Li You, who was looking through the various documents of the Mughal Empire on the balcony, was so enchanted that he lost track of time, and it was not until the font on the document in front of him began to blur that he realized that it was almost dusk.

Putting down the documents in his hand, getting up and standing by the railing of the balcony, Li You stretched his somewhat sore body, and looked at the surrounding scenery by the way. In the distance, the orange-yellow sun gradually set in the coconut grove, but the coconut trees were painted with a circle of gold edges, which looked very bright.

As for downstairs, although the sky has darkened, the huge flowers and leaves of the water lilies in the lake in the garden are still extremely clear, and it looks like a slim girl standing in the water.

Just as Li You was enjoying the quiet beauty in front of him, there was finally a knock on his door, and the reception banquet prepared by King Tang finally began.

Although Ceylon has many exotic vegetables, it is sorely lacking in meat, which can only be compensated for by the abundance of seafood. However, Li You and most people were fond of a sauce made with a variety of spices mixed with rice, and specially summoned servants to inquire about the recipe for this sauce.

They were afraid of the food on the ship, and tried to save the sauce for future boat rides. So Tang Wang simply recruited the cook and asked him to explain a thing or two to everyone.

The chef then explained that it was a method of grinding spices and blending spices that he had learned from the locals. Ceylon itself produces a lot of spices, so the locals grind these spices into a powder and mix them with boiled vegetables or meats, which he thinks is a good way to season, so he adds a lot of spices and chili peppers from Southeast Asia to complete the sauce. The locals call this spice powder curry.

After hearing this, Li You couldn't help but joke at the chef: "If the price is not expensive, you should really make more dry spice powder, I believe that the crew and the army need this simple and convenient seasoning." Whether on a ship or in the field, food is always the most demoralizing weapon. ”

After hearing this, Tang Wang couldn't help but smile and said, "It seems that Lieutenant Colonel Li has suffered enough from food. In this case, Steward Zhang, you can order the kitchen to make some of these curry powders, and bring them to Lieutenant Colonel Li when he gets on the boat, so that you don't have to suffer such a hardship when you go back." ”

Li You hurriedly got up to thank King Tang, so the originally stiff atmosphere between the host and guest in the banquet gradually began to harmonize. However, Li You still found that there was still some taste of self-management between the civil servants and military attachés under the Governor's Palace, and it didn't seem to be so harmonious.

Li You's observation at the banquet was actually not bad, although King Tang was already a rare pragmatic person in the clan, but he still failed to reverse the traditional concept of Ming society with nobility and martial arts. In particular, the military attachés under the Governor's Office were basically thieves, which made it even more difficult for him to fully trust these people.

And the ministers around King Tang were basically selected by the emperor and then appointed. In addition, Tang Wang himself is good at reading, so it is logical to be too close to Wenchen. However, this is a little unhappy for former pirates such as Liu Xiang, Li Kuiqi, and Chen Xinji, who are in control of force.

It's just that these former pirates are still afraid of the increasingly powerful Ming court after all, so they still maintain superficial respect for the Tang King who represents the court. However, for those civil officials under the governor's palace who looked down on them, they were not so deferential and obedient.

Although Li You found out about this problem, he didn't take it to heart. First, if you are not in your position, you will not seek politics; Second, there were some disagreements within the Indian Governor's Office, which was also a good thing for the imperial court. Otherwise, where will they leave the emperor?

The feast lasted until midnight, and after the fleet had drunk the wine brought from the country, the Tang king had the wine and rum brought by the Portuguese, as well as the coconut wine made by the natives themselves, so that everyone was almost a little drunk at last.

When Li You woke up the next day, it was already an hour later than usual, but most of the others didn't get up at this time. After washing up and asking the servants of the official residence to get him some food, Li You went out for a walk.

When he came back from outside, Tang Wang, who had already gotten up, happened to send someone to invite him to lunch. When Li You walked to the dining room under the leadership of the servants, he found that in addition to the King of Tang and the King of Shu, a civil official named Su Guansheng was also sitting at the table.

After greeting the three of them, Li You sat down and asked casually, "Isn't His Royal Highness King Jin still up yet?" ”

The King of Shu seemed to be a little dissatisfied with the King of Jin, and said with a somewhat gloomy face: "The King of Jin is not good at drinking, let him go." He wouldn't be able to get down to business anyway, and if he wasn't with us, he would have just talked about the Mughal Empire. Did you read the information yesterday? But what did they know from the Tang King? ”

Li You took the tableware from the servant, motioned to the other party to pour him another cup of hot tea, and said, "The information, I've probably finished reading it." I also have a clue about the ins and outs of the Mughal Empire.

However, in order to complete the task assigned by His Majesty, I also want to know more about the political situation within the Mughal Empire, such as the personality of the current emperor and the relationship between his sons. ”

King Tang nodded to Su Guansheng in his right hand, and the close assistant beside King Tang put down the tableware in his hand, took a cotton handkerchief and wiped his mouth, and then said to Li You without hurrying: "For His Majesty the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, this official thinks that he should be regarded as a hero before he ascends the throne, after all, the position of this emperor was not originally his, and it was he who contacted the support of many local forces in the country to obtain the throne after the death of the first emperor...

But after he ascended the throne, he gradually showed the demeanor of a Ming Jun. For example, he ordered the rectification of land endowments to reduce the burden on peasants; building water conservancy to improve agricultural production; digging canals and developing domestic trade; Allowing European merchants to do business in India and implementing a policy of religious tolerance gave the country a flourishing life.

It was under the reform policies of his early reign that the Mughal Empire was able to survive the Great Famine of 1631-1632, thus laying the material foundation for the expansion of the empire to the northeast, northwest, and southern frontiers.

But now, His Majesty seems to have lost the pioneering spirit of the past, and has begun to indulge in pleasure and indulge too much with his cronies...

For example, the land ownership system implemented by the empire is called the Zajidar system, which is similar to the non-hereditary food estates in our Ming terms, but the Zajidars have to bear the army when the empire goes on expeditions.

As far as we know, the number of Zajidars in the entire empire has exceeded 8,000, of which the top 60 or so Zajidars account for about one-third of the annual revenue of the national land tax. Combined, all of Zajidar's annual revenues account for more than half of the country's annual land tax revenues.

This is a dangerous ratio, and once several princes rebel against their fathers as they did, the central government loses its power to suppress local forces. In the end, the next Mughal emperor will be determined by the princes supported by the local powers, so that there may be a situation similar to the division of the Tang Dynasty in China...

As for the four princes of this emperor, although the eldest prince has basically established the throne, the emperor's favorite is his third son, and the second prince and the fourth prince do not seem to be so peaceful. Therefore, we feel that there is a great chance of civil war in the Mughal Empire because of the inheritance..."

Tang Wang also added on the side: "Since the death of Empress Ajman Banu, the Mughal Emperor has become more and more fond of remembering the time of the Empress with his ministers, not only holding banquets all night long, but also often lavishly rewarding the Empress for his praise.

The construction of a Taj Mahal for the burial of the queen was not half completed in eight years, but the state treasury has already spent millions of rupees. The eldest prince once complained to me in a letter, saying that because of His Majesty the Emperor's enjoyment in recent years, the tax burden on the people is constantly increasing. For example, the tax revenue in Delhi province has increased from 10 million rupees to 20 million rupees under Akbar the Great.

Although some of these taxes are the fruits of pioneering, it is an undeniable fact that the peasants' burdens have increased. Moreover, His Majesty the Emperor is obsessed with the ancestral inheritance of Balk and the Bardock Hills, which were the territories of Babur's ancestors when they went south to the Indian mainland.

Moreover, His Majesty the Emperor is still haunted by the betrayal of the ancestors of Babur by the people of Samarkand. He thought that after regaining the territory of his ancestors, the next goal was to conquer Samarkand, and to show the Samarkands how short-sighted and shameless their betrayal was. Since five years ago, every time the emperor held a banquet, he would mention the humiliation suffered by Babur's ancestors..."

After listening to Tang Wang and Su Guansheng's explanations, when the lunch was about to end, Li You couldn't help but speak: "Then it seems that our mission this time still has a great chance of success."

However, His Royal Highness the Tang King, the lower officials still want to know something, about the situation in Bijapur and Gao Kangda in South India, and the distribution of the power of European colonists on this continent, I don't know how much information has been collected by the Governor's Palace? ”

Su Guansheng immediately said: "The high konda, located in south-central India, is extremely rich, and the capital city of Hyderabad is more famous as a diamond trading center, but King Guthbusha is rich and cowardly. The power in the country was taken by Prime Minister Mohammed. In Saeed's possession, his title was: Mir. Jumla. The prime minister also had a cannon factory set up by the Portuguese and employed a number of Europeans as his guard.

As for the territory of Bijapur, which straddles the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, King Muhammad. Adirsha has a strong temperament, and his army is a little stronger than that of Gauconda..."

( = )