What is taking advantage of opportunities to realize your dreams?

The year 1398 was a troubled time for China's Zhu Ming Dynasty. In Nanjing, Zhu Yuanzhang, who conquered the Ming Dynasty and became emperor, died; in Yanjing, King Zhu Di of Yan, who guarded the northern half of the Ming Dynasty, went crazy. The Ming Dynasty entered a period of brutal power struggle.

In fact, the death of Zhu Yuanzhang in Nanjing was real; the madness of Zhu Di in Yanjing was just an act. Zhu Yuanzhang had 24 sons in his first marriage. After he became emperor, he made his eldest son the prince and the rest were named kings. When Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, his first three sons all died, and Zhu Di, the fourth eldest son of Yan, became the de facto eldest son. Among so many sons, Zhu Di is the most talented prince and the one who has made the most military exploits. It was Zhu Di's main credit for wiping out the remaining forces of the Yuan Dynasty and unifying the northern provinces. With merit comes ambition. Zhu Di saw that the prince was dead, and the emperor admired him very much, thinking that after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the emperor's throne should belong to him. Therefore, he took advantage of being far away from the emperor to recruit talents and accumulate strength in preparation for his rule.

Zhu Di's activities of recruiting talents and preparing for governance were carried out in secret. During these events, there is always someone to deliver the news and notify the relevant people. To do this, you need someone who is smart, responsive, tight-lipped and very inconspicuous. Zhu Di spent a lot of time thinking about this. After much thought, he finally felt that the young eunuch Ma Wenhe beside him was the most suitable. During the expedition to the Northern Desert, Ma Wenhe followed Zhu Di for several months and gained the trust of King Yan. He was very smart, and many times he knew what to do just by a wink from King Yan. Although he is a low-level eunuch, he has read a lot of books and understands the truth. Since he came to Prince Yan's Mansion for a short time, no one noticed him, nor did he cause any trouble or make any enemies. Ma Wenhe also has another advantage. He is from Yunnan, and his hometown is thousands of kilometers away from Yanjing. In addition, his family has long been separated, and there is no contact between relatives and friends, so there is one less way to leak secrets. After much deliberation, Zhu Di decided to use Ma Wenhe as his confidant and let him act as a liaison officer in the conspiracy to form a party.

After Zhu Yuanzhang died, he did not pass the dragon throne to Zhu Di, but gave it to his eldest grandson Zhu Yun. When the news reached Yanjing, Zhu Di was so angry that he screamed. He looked down upon his cowardly nephew Zhu Yunwen at all. Therefore, after receiving the news of his father's death, he did not go to Nanjing to attend the funeral. Ma Wenhe, who was serving King Yan, saw Zhu Di's irrational appearance and did not dare to persuade him because the court stipulated that eunuchs were not allowed to participate in politics. However, when Zhu Di calmed down a little, he promptly asked if he needed to summon his close ministers to discuss the matter? Zhu Di nodded, and Ma Wenhe immediately summoned some of the wisest people who were closest to Zhu Di. Zhu Di, who had not yet completely calmed down, wanted to immediately raise his troops to rebel and compete with the incompetent emperor in Nanjing.

In Nanjing City, Zhu Yunwen, who was sitting on the dragon throne, was also surrounded by a group of advisers and strategists. They reminded the new emperor to abolish the power of his uncles who were "kings" as soon as possible, lest they threaten the new emperor's rule. Among these uncles, Zhu Di is the most conspicuous. Therefore, not long after the new emperor took office, Nanjing sent personnel to monitor Zhu Di. When Zhu Di saw the personnel sent by the emperor to his side, he wanted to kill them immediately. However, when he thought about it calmly, wouldn't he just fall into the little emperor's scheme by killing the person? So, he suppressed the anger in his heart and asked people from Nanjing to monitor him. Under this situation, his advisers could not approach him freely. If they wanted to discuss anything, they could only communicate through Marvin and inside and outside. In this way, Ma Wenhe's role becomes even more prominent. In this extremely sensitive period, if Ma Wenhe's actions are slightly careless, Zhu Di's plot may be exposed, thus ruining Zhu Di's entire plan. Once this happens, King Yan and his advisers will kill all the nine tribes. At this time, Ma Wenhe's behavior was not only related to Zhu Di's great cause, but also related to the lives of his family. And Ma Wenhe's intelligence and wit are increasingly highlighted in this bloody battle.

The Nanjing regime began to deprive the vassal kings of their power. Several weaker vassal kings were deprived of their titles, deprived of their fiefdoms, and demoted to common people. Because Zhu Di, who was stationed in Yanjing, held military power and was powerful, Nanjing did not rashly announce that he would be deprived of his royal power. However, they sent troops to Yanjing and went deep into the Yan Palace to monitor Zhu Di. Zhu Di's personal freedom was restricted. At this time, only Ma Wen and one person were left who could follow Zhu Di. Zhu Di's counselors were very anxious, and Zhu Di was also worried that he would be trapped for a long time and something would change sooner or later. what to do? Zhu Di wanted to discuss it with his confidants. This morning, after Zhu Di got up, he called Ma Wenhe to him and ordered him to try to go out and find someone to discuss a solution. He wrote a handwriting and asked Ma Wenhe to find a way to give it to a confidant. Marvin and the people who were afraid to take it directly with him and be monitored would find out. He had an idea, stuffed the note written by Zhu Di into a small bamboo tube, tied the bamboo tube with stones, and sank it into Zhu Di's toilet. He took the opportunity of emptying the toilet for Zhu Di and cleverly sent the letter. When Ma Wenhe came back, Zhu Di's advisers offered him the strategy of "pretending to be crazy". By pretending to be crazy, he escaped from the palace and met with his advisers to discuss the action plan while the watchers were not paying attention. Zhu Di understood the situation and acted according to the plan.

At noon that day, the eunuch brought the food as usual, and Zhu Di pretended to be stupid at the dinner table. Suddenly, he overturned the dishes and rice bowls, overturned the table, tore his hair, exposed his chest, cursed and rushed out of the palace.

Zhu Di staggered onto the street with disheveled hair and disheveled clothes. He first broke into a hotel, broke two wine jars, and then picked up another wine jar and drank. Then, he broke into a restaurant, picked up a stick, and smashed it randomly. When Zhu Di was going crazy, Ma Wenhe followed him around, watching all directions and listening in all directions, protecting Zhu Di.

Zhu Di broke into a cloth shop again, picked up the cloth and threw it out. When he was throwing vigorously, a tall man picked up a stick and hit Zhu Di hard. Seeing this, Marvin He, who was hiding aside, flew forward and blocked the big stick. Marvin He was knocked unconscious. Several big men came up, grabbed Zhu Di and dragged him into the house. People were still crowding outside to watch the excitement. Ma Wenhe fainted on the ground, but Zhu Di was moved by the counselors. After Zhu Di saw his advisers, he immediately returned to normal and asked simply: "If you have any good strategies, tell me quickly." The ministers had already plotted and were waiting for Zhu Di to make a decision. Their opinion was that the new emperor's reduction of vassals had aroused strong dissatisfaction among the kings, and it was time to raise troops. First, use the army of dead soldiers, get rid of the surveillance personnel, recruit generals sent from Nanjing into the city, and lure these people to death first, and then Raise troops into action. The political slogan is: "Qing the emperor's side." Zhu Di agreed with the opinions of his advisers. They did what they said and launched the famous "Jingnan Rebellion" of the Ming Dynasty.

Through armed competition, Zhu Di finally defeated his nephew Zhu Yun and won the dragon throne. Ma Wenhe has been fully assisting Zhu Di in his struggle for power. After Zhu Di became emperor, he rewarded those who followed him based on their merits. Among the guards, Ma Wenhe naturally contributed the most. At that time, his name was Ma Wenhe. When Zhu Di was happy, he gave him the surname "Zheng". From then on, he changed his name to Zheng He. The emperor asked him what he wanted, such as official position, land, money, etc. As long as he asked, the emperor could satisfy his request. However, Zheng He said that he was homeless and did not want any property or official position. Instead, he wanted to inherit his father and grandfather's ambition and travel to the West. Zhu Di did not agree immediately, but just said that he would consider it in the future.

In feudal society, it was not easy to gain the emperor's trust. Once you gained the emperor's favor and had the conditions to be close to the emperor, you could use this to amass money and seek privileges. Although Zheng He was a bachelor, he had no wife or children. However, he was still young at the time and could have used the emperor's trust to obtain money and official positions, and then go find his parents and relatives, or build tombs for his ancestors in his hometown. Many great eunuchs from the previous dynasty had done this, and he was well-positioned to follow suit. However, Zheng He had his own ideals. It was much better to go to the outside world to investigate and visit, to promote the imperial power of China, and to walk around the remains of his fathers than to build tombs. Zheng He wanted to realize his childhood dream by leveraging the privileges gained from serving the emperor for many years. He has been learning about geography and accumulating travel information.

After several years of recuperation, the social economy has achieved significant development. At this time, Zhu Di, who was so happy about his success, remembered Zheng He's request. However, he did not want Zheng He to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca like his grandfather and father. Instead, he wanted him to go to the Western world to promote the power of the Ming Empire. He ordered the construction of large ships, organized fleets, and prepared to go to the west by sea. Zheng He was responsible for everything from ship construction to the organization of the ocean-going fleet.

Zheng He suddenly became busy. He was not familiar with sea navigation and did not know the route from the sea to the west. He had longed for overland travel since his childhood. Now, he had to relearn marine knowledge, master marine geography and navigation routes, and at the same time, he was also responsible for building ships. Zheng He hired a large number of craftsmen to set up ports and docks along the coast, where they built ships and made preparations for going to sea. Zheng He used his special relationship with the emperor to obtain a large amount of funds, and based on the suggestions of the craftsmen, he built the ships as large as possible. The largest ship they designed and built is about 151 meters long and 61 meters wide, and the medium-sized ship is 136 meters long and 51 meters wide. These ships are all wooden sailing ships. Each ship has several masts and sails. The masts are more than ten meters high, the anchor weighs several hundred kilograms, the rudder is more than 10 meters long, and the tonnage is more than a thousand tons. These ships preparing to go to sea were named treasure ships. The number of ships on each ocean voyage was 208. The members of the fleet included envoys sent by the emperor, navigation technicians, crew members, repairmen, doctors, monks, guards, etc.

Everything is ready. In July 1405, with the emperor's approval, Zheng He led the Ming Dynasty fleet and set sail from the seaport Liujiahe (today's Liujiahe Town, Taicang, Jiangsu Province). They first went east to sea, and then south along the coast of China to rest at the mouth of the Minjiang River in Changle, Fujian. . When the northeast trade wind blows in the autumn, the wind will pass through the Taiwan Strait, enter the South China Sea, and reach Xingang as the first stop. After a short rest, the fleet continued southward to Surabaya, Java, and then turned northwest and passed through the treacherous Strait of Malacca. After stopping for rest in Nanboli in northern Sumatra, we sailed westward, passed Belori (now Sri Lanka) Island, turned north, entered the west coast of Liang, and headed north along the coast to Gambari. This was Zheng He's first voyage to the West. After a short stay here, the fleet returned. In the summer of 1407, Zheng He led his fleet back to China successfully and completed his first ocean voyage. This is a pioneering work in China's maritime history. Before this, organized and purposeful voyages had never gone this far. Zheng He sailed tens of thousands of nautical miles without any geographical, oceanographic, meteorological and other information and navigation experience.

This voyage proved that China at that time had obvious maritime advantages. Apart from China, no other country has been able to organize such a large ocean-going fleet. At the same time, this voyage also proved Zheng He's courage and intelligence. Without any navigation information, he dared to explore the vast oceans, showing the courage of an explorer. Later, Zheng He led his fleets on six more large-scale voyages.