Along the way, the envoys of the Governor's Mansion of Salem of Portugal and the envoys of the King of Donghu Talon, followed the guards sent by the Governor's Office of Yunnan and Guizhou, first from south to north, then from west to east, and finally from south to north again.

However, he finally arrived at the Beijing division of the Ming Dynasty on schedule.

Along the way, these people saw the Ming Dynasty, which is now different.

In particular, the more they go north by boat from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River down the river and then from south to north, the more they go north, the more frightened these people become.

The vast territory of the Ming Dynasty in the east, west, north and south, the magnificence of the rivers and mountains, the large population under the command, and the density and prosperity of the cities and towns are all the only things they have seen in their lives.

Even Elder Pimenta, who has been in the East for twenty or thirty years and is the most well-informed, is always amazed.

The Franciscan elder Pimenta wrote in his diary: "The territory and population of the Eastern Empire of the Seris are incredibly large, and some amazing change is taking place from south to north!

"The wide horse roads, the frozen canals, the open towns, the free movement of people, and the wealthy gentlemen who traveled in horse-drawn carriages, all of this is a sign that this is a land of ancient civilizations!

"As a faithful believer in God who has traveled to almost all civilized countries in the East and West, I have to say that Marco Polo's statement is true, that Matteo Ricci's letter back to Rome is true, and that the Seris are even more civilized than the Slavic countries of Europa!

"The Seris are not a barbaric and decaying nation like the Mughal Empire, nor are they the semi-civilized small nations of the East Indies, nor are they the indigenous tribes of the West Indies that live outside the civilized world, or the Inca Empire conquered by the Latin peoples in southern America!

"Nope! No! This is not the case with the Eastern Empire of the Seris! Its vast territory, its huge population, the height of its civilization, and even its mighty army all showed me that this was not a country that the Portuguese or any colonizer from Europe could conquer!

"In a beautiful canal city called Huai'an, we were welcomed and entertained by the local governor, and after enjoying almost the same potatoes and chicken as Europa, we watched the Governor's Guard parade in person.

"The range of their muskets, the caliber of their artillery, and the quality of their gunpowder and projectiles, which can be inferred from this, were the same as those of the Portuguese armies in Goa, Salem, and so on, and even better than those of these places!

"And the appearance and discipline of the Doge's Guard, as well as their unique formations and tactics, are all amazing!

"I don't know how many troops like this are in the Eastern Empire of the Seris! But it is said that the monarch of the Eastern Empire has at least four royal guards that are better equipped and trained!

"If the colonists from Portugal, or from any country in Europa, still have illusions of conquering the Eastern Empire of the Serisians, I would like to advise you to dispel this unrealistic and extremely dangerous idea as soon as possible!"

The governor mentioned in the diary of the old missionary Pimenta was, of course, Yuan Keli, the governor of Caoyun arranged by Emperor Chongzhen to go to Huai'an City to sit in the Jianghuai region.

And the Governor's Mansion Guard he mentioned was the Governor's Mansion Guard, which Yuan Keli selected from the best among Cao Ding after he became the Governor, and unremittingly trained the Governor of the Chinese Army for three years.

Yuan Keli had earlier received a report from the Yunnan-Guizhou Governor's Mansion that the tributary envoys of the Portuguese and the Burmese Taungoo King were going to pass through Huai'an, so he made this arrangement, which was somewhat like a demonstration.

It is to let these barbarian people who once coveted the border territory of the Ming Dynasty see the strength of the Ming Dynasty.

Now among Yuan Keli's superintendent and Cao Ying, there are not only Yan Zhengzhong, the powerful subordinate of the naval general when he served as the governor of Denglai, but also the fierce general Yuan Jin, who was born as a pirate who was subdued during the governorship of Denglai, and Xu Dingguo, who graduated from the Huangming Zhongyi Martial Arts Hall, and others.

In the past two or three years, Yuan Keli relied on a group of capable civil and military generals under his command to keep the canal up and down and Jianghuai in charge of the governor of Caoyun in good order.

According to the new army drill code set by Emperor Chongzhen, the three battalions of the superintendent are now also trained decently.

At the beginning, Emperor Chongzhen issued an order to let Yuan Keli select and train 5,000 Cao Ying from Cao Ding, and supervise 3,000 bids, a total of 8,000 men and horses.

However, in this life, the battalions of the northwest thieves failed to break through the official and military blockade of Shanxi and Henan, and they failed to flow through the Jianghuai, Huguang and other areas to cause chaos.

On the contrary, now these large and small northwest thieves have been followed by a large number of officials and soldiers of the imperial court to the west of Shaanxi.

Therefore, the army of up to 8,000 people, which was carefully organized and built by Yuan Keli, the governor of Caoyun, did not come in handy for the purpose they had prepared.

However, such an army that directly obeyed the orders of the Caoyun Governor Yamen, especially the 3,000 new army that was trained in the New Army Drill and equipped with Chongzhen's front-loading flintlock smoothbore guns, was not in vain to train empty food and wages.

In the past three years, he has made great efforts to rectify the affairs of Caoyun, carried out canal dredging, cultivated wasteland along the river, cleaned up private customs in various places, and reduced the canal Caoding for the elderly, weak, sick and disabled, etc., all of which can be vigorously promoted by him, in addition to the strong support of Emperor Chongzhen, the most important support is the new army under his command.

When Pimenta and the others passed through Huai'an with the Taungoo King of Burma, what they saw was the well-equipped new army under Yuan Keli that was not inferior to the Guards.

Even Pimenta, a well-informed Franciscan elder who was well versed in the situation between the East and the West, was deeply shocked after witnessing the live firing of this new army, not to mention the Burmese envoys sent by King Taungoo to ask for canonization in exchange for tribute from the Ming Dynasty.

These envoys of the King of Donghu, who live in the southwestern border but have always been arrogant and arrogant, do not know the height of the sky, until they came to the Ming Dynasty this time, did they know what kind of scale the legendary great country of ten thousand miles is!

Originally, in their eyes, the Donghu Dynasty was almost the entire known world, and the land and population under its jurisdiction were at best comparable to Yunnan, a province of the Ming Dynasty.

And in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, it is said that there are more than 20 provinces of this size like Yunnan!

Therefore, the envoys of the Donghu Dynasty, who were "forced" by the Portuguese to come to the Ming Dynasty to exchange the contract and ask for the title, experienced the warm "hospitality" of the Huai'an Caoyun Governor's Palace, and before they arrived at the Ming Dynasty, the unyielding and resentful spirit that still existed in their hearts all dissipated.

Including the chief minister of the Burmese mission, that is, the uncle and father-in-law of Talang King Taungoo and the head of his prime minister, Taungoo Hou Dechen Paya, after careful observation along the way, finally died of resistance.

The Donghu Dynasty was indeed powerful with the political wisdom and courage of several kings, and it also went north to attack the borders of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the invasion of the Ming Dynasty suffered a painful defeat, it also learned a heavy lesson.

There was even a record that the Ming army of 500 people defeated the tens of thousands of troops of the Donghu Dynasty, but the monarchs after the Donghu Dynasty did not completely surrender because of this.

Instead, he fantasizes all the time about restoring the glory of the reign of his ancestor Mang Yinglong, the white elephant king.

Not only has he been trying to conquer Laos and Siam, but he has also repeatedly dug into the Ming Dynasty, luring and co-opting the Tusi family from the Yunnan border region to defect to Burma through trade or heavy money.

In this life, they never thought that they would meet such a "ill-intentioned" Ming Emperor, and they didn't need them to be tempted and wooed at all, so they took the initiative to send so many local officials and soldiers from the Yungui Tusi family to Burma!

However, such an outcome is definitely not what they want to see.

Because these Tusi leaders from the interior of Yunnan and Guizhou did not come to submit to the Donghu Dynasty, they brought troops and population, but they did not bring a trace of land, and they came with men and horses, just to seize the land of the Donghu Dynasty!