Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1234 Please be a vassal of Chenla Kingdom

This court meeting made the Ming Dynasty feel an unprecedented sense of crisis. Many people immediately thought of the Mongols back then, that is, within a hundred years, they suddenly came out.

When the Mongols rose up, they wiped out all civilizations they could touch, and the West did the same. Wherever they went, it was bound to be accompanied by the destruction of civilizations, as well as cruel killings and oppression.

China's threats have always come from the north, but this time the threat seems to be in a different direction.

However, compared to the threat from Xiyi, the controversy caused by the theory of the circle of the earth is undoubtedly more intense.

"The sky is round and the earth is round, and China is in the middle" is the basis of Huayi's worldview.If the earth is round, is China still the center of the world?Can you still call Sifang Yidi?China is not the center of the world, and its status is not equal to that of barbarians. Where does the sense of superiority come from?

After the court meeting, Wang Yan asked someone to send the painted map of all nations and the globe to the Imperial College.

His original intention was to let the supervisors of the Guozijian feel the crisis he felt, so that they should not be complacent, but he never thought that compared with the rise of Xiyi, the most discussed among the supervisors was the "round land" of the Westerners. explain."

China also has a saying that the earth is round. In Zhang Heng's "Annotation of the Armillary Sphere" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was said that "the armillary sky is like a chicken. The celestial body is round like a bullet, and the earth is like a yellow chicken. Living alone, the sky is big and the earth is small. There are Water. The earth is surrounded by the sky, like a yellow shell."

Wang Fan's "Huntian Xiangshuo" in the Three Kingdoms period said, "The shape of heaven and earth is like a bird's egg, and the sky is wrapped outside the earth, like an egg wrapped in yellow. Covering the ground, half under the ground, its two ends are held by its north and south poles, and its sky, sun, moon, and stars rotate obliquely."

Although these theories have existed for a long time, they are not the mainstream. After the introduction of the Western circle theory, only some Chinese people who have deep research in astronomy, such as Xu Guangqi, Li Tianjing, Wang Xichan, Mei Wending and others accepted it. The theory of the circle of the earth, but for the vast majority of people who have no astronomical foundation, the theory of the circle of the earth is completely nonsense.

Sometimes, the scariest thing is that the layman wants to talk about the matter of the expert, and he just thinks that he has the truth, and relying on the large number of people, he must make the expert admit the mistake that does not exist.

The officials in the main hall are more or less rational, and Wang Yan also said that he will send the fleet to go around. Whether it is right or wrong, we can see the outcome in at most two years, but once this matter is brought up among the people, the impact will be great. big.

Diyuan said that since it was introduced into the Ming Dynasty, it has only aroused small-scale discussions. After all, most scholars focus on fame, and few people pay attention to these miscellaneous studies.

But they pay less attention, but it doesn't mean they don't pay attention. "The sky is round and the earth is in the middle" is one of the important worldviews of scholars. Just like the church wants to burn the "heliocentric heresy", the entire scholarly society suddenly boiled over because of this matter.

For a while, the scholars criticized Bo Yingli and other Westerners verbally and in writing, and the excited people even smashed the church of the Westerners in Nanjing.

Many people began to publish their opinions directly in various newspapers, and openly debated with Bai Yingli and others. Some people said, "If the four major states, the mountains and rivers of all countries, are a big ball... the ball The soles of the feet of the people in the upper land are opposite to the soles of the feet of the people in the lower land...they don't think about the upside-down of the people in the land below...Those who know how to deduce it with reason, don't realize that the case is full!"

Most scholars think that the theory of the center of the earth is nonsense, and they often think, "If you make people stand sideways, it is difficult to stop, not to mention turning the soles of the feet upside down, facing the center of the earth, how can you stand without falling? "

Although Bo Yingli put forward many arguments, such as the height of the Polaris can be seen when traveling north, the tip of the mast appears first for ships coming from a distance, and the shadow of the earth seen during a lunar eclipse is circular, etc., but this It can only convince some literati with high astronomy attainments within the Ming Dynasty, but it cannot convince those scholars who do not understand astronomy.

Bo Yingli also has no way to explain, if the earth is a sphere, then why the people below don't fall, and the people in the country hang upside down, and how to live.

At this time, the Westerner who was hit by an apple was only about 11 years old, and the theory of universal gravitation had no limits, so Bo Yingli naturally could not explain these problems.

Wang Yan said that it will be verified after two years, but the sentiment of the people is very resistant to the theory of the circle of the earth, even Song Yingxing is against it, but he is still reasonable, unlike most people in the public, just because the theory of the circle of the earth hurts Their self-esteem is opposed because of opposition.

Although Song Yingxing did not support the theory of the circle of the earth, he voluntarily applied to follow the fleet to do this verification.

Originally sending ships to sea was not an urgent matter, but under the pressure of public opinion, Wang Yan could only order five large ships and more than 1000 elite sailors, and hired Westerners to guide the fleet and act as translators. Sailing east from Ningbo.

Wang Yan promised that no matter whether the theory of the circle of the earth is true or not, when they return to Daming, they will be given titles and other rewards.

This attracted many people to take the initiative to follow the fleet.

At the end of August, after less than a month of preparation, the fleet set off from Ningbo Port and headed east. The debate on the theory of the circle of the earth gradually faded away.

At this time, Nanyang's report was passed on again. After the navy of the Ming Dynasty went south to Malacca, they fought a battle with Helan and returned without success. They also found it difficult to capture the port of Malacca from the sea, so they had to retreat to Champa. .

Because of Luzon's lack of strength, the navy did not dare to leave Luzon Bay without authorization, fearing that once the navy left, Spain would take advantage of it to attack Luzon Island.

In order to make a breakthrough, the navy of the Ming Dynasty decided to deal with the Spaniards first. After all, Spain had just occupied Sulu. There were no strong fortresses and forts blocking the port like Malacca and Java in the port. It was relatively easy to attack, and as long as the Spaniards were defeated, the With the Netherlands at the mercy, the Luzon navy is no longer a threat and can go to sea to help in the battle. The comparison of strength in Nanyang will fall to Ming's side.

On August 100th, the Ming Dynasty dispatched more than [-] warships, together with the Luzon Navy, they went to Sulu together, and encountered the Xihe coalition forces in the Sulu Sea. It turned out that Xihe also wanted to destroy the relatively weaker Lu In Song Dynasty, the two sides met unexpectedly, and another naval battle took place.

Although the Ming Dynasty and Luzon had more ships, almost twice as many as the West-Dutch coalition forces, there were not many gunboats, and Spain and the Netherlands were powerful countries that had been on the sea for many years. Target.

There was no progress in the battle at sea, and the situation was evenly matched. The Dutch gathered 5000 musketeers in Malacca, and mobilized [-] troops from various sultanates to march north along the Malay Peninsula. Advancing forward, preparing to capture Zhancheng from Lulu and uproot this important stronghold of the Ming Dynasty in Nanyang.

When the people on land marched north, the Dutch warships also approached the Gulf of Siam, trying to force Siam to join them, but the war did not benefit the King of Siam, and he did not want to participate in the war between the Netherlands and the Ming Dynasty. So the Dutch request was rejected.

If the coalition forces organized by the Netherlands wanted to attack Champa, they had to go through Siam and Chenla. The commander of the coalition forces, Wood Housewell, did not stop because of Siam's refusal, but directly defeated them at the border. A Siamese army composed of one hundred war elephants and more than 1 infantry troops approached Ayutthaya, the capital of Siam.

This sudden change made the Toungoo Dynasty, the little overlord of Southeast Asia, feel that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, and began to invade the border of Siam, and the situation in Nanyang immediately became chaotic.

For a while, Siam was attacked on both sides, and the enemies were stronger than him. The King of Siam could only compromise with the Dutch, allowing the troops of the Netherlands, Spain, Malacca and other sultanate states to enter Siam and provide them with supplies.

At this time, the Kingdom of Chenla saw that Siam had been invaded and quickly succumbed. It immediately sent envoys to Champa, and then passed through Guangzhou, and was sent to Nanjing to ask for help from the Ming Dynasty.

(Seeking monthly tickets, subscriptions, recommendations, thank you for your support)
　Thanks to Mr. Xu Xiaoming for the 500, Zhang/00000 for the 500, book friend book friend 100914141449404 for the 500 reward
　　
　
(End of this chapter)