Chapter Four: The Legitimate Yuan Empire of the Han People (Part One)

If trade routes are the veins that transport wealth, then the East is the heart that pumps the blood.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, border control was relatively lenient, allowing goods to flow freely. However, the Ming dynasty severely lacked the spirit of free trade; to buy something from them, one had to first find ways to appease them, which was quite troublesome.

Yet, the most profitable commodities all came from their lands. Therefore, to make a living, they had no choice but to humble themselves. These diplomatic maneuvers were among the measures taken. Everyone understood the importance of this matter.

However, the Tuohuan team truly lacked strength.

Although he was a big, clumsy fellow, Tuohuan was actually younger than Guo Kang, only about fifteen years old this year. It wasn’t that someone his age couldn’t engage in diplomacy, but judging by his demeanor, he was hardly cut out to be a Gan Luo.

As for the people around him, it was even less promising. Guo Kang even suspected that the most cultured person in the room might be the little boy Constantine...

Guo Kang was likely brought in for this reason.

Although his sworn father, the heroic Guo, was rather... simple-minded, his sworn mother, Madam Huang, was quite renowned.

The Huang family had a flourishing literary heritage. When they migrated to Persia, they had already gained considerable fame in the Ilkhanate. After the collapse of the khanate, Elder Huang led his people to escape the chaos of war and moved to a small island in the Mediterranean.

The Huang family called themselves the “Peach Blossom Stone Huang Clan” to commemorate their homeland. The island consequently became known as “Peach Blossom Island.” The Persians and Greeks around respected them greatly; scholars always remembered the name.

Unfortunately, although Guo Kang had studied hard for several years, the gap in cultural knowledge was still significant. His sworn mother often tried to discipline him strictly, urging him to focus on his studies, but his sworn father would persuade her down. The saying “One only regrets a lack of learning when it is needed” took on new meaning at such a critical time, making Guo Kang suspect that his sworn father might have spoiled him too much.

“Who else did you ask for help?” he turned to ask Tuohuan.

“I also invited Sun Wenyuan, the Great Officer Sun,” Tuohuan replied.

“You invited Sun the Hundred Thousand?” Guo Kang was taken aback. “Isn’t that backwards? Can he really help us negotiate with the Ming?”

“Rest assured, Young Master Guo,” Lama Wang said beside them, “The Yuan in Java are not a monolith; there are many factions within their ranks. This Great Officer Sun is someone I can persuade to assist us.”

“...Alright then,” Guo Kang said, unwilling to argue further.

Great Officer Sun, named Yi with the courtesy name Wenyuan, claimed to hail from the Great Yuan Court on Java Island and was a renowned maritime merchant today. Last year, he came to Constantinople and conducted several major deals with the Purple Tented Khanate, then toured various Black Sea ports. He was currently resting in the city.

Guo Kang had spoken with him a few times before. According to Sun, his ancestors were famous merchants in Suzhou during the Yuan dynasty, later conducting business in Yangzhou. They dealt openly in silk and porcelain, and secretly in contraband salt. They quickly amassed enormous wealth, inspiring a local poem: “With a hundred thousand strings of cash at his waist, riding a crane to Yangzhou,” earning the family the nickname “Sun Hundred Thousand,” a testament to their riches.

As the current head of the family, his commercial partners from the Nanyang archipelago to Egypt habitually used this nickname for him.

Guo Kang also learned that when the Yuan army launched an expedition to Java, they successfully crushed the native leader who had plotted an ambush, forcing the local tribes to surrender and securing a foothold.

By the late Yuan period, Jiangnan was engulfed in chaos, with endless battles and an ineffective court. Many chose to flee overseas, escaping to the still-functioning Yuan-controlled Nanyang region.

Later, after Zhang Shicheng was defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang and his supporters fled, another wave of maritime exodus occurred. As one of Zhang Shicheng’s main financiers, the Sun family used their long-standing maritime operations to escape just in time. After several twists and turns, they finally settled in Nanyang.

The Sun family and other wealthy merchants rivaled states in power, possessing their own enforcers, retainers, and fleets. At that time, maritime merchants, pirates, and navies often blurred into interchangeable roles. With such strength, they banded together, claiming loyalty to the Shun Emperor and using the Great Yuan name. Because their key base was Java Island, they were also known as the “Java Yuan.”

Relations between the Java Yuan and the Ming dynasty were notably poor.

This was not just due to the Sun family’s direct involvement in battles; many other wealthy merchants shared similar sentiments. The Yuan government’s lax administration meant that as long as one paid taxes and avoided open rebellion, the court mostly ignored them, allowing their influence to grow. The Sun family, even after losing their homeland, still dominated a region through their ships and long-established trading posts and shipyards in Nanyang.

But the Ming’s governance was far stricter. Sun Hundred Thousand pointed out that the government restricted merchants’ freedoms and stripped them of legal authority over their servants. The court’s endless demands and constant profiteering infringed upon the wealth painstakingly accumulated by merchants. After the dynasty’s founding, they limited navigation and suppressed free trade, seeking to monopolize the huge profits of overseas commerce.

Thus, Jiangnan’s great merchants all longed for the Yuan era. Their continued use of the Yuan name was for this very reason.

After the Ming’s establishment, many continued fleeing abroad in pursuit of liberty. Those who remained often secretly contacted these exiles, smuggling goods in peacetime and passing intelligence in wartime, hoping for the return of the Yuan’s heavenly armies.

Sun Hundred Thousand believed this was the will of the people and a source of confidence for those who, despite their weaker position, still dared to oppose the Ming.

At this time, the Yuan prince in Yunnan was attacked by Ming forces, defeated, and fled into Burma. The local Burmese king did not welcome him, and the two sides clashed continuously. Seeing an opportunity, the maritime merchants invited the exiled Yuan prince’s forces, who then advanced southeast through Siam into Champa, where they joined forces with the Javanese merchants, receiving supplies and support.

The Vietnamese Trần dynasty, fearing the advancing Ming forces in Burma, decided to ally with them. Through negotiation, Siamese and Vietnamese troops joined the Yuan army and maritime merchants to repel the pursuing Ming forces.

However, the Ming, seemingly possessed, refused to admit defeat. Two years later, another Ming army invaded northern Vietnam, pushing all the way to the outskirts of the capital Thăng Long before being driven back.

More than four years later, multiple Ming forces advanced from Yunnan, Guangxi, and the sea, attacking from various directions. The allied forces finally could not hold. Thăng Long fell to the Ming, the Yuan prince was defeated and committed suicide, and the Trần dynasty soon was abolished by the Ming. Remnants of other lords’ armies fled southward.

The Sun family and others gathered many soldiers and fled again by sea.

Fortunately, the Ming forces could no longer pursue, granting them a brief respite.