"Eric is a member of the East India Company, and Peake is a member of the British side, and the interests represented by the two are not the same, and the two should be treated differently. Nature's Voice"

Knowing that Pique wanted to see Wang Hong, Li Hongyu knew that he wanted to repair the relationship with Daming, so he said to Wang Hong after a little silence.

"University scholar, the lower officer understands how to do it." Wang Hong frowned slightly when he heard this, knowing that Li Hongyu asked him to see Pique.

"How's the matter going?" Li Hongyu then asked about another matter, according to his plan, the Customs Department should set up branch offices in countries along the overseas trade route to facilitate the handling of local affairs.

In fact, this branch also has the role of a diplomatic mission, so as to communicate with the local government.

"The location has been chosen, and the King of Siam has ordered that the land to be given to our Customs Department." Wang Hong smiled slightly when he heard this, and the King of Siam was very happy when he learned that the Customs Department was going to set up a branch office in Bangkok, so things went smoothly.

"That's good."

Li Hongyu couldn't help but feel a burst of relief in his heart, among these vassal states in Nanyang, Siam had the best relationship with the Ming Dynasty, and had the closest contacts, and he should take care of Siam in the future, so that Siam would become the most reliable ally of the Ming Dynasty in the Indochina Peninsula.

Due to Li Hongyu's injury, the Ming fleet had to change its itinerary, and the departure time was delayed for more than half a month, during which Wang Hong and Bai Cheng got along very well with the King of Siam.

By the time the Ming fleet left the port of Bangkok, it was already early November, and the next target of the fleet was the kingdom of Manraka on the Malay Peninsula.

Unfortunately, the Kingdom of Manraka had been wiped out by the Portuguese in the early 16th century, and now it has become a complete Portuguese colony, and is customarily called "Malacca", ruled by the Governor of Malacca established by the Portuguese.

In fact, at this time, in addition to a few countries on the Indochina Peninsula and Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, Jinzhou, Jawa and Luzon had become colonies of European countries.

Among them, the Malay Peninsula and Jinzhou were colonized by the Portuguese, Jawa was colonized by the Dutch, and Luzon was colonized by the Spaniards.

This is also the reason why Li Hongyu wants to cooperate with the Portuguese, in fact, he not only has to cooperate with the Portuguese but also with other European countries to ensure the smooth progress of Daming's overseas trade.

Li Hongyu felt quite sorry for the Portuguese occupation of Malacca, which was originally under the jurisdiction of the Old Port Propaganda Division, and the king of Manraka submitted to the Ming Dynasty, but now it has become the territory of the Portuguese.

The importance of the Malacca Peninsula comes from the Strait of Malacca in the south, which can be described as the gateway to the sea in Asia.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Manraka Kingdom became a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, which was governed by the Old Port Xuanwei Division, and set up a stronghold on it, established a tributary circle centered on the Mamanraka Kingdom, and then controlled the route from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, making the Ming Dynasty an out-and-out maritime empire at that time.

According to historical records, when Emperor Yongle ascended the throne, he sent eunuchs to the sea to spread the message to the Manraka Kingdom and give it a gift to the king, so that the king of the Manraka Kingdom "Baili Misu Ra was overjoyed and sent an envoy to pay tribute to Suiqing".

Obviously, the Strait of Malacca was of great strategic importance to the Ming Dynasty, so the Ming Dynasty maintained close ties with the Manraka Kingdom for more than a hundred years.

For example, Zheng He's seven voyages to the West visited the Manraka Kingdom six times, and the Manraka Kingdom became a transit point for Zheng He's fleet.

From the perspective of shipping, it is not only conducive to the docking and replenishment of the ship berth but also conducive to the fleet waiting for different monsoons, which is the most favorable opportunity for the southward voyage and return to the Ming Dynasty.

From a political point of view, through the Manraka Kingdom, the Ming Empire's sphere of influence could reach the entire Southeast Asian region.

Militarily, after the Ming Dynasty established a maritime transit base in the Manraka Kingdom, it meant that Southeast Asia was used as a strategic buffer zone to guard against the maritime invasion of Western countries, and the South China Sea was an out-and-out inland sea of the Ming Empire.

The Manraka Kingdom also benefited a lot from this, it was originally ruled by Siam, but was able to stand on its own thanks to the support of the Ming Dynasty, who had reconciled the conflict between the Manraka Kingdom and Siam, and Zheng He personally went to see the King of Siam when he went to the West to persuade him not to attack the Manraka Kingdom.

The most glorious period of the Manraka kingdom began during the reign of its fourth king, when he defeated the invasions of the Siamese army twice from the sea6, forcing Siam's plan to conquer the kingdom of Manraka in vain, and strengthening the army, expanding the fleet, and controlling the coast of the Strait of Malacca in one fell swoop, becoming the overlord of the Malay peninsula.

At the same time, the Ming Dynasty adopted a stricter maritime ban policy due to the Japanese invaders, and was unable to afford the cost of going to sea, so it had to stop its plan to go to the Western Ocean, and the connection with the South Sea countries became dull.

As a result, the Ming Dynasty's influence on the Manraka Kingdom became weaker and weaker, and it completely abandoned its overseas interests.

Just when the Kingdom of Manraka thought that it could become a great power in the East, at the beginning of the 16th century, the advent of the Age of Western Exploration made this wish of the Kingdom of Manraka come to naught.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese were the first to come to the Kingdom of Manraka on a three-masted galleon, and they clashed with the locals, only to be attacked by the locals and had to retreat.

However, the Portuguese did not abandon the Kingdom of Manraka and made a comeback a few years later, eventually conquering the Kingdom of Manraka, changing its name to Malacca and sending a governor to govern it.

It was in Malacca that the Portuguese learned that there was a "Heavenly Empire" in the east called the Ming Dynasty, which was prosperous and rich, full of gold and silver.

Therefore, the Portuguese aimed at the Ming Dynasty, believing that the Ming Dynasty was as easy to deal with as the Kingdom of Manraka, so they led to the later Battle of Tuen Mun and suffered a blow to the head.

In fact, in addition to the relatively strong military power of Portugal, the decline and strife within the Kingdom of Manraka was also an important reason.

The king of the Manraka Kingdom once sent people to the Ming Dynasty to ask for help, and the Ming court demanded that Portugal evacuate the Manraka Kingdom, otherwise its mission to the Ming Dynasty would be detained until it left.

The Portuguese would definitely not pay attention to Daming's request, after all, Daming did not have military bases overseas, so of course they were not afraid of Daming's warnings.

At that time, the Ming court no longer had the financial and material resources to send troops to attack the Portuguese in Manchuria, so they could only watch Manraka become a Portuguese colony, and then lose the first vassal state.

This led to drastic changes in the situation in Southeast Asia, which fundamentally shook the "Huayi Order" based on the "tributary" system of the Ming Dynasty.

In the face of this sudden change, those officials of all sizes in the Ming Dynasty are still immersed in the sweet dream of the "Heavenly Empire" and do not understand the changes in the world pattern at all.

Coupled with the decline of strength, they sat back and watched the fall of the Manraka Kingdom, and then lost their hegemony in Southeast Asia, so that Southeast Asia gradually became a colony of Western countries, and the tributary system of the Ming Dynasty can be said to exist in name only.

After the arrival of the Ming fleet, the Portuguese governor of Malacca personally went to the dock to meet Wang Hong, he had already received a letter from Mascolu, knowing the cooperation between Mascolu and Daming, and was naturally very enthusiastic about the Daming fleet.

According to the agreement with Masco, the Ming traded a certain share of the ship's cargo with the Portuguese merchants of Malacca.

It is worth mentioning that some of the goods were recorded in the name of Mascolu, which would make Mascolu make a lot of money from it.

Through trading with Malacca merchants, the Ming fleet obtained numerous agate, pearls, hawksbill turtles, coral trees, crane tops, golden mother crane tops, etc.

Since animals such as black bears and turkeys were not convenient for traveling with the ships of the Ming fleet, they were temporarily stored in Malacca and loaded on board when the fleet returned.

According to the voyage, the Ming fleet was to go to Jinzhou and Jawa Island in the south of the Malay Peninsula, and then cross the Strait of Malacca and head west to the southern part of the Mughal Empire, which was formerly the territory of the Western kingdom of Jueli.

The boundary where the original Western Jue Li Kingdom is located is the westernmost stop of the Ming fleet's overseas trade arrival, and then it will return from the Western Jue Kingdom, passing through Borneo and Luzon on the return journey, so that the first overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty will end.

After spending some time in Malacca, the Ming fleet set off for Jinzhou, the so-called "Jinzhou" is the island of Sumatra, which is a Portuguese colony like Malacca, and the Portuguese set up a governor to administer it.

It is worth mentioning that during the Yongle period, Jinzhou once had an overseas territory of the Ming Dynasty - the Old Port Xuanwei Division, and this matter was also related to Zheng He's voyage to the West.

The Old Port Propaganda Department was the highest administrative body of the Ming Dynasty in Nanyang at that time, and it was also the southernmost point of the territory of the Ming Empire.

Because there are many ethnic minorities in the Ming Dynasty, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty set up a Tusi system such as the Xuanfu Envoy and the Xuanfu Division in the minority areas, and governed the local people with the Tusi.

Xuanfu envoys and Xuanfu envoys regularly enter the palace to pay tribute, pay a fixed amount of taxes on an annual basis, called cha, and listen to the requisition of the imperial court in wartime, such as the white pole soldiers.

According to historical records, the Old Port Xuanwei Division was established in the fifth year of Yongle and lasted until the fifth year of Orthodoxy, and the area under its jurisdiction was taken over by the Majapahit Kingdom.

Since the Majapahit Kingdom is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty implements the Tusi vassal system in the frontier, as long as the regions recognize that they belong to the Ming Dynasty, then the Ming Dynasty does not care whether the vassal kings in various places annex each other or submit tribute to each other, as long as there is no large-scale regional scuffle that damages the prestige of the Ming Dynasty, then the Ming Dynasty will not care.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty didn't care much about the demise of the Old Port Propaganda Division, after all, it was too far away from the Ming Dynasty.

It is worth mentioning that the Ming Dynasty's stronghold in the Manraka Kingdom was used as a royal feudal military town that matched the old port Xuanwei Division, and built a city gate and warehouses as a transit station for the Ming Dynasty to operate in the West.

In fact, one of the main purposes of Li Hongyu's establishment of customs departments in Nanyang countries this time is to assume the responsibility of a transit station.

Taking Zheng He's voyage to the West as an example, each time Zheng He made a voyage to the West, the number of people in the fleet was about 27,800, which lasted more than a year and a half.

The daily consumption of such a large contingent alone is a huge number, and assuming one liter of rations per person a day, then the entire voyage would have to consume more than 150,000 stone of grain, which would have to be carried by dozens of large ships.

This was clearly not conducive to the movement of the fleet, so there was an urgent need to establish fixed material transfer stations along the route, on the one hand, to store the materials that were not urgently needed, to reduce the number of transport vessels, and on the other hand, to continuously replenish the main fleet and the branch fleets to the various districts.

At the same time, since the ancient fleets relied on the marine monsoon to sail out and return, it was very necessary to have a waiting anchorage on the way to the Western Ocean, where they could stay for a period of time and wait for the monsoon, so that they could continue to move forward or return home.

In addition, Zheng He's mission was sent to many areas, in addition to the main fleet reaching some major areas on the main route, some branch fleets had to be sent along the way to reach some other areas.

Therefore, in order to return to the Ming Dynasty, it is also necessary to establish a return center, so it has become an important task for Zheng He to establish a transit station or stop on the way to the West, and now it is Li Hongyu's turn.

Unlike Zheng He, the branch office of the Customs Department established by Li Hongyu was not only a transit station but also an embassy, shouldering the triple tasks of economic, political and military.

In the past, overseas countries went to the Ming Dynasty to carry out tributary trade, which was actually very troublesome, and once the survey was lost, it was impossible to carry out tributary trade with the Ming Dynasty, and it restricted the foreign exchanges of the Ming Dynasty.

When the branch of the Customs Department was established, people who wanted to go to Daming could go to Daming with the documents issued by the branch office after registering with the branch, which was undoubtedly much more convenient.

However, this means that Li Hongyu has to spend more energy to ensure the normal operation of those customs divisions, which is not an easy task, after all, those customs divisions and offices located overseas are far away from the Ming Dynasty, and it is difficult to respond in time if something happens.

Taking the Old Port Propaganda Division as an example, when it was annexed by the Majapahit Kingdom, the Ming Dynasty did not have any good way, so they could only sit idly by, which must have made the Old Port Propaganda Division feel very disappointed.

In the final analysis, those officials in the Ming officialdom did not regard the Old Port Propaganda Division as the real territory of the Ming Dynasty, otherwise the Ming Dynasty had just gone through the rule of Hong Xuan, the people were able to recuperate, and the country's financial resources could be saved.

If the Ming Dynasty had done that at that time, then after nearly a hundred years of immigration and opening, the Old Port Xuanwei Division would definitely have a profound impact on the pattern of the South China Sea in later generations, and then prove the sovereignty of the Ming Dynasty over the South China Sea in historical facts.

Li Hongyu naturally will not make such a mistake, to be precise, he wants to correct the mistakes made by the Ming Dynasty before, restore the glory of the Ming Dynasty in the South Seas, and re-establish the Ming overseas base will be the first step to achieve his wish.

Although the current situation in Nanyang is completely different from that of more than 200 years ago, the decline of the Ming Dynasty and the invasion of Westerners made Li Hongyu have to pay a huge amount of effort and energy, but in Li Hongyu's view, this is definitely worth it, and it will create a new era that is enough to change the world pattern.

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