Jiao Huangzhong rode a tall war horse, wearing the official uniform of the Ming Dynasty, behind him, there were a thousand fierce Ming cavalry, this cavalry was specially transferred to him by Zhou Zhong from the border army as a guard, including not only the Han Chinese, but also many Mongolians, are the top masters in the army, and thanks to this thousand elite cavalry, Jiao Huangzhong was able to pass through the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula and reach Damascus City safely.

Jiao Huangzhong is also in his fifties this year, his father is Jiao Fang, who is highly valued in the cabinet, and Jiao Huangzhong himself is also very talented, and when he was in the Governor's Mansion of the Four Seas, he was exiled as an official, and he is very familiar with Nanyang and overseas affairs. The other side will be suppressed.

Jiao Huangzhong was also admitted to the Jinshi by his own strength, although he was also taken care of by his father after being an official, but most of them were his own efforts, and he was a very ambitious person, unwilling to return to the capital to do an idle job, so he has been an official outside, this time the imperial court needs to send an official who is familiar with overseas affairs to meet the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, this great empire is strong, and it is not much weaker than the Ming Dynasty, so the selection of this official also needs to be extra cautious.

Jiao Fang also knew his son's thoughts, so after hearing the news, he immediately took the initiative to recommend Jiao Huangzhong to serve as the envoy of this mission. Zhou Zhong is also the old boss of Jiao Huangzhong, so he naturally knows the ability of this subordinate, and the Palembang area in Nanyang is under Jiao Huangzhong's governance. It is also developing extremely rapidly. Plus his familiarity overseas. Arguably the best candidate.

So in this case, Jiao Huangzhong, who was an official abroad, was urgently recalled to the DPRK, and then was entrusted with the important task by Zhou Zhong to become the envoy of the Ming mission to West Asia and Europe, and he was burdened with an important task, that is, to reopen the Suez Canal, but the Ming Dynasty was too far away from the Red Sea, even if the Ming navy had occupied the west coast of India. But it is impossible to send troops to occupy Egypt in the past, not to mention that it is now the period of full expansion of the Ottoman Empire, and the strength of this empire should not be underestimated, so the best way is to cooperate with the other party, and the task of Jiao Huang is to meet Selim I and convince the other party to rebuild the Suez Canal.

Originally, after Jiao Huangzhong took over the task of the envoy, he was also very excited in his heart, because as long as this thing was done, then even if his father was still in the cabinet, he could return to the capital to take up an important position with this merit. Even after his father retired, he was not without the possibility of entering the cabinet. Thinking that their Jiao family can have two cabinet scholars in succession, this kind of honor is very rare, enough for their Jiao family to become the top official eunuch family of the Ming Dynasty, and the children of the family can also enjoy a lot of preferential treatment in the officialdom in the future.

However, when Jiao Huangzhong left the capital, took the Ming warship all the way to India, and then came to the Red Sea from India, and finally landed on the Arabian Peninsula, Jiao Huangzhong couldn't help but regret a little. Originally, when I was on the ship, everything was fine, except for the fact that most of the 1,000 elite cavalry were seasick and vomited darkly, there was no other problem, after all, from the Ming Dynasty to India was the sphere of influence of the Ming Navy, and no matter how bold the pirates were, they would not dare to provoke them.

It's just that when Jiao Huang got off the ship from the Red Sea coast, he found that he had come to a world of barbarians, although the Arabian Peninsula was the birthplace of the Arab Empire, but since the Arab Empire was wiped out by the Mongols, it fell into chaos again, the place where they landed was the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, which used to belong to the rule of the Mamluks, but the corrupt Mamluk dynasty did not care about the rule here, resulting in chaos in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, In addition, the Mamluks were defeated by the Ottoman Empire some time ago, and all the armies withdrew to Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire did not have time to take over, which made it even more chaotic here.

On the first day of Jiao Huangzhong's cavalry ashore, he encountered an Arab bandit of thousands of people, and this group of robbers seemed to have been staring at them for a long time, after all, Jiao Huangzhong's mission brought a lot of valuable gifts, which were enough to arouse the greed of countless robbers, and these robbers also had a lot of eyeliner in the coastal ports, so as soon as Jiao Huangzhong came ashore, he immediately attracted a group of the most powerful bandits.

However, this bandit group obviously did not inquire about the situation clearly, they didn't know what kind of people they were facing in front of them, although their number was more than that of Jiao Huangzhong's side, but Jiao Huangzhong led the elite of the Ming cavalry, among which there were many Mongolian cavalry, hundreds of years ago the Mongols could destroy the huge Arab Empire, and now these Mongols are naturally not afraid of a group of robbers.

So as soon as this bandit appeared, before they could make a move, a thousand cavalry under Jiao Huang took the initiative to charge, they had been holding back on the ship for several months, especially in the first few days, and they were even more faint, and now they were holding their breath, wanting to show themselves in front of the envoys, and their equipment was even better, not to mention a group of robbers, even in the face of a regular Arab cavalry several times their own, they were sure of victory.

In just one charge, a thousand elite horsemen defeated thousands of Arab bandits, and then there was a bloody massacre, these cavalrymen were very experienced, they knew that although their combat power was strong, but after all, they were not familiar with the place here, and the number was limited, so they must use bloody means to let the local robbers know their strength, and when others want to provoke them, they must weigh their own strength.

I have to say that the general who led this Ming cavalry was indeed very discerning, and he ordered to kill all the nearly 3,000 people who had no time to escape from the bandit group, such a bloody and ruthless method did play a deterrent role, but this kind of deterrence was only useful for some small bandit groups, and the stronger bandit groups were only more interested in the mission that could send an elite guard, because they thought that the mission must have extremely valuable gifts.

It is precisely because of this, so in the next trip, the Ming mission led by Jiao Huangzhong was constantly attacked by the bandit group, the size of these bandit groups is generally more than 1,000 people, and the means of attack are different, the bright ones naturally have the Ming cavalry to deal with, and the secret means are a little troublesome, but fortunately, Jiao Huangzhong has found a few guides who have believed in the letter when he came, these guides are very familiar with the methods of the robbers, and can help the mission in time.

But even so, in the scorched yellow they are also dangerous along the way, and even once they encountered several bandit groups combined with a team, together there are more than 8,000 people, and although the Ming cavalry is elite, but in the face of eight times the enemy, it is impossible to have the certainty of victory, but fortunately, these united bandits are not in line with each other, and finally found a gap by the Ming envoys, and then a thousand elite cavalry as arrows, and finally broke through the blockade of the robbers.

Thinking of the dangers encountered along the way, and then looking at the peaceful Damascus city in front of him, Jiao Huang couldn't help but sigh a little, he had only heard that the Damascus knife was the world's treasure knife, produced in the extreme west, but he never thought that he would one day come to the origin of this kind of sword, and he would meet the Sultan of the most powerful empire in the West, that is, the ruthless Selim I.

Coincidentally, the Ming sent Jiao Huangzhong to contact the Mamluk Dynasty, after all, the land transportation from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea had been controlled by this dynasty before, although the Portuguese had always wanted to get involved in this communication line, and for this reason, they also fought with the Mamluks for a full decade, but they were unsuccessful, so the Ming wanted to dredge the Suez Canal, so naturally they had to consult with the Mamluk Dynasty.

But when Jiao Huang arrived in India, he heard that the Ottoman Empire had launched an eastward crusade and had already defeated the Mamluks and occupied the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, so that the line of communication from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea became the dividing line between the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluks, and it was now impossible to say who would win and who would lose.

Jiao Huangzhong also did not expect that he would encounter such a situation, if he went to meet the Mamluks according to the original plan, but if this war was won by the Ottoman Empire, then the transportation from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea would be controlled by the Ottoman Empire in the future, and then all his previous efforts would be wasted.

Just when Jiao Huang was in a dilemma, he suddenly thought that before he came, His Royal Highness King Zhao had personally summoned him and asked him to pay attention to collecting some intelligence from Western countries, which also specifically named the name of the Ottoman Empire, and Zhou Zhong also told him that this empire must be especially careful, because this empire is in a period of expansion, and it is likely to become a powerful empire that is not weaker than the Ming Dynasty in the future.

Thinking of Zhou Chong's previous confession, Jiao Huangzhong felt as if he had encountered a bright light in the dark, so he immediately mobilized the power of the Ming Dynasty in India and tried his best to collect information about the Mamluk Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire, but he soon found that the Mamluk Dynasty was now a dying and old decadent empire, but the Ottomans were in the golden age of expansion, so for this war, the Ottoman Empire obviously occupied an incomparable advantage, and this is what made Jiao Huangzhong make up his mind, The main reason for abandoning the Mamluks and going straight to the Ottoman Sultans. (To be continued......)