Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 219: The Envoy of Clavijo to the East ([-])
As far as I know, among the 120 million people today, only more than [-] are aborigines who lived in the Ili Valley area five years ago in Yongle.

Among the other [-] people, [-]% were Ming army officers and soldiers and their families, [-]% were civilians who migrated from the hinterland of Ming Dynasty, and the other [-]% were people from the border provinces and vassal states of Ming Dynasty who implemented the national system. Later, the people of Ming Dynasty were transformed from savages.

The national savage system is an advanced system that can transform ignorant savages into common people under the Ming Dynasty.

This system is too complicated. I have inquired in many ways, but I have not been able to figure out how it transformed savages step by step into Ming people who could speak Chinese, write Chinese characters, and perform Chinese rituals.

In early May of the 22nd year of Yongle, I arrived in Beijing, the new capital of the Ming Dynasty.

This is a great city whose majestic original appearance cannot be described with any words.

If I have to describe it, I think I can only use the Ming Dynasty people to call it the "Forbidden City".

The reason why it is called the Forbidden City is because it embodies the Chinese idea of ​​the unity of nature and man.

In China, in order to distinguish astronomical phenomena, astronomical scholars divided the starry sky into three groups and 28 constellations.

The three walls are Ziweiyuan, Taiweiyuan and Tianshiyuan. Ziweiyuan is the middle wall of the three walls, located in the center of the north sky, so it is also called the Zhonggong or Ziwei Palace.

The "purple" in the Forbidden City corresponds to the purple hills in the sky. "Forbidden" symbolizes power, and "city" is a continuous palace.

The Emperor, the Lord of the human world, lives in the Forbidden City, which corresponds to the Emperor of Heaven who lives in the Ziwei Yuan in the sky.

On the second day of June in the 22nd year of Yongle, Emperor Yongle summoned a total of more than 2000 people, including me, the envoys of the overseas dependent countries of the Ming Dynasty and the civil and military ministers of the Ming Dynasty in Fengtian Hall.

In the first month of the following year, Emperor Yongle, at the request of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, dispatched Qingyao as the state envoy, leading a fleet of more than [-] people to escort envoys from the Ming vassal states like me from the West back to China, and to send messages to the vassal states along the way. Read out the Ming Emperor's edict to treat people far away and be friendly to all nations.

The fleet led by Qingyao set off from Dagokou, Tianjin, and arrived at Managadusi, the overseas territory set up by the Ming Dynasty in Nanyang, three months later.

We rested in Manlajia for more than a month. During this period, Qingyao sent many small fleets to escort the envoys of the Ming vassal countries located around Manlajia Dusi back home.

A month later we arrived in the mountainous country of Ceylon.

Qingyao led two thousand soldiers of the Ming Dynasty to land, read out the edict of Emperor Yongle to confer the new king of Mount Ceylon, and then went to the domestic temple of Mount Ceylon to donate alms. Accompanied by the new king of Mount Ceylon, Qingyao went to the capital of the country. In the city of Kandy, the Ming soldiers who died in the war were worshiped on the Ming Dynasty Heroes Monument.

I later learned that after the Battle of Mount Ceylon in the Ming Dynasty, the king of Mount Ceylon, Ariel Kunel, was deposed, and Emperor Yongle supported the sage Yerbanana from the royal family of Mount Ceylon as the new king.

In order to ensure that Yabanana would not be murdered by the rebel forces in the Ceylon Mountains, Emperor Yongle, at the suggestion of the prince, sent Wang Jinghong as the envoy to lead a fleet of 5000 people and traveled thousands of miles to Ceylon again. In the mountain kingdom, the imperial edict was read out to depose Ariel from the throne and consecrate Jebanaina as king.

After that, He Yizong, who was promoted to the commander of Jinyiwei, led four thousand Ming troops to stay in Mount Ceylon and found a suitable place sixty miles away from the coastal port. It took three years to build it into a A self-sufficient military base - Ceylon Guard.

Last year, before Jabanena died of illness, he appointed his third son Dag to succeed him.

After Dag succeeded to the throne, he immediately sent an envoy to the Ming Dynasty to request the Ming Emperor's canonization.

It was the first time for our delegation to come to the country of Ceylon, so we were full of curiosity about everything in the country.

However, what surprised us was that more than one-third of the people in the country spoke Chinese and performed Chinese rituals.

There are even schools in the country that teach locals how to write Chinese characters.

After I asked the locals of the Ceylon Mountain Kingdom in my not-so-fluent Chinese, I learned that the reason why they learn Chinese, Chinese rituals, and Chinese characters is to pass the Chinese etiquette assessment set by the Yamen Rituals Department under the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty, and thus gain entry into the Ming Dynasty. Qualifications for local study or travel.

The Ming Dynasty Ceremony Examination Department has an agency in Kandy, the capital of Mount Ceylon, called the Ceylon Mountain Ceremony Examination Institute, which is responsible for assessing those in Mount Ceylon who want to go to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty.

When my king sent me as an envoy to the Ming Dynasty, he issued a document signed and sealed by the king, so I can successfully enter the Ming Dynasty with the document that can prove my identity as an envoy.

As for other non-Ming natives, if they enter the Ming Dynasty without permission, once they are discovered, they will usually be caught by the local yamen as pirates and taken to the prefecture-level bandit capture divisions set up by the Ming Dynasty in various frontier provinces.And there are very few people who can come out alive after entering the banditry.

This is because most people who crossed the border privately were treated as pirates and killed by the Ming Dynasty capture bandits.

The Ceylon Mountain Ceremony Examination Institute was established by Yabanana at the request of the Ming Dynasty. The purpose was to facilitate the people of his country to go to the Ming Dynasty to study advanced Chinese literature.

In June of the 23rd year of Yongle, Qingyao led the Ming Dynasty fleet and took us away from the Ceylon Mountain Kingdom and continued westward.

The fleet headed west along the Peacock Sea. After arriving at the port of the Gulf of Aden, Qingyao told the other envoys from the Ming vassal countries on the fleet that he would lead the fleet to send the Spanish delegation led by me to Suez to ensure that we would not Will encounter pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

The other envoys from the Ming vassal states all expressed their support for Qingyao's approach, and some even suggested that the pirates must be frightened and disabled.

However, the result was unexpected. When the pirates in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea saw the Ming flag flying on the fleet, they all gave way and did not dare to approach.

This trip back to China by boat made me realize that the Ming Dynasty was not only an empire on land, but also an empire on the sea.

From then on, all overseas countries of the Ming Dynasty would fly the "Ming" flag symbolizing the Ming Dynasty fleet when sailing at sea.

In September of the 23rd year of Yongle, Qingyao led a fleet to send us to Suez.

After bidding farewell to Ambassador Qingyao, our group headed north from Suez to the Mediterranean and returned to Spain at the end of that year.

After I returned to China, I learned that in July last year, my king actually sent spies to sneak into Dingxi Town in an attempt to steal the Ming army's technology for making simple small artillery. However, they were discovered by patrol guards in the military town and the spies were killed on the spot.

My king was unwilling to give in, and later sent spies to sneak into Dingxi Town again and again, but they were all caught by the patrol guards in the military town and killed as thieves.

I know that if the king does not give up and continues to send spies into Dingxi Town, sooner or later the Ming army will discover him.

I had to persuade the king several times to stop.

But the king was now a passionate young man, ambitious and did not listen to advice at all.

He believed that the Kingdom of Spain could not always be a vassal of other countries, and that the Kingdom of Spain wanted to be the hegemon on the Western Continent.

In February of the 24th year of Yongle, I submitted my resignation to the king on the grounds of old age and infirmity, hoping to persuade the king to change his mind.

However, what I never expected was that the king actually agreed to my resignation request!

I tossed and turned for a month, and finally made up my mind to inform His Majesty the Ming Emperor about the king's evil intentions.

Because I know what will happen if I offend the Ming Empire. I love my country, so I can't watch the king destroy my country.

Therefore, my sixth mission to the Ming Dynasty was my personal act.

I am already 60 years old at this time and I don’t know how long I can live.

As early as the 14th year of Yongle's reign, I suffered from a serious illness, and it was Daming herbal medicine that cured my illness.

I thought that I had lived for ten more years and that I might die on the way to the Ming Dynasty this time, so I wrote this "Envoy to the East" while walking. If future generations can see it, I hope that I will never be an enemy of the Ming Dynasty. .

Ming Dynasty is invincible.

PS: The next story enters the 25th year of Yongle. Preview: Zhu Di plans to give the throne to Zhu Gaoxu.

(End of this chapter)