Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 210 Also known as the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets? Lao Zhu drew a circle [Please subscribe]

"The Spanish state definitely exists, but it's probably not called Spain at the moment. Just like China's name changes with the change of dynasties, the same is true for Spain."

At this point, Liu Kuan paused and said, "Now it seems to be several smaller kingdoms. I only remember two of them that became somewhat famous in later generations. They seem to be called Aragon and Castile."

"And this is just the transliterated Chinese name of the country. As for its specific name in Europe, I'm afraid we'll have to send intelligence personnel to the local area to find out for sure."

"In other words, Spain has not been established yet?" Zhu Di frowned, feeling like he had punched cotton and had no place to vent his anger.

Liu Kuan nodded. "Historically, the real Spain wouldn't be established until about a hundred years later."

Zhu Di knew that he would definitely not live to see the end of the century, and even his grandson might not live to see the end of the century.

After all, judging from what Liu Kuan said about his later events, his son, grandson, and even his two great-grandsons who took turns to be emperor, all died relatively young.

But he had just said he would destroy Spain, and he was furious. He knew he couldn't just let it go, so he snorted, "Then I'll destroy those little countries like Aragon and Cabo and make it so Spain can never be reestablished!"

Liu Kuan felt that Zhu Di looked very similar to Zhu Yuanzhang at this time.

Zhu Yuanzhang's anger subsided a bit at this point, and he said, "Alright! From now on, the task of leading the fleet across Europe to annihilate the several small nations that were the predecessors of Spain will be left to you, Fourth Brother. Fourth Brother, you must remember what I said today, and don't refuse when the time comes."

Zhu Di was quite happy to hear the first half of Old Zhu's words, but after hearing the second half, he inexplicably felt like he was being tricked.

"Could it be that my father has always intended for me to lead an expedition to Europe in the future?"

Zhu Di suddenly understood something.

He observed the expressions of the others and saw that his eldest brother Zhu Biao was shaking his head and chuckling, and Liu Kuan also had a smile on his face. Only his third brother Zhu Ying had a look of regret on his face, and looked at him with jealousy.

After observing these, Zhu Di knew that he had indeed been tricked by his father.

But he didn't regret it much - he really enjoyed leading troops in battle!

"Liu Kuan, please continue with the rest of the story," Old Zhu said. "Since Spain had such a detailed plan, what happened in the war with the Ming Dynasty?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, when the King of Spain agreed to the plan of an expedition to the Ming Dynasty and was actively preparing for it, the Spanish Empire suffered a severe setback in Europe."

"The Queen of England at the time said she wanted to marry the King of Spain, but in reality, she was using the marriage as a ruse to trick him."

"After the King of Spain realized he had been tricked, he sent his main fleet, known as the 'Invincible Armada', to attack Britain."

"In this battle, Spain suffered a crushing defeat. Not only did the myth of the invincibility of its Invincible Armada fall to pieces, but the morale of its army and the national spirit also suffered a severe setback."

"Other major European powers at the time, such as France, the Netherlands, and Britain, which had defeated Spain, saw this opportunity and began to seize Spain's overseas colonies."

"Under these circumstances, Spain still lacks the strength to maintain its already acquired overseas colonies and domestic interests, and naturally cannot carry out its grand plan of an expedition to the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and others never expected this to be the result.

Spain had formulated such a comprehensive plan to conquer the Ming Dynasty and had even begun active preparations for it, but unexpectedly, the plan was aborted due to a major defeat.

"Could it be that there was some kind of divine will, that the Ming Dynasty was still strong at that time, and should not have perished at the hands of the Western Barbarians?" One of the more superstitious princes could not help but think so.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly shook his head and laughed.

"Spain was able to colonize the entire globe, claiming to be the empire on which the sun never set. We thought its king was truly a man of great talent and vision, but it turns out they couldn't even maintain their dominance in Europe, let alone unify it."

"Under such circumstances, you actually want to send troops across the ocean to conquer our Ming Dynasty. This is truly ridiculous."

Zhu Biao then asked, "Third brother-in-law, what's the story behind the Queen of England playing tricks on the King of Spain over a marriage?"

"It's fine for European countries to have queens, but kings can actually marry each other? If so, what will happen to their respective countries after the marriage?"

In fact, when Liu Kuan talked about this, many people had doubts in their minds.

Such as Zhu Su, Zhu Zhen, Zhu Gui, etc. It was even the first time I knew that there were queens in Europe, which was quite common.

When Zhu Biao asked about the marriage between the king and the other king, everyone else shifted their attention and became curious about this matter.

Liu Kuan smiled and explained, "Your Highness, the history, culture, and system of European nations are very different from ours. Although it's rare for a male king to marry a queen from another country, it's not impossible."

"For example, the King of Spain, through political marriages and other means, concurrently served as the King of Portugal, the Holy Roman Empire, and several small countries."

"The reason why the King of Spain was later tricked by the Queen of England with marriage was not because she was attracted by her beauty, but because she wanted to use marriage as a means to become the King of England."

After hearing this explanation, the Zhu family looked at each other in bewilderment, feeling that their worldviews had been refreshed once again by Western affairs.

After coming to his senses, Zhu Biao sighed: "The world is so big, there really is nothing strange."

Zhu Tan's eyes sparkled as he asked, "Teacher, doesn't that mean that if I marry the Queen of England, I can become the King of England?" Liu Kuan laughed and said, "I'm not entirely clear on the logic of European nations in this regard. I can only say that it's possible, but I'm not certain that if you marry the Queen, you'll definitely become King."

Zhu Yuanzhang glared at Zhu Tan and said, "Tenth Brother, how old are you and you want to marry a Western barbarian woman? Do you believe I will break your legs?!"

Zhu Tan pouted, feeling aggrieved.

This was the third time he had been scolded today.

The most important thing is that Zhu Yuanzhang had married several women from other ethnic groups as concubines, but he actually said that he should not want to marry a woman from the Western Yi region - isn't this like allowing the officials to set fires but not allowing the people to light lamps?

Although Zhu Tan was reprimanded, some of the princes couldn't help but think about this matter - marrying a queen means you can annex her country, which is not a bad thing, but I don't know if there are any other restrictions.

However, the more Zhu Yuanzhang learned about Spain, the more he felt that it was unworthy of being a powerful enemy of the Ming Dynasty.

Considering that Spain was not established for another hundred years, he said, "There is no need to talk about Spain anymore. Let's move on to something else."

"Yes."

Liu Kuan also felt that the story of Spain took too long, so he decided to talk about the subsequent colonial powers more concisely.

He said: "After Spain, the third most powerful colonial power was the Netherlands - a country controlled by a coalition of merchant aristocrats, whose overseas colonization was also based primarily on commerce and trade."

"Because its maritime trade was primarily based on armed merchant ships and its shipbuilding industry was well-developed, at its peak it possessed tens of thousands of merchant ships operating in all major oceans. For a considerable period, it was the main force in maritime trade and transportation, earning it the nickname 'The Coachman of the Sea.'"

"Of course, for some countries and indigenous tribes that seem easy to invade, the Dutch will also use force to conquer them, just like the Spanish did."

"Historically, the Dutch have repeatedly raided the Ming coast, attempting to force their way into the Ming's trade, but they were generally defeated by local Ming forces."

"The Dutch were relatively gentle in their treatment of the natives in their colonies, primarily using profit to compel them and overseas Chinese to plant crops and work for them. However, they exploited and oppressed them through laws, taxes, and other means."

Upon hearing this, King Zhu Su of Zhou found the idea of ​​a country controlled by merchants and aristocrats quite interesting, so he asked, "Third brother-in-law, does the Netherlands still exist?"

This question stumped Liu Kuan a little.

He said uncertainly, "It probably doesn't exist. It might not appear for nearly a hundred years."

Zhu Su was disappointed for a moment - he thought that if the Netherlands already existed, he could send someone to investigate it in the future and write a book about his experiences.

Liu Kuan continued, "After the Dutch, the next people to dominate the ocean were the Anglo-Saxons, or the British."

"Perhaps because of the experiences of Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands, Britain's overseas colonization can be said to be the most 'successful' in history."

"What they excel at is using their powerful overseas military force to open the doors of other countries, then signing a series of unequal treaties to establish unequal trade relations with those countries, and wantonly plundering the wealth of the colonies through commercial means such as dumping industrial products."

"Plus, the first industrial revolution occurred in Britain. Therefore, historically, Britain not only occupied most of North America and all of Australia through immigration and colonization, but also had many colonies in Africa."

"In addition, they turned the entirety of India into their colony. During Britain's heyday, the Queen even served as the Emperor of India and, following Spain's example, called it the new 'Empire on which the Sun Never Sets.'"

"As for France, which began its overseas colonization at almost the same time as Britain, its overseas influence was mainly in Africa, Southeast Asia, and parts of North and South America."

"Its colonial achievements were not as great as those of Britain, so I will not dwell on them."

"Although I don't know much about the overseas colonization methods and deeds of other European countries such as Germany, they are generally similar to those of Spain, the Netherlands, and Britain, except that these countries have far fewer overseas colonies than the first three."

When talking about this, Liu Kuan would occasionally point to a certain place on the map to let Zhu Yuanzhang and his princes and grandchildren understand the distribution of overseas colonial forces of Western powers in history.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a very good memory, especially for maps.

Therefore, after Liu Kuan finished speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang already had a distribution map of the famous overseas places of Western powers in his mind, and he also had a rough idea of ​​the division of the overseas fiefdoms of the Ming Dynasty.

After a little thought, Zhu Yuanzhang came to the large global map.

The princes and grandchildren of the emperor also knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was about to announce his decision, and they immediately looked over eagerly.

Zhu Yuanzhang leaned sideways, drew a circle on the map with his finger, and said loudly: "We have decided. Except for Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, the northern half of the Nanyang Islands, as well as the Western Regions and Central Asia."

"Oh, and the steppes and the vast north—anywhere else on the world map, you can choose to establish a vassal state!"

Zhu Di breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the South Asian subcontinent where India was located was not included in the circle drawn by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Before he could relax, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "However, we have a few requests for you overseas vassal states!"

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)