Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1161 Epilogue : The Great Ambition of the Indian Prince

Huangzhou Prefecture, Tongpan Hall.

The family gathered around the globe and carefully read the "Da Ming Weekly".

The news of the round-the-world voyage finally made it to the newspaper, and it was the front-page headline.

Xie Yan did not make any comments because the maps of Europe, Africa and America were severely deformed on this globe.

When the Ming Dynasty court drew the world map, it directly adopted maps drawn by Arabs and Greeks for the vast area from West Asia to Western Europe.

They drew the Mediterranean Sea particularly large, resulting in its area being almost the same as the whole of Europe.

The British Isles became a flat teapot shape.

The Nordic region has been reduced to a tiny amount.

Western Europe and Northern Europe are too far away for the Ming Dynasty. It is impossible to send people there to make accurate measurements, and there is no need to do so for the time being.

Ming Dynasty scholars who studied geography all knew that there was something wrong with this thing.

The maps were mainly drawn by Arabs. Not only was Europe severely distorted, but Central Asia, South Asia and China were also drawn in a mess. Ming geographers could tell at a glance that they were extremely fake.

But for the Ming Dynasty, Africa and Europe can be ignored.

First of all, there is no political or military conflict.

Secondly, there is no market there. The combined consumption capacity of European countries is not even a fraction of that of the Indian and Middle Eastern markets.

Well, it can’t be called the Middle East now, that is a European geographical concept.

From the perspective of the Ming Dynasty, Central Asia is now called the "Western Regions", West Asia and Eastern Europe are called the "Near West", and Central Europe and Western Europe are called the "Western".

"Mecca" is more like a political concept, including the desert religious countries in North Africa, which are all called Mecca.

In later generations, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan were all referred to as "Indian countries" by the Ming Dynasty.

Xie Yan did not pay attention to places too far away. He mainly appreciated the Ming Dynasty and its surrounding areas. Every time he looked at the map, he felt particularly shocked.

The entire South Asian subcontinent has changed beyond recognition because of the rise of the Ming Dynasty.

The Bengal dynasty, which should have been founded decades ago and converted to desert religion, has not yet emerged. The one ruling the Bengal region today is the Shinagara dynasty (Hinduism), which should have been destroyed long ago.

Of course, this was the Ming Dynasty that took action!
The prince of the Xina Dynasty, along with his entire family and dozens of followers, fled to a merchant ship of the Ming Dynasty and headed all the way to Luoyang to borrow troops to restore his country.

The two sides reached a political deal quickly without much bargaining.

The Ming Dynasty did not even use its own troops, but only mobilized the navy and army in Southeast Asia to defeat the Desert Cult army that invaded Xina.

In addition to the Ming Dynasty's strong fighting power, there is another very important reason: the forced religious conversions by the invaders were unpopular.

Prince Xina led the Ming army back, and after three consecutive victories, local Hindu princes responded one after another. The rest of the matter had nothing to do with the Ming army, and Prince Xina could handle it himself.

In order to repay the Ming Dynasty for its help in restoring the country, Prince Sina donated the port at the mouth of the Ganges River and a large area of ​​surrounding land to the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the Xina Dynasty became a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

In other parts of the South Asian subcontinent, the state territories were also broken up.

The Chola Dynasty, which was extremely powerful at the time of Zhu Ming, now only had a small piece of territory left, facing Ceylon across the sea. In order to avoid being destroyed by its neighbor, the Chola Dynasty had long since become a vassal of the Ming Dynasty.

The narrow coastal strip in the north of the Chola Dynasty had become a colony of the Ming Dynasty, and an "Indian Governor-General's Office" was established.

To the north of the Indian Viceroyalty was the Kalinga Dynasty, which bordered the Shinagara Dynasty in the Bengal region.

All the countries along this stretch believe in Hinduism, while most of the countries further northwest are desert religion countries.

Among them, the Delhi Sultanate was once the most powerful.

However, the situation changed dramatically after the younger brother of the King of Dayuan led his army to the Indus River Basin.

The maps and globes in Xie Yan's home were actually out of date.

Four years ago, the Tianzhu Kingdom (Confucianism + Buddhism + Hinduism) established by the descendants of the Dayuan branch of the Zhu family had already conquered the city of Delhi, and the Delhi Sultanate was thus torn apart.

The Indian Kingdom took the opportunity to seize a large area in the upper reaches of the Ganges.

At present, India is moving southward to attack Rajput (Rajasthan) because it is a very important war horse producing area.

……

Luoyang.

After the round-the-world sailing team returned, another delegation from India arrived, led by the Indian prince Zhu Boyu.

The emperor and his ministers of the Ming Dynasty looked at Zhu Boyu carefully.

Yan Xide, the Minister of Rites, could not help but ask, "I heard that the Indian royal family has intermarried with local nobles for generations. Is this rumor false?"

Zhu Boyu has difficulty speaking Chinese: "Our royal family did intermarry with local nobles. The first generation looked completely like Indian nobles. The second generation intermarried with Han people and became more Han Chinese. I am the third generation of intermarriage. Although my mother is a local noble, I look more like a Han Chinese."

Empress Dowager Ye asked her husband Li Chang: "Has the Zongzheng Temple continued the genealogy of the Tianzhu Kingdom?"

Li Chang bowed and said, "Reporting to the Queen Mother, it has been extended. This prince of the Tianzhu Kingdom is the sixth-generation grandson of Emperor Taizong. According to seniority, he should be your Majesty's nephew."

Empress Dowager Ye smiled and said to her son, "This is your nephew." The little emperor stood up and bowed.

Zhu Boyu was so frightened that he immediately knelt down and said, "I dare not accept your majesty's gift!"

The little emperor nodded slightly, and Zhu Boyu kowtowed in return.

Deng Gongwu asked, "You want to become a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. Have you discussed this with the Kingdom of Dayuan?"

Zhu Boyu replied: "We have sent someone to discuss it."

The current situation is that Dayuan is a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and Tianzhu is a vassal of Dayuan.

After destroying the Delhi Sultanate, the Tianzhu Kingdom thought it was strong enough and wanted to abandon Dayuan and become a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, it could upgrade itself to a higher level, and on the other hand, it could break free from the constraints of Dayuan.

In order to please his ancestral country, Zhu Boyu even brought six girls.

Those girls were about the same age as the young emperor, all of them were fair-skinned and beautiful, and were all daughters of the royal family and nobles of the Delhi Sultanate captured four years ago. They were also taught Chinese and Chinese characters in advance so that they could adapt to the Ming Dynasty.

This flattery hit the horse's leg directly.

Neither Empress Dowager Ye nor Prime Minister Deng wanted the young emperor to be exposed to women too early.

Yan Xide, the Minister of Rites, said: "Dayuan has always been loyal and has made no mistakes. As the ancestral country, it is not convenient for the Ming Dynasty to directly accept a vassal state."

Queen Mother Ye exchanged glances with several ministers, and then made the decision: "Go back and negotiate with Dayuan before coming back. You are not allowed to cheat, otherwise you will be severely punished!"

As the western barrier of the Ming Dynasty, Dayuan played a much greater strategic role than India. There was no need for the two countries to have unpleasantness over the vassal state.

"I obey your order."

Zhu Boyu was very disappointed.

It’s because you are not strong enough, otherwise the Ming Dynasty would definitely agree.

When his ancestors founded the country in the Indus River Basin, they retained too few soldiers. After digesting Ge Jining's territory, the generals who were given fiefs had quickly become Brahmins, and the expanded army was all local soldiers.

When the Indian Empire went to war with the Delhi Sultanate again, although it always won, it could not break the city after several sieges. It bombarded the city with precious homemade gunpowder, and twice the city walls collapsed. The defenders shouted slogans of holy war and actually won the street fighting.

Not only did the Han generals become Brahminized, but even the soldiers they brought with them were like that!
When the local army was expanded, the soldiers became officers one by one and scattered around to become landlords. They were particularly careful about their lives in battles and were no longer the brave Central Asian soldiers.

It was not until four years ago that the Indian Empire took advantage of the death of the Delhi Sultan and the lack of prestige of the young Sultan to capture the city of Delhi in one fell swoop.

It's definitely a fight between two noobs.

After leaving the palace, Zhu Boyu returned to Sifang Pavilion in Luoyang.

The more he thought about it, the more depressed he became. From then on, he was determined to expand his territory. One day, he would get rid of Dayuan and become a vassal of the Ming Dynasty.

Yes, Zhu Boyu’s ambition is very lofty - to work hard to become a vassal of the Ming Dynasty!
He felt that his father's strategy was wrong. Rajput was full of deserts, and one could not rely solely on force to deal with the enemies there.

It can be done through diplomatic means.

The nobles there were all outsiders, but they had come from a few hundred years earlier than them.

Since they are all outsiders, are there any irreconcilable conflicts?

After one or two victories, the two sides could sit down for peace talks and form an alliance. The prince of India could marry the daughters of several Rajput tribal chieftains, and then they would all be his own people, and they could also gain the loyalty of the Rajput cavalry.

……

A few days before school started, Xie Yan said to his mother, "Mom, I want agate and top craftsmen."

Wang Yitong smiled and said, "Do you have a girl you like? A gentleman is like jade. I will pick out a few jade pendants for you."

Xie Yan said: "It's not for making ornaments."

"Then what are you going to do?" Wang Yitong asked.

Xie Yan explained: "Make a high-precision balance. Today's experimental balances are not accurate enough to verify Taizu's periodic table."

Wang Yitong was surprised and asked, "Why is the balance made of agate?"

Xie Yan said: "It's hard to explain in a few words. Anyway, I need agate to make the parts of the balance. I also need a low-quality, corrosion-resistant metal to make the weights."

In another time and space, aluminum sheets were used as weights and agate was used as the blade of the scale.

But in the Ming Dynasty today, it seems that no chemist has discovered aluminum.

Wang Yitong was always skeptical about her son's research in chemistry, but she still agreed to help find craftsmen and agates.

At least, my son did not go out to pursue women or engage in cockfighting or dog-fighting.

After finally convincing his mother, Xie Yan began to look for materials to make a simple air damper.

As a civil engineer, it's normal for me to understand the principles of air dampers, right?

With the air damper, even if you can't find aluminum for the weights, it will be enough.

Xie Yan looked at the "Ming Territory Map" in the study and muttered to himself, "Senior time traveler, please show up and bless me to make the agate balance successfully. Then I can give the dynasty you have built a little shock. Jade Emperor, Tathagata Buddha, Namo Amitabha. Amen!"

(End of this chapter)