Ming army landing in groups and the Ming warships in the harbor, he was so scared that he turned and ran while shouting, "Retreat from the South Gate. We will fight in the mountains!"

They didn't even dare to defend the castle and actually wanted to escape into the mountains and fight guerrilla warfare.

(End of this chapter)