For these reasons, the relationship between Rome and the Yuan and Ming dynasties of Java was actually quite subtle.
On the one hand, the Khan's court was not satisfied with the Ming Dynasty's restrictive policy, because it would undoubtedly create obstacles to trade and affect income. On the other hand, Javanese isn't actually a good guy. They are essentially a group of second-rate traders. If these people really control the Nanyang waters, any oriental goods they buy from the future, whether they are resale goods from the Ming Dynasty or Nanyang's own spices, silks, and porcelain, will definitely have to increase in price.
But the Purple Horde Khanate is too far away from the east. If you take the sea route, you can either go to Syria and then go ashore; or you can go to Egypt and then go to the Red Sea. In short, there is no way to directly reach the Indian Ocean and directly participate in trade. In the later period of Basil Yerigo's reign, the Khan began to turn part of his attention to the south, trying to find a breakthrough at sea.
At this time, the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt fell into frequent civil strife and Timur was rapidly rising in the east.
The decline of the Mamluks was actually expected. Although this country once had a strong military, its political system was too rough.
During this period, the core of the Mamluk dynasty were Kipchak slaves. These people were trafficked from the grasslands of southern Russia, carefully selected and trained, and became the personal soldiers of the Sudan and officers at all levels.
Although they are called slaves in name, every qualified Mamluk warrior can get a fief, which is actually a kind of fief knight. Officers were allowed to have different numbers of Mamluks according to their ranks, and the Sultan himself controlled the most elite and largest force within the dynasty.
However, the politics of the Mamluk Dynasty were very unstable. Whenever a new sultan came to the throne, there would be a purge of the former's trusted officers and slaves. Of course, these people are not willing to give in and will fight back with all their strength. More than a hundred years later, the Mamluks, who had been suffering from internal strife for a long time, no longer had the same vigor as before.
The rise of the Purple Horde Khanate also inadvertently dealt a blow to the Mamluk dynasty.
During the reign of Alexios Mergan, the Khanate began to expand eastward along the northern shore of the Black Sea, which eventually triggered a full-scale war between the Purple Horde and the Green Horde and White Horde within the Golden Horde. The various ministries of the divided Golden Tent could not withstand the purple tent army and were either annexed or fled.
No one expected that this result would not be a good thing for Zi Zhang. It caused the armies of the Southern and Northern Governments of the Khan's court to lose balance, which in turn led to the assassination of Alexius and the first civil war known as the "Civil War". Rome also once entered the Republic of Nine Pillars with the throne of Khan vacant. The period of his rule had a profound impact on subsequent history.
And they are far from the only ones affected.
In order to maintain their rule, the Mamluk dynasty basically did not accept local people and only recruited Kipchak slave soldiers. However, after the Zi Zhang war on the grasslands ended, the Khan's court worked hard to restore order, and a large number of grassland people were pacified and integrated, resulting in a significant reduction in the Kipchak slave trade. This caused the Kipchak Mamluks, whose status was already shaky, to be challenged by the Caucasus Mamluks, and the regime became increasingly unstable.
At this time, Timur's rise in the east gave the Purple Horde a better opportunity.
Timur was originally a small leader of the Western Chagatai Khanate. He had few people and little strength, and had almost no sense of existence. In the civil war between the Eastern and Western Chagatai Khanates, they were able to rise to prominence by relying on their ability to play both sides.
Although it is called "Timur's Empire" by some people, due to his embarrassing origin, Timur does not even have a prestigious title. Because he was not a member of the Golden Family, the Mongolian and Turkic tribes in Central Asia did not recognize him as a khan, so Timur could only use the title of emir all year round.
Later, Timur defeated another great warlord, Hu Xin, and took over the princess of Western Chagatai from him. From then on, he began to call himself "Gu Lie Gan".
This word means "son-in-law" in Mongolian. At that time, Genghis Khan recruited a group of men from other clans through marriage and incorporated them into his subordinates. As a result, they became one of the titles related to the Golden Family. In this way, Gu Liegan became Timur's most popular name, so much so that in the history books of the Ming Dynasty, he was directly called "Consort Timur".
Later, the White Horde Khan, the agent supported by Timur, rebelled and relied on the Golden Horde's hometown to frequently plunder Timur's hometown - the Hezhong region of Central Asia. In order to solve this scourge, Timur personally led an army to go on an expedition, and at the same time looked for allies everywhere to curb Tokhtamysh's forces.
Coincidentally, the Purple Horde Khanate was also at war with various grassland tribes at this time, and the two sides hit it off immediately. Timur set out from the river, went north into the grassland, and marched from east to west; the famous general of the Purple Tent, Taishi Totuo Mametinikus, led his army from Crimea and invaded the Don River and the hinterland of the Golden Tent. Volga river basin.
Timur's army was huge and was actually a Persianized composite army. Therefore, Tokhtamysh planned to use traditional grassland tactics to consume them as much as possible during the movement, and then choose an opportunity to attack. However, Maimetinicus's army crossed the Sea of Azov and directly threatened Tokhtamysh's rear base.
The nobles of the Golden Tent who stayed behind were unable to defeat the Purple Tent camp, and were even defeated in the opponent's counterattack. This caused the White Army to lose the strategic space to turn around. Tuotuo Mi lost his patience and was forced to engage in a decisive battle with Timur's army in advance, and was ultimately defeated.
This war established a good relationship between the two countries. The Purple Horde discovered the serious lack of legitimacy of Timur's rule - until now, Timur's theoretical legitimacy still comes from his wife of Western Chagatai and the puppet khan's father-in-law.
The country is so big, and it's really unreasonable to have the title of son-in-law. So Zi Zhang took the initiative to propose that they had abundant information, and the Chagatai Khanate's homeland had been war-torn for a long time, so many records may have been lost. They can send professionals to research Timur's family genealogy to see if he is a member of the Golden Family.
A group of scholars set out from Constantinople with great fanfare. With the cooperation of Timur's regime, they propagandized all the way and finally arrived in Samarkand.
The old scholars brought a lot of Golden Horde archives that were said to be from the Batu era. After some research based on local documents in Central Asia, they discovered that Timur's family was also a member of the Golden Horde who had been separated for many years. . In terms of seniority, he is still the uncle of Zi Zhang Khan. So, everyone immediately persuaded him to come in and suggested that Emperor Timur's uncle sit on a felt and profess sweat to rectify his reputation. Timur's regime finally became the "Timur Khanate" in name only.
Timur was very impressed by this and sent a large amount of gold and silver treasures to Zizhang as a thank you gift. He also sent his fourth son Shaharul to lead a delegation to pay a return visit. However, before both sides enjoyed their victory for long, news came that Tokhtamysh was making a comeback.
Tokhtamysh was also a hero of his generation. He was quite prestigious on the grassland. After his defeat, he still had many followers. He quickly drove away the puppet nobles supported by Timur and reoccupied the old capital of the Golden Account - Belgosarai. .
Tokhtamysh also learned a lesson this time and learned from the enemy's victory experience. He sent people to contact Osman, the overlord of Asia Minor, and the Mamluk dynasty entrenched in Egypt, and joined forces to cause trouble for Timur.
Timur was forced to contact Zizhang again to send troops, preparing to deal with the culprit Tokhtamysh first, and then transfer the army south to wipe out other enemies.
