I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 869: Dog Island Ahead

In mid-March of the sixth year of Wanli, the Canary Islands became a direct territory of Spain in western Africa.

"Mr. Shen, Mr. Wang, the island ahead is Gran Canaria, where there is the port of Las Palmas, the capital of the Canary Islands.

There may be a Spanish fleet there.”

Leon said, pointing to the island ahead.

He, Marcelo, Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji were standing on the Yunyang-class B battleship.

Next to the Yunyang is the Lund-class C battleship.

On the front and sides are the frigates Koi and Hibiscus. On the left, right and behind are the cruise ships Bailizhou and Tanghu.

There was also a communications ship, the Xiquan, cruising and conducting reconnaissance in the sea far ahead.

The Portuguese ships Prince Henry and Rebelo lagged far behind.

The speed of these two ships is too slow. It is because of waiting for them that we have been delayed until now. If we had followed the speed of the Ming Dynasty's escort fleet, we would have reached Lisbon long ago.

If things were done quickly, we would have to return.

Marcelo, Leon, Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji took a fleet from Ceylon's Port of Golang across the South China Sea and arrived at the southernmost tip of Kunzhou, the Cape of Good Hope.

The Ming Dynasty surveying and mapping team revised the Portuguese discovery that the previous Cape of Good Hope was not the southernmost tip of the Kunzhou continent, and it needed to be moved another 20 degrees of latitude to the south (Cape Agulhas).

The place was renamed Cape of Good Hope by the Ming Dynasty. It was previously called Cape Dias.

The Ming Dynasty drew a circle there and called it Zhurong County.
A port was built near Cape Dias, called Port Liyuan (Cape Town), and then a suitable bay was selected to the east of the Cape of Good Hope to build a port, called Port Suzaku (Port Elizabeth).

Zhuque Port is the county seat and central port of Zhurong County, and Liyuan Port is the supply port.

The group waited in Suzaku Port for more than two months, and finally waited until Condorcet arrived here with the Prince Henry and the Rebelo sailing ships sailing south from Basra Port.

It also brought the results of the war in India.

The expeditionary squadron composed of the Great White Tiger Fleet and the Indian Marine Task Force defeated the anti-Ming alliance in the area north of the port of Daman.

The leader of the alliance, Gujarat Sultan Muzaffar Shah III, was defeated and killed, and Itimad Khan, the Rajput leader of the Gujarat region, replaced him as the king of Gujarat.

The first thing Itimad Khan did after he ascended the throne was to send envoys to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute and pledge allegiance, and to beg the Ming Emperor to confer the title upon him.

Ahmednagar Sultan Murtaza died in battle, and his son bravely stood up and announced that he would inherit his father's will. Before he could finish his words, he was killed by several major leaders of Ahmednagar.

Ahmednagar was originally conquered by a group of Afghan leaders and their troops. Murtash was the strongest and was elected Sultan.

But the other leaders each had their own territories and troops.

Murtaza is dead. What kind of person is his son? How can those leaders submit to him?
Bijapur Sultan Ali Adil Shah I slid to his knees, raised his hands and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, saving his life and the throne of Sultan.

Zamorin Surlit VII of Calicut ran back to Semrao Castle with great difficulty, but he was killed by the Kunjadara family, a powerful family of Calicut.

Surlit VII, Hamjachan, Kunjada proclaimed himself Sultan and established the Seljuk Sultanate. The first thing he did was to send an envoy delegation to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute and request for enthronement.

Since then, from the port of Cochin in the south of the west coast of India to the port of Diu in the north, all the Indian princes and sultans have been obedient. They finally understand that the Ming people are not only dragons in the sea, but also tigers on land.

Don't think you are safe if you escape to the shore. The Ming people can reorganize their troops and pursue you on shore, and can easily tear you into pieces.

Leon was filled with emotion. When he was serving in Goa, Gujarat, Ahmednagar, Calicut and Bijapur were the most powerful local forces on the west coast of India.

Each family had a population of over a million, a territory of thousands of miles, and strong military forces. They caused a lot of trouble for the Portuguese in those days.

I didn't expect the Ming people to deal with them so quickly.

It seems that the Ming people are very skilled in dealing with the Indians.

It is conceivable that the Ming people will maintain the balance among the Indian countries in the future, weakening the stronger ones and beating the stronger ones. The Indian countries are like a flock of sheep in a pen, and the Ming people will feed them carefully, and when the wool grows, they will pluck it hard.

Then look for the fattened sheep, slaughter them and eat them, and then slowly raise a few lambs to fill the vacancies.

In the northern part of India, there lived an ambitious Delhi Sultan named Akbar, who had always wanted to inherit the legacy of his father and grandfather, reunify most of India and become the overlord of India.

When the Portuguese were there before, they did not have enough power to go ashore and exert influence.

The Portuguese Governor of Goa had previously experienced Akbar's ambitions but was powerless to stop them. In order to win his goodwill, it was necessary to sell him some muskets and artillery, provide him with mercenaries, and help him conquer other countries.

Now the Ming people are entrenched around India. They are shrewd and have enough land power to exert their influence on the balance of power among the Indian countries.

Akbar’s road to conquest will be difficult, and no one knows what his future outcome will be?
Either he would die on the battlefield like Muzaffar Shah III and Murtaza, or he would be betrayed by his own men like Surit VII.

Leon felt that Akbar's greatest luck was that his Kingdom of Delhi was far enough from the sea that it would be difficult for the Ming Dynasty to send its army across several countries to attack him.

Condorcet rushed to Suzaku Harbor with the Prince Henry and the Rebello, waited for ten days, and then, together with the escort fleet, sailed northward with the southeast trade winds.

Stopping and walking along the way, Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji listened to Marcelo and Leon telling about the Portuguese's exploration journey southward along the western part of Kunzhou.

In 1415, from Prince Henry's navigation school to the Atlantic exploration team, starting from the port of Ceuta south of the Strait of Gibraltar, all the way south.

In 1460, Prince Henry died, and the expedition he organized continued to move south.

In 1485, Diogo Cão led an expedition to Cape Close.

In 1488, Dias led his team to discover Cape Storm, which was later renamed Cape of Good Hope by King John II of Portugal. It has now been renamed Cape Dias by the Ming Dynasty.

In 1497, Da Gama led an expedition around Cape Dias and Cape of Good Hope, and finally arrived at the Indian Port of Calicut, which was Zhengling Port of the Ming Dynasty, in 1498.

After listening to these stories, Shen Wanxiang and Wang Yongji went ashore and investigated the names recorded in history one by one.

Cape Clos, Cape Santa Maria, Luanda, Sao Tome, Castelo de São Jorge da Mina on the Gold Coast, Cape Verde, Conakry, the mouth of the Réba River, Arguin Island.
"Brother Mingshou, the Portuguese went through a long journey and spent a hundred years just to find the sea route to India."

That day, standing on the beach of Altun Island, feeling the dry and hot sea breeze, Shen Wanxiang wiped the sweat from his forehead and couldn't help sighing, "This great feat was motivated entirely by the desire for gold and spices."

Wang Yongji stroked his beard and sighed, "Traveling ten thousand miles is better than reading ten thousand books. My teacher (Li Zhi) often told us, 'Privateness is the heart of man. Only when a man has privateness can his heart be seen.'

We were also fortunate enough to listen to the debate between the Emperor and our mentor.

The emperor said that the development of human civilization is mainly driven by human desires.

Initially, humans walked out of caves to have enough food, built houses to live better, and built cities to protect their property.

In order to wear comfortable clothes, people raise silkworms and draw silk; in order to have food, people hunt and fish.
To be honest, many of my disciples and I didn’t believe it at that time.

Now, as I have traveled along the way, I have witnessed with my own eyes how the Portuguese have been fighting against all odds in pursuit of wealth for nearly a hundred years.

This is a living example!
I finally understood why our civilization has stagnated from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty.

Because since the Southern Song Dynasty, we have upheld the principles of heaven and eliminated human desires, using various means to suppress the desires and aspirations in people's hearts. Without desires, there is no pursuit, and it is enough to guard a small piece of land and live a stable life. "

Shen Wanxiang nodded and said, "Brother Mingshou is absolutely right.

I, your humble brother, was also fortunate enough to have heard the Emperor’s lectures.

The emperor once told us that a large part of the wisdom of our ancients is concentrated in the "Book of Changes".

What is the I Ching?

Its essence is just one word: change! Everything is changing, but the only thing that does not change is this word!
However, the Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism that emerged in the Southern Song Dynasty was all about stillness.

Not only should the mind be calm, but the entire society, the entire country, and the entire world should also be calm. Abide by everything that has been done before and suppress human desires to the lowest level.

Why?

Because they don't want to spend all their energy studying the mysteries and scale of change, nor do they dare to bear the consequences of change.

Quiet means solidification, and then it becomes rigidity, which means stagnation. According to their thinking, in the end, the people of the Ming Dynasty will become two kinds of people. One kind is a hypocrite who asks others to suppress their desires but acts recklessly themselves; the other kind is a beast of burden who lives his whole life in a muddle. "

Wang pointed his right hand at the boundless sea and said happily: "Fortunately, a holy monarch descended from heaven to control the world and lead the Ming Dynasty out of the stagnant water, look to the world, and step into the world."

Shen Wanxiang smiled and said, "Yes, although I am a little late, I am here after all."

Marcelo and Leon, who were standing behind, looked at each other helplessly.

These two Ming envoys not only had the mission of visiting Portugal, but also the task of conducting on-site inspections of European countries.

The two were very worried. If the two envoys saw the true nature of the people in European countries, would they look down on us even more?
Continuing northwards, we passed Cape Brown and Cape Bojador and soon arrived at the Canary Islands.

Shen Wanxiang asked: "Master Ma, the Canary Islands, why is this island called this name?"

Marcelo replied: "It is said that people who had just arrived on the island saw a group of huge dogs, so they called it Dog Island. Translated, it is the Canary Islands."

"This island belongs to the Spanish?"

"Yes. We fought with the Spanish for this island at first, but then the two countries negotiated and each side gave in. We Portuguese retreated to the Azores and Madeira Islands, and gave this island to the Spanish."

Wang Yongji shook his head, "How can we give it to the Spaniards?

This island is located on the main road to Kunzhou. According to your papal agreement, Kunzhou belongs to you Portuguese, but the main road from south to north was occupied by the Spanish.

It's stuck in your throat. It's uncomfortable on the one hand, but the key is that you are at the mercy of others and are controlled by them.

If the Spanish go crazy someday and place a fleet here and ask you Portuguese to pay tolls, will you pay or not?"

Marcelo and Leon looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

The two men felt that one of the biggest impacts of their diplomatic mission to the Ming Dynasty and staying there for a long time was on strategic thinking.

Two thousand years ago, this mysterious Eastern country put forward the strategic idea of ​​making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones.

Marcelo and Leon clearly felt that when the Ming Dynasty's monarchs and ministers made important decisions, especially when it came to affairs concerning neighboring or enemy countries, they would take the overall situation into consideration and consider long-term planning from a strategic perspective, rather than just looking at immediate interests.

The most typical example is when dealing with three countries that sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty at the same time, Portugal, the Ottoman Empire and Persia, they would weigh the pros and cons back and forth.

Use Persia to contain the Ottoman Empire, and use the Ottoman Empire to suppress Persia.

Supporting the Ottoman Empire and Portugal in attacking Spain simultaneously on both the east and west sides of the Mediterranean made it impossible for Spain to withdraw its manpower to support the New World.

In the minds of the Ming dynasty's rulers and ministers, the entire world was a chessboard, with all the countries and forces as chess pieces. They would carefully place and move the pieces, carefully planning and making one thing after another.

You may not understand it now, but by the time you understand it, you will have become a pawn and have no control over your own actions.

For example, in India, Marcelo and Leon were very confused at first. Since the Ming navy was so powerful, why didn’t they rush forward and seize the territory?

Only now did I realize that the Ming Dynasty had already laid out a chess game, waiting for Muzaffar Shah III and others to foolishly enter the game.

Perhaps, the unfathomable Emperor of the Ming Dynasty has already laid out a chess game for the Europeans.

Marcelo explained: "This place is remote, the land is barren, and the Spanish don't pay much attention to it. We in Portugal have always had unimpeded access to it, both south and north.

We can also enter and exit the Port of Las Palmas freely without any worries."

Before he could finish his words, a cannon shot was heard in the distance, and then the lookout on the mast reported.

"A ship is firing at the Hound!"

"Which country's ship is it? Did you see it clearly?"

After waiting for a while, the lookout reported, "Look, it's a Spanish ship!"

Spanish ship?!
The atmosphere on the boat suddenly became tense.

(End of this chapter)