Li Zicheng and his party had never been on such a long boat. Fortunately, they were probably used to riding horses, so they didn't get seasick.
Of course, such a long voyage also gave them a lot of insights and gained them a lot of experience.
In addition, they all knew where they were going to live in the future, so they consciously began to learn the language of a foreign country while they were still on the ship. Although they could not write or recognize it, by the time they landed, they had already spoken.
I can talk about it.
The Dutch brought them to the Netherlands not only for their money, but also because now the whole of Europe is full of curiosity about the empire in the Far East. Even more so than before.
Therefore, there is a need for Ming people from the Far East to arrive in Europe and let them understand the situation of the Ming Empire.
In this way, Li Zicheng and his group were sold by the Dutch and sold to the French.
That's right, it was sold.
The Dutch already knew when they were still on the ship that these Ming people were not helpful at all to what the Dutch wanted to know. It can even be said that some Dutch people did not know more about the Ming Dynasty.
To understand. At least some Dutch people had been to the capital of the Ming Dynasty and had seen the prosperity there, but Li Zicheng and others had not.
Fortunately, the French knew less about the Ming Empire. After being deceived by the Dutch, the Frenchman Kang took over, bought Li Zicheng and others, and sent them to Paris.
Li Zicheng and his party only understood their situation when they were placed on a slave prison car when the Dutch handed them over to the French.
However, they were helpless in the face of these Western Yi firearms. Although Liu Zongmin tried his best, in the end he did not act impulsively because of Song Xiance's persuasion.
But after all, they are different from the black slaves in Africa, and their treatment is relatively better.
After arriving in Paris, the French slave owner even held a special auction for them.
"There are only five slaves from the mysterious East. Some are quick, but none are slow!"
"Want to know about Eastern etiquette? Want to hear Eastern stories? Want to understand Eastern culture? It's all at Johnson Auction!"
"Educated Eastern slave, a symbol of status, worthy of your possession!"
"..."
Because of the strong rise of the Ming Empire, which even wanted to adopt European countries as vassal states, and the popularity of steam engines in Europe, European nobles had a strong interest in the Ming Empire in the Far East.
Under the propaganda of slave owners, Parisian aristocrats, nouveau riche, etc. came to the Oriental Slave Auction one after another.
At this auction, Li Zicheng and others were not stripped naked and allowed to be chosen by buyers. After all, they were molded into slaves with good taste, far better than black slaves.
Therefore, at the auction, Li Zicheng and others were forced to show off their calligraphy. Especially when Song Xiance and Niu Jinxing wrote a series of beautiful Chinese characters with a brush, the French people even applauded loudly.
Liu Zongmin and Li Zicheng also performed Eastern Kung Fu, and even had Liu Zongmin fight against a strong black slave, which showed how powerful Eastern Kung Fu was.
In the end, Niu Jinxing was sold at the highest price and was bought by the royal family. The sale was not very good, and the short Song Xiance was sold at the second highest price and was bought by a nouveau riche. The strong and capable Liu Zongmin was second, and the price
The lowest Li Zicheng was bought by a nobleman.
At the beginning, the Dutch, who knew them best, did not tell the French that this was a wanted criminal in the Ming Empire and that he had rebelled in the Ming Empire. Otherwise, such a restless person would probably not be sold at a high price.
At this time, what Europeans were most interested in during the Ming Dynasty was steam engines. Although many countries had steam engine drawings, they also summoned their own elites to build steam engines.
However, the level is uneven, and the steam engines built are far from being as easy to use as the legends say. Especially when steam engines are used to pull goods, that is, steam trains. Basically, all countries have encountered problems with railway parameters.
When the blueprints were sold, they were just steam engine blueprints, and the two biggest selling points of the steam engine were steam ships and steam trains. But there were no relevant instructions on the blueprints. Censor, the Europeans reluctantly built a steam engine.
, but it is still blinding on the steam train, and it still needs to be studied.
When these knowledgeable Ming people were caught, the first thing they did was naturally let them participate in the construction of the railway. As a result, Li Zicheng and the others had never seen a steam engine, not to mention a railway, so naturally they were of no use in taking pictures.
Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance were able to fool around with their knowledge. Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin, two warriors, quickly lost their value and were eventually thrown to the farm by their masters to work with black people.
The only thing that was better was that they were obviously more educated than the black slaves, so they were allowed to manage the black slaves.
Living like this was a lifelong shame for Li Zicheng. He thought about committing suicide, but he endured it in the end.
I think back then, when Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting defeated him, only eighteen riders were left, and they fled into Shangluo Mountain, only to make a comeback in the end!
Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin were adapting to the environment while waiting for opportunities. It was absolutely impossible for them to remain slaves for the rest of their lives!
At this time, no one thought that what would happen if there were just a few slaves? There were many black slaves, so they didn’t care about a few Ming slaves!
…………………………
At the same time, the South Asian subcontinent, which later became India, was ruled by the Mughal Empire. The emperor at this time was called Shah Jahan, which means ruler of the world.
This is a strong tone, but not without reason.
Before Shah Jahan became emperor, he tried to rebel and seize the throne from his father, but failed.
However, he was lucky. After his father died in 1628, the first year of Chongzhen's reign, he became the emperor of the Mughal Empire as he wished.
Speaking of which, he was indeed somewhat capable. After becoming the emperor, he strengthened centralization of power, expanded the army, quelled the rebellions in the Deccan principalities, and appointed his son Aurangzeb as the governor of the Deccan.
Externally, in 1631, the Governor of Bengal was ordered to suppress the Portuguese in the area. The poor Portuguese were not only killed by the Toungoo dynasty of Dongwu, but also defeated by the local governor of the Mughal Empire. Nothing went smoothly.
when.
By 1636, Shah Jahan annexed Ahmednagar, forcing the rulers of Golconda and Bijayinpur to surrender and pay tribute.
The most powerful enemy of the Mughal Empire should belong to the Safavid Empire of Persia. The focus of the struggle was not to destroy the other party, but to compete for Afghanistan.
In 1638, Shah Jahan sent heavy troops to force Ali Mardan Khan, the governor of Kandahar in Persia, to surrender, and in 1646 he captured Badakhshan and Balkh.
Basically, it can be said that in the hands of Shah Jahan, the Mughal Empire conquered the north and south, expanded its territory, and was invincible. Therefore, the title of ruler of this world is well-deserved, at least in the Southeast Asian subcontinent.
Relatively speaking, this time should be regarded as surrender from all directions. If you are a wise monarch, you should rest and recuperate to alleviate the people's livelihood problems caused by the military.
However, Shah Jahan did not do this. He felt that he was great, so he began to build a variety of large palaces, mausoleums, etc. The famous Taj Mahal was built by him in later generations.
In this dimension, Shah Jahan was very satisfied and was about to start building the Taj Mahal when news came one after another, causing him to temporarily shift his focus.
First, the chieftains and lamas in Tibet fled into the Mughal Empire because they refused to accept the Ming Dynasty's offer to return to their native land.
Shah Jahan did not like to see lamas, but the news brought to him by the chieftain still made him take it seriously.
On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Gushi Khan established the Heshuote Khanate. He knew about this. He had also learned about the situation of the Heshuote Khanate before.
Shah Jahan did not think that the Kushote Khanate could pose a threat to him. They were just tribes that fought with cold weapons, that is, they huddled on the plateau. If they dared to invade the Mughal Empire, he was sure to teach Gushi Khan how to behave.
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The army under his command is a mixture of hot and cold weapons, as well as cavalry, war elephants, etc., and they are all elite soldiers who have fought in the north and south. He has confidence in his army.
However, Shah Jahan did not expect that Gushi Khan would surrender to the Ming Empire.
According to the news from those chieftains, Gushi Khan united many tribes, and the total strength even reached more than 100,000 troops. However, he was defeated in one battle, and the defeat was complete. This shows that the Ming Empire is a bit strong, and maybe it can compete with him.
The strength of the Mughal Empire was almost over.
He was a little uneasy if such a country occupied Tibet and had a geographical advantage over the Mughal Empire.
However, if you want to say how much this uneasiness is, it is false. If Shah Jahan was really prepared for danger in times of peace, he would not carry out large-scale construction projects and continue to torment his people.
If nothing else, he was incapable of destroying Persia, the feudal enemy of the Mughal Empire!
Shah Jahan just felt that he did not want to see the Kushote Khanate replaced by the Ming Empire in Tibet. That was pretty much it.
However, what he didn't expect was that later on, the Governor of Bengal sent someone to report to him, which really attracted his attention.
The Governor of Bengal said that the Ming Empire sent troops to destroy the Toungoo dynasty of Dongwu. Although for now, after occupying Dongwu, the Ming Empire was sending troops to the east, and there was no possibility of going west.
However, when the north and east of the Mughal Empire were all bordering the Ming Empire, Shah Jahan felt the power of the Ming Empire, and his uneasiness finally grew a lot.
For this reason, he issued an order to the Governor of Bengal to pay attention to the movements of the Ming army on the Dongwu side.
Eventually, to Shah Jahan's concern and even greater uneasiness came a visit from the newly occupied Dutch in Colombo.