Bringing the Railway to Daming

What Hafs's envoy had said before, that Jin should withdraw its troops and return Tripoli, was actually just a negotiation tactic.

King Djib's bottom line in the negotiations was that Jin should stop advancing and give Hafs time to deploy troops and lobby the Ottomans.

Envoy Hafs originally wanted to bargain with Zhu Gang a few times before putting forward this bottom line in order to complete the mission.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Gang first readily agreed to peace talks, but then made three such greedy demands.

The first and third points are easy to deal with, but the key is the second one - even if King Jib is willing to give away his daughter, he is reluctant to give such a large dowry!
After regaining his composure, he thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, the three matters you mentioned are too important to be decided by me. I need to return to the kingdom and report to our great king, who will make the decision."

Zhu Gang realized that the delegation wanted to use this back and forth time to buy time for Hafs to prepare for war.

Although he had no intention of destroying Hafs in a single battle, he still wanted to scare King Hafs a little. Perhaps the king would not be frightened and give him a surprise?

Thinking of this, Zhu Gang pretended to be annoyed. "Your Excellency didn't even dare to agree to these three simple conditions, and yet you claim to be sincerely coming to establish friendly relations with our State of Jin?"

"Go back and tell Jib that if he doesn't send me his most beautiful daughter and the dowry I asked for within a month, I will send an army of 100,000 to destroy Hafs!"

After listening to the translator's translation, Zheng was so scared that his legs went weak.

A hundred thousand troops?

An army of 50,000 can easily capture Tripoli. If the State of Jin really mobilizes an army of 100,000, I am afraid that Tunisia will not be able to be defended.

With this concern, Envoy Hafs quickly said, "One month is too short. Your Majesty, please give us more time."

"Who are you? What qualifications do you have to bargain with me?" Zhu Gang feigned rage, slammed the table, and shouted, "Drive them out of the city, drive them out of Jin!"

Several guards came over immediately and roughly dragged out the chief envoy and the deputy envoy of Hafs.

Soon, the entire delegation was driven out of Jinyang City and escorted to the port by a team of soldiers and handed over to the navy to be expelled from the country.

In the blink of an eye, more than twenty days have passed and it is almost December.

King Hafs actually sent a beautiful girl and the dowry proposed by Zhu Gang to Jinyang (Cairo) through an envoy!

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"Cut five cities today, and ten cities tomorrow, and then have to sleep overnight. Looking up at the four realms, the Qin soldiers will come again."

In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, inside the Fengxian Hall of the Imperial Palace.

After reading the translated telegram sent by Zhu Gang, Zhu Biao could not help but recite a passage from "On the Six Kingdoms" with emotion.

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "If the barbarians understood the 'On the Six Kingdoms', they would no longer be barbarians."

Zhu Biao said, "According to what my third brother said in the telegram, the place where the Kingdom of Hafs is located was once home to the powerful nation of Carthage two thousand years ago. It once competed with the Roman Empire and was ultimately destroyed by Rome."

"After being ruled by Rome for many years, and then by the Arab Empire for hundreds of years, they were definitely not barbarians without culture. Logically speaking, even if they didn't have the 'Six Kingdoms Theory' in their country, they should have understood this kind of principles."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Didn't the third brother say that Hafs was probably trying to delay preparations for war, or even to find help. But Hafs didn't know that with the money and food they sent to the Jin vassal state, the Jin vassal state would be able to grow even faster."

"By next year, even if Hafs is fully prepared and even finds a few helpers, he may not be a match for the Jin clan."

"What's more, next year, the imperial court will send a new guard to the Xihai Military Commission. If the Jin vassal state cannot defeat the enemy, it can also pay some money and food to ask the Xihai Military Commission for help."

Zhu Biao felt that Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Gang underestimated the enemy and that something might happen.

He then said, "Father, from what I understand, the Mediterranean coast has been a hotbed of warfare for the past two to three thousand years, and the nations are full of skilled generals and soldiers."

"If Hafs really found several helpers, or even a strong reinforcement, with the forces of the Jin Clan and the Xihai Commandery, I'm afraid they might not be able to defeat him."

The situation of the Jin vassal state and the Xihai Commandery was crucial to the Ming court's grand plan to open up the Mediterranean Silk Road. So, after hearing Zhu Biao's words, Zhu Yuanzhang began to reconsider the matter. However, his understanding of the situation around the Mediterranean was similar to Zhu Biao's, and even somewhat insufficient, making it difficult for him to make a judgment.

So he said, "Well, call Liu Kuan over and hear what he thinks."

After saying this, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the eunuch to call someone.

Because Liu Kuan could now ride a horse or a bicycle into the palace, he arrived at Fengxian Hall in just over a quarter of an hour.

After paying his respects, Liu Kuan listened to Zhu Biao's account of the Jin vassal state and the Kingdom of Hafsids. He couldn't help but smile wryly and said, "Your Majesty, Your Highness the Crown Prince, you truly think highly of me. Before this, I had no idea there was a Kingdom of Hafsids on the southern coast of the Mediterranean."

"Since I don't know the situation there, how can I make a reliable judgment?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Since that's the case, I'll show you the intelligence the Guangming Guards have gathered on the situation in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean, and then you can make your own judgment." (The Ming Dynasty has many Semites who can be trained as spies in Central Asia and Europe.)
Zhu Yuanzhang then ordered someone to bring a stack of documents.

There are quite a few countries around the Mediterranean Sea, but there are not many relevant intelligence documents, which is enough to show that the Guangming Guards have only been conducting intelligence work there for a few years.

With the assistance of Zhu Biao, Liu Kuan learned the information at a very fast speed.

After a brief pause, he said, "Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, among the countries surrounding the Mediterranean, only the Ottoman Empire poses some threat to the Jin vassal state and the Western Sea Metropolitan Commandery. The other countries are not a cause for concern."

"Why do you say that?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Firstly, it is naturally as shown in these intelligence reports. Currently, the Ottoman Empire is the strongest among the countries surrounding the Mediterranean."

"Again, I remember that the Ottoman Empire existed until the beginning of the 20th century in the original history, and for a considerable period of time, it was a powerful empire spanning the Eurasian continent and even the African continent."

According to the intelligence sent back by the Guards of Light, the Ottoman Empire was now merely a principality—its ruler was a marquis, not even a king. Furthermore, while its territory might seem large in Europe, it was insignificant compared to several Eastern nations.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang did not pay much attention to the Ottoman Empire before.

Now, hearing that the Ottoman Empire had survived until the beginning of the 20th century, which means it had a history of six or seven hundred years, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately paid attention to this country. In his opinion, a country that could last so long must have its extraordinary features.

Now that the Ottoman Empire is in a period of rising national power, its military strength must be quite strong.

After coming to his senses, Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "Liu Kuan, if the Ottomans attack Xihaidusi and Jinfan, what do you think will be the outcome?"

Liu Kuan was helpless. "Your Majesty, I know very little about military affairs. Besides, there are so many factors that influence victory or defeat on the battlefield. How can I judge?"

"However, just in case, it would be a good idea for Your Majesty to send more troops to Xihaidusi."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded thoughtfully, "I understand."

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When Liu Kuan left the palace, it was already past the morning dismissal time, so he rode his bicycle back to the Liu Mansion.

To be honest, Liu Kuan found it very awkward to wear Ming Dynasty clothes and ride a bicycle - fortunately, there were many people in the imperial city who did such awkward things, so he didn't find it awkward so much.

It is worth mentioning that in order to make cycling more convenient, and coupled with the court's relaxation of control over clothing styles, more and more people in the capital now wear short shirts and half-long shirts, and their trouser legs have become thinner.

However, the clothing of the powerful and wealthy people has not changed much. After all, these people do not need to ride bicycles, and many things in life are taken care of by others, so they don't need to do it themselves, so wearing wide robes with big sleeves does not affect anything.

After lunch and a short rest, Liu Kuan came to Tiangongyuan and left the city with several subordinates, clerks and guards, heading towards Qixia Mountain.

The research on the industrial production of three acids and two alkalis has made intermittent breakthroughs in the past two years. In addition to hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, nitric acid, sulfuric acid and soda ash are not far from achieving industrial production.

However, Liu Kuan's visit to the Qixia Mountain "Chemical Experimental Zone" (upgraded from the Three Acids and Two Bases Research Institute) today to inspect the three acids and two alkalis related research institutes was just a passing visit.

The main reason for this was a major breakthrough at the Photosensitive Materials Research Institute, also located in the experimental area. (End of this chapter)