Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 214: The Chronicle of Clavijo’s Envoy to the East ([-])

My name is Lo Gozerez Clavijo, and I am a minister of the Kingdom of Castile.

Of course, in the eyes of many countries in the world, my country should be called the Kingdom of Spain.

The reason why I started writing this book "The Eastern Envoy" is because after a series of adventures, I got acquainted with Qingyao, the envoy of the Ming Empire, the kingdom of heaven on earth, and followed the distinguished envoy Qingyao to the Ming Empire. Meet the legendary Ming Emperor Zhu Sihan.

In order to save my country from the conquests of the Ottoman Empire, I went to the Ming Empire six times, spanning 18 years, and witnessed the tremendous changes in this huge empire.

Before that, I had always called the Chinese emperor Jiuyi Sihan, which means "the great emperor who unified the nine states."

China is the country of Seris in the mouth of ancient Greek and Roman scholars, and it is also the great empire that ruled the vast nine states mentioned by Marco Polo in his "Oriental Visions".

However, the people of this great empire prefer to call their great country "China".

Dear readers, I must give a grand introduction to China today.

After the death of Genghis Khan, Wo Kuotai succeeded him as the Great Khan, and then Tuo Lei became the Lord of Helin.

When Kublai Khan, the son of Tolei, became the Great Khan, he had just conquered the entire territory of China. At that time, Marco Polo was serving in the Khan's court, and the Chagatai tribe began to pay tribute to the capital in Samarkand.

Later, when Zhu Mingguang restored the Han Dynasty and regained control of China, the Chagatai Khanate became its vassal and paid tribute.

"Zhu" is the surname of the emperor who currently rules China, and "Da Ming" is the country name used by the emperor who rules China to declare China to the outside world.

When I say this, some people may not understand. To put it simply, Ming people call themselves "Chinese" and hope others will call them "Ming people" or "Chinese".

Therefore, if we call the current great eastern country the Seris State or the Khitan State, it is obviously a wrong name. We should call China the Ming Empire, or just China.

After the first emperor of the Ming Empire died of illness, his fourth son succeeded to the throne, which is what I called Zhu Sihan before.

Strictly speaking, Zhu Sihan should be called Emperor Yongle using the name of the Ming Dynasty people.

As for why he was called Emperor Yongle, it was because the reign title of Zhu Sihan after he inherited the throne was "Yongle".

The era name is a name used by the Chinese emperor to mark the year. It is a name established to distinguish last year, this year, next year, and the year after. In short, it is very convenient to use.

I said so much about China at the beginning, not to show off how much I know about China, but to introduce to readers the reason why I call "China" the "Ming Empire" in this article and use the Yongle era name to date it.

Now back to normal, let me talk about why I wanted to go to the East as an envoy, what happened during the journey, how I finally followed the Qingyao envoy of the Ming Dynasty to the Ming Empire, and what incredible things I saw in the Ming Empire.

More than ten years ago, the Ottoman Empire continued to expand, threatening the Byzantine Empire and other countries on the Western Continent, and the Kingdom of Spain where I live is no exception.

However, by the fourth year of Yongle, Sultan Bayezid I of the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Timurid Empire in the Battle of Angola and became a prisoner.

For my country, Spain, the rise of the Timurid Empire can be said to be a turning point in eliminating the threat of the Ottoman Empire.

Before that, my king (Enrique III) had sent envoys to the Timur Empire and received favorable treatment.

Therefore, the king decided to send another envoy headed by me to the Timur Empire, hoping to get assistance from Timur Khan to help my country eliminate the threat from the Ottoman Empire.

In May of the fifth year of Yongle, the mission led by me set out from Cadiz, our home port.

As the first leg of our journey to the east, we traveled to southern Italy via the Mediterranean island of Corsica, and then crossed the Greek coast from the Kingdom of Naples to the base of Rhodes controlled by the Knights.

After being escorted by local soldiers, they sailed north along the coast of Asia Minor, and finally landed in the seemingly dilapidated but still majestic Byzantine capital of Constantinople.

Until 300 years ago, Constantinople guarded the junction of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. However, with the decline of the Byzantine Empire, the iron chains originally used to block roads and collect taxes had been dismantled by the Italians.

Although I saw the statue of Emperor Justinian, the legendary great arena, and the towering Hagia Sophia, the entire city became depressed and dilapidated, and was even used as a vegetable garden and pasture by the residents.

Only the nearby Galatia area is extremely prosperous. This is because Italian merchant ships often trade between them, which brings prosperity.

All these changes were simply unimaginable in the distant past.

After staying in Constantinople for a while, we planned to take a boat to the north and east along the southern coast of the Black Sea.

But in the Sea of ​​Marmara, we first witnessed two worlds in serious opposition.

On the left bank of the ship are the ruins of a Greek church and a small fortress.

As for the land on the right side of the ship, it is densely covered with Ottoman herder tribes and small brick houses.The Greek and Ottoman reconnaissance cavalry styles were similar, and both sides also stared at the passing ships in the Sea of ​​Marmara.

In November, when winter came, the ship heading to Trabzon almost sank due to a storm.

Our group can only return to Constantinople and wait for the next spring to walk the steep Black Sea coast again.

On the way back, I saw Greek and Ottoman fortresses everywhere along the way, criss-crossing each other and refusing to give up any ground.

As the Ottoman Empire's royal court was severely damaged by the Timurid Empire, the entire region fell into chaos.

Many small local lords turned into separatist forces fighting for territory. They began to fight with each other frequently and collected protection fees from merchants.

As for the Trabzon Kingdom, which was protected by the sea and mountains, it offered peace to the Timur Empire in exchange for its princess.

However, compared to Constantinople, which was already a ruined countryside, Trabzon was significantly richer.

Even though the nobles of Trabzon had to deal with the Genoese fleet and the Turkic cavalry and could not restore the former glory of the empire, the stability here allowed the envoys led by me to spend a comfortable time.

I know very well that when we come here, we are entering the sphere of influence of the Timur Empire.

In order to learn more about this Eastern empire named "Tamerlane", I often personally ask local residents to learn about the various customs and customs they may encounter on the road ahead.

However, because our mission changed its route by land, we soon encountered a group of Greek soldiers who could only occupy the hills and confront the surrounding Turkic, Georgian, and Armenian forces because there was no port in Trabzon.

In order to extort money, these Greek soldiers almost confiscated the gifts we were carrying.

After I told their leader the purpose of our mission to the Timur Empire, they released us and escorted us through the chaotic area.

In March of the sixth year of Yongle, we entered the vast area between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.

Although it is located in the upper reaches of the Euphrates River, the climate is cool and pleasant, and under the snow-capped mountains, there are green pastures.

However, the severely damaged city of Sivas still showed the horror of war, especially the muskets and gun-throwing machines used by the Timurid Empire, which have become weapons that everyone talks about.

Due to the Byzantine Empire's renegade, the Timurid Empire once treated the believers in the city harshly and ordered the demolition of cities and churches.

The city of Sivas was captured by the Timurid Empire's cannon-throwing machines that blasted through the city wall.

I heard that the trebuchet is an improved trebuchet. The old trebuchet throws stones, but the current trebuchet throws large iron pellets that can explode.

At that time, no one knew why the Timurid Empire would create such large explosive iron pellets. Even I, who is famous for being well-informed, was the first time I heard anyone mention this thing.

At that time, I guessed that this big exploding iron pill should be related to black powder.

Although Genghis Khan's western expedition brought terror and massacre to the Mediterranean, the expedition brought not only blood but also advanced technology to the countries surrounding the Mediterranean.

More than ten years ago, powerful countries around the Mediterranean began to use copper to make hand cannons, also called giant matchlock guns.

This type of hand cannon has no front sight, rear sight, trigger, grip, or butt.

It is a gun mount that can be inserted into the saddle to fix the gun body to the gun mount. There is a tail rod behind the gun, and the tail rod is connected to a chest rest of the hand-held artillery.

When using it, the cavalry held the chest rest with his chest, held the cannon body with his left hand, and roughly aimed at the target. Then he took a lit match rope or a piece of charcoal to the ignition door with his right hand to fire the loaded stone pellets or lead pellets.

Although this kind of shooting basically cannot consider accuracy, and because the length of the gun body is short, the range is also very short, but its huge sound, diffuse smoke, and the huge power of occasional hits are as terrifying as demons to soldiers.

After I saw the firecrackers used by the soldiers of the Timurid Empire, I found that the matchlocks, which used ropes to ignite the fuses, were very similar to the giant matchlock guns that countries on my home continent began to make, but they also had quite a few differences. difference.

The fire blunderbuss held by the soldiers of the Timur Empire had a rear sight, a front sight, and a butt that could be placed on the shoulder, making it very advanced.

The rear sight, front sight, and butt are all parts that are not found in the giant matchlock guns made in the countries surrounding my hometown.

Later I learned that this fire blunderbuss was made by craftsmen captured from the Yili Khanate during Timur's Eastern Expedition and imitated the fire blunderbuss of the Ming Empire.

In addition, I heard many details about the battle for Ankara near the city of Sivas.

PS: There is another chapter later.Thanks to the hunk who doesn’t eat peaches for the [-]-point reward!grateful!
(End of this chapter)