Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 277 I'll Beat You Up If You Don't Pay for Land (Part 1)

In early July, when the sun was blazing in the capital, the Spanish envoy finally arrived.

This time, it was Valdes again who came.

This guy has become an envoy specifically for negotiating with the Ming Dynasty.

He had witnessed the power and strength of the Ming Dynasty.

Originally, he thought that the massive shipyards and densely packed factories in the capital of the Ming Empire were already terrifying enough.

Who would have thought that when he arrived at the mouth of the Haihe River, he saw a row of docks as dense as a comb and a huge city that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see!
He could hardly believe his eyes.

How were so many docks and this city, which is so large that you can't see the end of it, built?

When he came here last year, there were only a few temporary docks!
This dock is one thing, but how could this city be built so quickly?
If it were any European country, it would take at least several decades to build such a massive city.

The Ming Empire was built in less than a year!
That’s nothing.

It was truly terrifying when his sailboat entered the Haihe River.

The entire north bank of the Haihe River is lined with shipyards; the whole way there are huge shipyards!
The ships built in these shipyards are all incredibly large, with a width of at least thirty meters and a length of more than sixty meters!

Even European countries don't have many such giant ships, but the Ming Empire apparently built several thousand at once!
This shocked him so much that his mind seemed to freeze.

Fortunately, after his ship arrived at the Tongzhou canal wharf, the officials of the Ming Empire, as usual, allowed him to rest for the night in that familiar courtyard.

After a night of rest, his mind finally started working again.

However, the next morning, after he boarded the horse-drawn carriage, his mind started to wander again.

This horse-drawn carriage seemed to have no secrets whatsoever; he could tell at a glance that it was simply being pulled by horses, without any other auxiliary power.

The problem is, there were more than twenty Ming soldiers guarding him in this carriage, and there seemed to be even more people in other horse-drawn carriages on the street. How could one horse pull so many people and gallop through the streets!

This was something he truly couldn't understand.

He was still completely dazed when the carriage brought him to the gates of Xi'an.

When he followed the Beijing garrison soldiers through the Xi'an Gate, he was dumbfounded once again.

He had been to this place several times, so he remembered it very clearly.

The problem is, the south side of the main road used to be an open space, how come it has now turned into a dense cluster of factories?
The soldiers of the Beijing garrison led him into this densely packed factory area.

At that moment, Zhu Jue was waiting for him in the Wanshou Pharmaceutical factory where the pills were packaged.

When he walked into the factory, he was dumbfounded.

It turned out to be a group of old women assembling small round pieces, not a group of young girls assembling shoes!

He had never seen such small round pieces before. What are these small round pieces for?

These pills wouldn't appear for hundreds of years, and at that time, there were no stamping presses in Europe capable of producing such small round tablets, so he naturally couldn't have seen them.

Seeing the guy's stunned expression, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but cough softly.

Valdes then realized what was happening and quickly knelt before Zhu Jue, saying respectfully, "Greetings, Your Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming Empire."

This guy is actually speaking the official language of the Ming Dynasty!

Zhu Jue raised his hand slightly, gesturing for the man to stand up, then couldn't help but ask, "Have you learned the official language of the Ming Dynasty?"

I've actually been learning Mandarin, but I haven't mastered it well enough to dare to show it off.

I've finally learned most of it this year.

Valdes nodded repeatedly, saying, "Yes, Your Majesty, I can speak a little Ming Mandarin now."

This is the result of an empire's power. Once an empire becomes powerful, others will take the initiative to learn everything about it. And to learn everything about an empire, one must first learn its language and writing system.

The Ming Empire has become so powerful that European colonial powers are actively learning from it, which is a good thing.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then picked up a bottle of medicine and handed it over.

Valdes took it and examined it closely, a hint of amazement in his eyes. It was indeed exquisitely made; not only was the glass bottle exquisitely crafted, but the cork was also carved with beautiful patterns, and the small discs inside were engraved with delicate text.

Although he couldn't recognize the characters, he could tell that they were indeed well-carved, each one perfectly uniform.

The question is, what exactly is this thing for?

He thought for a moment, then couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, what is this for?"

It seems your Mandarin still needs improvement; you speak in a halting, stammering manner.

Zhu Jue patiently explained, "This is medicine, medicine for treating illnesses, you know that, right?"

At this time, Europe was still in the primitive herbal medicine stage. Western medicine only developed three or four hundred years later with the rise of chemical industry. At this time, the level of medicine in Europe was far inferior to that of the Ming Dynasty. The variety of medicinal materials and prescriptions were pitifully small.

Many of them even use the medicinal properties of a single herb to treat their illnesses; there are no prepared medicines available at all.

Upon hearing this, Valdes exclaimed in surprise, "This is medicine for treating illnesses?"

I love your naive and unworldly nature.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "Yes, this is the medicine. We produce a lot of medicines that can cure all kinds of common diseases. Take a look."

After saying that, he took a stack of instruction manuals from Wang Chengen and handed them over.

Valdes hadn't quite grasped the meaning of that long string of words yet, but once he took the explanation and looked at it, he understood instantly.

This is because all these instructions are in Spanish.

The Ming Dynasty has actually produced so many medicines! Almost every disease he had ever heard of could be cured by the Ming Dynasty's medicines!

If these medicines were sold in Europe, wouldn't they be snapped up like crazy?
Illnesses can be fatal, so who wouldn't be willing to spend money to treat them and save their life?
He quickly glanced at the instructions, then couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, do you mean we can buy all these medicines?"

Sure enough, no one would refuse medicine that can cure diseases and save lives.

This guy spotted the business opportunity right away.

Zhu Jue nodded slowly and said, "I can consider this."

Ah!
What does "can be considered" mean?
Upon hearing this, Valdes couldn't help but look at Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong translated it for him without hesitation.

The problem is, he still didn't understand.

What exactly does "can be considered" mean?
Seeing this, Zhu Jue continued to tempt them, "There's also the shoe business, would you like to do that?"

shoe?

We've already had people inquire about that thing; if we sold it in Europe, it would definitely cause a frenzy.

Valdes nodded repeatedly, saying, "We want to do the shoe business, and we also want to do the medicine business."

If you want to do these two kinds of business, you'll have to pay a price.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "If you agree to one condition, I will entrust the medicine business and the shoe business to you. Moreover, I will send you a large number of samples so that you can test how the business is doing."

Well, that's a bit of a long story.

However, there was nothing I couldn't understand.

Valdes pondered for a moment after hearing this before asking, "Your Majesty, what conditions are you referring to?"

Don't make a fuss about it.

Zhu Jue said calmly, "My conditions are very simple: you sell all your colonies in Southeast Asia to me, and I will entrust the medicine business and the shoe business to you."

what?
Valdes was stunned upon hearing this.

These conditions are really that simple?
Although he knew that nothing good ever came of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty summoning him, he never expected it to be such a big deal this time.

His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty actually wants to buy their colonies in Southeast Asia!

Will he agree to this?
(End of this chapter)