Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1002: John IV's Plan

Tea tasting brings the two parties closer together and makes the atmosphere more harmonious and relaxed.

The two sides chatted about the topics that they didn't enjoy last time, and talked about what Wang Fuzhi and his friends had seen all the way from the East. John IV was a very good chatterbox. He was not only a king, but also an artist, especially in music. He was even known as a music theorist in Europe.

As the topic of conversation unfolded, they talked about travel experiences, culture, and music. John IV even took out the music scores from all over Europe that he had collected over the years to show Wang Fuzhi. Wang Fuzhi also had some research on music. The two had similar hobbies and had a great time talking about this topic.

After chatting for about an hour, John IV finally got to the point. He told Wang Fuzhi that in fact the origins of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Ming Dynasty were much deeper than those of other European countries, because Portugal was not only the first country in Europe to arrive in the Ming Dynasty from the Western world, but also in the far east, that is, the Ming Dynasty, Portugal also obtained the Ming Dynasty's special charter to own Macau as a place of residence and have long-term and stable trade with the Ming Dynasty.

From this point of view, Portugal and the Ming Dynasty have had exchanges for a hundred years. Logically, Portugal should have established normal diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty earlier, and the two countries should have become friends.

Unfortunately, due to the previous relationship with Portugal, many exchanges between Portugal and Ming Dynasty were limited to private rather than official. When Portugal was planning to establish formal diplomatic relations with Ming Dynasty, something happened in Portugal. With the death of the beloved King Sebastian I in North Africa, the succession of the Portuguese throne became a problem. Although his uncle, Cardinal Henry I, ascended the throne after Sebastian I's death, the problem was that Henry I was too old and died after being king for only a few years.

When Henry I died, he did not designate an heir before his death, and the royal family had no direct descendants at the time, which led to Spain, which had long coveted Portugal, taking advantage of the situation. The Habsburg dynasty thus stole the Portuguese throne, resulting in Portugal being formally annexed by Spain.

At that time, Portugal had lost its autonomy and was controlled by Spain politically, economically and militarily, which led to decades of resistance by the Portuguese nobles in their fight for Portugal's independence.

It is also for this reason that although Portugal had contact with the Ming Dynasty very early, it has not been able to establish normal diplomacy, and even military conflicts have broken out between them. This is a pity.

When Adolf went to Ming as an envoy of Sweden and Poland, his last stop after leaving Europe was Lisbon. At that time, John IV provided help and also wanted to allow Portugal and Ming to conduct normal diplomacy.

However, at that time, John IV had just ascended the throne of Portugal, and Portugal had just broken away from Spanish rule. The pressure at home and abroad was great, and a war broke out on the border between Portugal and Spain. In order to maintain the independence and territorial integrity of Portugal, John IV had no energy to take care of other things, and he was not sure what the result would be of Adolf's visit to Ming Dynasty, so he did not send an envoy to Ming Dynasty at the same time, which now seems to be a big regret.

Now, Adolf not only completed the task, but also brought back envoys from the Ming Dynasty from the East. With the arrival of Wang Fuzhi and others, John IV, who was determined to make a breakthrough in diplomacy, was instantly tempted. He felt that since Portugal had not been able to gain recognition from European countries through diplomacy in recent years, and those Protestant countries were indifferent to Portugal, John IV felt that it would not be a bad option to make a diplomatic breakthrough through the Ming Dynasty.

Just like he accepted Charles II and married his most beloved daughter to Charles, making Charles his son-in-law. If Portugal could establish normal diplomacy with the Ming Dynasty and become an ally, it would be of many benefits to Portugal.

Although the Ming Dynasty is far away in the East and cannot provide any help to Portugal in Europe's political and military affairs, don't forget that the Ming Dynasty is currently the most powerful and richest country in the world, without a doubt.

From the perspective of global politics, economy, culture, military and other aspects, the Ming Dynasty is absolutely overwhelming to the European countries. In other words, just like the United States in the early 21st century, the Ming Dynasty is currently the only superpower in the world. The yearning and admiration of the European countries for the Eastern Empire is deep-rooted. Even the most powerful countries in Europe dare not say that they can compare with the current Ming Empire.

Moreover, Portugal's territory in Europe is not large. Portugal's rapid development and rise began with the advent of the Age of Exploration. The real foundation of the Kingdom of Portugal is its merchant ships all over the world and its powerful maritime power. In addition, there are overseas territories and colonies around the world. These are the main reasons why the Kingdom of Portugal was able to become a powerful country in Europe at that time.

Because the Kingdom of Portugal was previously ruled by Spain, Spain seized a lot of resources from Portugal, including overseas territories and colonies.

After John IV ascended the throne and became king, he intended to join the Protestant League through diplomatic means to fight against the Catholic League headed by the Habsburgs, so as to regain the overseas territories and colonies taken away by Spain and restore Portugal's previous strength and prosperity. However, John IV encountered obstacles everywhere in recent years and never made any progress. On the contrary, because the Kingdom of Portugal was essentially a Catholic country, it was completely different from the Protestant League he joined, and domestic religious conflicts broke out, which made John IV frustrated. The appearance of Wang Fuzhi and others gave him an opportunity. If he could establish normal diplomacy with the Ming Dynasty and the two sides became allies, although the Ming Dynasty could not help Portugal in Europe, the influence alone might be able to change Portugal's current diplomatic embarrassment.

In addition, John IV also planned to use the power of Ming Dynasty to plot against Spain, because Portuguese merchant ships had been traveling between the East and the West for a long time, and they knew the situation in the East much better than other European countries. Spain was currently very powerful, and it was difficult for Portugal to regain its lost overseas territories and colonies on its own. However, it would be different if Ming Dynasty helped. You should know that Spain had colonies in Asia, and this colony was Luzon.

After Portugal acquired Macau and obtained the Ming Dynasty's permission to settle and trade in Macau, Spain soon arrived in the Far East and followed in Portugal's footsteps to start trade exchanges with the Ming Dynasty.

But how could Portugal, which had taken the lead at that time, give up the opportunity and let Spain have a share of it? Therefore, Portugal was very strong in the Far East, and took advantage of the convenience of occupying Macau in advance to make a private "deal" with Ming officials, which made Spain's intention to emulate Portugal fail.

The Spaniards were furious about this and even launched a riot of more than 80 people, intending to use these people to teach the Ming Dynasty a "severe lesson."

Unfortunately, the riot started off well but ended badly. At the very beginning, it was defeated by the army sent by the local government of the Ming Dynasty. After losing most of its men, the remaining troops fled the Ming territory in a panic by boat.

Later, in order to take revenge, these stupid Spaniards actually passed the news back to their country, and tried their best to encourage the King of Spain at that time to launch a war to conquer the Ming Dynasty. They also boasted that it was effortless for Spain to occupy the New World back then, and that although the Ming Dynasty was strong, it was not much stronger than the natives of the New World. The Ming people were not good at fighting at all, and would surrender voluntarily as long as their fortresses were taken. According to their calculations, as long as the Kingdom of Spain sent out 20,000 troops, it could conquer the entire Ming Dynasty and occupy this rich land.

However, the then King Philip II of Spain was not interested in this plan, because the king was busy figuring out how to annex Portugal. Moreover, the rise of Britain also made Philip II feel a sense of crisis. If he had to withdraw these troops and send a large fleet to the Far East to fight the Ming Dynasty, then these things in Europe would not be able to be done.

In this regard, Philip II rejected the so-called military plan to conquer the Ming Dynasty, but his ministers and governors were very interested in it, and even began to prepare secretly, intending to execute first and report later.

For this reason, Spain began to prepare intensively for its so-called military plan to conquer the Ming Dynasty. With the enthusiasm of these hot-headed guys, they finally came up with a new military plan. This plan was to use a few hundred colonists as the core, then transport 10,000 to 12,000 troops from the mainland, and then recruit about 5,000 to 6,000 Indians and Japanese from the New World and Japan as vassal troops, totaling more than 20,000 people, with the intention of implementing this "grand plan" to conquer the Ming Dynasty.

Unfortunately, before this plan was officially implemented, the situation changed. The Anglo-Spanish War broke out in Europe, and Spain's invincible fleet, which had roamed the world, was defeated miserably. This war also marked the beginning of Britain's emergence as an emerging maritime power. Spain was severely damaged after the defeat, and in order to protect its homeland, it desperately transferred troops back from the colonies to prevent the British from taking advantage of the opportunity to attack the Spanish mainland. Under such circumstances, how could Spain launch a war against the Ming Dynasty?

The plan to conquer the Ming Dynasty failed, and the Spaniards had to settle for the next best thing and turn their attention to Luzon.

Luzon has always been a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and during the Ming Dynasty, Luzon and the Ming Dynasty had a very good relationship. Not only did the royal nobles of Luzon visit the Ming Dynasty many times, but even many Ming people went to Luzon to settle and live. But this situation changed with the emergence of the Spaniards. Relying on their powerful fleets, artillery and advanced firearms, the Spaniards captured Luzon, killed the king of Luzon, established a colony in Luzon, and thus gained a foothold in Asia.

Today, Luzon has become an important part of Spain's global layout. A large number of ships from the New World will travel from the American continent to Luzon, resupply in Luzon, and then travel to Europe from the east-west sea routes.

Luzon was not far from the Ming Dynasty geographically, and because he knew that Luzon was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, John IV saw an opportunity. If he could establish normal diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, and through the diplomatic contacts of the Ming Dynasty, he could provoke the Ming Dynasty to take military actions against Spain in Asia, that is, against Luzon, then he could directly threaten Spain's rule over Luzon.

Once this thing succeeds, no matter whether the war breaks out or not, or whether the outcome is, it will not be a good thing for Spain. Moreover, Luzon's geographical location is extremely important. Spain will never give up Luzon and will definitely send troops to reinforce Luzon. By that time, with Spain's national strength, it will be impossible to take care of other colonies and overseas territories. In this case, Portugal's opportunity has come. Portugal can find an opportunity to recover the overseas territories and colonies occupied by Spain, and it can also help the Ming Dynasty to fight Spain to avenge Spain's annexation of Portugal. This is a win-win situation for Portugal.

(End of this chapter)