The Ming Dynasty during this period is not the Ming Dynasty in the minds of later generations.

The Mongol cavalry ravaged the Eurasian continent. When Zhu Yuanzhang drove them out of the Central Plains and defeated the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the reputation of the Ming Dynasty had become extremely strong throughout the world.

You must know that although the Mongols were defeated, Timur, the Golden Horde, the Oirat, the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, the Delhi Sultanate, and the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty were still the overlords of the entire Eurasian region.

And they, it can be said, are all Mongolian forces.

The powerful Central Plains dynasty was not a place that the Mongols could easily conquer, even during the reign of Genghis Khan. Neither the arrogant Genghis Khan nor the world-renowned Mongke could successfully rule the Central Plains.

And now, the prestige of the Ming Dynasty is no weaker than that of the Mongols.

This is also why when Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial edict was conveyed to various small countries, almost all of them surrendered.

In other words, Japan is more naughty.

But now, Japan has been conquered by the Ming Dynasty. Not only did it cede three major coastal cities, but it also paid a large amount of military expenses.

What the Mongol armies had failed to accomplish in their two attacks on Japan was now accomplished by the Ming Dynasty.

This kind of deterrence has already spread to neighboring countries through the imperial gazette.

It has to be said that in the Ming Dynasty, the imperial gazette has become the fourth best-selling commodity after silk, tea and porcelain.

Originally, it was just some monarchs of small neighboring countries who wanted to take this opportunity to learn some news about the Ming Dynasty.

After all, this is the most powerful country. Even Timur, the most brutal and powerful in the West, has to bow his noble head to it.

Zhu Ying saw the business opportunity and simply ordered the construction of paper mills and printing houses in greater detail.

Treat the Imperial Gazette as a commodity and transport it directly to all countries outside the territory of the Ming Dynasty, both secretly and openly.

The so-called secret business is the merchants who buy and sell this item, using the pretext that the Ming Dynasty prohibits its delivery outside of the city to raise the price.

On the surface, as long as you can obtain a quota in the capital, you can transport it normally without restrictions.

Originally, Zhu Ying didn't think much about it. He just thought that a piece of white paper could be sold at the price of silk, which was undoubtedly a big deal.

Unexpectedly, this turned out to be a strange transmission of Central Plains culture.

Because the imperial gazette of the capital was printed entirely in Chinese characters, and since it was done in secret, it was impossible to do any translation.

This means that if you want to understand the contents of the Beijing Gazette, you must know Chinese characters.

As a result, the value of anyone who could read Chinese characters outside the territory of the Ming Dynasty began to increase.

Not many people cared about it in the past. After all, this territory was far away and rarely touched.

It’s different now.

In the small countries surrounding the Ming Dynasty, as long as you know Chinese characters, you have a great chance of becoming a guest of honor among dignitaries.

Apart from anything else, at least when it comes to food, clothing and safety, there is no need to worry at all.

The contents of the imperial gazette are varied, and there is also a specific section for short stories, so even people who are not very interested in military and national affairs can read it with great interest.

There is also a section about food, which explains in detail the cooking methods, knife skills and taste of some expensive dishes.

After all, everyone lives for those few bites of food.

Some powerful people in poor areas, after reading the contents of the court bulletin, had never imagined that there were such delicacies in the world. Just hearing about them was enough to make people salivate.

The wide spread of the capital's gazettes also made the spread of Han culture more widespread, especially some descriptions of the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, which made people clearly know that the capital of the Ming Dynasty was the most prosperous place in the world.

I only had a vague feeling before, but now I know it more clearly.

For example, Annan, or the entire Nanyang area, including Champa, many places were once ruled by the Central Plains dynasty. Annan itself speaks Chinese and uses Chinese characters. Except for the difference in accent, there is no other difference between it and the Ming Dynasty.

However, there is a saying that the dialect varies every ten miles, and the customs vary every hundred miles.

Speaking of it, the change of Annan's accent is also a very normal thing for the Ming Dynasty.

There were many different accents in the Ming Dynasty, and even if they were dozens or hundreds of miles apart, there would be huge differences in accent. This situation still existed even after Mandarin became popularized in later generations.

This is also the reason why when Zhu Ying proposed to the Champa envoy that the fifteen Champa countries give up one country to Zhu Yunwen as a vassal state, Cha Duo did not dare to refuse directly.

I really don't have the confidence to refuse.

Not to mention Champa today. Because the Ming Dynasty lifted the maritime ban and opened up maritime trade, a large number of Ming Dynasty merchants began to travel to Champa.

The port of Champa suddenly became extremely prosperous, and the merchants coming and going at this time were almost all from the Ming Dynasty. There were occasionally some from other small countries, but none of them were as large and powerful as the Ming Dynasty.

When the palace-like ship appeared at the port of Champa, it brought a huge sensory shock to the Cham people.

The Zhan people have lived by the sea for a long time and are good at sailing. They naturally understand what the scale of the Ming Dynasty merchants means in the entire ocean.

That pitch-black entrance is the shining truth.

The silk, tea, porcelain and Ming Dynasty gazettes on the ship made all the nobles crazy.

Cha Duo naturally understood these things.

Under such circumstances, even Zhu Yuanzhang did not realize that in fact, it was not necessary to use force to make Champa give up a country.

There is a way to make plans for the enemy.

As long as you have enough information, you can easily get the results you want.

On the side of the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce, Zhu Ying had consciously been trying to gather information about Annan a long time ago. At that time, Zhu Ying wanted to take over Annan and made many detailed arrangements in terms of intelligence.

Of course, we must also understand the general situation of the countries surrounding Annan.

After becoming the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty, these arrangements became even more important. Zhu Ying not only did not give up on the training of these personnel, but after the Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce gave up the grassland branch, he provided more support to the intelligence personnel in the entire Nanyang area.

Especially in terms of output costs, there is not only a higher increase, but also a greater expansion.

This is also why Zhu Ying has been committed to opening the maritime ban.

Because he was very aware of the huge smuggling trade that existed here.

After becoming the crown prince, his mentality must be completely different.

In the past, Zhu Yingke had no sense of being a Ming Dynasty citizen. He smuggled when he should and bribed when he should.

But his status is different now. The entire Ming Dynasty can be said to be his own home. Who would want his family’s belongings to be secretly sold by outsiders?

Therefore, Zhu Ying has transformed himself from a former smuggler into the person who most wants to crack down on smuggling.

Precisely because he had been engaged in this business before, he was very familiar with some of the tricks involved, so it was naturally easier for him to crack down on them.

A simple attack is certainly not enough. Zhu Ying's goal is to control trade in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, especially the taxation aspect.

This can be said to be the kingly way.

Therefore, the current situation is very unfriendly to Champa.

Not only among the dignitaries, but even the ordinary people of Champa are now very dependent on the Ming Dynasty. As a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, even on the surface, even though Zhu Ying's request is a bit difficult, both Cha Duo and the King of Champa have to seriously consider how to deal with it.

On the surface, the King of Champa did not have the courage to fall out with the Ming Dynasty, and Cha Duo knew this very well.

At night, Cha Duo sighed helplessly, and finally remembered what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had said. He could only grit his teeth and write a letter to persuade the Champa King to give up a city.

A foreign letter is a foreign letter, and a private letter is a private letter.

Whether it was for himself or for his wife and children, Cha Duo had no choice but to do this.

At the same time, a letter was sent from the capital to Annan, which was adjacent to Champa.

The situation in Annan has become completely different from the historical trend because of Zhu Ying's intervention.

Historically, Zhu Yuanzhang did not pay attention to the internal situation in Annan. In the end, Zhu Di sent more than 200,000 troops and turned Annan into the Jiaozhi Chengxuanzhengshisi of the Ming Dynasty.

Although Annan originally belonged to the Central Plains since the Qin Dynasty and did not establish an independent country until the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it has since then always paid tribute to the Central Plains dynasty and been a vassal state.

Whenever there is a change in the throne, a report would be made to the Central Plains dynasty requesting enthronement.

Historically, in the early years of Jianwen, a coup broke out in Annan. Prime Minister Hu Jinyao deposed the monarch, proclaimed himself king, and changed the country's name to Dayu, which is known in history as the Hu Dynasty.

However, Hu Jinyi had been hiding this from the Ming Dynasty. Later, when Hu Jinyi's son Hu Hancang was in power, he pledged his loyalty to Zhu Di, who had just become emperor, and claimed to be the nephew of the Chen Dynasty monarch. He was supported by all the ministers and requested to be canonized. Zhu Di had just seized the throne and naturally had no time to investigate, so he canonized Hu Hancang as the King of Annan.

There is no wall that is impenetrable. Ministers of the Chen Dynasty kept running to the Ming Dynasty, informing the Ming Dynasty of this matter and requesting the Ming Dynasty, the suzerain state, to make decisions for the Chen Dynasty.

Zhu Di eventually learned the truth of the matter.

Zhu Di actually did not want to use military force at first. After all, Annan was one of the fifteen countries that should not be conquered in the "Imperial Ming Ancestor Instructions" established by Zhu Yuanzhang.

So at first Zhu Di only sent a few thousand people to escort Chen Tianping, a descendant of the Chen Dynasty royal family, back to the country to be king.

However, unexpectedly, this Ming army was ambushed and eventually wiped out, and Chen Tianping was directly executed by slow slicing.

This was too ruthless. When the news came, Zhu Di was furious and immediately issued an edict to attack the Hu Dynasty that ruled Annan.

The main reason was that Annan was too disrespectful, and Zhu Di, who had just seized the throne, cared a lot about his face.

According to Zhu Di's idea, when my father was alive, you, Annan, were obedient and didn't dare to make trouble. Now that I have ascended the throne, you are doing this?

Moreover, this kind of coup d'état to seize the throne seems to be imitating Zhu Di.

Zhu Di was very sensitive about this matter. He had just become emperor and his regime was not yet stable. He urgently needed something to safeguard his authority, especially for the tributary states.

Therefore, an army of 200,000 was directly sent to Annan.

He even appointed Zhu Neng, who had made great contributions during the Jingnan Campaign, as the chief general, expressing his determination to defeat Annan in one fell swoop.

It was a pity that Zhu Neng died of illness due to the jungle climate. However, even the deputy general Zhang Fu only took five months to completely conquer the entire territory of Annan.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was absolutely at the top of the world in terms of military strength. With the family wealth left by Zhu Yuanzhang, it was not a big deal to deal with Annan.

This result was also expected.

Unfortunately, due to governance problems and too many uprisings, the Ming Dynasty suffered heavy casualties, wasted a large amount of manpower, material and financial resources, and fell into a quagmire.

Therefore, in the second year of Xuande, Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji made the decision to withdraw troops from Annan and abolish the Jiaozhi Chengxuanzhengshisi.

It’s a pity that Zhu Zhanji was still too young. This withdrawal meant that the prestige of the Ming Dynasty began to decline throughout the world.

It was from here that the Ming Dynasty, after Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Di, and Zhu Gaochi, truly began to go downhill.

When the male lion loses its deterrent effect, the wolves will have other ideas.

From then on, the Ming Dynasty could never regain the prestige that shocked the world in the early Ming Dynasty.

But now it is of course different.

If Zhu Ying were still alive, he would certainly not repeat the same mistakes.

When 50,000 elite troops arrived in Annan, it meant that the possibility of Hu Jintao launching a coup had completely disappeared.

In Kunning Palace.

Chen Muyue, Duke Anxiu of Annan, or the current concubine of the crown prince, came to the main hall happily.

"Your Highness, I heard that Your Highness sent a message to Annan."

There was surprise in Chen Muyue's tone.

Although life in Annan was not as good as it is now, it is her hometown after all, and her relatives are there.

I grew up there since I was a child.

So the news about Annan would naturally make Chen Muyue more excited.

However, due to the lack of information, the letter had been sent for almost ten days and was about to arrive in Annan before Chen Muyue received the news.

Zhu Ying heard this and said with a smile: "Some time ago, due to some things, I did give some explanations to Annan."

Chen Muyue asked expectantly, "Did Your Highness mention me to my father?"

This question stumped Zhu Ying.

In fact, although this letter was also written to the King of Annan, Zhu Ying naturally did not consider Chen Muyue's affairs at that time and did not mention it.

After a short pause, Zhu Ying certainly would not answer the question directly, and instead said, "It seems that Mu Yue is homesick."

When Chen Muyue heard this, she couldn't help but recall every detail of her childhood. Her eyes became red, and she nodded gently to Zhu Ying.

When Zhu Ying saw this, an idea suddenly came to his mind.

After thinking for a while, he said, "Since you miss home, why not find some time to go back and have a look."

Upon hearing this, Chen Muyue looked at Zhu Ying in disbelief.