The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 27 A magnificent new route
Following Wang Wenlong's description, everyone instantly understood the situation in Portugal at that time.

Although King João won the throne after a hard-fought battle, the country had also gone through wars. The country was small internally and the people were weak, and powerful enemies were looking at it externally. The situation was dire as you can guess. No one dared to imagine how he would develop the country at that time. .

At this time, Wang Wenlong continued: "The Portuguese were facing pressure from the Spanish and had no hope of becoming a powerful country on land. Fortunately, the Portuguese had a tradition of sailing at that time, so King Joao turned the direction of the country's development to the sea. , determined to build a country based on sea trade."

Hearing this, Long Guolu nodded repeatedly: "That's how it should be. He builds bridges across mountains and rivers. Only with this kind of backbone can he be called a good man!"

But the maritime merchants present heard other feelings.

The Ming Dynasty despised overseas merchants and sometimes even directly equated them with pirates. Although most of these merchants had blood on their hands, they were forced to do so, because many times the government did not give them the opportunity to legally trade at sea. If they did not Those engaged in gray industries would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.

These maritime merchants could hardly imagine what it would be like to support overseas commerce with all the strength of the country.

Li Guoshu imagined that Portugal supported overseas trade as a whole at that time, and he instantly felt a little envious of the Portuguese maritime merchants.

"Portugal is located on the westernmost side of Europe, adjacent to what Europeans call the Atlantic Ocean. It is very easy to navigate, but there are no rich countries to the sea from here, and the route in front of it is also foggy."

Wang Wenlong clicked on Africa and South America: "Although these two places are close to Portugal, there are only native people here. Although gold and jewelry are also produced, the natives have no ability and the mining quantity is extremely rare."

Everyone nodded, except for a few merchants who showed greedy eyes when they heard this. They thought that there are so many lands in America that are only inhabited by backward natives, but it is a pity that they are too far away from China. Otherwise, they can immigrate. past.

Wang Wenlong said: "At that time, Europeans were extremely eager for silk tea and spices from Tianzhu and our Ming Dynasty. As long as our Eastern goods arrived in Europe, they could easily make dozens or hundreds of times the profit once they were resold."

"It's just that the main trade route to Tianzhu and China passes through Persia, which is too far from Portugal."

As Wang Wenlong spoke, he pointed out the route of the Silk Road with a brush on the map. Everyone frowned when they saw it. This route leads to Europe from the east, but Portugal is at the far west of Europe. It is too far away. From a distance, it seems that Portugal is really an extremely remote and wild place.

Hearing this, Li Guozhu said: "Although he has great ambitions, the current situation can only make the hero sigh."

Everyone felt that putting them in the position of King João at that time would be impossible.

Han Zhuo thought for a while and then asked: "But how did these Portuguese come to China?"

Wang Wenlong smiled and said: "Everyone can think about it, if you want to come to our Ming Dynasty from Portugal, how do you need to go?"

Everyone looked at the map with confusion.

From the map, Portugal is thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty, and the only route is to make a big circle from Africa.

But this requires going around the entire continent. Just looking at the size of Africa and the Ming Dynasty, the distance is equivalent to traveling around the Ming Dynasty. How is this possible?

Gao Yin couldn't believe that the Portuguese could take this sea route, and was wondering.

At this time, Wang Wenlong took a brush and started drawing directly from Portugal. He first drew a long straight line along the west coast of Africa, then made a break at the corner of the African coast, and then drew a long straight line along the east coast of Africa. The line actually surrounded Africa in a big circle.

Everyone reacted instantly, and then were stunned: The Portuguese actually decided to explore this extremely long route?How can this be!

Seeing everyone's shock, Wang Wenlong smiled in his heart and said:
"With the support of the Portuguese royal family, Portuguese navigators began to explore new routes. They first spent 40 years establishing a stronghold on the west coast of Africa, and then sent out huge ocean-going teams several times to find a route from the west to Tianzhu. They repeatedly encountered obstacles. , the entire army was wiped out, but they continued to fight forward."

"100 years later, Joao I died, and after two generations of kings, the Portuguese explorer Diaz finally found a route around the southernmost tip of Africa and took it during the reign of Joao II, the great-grandson of Joao I. The cape is named the Cape of Good Hope.”

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, especially the businessmen with sailing experience who couldn't believe it.Li Guoshu thought that his ancestors would have narrowly escaped death just by following the routes of their predecessors and traveling across the East and West oceans. However, those Portuguese actually spent 100 years continuously exploring unknown routes. The hardships and dangers involved were simply unimaginable.

And Wang Wenlong’s narrative is not over yet.

“Ten years later, João II died and the new king Manuel came to the throne. The Portuguese-funded navigator Vasco da Gama passed the Cape of Good Hope, stopped in eastern Africa, and finally reached Tianzhu, opening up a route from Portugal to Tianzhu. "

The route drawn by Wang Wenlong was a series of island hopping on the east coast of Africa, and finally passed through Mozambique and then suddenly took a straight line to India. Anyone with a little sailing experience can hardly imagine how much hardship it takes to open such a route.

Just now, Dias's trip around the Cape of Good Hope had stunned everyone, but with Wang Wenlong's guidance, everyone discovered that Da Gama's route was actually more complicated.

Wang Wenlong said: "More than 100 years have passed since João I decided to carry out overseas trade. After five kings, the Portuguese finally opened a route from Europe to Tianzhu."

Wang Wenlong only had to briefly mention the journey that took place more than 100 years ago, and everyone couldn't help but marvel at this group of Portuguese people who persevered in pursuing a rich country.

At this time, Zhang Yi was completely silent, because he had never heard of what Wang Wenlong said, and the details of what Wang Wenlong said were clear, so subconsciously he felt that what Wang Wenlong said was the right thing.

His eyes rolled wildly and he began to think about his retreat.

And everyone's thoughts were not on him.

Li Guozhu was already extremely shocked by the history of Portugal opening up new shipping routes, and he couldn't help but ask:

"From then on, Portugal naturally emerged as a maritime hegemon?"

Wang Wenlong said with a smile: "Not necessarily. This happened more than a hundred years ago, and now Portugal has been annexed by Spain."

As soon as this statement came out, everyone was even more shocked. Everyone had just heard about Portugal's arduous and magnificent history of development. They knew that the reason why Portugal wanted to expand overseas was to escape the control of Spain. But why did Wang Wenlong suddenly say that Portugal was eventually conquered? Annexed by Spain.

Wang Wenlong deliberately did not explain directly.

After he drew the Indian route, he added a route on the map, passing through Malacca and going straight to Luzon and other places.

He continued: "After the Portuguese mastered the Tianzhu route, they further explored the location of the Ming Dynasty and finally found Luzon, which they called the Spice Islands. This is what we now call the Western Trade Route."

"The Portuguese relied on their so-called colonial system for their overseas expansion, and the core of the colony was the commercial establishment."

“The Portuguese established commercial offices every time they visited an important trading place. In their commercial offices, the Portuguese enjoyed two rights:
One is that when the Portuguese break the law locally, only Portuguese law will prevail, not local law.The second is that if there is a conflict between the Portuguese and local merchants, officials in the merchant house can participate in the trial under local laws. "

"Commercial halls occupy all trade points, and the connections between them are the most valuable routes."

"Portuguese gunboats cruised among the trade routes. Once there were pirates or competitors interfering with the route trade, the troops of each trade house would work together to attack them under the deployment of the Portuguese Governor of India."

"The small country of Portugal relied on this method to control the most valuable waterway in the world, and it has been able to traverse the world for more than [-] years!"

Hearing this, all the officials of the Ming Dynasty frowned in unison. They understood the way of trade in the merchant house, and then all of them thought: Isn't Xiangshan Ao a place like this?

(End of this chapter)