Everyone in Purple Tent knew that Java Yuan and the Ming Dynasty had a long-standing antagonistic relationship. Therefore, Guo Kang highly suspected that seeking help from Sun Shiwan would be a futile endeavor.
If one included its vassal states and tribes, the Java Yuan's influence almost covered half of the Occident, appearing to be immensely powerful. But in reality, their territory was fragmented rather than contiguous like the Ming Dynasty's Central Plains, the Timurid Empire's Transoxiana, or Purple Tent's Balkans. The true territory of Java Yuan consisted of a series of large and small seaports and their surrounding affiliated areas.
The Shang utilized these port networks to provide supply stations and safe harbors for ships, maintaining the shipping lanes. Outside the port areas, there were generally handicraft clusters, followed by large tracts of plantations, mines, and forests.
The large number of artisans gathered in the handicraft areas, on one hand, maintained the ports and ships, and on the other hand, produced various goods for trade. Forests provided timber for navigation, mines supplied raw materials, and plantations provided food for nearby residents and cash crops for transportation.
Beyond these areas, their connection was minimal.
Between the various ports, outside the Java Yuan's developed areas, there were numerous indigenous groups of varying sizes. Some were merely primitive tribes, while others had already formed relatively well-developed native states. Java Yuan generally had little interest in them, only requiring them to obey, join the trade network, abide by the trade rules they established, and pay an indeterminate amount of tribute. Some tribes with relatively reliable cultivation capabilities would be required to grow specified crops, which the Shang would then purchase centrally. The upper limit of their governance generally did not extend beyond this.
Previously, the great powers and hegemons of the Occident adopted a structure that would later be called the 'Mandala System.' For the natives, while Java Yuan governed more extensively, the overall nature was not significantly different. This was also the tacit understanding that had gradually formed with the local people over a hundred years since the Yuan Dynasty's conquest of Java.
Conversely, Java Yuan did not actually trust the local people.
The backbone of Java Yuan's armed forces consisted of the household retainers and fleets of powerful merchant families such as the Sun clan of Yangzhou, the Chen clan of Fujian, and the Wu clan of Lin'an. In addition, there were the Nguyen and Hu clans who came to seek refuge after Vietnam was annexed by the Ming Dynasty; and the Dali Duan clan who fled after the defeat of Prince Liang. These Jiangnan Han Chinese, Giao Chi, and Dali people formed the core of the army.
As their numbers were still too small compared to the Ming Army, Java Yuan would also organize larger peripheral armies as supplements, with Champa and Siam being major sources. They wavered between the Ming Dynasty and Java Yuan to maintain their independence, thus often turning a blind eye to the latter's recruitment of troops in their territory.
Furthermore, Java Yuan extensively recruited mercenaries to fight for them. To the east, there were groups of ronin from Japan. To the west, there were exiled Turkic armed groups after the Delhi Sultanate was defeated by Timur. Although the combat effectiveness of these individuals varied, they also supplemented Java Yuan's military strength.
As for the natives on the various islands of the Occident, Java Yuan had almost no confidence in their combat effectiveness. In the earliest days, they had indeed mobilized vassal native armies for battle, but their extremely poor performance led Java Yuan military officers to believe that their side effects outweighed their positive effects.
Most native armies served little effective purpose beyond swelling numbers and only consumed supplies in vain. On the battlefield, they would always collapse quickly, bringing negative psychological effects to friendly forces. It was better not to bring such people at all.
Theoretically, with strict training, native armies should not have such poor combat effectiveness. However, Java Yuan had dealt with various native forces. Many of them were only temporarily subservient and held considerable resentment towards their actions in seizing ports and land. Therefore, Java Yuan did not feel confident in training them, only occasionally deploying a few vassals as cannon fodder, who could not even face the Ming Army and could only suppress other tribes.
And with the expansion of trade, as long-distance shipping routes became increasingly unobstructed, they gradually discovered some new methods.
When Timur launched his western expedition, he broke through the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, bringing a long-awaited period of unity to the region. Subsequently, the unobstructed trade routes allowed a continuous flow of Slavic slaves to depart from Southern Russia, pass through the Caucasus, enter the Persian Gulf via Mesopotamia, and then be transported all the way to the East. Soon after, the Purple Tent Khanate also joined in, opening a shipping route from Constantinople to Damascus, further increasing the slave traffic.
These white slaves were unfamiliar with the land and did not share a common language. For Java Yuan, native slaves were unreliable and easily provoked the anger of local kin tribes, but white slaves did not have these drawbacks. Among them, those who were more loyal and robust could also be incorporated into the army.
Therefore, from that time onwards, Java Yuan became one of the main buyers of white slaves, continuously filling the plantations in Java, Luzon, and Borneo with them.
Because the Ming Dynasty monopolized a large number of handicraft products and constantly tried to disrupt Java Yuan's trade, Java Yuan had always tried to replace the increasingly risky and unstable Ming Dynasty smuggled goods of recent years with self-produced products. Although these silks, ceramics, and ironware still had some issues at present, they also had a considerable market in the Occident, bringing them significant profits.
However, Occident buyers often could not provide valuable bulk products that could be supplied long-term for ships to bring back. Returning without a full load was too much of a waste of valuable shipping capacity. The slave trade across the Indian Ocean precisely compensated for this deficiency.
