Bringing the Railway to Daming

After hearing the centurion's words, Zeng Mingshen, the chief of staff of the Qi Wang's shogunate, said immediately, "I'm afraid this is a trick. It's best that the king does not attend the banquet."

"A trick?" Zhu Yu sneered, "Why, the tiny Lion Nation, do you really dare to attack me?"

Zeng Mingshen said, "Your Majesty, this place is thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty. Although the Ming Dynasty is powerful and influential, the Sinhalese Kingdom may not care."

"Also, since they knew about the Prince of Yan's annihilation of Bengal and the establishment of a vassal state, they probably also understood our Ming Dynasty's policy of establishing vassal states overseas. If so, it makes sense that they would consider us enemies."

Zhu Yu picked up the telescope again and looked at the situation on the shore. He then took two steps and said with a cold look in his eyes, "Even if the Lion Country is holding a Hongmen Banquet this time, I will go there."

"If they are truly sincere in their hospitality, they should just apologize to me. If they have ill intentions, we can simply seize this opportunity to conquer the Lion Kingdom and establish our Great Qi from this island!"

Upon hearing these words, the expressions of Zeng Mingshen's staff and Li Heng and other generals all changed drastically.

Li Gong, a renowned Confucian scholar from Shandong, was the first to resist. He advised, "Your Majesty, a son of a wealthy family should not sit idle in the hall. Knowing that the other party might hold a Hongmen Banquet, why did Your Majesty still take the risk and attend it?"

"If the king is captured by the enemy, what good will it do us to attack the island?"

Zeng Mingshen also advised: "Your Majesty, we entered the port originally to resupply supplies, but were surrounded by the Sinhalese warships."

"Their warships are now less than two hundred paces away from our warships and ships. If a real fight breaks out, it will be difficult for our army to unleash the power of our Shenwei cannons."

"Besides, this place wasn't the King's original destination, so no spies from the imperial court have contacted us so far."

"We don't even know how many troops the city of Mannar has at this port. If a fight breaks out, it's hard to predict the outcome!"

Zeng Mingshen's meaning was very clear. This war should not be fought, so Zhu Yu naturally should not take the risk to attend the banquet.

Zhu Yu glared and said, "According to what you are saying, are you really going to be scared by this little Lion Country and not dare to attend the banquet?!"

Zeng Mingshen said, "No one in the Lion Country has ever seen the king's true face. We only need to send someone to pretend to be the king to attend the banquet, and we can ensure the king's safety."

When the others heard this idea, their eyes lit up and they thought it was a good idea.

Zhu Yu sneered, "What if the person pretending to be me is arrested and used to force the rest of the people to surrender? Will this war not be fought?"

"Well," Zeng Mingshen hesitated for a moment and said, "Of course we have to fight, but we can negotiate first..."

"Enough!" Zhu Yu didn't want to hear Zeng Mingshen continue. "I have made up my mind. I will definitely go to the island to attend the banquet this time. As I said before, if the Lion Country is holding a Hongmen Banquet, I will take advantage of their trick and capture their chief officer and general on the spot."

"I will bring a thousand guards to the banquet. I don't believe the tiny Lion Nation can stop me! After I land, all you have to do is watch for the fireworks signal—when the signal goes, just start fighting!"

After saying this, Zhu Yu issued a series of formal military orders.

Zeng Mingshen, Li Gong and others could only sigh when they saw this, but they had to help Zhu Gui make detailed plans and assist in dispatching the troops.

Now, they can only hope that the Sinhalese people in charge of this port do not have bad intentions...

···
Mannar Port.

On the top of a military fortress equipped with a large catapult, the tall and strong city lord, Moromoba, looked out at the hundreds of large ships in the bay, especially the giant blue ship (Yingqiu) that was as tall as a mountain. Greed almost overflowed from his eyes.

"I never thought that this prince from the Porcelain Country would actually agree to attend the banquet. How simple it is—it seems that even the Buddha is blessing me, allowing me to obtain these giant ships from the East. Hahaha..."

After laughing, Malomopa turned around and ordered one of his men in simple armor, "Have the 5,000 men in the city hide. As soon as the prince and his 1,000 men enter the city, close the city gates immediately and have the archers take aim at them."

"It would be best if they lay down their weapons and surrender directly. If they refuse, then shoot everyone except the prince."

The subordinate initially replied "yes," but before leaving, he couldn't help but say, "City Lord, I heard that the Porcelain Kingdom is very powerful, with thousands of cities in the East. It was one of their princes who conquered the capital of the northern power, the Kingdom of Bengal, two years ago."

"If we resort to violence against this prince from the Porcelain Kingdom without informing the king, and if we bring great enemies upon the kingdom, I'm afraid the king will blame us."

Upon hearing this, Malomopa's expression suddenly changed. He scolded, "Foolish! You believe everything those cunning sea merchants say! How can there be a great nation with thousands of cities in this world?"

"Even if there is, I'm afraid it would be like the Delhi Sultanate, which only has nominal rule over many states."

"According to the news we heard earlier, the prince who conquered the Bengal Kingdom came from a state called Yan, but this prince is from a state called Qi. They're clearly not the same country."

"Besides, they said they were going to Vijayanagara. They had so many warships and brought so many troops. Maybe they wanted to attack Vijayanagara like Prince Nayan did."

"Nagara is currently under attack from the northern Bahmani Sultanate. If it is attacked again by this Prince Qi, I'm afraid it will be destroyed."

"We, Sinhalese and Nagara, are both Buddhist nations, and the only two remaining Buddhist nations in the south. We should help each other. If the king knew about this, he would only reward me, so how could he blame me?"

After hearing this, the deputy knew that Moromobahu would not change his mind, so he nodded and went to carry out the order.

Nearly an hour later, Qi Fan's two warships slowly approached the shore.

In order to confuse the Ming people, Moromobahu did not evacuate the merchants and civilians in the port, but only sent more than a thousand servants and soldiers to stop these idle people dozens of steps away.

So, after the warship was anchored, Zhu Gui looked through a telescope from the deck and saw a sea of ​​people on the dock - the majority were naturally locals with brown skin, big eyes, thick lips, and more profound facial features, but there were also white-skinned Arab merchants.

Perhaps there were merchants from the Ming Dynasty or Southeast Asian countries mixed in, but there were only a few of them, and when they dressed like locals, it would be difficult to distinguish them.

After watching for a while, Zhu Yu suddenly noticed that someone was holding a large "handkerchief" in both hands and waving it in front of him. It had a red background with a dragon and sun and moon pattern on it.

"The flag of the Ming Dynasty? Is this someone from the Guangming Guard?" Zhu Yu was just thinking this when he saw the man take out a red silk scarf in his right hand and wave it over his shoulders three times in a row.

In the civil service examination before Zhu Gui went to sea to be a vassal, there was a question about the way Guangmingwei communicated with the personnel of the court's overseas agencies (not the internal communication method of Guangmingwei).

Among them, the Guangming Guard waves a red scarf in his right hand to warn of danger. Waving it three times in a row means extreme danger.

Therefore, after seeing this scene, Zhu Gui was certain that the Lion Country was holding a Hongmen Banquet this time.

However, Zhu Yu did not tell anyone else about this news. He only instructed his guards: "Spread my message. Tell everyone to be vigilant after landing and act according to the plan."

"Yes."

Not long after the guards delivered the message, Zhu Yu disembarked with a thousand guards, wearing armor specially made for overseas princes by skilled craftsmen from the Tiangong Academy.

At the dock, teams of Qi vassal guards wearing sophisticated iron armor walked down the gangway and quickly formed a defensive formation. The merchants and civilians watching at the port could not help but whisper about it.

"Is this the army from the Porcelain Country? They're all wearing armor, they look so formidable!"

"Iron armor is good, but aren't they hot?"

"I heard from merchants from the east that the country of porcelain is now the Ming Dynasty, called the Great Ming."

"So what does this fleet do? Business?"

“That’s not clear…”

But when Zhu Yu led the guards onto the dock, he saw a fat man with big ears and wearing a gorgeous silk robe a hundred steps in front of the army. He came towards them with only a few servants. He smiled apologetically and talked to them in a gibberish.

There was no one around Zhu Yu who knew Sinhalese, but fortunately there was a person of Southeast Asian appearance next to him who translated into the poor Song Dynasty official language.

Zhu Gui also had difficulty understanding the official language of the Song Dynasty, but he could barely understand it.

"Your Majesty, I am the City Lord, Mara Mobahu, and I apologize for the previous misunderstanding. Thankfully, you are so magnanimous and willing to attend the banquet to accept my apology. This is truly an honor."

Zhu Yu said calmly, "If it's a misunderstanding, then why are your warships still surrounding our ship? Why aren't you letting them retreat?"

Moromoba was stunned when he heard the translator's words, then he smiled and said, "Yes, yes, I will send someone to tell them to leave."

"Now, Your Highness, please follow me into the city. I have prepared the finest banquet and the most beautiful dancers in the City Lord's Mansion. I guarantee you will never want to leave."

Zhu Yu said, "City Lord, please withdraw your warships first."

Maramaba suddenly said, "Your Highness (Prince), this will take time."

Zhu Yu: "Then we'll wait at the dock."

Maramoba suddenly seemed helpless, but still waited with Zhu Yu.

It took nearly half an hour of waiting before the thousands of large and small warships surrounding Qi Fan's fleet in the harbor slowly retreated.

Zhu Yu then smiled and followed Moromobahu towards the city of Mannar.

The city of Mannar at this time was not the Mannar of later generations - the peninsula was now shorter and the city was closer to the harbor, only about two miles away.

Not long after, Zhu Yu led a thousand guards to the city.

As the largest port city of Sinhalese in the north of the island, Mannar is one of the few large cities in Sinhalese, and it can even be said to be second only to the royal city of Colombo (translated as Gaolangbu by Wang Dayuan in the Yuan Dynasty, which sounds similar, indicating that its royal city was already in Colombo at that time).

The wall was more than two zhang high, and Zhu Yu had no idea how long it was around.

Moromobahu was just about to lead Zhu Gui in with a smile, but Zhu Gui stopped and ordered a centurion to take people in to check first.

Moromoba's smile froze immediately. He said, "Your Highness, I have shown my utmost sincerity by allowing you to bring a thousand troops into the city. Why do you still doubt me?"

Zhu Yu smiled and said, "If the city lord has nothing to hide, why not let my army enter the city and inspect it first?"

Mahārāma Paṭṭhāra, “Your Highness, if you do this, the Buddha will be displeased.”

Zhu Yu put away his smile and said coldly, "The city lord has something to hide. Of course, the Buddha will not be happy. Since he refuses to let my troops enter the city first to inspect, then I will not accompany you. Return to the ship!"

Having said that, Zhu Yu pretended to walk back.

At this time, a burst of gibberish came from the top of the city. Zhu Yu looked up and saw a tall and strong middle-aged general wearing iron armor standing there.

After the translation, I realized that he was saying: "City Lord, please let Prince Qi's army come in to inspect."

Hearing the general's suggestion, Moromobahu nodded in agreement without hesitation.

A centurion entered the city gate with a hundred elite guards, and soon a roar was heard from inside.

"There's an ambush!!"

At the same time, archers appeared on the city walls and on the city walls, already drawing their bows and drawing their arrows. From their high position, they unleashed a hail of arrows, shooting towards the Qi vassal guards behind Zhu Yu! (End of this chapter)