open sea

Chapter 449 Macau
Don Juan couldn't be more satisfied with Macau these days.

Look at how organized it is, huh?

The shops are planned in a unified way. The back streets of the shops are streets where donkey carts and ox carts are used to transport goods. Rice and grain shops are all Portuguese shops.

On the other side of the municipal square, there are silk and satin workshops, gold and silverware workshops, copper and ironware workshops, tailor-made clothing workshops, Nanyang exotic goods workshops, wine shops, and inns, all of which are merchants and merchants from the Ming Dynasty.

There are Ming warriors and Portuguese soldiers patrolling the streets. Not far from the town, under the fort is the camp of Portuguese soldiers. It is only two streets away from the market. There are row upon row of Portuguese-style two-story buildings. There is an inscription written in Chinese in front of the gate, and there are five hundred households of the Ming army in all directions farther away, protecting the port.

He even saw a beautiful Portuguese lady, surrounded by six armored Ming warriors, and a female companion dressed as a Ming lady, smiling coquettishly, entering a goldsmith's shop to choose accessories.

Don Juan received his father's true biography of his love for flirtatiousness. He just started to walk into the handicraft store when he was grabbed by Father Libera beside him.

"Those two are Mrs. Lou and Mrs. Lou, who are famous in Haojing. Mrs. Lou is a Portuguese. She followed her father to Macau to do business in her early years. She was shipwrecked and exiled in Macau. Mrs. Lou was a maid who used to work in a Portuguese tavern. Their husbands It's General Chen's army commander named Lou Qimai."

Father Libera whispered to Don Juan in a serious manner: "In their tradition, noble women should not show their faces, but no one cares about them in Haojing, because the head of the army was ordered to participate in the battle in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, and the guards were assigned by General Chen. , The muskets and sabers on their waists can kill people at any time, anyone who dares to disturb them will be killed."

"Some of the Spaniards who were captured from Luzon Island the year before last were sent to work in Macau. They said that General Lou's legion wore devil-like iron masks in battle, and they were invincible. Their legion commander took off the iron mask Same face as when wearing it."

"When the legion commander fought against General Chen in the early years, he used the old firecrackers of the Ming army to blow up his face and cut off his nose. He survived with a fierce temperament." Father Libera dragged Don Juan and reminded: "Even your Excellency , Offending them will also be killed, don't you see the dried bones on the gun shafts in the shallow sea of ​​the port?"

"General Chen is not as kind as at the banquet, and he will not punish his capable men for killing a Spanish dignitary. Even if General Chen knows that killing you and not punishing the murderer will definitely bring Spain and Ming into another A war."

Father Libera let go of Don Juan's arm and said, "Based on what the Jesuits know about him, when war is inevitable, he will first make a crazy expedition plan before sending a goodwill envoy to Spain."

"As punishment for killing Your Excellency and starting a war—General Lou may take the lead in this plan."

Tang Juan slowly closed his slightly open mouth, stood around the municipal square and looked around, his eyes suddenly had great envy for the men from the Ming Dynasty walking in the market, and said: "We have to have an affair, they can actually have several lady?"

As a member of the Society of Jesus, Libera looked down on all behaviors of depraved desires, including Western and Eastern nobles, but he did not argue with Don Juan, but explained: "It does not seem to be the case in other places in the Ming Dynasty, but in In the place under the jurisdiction of General Chen, he is in charge of everything about the military nobles under his command. Under the request of the general, these officers must respect their parents and care for their wives, concubines and children, otherwise they will be punished."

"That's why the people in Haojing always say that the customs in Guangzhou are different from those in other places. A large number of military officers prefer women who don't have enough feet. The concubines of those military officers' families are not slaves but like younger sisters. Therefore, people hope that their daughters can marry into the families of Nanyang military officers."

Father Libera shrugged his shoulders comically, "In the Ming Dynasty, it seems that a person in power can easily change the atmosphere of a place."

"Your Excellency, it is best to restrain yourself here. According to the investigation of the church, although Macau is small, there are three Ming army commanders who have settled here. They are called commanders. There are hundreds of households, there are too many to count, I am afraid that you don't know who you will offend."

After figuring out the stakes, the frivolity in Don Juan's eyes disappeared, and he sighed: "If Seville leased such a piece of land to General Chen, it shouldn't be a bad thing. The Portuguese are well restrained here."

"I'm afraid things are not as you imagined. You can replace Macau with Seville, but you cannot replace Portuguese with Ming people, and Ming people with Spanish." Libera is different from Don Juan's optimism, he said : "The Ming people in Macau will be the Ming people in Seville in the future, nothing more than replacing the oppressed Portuguese with Spaniards."

Father Libera found that the reason why Don Juan had a good sense of Macau was that he put himself in the position of the victor. This was really the illusion brought to him by Chen Mu's good hospitality. Man, he really can't feel what is good about Macau.

Didn't he see it?All the shops opened by the Portuguese in Macau sell raw materials such as cotton, gold, silver, copper and iron. However, the Ming shop, which is just across from a municipal square, processes these raw materials and sells them again, and the profit has doubled. times or even dozens of times!
Where is it?
No wonder the Spanish court is always bankrupt!
"what?"

Don Juan was in no mood to go shopping anymore. He asked Father Libera to take him into a restaurant, chose an empty upstairs, and looked at the municipal square with people coming and going outside the window. Then he said solemnly: "Father , I understand, General Chen has been using the advantages of war to gain an advantage in negotiations, Portugal and Macau are like this, and I am also doing the same when I come here this time?"

Libera nodded and said: "It was not like this in Macau in the past. Our explorers plundered and fought like they did in Goa and Malacca. At that time, they had few cannons and muskets, and naval battles still relied on setting fire. Although the sailors It's scary to fight bravely, but in fact they always have more casualties than us, they just have more people, so they fail."

"Later it was discovered that their bureaucrats didn't understand anything, and restrained us as if they were governing their own people, so they obtained the right to live in Macau by deception and bribery, opened artillery factories, built ports, and smuggled and traded. The pirates found that the men of Ming Dynasty were not good. deal with it, but their girls are well-behaved and easy to deceive, just like in Africa."

"Before General Chen came, we built universities, hospitals, municipal squares and appointed magistrates, merchants had their own armies and even had a cannon foundry, Paul's cathedral could be built in no time, just like in Goa or Portugal Like other places, the missionary industry is thriving. But now, what you see is the mirror of Ming Dynasty, not Macau of Portugal.”

Father Libera poured Don Juan a bowl of wine, and lit his pipe against the dim candlelight in the tavern, "If you want to know how all this happened, let me tell you."

(End of this chapter)