Chapter 1159 Epilogue 15 There Is a Great Han Kingdom in the West

Chapter 115 There is a great Han Kingdom in the west

Luoyang Palace, side hall of Chui Gong Hall.

The young emperor sat in the center, next to him sat Queen Mother Ye, and in the back seat between the mother and son was Tao Jinfeng, a female official of the imperial palace.

Prime Minister Deng Gongwu, Deputy Prime Minister Ge Congxin, Privy Councilor Han Chong, Minister of War Wu Jiying and other ministers were sitting on both sides.

"I once traveled nine times to pay homage to Your Majesty, the Queen Mother, and all the gentlemen!"

Zeng Jiuyou felt extremely uneasy. He sailed around the world on the order of the late emperor, but when he came back he found that the emperor was gone.

The normal transfer of power was okay, but there was a bloody coup.

Queen Mother Ye smiled and nodded, approvingly saying: "Commander Zeng has really worked hard. It must be extremely thrilling at sea, right?"

"With the blessing of the late emperor's spirit in heaven, everything can be turned into a disaster." Zeng Jiu said.

Queen Mother Ye exchanged some greetings and started to talk about the topic: "I have received all the records you have along the way. But there is too much information, so let's talk about it in person first. How many villages, towns and populations are there in the United States? ?”

Zeng Jiuyou took out a map and spread it on the conference table.

"This is the town of Lai'an. Sixty years ago, 300 immigrants were transported there, all of whom were male death row prisoners. Later, some Japanese women were transported there, and they themselves married local indigenous women."

"If the foreign wives of their descendants are also included, there are 1,528 people over the age of seven."

"Further south is Xinxiang Town. Fifty-five years ago, 300 people immigrated, all of whom were male death row prisoners. The situation is similar to the previous batch. Now there are 1,375 people over the age of seven."

"Continuing to the south, there are Meng'en Town and Huaide Town, with 1,056 and 1,091 people over seven years old respectively."

"These four towns have very close contact with the indigenous people. Some of the words they speak are incomprehensible, and they may have been learned from the indigenous people. But there is no problem in communicating in Chinese, and some people teach their children to read."

"The sixth and seventh immigration points cannot accurately count the population because there are gold and silver mines there."

"The gold and silver mines are mainly mined by troops sent by the imperial court to capture local indigenous people. But there are also two to three thousand gold diggers all year round. They are transported there by adventurous merchants. Some people are panning for gold while waiting to return by boat. There are also people who marry indigenous women and farm and multiply there.”

"Together these two immigration points, if you include the foreign wives of soldiers and gold diggers, the total number of people over the age of seven is approximately between 5,000 and 7,000."

Everyone present nodded slightly.

The garrison of American mines rotates one every three years.

The new court team has not taken care of it at all in the past three years. Only this year did we send a fleet to the United States to rotate troops and bring back the gold we mined.

Zeng Jiuyou continued: "The rubber tree that Taizu Taizong mentioned may have been found."

Everyone was shocked.

Although I don’t know what the function of rubber is, it is the teaching of Taizu Taizong.

"Can you bring it back?" Deng Gongwu asked.

Zeng Jiuyou said: "I took a boat around to the east of the United States and found out. Because I didn't know when I could return to my country, I was afraid that the saplings would die if I delayed for too long. So I left more than 20 people to escort the rubber trees back west on foot. They started from The narrowest point in the middle of the United States, heading towards the gold mine where the Ming Dynasty is stationed, you may die or get lost.”

Queen Mother Ye said: "All sea explorers, including you, will be rewarded heavily if they can come back. Those who cannot come back will be rewarded generously with their families."

"Thank you, Queen Mother!"

Zeng Jiuyou added: "At the southern end of the west coast of the United States, I also discovered the descendants of the second batch of sea explorers sent by Taizong..."

Privy Councilor Han Chong was surprised and said: "Aren't they missing?"

Zeng Jiuyou said: "They kept going south for some reason, and encountered a big storm offshore when they returned. Seventy percent of the entire fleet were missing. The ones I found were the thirty percent of seniors who luckily escaped back to the seaside. Descendants. They got along fairly well with the local indigenous people, and even left a letter for their descendants to pass on to the visitors from the sea.”

"Where is the letter?" Queen Mother Ye asked.

Zeng Jiuyou said: "Those seniors probably didn't have paper and pen, and the letters were carved on an uneven stone. Moreover, most of them had died of old age and illness when the words were carved. Since there was no way to make rubbings, I could only copy them down, and they were already with me. The general content of the letter is that he has failed to meet Taizong's expectations and cannot return to serve Taizong. If anyone later finds out, please copy the contents of the letter and burn it in front of Taizong's mausoleum to restore the emperor's order."

Everyone was startled when they heard this.

No one expected that the content of the letter would be this.

Deng Gongwu's eyes suddenly became wet, and he sighed with emotion: "The ministers of Taizu Taizong's dynasty are all loyal and good, and they are definitely not comparable to the rebellious ministers and traitors of later generations."

Queen Mother Ye asked: "Can their descendants still speak Chinese?"

Zeng Jiuyou replied: "We can all speak some, and there are even many people who are literate. But after living together with the local indigenous people for a long time, they speak the dialect more fluently. They stumble when speaking Chinese, and they can no longer understand many Han vocabulary." "

Deng Gongwu said: "Your Majesty, you can send another group of immigrants to live with the descendants of Zhongliang. You should also bring more supplies to reward those Zhongliang descendants."

"It should be so." Queen Mother Ye agreed very much.

Zeng Jiuyou added: "The letter also said that if anyone later finds out, please transport their bodies back to their hometown for burial."

Queen Mother Ye said: "Send someone to transport their remains back, and then visit their hometown to see if there are any descendants."

Everyone sighed and sighed for a while before letting Zeng Jiuyou continue.

Zeng Jiuyou pointed to a severely distorted Atlantic map and said: "There is a current here (Brazil). If you follow the current across the ocean, you can reach the south of the Western countries, which is the west coast of Africa mentioned by Taizu and Taizong."

Zeng Jiuyou's luck is very strange. If he continues to sail north, he can follow the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current directly to Britain.

As a result, he repeatedly searched for rubber trees along the coast, left a group of soldiers and rubber seedlings on the east coast of Central America, and continued to follow the ocean current to the Gulf of Mexico.

In this case, just continue to follow the ocean current.

But he found that it was getting colder and colder after sailing for a while. The road ahead was unknown, and it was difficult to ensure that the food could last to Europe. So he turned against the current and ran south, and returned to the coast of Brazil to replenish food.

Then he tried to go directly east, and encountered the equatorial countercurrent in the South Atlantic in a daze, and finally landed in the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa.

Zeng Jiuyou said: "On the way from America to Africa, two of my ships were destroyed, and all the brothers on board were missing. The ships that were lucky enough not to sink were also badly damaged. I was planning to find a place to repair the ships, but I met the descendants of those who defected from the navy."

"What?"

"Did they really defect from the navy?"

Everyone exclaimed in unison, and hurriedly asked Zeng Jiuyou to continue.

Zeng Jiuyou said: "They established a country in the northwest corner of the African continent, and also usurped the pseudo-country name of Dahan. The place where I docked was rich in gold. At that time, their army came by boat and was planning to take away the gold that had just been mined."

The Minister of War Wu Jiying asked: "How big is the territory of that pseudo-Han country?"

"I don't know," Zeng Jiuyou shook his head, "They all converted to the Desert Religion, but they did not abide by the doctrine. I heard that the locals often rebelled."

When Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming, father and son, started the rebellion, the Berbers in North Africa overthrew the original regime and established the Almohad Dynasty.

This dynasty controlled the coastal areas from Morocco to Libya, and even half of Spain was their territory.

A hundred years later, it became corrupt and decadent.

A vigorous uprising broke out on the Iberian Peninsula. The ancestors of the Spanish held up the cross and began to kill and expel the followers of the Desert Church.

In North Africa, the Marin tribe among the Berbers gradually grew stronger by repeatedly beating the Spaniards.

In the end, the Marin tribe wanted to be the boss, and regardless of the fact that the Spaniards were still rebelling, they led their army to kill their own caliph.

When the Ming navy that escaped from the South China Sea arrived at the coast of Morocco, the Almohad Dynasty was in a three-way melee.

The dynasty's army was beaten back step by step. When the caliph heard that a powerful navy had arrived, he sent envoys to ask the Ming navy for help, and immediately provided a large amount of supplies and promised to give the territory of the Marin tribe to these navy.

The Ming defecting navy had been plundering all the way here, and they were worried about having no place to settle down, so they hit it off with the Caliph.

Where had the army of the Marin tribe ever seen muskets and artillery?

What's more, they were originally rebels, and naturally lacked legitimacy.

The Ming defecting navy was invited by the Caliph. After three consecutive victories, the rebels who had joined the Marin tribe defected one after another.

Then, the Ming defecting navy fell out with the Caliph!

The reason was simple. The place given to them by the Caliph was too poor and was located in a frontier area where many forces intersected.

The two sides bargained and could not reach an agreement.

The Ming defecting navy was furious and stopped chasing the remnants of the Marin tribe, and turned to kill the Caliph's army.

After defeating the Caliph's front-line army, the Ming navy directly attacked Marrakech, the capital of the Almohad Dynasty.

This dynasty had long been corrupt and could neither suppress the Spanish uprising nor defeat the rebels of the Marin tribe. Hearing that the Ming defectors were heading for his capital, the Caliph fled with his followers and army overnight.

The next thing was a bit embarrassing.

The Ming defectors were outsiders after all. They occupied Morocco by force, and the desert believers rebelled from time to time.

The Caliph fled to the coastal area of ​​North Africa. Not only did he not have many troops left, but he also had to continue fighting with the remnants of the Marin tribe. Those rebellious Spaniards could only be suppressed by local nobles.

All forces were in trouble!

The Ming defectors, eager to gain a foothold, took the lead in putting down their posture and seeking cooperation.

They were willing to convert to desert religion and respect the Caliph as their master in the future. The Han Kingdom they established would also become a vassal state of the Caliph.

The Caliph must also make a return, that is, recognize the Ming defectors' right to rule the Moroccan region and order the clergy in the Moroccan region not to incite rebellion again.

After a few years, the Marin tribe was completely pacified. The Caliph felt that he was doing well again and secretly instigated the believers in the Han Dynasty to rebel.

Those believers had long wanted to rebel.

Because the Han people who fled here levied heavy taxes on them. Moreover, they were all fake believers who ostensibly converted to the Desert Religion, and their doctrines were completely destroyed.

The army of the Great Han Empire could no longer tolerate the rebellion, and bloodily suppressed the rebels and clergy, and then marched to the territory of the Caliph.

After the Caliph was defeated, he quickly asked for peace again, compensated a large amount of money and food, and gave the title of Sultan to the King of the Great Han.

"Where did the gunpowder of the defected navy come from?" Wu Jiying asked.

Zeng Jiuyou said: "They have craftsmen on board who can not only make gunpowder, but also repair firearms. They adopt local orphans and teach them various skills. Now they can produce their own gunpowder, and they can also make guns and cannons. Only But they don’t have machines, and their methods of making firecrackers and artillery are very backward.”

Queen Mother Ye asked: "They all turned their backs on the Confucian sages and really converted to desert religion?"

Zeng Jiuyou smiled and said: "The Caliph is equivalent to the leader of the Desert Cult. He was beaten by them once and moved the capital, and once he was beaten by them and sued for peace, how could he really convert. And the Desert Cult there is different. The previous dynasty was Because polytheism was allowed, it was overthrown by the current dynasty, and there were a large number of polytheists among the people, who took advantage of them. "

"How to use it?" Tao Jinfeng asked.

Zeng Jiuyou said: "Forcibly promoting polytheism, we brought out all the gods that the local people believed in before, and even introduced the Cross religion from across the Taiwan Strait. Now the believers there can believe in both the Desert religion and the Cross religion, and they even talk about the two religions. The gods are the same person.”

Tao Jinfeng smiled and said: "This is indeed interesting."

Zeng Jiuyou said: "Now there are a lot of various gods there, including cross gods, desert gods, and many old local gods. There are also those who worship Haotian God and Tathagata Buddha, and even..."

"Even what?" Deng Gongwu asked.

Zeng Jiuyou lowered his head and said: "They really deserve to die. They actually regarded Taizu and Emperor Taizong as gods, and even built statues of them in their puppet countries."

When everyone heard this, they all couldn't laugh or cry.

Zeng Jiuyou said: "They killed all the disobedient clergy. They also married local nobles and adopted a large number of orphans to train the army. Desert cultists rebelled every now and then, and they suppressed them severely every time. In recent years, it seems that there has been a rebellion Much less.”

Northwest Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, where the religious situation is extremely confusing.

First of all, the polytheistic beliefs of various tribes have never dissipated. Then there is the Spanish and Portuguese Christian faith, which has always existed and can coexist with desert believers.

Even the most devout desert believers follow the teachings selectively, and drinking alcohol is as common as drinking water.

A group of navy bastards who defected from Nanyang, in order to prevent the Caliphate from continuing to cause trouble, completely disrupted those beliefs, and even worshiped Zhu Guoxiang and Ju Ming as gods.

"How do you know so clearly?" Deng Gongwu asked.

Zeng Jiuyou said: "What we encountered at that time were the mixed-race sons who defected from the navy and captured us and the damaged ships. Those who escaped from the navy were not dead yet. Deputy Admiral Yang Wenhu became the pseudo-king, and all the officers became After becoming nobles, the soldiers also became officers one by one."

"Yang Wenhu helped his ministers repair the ships and gave them many supplies. He asked his ministers to return to his country to speak on his behalf, asking the Ming Emperor for forgiveness, and that the puppet Han Dynasty was willing to become an overseas vassal of the Ming Dynasty."

At this time, the Han Kingdom not only owned Morocco, but also owned one-third of Spain.

Those Spaniards, who had always been ruled by desert believers, launched uprisings from time to time, which the Caliph was unable to suppress.

The bastards of the Han Dynasty, under the guise of helping the Caliphate to suppress the rebellion, crossed the strait to attack the Desert Cult nobles.

Those Desert Cult aristocratic armies were quickly defeated when they were attacked from both sides.

The King of Han took the opportunity to enfeoff the nobles, because if he continued to enfeoff the nobles, the Han people who defected with him would rebel.

At the same time, he announced religious freedom and won the enthusiastic support of the Cross believers, who even honored the Han King Yang Wenhu as "Priest King Saint John".

Today, all the noble lords in the southern third of Spain are Han Chinese.

Some people find that there are more Christian Christians in their territory and simply convert to Christianity. But they are also false believers and do not observe monogamy at all. They all have wives and concubines.

As for the Pope?

I only know Taizu Taizong and Emperor Dingtai, who is the Pope?

In addition to Yang Wenhu's navy, which can relatively maintain its combat effectiveness, the Han Dynasty's army has long been localized. Due to low productivity, most of the armed forces of the Han noble lords were not equipped with firearms, and they were just like novices fighting each other.