But at this time, it was still the seventh year of Chongzhen, in 1634 of the Gregorian calendar, although Shah Jahan had conquered southern India, he was still using troops in Afghanistan.

At this time, in the luxurious palace of Delhi, Shah Jahan was on the throne, and at the bottom knelt an old man with one arm, whose voice was still young, was talking to Shah Jahan.

"Honorable Great Khan, this is the case, cunning Mingren, who has taken possession of the land of Dongwu by despicable means. As long as the Great Khan can send troops to defeat the Ming people, I am willing to sacrifice Dongwu to the mighty Mughal Empire and become a courtier of the Great Khan! ”

This man was the former king of Dong Utarung, who was sent to Delhi by the governor of Bengal. When he spoke of Akito, his eyes were full of hatred. When he finished speaking, he looked at Shah Jahan with hope again.

Shah Jahan listened, touched his mustache, and did not speak for a while. To be honest, he also knows something about the Ming Empire. In the past, why didn't he continue to fight Dongwu after taking Bengal, it was because Dongwu was a consolation envoy of the Ming Dynasty.

His ancestors, the former Timurid Empire, were extremely powerful empires, and all the famous powers around them were defeated and conquered, and the territory of the empire was much larger than that of the Mughal Empire. And the ancestor of Timur was also a majestic Khan. But even so, the Timurid Empire at that time was forced to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty as a sign of submission.

Of course, this was a disgrace to Timur's ancestors. Finally, when he was old, he detained the Ming envoy and led the army to prepare for a decisive battle with the Ming Dynasty. But on the way out, he fell ill and died. Then, the second Great Khan, Shaharu, immediately paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty Chengzu as a sign of submission. After that, the Timurid Empire no longer had the courage to express hostility towards the Ming Dynasty.

Timur's sixth grandson, Babur, led his troops south to establish the Mughal Empire when he was dying. The once glorious Timurid Empire no longer exists, but the Ming Empire still stands tall in the rich east of the country.

Now although Shah Jahan feels that his empire is strong, although he still wants to expand the territory of his empire, he still has no confidence in his heart to let him and Daming compete for hegemony.

When King Taron saw Shah Jahan's expression, he immediately realized in his heart that Shah Jahan was jealous. Thinking about it, Shah Jahan and his ancestors have always been suppressed by the Ming Kingdom, and their psychology is strange if they have no scruples.

Fortunately, King Talong has also considered this. Therefore, when he saw Shah Jahan pondering, he spoke again: "Venerable Great Khan, the Ming Kingdom has been established for nearly three hundred years, and it has long been decayed, and it is no longer as strong as before!" Otherwise, it would be impossible for Dongwu to become independent from the Ming Kingdom and establish himself as king. ”

"Venerable Great Khan, don't you know, in the past, my Dongwu army invaded the territory of the Ming Kingdom, and I didn't see the Ming Kingdom send a large army to conquer ......."

Hearing him say this, Shah Jahan's brows furrowed, and he interrupted without hesitation, and asked him, "Huh?" Aren't you destroyed by the Ming Dynasty, why do you say this again? ”

The courtiers of Shah Jahan on the side also questioned him and threatened him that if they dared to deceive their Great Khan, they would break him into pieces!

"Venerable Great Khan, I did not speak. This time, the Ming Kingdom sent troops, and it has been more than ten years since I attacked the Ming Kingdom Yunnan before the interval was passed. Think about it, if the Ming Kingdom was strong enough, why didn't it come to conquer my Dongwu at that time, but dragged it out until now. Therefore, these two things are not related. King Talong hurriedly explained.

Seeing that Shah Jahan was still frowning, he hurriedly added: "Don't hide it from the Great Khan, Dongwu is closer to the Ming Kingdom, so he knows more news." The Ming Kingdom has long been less powerful than it used to be. In the northeast of the Ming Kingdom, a Jurchen tribe rose up, defeated the Ming Kingdom, and finally lost their entire Liaodong. That Liaodong is several times bigger than Dongwu, and the strength of the Jurchen clan directly threatens the capital of the Ming Kingdom. Mingguo, it's not going to work! ”

Hearing this, Shah Jahan's eyes couldn't help but light up, and he believed that King Talong would not dare to tell lies about this kind of thing. However, he was not so easy to fool, and immediately asked: "If Da Ming is as unbearable as you say, then why does Da Ming still have the strength to take down your cave?" It was also given to a vassal king and established a vassal state? ”

His courtiers are also staring at him to see how he wants to explain?

Of course, King Talong had thought about this question, so he did not hesitate and immediately replied: "Venerable Great Khan, this is the cunning of the Ming Kingdom. They felt that the strength of their empire was dragged down by the vassal kings at home, so they thought about sending their vassal kings out of the country. ”

Speaking of this, he paused and turned to explain: "Venerable Great Khan, think about it, the vassal kings of the Ming Kingdom are all hereditary, and it has been nearly three hundred years, how many vassal kings will there be in their country? There are too many clans in the Ming Kingdom to count, and they can't even afford to pay for these clans. Therefore, they thought that as long as the vassal kings were sealed out and the Ming State was no longer dragged down, then the Ming Kingdom would recover and be able to defeat the Jurchens in the north! ”

One thing is also clear to Shah Jahan. On their side, the royal families will fight against each other, but on the side of the Ming Kingdom, except for one person who can be the emperor, the others are all vassal kings and will not attack each other. If you calculate it this way, in nearly three hundred years, there will indeed be a lot of vassal kings.

King Ta Long struck while the iron was hot and continued to say: "In order to achieve their goal, the Ming Kingdom has set its sights on my Dongwu. That's why I said that the Ming Kingdom's attack on my Dongwu had little to do with Dongwu's previous invasion of Yunnan. This time, it was related to whether the Ming Kingdom could restore its national strength, so they used all their human and financial resources, as well as conspiracy and trickery, to take away Dongwu......"

As he spoke, he was also observing Shah Jahan and his courtiers, and he felt that he had made it clear that the Ming Kingdom was no longer strong, but these Mughal Empire monarchs and ministers still seemed to have some scruples. He probably guessed in his heart that he was afraid that these arguments would still be difficult to convince these Turkic Mongols.

Therefore, King Talong did not wait for Shah Jahan to open his mouth to speak, and continued: "Venerable Great Khan, the Ming Kingdom has already tasted the sweetness in Dongwu, so he has done his best to the policy of their vassal king's external sealing. I heard that their next step is to continue to seal the vassal king, and their vassal kingdom is in Bengal! ”

"What?" When Shah Jahan heard this, his expression was shocked, he leaned forward slightly, and shouted, "What did you say? ”

"Venerable Great Khan, the Ming Kingdom has changed Dongwu to the Tang Kingdom, and further south is the sea, so there are only two roads to the east and west." King Ta Long analyzed seriously, "There are so many vassal kings in the Ming Kingdom, even if they keep going east to divide the feuds, they can't seal a few vassal kings, so the Ming Kingdom can only continue to divide the feuds to the west." Next door to Dongwu is Bangladesh, and the situation is as simple as that! ”

King Talong can leave a reputation in the original history, and naturally he has his ability. Just from the matter of Dongwu, you can roughly analyze the strategy of the Ming Dynasty, I have to say, the vision is good!

At the same time, he knew how to move Shah Jahan, and when he analyzed it like this, as he saw in front of him, Shah Jahan couldn't sit still. Stood up, just in front of the throne, walking back and forth, frowning and thinking down.

And his courtiers were all thinking about it, and for a while, no one spoke.

Or maybe he couldn't stand this atmosphere, a military general turned to Shah Jahan and shouted loudly: "Great Khan, instead of waiting for the Ming army to strike first, it is better for us to strike first!" ”

A civil official on the other side listened to this, and hurriedly spoke: "Great Khan, by all means, this is just the words of King Long, in case the Ming Kingdom does not have this meaning, and if we do it against the Ming Kingdom first, wouldn't it be to fight on both sides, this is not appropriate!" ”

"Yes, Great Khan, what if the Ming Kingdom is still strong? If we take the initiative to provoke it, even if Ming Guo didn't think about coming to the west, he would have called the west! Another civil servant also said worriedly.

Shah Jahan's generals also insisted on their opinions, retorting: "What if the Ming Kingdom is strong? How many troops can be sent so far from us? The Portuguese are amazing, on the Bengali side, they haven't been defeated by us yet! “

At this time, the Portuguese power was actually already in the twilight.

In the original history, the Portuguese began to colonize the world as early as the 15th century, and then Spain followed closely behind, fighting with the Portuguese for colonies, and won many successes. For example, many colonies in the South Seas were robbed by the Spaniards.

At this point in time, the Dutch rose to prominence again, and after defeating the Spanish Armada in alliance with Britain, they began the road of global colony. This is also the reason why Hongyi, who is a member of the Ming Dynasty, will always regard the Franco machine as an enemy.

The butterfly effect that Emperor Chongzhen crossed over has only affected some areas around the Ming Dynasty, and the situation of global colonization has generally not changed. At this time, the Dutch colonial power was at its strongest.

The Portuguese really can't do it, they were also expelled by the king of Dong Wu before, and their governor was nailed to death on a wooden frame by the order of the king of Dong Wu. And in Bengal, the Portuguese were also expelled from the Mughal Empire. It is also because of the extreme disadvantage everywhere that Portugal wants to gamble on Annam's side.

But there is one point, whether it is the Portuguese, the Spaniards, or the Dutch, or the Britons, who are beginning to show their edges at this time, in the eyes of the Orientals, they are all Western. The people of the Mughal Empire regard them as powerful forces, and being able to expel the Xiyi is a manifestation of their strength.

Hearing them arguing, Shah Jahan stood still, turned his head to look at his courtiers, and did not speak for a moment, apparently thinking himself.

When King Long saw it, he hurriedly said: "The Great Khan can send someone to ask, the Ming army is actually not powerful at all, and the Dongwu is still relied on by the Tusi army, and the Shizhu Tusi army in Sichuan, known as the white pole army, is the elite of a Tusi, and the Ming army is not stronger than the white pole army." But this army was also transferred back to Yunnan last year, and I heard that there was a Tusi rebellion in Yunnan, and the Ming State could not do anything about the rebellion, so it could only rely on this Tusi army. ”

Speaking of this, he raised his voice and seemed to remind sincerely: "Venerable Great Khan, now that there is more and more civil strife in the Ming Dynasty, now is the opportunity, strike first to be strong, and then to suffer." If the Ming Kingdom quelled the civil strife and regrouped the army, it would be difficult to fight! ”

He patted his chest with his remaining hand and said: "As long as the Great Khan sends troops to fight Dongwu, my people are willing to respond internally, and they will use the means of the Ming Kingdom to rob my Dongwu and dedicate Dongwu to the noble Great Khan." After that, I am willing to defend Dongwu for the Great Khan, and if the Ming Kingdom comes to fight again, unless I die in battle, I will not want to harass the Mughal Empire. ”

Hearing these words, Shah Jahan was still a little hesitant. His courtiers were divided into two factions, fighting and not fighting, and after a quarrel, Shah Jahan finally decided to let King Long live in Delhi temporarily, and he sent someone to the east to inquire whether what King Long said was true!

At the same time, Emperor Chongzhen, who went south, naturally could not know about the Mughal Empire in India. At this time, he was sitting on the boat, listening to Tian Guifei beside him introducing the scenery and some humanistic allusions along the way to the maids with a curious face.

After listening to it for a while, he felt a little bored. Last year, it was almost this time when the microservice went south, and the scenery I saw was naturally similar. At that time, it was fresh for a while, but now that I look at it, I am less interested.

So, Emperor Chongzhen entered the chat group to read the news, and a private chat caught his attention.

The news was sent by Yang Sichang, the governor of Baotou, saying that the road was a little better, and he received a messenger from the western Mongolian Oqiertu Khan, saying that he would purchase more flintlock pistols from the Ming Dynasty, and the amount was also a bit large. This time, the price given was not only cattle and sheep, but also a lot of gold, silver and furs. After Yang Sichang's inquiry, it was said that the Oziertu Khan had won several battles, and even defeated an army of Tsarist Russia returning to the west, and intercepted a lot of booty.

Others may not know, but Emperor Chongzhen understands that this army of Tsarist Russia returning to the west is likely to have plundered a large amount of supplies from Siberia, and when he walked back, he happened to encounter the army of Ozirtu Khan. Hehe, it can be so coincidental, it can be regarded as unlucky enough for Tsarist Russia!

When he thinks of Siberia, he thinks of Li Zicheng, who has been on his way for a year. Now the army of the Ming Dynasty has basically controlled the eastern part of Siberia and expelled the forces of Tsarist Russia to the west. If the Ming wanted to maintain control of Siberia, they would have to establish a stronghold and assert sovereignty like Tsarist Russia. The best way is to choose a good address to build a city, and then develop a train as soon as possible, even if it is a train once a month to and fro.

As for the steam locomotive, although the Bureau of War is already working on it. Locomotive, basically not much of a problem. The key is the rails that the train must have, or rails, which, anyway, require a lot of steel. As for the tracks of other materials, although the upfront cost will be lower, the maintainable cost is too high and very unrealistic.