Chapter 1007 Map 1098
“Sir, news came back from the seaside that the barbarian ship is coming.”
Two days have passed since the king of Sulu and the army he brought were settled. Deng Zilong was thinking about the next response in the military tent. The curtain was opened and a soldier came in to report.
Hearing that Miguel was coming, Deng Zilong immediately stood up and walked out, giving instructions as he walked, asking them to send people to find Lin Baihu and others to go to the king of Sulu.
Of course Deng Zilong will not reveal their strength at this time. He will play the trump card of Sulu Kingdom at the end. Now is not the time to let the Yi people know that they are coming.
The camp of the Sulu Army was more than ten miles away from the Ming Army's camp. There was a forest in the middle, so you couldn't find it unless you got there.
The King of Sulu's camp was also arranged there. In Deng Zilong's words, it was convenient for Bakr to command his troops.
Baker is naturally happy to be able to live among his own army, which means he is safer.
Now Deng Zilong arranges for Lin Baihu to go to Bakr, also to stabilize him and prevent him from running to the military tent in front when he hears the news.
Deng Zilong had already guessed the purpose of Buckle's trip at the banquet that night.
After drinking, after hearing Deng Zilong boasting about his ability to govern the country, Buckle finally couldn't help complaining to Deng Zilong, the main one being the threat from the Spaniards on Luzon Island.
Because the Sulu Kingdom faced huge external threats, after knowing that Ming Dynasty needed his help, he chose to help without hesitation, thereby restoring contact with Ming Dynasty and gaining official support from Ming Dynasty.
Now that he knows the other party’s purpose, Deng Zilong can naturally rest assured.
Whether the Ming Dynasty wants to endorse the Sulu Kingdom is not something that a military general can decide. It has to be decided by the great men in the capital.
However, this does not affect his purpose of completing this trip.
Therefore, Deng Zilong patted his chest and told King Bakr that after completing his mission of chasing down the Lin Feng pirate group, he would take him back to the Ming Dynasty and request an audience with the Ming Emperor. There was no problem.
Baker was not worried that he would not be able to return to the Sulu Kingdom when the Ming Dynasty arrived. The Sulu Kingdom had sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty three times before, and the envoys of the Ming Dynasty sent warships to send them back safely.
Of course, the most important thing is that Ming Dynasty does not seem to covet them at all, and has no intention of occupying their Sulu country.
Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty should have sent troops earlier, and it would not have been more than a hundred years later, when they accidentally came to Sulu because of the pursuit of pirates.
There is no intention of aggression. Naturally, the Sulu Kingdom wholeheartedly flatters such a heavenly kingdom.
Could there be anything better than this?
No.
Deng Zilong arrived at the beach and received Lieutenant Miguel from the camp. He asked someone to prepare a face towel to wipe the sweat, and also asked someone to make tea and serve it.
“Dear Deng, our commander Savera has agreed to your suggestion. Your country is responsible for the north, and we are only responsible for the defense of the east and south.
We are still responsible for the sea Form a joint fleet to blockade, raid the bay, and destroy Pirate Lin's fleet so that they can no longer leave here by boat."
After a short rest, Miguel took out Commander Xavera's letter, which could also be regarded as a warrant.
However, at this time, the Spaniards did not seem to want to cause trouble and make the Ming people mistakenly think that they wanted to usurp his command, so they confirmed their plan to Deng Zilong in the form of a letter from the commander.
Deng Zilong took it and looked at it. There were a lot of things written on it in words he couldn't understand, but underneath, there were still thoughtful Chinese characters that translated the meaning of the letter.
The general meaning is no different from what Miguel told him.
Obviously, there should be someone familiar with Han officialdom in the Spanish military camp, so they gave them this advice.
Perhaps, what he was familiar with was not the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, but the previous dynasty.
But in fact, during the changes of Chinese dynasties, one thing will never change much, and that is officialdom.
Because the so-called officialdom has always been composed of thousands of scholars. They understand the past events through reading and know how to maximize their own interests.
That is to say, the emperor can be changed, but the officials are still those people, scholars.
There is also a nearby map drawn by the Spaniards at the back, which details the positions that the Ming army will be responsible for defending.
Seeing this map, Deng Zilong was a little confused at first.
After all, the Spaniards will know the map, and it is somewhat different from the map used in the Ming Dynasty. It is normal to not be used to it.
After Miguel’s explanation, Deng Zilong quickly became familiar with the identification of Western-style maps.
Comparing it with the map drawn by the Ming army himself, Deng Zilong actually vaguely felt that the Spanish map was better.
After all, the maps drawn by Ming Dynasty were often based on aesthetics rather than reality. When you get to the place, you will find that they are very different from the map markings.
However, when looking at the Yiren map, Deng Zilong first noticed the points marked on the map and the straight lines drawn from these points.
Deng Zilong also asked about the use of these points and lines, but the answer he received was what lines were drawn and according to what rules.
Perhaps it’s because Miguel doesn’t understand much, or thinks it’s not necessary to explain in detail. After all, there are huge differences between Eastern and Western cultures, and it would be too troublesome to explain.
Of course, if Wei Guangde were here, he would roughly guess that some of the lines may be the latitude and longitude lines of this era.
Some points and straight lines marked on the map are used to determine the position. In fact, this is something that must be marked on the navigation charts of this period in the West.
Because most of the Spaniards who came to the Philippines now were naval officers and soldiers, they were more familiar with nautical charts, and they conveniently drew such common graphics on the charts on the map.
Although maps actually follow mathematical rules and use pictures and symbols to represent what they want to express, the drawing methods are also different. The method of drawing maps in ancient China is unique and the same as the method of drawing maps in the West.
The West actually suspected that the earth was round very early on.
Of course, this theory is only discussed privately by some scholars and they dare not say it publicly.
However, because of the support of this theory, when the West was drawing maps, it was very early to create the so-called projection method to help draw maps. Among them, Hipparchus created the projection method and proposed to divide the earth's circumference into 360 degrees. Spend. In the West, geographers in the ancient Greek period began to use nautical chart production techniques, and later developed various mapping methods such as the point of interest method and triangulation method.
It can be said that Western maps have begun to use a lot of mathematical knowledge in them very early, so map drawing is more rigorous.
Of course, if the time goes forward a century or even half a century, although Western maps also used this knowledge at that time, because we were still in the era of geographical discovery, the maps drawn by Western geographers at that time were relatively Full of imagination.
It is now the end of the Great Geographic Discovery, so Westerners have gradually gained a clear understanding of the world, and the way of expressing many things has become more scientific.
The earliest maps used in ancient China were the "Ji survey method" and the "geographic method", which are to form maps by recording and drawing geographical information.
Later, with the continuous advancement of technology, the "scale method" was adopted, that is, the length, width, height and other information of the ground entity are reflected by drawing a scale.
In the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a man named Pei Xiu, who was an official named Sikong. He summarized the experience of making ancient Chinese maps and strengthened the theory of ancient Chinese map drawing.
The method proposed by Pei Xiu is called "Six Cartography", which was summed up by carefully compiling maps such as "Yugong Regional Map" and "Topographic Abbot Map".
"Yugong Territory Map" is actually an atlas with many textual explanations, 18 articles in total, and a preface.
"Yu Gong" is a text in "Shang Shu" with more than a thousand words in total. It mainly describes China's geographical features and tax equalization.
It is said to be written by Yu the Great. Of course, this is a false pretense. The writing during the Dayu period was never so developed. Therefore, general research believes that it is a work from the Warring States Period. Some scholars such as Wang Guowei believe that it was written in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
What we usually call "Dayu divided the Kyushu" actually comes from this text, which uses mountains and rivers as symbols to divide the country into Kyushu. The territory, mountains, rivers, and vegetation of Kyushu , soil, products, tribute, ethnic minorities, transportation and other natural and human geographical phenomena are briefly described.
This should be a beginning, because China's later "Hanshu Geography", "Shui Jing Zhu" and many historical geography works were influenced by "Yu Gong".
Pei Xiu drew the "Yugong Territory Map" based on this text, and proposed six cartographic principles, namely the "Six Cartographies", which are roughly as follows:
The first is the ratio, which is actually the scale. The original text is "So discern the degree of Guanglun".
The second is quasi-looking, which is actually the direction. This is called "correcting each other's bodies".
The third is Daoli, Dao is the road; Li is the mileage. The principle is the mileage of the road, "so the number is determined."
The fourth is high and low, which refers to the ups and downs of the terrain.
The fifth is Fangxie, which refers to the tilt angle.
Sixth is roundabout, which refers to the straightness of rivers and roads.
These are actually six cartographic rules. According to the six-system cartography, we can examine the right and short, and avoid the deviation of gaining one corner and losing the other.
Among them, fractions, that is, scale, direction, and distance, are very important.
This is a more important or unique method in the history of world maps that is different from the "projection method" used by Westerners. Until the end of the Ming Dynasty, ancient Chinese maps always followed the "Six Cartography".
However, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, with the arrival of Western missionaries, after they came to the Ming Dynasty, they began to draw maps according to the projection method they were familiar with, so Western cartography was also introduced into the country and was slowly adopted by Chinese scholars learn.
After that, China’s maps gradually adopted the Western projection method, gradually abandoning the method “Six Cartographies” proposed by Pei Xiu.
Maps of this period, especially nautical charts, were actually things that needed to be kept strictly confidential, whether in the East or the West.
In China, apart from the relatively detailed maps in the imperial palace, only the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty has similar maps, and other yamen have no access to them.
Even Wei Guangde, who is the second assistant of the cabinet, can see it, but there are strict restrictions, such as not being taken out of the cabinet.
In the West, the confidentiality level of maps is not low, especially nautical charts, because the information involved is too important.
In 1503, the Spanish royal family imitated its strongest competitor and established the "Ministry of Trade of the Indies" in Seville, granting it broad powers in overseas trade and colonial affairs.
Unlike the East India Company, which was established by the Dutch and the British in the form of joint-stock systems and government franchises in the later period, the "Ministry of Trade" was the direct "agent" of the Spanish crown, responsible for the collection of all relevant taxes, and the approval of all overseas expeditions and trade voyages. , the confidential management of all trade routes and newly discovered overseas information, the training and certification of all captains and pilots, the production and management of all nautical charts and maps, and even the daily administrative management of all commercial laws are the divisions of this department. Internal matters.
Theoretically, without the approval of this department, all Spanish overseas expeditions and foreign trade voyages would be difficult to proceed.
The "Royal General Map" is produced and managed by the "Ministry of Trade". The first version of the general map was probably completed between 1507 and 1508, and has been continuously improved, updated and improved since then. .
This is a secret map that also has the authority of the Spanish royal family.
It is said to have royal authority because all Spanish explorers and ships setting off are required to use maps or charts copied from the general map.
And this general map, whether Spanish or Portuguese, is indeed the most accurate map of that era.
At the same time, all voyage explorers, captains, and sailors must report the latest geographical information discovered to the Empire's Ministry of Trade after returning from the voyage. Errors must be reported as soon as possible so that the Ministry of Trade can update and revise the general map in the most timely and accurate manner.
Those explorers, captains or sailors who violate the laws governing the general map will face penalties ranging from heavy fines to the disqualification of trade and navigation.
The secrecy of the royal master map is reflected in the fact that it is a strategic resource with a very high "confidentiality level".
In Spain, all cartographers, explorers, captains, and sailors related to the general map are required to fulfill strict confidentiality obligations. Any behavior that "leaks secrets" to hostile parties or competitors will face legal action. heavy responsibility.
Even all outdated maps or charts must be strictly destroyed.
The imperial administrative department, represented by the Ministry of Trade, monitors all the latest geographical information collected from overseas trade, colonial settlement, and even Catholic religious activities, and provides the most solid basis for the empire to formulate colonial policies at all times. in accordance with.
Colonial policy refers to the policy of controlling and utilizing the natural resources and indigenous populations of overseas colonies to the maximum extent to serve the interests of the imperial royal family.
The basis of colonial policy is inseparable from accurate geographical information, which is used to determine the accurate geographical coordinates, boundaries, mountains and rivers, resources of the colony, and the safe route to get there from the European mainland.
Due to the secretive and authoritative strict management of the general map, modern cartography scholars have rarely discovered the original "general map" that has survived to this day, and there are almost no original nautical charts actually used on the oceans of that era. Have been discovered.
The map drawn by the Spaniards in Deng Zilong's hands is actually full of the latest Western cartographic techniques, but no one knows about it.