readx; After returning to the city, Zhang Huangyan officially presented his credentials to King Benhato of Chenla. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info.. This letter was written in triplicate, in Chinese Khmer and Persian in Southeast Asia, and the theme was written by Zhu Youjian himself, of course, it was also polished by Xu Guangqi and others to make it more literate.

In the past, the national letters of the Ming Dynasty were generally mere formalities, nothing more than clichés such as "the king of the country is very respectful, and I should be rewarded". This time, however, the national letter is very long, and it is full of "dry goods". Its contents mainly include:

First, show favor to Zhenla. Zhu Youzhen did not emphasize how the other party should be submissive to himself like the past national letters of the Ming Dynasty, but pointed out that although the two countries are separated by oceans, their relations have always been harmonious, and he deliberately called Zhenla "friendly country". Although it is a simple two words, the meaning is extraordinary, because China has long been the suzerainty of Chenla, and both sides agree on this. Now Zhu Youzhen took the initiative to mention "friendly countries", friends are friends, and friends are naturally equal to each other, which is equivalent to the Ming Dynasty taking the initiative to give up the identity of the suzerain, but it has not been clearly stated.

Second, request to strengthen ties with Chenla. From the official level, sending Zhang Huangyan as an envoy this time is the first step, and the next step is to invite Zhenla to send an envoy to pay a return visit. In the past, the standard of tribute paid by vassal states in the Ming Dynasty was one tribute every three years, but it was not mandatory, and it didn't matter if it didn't come for decades. In fact, it is not that Zhenla is unwilling to come to pay tribute, in fact, on the contrary, all vassal states want to pay more tribute, because the Ming Dynasty implemented a policy of gentleness towards the subject countries, and there must be rewards for tribute, and in order to show the strong strength of the "Heavenly Empire", the rewards far exceeded the tribute, and after a long time, it became a heavy financial burden. Later, it was stipulated that one tribute would be paid every three years, which was called to reduce the burden on the subject country, but in fact, the Ming Dynasty itself could not afford it.

Now Zhu Youzhen has proposed that he hopes that the two countries will visit each other at least once a year, and not only the envoys of Zhenla will come to the Ming Dynasty, but the envoys of the Ming Dynasty will continue to visit Zhenla. Moreover, depending on the wishes of the two countries, the two countries can also set up embassies and send ambassadors to each other, so as to normalize official exchanges. In addition, Zhu Youzhen also invited King Benharto of Zhenla to visit Daming at a convenient time.

From the non-governmental level, Zhu Youzhen pointed out that the two countries have different geographical locations and different products, and it is beneficial and harmless for the two countries to exchange goods and goods through trade. However, there is still a gap in the people-to-people trade between the two countries, first, because of the inconvenient transportation across the sea, and second, the language barrier. In terms of language, Zhu Youzhen hopes to send more students to Zhenla to learn Khmer, and Zhenla can also send people to Daming to learn Chinese, and the cost can be paid by Daming. As for the maritime trade, the envoy Zhang Huangyan discussed it in detail in person.

Third, Zhu Youzhen hoped to sign a friendship treaty with Zhenla. In the past, no matter any dynasty in China, it was very rare to sign treaties with foreign countries or foreign races, and generally showed favor by holy decree, and the other party was called a minister.

If you want to talk about the real treaty, I am afraid it has to be counted as the "Yuanyuan Alliance" of Song and Liao, but it was forced to sign under the military pressure of Liao, and the founding of the Ming Dynasty thought that it was the "Celestial Empire", and of course it was unwilling to engage in this kind of thing. Including the later Alta tribute, it is still in the form of enshrined Alta as the king of Shunyi by holy decree.

However, in this letter of state, which came from Zhu Youzhen's holy will and was not consulted with the ministers, Zhu Youzhen clearly stated that he hoped to draw up a treaty of friendship that would be satisfactory to both sides, and that the two countries would sign and take effect at the same time. The contents of the treaty mainly include mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. Once this treaty was signed, the original tributary relationship was immediately abolished, and its significance was self-evident.

The enemy is far away, and the cool star is alone in hate

To Zhang Huangyan's surprise, they did not agree with the identity of "friends", insisted that Zhenla was a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and did not dare to sit on an equal footing with the Ming Dynasty, and implored the Ming Emperor to renew his grace and officially canonize Benhatto as the king of Zhenla.

But after listening to Benharto's request immediately afterward, Zhang Huangyan understood. It turned out that Benhato still asked Daming to send troops to help the master Zhenla recover the country, as long as Daming was willing to send troops, Zhenla agreed to any conditions.

Zhang Huangyan really didn't understand this at first, because according to human nature, no one would be willing to be a slave to others, and the same is true for the country. Now Da Ming has taken the initiative to enhance the status of Zhenla, but Zhenla does not appreciate it, which is really incomprehensible.

The knot branch is too cool, and the seal is cool and early Xianke

But after listening to Benharto's request immediately afterward, Zhang Huangyan understood. It turned out that Benhato still asked Daming to send troops to help the master Zhenla recover the country, as long as Daming was willing to send troops, Zhenla agreed to any conditions.

This is easy to understand, because if Zhenla and Daming are "friends" this kind of equal relationship, a country is in trouble, helping is a favor, not helping is duty, Zhenla has nothing to say. But now Zhenla is still a subject of the Ming Dynasty, then it is different, the suzerainty has the obligation to protect the subject country, in other words, the Ming must help Zhenla, at least have to put pressure on Annan to withdraw his troops, of course, it is best to send troops directly. Now Zhenla is at the time of life and death, and of course he refuses to give up the life-saving straw of the subject country.

As for the other contents of the national letter, Benhato agreed and offered to say that if Zhang Huangyan felt that it was difficult to move the emperor to send troops, he was willing to go to Beijing by boat to pay homage to the Son of Heaven in person. If the emperor still does not agree to send troops, he would rather cry and die in the palace, otherwise he will have no shame to face the people of Zhenla.

Speaking of this, Zhang Huangyan also understood that the most important thing for Zhenla now is to survive, and it doesn't make much sense to talk about anything else. If Benhato is forced to sign a treaty, Benhato should sign it in desperation, but that is taking advantage of the danger of others, and the saint will never approve it. For the sake of today, the only way to do this is to make the situation here clear as soon as possible.

But this involves a technical but very important question: how to send the news back to Beijing as soon as possible? If it is in China, this is very simple, the flying pigeon is to pass the book, Macau is 4,000 miles away from Beijing, and the news can be delivered in three days at most. From that map of Southeast Asia, the straight-line distance between Sun and Macao is only a little more than 3,000 miles, and theoretically two days is enough.

However, carrier pigeons cannot cross the sea! If you want to use carrier pigeons, you have to go overland first, so that the pigeons remember their bearings. However, between Zhenla and Daming, there is also a gap between Laos and Annan, and it is impossible to let people pass, even if they can pass, it is too late in time.

Zhang Huangyan hurriedly returned to the Princess Anna to discuss with Zheng Sen. After careful consideration, the two unanimously decided: find a fishing boat from the local area, refit it and sail back to China to deliver the letter!