"Whose century was the 17th century?"

On the way to Isfahan, Li Weigong asked Xia Xinchun beside him, who was only in their thirties, who was supposed to be on an errand in a certain yamen in China, but as the pawns of Honglu Temple, they had to go to a foreign country.

Establishment of consulates to carry out diplomatic work.

From the first year of Xingqian, until now, the Ming Dynasty has never stopped this pace, why did it send diplomats to other countries to engage in diplomatic activities?

In the final analysis, it is to understand those countries, and it is precisely with the efforts of the diplomats of Honglu Temple in the past dynasties that now the Ming Dynasty has a full understanding of the world.

"They must be them!"

Xia Xinchun pointed to the Safi people who knelt on the carpet on the side of the road to worship.

"Not to mention the Europeans, even we, to some extent, are far inferior to them, they occupy the broadest distinction in the world."

Of course, Xia Xinchun was not talking about the Safi people, but the Tianfang cultists.

Perhaps for any modern person in the 17th century, he would be surprised to find that in this era of the hegemony of the great powers and the rampant law of the jungle, the so-called "European powers" are not worth mentioning at all, they are just looking forward to the natives of the Americas and Africa.

In fact, neither the Ming Dynasty nor the European countries could talk about the "great powers" at this time. Surprisingly, in this era, it is the "Heavenly World" that dominates the world.

"Celestial Cultist!"

Li Weigong nodded and said.

"If we look at the division of world civilization regions, the current "Heavenly World" may be the master of the world. In fact, since more than 100 years ago, the Celestial World has been one of the world's most extensive civilizations. Since the day he was born, he has not stopped expanding, and it is no different now. Unlike Christendom's expansion to the sea, the direction of their expansion was inland. When the Ottoman Turks occupied Eastern Rome and forced the Europeans to the sea in search of a new route to the East, they had already broken into Central Europe, besieging Vienna again and again, and the whole of Southwestern Europe and Central Europe were under the shadow of the Ottomans. At the same time, in India, the Mughal Empire was also steadily expanding its empire southward, occupying almost the entire Tianzhu ......"

"Yes, they use the scimitar to expand, they use the scimitar to preach, and those who obey me live, and those who oppose me die......"

Without waiting for Xia Xinchun to finish speaking, Li Weigong shook his head and said.

"It doesn't matter, for us we have to look at the "three empires" – from Europe to Asia, from the Ottoman Empire to the Safavid Empire to the Mughal Empire in India. Lying across a vast continent, these three empires are at their peak and rule the heartland of the heavens. In many aspects such as economy, population, and military, they are proud of European Christendom, and even the newly awakened Chinese world. The threat to us is self-evident, which is why we are opening an embassy in Isfahan. ”

"However, Saffei is the weakest of them all."

Xia Xinchun said with some puzzlement.

Indeed, among the three major empires, it is not the Ottoman Empire, which repeatedly threatens Central Europe to the point of the whole of Europe, nor the Mughals who occupy India and are interrupted by a group of "traitors" who cross the snow-capped mountains to attack India. Rather, the Safavid Empire, an empire founded on the land of ancient Persia, did not immerse Europeans in nightmares like the Ottoman Empire, nor did it envy the world by occupying the richest place in the world with a group of outsiders.

For the Ming Dynasty, it is almost a non-existent country.

"It's true that it's the weakest, but don't forget that this seemingly weak country, whether for the Ottomans or the Mughals, the Safavid Empire was an extremely formidable opponent. Especially for the former, the two countries have been fighting for the Euphrates River basin for hundreds of years, and even longer in the Caucasus. ”

Li Weigong pointed to the Safi people who had finished worshipping in the distance and said.

"Perhaps now the Safavid Empire has gone from strength to decay, especially after the accession of Suleiman I, the drunken and ill emperor, who had no interest in political affairs, preferred to stay in the harem, which fell into the hands of the prime minister and the council of eunuchs in the harem, whose power was increasing, corruption was rampant, and armaments were lax. The once powerful state, weakened day by day, faced not only the threat of the Ottomans and the Mughals, but also the power of the north never stopped, and the Cossacks continued to invade the coastal areas. There is also a threat from the nomadic tribes of Central Asia in the north, but ......"

Staring at the north, Li Weigong sneered.

"Now, the situation here is changing."

"You mean the Manchus?"

Even if he had never been to Safi, thanks to the efforts of merchant ships and diplomats for many years, Xia Xinchun knew Safi very well as when he was in school, and now he naturally knows that the Manchu Qing Dynasty has become a neighbor of the Safi Empire.

"Mingyi, do you remember those Jiannu that we saw when we got off the boat."

On the dock, Li Weigong and his party met Jiannu — yellow-skinned, braided, wearing riding jackets, and they even spoke Chinese.

"It seems that the Safi people have a good impression of Jiannu."

"Didn't you listen to the Safavids? In the past, in the north, they had to face the threat of nomadic tribes, but now all this is gone, because the pigtail army from China, while destroying the Central Asian khanate, they also solve the nomadic tribes - women are plundered, men are killed, and the threat of those nomadic tribes naturally disappears......"

When the Central Asian khanates were wiped out by the Manchus, a new rival appeared in front of the Safavid Empire, but for the Safavid Empire, this opponent lifted the threat from the north, and despite the fact that they killed a large number of followers as infidels, the Safavid Empire still chose to be friendly to them, and even handed over the nobles of the Khanate who had fled to Safi to the Manchus.

Because of this, Xia Xinchun is not very optimistic about the results of this trip. ，

"The Safavid dynasty has always pursued a friendly policy towards the Manchus, and no matter how many believers they killed, they will not become hostile to them, mainly because: the Safavid dynasty did not want to be caught in the danger of fighting on two fronts; The center of the Manchu Qing was in Central Asia, and conquering and managing Central Asia was their central task, of course, they also needed to face the threat of their own Ming Dynasty, so they naturally could not afford to look south. The center of gravity of the Safavid Dynasty was on the Western Front, and the contradiction with the Ottoman Empire was the main contradiction, a matter of life and death related to the survival of the country, and they had no fundamental conflict of interest with the Manchus; In addition, to a certain extent, the Manchu conquest of nomadic tribes was fundamentally relieving the Safavid people from the northeast frontier and sheltering them from the wind and rain, so that their northeastern frontier would be free from harassment and raiding by nomadic tribes. ”

Xia Xinchun's analysis was very realistic, and it was also the reason why Safavid was willing to maintain friendship with the Manchus. That's why he wasn't very optimistic about the trip.

"So, I don't think that under this premise, we can't make much progress in our work in Isfahan, after all, it's unlikely that they will break with the Manchus."

"What we need is to get to know them!"

Look at the Safavids who have returned to the horse team. Li Weigong smiled,

"We need to set up an embassy here, get to know the Safavids, understand the Manchus, maybe now there are no problems between them, but what about in a few years? Our pursuit of the Manchus will not stop, have you noticed ......?"

Deliberately lowering his voice, Li Weigong's tone became extremely cautious, as if he was afraid that people would hear it, not only was his voice very small, but when he spoke, he deliberately looked left and right.

"Our pursuit of the Manchus is like a dog, we chase the dog, drive them to a foreign land, and then borrow their hands to clear the local possible rebel forces, then, once these areas are captured in the future, these areas will not exist......"

Looking at those Safi people, Li Weigong smiled at the guide and said softly.

"They, in their eyes, are pagans except believers, and do you know how many words are written in their scriptures to describe dealing with us people? Therefore, their existence is not a good thing, and now it is good, at least in many places, they are gone. ”

Li Weigong asked rhetorically, and smiled at Xia Xinchun.

"Actually, perhaps, we should thank the Manchu Qing Dynasty, at least, now Central Asia, that is, the Western Regions in the past, has seen the light of the Buddha again, which is a good thing for us."

When it was over, he said to Xia Xinchun again.

"This is just a small talk between you and me, and it doesn't mean anything, but one thing is certain, this matter is a good thing for us."

"It's a good thing indeed."

Nodding, Xia Xinchun looked at those Safavids, when he was in school, he had learned that the Safavid people were famous Persians in history, and even the so-called "Mingjiao" that is, Manichaeism originated from Persia, but now, everything about Manichaeism cannot be seen here, just like the Buddha Kingdom in the Western Regions in the Tang Dynasty, there is no trace of Buddhism there, everything has disappeared in the local area with the expansion of Tianfangjiao, as if it never existed.

What caused all of this to happen?

On the way to Safi, Xia Xinchun was curious about everything that had happened in this ancient country, he was curious about what happened in this land and what kind of stories had happened here, although he knew that all this had nothing to do with his own work.

"Actually, I think that if we just look at the problem of attacking the Western Regions and solving the problem of the Manchus, maybe we should consider the Ottomans."

Putting his inner thoughts aside, Xia Xinchun brought the topic back to his own work.

"Oh? Why is that? ”

"Because the Ottomans professed to be the guardians of the Celestial Sect, they certainly wouldn't mind joining forces with us to solve the Manchu problem......"