Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 719: The End of the Conquest
As an emperor, especially a commoner emperor, it is natural for him to be familiar with modern history.

Among the various emperors of the Yuan Dynasty, the one Zhu Yuanzhang admired the most was Kublai Khan.

Although he did not have the knowledge of the world that the young man Wen Mang of later generations had, he did not know the details of the Mongol Empire.

However, due to the Mongol change of Yuan Dynasty, people in the early Ming Dynasty knew more clearly.

After all, the Hu Yuan Dynasty lasted less than a hundred years, and the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who witnessed it are still alive, so it is not difficult to find out more.

The brutality of the Mongols, the changes in the early Yuan Dynasty, and even the rapid succession of emperors in the Yuan Dynasty were all well known to the people in the early Ming Dynasty.

It is precisely for this reason that some of Kublai Khan's benevolent policies in the early Yuan Dynasty seemed more outstanding, and also made his frustrated state in his later years seem even more embarrassing.

Now, when Zhu Yuanzhang heard his juniors attribute the cause to the unfavorable foreign war and the death of his wife, he also agreed:
"If Empress Chabi had not been both virtuous and kind, it would be unclear whether Kublai Khan could have been the founder of the Yuan Dynasty."

"Just like me, if I hadn't been favored by the Queen..."

Queen Ma stopped her husband's words with a smile:
"The one who can pacify the world relies on the emperor to command the armies, the generals to be brave and wise, and the soldiers to be fearless of death. What I have done is just my duty, how can I talk about my achievements?"

"Why can't I talk about my achievements?" Zhu Yuanzhang disagreed:

"If it weren't for the Queen comforting her family, Hezhou would have been hard to survive, and Jiangning would have been in danger..."

Seeing that his mother was about to refuse again, Zhu Biao simply joined in to persuade her to reconcile:
"My parents are to the Ming Dynasty just as they are to me. How can we differentiate between them? How can we be without each other?"

"I think that what needs to be discussed seriously right now is the governance of Tibet."

With the Crown Prince mediating, Empress Ma said no more words. She just looked at her eldest son who was calm and composed with a smile in her eyes, and felt more and more satisfied.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the same. Looking at his eldest son talking about what later generations called the "sacred and indivisible" doctrine, his eyes became more and more full of admiration.

"The Yuan Shizu lost his son because of the villain who deserves death. Besides, the prince is too cowardly and is not as good as our Biao'er at all."

Watching his eldest son talking, he simply turned his head and whispered to his sister:

"Although the territory of the Ming Dynasty is not as vast as that of the early Yuan Dynasty, our Emperor Hongwu's wives are all virtuous and far superior to that of Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty."

Seeing the emperor looking proud and confident, Empress Ma smiled and shook her head, but she held her husband's hand a little tighter.

[The Yuan Dynasty split from the Mongol Empire and shared the same characteristics of the Mongol Empire's love of conquest.

However, in the old territory of the Mongol Empire, the Yuan Dynasty was located in the east and the Khanates were located in the west, so the Yuan Dynasty was destined to be unable to expand westward. In this case, it could only turn its attention to the south and east.

During the reign of Kublai Khan, the Yuan Dynasty still frequently waged wars against foreign countries, but compared with the early westward expeditions of the Mongol Empire, the results were minimal. On the surface, the reasons for its defeat were difficult for Kublai Khan to accept.

We have already mentioned that the expedition to Japan encountered a typhoon disaster, so we will not repeat it here. During the Yuan Dynasty's expedition to the south, there were three expeditions to Champa and Annan, which are now in Vietnam, but the results of all three expeditions were not satisfactory.

The first time, "the army could not bear the heat and had to retreat", the second time it was the rainy season and "the army suffered disease and many people were killed and injured", and the third time, "most of the soldiers were affected by the epidemic and could not advance".

However, the kings of Annan and Champa were both smart men at the time. After taking advantage of the geographical location and gaining the upper hand over the Yuan army on the battlefield, they hurriedly sent envoys to admit defeat.

The Yuan Dynasty's conquest of Myanmar can be summarized as "incompetent and playful". At that time, Myanmar was in the late Pagan Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty basically had a favorable battle. It took the Yuan Dynasty five years to invade the capital of the Pagan Dynasty and destroy it.

However, due to environmental and geographical reasons, the Yuan Dynasty was unable to deploy heavy troops to garrison Myanmar. As a result, the destroyed Myanmar fell into a melee of kingdoms. In the chaos, the Yuan Dynasty was badly beaten and could only withdraw from Myanmar with some medical expenses, maintaining only a tributary relationship for the sake of face.

This mess eventually fell into the hands of the Ming Dynasty. Although the Ming Dynasty had implemented a control system over the Burmese region since the Hongwu period, the Ming Dynasty's ability to control Burma was quite limited because the various kingdoms were fighting each other.

By the time the Portuguese took control of the Malacca Strait during the Jiajing period, and began to move north to intervene in Myanmar and support agents to fight against the Ming Dynasty, the complex situation in Myanmar created by Kublai Khan was finally detonated, and the more than 50-year war between the Ming and Myanmar began.

If the above was still acceptable at the time, then the Yuan Dynasty's conquest of Java was basically selling it and helping others count the money.

After the Mongol Empire split, the Yuan Dynasty did not have a good relationship with the nearby Chagatai Khanate and the Golden Horde. Instead, it was very close to the distant Ilkhanate led by Hulagu Khan, Kublai Khan's younger brother.

After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty took over the ports and shipbuilding technology. Due to the need for trade with the Ilkhanate, the shipping routes during the Yuan Dynasty began to lean more towards the west, and Java Island came into Kublai Khan's sight.

The Yuan Dynasty's handling of the Java Island was very Mongolian in nature. First, it started fighting without saying a word, and then it was full of contempt for these "barbarians".

The result was that the Majapahit Kingdom on Java Island pretended to surrender to the Yuan army, and after defeating its old enemy and unifying Java with the help of the Yuan army, it turned around and stabbed more than 3,000 Yuan soldiers in the back. Kublai Khan was ashamed and determined to take revenge, but died suddenly of illness the following year.

When Kublai Khan was alive, after suffering failures in his conquests of Japan, Annan, Champa, Java, etc., he was determined to conquer again and set up separate departments. However, with his death, these offensive plans were soon thrown into the dustbin of history. After all, as his advisor said, you can't fight to the death. How can you enjoy yourself if you fight to the death?

Starting from Kublai Khan's alcoholism in his later years, the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty were basically alcoholic emperors from generation to generation. Promiscuity, murder and drunkenness were the eternal themes of the Yuan Dynasty's nobles. The local tyrants who began to develop in the Song Dynasty ushered in the best era.

The Mongols' foreign conquest, which began with Genghis Khan's Western Expedition, came to an end on the island of Java after 88 years.

As for the fact that the unified Java Island benefited Portugal, Britain, the Netherlands, etc. who came here one after another, that is a story for another time when we talk about the Ming Dynasty. 】

In the government office in Xuchang, although Liu Bei and others were not very familiar with the Portuguese Yuan Dynasty, they could only imagine the Mongols by combining those delicate and tender people pretending to be ferocious in the light curtain with their impression of the Huns.

However, on this map that they had seen countless times, they could see quite clearly the arrows representing the attack rising from the west and pointing straight to the South Ocean.

It is a pity that the Ming Dynasty was unaware of the drastic changes in the world, and it is also a pity that it was unable to fight against the barbarians in such a wonderful era.

All kinds of complicated emotions stirred in Liu Bei's heart, and in the end he just sighed and thought of what Kong Ming had said before:

“The era of great contention begins from now on.”

(End of this chapter)