Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 209 Red Barbarians
At Chaozhou government office, Zhu Lang, wearing a bright yellow dragon robe and a Yishan crown, sat on a couch. A man with deep eyes, a high nose, and a round-necked robe was brought into the hall by Li Chengzhi.
The Ming court initially sent Pang Tianshou to Haojing to purchase cannons, but this did not attract the attention of the Hongyi people in Haojing. During the reign of Chongzhen, the Ming court had purchased cannons from Haojing many times, and the Haojing Cannon Factory initially regarded this purchase as an ordinary transaction.
But it was not until Pang Tianshou threatened the Portuguese in Macau to immediately provide heavy artillery that the Portuguese authorities in Macau discovered the unusual nature of this purchase.
The Portuguese in Haojing were also very well-informed. After some investigation, they immediately discovered the current situation of the Ming court.
The Longwu court that was just established last year had collapsed a few months ago, and a new emperor appeared in Guangdong Province at some point.

In the eyes of the Portuguese, this once mighty empire has now reached its twilight years.

In their opinion, the reason why the newly established Guangdong Provincial Court was so eager to buy heavy artillery from them was because the Tatars in the north had already chased into Guangdong Province and wanted to destroy the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
This guess coincided with the news that Pang Tianshou told them. Pang Tianshou told them that the Ming Dynasty had just won a great victory over the Tatars in Guangzhou.

But in the eyes of the Portuguese in Macau, it was clear that the Guangdong Provincial Government had defeated the Tatar vanguard, and the Tatar army was about to invade Guangdong Province again, so the Guangdong Provincial Government came to urgently purchase artillery to resist the invasion of the northern Tatars.
After the authorities in Macau learned about the current situation of the Ming court, they immediately found an opportunity. The empire called Ming was repeatedly defeated by the powerful Tatars in the north. Now the Tatars have even chased into Guangdong Province, wanting to wipe out the last royal family of the Ming Dynasty.
The Guangdong court now has no time to forge heavy artillery, so it can only urgently purchase it from Macau in the hope of using artillery to stop the Tatars' attack and ensure its own survival. This is an excellent opportunity for the Portuguese in Macau to improve their situation.
Due to the European war and the changes in Japan, the Portuguese in Macau have been in a state of decline over the years. The Portuguese fleet on the island has also suffered losses year after year, and the number of Portuguese merchant ships coming from Southeast Asia has also been decreasing. The Portuguese in Macau has now reached an extremely dangerous point.

The Portuguese in Macau believed that the Guangdong court had something to ask of them, so they immediately wanted to seize the opportunity to tear off a piece of flesh and blood from the remaining empire and make up for the losses over the years.

The Portuguese envoy this time was Lawrence, a member of the Macau Council. Like other Portuguese colonies, Macau was governed by the Council system.
The Macau Council has a total of six members, all of whom are elected by local Portuguese people to manage various affairs of Macau. Although they are elected by voting, in fact, these elected members are basically Portuguese big businessmen rooted in Macau.
Lorenzo entered the room, first glanced at the young Ming Emperor above him, and then bowed in stiff Chinese.

After Lorenzo had performed the formalities, he stood up and said:

"The emperor intends to purchase our Portuguese heavy artillery, and the adults in the council are already aware of it. However, the heavy artillery on the merchant ship is not only our reliance for life-saving trade at sea, but also the most advanced military weapon of our Portuguese Kingdom."

"There are also laws in our country that restrict this kind of heavy artillery from being easily sold to foreign countries. Only friends of our Portuguese Kingdom can obtain the qualification to purchase it."

Lorenzo rolled his eyes and spoke softly, but he was interrupted by a shout from the side before he finished speaking.
"My Great Ming Dynasty has already purchased heavy artillery from you several times before, but why didn't you tell me what qualifications you needed at that time? You Portuguese are just making excuses. Do you really think that my Great Ming Dynasty dare not expel you, the red barbarians?"

Li Chengzhi stared at Lorenzo with a cold expression on his face.
Lorenzo's expression remained unchanged when he heard this. He bowed slightly to Li Chengzhi, and then he spoke.

"Sir, please calm down. We Portuguese have always respected the Ming Kingdom. We did sell artillery to the Ming Kingdom before, which is enough to prove our friendship with the Ming Kingdom."

"But this gentleman does not know that the cannons sold at that time were made by the local artillery factory, and they are different from the cannons used by our merchant ships."

"If you want to buy the cannons we saw earlier, that's no problem. We can order the cannon factory to start casting immediately. Just wait a little while and the Haojing Cannon Factory will be able to deliver the cannons to your country."

Li Chengzhi's face darkened immediately after hearing this. It was obvious that Lorenzo was lying. What was the difference between the artillery used? It was not like the Ming Dynasty had not salvaged artillery from sunken ships. The artillery that the Ming Dynasty had purchased from Haojing before was no different from the artillery used by the Portuguese.
The Ming Dynasty is in urgent need of artillery to attack Zhao'an and break the deadlock in Fujian Province. The Ming Dynasty has already recruited craftsmen from Haojing. If there is time, the Ming Dynasty can cast artillery by itself, so why should it buy from these red barbarians?
Lorenzo discovered that the Ming Dynasty was in urgent need of artillery, so he was prepared to use it to threaten the court.
Lorenzo was naturally making excuses at random, but his face was calm and he didn't think there was anything wrong with this approach.

Previously, they obediently presented artillery because the Ming Empire was vast and powerful. In order to stay in Haojing, they had to obey orders. But the current Ming Empire is different from the previous Ming Empire.
Since the Ming Dynasty's power has been severely damaged and it now needs their help, it is natural that other conditions must be negotiated!
If not, how can they make up for the losses in the past few years from the Ming Kingdom, and how can they boost the attractiveness of the Eastern route again so that Haojing can get more support from the Kingdom Headquarters? When Lorenzo thought of this, a trace of greed flashed in his eyes.

Li Chengzhi's face was grim, and he was about to speak, but at this moment Zhu Lang above him suddenly spoke

"Just tell me what you want, don't waste my time."

Lorenzo looked at the expressionless young emperor above him, and suddenly felt certain in his heart, and became more and more convinced that the Ming Dynasty court in Guangdong Province had really reached the end of its rope.

At this time, even the emperor was forced to rush to the front line to defend. Doesn't he have to let them set the conditions?
Lorenzo's eyes turned, and then he spoke softly

"Your Majesty, the Portuguese have always respected the Ming Dynasty. However, this purchase involves the most advanced weapons in the Portuguese country, so the Council wants to have some small friendly negotiations with the Ming Dynasty."

"My Portuguese Kingdom is a devout believer in God. God is the only true God in the world. All of us are lambs of God. Your Majesty the Emperor is the son of God, that is, the son of God."

"From the nobles to the common people, everyone in my Portuguese Kingdom is a believer appointed by God. If His Majesty the Emperor can be baptized and convert to Christianity, then the Ming Dynasty and Portuguese Kingdom will be one family, and they can naturally purchase the most advanced firearms from Portuguese Kingdom at will."

Lorenzo finished speaking, but before the Emperor could speak, he continued
"Since the Portuguese and Ming have become one family, the Ming court should no longer prohibit the people of Ming from interacting with the Portuguese merchants and people."

"Please allow the people of Ming Dynasty to freely travel to Haojing to sell rice and other goods, and allow the people of Portugal to freely build houses on the island to show the friendship between Ming Dynasty and Portugal."

Although the Ming Dynasty allocated a small area on Haojing Island and rented it to the Portuguese for living at the price of 500 taels of silver per year, the Ming Dynasty court never relaxed its supervision over these Portuguese.
The most powerful means for the Ming Dynasty to control the Portuguese in Haojing was food. The Ming Dynasty had already stipulated that no matter what kind of goods the common people wanted to transport to Haojing Island, they had to report to the Xiangshan County Government.

Only after obtaining permission from the note can ordinary merchants transport goods to the island of Haojing

This control ranged from silk and porcelain to rice, grain and vegetables. All goods that came to the island had to be reported to the Xiangshan County Office.

This was the imperial court's method of controlling the Portuguese in Macau. As long as the red barbarians violated the ban, the Ming court would immediately impose an embargo on the Portuguese on the island.
Under this kind of control, the Portuguese in Macau had to depend on the Ming court for food, not to mention trade.
During the reign of Emperor Tianqi, the Portuguese privately built a fort in Macau. When the Ming court discovered this, they immediately ordered the Portuguese in Macau to demolish it, but the Portuguese in Macau refused to comply.
The Ming court immediately cut off all supplies to the island. Without the rice supply from the people, the Portuguese on the island were immediately starved of food.

The Portuguese on Haojing Island only held out for a few days, but eventually they had to obey the Ming Dynasty's order and dismantle the island's artillery.

At this time, Lorenzo proposed to abolish the ban and allow the people of Ming Dynasty to freely go to the island to trade, in order to remove the rope that Ming Dynasty had strangled around Portugal's neck.

"anything else"

Zhu Lang's expression had turned cold when he heard the first point Lorenzo said, but after hearing the second point, his expression calmed down.
Lorenzo saw the cold expression of the young man above him, but he was not afraid at all. Instead, he became more and more happy.
The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty could actually accept these two conditions. It seemed that the Ming Dynasty court had really reached an extremely critical moment. At this time, they could only rely on their Portuguese artillery to defend themselves. In this case, they could just take another step forward!
Lorenzo's greed grew stronger as he thought of this. He turned his eyes and continued speaking.

"Now that the Ming Dynasty and the Portuguese have become friendly countries, we should also open up private trade to benefit the people of both countries."

"We Portuguese merchants and civilians have always been respectful and law-abiding. Please allow our Portuguese merchant ships to trade freely in various ports of Ming Dynasty."

"Anything else? Go on."

The young man in the dragon robe above, expressionless, continued to speak

At this time, Lorenzo saw that the young emperor above him was still calm, and he began to sense something was wrong, and immediately spoke

"No, as long as His Majesty the Emperor agrees to these measures to demonstrate friendship, our Portuguese Kingdom can immediately provide His Majesty the Emperor with twenty, no, thirty heavy artillery pieces free of charge, and send Portuguese gunners to assist His Majesty in repelling the Tatars..."

砰

Before Lorenzo could finish his words, a teacup suddenly flew down from above and hit Lorenzo on the forehead.

Lorenzo was caught off guard and was instantly knocked to the ground, his face covered in blood. He looked up in confusion. At this moment, a roar suddenly rang out in the hall.
"Red Barbarian devil, who gave you the courage to stand before me and speak so shamelessly?"

"I should not have been so soft-hearted towards you people. You red barbarians all deserve to die."

Zhu Lang's face was furious. He stood up suddenly and stared coldly at Lorenzo who fell to the ground.

Lorenzo saw the young man with a grim expression and a ferocious python above him, and a trace of fear finally flashed in his eyes.

He finally remembered that he was not facing his usual business negotiation opponent, but the king of a huge empire.
Although they had the artillery that the king urgently needed, the king could also ignore them and kill them right here!

Zhu Lang stared at Lorenzo below with a grim look on his face. These Portuguese were really ambitious. The three conditions proposed by the Portuguese were actually asking for the right to preach, the right to control Macau, and the right to trade without jurisdiction from the Ming Dynasty.

If Zhu Lang was baptized, he would become a Christian. Since Zhu Lang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, became a Christian, then foreign religions could naturally spread freely in the Central Plains, and should even be given special status and treatment.

Open up the supply of materials to the island of Haojing and allow the Hongyi people in Haojing to freely build houses. Within half a year, the island of Haojing will be full of bastions and artillery positions. Who will be able to take care of the affairs on the island of Haojing then?

As for allowing Macau to freely enter and exit the ports of the Central Plains, that is absolutely impossible. Who do they think they are, a small country thousands of miles away from home?

Did the Portuguese think that the Ming Dynasty had been defeated? They dared to put forward such conditions. They really didn't know how to live or die.

When Zhu Lang thought of this, a cold light flashed in his eyes, and he spoke directly

"Go back and tell the red barbarians on the island to get out of Haojing within a month. If there are still people staying on the island after a month, I will personally lead troops to the island and kill all the red barbarians on the island."

Lorenzo's face changed when he heard the murderous words of the young man above him.

These three conditions were the best results that the council could get from the Ming court after discussion. In fact, the council did not think that all these conditions could be realized.

Lorenzo put forward these conditions just to let the Ming emperor bargain. Isn't negotiation just a matter of testing each other?

But who would have thought that after hearing this, the emperor would overturn the table and expel them from Macau.
Lorenzo thought of this and could not care about his fear. He could not help but said loudly:

"Your Majesty, are you planning to go to war with my Portuguese Kingdom?"

"Although we only have five or six merchant ships in Macau now, if you insist on being hostile to our Portuguese merchants and civilians, our Portuguese Kingdom can send dozens of warships to Macau at any time to protect the interests of our Portuguese merchants and civilians."

"Your Majesty may not know that the thousand-jin heavy artillery your country is now seeking to purchase is equipped with dozens of guns on each of our Portuguese warships. Your Majesty is now fighting the Tatars on land. Are you preparing to start another dispute with our Portuguese Kingdom at sea?"

Lorenzo got up from the ground with a stern look on his face, showing no sign of retreat, but his eyes were fixed on the young man in the bright yellow dragon robe above him.

(End of this chapter)