Chapter 1240: The Internationalized East India Company

When Li Jicheng led his men into the Orissa province of India, it was the winter of the eighteenth year of Hongxing on the Ming side, and the New Year festival was approaching. Zhu Cilang, who had already been the lord of the Ming restoration for eighteen years, still did not know at this time that his old rival the Shun Empire was invading India.

Nevertheless, he still cared a great deal about India, that ancient civilized country. In particular, after he read the poetry collection of Princess Nisha translated by the Persian-language experts in the Imperial Academy, he grew even fonder of India.

Unlike Li Jicheng, that robber who cared only for the wealth of the Indians, Zhu Cilang sincerely wished to become friends with the Timurid Empire of India.

In his view, an independent and sovereign Timurid Empire of India served the long-term interests of the great Ming Celestial Dynasty. For he knew that in history the British Empire had become a superpower precisely because it exploited the Indian Ah-Sans! Without two or three hundred million Indian Ah-Sans laboring for Britain, how could Britain have so easily become the empire on which the sun never set?

Therefore, Zhu Cilang's India policy was to preserve the Timurid Empire as much as possible, to establish a lasting alliance with the Timurid Empire, and to permit no Western power to invade India!

Of course, the Ming itself would not invade India either. Because the Ming lacked the ability to exclude the other powers while invading India, so invading India would easily turn into carving up India — how much could the Ming get? Not worth it!

Besides, India's population was too large, and one could hardly bring oneself to wipe them out — they just wanted to live quietly as untouchables, so who could bear to exterminate them? Therefore, any Ming occupation of India was bound to be short-lived, and might even produce very adverse consequences.

For example, it might bring about the unification of India and the end of the Indian caste system!

And these two great events, which might cause the rise of India in the future, could not possibly succeed by relying on the Indians themselves or on the foreign Timurid Empire. Even if Aurangzeb could rely on the enforcers he brought from Central Asia to briefly unify India, long-term division was nonetheless inevitable.

Because the interior of the Timurid Empire was itself unstable; it had no system capable of giving the state lasting peace and order. Every succession to the throne was a bloody internal feud, and sooner or later it would smash itself to pieces. This kind of system was not unique to the Timurid Empire — all Islamic countries were like this, including the Ottoman Empire. However, the Ottoman Empire developed the "law of fratricidal succession," which to a certain extent overcame the problem of internal strife, and that was why it could stand against the Christian world for so long.

Therefore, preserving the Timurid Empire as much as possible, rather than destroying it, was certainly most advantageous to the Ming Empire!

However, Zhu Cilang would not lower his standards for taking consorts just because he wanted to establish friendly relations with the Timurid Empire. The examination of Princess Nisha had to be held to high standards and strict requirements!

Zhu Cixuan, who had just graduated from the Yingtian Imperial Academy, now brought with him four widowed palace women of a certain age, with large, rough hands, who at a glance were of laboring background. They would accompany Zhu Cixuan to examine Princess Nisha, and at the same time would be responsible for the princess's physical examination. Inside the Yanshan Hall of the Old Mountain Palace, they listened as the Zhu Emperor explained the key points of the assessment.

"Old Six, how did you do on your Arabic exam?" Zhu Cilang asked about Zhu Cixuan's foreign-language grade.

The Imperial Academy run by the Zhu Emperor was in fact an institution of higher learning that emphasized both the liberal arts and the sciences. It offered many foreign-language courses, including Latin, French, Dutch, English, German, Arabic, and Persian. The purpose of offering these foreign-language courses was, of course, to better interpret the "Zilun Gewu Pian"!

For the Academy's scholars had already discovered that the study of things in East and West was the same, and that studying Western natural philosophy was highly beneficial to researching the "Zilun Gewu Pian."

And Zhu Cixuan had already been proficient in French before entering the Imperial Academy. For the mathematical works from Europe, he majored in mathematics and could read the French editions, but the Islamic world and India also had many mathematical works, so he had elected to study Arabic.

"I did quite well," Zhu Cixuan said with a smile. "This younger brother should be able to converse with Princess Nisha in Arabic."

The poetry collection Princess Nisha had given Zhu Cilang was written in both Persian and Arabic, so Zhu Cixuan knew that Princess Nisha's Arabic was quite good.

"Very good," Zhu Cilang nodded. "Then you can examine her in Arabic. Have you thought out the questions?"

"I have already thought them out," Zhu Cixuan said with a smile. "I will test her on Euclid's Elements. The memorial of King Senge says that Princess Nisha is proficient in mathematics, so she must have studied the Elements, because the Elements has Arabic and Persian translations. If she truly is proficient, then this younger brother must congratulate Your Imperial Elder Brother."

Zhu Cilang had of course long mastered the mathematical knowledge in the Elements, and he had also read the original, knowing that the most brilliant part of this work lay in its rigorous logical reasoning — this was the foundation of the discipline of mathematics!

If someone could read the Elements thoroughly, then that person's logical thinking ability could certainly not be poor. If a young and beautiful woman could, without having received a systematic mathematical education, read through the Elements mainly by self-study, then she absolutely deserved to be possessed by Zhu Cilang!

"Very good!" Zhu Cilang was very satisfied with this brother. "Old Six, among Our brothers, you are the cleverest. Work hard, and when the Jinling Women's University is established, you shall be its first Chancellor!"

The Chancellor was the head of the school. Jinling Women's University was to be the alma mater of the future empresses and consorts of the Ming. The Chancellor of Jinling Women's University would be extraordinary indeed — the future empresses, noble consorts, and princess consorts would all be his students. With that kind of pillow-talk influence, even a pig could be blown up into the sky.

"This younger brother will not fail Imperial Elder Brother's trust." Zhu Cixuan was of course extremely satisfied with the work the Zhu Emperor had arranged for him, and he hurriedly rose and bowed in thanks.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Old Six, go after the New Year. Remember — go quickly and return quickly!"

He paused. "We have just received the military report from the northwest. Aurangzeb has abandoned Samarkand and is bringing several hundred thousand soldiers and civilians of Transoxiana back to Hindustan. He should be able to return to Delhi by next summer, and by then you should have roughly reached Hindustan as well."

Zhu Cixuan of course understood his elder brother's eagerness for talent, and he quickly promised, "Imperial Elder Brother, rest assured. This younger brother will certainly seize the time and bring Princess Nisha back to you before the end of next year."

"Do not forget to examine her well!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile, admonishing him. "And the dowry must not be small either. The wealth of Hindustan is second only to China's. If the dowry is too small, it will not display the princess's nobility!"

"This younger brother understands!" Zhu Cixuan said. "The princess's dowry absolutely cannot be less than 100,000 taels of gold!"

Now the Ming's gold price had already been linked to the international market. 100,000 taels of gold was roughly 1.3 to 1.4 million taels of silver — indeed not a small sum. At least in the Zhu Emperor's view, it was already quite satisfactory!

However, if Princess Nisha herself had known Zhu Cilang's asking price at this time, she certainly would not have been satisfied — he was asking far too little!

It simply could not reflect this princess's value, because this princess was no longer a maiden who had never married, but a wealthy "widowed-by-circumstance" woman!

The reason she was "widowed by circumstance" was that she had never held a wedding ceremony with Prince Alim, let alone consummated the marriage. But she had still, in the capacity of Prince Alim's widow and Anusha Khan's daughter-in-law, held a grand funeral for the two of them.

Now Anusha Khan was "dead," Prince Alim was also dead, and Anusha Khan's other sons were "missing." Therefore, the more than ten thousand Uzbek cavalrymen who had stayed behind in Samarkand with Prince Alim could only swear loyalty to Princess Nisha, and then Princess Nisha would represent them in swearing loyalty to Aurangzeb. After accomplishing this, Princess Nisha was no longer merely a princess of the Timurid Empire of India, but also a vassal under the emperor of the Timurid Empire of India!

She could not be allowed to keep territory and troops, but a generous annuity was indispensable. According to Aurangzeb's decree, after returning to India, her annuity would be raised from the original 400,000 rupees per year to 1,000,000 rupees.

In addition, Aurangzeb would make up the dowry that had not been paid when she married Prince Alim — a full 5,000,000 rupees!