In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang organized the resumption of production in the interior on the one hand, and sent the vanguard to continue the Northern Expedition, among which Deng Yu and Mu Ying had fought fiercely with the Tubo people in the Kunlun Mountains, and captured thousands of strong men and tens of thousands of livestock in the battle of Qinghai Lake alone. After the eighteen tribes of Taozhou, Gansu Province descended and rebelled, Mu Ying once again put on the battle, and gathered brave men from Qin, Henan, Hebei and Lu, not only killed all the rebel leaders, but also captured more than 30,000 soldiers, 200,000 cattle and sheep, and countless other materials. After this battle, the Ming Empire expanded its territory for thousands of miles, because of the strategic vision of "Taozhou, the gateway to the west, now building a city and defending it, is to choke its throat", Taizu decided to set up a guard in Taozhou for management.

After the Jingjing, the martial Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing to face the threat of nomads from the north. He organized a large army to sweep the Mongolian steppe several times, easily obtained Hami from Turpan, and set up Hami Guard there as a bridgehead for the Ming Dynasty to the Western Regions. Historically, although our Yongle Emperor has never had a good impression of the Mongols, he was still very polite to the visit of the people of all ethnic groups in the Western Regions. The countries of the Western Regions also frequently made overtures to the Great Ming, and successively sent hundreds of missions to Beijing to study and study, and gradually established the relationship between the clan and the vassal.

At the time of Renxuan, the Ming Dynasty's national strength was still in a strong state, but the rulers had no ambition to aspire to the Quartet, and the vigorous Zheng He's voyage to the West also ended in a bleak period during this period, and the Ming Dynasty's exploration activities began to decline, and its foreign expansion basically stagnated. After the Tumubao Incident, the nomads in the north once again became the main reason for threatening the safety of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty deployed heavy troops to defend in the Xuanda and Jiliao areas, resulting in weak coastal defenses and raging Japanese invaders, and then launched a war of aggression against Korea. Contrary to the gradual weakening of the Ming Dynasty, the global colonization movement in Europe intensified, Magellan soon summoned Spanish bandits after discovering the Philippines, the strategic space of the Ming Dynasty was further reduced, and foreign trade declined seriously, and the trade volume of the entire imperial court was not as good as that of pirates such as Zheng Zhilong.

This chapter will tell two stories of the Ming Dynasty in the Western Regions, where the ancient Silk Road was bleak due to the prosperity of maritime trade, and many nameless loyal bones were buried in the desert. Because the "History of the Ming Dynasty" did not establish a biography for them, a large number of visit records were burned again, and these deeds were submerged for a long time. As posterity, we have an obligation to make their deeds public.

The protagonist of the first story is named Chen Cheng, a native of Gaokeng, Jishui County, Jiangxi Province, born in 1365 and died in 1458. During his lifetime, Chen Cheng went to the Western Regions four times, and three times to Samarkand and Hareth. He wrote what he saw and heard along the way into a book of "Itinerary of the Western Regions", which recorded in detail what he saw and heard along the way.

At that time, Chen Cheng and his entourage set off from Suzhou, followed the ancient Silk Road out of Yumen Pass to Hami, and then crossed the Flaming Mountain and the Liusha River, and arrived in Turpan through Luchen and Huozhou. After 35xs, the mission was divided into two routes, north and south, and reached Tuoxun, where it continued westward along the Alagou, bypassing Kudana Wuer, crossing the Botuo Bald, and entering the Khangos Valley. It is important to note that this road is a desperate situation that has not been traveled by generations of travelers.

After the two groups of men and horses converged to the east of Mount Alimari, they crossed the Yilie River and turned southwest, crossed the steep Shuangta Stone, bypassed the east side of Yixi Keer, walked southwest, and then crossed Tartashi Osaka, and arrived at Karawu, where the Kuda Ya tent was located. After a short stay here, Chen Cheng continued his journey northward, crossing the east-west mountain range between Issyk-Kul and Songhu Lake, tracing the Kashukhar River to the west, crossing its watershed to the Talas River Valley, and following the valley westward to Yangyi City. After that, they passed through Yangyi, Sailan, Dashigan, Dierimi, Samarkand, Maimuna, Spur and other places, and arrived at the city of Haret, the end of the western envoy on the 14th day of the leap month, which was the successful completion of the mission.

Soon after Chen Cheng returned to the east, the countries of the Western Regions began a new Silk Road trade along the route he had taken, when the king of Shahru of Persia sent a huge delegation to the Ming Dynasty, and recorded the whole process of the envoy in the form of a diary, which was included in the book "The Essence of History". Abel Trachaik then transcribed from him and included it with a slight abridgement in his History of Shahru.

The protagonist of the second story is called Fu An, the word Zhidao, a native of Kaifeng, Henan, and his ancestral home is Taikang. At that time, in order to establish contact with the countries of the Western Regions, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Fu An to the Timurid Empire in Central Asia.

This huge mission left Yumen Pass from Jiuquan in Gansu Province, walked 800 miles and entered the Hashun Desert, and more than 2,000 miles northwest to Hamili; Then go west through the Hanhai, go through more than 1,300 miles to the land of Huozhou, and then go west to Yijiu Bali. After a year of arduous travel, Fu An and others traveled another 3,000 miles west to reach Samarkand, the capital of the Timurid Empire.

At this time, Timur had just won the victory of the western expedition, and his arrogance did not obey his orders, but coerced Fu An and others to surrender. Fu An, as an envoy of the Ming Dynasty, faced the coercion and temptation of Fanbang, showed a high degree of national integrity, pointed at Timur's nose and scolded

"My Heavenly Dynasty envoys, can you fight against evil?"

After the interpreter told Timur the words of Fu An word for word, the invincible conqueror immediately became angry and furious, and decisively detained all this friendly mission in Samarkand. After Timur defeated the Ottoman Empire, he learned from his spies that the Ming Dynasty had a martyrdom battle, and used the excuse to mobilize 200,000 infantry and all the cavalry in the country, claiming to be 800,000 troops to the outside world, and began the journey of the Eastern Expedition. It may be that this guy didn't look at the yellow calendar before going out, and he didn't go far before he fell ill and died on the way, in addition to the ambition of the expedition to the Central Plains was buried in the yellow sand, and the military empire behind him also collapsed.

On the topic of Timur's Eastern Crusade, there was a very heated discussion on the Internet, and even compared Timur and Zhu Di's Wen Taowu strategy. The author does not comment on this topic in this article, but Timur could not even submit to the envoys of the Ming Dynasty, and it is estimated that it will be very difficult to conquer the unprecedentedly united Chinese nation.

In June of the fifth year of Yongle, in order to avoid provoking the Ming Empire in the east, Timur's grandson escorted Fu An and others back to China and asked for reconciliation with the Ming Dynasty. Fu An was in the prime of life when he went to the Western Regions, and at this time he had become a white-bearded old man, who did not change his ambition for thirteen years, and could be called Su Wu of the Ming Dynasty.

Chen Jiru of the Ming Dynasty wrote in the "Records of Experiences and Experiences" that "the envoy of Chu'an to the Western Regions is also, Fang Zhuangling, Bigui, bearded eyebrows, accompanied by Yao Chen, the eunuch Liu Wei, the official army is 1,500 people, and there are only seven out of ten survivors."

Fu An's deeds resonated with the whole country, greatly enhanced the national cohesion and pride, and he was also rewarded by Zhu Di. Later, the king of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate died, and Zhu Di sent Fu An and Zhongguan Li Da and others to pay tribute, and sealed the successor as the king of Beishu Bali, and gave him gold weaving Wenqi, armor, bow and knife. In order to consolidate the power of the Ming Dynasty here, Fu An stayed for another nine years.

In the fourth year of Xuande, Fu An died of illness and was buried in Tugang behind the Yuewang Temple in Zhuxian Town. Wang Shizhen, a famous writer in the Ming Dynasty, mentioned Fu An in the fourth volume of the "Yishan Tang Collection" about the long tenure of Wenchen, and said: "Before and after, it was thirty-two years in the matter, and twenty-one years were left in captivity, and Bai Shou survived, and he was not far from Suqing." ”