If trade routes were the veins that transported wealth, then the East was the pumping heart.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, border management was quite lenient, and goods could mostly enter and exit freely. However, the Ming Dynasty severely lacked the spirit of free trade; to buy something from them, one had to first find ways to coax them into happiness, which was very difficult.
But the most profitable goods came from their country. So, to earn money and live, one had to bow down to them. These diplomatic means were one of the measures. Everyone was well aware of the importance of this matter.
However, Tuohuan’s team was indeed lacking in strength.
Although he was a big, clumsy fellow, Tuohuan was actually younger than Guo Kang, only 15 years old this year. It's not to say that this age cannot engage in diplomacy, but looking at his demeanor, he was not the type to be a Gan Luo.
As for the people around him, there's even less to say. Guo Kang even suspected that the person with the highest cultural level in this room might be the young boy Constantine...
Inviting Guo Kang probably stemmed from this reason.
While his Father, Guo Daxia, was always relatively... pure, his Mother, Huang, was quite famous.
The Huang clan's literary heritage flourished, and when they migrated to Persia, they were already quite renowned in the Ilkhanate. Later, when the Khanate disintegrated, Huang led his clansmen to escape the wars and migrated to a small island in the Mediterranean.
The Huang family called themselves “Kitay Huang,” and they still use this name today to commemorate their homeland. This island was also thus called “Peach Blossom Island.” The surrounding Persians and Greeks all respected them; whenever this name was mentioned, scholars had an impression.
Unfortunately, although Guo Kang had also crammed for several years, the gap in cultural level remained quite significant. His Mother repeatedly tried to discipline him strictly, demanding that he focus on his studies, but his Father always dissuaded her. As the saying goes, 'one regrets not studying enough when it's time to use it.' At such a critical moment, he began to wonder if his Father was overly doting on him.
"Who else did you ask for help?" he turned and asked Tuohuan.
"I also invited Sun Wenyuan, Sun Daguanren," Tuohuan replied.
"You invited Sun Shiwan?" Guo Kang was startled. "Isn't that backwards? How can he help us deal with the Ming Dynasty?"
"Guo Gongzi, rest assured," Wang Da Lama said from the side. "Java Yuan is not a monolith; there are many intricate connections among their people. This Sun Daguanren, this old monk can persuade him to help."
...Alright," Guo Kang didn't know what else to say.
Sun Daguanren, given name Yi, courtesy name Wenyuan, claimed to be from the Great Yuan court on Java Island and was a famous and prominent Shang. Last year, he came to Constantinople and negotiated several large deals with the Purple Tent Khanate, then went to inspect various places along the Black Sea coast, and was currently resting in the city.
Guo Kang had chatted with him a few times before. According to his own introduction, his ancestors were famous Shang in Suzhou during the Yuan Dynasty, and later engaged in business in Yangzhou, dabbling in silk and porcelain openly, and private salt secretly. Soon, they accumulated immense wealth. At the time, people borrowed the ancient poem "With a hundred thousand strings of cash at his waist, he rides a crane to Yangzhou" to give his family the nickname "Sun Shiwan," exaggerating their wealth.
As the head of this generation, business partners from the Nanyang Islands to Egypt were accustomed to calling him by this nickname, which was its origin.
Guo Kang also learned that in this world, when the Yuan Army campaigned in Java, they successfully defeated the native leaders who had planned to attack them, forcing the local tribes to surrender and establish a foothold.
By the late Yuan Dynasty, Jiangnan also fell into war, with various forces fighting endlessly, and the Dadu court was powerless. Many chose to go overseas to escape, fleeing to the Nanyang region where the Yuan Dynasty Government still existed.
Later, when Zhang Shicheng was defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang, his supporters fled en masse, leading to another surge in overseas migration. As one of Zhang Shicheng's major financiers, the Sun clan, leveraging their long-standing advantage in maritime shipping, was able to escape in time. After several twists and turns, they finally settled in Nanyang.
The Sun clan and other great Shang were as rich as a nation, possessing their own enforcers, household retainers, and fleets. In those days, maritime Shang, pirates, and even navies were often interchangeable identities. Relying on these strengths, they gathered together, claiming to still serve Emperor Shun, and used the Great Yuan dynastic title. Because their important stronghold was on Java Island, they were also called "Java Yuan."
The relationship between Java Yuan and the Ming Dynasty was quite poor.
Leaving aside the Sun clan, who had directly fought, many other powerful Shang and magnates shared similar sentiments. The Yuan Dynasty's management was lenient; as long as money was paid and there was no open rebellion, the court often bothered not to interfere, allowing their power to grow quite large. For instance, the Sun clan itself, even after losing their homeland, could still dominate a region by relying on their ships and the family's long-standing commercial outposts and shipyards in Nanyang.
However, the Ming Dynasty's management was much stricter. Sun Shiwan pointed out that the Government restricted the freedom of Shang and deprived them of their legitimate rights over servants. The court demanded excessively, competing with the people for profit all day long, seizing the wealth that Shang had painstakingly accumulated. After its founding, it also restricted navigation and suppressed free trade, wanting to monopolize the exorbitant profits of overseas trade themselves.
Therefore, the great Shang of Jiangnan all yearned for the Great Yuan. Their insistence on using the Yuan Dynasty's dynastic title was also for this reason.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, people continued to flee the country in pursuit of freedom. Many who did not escape also secretly maintained contact with them, helping to smuggle goods in peacetime and providing intelligence in wartime, hoping that the Great Yuan heavenly army could fight back.
Sun Shiwan believed this was the will of the people and one of the sources of their confidence to resist the Ming Dynasty despite their disadvantage in strength.
At this time, the Prince of Liang, whom the Yuan Dynasty had enfeoffed in Yunnan, was attacked by the Ming Army, defeated, and fled into Myanmar. The local ruler of Myanmar did not welcome the Prince of Liang, and the two sides fought along the way. The maritime Shang saw an opportunity and invited the exiled Prince of Liang's forces. Thus, the Yuan Army advanced southeast, entered Siam, then Champa, and met with the Java maritime Shang, receiving supplies and support.
The Tran Dynasty of Vietnam also feared the Ming Army, who had already pursued them into Myanmar, and therefore decided to join forces with them. Through the mediation of everyone, the Siamese and Vietnamese armies, along with the Yuan Army and the maritime Shang, united and repelled the pursuing Ming Army.
However, the Ming Dynasty, as if possessed, simply refused to admit defeat. Two years later, another Ming Army attacked Vietnam from the north, fighting all the way to near the capital, Thang Long, before being repelled and driven away. More than four years later, several Ming armies arrived from Yunnan, Guangxi, and by sea, in multiple routes. This time, the combined forces finally could not hold out.
Thang Long was captured by the Ming Army, and the Prince of Liang was defeated and committed suicide. The Tran Dynasty of Vietnam was soon abolished by the Ming Dynasty, and the remnants of other feudal lords continued to flee south. The Sun clan and others gathered many people and once again sailed out to sea to escape.
Fortunately, the Ming Army was truly unable to pursue them this time, giving them a period of respite.