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Text Chapter 539 Ten Years

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    Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, another ten years have passed. Zhou Zhong has once again served as a supervisor for a full ten years. However, he is now gradually handing over government affairs to his son Zhu Zaiyuan. After all, he is already in his twenties.  Moreover, he had gotten married a few years ago and even gave birth to a grandson, so Zhou Zhong now began to shift the focus of his life to his family, leaving most of the government affairs to the cabinet and Zhu Zaiyuan.  Compared with Zhou Zhong who had many children and grandchildren, Zhengde, the Ming emperor, always stayed alone in the Western Regions. No matter how many letters Zhou Zhong wrote to him, Zhengde refused to come back. Later, Zhengde's wife, Empress Xia, was also unwilling to stay in the capital.  , so he took people to the Western Regions, and now he is always with Zhengde. Perhaps it was Queen Xia's move that moved Zhengde. I heard that the relationship between the couple is very good now.  Of course, Zhengde did not waste time in the Western Regions in the past ten years. After integrating the Mongolian cavalry, he conquered all the way to the west, destroyed Yili and then entered the Western Regions. This made the Central Plains Dynasty enter the Central Plains again since the Tang Dynasty.  sub-region.  Central Asia was originally the territory of the Timur Khanate, but in the second year of Zhengde, the Timur Khanate suffered a great decline in national power due to civil war and other problems, and was finally destroyed by the Uzbeks. The Uzbeks were also nomadic people, with internal  It is composed of tribes. On the surface, they are called the Uzbek Khanate to the outside world, but in fact, they are still divided into small and large forces internally, and they are constantly fighting with each other.  The scattered strength of the Uzbeks was no match for the Ming Dynasty¡¯s army, so when Zhengde led the army into Central Asia, the Uzbeks retreated steadily, and Samarkand, the original capital of Timur Khanate, was also captured by the Ming Dynasty.  It became the Ming Dynasty's most important military center in Central Asia.  But Central Asia is too vast.  Although the army led by Zhengde had no rivals in Central Asia.  However, as the front line was stretched, it became very difficult to supply the army at home. Therefore, under this situation, Zhengde was unable to completely occupy the original territory of the Timur Khanate, and in the end only occupied the huge territory of the Timur Khanate.  One-third of the country, the remaining two-thirds are still ruled by Uzbeks.  Although the war has stopped, Ming Dynasty¡¯s external economic expansion has become more rapid, especially for the Uzbeks.  They had been frightened by the Ming army, and finally had to sign a trade treaty with the Ming Dynasty, allowing the Ming caravans to pass through their territory to the Asia Minor Peninsula, which was the territory of the Ottoman Empire. This also meant that the mainland during the Han and Tang Dynasties  The Silk Road was opened again.  While the Ming Dynasty was expanding to the west, Zhou Zhong did not ignore the expansion in the southeast, especially Vietnam and other countries in the southeastern peninsula. Originally, when he became the founder of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had already destroyed Vietnam and established a political envoy loyal to Jiaozhi.  .  It is a pity that the Vietnamese Le Li launched the Nanshan Uprising a hundred years ago and once again made Vietnam independent from the Ming Dynasty.  Moreover, it established a vassal relationship with the Ming Dynasty, but this relationship was not stable. The Ming Dynasty also often supported other countries in the southeastern peninsula to attack Vietnam.  In the past, the Ming Dynasty's national power was limited, so it could not directly send troops to the Southeast Peninsula. However, as the Ming Dynasty's national power increased, it began to become tougher on the countries in the Southeast Peninsula. Especially Vietnam, which had resisted the Ming Dynasty, was directly attacked by the Ming Dynasty.  This was not just to retaliate for the Vietnamese resistance back then, but also because of economic interests.  Vietnam's territory is a long and narrow strip, and it almost completely occupies the eastern coast of the Southeast Peninsula. Originally, southern Vietnam was the territory of Champa, but decades ago, Champa was captured by Vietnam. Now, although Champa is nominally  It was still a country, but in fact it had become a vassal of Vietnam, and Champa was also a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. It once asked the Ming Dynasty for help. Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty was not strong enough at the time. Although it asked Vietnam to withdraw from Champa, it was ultimately rejected by Vietnam.  It was also under this situation that under the banner of helping Champa become independent, the Ming Dynasty launched an attack on the Le Dynasty of Vietnam from both land and water. In just one month, it defeated most of the Vietnamese army.  And it occupies various important ports along the coast. These ports will play a greater role in the hands of Ming Dynasty, and will also make Ming Dynasty more closely connected with various parts of Southeast Asia.  Moreover, in the last year of the decade, the Suez Canal, which was jointly built by the Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire, was finally opened to navigation. Fleets from Asia and Europe can communicate with each other through this canal. This not only increases the exchanges of civilizations between the two continents, but also increases the  It greatly promoted the economic exchanges between the two places, among which the Ming Dynasty benefited the most. The Ming Dynasty, which dominated the South Ocean and the Indian Ocean, could send its fleet directly to the Mediterranean through this canal to trade with merchants in Venice and other places. This  The volume of maritime trade in Ming Dynasty directly rose to a higher level.  Of course, as the Ottoman Empire directly controls the Suez Canal, they can earn huge taxes from the canal every year, which has also become a major financial source for the Ottoman Empire. However, the amount of taxes they collect from ships passing the canal is notIt was formulated voluntarily, but must be approved by the Ming Dynasty. Firstly, the Ming Dynasty was one of the contractors of the canal. Secondly, the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty were also the largest users of the canal. Finally, the Ming Dynasty also maintained a strong force in the Gulf of Aden.  The navy controls the number of fleets entering and exiting the Red Sea, so the Ming Dynasty also has considerable say in the Suez Canal.  Speaking of which, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire has always been very good since the Suez Canal Treaty was signed. Even after Selim's death, Suleiman became the new sultan. This young sultan was even more active in developing relations with the Ming Dynasty.  The two sides had a lot of cooperation in industry and commerce, including non-governmental cooperation. The Ming Dynasty even agreed to export some weapons to the Ottoman Empire, such as Ming Dynasty artillery, muskets and swords, which were urgently needed by the expanding Ottoman Empire.  .  However, beasts are beasts after all. They may be able to coexist peacefully in a short period of time, but as time goes by, some conflicts will break out sooner or later. The same is true for the Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire. As the Ming Dynasty expands in Central Asia, the Ottoman Empire also  began to expand eastward, and they have defeated the emerging Safavid Empire several times and pushed their territory into the Azerbaijan region. As long as they completely destroy the Safavid Empire, they can enter the original Timurid Khanate.  Within the territory, it may be difficult for them and Ming Dynasty to live in peace.  In addition, the huge profits made by the Suez Canal every year made the Ottoman Empire pay more attention to it. Moreover, they continued to fight foreign wars year after year, which required huge financial support. Now the Suez Canal is one of their economic backings, and they even want to increase the amount of taxation.  Some, but this will undoubtedly harm the interests of Ming Dynasty, so the two sides have already had differences on this issue, but the time is still short and it has not exploded yet.  In addition to the above, the most important breakthrough of Ming Dynasty is its interests in the Pacific. Ten years ago, Ming Dynasty organized the first exploration fleet to go to America. Due to sufficient preparations in advance, the exploration went very smoothly.  The team soon reached America, and went south along the coastline of North America, and finally came to Central America, and also met the Spaniards.  The Spaniards were also very surprised when they saw the Ming Dynasty's fleet. Although many people in Europe believed that the earth was round, this guess was not confirmed, so they always thought that the Ming Dynasty was in their east, but they did not expect that the Ming Dynasty was in the east.  But it suddenly appeared from the west, which made the Spaniards unable to believe it for a while.  The Spaniards have long regarded the Americas as their own private territory, and any invasion by other forces will be regarded as enemies. Therefore, after the Spaniards reacted, they quickly attacked the Ming Dynasty's exploration fleet, but  Their maritime power is concentrated on the east side of the Americas. For the Ming fleet coming from the west, the best they can do is to block the coast and not allow the Ming fleet to dock for supplies. However, the coastline of the Americas is very long. This blockade is very harmful to the Ming fleet.  The team did not have much effect. Except that Ming Dynasty lost some men at the beginning, there were not many other casualties.  However, the arrival of the Ming Dynasty fleet also woke the Spaniards from their dream of dominating the Americas. They immediately organized people to explore the route to the west coast of the Americas. Finally, they finally found the Strait of Magellan. Although this strait was very dangerous, it was  The Spanish mobilized several fleets to the west coast to prepare for another invasion by the Ming fleet.  The Spanish were too greedy. They knew clearly that the two Americas were vast, but they still wanted to prevent the invasion of other forces. In the original history, they did rely on their strong national power to keep other European countries out of the Americas, but  Later, as they weakened, European countries entered the Americas one after another and quickly carved up Spain's power. Except for the mixed Spanish and local people in the Americas, Spain left almost nothing in the Americas.  Zhou Zhong knew the importance of the Americas and coveted the vast land and rich resources there, so he was determined to get the Americas. When the exploration fleet came back and learned about the conflict with the Spanish, this made him  Very annoyed, he quickly dispatched several exploratory fleets to thoroughly clarify the route. At this time, the Ming Navy had also been reorganized. The newly formed Pacific Fleet set off for the first time. The goal was to defeat all the Spanish forces on the west coast.  , and established a port belonging to the Ming Dynasty there.  It was under this circumstance that the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Spanish finally broke out. When the Ming fleet and the Spanish fleet met on the west coast of America, the first conflict broke out between the two fleets, which also revealed the continuing relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Spain.  ended hundreds of years of war.  (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster!
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