It would be untrue to say that Zheng He's main purpose in going to the West was to find Emperor Jianwen, but it cannot be said that he had no motive in this regard at all. Since the suspicions at that time could not be resolved, it was possible to draw his attention to the problem through his outings.

So what was the main purpose of Zheng He's trip to the West? It was the inevitable result of domestic economic development. After 20 years of war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the economy suffered great damage, but after the measures taken during the Hongwu period to restore and develop production, the population increased, the cultivated land area expanded, the output of grain, cotton, and oil crops increased, the people's living standards improved, and the government's fiscal revenue was more than before.

Subsequently, the demand for foreign materials has also increased, and this increase in the demand for foreign materials is mainly in two aspects, on the one hand, the materials needed by the people's daily life, mainly spices and dyes. Spices are mainly used as a seasoning in food, that is, to make a dish better, or to make a certain dish last longer.

For example, pepper is what the people need, and where does pepper come from? It came from India, and it still is. There are many other spices that also come mostly from the islands of the South Seas, and there is a spice island in the South Seas that specializes in the production of spices. The other is dyes, why is the need for dyes so urgent?

Before the Ming Dynasty, commonly used dyes were plant dyes, such as blue grass blue, or mineral dyes. On the one hand, such dyes are expensive, and on the other hand, they are easy to fade, and imported dyes can solve these problems. Koreans like to wear white clothes, and some people in China like to wear white clothes, why? The reason is simple, because you can't afford dye.

In feudal society, the emperor wore yellow clothes, the most senior officials wore red clothes, the next level officials wore purple clothes and blue clothes, and the lowest officials wore green clothes. Why do you use the color of your clothes to distinguish them? It's also very simple, dyes are expensive. The common people couldn't afford to buy dyes, so they had to wear white clothes, so the ancients said that the white clothes and white dings referred to the common people.

These feudal rituals were determined by the material basis, hence the requirement to look abroad for dyes. This is a category that is needed for the daily life of the people. The other category consisted of meaningless consumer goods, mainly jewelry, which were reserved for the enjoyment of aristocratic society, especially the court.

There is a gemstone called cat's eye, and there is also a gemstone called emerald, which no one knew what it looked like in the past, only that it was a gemstone. Both of these things were found in the tomb of the Wanli Emperor, both of which were bought from abroad. In addition to jewelry, there were also a number of exotic animals, one of which was called the Forgotten Kirin, which was actually the giraffe.

At the same time as the demand for foreign materials increased, due to the development of the domestic economy, the production of some materials available for export, such as silk, porcelain, and ironware, also increased. In addition to the economic conditions, there was also a very important condition, that is, at that time, China had a long history of maritime trade with foreign countries.

Starting from the Qin Dynasty, through the Tang Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, during this long period of time, the government's merchant fleet and private merchant fleet continued to go out, and some private merchant fleets made a fortune. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, due to long-term accumulation, it already had a wealth of nautical knowledge and experienced nautical personnel. With these conditions, there were seven trips to the West led by Ming Chengzu led by Zheng He.

The ship that Zheng He went out to ride was called a treasure boat, and the government set up a special agency to manufacture treasure ships. How big was such a ship? The large ship was 40 zhang long and 18 zhang wide, and the middle ship was 37 zhang long and 15 zhang wide, and there was no bigger ship in the world at that time.

How many people can be carried in a boat? Based on the number of people sent out for the first time, the average number of people can be carried in each boat. There were the largest number of troops, as well as sailors, translators, accountants, ship repairmen, doctors, and so on, with an average of 27,000 or 8,000 men going out at a time. Such a scale is remarkable, and the later voyages of Columbus and Magellan were no more than three or four ships and more than a hundred people at a time, which cannot be compared with this.

Who will lead the navigation team of so many people? The Ming Dynasty government chose Zheng He because Zheng He was very brave and capable.

For the first time they went out on sixty-two large ships and took with them a lot of troops. This is because there were pirates on the route from China to the Nanyang Islands at that time, and these pirates not only robbed Chinese merchant ships, but also merchant ships from other countries that came to China to buy and sell. Zheng He used a strong military force to eliminate the pirates, so as to ensure the smooth passage of the route, and in order to prevent foreign invasion of them, it was also necessary to bring enough military force.

When Zheng He arrived in Ceylon, the king of Ceylon saw that the Chinese merchant fleet had a lot of supplies, so he looted them, and Zheng He defeated him and took him prisoner to Peking. Later, the Ming Dynasty government put him back and told him that as long as you don't become a robber in the future, it's fine. It can be seen that for the safety of navigation, it is necessary for Zheng He to take the army there.

Although the military force led by Zheng He was very strong, he brought several divisions of the army, and at that time, there was no region in Nanyang with such a strong military force. But Zheng He's army was only for defense, and he was engaged in peaceful trade. Although there was such a force and such a possibility at that time, it did not occupy an inch of other people's land.

Later, when the Westerners, who were a hundred years later than Zheng He, came to the East, they took goods in one hand and a sword in the other, and turned everything they went into their colonies, and the Portuguese occupied some islands in the South Seas after they arrived in the South Seas.

The trade between Zheng He and the countries of the South Seas was equal, not imposed, and the two sides negotiated fairly, and both sides reached into their sleeves and touched their fingers to bargain. Everywhere Zheng He went, there were Chinese expatriates, some mining, some working, some trading, and people from all walks of life. In some places, it was even centered on overseas Chinese, who were economically dominant, so Zheng He was welcomed everywhere he went.

Whenever Zheng He went to a country, in addition to selling them a large number of goods he had brought with him, he also brought some goods from these countries to China. After his first departure, he chose an island in the Nanyang Islands as a base to store a lot of goods, and with this place as the center, he sent merchant ships to trade in various places, etc., and after each detachment returned to this place, he returned to China together.

In less than 30 years, he traveled to the coast of the Indian Ocean, as far as Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea, and Mukudu in Africa. Mukudushu is the capital of Somalia and is now called Mogadishu.

Through Zheng He's seven voyages to the West, the shipping routes between China and the South Seas were unblocked, foreign trade was greatly developed, and more overseas Chinese went abroad. Through these decades of foreign contacts, China's relations with these regions in the South Seas have become deeper and deeper, and there have been more and more exchanges. Due to the activities of the overseas Chinese and the introduction of advanced Chinese production tools to these countries, production in the Nanyang region has also become more and more progressive.

Until now, although five or six hundred years have passed, many places in the countries where Zheng He has visited have historical sites commemorating him, because Zheng He's nickname is called the Three Treasures, so many places are named after the Three Treasures. There was no such thing as Zheng He's trip to the West in the past, nor after the Ming Dynasty, which was a very prominent event in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

After Zheng He's seventh voyage to the West, why didn't he go to the eighth time? More than 80 years later, Europeans came to the East to carry out colonial activities, hindering the exchanges between China and the countries of the South Seas.

After Ming Chengzu died, his son became the emperor, and this short-lived emperor soon died again, and then passed on to the next generation, that is, Xuanzong. When Emperor Xuanzong became emperor, he was an eight- or nine-year-old child who was ignorant, so his grandmother was in power in the court, and the government was controlled by Sanyang-Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu.

Sanyang has been a confidential secretary in the imperial court for twenty or thirty years, and three old men and an old lady hold the power of the country. These people are different from Ming Chengzu, Ming Chengzu has a far-sighted vision, but they think that he is troublesome, what are you sending so many people out to do? However, when Ming Chengzu was alive, they did not dare to object, and as soon as Ming Chengzu died, they became home, so they were not allowed to send people out.

Imports from foreign countries are consumer goods that cannot be reproduced, whether they are spices or dyes, they are consumer goods, not to mention jewelry, which is a meaningless thing. It is not worth exchanging useful silk, ironware, and porcelain for jewelry, and although it can solve the living problems of some people along the coast, it is not beneficial, and the state spends too much. Therefore, in order to save the country's financial expenses, caravans were not sent abroad later.

Just when the Ming Dynasty stopped sending ships abroad, the Europeans occupied the spice islands in the South Seas, and the Portuguese occupied Macao, and they occupied Macao by deception. At the beginning, they told the magistrates of the Ming Dynasty that their merchant ships often came to this place, and when they encountered wind and waves, their goods were wet, and they wanted to rent a place to dry their goods. At first, he paid back the rent, but then he didn't give it, and slowly encroached on the place, and still occupies it.

After the Europeans came to the East to occupy the colonies, the situation in China changed. After several hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, especially after the Opium War, many imperialist countries surrounded China from several aspects, India was occupied by Britain, Burma was occupied by Britain, Vietnam was occupied by France, the Philippines was first occupied by Spain and then by the United States, and Japan in the east embarked on the capitalist road and carried out aggressive and expansionist activities abroad.

Therefore, in the past 100 years, China was surrounded by capitalist and imperialist countries on all sides, and the increasingly corrupt Qing Dynasty government gradually turned China into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, and entered a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. Historically, China's foreign relations began in the pre-Qin period, flourished in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and reached the peak in the early Ming Dynasty when Zheng He went to the West.

Zheng He's voyage to the West inevitably passed through the South China Sea, and of course he also visited the Gulf of Siam, the Sulu Sea, the Java Sea, and the Strait of Malacca. Zheng He went to the West seven times, planting trees and building ships each time, preparing for many years, and led more than 10,000 soldiers, interpreters, sailors, and merchants to sail, and more than 27,000 people at most times. There are 100 treasure ships, each ship can accommodate 4 or 500 people, and the largest can accommodate thousands of people with a load of 1,000 tons.

The ship is not only famous, Qinghe, Huikang, Anji, Jingyuan, etc., but also numbered, each mother ship has ten ships, numbered ten, its scale is large, the organization is tight, not only at that time unique at home and abroad, so far it is rare. The naming and numbering of Zheng He's ships began 600 years ago, which is the ancestor of the famous ships of various navies in the world, and has become an international model.

On October 17, the third year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He led a fleet from Taicang to the Liujia River for the first time, and sailed to the sea at Wuhumen in Taiping Port, Fuzhou.