My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 389 God's Territory

Zhu Di raised his eyebrows and twitched the corner of his mouth. He wanted to refute but had nothing to say. These two were not mocking him, but stating a fact.

Only the truth hurts the most!
Compared with the other two, he was indeed the one who was least willing to study. For this reason, he was often punished by Mr. Long Wenyuan's ruler when he was a child.

"But I don't know which country these people are from. There are monks on the fleet. Are they going to perform a ritual?"

Li Jinglong looked at this group of strange people suspiciously, stroking his chin in thought.

"It's a caravan, and they are all wearing armor, but if they are going to fight, how can they bring only a few hundred people? It's really hard to understand."

"What's so confusing about this? Maybe they are just like us, wearing armor and are responsible for guarding the goods."

Zhu Di speculated and suggested: "We didn't see their ships on the east coast, so they should be docked at the dock on the west coast. Let's go and take a look. We will know the size and type of their fleet."

"If they are anchored on the west bank, then they are coming from the west?"

Xu Huizu seemed to remember something, looked at the two people and said, "Do you think they came from the other side of the Strait of Malacca?"

As soon as Xu Huizu opened his mouth, Zhu Di suddenly realized, "Brother-in-law, if that's the case, they are very likely coming from the Indian Ocean!"

Zhu Di recalled the descriptions of the oceans on the nautical chart, "I don't know which country this ship belongs to. Could it be from India or Persia?"

"No!" Li Jinglong quickly denied Zhu Di's guess, "India and Persia should be ruled by the Timurid Empire, and the Timurid Empire does not believe in public religion."

He thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps it came from a country further west. It is said that in the country further west of the Arab Empire, all the countries there believe in Catholicism."

"That makes sense. I didn't expect that you, nephew, are a living map!"

Zhu Di's praise made Li Jinglong immediately feel proud.

"Let's go to the west bank and see where these guys come from."

Temasek is not big, it is just a port city. However, it takes some time to walk to the west coast, so the three of them just took a stroll and saw something new in a foreign country.

But just as Zhu Di finished speaking, he saw a group of people setting up a simple platform on the street. Then the leader of the group walked onto the stage, followed by several guys who looked like guards, each holding a strange flag.

One of the flags had a bright red background with an odd golden castle embroidered on it, with three towers on top.

On another flag, there was an upright lion leaning on a shield. In addition, several other flags had huge crosses embroidered on them.

The three of them understood it. It should be the banner used by Catholics, just like the banners used by Buddhists in the Ming Dynasty.

The strange behavior of this group of people immediately attracted a large number of onlookers. Zhu Di and others were also curious, so they went forward to watch the fun.

The leader-like man looked at the increasing number of onlookers below the stage, smiled with satisfaction, then opened his arms and said something loudly.

No one in the audience understood what this man said. They saw him getting more and more excited, gesticulating and dancing, and no one knew what he was going to do.

"What is this kid talking about? All that gibberish?" Zhu Di was completely confused after listening for a long time, as if he was listening to a foreign language.

"Who knows? These barbarians don't understand Chinese. God knows what he is saying." Li Jinglong was also confused. "Uncle Huizu, do you understand?" Xu Huizu rolled his eyes at Li Jinglong. We all came from the Ming Dynasty. If you all don't understand, how can he, Xu Huizu, understand?

Just as the three of them were looking at the person on the stage with puzzled expressions as he excitedly said something, Don Ferdinando Makaros on the stage was extremely excited at this moment. After several months of difficult sailing, he led the fleet and finally saw land!

Last year, a large number of Mongols suddenly appeared in the east, almost cutting off the trade routes to the east of France and the Holy Roman Empire.

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire, which rose in Asia Minor, also cut off the trade routes from Asia Minor to the East.

Now France and England are still engaged in a protracted battle and have no time to take care of trade routes, but their Kingdom of Castile has seen an opportunity.

Since the road on land is blocked, then how about going through the sea? Can we find a road to the rich East from the sea?
The person who proposed this motion was Don Ferdinando Macaros. His mother's family was the royal family of the Kingdom of Aragon, so he had the surname Ferdinand in the middle of his name.

As a top noble in the Kingdom of Castile, Makaros had an iron obsession with wealth and was full of yearning for the East described by Marco Polo.

However, his desire for wealth was not for investment or enjoyment, but for his Lord, his God.

He believed that all wealth in the world should belong to God. For this reason, he used the power of his family to organize a large fleet and began to search for a route to the East on the sea.

He wanted to spread the Lord's teachings throughout the rich Eastern Empire, so that the Eastern Empire would also submit to the Lord's divine glory.

After setting out from the Kingdom of Castile, they headed south along the west coast of Africa, crossed the Cape of Good Hope, and then from the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian Ocean, passing through the Saracen Empire and the Timurid Empire.

Finally, under the guidance of Timur's local natives, they arrived at the Strait of Malacca.

Although they have not yet reached the great Eastern empire they have longed for, they have already seen the light of hope.

Although many people died after floating on the sea for so long, they miraculously did not lose their way. It was all thanks to God!
Therefore, the moment he set foot on Temasek, Makaros decided to declare this place as God's territory!
At this moment, looking at the foreign faces in the audience, Makaros showed a trace of contempt in his eyes. Let these uncivilized barbarians feel the dawn of the civilized world!

On the stage, Makaros was talking excitedly. Offstage, local people in Temasek looked at this brown-haired, blue-eyed guy and thought he was an artist from somewhere, performing a show they couldn't understand.

Zhu Di and the other two felt that something was wrong. Li Jinglong said, "Hey, I say, do you feel that the guy on the stage seems to look down on us?"

"Nephew, don't tell me, I have the same feeling." Zhu Di nodded repeatedly. The feeling that Makaros gave him was very arrogant and domineering.

"Should we call the first and second battalions over and arrest these guys and bring them to the commander?"

Li Jinglong suggested: "When they came to Temasek, they didn't even know how to pay respects, and they even put up their own flags. If you don't know, you might think they are bandits trying to seize the mountain!"

Li Jinglong looked at the guards behind Makaros, who had stuck several flags into the ground, and thought they were there to plant flags.

However, Li Jinglong did not misunderstand. In his speech, Makaros had already declared that this place belonged to God's territory and an overseas territory of the Kingdom of Castile. It was just that the people in the audience did not understand it at all.

"Don't cause trouble!"

Xu Huizu was very calm. He believed that if no one offended me, I would not offend others. If these guys in front of him really caused trouble for the Ming Dynasty, it would not be too late to arrest them then.

(End of this chapter)