To the vast majority of later generations, he may not have heard of the flourishing state of Timur, but it is impossible not to know that the Ottoman Empire, which dominated Eurasia for hundreds of years.

In the first hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, the state of Timur was extremely prosperous, and the Ottoman Empire was almost destroyed by them, and even the king was captured by them.

This is not the declining Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire at that time was like a mountain, and the whole of Europe was crushed by them.

King Bayezid I, who was captured by Timur, was a famous general, who commanded the army to annihilate the allied forces of Serbia, Bulgaria and other countries, captured his commander Duke Lazar, and conquered Serbia and Bulgaria.

In the 29th year of Hongwu, a crusader army of 100,000 people including the Hungarian and Polish armies under the command of the Hungarian king Sigismun and the English and French knights fought at Nicoburg and won a great victory, capturing more than 10,000 knights.

It was this king of the European countries who was terrified and trembling, known as the lightning king, who faced Timur from the east, became a prisoner, and finally died of humiliation.

It can be said that it was precisely because Timur defeated the Ottoman Empire in the first year of Yongle that Europe was given a respite.

Otherwise, the Ottomans had already occupied half of Europe at that time, and they would not have allowed the Byzantine state to fall after half a century.

After Timur's death, the country, which had been dominated by war like the Mongol Yuan, was torn apart.

Shah Ruh and Ulugh Beg, father and son, were not warlike people, and brought the Timurid kingdom into an era of prosperous cultural development, which is known as the golden age of *** culture.

But now, because of the emergence of Zhu Zhanji, this newly stabilized country has disappeared.

For Zhu Di, all this is perfect, and his task has been accomplished.

Even if he dies now, he has no regrets about being able to go to the underworld to face his father calmly.

But for Zhu Zhanji, all this has just begun.

The historical knowledge he knew had now changed, and all the changes required a new approach to deal with them.

Before the Spring Festival, he knew that the Ming army had launched a general offensive and surrounded Herat.

He sent Meng Ying and Tao Kan, the chamberlain, and sent the Tyumen Taoist who could make new explosives and the raw materials for explosives.

In March, when he received the news that the army had broken through Herat and that the battle was going well, it was time to consider the question of what had been left over from the destruction of Timur.

Therefore, he sent a messenger to analyze in detail all the possible consequences after the destruction of the entire Timurid state, and gave a number of countermeasures.

This includes how to deal with the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

Because for Zhu Zhanji, an Ottoman Empire that cut off the connection between Europe and Asia is not in the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

The Europeans were weak in front of the Ottoman Empire, they were weak not for a while, but for centuries. It was not until the nineteenth century, when Europe received resources from the Americas and Africa, that this balance of power was reversed.

It was the Ottoman Empire that forced Europeans to go to sea.

The Europeans went to the sea, not on their own initiative, but forced. Because Europe is poor and white, they have nothing, and they are left with only poor lives.

Unable to defeat the Ottoman Empire on land, they wanted to obtain spices from Asia, so they had to develop seafaring.

This directly creates a strong Europe.

Therefore, many of his countermeasures included containing the Ottoman Empire, increasing trade between Europe and Asia, increasing the strength of the Ming stronghold in Europe, and expanding the share of trade.

However, he overlooked the fact that the benefits of the Ottoman Empire were hidden, and that the first to emerge was the Black Sheep Empire, which occupied western Persia.

For Zhu Di, an Ottoman who was beaten by Timur and bowed down to his subordinates is not worth paying attention to. As for the poor haha in Europe, they are not in Zhu Di's eyes.

This is not Zhu Di's short-sightedness, but the limitations of the times.

Many modern people look down on the ancients and always think that they are smarter than the ancients. But who can escape the limitations of the times and think about what will happen hundreds of years from now?

Don't say that hundreds of years from now, most people will get by, and they won't even bother to think about tomorrow.

In this era, Daming has stood at the top of the food chain, and only Daming himself is left who can defeat Daming.

Now you ask Zhu Di to pay attention to the defeated generals of a subordinate, even if he just listens to Zhu Zhanji's words and thinks that Zhu Zhanji's words make sense, how can he care?

He is bothering to divide forces now, mainly because he thinks that what Zhu Zhanji said makes sense, a stable Central Asia can allow Daming to sell more goods.

Therefore, having defeated the state of Timur, one dominant state would not be allowed to exist.

And at this time, Zhu Gaoxu also played a big role.

From following Zhu Di to the sea, Zhu Gaoxu, who did not fight for the throne, won Zhu Di's favor again.

For this son, Zhu Di felt guilty in his heart.

Zhu Gaochi followed Zhu Di to fight in the south and the north from the Battle of Jingjing. At the beginning, Zhu Di said more than once that he wanted to pass the throne to Zhu Gaoxu.

However, the opposition of civil officials, coupled with the lessons of Tang Taizong, made him hesitate.

After that, Zhu Zhanji gradually grew up, and showed superhuman talent more than once, which made Zhu Di like it very much.

The difference between Zhu Di and Zhu Zhanji is nearly forty years old, and no matter how talented his grandson is, it will not directly affect his authority.

And Zhu Gaoxu is trustworthy on the battlefield, but he has not shown the talent he should have in terms of how to be an emperor.

gave Zhu Gaoxu too much power too early, the father and son fought for power, and the opposition of civil officials, so Zhu Gaochu gradually fell out of favor.

But no matter what, Zhu Di felt guilty about him.

Now that Zhu Gaoxu has been deprived of the prince and reduced to a commoner, and now he has taken the initiative to ask to go to sea and go to the barbarian land to develop, so that the dissatisfaction in Zhu Di's heart will gradually disappear.

The father and son gradually untied the knot along the way, and in order to support Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Di even directly assigned Zhu Gaochu 6,000 cavalry, asking him to go to Xizhou to choose a piece of his favorite territory.

The vastness of Xizhou, the fertility of the land, and the abundance of resources all made Zhu Gaoxu particularly shocked.

In addition to the desert areas in the north, there are huge tropical rainforests and grasslands in the middle, where countless exotic animals live here, with a variety of fruit trees.

Although the land in the south is slightly barren, it is rich in minerals.

At first, Zhu Gaoxu was still a little hesitant and didn't know where to choose.

But then he passed through the Mamluk dynasty and went to Europe, and at this time, he made up his mind and decided to develop in Central Africa.

Because of its mild climate and fertile land, Central Africa is not only closer to Asia, but also convenient for trade with Europe.

Wild spices are everywhere in Central Africa, and shipping them to Europe is simply more expensive than gold.

After returning from Europe, he traveled again through the central part of the African continent, almost from what would become Mozambique to Angola, observing the terrain and resources.

The more he looked, the more satisfied he became.

In Southern Africa, where there are few indigenous people and a sparse population, population is the greatest wealth in this era.

Central Africa is also extremely rich in mineral resources, and he traveled back and forth to discover several open-pit gold mines.

At this time, he has no regret of losing the throne, and where there is no benevolence, righteousness and morality here, he feels like heaven.

When he returned from Africa, he got the news of the Ming army's victory, so he stayed in Kurumus and waited for Zhu Di to return.

When Zhu Di took out Zhu Zhanji's letter and showed it to him, he also saw his opportunity.

Passing through the Mamluks to Europe, he felt the threat of the Ottoman Empire, a country that was beaten by Timur and could not raise its head, and in the face of Europe, it was the hegemon.

They monopolized trade, and even the Mamluks could only defend passively in front of them, and did not dare to fight at all.

It is also for this reason that the Mamluks are willing to give up their precious oasis to the Ming and let the Ming garrison in Suez to help them resist the Ottoman threat.

Therefore, although Zhu Di does not care about this country, if he develops in Africa in the future, he will definitely deal with this country.

If their strength is weakened now, it will be of great benefit to Zhu Gaoxu.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu also analyzed the threat of the Ottoman Empire in detail with Zhu Di, and believed that the Black Sheep Dynasty was not worth mentioning compared with the Ottoman Empire.

It is also true that when oil had not yet become a strategic material, Iraq was a poor country at that time.

At that time, the center of Arabia was on the Mediterranean coast, where it was the center of trade between the East and the West, and it was also the political and cultural center of the Arabs.

The Ming Dynasty wanted to maintain deterrence in Central Asia, and Khurumus was not the most important place, on the contrary, Suez was.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has garrisoned the Suez Canal, Zhu Zhanji also shouted out the plan to dig the Suez Canal, and it will be more in line with the interests of the Ming Dynasty to make it an important military location for the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, Kurumus will not give up, and it will form a series of supply and military centers with Kezhi in India, Star City in Nanyang, and Old Port in the Ming Dynasty.

Just as Zhu Di was on his way back to Kurumus, another messenger from Zhu Zhanji arrived. However, the main news brought this time is that the crown prince Zhu Gaochi died.

For this eldest son to go by himself, Zhu Di does not have the sorrow of ordinary white-haired people sending black-haired people.

As an emperor, he first considers the entire country, and then the relationship between father and son. What's more, he doesn't like this son very much.

He only went vegetarian for three days on the way, and did not even ask the army to be vegetarian, but just asked the whole army to wear a white cloth as a sign of mourning.

In Persia, if you are vegetarian, there is not enough food at all, because the main military food is mutton, and if you are vegetarian, the army will not have time to transport food.

However, when he returned to Kurumus and saw that Zhu Gaoxu had already worn filial piety for his brother, he was still very satisfied, and he liked this second son even more.

After consulting with Zhu Gaoxu, he looked at the map for a long time and approved Zhu Zhanji's plan. Since Kurumus is not a key area for development, it is especially important to weaken the large tribes and states here.

After some deliberation, Zhu Di decided not only to give some benefits to the Kurumus and the Black Sheep Dynasty, who had been following the Ming Dynasty, but also to support the Timurid tribes that had been crippled.

Therefore, Zhu Di released many tribal leaders on the Persian plateau, who were originally intended to be taken back to the Ming Dynasty by Zhu Di as trophies to show off, but now let them go home.

The forces of Kurumus are relatively weak, and even if they are given a large piece of territory, it will take many years for them to develop.

And the Black Sheep Dynasty provided a lot of fire oil bombs for Daming, and also gave Daming a place rich in fire oil, and now it can't be suppressed too much, and the reward should still be rewarded.

Only by strengthening the strength of the tribes on the Persian plateau can they resist the Black Sheep Dynasty, occupy a larger territory, and become a hegemon.

As for the eastern part of Persia, a large area was divided between the Indian states, and the Kochi kingdom was given a large fertile land, and the rest of the countries were able to move freely.

Today's India is still a slave system, a large area of land is occupied by the royal family, and countless people can only work as slaves for the land king.

The land they have acquired can be used as a reward for the meritorious people, but whether it can be defended or not is not a matter of concern to these earth kings.

Over the division of these areas, the local tribes quarreled endlessly. Zhu Di also tried his best, and it took more than a month to get all the ministries to accept the victory and share the spoils.

Since then, the Ming Dynasty has withdrawn all its land forces, leaving only a fleet of 50 ships and 10,000 men stationed on the island of Qeshm, the Musandam Peninsula, and the city of Fire in the depths of the Persian Gulf.

The city of fire is also the Kuwait of later generations, which not only produces fire oil bombs, but also because of the hot climate, so it was named the city of fire by Zhu Di.

Of course, this is just a name, in fact, there is only a small port in the local area, where three thousand navies are stationed.

The Musandam Peninsula, the tip of the peninsula northeast of Dubai, is home to 300 navies, most of which are stationed on Qeshm Island, which is also a trading center.

In addition to the Ming Navy, Indian countries left 5,000 Indian auxiliaries to assist the Ming Navy in managing the port of Kurumus and maintaining law and order.

The time when Zhu Di left Hurumus was already in mid-December of the 19th year of Yongle, and he did not return to Daming directly, but bypassed the Arabian Peninsula and entered the Red Sea to Suez.

Before he went, he had already excluded the envoys and went to the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluks respectively, so that the kings of the two countries could come to Suez for an audience.

Of course, Faraj of the Mamluk dynasty was looking forward to Zhu Di's arrival, and even because Zhu Di had to act as a mediator, he was very surprised.

At this time, the Ottoman Empire fell into a civil war because of the sudden stroke and death of the king "victor" Mehmed I.

The future Murad II and his younger brother Mustafa learned that their great enemy, Timur, had been destroyed by the Ming Dynasty.

None of them came in person, but they all sent emissaries to Suez.

However, after Zhu Di arrived in Suez, he did not see their envoys and drove them back.

In Suez, Ma Huan, the original five-rank general, has now become the governor of the town. Zhu Di also praised him this time, and after consulting him himself, he decided to let him continue to serve as governor until the canal was completed.

In the two years since Zhu Zhanji returned to China, he has sent two groups of craftsmen to Suez. They have been exploring between Suez and the Mediterranean, planning the most suitable route and excavation scheme.

Now, the time is almost ripe.

Subsequently, Zhu Di received the king of the Mamluk dynasty with the etiquette of the Ming Emperor to meet with foreign ministers.

In addition to supporting Faraji, Zhu Di's other purpose this time was to ask Faraj to send someone to build the canal.

It is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to send people to build the canal, this canal needs hundreds of thousands of people to repair, and it must require the Mamluks to come out of the coolies.

Of course, the money for repairing the canal was paid by the Ming Dynasty, and the repaired canal was also managed by the Ming Dynasty in the future.

With Zhu Di's support, seeing Zhu Di bring such a large-scale army with his own eyes, Faraj didn't even have the heart to refuse.

Zhu Di not only left more than 100,000 taels of gold this time, but also left another 10,000 cavalry. These people will not only become a local deterrent, but also overseers for the construction of the canal.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty almost didn't spend any money this time, because the gold was all stolen by the Ming Dynasty from the Timurid Kingdom.

Of course, if you want to calculate the cost of the war consumed by the Ming Dynasty, it will be a mess.

In the past few years, Zhu Di spent more than 10 million taels of silver to organize this large-scale war, which is not counting the labor cost.

However, the short-term return was less than five million taels of silver in gold and silver, as well as hundreds of thousands of sheep and tens of thousands of horses.

In general, he lost at least five million taels of silver in the short term, but if he wanted to calculate the long-term benefits and let Zhu Zhanji operate it, he would not lose money.

Zhu Di drove away the representatives of the Ottoman Empire, which also made the two people who were fighting for the throne tremble, for fear that Zhu Di would be angry and send troops to attack them.

However, Zhu Di did not take them seriously, but only sent envoys, asking them to sign a promise not to invade the east and attack the Mamluks in the south.

If they agree to come down, they will not be blamed for the past, and if they do not agree, then the army of the Ming Dynasty will go to Bursa.

In this case, the future Murad II, of course, had no choice but to sign his name on the credentials submitted by the Ming Dynasty.

And this time was already March of the twentieth year of Yongle.

Seeing with his own eyes that Faraj had sent 50,000 slaves to dig the canal, at this time, Zhu Di couldn't bear to miss Daming and was about to return to China.

In fact, Zhu Di didn't want to attack Ottoman at all, he wanted to go back a long time ago.

Before the envoy returned, a large number of soldiers and horses had already been transported back to China. At present, all that remains here in Suez are steam sailing ships.

A steam sailboat is not much faster than a sailboat, but it has the advantage of not being afraid of headwinds.

From Suez back to Daming, if it goes well, you can reach Yingtianfu in more than a month.

However, after two years overseas, Zhu Di seems to have become accustomed to this kind of life that is easy every day and does not have to face countless trivial matters.

He misses Daming, but he doesn't want to live the same life as before.

On the ship back to Daming, what he thought about the most was the action of Li Fangyuan, the lord of North Korea, who took the initiative to take the throne five years ago.

For the next three years, Li Fangyuan remained in a semi-secluded state, but he was still able to manipulate the military and political affairs of North Korea.

And Li Fangyuan was seven years younger than himself, and Li Fangyuan was only forty-nine years old at that time.

Thinking that he was sixty-two years old, Zhu Di felt that this emperor was boring.

It's a lot old, and now that my wish has been fulfilled, I have eliminated the biggest enemy of the Ming Dynasty, why do you still love the throne?

It's better to live for a few years and enjoy the blessings.

With such an idea, Zhu Di's heart was like a weed, and he couldn't suppress this thought anymore.

Since the prince had already gone before him, the other courtyard was empty. On weekdays, soak in the hot springs in the courtyard, listen to small songs, and watch big plays.

In winter, when the weather is unbearable, he can also take a boat to the south to avoid the cold, which is much more comfortable than enduring rheumatic pain.

However, he had never mentioned the idea to anyone, and he wanted to see it again......

Just when Zhu Di and the others were successfully returning, Yang Dao, who was far away in the Atlantic, suffered the biggest setback in his life.

He traveled north from the spring, where he joined the Aztec Empire, and then along what would become the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and around the east coast of the United States.

Along the way, all he saw were endless fields and forests, and the natives who were so poor that they had only gold and fur decorations.

Finally, in July, he arrived at his intended location, which would later be the waters off Boston.

At this time, Di Pingxia and his party had already arrived at this area after a lot of hardships, and they were all marked on the seaside.

At Cape Cod, the two sides reunited after a long absence, rested there for ten days, and the fleet carried the 3,000 men on their way home.

In order to get a more detailed understanding of the local coastal water conditions, the returning fleet did not follow the route it had come, and was some distance away from the coastline.

This distance is not very far, and it is only a dozen kilometers from the shore at most. In this way, in the event of a major storm, there will also be time to dock and avoid danger.

However, they still underestimated the fury of the North Atlantic, and on their way back, they also happened to encounter the windy season here.

After a long journey to the Bahamas, the fleet sailed into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean in order to explore Cuba and other islands in the Caribbean.

Here, however, they were confronted by a great storm, and even though they approached the nearby islands in time, four ships were damaged and sank into the sea.

There were more than a thousand people on board, except for a few dozen people who were rescued, and one thousand and six people were swallowed up by the sea.

This accident made Yang Dao, who was enlisted in the army for the first time and became an official for the first time, like five thunderbolts, and for a whole month, he became like a walking corpse and blamed himself.

If it weren't for his heavy responsibility, he would have committed suicide to die for his comrades.

1,100 people, the Ming Dynasty has never lost so many people on the battlefield since the twelfth year of Yongle.

Originally, he was just a small Qianzong, and there were only 1,120 people under his command, which was equivalent to the loss of his command.

And he is just in his early stages, how can he withstand this kind of blow?

It wasn't until he returned to the coal mines in the north of the South Continent of Dongzhou that he gradually came to his senses.

One way or another, things have happened. After returning to the base camp, he had no complaints whether he was fighting or killing.

But before that, he had to bring this fleet back.