prosperous age

Chapter 1000 1091 Sulu Kingdom

According to the barbarians' attack plan, they will land near Pengasilan Bay, bypass the Daimao City from land, and block Lin Feng's escape route to the island.

Although it coincided with his opinion, Deng Zilong was not happy at all.

If Lin Feng's escape route is blocked and he is surrounded in Daimao City, with the bonus of a surprise attack, Deng Zilong is not optimistic that he can last long.

If we are wiped out by the barbarians, then the arrival of the Ming navy will be useless.

Deng Zilong has calculated that it will take at least a month for Admiral Yu to lead the fleet to arrive.

In the Governor's Office, Deng Zilong did not dare to turn against the barbarians and openly oppose their plans because he was not strong enough. He could only use more official language, saying that if the Lin Feng pirate group could be wiped out, whether Lin Feng was captured or killed, he would be rewarded by the Ming court.

And what answered him was not the modesty and prudence that Chinese people usually show, but rather an extremely arrogant and conceited attitude, saying that they would quickly deal with the Lin Feng pirate group.

This made Deng Zilong so angry that he had no place to vent his anger, so he could only sulk alone.

Sitting on the sofa, it took Deng Zilong a while to calm down completely from the heat.

He knew that it was impossible to stop the barbarians from encircling Lin Feng. All he could do now was to see how many vassal soldiers they could find to help with the ships they sent out.

To put it bluntly, the current situation is that the Ming Dynasty and the barbarians are flexing their muscles against each other.

We are clearly not at an advantage because we are not well prepared.

It can be said that this visit brought nothing except knowing the general plan of the barbarians.

So, after thinking it over, he decided to return tomorrow afternoon.

While Deng Zilong was struggling, Captain Lin had already entered the palace of the Sulu Kingdom.

This is a building with obvious Islamic style. Unlike Chinese buildings which generally have flying eaves, the Sulu King's Palace is surrounded by arcades, while the central palace is a standard dome building, giving people a sense of grandeur and solemnity.

As we walked along, we saw Arabic patterns everywhere.

The Sulu Kingdom was an Islamic emirate with a theocratic sultanate system. The area it ruled was the Sulu Islands and Palawan Island around the Sulu Bay in the southwest of the Philippines, connecting to Malaysia.

In terms of the land area of ​​Sulu, it is definitely not as large as that of Luzon, which owns the huge Luzon Island.

The main territory of the Sulu Kingdom was located in the Sulu Islands, which later belonged to the Philippines. The Sulu Islands are an archipelago located in the southwestern Philippines, consisting of hundreds of volcanic islands, coral islands, countless rocky beaches and reefs.

Among them, the important islands include Jolo Island, Tawi-Tawi Islands, Sangasan Island, Sibutu Island, Siasi Island and Cagayan Sulu Island, which form a barrier between the Sulu Sea and the Celebes Sea.

The territory of Sulu extends 270 kilometers southwest from Basilan Island in the southwest of Mindanao Island to the east coast of Sabah, Malaysia.

At its most powerful time, it also incorporated Palawan Island north of the Sulu Archipelago and the east coast of Sabah in Malaysia into its rule, turning the entire Sulu Sea into its inland sea.

Simply put, the area connecting the Philippines and Malaysia belongs to the Sulu Kingdom.

The place is large, but because it is mostly islands, the population and other aspects are very weak, and the products are even fewer. People mostly make a living by fishing, and the planting technology is backward.

Despite this, the Sulu Kingdom had a deep relationship with the Ming Dynasty, or rather, with China.

The Nanyang Princess who was reported to have lived in Shandong in later generations was actually a descendant of the King of Sulu.

In the 15th year of the Yongle reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, the three kings of the Sulu Islands, the Eastern King Badu Ge Bahala, the Western King Mahala Ge Mading, and the Dong King Badu Ge Balabu, led their families and a group of more than 300 people to form a friendly delegation and came to China for a friendly visit. They were received with great ceremony by Emperor Yongle.

The three kings stayed happily in Beijing for more than twenty days, and then took a boat back to their country along the Grand Canal. On the way back to their country via Shandong, the Eastern King unfortunately fell ill and died in Dezhou.

When Emperor Yongle heard the news of his obituary, he was deeply mourned and sent Qi, a doctor from the Ministry of Rites, to Dezhou with a memorial ceremony to bury the Eastern King with the ceremonial rites of a vassal king.

Du Mahan, the eldest son of the Eastern King, led his people back to the country to inherit the throne. Princess Ge Muning, her second son Wenhala, her third son Andulu and more than ten attendants stayed in Dezhou to guard the tomb.

In the autumn of the sixteenth year of Emperor Yongle's reign, Emperor Yongle personally wrote an article "to last forever". After the death of the Princess of the East and the two princes, they were buried in the southeast corner of the mausoleum.

Don’t think there is something wrong with the fact that Sulu had three kings. In fact, as mentioned at the beginning, Sulu was an emirate that believed in Islam, and its state system was more complete than that of indigenous countries like Luzon.

The chief was originally the leader of a tribe. The emirate in later generations generally refers to a country in the Arab world composed of chiefs and tribal leaders as heads of state.

These emirates are still ruled by their chiefs and practice a federal system. The chiefs together establish an electoral college to elect the president and prime minister of the federation.

The United Arab Emirates is composed of seven emirates, including the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the Emirate of Dubai, the Emirate of Sharjah and others.

Chiefs who are unwilling to form an emirate generally choose to establish an independent country. For example, Kuwait, Qatar, and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan belong to this category.

Perhaps it was because Zheng He's fleet that sailed to the West left such a deep impression on Sulu, so Sulu has always maintained the tradition of respecting the Ming Dynasty, or China.

In the early and middle Qing Dynasty, as Western colonists intensified their invasion and expansion in Southeast Asia, some countries, unable to protect themselves, turned to the Qing Dynasty for assistance. Some even hoped to be directly incorporated into China. Sulu was a typical example.

At this time, the Sulu Kingdom had been oppressed by Western countries for a long time, and they wanted to incorporate it into their colonies.

The Sulu people also rose up in resistance under the leadership of the king and always maintained their country's independence, but they could only survive with difficulty.

Under such circumstances, the Sulu Kingdom thought of China and asked China for help again.

During the Qianlong period, the King of Sulu sent people to China again and expressed his willingness to donate all his territory to China.

Unfortunately, although Qianlong was very happy that his country was so strong that a foreign country came to him, he thought that the territory of Sulu was too small, and if he wanted to accept it, he would have to send troops to fight against Spain, so he refused to accept Sulu.

At its peak, the Sulu Kingdom included the Sulu Archipelago and Palawan Island, as well as the eastern part of Kalimantan.

The eastern part of Kalimantan was acquired in 1658 when the Sulu Sultan helped the Brunei Sultanate to quell a civil war. In return, Brunei ceded the northern and eastern parts of Sabah on Kalimantan to the Sulu Sultan.

In 1878, a British trading company and the King of Sulu signed an agreement to lease Sulu land in Sabah.

In 1888, Sabah became a British protectorate and was renamed North Borneo.

Starting from the 16th century, the Sultan of Sulu led his people in a bitter struggle with the Spaniards for more than 300 years. Finally, they encountered their biggest victim again. The Americans won the Spanish-American War and robbed the Spanish of their interests in the Philippines.

In 1899, the United States used its strong muscle to force the Sulu Kingdom to sign the "Bates" Agreement and gained the suzerainty of the Sulu Kingdom.

Four years later, in 4, after the Philippine-American War, the United States took advantage of the situation and established the "Muro Province" in Sulu. It began to implement military rule over Sulu, and the power of the Sulu Sultan was greatly restricted.

In 1915, the American Governor-General of the Moro Province in the Philippines signed an agreement with Sulu Sultan Kirang II, forcing the Sultan to give up his secular rule in Sulu and retain only his position as a religious leader.

Since then, Sulu was actually incorporated into the Philippines, and the Sulu Kingdom was destroyed. However, the Sulu Kingdom at this time was no longer the era of three chieftains coexisting in the early Ming Dynasty. The current Sulu Kingdom has only one chieftain, the King of Sulu.

Soon, under the guidance of the waiter, Captain Lin met the current Sulu King Baker.

Abzak Bakr was an Arab born in Johor, Malaysia. He became the King of Sulu because he married the daughter of the Eastern King.

He also knew the legends about the Ming Dynasty in his family. Although he had not sent anyone to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty in recent years, he would occasionally meet merchants from the Ming Dynasty and hear news about the Ming Dynasty.

He had previously received a report from the waiter that a general from the Ming Dynasty had led a fleet to Horle, the capital of the Sulu Kingdom. Naturally, he was very happy because he could have direct contact with the legendary Ming Dynasty.

Baker didn't know that the Ming official he was about to meet was not sent to Sulu by the court, but came here by accident.

Because he was going to meet the monarch of a vassal state, whose status was equivalent to that of a prince in the Ming Dynasty, Captain Lin changed into his official uniform.

At this time, the Ming man who appeared in front of Baker was wearing a green robe with a ferocious beast embroidered on his chest and a black horn belt around his waist.

This ferocious beast was a leopard, but Baker certainly didn't recognize it. However, he felt that it was extremely ferocious and couldn't help but sigh at the military power of the Ming Dynasty generals.

Captain Lin was not good at diplomatic language. He bowed to Baker according to the etiquette of meeting a superior and just exchanged a few simple greetings.

When Baker asked Captain Lin about the origin of his visit, Captain Lin directly told him the purpose of his visit.

When he heard that they came to Sulu to hunt down pirates, Baker was somewhat disappointed.

The current Sulu Kingdom is still quite powerful. Although its neighbor Luzon has been occupied by the Spanish, they seem to have always coveted it. However, given the current strength of the Spanish, it is still a bit difficult to swallow Sulu.

As long as he did not encounter any unexpected events, that is, being captured or killed by the Spanish in one battle like the monarch of the Inca Empire and the King of Luzon, Galaman, he could lead his people to resist the Spanish attack.

After all, he already knew about the big thing that happened on Luzon Island, so he was always extremely vigilant against the Spaniards.

"You want to borrow troops from my country of Sulu to suppress the pirates in your country?"

After hearing Captain Lin's words, Baker was a little hesitant. After all, if he was asked to send troops to help the Ming Dynasty fight, his side would suffer losses regardless of whether they won or lost.

"Yes, Lin Feng is a pirate wanted by the imperial court. If the king can send troops to help us wipe them out and report to the imperial court after the victory, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty will definitely reward the king."

When they arrived here, Captain Lin still brought the soldier on the boat who acted as an interpreter, but the Sulu Kingdom was not short of interpreters who understood the Ming language.

As mentioned before, because Sulu connects the Philippines and Malaysia, Ming merchant ships often get lost and arrive here.

Therefore, when the palace learned that Ming officials had arrived, they found an interpreter to translate for them to communicate.

Now the communication between the two is much smoother than when they were on the boat.

The Sulu Kingdom and the Ming Dynasty court have had no contact for hundreds of years, so how could they know the rules of the Ming Dynasty?

Baker didn't even check Lin Baihu's identity, just because they were driving the Ming Dynasty's Fu ship, he could be sure that they were from the Ming Dynasty.

The sailors on the ship were all wearing uniform military uniforms, so there was no suspicion that they might be fake Ming officials.

You know, the sailors on those Ming Dynasty merchant ships wore a variety of clothes, and it was absolutely impossible for them to have unified military uniforms.

This result was what Deng Zilong and others were most worried about. The matter of checking the customs was just overlooked.

At this time, what Baker was thinking in his mind was that this matter seemed to be able to re-establish contact with the Ming court.

Not to mention the past, even now, the Sulu Kingdom does not have many ships that can cross the ocean to the Ming Dynasty.

In recent years, it was not that the King of Sulu did not want to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and witness the majesty of the Celestial Empire, but that there was really no suitable means of transportation.

In those years, when going to Ming Dynasty, one had to borrow a Ming Dynasty ship to go to Ming Dynasty.

Paying tribute is nothing more than saying some nice words in front of the Ming Emperor to express one's willingness to accept the Ming Emperor's will, and one's own rights will not be affected in any way.

On the contrary, if you bring some local specialties from Sulu, you can get many rewards from the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, including many fine products made by the Ming Dynasty.

The most valuable things in the palace of the Kingdom of Sulu today are still the rewards received by the three kings of Sulu when they paid tribute.

Thinking of those treasures, Baker felt itchy.

But they are all good things.

"Since this is the request of the Ming Emperor, our Sulu Kingdom must naturally obey the order.

Lord Lin, please take a rest for two days. I will reorganize the troops, gather warships, and set out with you to wipe out the pirates."

Since Baker was planning to restore contact with the Ming Dynasty, he did not waste time and spoke immediately.

"Thank you, my lord. I will report this to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty after I return home."

When Captain Lin heard that the King of Sulu was willing to lend him troops, he was naturally happy and said immediately.

"Um"

After hearing his words, Baker did not respond. Instead, a trace of sadness appeared on his face, and he seemed to be hesitant to speak.

"What does the Lord want?"

When he talked about borrowing troops before, the other party didn't mention anything, but now he acted like this. Captain Lin instinctively felt that something was wrong.

"Come to think of it, my ancestors did go to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute to the emperor, but it has been so long since then. Since our country does not have suitable sea vessels, we have not sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute for hundreds of years."

Buckle immediately responded.

  Yes, the Sulu Kingdom did not have ships to go to the Ming Dynasty, but doesn’t the Ming Dynasty have warships now?

Since they can get here from the Ming Dynasty, they can naturally send envoys over.

When he heard that it was a tribute, Captain Lin didn't take it seriously.

Born by the sea, I naturally know the existence of the Maritime Customs.

When the Sulu Kingdom paid tribute, it usually went through the Guangzhou Maritime Customs, which was in charge of the Southeast Asian countries.

Although the Sulu Kingdom did not go, it does not mean that other countries will not go. The Guangzhou Maritime Customs is doing good business.