Smuggling Daming

The first meeting between Zhou Zhong and Alfonso was not very pleasant. The main reason was that the other party was so arrogant and unreasonable even if he was a prisoner, but Zhou Zhong was even more arrogant than him, and directly gave two ways. Hand them over to the people of Malacca directly. As for how those angry people in Malacca will deal with them, that’s not Zhou Zhong’s business. The second is to cooperate with him unconditionally. For example, the first thing Zhou Zhong asked them to do was to ask Alfonso and the others to teach Ming's soldiers to operate the captured Portuguese warships.

Thinking of the atrocities he committed against the people of Malacca, Alfonso, who had been arrogant before, chose the second path very wisely. After all, since he was captured, people from Malacca came to the prisoner-of-war camp every day to make trouble. I am afraid that these unarmed captives will be torn to pieces by the angry Malaccans.

After Alfonso surrendered, Zhou Zhong immediately asked Chang Xiao and Qu Lie to select a group of more clever soldiers from the navy, and began to learn the operation of warships and the application of such warships in naval battles from the Portuguese prisoners led by Alfonso. After all, those Portuguese warships are soft-sail Clark ships. The operation of this kind of ship is very different from that of Fuchuan. If there is no special guidance, even if it can be started, it may be difficult to exert its original power.

After dealing with the prisoners of war, there were still a series of troubles. For example, after Baman organized the Malacca people to clean up the battlefield, the sea merchants who were hiding in the city immediately asked to leave the port. After all, they had been delayed in Malacca for a long time. Over time, many people even died in the city.So the rest of the sea merchants are naturally anxious to leave this place of right and wrong.

For these sea merchants, Zhou Zhong can’t be as shameless as the Portuguese. At least he won’t confiscate the goods of the sea merchants, and in the future, the port of Malacca will need these past sea merchants to pay taxes. If he is now confiscating the other party’s goods for some property , Who would dare to come to Daming's port to dock in that day?So after Zhou Zhong appeased those merchants, he asked people to count the surviving cargo ships at the port and return them to these merchants, and also gave them a duty-free form. In the future, they can be tax-free once in the port of Malacca.

After sending away those sea merchants.Zhou Zhong also immediately started to rebuild the port of Malacca. The Portuguese had bombarded the port with artillery in order to force the Kingdom of Malacca to surrender. Fortunately, solid bullets were used in this era, and the port suffered not much damage. After days of repairs.The Port of Malacca has resumed operations again, but this time all the management personnel on the port have been replaced by people brought by Zhou Zhong, and the taxes collected have also entered Zhou Zhong's pockets. library.

"Master Admiral, what do you mean by doing this? The port is the port of our Kingdom of Malacca. But now it is all taken over by you, Ming, and the taxes collected are also taken by you. What is the difference between you and the Portuguese?" In the Daming barracks, Barman, the emissary who temporarily manages the city of Malacca, was shouting angrily.

The people of Malacca were naturally very dissatisfied with Zhou Zhongque's behavior of occupying the dove's nest. At the beginning, no one dared to say anything, but after getting along for a while, they found that the army in Ming Dynasty was not like Portugal. People are so vicious.This made the people of Malacca gradually become more courageous.As the leader of Malacca, Barman also approached Zhou Zhong several times to negotiate, but every time Zhou Zhong changed the topic.This made him very dissatisfied, and finally couldn't help arguing with Zhou Zhong this time.

Seeing that Barman was angry, Zhou Zhong smiled unmoved, and did not rush to answer. Instead, he poured himself a cup of tea and took a sip before saying, "Ambassador Barman, please be patient!" Don't be impatient, we are naturally different from the Portuguese. First of all, they want to use force to seize your port, and even kill your people, but our Ming Dynasty came to help you as the suzerain country, so you have to Distinguish who is the enemy and who is the friend!"

Zhou Zhong paused at this point, took a sip of tea, and then said: "As for your port, we are only in charge of it. Although this group of Portuguese were defeated by us, who can guarantee that there will be no next batch? If they send troops here again, you will not have the strength to protect yourself, so it is safer to leave it to us to take care of you. However, since the army needs to be garrisoned and managed, the army needs to eat, and it also needs to be paid at ordinary times. Let's Ming come out, shall we? So we will take over the taxation of the port for the time being, and Ambassador Barman must be considerate of us!"

What Zhou Zhong said was well-founded, and Baman didn't know how to refute it for a while, but he always felt that the matter was not as simple as what Zhou Zhong said, so he finally thought about it and asked again: "Since the admiral said he was in charge , Then I don’t know how long you will be in charge, will you withdraw your troops after our King’s Royal Highness returns?”

"Withdraw troops?" Zhou Zhong chuckled when he heard this, looked up at Baman, and suddenly asked back: "Ambassador Baman, I heard that your family came here from India. How much do you know about the current situation?"

Hearing Zhou Zhong suddenly ask about his family and the situation in India, Barman was taken aback for a moment, a little confused about Zhou Zhong's intentions, but finally he answered: "Yes, our family did move from India. Here, my generation is already the fourth generation, and the connection between the family and India has been broken long ago, so I don’t know much about it.”

"That's no wonder." Zhou Zhong laughed loudly at this time, but after laughing, Zhou Zhong's expression changed, "Ambassador Baman probably doesn't know yet, these Portuguese have already Beyond Africa, they reached India and established a stronghold there. The west coast of India has completely fallen into the hands of the Portuguese and monopolized the trade there. It can be said that the Portuguese have seized huge benefits from the west coast of India. Won't give up there."

Speaking of this, Zhou Zhong paused again, took a breath and continued: "The Portuguese have a big appetite, and now the interests of the west coast of India can no longer satisfy them, so these people have set their sights on Nanyang and other places. This time they attack The purpose of Malacca City is to open up the passage from India to Southeast Asia, although it failed this time, do you think they will give up easily?"

"Hiss~" Hearing Zhou Zhong's introduction to the situation in India, Baman also gasped. He didn't expect the Portuguese to expand so fast. Even their hometown already had a stronghold of the other party, and Portugal People still want to seize Nanyang. Malacca City is just located on the main road between India and Nanyang. Naturally, it is the first target they want to seize. Now Baman finally saw the situation that Malacca City is facing now, and his heart suddenly became heavy. .

Seeing Baman's face changed drastically, Zhou Zhong secretly smiled in his heart. Although the Portuguese had expanded to India, Europe was too far away from India without the opening of the Suez Canal, so the Portuguese wanted to transport It is not an easy task to send troops to India. This has led to the fact that Portugal does not have many troops in India. This time, I have destroyed nearly half of Portugal's troops. It also takes two years to prepare, so the situation in Malacca City is not as critical as he said.

"Master Admiral, when do you think the Portuguese will attack Malacca again?" Barman pondered for a while, and finally asked.

"I'm afraid no one can answer this question except for the high-level officials in Portugal. Maybe the Portuguese warship will come again tomorrow, and maybe the other party will wait patiently for two years. The thirst for goods, I believe it is impossible for the Portuguese to give up their invasion of Nanyang!" Zhou Zhong said in a deliberately heavy tone.Now that such an important position in Malacca City has fallen into his hands, it is naturally impossible to hand it over easily.

Hearing Zhou Zhong's answer, Barman fell silent again. He had seen the strength of the Portuguese before. The tens of thousands of soldiers in Malacca were defeated by more than 1000 Portuguese soldiers, and those tens of thousands of soldiers were already the most elite army in the kingdom. But now they are all dead and injured. If the Portuguese come again, they can only close their eyes and wait for death.

Thinking of this, Baman couldn't help sighing, knowing that it was a foregone conclusion for Daming to station troops in Malacca, but although Daming was the suzerain of the Kingdom of Malacca, their army could not be stationed here in vain, so the port's taxation naturally became For the remuneration of the garrison, otherwise why would people come all the way to Malacca?

However, although Baman figured this out, he immediately thought of those Malacca people in the city, especially the Malacca officials who had interests in the port before. They would definitely not be willing to give up the interests of the port. If there is a conflict, it will be bad.

Seeing the changing expression on Baman's face, Zhou Zhong understood what the other party was thinking after a little thought, and said solemnly, "Ambassador Baman, I know that you people in Malacca have objections to our taking over the port. , but my soldiers also need to eat to support their families, and I also need a reason to convince His Majesty the Emperor to station troops in Malacca, so we must have the interests of the port, and as for those Malacca people, we need you to convince them!"

Hearing that Zhou Zhong had made his words so clear, Barman also had a bitter face. One side was the huge interests of the Malacca port, and the other was the brutal Portuguese massacre. Smart people naturally knew how to choose, but some people in the city were benefited. Blindfolded, he was worried that these people would do something stupid! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)