open sea

Chapter 364
"Dear Your Excellency De Noronha, please forgive me for not writing to you for so long, General Chen's bodyguards guard me too tightly."

"During the days of following General Chen, I learned many novel things. He said that our Portuguese idea of ​​establishing commercial stations in Malacca and Macau is very good, but there is no need to go further, saying that like Spain, we use military instead of trade, or Sooner or later it will be attacked. Witness the Spaniards in the Philippines, Luzon, General Chen called this place."

"After witnessing what happened to the Spaniards in Luzon with my own eyes, I think Portugal has done a perfect job of setting up trading stations and obtaining goods by fair means, and it should continue to be maintained, especially within the attack range of the Ming Dynasty."

"He won't let me reveal his situation to others, but he has [-] fleets with artillery, [-] soldiers skilled in using muskets and spears, and a large number of pirates serving him. Behind General Chen is Da Ming , I don’t know how big a pagan country is, he neither supports nor opposes us spreading the glory of the Lord in the world, although missionaries are not allowed to enter Ming Dynasty, but this is a good start.”

"This time, General Chen asked me to write to you in the hope that Daming can obtain permission to establish commercial stations in Malacca, the Spice Islands, Goa and other places. All of this needs to be ruled by you. I have no right to persuade, just to make it clear The situation here."

"I believe you have already known from other sources that General Chen expelled Legazpi, the governor of Spain and the Philippines, in his words to restore the tributary country. It may be that Luzon had an alliance with their emperor 100 years ago? But no Like an alliance, you can regard the emperor of Ming Dynasty as another pope, but this pope does not spread glory for God, and only sends troops when believers need it."

"It's worth mentioning that Mancijia, which we occupy, is also a believer of the Ming Emperor."

"However, due to the limited relationship between us, General Chen does not intend to send troops to retake Manchuria. He seems to regard Portugal as a friend in his heart, saying that we can benefit from each other, just like we did in Macau. He praised me more than once. The Portuguese of Macau, who say they did their duty as friends and generously defended themselves in times of need, did not hold him back."

"General Chen needs gold and silver. The whole world needs spices, silk and porcelain, and the Spaniards also need it. After they fight General Chen, we can buy more goods, so General Chen plans to open a trading station to let more goods flow."

"I don't want you to reject him, because he really doesn't want to go to war with us. But as a Portuguese, I have to tell you that General Chen's temperament is like a lawless villain. Although he calls Portugal a friend, according to my observation He always put his friends at a disadvantage and never allowed anyone else to bully his friends."

"Looking forward to hearing from you - Fernandez Pinto who had the honor of fighting alongside you in Ethiopia."

Sai Lugong was still wearing his official scarlet lion gown, sitting on a chair with his legs crossed and undignified.Hearing his foster son Li Dan finish reading Pinto’s letter, he dragged his chin with one hand, looked at Pinto with strange raised eyebrows, and asked in a questioning tone: “Mr. Look at me carefully, don't you feel my virtue and respect?"

"What's a lawless villain?"

Fortunately, besides the three of them, there was only Xu Wei, who was wandering in the sky, Li Dan almost laughed out of his mother's breath after reading this letter.

Chen Mu was actually holding back his laughter, what happened when he compared the emperor to the Pope?He also called the tributary country a believer, and the emperor only sent troops when the believer needed it. Since when did my Emperor Ming become so full?

Our emperor is too lazy to send troops if we don't get bullied at the door of our house!
Pinto was not afraid of Chen Mu, he took off his hat calmly, and said to Chen Mu: "General Chen, I must tell you that I have shares in the Bucarao Artillery Factory in Macau. Although it is not much, it is my past. All savings. The customers of the artillery factory are pirates and Portuguese merchants who cannot get weapons and supplies. In the past, there were very few Portuguese, and the main customers were pirates.”

"Because your Armament Bureau produces artillery and sells it to pirates, the dividends have been getting less and less in the past few years. A while ago, your subordinate Guan surnamed in the Armament Bureau hired all the workers, and I lost everything."

"Yo, you will say that you have lost all your money! Keep working hard." Chen Mu laughed, and then frowned and asked Li Dan: "Guan Jiang wrote to say that there is not enough manpower to find a way, and he didn't tell me to buy Bujia. Lao Cannon Factory?"

Li Dan was also in a daze. He hadn't heard about it. Immediately afterwards, Pinto waved his hand and said, "I hope he buys it, at least I still have money. That cunning old man didn't buy the gun factory." , he just recruited all our skilled workers away!"

popping.

Chen Mu was applauding Guan Yuangu.

Guan Jiang really deserves to be an old craftsman, he knows that craftsmen are the most important thing.

"Okay, don't be so resentful. Could it be that the reward Chen gave you is not as good as the dividends from the artillery factory?" Chen Mu thought about it in his heart, and it seemed that it was really not as good as Bu Jialao's cannon. Gui, Mr. Sailu feels dark-hearted, so he changed the subject and said: "There are many things that money can't buy, such as status, you are Chen's staff, how respectful your status is in Macheng, this is Hao Jing Can a mere artillery factory compare?"

"You're right. This letter is just like this. If you don't change it, you can hand it over to the Portuguese merchants waiting at the port and send it to Goa."

Only then did Old Pinto nod in satisfaction, and waved his feathered hat at Chen Mu. He looked ten years younger, and proudly followed the soldiers to deliver the letter.

After Pinto left, Li Dan seemed a little worried, and asked, "Father, can the Portuguese Governor agree to garrison the army and open the port?"

"Certainly not, you can let the Portuguese build a business station in Nanjing?" Chen Mu shook his head and smiled. After getting the same power from the King of Portugal to Goa and Lisbon in India from Pinto, he knew that opening a business station was not enough, "But It should be possible to talk, I didn't ask for anything, it depends on what they ask, we can follow suit, and wait for the reply."

"They want goods, and I need money for goods. Haojing has their business station. They should at least give me a place, right? We will talk about it later. Goa can do without it, but Malacca and the Spice Islands must."

Chen Mu's eyes were fixed, and he tapped the table with his index finger: "Once the negotiation is concluded, the merchants will go there first, and then they will garrison and repair the port. Malacca, the Spice Islands, Luzon, and Japan will form a line. rush to the rescue."

Li Dan didn't have a clear understanding of the map, so he glanced back at the map hanging on the wall, and then connected the place names in his mind, and then asked, "Then what if they don't agree? Go to war too?"

"If you don't agree, you won't be able to fight for a while. If you start a war with Puyi, the sea trade will be blind."

Sai Lugong shook his head, but his expression was still relaxed, "Puyi is a commercial station, just like a place as big as Guangdong. They are only in Haojing. If there is no agreement, I will go to open a port next to them. He In Malacca, Johor and Aceh have to pay tribute; if he has a business station in Brunei, Sarawak has to have princes to be kings, and it is better to have no kings!"

"Heh, there are so many clans in my Ming Dynasty, and I spend all my money in vain, so I invite one to be the king."

(End of this chapter)