Traditional China, although it is a land-power country, there are also many great feats of opening up the seas - Qin Shi Huang once sent a fleet of ships to find overseas fairy islands, and Sun Quan Wu's merchant ships reached West Asia and even Europe. The greatest pioneering achievement of ancient Chinese navigation was Zheng He's voyage to the West in the early years of the Ming Dynasty. The Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty seized the throne through military coups, and in order to establish prestige within the empire, the Yongle Emperor was determined to do several great things that had never been done before, one of which was to appoint Zheng He to the West.
Contemporary people are very familiar with world geography, but in Zheng He's time, the Western world was full of mysteries and unknowns, so it was necessary to prepare enough to ensure a smooth voyage. Zheng He then made some overall planning, bringing all the people needed for the navigation process to the fleet. It is surprising that Zheng He's fleet actually brought a boat of women, and these women were all elderly women - and two were midwives.
This request at first made the Yongle Emperor feel strange, but when Zheng He explained the original commission, the Yongle Emperor praised Zheng He for his thoughtful consideration. Because Zheng He sent an envoy to the West, it is not certain how much time each voyage would take, and the entourage was as many as 30,000 people, of which more than 20,000 belonged to the elite of the Ming Army, and the rest were mostly craftsmen. The main reason for carrying so many people is: First, there were a large number of pirates at sea at that time - there were Ming Pirates, There were Japanese Pirates, and pirates from the Nanyang Countries.
If there are no 20,000 soldiers to escort them, they are afraid that Zheng He's fleet will be ambushed by pirates as soon as they enter the sea; second, many small monarchs of Fanbang will consider killing people and crossing goods, and 20,000 Ming troops are enough to destroy a Fanbang country, which is enough to deter some monarchs with bad intentions - for example, the king of Ceylon saw that Zheng He's fleet had too much treasure, and had the idea of killing people and crossing the goods.
The remaining 10,000 or so people ranged from nautical technicians to translators. These soldiers and craftsmen overseas, their clothes and shoes and socks must not be worn from time to time, which needs to be sewn in time. The role of the elderly women on this boat carried by Zheng He was to sew up the damaged clothes, shoes and socks for these soldiers. Moreover, because these elderly women are very old, it is guaranteed that the soldiers will not do something offensive because of loneliness.
From this point of view, Zheng He is very thoughtful. As for the two midwives, it was Zheng He who considered: the countries on the mission were relatively backward in terms of medical skills, and if Daming could export medical technology to foreign countries, then foreign countries would inevitably admire Daming from the heart. The delivery technology is regarded as the "just need" of overseas countries, so Zheng He specially brought these two midwives to the countries to be responsible for disseminating the delivery technology.