Jingming

Chapter 382 His Excellency Wang Zhi, a large businessman

"No! On the contrary, if we want to obtain a steady stream of wealth from East India, we must face up to this huge opponent and let this opponent know how powerful Portugal is!"

To Juan's surprise, Alfonso said this firmly.

"Please continue to explain your point of view, Mr. Alfonso." Juan was more respectful.

Alfonso suddenly felt something.In these years in Beijing, when he was bored and watched "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he remembered a scene: Zhuge Liang's verbal battle with the Confucian scholars.

Now, he is doing the same thing.

"It seems like 20 years have passed since we occupied this place, but Ming Dynasty has never made any move to protect their territory. That's just because, in these 20 years, Ming Dynasty has experienced the change of emperors."

Alfonso guided them to think: "Imagine that in a country that is wider than the entire Europe, the new emperor has to spend time confirming the allegiance of more than one million people, as well as the allegiance of the surrounding vassal states closest to the Ming Dynasty. and the fear of hostile countries. Believe me, this is not an easy task.”

"But now, the Mongols, who pose the greatest threat to the Ming Dynasty, have their king killed. This year's conquest is a confirmation of the surrender of the surrounding vassal states." Alfonso said, "Although Malacca is far away from the Ming Dynasty's territory, It’s far away, but it’s only a matter of time before the Ming Dynasty’s troops and warships arrive here. Sir Juan, can your Majesty Joao surrender to the Ming Dynasty’s emperor?”

Juan sneered.

"I'm so ashamed. With only those warships and soldiers, Pillaizi and I failed. We pretended to surrender and spent so long making friends with their courtiers, so that we could return to Malacca." Alfonso Recalling so many years sadly, "Since it is impossible to surrender and abandon this place, the only way is through war. But please forgive my honesty, a war in the Ming Dynasty was based on one hundred thousand soldiers. Their muskets , artillery, and armor, they are no worse than us."

Alfonso looked around: "Don't forget, gunpowder was originally brought to Europe by the Mongols. The Mongols at that time were expelled back to the extremely cold north by the Ming Dynasty."

The scale of a war involving a hundred thousand troops does sound scary.

Regarding the origin of gunpowder, it is also an indisputable fact in their understanding.

It has been so long since I came here, and there is still a story circulating in the Indo-China Peninsula to the north that their most powerful elephant soldiers were defeated by the Ming muskets a hundred years ago.

What Alfonso said was not false. Thanks to him and Pillai, the Ming Dynasty's firearms level had indeed not lagged behind that of Europe in the past ten years, and had even surpassed it under the emperor's high attention.

"To gain a foothold here, at least three things must be done! First, His Majesty Joao should send more warships and soldiers. How come the garrison in the Malacca Fortress can only have five hundred, when under normal circumstances there are only one or two hundred or even How about less than a hundred?”

This is where Alfonso found himself speechless upon his return.When he set out, this place had just been conquered, so the situation was excusable.But after so many years, Portugal still relies on a thousand-level regular army to control a vast area stretching from Goa, India, in the west to Malacca in the east.

Although there is still a mixed fleet of warships and merchant ships, based on Alfonso's understanding of the current Ming Dynasty, His Majesty the Emperor is really determined to conquer this place quickly. The biggest resistance is probably the opposition of the courtiers.

Of course, there are also obstacles that may be caused by countries such as Jiaozhi along the way. The absolute influence of the Ming Dynasty cannot reach here smoothly.

"Please continue."

Alfonso nodded: "Second, we must support some kingdoms around Malacca and let them stand on our side. From Portugal, it is impossible to send so many troops here anyway. We can only rely on the barbarian tribes here. People. You are right to help Ayutthaya, but now there is a better target. Cochin along the coastline is in the midst of possible division. If Cochin can be controlled, then the Ming army and warships want to attack Malacca must first attack Cochin, which is under our control."

Juan did not comment: "There is one more thing, what is it?"

"Trade with the Ming Dynasty! Isn't our purpose in itself like this? Now, I have been able to achieve this. It's just that Portugal's capture of Malacca made the emperor of the Ming Dynasty want to let other vassal countries continue to maintain their status by fulfilling the responsibilities of the suzerain country. Surrender. But if the difference between the cost of attacking Malacca and the benefits obtained is too big, Ming Dynasty will also make a choice. Now, we must form a defense line in the north before Ming Dynasty takes real action against Malacca. At the same time, I can bring a huge The profits again go to the ports they open.”

Alfonso explained his idea and said decisively: "For the sake of gold and silver, if we support a puppet King of Malacca to go to the Ming Dynasty to surrender and request canonization, they will turn a blind eye to this distant Malacca." Eye. We get actual benefits and rule, and the Ming Dynasty also receives a steady stream of goods from Europe and the New World."

"His Excellency Alfonso is worthy of being a pioneer in the East." Juan laughed, "How to decide, we have to wait for the orders of His Majesty the King and the Governor of India."

He was not easily impressed by Alfonso, but at this time, Pillaizi walked in from outside the banquet hall.

"Sir Alfonso, following your guidance, the fleet from the Xu family of the Ming Dynasty and three other families have arrived at the port. There are seven large ships in total. They have brought a lot of goods!"

This sentence aroused the interest of others in the banquet hall more than Alfonso's previous words.

"What kind of goods? How many are there?"

"Is there any fine china?"

"Is there any silk?"

Alfonso stood up eagerly and said solemnly: "Dear Governor, this is the route and trade route that I finally opened up. Although there has been a war with the Ming Dynasty before, please ensure that their safety is not threatened. Otherwise, this trade route will be interrupted again!"

"Oh, dear Alfonso, don't worry, no one will not welcome merchants from the rich East. Damn it, I just spent most of my money on purchasing a lot of spices to ship back to Europe!"

"Seven ships? My God!"

"Your Majesty the Governor, there have not been so many merchant ships from the Qin people coming here since ten years ago. Viscount Alfonso has created a precious opportunity, please be sure to treat them as distinguished guests!"

Juan's eyes were uncertain, but he smiled: "Of course, of course."

The bustle in the banquet hall ended, and many people flocked to the port, and Juan wanted to have a look.

Since Pillaizi and the others were defeated in the Ming Dynasty, in the following ten years, only occasional people came over, and they were all very cautious smugglers.There are fewer and fewer such people.

Seven large ships arrived at the same time, making it the largest Ming merchant fleet in recent years.

As for Portugal, although it is still dominated by the royal family's fleet, the royal family's fleet also has investors from private nobles.At the same time, there are also many private merchant ships invested by private nobles.When they come together, they are a force that cannot be underestimated.

Alfonso brought the hope of reconnecting the trade routes with that big country in the east. Juan wanted to control this trade route, and these private merchant ships also wanted to participate.

When he arrived at the port, Juan saw merchant ships flying flags he had never seen before, but his eyes were fixed on the shape and size of those merchant ships.

His eyes were somewhat frozen.

Alfonso had already sent his "servant", Wang Zhi's second brother, to contact him. Now he walked next to Juan: "These three big ships are not their biggest ships. Sir Juan, you know Goa and the Ming Dynasty treasure ship circulated here?”

Juan nodded solemnly.

If the rumors are true, it is incredible.

The largest treasure ship, if converted into length units that would later be known to people, was more than 140 meters long and more than [-] meters wide. It was undoubtedly the largest wooden sailing ship in the world at that time.

Juan was skeptical about this, after all, it was just a local rumor.

Portugal's large three-masted carracks are generally about 25 meters in length and are already quite large ships.The largest ship that participated in the attack on Malacca that year was the "Flower of the Sea", which was 36 meters long.

Now, ships from Europa are getting bigger and bigger.But in the legends spread from the coast of India to here, the treasure ships of the great Eastern countries and the crazy fleets of the past are really unimaginable.

Now, three merchant ships no longer much smaller than the Flower of the Sea appeared in front of Juan.

The most important thing is that among the seven ships, there is also a smaller one, which can be seen as an escort warship. "Have you ever been in the Qin people's port? How many ships like this do they have?" Huan Xian pointed to the three big ones.

Alfonso replied: "In the Ming Dynasty, they had many different kinds of ships, which were used for ocean voyages. For many years, the Ming Dynasty did not encourage ocean trade. Only the current emperor became interested in ocean trade. . Although this type of ship was only newly built in the past few years, there are already more than two hundred of them, which they call wave-cutting ships. There is also a type that is half larger than this, called wave-cutting ship. "

In fact, Alfonso didn't know how many new large ships the Maritime Transport Bureau, Coast Defense Road, and Marine Division had in total since the establishment of the Treasure Ship Supervision, but this did not prevent him from boasting.

The treasure ship of that year no longer exists. Although His Majesty has ordered it to be rebuilt, and Alfonso has participated in many related matters, a treasure ship of that level has not yet been rebuilt.

Cutting the waves is already the largest ship that Ming Dynasty can handle now.Although the number and scale could not satisfy the emperor, and the navigability still needed to be continuously verified and accumulated experience, after Alfonso explained the two names of "Pi Bo" and "Zhan Lang", what Juan got was the respect for the vast ocean. A sense of conquest.

The ship is as big as 20 meters long and has a displacement of [-] tons.

In the Ming Dynasty, units such as ten materials, one hundred materials, and one thousand materials were used to measure the size of ships.This unit of calculation has its historical reasons, but now Ming Dynasty is preparing a new set of measurement standards with the efforts of the School of Calculation.

Generally speaking, one material is equivalent to one-third of a ton of displacement.When Zhu Houcong came to the throne, only a few of the Ming Dynasty's thousand-material ships were left, such as Fengzhou, which was specially used for envoys to Goryeo, Ryukyu and other places.This boat is fifteen feet long, two feet six wide, and weighs about four thousand tons. It is the largest ship with a displacement of one thousand tons.

As for the treasure ships of the past, relatively reliable records suggest that they were of the largest class of five thousand materials, with a total length of more than 70 meters.Although it is not as exaggerated as the total length of more than 140 meters, it was indeed the most proud of the world at that time.

Judging from the secret files, not all the treasure ships at that time have actually disappeared. There is a high probability that Fengzhou today is the treasure ship of the past.

"Are these the warships they use to protect the shipping lanes?" Juan asked Alfonso again.

"This kind is not even a battleship." Alfonso opened his eyes and lied. "This is a private company that has obtained the Ming Dynasty's charter to go to sea. It is only allowed to allocate one escort ship. It is not allowed to exceed three hundred materials."

After explaining the difference between the units, Alfonso continued: "From what I saw at the time of the battle, the capital ship was made of five hundred materials, and the flagship was made of thousand materials. They call it a ship, and it is the commander of the fleet. The flagship where it is located.”

He completely ignored the fact that the flagship ship back then only had [-] materials, and he blew it.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty Navy is indeed being built according to this standard, but it will take time to form combat effectiveness, and the number can only be assembled into a fleet of about ten ships.If combined with some two hundred, three hundred, or four hundred old ships, it can be regarded as a large scale.

Juan heard it, but was frightened.

Although this escort warship is smaller than the Karak-type warship, the gap is not huge.Is this just a private escort ship that is restricted from use?

He had no idea that civilian fleets were not allowed to have escort warships equipped with artillery. They could only carry some cold weapons to prevent others from plundering them.If you really want to have an escort warship, you need to spend a lot of money to hire it from the Maritime Transport Bureau or a maritime trade company.

Apart from the Haiphong Road and the newly established Marine Division, only these two companies are allowed to deploy this kind of escort warship worth [-] materials.

This time, it was naturally Shi Bao's work to build momentum.

After listening to Alfonso's bragging and seeing with his own eyes a "civilian escort warship" that was no less inferior to the Karak warship, Juan was beating drums in his heart and became afraid of Alfonso's reminder that the Ming fleet might come to take back Malacca. .

What would happen if there really was a fleet composed of flagships and battleships like the one he mentioned?Pillaizi and Alfonso successively brought the Portuguese fleet to the Ming Dynasty to try to open up trade routes and establish strongholds, but all failed.

As for the first group of people who went to the Ming Dynasty with Pillaizi and others and escaped after being defeated by Wang Hong, they said that the Ming Dynasty was not a powerful warship. In Alfonso's words, the Ming Dynasty's coastline was longer than the entire Europe. .At that time, the Ming Dynasty's navy was near Nanjing in their empire. The first thing Pillaizi encountered was the regular local guard force that maintained inland shipping and guarded the coastline.

This is indeed the case. At that time, it was just Guangdong Haiphong Road.

While waiting for Alfonso to go, he ran into a main force of the Ming Navy that had crossed almost half the Indian Ocean to support the south.

The result was touching: Alfonso's army was wiped out, and he was held captive for many years.

At that time, three clippers under Alfonso actually escaped. After returning to Malacca, Alfonso was relatively lucky that he didn't hear any news about them from here.

It seems that he was injured himself, and he was eventually buried in the sea.

"Your Excellency Governor, wait a moment, the person in charge of the Ming Dynasty fleet will come to see me." Alfonso said respectfully, "Your Excellency the Governor, you can pretend to be my friend without revealing your identity. To this Wang Zhi Your Excellency, please give me your respect first, Your Majesty the Governor. His family is good friends with the British Duke Zhang Lun, who manages the royal family's huge assets, and is also a very close business partner with Cui Yuan, the Marquis of Jingshan, the husband of Da Mingzi's aunt. These two people are both He is now a minister trusted by the Emperor of Heaven. Thanks to the help of His Excellencies Zhang Lun and Cui Yuan, I can finally regain my freedom."

Juan nodded solemnly.

A duke, a marquis.Even in Europe, this is the top nobility after the king.Taking into account the undoubted vastness and hugeness of the Ming Dynasty, their power was comparable to that of the kings of the major European countries, or even greater.

Juan had no idea what the truth was.

But amid the crowds of Malacca businessmen and people, young Wang Zhi walked over without fear.

Before he even got close, he opened his arms and said the Portuguese greeting that Alfonso taught him. Then he smiled heartily: "Dear Alfonso, long time no see. What you said is right. I went to the tavern for a drink first, and it was indeed a bit lively here. However, the taste of the wine you mentioned cannot be compared to the wine shipped from the desert oasis in the Western Region of Ming Dynasty."

"Mr. Wang, you came so quickly." Alfonso hugged him, "Last time in Ningbo, I heard you say that there is a place in Japan that is rich in beauties. You must bring one with you when you come to Malacca. Has it happened that you have brought it here now? ?”

"Of course."

After Wang Zhi stepped aside, a woman wearing silk clothes and a hat with a gauze scarf hanging on her head appeared behind her.

Alfonso's eyes lit up: "You're so lucky!"

After saying something that made Juan confused, he lifted up the gauze scarf, looked at the beauty with her head lowered, and hugged her again: "Why didn't I meet such a beautiful woman when I went there before? woman?"

Wang Zhi chuckled: "How many times have you been there? So where is the fine Western wine you promised? For the Duke and the Marquis, I am anxious to bring some back before the Spring Festival for my father to give them. Here’s the mirror.”

"Don't worry, my dear brother."

The two of them spoke Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese in the blink of an eye. The familiar demeanor and the content of the words were explained by Alfonso in a giggling voice, and Juan's eyes were filled with brilliance.

"This Mr. Juan is my good friend for many years. Mr. Wang, no matter what good things you want from Europe, Juan has it here! Let's go, let you try the wine collected by Juan first!"

The meaning of introducing this trade route to Juan Lai was very obvious. Alfonso hugged the Japanese beauty who was "returned to her original owner", and walked straight to the higher ground of Malacca City with Wang, who had changed into a set of gorgeous silk clothes. .

After leaving his cuckold wife, Alfonso was in Ningbo on "official business" enjoying this Japanese beauty.

She was first adopted as a plaything by a wealthy smuggling family along the coast, and was eventually seized and entered into the Nanjing Civil Affairs Bureau Jiaofang Department during an anti-smuggling case. Now she was "assigned" to Alfonso.

But in Juan's eyes, Alfonso has really traveled a lot.

Arriving at Alfonso's new house here, Juan's butler brought fine wine from the Governor's Palace. Juan had just heard Alfonso translate how much goods Wang Zhi had brought.

His eyes shone like gold.

(End of this chapter)