In Kunning Palace.

Zhu Ying looked at Zhu Yunwen in front of him, and after a slight hesitation, he said: "Since you have made up your mind, I will call the Champa envoys and ask them to give up one of their countries as your vassal territory."

Zhu Yunwen, who was sitting opposite, bowed with joy and said, "Thank you, brother."

After Zhu Yunwen had an agreement with Li Jinglong, he returned to the palace and heard from Mrs. Lu that Huang Zicheng was also willing to go, which made him even more surprised.

Later, at the urging of Lu, Zhu Ying came to Kunning Palace today and asked to be granted vassal status in Champa.

Faced with Zhu Yunwen's request, Zhu Ying naturally agreed.

Now Zhu Gaochi is also going to Japan. Apparently, many princes and grandchildren are thinking of becoming vassals overseas.

This trend is quite good at the moment, as most of the princes and grandchildren still want to create a name for themselves.

No matter what, the Ming Dynasty will provide a lot of support, and it depends on the results in the future.

For someone with a close relationship like Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Ying, as the eldest brother, arranged it personally.

After Zhu Yunwen left, Zhu Ying ordered Guo Zhong to call the Champa envoy from Tianjie Temple over.

Let's talk about the matter of enfeoffment.

About an hour later, the Champa envoy arrived.

"Chaduo, the Champa envoy, pays homage to His Royal Highness the Ming Crown Prince."

Cha Duo is a middle-aged man who dresses in an Indian style and speaks with an Indian accent.

This is because Champa was deeply influenced by Indian culture, including the domestic writing system, which was the South Indian script.

However, as an envoy to the Ming Dynasty, he was relatively fluent in Chinese.

Zhu Ying nodded, and then he didn't bother to talk nonsense, and said directly: "My younger brother, the grandson of the emperor, Yunwen, has now reached the age to be enfeoffed."

"According to the current system of the Ming Dynasty, my brother has chosen Champa as his fiefdom."

"I will offer 100,000 taels of silver as the money to purchase Champa. Please ask Envoy Chaduo to pass on the message to the King of Champa."

Upon hearing this, the Champa envoy Chaduo was completely stunned.

He didn't expect that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty would directly ask for a country as a fiefdom for the Emperor's grandson.

I didn't know how to answer for a moment.

This was obviously beyond Chaduo's understanding.

The only thing that was quite touching was the 100,000 taels of silver.

"Your Highness, this... this is probably not a good idea." Cha Duo didn't think much about it and subconsciously refused.

After all, directly splitting his country to the Ming Dynasty would undoubtedly make him a sinner of Champa.

During the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the King of Champa surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty and Kublai Khan named him the Prince of Champa and established Champa as a province.

Later, because the princes refused to submit, Kublai Khan sent Sodu to attack them from the sea. The Yuan army won many victories, but also suffered heavy losses. The Champa king retreated to the mountains and forests and the situation was not pacified.

Kublai Khan then sent his son Toghan to march by land through Dai Viet. Dai Viet King Tran Nhan Tong resisted him. Although Toghan captured the Vietnamese capital and joined forces with Suotu, Tran Nhan Tong gathered all the troops to counterattack and defeated Toghan. He then attacked Suotu, who was defeated and killed.

At the end of this battle, Mongolia suffered countless losses, Champa was able to preserve its country, and Kublai Khan gave up the offensive.

In the view of the Champa envoys, since the Mongols had failed to capture Champa in the past, how could the Ming Dynasty easily capture Champa now?

Zhu Ying smiled and said, "What's wrong with this? Champa has fifteen vassal states. Even if we give one to my brother, there are still fourteen states left."

"I think you know more about the current situation in Champa. Annan has always wanted to conquer your country."

"Now, in the capital of Annan, there are 50,000 elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming navy is invincible in the world."

"If both sides attack Champa from Annan, how long do you think they can hold out? Or will they hide in the mountains and forests like they did a hundred years ago?"

"If my brother becomes a vassal of Champa, there will be peace between Annan and Champa in the future. Moreover, the first stop of Ming Dynasty's maritime trade is Champa. In the future, maritime trade will deepen the relationship between Champa and Ming Dynasty."

"Champa has been a part of the Central Plains dynasty since ancient times. It was at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty that a Champa man named Qu Lian killed the magistrate of Xianglin County in Rinan County of the Han Dynasty, thus becoming independent from the Central Plains and establishing the Champa Kingdom."

"As an envoy of Champa, I think you should have read a few history books and know what I am talking about."

"If we really want to investigate, the entire Champa should belong to my Great Ming. Now I am just using your country to settle my Great Ming emperor's grandson. What's wrong with that?"

Zhu Ying's words were not just nonsense, but were indeed recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian.

If it weren't for the chaos in the Central Plains at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there would be no Champa Kingdom today. It would be just a county of the Central Plains dynasty.

From the perspective of the Ming Dynasty, it is just a country to accommodate vassal kings. If Champa is so ignorant, there is no need for it to exist.

Big beads of sweat were forming on the forehead of Champa envoy Chaduo, and his back was completely soaked.

He had originally thought that something good would happen, but he didn't expect it to end up like this.

However, the Champa envoy Chaduo could not find any words to refuse from the Ming Crown Prince.

He hesitated for a long time, not knowing what to say.

Seeing this, Zhu Ying said, "It seems that Envoy Chaduo is dissatisfied with my proposal."

"Please tell us, Envoy Chaduo, what exactly are you dissatisfied with? Do you think the 100,000 silver coins I gave you are too little?"

Hearing this, Cha Duo knew that he could no longer remain silent. After thinking for a while, he could only bite the bullet and said, "Your Highness, this matter is of great importance. I cannot make the decision on my own. I can only write a letter to Champa and see what the king thinks."

At this point, Chaduo could only blame the matter on his king.

Zhu Ying asked: "If I remember correctly, the King of Champa should be your younger brother."

"According to the Ming dynasty's system of primogeniture, the position of the Champa king should have belonged to you, Chaduo. But now, due to some external factors, your brother has become the king."

"He was afraid that you would have an impact on his rule in Champa, so he sent you to Ming as an envoy from Champa."

"I heard from the monks at Tianjie Temple that you have been in Daming for more than five years. When you first came to Daming, you couldn't even speak Chinese, so you had to find someone to teach you."

"Have you ever thought that one day you could return to Champa?"

"Your wife and son are all in Champa."

Before this, Zhu Ying had already figured out Cha Duo's background thoroughly.

What happened to Chaduo in Champa was never a secret, and the reason why his younger brother was able to become king had a lot to do with the religious beliefs in Champa.

Because he was influenced by Indian culture, even as the eldest son, Chaduo was unable to inherit the throne smoothly. Instead, he was inherited by his younger brother.

Zhu Ying was too lazy to understand the intricacies involved.

All you need to know is that when Chaduo came to Ming Dynasty, his wife and children were almost held hostage in Champa.

This is Zhu Ying’s breakthrough point.

Cha Duo had not expected that the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty would know him so well. If he had not specifically inquired about him, how could he have known these things?

In fact, having said this, Cha Duo knew in his heart what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wanted.

He wanted to agree to the conditions set by Champa in his capacity as an envoy of Champa.

As long as he had this handle, even if his younger brother, the King of Champa, disagreed to cede territory, he would not be able to stand firm on the basis of justice.

With an excuse, the Ming Dynasty will no longer care too much about the Champa King's opinion.

I will send soldiers to get it myself.

Chaduo also knew that 50,000 elite troops had gone to Annan, which posed a great threat to Champa.

Annan itself had the idea of ​​invading Champa, but due to some domestic problems in recent years, it has never been able to do so.

"Cha Duo, you have to know that the emperor's grandson Yun Wen is my brother, and his fiefdom must be resolved."

"Don't think that what the Mongols couldn't do, the Ming Dynasty can't do. Look at the Japanese now. They lost so many troops to the Mongols, but they still surrendered under the attack of the Ming Dynasty."

"Now that the maritime ban has been lifted, more Ming merchant ships will pass through Champa in the future. How can we feel at ease if there is no place for us, the Ming Dynasty?"

"Besides, you don't want to stay in the capital for the rest of your life. Your wife and children are waiting for you in Champa."

"Now that you have made some contributions in this matter, it won't be a big problem for me to send some people to help you bring your wife and children to the capital."

After Zhu Ying's soft and hard tactics, Cha Duo finally compromised.

This result is already doomed. If the Ming Dynasty really attacks Champa, it will not be a matter of giving up one country.

Who knows, a bunch of royal relatives might come to grab the territory at that time.

After the ideological struggle, Cha Duo took a long breath and said, "I will follow the arrangements of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

The next things became much simpler. Zhu Ying immediately ordered people to draft a letter to be sent to Champa.

There are two identical paragraphs in the letter, the difference is that one is written in Chinese characters and the other in South Indian characters.

As for the Nandina domestica characters, Cha Duo was naturally responsible for writing and translating them.

After writing, it will be stamped with the seal of the Chaduo Champa envoy.

Taking this thing, Zhu Ying went to ask the old man to stamp it.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the contents of the letter and scolded with a smile: "How dare you do such a thing? Of course, the King of Champa will give up his country to Yunwen as a vassal because of this letter."

"Besides, your letter also says that you will use 100,000 silvers to exchange for the Kingdom of Rili. We also know a little about Champa. Among the 15 kingdoms under our command, only Jiuzhou, Wuli, Rili, Wuma, and Banong are relatively good."

"Let alone 100,000 silver taels, even if it's 500,000 or 1 million taels, if we can exchange Rili without fighting, it would be a great bargain for us."

Zhu Ying smiled and said, "Only when you know yourself and your enemy can you win every battle."

"My grandson has been investigating Champa for many years. Although the Champa king ascended the throne through some means, he is actually a fool."

"Apart from being a devout Buddhist and worshipping Buddha every day, I can almost say that I don't care about things happening in my country."

"Annan is in such a situation. The country is in chaos. But it is still able to suppress Champa to a large extent. This is all thanks to the current Champa king."

"When my grandson sends a letter to the King of Champa, he will also send a letter to Annan, asking us to send 20,000 to 30,000 of the 50,000 elite troops stationed in Annan to patrol the border and put some pressure on them."

"I have bribed some officials from the Champa royal family and promised them huge benefits. I think they will definitely agree to this."

"Grandpa doesn't know that the officials in Champa are extremely greedy for money. Bribing them is not a big problem at all."

Hearing his eldest grandson say this, Zhu Yuanzhang took the jade seal with a smile, and then pressed it on the letter of credence.

"Well, let's see how our eldest grandson was able to take over Champa so easily."

"But let me be frank with you. If they really disagree, it won't be that easy to attack Champa again. We need to plan carefully."

"Now that our Great Ming is conquering other countries, it is not a good thing for other small countries. If we fight too many times and cannot gain any benefits, it will easily provoke many other small countries to boycott us."

Zhu Yuanzhang also had some concerns when he said this.

In the past two years, the Ming Dynasty has frequently mobilized its troops, fighting against Japan and on the grasslands.

There was also a war in Yunnan at the end of last year.

Although they were all victorious and there was no loss, the new feudal system made the surrounding countries somewhat uneasy.

I was afraid that one day I would be assigned a vassal state.

This has some impact on the stability of the Ming Dynasty today.

However, fighting on multiple fronts is a taboo, as it can easily lead to turmoil in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Ying smiled and said, "Grandson, of course I understand. Please rest assured, Grandpa, I will get the King of Champa to agree to this matter."

"As long as no troops are deployed, other small countries will naturally not take this matter too seriously."

"Besides, Champa is different from Japan. It is written in the historical records that it was a county of our Central Plains Dynasty during the Han Dynasty. The former king of Champa committed treason and killed the county magistrate, which led to the current Champa."

"In the grand scheme of things, we are right."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly.

This is actually the truth, but in fact Champa has been independent for many years.

It has been a thousand years since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

It seems a bit difficult to use things that happened thousands of years ago to talk about current events.

But the reason is here, no matter what, it does have a name.

Even if the army is really mobilized, it can be said that it is done with a legitimate reason.

"Well, you have taken some trouble for Yunwen's affairs. I think Yunwen is lucky to have a big brother like you."

"Let's see what the Champa King has to say in response."

After Zhu Yuanzhang handed the letter to Zhu Ying, he patted him on the shoulder and said.