Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Coconut City.

The new capital of Sunda Kingdom has been built, and King Maharaja officially moved there three years ago.

The old capital was on the Banten side, named Baguan Bacha Charan, or Bacha Charan for short. It was now handed over to the prince to rule on his behalf.

Standing on the city wall, courtier Zeng Bofa pointed to the outside of the city and suggested: "Your Majesty, the moat should continue to be widened."

"I'll leave this matter to you." Maharaja followed suit.

"Maharaja" means Brahmin lord, and has now become the surname of the Sundanese royal family. The king's name is too long, so we will shorten it by his surname.

As early as the period when Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were co-rulers, the Sunda Kingdom on Java Island already existed.

At its peak, Sunda ruled two-thirds of Java.

It has been conquered many times by other great powers, but it has always retained the power of a feudal aristocracy. Historically, it was not until the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty that the Wandan Kingdom was completely destroyed.

In the past few years, Sunda was a princely state that submitted to Srivijaya, but it has been trying to break away from Srivijaya's control.

Hearing that Srivijaya's navy had been defeated by the Ming Dynasty, Maharaja immediately raised troops to respond. He killed the officials stationed at Srivijaya and took the opportunity to expand his territory to the surrounding areas. At the same time, he sent people to request the Ming Dynasty for canonization.

In recent years, relying on sea trade, the strength of the Sunda Kingdom has skyrocketed. From time to time, it has invaded Central Java, hoping to devour the Mataram Kingdom there.

Ma Dalanguo was beaten so hard that he could not resist and asked Daming's father to intervene many times.

The Ming court sent envoys to the sea twice to rebuke the Sunda king for unprovoked attacks on the Ming vassal. After each rebuke, the King of Sunda sent people to Luoyang to plead guilty, and presented a large amount of tribute to beg Emperor Zhu's forgiveness.

Then, you won’t change your stubbornness!

Maharaja said: "You have always said that Ming Dynasty's firearms are powerful. Can you recruit some Ming Dynasty craftsmen to imitate them?"

Zeng Bofa quickly dissuaded him: "Your Majesty, you absolutely must not!"

"Why?" Maharaja asked.

Zeng Bofa said: "Once we have firearms and use them to attack Matalan, the Ming Emperor will know it soon. At that time, the Ming army will inevitably be dispatched, and the Sunda Kingdom will be destroyed in a matter of seconds."

Maharaja smiled and said: "I admit that the Ming Dynasty's navy is powerful, much more powerful than Sriwijaya's navy. But as long as we go to land to fight, I will not be afraid of anyone. I was not afraid of Sriwijaya before, of course now Not afraid of Daming either."

Zeng Bofa was very speechless when he heard this, and secretly cursed "Yelang is arrogant".

But his whole family had moved here, and he had to help the Sunda King think about it. He quickly advised and said: "Your Majesty, compared with the Ming Dynasty's navy, the Ming Dynasty's horse infantry is more powerful. Many countries in the north have been destroyed by the Ming Dynasty. We are It’s impossible to win.”

"Haha," Maharaja laughed. "If I can't win at the seaside, won't I retreat to the mountains? My father and grandfather and I have experienced this kind of thing more than once. Every time we were defeated in the mountains. A strong enemy forces the other party to sit down and negotiate a withdrawal.”

Zeng Bofa said: "The Ming Dynasty's horse infantry was equally fierce in fighting in mountainous areas."

Maharaja curled his lips and did not care about this statement.

In his early years, he surrendered to Srivijaya and would go to war with his suzerain country from time to time. Moreover, they violated the orders of the suzerain country and engaged in smuggling year after year, bypassing Srivijaya to trade with other countries.

They even relied on the mountainous areas of West Java to repel Srivijaya's attacks time and time again, forcing Srivijaya to recognize the independence of Sunda (actually semi-independent).

In Maharaja's view, whether it is Srivijaya or the Ming Dynasty, only the navy is particularly powerful. When it comes to the army, he is still the most powerful. When fighting in mountainous areas, he is invincible.

"The trade wind is coming soon, and the port of Garaba (meaning City of Coconuts) will be busy again," Maharaja said, looking at the harbor in the distance. "The Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes can actually be printed in larger denominations. We make a lot of money." You get more money.”

Zeng Bofa became even more tired after hearing this, and explained again: "Your Majesty, the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes are different from those of the Song Dynasty Jiaozi. The treasure banknotes are specially made for convenience of carrying and trading. The smallest denomination is already very valuable. The larger denomination banknotes are very valuable." It’s hard to fool people, so I’ll be more careful when checking money.”

The counterfeit Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes really do not deceive the poor.

Because a treasure banknote of the smallest denomination may be equivalent to all the assets of the people at the bottom.

The counterfeit banknotes printed here in Coconut City cannot even be traded individually because they are easily recognized. It must be that during a large transaction, one or two counterfeit bills are mixed in a pile of genuine bills, and the other party can get away with it by relying on the other party's negligence in checking the bills.

Even if you are caught, you can still say that you don't know where the counterfeit money came from.

Maharaja asked, "Can't it be more true?"

Zeng Bofa said: "This needs to be further studied. The steel seal has already been developed, but there is no progress in the anti-counterfeiting dark pattern. For the time being, the dark pattern can only be made like that."

"Speed ​​up," Maharaja urged.

Some people are just greedy.

If the Ming Dynasty hadn't destroyed Srivijaya, Maharaja wouldn't even be able to own Coconut City, and he could only huddle in the Wanden Mountains to survive.

Now he not only owns the entire West Java, but also makes a lot of money every day by relying on the port of Coconut City.

But Maharaja wanted more. He wanted to make more money, build bigger cities, train more armies, swallow up the Mataram Kingdom in Central Java, and then swallow up the Kingdom of East Java. The country swallowed it.

He wants to unify the entire island of Java!

By the way, King Jian Yili thought the same way and continued to invade Matalan.

However, Jian Yi is weak in governing the country. After being reprimanded twice by Ming envoys, he is now doing business obediently. By the way, they bullied the natives of Bali and brought the entire island of Bali under their rule.

After a while, Zeng Bofa left Yecheng.

This newly built royal city is actually just a castle, and the neighborhoods and ports are all outside the castle. The Tseng family's mansion is located between the castle and the forest.

They were given thousands of acres of land by the king, including large tracts of forests and swamps. Part of the forest swamp has been reclaimed and cultivated by Mataram prisoners of war given by the king, who have become serfs of the Tseng family.

The money printing factory is in his own manor.

Close to the port, the Zeng family also built a large warehouse for buying, selling and hoarding various goods. The scale of his serious business is not large, and he is afraid that if it grows too big, it will arouse the suspicion of other Chinese maritime merchants in Coconut City.

Zeng's external identity was just that of the Sunda king's favorite, and she gained favor by providing the king with beautiful women.

"Brother is back?"

Zeng Boda took a counterfeit banknote and a real banknote and walked quickly to Zeng Bofa: "Brother, don't look at the hidden patterns for now. Just compare the steel seals of these two banknotes. Can you tell which one is real and which one is fake?"

Zeng Bofa compared them carefully and said with a smile: "There is not much difference. Xiaolang's money-making skills have improved again."

"But those anti-counterfeiting dark patterns still don't look like they are made. There are three alternating dark patterns. Each layer is very clear. I don't know how the court came up with it." Zeng Boda couldn't help but sigh.

"Take your time." Zeng Bofa encouraged.

Zeng Boda asked: "What did the idiot king say today?"

Zeng Bofa recounted it in detail, shook his head and said: "Mud can't hold up a wall. He is a foreign chief who only sits in a well and watches the sky, but he actually thinks he is wise and mighty, and even thinks of fighting the heavenly soldiers on land."

"Yelang is arrogant." Zeng Boda complained.

Zeng Bofa sighed: "Isn't it good to make money honestly? If he insists on annexing Matalan all day long, if he continues like this, the court will send troops to punish him sooner or later. I don't know if we can escape the disaster."

Zeng Boda was silent and worried.

In the business of genocide, it would be a lie to say that you are not afraid, otherwise your family would not go to sea.

But even after the family moved to Coconut City, as more and more counterfeit banknotes were produced, Zeng Boda always felt that something would happen one day.

Washing hands in a golden basin?

There is no way to stop.

…

Maharaja is already in his fifties, but he is in particularly strong health and gave birth to a son last year.

He was born to a young Han concubine, and he loved this concubine very much. Not to mention how beautiful he is, just his Chinese identity can help Maharaja regain his glory.

It seems that if he sleeps with a Han woman, he sleeps with the entire Ming Dynasty.

This Han concubine was kidnapped from Fujian by the Zeng brothers. She came from a down-and-out businessman family and gave her a betrothal gift of 500 yuan, saying that she would take her as a concubine and take her to Coconut City to live in.

The Han merchants in Yecheng all thought that the Zeng family had become so powerful, so they disliked them very much - they actually gave their concubines to the local chiefs!

He called his beloved concubine to drink together. After a few glasses of wine, his concubine danced for him. The more Maharaja watched, the more he liked her.

He suddenly had the idea to make his youngest son the crown prince.

Now the eldest son is the crown prince. Ever since he moved to the new capital and left the old capital to his eldest son to govern, the eldest son has become more and more disobedient. He often makes small moves and even replaces officials assigned by him without permission.

If things continue like this, the eldest son will definitely rebel and must find an excuse to kill him!

"Boom boom boom!"

A series of loud noises like thunder came.

Maharaja stood up suddenly in shock, walked quickly outside, and hurried to the city wall.

An inner court official came with military officers.

Maharaja asked, "What happened?"

The officials in the inner court panicked and said: "The Ming fleet is coming! Dozens of warships came (mostly troop and food ships). At first we thought they were merchant ships, but before they even entered the port, they opened fire on the ships in the port."

Maharaja was really not a foolish king. He forced himself to calm down and said: "Quickly gather all the troops to defend the city, and then send people to contact the local nobles to send troops. Also, send envoys out to negotiate with the Ming army!"

"Boom!"

The city walls seemed to be shaking, but the Ming army's artillery fired at the castle.

The streets outside the castle were in chaos, and people on the pier fled in panic.

Maharaja personally climbed onto the city wall and observed the situation outside.

When he saw the groups of Ming troops landing and the Ming warships at the port, this guy was so scared that he turned around and ran around shouting: "Retreat from the south city gate, let's go to the mountains to fight!"

They no longer dared to defend the castle, and actually wanted to escape into the mountains to fight guerrillas.