I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 500: The Complete Map of the Land Determined by the Emperor Ming
The same scene happened everywhere in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Houzhao's edict caused a huge stir in the Ming Dynasty.

Although we had heard that Zhu Houzhao had won a series of victories in the Western Regions, the Western Regions were too far away and the public did not know much about them, so the public actually did not know where Zhu Houzhao led the expeditionary force to and how large the territory was.

And now, this sentence in the edict, "And the area west of Guanmen (Jiayuguan), more than ten thousand miles, is all included in the territory" made countless people drop their jaws.

You should know that the distance from the capital to Jiayu Pass is 4,000 miles. However, Zhu Houzhao said in his edict that he had conquered all the places tens of thousands of miles west of Jiayu Pass.
This is completely beyond people's imagination.

It's not that no one suspected that the tens of thousands of miles was bragging, but Zhu Houzhao never had the habit of bragging. The last time he fought the Northern Yuan Dynasty, he said that he had expanded the territory by 3,000 miles, and that was it.

Moreover, Zhu Houzhao had no need to brag, because history would reveal the truth. Even if bragging could make one feel proud for a while, it would eventually be exposed.
Therefore, these achievements caused a lot of discussion among the people of the Ming Dynasty. Many people believed that Zhu Houzhao's martial arts had already surpassed that of Emperor Taizong Zhu Di, and he was only ranked second among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, second only to Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.

However, some people expressed their disagreement. They believed that although Taizu had made great contributions to the founding of the country, he never personally commanded a battle after establishing the system in Nanjing and proclaiming himself emperor.

Later, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty and other places such as Yunnan were conquered by various famous generals at the time of the founding of the country. If this is counted, Taizu's martial arts skills would be discounted, so Taizu's martial arts skills might not be as good as Zhu Houzhao's.

Some people argue that Taizu had only a broken bowl at the beginning, while Zhu Houzhao was the emperor from the beginning, so it seems that Taizu is more powerful.
Anyway, the people are arguing fiercely.

Ai Zhiren, a student at the Nanjing Imperial College, also enthusiastically participated in these debates. During his spare time, he often invited his fellow students to discuss matters. The affairs of the Western Regions had recently become the hottest topic of discussion at the Imperial College.

One day, when they were discussing heatedly, a student rushed in with a roll of something and said, "Classmates, look what I found!"

"What good stuff?" Ai Zhiren asked puzzledly.

"You have definitely never seen it. Once you see it, it will definitely open your eyes." The student said mysteriously.

"What on earth is this? Take it out now and don't keep us in suspense," urged another student.

Seeing that he was about to arouse public outrage, the student quickly opened the things in his hands and carefully spread them on a table.

When that thing was spread out, everyone was stunned.

"I'm right, isn't I? This thing will open your eyes." The student said proudly.

No one paid any attention to the student, but looked eagerly at the food on the table.
"I found my hometown!" Ai Zhiren said excitedly, pointing to a place.

"This map is so detailed and accurate that even the cities near my hometown are marked correctly," Ai Zhiren continued.

The other students also pointed out the location of their hometowns one after another, and none of them found any mistakes.
Ai Zhiren looked at the words "Complete Map of the Geography Compiled by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Edition of the 21st Year of Zhengde" written on the top of the map and he suddenly understood something.

He looked at the student who had taken the map back and asked, "Is this map published by the Royal Group?"

"Of course it is. In the Ming Dynasty, only the Royal Group has the ability to make this kind of thing! This is a new product launched in the Royal Group's store." The student said proudly.

"And it's not expensive, a map costs only 5 cents," the student continued. cents is half a gold yuan note, half a silver coin, which is a bit expensive for ordinary people, but these students can afford it.

"I'll go buy one later!" Ai Zhiren said with a smile, "This is the most detailed map released by the Royal Group in recent years."

In recent years, the Royal Group has been publishing various maps to improve citizens' understanding of the world.

"Everyone, come and have a look! Here is a map of the Western Regions," a student shouted.

It turned out that the map on the table was only half unfolded, revealing only the eastern part of the Ming Dynasty. After it was fully unfolded, the vast western part of the Ming Dynasty was revealed to everyone.
"Look! This is Jiayuguan." A sharp-eyed student pointed to a place on the map and said.

Everyone looked over there quickly, then looked to the left side of the map and saw a series of place names.

"Look! Luntai City is here!" A student said excitedly, pointing to a place on the map, and then couldn't help reciting Cen Shen's frontier poems that mentioned Luntai.

"Loulan is in this place!" another student said excitedly.

"I found Li Bai's hometown, Suiye City!"

"I found the Congling!"

"This is Gaochang!"

"This is Tingzhou!"

"Yuli is here!"

"Kucha is here!"

"."

The students were searching the map with great interest, as if they were on a treasure hunt.

Many of the place names were seen in Tang poems that they were familiar with, but this was the first time they knew the specific location.
This map is a version reviewed by Zhu Houxuan. The biggest work Zhu Houxuan did here was to have people look up the Records of the Grand Historian, the Book of Han, and the New and Old Books of Tang, and change all the important place names in the Western Regions into Chinese names.
This is because many place names in Xinjiang in later generations were not Chinese names at all.

The most typical example is Urumqi. It was called Luntai in the Tang Dynasty. Later, when the Tang Dynasty lost the Western Regions, it became Urumqi, which is the Uyghur name. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the Dzungar Khanate was wiped out and Urumqi was deliberately changed to a Chinese name called Dihua. The meaning is easy to understand. Until 49 years later, it was changed back to Urumqi.

It's a piece of trivia, and also a joke from hell.

After the Tang Dynasty lost the Western Regions, many place names in the Western Regions lost their Chinese names. After the Qing Dynasty regained the Western Regions, many place names in the Western Regions were changed from foreign names to Chinese names. The most typical example was after Zuo Zongtang regained Xinjiang during his Western Expedition. The Qing court also changed all the important place names in the Western Regions into Chinese names based on the Records of the Grand Historian, the Book of Han, and the New and Old Books of Tang.
It is to increase the centripetal force of the Western Regions towards the central government and reduce and prevent separatism.
But after 49, perhaps out of the need for unity, the Chinese names of many places were changed to Hu names. I don’t know whether this move has contributed to the separatism in the Western Regions today.
Actually, the name Xinjiang itself has problems. It is obviously the ancient land of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but it has to be called Xinjiang, which gives people a sense of justification. It would be better to call it the Western Regions.
(End of this chapter)