The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 293 The outside world

Chen Jingke and Zhu Xiongying came to Qianqing Palace and happened to meet Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao meeting Zhao Zhi.

After the two came in, they stood aside and listened to their conversation.

Mainly Zhao Zhi introduced various countries along the way: "...Tianzhu has always been in a state of fragmentation."

"It is currently divided into three parts, the Delhi Sultanate in the north, the Vijayanagar State in the middle, and Pandya in the south..."

"The locals mostly believe in a religion called Shendu Sect..."

Body poison is also one of the ancient Chinese names for India.

Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted: "Isn't Tianzhu a Buddhist country?"

Zhao Zhi explained: "Buddhism once flourished in northern Tianzhu, but it soon declined and is now only spread in a small area."

Zhu Yuanzhang was very surprised. He didn't expect that there would be no Buddha in the Buddhist country?

Although he did not understand the specific situation in India during this era, he could still obtain some information by working backwards from past lives.

Chen Jingke continued: "Tianzhu is also a civilization with a long history. It's a pity that their civilization has experienced at least two great collapses."

Then Zhao Zhi began to introduce the climate and other conditions here:

It’s just that under the packaging of modern civilization, many things look much gentler, while ancient times were more naked.

As long as they have the ability, people at lower levels can be officials and engage in various professions.

It is also normal for them to marry each other.

"The essence has been basically lost, but the dross of the caste system has been perfectly inherited."

Seeing that the emperor stopped talking, Zhao Zhicai continued: "...Tianzhu generally adopts a ruling method called caste system..."

"So they don't have the Chinese civilization's idea of ​​​​family, country and world. The ruling class does not think of taking the world as its own responsibility and benefiting all people."

And in actual implementation, few people talk about it.

"On the contrary, they are more pious towards religion. The basis of their rule is Shendu Cult."

After that, he talked about some specific situations in Tianzhu to support his point of view.

"But thinking about how to oppress the people, how to protect their own interests, and how to enjoy themselves."

Finally, we came to the conclusion that the basic foundation of this country has not really changed since ancient times.

"High castes and low castes are not allowed to intermarry...low castes in many places are not even allowed to hold knives."

"The sages removed the dross of Tianzhu Buddhism, retained its essence, and absorbed the best parts of Chinese culture, ultimately forming today's Mahayana Buddhism."

"However, the reason why it can flourish in China is also due to the improvements made by Chinese sages."

Chen Jingke secretly compared it with the situation in India in his previous life.

Tianzhu's caste system is even more strict and cruel, and there is a natural chasm between the two sides that can never be crossed.

"The result is that the entire land is like a pool of stagnant water."

"On the contrary, in China, Buddhism has blossomed."

"There was no room for him to display his talents in his own country, and he was ostracized when he went to other countries, so he became depressed."

Zhao Zhize was a little surprised. He didn't even understand many of the situations here. How did Chen Jingke know so clearly?

It can be said that there are no poor people in the upper castes and no rich people in the lower castes.

“The people don’t know there is a country, and the ruling class doesn’t know there is a world.”

At this time, Chen Jingke interjected: "Sakyamuni was depressed because of the oppression of the caste system."

Zhao Zhi said: "It is true that neither the local dignitaries nor the common people have the concept of the country and the world, and they have no understanding of their own civilization."

"Speaking of him as a prince, his actual power may not be as great as that of a county magistrate in our Ming Dynasty."

"It's just a pity that Tianzhu's ruling class obviously prefers the caste system, and in the end the Buddhist power was compressed to the point of near extinction."

If a first-class person has no money, he is still nothing in front of a fourth-class person.

"Under depression, he became enlightened and founded Buddhism, hoping to break the caste system."

"Status is determined by nature and cannot be changed throughout life..."

Chen Jingke explained: "Tianzhu has never been truly unified since ancient times. The country where Sakyamuni lives is just a small country."

Any high-caste person, even if he is reduced to a beggar, is still a master in front of the lower castes.

"Whenever a foreign enemy attacks, the monarch hurriedly organizes an army to resist, but whenever the battle does not go well, he kneels down and surrenders..."

"It can be said that Mahayana Buddhism has essentially nothing to do with Tianzhu Buddhism."

Zhu Yuanzhang originally wanted to say, isn't this the same as Bei Yuan's classification of people?
Only after hearing it later did I realize that it was completely different.

Zhu Biao questioned: "Isn't Sakyamuni Buddha a prince? He should be of a high caste, right? Why is he so depressed?"

Zhu Biao suddenly realized it and said: "That's it."

On the contrary, the difference between rich and poor is more common and intuitive.

Although Beiyuan divided different groups into different levels, there were no strict restrictions on each other.

"The climate here is hot and there are many rivers and plains, which is suitable for farming..."

After listening to his introduction, everyone had an intuitive understanding of Tianzhu in this era.

Two words to describe it: savage and rich.

Zhu Xiongying sighed: "It is a pity that such a precious land fell into the hands of such barbarians."

Zhao Zhi thought he was simply expressing emotion, but people who knew him heard the voiceover and fell in love with this piece of land.

Chen Jingke recalled the map of the Indian subcontinent in his mind and asked:
"As far as I know, there is an island called Ceylon in the south of Tianzhu. Have you visited it?"

Zhao Zhi replied: "Let's go. The first place we went to was this island. The environment is also very good."

"There are mountains in the middle of the island and plains around it. The climate is hot and rainy, and it is also suitable for farming..."

"The population is not large and it is mainly divided into two countries, Sinhala and Tamil, and the two countries are constantly at war."

"According to the intelligence obtained, the hatred between the two countries has lasted for thousands of years..."

Zhao Zhi was just curious as to how he knew about this island.

Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and Zhu Xiongying already understood that he was going to make a fuss about this island.

This is not the first time. Tsushima and Sado Island in Japan are the springboard for business in Japan.

Temasek Island in Nanyang is the core of operating Nanyang.

The same method is naturally applicable to Tianzhu.

It is difficult to attack Tianzhu directly, but it is much easier to capture an island.

Then use Ceylon Island as a base to explore the entire Tianzhu.

However, these are all national strategies, so naturally they cannot be told to others easily, at least Zhao Zhi is not qualified to know.

Next, Zhao Zhi introduced the subsequent process.

After staying in Tianzhu for several months and making preparations, they continued westward.

Walking and stopping all the way, the farthest reaches were Dhofar and Horumus.

Chen Jingke speculated based on the map that Zofar should be at the junction of Yemen and Oman in his previous life.

Khrumos is an important place guarding the Strait of Hormuz and belongs to Iran.

In his previous life, Zheng He made his fourth voyage to the West before arriving here.

It's not that Zheng He lacked ability or anything. During his overseas voyages, he actually didn't know much about foreign countries.

Where they can go depends on their impromptu decision-making by collecting information along the way, and most of their time is spent exploring.

Naturally, the speed cannot be increased.

Zhao Zhi and the others were more fully prepared for their voyage to the West this time because of Chen Jingke. From navigation technology to personnel allocation, from material carrying to navigation charts... they are all more complete than Zheng He.

It is reasonable to go that far.

However, Chen Jingke still admired him very much for reaching this point after going to sea for the first time.

He was just talking, Zhao Zhi and the others were doing it with their lives.

Zhao Zhi then focused on the situation in Central Asia.

When talking about Central Asia, we cannot do without the Arabs, Persians and Islam.

That area is full of deserts and mountains, and the living conditions are difficult. It was ruled by the Aryans a long time ago.

Aryan is the self-proclaimed name of the Persians.

Later, Muhammad established Islam, unified the Arabian Peninsula, and overthrew the Sasanian dynasty established by the Aryans...

Later, the Great Food Empire they established swept across the entire region, and countless countries and forces were fundamentally wiped out.

There is an ancient country called Egypt. All cultural books were destroyed, and they were forced to abolish their own language and fully convert to Islam.

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao frowned.

They naturally know about the Yi religion, and now many people in the Western Region believe in this religion.

They were accustomed to the gentle atmosphere of Buddhism and Taoism, but they never imagined that a religion could be so domineering.

Destroying culture, language, and writing is fundamentally destroying the past of a civilization.

Just imagine if someone treated Chinese civilization like this.

All the glory we have created and all the deeds of our ancestors have been wiped out.

No matter how great the king was or how prosperous the era was, they were all forgotten...

All traces of our own existence will be erased.

Just thinking about it makes me feel unacceptable.

Chen Jingke had been observing their expressions and was secretly happy to see this.

For ambitious kings, danger often drives them to do things more than benefits.

This is even more true for Zhu Yuanzhang.

When he feels threatened, he will become hysterical and do many things that ordinary people cannot understand.

If this kind of personality is used well, it can make many things easier.

For example, let Zhu Fan change his strategic goals, such as investing more resources to conquer the Western Regions.

Zhao Zhi didn't know that in such a short time, the minds of several people would undergo such a big change.

He continued to describe what he saw and heard:
The once powerful Dashi Empire experienced several divisions and was finally destroyed by the Mongol Empire.

Now the Arabian peninsula was divided, and the emerging Timurid Khanate ruled over a vast area.

Slightly to the west, there is the Ottoman Empire, which is also very powerful.

However, its strength is slightly inferior to that of Timur Khanate.

Both the Timurid Khanate and the Ottoman Empire believed in Islam.

To be more precise, in the vast Western Region, basically everyone believes in Islam.

Those who did not believe were treated as heretics and killed.

This information is relatively accurate, and Zhao Zhi said it in great detail.

There is also some information that comes from hearsay. For example, the information about the countries in the far west is relatively vague.

There was a powerful country in the far west called the Roman Empire, and the locals believed in Christianity.

For the sake of his faith, the leader of the Christian religion once called on the countries in the far west to launch an Eastern Expedition and fought a war with the Islamic countries that lasted for hundreds of years.

This is not the first time that Zhu Yuanzhang and others have learned about information from the outside world.

Previously, because of Chen Jingke, Lao Zhu specially sent people to inquire about Western intelligence.

However, due to the slow speed of information transmission and the instability of information sources, the information collected is scattered.

Their understanding of the Western world is very vague and fragmented.

The same goes for Chen Jingke.

He has a little understanding of the world structure in his previous life, but he doesn't know much about the ancient history of the world.

It was only after listening to Zhao Zhi's narration, plus the trivial information he heard from previous lives, that he had a general understanding.

Even so, it's enough.

At least Central Asia, West Asia and Europe are in a mess. For Ming, this is the most happy situation to see.

After Zhao Zhi introduced the general situation along the way, Zhu Yuanzhang encouraged him and let him leave.

Before leaving, he also gave him a decree: "Compile what he saw and heard along the way into a book."

Zhao Zhi naturally accepted the order happily. Even if Zhu Yuanzhang did not give this order, he would do it.

Writing books and biographies is very attractive to literati.

Xuanzang went to Tianzhu to obtain Buddhist scriptures and came back to compile "The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty", which is still widely circulated today.

Zhao Zhi has traveled further, seen more things, and the travel notes he wrote are not bad.

After he left, Zhu Yuanzhang said with emotion: "The world outside is broader and more exciting than we imagined."

Zhu Biao nodded and said: "Yes, but it is more dangerous and cruel than we imagined."

"Now I finally understand why Jing Ke has such a serious sense of crisis."

Zhu Xiongying said ambitiously: "So, we can't wait for others to knock on the door, but take the initiative to go out."

"Even if we really have to fight, we must let the flames of war burn on the enemy's land."

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao both nodded.

But Zhu Biao raised another problem: "The world is too vast. Even if it is relatively close to Tianzhu, it would take more than half a year to come and go."

“How are we going to maintain our rule there?”

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "Enfeoff! Enfeoff your brothers and descendants and use them to fight against the outsiders."

"Daming just needs to support them from behind."

Zhu Biao slapped his forehead and said, "Look at me, I'm confused... It's just that I feel sorry for them by doing this."

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "We are very happy that you think so. It depends on their personal wishes."

"Those who are willing to work hard outside, let them go."

"If you don't want to endure hardship, just find a piece of land in a safe place and give it to them. It will be worthy of them."

Zhu Biao said: "Well, there is still a lot of land around Daming, enough to share with everyone."

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Chen Jingke and said, "You haven't spoken for a long time, but what do you think?"

Chen Jingke said with a solemn expression: "It seems that both Your Majesty and Your Highness have ignored a very important issue."

Zhu Yuanzhang's expression became serious and he said, "What's the problem?"

Chen Jingke said: "Religion, the Western Regions and the Far Western Countries are all religious countries..."

"Religion is extremely contagious. If we cannot deal with this problem, we may be infiltrated."

"The spread of Buddhism to the east was actually a religious invasion. Later, China relied on its own strength to digest and absorb it."

"But this kind of thing itself is extremely dangerous."

"With one bad move, the people's hearts that we have finally united will be torn apart again."

(End of this chapter)