Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1442, Wrath of Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal.

With the rise of the colonial movement and the increasingly close trade with the East and around the world, Lisbon, as the origin of early navigation, has also achieved good development.

The port is very busy here, goods from all over the world gather here, and then transfer to other places.

The most of them are commodities and slaves from Portugal's colonies in the north and Africa. Gold, silver and ivory in Africa are the most popular things, especially ivory. The people of Ming Dynasty have an inexplicable attachment to ivory, and every ivory can Sell ​​it at a high price here in Daming.

As for slaves, this is the most profitable business at the moment.

The cost of acquiring a slave is often so low that it can be ignored, but as long as it is transported to Hong Kong in England or the West Sea Island in the Mediterranean, and these slaves are sold to the Ming people, they can often be sold for a high price of more than ten or twenty Ming silver coins. .

Especially the white slaves from North Africa are the most popular and sought-after goods in Daming, and they can often be sold at higher prices.

The slave trade and the wealth of the colonies greatly stimulated the development of Lisbon, making it prosperous and lively, and also stimulated the continuous foreign colonization and plunder of Portugal.

Owning a colony overseas often means a steady stream of wealth.

This made the Portuguese, who had failed in two wars, pay more attention to foreign colonial activities. Without the wealth of the colonies, the Portuguese probably would have been drinking the northwest wind long ago.

In the royal palace of Lisbon, the young and vigorous King Manuel I of Portugal was looking at the world map and lost in thought.

Manuel I was an ambitious and accomplished monarch.

Since he ascended the throne of the Portuguese king, he has vigorously supported foreign expansion and maritime colonization, and successively supported Da Gama to open up the route to the Indian Ocean.

In 1500, Cabral discovered Brazil again and established a huge colony in Brazil; the following year, two brothers of the Colt family discovered Labrador.

A few years later, Portugal began to invade the Tianzhu continent again, established the Goa colony on the Tianzhu side, and even blocked the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea for a time, monopolizing the spice trade, and obtained huge returns and profits from it.

It's just that the next day will become sad.

First, the colony on the Tianzhu side was taken away by the Ming people, not only the Goa area was lost, but the spice trade was also lost, and was replaced by the Ming people.

Then came the colonies in South America, which were wiped out by the Ming people, and then the entire huge American continent was swallowed up by the Ming people.

As a result, the first war against Spain broke out. Portugal joined forces with England and France to attack Spain.

It went well at first, but it seemed that Spain was about to be beaten to the ground. Who knew that the Ming Empire would intervene again. The powerful Ming fleet directly smashed the Portuguese fleet and bombarded Lisbon.

There is no way, Manuel I can only make peace with the Spaniards under relatively good conditions, and lose some colonies in West Africa.

Later, England, France, and Portugal were jealous of the exclusive trading rights with the Ming Empire held by the Spaniards, and pretended to be pirates to rob Spanish ships.

Therefore, the first war with Spain broke out again. This time, seeing that it was about to win again, the Ming Empire intervened again, and finally the Three Kingdoms ended in failure again.

Not only did Portugal lose some of its territory bordering Spain, but it also almost lost all its overseas colonies. It even had to pay huge war reparations to Spain and the Ming Empire.

Fortunately, in the past two years, because of the westward advance of the Ottoman Empire, European countries had to put aside their conflicts and jointly deal with the Ottoman Empire.

In the end, the Allied Forces won a disastrous victory and won the Battle of Vienna, repelling the invasion of the Ottoman Empire and defending the Christian world.

That gave Portugal some breathing room.

Taking advantage of these two years, Portugal has also rapidly carried out colonial expansion overseas, and newly expanded some colonies and colonial points in Algeria, Libya, Morocco and other places in North Africa.

At the same time, it increased its colonial expansion and efforts in West Africa, and regained some colonies.

Through means such as plundering and trading the colonies, it also allowed Portugal to breathe and gained a lot of wealth and benefits.

Think back on everything that has happened over the years.

Manuel I soon realized one thing.

That is, there is no good end to going against the Ming Empire. On the contrary, those who cooperate with the Ming Empire have gained huge benefits.

Portugal and Spain are two typical examples.

Portugal has been fighting against the Ming Empire since Tianzhu, and as a result, it has been losing all the time. It went smoothly and became stronger and stronger, but it was quickly beaten back to its original form.

On the other hand, Spain has embraced the thick legs of the Ming Empire early on. Over the years, life has become better and better, and it has become the big brother of Europe.

Not only did they win two wars in succession, but on the European side, they gained colonies from English pirates and cut flesh from France and Portugal.

Moreover, the expansion of overseas colonies has always been smooth. It is the only country in Europe that still has colonies in the Americas, and it has made a lot of money from trade with the Ming Empire.

On the African side, the colonies that Portugal worked so hard to develop were almost completely ceded, and Spain itself also obtained a large number of colonies by virtue of its strong force.

They even beat up the Ottoman Empire with the Ming Empire, and they still have colonies in the Aegean Sea. The powerful Spanish fleet is not only active in the seas of Western Europe, but also in Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea and islands in the Aegean Sea. There is the Spanish fleet.

This is the benefit of clinging to the thighs of the Ming Empire.

"The Great Ming Empire!"

Manuel I looked at the huge world map. Most of the places on it already belonged to the territory of the Ming Empire. Asia, America, Australia, and a large amount of land were occupied by Ming's vassal states and colonial firms.

Thinking of the huge land of the Ming Empire, the huge population of hundreds of millions, and the terrifying fleet and army, Manuel I felt desperate.

From the newspapers published by the Ming people, we can know that the strength of the Ming Empire is a hopeless existence.

What the Portuguese are most proud of is Portugal's strong shipbuilding capabilities and sea power.

However, the entire country of Portugal cannot build dozens of large ships in a year. After all, the population of Portugal is only about one million. Apart from a large agricultural population, there are actually not many shipbuilders.

But the Ming Empire is different. Just a shipyard of the Tianjin Shipyard in Tianjin, the number of ships built in a month will exceed the number of ships built in the entire country of Portugal in a year.

And similar to this kind of shipyard, there are many other shipyards throughout Daming, distributed in various places in Daming, and the wood used for shipbuilding is also from all over the world. Even now, they have begun to build large steam ships, trying to use steel to build ships.

There is also the huge wealth of the Ming Empire. The imperial court can receive a huge tax of more than [-] million taels of silver a year, which is a huge wealth that Manuel I could not imagine.

"Being an enemy of such a powerful empire is simply the most stupid act!"

Manuel I had to make such a decision for his previous behavior.

Just when Manuel I fell into reflection.

A minister came in a hurry, his face was full of sorrow.

"Your Majesty, it's not good~"

"We have just received news from West Africa that when Duke Anthony led the fleet to rob Sao Tome Island, the Spanish Duke Corst led the fleet to attack our fleet."

"Sunk all our warships on Sao Tome Island, and also robbed Sao Tome Island!"

Duke Afonso anxiously handed a piece of information to Manuel I.

"what?"

When Manuel I heard it, he fell into a sluggish state, and then quickly recovered, hurriedly took over the information and quickly read it.

"%#￥&&*#￥￥%"

After reading it, Manuel I couldn't help cursing immediately, and almost scolded the Spaniards from the king to the ordinary people, without any scruples that the current King of Spain is his father-in-law (now Princess Isabella, the eldest daughter of the Spanish double king, married the nephew of Manuel I. As a result, his nephew died, so he tried to marry Isabella. Later, after Isabella died, her sister Ma Maria married Manuel I again, after Maria's death, Maria's sister Juana's daughter Elleo Reno married Manuel I again, very chaotic ~~), the heart The anger in it can be imagined.

Sao Tome Island was an important colony of Portugal in West Africa, but what made people even more angry was that Spain attacked the Portuguese fleet behind its back, directly ruining the fleet built by Portugal with all its strength. interrupted.

However, it has not waited for Manuel I to make any decision in anger.

Another minister hurriedly came to Manuel I and said, "Your Majesty, something serious happened~"

"Just came the news that the Japanese from the east brazenly sent troops to invade Lagos and Luanda in Portugal, took away our two most important colonial points in West Africa, and sold all the Portuguese in our colonies as slaves Gave it to the Ming people."

"what?"

When Manuel I heard it, he couldn't help but widen his eyes, looking unbelievable.

The people of the Japanese country actually attacked Portugal at this time. It was fine to rob Sao Tome Island earlier, but now they are robbing Lagos and Andal. This is to force Portugal to a dead end.

(End of this chapter)