Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1090 An unexpected surprise

"Your Majesty, please look! These are some items that we collected in Mozambique." Wang Fuzhi took out a few things he had brought into the palace and presented them. Lu Jiude on the side stepped forward to take them, took a quick look at them, and then held them in both hands and presented them to Zhu Shenzhui.

Zhu Shenzhu looked at them carefully. These things were just inconspicuous broken porcelain pieces and some sundries. He subconsciously picked up a piece of porcelain and looked at it. When he saw the other side of the porcelain piece clearly, he couldn't help but exclaimed, because there were not only Chinese characters on it, but also the reign title of Yongle.

"It's really Yongle porcelain." Zhu Shenzhui laughed, but he added: "Just a few pieces of porcelain are nothing. When Zheng He sailed to the West, he was also responsible for trade. He carried a lot of goods on board, including a lot of porcelain. These goods were sold along the way and then sold westward by Western merchants. It is possible that some of them ended up in the local area."

"Your Majesty, I have other evidence!" Wang Fuzhi said immediately. He carefully described how he discovered these porcelain pieces, and how he asked Zheng Hongkui and others to take him back to the tribe. Then he went to the tribe to inquire about the situation. He realized that this tribe was different from other local tribes, not only in appearance and living habits, but even the shape of the houses they lived in had the shadow of the Ming Dynasty.

More importantly, they also found a cemetery near the tribe. Although the cemetery is very old, it still looks like a traditional Ming Dynasty cemetery. And there is another item that can prove it. This is a waist badge of an officer of Zheng He's fleet that they accidentally found in the cemetery.

It was only then that Zhu Shenzhui noticed that there was indeed an inconspicuous-looking metal plate among the pile of broken porcelain pieces. He had not looked at it carefully just now, but now he picked it up and looked at it carefully. When he could vaguely make out the words on it, Zhu Shenzhui's expression suddenly became solemn.

If it is just some broken porcelain pieces, it really can't prove anything. As Zhu Shenzhu said, Zheng He brought a lot of goods when he sailed to the West, including a huge amount of porcelain. Although Mozambique is in Africa, it is not far from the Middle East. Zheng He's fleet did reach the Red Sea in the records. So it is normal for porcelain sold in the Red Sea to be left broken on the way to Europe by Western merchants through Africa.

But now with this thing, it is completely different. This waist badge is a military item. It is the identity certificate of low-ranking officers in the Ming Dynasty military and can fully represent the identity of the holder. This kind of identity certificate has existed since ancient times and is still used in the military in the 21st century. For example, the soldier badges carried by modern armies are the same. The appearance of this waist badge can definitely prove that some people from Zheng He's fleet did end up in Mozambique and lived here for many years, eventually aging and being buried in this land.

The appearance and living habits of the tribe mentioned by Wang Fuzhi also indirectly confirmed this point. Even if there were no advanced DNA testing methods in this era, these evidences alone can basically prove that this tribe should be the descendants of Zheng He's fleet.

"I didn't expect that after more than two hundred years, there would be descendants of Zheng He's fleet. The people of my Ming Dynasty are stranded overseas..." Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but sigh as he stroked the badge in his hand.

Beside him, the Crown Prince and King Song both showed surprised expressions. They had never thought that such a situation would be discovered. Looking at the porcelain pieces in front of them and the waist badge held in Zhu Shenzhu's hand, they were extremely surprised.

"Father, since we have this waist badge, we should check who the owner is. This person is not only a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, but also a fellow soldier in the Ming Dynasty. If we can find out who the waist badge belongs to, even if we cannot transport the remains buried there back to the Ming Dynasty and let their souls return to their hometown, we can still let people know the deeds of our ancestors and let future generations comfort and remember them."

Zhu Shenzhui nodded slightly at the prince's sudden words. The prince was right. The owner of the waist badge was a citizen of the Ming Dynasty and a soldier of the Ming Dynasty. He followed Zheng He to the sea thousands of miles away, but never returned. His body was scattered overseas and could not return to his hometown. Now he only has this waist badge left.

As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, although he owned the world, Tang Taizong Li Shimin said well that the emperor is the boat and the people are the water. The water can carry the boat but also overturn it. The achievements of the ancestors cannot be buried like this, but should be properly handled. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty has begun to move towards the ocean, and the ocean is the main goal of the future development of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, this waist badge and the person represented by the waist badge and the story behind it are worth promoting. If this matter is done well, it will be of great benefit to the subsequent marine policy and loyalty to the Ming military.

"Your Highness is right. I'll leave this matter to you. You must thoroughly investigate, find their descendants, and properly place them to comfort the spirits of the martyrs of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Yes!" the prince responded and solemnly took the badge from Zhu Shenzui.

The badge was given to the prince, and he was asked to do it, but Zhu Shenzhui was not optimistic about whether the true identity of the badge holder could be found out. After all, so much time had passed, and the people back then had long since turned into dust, and the official records of the Ming Dynasty could not have been left behind, making it even more difficult to verify these events from two hundred years ago.

Moreover, during the Zhengde period, a strange fire burned all the materials of Zheng He's voyage to the West, including the navigation charts carefully drawn by Zheng He. Whether the fire was an accident or man-made is unclear. After the fire, many first-hand materials have been lost. In addition, the chaos in the roster of the Ming army in the past hundred years makes it impossible to verify these. However, this is just an attitude. Since the prince has made this suggestion, it also proves that the prince has his own ideas. It is not difficult to get an answer. According to the text on the waist card, a rough range is defined, and then the local guard station selects several military households as its descendants. Although it is difficult to prove whether it is a relative of the owner of the waist card in the end, it is not a 100% truth, but just an answer.

Moreover, no one knows his son better than his father. When the prince took the initiative to propose this suggestion, Zhu Shenzhu understood the prince's idea. The prince's idea was basically the same as his, which was to use this waist badge to do something, so as to win over the military, boost morale, and show the attitude of the Zhu family to the world. How could Zhu Shenzhu not support this?
Wang Fuzhi and Zheng Hongkui were deeply moved when they heard the conversation between the emperor and the prince. They stood up and praised the emperor and the prince for their kindness. At this time, the Song prince Zhu Mincheng seemed to be thinking about something and seemed to understand something.

After talking about the unexpected discovery in Mozambique, Wang Fuzhi continued to describe their experience of sailing westward, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, then turning back north, and finally arriving in Europe.

Wang Fuzhi told Zhu Shenzhui that their first stop upon arriving in Europe was Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal. In Lisbon they were warmly received by King John IV of Portugal, and when he met them, John IV expressed his willingness to formally establish diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Fuzhi responded to the King according to the instructions given by King John IV before his mission, but the subsequent establishment of formal diplomatic relations still required the Kingdom of Portugal to send a formal envoy to Ming. King John IV also gave a reply to this, and Princess Catalina, who came to Ming with King Charles II, actually also shouldered this mission.

By the way, it was because of their time in Portugal that Wang Fuzhi and his wife met Charles II, and it was also because of Charles II’s request that they later followed the delegation to travel around Europe and came to the Ming Dynasty.

After leaving Portugal, they passed through Spain, France and Germany, and finally arrived in the Kingdom of Poland, where they met the Polish King Władysław IV and successfully completed their diplomatic mission. They then continued to the Kingdom of Sweden, where they also established diplomatic relations with the other party under the warm hospitality of the Swedish King Queen Christina and Prime Minister Count Axel Oxenstierna, and obtained a series of cooperation.

As he said this, Wang Fuzhi handed over the bilateral agreement that he had prepared long ago. Zhu Shenzhui took it and looked at it carefully. There were four copies of the agreement. Two were diplomatic documents for establishing diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Poland and the Kingdom of Sweden and the Ming Empire. They were written in Chinese, French and Latin, and were stamped with the royal seals of the two countries and a series of fancy Latin signatures.

In addition, there is a business cooperation agreement between the two countries and the Ming Empire. This agreement stipulates that the two countries will conduct business cooperation on the basis of normal diplomacy. The content of cooperation includes but is not limited to maritime trade, people-to-people exchanges, etc., and also includes cultural, scientific and technological cooperation. In addition, there is a part about military aspects, but because this part is too sensitive, the agreement only mentions some frameworks, and the specific aspects need to be improved later.

In addition to these four agreements, Princess Catarina of Portugal brought the Portuguese letter of credence, and will send envoys to the Ming Dynasty later, but that is a story for another time.

As for other countries, although Wang Fuzhi also communicated with them when he passed by, there were no formal diplomatic negotiations. It was only limited to some business cooperation ideas. Whether formal diplomatic relations could be established and cooperation in other areas could be achieved in the future is still uncertain.

Anyway, Wang Fuzhi and Zheng Hongkui successfully completed their mission and brought back the good news, which made Zhu Shenzhu very happy. Especially after delivering the agreement, Wang Fuzhi took out a thick booklet for the emperor to read. After reading it, Zhu Shenzhu was surprised to find that the booklet was a detailed record of Wang Fuzhi's journey.

This booklet, named "Journey to the West", not only records what he and his party saw and heard, but also records many specific situations of European countries, including the situation of European countries, conflicts between royal families, and the economic, military, and cultural situations of various countries. In addition, Wang Fuzhi also wrote a lot of his insights and judgments in it. It can be said that compared with other things, this booklet is the most important gain.

The Ming Dynasty, as the central empire, has always played an important role in the world, and Zheng He's fleet during the Yongle period officially opened the prelude to the world's great navigation age.

If the Ming Dynasty had been able to stick to the policies of the Yongle period and continue to develop towards the ocean, how could the European countries have risen up through the Age of Exploration? However, after Yongle, during the reigns of Emperors Renzong and Xuanzong, the Ming Dynasty only carried out three voyages, and these three times were also the afterglow of the Ming Dynasty's large-scale exploration of the ocean.

After the last voyage to the West in the eighth year of Xuande, with the death of Zheng He and the death of the emperor due to illness in the tenth year of Xuande, the Ming Dynasty's maritime operations came to an abrupt end, which is a pity.

(End of this chapter)