When it comes to Zheng He, I think of going to the West, Zheng He went to the West seven times in his life, and made great contributions to the transmission of Chinese civilization to the world.
Strictly speaking, not every time you go to the West seven times, you will reach the West, like the first voyage in 1405, the farthest point is to Guawa (now Indonesia), which is considered to be the South Sea.
With the continuous maturity of navigation technology and the preparation work in place, the subsequent voyages of the route became farther and farther, and the farthest known reached East Africa, the Red Sea and other places, Zheng He's fleet, not only to the world to show the vastness of Chinese civilization and the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty, but also brought back all kinds of items full of exotic customs.
According to the History of the Ming Dynasty and the Biography of Zheng He and other relevant sources, Zheng He brought back spices such as pepper, seeds of tropical plants such as durian and pineapple, rare animals such as giraffes, lions, leopards, and agate jadeites from all over the West.
In addition to these items, Zheng He's fleet would bring some special guests every time it returned.
In September of the fifth year of Yongle, Zheng He, who returned from his first voyage, not only brought back items such as pearls and agate, but also brought back to Beijing envoys from Western countries who were willing to submit to the Ming Dynasty, met with Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor, and presented the captured chieftain of the old port (now Palembang, Sumatra, Indonesia) to the imperial court.
In addition to prisoners of war, there were also many Western women who were brought back to the Ming Dynasty by Zheng He, and most of these people were family members of prisoners of war or tributes to the Ming Dynasty.
In the ninth year of Yongle, Zheng He once again went to the West, this time encountering unprecedented danger in Ceylon.
The king of Ceylon, Arekhnar, was an ambitious and extremely greedy fellow, after seeing the huge ships of the Ming Dynasty, he thought not of surrender, but how to rob, in his opinion, such a large hungry fleet, there must be immeasurable treasures, plus the weapons and equipment of the Ming Dynasty also made him covet for a long time, therefore, he planned to rob the fleet.
After the fleet docked, Alie Kunaer deceived Zheng He into the city on the grounds of inviting the envoy for a banquet, and Zheng He did not lose that he had been on the battlefield for a long time, so he kept an eye on it, and after arranging it on the ship, he took a thousand officers and soldiers into the city for the banquet.
Sure enough, Yalie Kunaer quickly showed his true colors, and actually blackmailed Zheng He, demanding that Zheng He take out a huge ransom in exchange for freedom, and personally led the team to rob the ship, Zheng He took advantage of his unpreparedness, broke free from the bondage, led the officers and soldiers to occupy the Ceylon palace, and captured hundreds of people, including Yalie Kunaer's wife, concubines, and ministers.
After hearing that there was a fire in the backyard, Yalie Kunaer hurriedly returned to help, but under Zheng He's front and back attacks, it was finally defeated, and Zheng He escorted him and his royal family and more than 1,000 people involved in the battle onto the ship and brought them back to the Ming Dynasty.
After dealing with the main culprit, Zheng He asked Zhu Di how to deal with the remaining dozens of Western maids? The Western maids mentioned in the title should also refer to the members of the Ceylon royal family brought back this time.
In the end, Zhu Di pardoned these people and allowed them to return to their hometowns, why would Zhu Di refuse these Western beauties?
I think the main factor is that these people are so dark and have different skin tones that Zhu Di has no feeling for them at all, so he put them back.
Ceylon is today's Sri Lanka, and the people who live here, most of them are Sinhalese, and there are also a small number of Tamils, but they have a common characteristic, that is, they have a dark complexion, and Ceylon is close to the equator, so the skin tone will be darker, and at the same time, the appearance is not as blonde as European women, but has obvious Mediterranean characteristics, to put it bluntly, sunken eye sockets, thick lips and other characteristics.
Such a Western "beauty" is definitely not in line with the aesthetics of the Central Plains, let alone Zhu Di's aesthetics, there are three thousand beauties in the harem, and any one of them is better looking than this "black beauty", so it is natural to refuse.
In addition, the second reason why Zhu Di rejected these people is that the identity of these people, these people are prisoners of war, although the Ming Dynasty is a big country in the Celestial Empire, but if Zhu Di laughs at it, it will also bring bad effects, because it is really not worth causing unnecessary trouble.
There is also the fact that the voyage time between Ceylon and Daming is about three months to half a year, hundreds of days of sailing, these ladies are with those soldiers all day long, and something will inevitably happen during the period, although it is just speculation, but Zhu Di definitely does not want to be discussed, not to mention not beautiful.
Zhu Di also rejected these female dependents from Ceylon, pardoned them, and let them return to China, but as for how to return to China, it has nothing to do with Zhu Di