Daming Military Empire

Chapter 105 Shocking Foreigners
June in the capital is already a bit hot, morning and evening are fine, the cool breeze is blowing, very refreshing, but once the sun rises, the temperature rises sharply, and the roasters are hot.Zhu Cijiong is also fiery now. Of course, this fiery does not refer to his body, but his heart.

Portugal finally sent envoys to discuss trade issues, and the person who came was the new Governor of Macau, Shivela. Although Macau is a little bit big, and it was leased from Ming Dynasty, he is a real ministerial-level senior official, equivalent to There are six Shangshu of the Ming Dynasty.

Being able to send a governor over here proves that the Portuguese have already valued Ming very much. Of course, the European powers are a group of hungry wolves who eat people without spitting out their bones. It is not necessarily a good thing that they value you, but this Portugal is different, at least not now. Same, because now their mainland has been annexed by Spain, and they are trying to restore their country, so naturally they will not easily provoke a powerful country like Ming Dynasty.

The reason why Zhu Cijiong chose to cooperate with Portugal is also for this reason. Other European powers are now arrogant, who would pee on you.Adding icing on the cake is worse than sending charcoal in the snow. Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are crazy now. Even if you put a hot face on it, they will only give you a cold ass.Portugal is different. Now is the time when they need friends, and it will definitely benefit a lot to cooperate with them now.

He really guessed right. Historically, during this restoration period, Portugal frantically sought foreign support to fight against Spain and regain its lost overseas territory.They kept seeking help from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, and Rome, and even expressed Portugal's willingness to join the Bourbon family group headed by France to fight against the Habsburg family group headed by Spain.But these countries are all white-eyed wolves. They accepted Portugal's benefits but did not give them substantial help. As a result, Portugal gradually declined and gradually became a second-rate country. It can be said that the once glorious empire on which the sun never sets was buried by the Portuguese.

Shivira came to Daming this time to see the strength of Daming. Before he came, one of the most powerful figures in Portugal, the Governor of India, Conded, personally confessed to him: trade is second, and you should mainly look at Daming this time. How is the strength? If Da Ming's strength is not enough, then he will try his best to lower the price and earn as much money as possible; They don't hesitate to double their money!

And Zhu Cijiong just wanted them to see Da Ming's strength, if he could fool Portugal to seek help from Da Ming, then he would make a lot of money.

Therefore, Shi Weila was shocked. Zhu Cijiong pulled all the horses and horses of the Beijing camp to the inner city and the imperial city. They lined up from the Zhengyang Gate in the inner city to the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City. The elite of the Beijing camp with new flintlock guns; before this is over, Zhu Cijiong also mobilized most of the Jinyiwei personnel in Beijing to fill the city walls on both sides of Zhengyangmen, Chengtianmen, and Meridian Gate; from Meridian Gate to Huangji The gate is full of Jin Yiwei generals in fresh clothes and armor, and the Huangji Gate to Huangji Hall is full of military eunuchs.

Shivira was arranged to enter the inner city through Zhengyang Gate. At the beginning, he was quite arrogant, with his head raised and his nostrils almost raised to the sky, completely ignoring the officials from the Ministry of Rites who came to greet him.

When he saw the densely packed brocade guards on the wall of the inner city, his head was slightly flattened, and his eyes finally returned from the sky to the ground.

The arrogance on his face disappeared when he saw elites from the Beijing camp lined up on both sides of the road between the inner city and the imperial city. The road is about ten miles away, so how many troops are there!
When he saw the densely packed imperial guards on the walls of the imperial city, he was a little shocked, why there are two layers of walls, and the walls are still full of soldiers!

When he entered the imperial city, he was completely shocked. There were still densely packed troops on both sides of the road. How many troops did Ming have?
When he saw the walls of the Forbidden City, he was already numb. Why are there still walls and densely packed troops!

When he entered the Huangji Gate, he completely lowered his proud head, because the people on both sides were not troops, but armed eunuchs. How many people would have to be eunuched? Do you want to be so extravagant!

He didn't doubt that these troops were fake. As a governor, he also had troops under his command. He could tell at a glance whether they were real soldiers or not. The soldiers who walked along the way looked like well-trained elite troops. The civilians were just pretending to be soldiers. not coming.

Along the way, I saw at least more than 500 troops, which already exceeded the sum of all the troops in Portugal's heyday; and those flintlock guns, which Shivela once inquired about, were new flintlock guns made by the Ming Dynasty. The shooting range has reached a terrifying [-] meters, which is more powerful than their Portuguese-made flintlock guns, and the navy army under Zheng Zhilong also has more than [-] people. The Ming Empire is strong enough!
He had already figured it out, at least some benefits should be given to the Ming Empire in this negotiation, because the Ming Empire was already stronger than Portugal.As for whether to try their best to win them over, that remains to be seen. Daming's army is stronger than Portugal's, but in front of the Spaniards, this army is not enough.

After adjusting his mentality, Shivira was naturally extremely respectful in front of Zhu Cijiong. He made a rare kneeling salute, and said loudly in broken Chinese: "See Your Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. I am here to greet you on behalf of the Portuguese Empire. China negotiates the issue of trade agency rights."

Seeing him kneeling on one knee and saluting straight, the ministers on both sides couldn't help but frowned. The envoys of this state are too rude. Didn't they know that the emperor had to kneel on both knees and kowtow?
Zhu Cijiong was quite satisfied. In the Qing Dynasty, it was rumored that foreigners could not bend their knees, because they never thought that Emperor Xianfeng and Empress Dowager Cixi would curtsey, and at most they would bow their hands.Zhu Cijiong really wants Cixi to take a look now, who said that their knees can't be bent down, isn't it bent now?

Of course, Zhu Cijiong didn't just want them to bend their knees, but he also wanted to fight the big powers. It's just the beginning, and it's not bad to make them bend their knees. He pretended to be naive and said: "Well, excuse me, I Did you see the Praetorian Guards, is it okay?"

Janissaries?Did he mean the thousands of armored soldiers in the imperial city?Shivela stood up slowly, and gave a crappy compliment: "Very good, very good, the guards inside are good, and the army outside is also good."

Zhu Cijiong thought for a long time before he understood what he meant. After thinking about it for a long time, he thought that only General Jin Yiwei in the imperial city was the imperial guards. Quickly corrected: "There are Zhen's imperial guards inside and outside, and what you saw today is all."

Shivira rolled his eyes when he heard the words. If it was the emperor of an enemy country, he really wanted to sneer: "You can die if you don't brag?"

They are all Janissaries, what are you kidding about?More than [-] imperial guards, who are you lying to?

However, this is not the emperor of an enemy country, and his broken Chinese does not know how to express his dissatisfaction after being deceived, so he remained silent.

After being silent for a while, he secretly glanced at Zeng Dezhao, a member of the Ministry of Industry's Tuntian Qingli Division among the officials of the Ming Dynasty, and wanted him to come out to ease the embarrassing atmosphere.

It stands to reason that a low-level official like Zeng Dezhao would not be able to enter the Huangji Palace, but this time the emperor is going to meet his fellow countryman, and his Chinese is not bad. In case he needs to translate, he can temporarily fill up the number, so he was authorized to come in up.

When Zeng Dezhao saw Shivela sneaking glances at him, he thought that Shivira was asking if what the emperor said was true, of course it was true, the Beijing Camp and Jinyiwei were both imperial guards.So, he nodded slightly and mouthed a silent "yes" in Portuguese.

Nod, still say yes?Shivira didn't realize it for a while, but when he did, his eyes almost popped out of shock. It was really all the Imperial Guards, more than [-] Imperial Guards!
He couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise: "His Majesty has so many imperial guards!"

Pretentiousness is naturally to be pretended to the end, Zhu Cijiong pretended to be regretful and said: "These Imperial Guards are nothing, I was going to recruit 50 new Imperial Guards, but there was a sudden rebellion in the northwest, I had to send the 50 guards All the troops have been transferred to the northwest."

Hearing this, Shivela was so shocked that he almost bit off his tongue. He couldn't help staring at Zhu Cijiong with puffy eyes, and stammered, "Five, five, 50!"

Zhu Cijiong continued to pretend, he pretended not to care and said: "Is 50 a lot? When the Ming Dynasty was in its heyday, there were 270 million troops. Unfortunately, it is less than half now. I plan to recruit all 270 million troops back in the next few years." .”

270 million!Really or not, Shivela felt that he had lost the ability to think, and he couldn't help but look directly at Zeng Dezhao.

Zeng Dezhao has recently been obsessed with the history of Ming Dynasty. He naturally knows this. Although he is Portuguese, he is an official in Ming Dynasty after all. Speaking of the glorious history of Ming Dynasty, he also feels honored. At this moment, Shi Wei Looking over, he naturally nodded without hesitation.

Nodding, the Ming Empire really had an army of 270 million!You must know that Portugal now has a total of more than 100 million people, 270 million, which is more than twice their national population. Even when Spain was at its strongest, there were only 50 million troops. How powerful is the Ming Empire!
Shivela was so shocked that he couldn't speak, he stood there dumbfounded, and there was no movement for a while.

Zhu Cijiong saw that the effect of the pretense was almost done, and he would scare people to death if he pretended any more, so he quickly stopped the pretense and asked with a smile: "Aren't you here to discuss trade issues?"

Shivela nodded mechanically, but howled excitedly in his heart: "Don't talk about it, you can do whatever you want. If such a powerful country can help us Portugal, don't talk about it again." It is very simple to regain the lost overseas land! We must win over well, at all costs!"

(End of this chapter)