Chapter 1159 Postscript 15·There is a great Han country in the west
Luoyang Palace, side hall of Chui Gong Hall.
The young emperor sat in the center, next to him sat the Queen Mother Ye, and in the back seat between the mother and son was Tao Jinfeng, the palace maid.
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, all dangers can be turned into misfortunes." 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, 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 group. 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 small towns have very close contact with the indigenous people. Some of the words they speak are incomprehensible and I guess they learned them from the indigenous people. But there is no problem communicating in Chinese, and some people teach their children to read."
"It is impossible to accurately count the population at the sixth and seventh immigration points because there are gold and silver mines there."
"The gold and silver mines were mainly mined by troops sent by the imperial court to capture local indigenous people. However, there were also two to three thousand gold prospectors all year round. They were transported there by adventurous merchants. Some people were panning for gold while waiting to return by boat.
There are also people who married indigenous women and farmed and multiplied there."
"Totaling these two immigration points together, 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 is rotated every three years.
The new imperial team has not cared about it at all in the past three years. Only this year did they send a fleet to the United States to rotate troops and bring back the gold they mined.
Zeng Jiuyou continued: "The rubber tree that Taizu Taizong mentioned may have been found."
Everyone's spirits were shaken.
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 home, and 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 garrison is located. You may die, or you may 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 heavily 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 quite harmoniously 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, so 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.
The navigation records were handed in together. The general content of the letter was that he had failed to meet Taizong's expectations and could no longer return to the country 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."
When everyone heard this, they were all startled.
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 discovers it, please transport their remains 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 map of the Atlantic Ocean and said: "There is a current here (Brazil). Following the current across the ocean, you can reach the south of the Western countries, which is the west coast of Africa as mentioned by Taizu Taizong.
"
Zeng Jiuyou's luck was very strange. If he continued to sail north, he would be able to follow the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Warm Current directly to the UK.
As a result, he repeatedly searched for rubber trees along the coast, left a group of soldiers and rubber saplings on the east coast of Central America, and continued to follow the ocean currents to the Gulf of Mexico.
In this case, just continue to follow the ocean current.
But as he sailed, he found that it was getting colder and colder. The road ahead was unknown, and it was difficult to ensure that food could reach Europe. So, he actually turned against the current and ran south, returning to the coast of Brazil to replenish food.
Then I tried to go directly east, but accidentally encountered the equatorial countercurrent of the South Atlantic Ocean, and finally landed in the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa.
Zeng Jiuyou said: "On the way from the United States to Africa, two of my ships were wrecked, and all the brothers on board were missing. The ships that were lucky enough to not sink were also badly damaged. I was planning to find a place to repair them.
The ship unexpectedly encountered the descendants of those who defected from the navy."
"What?"
"Really defecting from the navy?"
Everyone exclaimed in unison and quickly asked Zeng Jiuyou to continue speaking.
Zeng Jiuyi said: "They established a country in the northwest corner of the African continent, and they even named their pseudo-country the Great Han Dynasty. The place where I docked was rich in gold. At that time, their army came by boat and was planning to take away the newly mined gold.
"
Wu Jiying, Secretary of the Ministry of War, asked: "How big is the territory of that pseudo-Han state?"
"I don't know," Zeng Jiuyou shook his head, "They have all converted to Desert Religion, but they do not abide by the teachings. I heard that the local people often rebel."
When Zhu Guoxiang and Ju Ming and their sons rebelled, the Berbers in North Africa overthrew the original regime and established the Almohid dynasty.
This dynasty controlled the coastal areas from Morocco to Libya, and even half of Spain was their territory.
A hundred years passed and it fell into decay.
A vigorous uprising broke out in the Iberian Peninsula. The ancestors of the Spaniards held high the cross and began to kill and expel Desert Cult believers.
In North Africa, the Marin tribe among the Berbers gradually grew stronger by repeatedly beating the Spaniards.
In the end, the Marin tribe became brave and wanted to be the boss. Regardless of the fact that the Spaniards were still rebelling, they led their army to kill their caliphate.
When the Ming Dynasty navy that escaped from Southeast Asia arrived on the coast of Morocco, the Almohid dynasty was in a three-way melee.
The dynasty's army was defeated steadily. When the Caliph heard that a powerful navy had arrived, he sent an envoy to ask the Ming navy for help. He immediately provided a large amount of supplies and promised to give these navy the territory of the Marin tribe.
The defected navy of the Ming Dynasty came all the way to plunder and was worried that there was no place to settle down, so they hit it off with the Caliph.
Where have you seen muskets and artillery in the Marin tribe’s army?
What's more, they are rebels to begin with and naturally lack legitimacy.
The Ming Dynasty defected to the navy because it was invited by the Caliph. After three consecutive victories, the rebels who had joined the Marin tribe defected one after another.
Then, the Ming Dynasty defected from the navy and fell out with the Caliphate!
The reason is simple: the place given to them by the Caliph was too poor and located in a border area where multiple forces intersected.
To be continued...