"There is a mainland in the far east, which is Yinzhou. From Japan in the east, it can be reached in two months with smooth winds and rivers."
"There is a bay to the east, called Fuwan. It is calm and has a good harbor... There is also a hill, named Fushan... Where Fushan is close to the sea, there is a large lake, named Mazu Lake..."
"Crossing Fuwan, there are woods, all oak, named Oak Bay..."
"Going north along Oak Bay, there is another large bay, Mingwangjin Bay... Going east of Wangjin Bay, there is a river valley, Mingwangjin Valley... Across the river valley there is a large lake, named Xixiang Lake."
"Two rivers merge into the lake, one is the Flowing Gold River, and the other is the Sparkling Gold River. There is a lot of gold sand in the river, and you can grab it with your hands, but now it's all gone..."
——Excerpted from "The Classic of Mountains and Seas: Overseas Eastern Classics", written by Xu Hongzu, also known as Zhenzhi, also known as Xiake. (This book was written in the twelfth year of Yanjia, Ming Dynasty, 1637 AD.)
There is gold in the far east, and you can get golden sand by holding the river water in your hand. The news spread quickly throughout the capital.
However, the gentry and the common people only regarded it as a talking point and made up all kinds of bizarre stories. No one really went to America to pan for gold. After all, the mortality rate was too high. It was just to go to sea with their heads high.
However, the merchants doing business in the capital spread the news to various places. The people who lived a hard life along the coast, the desperadoes who were jealous of money, and the courageous maritime merchants immediately had other ideas.
Maritime merchants and desperadoes were the first to join forces. They took ships to Nanyang to inquire about information. Some even directly found Zhu Hai, hoping to team up to cross the ocean together.
These days, Wang Yuan is giving extra lessons to his son, and by the way, he asks Yang Shen to teach and practice.
The eldest son, Wang Ce, is about to turn twelve years old and plans to take part in the boy's examination next spring. He does not need to go back to Guizhou, but can borrow his residence in the capital, but in the future, candidates for the examination must return to their hometown.
"Confucius said," Wang Yuan said, "try to solve this little problem."
Wang Ce immediately wrote: "An ordinary man can be a teacher for hundreds of generations, and one word can become a law for the world."
Wang Yuan suddenly laughed: "Have you read Su Dongpo's article?"
Wang Ce said: "Master Yang (Yang Shen) asked me to familiarize myself with "Sansu Wenfan". Master Yang said that as long as I memorize the famous prose works of Tang and Song Dynasties, it will be easy for a boy to take the test."
Wang Yuan complained: "It's really easy for him to teach his disciples."
Although Wang Yuan and Yang Tinghe were political enemies, he and Yang Shen were friends.
Yang Shen didn't like the science of mind, not because of his conservative thinking, but because he thought it was confusing and had no essential difference from Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. However, Yang Shen liked physics and occasionally went to the School of Physics to hang out, and he had a close personal relationship with Wang Yan, the dean of the school.
.
Since my son wants to take the boy examination, he must find the best teacher, and the great talent Yang Shen is the best candidate.
Huang E was also a talented woman, but she did not study the Four Books and Five Classics deeply, preferring the study of history and rhetoric. She laid a good foundation for her children, but if she wanted to take the imperial examination, she had to find another famous teacher.
Wang Yuan asked another question. Before Wang Ce started writing, the eunuch suddenly came to deliver the order.
Rushing to the Leopard Room, Zhu Houzhao threw over a memorandum: "Zhu Ying wrote a letter asking the Ministry of Rites to engrave a gold seal. They want to take the Sinhalese prince back to Ceylon to restore the country."
The island of Ceylon became Sri Lanka in later generations. At this time, it had been divided into five kingdoms, with Portugal supporting the largest of them.
The descendants of the Sinhala princes of the unified dynasty of Ceylon are currently settled in Quanzhou and have been in the Ming Dynasty for four generations. Their descendants can all speak and write Chinese.
Wang Yuan read the memorial carefully and suddenly laughed: "This is a good plan."
Zhu Houzhao said: "I also think it is feasible. You can ask the Ministry of Rites to engrave a gold seal and make him a Sinhala king."
Why did the Ming Navy attack Ceylon Island?
It's very simple, in order to get iron pear wood!
There are now three main types of ships in the Ming Dynasty, namely the bird ships in Zhejiang, the Fu ships in Fujian, and the Guangzhou ships in Guangdong.
Among them, Guangzhou Shipbuilding is the most sturdy and durable because it is made of iron pear wood, but the maintenance cost is very high. The main reason is that the iron pear wood is over-cut, which is not only expensive, but also hard to buy with money. Once the hull is damaged, it is difficult to find materials to repair it.
At the beginning of the year, Wang Yuan returned to Beijing, met Fo Langji in Tianjin, and learned that Vasco da Gama was serving as the Governor-General of India. He immediately wrote a letter to remind Man Zheng and Ning Botao to be careful, and it was best to build a few new warships.
.
Fleet maintenance is very expensive. The Ming Dynasty Navy now has more than 60 warships, and even if it controls the spice channel, it is somewhat difficult to sustain it.
They heard that the Portuguese might have some changes, so they wanted to build bird ships with ironwood to make their new warships stronger. As for some of the previous warships, they could eliminate some and sell them to merchants as armed merchant ships. There are countless merchants on the coast of China waiting for them.
Going to buy it.
And Ceylon Island is the ironwood base that they have been eyeing for a long time. The ironwood there is enough to build a fleet!
…
Shi Lanzong, a native of Quanzhou, had a reputation as a scholar.
But when he took the imperial examination, the household registration column was very strange. The name listed on it was Sinhalese.
In fact, Shi Lanzong's mother and grandmother were both Han women. If he had not been taught by his father since childhood, he would not be able to speak Sinhala, let alone know that his grandfather was a Sinhala prince who was stranded in the Ming Dynasty.
The reason is this——
When Zheng He went to the West, the Sinhalese king actually dared to use force, and was directly captured by the Sanbao eunuchs and brought back to the Ming Dynasty for questioning. Although Zhu Di released the king the next year, he established a new king and took over the Sinhalese kingdom.
The vassal state gave birth to the Koti dynasty that unified the island of Ceylon.
During the Tianshun period, a Sinhalese prince went on an envoy to the Ming Dynasty and was stranded in China due to illness.
When the prince returned to China by boat, he learned that there had been a coup in the country, and his cousin had usurped the throne and killed members of the royal family. He had no choice but to stay in Quanzhou.
"Why did you contact the Ming Navy privately?" Shigui asked.
Shi Lanzong said: "Father, please calm down. You are old and it is inconvenient to go to sea again. The eldest brother and the second brother... have bad personalities..."
Shigui said depressedly: "You can just say they are so naughty!"
Shi Lanzong said: "When my grandfather was dying, he made us and our children and grandchildren vow to restore the country. Now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My son really doesn't want to miss this opportunity."
"The Ming Navy is really willing to help us restore our country?" Shigui sneered, "Even if we succeed in restoring our country, you will only be a puppet king!"
Shi Lanzong said: "It is already very difficult for my son to be admitted as a scholar. How can he be admitted as a scholar? It is better to be a puppet king than to be a sour scholar. If my son becomes a king, my family's business will be better.
Go to Ceylon. Why not?"
Although Shigui was not optimistic about his son's future, he could not stop him. He could only say: "That's all, that's all. Your Majesty has made you the King of Sinhalese, how can I stop you? But I won't go with you. As a father, I only want to stop you."
I wish to be an obedient citizen of the Ming Dynasty and do not want to be a Sinhala Supreme King."
Shi Lanzong, a scholar in the Quanzhou Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty, took more than ten servants, purchased firecrackers, formed a royal guard, and followed the navy of the Ming Dynasty to restore the country.
The bigger island of Ceylon has been divided into five countries.
Sinhala has always been a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and Shilan Zong is a descendant of the royal family with orthodox blood. The navy of the Ming Dynasty has enough reasons to go to quell the civil strife!
I don't want anything else, I just want to get some wood for shipbuilding.
…
India, Goa.
Stephen walked over quickly: "Father, the Chinese fleet is coming!"
"Coming for Goa?" Vasco da Gama asked.
"No, they went to Ceylon." Stephen explained.
Da Gama clenched his fists and then unclenched them: "As long as you don't come to India, don't provoke the Chinese fleet."
Vasco da Gama is now very frustrated. The last governor was a prodigal. Not only did he destroy a large number of warships, but he also looted them before leaving office. What he inherited was a mess. He wanted to build warships but had no money, so he had to give it to the king.
and the nobles to convey colonial interests, and so far only two new ships have been built.
Nowadays, the conflicts in the Portuguese Indian colonies are very intense, including racial conflicts, religious conflicts, and cultural conflicts, which are almost on the verge of uprising.
Vasco da Gama was not very good at ruling, he simply carried out bloody suppression, and his methods were more cruel than the previous governor. His character has always been like this. Every time he went on a sailing expedition, he would cause trouble and fight along the way, making Portugal's reputation stinky along the way.
Xuntian.
The only difference is that the former governor spread hatred indiscriminately, while Vasco da Gama treated Portuguese businessmen very favorably and only carried out bloody exploitation of various foreign races.
This guy is making money like crazy, just to collect money and build ships, so that he can regain Malacca when he has enough strength.
As for Stephen, he is the second son of Vasco da Gama and currently serves as the commander-in-chief of the Portuguese Indian Fleet.
Although he did not dare to provoke the Chinese fleet, Vasco da Gama still sent several small boats to follow the island of Ceylon to check the situation. They supported the Kingdom of Kandy, one of the five countries in Ceylon. This country was the strongest and accounted for about three thirds of the island of Ceylon.
One-third of the land.
The Ming Navy planned to start from the Kingdom of Kandy.
There is no other reason, it's just easier. Who put the Kingdom of Kandy in the east of Ceylon?