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Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, another ten years have passed. Zhou Chong has been a state ruling for a full ten years again. 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 already married a few years ago and even gave him a grandson, so Zhou Chong now began to shift his focus to his family, and most of the government affairs were handed over to the cabinet and Zhu Zaiyuan.

Compared to Zhou Chong's children and grandchildren, Zhengde, as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, has been alone in the Western Regions. No matter how many letters Zhou Chong wrote to him, Zhengde refused to come back. Later, Zhengde's wife Empress Xia was unwilling to stay in the capital.

So he took people to the Western Regions and has been with Di Zhengde now. Perhaps Empress Xia's move touched Zhengde. I heard that the couple had a very good relationship now.

Of course, Zhengde has not wasted his time in the Western Regions in the past ten years. After integrating the Mongolian cavalry, he marched westward and destroyed Yili to kill Lihou into the Western Regions. This made the Central Plains dynasty enter the Central Plains again since the Tang Dynasty.

Asia 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 due to civil war and other issues, and was eventually destroyed by the Uzbeks. Uzbek was also a nomadic people and was internally

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 large and large forces within, and they are fighting endlessly with each other.

The scattered Uzbeks were not the opponent of the Ming army at all, so when Zhengde led the army into Central Asia, the Uzbeks retreated step by step, and the original capital of the Timur Khanate, Samarakhan, was also captured by the Ming Dynasty and became the Ming Dynasty.

The most important military center in Central Asia.

However, the Central Asia region is too vast. Although the army led by Zhengde has no opponent in Central Asia, as the front line is lengthened, it is very difficult for the domestic supply to the army. Therefore, under this circumstance, Zhengde is unable to occupy the entire area.

It turned out that the territory of the Timur Khanate finally occupied only one-third of the huge territory of the Timur Khanate, and the remaining two-thirds were still ruled by the Uzbeks.

However, although the war stopped, the Ming Dynasty's economic expansion to the outside world was faster, especially for the Uzbeks. They were already scared by the Ming army, and finally had to sign a trade treaty with the Ming Dynasty, allowing the Ming Dynasty's merchant brigade.

Passing their territory to the Asia Minor Peninsula, which is the territory of the Ottoman Empire, this also means that the land Silk Road was opened again during the Han and Tang Dynasties.

While the Ming Dynasty expanded to the west, Zhou Chong did not ignore the expansion in the southeast, especially Vietnam and other countries on the Southeast Peninsula. Originally, when the Ming Dynasty was Chengzu, the Ming Dynasty had already destroyed Vietnam and established the Jiaozhicheng Announcement Department for the Allegiance to the Jiaozhicheng Announcement of Political Envoy

Unfortunately, a hundred years ago, the Vietnamese Lili launched the Nanshan Uprising, which once again independent Vietnam from the Ming Dynasty and established a vassal relationship with the Daqing Dynasty. However, this relationship was not stable. The Ming Dynasty also often supported other countries on the Southeast Peninsula to respect Vietnam.

Carry out a blow.

In the past, the Ming Dynasty's national strength was limited, so it was impossible to send troops directly to the Southeast Peninsula. However, as the Ming Dynasty's national strength increased, it began to toughen the countries on the Southeast Peninsula. Especially Vietnam, which had resisted the Ming Dynasty, was directly hit by the Ming Dynasty.

This is not just to retaliate against the Vietnamese's resistance, but also because of economic interests.

Vietnam's territory is a long and narrow strip. It almost completely occupies the eastern coast of the Southeast Peninsula. Originally, southern Vietnam was the territory of Chameng, but decades ago, Chameng had been captured by Vietnam. Now, although Chameng is nominally

It is still a country, but it has actually become a subordinate of Vietnam. Moreover, Chameng is also a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. He once asked for help from the Ming Dynasty, but unfortunately the Ming Dynasty was insufficient at that time. Although he asked Vietnam to withdraw from Chameng, it was rejected by Vietnam in the end.

It was also in this case that the Ming Dynasty, under the banner of helping Chameng independence, launched an attack on the Li Dynasty in Vietnam from both sides of the sea and land. In just one month, it defeated most of the Vietnamese army.

It also occupies various important coastal ports, which will play a greater role in the hands of the Ming Dynasty and make the Ming Dynasty closer to all parts of the Southeast Asian region.

Moreover, in the last year of the decade, the Suez Canal, built jointly by the Ming Dynasty and the Ottomans, was finally successfully opened. Fleets from Asia and Europe can travel to each other through this canal, which not only increases the exchange of civilizations on the two continents, but also

It is a great promotion of economic exchanges between the two places. The Ming Dynasty, which benefited the most, was the Ming Dynasty, which occupied the South and Indian Oceans, could send its own fleet directly to the Mediterranean through this canal to trade with merchants in Venice and other places.

This has directly increased the volume of maritime trade transactions in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, as the direct controller of the Suez Canal, the Ottoman Empire could earn huge taxes from the canal every year, which became a great source of wealth for the Ottoman Empire. However, they did not collect taxes on the ships passing by the canal at will.

It was formulated, but it had to be approved by the Ming Dynasty. First, the Ming Dynasty was one of the contractors of the canal, second, the Ming Dynasty's merchant ships were also the largest user of the canal, and finally, the Ming Dynasty also maintained a powerful navy in the Gulf of Aden.

It controlled the number of fleets entering and leaving the Red Sea, so the Ming Dynasty also had considerable voice over the Suez Canal.

Speaking of which, since the Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire signed the Suez Canal Treaty, the relationship between the two sides has always been very good. Even after Selim's death, Suleiman became the new sultan, and this young sultan actively developed with the Ming Dynasty.

Interactions, the two sides have had a lot of cooperation in industry and commerce, including not only the private cooperation, but the Ming Dynasty even agreed to export some weapons to the Ottoman Empire, such as artillery, muskets and swords of the Ming Dynasty, which were urgently needed by the expanding Ottoman Empire.

.

However, beasts are beasts after all. They may be able to live in peace in a short period of time, but after a long time, some conflicts will break out sooner or later. The same is true for the Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire. With the expansion of the Ming Dynasty in Central Asia, the Ottoman Empire is also the same.

They began to expand eastward, and they had defeated the emerging Safavi Empire several times and pushed their territory into the Azerbaijan region. As long as they completely destroyed the Safavi Empire, they could enter the original Timur Khanate.

In the territory, it may be difficult for them to live in peace with the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, the huge annual profit of the Suez Canal made the Ottoman Empire pay more attention to it. Moreover, they fought against foreign countries for years and needed huge financial support. Now the Suez Canal is one of their economic backings, and they even want to increase the tax amount.

Some, but this will undoubtedly harm the interests of the Ming Dynasty, so the two sides have already had differences on this issue, but the time is still short and has not yet erupted.

In addition to the above, the most important breakthrough of the Ming Dynasty was its interests in the Pacific Ocean. Ten years ago, the Ming Dynasty organized its first exploration fleet to go to the Americas. Due to sufficient preparations in advance, the exploration was very smooth.

The team soon arrived in America and headed south along the coastline of North America, finally arrived in Central America, and met the Spaniards.

The Spanish were also very surprised when they saw the Ming fleet. Although many people in Europe believed that the earth was round, this speculation was not confirmed, so they always thought that the Ming Dynasty was in their own east, but they did not expect the Ming Dynasty.

But it suddenly appeared from his own west, which made the Spaniards unable to believe it for a while.

The Spaniards have long regarded America as their own private territory. Any invasion of other forces will be regarded as an enemy by them. Therefore, after the Spaniards reacted, they quickly attacked the Ming Dynasty's exploration fleet, but

Their maritime power is concentrated on the eastern side of America. For the Ming fleet coming from the west, it will at most block the coast and prevent the Ming fleet from docking and replenishing supplies. However, the coastline of America is very long, and this blockade will block the Ming ships.

The team did not have much effect. Except for the Ming Dynasty who lost some manpower at the beginning, there were no other casualties.

However, the arrival of the Ming fleet also awakened the Spaniards from their dream of dominating America. They immediately organized people to explore the route to the west coast of America. Finally, they finally found the Strait of Magellan in later generations. Although this strait is very dangerous,

The Spaniards mobilized several fleets to reach the west coast to guard against the reinvasion of the Ming fleet.

The Spaniards were so greedy. They knew that the two major Americas were extremely vast, but they still wanted to stop the invasion of other forces. In the original history, they did use their strong national strength to block other European countries from the Americas, but

Later, with their decline, European countries entered the Americas one after another and soon divided the Spanish forces. Except for the mixed races of Spain and the locals in the Americas, Spain left almost nothing in the Americas.

Zhou Chong knew the importance of America and was very coveted by the vast land and abundant resources there, so he was determined to win America. When the exploration fleet returned and learned about the conflict with the Spaniards, this made him

Very annoyed, he stepped up the dispatch of several exploration fleets and thoroughly figured out the route. At this time, the Ming Navy had been reorganized. The newly formed Pacific Fleet set out for the first time, with the goal of defeating all the Spaniards' forces on the West Coast.

, and a port belonging to the Ming Dynasty was established there.

It was in this case that the war between the Ming and the Spanish finally broke out. When the Ming fleet and the Spanish fleet met on the west coast of the Americas, the first conflict broke out between the two fleets, which also revealed the continuation between the Ming and Spain.
Chapter completed!