Bringing the Railway to Daming

Gibb was so angry that he couldn't catch his breath and almost died on the spot.

After he finally caught his breath, he said with an unusually flushed face, "Have you forgotten about Marin's invasion decades ago? Now, apart from Jin, Marin is Hafs' most dangerous neighbor!"

"Furthermore, you might not even be able to coordinate the reinforcements from two countries, and you want to invite a third? Are you worried that the reinforcements won't create enough chaos?!"

Tab hadn't expected any of this, and feeling awkward, he fell silent.

Gibb felt a wave of relief wash over him, and he suddenly felt incredibly weak. He even started seeing double. So he said, "Forget it, you should hurry and send a messenger to ask for help."

Tabmer silently withdrew...

In late March of the 26th year of the Hongwu reign, the Aragonese navy attacked Tripoli, a city of Jin with only over 3,000 defenders, but was repelled by the defenders, suffering over 1,000 casualties.

In mid-April, the Aragonese navy encountered the main fleet of the Jin navy in the area of ​​what would later become Sirte Bay, and suffered a major defeat, losing more than 30 warships of various sizes, with over a thousand killed and nearly three thousand captured.

After this battle, the Kingdom of Aragon withdrew from the war between Jin and Hafs and sent an envoy to Jin in hopes of concluding a friendly treaty.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Prince Zhu Gang of Jin made the following six demands to the Kingdom of Aragon:

Firstly, compensation was awarded for losses incurred in the defense of Libo and the Gulf encounter, totaling 200,000 taels of gold and 100,000 shi of grain.

Secondly, the Kingdom of Aragon must not attack any Jin merchant ships passing through its waters.

Third, it allowed the State of Jin to establish embassies in the capital and port cities of the Kingdom of Aragon and to send diplomatic officials there.

Fourth, merchants from Jin were permitted to conduct business within Aragon, and were not to be harmed without cause. If a Jin merchant violated the law, he or she would be brought before the embassy judge for trial and then escorted back to Jin for punishment.

Fifth, it allowed Confucian scholars from the State of Jin to travel and study within Aragon and establish academies to spread Confucianism.

Sixth, all the terms agreed upon by the Kingdom of Aragon to the Kingdom of Jin shall also be enjoyed by the Ming Dynasty, the suzerain state of Jin.

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The Kingdom of Aragon, with its capital Zaragoza.

King Juan is reciting a sorrowful poem.

He was so sad that two lines of tears streamed down his face.

After Juan finished reciting the poem, the foreign minister who had come to report the results of his mission asked in a sorrowful tone, "Your Majesty, are you so sad because of the knights who sacrificed their lives in support of Hafs?"

“You don’t need to grieve for them. As knights, dying in battle is their honor—they will all return to the Lord’s embrace.”

Juan, in his forties, wiped the tears from his curly beard and shook his head, saying, "No, I'm grieving for my beloved horse—it had been having diarrhea for the past few days and died."

"It's only five years old."

As he spoke, Juan couldn't help but shed tears again.

As a king, Juan was neither lustful nor tyrannical, but he had two great passions: reciting poetry and riding horses.

Now that his beloved horse, which had been with him for three or four years, has died, how can he not be sad?
The Foreign Minister's lips twitched, and he almost couldn't help but curse out loud—more than two thousand soldiers had died in battle, and nearly three thousand had been captured, including hundreds of knights and several lords and nobles.

The farmers and fishermen who were conscripted are one thing, but aren't the more than one hundred knights and several lords and nobles more deserving of sorrow than a horse that never goes to war?
Just as the Foreign Minister was secretly complaining, Juan seemed to have snapped out of his grief over the death of his beloved horse and asked, "What was the outcome of the mission to that Jin state? Did they agree to establish friendly relations?"

The Foreign Minister said, "The Prince of Jin is willing to agree to establish friendly relations with our country, but he has put forward several conditions and hopes to sign a 'Treaty of Friendship' based on these conditions—this is the translated content of the treaty, Your Majesty, please take a look."

After speaking, the Foreign Minister handed over the 'Treaty of Friendship' document.

Juan took the document and stared wide-eyed, his face filled with disbelief.

"They won both battles, what losses did they suffer? Why are they demanding so much gold and grain in reparations?!" The Kingdom of Aragon today was not the later Spanish Empire. Although it was a large country in Europe, its actual territory was smaller than many provinces of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, even if Aragon could afford the reparations mentioned by Zhu Gang in the treaty, Juan would still feel a pang of pain.

Not to mention, he was completely unprepared for Zhu Gang to make such a condition.

In his mind, Jin's target now was Hafs. He took the initiative to befriend him, indicating that he would not participate in the war between the two countries. Even if Jin did not directly release the captured lords, knights and soldiers, he should at least let him redeem them at a low price.

Who would have thought that the State of Jin would demand such a large sum of money from him right off the bat!

The Foreign Minister was originally able to empathize with Juan, but he was disgusted by Juan's earlier act of mourning for the horse and reciting poetry, and now he had a kind of spectator mentality.

He then said, “Your Majesty, the amount of gold and grain mentioned in this first clause is indeed large, but compared to the other clauses, this one is not unacceptable.”

Is this acceptable?
Juan was taken aback, and then quickly flipped to the second clause.

He then frowned slightly and said, "It's alright that we can't attack any of Jin's merchant ships—if we can form a friendly alliance, we naturally won't attack their merchant ships."

Foreign Minister: "That's not it, Your Majesty. Please continue reading."

Juan patiently read through all the remaining clauses.

When he saw the third point, he looked thoughtful; when he saw the fourth point, his brows furrowed; and when he saw the fifth point, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"To allow Confucian scholars to travel and study in Aragon, establish churches, and spread Confucianism (as interpreted by the Aragonese translators)?! That's absolutely impossible!"

The Kingdom of Aragon adheres to the Church of the Gods. Although the Church of the Gods is not yet widespread in the Kingdom of Aragon, Juan's faith is sincere, and the people are mostly followers of the Church of the Gods. Naturally, it is impossible for other churches to be allowed to enter.

In Europe, the struggles between different churches were often more brutal than those between nations, and were often intertwined with national conflicts.

If he were to actually allow Confucianism into Aragon, other neighboring Apostolic nations could use this as a pretext to attack Aragon, and there is a high probability that they would join forces to divide Aragon among themselves.

The Foreign Minister said, “I know that the fifth point is hard for Your Majesty to accept and may be very agitated, but please don’t get so agitated—let’s finish reading the last point first.”

The last one?
Juan turned to the next page of the document and found that there was very little content.

All the terms agreed to by the State of Jin shall also be enjoyed by the Ming Empire, to which the State of Jin belongs.
Coming to his senses, Juan asked, "What do you mean? Is there an empire above the Jin state, like the Holy Rome or the Eastern Roman Empire?"

The Foreign Minister said, "We have also inquired, and there is indeed an empire above the State of Jin—the King of Jin is the third son of the current Emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

Juan frowned and said, "So what if there's a Ming Empire above us? The Holy Roman Empire is now a large alliance, and the Eastern Roman Empire is just a single city. That Ming Empire might be the same, just having the title of empire in name only."

“No, no, no,” the Foreign Minister shook his head. “Your Majesty, we specifically inquired about the Ming Empire—the Ming Empire was actually the country of porcelain.”

Juan was taken aback, then his eyes widened again as he asked, "Is that the legendary mysterious great country in the East that specializes in producing porcelain and silk? Isn't it ruled by the Mongols?"

"Your Majesty, the Mongols were driven out by the current Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who is also the founding monarch of the Ming Empire, the Hongwu Emperor. They have even destroyed their country. I heard that the Mongols' homeland, the Great Grassland, is now under the rule of the Ming Empire."

"This Ming Empire is not as large and empty as the Holy Rome—I heard that the Ming Empire has 32 provinces, each of which is larger than our Kingdom of Aragon."

"The westernmost part of their territory borders the Timurid Empire—you may not have heard of this country, but it is a powerful nation that has risen to the west of the Ottomans in recent decades, even more powerful than the Ottomans."

Juan was stunned after hearing this.

32 provinces, each larger than Aragon?
Wouldn't that be even larger than the Roman Empire before its supposed division?
Does such a powerful empire really exist in the world?

How do they manage such a vast territory?

Wouldn't lords far from the empire's center rebel and declare independence? (End of Chapter)