At this time, an old man in the ranks of military generals and nobles asked aloud:

"Equestrian Lord, you said you started as a wandering knight who was kicked out of your home. Presumably, in the past 16 years, Your Excellency has won many great battles. Otherwise, it will not be from a wandering ...... The knight grows into a lord of the country. I don't know, can the master of the horse tell us a story or two? ”

This old man is the contemporary British Gong Zhang Mao, who is 70 years old. Zhang Mao is the grandson of Zhang Yu, the hero of the Jingjing Disaster, and the son of Zhang Fu, the second-generation British Duke who died in the "Tumubao Incident". Since Zhang Fuzhan died, he attacked the British duke, has always been the big man in the capital army, has been in charge of the Beijing camp and the five armies of the governor's mansion, belongs to the existence of the Ming Dynasty nobles. In the army, I am afraid that only the Xu family of Wei Guogong in Nanjing, Shizhen, can surpass him. As for the Mu family and the Zhu family of Chengguo Gong, who guarded southern Yunnan, they were on a par with the Zhang family. As for who is high and who is low, it mainly depends on the position of the contemporary head of the family.

But in any case, Zhang Mao, who is 70 years old, is definitely the top three top bosses in the Ming Army. His words can basically be spoken as a representative of the noble lineage of military generals.

The eunuchs on the side were afraid that Ma Lin would not know him, so he specially introduced Zhang Mao's identity. Marlin was shocked—it was an English duke......

In his previous life, Ma Lin watched several films that traveled to the Yongle Dynasty, Zhang Mao and his father, the British Gong Zhang Fu, are all golden supporting roles with a high appearance rate......

Marin hurriedly saluted, which was regarded as a greeting. And Zhang Mao also returned the salute, after all, Ma Lin belongs to a foreign monarch, and his grade is not lower than Zhang Mao.

After the politeness, Marin continued to tell the story......

"When I went out wandering alone, I happened to encounter a big battle. At that time, King Charles VIII of France, the strongest country in Europe, personally led an army of 37,000 men south to invade Italy......"

After speaking, Marin also specially pointed out the locations of France and Italy on the map to Emperor Zhengde, who was fascinated by the story.

"But Italy, nominally, belongs to our Holy Roman Kingdom. So, our great king Maximilian I was not happy. Although he was not a powerful monarch, he commanded the princes of all sides to form an alliance to resist the invasion of powerful enemies......"

"However, the Great King usually has only more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, and he has to leave most of them to guard the homeland. Therefore, he did not have the spare troops to go south to rescue Italy. When he heard the news, he rushed to the royal capital and wanted to enlist in the army. After all, the children of our knight family all began to receive civil and military education at the age of 8, and they are all very good at riding skills. No matter how poor you are, you can be hired by the Great King and become a cavalryman......"

Here, Marring paused. Originally, he wanted to take out the haystack where he slept behind the monastery on the banks of the Rhine, and then he was ignited by the great sage. However, thinking that Ming Confucianism believed in "Zi Bu Silent Strange Power Chao God", and Zhengde did not believe in immortals, he skipped the middle paragraph......

At that time, the great king issued an edict to recruit warriors from all over the world to fight this war for him. On the way to enlist, the minister suddenly thought - one person is weak, why not organize the warriors who go to enlist? In this way, there is also more room for bargaining. Marin smiled at Zhengde, who was fascinated by what he heard.

So, halfway through, the minister first found an ugly man with infinite strength as a family member. Then, take this warrior and convince the conscripts. At first, the conscripts were not convinced. Then, the minister led his men to subdue them...... "In order to have a more dramatic effect, Marin deliberately made the process more exciting. In fact, when he recruited troops, he coaxed those unlucky people to join the gang under the banner of knights in the city. But at this time, if you want to make the young Emperor Zhengde happy, you naturally have to say it more excitingly.

"Good!" Emperor Zhengde actually applauded like a story.

"Then, the minister recruited more than a hundred warriors, formed a mercenary group, appointed himself the head of the regiment, and went to the royal capital to enlist......"

"Chen's teacher is in Daming, but he has learned "The Art of War" with his ancestor, and the teacher has also taught Chen. After a period of training, the minister's hundred-man team was banned. On the day when the king selected the mercenaries, the courtier's hundred-man team was in the limelight. Then, the minister also got the position of the head of the phalanx, which is equivalent to the thousand households of the Ming Dynasty......"

"Then, when fighting south to Italy. By coincidence, the minister learned that the king of France wanted to withdraw to the country with his troops. But as it happened, they were dragged by the coalition forces. The King of France, who was anxious to return home, decided to take the risk of retreating to the country in the middle of the night with the main force of 8,000 iron horsemen, and it just so happened that the spies sent out by the ministers learned that ......"

So the minister imitated Sun Bin's tactics of ambushing Pang Juan, and took thousands of soldiers and horses from his headquarters to fight an ambush in the middle of the night. But there were two ways for the King of France to retreat. So, he sent men to cut the main road, and then concentrated his forces on the hillsides on both sides of the road. ”

"When the king of France passed by with eight thousand iron horsemen, the minister gave an order, ten thousand arrows were fired, and the stones were flying, and the eight thousand iron horsemen of the king of France were defeated at once, and four thousand French knights were captured, and the king of France was almost captured......"

It was by virtue of this exploit that the minister was appreciated by the great king, and later he was made a baron, and received a small fief, becoming an independent lord...... Then, he led his troops to recapture the ancestral ......"

……

"Good, wonderful!" Emperor Zhengde excitedly slapped the handle of the dragon chair to express his excitement.

In this era, applause is not popular in China. When ancient people saw wonderful performances, they often applauded loudly or applauded. Therefore, many costume TV series describe the applause of the ancients, all because the screenwriter has no historical knowledge......

The excited Emperor Zhengde, probably a habit developed by listening to books, actually shouted:

"Lao Liu, look at the reward!"

Yes, Emperor Zhengde is using Marin as a storyteller......

The civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty were so ashamed that they covered their faces one after another, but fortunately, Liu Jin did not really give the reward. And Marin deliberately pretended to be confused, and the jokes made by Emperor Zhengde were deliberately ignored by everyone.

……

Next, another minister asked about the turtle. Naturally, Marin couldn't say that it was an ordinary big turtle, but made up a wonderful commentary......

"It is said that the minister originally only brought guns and Venetian special glass as tribute, but when the fleet sailed to the South China Sea, a strong wind suddenly rose, and the minister's fleet was blown away from the normal course......"

At that time, the minister was so frightened that he thought he was going to be shipwrecked and was about to die. Unexpectedly, the strong wind blew the fleet to an unknown island in the South China Sea......"

"Then, I saw that there were nine huge turtles on the island......

At this time, a thought suddenly flashed in the minister's heart—could it be that this strong wind deliberately blew the minister onto this unknown island? Chen's teacher said that the giant tortoise represents Xuanwu. Although the minister did not know why the heir of Xuanwu, the divine beast in the north of the Lord, appeared in the South China Sea...... Perhaps, Xuanwu accidentally left an heir when he went to visit Suzaku in the South China Sea......"

The ministers showed a knowing smile and did not dare to laugh uncontrollably. After all, this is a turtle, it's Jia Rui, and it's disrespectful to laugh unbridledly.

……

Ma Lin flickered and stunned the Ming monarchs and ministers of the Manchu Dynasty directly, and they were a little unable to distinguish between the southeast and the northwest......

For the sake of the 9 turtles that represent the top auspiciousness sent by Ma Lin, the Ming monarchs and ministers have a very good impression of Ma Lin.

However, when it came to finally considering Marin's requests for tribute and trade, something went wrong......

Because, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were all in favor of accepting Marin's Beihai State as a vassal state and allowing it to pay tribute. However, most officials did not agree to Marin's demand for normal trade. As for the reason, it is quite simple, there is no precedent......

In other words, Marin's purpose of asking for tribute and trade was only half achieved......