As for foreigners, common people might hardly see one in their lifetime, so whenever they saw one, they would treat it as a rare thing and watch for a long time - in later generations, there were also rules not to watch foreign friends' foreign affairs - and as for Zhu Ying, she had often entered the palace since she was old enough to understand, and it was common for her to hide in the corner and watch the excitement during grand court meetings.
Therefore, when she was a child, she initially thought that all kinds of foreign people with strange clothes and strange appearances were monsters, but later she became accustomed to them and was no longer in the age of being surprised. Now that she is older, she no longer has any interest in the grand court meetings, but it does not mean that she will forget the strange appearance of those foreign envoys from the West.
Therefore, her first reaction was that Lao Xianyu was fooling her, and naturally she immediately questioned him with dissatisfaction. However, before Lao Xianyu had time to explain, she heard Zhang Shou say leisurely, "Yingying, you are not comprehensive. Westerners have blonde hair, blue eyes, white skin, curly hair, black skin like Kunlun slaves, but there are also people who look similar to us, as if they are from the same bloodline."
"For example, the Mongols, and the former Xiongnu, Khitan, and Tangut, if they had the same hairstyle and wore the same clothes as us, then there would only be a few differences." Because the races are not that different...
Zhu Ying usually agreed with Zhang Shou's statement, but at this time she said unconvincedly, "But that's only the foreign races bordering our dynasty. They can't look the same as us if they are far away! This is what I discovered after seeing so many foreign envoys! Besides, Lao Xianyu is talking about the West, not Southeast Asia. I have seen merchants from various European countries, and they don't look like this!"
Seeing that the eldest lady was angry, Zhang Shou said calmly, "Didn't Emperor Taizu say that the place where we live is a huge ball? You should have seen the globe in the Military Equipment Bureau. Beyond Europe and to the west, there is actually a continent across the sea. That can also be called the Western Ocean. Of course, if you turn the globe around, it is just across the sea to my east, which can also be called the Eastern Ocean."
Zhu Ying's heart skipped a beat. Of course, she had seen a globe before... There was one in the study room of the East Warm Pavilion of the Emperor's Palace of Heavenly Purity, and she often played with it as a toy when she was a child. However, the Emperor Taizu called it a globe, and they omitted the word "terrestrial". It was not spread among the people, and there were only countless versions of the story of Emperor Taizu dreaming of the Emperor of Heaven.
Zhang Shou said it so brazenly in front of two people whose backgrounds were unknown. The result of sailing westward was to turn back eastward. Is this really a good thing? You know, even those merchants in the southeast who make a living by sea trade rarely know that the earth is round.
Sure enough, she saw Lao Xianyu was slightly stunned, and then he showed an expression of listening attentively. On the contrary, Monk Zanghai yawned as if he was not very interested, and signaled with his eyes that the guy who had just escaped should come back to work quickly.
After a while, the small excitement that had just been aroused completely subsided. At this time, Zhang Shou changed his tone.
"I remember a story. It is said that in the last years of King Zhou of Shang, You Houxi led an army of more than 100,000 to conquer the Dongyi. On the way, he heard that King Wu of Zhou was going to attack King Zhou. Being loyal, he immediately led his troops back to support the king. However, before they had fought a few battles, they heard about King Zhou and the princes surrendered to Zhou. He was ashamed to associate with these people, but he was powerless to compete with King Wu of Zhou. After that, he disappeared with more than 100,000 people."