Chapter 1431 Negotiations with Castile - Consideration
"You mean, the purpose of Castile is to form an alliance with our country and control Egypt?" Yunxi asked Claviyo.
"Yes, Your Majesty." He replied: "Prince Ferdinand, the regent of Castile, wanted to open up a trade route with lower cost and more convenient transportation, so he came up with the idea of Egypt. Castile
The Asian country's national power is of course more powerful than the Mamluk dynasty that ruled Egypt, and it can force them to surrender; but in Europe, there are two countries with equally strong military strength, Venice and Genoa, and Castile will have a greater chance in the war.
Even if the Mamluk dynasty is forced to surrender, it is impossible to monopolize Egypt, and it is even possible to lose Egypt."
"So His Highness the Regent plans to find allies in the east to reduce losses; of course the cannibal's navy is also very powerful, at least the pirates are very powerful, but they are originally competitors of the Europeans, and of course Castile cannot compete with them.
They form an alliance; apart from that, the only one with the strength to intervene in Egypt is the Ming Dynasty, so His Highness the Regent wants to marry and form an alliance with the Ming Dynasty."
"I understand. But I have a question: Why did you explain it to me so clearly?" Yunxi still remained calm, and asked questions that he didn't seem to want to do.
"I am now an official of the Ming Dynasty, so of course I should serve your Majesty." Claviyo answered naturally.
"But, after all, you are a Castilian, and I do not believe in Christianity and am not a believer in your Lord. What you do makes me feel incredible." Yunxi asked straightforwardly.
"Your Majesty, Sir, although I believe in the Lord devoutly, it does not mean that I cannot serve the pagans. Historically, there have been many cross believers who have served the Tianfang believers in West Asia. As long as I am not forced to change my faith, it is okay for me.
Accept it. And secondly, I can no longer go back to Castile."
Claviyo's voice suddenly became deeper: "I am in Castile, and my ancestral fiefdom has been lost long ago. Although I have the title of viscount, it is not actually valued by others. In order to revive the family, I have to work hard.
Do things that other nobles are unwilling to do, such as sending envoys to pagan countries, but unless you regain your ancestral fiefdom from the Granada people through war, it will be difficult to restore the glory of your ancestors no matter how hard you try."
"But in the East, I am the first person to engage in diplomacy with Europe. Your Majesty, you care very much about contacts with Europe. I don't understand why, but it is a very beneficial thing for me to stay in Ming Dynasty.
This means that my status in the diplomatic system is very important. Even if I am a foreigner, my actual status may not be lower than in Castile."
"Of course, there is another point. My wife and children were sent to the east by Quijano. I no longer have anyone to worry about in Castile, and I can completely settle in the Ming Dynasty. Of course, I must serve the Ming Dynasty wholeheartedly.
"
On the morning of the day he welcomed Quijano, Clavio still thought about returning to Castile, but after seeing his wife and children who were sent there, he suddenly realized that his idea was just wishful thinking. Although Quijano did not say it explicitly,
But the regent and the queen obviously hope that he will stay in the Ming Dynasty. After all, he is a Castilian, and his cultural customs are incompatible with the Han people. Moreover, it is also good for him to strengthen his ties with the country of Castile.
Worried that he would not continue to help Castile in diplomacy.
Since even the regent and the queen don't want him to go back, what's the point of him going back? To be a poor and down-and-out nobleman like before? It's better to stay in the Ming Dynasty and be responsible for diplomacy with Europe.
Of course, he had a little resentment towards the regent and the queen, but as they both thought, strengthening the relationship with Castile would be good for Clavijo himself, and he still had feelings for his motherland and would try his best to strengthen this relationship.
This is a relationship. Therefore, the national power of Castile was slightly exaggerated in Tong Yunxi’s words just now.
"That's it. Don't worry, no matter when you can hold an official position in the Lifanyuan of the Ming Dynasty, I will never fire you; if your children can give up their faith, they can marry Han people; if they don't give up, I
She won't force her, but she can only marry people of the same color, or the children of people who came from Europe." Yunxi didn't care about the rudeness of Kelaviyo's name just now, and said.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Claviyo bowed and saluted.
"Okay, let's get back to business." Yunxi said: "I don't know much about the situation in Egypt. I don't even know where this crucial Egypt is. Please introduce it to me." He asked again.
Said: "Do you have a map from Castile to Egypt to the Ming Dynasty?"
"Your Majesty," Clavio took out a canvas from his body and put it on the table, spread it out and said, "This is a map of the Mediterranean coast. The scale is in the lower left corner. Egypt is at this location."
His finger pointed at Egypt, which is located in the lower right corner of the map, and then pointed at the waters east of Egypt. "This is the Red Sea, so named because the color of the water is red. The Red Sea can be connected to the Great Eating Sea, and the Great Eating Sea can be connected to the Indian Ocean.
"
Then he pointed to the place Suez and said: "Your Majesty can know from this that from Castile to the Ming Dynasty, only the Egyptian section is a land route, and the rest are water routes. Once Egypt is controlled and a track is built in Suez, the transportation cost will be
Greatly reduced."
"Hasn't Prince Ferdinand considered digging a canal here?" Yunxi asked.
"Of course Prince Ferdinand has considered it, but because of the lessons learned from the Volga-Don Canal, building a canal requires caution, so we plan to build the track first, and then conduct careful measurements to see whether the canal can be built," Clavijo replied.
Yunxi took out the map of the Indian Ocean that the Ming Dynasty had explored. Yunxi did not build a large-scale voyage to the Western Ocean like Zhu Di did in his previous life, but it does not mean that he did not explore the Indian Ocean. He had already sent out several ships several years ago.
Navy personnel went to India on merchant ships, and independently sent a small fleet to explore the Indian Ocean. So far, the waters east of the Maldives have been basically explored, and at least the most suitable route for sending a fleet to the west coast of India has been found.
.Although the waters west of the Maldives are not well explored, and many exploration ships were wiped out by giant pirates, the general situation is known, but the distance is not known.
Yunxi spliced the two maps together, and suddenly, a complete map appeared, from Ming Dynasty to Castile, from 5° north latitude to 45° north latitude, covering all important places in the world at this time.
Claviyo's eyes lit up immediately. But after a few glances, he didn't dare to look at it again. He knew that this map of the Indian Ocean was extremely precious, and as a foreigner who had just taken refuge in the Ming Dynasty, it was best not to look at it too much.
"Tell me about the situation in Egypt." Yunxi said again.
"Your Majesty, Egypt has a long history, but later, around the early to mid-Tang Dynasty, it was conquered by the Tianfang believers from the Tianfang Peninsula, and most people had to become Tianfang believers. But in fact, before the rise of the Tianfang believers, Egypt was dominated by the Cross believers.
There are still many Christian believers in the gathering place to this day," Clavijo said first.
Yunxi smiled. Of course Claviyo's words were bragging for Christianity, but they were not lies, at least as far as he knew they were not lies.
"People in this place are used to using slaves purchased from Central Asia as soldiers. But these slaves will not always obey. After some slaves obtained high positions in the army, they launched a coup and seized power. Because the people in power were born slaves, they were called
Mamluk Dynasty. Mamluk means slave in the language of the great cannibals.”
"The Mamluk dynasty was very powerful at the beginning, defeating the Mongols who wanted to invade Egypt, and captured many Christian places, so that there are no Christian countries in Syria, Palestine and other places. But starting a few decades ago, following
The previous kings were all fatuous and incompetent. In the third year of Jianye, they were severely attacked by the Timur Khanate and the country's strength was weakened. When I was talking to Jihano, I also mentioned the situation of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt. He said that now
The Mamluk dynasty still failed to regain its strength, and the country was weak."
When Claviyo introduced it, Yunxi just listened quietly and did not express an opinion. As a non-history major in his previous life, he knew nothing about the history of Tianfang Sect during this period except the Timurid Khanate.
He could only listen to Claviyo's introduction. After he finished speaking, Yunxi carefully looked at the map for a while and then said: "Ke Qing, do you think we should form an alliance with Castile and control Egypt?"
"Your Majesty, I believe that controlling Egypt is beneficial to the Ming Dynasty. But for the Ming Dynasty now, the first thing to do is to control India. Geographically speaking, the Ming Dynasty is too far away from Egypt. Putting an army in the past is not worth the gain.
.But India is in the middle from the Ming Dynasty to Egypt. If we can control India, it is not too far to go to Egypt from India, and it will not happen that after sending troops to defeat the Mamluk Dynasty, it will be taken advantage of by the Kingdom of Castile.
Only after controlling India can we consider whether to control Egypt." Claviyo said after considering it.
"What you said makes sense. However, controlling Egypt is only one of the purposes of the alliance. You can express your opinion on whether the alliance should be formed alone." Yunxi said again.
"This, I believe, if it is not used to cooperate to control Egypt or other trade routes, the alliance is meaningless for both countries. The distance between the Ming Dynasty and Castile is too far, it can be said that they are the two furthest distances in the world.
Although the country means that there will be no conflict between the Ming Dynasty and the Kingdom of Castile, or even the possibility of conflict, there is no point in forming an alliance."
Yunxi opened the map again and thought about it for a while. Without expressing his opinion, he ordered Claviyo to retreat. But before he retreated, Yunxi suddenly said: "As for the marriage, let Ming marry Princess Wan."
Absolutely not; but if the Kingdom of Castile is willing to marry the princess to the Ming Dynasty, I can accept it." (To be continued)