But in fact, even the current Ming Dynasty is not very clear about how great its influence is in today's world.
As far as the entire world is concerned, among the relatively powerful forces, Ming Dynasty naturally ranks first.
Next is the Timur Empire, which is constantly developing upwards.
The strongest one was the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire was located at the intersection of Eastern and Western civilizations, and controlled the land transportation lines between Eastern and Western civilizations for six centuries. It did not collapse until modern times.
The opposite is naturally the Byzantine Empire.
This is an extremely ancient empire. It was established in 395 AD and has been in existence for thousands of years.
Facing the new Ottoman Empire, the ancient and decadent Byzantine Empire was obviously more difficult to compete with, and it had been losing ground on the marginal battlefields.
Compared with the new Ottoman Empire and the ancient Byzantine Empire, although Timur has extremely strong dominance, he also has the most powerful cavalry in the world.
But the poor governance system was Timur's biggest hidden danger.
The dominance of the Mongolian khanates is constantly declining. The defeat of the Kipchak Khanate by the Principality of Muscovy also means the beginning of the decline of Mongolia's dominance.
The Hundred Years War between England and France was still ongoing, and the outbreak of the Black Death greatly reduced the population of the entire Europe, but the economy was on the rise.
And the Renaissance had already begun in Italy.
Throughout Europe, the influence of the church has always remained extremely strong.
The Maya in America is gradually declining, and the Inca Empire is slowly rising.
The body poison was the India of later generations. The Kalji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate and the Tughrik dynasty ruled successively, and the country became strong.
But there is a large army of the Timurid Empire on the border, watching eagerly.
On the African side, the Kingdom of Mali began to become stronger, Egypt was ruled by the Mamluk dynasty, and the Marin dynasty of Morocco was splitting.
Looking at the entire world, today's Ming Dynasty is undoubtedly the most powerful. Whether it is in terms of economic aggregate, military strength, development, system, people's livelihood and other aspects, it is crushing the world.
...
Ming Dynasty, Fengtian Palace, Early Dynasty.
"The Japanese country is an evil neighbor and a surly gang. Their nature is rarely benevolent and unrighteous. They are cunning and aggressive, stingy and lewd. They practice false etiquette and are cunning and chaotic."
"Although he has inherited China's kindness from generation to generation, he has no thought of repaying it. In the early years of Hongwu, he started pirates, raised bandits, harassed Linhai, seized land, harmed living beings, and destroyed cities."
"Therefore, angry at the situation, Zhi An She Ji, loudly blasting the golden drum, killed the Japanese slaves. The people also cut down the trees and raised the poles, and went to war one after another. Once they succeeded, the Japanese pirates abandoned their swords, took off their armor, and surrendered."
"However, that Japanese slave is extremely hateful. He takes advantage of provocations and indulges in harm. He is ungrateful and ignores the peace covenant. He secretly harms me, the Ming Dynasty's crown prince."
"I am reporting to you, and I beseech Taisun Dian to issue an edict to attack the Japanese country head-on and restore the majesty of our Ming Dynasty."
In front of the Fengtian Hall, a royal censor was eloquent, shouting loudly and with great momentum.
The ministers in the palace were filled with indignation and responded one after another.
Zhu Ying stood in the hall with a calm expression.
Sure enough, everyone who studies has several brushes. This principle is really a set of brushes.
In fact, today's court meeting mainly involves a formality.
Because the silver mine incident had already broken out in the Ming Dynasty, almost everyone from high-ranking officials and nobles to horse traders were concerned about the Japanese silver mine.
This matter was not published in the newspaper, but the gossip was the most touching.
At this point, after Zhu Ying and Zhu Yuanzhang discussed it, they felt that there was no need to continue the peace treaty with the Japanese country.
So we made simple arrangements at the court meeting.
Naturally, the censor was almost flattering, notified in advance, prepared a speech, and then brought the matter up.
According to the rules, Zhu Ying needs to be more reserved at this time, otherwise being too direct will appear to have no sense of ceremony.
"The Japanese side seems to be somewhat sincere. They sent over the mastermind behind the assassination of the Crown Prince."
After Zhu Ying finished speaking, the censor immediately kowtowed and said: "This is all a conspiracy of the Japanese. They are so far apart. Who knows whether he is the scapegoat."
"Acts like assassinating the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty have already shown that the Japanese country is either unable to control it, or it has been secretly planning for a long time. No matter which way it is, we, the Ming Dynasty, need to reset the world for them."
Zhu Ying nodded, then looked at the ministers and asked, "But I still have other opinions."
All civil and military officials shook their heads.
Who doesn't know that discussing this matter in the morning today is just a formality, and the outcome of the matter has already been decided.
Soon, matters concerning the Japanese state were finalized in the court.
This time, Japan will not be given a chance to explain.
Of course, the Ming Dynasty would not say that it would mobilize a large army to attack the Japanese country, but only tens of thousands of people would go there.
...
Prince Qin's Mansion.
Zhu Ping asked nervously to the eunuch next to him: "Do you think His Highness Taisun will really let me lead the army to the Japanese country?"
Originally, there was no need to communicate with the eunuch about such a matter.
It's just that Zhu Xi is a little worried about gains and losses now.
Because of what happened before, even though Zhu Yuanzhang had forgiven Zhu Xi for the sake of Zhu Biao's death, this guy's concubine broke the only jade pendant that Queen Ma left for Zhu Yuanzhang.
Deng's death only relieved Zhu Yuanzhang's hatred, but could not resolve Zhu Yuanzhang's disappointment in his son.
Later, he led the army once, but after Zhu Ying decided to establish overseas vassals, the military power in his hands was taken back again.
With Zhu Yuanzhang around, no vassal prince dared to cause any trouble. Zhu Yuanzhang's intimidating power was the shadow of many vassal princes when they were young. Even the second son, Zhu Fang, was also afraid of his father.
When the eunuch heard what King Qin said, he was at a loss.
When it comes to some palace matters, interrupting randomly will lead to death.
He had no choice but to kneel on the ground and kowtow: "Your Majesty, I don't know, I don't know."
Seeing this, Zhu Xi waved his hands in disappointment and asked him to step back.
The eunuch seemed to have escaped the critical situation of life and death by luck, and left in a hurry, fearing that he would be left behind again if he was too late.
There were not a few eunuchs in the palace who were executed with a stick because they were involved in royal matters.
Zhu Ping was left alone, pacing back and forth in the yard, thinking wildly in his mind.
I don't know how long it took, but there was another rush of footsteps outside the hospital.
Zhu Ping didn't care so much, nor did he care about the deportment of his own King Qin, so he hurriedly went to open the door by himself.
Outside the door, several eunuchs came with orders.
Zhu Xi hurriedly greeted him.
The eunuch did not hesitate when he saw this, and directly opened the edict and said: "According to your Majesty's decree, King Qin Zhu Feng is specially appointed as the supervisory envoy, leading 30,000 troops, responsible for investigating the assassination of the prince of Yancheng in the overseas vassal state."
In front of the eunuch's gate, Zhu Ping had nothing to care about.
He walked over in a few steps, took the edict from the eunuch's hand, and read it carefully again.
The eunuchs who delivered the edict were also accustomed to this. When the edict left their hands, their straight backs immediately bowed down to show respect for the King of Qin.
When the edict was handed down previously, they represented His Majesty's face. Now that there is no edict, they naturally resume their status as eunuchs.
These actions of King Qin were somewhat unruly, but this was an internal matter of the royal family, and it was not their turn to talk too much.
Even if His Majesty found out, he would just give me a few words of reprimand.
There was an unstoppable smile on Zhu Xi's face.
After enduring it for so long, I finally got through it.
Life in this capital is really too annoying.
It's not anything else, it's just that he has the suppression of his father, which makes him be cautious when doing anything.
As the leader of the kings, Zhu Pingke is now still the clan official of the clan mansion. This also prevents Zhu Ping from wandering out. His previous attempts to go overseas to establish a vassal state were all rejected directly.
Now I finally got what I wanted.
Perhaps this idea will not be understood by others, and only the feudal kings themselves know how happy it is to be able to go overseas outside the Ming Dynasty under the current circumstances.
...
On the vast grassland, Zhu Di sat on a stone to rest without any image.
The months of conquest have made Zhu Di's expression a little more tired, but the sparkle in his eyes has not diminished at all.
After resting, Zhu Di glanced at the resting soldiers.
After constant fighting and replenishment, the team of 10,000 people now only has more than 7,000 people, and the number of Han people in them is less than half.
Most of them became cavalry from various tribes in the grassland.
It was also this long-term fighting that allowed some immature recruits to grow rapidly, and the combat effectiveness of the team of 7,000 people was higher than that of the previous 10,000 people.
However, Zhu Di's life was not easy either.
With the counterattack of the entire Beiyuan and the alliance of various tribes, he could no longer go deep into the heart of the grassland.
If you enter rashly, you may easily be surrounded and killed.
"Zhang Yu, let me know. After a stick of incense, we will assemble the army and retreat to the grassland military base."
"After months of fighting, it's time for the soldiers to take a break."
After thinking about it in his mind, Zhu Di called his general Zhang Yu and gave instructions.
Not long after, a burst of cheers came from the army.
Mongolia and Japan are not the same concept at all.
Here, the matchlock gun cannot play a big role, let alone the siege weapon artillery.
The grassland is the native territory of the Mongols. It is a vast and boundless plain with almost no obstruction.
The only way to start a war here is with a large number of cavalry.
Of course, a powerful infantry regiment can also advance slowly, but such losses are extremely high and a large amount of rations will be consumed every day. Once the logistics cannot keep up, the only option is to retreat.
The Zhuying Grassland Military Base's method is to reduce consumption and use strong material and financial resources to bring down the grassland.
And at the same time, the entire grassland was in turmoil, making it impossible to plunder the Ming Dynasty's borders.
The most obvious point is that since the establishment of the grassland military base, there has been no presence of Daqiufeng. All the borders with the Ming Dynasty have been raided by Zhu Di, Lan Yu and others.
This forcefully forced many grassland tribes to migrate deep into the grassland.
The method sounds simple, but only the current Ming Dynasty has the strength to execute it.
After all, the money and food consumed here is a huge amount.
This year alone, the total loss has exceeded the amount of seven million banknotes.
Think about how much Ming Dynasty's annual income was back then, just over 10 million. If this had been the case before, it would have completely ruined his finances.
After the embargo, trade at the border was gradually reduced, but the lives of the tribes in Liaodong who had surrendered were still pretty good, and normal trade was still going on.
Many other tribes can only find ways to sell them to the surrendered tribes in Liaodong at cheaper prices in exchange for meager rations.
In the end, these livestock or livestock products, furs, etc. will still flow to the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Di and Lan Yu led more than 20,000 cavalry to conquer the grasslands.
This number sounds like a lot, but compared with the vast grassland, it seems a bit insignificant.
Even though the raids took several months, most of the time was actually spent on the road. Moreover, when the raids started, many tribes heard the news and migrated.
On the Beiyuan side, things have been brewing.
Secretly preparing a large army, they want to form a more direct attack on the grassland military base.
The reason why Zhu Di chose to turn around was because he sensed danger.
The most powerful armor of the Ming Dynasty is difficult to wear on the grassland, and is usually made of lightweight leather armor.
Heavy armor will affect the speed of the cavalry. If the speed cannot keep up, it is equivalent to leaving life and death to the enemy.
In today's grassland battles, more Mongolian cavalry are used. Zhu Di Lanyu's side is also all cavalry.
It was about an hour after Zhu Di left.
Several Mongolian cavalry came to the station.
The traces of the army's garrison cannot be eliminated. Feeling the residual temperature of the bonfire on the ground for a while, the leading Mongolian commander said in Mongolian: "It's not too far away, we can catch up."
Then immediately turned around and retreated.
As several Mongolians galloped, a large layer of black shadow appeared in the distance.
Looking closer, tens of thousands of cavalry are stationed.
This is the commander-in-chief of the military department under Beiyuan.
Different from the grassland tribes, even now, the Northern Yuan Dynasty still follows the same system as the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, which implements the system of three provinces and six ministries.
This is also the reason why Ming Dynasty has always wanted to completely eliminate Bei Yuan.
Bei Yuan was not only full of Mongols. After being driven into the grassland by Zhu Yuanzhang, there were still a large number of Han scholars working for Bei Yuan. They tried to let Bei Yuan settle in the Central Plains again, and they also obtained the merit of following the dragon.
The system of the Northern Yuan Dynasty was also inherited from the Song Dynasty and was completely different from the primitive barbaric rule on the grasslands. If they found an opportunity to invade the Central Plains, they could easily open up the situation and gain support from some local noble families.
Therefore, the destruction of Beiyuan was the first priority for Ming Dynasty.