Dragon Sea Empire

Baradas was fully awake at the moment, watched the training of the company's guards in amazement, and thought in his heart: "We must meet Yin Feng and find out what's going on!"

When Yin Feng was not in the company, Zeng Jingshan was in charge of the daily company affairs.Last night, after everyone's discussion, he sent two young members of the escort team to follow Baradas in the name of escort.Except for Yin Feng and Li Lihua, few people on Taiwan Island are not good at dealing with Fan people.Although Baradas introduced himself as a friend with Yin Feng, but after all, he had never heard Yin Feng mention it, and he might be a Spanish spy, so he still had to be vigilant.

In the next few days, Baradas could only wander between the inn and the company headquarters. He wanted to go to the big playground at the back, but was firmly blocked by two young guards.Baradas has been in China for many years, and it is common for him to be under suspicion and surveillance. He knew it was useless to get angry, so he had to stay in the inn and read the Bible.You Wenhui, who lives in the same room, is treated much better because he is Chinese. He has traveled all over the town in the past few days.

He told Baradas that the Chinese United Company was training as many as 1200 troops, and it was said that it had bought a large number of weapons from foreigners and that they were about to arrive soon.He also saw that in the harbor along the coast of "Tainan Port", a shipyard was starting to build a group of merchant ships.

What is even more surprising is that he also saw a craftsman wearing a cross, probably a Catholic!Originally, he wanted to say hello and ask what happened in surprise, but they were all so busy that they didn't have time to talk to You Wenhui.

Baradas felt that this company was very mysterious and interesting.He warned You Wenhui to have a good relationship with the locals.This is a place that is completely different from the inland of the Ming Dynasty, full of vitality and mystery.Then, Yin Feng, the founder and leader of this company, should also be a very mysterious and interesting person.Baradas was looking forward to meeting Yin Feng, but at this time Yin Feng was planning to execute an assassination operation in Macau thousands of miles to the south.

……

Macau has had a hard time in the past two years, because the massacre of Dutch prisoners of war led to revenge from the Dutch; within two years, several Portuguese merchant ships were robbed by the Dutch in Malacca and the Indian Ocean.Last year, in June of the 31st year of Wanli (1603), the Dutch captured near Malacca the Portuguese galleon "Catharina" (Catharina), which was loaded with valuable artworks, lacquerware, silk and And ceramics, after being transported to Europe by the Dutch, the auction revenue in Amsterdam reached 6 million Dutch guilders (about 340 million taels of Chinese silver dollars), causing a sensation in Western Europe.At the same moment when Yin Feng went to Luzon to rescue people, on July 570, 1603, two Dutch warships and a brig broke into the inner harbor of Macau and intercepted Gonzalo Rodriguez, commander of the Sino-Japanese trade fleet. The large black ship "Nabao Maru" sailed from Macau to Japan by Gon?alo Rodrigues de Sousa, the total value of the spoils was 7 million Dutch guilders (equivalent to more than 30 million Chinese silver dollars), of which only raw silk One item, there are 140 packs, each worth 200 dong.The Dutch unloaded the cargo and moved for 2800 days.The Dutch opened fire on the urban area of ​​Macau. Fortunately, they didn't want to capture Macau, they just wanted to avenge the murdered compatriots.

The veteran pirate Portuguese ran into the emerging pirate Dutch, and was robbed to pieces and suffered heavy losses.

Therefore, when Yin Feng came to Macau this time, he felt that the market here was a bit sluggish.It is in the Chinese-inhabited area in the south of the peninsula. Although it was the day when Portuguese ships came to Guangzhou for trade from the south, there were still piles of idle coolies sitting there with nothing to do.

Since the beginning of this year, Dutch warships have approached the waters of Macau many times.The Portuguese warships in Malacca have been on high alert and notified Macau that several Dutch ships have appeared in the South China Sea.This year, the number of Portuguese ships trading in Macau has decreased a lot, and the number of smuggling Chinese ships has also decreased.

The Macao Municipal Council is holding a meeting of members to discuss how to deal with the current difficult situation.Bernardo also went to the meeting, and Yin Feng stayed at his home, drinking tea and chatting with his nephew Andrew.This tea is Fujian black tea that has just appeared, and the method of drinking tea was given to Bernardo by Professor Yin Feng.

The two were on the balcony of the Spanish-style house, looking at the white sails in the harbor in the distance. The young Andrew had just arrived in Macau from Goa, and was very curious about everything.He regarded Yin Feng as an encyclopedia of China, and kept asking him about various situations in China: "Mr. Yin, does China really have a population of 6000 million? God, there are probably not so many people in Europe! How do you feed such a large population?" of?"

Yin Feng replied with a smile: "6000 million is just the statistics of His Majesty's officials. Many people who avoid paying taxes, wander around, and go abroad are not included in the statistics. The actual population is even lower than the number of 6000 million." More. You can see what we Chinese people do for a living, just look at the port in Macau.”

Andrew looked at the port in the distance curiously, and said with a smile: "You should tell me directly, Uncle Bernardo said that Chinese people speak very reservedly, haha, I don't see any connection between the port and my question."

"Hard work." Yin Feng pointed to the port and said seriously: "Hard work is the secret of China's ability to feed such a large population. You should notice that every morning when you Portuguese just wake up, we Chinese have already been working for half a day. Yes. Chinese people are busy at the port before dawn, and you are still dreaming. When we Chinese are ready to rest after a busy day, you will probably be dreaming in bed."

Andrew nodded: "Really, when I first came to Macau, I always saw the Chinese people were busy. They didn't need people to drive them away with a whip, and they never seemed to rest. Oh God, your emperor has such hardworking people, how come Are you going to protect them?"

"Are you talking about the Manila incident?" Yin Feng's body trembled, his eyes closed, and he seemed to see the days and nights of bloody battles and exhaustion on Luzon Island again.He heaved a long sigh, but the young Andrew didn't notice his strangeness, and was still touching Yin Feng's wound: "So many people were killed by the Spaniards, no matter what, the Emperor of China should declare war on the Spaniards!"

The Bernardo family are the original Spanish Jews who were driven out of the country by the Spaniards more than a hundred years ago, and they have a family feud against the Spaniards.Andrew said: "There are so many people in China, as long as they recruit 10 troops, they can occupy Luzon Island. Why is there no news of the war?"

Yin Feng took a sip of tea, calmed down his emotions and said lightly: "Do you like war so much?"

"No, I just like to see Spaniards get beaten!"

Yin Feng smiled wryly: "Our emperor regards us merchants doing business abroad as pariahs, and he will not declare war for us being killed. In all dynasties and dynasties of China, only after the royal family's face has been insulted will they launch foreign wars. War. The emperor doesn't go to war for merchants he doesn't want to manage."

Andrew thought about the problem according to Western thinking, and he couldn't understand Yin Feng's explanation anyway: "Impossible, even the untouchables are people under the protection of His Majesty the Emperor. Tens of thousands of citizens were massacred by people from other countries. No matter what the reason is, this matter Any country in Europe would be grounds for a major war."

Although European nationalism has not yet emerged, there are indeed many examples of wars for commercial interests in European history.Yin Feng couldn't explain to the young man the difference between a dynasty state and a nation state, and he couldn't explain why businessmen were the last of the four peoples. When he was thinking about how to answer, Lin Xiao appeared in a hurry, and he said profusely with sweat: "Captain, I have already inquired, and there are indeed..."

Yin Feng raised his right palm to signal him to pause.Only then did Lin Xiao see Andrew on the edge of the balcony, and hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "Hi, Young Master An!"

Andrew's Chinese is very limited, just to say hello, but he knew that Yin Feng and others had something to do, so he said very wittily: "Mr. Yin, next time I will listen to you tell about your heroic deeds in Luzon. I'll go to the city hall first to see if Uncle Bernardo has finished his meeting."

When Andrew disappeared at the top of the stairs, Lin Xiao drank a glass of wine on the table, wiped off his sweat and said, "Everyone has been arranged, and the brothers from the support team and the cover team are already in place. Chen Zhongji also inquired Arrived at the residence of the dry Greek officer: the residence of a monk-monk. They just arrived in Macau yesterday, a total of 15 people, 5 people went ashore. In addition to the officer, there are two other guards, a ghost businessman , a black-robed fan monk."

"Where's their ship?"

"It's a small boat, our Chinese sloop, probably the Chinese sailboat that the Greeks found in Manila Harbor."

Yin Feng nodded: "Yes, I don't think they will bring the Karak galleon. So, how are the local pirates doing?"

"Brother Lu's subordinates have already contacted most of the sea brothers along the coast of Guangdong. There must be brave men under the reward. Hehe, they will all come to grab the first prize. Also, our Danmin brothers in Yazhou have also contacted Guangzhou Brother Danmin, they have already cast their eyeliner around Macau, even if the Greeks want to escape, they can’t escape the coast of Guangzhou.” Lin Xiao sat down at the table, poured tea for himself, and drank it.

"It's been hard work, it's been a lot of hard work these past few days." Yin Feng threw him an orange and watched him finish eating: "Guangshi, how confident do you think this action is?"

Lin Xiao frowned: "I said, Captain, is it necessary to make such a mobilization? According to me, just go to that missionary's house tonight and kill the Greeks."

"That won't work. These Westerners attach great importance to religion and regard missionaries as our Chinese mentors. If you do this, if you hurt that missionary, you will stab a hornet's nest."

Lin Xiao scratched his head and asked again: "The subordinates still don't quite understand why these Ganguanla people must be killed? How did you know that there would be Ganguanla people coming to Macau?"

Yin Feng thought to himself: How do I know?Hehe, it was written in the history book of my time and space!