The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

"Special envoys Franz, Richard Sosa and Joanna Oliveira, come to the hall to see you," the eunuch shouted loudly in his high-pitched drake voice.

In other words, in the eyes of Ming people, although the names of the two people are strange, they are not unacceptable. When the first European came decades ago, the eunuch who reported to the door called them that way. Now only It's just a name change, the rest is the same.

Following the eunuch's announcement, all the ministers in the hall also turned their eyes to the door.

"By the way, Zhang Aiqing," Long Qing asked Zhang Fan again before the person arrived, "Will these two speak our words?"

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, these two people have been in my Ming Dynasty for so many days, and they can understand our words. They can speak our words, but they are not very proficient," Zhang Fan replied, "As long as they don't In other words, they should be able to understand, "

Hearing Zhang Fan's words, everyone smiled, but Zhang Fan's words were equivalent to telling them a piece of news in a disguised form, and that was Zhihu Zheye's words, which these two people couldn't understand. They are not good at talking about things in person, so there is no need to deliberately avoid them to discuss.

Putting away the smiles just now, everyone straightened their faces again. Richard and Joanna had already walked in. Although it was rare for Europeans to have blonde hair and blue eyes in the Ming Dynasty, everyone had seen them before. , At this time, no one had any doubts about their appearance.

When the two of them got off the ship in Tongzhou, they were told that they would come to see Long Qing. Unexpectedly, the two of them hurried back to their cabins to change their clothes. Now, both of them are dressed in court formal attire. Richard was wearing a dress that marked his status as a diplomat, although the officials of the Ming Dynasty present did not recognize it, and Joanna did not wear that gorgeous court dress, but passed on a military uniform, which looks quite different now. He looked quite heroic.

The two came to a place slightly in front of the center of the hall, facing Long Qing, and knelt down on one knee. What Richard did was the etiquette of meeting an emperor in Europe, and although Joanna was a woman, it was because she was wearing In military uniform, she didn't bow down like ordinary noble women.

"Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, Richard Sousa,"

"Baron, Joanna Oliveira,"

"In the name of His Majesty Philip II, the Emperor of our country, I am going to your country to pay homage to His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty,"

Hearing that the two spoke very smooth Chinese with a strong accent, everyone present smiled. However, this is a diplomatic occasion after all, and it is not appropriate to make noise, so everyone just smiled and did not make any sound. .

"Hehe, it's really hard work for you two to come to my Daming from thousands of miles away, please hurry up," Long Qing also said with a smile.

No matter whether it was Long Qing or the ministers below, they didn't have any thoughts because they didn't kneel down to pay respects. After all, the Ming Dynasty had received foreign envoys before, and they understood that each country has its own etiquette. demand.

"Thank you, Your Majesty the Emperor," the two said in unison and stood up.

"Although I, Ming, call your place Franji, but according to what Zhang Fan said, Franji has two countries, one is Spain and the other is Portugal, and you are from that Portugal," Long Qing asked suddenly this matter.

"Your Majesty is right," Richard, as a diplomat, has always been the one to answer this kind of thing, "We are from Portugal,"

"Then I want to ask you," Long Qing said, "I know that in Haojing (today's Macau), there are a group of Frangji people who obtained the right to live in Haojing from the local officials in Guangdong. Who are those people? You are still the Spaniards,"

"Back to His Majesty, those people are really from our country," Richard said.

"Well, then I have a question to ask you. I've always wanted to ask, but never had the chance. Now that you're here, I'll ask you clearly," Long Qing said.

"Your Majesty has a question, and Biren will answer it honestly," Richard said confidently.

"Back then, under the rule of our Ming Dynasty, no matter where the officials were, they had no right to allow people from other countries to live in large numbers on our territory," Long Qing said, "but you actually persuaded the officials there, didn't you? Bribe them, this, give money, "

As soon as Long Qing said this, everyone present was stunned. No matter it was Richard and Joanna, the officials of Ming Dynasty present, or even Zhang Fan, none of them thought that Long Qing would ask such a question. The problem is, this is really, a bit unbelievable.

"This..." Richard looked at Joanna and didn't speak for a long time. He didn't know what to say.

"Returning to His Majesty the Emperor, this incident has indeed happened before," said Joanna on the side, "But at that time, it was also because the merchants of our country were too eager for your goods, and they were driven by money. Blindfolded to do this kind of thing, it's not done anymore," he said.

As soon as Joanna said these words, everyone was surprised again. Originally, Long Qing's question made them puzzled, but the other party returned it like this. That's it.

After hearing Joanna's answer, Richard couldn't help but look at her. He didn't blame Joanna for saying that. After all, Long Qing must have known some news for asking such a question. He was deliberately lying at this time, but he wouldn't Well, what Richard is worried about is the latter. Now that decades have passed, the Portuguese who have entered Haojing are still bribing local officials in Guangdong.

After thinking about it, Richard also said simply: "Your Majesty, in fact, when we come to your country this time, we also have opinions on this matter and want to discuss it with His Majesty the Emperor."

"Oh, what is it?" Long Qing asked.

"The people in our country who live in your country, I hope His Majesty will allow them to continue to live there, but our country will pay taxes to your country every year, please rest assured, our country does not want to meddle in your country's territory, The law and order and management of that piece of land will still be carried out by your country.

"That's it, no matter what, I agree," Long Qing thought for a while, there was no problem, and he could collect some money every year, so he agreed.

He didn't think, the two Portuguese didn't think, all the officials didn't think, and even Zhang Fan didn't think that Long Qing's decision would completely change history.

Originally, it was because the Portuguese bribed the officials in Guangdong to obtain the right to occupy Macau. However, after they moved in, they just wanted to import and export goods with Ming Dynasty more conveniently, and didn't think about other things. At that time, the Ming officials saw that they had money to take every year, so they relaxed their vigilance, and even ignored the problems of the Portuguese, and completely isolated themselves from them.

Originally, Long Qing didn't want people to ask about the lives of those Portuguese, but since they said it was a sign of respect, Long Qing agreed. In the original history, it was precisely because of the Ming Dynasty This kind of carelessness made the Portuguese living in Macau accustomed to exercising their own sovereignty, and they even set up and selected officials by themselves. Because of this, gradually, both the Portuguese and the Ming Dynasty felt that the area was given over to The Portuguese were now legal, which gradually formed the event that Macau was ceded to the Portuguese 300 years later.

However, the decision Longqing made today completely changed this fact. The people of the Ming Dynasty began to exercise sovereignty in that place again. The Portuguese there only had the right of residence and no right of management. It's just a group of tenants paying rent, not fully occupying that piece of land, and with some things that happened afterwards, it will change history and will no longer be turned into a colony by the Portuguese.

"I don't know why the emperor of your country sent the two of you here, and why it was so sudden that those who live in Haojing in your country didn't come to rule," Long Qing asked again.

"Your Majesty," Richard said, "Our country is too far away from your country. Although our emperor has already planned to send someone to your country this time, it will be difficult for us to send someone to rule. It was too troublesome, so the two of us came to your country directly by boat, and did not let the people who live in Haojing come to inform us, please forgive me, Your Majesty."

"Well, so that's what happened," Long Qing said, "Then why are you here this time?"

"That's what happened. Our country bought a place called Goa in India 60 years ago. The local tribal leaders bought it, and many people from our country went to live there. Now, Goa The tribe next to us even openly launched an attack on the residents of our country living there. In order to maintain the safety of our people, our emperor, His Majesty Philip II, plans to send troops to crusade against them. We are here this time just for this matter. I have to ask His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty if he agrees with this decision of our country," Richard said, saying what he had thought up a long time ago, although their purpose of sending troops to attack India was purely for the sake of It's just money, but facing such a powerful civilized empire as the Ming Dynasty, he really couldn't just tell his country's seemingly barbaric thoughts like that, so he had to make up a story to turn his country into a the victim.

After hearing his words, the ministers at the side couldn't help but slander. It seems that the European is not bad at making up things. It was obviously for money, but now he made up such a high-sounding reason.

And Long Qing, who was sitting on the emperor's throne, showed a very embarrassed expression very well at this moment.

This expression also made Richard and Joanna's hearts tighten when they saw it.