Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 576 Balancing Europe
"Clang... clang... clang..."

"Crackling-"

With the passage of time, the Zhengdan Festival, the first day of the first month of the 18th year of Tianqi, came. When the morning bell rang, the curfew was lifted, and the sound of crackling firecrackers swept across the entire capital.

As the year of Wuyin in the lunar calendar, this year is the Year of the Tiger.

In this era, tigers often appear as killings, and large wars and conflicts often break out in the year of the tiger. Therefore, Zhu Ciran, as the prince, asked the officials of Qin Tianjian at the Great Court Assembly.

The officials predicted that this year would be a stable year, and Zhu Youjian, who attended the court meeting together, did not know what they predicted. After all, in his opinion, the 18th year of the Apocalypse is not considered peaceful as the 11th year of Chongzhen in history.

But he thought about it, even if things like his own time travel can happen, it doesn't seem to be difficult for the sky to change.

Therefore, at the Great Court Meeting, apart from protecting the calf as always and not letting the Yanshan faction officials embarrass Zhu Ciran, he kept silent about the government affairs at other times.

Under his strong protection, Zhu Ciran finally did not encounter the same embarrassment as the last court meeting.

After surviving the court meeting, Zhu Ciran returned to the East Palace in a mature manner, and dealt with the memorials step by step.

Since the last time he asked Zhu Youjian and got the answer, and then learned about Chengde's attitude, he has grown a lot.

He knew very well that with his strength, he couldn't stop his uncle from leaving, so all he could do was to let his uncle deal with less memorials and take a good rest.

In this regard, Zhu Youjian is naturally very pleased, after all, he can use the extra time to teach the six little ones at home.

In his spare time, Zhu Youjian would take his six little ones to market towns outside the capital to have fun, and he would also go to the farmland to see the people who were still working even in the cold winter, telling them about their difficulties.

With the passage of time, the six little ones have become a lot more cheerful, and the company that Zhu Youjian missed before is slowly making up for it.

All in all, the Ming Dynasty officially ushered in a new year after the entire Great Dynasty Conference passed.

It's just that the new year's situation is not so good. Before the first month of the month, Shaanxi was hit by a sandstorm, and the provinces north of the Great Wall also suffered from heavy snowstorms.

The drought in the north is still getting worse. The south of the Great Wall and the banks of the Yellow River are all experiencing severe drought. The drought in the Jiangbei area of ​​​​South Zhili, except Fengyang Prefecture, is also getting worse.

From this point of view, it seems that at the beginning of the new year, God told everyone in the Ming Dynasty that this year will not be particularly peaceful.

However, there is bad news, and of course there is good news.

The drought in Guangdong was wiped out by several spring rains, and because of the drought, many provinces have successively relocated many people to the southwest, overseas, and northern Guanbei.

The population of Beijing and five provinces including Northern Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Henan, and Hexi has dropped to less than 3000 million, while the population of Southern Zhili has also relocated more than [-] in the past few months.

Although compared with the north, the number of people who migrated was not too large, but these people who migrated also sold nearly 40 mu of cultivated land to the household department.

These cultivated lands were distributed to local farmers by Fan Fucui, Minister of the Household Department of Southern Zhili, and many farmers agreed with a smile, but they also understood that these lands belonged to the imperial court, and they only had the right to cultivate them.

But even if they knew about it, they wouldn't care. After all, the imperial court only collected one tenth of the land tax, which was much cheaper than the landlord's [-]-[-]% rent.

The matter of dividing the fields is over, and the time has come to the end of the first month.

Thanks to the continuous migration of the population and the fact that the more than 400 million people occupying the Hexi Corridor were not affected by the disaster, the number of hungry people that Ming had to face was only more than [-] million.

After the opening of three Changping warehouses with a scale of tens of millions of shi to stabilize grain prices, the price of grain in the north has been controlled, and the price of grain has not risen or fallen, and has remained at a price of more than [-] yuan per shi.

Although there is a drought in the north, it is rare for the south of the Yangtze River to suffer from wind disasters and floods. Therefore, it is good news that Daming can still control the resources in the south of the Yangtze River.

Seeing the orderly operation of the imperial court, Zhu Youjian was relieved and spent more time on his family.

However, compared to the 18 years of the apocalypse when Ming was able to survive the low temperature period of the Little Ice River, Europe on the other side of the ocean is full of shadows for [-] AD.

"Beep--"

On February [-], [-], Portugal's Libens, a territory under the jurisdiction of Spain, ushered in an extremely large fleet.

It's 42:[-] in the morning and it's a day that should be remembered across Europe.

In this 1 minute, the Ming Dynasty voyage fleet arrived in Europe and visited the first city they visited.

In front of all the two to three thousand tons of warships and supply ships, the "Proud Santa Teresa" that the Spaniards are proud of looks very small.

The displacement of [-] tons is like a "child" who has not grown up in front of the Ming warship of [-] to [-] tons.

The 68 cannons on the warship are also weaker than the 120 eight cannons on the warships of the Ming Army Jia and other warships.

As the Thirty Years' War was in full swing and wars at sea broke out frequently, Philip IV stationed a Spanish-Portuguese fleet in Libens.

This has a fleet of 77 ships, which can be said to be a replica of the Armada.

With nearly 1 troops and nearly [-] artillery pieces of various types, it can be said that they should be proud of Europe.

However, when the Western Fleet with 480 soldiers, more than [-] ships, and more than [-] artillery pieces of various types appeared, perhaps at this moment, all European fleets would be eclipsed.

"Clang... clang... clang..."

The same bell was ringing, unlike the celebration of the new year in Ming Dynasty, the Europeans in Libens were full of panic.

Many people gathered around the pier, watching the growing fleet approaching Libens.

Some nobles' evaluation of the fleet is hopeless.

"Majestic warships and supply ships, each carrying hundreds of men, with sails bigger than the biggest warships I've ever seen."

"The whole fleet sails forward under the blowing of the wind, and they move forward with full sail, like flexible dolphins."

"When the fleet approached Libens, everyone thought that the fleet was a floating island and an impenetrable fortress, because the number and caliber of artillery on the ships far exceeded our imagination."

"I heard from the guard at the port that there are more than 5 people in this fleet that crossed the ocean."

"More than 5 people..."

"It's hard to imagine that if they attack us, we can repel them with the enemy on our backs."

Banderas wrote about his feelings, and there were more and more people on the Libens pier.

They gradually felt the suffocation brought by the fleet that covered the sky and the sun. Fortunately, Xu Xiake and the others had no intention of letting all the ships enter the port. They only sent [-] supply ships of more than [-] tons to Libens to purchase supplies.

The voyage itself is expensive, and the biggest expense is the purchase of materials.

The 4000 people on board had to eat at least [-] catties of vegetables, [-] catties of meat, and [-] catties of rice every day.

Among them, meat is easier to say. After all, the supply ship also has the function of a fishing boat, and the deep-sea fishery in this era is very rich, so it is often enough to send a few supply ships to meet the daily meat intake.

However, vegetables and rice wheat are a bit more difficult.

Although Xu Xiake and the others planted vegetables on board, the vegetables on board could only meet part of the needs of the crew, for at most ten days.

As for food, let alone, it can only be purchased and stored.

After traveling from India to Levia, as long as you cross Kunlun County, the price of food along the way is very expensive.

Even in a rear area like Libens, facing the ups and downs of the 30-year war, the price of local wheat still reached a price of about nine cents per catty.

According to the price of Libens wheat, the Ming army fleet would consume 720 taels of silver every day, and the price of vegetables was not cheap. Twenty thousand catties of various vegetables would cost at least 200 taels of silver.

In other words, even if it only supplies food for one day, at European prices, the Ming fleet would cost nearly a thousand taels of silver.

This may be the only means by which the West can earn a certain trade surplus from Ming Dynasty in this era.

"Oh!"

With [-] supply ships entering the port of Libens, the person who disembarked was not Xu Xiake, but Xu Xiake's friend, Xu Zhongzhao, who is now the head of the Ministry of Rites of Daming.

Because he was very bored on the boat, Xu Zhongzhao learned fluent Portuguese, and also learned English, Prussian, French, and Spanish.

The officials of the Daming Siyi Museum began to learn these languages ​​as early as the Zhengde period, and countless people were proficient in the Wanli period. Xu Zhongzhao wanted to learn it naturally and easily.

"Honorable Xu, welcome to Libens, and I am Count Antonio Luis de Menezes who is responsible for welcoming you."

It was Count Menezes of Portugal who welcomed Xu Zhongzhao, and facing Menezes' welcome, Xu Zhongzhao frowned slightly.

He wasn't dissatisfied with Menezes' welcome, but he could smell the pungent smell on him.

Thanks to the lack of reasonable urban waterway planning, medieval Europeans always lived in a dirty and messy environment, so the Black Death was active in Europe for so many years.

Although Europeans have entered a new era, it has been less than 200 years since the end of the Middle Ages, and Europeans have not changed many bad habits.

Xu Zhongzhao can understand that civilians cannot take a bath every day, but he is very puzzled that the nobles in Europe do not take a bath every day.

After all, in Daming, not to mention the officials, even the slightly affluent civilians would go to the bathhouse every three days, and at worst they would boil water for a flush at home.

Therefore, for Xu Zhongzhao, who came to Europe for the second time, he still cannot adapt to the dirty and messy Europe.

For example, at the port of Libens behind him right now, due to the underdevelopment of water purification technology and the lack of an excellent sewage system, the excrement and garbage generated by the large population of Libens towns flows from the ditches that are not spacious enough to flow into the river. Finally flow into the sea.

The coastline of Libens is not only stinky, but also the sea is full of colorful garbage. The entire offshore area of ​​the port is brownish-yellow, which shows the poor water quality.

Xu Zhongzhao didn't plan to stay here for a long time, because the road sanitation in Libens even made him nowhere to go, so he said bluntly:

"Mr. Earl, this is our purchase list. Although it is a list, because there are too many goods, Libens may not be able to provide it."

"But you don't have to worry about it. If the goods are insufficient, we can accept and purchase some of the goods without affecting the lives of Libens residents, and the rest of the goods can be purchased in other towns."

Xu Zhongzhao told the business of his coming, and Meneses also took the list from Xu Zhongzhao after hearing the words.

When he saw the list, he couldn't help being a little speechless.

In this era, the population of Libens was only [-] residents, and the population size was similar to that of a county in Ming Dynasty.

A city with only 10 people naturally cannot supply supplies for more than 5 troops, not to mention that Libens is also stationed with [-] Spanish and Portuguese sailors.

Therefore, the supply of the Ming army fleet in Libens is not based on how much they can buy, but how much Libens can provide.

"I think we can only supply one-fifth of the goods above this."

Menezes said in pain, but he was not hurt because he wanted to sell supplies, but because he couldn't eat the order.

"It's all taxes..."

Looking at the strings of numbers on the list in his hand, Meneses wanted to cry, because after all, it did not represent goods, but real money.

Thinking of this, Menezes and Xu Zhongzhao said goodbye briefly, and then found Libens' affairs officer.

After two hours, Menezes finally got together one-fifth of the supplies on the list.

Xu Zhongzhao took a look at the list that Menezes handed over, and probably converted the units.

400 catties of vegetables, [-] million wheat, and [-] catties of beef and mutton, these are all the materials that Libens can get.

The price they gave also made Xu Zhongzhao a little speechless, a total of 8000 taels of silver.

The same amount of money in Daming can buy twice the amount of supplies, and these supplies are only the supplies of the fleet for less than a month.

However, Xu Zhongzhao was only a little stunned and no longer expressed any other expressions, because if they can spend their money, they will be able to earn it back.

"There is no problem with the price, but we need to sell the goods before we can pay for them."

Xu Zhongzhao also took out a list while talking, and on this list were various commodities from Daming.

From white cloth to tea, brown sugar, white sugar, porcelain, in short, there are all kinds of commodities produced in Daming.

"This this……"

Looking at the list and price in his hand, Menezes couldn't help being a little surprised.

He was surprised that the prices of these commodities were about 10% cheaper than those sold by European merchants themselves.

"Dear Xu, I need to discuss with the merchants in Libens. Maybe they will be willing to purchase your products. It will take a little time, okay?"

Menezes couldn't wait to raise his head to respond to Xu Zhongzhao, and it could be seen that he really wanted to buy all the items on this list.

"Of course!" Xu Zhongzhao nodded in relief, and said he also turned to the sea, and then said with a smile: "After all, we haven't settled the matter with Mr. Duke..."

"..." Hearing Xu Zhongzhao's words, Menezes was a little at a loss for words, and couldn't help but looked at the Ming army fleet anchored on the distant sea.

As Ming's special envoy to the West, he should have disembarked when he came to a place like Libens.

The reason why he didn't disembark was because he was completing a task assigned to him by Zhu Youjian...

"If you are willing to give up all the colonies in the New World, then we will provide a certain amount of arms to support the independence of the Portuguese."

When Xu Xiake’s voice sounded in the Ming fleet a few kilometers outside the port of Libens, Huang Fei was sitting in a room with him, and a 33-year-old white man was sitting beside him.

Xu Xiake persuaded this man in fluent Portuguese, and this man is the real King of Portugal in the hearts of the Portuguese.

Since the death of Cardinal Enrique in 1980, the Spanish army launched the Spanish-Portuguese War and invaded Portugal to defeat the Portuguese army. The Portuguese throne has been occupied by the Spanish Habsburg dynasty for more than half a century.

It would be fine if Spain could maintain the previous situation of "the sun never sets", but Spain is already overwhelmed by religious wars.

In order to win the war of religion, the Spaniards continued to raise and collect taxes, which made Spain's rule in Portugal increasingly unpopular.

Since 15 years ago, there has been a rumor within the Kingdom of Portugal that Sebastiao I was not dead, and that one day he will return to Portugal to regain the throne.

By a decade ago, many had identified the Duke of Braganza, the rightful heir to the Portuguese throne, as the surviving Sebastiao family.

As the religious wars continued, poverty within Portugal also increased.

After entering the 30s, the uprising against Spain within Portugal continued uninterrupted.

Just last year, there were riots in the cities of Evora and Algarve in Portugal, and Xu Xiake and the others came just after the two riots were suppressed.

Zhu Youjian doesn't care whether Spain is strong or not, what he cares about is Qi.

If the Spaniards accepted his proposal at the beginning and chose to withdraw from the American continent in exchange for the arms provided by Ming, then Zhu Youjian would not mind helping Spain win the religious war.

It's just a pity that Felipe IV rejected this proposal.

Since he refused, Zhu Youjian had no choice but to find a way from other countries.

The first is Portugal, which occupies the long coastal line in eastern South America.

Zhu Youjian remembers that Portugal has been seeking independence. If this is the case, then use independence to lure the Portuguese. I think Portugal will not care about the colonies on the other side of the ocean.

Even though there is a lot of gold and silver there, for the Portuguese, if they cannot be independent, all the gold and silver in South America will enter the pockets of Philip IV, so what does it have to do with them?
As long as Portugal succeeds in becoming independent, not to mention the three colonial city-states in South America, even if the whole of South America is given to Ming, they will be extremely happy.

"How much ammunition can you provide us?"

Duke Joao looked up at Xu Xiake and Huang Fei, but Xu Xiake asked straightforwardly, "How many people do you have?"

"..." Duke Joao is not a fool, he knew it was Xu Xiake who was probing, so he opened his mouth and said, "I have 8000 people!"

"Pfft..." Huang Fei couldn't help laughing when he heard this, and Xu Xiake also laughed lightly, and poured a cup of tea for Duke Joao.

"Then I can supply three thousand flintlocks and five thousand matchlocks, plus one hundred six-pounders, and sixty thousand pounds of powder."

Xu Xiake knew that Joao was the lion's mouth, but he didn't expose it, but gave him enough ammunition.

These flintlock guns and arquebus guns were the products of the Ming army's refitting and elimination. Before departure, Zhu Youjian asked Xu Xiake to bring many of them in order to engage in the arms trade to earn sailing funds for the fleet.

"I still need the trade between Daming and Portugal, and at the same time interrupt the trade with Spain!"

Seeing the expressions of Xu Xiake and Huang Fei, Duke Joao immediately knew that his asking price was too little, so he raised the price immediately.

However, his price increase was expected by Xu Xiake, so he shook his head:
"We can establish trade with you after the success of independence, but it is impossible to stop trade with Spain because of you."

"But don't worry, if you can't resist Felipe's army after independence, it will only take two months for Daming's army to reach Libens, with numbers ranging from 6000 to [-]."

Duke Joao felt a little regretful when he heard the words, and then became happy again.

For him, Portugal's overseas colonies are now in the hands of the Spaniards. Although the name belongs to the Portuguese, the Portuguese cannot control the local area.

With so many "benefits" in exchange for a verbal name, today's political negotiations are very satisfactory.

But even so, he still didn't show a happy expression, but pretended to be annoyed as if he had made a loss-making deal:
"I... ok..."

Joao didn't have much negotiating capital. He only had [-] troops of Portuguese nobles, and they were still troops using cold weapons.

If he does not agree to this deal, it will take at least a few years before he wants to recover Portugal, and if Daming continues to support Spain, then this time will have to be delayed.

Therefore, he could only agree to Xu Xiake's conditions.

"Happy cooperation, Mr. King..." Xu Xiake said with a smile, and the title of Duke Joao has become a king.

Obviously, in Xu Xiake's view, it is not difficult for Joao to become independent.

With the number of [-] flintlock guns and the geographical environment in Portugal, unless Spain sends [-] troops to encircle and suppress, it is impossible to defeat João.

However, considering the current situation on the frontal battlefield, not to mention the deployment of 2 people, even the deployment of 1 people is enough to make Spain lose power on the frontal battlefield.

With the signing of a treaty in which Portugal ceded the American colonies, Qi officially obtained the legal principles of parts of South America.

Once João revolts, they can pretend to be the Portuguese fleet to capture three towns, and then pretend that Portugal captured the towns first and then ceded them to themselves.

However, Portugal alone is not enough to realize Qi's idea of ​​taking root on the east coast of North and South America, because these places are still scattered with colonies of many countries.

Netherlands (Netherlands), Franz (France), Anelia (UK), Rodori (Sweden)...

These countries must be taken down one by one, so that Qi can take root on the east coast, and then allow the navies of these countries to cut off the waterways of Spain and the Americas.

As for how to take them down?
Thinking of this, Xu Xiake looked at a thick handwritten letter on his desk.

The word "King of Qi" on the handwriting is very dazzling...

　We have to have a meeting on Monday, and the update in the afternoon may be moved to the evening. If there is no update at four o'clock, it will be moved to around nine o'clock in the evening
　　
　
(End of this chapter)