In ancient China, several powerful empires appeared, such as the Han Empire and the Tang Empire. And when the empire was extremely prosperous, the surrounding Fan states would be called Chennagong, with the Chinese emperor as respect, such as Tang Taizong and Tang Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, who had received the honorific title of "Heavenly Khan"; but there was also such a strange country, whose king actually called the Emperor of the Central Plains "Pig Khan"!
Comparing the two, it is clear that the origin of the "Heavenly Khan" is that the leader of the Fan State expressed his respect for the Chinese emperor, while the "Pig Khan" was to insult the emperor. Who first called this name? He was Timur, and the Timurid Empire he founded was once the world's number one power after the Central Plains Empire.
However, Timur was not a person of the Tang Dynasty, he lived in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. Speaking of which, Timur was also related to the Mongol Khanate at that time, but it was a little farther away. He was born in the Chagatai Khanate (the second son of Genghis Khan, Chagatai, expanded his territory), grew up to marry a princess of the Khanate, became a donkey, and in 1369 he killed Hussein, the Khan of Western Chagatai.
Those familiar with history should know that this year is the second year of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. This move meant that Timur officially seized power from the Western Chagatai Khanate and established the Timurid Empire, he replaced the status of the "Golden Family" and became the new hegemon in Central Asia, and he knew that the Ming Dynasty on the other side also wanted to weaken the Mongols, so at first, Timur took the initiative to submit to Zhu Yuanzhang.
This move made Zhu Yuanzhang very fond of him, and Timur used this to stabilize the outside side, freeing his hands to concentrate on controlling the interior. Now his goal had been achieved, but Tamerlane was not willing to stay in his empire, nor was he willing to remain a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. So Timur began to expand rapidly, defeating the Ottoman Empire, Persia, subjugating the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, and sweeping the Golden Horde, the whole process was like a wind and clouds, for a time, Timur's empire made the surrounding countries feel frightened.
Tamerlane began dreaming of establishing a hegemony like Genghis Khan. To this end, his ambitions gradually revealed, not only did not call the Ming Emperor a subject, but also often detained the Ming emissaries and insulted them in every way. At that time, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di had just ascended the throne, and sent envoys to inform Timur of the news, and Timur knew a little Chinese, so he deliberately shouted in public:
"Your 'Pig Khan' betrayed his father and emperor, killed his nephew, and is the big bad!" I'm going on a crusade against him!" Of course, Tamerlane did not want to seek "justice" for Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunjiao, he just ambitiously said that he would use 200,000 people to take the Ming Dynasty. He did what he said, and really led the Terracotta Army at the end of 1404, but Timur died before he could get out of the army.
Tamerlane died on the march and did not have time to talk to Zhu Di. His descendants fought for the throne, and as a result, the empire's strength was also weakened, and later, his fourth son Shaharu stabilized the interior, restored friendship with the Ming Dynasty, and sent emissaries to visit Zhu Di. Zhu Di performed a "Daming Martial Performance" to the emissary on the spot——
He brought 100,000 troops to gather in the capital, in addition to demonstrating weapons such as sword and sword, there were also cavalry demonstrations of charge, artillery and musket demonstrations, and archery demonstrations. The envoys of the Timurid Empire were stunned, and when they returned, they told their king that fortunately, the original Timurid Khan did not go to war with the Ming Dynasty, and once the war began, even if the number of troops was doubled 10 times, it would not be possible to take the Ming Dynasty, and we were doomed to failure, perhaps this time did not exist for a long time.
The Records of Emperor Taizong of Ming records that although Timur did not go to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di was still vigilant and stepped up military training, so there was the "martial arts activity" that shocked the emissaries of the Timurid Empire. Later, Timur's deputy envoy, Gaisuyeddin, recalled the incident and lamented: If Timur had not died in the middle of the road, I am afraid that his invincible reputation would have been broken long ago.